frenchs 1:00 p.m. in the capital. these are our top stories. internationalin talks over syria for the first time. this is washington is ready to engage its -- europe's migrant crisis continues. austria says it will build a fence along its border with slovenia to stem the thousands traveling across the country to reach your.

turkish police stormed the istanbul headquarters. the opposition claims the move is to silence them. also coming up, volkswagen begins to account for the image and scandal. -- for the in missions -- for the e-mail scandal. the daring escape of the pilots that spent decades behind bars. that was in the dominican republic. first our top stories. iran has said it will for the first time participate in international talks over syria. iran's response comes a day after washington declared itself ready to engage with its

longtime book. mohammad javad zarif will join john kerry. -- russia's farm minister foreign minister. serrated -- surgeon like rough. there is what our correspondent had to say. >> with the united states -- it is really more involving saudi arabia. the u.s. secretary of state john kerry persuaded the saudi foreign minister that it would be beneficial for these talks, for iran to be included. because iran has very direct channels with president bashar al-assad in syria. it is a reality that iran has to be involved.

the foreign minister, mohammad just confirmeds that he will be part of the iranian delegation. some way,so iran in shape, or form, needs to be part of the solution in syria? iran has always had a ,owerful hand to play here specifically with bashar al-assad. so it seems to be that over the powers had to get everywhere -- had to get together on this. hopefully this latest

development will -- rochelle: talk us through the role that iran is playing through this crisis. years, in the last four iran has been the principal regional ally. they have given billions of .ollars to al-assad after they were strangled by european countries and other countries. then there was a military , on the ground from syria. year, there has been a greater diplomatic effort from terror on -- from tehran. it,n effort to support

diplomatic solutions are the only way to do be resolved. they have been intensifying their military aid to syria. andelle: arthur miller speaking -- arthur miller land -- speaking to the u.s. deposition returner state -- he says he welcomes the decision by iran to take part of those talks. have a listen. >> the iranians have announced they will attend the vienna talks. what is your reaction to iran's decision to participate in those talks? >> it is positive that they are willing to come and talk. solutiond to imagine a to the syrian crisis without their participation. we hope their participation can

be positive and that they will join in the effort to create a political transition that leads to the end of the conflict. but that is a political question. the only way to test the proposition is to engage with them and for them to hear all of the other countries wishing for political transition and to see what they are willing to do in terms of the influence they have with the assad regime. : austria has said it will build a fence along its border with slovenia to stem the flow of migrants. they are key transit nations. the interior ministry has stressed that the measure is not to control entrance into slovenia but not to shut down the border. journalist.s is a john, good afternoon. is saying that the measure is not just about controlling entry. be the same,lt

though, cutting off the route to migrants? >> the way austria sees this is that they are concerned that there are thousands of people in recent days coming across from slovenia into austria. it is said that there has been some influence recently where the migrants are becoming impatient. she says there needs to be some covert of control -- some sort of control to make sure that it is not disorderly in any way. she also does not intend to build a fence all the way from hungary to italy. it is to make sure that it makes these refugees across in an orderly fashion. we do not know when austria intends to stop doing this, building this fence. we do not even know what kind of fence they have in mind. there would be 10 days of

planning, and the austrian defense minister says it would not be a razor wire fence like we have seen built along the southern border in hungary. germany, meanwhile, has been accused of driving refugees to the border at night so that they can cross into germany. of the samell part story. the idea of building a fence on austria's southern border is ostensibly being driven by the north, on the border between austria and germany. over the weekend, the germans accused austria of sending people willy-nilly over the border, and they seem to treat it as some kind of idea to stop people coming across in large numbers, to try to limit the flow, only taking 50 people per hour, for example. austria feels it does not want to have a situation where it is bottlenecking in austria, where people are coming from the south

but not being allowed to travel into germany. austria is concerned that there will be large numbers of people here and perhaps they will not find any food or shelter for them. flows so thathe austria does not come the play -- does not become the place where everybody collects. rochelle: what kind of reaction is this getting from the media in australia goia? >> the prime minister has said it is a good first step, giving the right signal to people crossing the border. some of the opposition parties are also in favor, but the greens have said there is a catastrophic failure of austria's policy in regard to the migrant crisis. one of the main humanitarian groups here also said this is such a waste of money. we could use the money that the government wants to build the

