kidnap in tripoli, prime minute steer ali see dan is abducted from his hotel by armed men. also ahead, the u.s. announces cuts in aid to egypt worth hundreds of millions of dollars. southeast asian leaders discuss the influence of u.s. and china at the annual asean summit. plus british and american retailers admit that their clothes were made at a

bangladesh factory destroyed by fire. ♪ ♪ >> an emergency cabinet meeting has been called in libya after the apparent kidnapping of the libyan prime minister. members of the libyan revolutionary operations chamber took ali zeidan from a hotel in tripoli and are now holding him at an unknown location. the militia is under the command of the military. it says it was acting on the authority of the justice ministry. al jazerra has more from tripoli. >> reporter: we talked to people, commanders in the revolutionary chamber here and they confirm that they have detained ali zeidan on account of what they call a bribery crime and that dates back to last september when ali zeidan

september checked to what we tall to bribe the people who are blocking oil refinery in east lib ya. we also talked to the minister of justice he said that he was not briefed on the detention in advance. and he also confirmed that ali zeidan has been detained. we also talked to the general prosecutor because the revolutionary chamber commander said that they have taken ali zeidan accordin according to a o issued by the general prosecutor. but when we talked to the general prosecutor they said they have no idea about that and they have not issued any memo to detain al sisi dan. they said in such cases the general procedures of are the right procedures to be followed in this case is to withdraw authority and issue a memo to detain him they nigh they have issued any memo. they have been recognized by the

general national congress here, so they act as a farmal military body within the military. so i think that there is a dispute between them on one side and the government of ali zeidan on the other side. >> to other news, the u.s. is conduct hundreds of millions of dollars worth of cash and military aid to egypt they say they will reinstate but not until though progress on human rights. here is more from washington, d.c. >> reporter: there the moment they threw mohammad marc morsi f office the u.s. has debated on how to respond but months have made of their mind, hundreds of millions of dollars of military aid now on hold until kyrie returns to a full did

democratting path. what's frozen? f-students fighter jets, n1a1 thanks, apache helicopters. harpoon missiles, $260 million in cash aid and $300 million in loan guarantees. washington has done this before. not giving aid to a key military ali. it cut off weapons delivery to his bahrain in 2011. what continues? money for edge egg education, ec development. counter terrorism and border security, and peacekeeping in the sinai. officials say they are committed to peacekeeping in the sinai and its peace treaty with is i'm they believe the hold on military aid won't weak washington's influence in cairo especially ahead of the trial of morsi. >> i think the whys house? an embarrassing position if it doesn't, in fact, take some action. but it's important to know that

the white house is not writing egypt off. it's stale key strategic partner, we have relations with it and hoping it goes in the right direction. >> reporter: but the aid decision is controversial. israeli, saudi and gulf states reportedly your honors the u.s. to keep can the aid as is. the obama administration says it's going to be up to the egyptian to his decide whether all of those fighter jets, tanks and missings are ever delivered. but the white house's terms appear pretty firm. a democratically elected civilian government with all sides at the table, including the mutts lu muslim brother ahe. >> so how reliant is egypt on the u.s. for military aid. the u.s. has provided around $1.3 billion worth of weapons and related service a year, that makes it egypt's main donor. but the u.e. provides a substantial amount in 2011 it gave more than $400 million worth. and lately, saudi arabia has

emerged as the main supporter of the egypt armed forces. it says it will make up any reduction in assistance from the u.s. and europe. our correspondent joins us on the line from egypt now. we are not name herring because of security reasons. has there been much reaction to this u.s. decision in egypt? >> reporter: in the egypt media we are read this is morning it's been played down. no official reaction we are hoping the military will say something on this today. we understand that defense secretary chug hagel called the head of the armed forces here. to tell him the news in a rather unfortunate phone conversation but hasn't yet given his view as to how much different this cut in funding will make. i think they are looking at the figures, it's quite symbolic unless it's carried on for months indeed years, that the amount that they are talking

