♪ >> three dead and four wounded. that is the outcome after a 16 hour hostage crisis in sydney, australia. a gunman stormed a cafe. police confronted the gunman with two hostages. the hostage taker was among the dead. he was named earlier today as haron monis, a man with a long

list of allegations. >> 17 hostages including the firemen we saw escaping during the day. three dead now. it was initially two, but a third died at hospital, including the gunman himself. the commissioner describes him as a lone gunman. there were no explosives. there were all of these rumors floating around on twitter that the gunman put out himself saying there were two palms on the premises and two bombs throughout the rest of the city. there were no explosives found. the most important question the commissioner answered was why the police chose to go in at 2:00 a.m. with all guns blazing and he said the answer was

because they had seen, they had heard gunshots coming from and died rid -- from inside. as soon as they heard those gunshots, they initiated their emergency plan and went in. what we saw, all those explosions were not from their. -- there. they were in fact stun guns from the police. >> and some more details emerging about the gunman today. he was an iranian born refugee. it seems he had ace ring of -- a string of convictions. he was known in australia as the fake sheikh. but it appears that he was acting alone, it was not a coordinated terrorist attack ? >> that is right. it is an emerging phenomenon, a

lone wolf phenomena in. that is a trend in the united states and france and the united kingdom. this man had no proven links to the islamic state group or any such group, and often they are people who come from backgrounds of petty crime, sometimes violent crime has quite often and immigrant back round as well. there's been a lot of speculation by sociologists and various at words as to whether people on the fringes of those immigrant communities in western societies where they, there is some kind of factor involving their immigrant experience which has somehow linked to their mental state. of course, that is just speculation and it could be quite simply they had some kind

of readers position -- predisposition to being unhinged, if you will. just to give you a couple of names of lone wolves we have talked a lot about in the last few months, there was the ottawa shooter on parliament hill in the canadian capital, also had a history of crime. a very troubled past. mom and merit -- mohammed merad, and of course lee rigby, who was killed on 11 street last year. >> these individuals seduced by this islamist ideology. >> a crucial part of all of this. >> and we saw that black flags unfurled of the coffee shop in sydney earlier and people said, oh, no, this is the work of the islamic state group, the extreme

group that syrian -- that seized territory in iraq. it turns out this is not the case. everyone is poised for an attack by this group. that is understandable, isn't it? >> it is particularly understandable given that this was the site of a foiled plot that apparently involved an attempt of snatching a member of the public and carrying out a public beheading in this exact place, martin place. a lot has been made out about specific isis threats against australia. it would not be surprising for people to draw a parallel between the flag put out in this cafe and the isis flag but we could stress they are not at all the same thing. the flag this man put out in the

cafe has a basic phrase that is common to all muslims regardless of whether they are shiites or sunnis or anything else. it is nothing to do with radical ideology at all. but of course unless you know the ins and outs of that in that climate, it would not be surprising for people to draw this parallel. >> he asked for an ice is flat didn't he? >> i am not sure of the details of what he was given. he had sent letters to the families of australian soldiers killed in afghanistan saying your son is a murderer. he certainly subscribe to this idea of western oppression of muslims, which is common to all kinds of lone wolves, and also members of more organized groups. i am thinking of the london

underground bombers in britain. but again, we are very much talking about these lone wolves in recent attacks, as i mentioned, in several countries including canada a couple months back and there is no proven link with isis in this attack in australia. let's just underline that once again. >> thank you very much. the president of turkey has told the european union to mind its own business. erdogan was responding to criticism over his government's crack down on the media. over the weekend over 20 tv producers and scriptwriters were detained, accused of trying to seize power. for more on that, let's go to our correspondent. tell us more of out --about what these journalists are accused of? >> they are accused of using

intimidation and threats to subvert state authority. >> what does that mean? we are talking about scriptwriters on soap operas, i believe, one of them. >> it is bizarre. today the scriptwriters have been released. basically what is going on here it shows two things about president erdogan. firstly, he is determined to crush the opposition. the editor-in-chief arrested yesterday runs the biggest selling newspaper in the country and is opposed to the government. and while the editor-in-chief is a supporter of the exiled imam who used to support erdogan and has now become his public enemy number one many of the journalists under him are just professional journalists. and some of them are the leading

economists in the country. i have interviewed these people myself. their insights are valuable. when the government's detains the editor and chief -- the editor-in-chief, it is a crackdown on press freedom, and for that reason the leader of the opposition accused the government of carrying out a coup against democracy. the second thing it shows is that erdogan does not care if his actions harm turkey's chances of joining the eu. more important than joining europe for him is to emasculate his critics, win big in next year's parliamentary elections so he can change the constitution to an executive residency, -- presidency, which will enhance his powers considerably.

