genie: this is france 24 live around the world. the biggest leak in the history of journalism. an anonymous source releases 11.5 million documents in the so-called panama papers. they point to an offshore account and many of them include sports stars, big hollywood names, and six current world leaders. sending migrants back to turkey as part of a controversial deal with the eu that has been slammed by rights

groups. to readrance gets ready new flights to iran, female flight attendants are protesting a decision that would force them to where veils once they land. , we will be taking a closer look at the panama law firm at the center of the panama papers leak. how they help the rich and in taxl hide their money havens. and the winner of the hong kong film festival is almost completely snubbed by the media in china. first, our top story live from paris. we will start with what's being called the biggest leak in journalism history. the panama papers. they have already whipped up a

storm of controversy over offshore accounts and tax invasions for the rich and famous. thousands of names are on the list including the prime ministers of iceland and pakistan, the president of ukraine, and the king of saudi arabia. ties to vladimir putin were also detailed as well as star jackie chan and footballer leonel messy. several media outlets around the world have and working on the documents including the french paper le monde. >> it's absolutely massive. it's like investigative journalism suddenly entered the age of the data -- big data. there's 1000 times more data than what we are able to get from julian assange's wikileaks. all of that comes from a panama-based company called mossack fonseca. his work is to set up offshore tax havens for people which makes it impossible to track

their money. genie: one of the major personalities to already come is via the panama papers that of the prime minister of iceland. he stormed out of an interview with a swedish television channel after he was asked about links to an offshore tax company. andrew hillier reports. >> myself, no. >> stuttering his way through his answer, this isn't the face iceland's prime minister wanted to put on for the tv cameras. journalists analyzing the panama papers have found evidence showing that in 2000 and -- a07, he and his wife bought tax from set up in the virgin islands. he is accused of using the company to hide millions of dollars in investments. >> what can you tell me about a company called --? company, if is a

recall correctly, which is associated with one of the companies that i was on the board of. it had an account -- with the tax -- on the tax account since it was established. >> shortly after, he ends the interview. asking me something ridiculous. you tricked me into doing this interview under false pretenses. the prime minister and his wife insisted they did not break any rules. when he declared -- entered parliament, he did not declare his finances. eight months later, he sold his stake in the company to his wife. the revelations could leave him fighting for his political life. there have already been calls for him to resign. the first boats

transporting migrants and refugees out of greece and back to turkey have landed. there were over 130 people on board, most of them from pakistan. they are being sent back as part of the deal between the eu and turkey to get the spiraling migrant crisis under control. >> pakistanis and bangladeshis arriving at this port, the first of 750 migrants who will be sent back to turkey in the next three days. it's been a very difficult journey just to come to greece. i don't want to go back. and turkey isn't very good for us. maybe the soldiers and police are good, but there are criminals taking our money. >> as part of the eu's deal with turkey which was signed last month. the eu border control agency chartered two bodes for monday's deportation but has only received 1/10 of the personnel promised by eu member states.

each migrant is being accompanied by an officer for security reasons. they say the procedure to place in an orderly fashion and migrants willingly left. they are migrants who don't ask for asylum and i think that was the majority who left today. and there are those who ask for asylum and their claim can be admitted or not. that's a much longer procedure. >> those being sent back are among the over 5000 have derived -- have arrived in lesbos since -- syrianwill accept one making an asylum claim from turkey. before marchrived 20 are still on the greek mainland stuck in makeshift neighborsr greece's closed their borders and shut off the balkans.

natalie is covering this story from the port on the great island of lesbos. talk us through what happened this morning. it was a very peaceful and calm morning here. authorities were fearing for the worst. what we saw a right behind me ferries which were slowly being loaded up. the spokesperson we talked to said they were mainly bangladeshi and pakistani, although the spokesman of the government responsible for coordinating this entire process told me it is also including syrian refugees who wanted to return to turkey to be reunited with their family.

all these people were returned. they said they had not requested any asylum in greece. by onere all escorted ex security official. there are many concerns from ngos. they were staging a protest with huge banners saying, no to deportation. this has been scandalous by all accounts for the ngos and this is exactly what we witnessed today. speaking to a government spokesman, they don't expect any more returns to take place today. genie: but there are more returns due to take place in the coming days. you went to the maria refugee camp. what was it like there?

