>> it could escalate the conflict ahead of the meeting about bashar al-assad's chemical arsenal. >> the secretary of state has just arrived in geneva to discuss a russian plan in a few hours. there are plenty more on that. hello. ahead on this also, the army moves to end a four-day stand off at separatist rebels in the philippines. >> the dutch government

apologizes for killing thousands during indonesia's struggle for independence. >> a new face on the block, we have the campaign from what could be germany's first black member of parliament. >> there is a chance for peace in syria and the world must not let it pass is the words of the russian foreign minister ahead of his meeting with his u.s. counterpart. john kerry just arrived, he's there to discuss a russian proposal for syria to hand over chemical weapons. there has already been a rejection of russian's plan. we have more from geneva. >> with russia playing host, the five leading members of the u.n. discussed monday

evening to discuss about syria's weapons to be destroyed. russia does not want this to be military enforceable, the u.s. and allies do. it is up to these men, the u.s. secretary of state and russian's foreign minister will discuss the practicalities of putting those weapons under international control. the idea with russia, holding onto the initiative, vladimir putin spoke directly to the american people. he warned that a u.s. strike would increase violence and unleash a new wave of terrorism. it could throw the entire system of international law and order out of balance. millions around the world would increasingly see america not as a model of democracy but relying solely on brute force. in new york the u.n. secretary general says that the organization is guilty of a collective failure for its inability to find common ground on the syria crisis. >> i hope that the discussions

related to safeguarding syria's chemical weapons stocks will lead to an effective role in promoting an end to the syrian tragedy. >> in damascus the fading threat of an imminent u.s. threat is releaving the tension building there. after the russia initiatives tensions began to ease on the streets of damascus. this is obvious from the activities in the markets. interview:>> outside the calm of damascus, this conflict has claimed the lives of more than 5,000 civilians and forced millions from homes. the al-assad regime may stop using the chemical arsenal, most of the dead have been killed by conventional weapons. after weeks of diplomating wrangling small words from the united states against damascus and the threat of a military strike against syria hang over the entire region. now the u.s. secretary of

state john kerry and russian foreign minister arrive here to try to hammer out an agreement that will see syria handing over chemical weapons. the russians and americans both are the traveling here with experts. it looks like this will be primarily a discussion on how to proceed. concentrating on especially three areas, saying where exactly al-assad's chemical weapons are within the country, how to gain access to hundreds of scientist scientistt are likely to be given access to those weapons across the country with the view to essentially destroy that arsenal. of course, the relationship at the moment between the united states and russia is dogged by mutual untrust and suspension. the concern of america, french, uk, this could be a way for al-assad to gain extra time to have more of a footing

in the country more than anything all sides will have to put those concerns aside and focus on building a new level of trust. >> government forces are moving in to end a four-day stand off in the philippines. more more on this we're going live to zombega city. >> soldiers have been u in this tucks, we're not exactl exactly -- the government and ministry has not confirmed this is underway, but looking at this situation here, the unusual movement of military and tanks heading in, it seems that's the case. only a few minutes ago there was a lull in the fighting but

we're still hearingorta and actually fire fighting between the two forces. right behind me, by the side of this road a few blocks away is a village where fighters e holding 100 civil i don't 100s hostage. there are deposing bodies there, that's not been proved yet since monday morning. they're hope ing that the families will be able to get out. it is an increasingly humanitarian concern and the number of evacuees has been listed as 14,000. >> what do we know -- >> you described human rights, humanitarian workers want to get in to see the hostages. what do we know about the negotiations happening to free

them of any plan for their safety? when we spoke to the central government earlier, they have not really directly said what they want would be a military approach. in fact, they assure the public that they're looking at finding a peaceful, non-confrontational solution or they want to contain them and the fighters in the current position that they are. they said that they're looking at possibly putting through with the founder, in indonesia in a few days time, if you look on the ground, having spoken to several military person, all they want is to make sure that these fighters are accountable for what she the describe is an atrocity committed here. >> we're reporting this is the second city that the fighters moved to. what do we know of the civilian situation -- we just

heard a shot in the background. what do we know of the civilian situation as this fighting intensified? >> it is hard to know. all we know is that we have a number -- we have seen a number of evacuees, families that are trapped, they managed to get out just a few moments ago. the filopine government assured the public that they have evacuated, that there is enough food, supplies for those that need it. in fact, in the streets, more and more evacuees are living in the streets, they have barely anything to eat and barely anything to drink. apart from looking at the situation in terms of looking at this, the issue is really the difficult human rights, human rights services are hoping they can open a channel with the mnlf fighters, the commander, and there is a chance they can talk and maybe they would be allowed to go in and if they can bring the help

that those people who are in there need it most. it is therefore according to the red cross becoming increasingly hard for people to have something to get in the region where hundreds of hostage until now. >> thank you, stay safe. this is the unfolding situation in zamboanga city. thank you. now, the dutch government apologized for the mass killing of indonesians during colonial rule. thousands were killed in the wharf independence which ended in 1949. more than 60 years later, this is still a sensitive issue between the two countries. >> on behalf of the government, i apologize for these excesses. today, i also apologize.

