this is the w. news live from berlin tonight as they descended and they disappear did death squads in the former soviet republic of belarus silence political opposition in a d.-w. news exclusive we'll hear from this me and who says he was one of the killers why is he talking now and can we believe what he said also coming up protestors in the indian capital delhi torch vehicles in clash with police condemning as anti muslim a new bill offering amnesty to religious minorities from neighboring countries and

helping people get back on their feet will take you to the clinic to get even celibates become a real beacon of hope in one of the world's poorest places plus the car sized satellite that will explore planets beyond our solar system and search for a possible life in outer space. i'm burnt off to our viewers on p.b.s. in the united states and all around the world welcome we begin tonight with the story of death squads squads which allegedly silenced voices of dissent in the name of the president known as europe's last dictator in the former soviet republic of belarus 3 opposition politicians disappeared without a trace 20 years ago and bella ruse has been. ruled by president alexander

lukashenko as you see right there for more than 2 decades his tight grip on power enabled by his pro russian stance and his 0 tolerance for dissent now the missing men include a former interior minister this man right here yuri the hering co there was speculation at the time that the president had ordered is a sense a nation now in an exclusive interview the w. news has spoken with a man who says that he was a member of the death squad. unit good enough ski is living in a central european country and is seeking asylum that. in a diet chevelle an exclusive he tells us about his time in a regime death squad in belarus and reveals new details about a series of crimes. a number of opposition politicians in belarus disappeared 2 decades ago and it's still not known what happened to them on the evening of may

the 7th 1909 yuri's a hot anchor parked his car here near the old fire house in minsk and was never seen again. at that time the former interior minister was a leading figure in the opposition. the harangue co and his supporters wanted to prevent the country descending into dictatorship and to remove president alexander look at. look who had organized and won 2 controversial referendums to expand his powers and neutralize parliament. since then has ruled the country alone. is considered the last dictatorship in europe. this reenactment of the murder of your is a harangue who is based on statements made exclusively to us t w by your acre of ski 4 members of a special military unit abducted and shot the her uncle dead in a forest gorecki tells us he was one of them and an accomplice to the crime and that as a member of the armed forces he had no choice 20 years later he has

a message for the hiring close family. here but. also my sincere condolences. i took part in the murder. i offer you my apologies. i can show you the burial site on a map the rest is up to you and bella ruth says law enforcement system. is a her family is living in exile in the german town of munster his eldest daughter yelena hears from us for the 1st time details of her father's abduction and murder she calls the informant a man without a conscience. it when you're on it the evil gets its nose about him it's about the entire system of. motion and you just said one can't blame him people i dependent on the system i'm not you know die they forced to commit bloody crimes in

its name. every autumn a vigil is held in minsk in honor of you resign and the other opposition politicians who disappeared. he says he also knows what happened to them so perhaps after 2 decades the truth about the regime death squads in belarus is about to come to light. well that story produced by my colleague here b w news investigative reporter christiane. it's good to see you this is a fascinating story how did you run across a couple of weeks ago mr greste you wrote an e-mail to dodge of as russian department is obviously a frequent use of our programs in russian and that mail he claimed to have important insights into these disappearances cases 20 years ago in his home country and then we set up an investigative teams for team 4 of us russian natives with the strong knowledge of the country and of the region and me responsible for the t.v. production that's how we started working on it and obviously knowing the history

just a roost you know you have to go when suspicious and. what did you do to verify his story to make sure he was telling you the truth 1st of all we checked his identity is he really the person he pretends to be we did some database research on that and also some inquiries on the ground in his hometown minsk then we met him several times and we did fall long for very long interviews working even minor contradiction contradictions in what he was telling us about these cases and we reworked it and we presented the final evidence to some experts there were a few of them in europe who are familiar. with these 11 cases and then we decided to go public in so you were able to build up a level of trust why do you think he is telling this story now. yury told us that he wanted to go clear that he wanted to remove

a stone from this so fair enough but the whole time we were working with him we had the feeling that there might be more behind his motivation perhaps even someone a person and below us who might have told him to flee this country to seek asylum in a western country and then go public but we this is mere speculation we never could find could trace any facts we could have used in our reporting but we don't say where he is but we know that he is somewhere here in western europe seeking asylum you know. these revelations if they are true what does that mean where is this story going to lead us the council of europe has already conducted an investigation years ago and that 2000 fall report they speak about the investigators of a code conspiracy of high ranking below russian officials and i think it's possible that the general assembly of the council in strasbourg now reopens the minsk file

