genie: welcome back to the "france 24" newsroom. time for 60 minutes live around the world. i'm genie godula in paris. the u.s. launches an airstrike on the afghan city of kunduz. that city in northern afghanistan was seized by the taliban and monday, its first major takeover in a decade. steals thetin spotlight at the u.n., presenting his ideas for syria. but the russia resident and barack obama still clash over

the future of syrian president bashar al-assad. migrantsord 522,000 have now come into europe this year alone, but after perilous journeys over land and sea, many of them are now suffering as the weather grows cold. also coming up for you, in bossess, volkswagen's new unveils the start of his plan to overhaul the company and restore trust in the brand after the emissions cheating scandal. and could there be life on mars? scientists say they have discovered flowing water on the red planet. they are finding that that boosts the odds of life. those are top stories. first, the u.s. has

carried out an airstrike in northern afghanistan one day after the provincial capital of kunduz was captured by the telegram. it is the first time taliban insurgents have seized a major urban area in afghanistan in over 10 years. afghan special forces are also on the ground and moving in as part of the counterattack. for more on what is happening there, i am joined by catherine jamie in kabul. what is the latest you have been hearing about the counteroffensive? >> as you mentioned, the fact that the u.s. is assisting afghan forces, making airstrikes today, that was already a big step. the latest is that the government claims they have retaken police headquarters and the prison which was opened by the taliban yesterday. however, in the last two minutes claimed -- it is

difficult to get any fixed and certain news. there have been casualties and civilian casualties, but the numbers are still not certain. genie: it seemed like this offensive came almost out of nowhere. what kind of a setback is this for the government and for afghan president ashraf ghani? >> it is a huge setback. today is the one-year anniversary of ashraf ghani's swearing in as president. it is a very challenging year. the economy has been failing the whole year. security has always been in question. although it is called a surprise attack, to be fair, kunduz has been under threat. april was a very big offensive. at the time the taliban were getting quite close to the city

center, and they were pushed back. they have been under threat for quite some time. when they say a surprise attack, it is that they did not anticipate the scale or that the taliban would come from different directions. genie: thank you for that. that is catherine james reporting from kabul. now to new york, where u.s. president barack obama is chairing a meeting of world leaders at the u.n. general assembly. that comes one day after he sat down with russian president vladimir putin for their first face-to-face meeting in two years. today the u.s. will rally support in the fight against militant groups like the islamic state. but on monday, mr. putin was quick to lay out his view of how to handle the concert in syria, a view that is different from the u.s. oliver farry explains. putin calledmir on international coalition to

combat the islamic state group. the coalition would work closely with bashar al-assad's government. >> uniting efforts against the new problems we face will create a real, broad, antiterrorist correlation -- anti-terror coalition. those who are bravely fighting terror, face-to-face. >> that is backed by iran. the u.s. is part of its own international coalition in syria but has now worked toward dislodging the syrian president while washington -- but while washington is continuing to soften its line, it is only willing to go so far. president obama: the united states is willing to work with any nation to resolve the conflict. but we must recognize there , anot be, after so much return to the prewar status quo.

francois hollande said that the departure was a prerequisite to establishing lasting peace in syria. >> bashar al-assad must leave so the deposition and the regime can make the necessary changes. the bombing that he carries out must stop immediately. >> with the syrian conflict showing no end in size after four years, and with the squabbling over the refugee crisis, bashar al-assad appears to have the upper hand. genie: the dust -- the death toll from an airstrike on a wedding party in yemen may be as high as 130 people, including

many women and children among the victims. that would make it one of the deadliest attacks on civilians since the war in yemen began last march. a coalition led by saudi arabia has been targeting houthi rebels in yemen with airstrikes. the saudi's have been denying any responsibility for this strike. as the fighting in the middle east continues, so does the migrant crisis. the number has jumped to over 500,000 who cross the mediterranean into europe this year alone. speaking in paris, jean-claude juncker reiterated the importance of welcoming the refugees into the e.u. >> in light of what we must call the refugee crisis, i warned everyone who is playing on ignoble instincts, the far right must not win out. on the contrary, we must be this continent a

place where you can live well. so welcome the refugees. [applause] genie: close to 3000 migrants and refugees have perished or disappeared trying to make the dangerous journey this year. for those who may it, a new threat is on the rise -- the cold. alexander al qaeda reports. alexander olcott reports. theander: averting migration route, the treasures crossingas seen many with a long slog over land. their struggle will be against the elements. many of them lack the proper clothing to be able to cope with the falling temperatures. it started to rain yesterday

evening. we lack supplies. ,hings like waterproof clothes and food like canned tuna. as night falls, temperatures drop to as low as seven degrees centigrade. several have been treated by doctors at the serbia border. >> very small children. as young as one month old baby, even 15 days. one baby was born in turkey. chronic number of diseases. we expect even more with the worsening of the political conditions, and the winter coming and going also. these dream for most of