>> we have more from dakarta. >> 66 years after the war crimes took place in indonesia the dutch government finally apologized, an apology that lasted only five minutes and there were also representatives of the indonesia government nor were those widows that the apology was meant for. the dutch decided not to go to the location of the war crimes. they did that because they wanted a broder gesture than before, they wanted to apologize for all of the war crimes, the executions that have taken place between 1945 and 1949. the whole idea that this is all very sensitive, it shows because of the wording being used and the way the ceremony is being housed. a lot of veterans are pressuring the government not to apologize, they feel they're victims themselves

from this traumatic experience during that period in the 1940s when the indonesians were fighting for independence. >> in mexico leaders of a teacher union agreed to meet the government after protests against educational foe rims. 15 were injured on wednesday in demonstrations. we have this report from mexico city. >> weeks of protests with teachers in mexico city resulted in a long stand off with riot police. police used smoke to disperse them from the capital of main avenue. they have been camping out and holding daily march ons highways and avenues to protest against an education reform, a reform taking hiring and firing power from the main teacher union giving it back to the government. the plan changes also includes an evaluation system. could just be a cover for the government to privatize schools teachers say but the president say this is needed

to improve the mexican students chances of competing in a globalized marketplace. protests have gone on for weeks but wednesday was different, a day after the reform was put into law. >> we won't take a step back in applying our education law. rather, we'll make sure we move forward faster to guarantee the right of all and youth to a higher quality education. reporter:>> the teachers don't care. they're now out to repeal the law. >> during the resolution and the war for independence everything was done at this conviction. there were fights and people joined because of their conviction. we're also here because we believe in what we're doing. reporter:>> peaceful resistance, we will be known everywhere, around the world, it is not possible to go back 50 years and take everything from us. >> thousands of teachers came here but standing in their way is a huge barricade and

hundreds of riot police. >> still, the top secretary will meet the protest leaders thursday. it is unlikely that the law will be repeeled but the teacher union has other goals too. they want to build a national u.n., yoi don'tunion to not allx code and other items. >> still to come on this program... a state of deaths in indian hospitals putting infant morality back in the spotlight. london fashion week looms, there is mounting pressure on manufacturers to improve working conditions.

>> hello again. here is a reminder of our top stories, u.s. secretary of state john kerry arrived in geneva to meet with his russian counterpart. they'll discuss a russian plan for syria to hand over chemical weapons. >> meantime, vladimir putin has appealed to the american people over the syria crisis. an opinion piece in the new york times he warned that the u.s. military intervention in syria could escalate the conflict and lead to terrorist attacks. >> the army is moving in to end a 4-day stand off in the philippines. it happened as fighters attacked a second town in the same area. >> in south africa, there is a

march in victoria. let's get more on this from our correspondent whose live for us there. tell us what's happening here and what they're marching for. >> people arrived, some are on their way, they're coming from bus from various mines around the country. that part of the story is that last year 34 miners were struck an by police, some were injured. they're looking into what actually went wrong, what happened. now they're saying that they done have the money to pay for the lawyers to represent the miners, the miners are angry, why is the state paying for lawyers to represent the police? today the miners are marching to the union members to demand why they're not getting money to pay for their own lawyers and demandic mone demanding mone state as well. they're asking for money to be provided to them to represent

them in this inquiry. the state says there is no money to provide the lawyers to represent the miners. >> give us context on this, south africa is struggling with strikes. give us an idea of how this is effecting the country. >> this is the annual season, this happens every year, the strike season. it does a lot of damage to the economy and people are negotiating. so far they have not been invited to the one wes saw last year. now -- the ones we saw last year. a lot of people, they are striking and also hijacking in

particular they'll be discussing about. they can't really ignore the plight of the island. whether that means giving them the money they want, people want to see action. they want to get the votes provided. (chanting). >> that's live from victoria as miners go on strike, thank you. >> a helicopter is accused of negligence, it provides free services for families and 60 children have died in the last nine days. >> >> this is a journey no one wants to make. #.this 2.5-year-old died at this children's hospital. his uncle says he was admitted to the intensive care unit 7 days ago with a high fever.

