mouth. this car was pulled out of the rubble of the collapsed bridge investigators are trying to find out if a design flaw or improper maintenance might have caused the disaster interior minister the though seen here on the left has been quick to blame straught of the managing company of the highway. that the ultra straw to has refuted the claims the company's c.e.o. has said they'll create a fund for the victims' families. but if he didn't stay put no money in the world can bring buc their loved ones let's bring in our correspondent philip willand who is standing by in rome for more on this story so philip the operators of that bridge which collapsed autostrada have said they're going to give the victims some financial aid just what do they

have in mind. oh whoa they went to put a precise figure on the money they'll be making available they said it would be in the region millions of euros for the families of the victims and people have also lost their homes and they also spoke of making available the billion euro to rebuild the bridge demolish the old one and rebuild a breach of fortune work within the space of eight months and this was the major air offered in may of weather where. the loss of this title bridge caused enormous sort of problems for transport in general and constitutes an enormous problem for the ports and the busiest port in italy. well thought we know that tech in the wake of this awful tragedy had there been a lot their accusations flying about their time government first blaming the e.u.

now the focus has shifted to autostrada air. but did they actually say anything about the responsibility for the disaster do they acknowledge that they may played a role. that they were very careful actually did not to admit any responsibility or they were invited several times by reporters at this press conference to apologize and they said they carefully avoided doing that they said it was important that responsibility was established by the judicial inquiry and that they will help her do everything in their power to help actually ensure the results of the inquiry is the swiftest possible and also goes as deep as possible there were very unwilling to shoulder any responsibility themselves for it to collapse which

if a member remains somewhat mysterious. you know there's no clear consensus on what brought down this bridge so catastrophic to. one of balance the inquiry is there any information indicating what could have caused this bridge to collapse. well one of the members of the inquiry yet an engineering professor from general university indicated that. the girls of all had put the six was the rupture of the state's tach to the title that collapsed and holding up the road but it seems that both eyewitness accounts and some video images i see to indicate that this destruct vital for the support of the road simply snapped at a certain point the road collapse then forty five meters down to the

ground to the people who are. now left forty three people forty three grottos them dead passengers to their deaths so that seems to be the direction that the inquiry is going in. a failure possibly caused by design false dating right back to when the bridge was inaugurated in one thousand nine hundred sixty seven. correspondent philip willen in rome many thanks indeed now officials in carolina are pleading for more help as monsoon floods inundate much of the southern indian state and the death toll continues to climb the state's chief minister says three hundred twenty four people have died in what he called the worst floods in one hundred years indians military has been called in to help the relief effort. rescue teams are continuously being called out here more

often than they can keep up with others drag themselves to safety in whichever way they can. this is now a full scale military operation a human chain of soldiers passing basic supplies a remake shift bridge to these villages who've sought higher ground in the treetops . those rescued of being taken to shelters more than three hundred thousand people have been evacuated so far many more are still waiting and the newest air sorties are being undertaken and people keep coming. additionally we have more than. what the agaves of day was along with but i was given the board's. it's being called the worst flooding in one hundred years ten days of relentless heavy rain have left villages totally submerged thousands of people across the state are still

stranded and with more rain forecast the flood waters won't be receding anytime soon. the motorway will be the level of water has risen tremendously it's not slowing down and that's why people are scared i want to. deadly mudslides have added to the desolation they've crushed. scattered temporary. homes cut off vital roads. on saturday morning prime minister narendra modi was flown over some of the worst hit areas he's promised more than seventy million dollars in eight more boats and helicopters from many down below all that can't come soon enough. and we're turning now to our top story this hour german chancellor angela merkel is

to host a bilateral summit with russian president vladimir putin and that's to take place shortly the talks close to berlin are expected to focus on energy issues as well as the conflicts in syria and ukraine german russian ties have been tense for years ago but are showing signs of a pragmatic song this will be the two leaders second meeting in the past three months. but with me in the studio right now to talk about this is nina hoss our political correspondent so nina there seem to be endless topics for america and poutine to discuss we mentioned a few of them do we know what exactly will be on the the agenda. yes we know that they will be talking about the most pressing issues of the hour as they said this would be the conflict in syria this would be the ongoing battles in ukraine in eastern ukraine this will be the controversial gas pipeline north stream too we do