people is to leave war and poverty behind, to start a new life in the prosperous e.u. nations to the north. but now with winter closing in, their long march has become a race against time. genie: the capital of the central african republic was rocked by a third day of violence monday with the death .oll now close to 40 over 27,000 have been forced to flee their homes. hundreds of prisoners escaped from a jail in bangui, and protesters took to the streets, demanding that the traditional president stepped down. thomas waterhouse has more. thomas: barricades ablaze on the streets of bangui, as discontent flames continue to burn bright. several hundred protesters turned out for a third day on monday. this time they have the presidential palace in their sites. they want the current government out, u.n. and french

peacekeepers gone. we have realized that neither the u.n. peacekeeping mission nor the french troops came here to protect us. it is up to the central african people to do so. that is what we said to our compatriots -- go out and take the streets until the french and the u.n. leave the country. alexander: six people are killed when the u.n. was fired upon. the murder of a muslim man on saturday sparked reprisals by muslims in a christian neighborhood, which led to attacks by armed gangs on civilians. the country's transitional president spoke to "france 24" in new york. she says the protests have an orchestrated by the former president to destabilize the country. >> we know that former dignitaries are trying to come back to power in the central african republic.

secret. no on the ground, we know who these people are. the ones who are trying to cement insecurity. >> is the former president a part of this? >> certainly. supposed tonment is organize elections by the end of the year. with the unrest is going to come castu believe people will a balance as planned on october 18. genie: a typhoon has hit mainland china hours after being .torming through taiwan hundreds of thousands left without power or water. east china, train services have been suspended and 100 flights canceled due to the storms. next, to that amazing discovery on mars that could signify the possibility of life on the red

planet. they found flowing water there. >> nasa scientists called it a major scientific discovery, one that could revolutionize the way planets. the joy, arid planet we thought of in the past. today we are going to announce that under certain circumstances, liquid water has been found on mars. showed satellites several traces of water on the red planet. shows thate now water streams have been flowing on these slopes during the warmer martian months, and as recently as last year. >> from the curiosity rover, we now know that mars once was a planetary much like earth, with warm salty seas, with freshwater

lakes, probably snowcapped peaks and clouds and a water cycle. >> the source of the water has raised important questions on the possibility of life on mars. a planet we previously thought was too cold for living organisms. >> i feel it is even more imperative that we sent astrobiologists and planetary scientists to mars to explore the question of, is their current life on mars. >> previous nasa missions already established that life who could have -- life could have existed on mars in the past. discovery, thet planet has become more intriguing. genie: the u.s. has launched an airstrike on the afghan city of city a north afghanistan seized by the taliban monday. its first major takeover in a decade. vladimir putin steals the spotlight at the u.n., presenting his idea for syria.

but the russian president and barack obama still clash over the future of syrian president bashar al-assad. a record 522,000 migrants have now come into europe this year. after perilous journeys over land and sea, many of them are now suffering as the weather grows cold. it is time for business news with stephen carroll. we are starting with the latest on the emission's scandal at volkswagen. stephen: we are getting a new desk getting new information customers will get details in the coming days on which of the diesel models need to be recalled and what they have to do to have the software that was fitted to cheat those emissions tests changed. volkswagen needs to have this planet place before next week to satisfy regulators. our correspondent has more on this story. taking the drivers seat to

steer volkswagen through its biggest scandal in history. during a meeting monday night, vw's new boss unveiled a plan that -- customers will be advised in the coming days which cars have to be refitted. 11 million vehicles are expected to be recalled, including vw, audi, and fiat. he also wants to separate vw, which is struggling with low profit margins, from others in the group, like its porsche and audi brands. first stepis the toward modernizing the company. with a long trudge ahead, he called it, to repair the damage from last week's scandal. the german carmaker admitted to cheating u.s. emissions tests. first --nterkorn was

was forced to step down. three top engineers have been suspended. the group is facing up to $18 in a scandalnes that has wiped out one third of its market value. it has also brought into question the viability of a clean diesel industry that has been promoted by several european carmakers. stephen: the losses were seen in volkswagen shares, down half a percent at the moment. things are looking a little bit better there. in the european markets, we are seeing shares pretty much stabilizing. all of the european markets opened pretty sharply down at the first part of the day. they are recovering. attackedc lawmakers price increases to heart drugs by valence that by failing and

