a crackdown on the muslim brotherhood continues in egypt. these pictures show one of the last senior figures being arrested. [ ♪ theme ] >> this is al jazeera, live from doha. ahead - liberty at last. four men head home to france after being held by al qaeda for three years. reaction from paris. >> soldiers in the democratic republic of congo try to crush rebels in what they say is their final assault. >> and a bus crash in india - 44 people have been killed. we'll have the latest from new

delhi. plus - another senior leader of the muslim brotherhood has been arrested in egypt. this picture is said to show esam el-arian when he was taken from a house in a cairo suburb wednesday morning. he'd been in hiding since the coup in july, which ousted former leader mohamed morsi. esam el-arian was a deputy leader of the muslim brotherhood's political party. we speak to dominique kane who joins us from cairo. what do you know of the circumstances of the arrest, and what is the significance? >> what we understand is in the early hours of the morning the police went to a house in new cairo suburbs of the capital. esam el-arian was found, they arrested him. there were pictures of him collecting bags and being taken away. he was taken to tora prison,

where many of his colleagues in the muslim brotherhood, the senior leadership, is being held. the prosecutor is moving to the prison to start investigations with esam el-arian. this comes a day after the three leaders. mohammed badie and two colleagues were supposed to appear in the courthouse near tahir sqare in cairo. they didn't appear. the presiding judge at the time said he felt unease about a process in which the defendants could not be brought to a prison and reduced himself from that -- recused himself from that. it comes at a time when we have the trial of the ousted former president mohamed morsi. the arrest represents, perhaps, further ratcheting up of the pressure on the muslim brotherhood by the military government. >> a lot of pressure on the muslim brotherhood. a lot of his leaders arrested behind bars. where does this leave them as a

political movement in egypt? >> the vast majority of their leaders are in prison or outside the country. it doesn't mean that their presence in egyptian society has gone away. the anti-coup alliance supporters that come to the streets are youthful representation, perhaps, of the movement behind the muslim brotherhood. it's worth making the point that a few hundred, perhaps a few thousand people on the streets of egypt in a country that is 80 million gives you a sense of their level of support. it doesn't mean we can consider the muslim brotherhood to be a spent force. it's the case that they are either biding their time in gaol or biding their time outside the country. they are certainly not gone. >> thank you. that's al jazeera's dominique kane on the line from cairo. >> syrian state media say the deputy prime minister has been sacked. qadri jamil has been accused of leaving the country without

permission, and is believed to have met the u.s. ambars door to syria, robert ford in geneva to discuss peace talks. >> in damascus, one community is organising activities for children and giving them trauma counselling. al jazeera has heard from one of the women working there. >> translation: life should not stop. we tried to establish a committee for women and children, providing the basics of drawing and handicrafts. the committee organises exhibitions and educational centres for children who enjoy taking part and like to draw. we were shocked to discover how much the children have been affected by the war in syria. for example, a lot of the kids would draw pictures of cemeteries with the names of their loved ones on the tombstones. they have made boxes for detainees in which the children put bread. they have been shown ways of making bread, cracking firewood

and how to properly wash things. we haven't had electricity for about 15 months here. so we do all the activities manually - like weaving wool, for example. women u wool to knit sweaters and hats which they sell to make a living. keeping in mind because the government siege wool is not allowed in. nothing is allowed - even simple materials. we organised a first aid workshop because every house needs to have someone trained in basic medical care. no one knows when their house will be shelled. we'll continue efforts and work until our last breath to provide support and help our people. i'm convinced that god will bless those who have mercy on earth. >> the four french hostages kidnapped in 2010 are expected to arrive in france in the next few hours. live to tim friend who is

following the story from paris. an important welcoming committee for the former hostages. >> indeed. the president will be there on the tar mack ready to great them. francis hollande has said that the nightmare is over, and you can only imagine the relief of the relatives of these four men who have been waiting for three anxious years not really knowing whether they were safe or not. we understand that the hostages have been moved on numerous occasions, they have been kept separately to avoid any effort to try to release them by the french. but in the last few days there has been reports that perhaps french envoys have been seen in northern mali, where the men were eventually discovered, and have had their release netted. intriguingly a former toorak