fence to find accommodation and helping these people rather than keeping them out. rochelle: john commons, reporting to us from the austrian capital. days ahead of elections, turkish police have stormed the is tenable headquarters of a major media outlet known for criticizing the government. this comes after a controversial court ruling to see the conglomerate, which is linked to exile clerks. -- exile clerks, a phone connected to erdogan. they are cracking down on opposition. >> this is an operation to silence the dissident voices that the ruling party does not like. anduding media outlets unions. it also holds true for opposition parties and businessmen. this holds true for anyone who

does not obey. rochelle: earlier in the studio we spoke to our international affairs editor who says this is all part of an ongoing assault to china freedom and turkey. ofturkey has no tradition press freedoms. censorship is common. phase in whatst we have seen as an intensifying crackdown against media outlets that are seen by the government in any way, shape, or form, as being critical of the government's stance. recep, the president, lost for the first time in 15 years since coming to power. he is desperate to claw that majority back, and it does not look likely that it is going to happen. journalists in turkey are not seen as objective tribunes of

the truth, of the story, and giving the public what they need to know. polarization in the community of turkey, civil society, but among the journalistic community themselves. that is reflective across the board. from the government's perspective, journalists are often complicit in terrorism. they are not terrorists themselves, but they are aiding and abetting tel terrorists themselves. journalistssilence seen as not being on board. it goes across the board. there was a 17-year-old high school student who was basically jailed for 11 months because he gave a speech in his high school that was seen as being critical of president erdogan. you have had crackdowns against one of the biggest papers in germany. you have the storming of its offices by pro-government protesters. you had another magazine whose chief news editor was arrested for basically tweeting insults

about the president and for writing stuff insulting the president. this goes across the board. journalists are not seen as being objective. they are seen as having an seen asand they are threatening the unity and the state security they need to be silenced. journalists from vice news were also detained earlier this month as part of the general crackdown. rochelle: talk us through the young turks who have been taking to twitter as a way of combating the crackdown. >> an overwhelming majority of -- get theirto 85% news from television outlets. russia gets their news from tv, which is why a lot of the crackdown has been on news broadcasters, on tv broadcasters, including the latest crackdown that got two

big tv broadcasters. the young turks have found ways to circumvent all of this, a news blackout, by going to twitter and facebook are it i want to show our viewers an interesting chart. even as they go to twitter to try to get an purvey news -- to get and purvey news, this map shows there is an arrow pointing to turkey. the reason it is started than the rest of the countries is that this is a map, reported by twitter itself -- a removal request. that means removal of content from either courts or government officials, government agencies, or police. in the case of turkey, they got 718 removal requests in the first six months of this year, from january to june 30, 2015, from the turkish government. that was 70% of all the removal fromsts that twitter had all the countries in the world.

68sia was a far second with removal requests. that is less than a 10th of the turkish number. there is a lot of paranoia when it comes to the media and the tendency right now is to ban and to censor rather than to let journalists do their job. it is 1:15 in the french capital. iran has said it will participate in international talks over syria for the first time. this as a motion is declared that it has been ready to engage his longtime foe. europe's migrant crisis continues, austria saying that it will build a fence along its border with slovenia. days ahead of the elections, turkish police stormed the istanbul headquarters of a media group critical of the government. now -- business now as

stephen carroll joins me. starting with the latest financial rose as financial woes. stephen: this is after the emotions scandal that has battle -- that has embattled the company. almost 7 billion euros. rise.gure is expected to kate moody has the details. the cover-up that has tarnished its recommend tatian and put both -- its reputation and put volkswagen into the red. of 3.5operating losses billion euros compared to a profit of nearly that size in the same period a year earlier. the group said it was unlikely to achieve any sales growth this year because of the recall

affecting cars worldwide. but the losses were not as deep as many analysts expected. 's new boss says the company's new strength and prospects for improvement. dr. the initial impact of the current situation is becoming clear. we would do everything in our power to get back the trust we have lost. was echoed by the head of the volkswagen brand. >> we will come up with good solutions for the affected diesel engines. we will uncover and disclose the full proof of what happened. and we will make sure that something like this never happens again. extent of the damage to volkswagen's bottom line remains unclear. the scandal directed only at the end of the third quarter.

