>> hello and welcome. this is which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] -- this is "journal" live from berlin. the search for the wreckage continues. we have exclusive information. an aviation expert revealing the inside story of what may have caused the plane to crash. also on this program, turkey pass parliament votes to restrict some of its members immunity from prosecution. opponents say it will allow the president to sign -- to silence his opponents.

and making tobacco companies put pictures on their patch showing what happens when you smoke. my name is christopher springer. thanks for joining us. wreckage from the egypt air passenger jet that crashed with 66 people on board has been found in the mediterranean sea. items retrieved include human remains, luggage, and passenger seats. the european space agency says one of its satellites has spotted what may be an oil slick near the crash zone. in a moment, we will have exclusive information on what may have caused that crash. first, this report. >> they have found debris and personal belongings, but they have not found why the plane

crashed into the sea. an international search effort is focusing on a 40-mile radius. the main goal now is to help unravel the mystery of the plane pus disappearance. it last had contact with greek authorities before vanishing from radar. greece's minister from -- of defense briefed reporters on the most recent findings. we were informed by the egyptian joint rescue coordination center, as was already announced to the media, about the discovery of a body part, two seats, and luggage. these were found slightly to the south of where the plane signal was lost. the plane did not send out a distress signal. egypt's city a show -- civil aviation minister said that fact made a technical cause seem

unlikely. >> we don't want to jump to conclusions. you heard the press conference. everybody is saying "i heard." all is based on assumption and fact. >> people have gathered to pray for this 66 passengers. the travelers, friends, and relatives have also turned to prayer. they know the chances of finding survivors at this point are slim. "he was my cousin. he was like an elder brother to me. this is very hard for the family . god bless all those who died on the plane." all relatives can do now is wait for answers. it's unclear how long the work of search teams could drag on. bad weather could slow their efforts. mr. for: we have new information about the possible cause of this crash, and that comes from

aviation analyst tim. thanks for joining us. what have you found out? >> am referring to an article which was just published. this indicates one thing -- they apparently had a fire on board prior to disappearing. we have obtained and have a copy of it on my cell phone. this is the aircraft communication addressing and reporting system, which automatically sends via satellite a message to the maintenance base in egypt whenever there is a fault on the aircraft. it is intended to have maintenance already alerted. therefore, the aircraft automatically sends messages. here, from the time, the first

message was recorded, meaning the smoke detector detected smoke. one minute later, we had smoke in the compartment underneath the aircraft with all the electronics. everything from the flight controls -- christopher: let me get this clear -- this system you are talking about automatically sends news of a malfunction to home base, and it is saying, if i can just translate your words, that there was a first in the avionics system. plane and then >> smoke. we detected smoke, but when there is smoke, we have a fire.

fire is the most serious, dangerous, life-threatening situation you can experience. christopher: you are saying the smoke, was possibly developed into a fire, they have caused this crash. >> first, we had a fire, and smoke was sensed. there's no access from the cup it. you cannot even fight the fire. there isor system installed. it's not required on that aircraft. there is a smoke detector, but it does not help you. in short time, within one minute, two major computer systems failed. that indicates that there was a fire. the wires burned. that means also you lose communication, and it also explains what the greek minister of defense has said. what you do, what you are trained to do as a pilot, if you want to descend without

communicating to alarm other airplanes around, you go off track and then you get down as fast as possible because you have to land as soon as possible when you have a fire. this is all speculation, but i believe these pilots were trying to ditch the plane on the water. christopher: essentially, you are saying the cause of this crash is almost certainly a technical malfunction, not a terror attack. kristen -- >> it is very likely a terror attack. we have seen similar things before. september 1998, halifax, and the crew was not capable to land the plane anymore. these messages we are receiving, we are familiar with them.

these with a similar last messages the airplane was trying to transfer to paris. christopher: thank you very much for that fresh information. other news now -- activist in nigeria are disputing a claim by the country's military that it is rescued another of the schoolgirls abducted by boko haram militants. officials say soviets read the girl after clashing with militants. campaigners say the girl was not on the list of schoolgirls missing after the mass abduction by boko haram two years ago. thelist identifies feet of young women, but neither of those lived in the town the girl said she was from.

