>> hello, and welcome to the "journal" on dw-tv. >> i am monika jones with the business news. >> a look at our headlines. criticism grows of the arab league observers in syria as their presence so far failed to stop the killing. dozens of kurdish civilians are killed in an attack. the turkish army says it was aimed at militants. anyon the christians from around the world gather here in berlin for the annual meeting of the tazei community.

♪ >> syrian security forces are continuing their crackdown on anti-government protesters with at least 25 people killed in a day of violence nationwide. activists said that some 20,000 people were demonstrating outside a mosque in a damascus suburb when troops opened fire with live ammunition. the latest clashes took place as arab league observers were said to be close by, but their credibility is being increasingly questions. >> activists in syria say they're disappointed with the arab league peace mission appeared one of the monitors key tasks is to check whether president assad's regime has stopped its military crackdown on popular unrest. but syria is a large country, and there are only 150

observers. the civilian death toll is reportedly rising despite the monetarist presence. activists say in various cities across the country, government is troops to continue to shoot demonstrators. the organization, recorders without borders, is also critical of the arab league mission. >> it is a totally biased visit. today we are seeing how the syrian regime is staging a masquerade to show how it respects the arab league accord by accepting the presence of the observers. it is indian the presence, but human rights watchers report is clear on this point. some of the prisons in homs were cleared out, but the prisoners were just transferred to other places. >> ever read the observers go, people crowded aroud them, trying to get the message of their suffering across. this man recounts how electricity was cut off in a

pro-opposition neighborhood but cabazon in districts loyal to the regime. communications were also blocked in the anti-assad a neighborhood in bread distributed in the pro- assad one. the first reports issued by the observers found little mess in syria, but there are expectations that their tone will change their given full access to the cities they are visiting. >> egyptian authorities have raided the offices of annette least 18 pro-democracy and human rights groups. among the ngo's targeted were a german foundation and several american groups. the u.s. state department said it was very concerned about the raids and urged the egyptian authorities to stop what it called the harassment of ngo staff. egyptian prosecutors also seized computers in the operation which it called an investigation into the foreign funding of rights groups. the u.s. has confirmed it will sell fighter jets to saudi

arabia in a deal worth 23 billion euros. washington will supply 84 new boeing f-15 aircraft and upgrade 70 planes in saudi arabia's fleet. the state to permit said the agreement sent a strong message that the u.s. is committed to stability there. the announcement comes at a time of heightened tension with iran over its nuclear program. at least 35 people have been killed in an airstrike in southeastern turkey. the military says it was targeting kurdish militants, but a pro-kurdish party says most of the casualties were civilians. an inquiry has been set up to investigate the incident. >> kurdish demonstrators vented their anger on the streets of istanbul. hundreds of protesters clashed with police, chanting slogans against the governing akp party. his call the death of 35 civilians in the southeast an unfortunate accident. but for these kurdish demonstrators, it was just

another chapter in ongoing battle, a battle they see the treaty by legal opponents feared overnight on wednesday, turkish fighter jets are reported to have attacked a group of people in and mountain village which is in a predominantly kurdish area on the border between turkey and iran. it is known as a haven for the fighters working for the kurdistan party, the pkk. those killed by the air strikes or not militants but struck -- smugglers using mules to transfer diesel fuel from northern iraq into turkish territory. many were young men between the ages of 17 and 20. >> it the brave sons, i have lost my sons. >> the government in ankara has pledged an investigation. >> if mistakes are made, if there were flaws, and if there were shortcomings leading to the incident that took place, these will not be covered up. what is necessary will be done.

