>> hell will he, welcome to live from paris. i'm anominate young. it's 1:00 p.m. here in the french capital. take a look what's making news this hours of the official results show international cricket star having won pakistan's poll. however he will have to move quickly to seek out allies to form a coalition government. also the greek government is investigating who was responsible for the fire that killed at least 83 people near athens earlier this week. this as residents warned the government accusing official of

poor town planning. as we head into the final stages of the tour de franc, britain's thomas retaining his overall lead. looking to dethrone his teammate. we begin in pakistan where official results shows international cricket start kahn having won pakistan's power. he's going to have to seek out allies for a coalition government. after a tediously back. pakistan election officials announce his party has won the 109 out of the 269 seats being contested in the national assembly. the election giving his nearest

ival 63 seats. >> p.t.i. secured 114 national assembly seats. pakistan muslim league now has got 63 seats while pakistan people's party parliamentarians achieved 43 seats. despite the complaints regarding the delay and announcement of the results, and lack of transparency while counting, the 2018 election day was relatively safe with no big disputes taking place. >> get more from our correspondentant. -- correspondent. as predicted in rankan, winning the election, the next thing will be for him to seek coalition with other parties. how hard is that going to be?

>> the national government with the numbers he has will be difficult. if he's able to get the independent elected on his side, is party has one partyty seat. the he's able to get independentltly elected on his side, his party will need another 13 seats for whicich they'll have to do alliance with other parties. what we're hearing from the media sources is that a partyy n karachi which has five seats in the parliament have agreed t to join.. >> i was going to say, how is his victory being received in pakistan? we have seen his supporterers -- we have seen supporters s getting out on the roroads singg and dancing.

on the other hand, common people are not that optimistic that he will be able t to deliver his campaign promiseses. hihis own electioionampaign has makakg promises with unreal list.istic jobs. it will be difficult too fulfil. reporting from islamabad, thank you. to greece now. as the death toll reaches 83 in the countries' worst ever wildfires, the government says there are serious indications at least one of the fires may have been started deliberately. officials citing it unreleased testimony and slight maps that show 13 blazes broke out at the same time across the region near athens on monday. by contrast on thursday, the flash food affecting a northern athens suburb following a sudden downpour. the greek capital's fire department receivingng some 140 calls for assistance to pump

water from homes and businesses. in the meantime, w we have moren he fallout from those fires. >> more than 80 dead and just one question on everyone's minds. whose fault was it? as greece picks up the pieces from its worst wildfires ever, sadness has turned to anger over how authorities could have let the disaster happen. >> many old people live here. are you telling me they should have swam four kilometers? who is going to swim that? many victims were elderly? what should we have done that? that's what i'm saying. >> but authorities arnts just trying to determine what went wrong in the evacuation of areas under the threat of fire, the investigation into what sparked the fire took a major turn on thursday when the greek government told reporters it suspectedarson was behind the disaster. >> the investigation by the fire

department and greek police is ongoing. we preresented imageges to you earlieier. they give us serious indndicatis and signifificant findings of riminal activity andarson. >> the minister also said they had come to the conclusion by analyzing satellite images of the air wra of the the pictures are believed to show monday's two fires had been set in multiple places within a short time frame. meanwhile, rescuers are continuing to search for bodies in burnt out homes and at sea. the greek government has been unable to say exactly how many people are still missing following the disaster. >> there are increasing fears over a rapidly expanding wildfire in northern california that reached parts of the city of reading. roads are backed up as people rye to flee. -- people try to flee.