rebel, may have had a hand in this. he's a senior executive with ariva, a subsidiary, they are the state-owned nuclear power company, french state-owned power company that mines uranium in that area. it was from a mining compound that the men were originally taken. >> they've been held for three years, since 2010, tim. a lot of reports have suggested that france may have paid a ransom for their release. >> this is always denied by french ministers. the foreign minister has said, "we don't play that game." but, in the past it's been reported that areeva have paid millions for the release of people who have been taken hostage in the past. so it's entirely possible, and as you say reports persist that

a ransom was paid on this occasion, but it's being denied officially. certainly what is also being made clear is that there doesn't appear to have been any kind of assault on the place where these men were being held in order to release them. it sounds as though some tense negotiations have taken place, and they've been released by using that tactic. but i am sure we'll get a clearer picture when the men come back. they've been invited to have lunch at the alisa palace. i suspect the priority will not be to have lunch, but to hug their relatives whom they haven't seen for three years. >> tim friend live in paris. >> now the democratic republic of congo troops are shelling the last stronghold of m23 rebels. the fighting is close to the border.

m m m malcolm web has been with the congolese soldiers for the fine assault. >> they've been fighting hard for days. they are congolese troops and they have taken a string of up tos backs from the m23 rebels -- you have towns back from the m23 rebels. they still hold one town on the uganda border. these congolese army tanks are getting ready to move into position for what the army says is the final push against the m23 rebels. the the morale is high, they've had several victories. no one knows what is going to happen next. >> further back from the front line here are some of the men they have been fighting. they are rebels who surrendered. now they are prisoners of war, so we can't show you their faces. the congolese army says it has captured many rebels, although

most countries deny supporting the rebels. >> we have proof, we have identity cards of uganda and rwanda. >> meanwhile the tanks drive to the front line in preparation for the attack. the villagers know what is coming. they move away with their possessions. the piglets are more scared than this lady. she and her family lived under the rebels for a year, she doesn't like it. >> translation: the rebels are bad. they take women, they steal animals to eat. at harvest time they take the crops. every family has to give them five buckets of food every season. >> now the tanks are in position, so the villagers start running. as the sun sets, the shelling begins.

these soldiers get ready to advance. they are nervous. it's the beginning of the battle that they hope will bet end of the war. appear is >> a bus caught fire on the highway between bangalore and hyderabad in india. 44 people are feared dead. six passengers and the driver made it out alive. the bus crashed into a road barrier and the fuel tank exploded. we'll look at the reasons why there's so many deaths on india's roads later in the program. >> u.s. spy chiefs faced tough questions on capitol hill over the surveillance on american allies. they defended the actions of the intelligence community. >> the house intelligence committee plays a key role in overseeing the secret activities

of the nags si. in tuesday it -- national security agency. on tuesday it provided a platform for the director of national intelens and the head of the nsa to answer critics. james clapper insisted that he was following orders on the bugging of leaders, to give the president the best information possible on his foreign counterparts. >> as long as i have been in the intelligence business, 50 years, leadership intentions, in whatever form it's expressed is kind of a basic tenant of what we are to collect and analyse. >> on recent allegations that the united states was collecting millions of phone records in france and spain, the head of the nsa offered this defense. >> this is not information we collected on european citizens. it represents information that we and our nato allies have collected in defense of our country, and in support of military operations.

>> for the last several month, documents that the whistleblower edward snowden leaked showed a dragnet beyond france and spain. it's failed to become a major issue in washington. the bugging of angela merkel's phone received attention because the strategic implications of being caught. the focus worries a visiting delegation of european parliament airians investigating the scale of the u.s. program. >> spying on friends, not just on leaders, on citizens. >> tuesday's hearing was primarily about the u.s.'s domestic surveillance operations with james clapper and keith alexander key to restrict changes to variability of collecting data of u.s. citizens. >> more to come on al jazeera. coming home to start again. we are in the philippines town of zamboanga, where the standoff destroyed the homes of 10,000

families. and women out of work in iran. we look at the underrepresentation in the country's labour force. stay with us.