he never thought his nephew would die there he says. >> >> most of the time the nurses were busy on their mobile phones talking to boy friends and girl friends. mothers were constantly complaining about the care of children but the nurses didn't bother. >> this doctor says on average the royal hospital sees 80 very sick children every day. those that died there arrive in critical condition. >> it is not simple, they don't come. it is a large number. >> this is not the first time that the authorities

pay rate approaching a living wage still hasn't been set. this bangladesh union leader that's been lobbying says that's a thin outcome after the deaths of more than 1,000 people. >> they're not interested. the workers, they simply think about the clothing. >> just as mean spirited in

the view of campaigners is a refusal by household name, multinational names, to offer compensation at all to people killed or made destitute by the building collapse. >> they're making huge profits at the expense of the workers. when something like this happens, which is both affordable and should be avoided. the fact that the companies are not paying with compensation is disgraceable. >> which make this fashion week a good opportunity to talk about the industry and to remind people of the bizarre relationship between glamour and poverty. many in fashion are trying to keep the pressure on. >> we have seen in 10 to 15 years window dressing from the european high street. on the website one may say one thing. actually impacted was the designers, the merchandises teams. >> much of the work here is being done on behalf of those

that realize they're unlikely to get shoppers to protest in outlets where they buy their clothes. a petition signed by a million calling for dignity forn't workers tells its own story but that's not enough to force change. al jazeera, london. >> germany's general election september 22nd could see the first black member of parliament. he was born in sin gal sy. nagaul and orphaned at #. he hopes to went office as a member of the social democratic party. >> another campaign bus in another city for another candidate. >> it is election time but this candidate is one-of-a-kind. he's black. he hold as doctorate in chemistry was beaten up for his skin color years ago and much of the former east germany racism runs higher than elsewhere.

that's not stopping him from meeting voters here. quite the opposite. >> they have not identified the potential of immigrants using their experiences from different back ground and they could enrich the political process. >> nationwide only 4% of candidates running for parliament are of immigrant background. 20% of the population is from immigrant stock. the proportion of minority representation here is far below that in france and great britain for example. part of the problem is a german law allowing many to give up citisenship of their original country in order to vote and many don't want to do that. another problem, germans with old traditional roots here see immigrants. it is one of the few turkish germans mps says.

>> they have difficulties with the names and i think it will take time to have a more normal situation, that people don't ask do you speak german? are you able to understand everything that's going on there? it is not normal. >> he's high up on a party list and has a good chance of being elected. he says he doesn't want to be a curiosity or mp told to specialize in immigration issues because he's an immigrant. he wants to be a member of parliament like any other german can hope to be if he or she wants and tries and wins. >> a cyber analysis has revelations on the nsa's spying program. >> it is a huge amount of information that the u.s. has access to and it seems by this report that they're sharing it with israel and while sharing

it they're not minimizing it which means taking out u.s. communications like they're supposed to be doing domestically anyway. they're just giving them everything that they have off wire. you know, that's a real worry for people in the u.s. given that their privacy could be violated by other countries and people around the world who don't necessarily even have the protections that u.s. citizens have. when we talk about the rules involved and the domestic surveillance, the nsa is involved in in the u.s., those rules are lax too. the patriot act that had the secret interpretation of this law that's allowed them to gather all of this phone metadata on every american citizen they have had for seven years and we just found out about it two months ago. they have been scanning large canties of e-mails going overseas and the americans barely knew about this. sothe privacy connections for americans have been weakened and almost in secret.

hopefully the revelation also force congress to act to pass bill reform. >> the mayor of chicago has apologized for the actions of a former police commander and others involved in the torture of black suspects. this is a part of a 12 million-dollar court settlement. >> the price for more than two decades behind bars in chicago, an apology and 12 12.5 million. that's the amount the city council agreed to pay marvin reeds and wally pigeon after the police beat and tortured them into confessing to four murder in 199 #. the city later declared them innocent. >> we do not kid ourselves that the fight is over or that the city has somehow become a kinder, gentler one. i don't think that's the case. >> the mayor called the scandal a dark chapter in the history of chicago and gave a long awaited apology saying i'm sorry this happened, let us all now move on.

>> the men accused of heading the torture team was the police commander whose now serving 4.5 years in prison. earlier cases bringing the total costs and settlements and legal fees to 81 million. it was here that the commander oversaw the unit accused of torturing and beating black men into false confession. in some cases they were suffocated with plastic bags and in others the men say that police used electric cattle products on their genitals. >> this man says no amount of money can give me and my family back what was so viciously stolen from me. an innocent man was tortured and wrongfully convicted. >> the struggle is by no means over. there is still men in jail who were tortured into giving false confessions. they have to have new hearings in court. >> this case may not be over. one defense attorney called for a 20 million-dollar fund for all the victims still awaiting justice.

john henry, al jazeera, chicago. >> here is a reminder that you can keep up to date with all of the news on the website. as you see, there is indepth analysis of this vladimir putin piece in the new york times appealing to americans. take a look.