one person having been killed. a privately hired bulldozer operator fighting the blaze. anybody who is in northern europe this week we have all been filtering in record -- swelt hering in record heat in cities not built for hot weather. 18 departments in northern and is tral france are still under heat wave alert. temperatures for friday forecast to each 37 degrees celsius. from the arctic circle and scandinavia and through japan and north africa, heat wave conditions have been setting record high temperatures and causing drought and wildfires. meteorologists saying this summer's weather conditions are a result of climate change. 2018 shaping up to be one of the hottest years on record. >> the sudden pin nins sewella of greece, western latatvia, an north to the south of sweden. this summer's images of fires

raising entire forests have been attributed to climactic conditions. a mild and dry winter and drought have aggravated the situation. from paris to tokyo to quebec, this year's heat wave has affected half of the northern hemisphere. it's projected that such extreme weather could become more frequent due to global warming. according to some climate experts, temperatures can could he cries across the planet by up to 6 degrease centigrade if the fight against global warming is ignored. countries like france have gone -- in the meantime heat waves like the one of 2003 which led to 70,000 deaths in europe may become the norm. in addition to the impact on the environment and biodiversity, such temperatures will have far-reaching social and economic consequences. >> moving on to other big stories.

north korea has returned remains believed to be of u.s. troops killed during the korean war. it's the latest move in diplomatic negotiations between washington and peaoning -- pea pyongyang. the remains touched down at an american base in south korea. having waited years to retrieve the remains of their loved ones. we have the story. >> finally, they are going home. the remains of u.s. soldiers returned by north korea on the 665th anniversary of the end of the korean war. the cargo plane landed at the air base in south korea on friday. a guard of honor on the tarmac is 55 sets of remains were carried from the plane. the return was one of the agreements reached during the summit between u.s. president donald trump and north korean leader kim jong-un in singapore in june. seen as a gesture of good will at last month's summit the handover was hailed by the u.s. president and tweeted, after so

many years, this will be a great moment for so many families. thank you to kim jong-un. over 35,000 americans were killed in korea during the fighting. 7,500 are still considered missing. friday's pea patriotation may signal more to come. according to u.s. officials the north could have up to 200 sets of remains ready to be flown home. >> in france, president macron has dismissed the scandal surrounding a top security aide who roughed up protestors as being a storm in a teacup. this as furious criticism from his opponent showed no sign of abating with one major opposition party withdrawing from the parliamentary inquiry into the scandal. >> the national assembly's committee investigating the scandal lost its co-chair and all of its members from the opposition. right wing, far right, left, and

far left all agree they have been blocked from doing their job. finding out what happened on mayday when macron's body card hit two protestors and if the incident was covered up. >> the presidential l palace trying to quash our committee's work? i think so. i have no choice but to suspend y participation in this. >> the opposition says that members of the committee backing president macron have been blocking the request to interview presidential aides like the secretary-general to find out how much they knew about the incident and how they handled it. >> they want to bury this committee which was making progress. but can't go any further without questioning the right officials. >> m members of macron's party still in the group denied blocking anything. they say they are grilling the right people.

>> they are trying to derail the national assembly committee's investigation, but they will fail. the committee will carry on. >> opposition parties have brought two confidence motions against the government overle scandal to be debated next week. >> britain's thomas is retaining is lead in the tour de franc won a sprint finish to take the 18th stage. thomas finishing safely in the peleton to maintain his lead of 1:59 over the dutch rider. the last stage is this friday which is currently under way is set to offer his final chance of capitalizing on any slip-up from thomas. we'll get more. a crucial stage for thomas in his last stretch of this race.

>> yes. it is a very important stage. the final mountain stage of this tour de franc 2018. as you said thomas has a 1:59 lead ahead of d f mulan and what is ahead is to protect his lead in the tour de franc in order to be able to make it to the shans lee say on sunday with that yellow jersey on his showeders. to win his first ever tour de franc and grand t tour. it i is a very crucial and a toh stage for all a the riders because, as i said, it's the final mountain stage. there are six climbs in this race. .wo of the biggest climbs so it is going to be difficult today. and big climbs mean also big descents where there could be

