the berlin wall stood for 28 years until 1989 when a series of protests set off a chain of events that ultimately led to the opening of the front here and the end of communism in central and eastern europe during that time dissidents and activists in east and west germany helped smuggle thousands of people across the inner german border sometimes through tunnels a reporter christina caught up with one of. the best thing about jail heart says was being let out of his cell once a day to walk around inside a large wire cage as a young man he was held for months in a detention center run by the east german ministry of state security for trying to flee the country and for others in their attempts to escape. they didn't abuse us physically they called it a corrosion it was a method they used to try and grind down through hyper control isolation this

information has been the worst 11 months of my life here after you start to long to be sentenced. rishta never accepted life under the east german regime and tried to flee for the 1st time by train when he was just 18 he was arrested and put behind bars. when building began on the berlin wall on the 1st of august 961 he knew he had to escape he saw how brutally the regime was cracking down on dissenters. as a young person at some point you have to ask yourself how long am i going to play this raid have how long can i take it or do i want to cooperate with them to find myself a little angels who is a long as you're still studying you had to get all of this crap in every essay there had to be a commitment to socialism and if you needed good marks you just wrote that rubbish down. a short time later richter attempted to escape again he swam across a border river on the edge of berlin and made it to freedom he was in the water for

4 hours before he finally managed to get through a barbed wire fence and onto the shore on the western side on the eastern side he would have been shot. at the cauldron is off the food supply had a guardian angel that lied or knew there were alarms regarded as a minute while i saw a thin piece of wire stretched from bridge post a bridge post if i touched it it would have gone off and they would have immediately fired shots. at the force of. dozens of people died in this way along the berlin wall it's still not clear just how many the regime ruthlessly punished anyone who tried to flee. nevertheless wrister continued to help more than 30 people escaped by smuggling them into west germany in the trunk of his car he was caught again and spent 5 years in prison before being bought out by the western governments he now gives tours in his former prison often for schoolchildren he thinks young people should

learn about east germany was it to tell italian state. it's. your will. if you can see that young people are aware and interested that's why i do this it's out of a sense of conviction that you will always be like that before. that still exists how tartlet reached your overcome the brutality of the stasi the east german secret police now he's able to tell the story as one of those who paid a price for wanting freedom. now to italy where the senate will convene today for a special session to figure out its next steps in the country's political crisis lawmakers will attempt to set a date for a motion of no confidence in the populace coalition government suite the leader of the far right league party interior minister matteo salvini call for stuff elections in a bid to lead the new government. tourists got a special tour of italy senate building on monday because inside the country's

future was under discussion snap elections no decision yet vice premier luigi dimaio called ending the coalition you're responsible for. me and his party decided to cancel the coalition and run away from the problems facing italians which must be resolved backroom talks all day on finding a way forward being his former coalition partners the 5 star movement opposed to the elections the democratic party is split ones at sea in the east so from my. want to avoid elections turning this government crisis into an economic emergency that could possibly even force italy out of the e.u. . almost 3 fourths. idea of a caretaker government passing the new budget that the current government is running away from and holding elections afterward is neither possible nor credible

it would be a huge gift to the far right that we are actually trying to stop. a new right wing alliance among silvio berlusconi supports a sell beanies league and the neo fascist brothers of italy supports early elections. we are the power of yes yes to big projects yes to tax cuts to reforms in taxes education and justice and to traditional family values. the senate is to decide the next steps tuesday evening prime minister joseph a contact will likely face a confidence vote on aug 20th. well let's bring in journalist john hooper he's in florence he's the italy correspondent for the news weekly the economist thanks for being with us john tell us what can we expect when the italian senate meets today. but i think we can expect plenty of drama this evening as the 2 factions in parliament battle it out on the one hand the those who

support salvini who will want to move forward as quickly as possible to her elections and those who on the other side want to just slow things down either because they're being caught unawares by his sub role of support for a commentates government all because they dream of dragging things out so that it was a certain point the president. will have no option but to say look i've got to put in place some kind of government appointed by me just to get next year's budget through column and in time and that's a government that maybe. could be supported by his former allies or his former allies in the 5 star movement and at least part of the center left

democratic party so material so he is tired of being the junior coalition partner in the government he wants to lead the country himself by calling snap elections when his party is in the polls how likely is it that material any will get his way . i think that at the moment a lot depends on this evening's vote and the tactics that he used against him. how likely is it that if he gets to election uses he will win an absolute majority is also all because he's riding around 3637 percent in what polls at the moment and most people think that he's going to need about 40 in order to ensure that absolute majority power he has the backing of paved another far right party the brothers of italy a form you know fascists. know not remember who it is whether he will also do to

bring into his coalition a suit your bet was tony and his followers italia oxy so it's uncertain then whether salvini has enough support to form a new government what if he fails could all this end up backfiring and kicking salvini out on the government. where he himself according to one report this morning is going to pull out all jews are paid conti's government to day. also his minutes to. having said that yes he is involved in a high stakes gamble he feels that he is very popular that he is riding a wave the moment this is the moment to cash in and also to as indicated in europe or perhaps to sidestep some of the problems that accumulated in the current government. is the outcome is far from so. john thank you so much for your insights