about not cutting is not going to have much of a difference on the movement or operations of the egypt military. we have also already seen canceled a joint exercise with the u.s. military and egypt military back in july after mohamed morsi was ousted. that was seen as trying put pressure on the military-backed government here to stick to it's sort of democratic principles but that didn't have much of an effect. because last sunday we had violent clashes with anti-coup protesters. 50 of whom were killed and over 300 injured. i little the feeling here is it's not going to make that much difference and that it is more of a symbolic gesture than actually having a difference on the ground. >> thank you very much for that. that is our correspondent joining is us on the line from cairo. now, the u.n.'s humanitarian chief says about 2 million jeans arsyrians are living you were siege and i don't understand the

reach of international aid. speaking in london she said both rebel factions and government troops of trapping civilians in areas of intense fighting. she says a ceasefire is essential hal to help people rebuild their lives. >> we estimate there are 2 million people in besieged areas that we have not been able to reach. and there are terrible stories of those people running out of food, of people being injured who are not able or allowed to leave. i very much hope that the consensus statement which was agreed by the security council, the first such statement on humanitarian action inside syria, which was agreed about 10 days ago, will help us to make progress on this. >> and staying in syria. the head of the global chemical weapons watchdog has called do a seize firceasefire to meet the . deadline in its first progress report on the destruction program inside the country, he also said the syrian government is being cooperative.

southeast asian leaders are meet for this second and final day of the aseen summit in brunei. u.n. secretary general have also joined the meetings. they are expected to discuss the south china sea dispute as well as the influence of china and the u.s. on the region. scott has more on the meat goes there brunei. >> reporter: first is the secretary and last defendant summit. wednesday saw how keeps. initially they made progress toward their goal of 2015 of acting more as one community. they all also made progress when if comes to dealing with a situation that affects three nations here, they have agreed to have a monitoring system put in to place so that can help quell some political issues that happened last year. now, looking forward today to thursday, now, there will be some more summits, the large with the east asia nations as

well as the united states. that is something that most likely they will talk about more about the disputed territories. there are two camps of thought that will be expressed in this summit. china says that they believe that these disputes should be resolved one on one. the united states and some members of aseen believe that there shoulsean believe theresht adhering to it's national law. we don't expect a sign of an agreement but we expect the subject to be brought up and probably some progress and wording of how asean dill deal with the territory think disputes. u.s. prem program has nominated janet yellen to be become the feds new chief. now more from washington. >> reporter: we have seen the u.s. president parade his nominees before. but not like this. and never for this job. janet yellen is officially barack obama's choice to chair the federal reserve. the firs first time a woman coue the top banker in the united

states. >> we have farther to go. the mandate of the federal reserve is to serve all the american people. too many americans still can't find a job and worry how they'll pay their bills and provide for their families. >> reporter: if confirmed, what she says will not just affect the economic situation for americans, but people across the globe too. >> the fed sets the monetary policy and not only for the united states, we are the most powerful economy in the world. we are in a global economy. so whatever it's set as the rest of the world is watching very close. >> reporter: one of the first and most important did he sins she will be asked to make when to stop the policy she helped career i'm the u.s. basically printing money in order to keep interest rates low. any talk of slowing that down has had huge impact on the current sir emerging markets -fplz yell edge wamarkets.yelles first choice but compared to her peers she's had the best record

on predicting where the economy is headed. her focus is expected to be more on he creating jobs and less on inflation and she is expected to take steps outgoing fed chief ben bernanke didn't. >> janet yellen is expected to take regulation more seriously and far more willing to actually regulate. yellen was one of the free people that predicted the last recession, once she nailed chair watch. federal reserve her job will be not only to spot the next one but it to try to stop it. al jazerra, washington. >> just ahead on al jazerra, a date is society for the trial of mohamed morsi accused of inciting murder. and a toxic legacy we meet a community in canada struggling to move on from a mercury poisoning 40 years ago.