welcome back. a recap of the top stories - another senior leader of the muslim brotherhood has been arrested in egypt. the pictures are said to show esam el-arian when taken from a house in cairo wednesday morning. he'd been in hiding sings july. >> the -- since july. >> the four french hostages kidnapped in niger are expected

to arrive in france in a few hours. they were greeted by the foreign ministers when they left niger's capital. >> they were captured in maghreb whilst working for the nuclear firm ariva. >> the u.s. says the threat from the m23 movement in dong is almost over. government troops are taking the last stronghold healed by the rebels. >> the captain of the luxury cruise ship that run aground off the italian coast has been accused of showing off in front of his lover, a mohled obviousian dancer, domnica cemortan. we have this report. >> it was a second day of testimony for the "costa cordia" trial. the man at the center of the proceedings, francesco schettino, the ship's captain arrived at the back of the makeshift courthouse. he faces charges of

manslaughter, causing a shipwreck and abandoning ship. a crew member whose family lived on the island testified that the captain attempted a salute. an attempt that killed 32. a moldovan dancer was a witness. domnica cemortan made no comment when she entered the courthouse. she revealed at the time she and francesco schettino was involved. she boarded as a non-paying passenger hours before the crash. >> today is the second time i die. the first time i die was the crash. and today i died a second time because, of course, people find out some thing that i tried to hide for two years from my life. >> testimony heard on one day from a bridge officer aboard

theship gave evidence that the captain did not leave the ship as early thought. >> translation: tlast the issue of the captain abandoning ship is being discussed by the press. he did not abandon the ship early. >> 19 months on, the victims of the shipwreck blame francesco schettino for the disaster. it's alleged the ship sailed too goes to giglio when it crashed into a reef, causing it to cap size. one lawyer said the manoeuvre was madness. as the trial continues, francesco schettino's lawyers will fight to maintain he helped passengers, rather than leaving them stranded. >> whelm focus on asia. in a moment we are off to cam badia where two leading figures from the khmer rouge are on trial. they are in their 80s. will justice be served in time. we are in the philippines where

people who fled the fighting in zamboanga are returning to find their homes destroyed. in india, 40 have been killed in a bus crash. it hit a barrier and purs into flames, many were burnt alive. it crashed before sunrise. the driver tried to overtake another vehicle, according to witnesses. there are more road deaths in indian than any other countries according to the world health organization. last year 140,000 were killed in road accidents. the crashes are because of reckless driving, old vehicles and bad roads. >> our correspondent is in new delhi with more. >> police confirmed to us that a driver and a bus cleaner are among the seven who survived the crash. the driver told police he was trying to overtake another vehicle when he hit an obstruction, which hit the fuel tank, causing the bus to burst into flames.

a local media outlet reported that the bus, a private vehicle, had an automatic locking system that may have trapped in the passengers. a full investigation is underway. a reason we have all these bus crashes in india is because of the lack of knowledge of safety standards, and the poor infrastructure in the country. many of these countries happen in the rural areas, where they are not close to medical attention. when the crashes happen, they are far away to get help and road conditions are full of potholes, construction and paved roads can give way to gravel, which is why these accidents keep happening in the country. >> more than 10,000 families in the southern philippines lost their home. soldiers from the moro national frond were fighting in zamboanga. the crisis is over, says the government. some feel differently. we have this report.

>> reporter: the torrment in the city is etched deeply in the home. >> my house is not any more home. >> what they have left are scars. memories built for decades, now reduced to ashes. >> their home was one of the many destroyed during a siege between philippine soldiers and fighters from the moro national liberation front in september. >> i'm angry. there's no solution. my deep sentiment, both sides, them and the government - i'm an innocent civilian like me, good citizens. >> the siege started when mlf fighters marched on zamboanga, demanding to lodge their flag. thousands of government soldiers responded. the crisis left 200 dead. residents here say although they

