announcement is expected on thursday. in the u.s., a bad clash between vice president candidates senator tim kaine and governor mike pence. they lodge insults at each other while debating which campaign is the most insult driven. we will get analysis on that from our correspondent. my name is christopher. thank you for joining us. the afghan military claims to have killed dozens of taliban fighters as it continues its efforts to regain control. forces have pushed the taliban out of the city center, but heavy clashes continue on the outskirts. now, this battle comes as world leaders have been meeting in brussels to discuss fresh financial aid for the country. the conference ended with donors pledging some 13.5 billion euros to support afghanistan overhe next four years. >> representatives of 70 donor nations huddled with one objective in brussels, doing everything possible to help afghanistan heal from terror attacks, poverty, and corruption. the afghan president will return home with a generous aid package. >> i am proud to announce that the european union, together with its member states, is the first donor, with over 5 billion euros. >> the afghan president expressed gratitude for the financial aid. but he pointed to pakistan as a source of ongoing problems in the region. for years, islamabad has been suspected of supporting the taliban. >> there cannot be a distinction between good and bad terrorists. providing sanctuary, tolerating terrorism is a threat. >> u.s. secretary of state john kerry called on pakistan to cooperate more closely with afghanistan, and he appealed once more to the taliban to disarm. >> a political settlement in a go to -- settlement negotiated is the only way to end the fighting. let me repeat it. their goal of ridding afghanistan of external forces will not occur by the demand or continued insurgency, it will come through peace. >> the u.s. once kabul to play a more supportive role in the reintegration of afghan refugees. under the new accord, asylum seekers denied refugee status will be sent back to kabul more easily. in turn, europe would provide financial backing for their reentry to afghanistan. the german foreign minister emphasized the importance of this intent. >> i hope this newly signed accord with afghanistan can be successfully put into practice. >> human rights activists around the world are critical, saying afghans have few prospects back home. >> for the time being, because security is a concern for everyone, it would not be the right solution, especially for the young generation. >> while the international community is eager to send international asylum seekers back home. >> the united states is expecting considerably less money to be pledged. can we call this a good day for afghanistan? >> absolutely. this is the miracle of brussels, really, because there has been no donor fatigue and the day went off without a hitch. we were positively elated. they said there was no negativity around the table. everybody was very constructive. talks were very friendly. everybody opened their person and put their checkbook on the table. everything as expect it an even better. it is a good day for afghanistan and even better. however, we also know that in 2020, we are all going to see each other again. >> you say or is no donor fatigue, but our donors seeing -- there is no donor fatigue, but our donors seeing -- are donors seeing the kind of progress they hope for every quarter years when they pledge these funds to afghanistan? >>, they don't, and there has been no mincing of words among participants. they say we need to see reforms more quickly. however, everybody knows that the government is politically weak and divided. to their president is a technocrat. he cannot to live it -- cannot deliver more than his coalition partners will allow. there has been some progress. there are better health services. women's rights have been dramatically improved. 8 million afghan children go to school. there are roads. there is electricity in some parts of the country some of the time. however, everybody knows this is not enough. even the president had to admit that 40% of his population is still living below the poverty line, so there needs to be improvement. we all know that billions of aid that has gone into afghanistan has been wasted through corruption and mismanagement, and nobody yet has a handle on that problem. he is hard-pressed to do better. >> one other aspect that is interesting from today, afghanistan had to sign a deal with the european union obliging it to take back failed asylum seekers. how controversial is that? >> that was not controversial at all, amazingly. that was a problem the european union sort of created for itself. the president of afghanistan was asked in the press conference this evening for his comments about this and he just shrugged his shoulders and said there are 3 million afghan refugees in pakistan, one million in neighboring countries and thousands are coming back every day. what's a few thousand more? a drop in the ocean. it's nothing. from the afghan side, this is not a problem at all to take them back. however, it will add to the burden of afghanistan. it will add to the 50% of people who have no job and are on the streets of kabul in the neighboring regions. so, what europe wants to do is to divide -- to decide for itself. >> think very much for that. turning to the conflict -- thank you very much for that. turning to the conflict in syria, a united nations officials says new satellite imagery is proof that an attack on a u.n. convoy was an airstrike as opposed to an attack from the ground. it led to the collapse of a short-lived cease-fire. the u.s. accused russian planes of carrying out the strike. moscow denied any responsibility. the u.s. has condemned the attack as a possible war crimes. it has not directly blamed any particular party in the conflict. this all comes directly after the you