verycan tell you it was grim. we went there with my colleagues family camee afghan over to speak to us through the fences. their children were 5-year-old and younger. it was very sad. these are people who said they were actually fleeing authorities because the husband was reporting on corruption and he had death threats following his published articles and yet they are trapped in greece. they are among those refugees who are very scared of whether the asylum process will be open to them. theking to ngos including united nations body responsible for the refugees, they were also very fearful that no safeguards

were implemented for these people. that there would be an absence of a fair and due process for them. that was very much their concern as well talking to us. speaking to the government officials today and asking him that very same question, he said that the european union has not -- they will only be on the island on thursday and then they will be starting to evaluate the whole asylum procedure to assess whether these people have a right to return or are obligated rather to return or actually have a right to relocate in europe. ,ccording to the eu turkey deal the agreement was that around 6000 relocations should take place throughout the eu and that by midday -- mid, 20,000 relocations need to take lace. may, 20,000 relocations

need to take place. we are very far from that number. genie: now to syria, or government troops have taken back a key bastion for the islamic state group. weekecapture comes one after the syrian army forced the i.s. group out of the ancient town of palmyra. assad says the next move is to retake the de facto headquarters of the i.s. group. iran to thening of rest of the world, air france is getting set to renew its flights there in two weeks. that means the secular french are now face-to-face with the conservative laws of the islamic republic, particularly those concerning women. french air hostesses are being warned they will have to wear a when entering iran, but some of them are opposed.

kyle brown has this. >> the scarves worn by stewardesses on air france may seem a mere fashion accessory, but they are essential when landing in iran and the subject of heated controversy. the airline has just issued instruction that female staff must wrap their hair in a scarf or veil whenever they are in the islamic country. flights will resume between paris and in wrong for the first time in eight years. hostesses will also have to wear a long jacket and trousers. >> you should leave it up to the air hostesses. for those who have trouble with this and feel that we are in a secular society. we are employees, we are not tourists. we should not force them to wear the veil. the sanctions for defying the rules are just unacceptable. >> for those who refuse to comply, staff risk being penalized financially and could receive warnings that could be damaging to their career. air france says the rules are in

line with iranian law which required that every woman wears a veil in public. our crew is required to comply with the laws of the country there visiting. staff representatives are requesting that the airline make hran flighterro voluntary so that they have a choice. >> so that those who fly to iran go of their free well aware of the ramifications. >> air france management is expected to reply to the request in the coming days. the ministry of the rights of women is also studying the matter. genie: the hong kong film festival winner was almost completely snubbed by the mainland chinese media. the winning film called 10 years depicts a gloomy future for beijing ruled hong kong where freedom of speech has all but disappeared. here's a look. >> a glimpse into hong kong's

not-too-distant future. 10 years, a low-budget independent film, backed the best picture award at the film festival. it depicts a dark vision of the island city. hong kongers prohibited from speaking their native cantonese in favor of mandarin. a man who contemplates crime because he can't find a job. street protesters fighting for democracy. images that evoke scenes of crackdowns during china's cultural revolution. story points to the simmering tensions between hong kong and beijing which is tightening its grip on the island. even though its run in theaters was cut short, the movie has been a surprise hit, resonating with the public more than a year after thousands of protesters joined a civil disobedience movement demanding full democracy from mainland china. years exposed the fear of

hong kong people. this moment, 10 years also provided hong kong's people and us a chance to show that we have no fear. describedm has been in a state-controlled newspaper as absurd and pessimistic. me what beijing thinks about us, i would say it doesn't really matter. the movie was made for people in hong kong. we are open to anyone whether they like the film or not. >> after the award ceremony, some news media sites in the mainland, did not mention the best picture. genie: and the infamous panama papers. an anonymous source released 11.5 million documents that point to accounts and a lot of big names are linked to those accounts. for more, we bring in stephen carroll. these records all relate to a company called mossack fonseca.

firm's a panama-based law founded 40 years ago. it has staff in 42 countries around the world. it's the world's fourth biggest provider of offshore services. that means creating companies for clients in tax havens. the foundation has set up more than 300,000 of them. josh has more on this insight into a global system of hiding money. panama-based law firm at the center of the biggest information leak in history, mossack fonseca administers so-called anonymous show companies for clients based in offshore jurisdictions or tax havens. these places such as the virgin islands or bahamas or panama have low or nonexistent transaction fees and high banking secrecy. using offshore structures to hide money anonymously is completely legal and sometimes legitimate. the practiceture attracts those looking to hide

money for more unsavory reasons. aroundtor hoping to get international sanctions or crooks looking to launder dirty profits. to set up a shell company in intermediary is generally sought. they trusted individual company or bank. they will arrange with a registered agent like mossack fonseca to create and administer the shelf for a fee. peoplet will have a few named as its executives, the shell company's only purpose is to discreetly manage the money it holds. itsack fonseca claims complies with anti-money laundering laws and carries out due diligence on all its clients. according to the 11.5 million document leak which include vladimir putin's best friends, 12 world leaders, and around 22 individuals subject to sanctions for their support of regimes in north korea, syria, russia, and zimbabwe. it's an incredible story. what else has mossack fonseca said? a pretty longed