john hope for the economists correspondent in italy thanks a lot talking to us from florence my pleasure. the indian city of mumbai now it's thousands of colonial era structures but has recently seen a string of building collapses compounded by heavy monsoon rains despite the danger many citizens continue to live in old dilapidated buildings at risk of collapse a correspondent went to mumbai to find out more. young people has lived here for much of her life this building a century old it was built just as world war one ended it's a tough climb for the 55 year old with chronic need but that isn't coming one. she says the building which is 80 tenants is crumbling and that they have our delap

or i have. recently this slab of stone came loose and seriously injuring the neighbor on the ground floor. in the one dream that kyunki shares with a family practice run. the plaster. and bamboo sticks prop up the ceiling then the value way that i live in constant fear that the building will collapse my children are at work all day so at least they're safe but my husband and i stayed home we could be cold but the way i see it we've lived our lives. leaving the place isn't an option for young whose family owns a modest living 10 flick be just $10.00 a month and grant some people even less. that's due to a colonial era law that limits wind spoil buildings like this one but that also means owners get little money to invest in group is leaving the structures to rot.

many areas in mumbai like here in kamakura a home to all of rickety properties data shows that are more than $14000.00 buildings in the city that have at risk of collapse due to a lack of maintainance and government apathy dealy and repairing them often have deadly consequences. last month a 4 story building collapsed at the spot killing more than a dozen people and injuring many more disasters of this kind on uncommon in the city. mumbai scrawny constant was also linked to its dense population and scarcity of land the city is surrounded by water on 3 sites and has no space to grow. more than 40 percent of its 18000000 residents live in slums and shanty towns experts say at the heart of the problem of the city's sky high values and a powerful lobby. has sort of in the last 20 years for the

situation collapse of building it would mean that there will be an option off redevelopment. private developer and also because then they have much on most of these buildings out in the island city in that part of the prices of. the city. p.d. for residents who do decide to vote. in these prime areas on to much better. family used to live in an 80 year old building in south mumbai. until it partially collapsed one of. the governments and the president here to the so-called transit camp to wait till the building was demolished and rebuilt. when we moved in here we thought it would take a year or 2 at most but now 13 whole years of come by we've just somehow continued

living here in the hope that someday we will get our own home. for young home now isn't much of a dangerous place. option would be to get out and lead a much broader life in a far flung suburb either way it's not much of a choice. in football buying munich are through to the 2nd round of the german cup the defending champions won 31 against to play in the 4th tier of german of all by and kick off the bundesliga season on friday taking on how to berlin. today is international left hander's day of the day is designed to raise awareness of the difficulties left handed people face in a right handed world but for athletes like tennis star rafael nadal playing left handed maybe an advantage is one of the greatest tennis players of all time all of his dominance is put down to the fact that he's a left hander but. that's in

a doll's case he does everything else with his right hand from signing autographs to brushing his teeth he decided to play a left handed child. well as the howard from the every sport say lefty himself is here to talk about left handers good to see if any so tell us do left handed athletes really have an advantage statistically you said research just went looking for the 1st of what our eye has told us sports fans for many years that lefties seem to be overrepresented in sport generally speaking but also at the very top level and you can reel off some of that the greatest names of votes on the legends whether by bruce monica seles wang great ski from moscow he never left alive or in tennis in the down mcenroe the list goes on and on and on and on in terms of the research and perfect all started to point towards tennis by school baseball in particular just the one off 10 percent of the population the left hand is but in baseball it's 30 percent

of the program and so it's very very prevalent and it's pretty profitable so a statistical advantage for left handers do we know why lefties have an advantage so luckily someone did look into this for us a study published in the among the biology letters on the royal society website pointed to tennis and by spall the commonality being that they jews sports and that the secret here is that the lefties are forcing the right hand is to make a quick decision on the time person they saying something different than the brain has to tell them. as quickly as possible deal with the players short do what you can in a short amount of time so it's a it's a time should do a thing it's a different angle and it's really showing them something unfamiliar and forcing them to make a quick decision and that's where they've got the advantage in by school and. the special training them for a left handed players in these sports where they might excel just keep it cool and

let the magic happens very little time to some of the offices of the world that's up to the broth and is trying as to how to deal with a left hand before roger federer applied rafa nadal he had to search out a left handed tennis patna just so he can familiarize himself really quickly with the different look it's really important i can gain an advantage even of the greats like federer i have to deal with so tennis and baseball very important i suppose doesn't make much difference though in soccer. use your hands and i think howard who did every sports thanks so much. you're watching d.w. news from berlin and speaking of soccer we've got to kick all our soccer program or football if you prefer coming up next and of course we have more news for you at the top of the hour and around the clock and get the latest news and information of course you don't say story much thanks for being with us.