next this is your world news coming to you live from dw here in berlin. >> it's good to have you with us. here are our top stories -- >> world leaders express cautious optimism for the cease-fire deal for eastern ukraine hammered out after maritime talks. >> no deal inside for greece as the standoff between brussels and athens continues over its massive debt level. >> governments are increasingly manipulating or silencing journalists who asked tough questions. we'll have the latest press freedom writings.

it is not being called a breakthrough but the agreement offers hope in his calls for optimism that is the consensus as european leaders meet in brussels for an eu summit with the agreed cease-fire from ukraine topping the agenda. >> beginning sunday at midnight the guns of fall silent -- are to fall silent as soldiers and separatist begin implementing the deal. >> germany's chancellor merkel arrived at the grease talks in brussels bolstered by successful negotiations at another crisis am it -- summit on ukraine. still, she was cautious about calling the roadmap for ukrainian peace a success. >> it is a glimmer of hope, no more no less. we'll be working to build on this, but it is important to follow words with deeds. >> eu leaders in brussels anxiously monitored the marathon

17-hour talks in minsk. despite the cease-fire, france and germany managed to broker, there was skepticism that piece in ukraine will hold, including from lithuania's president. >> the main part of a solution is that control of the borders was not agreed and was not solved. that means that the body is open for any military entrance, any military equipment entrance that means that solution is absolutely week. >> there is also concern about moscow's commitment. >> it would not be the first time the promises have not been kept. >> the french president said constant diplomatic consultations are still needed. >> everything is still in flux. the next few hours will be decisive. we have to remain alert and continue applying pressure.

>> eu leaders have put on a brave face, but they know there is a long road ahead to reach a lasting peace in ukraine's east. >> this is one of the most significant franco german diplomatic efforts in years. now we have max hoffman joined up -- joining us from the eu summit under way. we have this roadmap, but there is a long road ahead. is brussels going to pitch in to make sure that this deal works? >> first of all it is about putting everybody on the same page. francois hollande and angela merkel are going to do that, and i'm sure they have a lot of stories to tell after their negotiation marathon back in minsk. then it is about assessing the situation. as one senior eu diplomat put it towards me, that is not as easy as some people may think. even leaders here do not have all the information they need on the ground. then it is maybe about sending a signal to russia, and we expect this to happen, to not implement

the sanctions that had been decided and were supposed to be implemented next monday but to postpone that. >> you know there will be some holdouts. some easter eu states like:, like lithuania are very skeptical of russia's intentions. -- some eastern eu states like poland, like lithuania. >> those countries were the ones supporting arms deliveries to ukraine, and of course, they are very skeptical of this cease-fire agreement, saying that in no case should the sanctions be taken back now just because of this cease-fire deal, but first of all, everybody needed to be very cautious about this deal and see what really happens on the ground. >> thanks for joining us from that eu summit in brussels. >> we're going to pick up on that issue now, what's going to happen on the ground. for more analysis, we are joined in the studio from the european council on foreign relations. welcome to the program.

you just heard from our correspondent in brussels talking about focusing on the ground now. what do you think? is this agreement viable on the ground? >> the problem is that with each point agreed on or mentioned there are different positions between kiev and moscow. as each point has to be clarified and implemented and at some point implemented by decisions of the ukrainian parliament, there can be a lot of disagreement in the future. furthermore, the implementation of the cease-fire itself. shelling is still continuing, and you don't know if one of the parties can easily spoil this. >> this is diplomatic progress but as far as sanctions go, we hear from the u.s. they might phil be on the table. paris is saying they still need to be reviewed.

