>> welcome to the "journal" here on dw. the headlines this hour, afghans have voted for a new president. we will talk to our correspondent in kabul. china reports that one of the ships searching for the missing malaysian airliner may have detected a signal. and chance alone -- and chancellor angela merkel talks to the leading candidates. theirhan voters cast

ballots sunday in a presidential election that should bring about the first democratic transfer of power in the nations history. voters flocked to the polls defying nationwide threats of attacks by the taliban and. reports of violence were relatively few. eight candidates were on the ballot, hoping to take over from outgoing president hamid karzai. he has been in 2001. >> vote counting is underway and election workers are busy. that was contrary to analyst protections. some polling centers stayed open longer because so many people were still in line. millions of afghans to find the threats of terrorist attacks. eager to do their part in choosing the next president. and men voted separately, everyone turning out expressed their longing for a democratic and secure afghanistan.

i voted to guarantee the future of my country. the ballot box is a way to build our nation and show participation in these elections. we have come here to vote for an honest president who will work for this country. we are not frightened of anyone. >> outgoing president hamid karzai is not's nash said he was satisfied with the polls. >> despite the cold and rainy weather and threats of terrorist attacks, our sisters and brothers nationwide took part. your participation is a step forward and a success for afghanistan. three candidates are considered to have a good chance of winning. abdullah, a former foreign minister came in second in the 2000 nine elections. he is giving it another go. the former finance minister and world bank executive is also among the front runners. but the favorite is the former foreign minister, a karzai ally,

and the president singled him out as his preferred successor. meeting in greece, eu foreign ministers follow the elections thousands of miles away. great respect for the way people in afghanistan have engaged with the elections. they are standing up to threats. i hope they get a president who is excepted through the country. it will be at least two and a half weeks before the final results are tabulated. a likely runoff is scheduled for may. >> for more, we are joined by skype with our correspondent in kabul. we understand that turnout was bigger than expected. what did you observe today? thing,served the same the lines in the whole city of kabul were really, really long despite the weather, despite the

threats. the independent election commission has announced the voter turnout was 50% higher than in 2009, and especially the youth who will make one third of the population very hopeful they will have a president who they decided themselves this time. >> looks like good turnout. what about concerns of election fraud? have you witnessed any irregularities or reports of irregularities? >> i spoke with some afghans who they have been voting twice, for example. , and othersome officials observed even some stuffed ballots, but this was expected. nobody thinks the elections will be held by western standards. the afghans are still very hopeful that there will be no

major fraud at this time. >> so there were eight candidates in the running. any sign who may come out on top? >> it is very hard to say who will come out on top. but there is definitely one candidate who already announced he has won and that he will be the next president. >> in terms of the results, when can we expect to know how this has turned out? >> the official results will be 24.unced on april until then, more than 4000 donkeys are carrying the ballot boxes back to the station. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> for more coverage of afghanistan's historic election, visit our website. de/afghanistan2014. areese state media reporting patrol ships searching

for the missing malaysian airlines plane has detected a pulse that could possibly be coming from the airplanes like box. the exact source of the signal has not been determined. thechinese news agency said air force planes spotted a number of white floating objects in the search area. chinese state tv broke the news in a primetime bulletin. most of the missing plane's passengers were chinese nationals, and their families have criticized malaysia's handling of the disaster. his daily briefing, malaysia's transport minister val there would be no but up in the search efforts, regardless of the difficulties and cost. >> we will continue the search with the same level of vigor and intensity. we owe this to the families of those on board and around the world. expected to box is stop emitting signals within the

next week or two. the latest lead is likely to give families a new hope they may be closer to learning what happened to their missing loved ones. >> we spoke to our correspondent in sydney and he gave us this update. well, not so many details available so far. the chinese navy vessel are only search mission, among a lot of other ships and aircraft in the area, and they detected a signal. the paying her signal is using exactly the same frequency used by flight data recorders, the so-called black boxes. the position is about 1200 kilometers, 750 miles off the coast of australia. as we heard, the chinese news chinese air force aircraft spotted a number of white floating objects in exactly the same area.

