how do they begin to put their lives back together? another philippine town destroyed by typhoon haiyan. hello, i'm elizabeth live in doe ha with extensive coverage of the philippines crisis. >> we report on the lack of security in parts of the philippines. >> in other news - millions gather in iraq to mark the occasion of a shooter. we are getting reports of

violence. >> a crack-smoking mayor of toronto admits buying illegal drugs, but will not step down >> goodbye to a legend. india's sachin tendulkar is playing his final test match. >> almost a week after typhoon haiyan hit the philippines hundreds of thousands of people are in desperate need of help. we have correspondents covering the story from the worst-affected areas in cebu. aid is clogged up at the port, unable to get to people in dire need of help. we have that story. seth is in a town of madeline where residents are waiting for food and medicine. first marga ortigas - armed men are causing fear among the population at tacloban.

>> the national government said they have cleared most of the roads needed to get goods to the people the victims of typhoon haiyan. as you can see here in leyte, many of the roads are quite impassable. as far as the people here are concerned they have heard the news that is painted, but it's not quite the reality they are seeing on the ground. they are concerned about security, as there are not just survivors potentially taking things from other survivors or relief convoys, but criminal elements as escaped convicts have taken to looting. people in their homes, or what is left - they loot them at night. people are in fear of their lives because armed men come in to take whatever they can. the national government saying that they are dealing with the situation by imposing a curfew. it's from 6:00 pm to 6am, the

12 hours that it is dark. they are sending in more police and military troops. people here are saying they are not seeing evidence of that. there are some remarkable stories of survival. a town in northern cebu, where one died - but is paying the price for being well prepared. >> mayor ricky ramirez making his round around the town. in darkness devastation is visible. more than 10,000 families are homeless in madeline in northern cebu. the mayor hands out blankets - more for comfort than anything else. >> we cannot sleep at night because we are guarding our baby. there's a lot of mosquito and the rains. >> the people of madeline were

well prepared when typhoon haiyan hit. now they feel they are punished for their alertness. >> it is a bit unfair just because there are a lot of deaths in tacloban, the focus is on tacloban, not northern cebu, which, as you can see, whatever the conditions are in tacloban, it's the same here was. >> the mayor took matters into his own hands - sending people to look for food and water. a woman managed to obtain a truck with supplies. volunteers divided it into small packages so everyone gets their share. others are trying to sleep, although their stomachs are empty. >> these are long nights for the people in madeline. they are trying to sleep in makeshift shelters. knowing that they lost their homes, it proves to be

difficult. there's light in the darkness. at the city hall the only place with electricity people gather to charge mobile phones so they can inform family members. the mood is cheerful and there's a sense of togetherness. people are mainly happy here in madeline. >> everyone is a victim. the filipino sense of humour also. it feels like it's one big party, if you see around - it's like we are all having a picnic here. >> but despite the optimism of the people of madeline, suffering will be taken seriously. >> veronica amos had been at a terminal before heading to another badly affected area. >> it is gridlocked. the aid is gridlocked.

there's plenty of aid, but none getting to the people who need it. it's causing immense frustration. the u.n. office for coordinating humanitarian chief baroness valerie amos pleaded with the mayor of tacloban to try to break the gridlock. there's no fuel for strucks to distribute the aid. there's nowhere for the aid to be - no way for it to be distributed. it's not going anywhere. at the same time aid workers, international aid workers are flooding the area. the mayor asked his citizens to flee the city because the city cannot cope with this number of people. this is a moment of intense frustration, and it is extremely interesting to see how it's going to be broken with this kind of clash of interest and agendas between the local politics and communities, people who are starving, literally, and

the international aid effort. >> there, of course, much more for the philippines on the website. you'll find a gallery of some of the most striking images from the philippines at aljazeera.com. that's updated 24 hours a day. now shi'a muslims are marking the occasion of ashura. thousands are at shrines in iraq, despite daily bomb attacks. million will mark the death of the grandson of islam's profit mohammad. >> now to our correspondent live in iraq. we'll get to ashura in a minute. first, the bombings south of baghdad - what do we know about them? >> what we are hearing is two