statement in response to the release of these documents. it says that for 40 years mossack fonseca has operated beyond reproach in their home country and other jurisdictions and the firm has never been accused or charged in connection with criminal wrongdoing. the company's founders has taken leave from his position as an advisor to panama's president after the company's application in a scandal in brazil. genie: another important element is the role played by major banks. some 500 banks set up these offshore companies for their clients. ofy include subsidiaries hsbc and others. companies000 offshore set up at the request of these banks, hsbc accounts for more than 2000 of them. backsaid, those cases date 20 years and predate reforms the bank has undertaken since then to crack down on this sort of thing. few hours we have

been hearing from regulators in austria, sweden, and norway now investigating banks in those countries. genie: let's focus on the markets. >> the big story is in the french telecom sector after talks between two companies fell apart last week. you can see orange is down nearly 5%. this is affecting the rivals of those telecom companies. they are seeing huge drops in their shares. they had hoped to benefit from a potential merger in the sector. generally speaking, things looking much brighter a short time ago. one more deal that will move markets on wall street later is to do with air alaska, which is buying virgin america for more than $2.5 billion.

the new company will be based in seattle and will let alaska extend its routes. the imf has responded to claims that it was pushing greece into a default. >> that's right. christine lagarde says those claims are nonsense. phoneed transcript of a call last month saw imf officials expressed frustration at the eu's slow progress in granting debt relief to athens. greece demanded a next location for those comments. says the imfarde negotiates in good faith and that a deal on taking part in greece's -- is still a good distance away. new electric car is a success and it has not even been built yet. surpassedders have

$10 billion worth. that amounts to 276,000 preorders for the model three even though the first one will be delivered for another 18 months -- won't be delivered for another 18 months. the company currently produces 50,000 cars a year. genie: time for the press review. oliver farry is here to take a look at today's papers. the big story today are the panama papers. >> it's the biggest information leak in the history of journalism. 11.5 million files from the panama-based law firm mossack over to are handed german paper. 2.6 terabytes of data. if you wanted to put it on your computer at home, you would need

13 laptops. it works all previously incised -- dwarfs all previous leaks incised. -- in size. details offshore shell companies created by mossack fonseca for clients to hide their money. are 140 publicts figures and political leaders, 12 heads of state and government including six currently in office. among these are petro poroshenko, the president of the uae, and the king of saudi arabia. genie: there's also big sports figures. >> yes. is accused ofni being the real owner of a company created in panama the day after he was named head of european football's governing body. active and is still

supposedly holds an account in a bank in geneva. le monde asks, what is the purpose of this company set up on the initiative of the bank and overseen by five directors who are clearly figureheads standing in for michelle platinum? -- michelle platini? they also report that a member ifa's ethics community is accused of playing a role in helping argentinians pay bribes -- fifa tot unusual for fe be mired in scandal, but now its ethics committee has to investigate one of its own members. genie: some of these shell companies have been linked to current international leaders. >> that's right. 140 figures are named.

some are directly implicated. others by association. one of those is vladimir putin. there is a network of secret offshore deals and fast loans -- vast loans leading to russia's president. placed in aend was sensible control of assets worth at least $100 billion. of threeo the owner point 2% of the st. petersburg institution which the u.s. has crony putin's bank. putin holds his wealth by proxy. he formally owns nothing. there's nothing about this in the russian media. but the moscow times does cover it, saying vladimir putin's spokesman had warned last week

of an impending hatchet job on the president. the prime minister of iceland is also having trouble. gunnlaugsson is the man in question. i was not aware of his existence until today. he is at the heart of the world's biggest ever data leak a cousin of his connection to the offshore company winterus. he was visibly embarrassed by questions on swedish tv regarding the revelations and he obviously was not expecting them to come to light. two of his cabinet ministers are also involved. argentinian president mauricio

macri who was recently elected on a wave of optimism was also named a shareholder of an offshore company. his office has replied to the argentine daily saying that his appearance on a contract was circumstantial. the president may have to explain to the argentine people why he chose not to declare this company. most famousps the person from that country has also been named in these leaks. that's right, star footballer lionel messi. she is there because of a company appropriately named megastar enterprises contracted with the help of mossack fonseca. after spanishght authorities started pursuing him for unpaid taxes in 2013. authorities say the star and his father used 10 companies in

different countries to conceal his money. a spanish business website says court for a career as a fraudster to match his sporting one.

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