our u.s. and european positions in harmony? >> they are more in harmony than they might appear. it was the task of european parties to reach out to russia and seek for negotiations, and it was always the part of the americans to be sort of the stake in the game. you have to remember that in the kremlin's perspective, the u.s. is the only really big military power that matters. it is only logical that the united states put forward these sort of proposals of supplying arms because this is the thing that impresses moscow. >> thanks so much for your insights. as we just heard all eyes right now are on the situation on the ground in ukraine to see of the deal can be limited. >> reactions in ukraine, the front line in this conflict, are mixed, ranging him optimistic to skeptical. >> it is the ordinary people like these women who stand to gain the most if the new peace initiative succeeds.

they are clearing up after the most recent attack on their hospital in the eastern city of donetsk. the shells hit just as the talks in minsk were getting under way. alongside the destruction of buildings and property, more than 5000 people have been killed in this conflict since last april. more than one million have fled. a previous cease-fire has unraveled. it's little wonder that people on the streets of pessimistic about the deal. >> nobody wants people to get killed. it's painful when neighbors get killed. i'm hoping for the best and expecting the worst. >> hundreds of kilometers away in the capital kiev, the picture is similar. skepticism but also cautious optimism, that change for the better could be on its way. >> if these agreements are reality and there is a

cease-fire then everything is going to be fine, then everyone will evaluate it positively. who needs war? no one. >> but the real test of the agreement will be on the ground. these ukrainian troops are close to a strategic town where a standoff between pro-russian separatists and government troops remains unresolved and dangerous. if they are unable to end that impasse, then hope that the truce could take hold elsewhere could quickly fade. >> the guns of war could soon be falling silent in ukraine but europe still has to resolve a crisis brewing inside its own borders. >> at the summit in brussels, along with ukraine, big debt is front and center, and so far, there has been no agreement on athens' call to an end of austerity and a new debt plan. >> finland's prime minister said getting into greek demands would be unfair to other countries that have worked hard to

implement their austerity programs. >> i don't think we should give any room for populism in europe. we have commitments. we have agreements, and we need to stick to them. >> we have tried to help greece or the past five years, and we will continue to do that because it is in our vested interest, and it is also about european solidarity but one should have no illusions -- we are not going to start building any kind of free programs or free rides. the commitments need to be abided by. >> we're back with max hoffman with the other big subject on europe's plate. is the eu really ready? >> more ready than they were a couple of years ago but that does not mean that anybody wants it here, and you can tell that by what the chancellor said herself when she came here, she is ready for compromise, and many others are as well. like i said before, that does not mean much if the greeks themselves are not ready for compromise. it seems like the eurozone and

the eu and heads of state here will just try to listen to what the new greek prime minister has to say on the topic. a good sign, by the way is that technical discussions, technical negotiations will resume on friday. it looked like those would not happen and that the next step for the next stop would be monday when the finance ministers come back to brussels, but now there will be technical negotiations. it does not sound like much, but it is an important detail because without those technical negotiations, even if there is a political will to do something to compromise, this just will not work in reality. >> i'm sure you will be a busy man is technical negotiations continue. thanks for joining us. >> european stock markets rallied on thursday, boosted by that ukraine cease-fire agreement. our correspondent has more from

the frankfurt stock exchange. >> there will be a cease-fire in ukraine -- that was the agreement in minsk that surprised the people here in the financial markets. many people did not believe that such an agreement would be possible. it kick started the stock market here. the dax really went forward. in fact, it nudged toward 11,000 points without actually setting a new record high, but the share gains at the end of the day were substantial. the other political event of the day -- greece, well, that did not have any positive or negative effect here in frankfurt, traders say. other people in europe said their stop work it's went up because of that. why tackle because there had been an agreement on the table and watch -- in which one could maybe settle monday. regardless traders will also be looking towards greece with a lot of interest. >> these are the market numbers in full standing in frankfurt