if this signal is really received and located, it would be a very promising step ahead, but it has yet to be established whether the signal is related to the missing boeing 777. german chancellor angela merkel says the european union is prepared to impose tougher sanctions on russia if it takes further steps to destabilize ukraine. speaking at a gathering of conservative christian democrats party ahead of the european elections next month. the conservative candidate for european commission president said too many people fail to appreciate the benefits of the e.u. earlier, the cdu leading candidate for the elections david mcallister spoke to us from the party conference. we asked about the cdu strategy for dealing with mass unemployment, especially among

young people. good afternoon. i think we had a great conference, very convincing speeches from angela merkel and john claude. they have a manifesto where they answered all of the major questions about european policy. the unemployment rate in certain parts of europe is too high, especially youth unemployment. what we need is a strategy for more growth and more competitiveness for all of the european union. that is the way to solve our problems. >> angela merkel is all over the cdu election posters. is this really a european election or more of a national election? election campaign, we will talk about our program. we will talk about our candidates. we will talk about our european policy. and of course we will talk about angela merkel's successful policies for germany and europe. she is our party leader, she is the chancellor, and she will be

a major part of the campaign, but we will also be talking about our candidates and also campaigning for john claude to become the next president of the european commission. >> britain continues to voice doubts about europe, about that you asked about the e.u. do they need to accommodate britain or the other way around? >> we have to respect the decision of the british government. the prime minister announced he wants to renegotiate relationship between the united kingdom and europe after 2015 and will ask the british people to decide and referendum if britain should stay in the european union or leave. wait and we have to see what the british ideas, the british proposals are. something is very clear for me, we would like the united kingdom to stay in the european union. britain are an important partner and friend for us germans. >> david mcallister, thank you

very much. moving on to sports news, a .ajor shock in the bundesliga after a run of 53 games unbeaten in the league, bayern munich has finally lost. they went down 1-0. the striker got the crucial goal in the first half. rested some of their key players ahead of their championships league match against manchester united, but the move backfired and the team's record straight has come to an end. portman had to respond to their heavy loss to real madrid, and they did just that in saturday's late kickoff. look at the other scores from the weekend's games. stuttgart won a crucial clash.

frankfurt won their local derby. nuremberg also lost. the friday night kickoffs all hamburg beat their opponent to-one. disaster for one coach, who was fired by the clubhouse board. what see what happened. the terrible rondo form has caught up with the coach. the finish coach was sacked after the defeat against hamburg on friday. his team fell behind after just three minutes. they fired into the bottom corner to continue his excellent season. but they equalized after halftime, thanks to a goalkeeping howler. renee misjudged the effort and the teams were on course for a draw. hamburg hit back, securing three

vital points three powerful volley. the win moves them up to 16th. they now take over as the coach until the end of the season. the players know him well. he worked alongside the players just last year. >> and we see how the results affect the bundesliga table. they missed their chance to go forth, it means they currently have their hands on the final championships league spot. in the bottom half, stuttgart's victory takes them out of the relegation zone. it has been a bad couple days for norm berg, dropping down to 17th. tennis now, germany has had a setback in the davis cup tie with france. they lost the doubles match in four sets to take the score 2-1 overall. the french duo dominated the first set and eventually won. needs tos that germany

win one of sunday single matches to advance to the semifinals. ecuador are onal alert as rumblings from the volcano raised fears of a full-blown eruption. the volcano whose name in the digital this language means -- and the indigenous language means throw to fire spewed hot ashes 10 kilometers into the air on friday. the volcano is one of ecuador's last erupted in february. austria's former royal palace was once notorious for stiff at a cake and even today -- stiff etiquette and even today people are expected be on the best thousands flock to the palace to have some fun. it was part of world pillow fight they. the event was started in 2008 by a flash mob.

looks like fun. do stay with us here on dw. thanks for watching. >> april is when the rent season -- the wet season begins in rwanda. starting in april 19 94, at least 800,000 people were murdered in just 100 days. two decades on, roll on thens are still-- rwandans dealing with the atrocities. from this town to the capital,

the rainy season is a difficult time. it reminds him of what happened to his family. >> the rain makes me think of having to run away during the genocide of april 1994. i had to hide in the forest. those who survived were completely exposed to the rain. we do not know how to protect ourselves against it. 17 of his relatives were murdered, including six of his children. his wife and his mother. he lived in hiding for three months. afterwards, he tried to rebuild his life. i put this house up after the genocide. here where the grass is commonly used to be buildings all over. they were destroyed.