know that they will only give statements before the meeting so we won't we will probably not know what will come out of these talks but we have to remind everybody again that this is a great opportunity for those two important leaders to actually sit down and have frank and open talks about those controversial issues well on the issue of ukraine of course russia and the west have been at loggerheads over the annexation of crimea and the progression separatist continuing to battle the ukrainian army in the east of the country is there any chance of a resolution here can merican actually send a u n troop u n mission to the region but as usual it's always it always comes down to the details russia doesn't really want you and troops to control the border area but germany is pressing for this we are no longer talking about the conflict in crimea

of course that led to a frozen conflict between germany and russia this is about finding a solution in eastern ukraine and we'll see just how much progress they can make in these talks now. do stand by we will be coming back to you shortly a quick reminder for our viewers if you're just joining us now we're waiting for a statement by american blood emir poutine who will be speaking to the press before their bilateral meeting here in germany just north of berlin and we'll be bringing you their statements live when they do take place now i would like to go to our correspondent thomas farah who is standing by in the bourke north of berlin where that meeting will take place now thomas and you mention a number of the topics that are on the agenda at least one of them there seem to be a bit more common ground and that is the pipeline project can you tell us about this and why it's controversial. it is obviously

a project where both russia and germany have particular interest it is a project that would bring russian gas to germany bypassing other countries that are normally considered transit routes for example ukraine and that is one of the reasons why this particular project is so controversial because ukraine fears that with this north stream two pipeline they would lose that all important transit route status that for them is particularly important in economic terms and that's why they have been also talking to germany for germany to put pressure on russia so that ukraine can in some way or another still keep that status so that is one of the reasons why it is controversial another reason why it is controversial is because many fear that this could increase in a way germany's dependence on russia that's something that for example donald trump the president of the united states stated very clearly some time ago but he's not the only one that has been stating that he also hear that skepticism from even

members within the european union but other countries as well germany has rejected that argument but that is another reason why this project has become so controversial from a german and from a russian perspective they also want to carry that through they want to make sure that it continues they see political and economic reasons to carry that through and that's one of the reasons why they are going to be discussing this right here in ms if they are today. all right we also have our correspondent emily sure one who's in moscow now only so we have all of these very abrasive policies by the u.s. president donald trump there's going to be new sanctions imposed by the u.s. in response to this chemical weapons attack in england earlier this year. can we understand why the this opportunity perhaps for russia and germany to come closer in response to these abrasive policies for donald trump has donald trump brought russia and germany closer together. well i think in some

ways he has now we saw at their last meeting in may which was held at putin's black sea residence in sochi that came just after the u.s. left the iran nuclear luke lirot deal now that's something that both germany and russia strongly disapproved of they've both said that they want to save that deal and russia's likely to also bring that up today during the meetings putin met with rouhani at the caspian summit last week and it's likely that he'll bring up those concerns from the iranian side as well and of course you know all of the moves that we've seen from trump kind of pulling out of international agreements putting pressure on pretty much everyone and anyone with tower of economic pressure that certainly makes russia look like a more reliable partner and russia has very much been emphasizing that at every

point of been making statements saying well you know the u.s. has pulled out of agreements before who's to say that that won't happen again so that certainly is playing into russia sounds well emily i'd like to ask you also specifically about syria now putin is eyeing the end game there with his ally bashar essentially in control of the entire country nearly at least what is putin hoping from america on the issue of syria. well there seems to be kind of a p.r. campaign going on there marianna here in russia because. russia seems to be pushing for international cooperation on syrian refugees returning now they say that the war is basically over the so-called islamic state has been basically defeated that's a line that we hear in russia again and again and it would be

a big diplomatic win for russia if they could be playing a key part in having those refugees returned they have been holding press briefings here in the ministry of defense nearly every week for the last month or so they've set up a refugee center and they also have made a proposal to the u.s. to to draw up a joint action plan on the return of refugees so perhaps. putin will make some sort of proposal to america today when it comes to that as well particularly taking into consideration as well that that has been a difficult issue for america all at home as well refugee paul policy refugee policy has really come under a lot of criticism at home including from her political allies so perhaps putin sees a bargaining chip there that he can kind of use in today's talks. and nina i'd like to turn back to you for a moment. only talks about the bargaining chip that putin can use this meeting will

be taking place behind closed doors. why is that are they going to discussing things that they perhaps don't want the public to know about. the thing between uncle maclin vladimir putin is that they've known each other for years they were in power when george bush was still u.s. president tony blair was still at the helm of the british government and they know how each of the ticks they also know that sometimes they need a bit of time to sit down and have an open and frank dialogue but we also know that this is not the first meeting behind closed doors between the russian and the german top diplomats if you will the germans the russian foreign minister actually came to berlin and nobody found out about it a few weeks ago so this just goes to show that. the.