crashes. it's all going to be about making sure to stay focused for thomas. as for the others, it will be their last chance to attack. we're expecting many attacks in this race, including from dulan because this is his last real chance to gain some ground on thomas. that ahead of saturday's individual time trial where he's one of the favorites and could still have something to do against thomas. for that he will to close the gap in this mountain stage. very important for all the riders. and team sky did say thomas himself has said that he expected the worst, was hoping for the best. and his team has said it a couple days ago, they said this stage was crucial because they said this is where we could lose it all. that's what they said because they could lose not only thomas' yellow jersey, but there is also

a battle for the podium for the defending champion, the man who was the leader of team sky at the start of this tour de franc, and he could still slip off that podium. he's currently third in the overall standings. e is fighting to reach the chanselycee. >> he's obviously in for a very busy weekend ahead. thanks for that. a reminder what's making news this hour. results shows international cricket star kahn has won in pakistan's poll. he'll have to move quickly to seek out allies to form a lowell case government. the greek government i is investstigating thatarson was responsible for a fire that killed at least 83 people near athens earlier this week. this as residents blame the government, accusing official of poor town planning. as we just heard there, we head into the final stages of the tour de franc, britain's thomas

retaining his lead in the pelley on -- pelleyton and looking to dethrone team sky teammate. time now for the latest business news. for that i'm joined in the studio by julia. france's g.d.p. >> france's statistics has released its latest g.d.p. figures. it's not great news for president macron. in the three months from april to july, france's gross domestic product rose by 0.2%. growth has slowed down and rail strikes may be to blame. the drop in transport spending and overall household consumption have hurt g.d.p. the government's target for 2018 is 1.7%. i must say at this rate france may miss that goalal. markets have shrugged the off the disappointing results from the second largest economy. european shares are trading up.

using trade tensions between the u.s. and e.u., boosting investor confidence and as well strong company earnings reports. speaking of which, franch company has posted a 1.4% increase in earnings for the first half of this year. driven by strong sales. he producer of ambian water -- evian water showed a jump in earnings. the success of its water and baby formula in the chinese market has offset the impact of boycotts of its products. innwhile profits fell to 43% the first semester, the world's rgest concrete mer took in some 250 million euros in restructuring costs. moving on, energy producer b.p. has bought b.h.p. shale oil and gas assets in the u.s. it's the company's biggest deal in almost two decades.

the $10.5 billion agreement gives access to the fast growing shale industry. it marks the retreat from the secretary wror for mining giant b.h.p., much to the relief of shareholders. b.h.p.'s for ray into the shale markets ended up causing a huge financial losses. >> it's a boon for b.p. after years of mopping up oil spill damages. the british company has agreed to buy b.h.p.'s u.s. shale assets for $10.5 billion u.s. dollars as crude oil is on the up after a four-year decline. b.p. is hoping to catatch up to rivals that invested in u.s. on-shore shale extraction while it was dealing with 2010's deep water horizon oil disaster. it's still paying back the $65 billllion bill for penalty chars and cleanup cososts. the oil giant called the deal a major step forward. the chief executive said the company was so confident about

its prospects that it would increase the dividend paid to shareholders for the first time in more than three years. this is a transformational acquisition. >> world class addition to b.p.'s distictive portfolio. >> b.h.p. will be selling three shale base explortations in the southern united states. the most valuable is eagle ford which already pumps out the equivalentnt of 9090,000 barrel oil per day. the australian mining company y bought the assetets in 2011 1 be prices in the sector fell.. leading to some $20 billion in losses. b.h.p.'s share price jumped over 2% following the annnnouncementf the deal, while b.p.'s dropped by about the same number. >> in another news, amazon has shaken off some of the stock market gloom caused by facebook. the online e giant blew away earnings forecast with the latest results. the profit judgmentped 12 fold .o $2.5 billion

it's cloud computing twist has dominated markets in the face of competition from microsoft and google. profit j jump to almost 50% to some $6 billion. exceeding amazon's retail business. this comes on the back of facebook's plummeting share prices on thursday. the social media network wiped almost $120 billion from its market value in the biggest ever one-day loss recorded in the hihistory of the u.s. stock exchange. finally, google has launched a network of free wifi hot spots in nigeria. part of its effort to increase its presence in africa's most populace nation. its public wifi status will be available in six locations around the capital legos. including the airport. according to the world bank, only a quarter of nigeria's 190 million inhabitants used the internet in 2016.