and his disdain for the eu's opinions is reinforced by the fact that for his voters, eu membership is not so important. if they get into the eu, it will be nice. if they don't, well, they won't vote for somebody else if they don't. and many voters of erdogan would applaud his comments today, thinking he has put europe in its place. >> we will have to leave it there. thank you very much, reporting from ankara. belgium ground to a halt this monday with train routes disrupted. unions are fighting the austerity policy of the new center-right coalition. >> smoke rises on stanfill rush-hour traffic in antwerp as protesters blocked the roads. meanwhile, passengers discovered

all flights are canceled for the day. >> this means 600 flights are canceled. the impact is huge, because we expected 60,000 passengers and today we cannot fly. >> the nationwide strike has closed schools and businesses and halted trains and other transport. it is the climax of a month of protest action that saw over 100,000 mark in the capital. they are rallying a government -- against the government decision to court a wage rise. they are also furious about that's to the public safety -- public sector and plans to raise the retirement age. >> the new government was to put in place a few ideas, but meanwhile they do nothing about the fact that big companies

organized structures in luxembourg. the big families make agreements with the tax authorities. a company can be sold for billions without paying a penny of tax. his companies are hitting the people. >> the government says it is obliged to enforce tough austerity measures to get the budget in line with eu standards. >> french president francois hollande has been standing up for the freeman in europe. he visited the museum of immigration in paris today. let's take a listen. >> the presence of foreigners has always been a source of worry, of fear, of apprehension. especially when they are not only different languages and cultures but also different skin colors and religions.

there are always those who have exploited those fears, who use them to justify rejection. >> while immigration is a hot issue and the u.k. in the run-up to next year's elections the support for the u.k. independence party which wants to paul britton out of europe, has fueled the debate. it seems the left labored apart -- the left labour government says that they will go after employers that exploit workers. ask for being here with us on "france 24." isn't it up to a free market economy to hire whoever they want in the european union? >> regulations and relation to wages and conditions. we have a minimum wage legislation and britain, in

britain, france, and many other countries. they have been undermining that by paying people less. >> but it is already illegal to pay workers less than the minimum wage, isn't it? what can we do about this policy ? jeremy corbin? unfortunately, we seem to have lost our guest. we will try to get him for you later in the program. let's bring you some business news now. perhaps you can talk to us about employment, but we are starting off in paris. taxi drivers. about this app on smartphones, you can press a button, get a taxi ride. >> absolutely. it is uber but the furor in paris is about a particular

service called uber pop which uses a non-provisional -- nonprofessional service. they were protesting a decision by a french court last week not to ban that service. uber pop has already been banned in the netherlands and is facing other legal challenges. during the course of the day as taxi drivers were striking, the french interior ministry intervened, and announcing the service would be banned until january 1. many say they will need to see that band to believe it. let's take a listen. >> to put clients in touch with people who are neither professional drivers nor taxi drivers -- yes, this kind of application which is already illegal will be even more so from the first of january 2015. >> we have seen nothing but promises from this government. we won something concrete.