>> the turkish military often flies missions that target it suspected pkk members in the region. kurdish politicians are speaking of a massacre. >> the european union is reported to be considering extending the horn of africa anti-parts division to include land operations. german media reports say that there are now plans to allow military strikes against pirates equipment and facilities on shore. the eu's naval operation has been protecting shipping of eastern africa for the last three years. extending the mandate to land operations would need the support of all nine countries involved in the mission. north korea has ended an official mourning time with a massive memorial service for its late leader kim jong il. it was the final event in two days of funeral ceremonies. power has now been passed to the

third generation of the kim family. kim jong un has officially been declared the new supreme leader. >> kim jong un taking over as north korea's new leader. but top officials from the party and military were everywhere kim went. with his father's death, analysts question how much power the nearly 30-year-old kim really holds. his uncle on the far right is said to be a close adviser. the same goes for the powerful head of the army. north korean leadership saw to demonstrate unity at the ceremony for its late head of state. this party official proclaimed kim jong un as the new supreme leader of the party, military, and the country. state television also said north koreans were united in their support for kim, as tens of thousands of troops and civilians turned out in p'yongyang to pay their

respects. with nearly two weeks the morning however, the world will be watching as the and tested kim jong un follows in his father's footsteps. >> several hundred people have turned out for an anti-, protests in the russian capital moscow. demonstrators called for the release of a jailed opposition leader in defiance of city hall, which refused to give a permit for their rally. despite this, please do not intervene. russia is seeing its biggest protests since the collapse of the soviet union two decades ago. they started after parliamentary elections earlier this month, which the opposition and european monitors said were marred by fraud. staying in russia, a fire has broken out at a dock or a nuclear submarine is undergoing repairs. the nuclear-powered vessel is in a naval dry dock in the northern region. the blaze reportedly spread from wooden scaffolding and other inflammable construction to the submarine.

it is calder hall caught on fire. officials said the submarine's nuclear reactor was shut down and there has been no radiation leaks. well, 20 years ago, the german parliament passed a law giving citizens access to documents of communist east germany's ministry of state security, or the stasi. files of the secret police are kept in a special archive. since germany's reunification, millions of people have looked into these documents, in an attempt to understand their past. >> 110 kilometers of files. the stasi's manual for collecting data. after the fall of the berlin wall coming east german citizens stormed the headquarters of the secret police. many files were destroyed, but much worse still intact. this was a civil rights activists in east germany. now he heads the commission for rustagi documentation. >> getting chosen for this job

was a signal that we will continue to account for the history the east german dictatorship. i see myself as a kind of lawyer for the victims. >> more than two million applications had been received from people who want to see their old files. many people must wait years to read about themselves. the files still hold many secrets. it will take years to work through the archives and the history they represent. >> italy is taking new steps to bring down its debt, but it is still not enough. >> the debt rattle -- battle rages on. it is hard to cut debt when growth is coming to a grinding halt. the government has been selling off some of that debt is government bonds to raise funds, but investors are not that excited. this did not bode well for the italian economy. >> it was a sobering moment for italy as the country's 10-year bond option -- option garnered a spectacle -- skeptical response.

although the yield managed to stay below the danger threshold of 7%, demand was not as high as hoped. prime minister mario monti called the results encouraging and said italy was headed in the right direction. >> the market's current problems are primarily of european nature and need a common solution. the solution cannot have begun to have been found within europe, the responsible authority, italy, the third largest economy within europe, had not got its public accounts under control. >> the reference to the 30 billion euro austerity package that mario monti pushed through parliament just before christmas. that italy would already be needing more cash in january, and so will other eurozone economies. analysts of information research say france will have to raise 49.5 billion euros. italy will need a further 15.6 billion. and spain will be looking to raise around 9 billion euros.

that money will be hard to raise if investor confidence in the eurozone remains low, and especially hard for italy as new data has emerged showing domestic business confidence at a two-year low. >> despite the disappointing italian bond auctioned on european stocks advanced on thursday think the positive data from the u.s. led to get the report front the frankfurt stock exchange. >> the italian auction was a disappointment here. the interest rate is way too high to be sustainable. for the long term. if it continues to be that way, then italy has a problem and the years and has a problem. so it was a damper for the euro initially, at least, and also for equities. in the end, the stock market clearly up because of good news from the u.s. economy, especially home sells there looking up, a very important factor. still, looking into the new year when further auctions come, traders will continue to be on

the pessimistic side based on today's results. >> most european markets were higher today, but investors are still uneasy about risky assets. the blue-chip dax closed up by 1.3%. the euro stoxx 50 gained more than 1.5%. the dow jones industrials still in positive territory, up by 1%. the euro hit a low today, dropping well below the $1.29 mark. currently, trading for $1.2945. pilots at a spanish airline had gone on a 24-hour strike. the union is demonstrating against their plans to set up a discount carrier for european flights, and pilots feared the salaries will be too low. iberia to cancel over a third of all flights on thursday. leaving thousands stranded. >> some 10,000 passengers were forced to wait for hours at the the pilots walked out.

