♪ >> satire and the limits of freedom of speech. >> we have fundamental values in our constitution, and that includes article five, the freedom of opinion, science, and freedom of the arts. anchor: that is after turkey called for this man, jan bohmermann, for prosecution after a poem aimed at president erdogan. also, bonds and ballot boxes.

syria prepares to vote in parliamentary elections, but in some parts of the country, the guns are far from silence. someone in france looked genetic and found -- looked in their attic, and found a 400-year-old painting, possibly by the italian master caravaggio. it could be worth millions. ♪ brent: germany's chancellor has spoken out about a satirical poem aired on german television that pokes fun at hand insult the turkish president. two weeks ago, the sincerest, -- the satirist, jan bohmermann, see right here, and the video suggesting that president erdogan had sex with goats and

sheep. mr. erdogan has filed a complaint and he wants the community charged. chancellor merkel said she would examine the complaint but said she respects germany's tradition of freedom of speech. bohmermann is under police protection. doris: how will she deal with the political scandal surrounding jan bohmermann. they wanted to know if the government would make way to deal with the offending poem. ms. merkel: the values are spelled out in article five of the constitution. these fundamental values are in an illegal, regardless of all that -- art in alienable. doris: jan bohmermann's column

provoked president erdogan to such an extent that he wants to see him -- in court. >> it would be strange if the german government helped erdogan while at the same time, he would curtail the freedom of opinion and artistic expression in his own country. . that can only bring about misunderstanding. the german government can never be allowed to be blackmailed. doris: an online petition is also underway with a petition to the german government. 100,000 people have already signed the petition. the turkish president has made it clear that he won't give in.

if you can't achieve his aims by pressing charges, he has already taken another round, as a private citizen, a route that can be used by anyone. brent: let's bring our chief medical correspondent, melinda crane. this was angela merkel's first direct comment on the issue. the ones beforehand had come via her spokesman. does this mean that she supports the comedian, jan bohmermann? melinda: tentatively. when she is telling us in that statement which we heard there, which stressed not just the freedom to speak your opinion, but also the freedom of the arts. we are told that german courts take that very seriously. what she is saying is that there are very strong political values , central constitutional values in germany, that would have to

be weighed off against this claim of defamation. last week, i think, when she was still hoping this matter could be solved by diplomatic means, she spoke on the phone to the turkish prime minister and said she found this poem very disturbing, offensive. clearly hoping that ruffled feathers might be smoothed in that way. that is not the case. the turkish government has decided to go ahead on proceedings on basically two levels. this claim on the rather arcane section of the german criminal code that a turkish head of state has been defamed, and the claim by the citizen erdogan that he has been offended and insulted. two different legal strategies here, necessitating a strong reaction from the german government. brent: considering how much

germany needs turkey right now to help solve the migration crisis, you have to wonder, how delegate is this issue for the german chancellor. melinda: very delicate, indeed. they have put turkey at the center of their strategy in reducing flows of migrants from the middle east. on the other hand, she is facing very strong pressure at home from german to say, we don't like the fact that we are relying so strongly on a country that is governed by a man showing increasingly authoritarian tendencies and suppresses his own media. that was very much part of the motivation for jan bohmermann to write his: criticizing erdogan -- write his poem criticizing erdogan, to say, we can do things in this country that took us journalists -- that turkish journalists can't have. brent: what you think the german

government is going to do with this complaint? melinda: as i said, there are two different legal tracks here. i think the german government is unlikely to request action under the most serious track, that of defaming a foreign head of state. that would also entail higher penalties, a longer prison sentence for mr. bohmermann if he were found guilty. what i think will happen is that the government will leave that in the hands of the prosecutors. mr. erdogan authority filed a claim directly, so the prosecutors are obliged to investigate that. they may very well find that the case not stand up in a court of law. brent: melinda, thank you very much. hard to believe, but syrians, in the middle of a civil war, are preparing to vote in parliamentary elections. they will go to the polls

tomorrow to elect 250 lawmakers. fighting is going on despite the cease-fire. meanwhile, government forces backed by russia are advancing on the rebel held city of aleppo. marc: these saints shook -- these show positions allegedly held by the islamic state a few days ago. it is impossible to ensure they were not targeting moderate rebels who were entrenched there. this much is clear -- the syrian army has been able to force i.s. troops back from several cities. it is hard to imagine ballot boxes will be brought to places like these. the assad regime owes its recent territorial gains to help from abroad, namely bombardment by russia and airstrikes the u.s. and allies.

