>> this is the journal. i am in berlin. >> and i have the business news. >> the headlines. floods continue to sweep seven pakistan. the filipino police and met the botched an operation to free 15 foreign tourists taken hostage by gunmen. in the trd baby dies in a hospital in germany after receiving a contaminated in fusion. >> pakistan has held an emergency meeting with officials on averting a major outbreak of disease in flood affected areas

but the threat from waterborne disease is growing with millions of people living in temporary relief shelters. the u.n. has described the situation in pakistan is critical. this comes as their fresh warnings of a flood surge in southern plains. >> babies and young children are most at risk of contracting diseases. but there is some hope for the mothers who have made it to one of the hospitals in this province. >> the last -- we have treated 500 to 600 children over the past three days, most of them had diarrhea or skin infections. clean water and basic medicine is all they need to be helped. >> and these people have accessedhe madison. but it is a vy different sty in many villages. some 5 million people need emergency aid. and the world health organization reckons that well over half a million people need assistance. organizations, including those

in germany, have been repeating appeals for donations. >> we need food and clean water for pakistan. i do not know how the country will be rebuilt of the people go hungry or are sick. >> thanks to german donations, ofroun$-- ound 250,000 people have received clean drinking water. >> more than 40 people died when a passenger plane crash landed in northeastern china on tuesday. 50 were injured in the accident. the airplane was on its way to another area, and the news agency said the brazilian-built plane burst into flames after it overshot the runway at its destination. some 500 firefighters, ambulances, and rescue teams rushed to the crash site. media's there washick fog at the aport at the time of the crash. ho konhas expressed outrage over the handling of the hostage drama in the philippines in which eight of its citizens the

hong kong tourist or on us when kidnapped by disgruntled policemen on monday. the police commander in manila that -- manila admitted mistakes were made. the president of the philippines has promised a full investigation into the incident. >> the buddhist ceremony held to honor the victims who died on the tour bus in central manila. the 12-hour drama ended with age of the hostages and the gunman dead. relatives of the victims and officials came from hong kong to attend the ceremony. in the chinese territory, protesters gathered outside the philippines consulate. hong kong legislators joined the protest. >> we're going to condemn the philippine government. also, we express the feelings that we have. the hong kong people are very furious over this situation. hong kong lower its flags to honor the victims. officials fro the terriry a demaing knowhat hapned

in manila. 115-year-old survivor described the gun battle. -- one 15-year-old survivor described the gun battle. >> there were a lot of gunshots bid up the police led off tear gas. a lot of people cannot breathe. >> the standoff began on monday when they dismissed manila police officer seized the bus and tourists who were originally supposed to fly home later that day. a 55-year-old man was fired last year on corruption charges and initially demanded his job back. >> the un security council has condemned attacks by insurgents that killed more than 30 people, including at least six members of parliament, in the somali capital mogadishu the islamic gunmen disguised as government soldiers and approached the hotel and opened fire. five government officials and 21 civilians were also among the dead. the al-shabab group with links to al-qaeda claimed responsibility for the attack it

becomes of the second day of heavy fighting between al-shabab and the troops of the trsitional gernmt, which is backed by the african union. spain has welcomed the release of two aid workers said been held hostage by a branch of al qaeda in northern africa for nine months. the group said it released the men because some of its demands had been met. the spanish media reporting the government paid a ransom for their release. >> family and friends welcomed the aid workers on their arrival at barcelona airport. the two, and one of the maed with a crash after being shot after his capture nine months ago, expressed gratitude. >> i want to thank everyone. i want to thank all the people who have come here for being here, and everyone who worked so hard to make our liberation possible. >> last november, the two aid

workers and a female colleague were traveling with an aid convoy through mauritania when all three were kidnapped by local militants, calling themsees of kind that in t islamic magra. they're moved over thousands of kilometers repeatedly to new hiding places in the seminar. in march, the female colleague was released get up but for the other two, the nightmare continued for another five months until they were released this sunday. the spanish government has not commented on reports that the pair's freedom was secured with the payment of some $4 million euros in ransom, saying all that matters is the worst ty've be sou. >> it look le gmanys i money trouble. >> a little bit of trouble. a big money trouble. not as bad as some countries. the wooster with the big numbers. the budget deficit of germany almost doubling as a result of the financial crisis. new figures out that showed the