>> not much good news for volkswagen, but company shares .re trading up almost 3% so the news was not much worse there. across the european markets, it is positive today. -- now with good results from apple overnight, a boost in the profit, slightly does two things, the iphone and china. iphones around the world. in china, that figure was up for a nearly 90% for the same period last year. china is set to become the coming five days market in the next 18 months. while china has been dominating, apple has been looking at relations between latin america and europe. it has brought together leaders including the president of that ofas well as

colombia and peru. between cap,ership development bank of europe. saying that latin american countries need to boost their own trade ties with your. -- with europe. >> there is a big challenge. similar to the one we have had in less 50 years, we have to 4%, over for forex -- over 5%. you have to invest more and increase productivity. you have to diversify your market. so a trade agreement, a comprehensive agreement with all parts of the world -- in europe, is a very crucial one. there is sort of any infatuation with asia nowadays, and that is cool -- that is good. crucial player,

but let's not forget europe. -- latinnion, america america has to strengthen the relationship. union that the european -- it becomes more dynamic conditions. stephen: we are staying in latin america, where the economic crisis in brazil is even hitting santa claus. --raining college for santa their demand has fallen this year. there they are in training. normally they can earn $3800 for 40 days work leading up to christmas. this year there are fewer available. and more young people are going. you can see a full training, which includes -- rochelle cup thank you for that business roundup. time for the international headlines.

it is time to take a look at what is grabbing headlines. let's start in france. papers are focusing on the daring transatlantic air escape back to paris by two pilots facing 20 years behind bars. hello to you. that is a crazy development in what is being called the air-cocaine sega -- the air-cocaine sega. they have made this month adventure novel, an old-fashioned way of saying a disappearing act. you can see the photo there of the two pilots. this year they were convicted of proving involved in bringing 700 into the of cocaine dominican republic in 2013. both men deny knowing that the private plane they had been was carrying 26

suitcases of cocaine. they say they were caught. they were under house arrest, appealing this conviction, and they escaped under the noses of these dominican authorities. co a rather dramatic escape. the french foreign ministry saying they have nothing to do with it. pilots have refused to spill the beans so far. but to take a look at what we do know, it clear they got help from the outside. sources, the disco pilots escaped on a tourist boat before flying to martinique, and then they flew to metropolitan france. the crazy detail is that they took a commercial flight using their real names come back home. after some help, there is more detail. they got help from former naval officers and intelligence

agents, all friends that that has made during their service in the french navy. one detail is getting a lot of attention in the french press, and that is that a helicopter was hired as a diversion in their escape, and the name of a french politician is on the bill for that helicopter. the -- he isy from a euro deputy, a member of parliament at the european parliament. rochelle: the plot thickens there. moving on to another big story, rising tensions regarding the china-south sea. the fast-growing u.s. warship -- flo: chinese papers are very categorical about this. chinese were that this worship -- you caned into

see the front page of "global times" saying china warns the u.s. over this. beijing said yesterday they would take whatever measures are necessary against what he calls a deliberate provocation, and a very similar on page on the front page of "china daily" today. it is talking about a warning to the united states over this patrol. in this editorial, "chinese -- "chinahinese daily daily" says the u.s. is making too much out of it. the u.s. is offering a rather different interpretation of things. flo: that's right, a different word choice. if you look at the front page of "the wall street journal,", it is always -- it is always making the sign dispute. reefs,several rocks and china has built several

artificial islands. china point out that sovereignty in these areas is being contested by several neighbors. "the wall street journal" comes back on the official u.s. response and said these patrols are one of several operations with certain freedom of navigation. and what the united states calls international waters. you can see "the wall street journal" a pause this move by the navy, saying president barack obama made the right call in this instance, which is very rare for "the wall street praise president barack obama over anything. take a look and take a look at another paper. you can see here -- the guardian -- this editorial is coming here. sendingby worship -- by warships into the waters. the united states is trying to uphold a point and a principal. it says cool heads must prevail.

rochelle: finally, a story proving you are never too old to go to jail. a jewel thief is behind bars, age 85. flo: this was doris payne, chargeda a a oyj4j8j8j8j

woman: the following program is an original production of linktv. narrator: next up, an all new mothers day special. being a new mom is rewarding and challenging, but what extra burdens do mothers in poor countries face? come take a tour of the world's best and worst places to be a mom in this new report from "save the children" and viewchange.org. man: "viewchange" is about people making real progress in tackling the world's toughest issues. can a story change the world? see for yourself in "viewchange, the mothers index." narrator: you've heard the term lottery of birth.