and women wanting to drive on the other the religious conservatives who have called them too stupid their mobility a threat to society now it is the women who have won. king solomon has issued a decree giving them the right to apply for driving licenses and the freedom of the roads that will be implemented by june next year it's a huge step for saudi arabia enough to warrant a special announcement at the united nations you may be interested to know that a few minutes ago our oil decree has been issued in saudi arabia giving women the right to drive. this is a historic day for saudi society for men and women. for years some saudi women have gone behind the wheel as part of a campaign with global support on social media. this activist lost her job when she

was caught others have gone to jail now they are celebrating their victory. saudi law and forces a strict form of islam known as well her business women have to obey strict dress codes they can't associate with unrelated men if they want to work travel access health care they need the consent or accompaniment of a male guardian. but slowly things are changing on saturday women were allowed for the first time in to a national stadium for celebrations marking the kingdom's anniversary the movie's part of a program headed by the crown prince to modernize society and saudi women are already wealthy well educated and ambitious. women at all levels there in the government advisory council that doctors ny women are in

big positions so why shouldn't we join the men that matter most to our nation. that boldness would suggest that saudi women will carry on the fight for greater rights. well joining us now for more on the story is not. she's a journalist who's reported extensively from saudi arabia thanks for coming in this morning. activists have been pushing for a woman's right to drive in saudi arabia for decades why is this happening now well in fact it's happening now because it has to happen and there is no chance another for the royal family nor for the system of the government to push it more and to postpone this issue and the saudi society. is also a strong female society even if we don't realize this the number of very much very well educated and vicious females is really high and they are pushing towards.

their role in the society a quarter million of young saudis are studying a brode funded by the government more than sixty percent of them are females who drive outside the country yet so this brings them with thoughts back that the system and the conservative part of the system cannot sustain anymore ok what about the women in saudi arabia those who maybe have never driven abroad are they going to be able to just start driving next june when the royal saudi houses that it's going to be allowed to be implemented how easy will it be for women to actually exercise their right to drive in saudi arabia at this point first of all i would like to congratulate this how do women for this step and in fact congratulate the king for this decision still it's clear that it's not going to be so easy the first step is to have a committee from foreign ministries who will study the regulations or the needed regulations that are conform with the religion to allow this but still we have

a date we have a deadline so i think it's a balance that the king is trying to do between the conservative and the liberal powers in the country so it's going to be allowed but apparently according what i followed up on twitter among activists is. that age is going to be an issue if they live if their women are married or not there's going to be an issue and some other things which are not clear to get it is still very much a male dominated society you mentioned the need to conform with religious strictures in the country but also that the idea of a male guardian determining what women do in that country is still very much in place won't that be a problem it is in place and i think that this step is one of the first very small steps the saudi studies are going to go through to drop this regulation having a god because now driving the car does not necessary requests having the formation of a god which means that this is one of the the first step of the beginning of the end

of this regulation but it is clear when i was in saudi to see that nobody even the women are are asking not to be so fast and with a twenty because there were one of the free actions that might bring them steps back you know one step ahead the three back so they are everybody was talking about small steps to approach ok i'm afraid we're going to have to leave it there. thank you so much for coming in and talking with us today on g.w. news thank you. and you're watching t.v. dinners still to come in business a mega merger between europe's two biggest train makers there bulking up to fight off a giant challenge from china and it will be here with that story in just a couple minutes first time as top court has ruled that former prime minister yingluck shinawatra is guilty of negligence she was sentenced to five years in jail . was not present for the hearing though she fled the country in august when the verdict was originally do you cook was removed from office in two thousand and fourteen over a failed rice subsidies scheme

a short time later thailand's army declared martial law and a military junta control took control of the government remains in charge of the country today. well for more on this story let's bring in our correspondent floria know she's standing by for us in bangkok florian first of all yang looks right subsidies scheme was deemed a failure but governments make lots of costly mistakes all the time why did this result in criminal prosecution. i think there are two answers to that one one legal istic one if you listen to the judges they have a unanimous vote saying that members of your administration actually falsified a government to government rise deal and that there was also corruption involved which you know it wasn't hard but she should have overseen that which she didn't so she was accused of negligence and that is the legal istic answer but i would argue