deficit at 3.5% of gdp for the first half. government spending on strict income by 43 billion euros. >> germany's economic stimulus package included billions for fixing roads and a building scs. it was a bonanza for construction companies and ensured workers all over the country would continue getting paid. but the program has come had a heavy cost. germany's budget deficit has jumped in the first six months of the year to 3.5% of gdp. that is still better than france, which is battling an 8% deficit. the deficit of spain is over 11% of gdp. the eu's maastricht treaty allows a member nations of the maximum deficit of 3% of gdp. for most eu nations, including germany, that means budget cuts will continue. european shares closed at a one-

month low, weighed down by disappointing housing data from the united states. the poor figures are only adding to concerns over the pace of recovery in the world's largest economy. here's more from frankfurt. >> people's fears were confirmed when new data from the u.s. housing market came in. the home sales, existing hes, in julat t lowt lel that have been since the past 15 years. the realistic prices in united states is not over yet, one banker here in frankfurt said. and there are renewed fears that america, the u.s., will drop back into another round of recession. the housing market data, the fears for the housing and building market in general put a tremendous pressure on steelmakers and on housing shares. >> also something down. we will be back in frankfurt.

staying there for a moment, we look at the numbers. the dax has fallen below the 6000 mark to 5935. the euro stoxx 50 is down even further at 2614. the same store across the land to. the dow jones is down at 10,040 points. and the euro is trading at $1.2672. things are not looking up for air berlin, germany's second biggest airline. they made a much bigger loss than expected last quarter, almost 57 million euros. a lot of that comes into the major disruptions caused by the volcanic ash, from iceland. but it was already down in the gums and the first quarter thanks to the unbearably cold and long winter in europe. glad i missed out on that one. a plunging population and a drop in the number of skilled employees means germany has to make changes. the chambers of industry and commerce calculates that europe's largest economy will need up to 6 million employable

individuals in the next 20 years. in berlin, political and economic players have come together to discuss how to deal with that shortage. >> edward is a mexican engineer working for carmaker in at the western city. germany needs more skilled workers like him. with the economic recovery gaining pace, companies need to add specialists to their payrolls, and fast. that is the finding of a survey of 1600 companies by the german chambers of industry and commerce. one in five of the surveyed companies said they already have shortage ofskilled workers. looking ahead ov the nexfive ars, one in two companies expect serious bottlenecks in their specialized work force. lawmakers pledged action. they want to appeal to reason to not traditionally supplies skilled workers. >> above all, this means young people who were sidelined at school and vocational training. also, women with children who

want to work more but have been unable to. and older people whose wealth of experience and knowledge of not been in demand. >> the government also wants to attract more foreign workers like edwardo. it plans to remove bureaucratic obstacles, for example, by recognizing qualifications earned abroad. even with the shortage of workers, there's mounting evidence that not everyone is getting a fair shot at the job of their choice. having a non-german name, for example, can be a problem here, according to a study by the institute for the future of work. spurred on by policymakers, five big employers in germany are taking part in a pilot project in which they only accept anonymous applications for certain jobs. the names and ages are not included or the nationality. the hope is to avoid discrimination. interesting stuff. back to you. >> thank you.

a third incident -- incident -- a third infant has died at the after receiving a contaminated nutrition solution. two babies had already died after being administered the same solution four other infants remain gravely ill. prosecutors have lost a criminal negligence investigation against mainz university hospital. >> babies need the best medical attention possible. the university hospital is still investigating how tight jeans system could have broken down. the clinic's staff is working hard to save the infected babies. there was sadness from the hospital on tuesday. a third baby died from the infection. >> the child was very premature. unfortunately, it only lived for few days. it wasorn in the 24th week of pregnancy with a very low birthrate. it was a very, very small child.