are grate. they are being allowed to return to their homes, they say they are faced with a bigger dilemma - how to pick up the pieces of their lives again. and so they say whatever scraps they can. many of them say they came home to disor that their homes had been looted or razed to the ground. 20,000 have been displaced. many are in evacuation examples in squalid continues with little to eat or drink. government resources are stretched. >> we just have to move forward and make sure that whatever was destroyed - we are not going to only rebuild them, but rebuild them better. at least get some consolation out of what happened. >> but adequate compensation for the people here is not just about replacing their homes. it's about rebuilding the

community. the human rights coordinator for the united nations in the philippines says their concern is for residents stuck in overcrowded evacuation centres. >> we have around 80,000 people leaving, half living in evacuation centres, half living with friends or squatting in the city or staying with relatives, or staying outside the city because -- until they have conditions to come back. there's a lot on the ground to deal with. what is worrying us is the congestion problem in one of the biggest evacuation centres. the grandstand, which holds 20,000-22,000 people, living together. we have 20 evacuation centres around the city. we are the humanitarian team of the philippine. we are advising the government to congest the grand stand as much as possible.

and as quick as possible. >> the u.n. backed mayor in cam bodia is in the final stage of a trial of the two most senior leaders arrived. the two men are accused of war crimes. we go to phonm penh. >> a city of 2 million emptied in less than a day. it's normally busy streets quite. 17 april 1975 marked the start of a reign of terror for many cam bodians. that mark khmer rouge soldiers marched into the city as victors. the people of phonm penh welcomed them, happy that a 5-year civil war was over. hours later they were all ordered to leave for the country side. this man was lying in phonm penh at the time. >> we were told the americans were planning to bomb the city. the soldiers told us we'd return in a few days. >> he was forced to march for a

week with his family. his 3-year-old son didn't survive the journey. like others, he died from disease and starvation. the khmer rouge was trying to create a rural utopia. the 4-year reign would kill intellectuals, teachers - anyone accused of being a spy. this was a french photographer in phonm penh the day it fell. he never imagined the evacuation would be the subject of a war crimes trial. >> it was a necessary event. that said, it's the end of the war. to me it was no more that that. he and other foreigners were told to move to the french embassy. some cam bodians tried to join them. most were turned away. >> this is the gate that made the difference between life and death in 1975.

it's been moved to the embassy's gardens and preserved as a part of history. foreigners were allowed to week after several weeks, many cam bodians stayed behind, abandoned to their fate. near is an inscription that reads, "this gate opens then closed on an unspeakable suffering and the death of millions of cam bodians." it's a reminder of the violent past. a brutal past that khmer rouge survivors hope will not go unpunished. >> now, is iran a sexist society. the latest statistics from the united nations suggest it is. 16% of iranian women work. we have this report from tehran. >> it's morning rush hour in tehran. millions are heading to work - but not many are women. although they make up half the

population. the united nations and world bank say 16% of kimmen are employed -- women are employed. hoda knows this well. she's 26 and has been searching for a job for two years. the university graduate is losing hope and is thinking of leaving iran. >> translation: it's a tough bitter experience. i can almost say it's impossible to find a suitable job. it's a dream. it's not me. many of my friends are searching - mostly they continue to study for something to do with their time. or they want to go overseas. it's disappointing. >> women make up almost 60% of university students. iran's richest woman says the government needs to make sure the country does not ignore their potential. >> it shows that the next future we have to find that. what this person chases will be supported to work in the

society, to work in their country, and they have the responsibility for this. >> many iranian women blame cultural stereotypes and sexism for the fact they can't get jobs, even when they are qualified. the u.n. says that means the views of women are not represented, especially in positions of power. >> in the case in decision-making position, the onus is on the political parties and the political system to be bringing women up through. i personally believe that out of sight is out of mind. >> research shows iran has made great strides towards gender equality in the last 30 years. it's increased life expectation si, raised the education levels for girls, and lowered maternal mortalitiy rates. for half the iranian population, without the ability to contribute to their country's future, it's not good enough.

>> and a reminder you can keep up to date with the news all the time on the website - usual address - aljazeera.com. the top story the release of palestine prisoners by israel. and a big welcoming they got when they got home. and i'm ali velshi, this is "real money." >> this is real money. join our live conversation for the next half hour on twitter at aj real money. close to a month in and the roll