was always entitled from you there's. the currency. this is d w news live from berlin syrian forces pound in live profits residents fleeing for their lives government troops backed by tanks are mounting a ground assault on the last pockets of resistance hundreds of thousands of people in rebel held areas have taken to the road with nowhere to go but makeshift camps where conditions are squalid. and a ring of fire blazes across middle eastern asian skies will have everything you

need to know about the last solar eclipse of the decade and whether you can see it where you are. a mommy and he's of glad you could join us we start in syria according to a relief group more than 200000 people have fled a government assault on live province most have been heading toward the turkish border syrian regime forces backed by tanks are continuing their ground advance against rebel held areas in southern and eastern adlib about 250 people have been killed in the latest flare up of violence. syrian tanks fire on targets as the ground assault indeed province advances. government forces captured village after village and immediately came out. putting in major highway this being close to 7

years for the army ultimately wants to recapture the province from the outside of the militias which control its. passage troops push forward civilians try to flee the line of fire tens of thousands are on the run. that are now we are leaving because of the shelling i was worried about our children and that the situation. why else would be leave why would anyone leave his house. with the turkish border closed the only option for shelter is makeshift camps like these it's cold and the conditions a desperate. scam. because of the shelling. can hardly survive here. people are suffering because of the work record.

the situation in the camps is likely to deteriorate tens of thousands of syrians are already stuck in places like these. and every day thousands more take to the roads to get out of the war zone. in hong kong police and demonstrators have clashed again as protests continue through christmas riot police used pepper spray and tear gas in a major shopping district activist block streets and smashed shop windows that called for flash mob protests to continue into the new year anti-government demonstrations in hong kong are now in their 7th month. our correspondent phoebe kong is on location and she sent us this. protest station other wrong of demonstration on pace and i say was also mocking the 200 day after movement again they pick the popular shopping malls as the platform for relevance as they want to create a kind of economic pressure on a government i mean while the. also are well prepared to tackle the protest and

many of the moles were heavily guarded by riot police office us throughout the day we also witnessed pounds of tear gas fired outside america shopping centers and some of the them astray has a spell of spies than this inside a mall where arrested and have caused great as a result of the precious many of the malls were forced to close down much earlier than you show and this is definitely one of the worst christmas for many of you tell us in hong kong and tension hossam been so often during holiday but instead he took up a suite up so and this is a huge contrast with the posing only a season off a celebration. to becoming there reporting from hong kong now let's take a look at some of the other stories making news around the world. russian opposition politician alexei navalny says one of his key staff has been forcibly conscripted into the military the military said response to a veteran often seen here with a volley earlier this year is being made to perform his obligatory service at an

arctic base novell new said the move amounted to quote kidnapping. israeli prime minister binyamin netanyahu had to interrupt an election rally after a warning of an incoming rocket from gaza rally was taking place in the southern town of ashkelon just a few kilometers from the gaza strip israel says its air defenses successfully and intercepted the rocket. and friends ballet dancers took part in a strike against the government's pension reforms by performing parts of swan lake on the steps of the paris opera dancers currently benefit from a special retirement plan which allows them to retire at the age of 42 the government wants to replace privileges for certain workers with a universal point system. now pope francis has given his christmas address from the vatican in his annual or be at or be latin for to the city and the world

the pontiff spoke about migrants and also people who have endured what he called unspeakable forms of abuse that was a reference to spiraling allegations of sexual abuse in churches around the globe he finished by blessing the catholic faithful who packed the st peter's square in rome. 50000 people gathered in st peter's square and bright sunshine for the pope's christmas address it's the 7th of his papacy and again the condemnation of war and violence was the heart of his message with conflicts in europe asia africa and the americas francis issued a call for peace. he still. made rice to bring his lights went out to the many children suffering from war and conflicts in the middle east and in various countries of the world. and. may he inspired governments and the international community to find solutions to

allow the peoples of those regions to live together in peace and security. and put an end to their suffering he really saw it in. the list of war torn regions it's long francis again confident that a protection for people fleeing the violence and to criticize europe's policy of expelling or refusing entry to migrants toward the end of his address he gave the traditional blessing for the or being to the city of rome and the world. but. it. is. and then a more mundane message to the think people around the globe. and joy of christmas lunch.