♪ ♪ it's good to have you with us these are the top stories al jazerra. an emergency cabinet meeting after the apparent kidnapping of the prime minister in lib yeah. the kid napsers are believed t t linked to the military i have the u.s. is spending cash and aid to egypt. the state department says the interim government must show progress towards democracy if he wants fund to go resume. and leaders from the u.s., china

and southeast asia are meeting in brown eye for the annual asean summit. u.s. second of state john kerry is expected to discuss the south china sea dispute among other key issues. more on our top story now. the a lends abduction of the libyan prime minister. al jazerra has more live from tripoli. very good to have you with us. again, what is the latest that you are hearing in tripoli about this incident? >> reporter: well, the latest news about this incident is that the cabinet is meeting right now, but they did not announce where they are meeting. they are meeting in in a secret place, they did not announce it, maybe for security reasons, but in the coming few hours they will take necessary measures or measures in order to face this problem that erupted early dawn. as you know, the prime minister

ali zeidan was kidnapped early this morning by a group that belongs to the what is called libyan revolutionary operation chamber and members of the libyan revolutionary operation chamber, they mentioned that they have detained ali zeidan on account of bribery and financial corruption case. they also confirm that they have taken this step according to -- or by virtue of a memo that had been issued by the general prosecution office. but actually, we got information from the minister of justice himself economy firmed that he did not have any previous notes about the detention. and he also said that legal and -- legal procedures in such cases should be first with the authorities from ali zeidan examine then detain him

afterwards. but the current situation is actually a tense at this moment and the cabinet are meeting in order to take a step to face this problem. >> you know, to people from outside libya looking in here, it would seem extraordinary that this group that has kidnapped the prime minister would have links to the military. i note ministry of justice is saying this they haven't issued this memo to the group. but what are its links exactly to the military? >> reporter: exactly. well, i have to mention that the libyan ref rif. >> referee: luke air i operation chamber get their power from the general national congress, that's why they have taken this tip step and actually the general national congress had

assigned it the chamber to protect tripoli and its suburbs in the first place. with this situation they justify that they have taken their authority from the gun national congress and they believe that that they are custodian of the revolution. >> thank you very much. for joining us from trib lee, thank you again for that update. egypt's deposed president mo ramirez marcy will stand trial in november. the charges are in con nexts with the killings of protesters outside the presidential palace last year our special correspondent who w we are not naming for safety reasons has more from cairo. >> reporter: the egyptian authorities are removing all traces of the muslim brotherhood from the pro morsi graffiti on the streets to banning the group's activities and locking up its officials and supporters.

add now a trial date for the former president mohamed morsi. it's a surprise for his legal team who weren't never the date and have not met their client or know where he is being held. >> i don't everybody think the judge interrogating morsi knows his location, this is a crime of kidnapping and questioning him which began 15 days after his arrester. >> reporter: morsi and 14 others are charged with insightment to commit murder. the charge relation to violence outside the presidential palace in december last year which, according to human rights groups, protesters staging a sit-in protest against the president's sweeping new powers were attacked by pro morsi supporters. 10 people killed and hundreds were injured. his lawyers say morsi has no connection to the violence. >> there is no evidence that dr. morsi has committed any crime. trials of a political nature and the atmosphere of the coupe are

usually and i hope i am wrong, they are never neutral, trans parents or fair. >> reporter: the trial could be a lengthy one, the legal proceedings against morsi's predecessor mubarak are now in their second year. morsi has been housed at an undisclosed location where he is still insist that go he is the president and has no case to answer. >> the on. >> glen greenwald who his reported about edward snowden has testified in brazil. he was questioned on his research in to u.s. spying throughout latin america. he told senators that brazil should provide asylum for him. they explained what they found in the documents leaked by the national security agency whistle blower. >> the main purpose of the

espionage system is that it's not about terrorism, not about national security, it's about raising the power of the u.s. government. because when a government knows everything that the people think, plan, and communicate, that stages more power and the people who are the focus of spying have a lot less. >> u.s. and european companies have admitted to r50e6g garments froreceivinggarments from a facd by fire at least seven people killed in the blaze which happened in bangladesh on tuesday. it's the latest in factories ins there. here seu report. >> reporter: the fire broke out late tuesday night at a factory on the outskirts of the capital. many of the factories' 3,000 workers had already left for the day. which is why the death toll was low. those caught up in the blaze are thought too much been working overtime. firefighters worked throughout the flight to douse the flame. parts of the two-story factory building were still smoldering

late in to wednesday afternoon. because of the blaze -- the cause of the place pwhra*euz is still being investigated. the fact sreu supplied garments for the u.s. and european firms, including the giant american supermarket chain wal-mart and the british brand george. bangladesh is the second largest garment produce third world but safety standard of its 4,000 garment factories are notoriously inadequate. fires and accidentse accidents . monitoring and enforcement by authorities only serve to heighten the problem. last november over 100 people died in a fire at another clothing factory in the capital. and in april of this year, more than a thousand workers died when a garment factory collapsed. a trade union official said safety issues were clearly ignored at the factory. >> we do not want to see deaths from garment factory fires anymore. >> no more garment deaths. >> they were inadequate safety measures in this factory.

