♪ searching four survivors and cruise come in after an earthquake hits a popular tourist area in the central philippines. hello and welcome, i'm stephen and you are watching al jazeera from doha and they are sitting down with iran to discuss the nuclear future and the syrian president celebrates and here is the mosque in damascus and we report on big changes that west

african healthcare system is seeing. ♪ but first at least 73 people now have been killed and many more injured in an earthquake in the central philippines and it was a magnitude 7.2 earthquake that hit the island in the second biggest city and power has been cut and buildings destroyed and over 100 people have been hurt. >> reporter: crews search for survivors be kneeled concrete buildings, the 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit just before 8:00 in the morning and the force brought down buildings and seeing people fleeing into open spaces. >> translator: we were caught by surprise. the building collapsed as people were coming out. >> reporter: officers and schools were closed for a national holiday and this may

have saved lives. >> this is where the church is, a huge, old, spanish church built in the 1600s and severely damaged and a lot has collapsed and perhaps because it's a holiday today there were though casualties at all there. the mayor of the town came out to the command center in front of the church and people gathered under white tents for people to go to temporarily to get information. >> reporter: after shocks cut power and transport links and reports of a number of deaths when part of a fishing port building collapsed. more deaths in another area when the roof of a market came down. earthquakes are frequent along the pacific rim of fire but many say this quake was the largest they can remember. the cost both in terms of lives and damage is likely to be

substantial. al jazeera. >> reporter: a correspondent joins me on the line from the island in the philippines and you felt the tremor and how close were you to the epicenter? >> earlier this morning i was in the island which is only about two hours from boat from there and that is about 8:25 a.m. local time. it was very strong but, in fact, the epicenter is in carmen in the providence i am now. since then the local government, some of the national government has been reporting there have been over 200 after shocks already since then. the government supports two providence and the state of calamity and as we speak at this point, the rescue operations are still underway and bodies are still being pulled out from under the rubble. it's unknown exactly the extent

of the damage of this earthquake. in fact, the area is actually one of the top tourist destinations here in the country and the local government is worried that not only is it going to be a big humanitarian impact it's going to impact really the economic, there is a big economic problems because the outline of the islands is independent on the economy of the whole to survive. >> 200 after shocks you said so they must still be worried of more damage to come. in the last few hours the death toll has been rising steadily, do you expect that to continue seeing how crowded and popular a resort this island was? >> yes, indeed. in fact, the initial report that came in required slow when it comes to casualties. reports of school buildings that collapsed but as previously

mentioned today is a long weekend and a national holiday in the philippines and they say they are grateful because when the school buildings collapsed there were though students there and less people, in fact, on the roads. however, the local government both of the providence are telling everybody they are not allowing people to get close to the areas that have been damaged including the rural villages where rescue operations are still underway and bodies are still being pulled out from the rubble. >> reporter: many thanks for joining us with that report, an update on the death toll in the philippines and now up to 70. in syria the president made a rare public appearance in damascus and they went to morning prayers for the muslim holiday and the service in the mosque was led by al-buty whose father was killed in a blast and there has been attacks and there

are bombing in syria in the neighborhood south of the capitol damascus and we are joined from a refugee camp in neighboring lebanon and bring us up to date with what happened in this explosion. >> well, what we understand is that worshippers came under attack performing the prayers, like you mentioned it happened at the, at a mosque in a neighborhood which is southwest of the capitol damascus and the reports we are getting from activists on the ground, we still have no confirmation on casualties. and this has been a battleground between rebels and forces and the fighting and violence in syria has not stopped. both sides did not agree on a cease fire. there were reports that they could try to reach some sort of truce so that people could celebrate this religious holiday but that didn't happen. >> just around you we can see

lots of children. excited children but it must be a tough way to celebrate for them and their parents. >> exactly. and tough way. because this conflict really has torn families apart and torn the society apart. let me tell you why they came and stood behind me because when they heard we were doing a live broadcast they called their fathers who live in the rural country side of hama and their parents and fathers have not seen them in over a year so they called them and told their father to turn the television on so they can see their children. this young boy for example mohamed is 11 years old, he was a victim of an air strike and he had a number of operations over the past year. but he has not seen his father in over a year. he called him just a short while ago hoping he can see him on television. very miserable conditions here and if you talk to the people what they want is to find some sort of a political solution to