i thought 15 years ago on december 26th a tsunami killed nearly a quarter of a 1000000 people a gigantic wave in gulf the coast of indonesia sri lanka india thailand and 9 other countries the wave ahead in the nature was 17.4 meters high in the underwater earthquake that caused it was one of the strongest ever recorded sri lanka's eastern coast was especially hard hit more than 10000 people died in the southern empire region. can diet. looks out over the indian ocean nearly every day get up and deter life 15 years ago when she lost almost her entire family to the massive tsunami. only a little bit did not good all 9 of us lived near the beach so many tonight when i think about the children i got very sad i only managed to save one little go that i

never saw the of us again when i got back at my house was destroyed. i. can die and now shares her home with the one granddaughter she rescued and her small child the waters forced their way some one and a half kilometers inland the town of power in sri lanka south was worst affected thousands of children were among the victims. has helped many survivors back then he was the only psychiatrist in the worst affected area of southern sri lanka he treated adults and children alike. children as you know or have a huge amount often cindy adams and they have got the thing that's trained to come out of these things and that the pens on the adults at them. control. and complete then steuben with the problems the children's anxiety and stress much much less. after the tsunami sri lankan psychiatrist formed

a network with the help of the world health organization today elementary school teachers are being taught how to recognize signs of trauma in children but talking about the effects of trauma is still to do. what the country has installed an early warning system for tsunamis the fear of another giant wave has never gone away nor has the memory of the victims of 2004. now to a story that will be of special interest to our viewers in the middle east and asia where a rare sorel solar eclipse is visible today the end annular eclipse has already darkened skies over the united arab emirates and other parts of the arabian peninsula its path of visibility is now moving slowly eastwards across the indian ocean before it set to end over the pacific in about 3 hours from now now joel delroy from the t.v. news desk is joining us in the studio for more so they will astronomers call this

an end ular solar eclipse how is that different from what we. typically think of or think of solar eclipse well an eclipse is where the moon comes between the earth and the sun and an annular eclipse is when the moon is further east away from the earth on its orbit so it appears slightly smaller in the sky and because it's slightly smaller it doesn't fully cover the sun during an eclipse and you're left with a small ring of light around the edge or a so-called ring of fire which makes it so beautiful to look at so if you look at it can you do it with your naked eye is a dangerous the short answer is no do not look at it with your naked eye it's even though there's only a 99 percent of the sun is covered and is only one percent left that's still powerful enough to damage your eyes sir the recommendation is in fact you special. solar goggles which not everybody has you can create a pinhole projector using a piece of paper to create a shadow on another piece of paper or you can keep watching d.w. where we're bringing you amazing images that are perfectly safe to look at so this

is the last one of the decade but are these common occurrences an annular solar eclipse happens about once a year on average and the next one is june in fact in 6 months time in june 2020 that is going to be visible from many of the same countries that can see this one which seems a bit unfair if you ask me the next one is going to go from the east from east of africa up through the middle east and across central asia so if you want to see it the best place to go my recommendation is get yourself to oman in the middle east on june 21st next year where you hopefully have a beautiful view of the solar eclipse the ring of fire. that depending on whether the clouds of course right and so this is winding up now right it's only going to be going on for the next few hours we're going to be out to see however a possible solar eclipse longer so the the main annular solar eclipse the ring of fire that's going to be over pretty soon the possible solar eclipse will still be

visible from many parts of asia a straight leah and across the pacific ok so still some chances to see it out there if if you're in the path of the solar eclipse the last chance of the decade for sure. thanks for that people around the world have been celebrating christmas in many ways and some of them are quite unusual in the u.s. state of florida some 600 surfing senna's took to the waves in cocoa beach to show off their skills the charity event raised $40000.00 for some nonprofit organizations and also for a children's hospital. now a group of berlin swimmers calling themselves the sea dogs have held a christmas day tradition taking a plunge in a cold lake just outside the city they braved water temperatures of just 5 degrees celsius that's about 41 degrees fahrenheit some say dogs complained though that the

lake was too warm saying they missed the snow and ice of previous years. global warming. so don't forget you can always get news on the go just download the app from google play or from the app store that will give you access to all the latest news from around the world as well as push notification notifications for any breaking news you can also use the d.w. app to send us photos and videos. you're watching the news from berlin we'll have more news at the top of the hour coming up a documentary about the various fairy tale noise. and don't forget you can get all the latest news and information around the clock on our web site that's dot com thanks for joining us.

it's time to take one step further and face the concert. time. for the troops. time to overcome down troops and contact. it's time for.

coming up ahead sir.