>> investigators looking for the source of the contamination are focusing on the mixing equipment, but results are not expected before thursday. doctors at the hospital said that have now identified the types of bacteria that caused infections but not how the drugs became tainted with the germs. the deaths of the least a debate about clinic hne but some pediatricians and warned against making generalizations. >> this was a very specific case. overall, child medical care in germany is a very good and very safe at all hospitals, not just this one. peoples and not take this single event as a reason not to have children treated in pediatric clinics. >> corners and not try to establish the cause of the baby's death. prosecutors have launched a crimal investigation the white house is revieng al optns afr a dge

blocked federal funding for an embryonic stem cell research. a u.s. district court old -- ordered a halt to funding after a coalition opposed research on human embryos challenge the policy. president barack obama has lifted the ban on federal funding for the work last year. the administration has called the research important and a lifesaving. be in munich, this state prosecutor called for a 10-year sentence for one of the young men accused of the dea of a businessman last year. the younger of the two could face eight years in prison. the attackers of the denied the murder charges. they were 18 and 17 at the time of the attack. the man died after try to stop a gang of teenagers from bowling a group of schoolchildren on the regional train. an autopsy shows the 50-year-old died of heart failure after being repeatedly beaten. on to sports. in cycling, the german has been celebrating his victory.

the 25-year-old boy riding 13 colombia took the head. he was victorious in the final time trial of nearly 17 kilometers. he can now look forward to the world's seven ships in australia starting at the end of september. astronomers have discovered a huge solar system just over 100 light years away from earth. seven planets are believed to be orbiting a star, but unfortunately, none of them are likely to harbor life. they're either too big or too hot. >> the hd-10180 star system lies about 120 light years from earth. of all the system so far discovered, it is the one the most closely resembles our own. astronomers came across the heavenly bodies in this european telescope in chile.

it uses a high powered specter draft -- spectrograph to locate and hone in on the clinics. scientists have been monitoring the motion of this distansun for six years andhe mements of thelanesaid or diit. astronomers' as of our confirmed the existence of five planets in the system and say two more could exist. one of the planets is slightly heavier than the earth, but live there is very unlikely as the planet is much too close to its sun. . hd-10180 did turn out to have seven plants, it would be the biggest seller system discovered so far, apart from ours. >> we he ather couple hours thi of a good ne for that. >> yes. >> the hd-10180 is not quite doing it for us. >> it sounds like a lecture. >> the high-definition galaxy. >> sounds like h1n1. >> we do not want to go there.

we will be back after the short break with "in depth

>> welcome back. the german government has launched a new anti discrimination drive, with a push for an honest job applications were the name of the applicant, gender, age, nationality would not be included. the move comesafter study showthatome ople areess likely to be invited to a job interview, even when their qualifications are excellent research by the bonn-based institute revealed that simply having a foreign-sounding name decreases the applicants chance of getting an interview. this is having a turkish surname lowers an applicant's chances of success by 14%. we caught up with an iraqi-born german who has personal experience of just what that means. >> he is in a hurry.

the 41-year-old works as an airplane engineer for the german wings airline in cologne. during this planes short stopover, yes to upload fresh data to the onboard computer. >> terrain awareness. >> he moved to germany from his native iraq in 1991. later he studied aerospace engineering here. he says getting a degree did not pose any problems for him, but when applying for a job, his foreign name was a problem. >> is part of my degree, i had to do several internships, and it was a real effort trying to get accepted for work experience positions. i had no success. and eventually, i completed all my internships abroad. >> at first, the engineering student in on what to believe that companies were rejecting them becau of his ethnic background. when he graduated in 2006, he was among the best in his year.

but job hunting was unsuccessful. many of his fellow students, who were german, found jobs in another final grades were lower. it was only after several months and dozens of applications that he was invited for ainterview by a bremen-based company. he got the job and later took german citizenship. " my experience, they're always stereotypes'. but once you start talking to people, then they usually put their prejudices aside. >> many economic experts said companies simply people according to their ethnicity, gender, or a doing themselves a disservice the president of the german institute for economic research agrees that anonymous applications are economically profitable. >> any form of conscious or unconscious discrimination will make a company far less likely to find the kind of capable employees they're looking for. companies are working against their own economic interests by choosing the wrong candidates.