the crisis. they just want to go back home. and really parents usually buy their children gifts and new clot cloths but they can't happen because they don't have money to survive. >> reporter: tough condition for the children and they are all excited as you can see because children always get excited around cameras and some are separated from their parents for a year or so? >> exactly. approximately a year. some people have been here nine months and others a year and come from the rural country side of the hama providence and there have been battles in the region and they are targeted with air strikes and shelling because so far the rebels have not been able to rise up in hama city so it's in the country side really where the fighting is taking place and these are where these people are from, a thousand

syrians live here and lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees and the united nation said it can't cope and the lebanese government can't cope and these really are unable to make ends meet. >> reporter: are the refugees still arriving? >> yes, refugees continue to arrive and we heard from the union fcr they have 3,000 refugees a day that are registered but not register with the u.n., approximately 780,000 have already registered but government officials say there are up to 1.3 million syrians living in this country and it has been a huge burden on the lebanese government and it has strained the economy, the lebanese government is now saying fine we will not close the borders but we will screen every syrian that comes into lebanon and if he is a refugee then yes he will be allowed to enter and if not and if he wants to lebanon just to open a

business or find work that is not going to happen any longer because the lebanese people really have been complaining that syrians are taking their jobs. there has been fierce competition in the job market. so lebanon carrying a very big burden and these refugees a life in exile has not been easy. >> reporter: many thanks, zana reporting with very excited children celebrating need. a bomb blast at a sunday mosque in northern iraq has killed 12 people. it happened with a crowd of worshippers after they left a mosque after morning prayers. in afghanistan a governor has been killed in an attack and happened in the eastern providence of logo and the explosives were in the mosque where he was praying and 20 others were wounded and we have

the latest from kabul. >> reporter: he was attending morning prayers the first day of a major muslim holiday in afghanistan when an ied improvised device exploded close killing him instantly and several were injured and the death toll could rise through the day and it's critical. it's a common tactic to attack government officials in a mosque and it's a rare opportunity for them to gain access to high-profile individuals when they are surrounded by the public and much more vulnerable in those situations. this particular governor had a long political history behind him. he was very close with president hamid karzai and the governor of the providence and he was in the

karzai's campaign and border of tribal affairs and only had been the governor for the providence for six months. but throughout his history he knew he was very much in the sights of the taliban. there had been no less than five attempts on his life. today the 6th one has been successful although the taliban to date have not yet claimed responsibility. >> reporter: talks on iran disputed nuclear program opened in geneva and foreign policy chief kathryn ashton are sitting down and said they have a proposal to world powers regarding the nuclear program and we will go to james and he is live from geneva and this is fast-moving diplomacy. >> reporter: indeed, these talks started an hour ago and we are getting a bit of a picture of what is going on now behind the closed doors and we have been briefed by an eu spokesman

in the past few minutes and speaking to a senior iranian diplomate and the so called p 5 plus 1 is pretty well-known and had meetings with the iranian and five since april last year. what i think they wanted to hear was the knew iranian position and the new position is being outlined right now and we understand that he is at the moment giving a power point presentation and the title of the presentation is entitled closing the unnecessary crisis, opening new horizons. we are hoping to get some of the details of the iranian proposal in the coming hours, steven. >> reporter: stay with us. just while you were talking we saw some pictures of the eu foreign representative or ashton and after that press call really with the iranians michael mann who is the eu spokesman had a

press conference and let's hear what he had to say. >> we hope that iran will come with constructive and concrete proposals today. we look forward very much to seeing their ideas. we are on our side ambitious to move forward quickly. we hope we will have two very productive days. we have come here with a sense of cautious optimism and a great sense of determination because we believe it is really time now for tangible results. >> there you are james, that is a rather typical eu statement covering all bases but they are optimistic and there does seem to be a mood of optimism because as we just talked about this diplomacy is moving faster than we thought during two days of talks. >> yes, and i think you have to put all of this into context. there are difficult issues that have to be resolved about iran's