we have some information tonight that the those left behind the families of the victims are already created putting pressure on the politicians to reopen the file in what would you say because there were going to the broader political implications for bill the roost and he is somewhat of a pariah anyways i mean can it get worse for the country the country is pretty isolated in europe and in the past 23 years president look at franco was working hard on breaking this chain and finding partners in europe again these efforts by this new evidence we have might snow all be in jeopardy in the final door could have been closed for him we will see christiane for there's always because they don't think the fascinating story. and for more on this story you can check out dot com and our youtube channel that's d w documentary but here's some of the other stories now that are making headlines

around the world the architect of france's controversial pension reform has resigned over alleged conflicts of interest the lavoisier departure comes 12 days into nationwide strikes against his plans which aims to plug a chronic deficit in the pension system now this is a blow to president emanuel mccrone whose government remains locked in a standoff with trade unions delegates from europe and the u.s. have attended a ceremony in belgium to mark the 75th anniversary of the battle of the bowl it was one of world war 2 his bloody is episodes in which u.s. forces defeated a german attempt to stop at vance the allied armies in december 1904. when there have been more violent protests in india over a contentious new citizenship wall the legislation provides a fast track to citizenship for refugees from bangladesh pakistan and afghanistan

but it excludes muslims critics say that undermines the constitutional right of equality for everyone opposition has been especially strong in india's northeastern state of osama but the unrest has spread to other parts of the country in the capital delhi police clashed today with students. delhi riot police fire a volley of tear gas and their target student protesters holed up inside the capital's prestigious jimmy amulya islamic university they are demanding that their government rescind a contentious new citizenship law. critics say the law discriminates against muslims by only granting indian citizenship to non muslim refugees from neighboring countries. after trading rocks at the police. the student demonstrators finally surrender with their hands aloft. and are ushered on to buses a destination unknown. does goes down with

a bit of property does go to some people leave the goes on but it had sort of built up stones on us and we have what in short we had i would only investors that it believes the pulls them back tensions were running high across india buses were burned during protests in the capital disrupting public life in. the. hundreds marched in opposition to the new law. some here involving retribution should the government ostracize muslims. support the government but if they're going to harass muslims then it won't be tolerated muslim groups will launch a massive movement against. back in delhi and hundreds were again gathering at the university campus. the crowd electrified by claims of police violence the night before. the police came at us with the taunts while they were protesting peacefully fancher the campus the police even attacked the students who were

studying in the library they were not involved in the protests they threw tear gas shells in the library it does not respect our fundamental rights as a citizen of this country and the states is sponsoring this has been shameful and the police students who has broken that border authorities insist they responded appropriately to the demonstration but with the situation on a knife's edge their next move will be closely watched. journalists. from the online publication the lead joins us from were protests are also taking place it's good to have you on the program the protesters are saying that this is a war which discriminates against muslims but india's prime minister. and chennai and hyderabad and all of the in the rest of mainland india as we like to call it these are against the exclusion of muslims from the

citizenship amendment act which has recently been passed as far as the northeastern part of the country goes these people are protesting against any sort of migrants coming into the states because it's a very diverse culture with a lot of trite a lot of you know multicultural ethnic groups living there and they're afraid that there could be an influx of migrants with the passage of this bill and they are very firmly opposed in that they don't want any migrants at all so these sets of protests as a protest about different things and what not in someone who is saying is that the muslims have not been included because the treaty. countries that the citizenship amendment act docs about all muslim countries pakistan afghanistan and bangladesh so his logic is that muslims cannot meet a few g.'s or persecuted in

a muslim state and that is it isn't for. muslims being excluded from the list of citizens who will be fast tracked in this legislation that we're seeing now it comes knowing that modi has weak opposition to he he won with a strong mandate in the last election so he's pushing this forward saying that he's doing it because that's what the people want that's absolutely right i mean this is one of the election manifesto was that what he had promised in 2014 that said but he was not able to deliver until now the other problem is that he had made was the national registry of citizens which has now been completed in the northeastern part of the stick with illegal bangladeshi immigrants have you know they've been weeded out in a sense and this is their the promise that he had made and of course the 3rd promise that he had made was about the building of the controversial hindu temple at the