broadband services are either unreliabable or unaffordable to africa's largest oil producer. that's all the business news for this edition. >> thanks for that. julia kim there. time now for the press review. >> we're joined in the studio to take a look what's making headlines. hello. >> hi. >> you're going to start with molly, which is bracing for a crucial presidential election this weekend. what are the main issues in the challenges leading up to sunday's vote? >> security will be likely at the heart of debates here. mali is still embroiled in a seemingly never-ending conflict with several tribal and jihadist groups. this despite pledges by the current president in 2013 to ackle this crisis. french daily calls mali the sick

man of the region and underlines the country has been fragmented with the north now basically a no-go zone. a war zone. the center of the country a breeding ground for separatist groups and tribal groups. and the capital where people are acting as if everything is fine. >> what does that mean for the elections? >> the opposition is as fragmented as the country. there are 24 candidates running in the first round. now, the current president also is strong favorite. but if he's elected, he will have very strong schalleng -- challenge to unite the country under his leadership. >> move on to the u.s. where a new show by comedian sasha barron cohen has been making lots of headlines. but the most recent being the fact that it's led to the resignation of a georgia politician. move on now to the u.s. where a new show by comedian sasha

barronon, which has been making lots of headlines in t the last few weeks, has just claimed another scalp. that being the head of a georgia politician. >> absolutely. you may remember sasha barron cohen from the ali g. show or borat. he's known for impersonating an israeli security agent in his new show. he's pranking politicians left and right. cohen now got republican state representative jason spencer to appear on the show in which he repeatedly shouted the n word. made extremely racist impersonations of chinese tourists, and finally in a surreal scene, pulled his pants down while chanting u.s.a., u.s.a. in order to scare off terrorists. you can can see the whole thing online but it's very hard to watch. of course spencer resigned after the show aired. >> sasha and his comedy.

to israel where a cartoonist was fired over a c caricature of th prime minister. >> yes. it was this drawing that we see now that sparked the outrage. a picture of netanyahu taking a selfie but remastered to ref george orwell's "animal farm." all animals are equal but some more than others. it's not the orwell reference to power and privilege that sparked the outrage, rather the fact that pigs are considered impure in judaism. the jerusalem report which published the original cartoon said it wouldn't work with the cartoonist anymore. but since then there has been a wave of public support. crowd funding page has been opened. and another journalist resigned from the paper in protest. >> i'm not sure film' reading this right, but we're going to gypt with a strange story of

impersonation. >> yes, two imposstors were found out thanks to a visitor at the cairo zoo who noticed that paint was dripping off one of the zebras. upon closer inspection, it turns out the zebra was a donkey on which stripes had been painted by the zoo managers. experts promptly confirmed this online saying the snout of the zebra is black and ears much shorter. but the stoo's director didn't give in and in an interview he maintained and insisted that this was, in fact a. zebra. >> ok. finally, some advice on where to watch tonight's extraordinary lunar eclipse. >> the blood moon as it's called will last nearly two hours which is the longest one this century. so we'll have plenty of time to catch it and watch it. but unfortunately this also means that it will be smaller and dimmer than full moons -- lunar eclipses usually are.

prime locations to watch this include, especially africa and middle east, especially the south. madagascar are probably the best spots. europe will be also have a decent view of it. unfortunately, the united states and eastern asia might have to wait until the next eclipse in january, 2019. >> it's certainly sending astrologers into a tizzy. if you want to take a look at the story we have been talking about, you can can go to france24.com. back with more news and headlines after a shore break. do stay with us. 'arawc