that there is and that is more important a political answer now the. party has been very popular over the last two decades with the rural population the poor the farmers but not very popular at all with the leads here in bangkok and it's especially not popular with the military and the military apparently saw a way of exerting pressure on. the just judiciary at least that is what some people here claim to get rid of an often opponent. tory in your book banished to flee the country before sentencing everyone knew that was a risk there's a history of that in bangkok thailand how could she be allowed to get away. yeah that's the thing and even though the military junta denies any role in. nobody really biased that because she had been under pretty much twenty four hour

surveillance there is a very tight security grip on the military so for someone like you for someone like you not just to escape across the border into cambodia that's apparently what happened without the military knowing about it that it's hard to believe for everyone so my take and the take of pretty much everyone here is that the military ordered the police to how pro flee the country because the military thought this would be an elegant way of getting rid of an opponent because they feared jailing would actually could stir the masses here to protest but with this symbol gone the military can basically continue as they like florian thank you so much to florian notion that reporting from bangkok so you look now at some of the other stories making headlines around the world today spain's central government says it will deploy police to prevent people voting in catalonia its independence referendum but

great authorities you sunday's vote is illegal they say police will seal all polling stations and stop ballots being cast let alone is regional government has pledged to hold the referendum despite the crackdown by madrid authorities. in south africa thousands of protesters staged anti corruption marches targeting president jacob zuma major trade unions aligned with seumas opponents in the ruling african national congress organized protests in several cities senior members of seumas party have called on him to quit over corruption allegations. iraq's prime minister has called on kurds to a null the outcome of monday's independence referendum after the region's leader claimed victory for his campaign as the fallout from the vote intensifies iraqi authorities have imposed a flight embargo on kurdish airports saying it will only end when regional authorities hand them over to central control. and

ukrainian authorities have evacuated more than twenty thousand people after a fire at an ammunitions depo caused a series of explosions the blasts happened late on tuesday at a military base some two hundred seventy kilometers west of ukraine's capital kiev one person was injured. well the global financial crisis is about ten years behind us but the world economic forum is warning there could still be tough times ahead well in a small that's right the world economic forum is saying ok ten years ago the big banks went bust now the problems we have to get to grips with the potential of automation robots in the workforce and the world economic forum is saying that essentially we're just ill prepared for those effects the next wave of automation in the world of what it did highlight the countries which are leading the way in the global competitiveness in the x.

ranking though we can take a look at that with switzerland retaining its top spot on the lists the world economic forum cited its flexible economy and the labor market which is considered the best functioning out of that list of one hundred thirty countries which was surveyed now efficiency and innovation help the united states secure the second highest ranking on that list but the report did mention that the country needs to invest more in health care and education if it wants to maintain that competitiveness number three and four on the list are covered by singapore and the netherlands respectively followed by germany which comes in at number five on that list where innovation and a high level of technological readiness exist alongside strong worker protections now hong kong sweden the u.k. japan and finland make up the second half of the top ten list from the world economic forum the forum did emphasize though that a shift away from economic growth as an end itself was desirable it said that

competitiveness had to be a means towards improving overall wellbeing especially amid a perception that current economic approaches have left large swathes of the global population behind. now for decades they were bitter rivals but now zimmerman's and l. strong have confirmed a merger to make a huge european train built the french government has encouraged the deal which analysts say is a change of strategy the focus now know were protecting french business but about creating a european powerhouse at a time when international competition is. the much air between siemens and alstom is on track to create a new european giant in the train building business in the near future the german i.c. and french t.g.v. will come from a single manufacturer siemens wants to bring its entire train division in return for a fifty percent cut of the new siemens joe k.'s appraise the merger with