-- by valiant pharmaceuticals. and the money coming in court, those shares are recovering today i 4%. they dropped by nearly 30% monday. this is over fears of how low commodity prices are going to affect the country pinnie -- affect the company's future. glenn core has been the worst affected, covered a shares losing some 75% of their value this year. news foru do have good the euro zone economy today. stephen:. economic confidence is at its highest level since 2011, despite what is happening in china. we in ireland we have an , and spainfigure with less positive news with consumer prices falling 1.2% this month, much worse than had been expected. a mixed bag from the eurozone. more business headlines -- dutch

authorities have rated uberpop's headquarters in amsterdam as part of a criminal investigation into whether it is operating -- uber's headquarters in amsterdam as part of a criminal investigation. fines, 450,000s euros have been limited against the company. societe generale could close some of its branches. in france, as more customers bank online. lenders considering the branch closures between now and 2020. it has closed 40 of its 202 outlets. expected,larger than by 50 basis points, 6.75%. the bank's governor saying the cut was needed. thee: a chocolate maker in

u.k. is making a sweet deal on some familiar faces. stephen: they managed to do some incredible things with chocolate. they have surpassed sales. everything you can see here is entirely made of chocolate. the cup, records, cassettes, all made completely out of chocolate. to push through this sales barrier for them. they have also the well in the british elections this year. trio of a special chocolate bars at the election of thee three leaders main parties on chocolate bars. genie: good for them. thanks so much, stephen. it is time now for the press review. have florence florence villeminot here with us to take a look at today's press. firstf focus on the

meeting in overdose two years between russian president vladimir putin and u.s. president barack obama. flo: the papers are saying it was at pretty frosty meeting. "the independent" talks about a eace,piece -- the cold p the handshake there. and putin offered very different visions of how to resolve the conflict in syria. that is a polite way to put it. if we look at a cartoon in the palestinian paper, you can see barack obama and vladimir putin at each other's throats, strangling each other over this issue. the caption there is "the cold war." there was a photo of them toasting after their speeches. it looks like a little bit of an awkward moment. a polite toast after airing sharp this princes -- sharp differences on syria.

genie: the main sticking point that is going on in regards to syria is about what it is to do with the syrian president, bashar al-assad. we's -- shouldld he stay or should he go. the fate of bashar al-assad is really the apple of disagreement between vladimir putin and barack obama. a belgian paper says bashar al-assad is at the heart of the general arm wrestling going on in the middle east. "the new york times," in their editorial, outline these between differences putin and obama on syria. putin says it would be an and or miss mistake not to work with bashar al-assad's forces, whereas barack obama described him as the tyrant who killed children, and he said assad needs to go. this is an interesting article from a jordanian paper. there are two different visions

of what to do in syria. you have barack obama looking a lot like a cowboy. notice his gun. it is a toy gun with a little bit of a cork stuffed into the edge. it says that he wants to spread democracy in syria. that you have vladimir putin looking like a more serious soldier. he wants to back up the legitimacy of the syrian states. two very different visions about what to do in syria. first of all, from "the washington post," making fun of -- a cartoon making fun of vladimir putin's political strategy in general. it seems he is drawing inspiration from the pope's visit to the united states. slightly different with the threatening missile there on a car. it says, "turn the other cheek, idea or you." and the french -- "turn the other cheek, i dare you." and now he is calling the shots when it comes to syria.

once again, you can see the cartoon, vladimir putin looking very muscular. he is the superstar on the front page or you can see barack obama and francois hollande looking pretty depressed, pretty glum. he says we all agree that war is -- a won by a bunch of play on words -- small airstrikes. but it is also someone who is not that muscular. so perhaps he has all the muscle and francois hollande and obama do not have as much. genie: xi jinping also gave a speech on monday. focusesina daily" today on his pledge to set up a $1 billion fund essentially for peace and development. it is the china-yuan peace and development fund. on sunday he will cochair the u.s. conference on women's rights. some people are happy about this. hillary clinton tweeted that it

was shameless that he was going to cochair this given the recent government crackdowns on women's rights in china. her tweet upset chinese authorities. if we look at an article in "the christian science monitor," it describes an article that came out yesterday in the communist party one paper "the global times." that the marks were a lot like donald trump's. this said that her statements were vulgar. and if hillary, copying trump -- genie: big news coming out of nasa in the states. on planet mars, we have apparently found flowing water under some circumstances. flo: is very cold, salty water, but according to nasa, liquid water is flowing on the red planet. very exciting news. front page news. you can see this -- it says --

that is a little bit of a play on words. pluck mean strip drip. knock knock. there is big question. does that mean, water, that there could be life on mars? is being saidñaw=>>>>>ú7

>> this is a production of china central television america. >> an iconic rocker and his family are giving back in a big, big way. they're impacting their own community as well as leaving an imprint around the world. is this the new face of family philanthropy? and later, a close-up on a musical tradition that's finding new and younger roots. i'm mike walter in los angeles. let's take it full frame. ♪