with the dax, which rose by a bit more than 1.5 percent for the day. euro stoxx 50 also climbed and finished at 3417. in new york where they are still trading, the dow jones industrial average is just about .5% up, and a moment, the euro is climbing a little bit against the dollar, up to $1.1403. little while ago, the french foreign minister confirmed that france is finalizing an arms deal with egypt to be signed in the coming days. >> a french newspaper is reporting that the agreement worth 5 billion euros could see france deliver 24 fighter jets to egypt as well as a naval frigate and short and medium-range missiles. cairo wants to upgrade its military hardware amidst fears at the crisis in libya could be spilling over into egypt. staying in egypt the plight of two journalists held that i cairo jail for over a year now got a little bit easier. >> the two al jazeera journalists and egyptian citizen and a dual national, have been granted bail following

the release of their australian colleague last week. >> speaking the words reporters have been waiting to hear for over a year. a report announcing to more al jazeera journalists could be released on bail. they were detained on charges of collaborating with the banned muslim brotherhood. the former cairo bureau chief said she was ecstatic at the decision. >> i just want to say thank you egypt, for doing the right thing. i would like to thank my country that i love for doing the right thing. >> raced and egyptian flag before being ushered back into a holding cell -- he raised and egyptian flag. he confirmed he had given up his dual citizenship. the wife of the other journalists released told reporters that his fight does

not end here. >> of course am very happy. the judiciary has served us justice, but we will continue until we get a full acquittal. he h comttedo crime and is not been convicted of anything. >> as long as a final verdict has not been handed down, he has not yet found innocent, either. the trial appears to be just beginning. >> coming up, we'll have a lot more on the issue of press freedom. reporters without orders is warning that that freedom is increasingly coming der pressure across the planet. >> will also have the latest where the director behind "downfall" returns to the nazi air a for his latest project -- not see era -- nazi era for his latest project.

>> welcome back. global press freedom took a big hit in 2014 according to reporters without borders, who released its world press freedom index in paris. >> the international media watchdog says 2/3 of the 180 countries in its competence of report aired worse than in 2014. especially permissions, the manipulation of the press through misleading or patently false information. >> a propaganda war is waging between russia and ukraine.

these pictures are from crimea shortly before last year's independence referendum. the media have been manipulated on both sides. the same is true in many other regions around the world. >> what we actually observed this year, that in the majority of all the observed countries, we really see a decrease of the level of press freedom. i think that's a very tragic development. >>inland and norwaoffered the best conditions for press freedom. germany is in 12th place. both ukraine and russia have slipped down the ranking. here he is 177, and eritrea has the least press freedom -- syria is 177th. religious motives are increasingly used to intimidate journalists. >> we observed similar cases in kuwait and pakistan as well where journalists are punished

for covering state issues. >> journalists attempting to report from the region are frequent the kidnapped and murdered. >> to the u.s. now where a court in the state of montana has sentenced a man to 70 years in prison for the deliberate homicide of a german exchange student. >> he will not be eligible for parole for the first 20 years of his sentence. he was convicted in december. prosecutors said during the trial that he had lured the student into his garage before firing or blast -- 4 blasts with a shotgun. >> in germany is one of the biggest arms exporters in the world, coming under increasing pressure to overhaul its weapons ministry. >> critics say germany continues to sell weapons to countries with catastrophic human rights records. german weapons have been found in conflict zones from libya to south sudan. >> that sparked a push to rein in the arms industry and keep dangerous weapons from falling into the wrong hands.

>> he is in germany for treatment. at the age of just seven, he was forced to become a child soldier in sierra leone, to carry out killings he was given drugs. >> i feel good because i don't know what i'm doing. i don't know what i'm doing. i don't know what i'm doing. >> experts estimate 250,000 children in 20 countries have been forced to fight in military units, and not just in african countries, but increasingly asia and the arab world, too. like in syria, where reports say children are being armed. a ban on small arms is called on for countries outside the eu and nato. >> these countries can often be very problematic and you cannot control at all how these weapons will be used. they are either handed over legally or illegally and can end up in the hands of children. >> children like him. he says while he is physically