and commissioner for human rights warned russia over to use of incendiary weapons -- of the u.n. -- this all comes after the you and commissioner for human rights warned russia over the use of incendiary weapons in syria. we have more on what that might achieve. >> it could achieve a lot. the security council is absolutely key in a situation like syria as well as all the other major conflict areas. recently, it has really been paralyzed, especially on syriac, because five states have veto power, the states that were effectively the victors after world war ii. france launched an initiative in 2014, 2 years ago, to say that international crimes, war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are being alleged. then the council should stop using the veto, because these are such serious situations, the veto being used for domestic or political purposes should stop. that has quite a lot of support among other states, but it hasn't happened. so, we were referring to that yesterday. >> while berlin has been at the center of fresh diplomatic efforts for syria today, germany's foreign minister is meeting with the u.n. syrian envoy. before the meeting, he got it maddening that the u.s.-russia peace deal had been torpedoed. he said it was essential to keep moving forward on the issue. earlier, european to mats were in berlin to discuss ways to stop the fighting in syria -- european diplomats were in berlin to discuss ways the fighting in syria. the prime minister of portugal is set to become the next united nations head. he was the head of the u.n. refugee agency, until last december, a host -- post he held until that she held for two years. he would replace ban ki-moon as secretary-general if approved. is this a surprise? >> it was known from the very beginning of this process that it had to be a woman this time and an eastern european. there was an informal vote in the security council over the past two months. he has come out on top and he seems also to have created the least antibodies, as it were, in that he is the man who received the least votes of discouragement for him to continue on this path. in the past few days, there was a flurry of controversy as another candidate, an eastern european woman, was put forth in the last minute. there was controversy over that. it does seem as though they have now closed ranks around this man in the security council. he is a man who seems to be able to bring people together. he has great experience in the international field, not only as the high commissioner for refugees, but also as prime minister as portugal. he also was the president of the european council for a while. people have noted that he was on a council that had the israeli party and thought to movement in a, so they think if he can get them to sit down in one form, he might be able to do things on a larger scale. people are very pleased. the president of the country has welcomed this. the prime minister was a former minister himself. he has said it was a triumph for portuguese diplomacy. portuguese officials have been working very hard for a long time to see this happen. they should be very pleased indeed. >> thank you for that. the reuters news agency is reporting that internet giant yahoo! secretly scammed millions of its users e-mail accounts on behalf of the u.s. government. it monitored hundreds of millions of incoming e-mails in compliance with demands made by the national security agency. the reuters report prompted nsa whistleblower edward snowden to tweet that yahoo! had gone far beyond what the law requires. he urged users of the yahoo! e-mail program to close their accounts. it looks like many users are heeding that advice. it triggered better reactions from many users. meanwhile, yahoo!'s rivals quickly denied they had received similar surveillance requests from the u.s. government and added that their response would be a simple no way. in south korea, three people have been killed as a powerful typhoon lashes the coast. the storm also cutting power supplies and disrupting travel. forecasters say the system is likely to lose power and be downgraded to a tropical storm before it reaches japan. we are going to take a short break. you are watching dw news in berlin. stay with us. >> welcome back to dw news in berlin. the president of colombia says the cease-fire with the farc rebel group will be extended to the end of october. his country is in talk with -- talks with rebels to save a peace deal narrowly rejected over the weekend. critics have said he is too lenient on the group. both sides say they are committed to peace. turning to the u.s., last night's vice presidential debate producing a bad tempered clash touching on terrorism, foreign relations, and racial tension. hillary clinton's running mate tim kaine insisted on sticking to the issue of donald trump potential tax evasion. we are going to speak to our correspondent in washington. what was the added value of this vice presidential debate? did we learn anything that we didn't already know from the first presidential debate? >> well, i wouldn't use the word added value. one big difference between the presidential and vice presidential debates is the content or lack thereof. while trump and clinton traded insults, tim kaine and mike pence, to some extt, talked about the issues people want to hear about. looking at past -- at the past, there is very little evidence that the vice presidential debates affect the outcome of the election. but the vp is the first decision presidential candidates make, and during the debate, everyone can see if it was a good decision or not. i think donald trump was there a smart to take governor pence as his vp. >> what has the reaction been like to last night's debate? does either one been -- has either one of the vice presidential candidates been declared the winner? >> pen was thelear winr. ma rublinsiseyad he clear and calm.ot trump. tim kaine