a press conference in paris on wednesday the message of. the european spirit is a life to struggle european companies leading the way. by joining forces and come together in a meaningful way and that's a powerful message a powerful message in times which are matched by population by nationalism social and political rights even after the new firm is founded the pressure on the europeans will increase siemens had considered canadian company. but the deal was reportedly derailed by bomb body a's shaky finances now the competition authorities need to approve the deal. well to talk through this now i'm joined in the studio by you again annette from the business and in frankfurt off financial correspondent

quantified booze and welcome to you both york firstly to you these companies were bitter rival so why are they getting together well they're joining forces in order to match their chinese rival to fend off their chinese rival the state on c r r c company is by far the biggest manufacturer or in the world and they are going global recently they have gone they have won contracts in britain and in the czech republic and you've got to remember up until two thousand and seven china had to rely on foreign high speed trains they bought them from europe from japan and then they told those companies listen if you want to continue to sell of the your trains here you have to manufacture them here and to put it nicely that way they learned how to build high speed trains on their own and now they want to sell them worldwide all right conrad i want to go over to you then because can we be sure that this will be a marriage of equals and zeman is will well go through with it is had

a shaky reputation regarding tie ups in the past. you're right helen. of course this talk of marriage of equals tries to conceal somewhat that they are not perfectly equal why. was the first company in europe to construct and produce high speed trains the famous t.g.v. the god vitesse siemens in recent years has been more successful in selling its trains and its technology worldwide that's why it's so important that the headquarters of the new company will be in paris and that. who is now the else on chief will become the boss of the new company will siemens to stay on board well this merger is made in a way different to past mergers that struck in other parts of its businesses siemens for example has the opportunity to have more than fifty percent of the

joint venture company and it's going to keep the whole company on its balance sheet and that indicates that this is more of a long term this is planned to be more of a long term relationship all right well i think there is the feeling that this is president markov baby so is the rest of the european reaction quite so enthusiastic yes you know the idea two former european champion ties in nicely with pro bridge business stance he favors a more integrated european union and that franco german partnership ties in nicely with that supporters of the deal often cite as a good example you know seventeen years ago for european companies countries formed that company in order to rival the american company boeing and they've done there quite successfully so now supporters of the deal call it. on tracks and that's not to say that there isn't some potential concerns and i'd like to raise those with

you conrad namely over job losses these legitimate fears. of course there are legitimate mergers only makes sense if you look for the synergies if you get rid of double production structures of inefficient location of resources and that includes workforce of course but i have to say for the moment there's no talk of job cuts and of significant job cuts and both sides saying that they don't plan to close down factories they are more focused on the opportunities and on the possibilities they have with their combined forces on the world markets where we still await a preview from a shareholders and regulators conrad in a frankfurt and from the w. business good to have both if you perspectives. so you have up to eight hundred eighty million euro penalty on european truck make a scandia amid allegations that the company engaged in price fixing and avoiding

the costs of strict pollution rules will scan is owned by fox and out of six the truck makers accused its operating the cartel by the new scam it was the only one not to agree to a settlement of the company's made payments to the european commission after it emerged that they had colluded with each other for fourteen years to pass on the costs of emissions technologies to the consumers in stead. of volleying terry now the sports news first right so we've got some women's tennis helena the season of women's tennis is slowly approaching it and but there are one or two highlights left on the calendar before the year is up when the w.t. finals take place in singapore at the end of october will be the first time in the tournaments history that it's being held on asian soil local talent is thin on the ground in southern asia but the association is endeavoring to improve the development of up and coming players for the future. in india the search is on for

a future female superstar local tennis infrastructure has improved a lot in recent years three time grand slam champion sania mirza remembers a very different time i used to play on court. you know and there was no course to play on today we've got an academy like this so you can see we don't want tennis to go back to where it was twenty years ago we wanted to keep moving forward and they're not the only ones development work is taking place in jakarta. he is hoping to see more local girls playing the professional game. this woman stands you know if. we make them to believe that tennis and. there's plenty of.