ground troops from iran, iraq, lebanon, other countries should also be part of the effort. so far, president bashar al-assad's tactic has been to play russia and the u.s. against each other in a proxy conflict. now, he appears confident that the upcoming parliamentary elections will cement his hold on power, although a free and fair election is nothing short of impossible. assad's baath party won a clear majority in the election a few years ago. this time, the election is likely to be similar. given the moderate influence held by syrian mps in political affairs, observers expect the result to bring out little change. brent: i am joined here in the studio by a syrian journalist based here in berlin. it is hard not to be a cynic

when you talk about a civil war that is still raging and parliamentary elections. what is going on tomorrow? sirine: this is a show. perhaps for the outside viewer, this is really weird, but for a syrians, this has been going on for a long time. don't forget that there are presidential elections to come soon. this is all connected. brent: there have been what, to elections -- two elections prior to this one since the uprising against a side begin? is there any proof that the results of those elections have any influence on the course that the assad regime is on? sirine: it has been five years, assigned is still there. the revolution, nobody remembers anymore. people are still dying.

parliament was there when the revolution started. it doesn't really make a difference. parliament, in a dictatorship, doesn't do much. brent: we can say now that we probably know what the results were tomorrow's election will be? it is a landslide victory for the baath party and its allies? sirine: even if they are not baathists, even if some of them are good, it doesn't matter, because they don't have the power to change. brent: they have invented -- they have been vetted by the regime. even if they are running on an independent ticket, they have still been approved by the baath party. sirine: these other people for you to pick from. brent: let's talk about the peace talks resuming in geneva.

how will these elections impact those talks? sirine: this is a good thing to do, talking about democracy, people are going and voting because i'm sure people will vote, and even if they don't, they will work it out how to make them vote in some way or another. that will definitely be used in geneva. and if you turn on any regime tv channel, you will see that. brent: thank you very much for your insight. we will be talking with you a little bit later on for more analysis on the day. now, to some of the other stories making headlines around the world. belgian authorities have charged two more suspects in connection with last month bomb attacks in

brussels. security footage is said to have caught the man entering a property believed to be used as a safe house prior to the bombings. david guest ges david -- david guest has died. they say his death is not being treated as the -- as suspicious. he was married to liza minnelli for seven years before they divorced. china has lashed out against the g7 group. the ministers say they oppose provocative actions in the south china sea. that includes chinese island building. here is more. jared: one of the outcomes of this weekend's g7 meeting was a statement opposing territorial disputes.

the statement doesn't name china, but beijing says it feels targeted and has told the g7 not to take sides. >> if the g7 was to continue to play an important role in the international community, it should seek the truth in such important issues. if the g7 itself is hijacked by the private interests of certain individual nations, it is not necessarily beneficial to its role now or to the future development of the g7. jared: china lays claim to all of the south china sea despite conflicting claims by brunei, taiwan, and the philippines. and recently began building artificial islands in the sea to exert its sovereignty. -- to assert its sovereignty.

in the wake of the g7 comments, beijing is reported to have some in the japanese ambassador and representatives from all the g7 countries to express dissatisfaction. brent: after a short break, back with more news plus business headlines.

brent: welcome back, here live from berlin. the growing row between turkey and germany over this -- over comments by a comedian. the german chancellor has called freedom of expression a value despite calls from the turkish president for them to be prosecuted. south korea is voting for a new parliament. polls suggest that the ruling party will maintain its majority, but this is unclear if

it will be enough to lift the country out of the doldrums. >> firing up the party faithful at a campaign event in seoul. the leaders of the conservative party display confidence. but, their chairman also admits that the selection could be topped for the party. -- could be tough for the party. doubts remain about whether their majority will be as large this will not just lead to more gridlock. it would also make things difficult or the country's president. she will be allowed to complete her term, whatever the outcome of the election, but it first appeared -- but for conservative party does badly, she will essentially become a lame-duck president. one issue that could boost the

ruling conservatives is the increased belligerence of north korea. the party's hard-line response to a rocket launch and an alleged nuclear test caused approval ratings to skyrocket. opposition parties have accused the conservatives of exploiting tensions with north korea to win votes. they want to make this election a referendum on park's handling of the economy. people in south korea are feeling effects of the global downturn. protesters have turned out in large numbers on the last year to demonstrate against economic policies, such as making it easier to fire workers. they say such measures are making the situation worse. youth unemployment is at a record high. despite their anger, the opposition have been accused of failing to offer a viable alternative. one challenge that all parties face is voter apathy, especially among the young.

