her changing the government for the better. b.t.w. . mrs d. w. news live from the francis kicks off his visit to the balkan states in lithuania this morning francis held a mass for tens of thousands of catholic faithful encounters place it will pay tribute to holocaust victims of the vilnius get a memorial will get more from our correspondent also coming up. a smoldering wildfire in northwestern germany could threaten life and property for weeks to come

now the german military is helping battle a blaze it started weeks ago but it's a fun rocket tests. kind in the bonus league get the away fans were in a party mood in girls and cash and they may have been miles away from the various the dynamic celebrating the start of a total fest with a comfortable win clothing shelter we'll take a look at the best of the action. i'm rebecca races welcome to the program. pope francis has paid tribute to lithuanians who suffered during soviet a nazi occupations this in a mass viewed by tens of thousands in the south central part of the country it's the first stop on a four day tour of the baltic states the pope visiting residents of all three nations to draw on their past experience to speak up for tolerance in europe. a

warm welcome in lithuania a greeting that comes with the shadow of recent sex abuse scandals in the catholic church looming large but pope francis has traveled to lithuania to deliver a different message one of solidarity at a time when europe's migration crisis and the rise of populous governments is highlighting deep differences in the e.u. . it is. more and more voices are sowing division and confrontation often by exploiting insecurity or situations of conflict and proclaiming that the only way possible to guarantee security and the continued existence of a culture is to try to eliminate council or expel others here lithuanians have a role to play by instead welcoming differences through dialogue openness and understanding you can become

a bridge between eastern and western europe and. the pontiff message sparked plenty of discussion among lithuanians. in general were taller untimed will receive migrants as we have a judy to do so when courting to the quota. polls on talk of carry ons or refusing to receive migrants but we're fulfilling aren't you to. i'm personally not against migrants some quotas should probably be introduced all the number of people coming should be limited somehow but we definitely can take in a certain number of people and we can increase the quote i want lithuania to be more open. the pope also visited vilnius cathedral where he met clergy and local religious leaders he'll spend two days in lithuania before continuing on to latvia and estonia. well for more i'm joined by

constantine fun agatha political analyst and journalist in vilnius is following the pontiff's visit constantine today is also the seventy fifth anniversary of the near extermination of lithuania as jewish community during the holocaust how does that fit in with the pope's message that it's a very well rebecca it actually continues on he's a seam of being a welcoming strangers that he develops yesterday and i think it's a very significant thing also because all three baltic states are struggling with their memories of the holocaust because elements of local copulation two parts hounding and eventually extermination of jews in the three baltic states and this is a painful memory which decides it because they really did a successful at trying to tackle but there is still there the think the pope's message fits here very well and modernizes if you push these memories makes them

relevant to societies well the baltic states were all my old so once an expired the soviet union and the catholic church they were heavily persecuted does the catholic church have a large following with the white house. yes that's right is the largest catholic country in northern europe actually probably the only well we didn't say seventy five percent to seventy seven percent of the population identifies catholics as in many posts a communist society as well that the side is emerging from communism state is very frequently tightly linked to cultural identity attendances are lower than in neighboring pulled in but once you know you've seen these pictures of israel's welcoming the coke you see that the pain is still there and in many respects it's a very very. religious a compassion a great story of which ranks among the least really just countries in europe probably close to majority at least right now he or in germany the influential

magazine dish spiegel has a cover story this week focused on the church sex abuse scandal its title yvel shalt not lie attacking the pope's handling of the abuse crisis and is this trip into the baltic regions a break away from all of that very much so rebecca i think that's here this scandal wasn't. big news at all let me let me put it like that to some extent because people here see the church differently as you rightly mention it's been persecuted i would say nearly eliminated in the soviet union and people still feel that the church is a kind of beacon of trust in all public opinion polls the church tops the list of institutions that with radios trust and i think that because of this tragic past people attend tend to give more if you wish to be more forgiving of the church and dose of the good church structures didn't exist here until pretty much didn't exist until the early ninety's or the late eighty's there is much less if

you wish it cannon fodder for much less basis for this debate because just that is such a short history of modern catholicism in in the territory of this when it journalist and political analyst constantine vonnegut in vilnius lithuania thank you. now to some of the other news making stories around the world in the mold he has hundreds of thousands of casting ballots in presidential elections that have been marred by charges of vote rigging opposition candidate abraham mohammed soley cast his ballot in the capital lie he's looking to unseat president abdoulaye young man who's been criticized for cracking down on democratic freedoms the first high speed train connecting hong kong and the chinese mainland has arrived in the city of shenzhen the connection cost around ten billion u.s. dollars it cuts the journey time between the financial center and the manufacturing