let's find out more from our west africa correspondent. there is doubt over this girl's identity. what can you tell us about her and about how the nigerian military came across her? >> christopher, the military says they had a clash with boko haram in the northeast of the country, and after this crash, they managed to liberate about 100 women and children, and they said one of the girls that was abducted more than kid of years ago in her school. we talked to a representative of the parents, and he said they do not have this name on the list. it turns out this girl was indeed from this school, but the very day the attack happened, she was not around. unfortunately, a few days later, there was an attack on her village, and this whole story should remind us it is not only

the 18 girls for missing, but more than 2000 civilians who were abducted in the past three years. christopher: we have just been seeing pictures there of the first schoolgirl found. she met nigeria's president yesterday. how did that meeting go yesterday? >> how could ago? no press was allowed. they just published some pictures. all we knows the president promised her that she will be able to resume her school education to go back to school, but right now, she is still in the hands of the military. they are trying to get as much information as possible from her to possibly locate the other girls, but afterwards, based a she will be probably put into a trauma center where she will also receive more medical care. christopher: what are the prospects for the other girls that boko haram is still holding captive?

>> the father of one of the other girls were objected earliertold me yesterday it was one of the happiest days in his life when he learned the news. this is, of course, a glimmer of hope the other parents have an waiting for. she told her mother she saw huge parts of the group, and they are heavily guarded by boko haram, and the parents think the military will now take action. christopher: thank you for that. u.s. president barack obama says he wants to release at least some restrictions to gun ownership before he leaves office, but he may have a tough job on his hands. there has been a huge surge in gun ownership in recent years. for the first time, there are more guns than people in the united states. an estimated 357 million firearms compared to a population of 310 million.

and that has been a new trend -- an increasing number of gun owners are women. >> she's a hairdresser by day, but at night, she's a sharpshooter. she has been a regular ladies night customer every monday at the shooting range behind the blue ridge arsenal gun store in virginia. in america, the right to bear arms is guaranteed by the constitution. shooting is a popular sport and holly hickman's hobby of choice. >> very relaxing mind, body, soul. really a stress reliever. >> women's shooting courses are more popular than ever. katie used to be a police officer before she took time off to raise children. for five years, she has been offering courses on how to use and care for your gun. >> it's easier to teach women

who are brand-new shooters than to teach women with a little experience or with some bad habits. it is much easier to teach women because they listen to instructions. >> mass shootings have become a common occurrence in america like the shooting in san bernardino last year where 14 people were murdered. after each attack, there is a hefty debate over toughening gun laws. for catherine, it is simple -- she works for the national rifle association. >> the san bernadino shooting in california was a big point for people where they say the gunman cannot always be there to protect me, so they are looking inward and saying that they are going to have to protect themselves and their families. they do not even want to have to depend on a spouse or point or neighbor. women want to be able to protect themselves. >> an average of five women are

killed every day in the usa, many are shot. although holly is an enthusiastic shooter, she knows how important it is to store weapons safely. she keeps her pistol in the lockers at the gun store. >> bad people are always going to be able to get their hands on guns. it really takes away everyone's right to enjoy shooting, so i think gun restrictions are plenty strong enough. >> whenever there is a national discussion on gun laws, the cash register starts ringing. >> it's great for our business. it points out things that people want to come in and buy something before maybe it gets outlawed or regulated to the point where then they cannot purchase it. every time they talk, every time a politician talks, it's good for us. >> these ladies want their next

president to promise one thing in particular -- that they can keep shooting to their hearts content. christopher: we're going to take a short break, but then plenty more on this program in just one minutes time. do stay with us.

christopher: welcome back. here with which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] -- here with "dw news" in berlin. an aviation expert has told dw a fire may have an responsible for the crash of an egypt airplane. egypt's military has found debris from the airplane which went missing with 66 people on board. turkey's president has described as historic the passing of a bill that strips some parliamentarians of their immunity from prosecution. critics say the bill targets

opposition legislators, and they see it as the president's latest step to consolidate his power. many representing the turkish minority could now face criminal charges. >> the turkish parliament voted by a 2/3 majority to strip over 130 parliamentarians of their immunity from prosecution. many now face criminal charges. these are limitary and are in a wide range of parties. the pro-kurdish party is the main target. the president's ruling party accuses the htp of having links with the outlawed workers party, the pkk. the htp denies this, but if they lose immunity, they then race prosecution under her coney and anti-terror laws. many read this as a government move to shift the rule and allow the president to implement his new consitution.

the public prosecutor says you are demanding kurdish autonomy. it's all about telling people who support terrorist groups elsewhere or with other means, telling these people this has to stop. the htp might now go to the european court of justice to retroactively revoke their loss of immunity. christopher: let's get more on this from our correspondent who joins us via skype. the president needed 2/3 of lawmakers to back this bill, more members of parliament and his party has. where did he get the extra votes? >> he got most of them from the nationalist party, but he was still short of votes. those came from the centerleft republican people's party.

