>> this is dw news from berlin. the taliban is fanning out in full force, trying to take the airport outside kunduz one day after taking the city. also coming up, ukraine's president rails against russian oppression at the eu and general assembly. he says the world should not believe conciliatory statements coming from the kremlin. and fifa bans former vice president jack warner over corruption allegations and his former bosses under pressure. former president sepp blatter

denies wrongdoing as he faces a criminal investigation. i'm sarah kelly. thanks for joining us. the afghan president else government forces will retake the northern city of kunduz, but what we are hearing points to a bitter, high-stakes battle with tactically smart taliban fighters. they have expanded their offensive and are our reports they control much of the airport. it was there that afghan forces regrouped and launched a counterattack under the umbrella of u.s. airstrikes, but just a few hours ago, the pentagon released a sobering assessment of the situation, describing it only is fluid. >> heavy fighting as afghan forces struggle to take back control of kunduz. the taliban sees the strategic

city quickly, taking the military by surprise. the insurgents been secured their hold on kunduz. it's a major blow to the government, exactly year after he took our do it he said more reinforcements were on the way, urging the nation to trust its troop. >> the problem is that this treacherous enemy has used civilians as human shields. afghanistan's government is a responsible government. we cannot bomb our own citizens. the taliban took kunduz in less than a day, raising their flag over the city center by monday evening. it's one of the group's biggest victories and the first time it's taking control of a provincial capital since being ousted 14 years ago. afghan security forces launch their counteroffensive from the airport, but taliban fighters

soon turn your attention there, advancing south and clashing with government forces just meters away from the complex. the fall of the city is a stunning loss for the government. less than the year after nato combat troops withdrew from afghanistan, it raises questions as to whether afghan forces can defend the country along. sarah: so how long could the counteroffensive last? we asked our correspondent in afghanistan. >> i think it's a good question helen b counteroffensive from the government is going to take. i think most people expected to be noticeably quick, but the government forces seem to have disintegrated somewhat. the taliban control large parts of the city. they cut off roads leading into kunduz which makes it difficult

for government forces to send reinforcements. they planted roadside bombs on the roads leading into the city. all this makes it more difficult, combined with the fact that the taliban had sought shelter in the residential areas , making it more difficult for the government to make use of heavy artillery. the u.s. military has conducted a single airstrike in kunduz and there are civilians that might be caught in the crossfire. all in all it's going to be more difficult than most people anticipated. that's not necessarily a sign of strength that the taliban but also the partial disintegration of the afghan security forces and the lack of coordination between the army and the police. sarah: the ukrainian president

said his country remains the victim of russian aggression he was speaking at the u.n. general assembly in new york, where he added that russia continue to provide support to rebel groups controlling parts of his country's east. he condemned moscow's use of its you and veto to block condemnation of the crimea referendum and investigation into the downing of mh17. he also warned against russian troops being allowed to get involved in syria. our correspondent richard walker is in new york more on the speech. >> a cub nation -- ignatius performance and that's exactly what he delivered. reminding the audience that even though the crisis in ukraine in relative terms is out of the headlines at the moment, there is a cease-fire that seems to be holding at the east of the country, but this crisis is far from resolved. as he put it, his country has

been a target of russian aggression and his territorial integrity has been violated and thousands of people are dead as a result. i think it's worth stressing that he did take direct aim at vladimir putin's new focus on syria that has dominated the agenda here in new york since the beginning of the week. he took direct aim at that with some scathing passages, saying how can vladimir putin portrayed himself as someone who wants to build a coalition against terrorism while he inspires terrorism, as portion go sees it, in ukraine. so a direct attack on vladimir putin, as he called it, his doublespeak there. a few that are shared in many western capitals, a cynical view of vladimir putin's actions in syria. sarah: richard walker in new york, thank you. the united states has imposed for sanctions against supporters

and affiliates of islamic state around the world, in an attempt to cut off the terrorist groups resources. the announcement comes as president barack obama hosted a you and summit on tackling terrorism. he said the united states would use all possible tools, including economic measures, to defeat islamic state. but he also warns that the battle against the group would take time, calling it a long-term campaign. time now for some business news. the ratings agencies have their eyes on volkswagen today in a very big way. ben: rev up your engines, fitch has already threatened to downgrade the company and now says the crisis could have long-term consequences for the entire auto sector. millions of vehicles were fitted

with software capable of cheating exhaust tests. there are just over 2 million audis equipped with the stealth software, as it's being called. 700,000 fiats are involved and another couple million light commercial vehicles. refitting a total of 11 million cars would be the largest recall ever by an automaker. >> the spanish government -- madrid supports production, presumably because the vehicles are less of a threat for the environment, but now fiat employees know the truth. >> i feel cheated. i'm also a victim because if we