now in germany, his soul is still back in sierra leone reliving the trauma. >> myanmar is marking unity day to mark the countries postcolonial unification. celebrations come as the government struggles to overcome major challenges. >> we've been unable to reach a cease-fire deal with at the rebel groups sweeping across the northern part of the country. negotiations with those rebels have stalled as violent unrest is threatening to tear the fledgling democracy apart. >> dw traveled to one of the regions where the conflict is raging. we have this report. >> for as long as he can remember, these fields have been used to grow poppies. opium has long been a major source of income for armors in this part of myanmar. now it is often the only one. >> almost no one here grows mangoes or avocados anymore. it has become too expensive to bring the fruits to the nearest market. at the end of the day, there is often no profit left over. >> opium cultivation is illegal and myanmar, but little is done to stop it. the police and army also get a cut. the drug is of enormous importance here, not just for

farmers. >> the heroin produced from these little droplets is one of the main sources of income for the many ethnic rebel groups in this area. for decades, they've been fighting a bloody civil war against myanmar's army. the major bone of contention is who gets to cash in on the vast riches this land has to offer. drugs are not the only way to make money here. under these mountains are gold, silver, coal, precious stones, and metals. valuable types of wood grow in the forest. since 2011, myanmar's government has been negotiating with 16 rebel armies toward a nationwide cease-fire. it hopes to put an end to more than six decades of civil war and give official recognition to ethnic minorities. the conflict has left deep scars, including here in this village. >> there were many innocent victims. many villages burned down during

the fighting. most of the people who lost their lives, for me, it's like a black spot on a white cloth which i can never forget. >> he says it's up to the authorities now to take a different tack. >> the government and army must win the trust of the rebels. the army attacked the rebels with heavy weapons. elsewhere, fighting has been going on even during the peace process. this could cost talks to fall apart. the government needs to establish trust. >> but the current government is running out of time. elementary elections are in november.

>> now to the berlin film festival where the red carpet action tonight has been at the premiere of 13 minutes a drama set in 1939 is the nazis solidified their power. >> it records a german carpenter's single-handed attempt to blow up adolf hitler during an event in munich. that explosion that could have changed history forever missed the theater by just 13 minutes. now we turn to sarah harmon. "13 minutes" was the big news of the day. what did you think? >> this was an interesting film because the director is not a well-known figure in history even though he did something quite amazing -- he single-handedly planted a bomb

attempting to kill adolf hitler, and he certainly deserves a lot more recognition for what he did. you can sense the director's respect for this character. this ill-fated assassination attempt, as we all know, does not work out so instead of focusing on the attempt itself, he focuses on the developments in the character's life that led him to the point of being ready to do this incredible deed. my colleague had a chance to sit down with the director and talk about what made the man such a compelling character. >> is the first true resistance fighter we had, and he comes from the countryside. he is an ordinary man, who is, i would say, kind of clairvoyant a visionary.

in 1939, they were strong again. the germans were the strongest nation in europe. we had the most efficient army. they just conquered poland and the blitzkrieg operation. in this man is there and says this has to be stopped. he is not political. he does not try to change the system. this is about freedom. this is about not going along with something he feels would be totally devastating for humankind. the story has not been told in the proper way, so that is why it is important to do this now. at times when edward snowden stood up and said this has got to stop, the end of democracy and freedom invading our privacy. it is impressive to see a single man being able to make a

difference and he is the perfect example of that. >> returning to sarah harmon, this not much of the festival left. you have seen a bunch of movies. could you briefly tell us a couple of your tops and flops? >> a flop was certainly "night of cops," hotly anticipated starring christian bale and natalie portman but the film was a complete disappointment to me. it really drove home the point that as a society we are at saturation point for movies where middle-aged white guys read a bunch of models to deal with a midlife crisis. it felt tired and ultimately very disappointing. >> we have to leave it right there. we will get your tops later. thank you very much. >> and thank you for joining us here at ew -- at dw. see you again at the top of the hour. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its

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