airline officials said they were able to receipt of affected passengers. but it was still an inconvenience for many holiday travelers. >> it is criminal to be striking out of all times, while so many traveling. it is bat for their image. >> they have to strike sometime, but why me? >> it is not fair. i am stuck here with my daughter, just off an 11-hour flight. >> in march, iberia is planning to launch a new unit, budget carrier iberia express, to handle its short and medium haul flights. pilots feared the new airline will pay lower wages. the strike is set to last until midnight. >> in new year's eve in germany can be very colorful and noisy as fire roads like these guys. the industry association expects a good business with

german spending some 130 million euros on their firecrackers this year. but be careful, the explosive force is doubled to a new eu guideline. so the last night of 2011 is set to be louder and brighter than in previous years. large groups of modestly dressed and well-behave young people with backpacks in berlin. >> that is right, and they're only here for a short time. they are members of the tazay community who have chosen the german capital as this side of their youth meeting. they were founded in france in 1940. >> the conference, some 70 countries, flocking to the grounds of the berlin trade fair. most of the thousands of young people have already visited the tazayai community in france. is the sense of togetherness that has come to typify the annual gathering. >> so much people in one place, and we're not all catholics.

some are processed and -- some are protestant. summer or the dogs. i think that is great. we can together parade. >> there are a lot of people you can meet. i met austrians and germans. " the organizers are delighted with the visitor numbers. the head of the committee hopes those present will address key questions. >> how can we continue to believe, believe one we live in a world in which god apparently plays no role? what does that mean today? we have to think about new ways. >> for many of the young people here, the gathering provides a chance to ring in the new year on a note that contemplation. >> when most people think of the german autobahn, they think of traveling on high speeds and open roads. well, it is time for a reality check your the country's largest automobile club talent at the length of all traffic jams in germany last year, and

the total came out to about 450,000 kilometers appeared the most congestion was seen during the school holidays. it all on the government to put more money into western germany's overloaded audubon network. i think the longest i have spent on the audubon was three hours. too long. stay tuned for "in depth," coming up next. ♪ ♪

>> times are changing. and so are we. 2012, a time for something new. wishing you all the very best for the new year. >> welcome back. 20 years ago, the german government declassified the secret files that were kept on citizens by the former east german secret police, the stasi. millions of people have taken advantage of the opportunity to look through their personal files. often they're shocked by what a fine. the records include many into men and detailed accounts of their lives.pthe files are enorg a span of more than 100 kilometers. the size among indicates just how extensive this spy network was. we met up with a man who was the

target of stasi persecution and learned how he has dealt with this it difficult chapter in his life. >> the guard's always led us through here 1-by-one. it would save 40 to 50 centimeters apart. tom,", stand up, turn around -- like a robot. >> talking is 34 mario dobovisek. every two weeks, he shows a visitor is a round here. he was incarcerated here for three months. it was the worst time of his life. in the mid-1980s, as a homosexual with contacts to the west, he attracted the stasi's attention. he rejected attempts to recruit himself as an informant. his prison gunshot, now part of the door, dates back to a failed attempt to escape to west germany. he ended up in this isolation cell, deprived of sleep and interrogated for days on end. the experience still haunts him. >> from 6:00 a.m. until 10:00