disputed site in the you of the are you know that british all of these 3 very controversial issues have come up at around the same time and this is and today the minister has also made a statement that the hindu temple would be built within 4 months at that disputed site which is disputed between the hindus and the muslims so clearly the big government with its vast sweeping majority is pushing through a lot of very prone majority and in kind of you know my gender is and this is not going down very well with minorities in india now understandably so journalists so the rubbish on our joining us tonight from. thank you. the west african country of guinea-bissau is one of the poorest places on earth there are few hospitals the health system barely functions that is why one clinic for rehabilitation has begun so important largely funded by the international committee

of the red cross it treats thousands of patients from across the region you know. reports from. turning things around. these people are learning how to move again they've all suffered strokes and there's a physical rehabilitation center going to be sound in west africa but it's a clinic with a difference it's a track's patients not just from going to the sound but from across the region by offering a service that is unique in west africa. where we provide free treatment for everyone it is universal treatment for everyone who needs it even if they are vulnerable or very poor if they cannot contribute to get it for free. clinics offer of treatment for free for those without means is unheard of in this region it's especially unusual for going to the sound one of the poorest countries

in the world and a place where most have no access to even basic health services. the standard of medical treatment across going to be sour is very poor this center offers people with disabilities hope that they otherwise would not have. it's made possible with financing from the international committee of the red cross. they also fund a prosthetic sweatshop in the 10 nick and train it staff. the organization stepped in to help in 2012 when getting the south was going through a period of political turmoil. the center originally opened to the 1980 s. at this time most patients were amputees who'd been injured in the country's war of independence. today many of the artificial limbs are still made for patients. so wounded by landmines left over from conflicts in neighboring countries. now the patients are just as likely to have lost limbs through traffic accidents and like

this man diabetes a condition staff say is increasing because of poverty and bad diet. is in the play it started with the wood and then the wood became guy i'm going to say i came to the hospital and the amputee to below the knee and then the same thing happened to the other leg. but. whatever the cause of the disability doctors say that goal is to help patients start moving again so that they can continue their lives. or germany's chancellor angela merkel has chaired a summit of industrial leaders who are asking how can scold workers from abroad be brought more quickly into the german workforce in factories hospitals i.t. firms germany simply house too many vacancies and a new immigration law coming into force in march should make it easier to lure skilled labor from outside the european union by cutting red tape.

tim goodman is visiting construction sites where his company is working at this building site in ingle hi i'm employees are working flat out but the entrepreneur still has to reject top of all customer inquiries because he lacks the skilled workers he needs for this family owned company the problem is getting worse. on titles give up more stop levels have been shrinking for 10 years a means that falls way short of the numbers we need to bid for contracts we can consume. at a summit in berlin representatives from government and industry discuss ways to get rid of bureaucracy. the new laws aim to attract foreign skilled vocational workers with german language skills including those from outside the e.u. and promises them easier visa procedures and reduce red tape in bosnia for example it can take up to a year to just get an appointment at the german consulate. the german trade sector is also are anxious. sauced. because

almost half of all companies complain that they cannot fill new vacancies we lack about 250000 skilled workers in the skilled trades and back. the goal is to bring $25000.00 skilled workers from outside the e.u. to germany every year. at the summit of the chancery the government said it will cut red tape and speed up visa processing the new rules will also make it easier for foreign qualifications to be recognised. it's really vital that we come across as an open society sick kids we're not the only country in the world looking for skilled workers. trade unions believe the problem is homegrown many young people are not becoming roofers painters are nurses because the pay is too low salaries in the trades are often not enough to raise a family. critics say that many of the best talents such as i.t.

specialists will still choose places like the u.s. and canada regardless of any new rules because taxes are lower. despite all the criticism tim goodman hopes the new law will go some way to alleviate the shortage of skilled workers in his company. it's well the countdown is on for the launch of a european research satellite that will research planets outside of our solar system it's due to blast off from the european spaceport in french guiana in south america on tuesday the several wide is called switch stands for the characterizing exoplanets satellite and who knows it might even detect signs of life in outer space. the key ops mission is designed to advance the search for extraterrestrial life for the 1st time the satellite will study planets orbiting distant sun so-called exoplanets.