nuclear program and if iran can enrich uranium and they are very technical, detailed discussions and one western diplomate said, yes, there is a detailed technical agenda but the purpose of the talks is yes to go through the agenda and yes see the iranian position and also build trust and they want to get some progress here and then have more talks in the coming weeks and months and i'm told that the second round of these talks might possibly be in just a matter of week's time and possibly before the end of the month. >> reporter: thanks, james, still to come on al jazeera they say love is blind but does it have borders? stay with us for south korea to stop cross cultural marriages from moving on to the rocks. an argument over who is eligible for the pulitzer prize saddens

the event as it always does. ♪ than the ups and downs of the dow. for instance, can fracking change what you pay for water each month? have you thought about how climate change can affect your grocery bill? can rare minerals in china affect your cell phone bill? or how a hospital in texas could drive up your healthcare premium? i'll make the connections from the news to your money real. [[voiceover]] every day, events sweep across our country. and with them, a storm of views. how can you fully understand the impact unless you've heard angles you hadn't considered? antonio mora brings you smart

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♪ you are watching al jazeera and reminder of the top stories, at least 73 people have been killed and many more injured after an earthquake in the central philippines and the magnitude of 7.2 quake hit the popular tourist island and many buildings have been brought down. the syrian president made a rare public appearance in damascus as attackers bombed a mosque in the area south of the capitol.

and talks in iran disputed nuclear program started in geneva and rouhani said he may be ready for a new start with u.s. and the israeli partner remains cautious. and israel's prime minister said it is crucial to keep the pressure on iran and we report now from jerusalem. >> back to work and warning the world of the dangers of iran's nuclear program and they told parliament it was no time to ease sanctions against iran for uranium enrichment which he says is to build a nuclear weapon. >> it will not strengthen iran, quite the opposite, it will strengthen the stance of the supreme leader. >> reporter: relations with u.s. president barack obama are

strained. recently with the americans sounding optimistic about a nuclear deal, rouhani ditching the predecessor stepped up his warnings. >> but when it comes to iran's nuclear weapons program the only difference between them is this: he was a wolf in wolf's clothing and the other is a sheep in wolf's clothing. >> reporter: he is isolating the country and many dismiss his suggestion he would order attacks on iran if it came close to perfecting an atomic support. >> not enough support and not in the israeli government and not in the israeli public. and this is their main problem.

he has to convince not only a president obama and not only the western world, he has to do it inside of israel. >> whatever comes out of the talks in israel he is unlikely to change his message to the outside world and what is not clear how much maneuver to act alone he has and i'm in west jerusalem. >> reporter: citizens who want to marry foreigners and problems that come from cross cultural marriages and we report from seoul. >> he came from the philippifi with a husband she met twice and there are 200,000 multi cultural families and may trillion in 2020 and the marriages run into trouble over language, money, gaps in age and culture. >> for me it's very hard and very difficult because of the

tradition because tradition is very different and they said man is heaven and woman is land. >> reporter: after early difficulties she said her marriage flourished and the wives go through two-year adjustment to meet the adjustment of husband's and in laws and next year the government is bringing in new rules and the foreign spouse will speak korean and the korean spouse will have to have a minimum level of income before a couple will be granted a marriage visa. one organization that helps foreign spouses said it won't address the issue of people who do not care about the futures of the couples they set up. >> translator: the government thinks that such strike regulations would prevent brokers from arranging marriages thoughtly but there are many

people who do i'd and will continue the business and it's difficult for the government to control them. >> reporter: the wider challenge is tackling discrimination between the couples and the children and found in the probasketball league where mixed race koreans have to move team every three years to prevent one team getting an unfair advantage. >> when they first told me about it i was definitely bothered and upset because me being half black, half korean i've been through a lot of prejudice on both end. i fear for my son, not fear, i just hope the best for him being here and it's a culture that doesn't really know much about other nationalitys and stuff and i just hope the best for him. >> reporter: a growing number of families share in a country whose racial makeup is changing and hoping to keep pace. >> reporter: sent years since they sent a human being to space

