this is g.w. news live from berlin pope francis give caesar obi address the pontiff of office his annual christmas place into the city and the world from rome as he appeals for peace around the globe also coming up. a wildfire destroys dozens of homes in chile forty's evacuated thousands from the city off vell parrot you saw as the blaze freights to residential areas. and romania marks a grisly adverse or 3 decades ago its last communist dictator misused and bringing

the country's bloody revolution took the lives. hello i'm christine window welcome to the program pope francis has given he's christmas address so be it over to the city and the world along with he's placing to the catholic faithful from st peter's square in broome but. it really is the percent. hit 90 at st. francis spoke about migrants and those who have endured what he called and speakable forms of abuse the pontiff also called for an end to the social and raised in venezuela and he appealed for peace in syria to make 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. in ways to reach a new. david willey is a veteran correspondent who's covered the vesa can 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 pope francis is trying he has a very ambitious program he's working he's celebrated his 82nd birthday recently he's aware of his increasing age. he can't expect many years to come of his previous. he's preparing his for his shooting 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 in that he quoted a former cardinal who's now wrong did cardinal martini of you know who said just before he died 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 thought he wanted to 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 fact the 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 sentenced to prison in australia for clerical sex abuse on clerical 6 of those charges it's become apparent that the problem of pedophile priests which the batek and his team need in recent years to brush off as an american problem is a worldwide problem we've had reports of kerik or sexual abuse from all over the world including. we're not trying a 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 me in continuing its credibility are you can say. that was veteran fesa can correspondent david willey let's take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world now in algeria thousands

of people have gathered to accompany the funeral procession off army chief who died unexpectedly on monday santa was instrumental in forcing the country's longtime president to resign earlier this year. in booking a fossil 35 civilians almost all of them women were killed by jihadists near the town of i've been down to say 7 soldiers and 80 assailants also died in a shootout afterward that lasted several alice president rushed to war accord for 2 days off morning the west african nation has been battling and is an honest insurgency since 2015. in hong kong demonstrators are continuing a standoff with police following christmas eve protests riot police fired tear gas in a major shopping district activist blocked streets and smashed shop windows and he government pressure in hong kong on now in the a 7 month. michael bloomberg a u.s. billionaire with sights set on the democratic candidate for presidency is under

fire off to unknowingly employing prison labor for his campaign former new york city mayor's staff contracted a vendor that uses prison based call centers with female inmates in the u.s. state of oklahoma having placed calls on behalf of his campaign. it's a christmas tradition in germany a nationwide address by president frank is calling on shipments to overcome their differences and respect each other as equals standby is also set to discuss the high points of the most notably the 50th anniversary of the fall of the bird and wall the low points include an anti semitic attack in october at a synagogue in the eastern city of. 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 or prevented even greater tragedy. bears the

traces of some 20 bullets you see the splintered wood and the metal remains in the bullet holes. this door guards the entrance to the synagogue in hama. or and 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 on the streets by the moderate forums and president steinmeyer visited the location of the anti semitic attack as soon as he could. this christmas he asked germans to fight hatred and defend democracy rusty the ball democracy needs self-assured citizens who have confidence and drive common sense and decency and who show solidarity with others. 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 and you can watch president as christmas address in full on. a wildfire in the chilean city of bell but it is still has stem it still destroyed more than a 100 homes several districts in the western part of the city had to be evacuated it's not known what triggered the blaze but hot temperatures and strong winds helped the flames to spray. fleeing the flames with pets. and household possessions. the fire started in the woody hilly area on valspar esau's outskirts and quickly spread. it consumed dozens of homes in its path. under huge boulder thick black smoke rose above the city. as the flames crept closer residents tried in vain to stop them advancing. noise but i

feel powerless because all the houses are burning and now the fire is coming here. extra firefighting reinforcements had to be called in to help local residents joined in the effort to douse the flames as well as move any timber and wooden walling that might turn out of the way. wildfires are not unusual in chile this year's very warm weather helped the flames to spread but this was fire came as about power you so celebrated christmas eve and also as chile is steeped in political crisis after months of antigovernment protests. there he is a good today romania's revolution drew to a close with the execution of dictates a nicholai school it was the final and bloodiest chapter in the series of the 1989 uprisings that toppled communism in eastern europe that void that is able to hide military prosecutor who played a role in ending the tyranny and he shares his perspective on that tumultuous time

. when the revolution broke out in december 1909 danville was in the thick of it this barracks in tega vish to remain years hated dictator nicolae ceausescu and his wife elena were on trial when a young prosecutor at the time cross-examined the couple the couple of ceausescu 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 his. 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 show trial broadcast life the shooting in the streets stopped the death toll in romania had already reached $1000.00 prosecuted done valena 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. here its time the new generation followed their feelings began to build the rule of law that young people back then gave their lives for. danville in 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. the group approaches to this day for all these young people who were murdered in december 1909 there is still no justice the wounds left by romania's communist era and the bloody revolution that ended it

30 years ago a still gaping wide. ok. he is with me now he was in romania around the time of these events that have you had and you just 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 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 would be 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 you did 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 of 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 this pope it 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 and that's reagan while he's a canadian journalist he and another man and shockley had gone in to remain 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

a letter saying he's fired from his job and an eviction notice also that he had until these. amber 15 to leave his home which was also in the church where he'd be taken out and that's when people came out to protect him they surrounded the church and then the attack came from the military and was a bloodbath spread across the city up ahead we're talking about things he is on now how has romania changed since then. there's democracy and there's 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 romania 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 from bin and we'll have more news at the top of the elec coming up a holiday season a documentary that takes you to canada out of russia.