now have to return the subsidies, this is a volkswagen problem, but it will affect us all, including our public image. >> let's hope the situation doesn't affect our work, but it probably will, on economic level. vw dealers in germany are concerned, perks -- prospective customers are asking questions that nobody seems to be able to answer, yet. >> is it worth buying a car now, or is it too risky? these are questions we have had. what should we tell them? we don't know much more than others can read or hear about regarding the situation. vw says it will have some answers soon, but customers want answers now. at the moment they say the country -- the company is just

spinning its wheels instead of addressing their concerns. >> in america the deception was first made public. i mentioned the fitch warning to the whole auto industry. what about american carmakers, or they concerned? >> they shouldn't be too concerned, because if you look at what happened, a lot of damage was done, and if you look at gm and ford, those companies have dabbled in the new technology, but they're not as big a part of their business. so they would not lose too much of people in america decide they're not going to go for diesel any longer. quite the contrary, since they are not so much into diesel in the first place. a lot of american consumers are in the market for a new car might not decide to buy a diesel after all and go back to regular gasoline driven cars. that is where gm and ford could

maybe pick up some orders that would otherwise have gone to volkswagen. >> what about the damage to the german industry as a whole? is the gloss starting to wear off? grexit's hard to say what's going to happen in the long run. volkswagen was extremely well-liked as a use the tag line das auto. there could be some damage for the brand of germany in general, but if you look at other companies who have been involved in the scandal, there hasn't been a financial scandal in the last couple of years that deutsche bank was not involved when. it is not done too much damage to the brand of germany so it's

hard to say what's going to happen exactly. >> i'm sure you will get back to us if you find out something more on that subject. it's the big topic at the moment. richer than ever, insurance giant alley on -- allianz puts the debt of households in more than 50 countries under the microscope. global gross financial assets have hit a new record level, over $136 trillion. nine zeros, it's a long number. that is higher than the value of the entire worlds listed country -- companies in all sovereign debt put together. we are still talking about unequally distributed wealth. >> personal wealth is increasing

especially fast and asia where financial assets grew by 16% in 2014, according to the report. that was mainly thanks to last years booming stock market which has taken a u-turn. but the total amount of web could see private households pay off all the world's national debt three times over. those in the best position to do that are the swift, -- the swiss . the u.s. follows in second place with nearly 140,000 euros. in japan, net assets came to 73,500 euros per capita. that puts japan a place in first place in asia, followed by singapore at 73,000 euros. the global wealth report points out that this wealth is still extremely unevenly divided. on average, for half of the

population in the country survey possessed a mere 5% of the assets. >> back over to sarah. that is my big spill on money for the day. sarah: so it's not distributed very fairly been for the most part. thanks for the update. still to come on the program, we continue our special series on german reunification 25 years on. we will see the emotional return to a child's detention center in the former east germany. and don't forget, you can always get ew news on the go. just download are out from google play or the apple store. there's also a version for windows phone. that will give you access to all the latest news around the world as well as push notifications for any breaking news. you can also send us any photos -- photos or videos. we are back in a minute's time.

don't go away.

sarah: welcome back. i've time story. the afghan taliban has brought in its offensive to kunduz from the outskirts of the city. afghan forces have launched an offensive to retake kunduz, supported by u.s. airstrikes. the ukrainian president delivers a verbal broadside, accusing rush of trying to rebuild its former empire, creating belts of instability and financing terrorists in eastern ukraine. he told the u.n. general assembly that vladimir putin was engaged in a reckless military

gamble in ukraine. at the end of this week, germany will mark the 25th anniversary of unification, a whirlwind process that started with the fall of the berlin wall and led to the end of communism in east germany. all this week we are looking at how it happened and what its legacy is. communist east germany was a to tell a terry and state that did everything in its power to stifle dissent. it did to the secret police. they used a vast web of citizen spies to enforce conformity at all levels. methods in taking children away from parents who question the regime, with some children ending up in orphanages or prisons. we talked with one of them about a childhood destroyed by the state. >> it's still difficult to come back here. he was 16 when he landed in a

correctional facility for children the authorities considered especially intractable. >> arriving here was like arriving in hell, there was deathly silence like in a mor gue. >> today the memories come rushing back. between 1964 and 1989, over 4000 youths were locked up here. he was in here after he tried to run away from home he had been placed in. >> i just wanted peace, to not have to work in a factory at 6:00 a.m.. i didn't want to hear any orders to go clean her room or go eat. i just wanted to be a person, to sit on a rock or in a tree, to

just be left in peace. but he didn't find peace at the use detention center. his daily routine consisted of hours of monotonous work for the metal industry. excessive hours of's boards and military drills. he believes he was sent to a correctional facility because his parents were not loyal enough to the government. any sign of resistance was severely punished. the worst was solitary confinement in the basement. >> to end up in these cells meant facing the possibility that you would never emerge with a healthy body and soul again. because he only ended up down here when you want -- when they wanted to beat you up. the screams from here could not be heard outside.