p.m., you cannot sit or lie down. >> the stasi interrogators knew intimate details of his life. he could not believe it was possible. >> it bothered me for years after the time in prison. until i looked at the files in 1997 and found out that it was good friends, not necessarily as informants but as suspects during interrogation, who never told me later that they had been interrogated. but there were also four informants would come names, colleagues, my boss, and also a good friend. that really shocked me. >> the records were two thick files, two thousand pages in all. previously unknown documents keep turning out. it is still not easy for him to look at it all. interrogations', informant reports, surveillance protocols,

all bearing witness to a betrayal of trust into a blatant regime of state persecution. >> even today, it is still really shocking that human nature can be so rotten. to take the most personal things, things you would never reveal in a normal conversation in your everyday life, and use them to destroy families, to destroy marriages, relationships between siblings, which was also tried in my case. >> for mario, there is no alternative to accessing his stasi records. his need to know is greater than the fear of being hurt, even though that has stayed with him. >> i have been in a relationship again for six years. but resting my boyfriend with secrets is still very difficult, because my friends betrayed me when i was being watched by the stasi in east germany.

and finding it in me to trust him and others today is very difficult, because i am afraid he will betray my secrets to someone else. >> with the help of his files, he was able to prove that stasi persecution has made him too sick to work your he lives in berlin and receives a small state pension. >> confronting the past is an important step to coming to terms with it. no one knows this better than the victims. the stasi was only created after east german civil rights activist prevented the records from being destroyed shortly after the fall of the berlin wall in november 1989. the archive has now become a model for other countries which have faced similar problems in their history. be it in africa, asia, or in latin america. most recently, a delegation from egypt came to berlin to find out more. have become frequent guest at

berlin's stasi archives since the downfall of president mubarak. one of the main lessons has been that clearing up past and justices requires a documentary evidence. roland jahn knows how important it is to secure the records of dictatorship. the head of the national stasi files archives is a former east german dissident who was spied on and imprisoned. >> courageous people risked their next during the peaceful revolution to secure these files. by occupying stasi headquarters, they made sure that the preservation of this archive was enshrined in the german unification treaty. >> in 1990, east german activists went on an hunger strike any archive. word spread that files were to be classified in kept under seal. but finally, legislators drew up

a new law. since 1991, it is held people find out why their careers were sidetracked, why they were harassed or thrown in jail. so far, more than 1 million people have learned the truth. and with the help of the files, former stasi collaborators are still being exposed to many of whom took public-sector post in the new germany. while he was still working as a journalistjaahn track down many such cases, like this one in 1991. >> i have information that you were a stasi officer. >> yes, i was, but of course that is all over now. >> these are people who bore responsibility and who, without having to face up to their past, simply moved on to new positions. we won critical in greece to take place so that the people know how their society is organized.

because we do not want a few powerful individuals playing politics to will onto their power. >> but only a few other eastern european states have been taking that risk. poland, for example, has been cooperating with the stasi archive for six years, but romania and bulgaria are still struggling to find the right approach to their past appeared in america, there has been progress in dealing with past dictatorships. germany is helping guatemala to develop a police archive. in egypt, the issue is highly topical. after the ouster of president mubarak, demonstrators stormed the headquarters of the secret police. but the files are still in the hands of a small lead and remain an open. so egyptian civil rights activists have been visiting the stasi files archive to find out more about the german legislation. even if they're still a long way off from having similar loss at home.

-- similar laws at home. >> of course we were being asked if it was not dangerous to open the files, it does not endanger national security. there is always a great sense of astonishment that there have been no problems. of former stasi members in germany did not try to launch a revolt or deny go underground. that all causes some amazement. but it shows that at the end of the day, it is possible. >> the 20th anniversary at the stasi law has prompted renewed discussion about the archives, but the legislature already voted this year to extend the legislation. former victims will still be able to make routine inquiries about those who informed on that. >> that is why it checks are important. we want to expose the people who are still lying about their pasts. lies should not be rewarded. >> it has caused germany a lot

of time and money to cover the strictures of the east german secret police. but the stasi files archive provides an example to the world that coming to terms with the past is well worth the effort. >> that has been the focus of our "in depth." thank you for joining us. ♪ captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- ♪ ♪ for lif

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