>> reporter: some workers we spoke to said water shortages and lack of nearby fire station allowed the blaze to escalate and get out of control. >> the entire knitting factly was burned in just half an hour. the hose didn't work because there was no water. >> reporter: dozens of international retailers agreed to last july to conduct inspections from factories which their goods were sold with the cooperation of the government. but so far there is nothing concrete or substantial to show for it. bangladesh remains in the international spotlight for its poor safety record and tragedies continues. al jazerra, bangladesh. >> an independent emergency management consultant, he says recent incidents have forced the government industry to take the first step towards improving worker safety. >> one thing that has come out of the building collapse in

april that killed 1129 people, was the alliance for bangladesh worker safety. where the garment industry got together -- or prominent members of the garment industry got together and worked with the government, worked with private foundations and workers unions and said, this has to stop. we have had this major collapse, huge loss of life, there was also the fire last november, and countless other incidents and the public has taken notice. they have put between the public and the media they have put the garment industry on notice that this has to change. so now the garment industry is contributing money to a workers safety fund, which i think at last count was -- had $42 million in it. their goal is at least $100 million. they want to improve workers

safety. set up independiente no one plus hot lines so workers can report violations. set up strict standards that have to be met both by retailers in the developed world who are buying from. >> north korea marking the 68th anniversary of its ruling party. stayed media showed people leaving flowers under statues of former leaders the an anniversary is one. most celebrated holidays in north korea. >> 140 countries are expected to sign a treaty aimed at curbing use of mercury named after the city that saw japan's worst chemical poisoning back in the 1950s around 2,000 people die died. it's use in electronics, pesticides and paint. and also small scale gold

mining. it's estimated as many as 15 million people are expose today mercury around the world. the trouble is once mercury escapes in to the environment, it frequently end up in the food chain especially fish and chicken. if these are eaten, the metal causes damage to the nerves affecting hearing, speech, and muscle control. it can cause paralysis and death. well, 40 years ago mercury dumped in to a river near a small commune any canada caused major health problems for many generations. daniel has that story from the area of the grassy narrows in the province of ontario. >> reporter: another school day end for 12-year-ol 12-year-old , as a toddler she was diagnosed with mercury poisoning. the toxic metal got no for her nervous advertis system when heh never ate contaminate the fish

while she was pregnant. >> with all the problems that she has, she's not playing the victim, she is doing what she is capable of doing. she's a strong girl. i am really proud of her. >> reporter: mercury dumped in the 1960s by this pulp mill upstream poisoned the river system. hundreds fell ill. a once vibrants commercial fishery never recovered. some 40 years after large-scale mercury dumbing stopped around here the water of much less polluted with it. but the food chain from microscopic life to fish eat beanie humans that will take much longer to cleanse itself. >> my arms they are stiff. >> reporter: government funds provide some money to those who have the neurological symptoms of mercury poisoning. fits, muscle trim tours, loss of limobility. but survivors say there is no long-term support. >> i want to get some kind of compensation or something, [inaudible] but it's not going

to cure anything. things are just going to get worse. >> reporter: now fierce mercury could come from a new source, leaching from exposed topsoil left behind by cutting down the forest. community activists often stage blockades of the logging road demanding consultation on any use of natural resources that could contaminate the environments. >> i feel like it's not going to end, this fight, this struggle. and that's why we are still doing many different things to protect our people. >> reporter: at a gathering of teenagers, traditional songs before discussion of the challenges facing the community. without job opportunities, with parents who may need long-term care, it's the young who bear the burden of mercury contamination as they will for generations to come. daniel, al jazerra, grassy narrows.

>> now three u.s. based scientists have won the nobel prize in chemistry. michael leavitt. ariel, and martin will share the top prize, they are being recognized for using computers to revolutionize research. and much more science news all on our website aljazerra.com.