and they sent takanauts in orbit on five separate occasions and launching an unmanned moon rover and a permanent space station and the program is this and we are talking about america where they are cutting research. a bomb has gone off and an american guest was hurt and the bomb is the latest in the series of unexplained attacks in the last few days and it killed two and injured several others. a human rights group says there is evidence hundreds of inmates have been killed in nigerian prisons and they say it happened after forces cracked down on fighters in june, an army commander told ngo 950 people connected to haran were sophisticated, starved or executed. the goal is making sweeping changes to the healthcare system and vaccinations, doctor visit

and emergency care for children under five would be paid by the state but some say the measures don't go far enough and nicholas reports from the city. >> protecting a child from harm starts here. in this hut is a healer, and they call him an maboo and believed to have healing skills that no doctor or nurse can match. >> translator: the spirits gave me the gift and doctors treat and i heal and i never get it wrong. >> and james' five-year-old son is suffering from a high fever and an evil spell is making him sick and he gives her prayer beads and hands her a potion to drink. >> translator: gives me natural remedies and no different from a pill but seeing a doctor is way more expensive. >> reporter: in a country where most earn less than $2 a day spending anything close to $1 for medical treatment is simply

unaffordable and not enough mothers take their sick babies to hospital and too many children die of illnesses that could easily have been prevented if given the right medical care. so to encourage mothers to bring their sick children to hospital the government is now offering free health insurance for everyone under five years of age. emergency care, vaccinations and doctors' visits are paid for by the state. >> translator: without a proper healthcare system the country cannot develop so we need to move to universal healthcare for all by 2017. >> reporter: inspired by president obama's healthcare reform, the government coined it mecca care after the president of mecca and they are support diezing insurance encouraging low income earners to take it up and they are spending $10 million for the reform. >> translator: this is not enough and the state needs to put in more money and explain

why getting health insurance is in the people's interest. >> reporter: the scale of the program to include adults by the end of 2014. i asked him if he fears this could push him out of business. but he doesn't seem worried. he believes healthcare reforms are also governed by spirit. nicholas hawk al jazeera. >> reporter: the judges of this year's uk prize are preparing to announce the winner but a change of rules who can compete for the literary award will take the shine off the celebrations and we have more. >> the quiet interior of a london book shop and tons of titles and readers picking and which one wins the prize may greatly influence that and one of the biggest events on the calendar and judges have one year to get through the dozens of novels in the running or competing to be a world-wide

success. and he knows how touch the competition gets and it's the third time he is up for the award and exposure at office is invaluable. >> for any writer, that idea of having an audience and having an audience maybe who would not read it otherwise is highly important and that is what it does. it's a one way of drawing the public's attention to the book and the public may or may not like it but they may pick it up and look at it and that is important for me. >> reporter: and the life of pi given treatment and released the claim and the english patient and both films successes at the box office. until now it has been open to contenders from the britain common wealth but now it has more international fear. >> only one of the short listed authors lives in english and the

rest are scattered around the world. not only are they scattered all around the world but the books themselves are talking about different countries all around the world, it's very excited. >> reporter: this year's short list may be the most diverse selection in years and the win inner is guaranteed international success but now the prize is opened to all english speaking novelist some are saying they may come from asia, africa and the caribbean. and the decision may have caused literary feathers to be rufled and it may not be bad. >> the authors are not at a disadvantage when it comes to literature. it's hard to argue with the fact that in the english-speaking world, we live now in a really international literary culture. it is a global culture. those divisions, the division of

the ocean is much less important i think than it used to be. >> reporter: a reflection of the literary world that is crossing the boundaries, al jazeera london. >> reporter: there is a home page of the website and the top story is the philippines earthquake. the light own why and how home and stock prices move plus with october 17th days away, a debt deal is taking shape in dc. what is it going to look like? and the s word that means financial pain for small business owners. i'm ali velshi. this is "real money." ♪ this is "real money," you are the most important part of