oh. this is t w news live from berlin pope francis gives he's told the address the pontiff office his annual christmas fixings to the city and the world from the road as he appeals for peace around the globe also coming up. romania mocks a grisly end of her story 3 decades ago it's not communist dictator and bringing the country's bloody revolution to a close. and germany's president gives his annual christmas day address asking

citizens to overcome differences and respect each other as equals sponsor. hello i'm christine wendell welcome to the program. pope francis has been giving the christmas all beatrice and his blessing to catholic faithful from st peter's square in rome but to. speak russian. it 90 minutes. francis spoke about migrants and those who did what he caught and speakable forms of abuse. the pontiff also court for an end to the social unrest in venezuela and he appealed for peace in syria he

. may christ bring his light to the many children suffering from war and conflicts in the middle east and in various countries of the world. see him bring comfort to the beloved syrian people who still see no end to the hostilities that have written their country over the last decade. i think with the new. david willey is a veteran correspondent who has covered the vatican for decades he said today's address by pope francis was also an attempt to put a hopeful spin on what's been a terrible year for the catholic church when i think pope francis is trying he has a very ambitious program he's working he's celebrating his 82nd birthday recently he is aware of his increasing age. he can't expect many years to come of his previous. he's preparing his for his action and i think that

he is trying as desperately as he can change the mindset of the people who run the church his direction and i thought it was very thing that he quoted a former cardinal who's now wrong did cardinal martini. who just before he died at the church the catholic church was 200 years behind the times when other words pope francis not afraid of of criticizing the people who helped him to run the church or the minds of the current one interesting on that point david if you'll allow me one of the things that he said in the midnight mass just to the point about the criticism that he's willing to to give the church he talks about the church not being perfect and say to people don't wait for the church to be perfect what does that tell us about the year that the church has had in 21000 how difficult has it been for the catholic church this year. it's been a very bad year in many ways we've had the pope's former top economic advisor

the australian cardinal pale sentients true christians in australia for clerical sex abuse on clerical 6 of those charges it's become apparent that the problem of pedophile priests which the basket has tended in recent years to brush off as an american problem is a worldwide problem we've had reports of clerical sexual abuse from all over the world including. we're not tiny catholic population but even there there have been cases of priests being charged with sexual abuse so it is a very serious problem that the church faces mean continuing its credibility others would say so that was the patron vatican correspondent david willey now germany's president franco to stand by is giving his annual christmas day address

today he's appealing to germans to overcome their differences and respect each other as equals my is also set to discuss the high points i think most notably of the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall the low points include an anti semitic attack in october at a synagogue in the eastern city off. looking back on the events of the past year the german president says the anti-semitic attack at a synagogue in holland left a deep imprint the buildings locked were prevented even greater tragedy it's fun to see a bears the traces of some 20 bullets you see the splintered wood and the metal remains in the bullet holes of. this door guards the entrance to the synagogue in harlem. it's a miracle that it held and that no more people fell victim to this brutal anti semitic attack in which 2 of our fellow citizens were murdered by the.

president steinmeyer visited the location of the anti semitic attack as soon as he could. this christmas he asked germans to find hatred and defend democracy. democracy needs self assured citizens who have confidence and drive common sense and decency and show solidarity with others funk hopes the germans can continue to find courage and optimism in the coming year so they can find the strength to create a better future. ok for more on this i'm joined by data political correspondent kate brady kate president say it off the events that took place in $21000.00 he reflects mostly on the attack in the city of what does that tell us i think it really underlines the importance of this issue right now in germany of course the number of and all reports of anti-semitic crimes has been slowly creeping up in

recent years and of course the event in hollerin october which you mentioned really did shake german society and of course under semitism is an issue that germany is still trying to address and has been trying to address for decades now and of course whenever crimes like this happen anywhere in the world people react with a reaction of horror but of course in germany there is that added gravitas weight particular when it comes to and his magick crimes given germany's history but it was interesting too that he reflected on the door that that prevented that white supremacist from entering the synagogue and saying that this was symbolic as well of germans and he was asking germans or he will later today as germans in his speech whether they too are strong enough to stand up to that kind of hate yeah ok so that's a big part of what he'll say in this address but what else would he talk about well one of the other big issues that he addresses is a democracy and he calls on germans to to not take democracy for granted of course this year and 21000 we celebrated here in germany 30 years since the fall of the