the four months he spent here affect him to this day. he first told his daughter the story when a newspaper wrote an article about him. >> i set the paper down in front of her and told her to read it, and then we would talk. and then we forced ourselves to get through it. and just like now, there was a lot of crying, and then we talked about it. talking about it, as well as having the story made public, is as important as reparations. but at the same time, he knows that no one can give him back his lost childhood. not even 25 years after reunification.

sarah: a sad past that cannot be erased. rejoin by the president of the american institute for contemporary german studies. detention centers like we just saw in that piece were the result of a lot of paranoia among east german leaders. can you explain that paranoia? why was that so? >> obviously they were in the middle of a situation where many of the 17 or 18 million east germans could look very closely over the border, over the wall, and see that they were missing out on another type of life that they could have if only they could get over that wall. you can only imagine that the numbers of peoples that would have liked to make that move were many millions, if not at least many thousands. the paranoia was based on the fact that they knew that were holding people against their will. sarah: it was not just attention

centers like we saw in that piece there. give us a sense of how far leaders were willing to go. >> remember that the number of people that were so-called informal agents at that time was probably on the order of 3 million, spying on each other. sometimes wives and husbands, generally speaking, creating a situation that is almost kafkaesque, you could never know where your statement or comment might end up. it seems to me those are the kind of scars that were left on many people even after the wall came down. sarah: what do you think of the reconciliation process? a lot of people would look

through those files after the fact and discover that the state had so much information on them and they did not even know it. do you think enough has been done for those who had been victims? >> i think after the wall came down, there was a step in the right direction, certainly in the case of people who wanted to know, they could find out what was said. in general, the notion that people were in effect cheated or essentially undermined by the system, you cannot really go back and replace that was something that looks better. my sense is that the post-1990. -- post-1990period was the beginning of something that could be generational. my sense is that the process of coming to grips with that will take quite a long time. it won't just happen in 25 years.

sarah: president of the american institute for contemporary german studies with us, thank you. regards to switch gears now and had to some sports news. another former fifa executive is in hot water. former football chief jack warner has been banned for life over corruption charges. last week switzerland announced that sepp blatter is the target of a criminal investigation for mismanagement. >> jack warner's time in football has come to an end. the fifa ethics committee said the former vice president committed various acts of misconduct, including bribery, and is just and from football for life. warner is fighting extradition from his native trinidad to the united states. it's his alleged dealings with sepp blatter that put the fifa

under investigation by swiss authorities. he has vowed to stay in power until next year despite announcement of the criminal probe into his conduct. one of the key figures in organizing last year's world cup believes that the growing scandal could claim more victims. >> i'm not surprised by the controversy. i think there's still a lot of things to happen. several people will fall. >> see fifa presidential candidate suggested those implicated must be punished. blatter is attempting to carry on with business as usual and continues to deny any wrongdoing, but it is plain to see these are dark days for him, and fifa. sarah: the rugby world cup face just one game on tuesday in

exeter. near -- neither tonga nor namibia are expected to make the knockout stages but it did not stop the teams from giving their all in it entertaining encounter. >> neither team has a chance of winning the world cup, but tonga and namibia both had a lot to prove. inside the first 12 minutes of play, including this effort. their hopes of a one-sided affair were dashed as namibia bravely fought back. a wide-open defense was broken through to put the africans on the score sheet. both teams went all out for prestige win but it was tonga who made the plays that counted. namibia came back after the break. tonga held onto their lead, winning 35-21 in a game that definitely raised rugby's

profile worldwide. sarah: the afghan taliban has brought in its offensive from the airport to kunduz. afghan forces have launched an offensive to retake kunduz, supported by u.s. airstrikes. more coming up at the top of the hour. i'm sarah kelly. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] óxñx

>> "euromaxx highlights." and here is your host, louise elton. >> welcome to the show today, a special edition of "euromaxx," which focuses on the 5 top destinations in europe. i'm not going to reveal where they are, but this quick look forward might just give 3 of the cities away. >> italian maurizio savini makes his art out of chewing gum, how to become a haute couture designer, and turning two townhouses into one larger one. so you might have figured out a few of europe's top destinations, but which order do they come in? that is the question. we start the show off with a look at the place that falls into 5th place. it's barcelona.