often interrupted. mike pence was the winner. even the liberal new york times, which is very close to hillary clinton, even the new york times acknowledg that pence was the winner. he looked comfortable on stage. the governor of indiana once worked as a radio host. ybe helped. >> thank you. we are going to switch to the business news now. the imf with some doom and gloom for europe's banks. >> i am afraid so. it does not look great. the international monetary fund says european banks need to take urgent action to address nonperforming funds. they currently stand at around 900 billion euros. the imf says weak profitability in a low interest rate, low growth environment could erode european bank buffers and undermined their ability -- undermine their ability to support an economic recovery. the imf says they should write-off bad loans and the weakest banks should shut down or merge into stronger entities. on wall street, hosea standing by for us. the imf has come out with comments that say one in three european banks are weak and will not be able to return to sustainable profit. how concerned should we be? >> well, it is something for sure that is keeping banks up. several banks need urgent action to address nonperforming loans and a new business model. that means these banks could pose a risk to financial stability. if all of these banks would do their homework, they could project 60 billion euros of profitability in the horizon, which would make investors very happy. >> deutsche bank says its challenges will be met. what can be made of that? >> well, the german bank has become a poster child at the press conference on wednesday. experts said deutsche bank needs to demonstrate to investors that its business bottle -- business model is viable. it also needs to address rising risk from litigation, make it clear those challenges will be met. so far, u.s. banks have suffered more fines than any institutions in any countries, and they are doing fine. >> thank you. the european union has agreed to new financial aid for afghanistan after an international donor conference in brussels. the 28 member bloc said it would provide the country with 1.2 billion euros each year until 2020. life has not improved for most afghans. poverty and unemployment are widespread. the government is battling the resurgent taliban and. -- resurgent taliban. joining me in the studio now, someone who has just returned from the donors conference in brussels. thank you for joining us today. to begin, the eu representative said buying four more years for afghanistan. is the aid enough? >> not quite yet at the moment. i think a number of challenges remain. this will be enough to keep the country going, but i think a lot more needs to be done in terms of government support to move the agenda on reform forward. we have seen that some of this reform has been really slow. i think a lot more has to be done. >> this level of money, will it help kickstart the economy in afghanistan, or is it kind of just enough to keep it where it is? >> it's just enough to keep things going. the government has a number of initiatives. this has been held back by a number of challenges in the country. we are not likely to see any major change in the coming years. again, some of these major obstacles, like corruption, need to be tackled systematically. >> how much money does corruption take from the aid budget in afghanistan question my >> we estimate one and eight dollars is taken. 670 million dollars will be lost through this corruption. >> so, we can potentially write-off and eight of the aid that has been agreed on. surely the international government needs to tackle this. is it? >> absolutely. we launched a report that shows the gaps and what has to be done. the government has shown a good commitment. but it will come down to a number of key reforms. eliminating corruption, continuing to grow, and afghanistan has not improved its corruption scoring in the last few years. a number of other players will need to really play their roles. >> do you think that can be achieved? the national unity government has tried to address corruption over the past two years, transparency, and other organizations have said only two commitments have been in women it. >> absolutely. that is one of the major concerns -- have been implemented. >> absolutely. that is one of the major concerns and challenges. they are one of the main perpetrators of human rights corruption. they walk free on the streets. the justice system doesn't work. judges can be appointed or influenced by politicians. they will protect themselves in this process. so, there needs to be an independent judicial service commission to appoint judges and make it more independent. >> many thanks for joining us today. more business news here a little later. first though, back over to christopher. >> thank you. some royalties. sweden's royal couple has arrived in germany for their third official visit. queen silvia has german ancestry , as does the king. they will meet at the presidential palace before they continue to other german cities. the world arm wrestling tempe in ships have kicked off in the bulgarian city -- championships have kicked off in bulgaria. bulging biceps will be put to the test. this is the 38th edition of the sports premier event. both right and left hands in a variety of weight classes. a quick reminder for you of our top story. afghanistan has been promised 13 .5 billion euros in international aid over the next four years. in exchange, world leaders say they want reforms in corruption and human rights and they want afghan to take back rejected asylum-seekers. a short bright -- short break, and then i am back with the day. ♪ as china experiences on going economic decline. housing costs in beijing now surpass those through new york. according to an april 2016 announcement, from the uk's business alliance, they have become the most expensive in