many of them say they have lost faith in the ability of mainstream politicians to affect change and improve the lives of a majority of koreans. brent: time now for some business news. helena is here with a look at the latest polls in the brexit debate. helena: last week it was a 50-50 split, now the numbers for britain leaving in front. the out camp, 45% to the in camp, 41%. >> the imf's economists have grow -- have lowered their growth forecasts for the second time in 10 months. in its report, the organization cites the threats posed by the

refugee crisis and burgeoning national movements in europe. >> one manifestation of increased nationalism in the very real possibility that the united kingdom exits the european union, damaging a wide range of trade and financial relationships. at the same time, across europe, the political consensus that once propelled european unification is fraying. christian: euro countries face high unemployment in many member states and sluggish industrial activity. eurozone growth is now expected to fall to 1.5% this year. but, the imf expects that the epicenter of many of last year's industrial earthquakes, china, will grow faster, at 6.5%. helena: let get more on that

with our man on wall street. how are markets taking news of that imf move to downgrade the global growth forecast? jens: at least, when it comes to stock prices, not a big reaction over here. it is tough to predict the future. obviously, the imf struggles quite a bit to do so. some traders told me it is pretty odd. two of the reasons why they lowered oil prices -- lowered the output, lower oil prices and not so much growth in china. just recently, oil prices increased, then the imf actually increased the protection -- the projection for chinese growth. it is tricky to predict the future and nobody paid too much attention, at least here on wall street, about what the imf had to say. helena: oil prices seem to be

jumping to their highest levels in a year today. jens: it is pretty astonishing. this within one week, oil prices are up by a good 17%. on tuesday, oil prices increased another 4%. one reason is he weakening of the dollar in the last couple of weeks. also, there is a lot of hope ahead of the opec meeting this upcoming weekend in doha. what are we talking about? we are talking about a possible production freeze, not even a lowering of production. we will see, especially after the meeting in the upcoming weekend, if this bullish run in oil prices will continue. there are some skepticism's. as with the economy, it is also hard to predict the future of

oil prices. helena: thank you very much. now, in the wake of the panama papers, the eu promised to crack down on tax dodgers. now, it says it has got a plan. it has unveiled measures that it says will force multinationals to accurately report their earnings. commissioner jonathan hill says it would apply to 6500 firms. in strasbourg today, the verdict was mixed on whether those measures were tough enough. >> inside the european parliament in strasburg, politicians are working overtime. it is a herculean task. the european commissioner for capital markets, jonathan hill, wants to name and shame companies that aggressively avoid tax, ramping up the pressure on notorious multinational corporations. mr. hill: what we're trying to

do is increase the transparency for the public of the big multinationals as to where they are earning their profit and where they are paying their tax. i wanted a proposal that would treat european multinationals and non-european multinationals exactly the same. reporter: the commission's proposals target tax practices on concerns like america's starbucks. 750 million euros or more worldwide, companies would come under eu regulation, and that includes european companies. for many parliamentary groupings, they don't go far enough. >> we need a criminal code for companies and drastic penalties for banks, and a register of the true beneficiaries for shell companies. >> we have already seen what the failed blacklists -- with the failed blacklists and tax havens

where the wind blows. the main tax havens like britain in its islands and the u.s. with its letterbox companies, never make it onto the list. reporter: conservatives are worried it could scare companies away from europe. >> export oriented companies, in particular, could face constant revisions of their tax liabilities because they are selling goods to countries where taxes are not as high as back home. reporter: the german government is not at all happy about the prospect of sensitive data being posted on the internet for all the world to read. helena: that is your latest business news. brent: a 400-year-old oil painting thought to be by the italian master caravaggio has been found in an attic in southern france. the picture, which depicts the

biblical judas beheading a general, is well preserved, and, if genuine, could be worth 120 million euros. reporter: hidden under a leaky roof in a house in toulouse could be a masterpiece worth millions. it didn't take this art expert long to recognize the importance of the discovery. >> i admittedly thought of care of osseo because of the face. i had never seen a face like this. to me, it was obviously, it was by her of osseo. i had to test my idea with people who didn't think it was by care of osseo. -- by carob osseo -- varavaggio. it is thought to have gone

missing around 100 years after it was painted. experts at paris's louvre museum are working to establish its authenticity. >> to speak to the opponents -- the possibility when that this would be another copy of a famous composition. but it isn't. brent: after a short break, i will be back to take you through the day. ♪

announcer: "euromaxx highlights ." here is your host. >> welcome to the program from our studios here by the brandenburg gate. thanks for tuning in. let's get this show on the road with a look at our topics. detailed designs. the creations of british fashion label teatum jones. painful play. a berlin exhibition shows videogames with a twist. and musical meeting. italian pianist marino formenti and his experimental performances. the international woolmark prize is of great significance to young designers around the world -- world. back in the 50's when the award