we are here to show we will not stand idly by. >> uber has suffered a series of legal blows in recent weeks and it has a public relations scandal in sydney as that hostage crisis was unfolding. many try to get away from the area reported that fares had been raised and were charged 65 euros for any ride out of central sydney. after an outcry, the company backtracked and said it would refund those customers and offer free rides out of the central business district. turning our attention to the market, very deep red for the dax -- we saw the ruble hitting a new low, following 8%, and the micex in moscow closing at just

under 2.38%. not quite enough good news to boost the negative trend we are seeing -- the dow is fluctuating 300 points as the oil prices continued their plunge. oil has fallen to nearly $55 a barrel following an announcement by opec that its members would not cut production to increase demand. more than 2000 amazon.com workers are on strike in germany, protesting for better pay and conditions. more than half of amazon's distribution centers across the country have been shut down. >> it is the grinch that stole amazon's christmas. as orders are piling up in germany, workers are striking for three days of her pay and conditions. the strike was organized a week ago and took amazon by surprise. >> at midday on wednesday we

will vote on how we proceed, how things will continue, not just next year, but maybe next week. >> nine german distribution centers have stopped running. labor union verity says almost 2000 300 workers are already on strike, this in the context of a dispute that began almost a year ago. that is when germany agreed to raise pay for workers across the retail industry, but amazon argues it is not part of it. >> amazon is talking about how they are an agency working in logistics and claiming they are paying the top right for this sector. they might as well say that we are paid twice as much as hairdressers. >> this close to christmas workers chose to start the strike on monday to mark and

historic anniversary. one year ago, amazon orders in germany reached their peak at 53% and. >> and exclusive talk to buy germany's artist mobile network group ee. these negotiations were reported earlier in the month. it would create a telik communications giants in the u.k., giving bt fixed line mobile broad land services. meanwhile, this agency having its busiest day of the year, saying it expects to process 40 million cards, letters, and packages. to keep up with the holiday rush, they will be delivering seven days a week in some areas, including christmas day which

is unusual for any postal service, especially in the u.s. >> thank you very much indeed. it is time now to bring you the best of the last 24 hours on the internet. at it is time for web news. ♪ >> welcome to the web news with our pick of the stories making the online headlines. coming up on today's show -- the u.s. moving forward impersonating soldiers. an indian actress announcing social violence. obama using -- and a farmer using music to hurt his cowls -- herd his cows. >> excuse me, sir? >> this video shows a man dressed as a soldier being exposed as a fake in a u.s. shopping mall. the man was not a soldier, but

was wearing a military uniform and metals to get notice from u.s. stores. this was not an isolated incident. and many have taken to the web to ousted the -- to oust the impostors. there is guardian of valor, for example, posting photos as well as names of these famous phonies. naming and shaming is all the rage on facebook. there are a number of pages of americans who have come across these people trying to pass them selves off as soldiers back from the front lines. the site claims that several caught artists have manipulated people's trust in american gis

to get money out of them before disappearing off the face of the earth. ♪ >> hollywood actress and model -- went to visit india's prime minister narendra modi last week calling for an end to sexual harassment and violence. she criticizes the authorities and lots of indians for turning a blind eye to such a massive problem. she wants india to realize how bad the problem has become to tackle it more efficiently. she has already received widespread support online. thousands have taken to social networks to pledge support and express solidarity, highlighting the importance of her campaign and praising the actress's

bravery in relating personal experience to the prime minister. at her words have struck a chord with many in india and also made it easier for victims to come forward. the model has prompted a number of women to come forward and share their stories of sexual harassment and rape. she is a true inspiration for women who have a similar story to tell. she says that the site has only just begun. she says that she will say be starting a blog for victims of sexual violence, a platform where they can share their stories without fear of what others might think. residents in france have been

encouraged to press under a ha shtag in response to an article in "la monde." they are encouraging sending more photos. it has proven extremely popular with a lot of photos already posted online. a french man has undertaken the ambitious project of turning wikipedia into a giant galaxy. where each star corresponds to an article. the project called wikigalaxy is in progress. you can check it out online. the public transport operator

the retp has started a sound cloud account. listeners can discover the sounds of parisian transport in english, japanese, even mandarin. bon voyage. ♪ he has a somewhat novel way of herding. as you can see the american farmer uses his trombone to bring his cows in. and they love it. at you can watch the entirety of the video on youtube. ♪

m pacifica this is democracy now. >> there is a movement growing in this country. more than 50 cities had engaged the day of resistance. what we are seeing in the united states is what; uprising, and uprising of young, black people that also people across issue, cross raise led by young black people saying enough is enough you can't keep killing black people and we are not going to stop because black lives do matter.