the ones up there i built from scratch after the genocide. on, he still cannot imagine reconciliation with those responsible. up until two years ago, people would throw stones at his house. those who murdered his family and burn his property are in jail, but their relatives live all around him. we don't get on well with each other, he says. not one of the perpetrators asked me for forgiveness. that is troubling. though the government wants reconciliation, it bothers me that nobody has asked for my forgiveness. his biggest worry is what will happen to him when his remaining children get married and move away. here, nearleft alone

the families of the perpetrators. there are similar situations all over rwanda. this is the church, 30 kilometers south of kigali. during the genocide, 15 thousand people fled here seeking sanctuary inside. but militia stormed the building and murdered nearly all of them. it is now a mass grave and the morrill. interred 45,000 people beneath the church. remains of those killed in 1994 are still being found in the area. when they are discovered, they are brought here. the crypt is cold and smells of mold.

bones serve as a memorial. their message is the crime should not be forgotten or denied or ever happen again. some of the skulls reveal how crude the weapons were that were used against them. every day, this person shows visitors around the site. stone. cut this everything. in the roof you see this. inside the church, we have the

clothing of the victims. during of the massacres the genocide took place in catholic churches. hundreds of thousands fled to their priests, thinking the clergy would protect them. but many of them were simply handed over to moms. in some places, the murders went on for days. church altars became places of execution. >> we have examples. they used that to kill the people. rosaery.rocery -- >> the brutality that took lace

inside the church left its marks here. -- the brutality that took place inside the church left its marks here. the blood is from when they cut the head. this is from children. baby over here and smash them against the wall on the side. you see the blood on this wall. there were some in here. >> the government is still trying to foster reconciliation. on an official level, it no longer makes distinction between the tribes. nyanza inaveled to

the south. once a seed to bash what they see to the monarchy. most people live off the land. as in other places, victims and perpetrators live side-by-side. monique farm soybeans together. it is a remarkable partnership. her husband was convicted of playing part in the genocide. in 1994, he looted monique's parents house. despite this, but two get on well together. but it was not always like that. whenever i left the house and

saw her house on the other hill, says monique, i cannot think of anything other than what had happened. she slowly made the first move towards an apology. and i was able to accept it. but before that, we could not talk to each other or meet. i was furious. you need god's help to say sorry, she says. i asked myself for a long time how i could approach the victims of this horrible situation. when i first came, she was washing close outside of her house. she brought me a chair. us a lot ofit took time, she made me welcome. we sat together and talk. now things are fine between us. apology, she has

she is also given monique some compensation. things, her husband stole his neighbor's cal. cow.ole his neighbor's she wanted to make it up to monique. her cow was pregnant, so she gave monique the calf. the gesture was a meaningful one. cows are prized in were one to -- are prized in rwanda. having a cow was very important for us, says monique. in our culture, cows bring a lot of advantages. every family has to have a cow.

without one come you do not have milk or dung to put on the field. for us, it is a sign of prosperity. they are an example of how reconciliation can succeed. the neighbors now live happily together, without the need for or government directives. still, it was not easy for monique to forgive. monique says when she first came to me and asked me to forgive her, i asked if she thought about exactly what she was asking of me. she said she had. , and i asked for time to think before i really for gave her.

another challenge looms on the horizon for the two women. what will happen when her husband gets out of prison? she believes everything will be ok. she says that he will also ask for forgiveness and said it was the right thing for her to give monique the cow. back in kigali, many people are proud of how the country has come so far in the reconciliation process over the last two decades. they want to present themselves as modern and focused on the future. traces of the genocide are hard to spot in the capital. this church is where 20,000 people sought refuge in 1994. its priest at the time sided with the militias and handed over many people for execution.

church doescatholic not commemorate the darkest chapter in rwanda's history. the genocide, the genocide, forgiveness and recon ÷wñs

- hello. i'm john cleese. i think we all know that music, aside from the pure pleasure of it, sometimes has a transcendent power. what is called sacred music seems universally to be a form of prayer, a vehicle for spiritual practice, because music and sound are so clearly connected to our higher selves. so now we're in for a special treat, because the reverend alan jones and native singer joanne shenandoah are going to give us the opportunity to experience something of this. so settle back, take a long, deep breath as we join our host, phil cousineau, on this musical, soul-rendering episode of global spirit, the first internal travel series.