hub from around one hour just fourteen minutes. and that crack attala volcanic island in indonesia showed off a dramatic eruption on saturday night a meeting sand ash and hot red rocks the volcano has erupted an estimated forty nine times since friday prompting authorities to expand the danger zone from one kilometer to two. well germany's defense minister has apologized to communities threatened by a wildfire broke out on a military training site does it have on the line of acknowledge that mistakes had been majoring a visit to the area it's still not known how long it will take to put out the blaze completely. eight hundred hectares of more land smoldering for over two weeks no one knows how long it'll take to extinguish the fire. germany's defense minister was a left underly and visited the effected area near the border with the netherlands and offered a fresh apology to frustrated locals september obviously we made

mistakes on september third on behalf of the german armed forces i'd like to apologize especially to the people of this region and to all those responsible for politics and administration for the fact that these mistakes were made by we'll figure out what we're going to do in detail and then inform the public. front ally and says she wants to check whether the rocket tests that sparked the fire were appropriate considering germany's long dry summer. firefighters are still battling the blaze on land used by the german military they're now being assisted by jets using infrared cameras to identify where embers a small ring underground authorities in the state of lower saxony have to clear the fire a regional catastrophe. well in the in this league and travel to shelter in

a battle of the top two teams from last season but so far this terms been very different for shaka this stuck at the bottom with no points at all and byron made sure they stay there. so there was be inevitable off the pitch leon gorecki abood on his return to shelter. and then came the inevitable on the pitch by and taking the lead after just eight minutes comments rodriguez with the bullet head i. shall call yet to record any points let alone a victory the writing was already on the wall i buy and continue to press which set pieces providing their best chances just before halftime gretzky of course another reminder he's not so welcome here anymore can you tell a jury give me a yellow card for his efforts. by and could afford to result in the second half not

least because shocker we're doing a lot of the work for them despite the seemingly unthreatening situation i was sound very shirts bundled over rodriguez in the box. rather live in dusty converted the resulting penalty i had to deal with little more than an hour gone the game was effectively over it's raffish al capone's to leave before the final was so but these had seen enough to buy and it was a measured victory over the nearest challenger last season shocker still pointless i'm missing more than just lay on gorecki. also on saturday hoffenheim hosted brucia dortmund in a contest that has some ugly history a group of dortmund fans was banned from hoffenheim stadium last year by the club's owner hope because of abuse of chance now siri off the pitch and quality on it made for an intruder in battle. this clash had

a bit of fields with the head of kick off and fans are unhappy with this match my hope hoffenheim zoner is taking legal action against a group of their supporters for verbal abuse received on the final day of last season the first case of its kind in german football i'm up to mad as the travelling fans respond showed. the one side rose above the unrest to steal a first half lead however shooting and defending allowing joe intensify his team in front and stop the ball time available the brazilians first ever been does league go. i'm often high and then doubled their lead in the fiftieth minutes of arriving for so they fultz the referee awarded a free kick off the video spotted an offside in the buildup. thing soon went from bad to worse for development but do the yellow essential for this last match challenge in the seventy fifth minute of of. the frenchman

a little hard done by perhaps given the scene appeared to be a regular tussle for the ball. but ten men don't construct but it's only marker royce's pinpoint parts of christie who received the simplest definition of. a bill to blow the game wide open. to shut bell the deal was handed a gilt edged opportunity to restore his side's lead as the poor well down five he somehow managed to miss the target yard out scoring would have been easier. so a point each for two of the bonus league is european representatives a fair result on a day of high tension. let's take a look now at the results so far in this weekend's bundesliga as we saw by and munich have continued their perfect start to the season with their fourth win in

four and there was that hard for draw between dortmund and hoffenheim meanwhile high flying her to berlin big glad for two while braman won three two at old bug promoted nuremberg bit hanover and freiburg one their first game of the season evolves bug on friday. was a no score draw sunday's games as he leaves a gruesome host minds and the leipzig visit frankfurt. the world's largest beer festival the october fest is off to a roaring start here in germany in the varian capital munich. on saturday munich's may officially open proceedings alongside bavarian state premier marcus to an estimated six million locals and tourists are expected to attend the festivities and the projected to guzzle down some seven million liters of big throughout the two week celebration. so here's

a reminder of the top story we're following for you in lithuania pope francis has paid tribute to those who suffered under nazi and so if you don't keep patients out of mass encounter us with the way nia is the first stop on his four day trip to the baltic states. you're watching d.w. news from berlin well coming at the top of the hour and don't forget you can get all the latest news and information around the clock on our web site that's the w dot com thanks for joining me. contentious figure at home. in germany. gorbachev is one of the great heroes of the twentieth century. mikhail gorbachev the last leader of the soviet union was an agent of change.

quickly that has downfall. i have decided to resign my duties as president of the soviet union. he.