berlin wall which was very much brought down by a democratic movement was started in eastern germany and of course the danger in a 30 years on west and a huge democratic shift and we saw that as well in some of the states elections in germany particularly eastern germany at the back end of the shia where the f.t. the far f.t. did particularly well in polls and so what we also heard from steinmeyer is that he is calling on gemma's to get embrace democratic change and if you are not satisfied with the curve. and proceedings of things then yes we can change it but that doesn't necessarily mean that we have to feed into this the hate and particularly the far right populism that we've seen growing in recent years ok kate thank you that's political correspondent kate brady. and you can watch president diane my it's christmas address in full later today on. let's take

a look at some of the other stories making news around the world in hong kong demonstrators are continuing a standoff with police finally in christmas eve protests right police fired tear gas in a major shopping district activist streets and smash up windows anti-government protests in hong kong and now in this 7th month. long lines have formed at the syrian turkish border as tens of thousands flee in the wake of russian airstrikes government forces backed by moscow have stepped up their assault on the province in recent weeks despite a cease fire agreement and calls for deescalation. 30 years ago today romania's revolution drew to a close with the execution off dictator nicholai. it was the final and bloodiest chapter in the series of the 1989 uprisings that toppled communism in europe then voice there is a retired military prosecutor who played

a role in being the tyranny and he shares his perspective on that to mulch as time when the revolution broke out in december 1909 danville into was in the sick of it this barracks in togo vish to remain years hate to dictate to nicolae ceausescu and his wife elena who are on trial valena a young prosecutor at the time cross-examined the couple. the. school was a dictator if you consider all the atrocities he committed only one charge was possible crimes against humanity and there's only one punishment for that. was the were executed immediately after the trial they had no chance to appeal it had little to do with the rule of law but after the short trial broadcast life the shooting in the streets stopped the death toll in romania

had already reached 1000 prosecuted danville insists the summary execution was just defined he points out the bullet holes where the cheshire screws was shot against the wall but 30 years on he's still waiting for a truly fresh start for remaining. genever it's time the new generation followed their feelings began to build the rule of law that the young people back then gave their lives for. through got a source of. danville and are often visits the cemetery where the revolution's victims are buried most of them were under 30 teenagers students and workers many of the perpetrators have yet to be identified. through books such as even to this day for all these young people who were murdered in december 1909 there is still no justice. the wounds left by remaining as communist iran and the bloody revolution

that ended it years ago still gaping why it's ok to. be as with me now he was in romania around the time of these events. and you know what it was the night at that time you know i arrived just after ceausescu was executed and what i found was euphoria on the streets i arrived into a shore where the river revolution had 1st started and people were happy they were looking towards the future they said that they won't have any more food shortages they won't have any more reduced heating in their homes there the actual medicine available in hospitals all those things were cut back dramatically by ceausescu because he was obsessed with paying off the national debt the international debt i should say and so if you restricted everything of course he didn't suffer another night neither did any of the top politicians but almost everybody else did and that was also a tipping point and then came a very brief protestant minister in too much water yet so unit went on to to write

a book and make a film about these events what's asked exactly we go back to there was a protestant reformed minister last and he was part and he was a member of the hungary minority and remaining has a very large hunger minority about one and a half 1000000 at the time at least and he used his pulpit to preach against normally a dictatorship that has a very short shelf life but he had a brother who had defected to canada 2 decades earlier and he was using the media to keep his brother alive because the remaining leadership were very sensitive about criticism from the west and he eventually we have some pictures here i believe of the. he's a canadian journalist he and another man had gone in to remain yeah and they did a secretly taped t.v. and we hear there's a piece from it now as we see on the screen and that's and he talks about the country and how it's suffering and what a horrible dictatorship it is and it was broadcast 1st on hungary and t.v. . shortly thereafter and he got an letter saying he was fired from his job

and an addiction noticed also that he had until december 15th to leave his home which was also in the church or he'd be taken out and that's when people came out to protect him they surround the church and then the attack came from the military and it was a bloodbath spread across the city op ed we're talking about 30 is on now how has romania changed since then. there's democracy freedom of the press and the store shelves are full things like that the negative side is that there's a population going on at least 3000000 if not 4000000 or more have left or mania and have gone to the west to italy spain germany england they're working because of the low salaries there and also there's concern about corruption and i think that's the one thing that really upsets remain insta most is that there is this corruption atmosphere and. they're looking for politicians who are clean ok.

thank you for that welcome and you're watching news live from berlin we'll have more news at the top of the hour stephen b. it's the is up next on business asia with the latest on a percentage will u.s. china trade deal the next time. what secrets lie behind us will. discover new adventures in the 360 to. explore fascinating boreholes heritage sites. w world heritage 360.