chips will observe how these distant worlds pass in front of the stars they orbit to make this possible researchers 1st had to scour the sky with other telescopes to select the stars to be targeted by the satellite. looking at them one star at a time. so we need to know that stahl has a plan that we need to know when this planet passes in front of the star and at that moment we point cope's there. the satellite is set to measure the tiny fluctuations in brightness that occur when a planet passes in front of its star a celestial body the size of our earth dims the light by just 100th of a percent. can measure this barely perceptible flickering more accurately than ever before. from the decrease of light you can infer how big the

planet is compared to the stuff because it just hides a part of the surface and you can compute which fraction of the surface is being hidden by the passing planet and that gives you the size of the planet. all this without going there or do this without seeing the pilot we just see the shuttle. with his telescope astronomers can determine another property of the invisible planets their mass they then want to combine this information with the data they obtain from cheops and thus determine the density of distant worlds this shows them whether they are planets made of rock or gas. whether the distant worlds have an ocean or consist of ice. the satellite should also find out whether they have an atmosphere this allows conclusions to be drawn as to how habitable these worlds are

. super telescopes such as the extremely large telescope will then take a closer look at the earth like exoplanets in the coming decade they will look for traces of life in their atmospheres and find out for example whether there are microbes and plants there. are down here on earth the draw for the opening market round of the champions league has taken place and things will be getting serious for the bundesliga clubs in the competition by year have been drawn with one club chelsea while dortmund are set to face paris songs from odd and will square off with last year's finalist top. byard munich's to mulch you a season isn't going to get any easier in february the german giants have been drawn against reigning europa league winners chelsea in the champions league round of $161.00 that it will be a rematch of the 2012 final which biron lost on penalties to the london club after

a slow start but have turned the corner in the bundesliga and their strong form has given them a boost of confidence for the clash. i don't use of swear fairly confident should be good about the draw of course chelsea have players that can hurt us. dortmund have their eyes on an equally difficult task they'll be facing down french powerhouse police. together while will welcome back former coach thomas to call for the 1st time since he left dortmund 27 teeth i might say have fought their way to the top of the bun this league but coach you leonardo's man knows they have potential for even more. for the off as a forward to improving further and that our football will be even better results with only get better to try to push the boys a bit so they know we can be better and so they can be better players than ever before as the year comes to a close and the champions league is a good

a place as any to show up their development but even if they are at their best last season's finalists tottenham hotspur will be a stern testament knockout round. well a baseball bat used by the great babe ruth has been sold an auction for just over a 1000000 dollars now he swung the bat to hit his 500th home run back in 1929 it was bought at auction in california by an unidentified buyer a previous baton rouge used to hit his 1st home run at the old yankee stadium so for a record $1300000.00 back in 2004 is what you call the real money home. is a reminder the top story we're following for you in. exclusive reports this man has told the w. news that he was part of being squandered ordered to kill opposition politicians in the former soviet republic of the rooms the killings took place 20 years ago when president alexander lukashenko was consolidating his hold on. you watch d.w.

news after a short break i'll be back to take you through the do stick around for that.

i'm not laughing. well i guess sometimes i am but i stand up and whip it up and german thinks deep into the german culture of looking at stereotypes quechua but in years think the future of the country that i'm not. needed to take from this drama . it's all about anyway. i might show join me to meet the gentleman from beat up your. post. created today's world. the turning point in politics business. on the up even looking islamic

revolution under the terms of america always dreamt of a stake in this shanty you know which route. opens up making its initial flirtation with capitalism. the strength and states of emergency britain sinks into chaos margaret thatcher remarks in cottage them to work and they will was at the start of the meal liberalism. the 2nd disciplined chance that threatens the old order. for a bit this could be the end of communism. flight crisis and. the start is an era that defines our remarks today. 979 the big bang created. starts december 23rd d.w. .

we are pumping more not less carbon into the atmosphere global warming is exhilarating and the promises made in the paris climate accord to reverse this they're not being kept and they're not strong enough the next climate summit will be in scotland next year scientists say that we have about a decade to save the climate as we know it a decade and we just lost a year i'm bored coughing berlin this is the day.