he was supporting this reform, but made no secret of his misgivings, and his party was not even expected to turn up to friday's vote, but they did, and that's due to the party coming under a withering attack in the media. they accuse the party of being soft on terror, supporting terrorism, and it's teams that did indeed have an impact on the party, even though it means the leader of the party, too, would be subject to criminal investigation. christopher: somewhat surprising development. the pro-kurdish htp party says the president is trying to destroy them. will we now see dozens of politicians going to prison? question leader of the pro-kurdish party has announced he will try to overturn the decision. it's unclear if the court will choose to intervene or not, but if it does not, then, yes, there's an expectation the court will move very quickly.

we can see the prospect of dozens of kurdish mps being arrested. we have seen this before in the 1990's when 4 handcuffed and taken out of the department and subsequently jailed for 10 years. many are being charged under turkey's strict draconian anti-terror laws. christopher: what has reaction been so far in turkey? >> it has been described as historic. they say the confidence of the public has been restored, but the pro-kurdish party warned this could only lead to kurdish people no longer believing they have a democratic voice in this country, and that could only lead to fighting. christopher: many thanks for

that. it is time now to catch up with the latest business news. >> thank you very much. these are the pictures -- here they are -- that will confront european smokers. gory depictions of the health hazards they may face if they continue smoking. the eu is forcing tobacco companies to carry these pictures on their cigarette packets. they also have to use a color right there. it is possibly the ugliest color in the world, so no more bright packaging, either. >> some 700,000 of the eu's 500 million citizens are thought to die of tobacco-related diseases every year. >> the packages are brightly colored and have all this banding. basically, it detracts from the

health warnings. it is attractive to young people and misleading. the hope is over time, this will lead to fewer children taking up smoking. the evidence from australia is it is also helping adult smokers quick -- quick. >> many say the new packaging will not affect how much people smoke. >> it would not bother me in the slightest. i think people who are going to smoke are going to smoke regardless. if they take the branding off it, i think people might be less inclined to go for certain things, but overall, i do not think it will affect how much pople smoke. >> under the new directive, cigarette and tobacco products must feature bigger and more graphic warnings. flavored cigarettes and tobacco product will be banned or phased out. member states can also introduce

plain packaging. companies have another twelve-month to sell off old stock that does not meet the new standards. >> prime ministers meeting in japan focused on waste. the finance minister blames sluggish growth. g7 political leaders are set to meet next week on thursday. what buzz does the g7 created in the u.s.? does wall street care at all?

>> there was just not a really good outcome. overall, just this week, they say you never walk alone. the finance minister's basically agreed it is hard to achieve growth with monetary policy or with fiscal stimulus structure or reforms are needed, but that basically means every country has to help itself. >> credit debt is at a record high in the u.s. is that of any worry? our conditions similar today compared to that? >> well, it is a bit of a spooky scenario because banks, on the one hand, are more willing to give out credit cards because that is one business that is

still going pretty strong. also, consumers feel a little bit better with the labor market improving, but we got the latest data from the federal reserve that outstanding credit card debt reached a bit more than $950 billion. we are approaching $1 trillion -- pretty much the highest level since the financial crisis. it is not just credit card debt. we have student loans, car loans higher than $1 trillion, so that is piling up. that is a scary scenario. >> that is a lot of credit. thank you very much for your analysis. that is your business news for now. now back to the desk for some sports news. christopher: the spotlight is back on the former head of german soccer who resigned from that post last november after failing to explain a 6.7 million euro payment made to fifa by the organizing committee of the 2006 world cup.

he now faces a two-year ban for his involvement in the bidding process of that world cup. in march, an investigation was opened against him. investigators now say he violated the ethics code. they recommend he should be banned from all soccer-related activities for teen of years and also find 30,000 swiss ranks. -- swiss francs. let's move to some field action. saturday is the day of the german cup final in berlin. the top teams in the buddhist league of facing each other. -- the top teams in the bun desliga facing each other. it is the only chance to win any silverware this season. dw has a special show on the game. here is a taste of what to expect.

>> he is one of the best coaches in the world. he is the best even if he does not admit it. >> the coaches are rivals on friends. >> it would be like a game of chess. >> fans throughout the world will wallow saturday's cup final . bayern against dortmund.

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