so anonymous applications could help improve things for everybody. >> the cosmetics giant, lori alabama, is one of five major companies that have pledged to make use of anonymous applications. -- l'oreal. name and age will play no part in the applicant procedure. they want fresh faces. it is still unclear how other patients can best be rendered anonymous. employers' associations are already criticizing the scheme, claiming it is not viable. >> of a want to go about this with the kind of thoroughness we're used to in germany, then we would needo bring an tsidservice provider to make the applications anonymous. and that means extra cost. also, so much information would have to be removed from the application forms to make them óeally anonymous, like school grades are language skills,

which could point to certain eticities. that would cost a lot of time, ever, and money. >> the employer association also says that parents can be important when recruiting. for example, for these ads. in many cases, photographs would give an impression of how committed an applicant is to the job, liing professional qualifications is often not enough. >> especially when small companies are recruiting. they're looking for someone who will have the right personality to fit into the team. qualifications are crucial, but employees have to be about to get on well with one another. so it is not always the person with the disqualifications will be best suited for the team. in these cases, anonymous applications would be counterproductive. >> but he says he is certain anonymous application procedures would have helped him get a job more easily. >> anonymous applications give employers the opportunity to assess people according to their

qualifications. and then invite them for an interview. then at the interview, it is possible that prejudices' are put aside. >> for many people with non- german backgrounds, that can mean their careers in the german labor market could finally take off. > but asegar, there's so resistance to the idea of anonymous applications from employers' groups here in germany. in the united states, such a system has long been normal. an applicant's name and gender are given that no photograph is provided nor is there any information about the date of birth, marital status, or ethnicity. the fight for equal opportunities in the u.s. was long and hard, and despite the gains made, discrimination in the labor market has not en eliminated cpletely. in some cases, ployers are re cautious in the u.s.

because they're worried about being saddled with huge losses for discrimination. but on the whole, the anonymous applications for some house job- seekers get past the first hurdle of getting an interview. sometimes it even gives them the job, as we hear in our next report. >> a new shift begins at west sheet metal in washington, d.c., suburb. a few days ago, this mechanic started a new job you're good of the 43-room mother of four was out of a job for two years following a serious illness. after her recovery, she applied for this job in the usual way, without the formalities of the resume or a photograph. after a quick phone call with her prospective boss, she got the job. . >> we never met each other. i talked to him on the phone and told him my qualifications. he said, will come in friday morning and fill out these other forms and got the job. and i said, all right.

you know, i was happy. >> the company she now works for makes air-conditioning units and employs 60 people. her new boss says the only thing that interests him when looking for new staff is their qualifications. >> we pretty much just the background questions, their experience level, their previous employers. things of that nature so we could do little to check on their skill level. but we do not ask them their age, mother " -- merkel status, things of that nature but that is not supposed to enter into the question of hiring meone. >> the u.s. interest tough anti- discrimination legislation nearly 50 years ago. numerous government watchdogs, unions, and ngo's monitor its application. >> we have laws that prohibit workers from being discriminated against because of age, religion, and a variety of different things that could limit a person's employability.

>> the laws also prohibit discrimination on the grounds of skin color, gender, sexual orientation, disability. every year, several thousand americans go to court claing discriminion t worlace >> african-americans, hispanics, particularly those people of color have experienced far greater discrimination in the workplace that has not gone unchecked because the existence of these laws. >> our job application was just as the u.s. lawbooks prescribe. she says she has settled in well to her new job. >> i love it. you know, i love working with my hands, trying to create things that might be difficult to others but easier to me. >> and she can rest assured that she got the job on the strength of her professional skills and for no other reason. >> that has been our "in depth." you're watching dw-tv.

cs -- please stay with us. ♪ captioned by the national captioning institute --www.ncicap.org-- ♪

ow! of course. thank you. i'd call her honeydew goodbody, not lisa. the very fact that she is called lisa proves tt she exists.