suicide bombers hit a procession in a small town outside of the south of baghdad killing seven and injuring at least 25. on tuesday there was a bombing in diyala. it killed eight people. this is a pattern we'll see over the next few days. the bombers can't get to the big processions in the major cities because of security operations. they are going after the smaller towns and processions. what the special forces counterterrorism forces told us is they have mounted several operations. despite all of that, all the courtyy -- security that is goig on smaller towns and processions have been tarted. >> the security situation - has it deterred anyone from coming to mark ashura? >> well, the iraqi authorities

tell us this is a record number of people that arrived here today. i'm going to get out of your way and show you the scene behind me the the focal point are the two miner et cetera, the shrine of hussain. nearly 4.5 million people arrived here. the security operation here is unprecedented. it's the biggest operation that the iraqi army mounted - sorry, in 10 years. there's 35,000 troops out on the street. as you are coming in, about 35km out the security begins to start. there are checkpoints that ring the place. prime minister nouri al-maliki is due to visit. it's important for him that this area passes without incident. he said time and time again that iraq is facing an open war, a civil war if things continue to go the way they are. this year has been bloody. nearly 7,000 people have died. in october 9, '55 people died

due to sectarian violence. the security operation is immense. the smaller towns in the rural areas are tarted. >> thank you very much. that's imran khan choing us from kabula in iraq. >> now, while the world's attention is on the philippines, there are devastating floods in somali's puntland region. 100 people have been killed. it's been declared a state of emergency. rains caused rivers to burst their banks and crops have been washed away. >> a rare tropical cyclone that hit northern somalia dumped as much rain as some got in all of 2012. roads have been washed away and communication lines cut. 30,000 people need food, water, shelter and medical supplies. in central somalia the heavy

rain burst river banks submerging villages and farms. more than 4,000 people trekked to an base. >> the most disstressful one is the women and children. they are disstressed. most of the parents are killed. you have the kids, women without help. >> 20 babies have been born in the last few days. the military needs more medication as well as food and shelter. more people are expected to arriving as the rains continue. >> three people have been held in moscow after throwing fire crackers at the polish embassy. there was an attack on the russian embassy in warsaw earlier. monday's incident happened during a nationalist march to mark poland's independence day.

ukraine's parliament held a vote whether to release a political prisoner. >> rallies have been held across italy against government budget plans. transport workers walked off the job for four hours in rome. 1,000 trade unionists marched to the city center. the budget doesn't do enough to lower taxes and revert years of cutbacks. >> leaders in france and the netherlands are joining forces to battle the uponster of brussels. a new block of like minded parties is wanted to be formed across the e.u. >> the controversial leader of the dutch far right welcomes his equally controversial counterpart from france. he has come to persuade others

to join forces in european elections next year. >> we want to give our people back their freedom. we want to give our countries back their sovereignty. that, in itself should be enough to justify us beginning to work together. >> the two politicians have much in common. they want as many of their candidates elected to the european parliament in order to undermine the e.u. from within. >> we want to repatriate the ability to decide ourselves who we - how we control the boarders. how we control our money and economy. how we are able to control our own currency. that is the lig mate powers from our parliament are number one, and not direct from brussels. >> a small but noisy crowd of demonstrators gathered outside the dutch parliament where the

meeting took place. banners make it clear what they think of marine lapenn. >> in the neth -- netherlands and france far right parties are gaining popularity. they look to do well. >> it's in the interests of political leaders to build a strong parliament with the benefits more power in the european parliament and in europe. >> it's by no means certain that all the dispirit far-right parties with different nationalistic agendas could agree to cooperate on a european level. the prospects of them forming an alliance is enough to have mainstream parties across europe worried. a message of the far right - anti-immigration and brussels has a broad appeal. the slow pace of economic recovery works in the favour of

politicians like these. >> still to come on the show - canada's crack-smoking mayor rants and raves. but he is hanging on to his job to the dismay of protesters. >> all out - india's cricket legend sachin tendulkar is playing his final cricket match. we'll have an update from the stadium.

these are the top stories on al jazeera. hundreds of thousands of people are in desperate need of help a week after typhoon haiyan hit

the philippines. many towns on the island have been flattened. shia muslims mark the occasion of assura. there's reports of two bombs hitting a procession south of the capital. >> russia's foreign ministers are in egypt. they are the most senior russian politicians to make the trip since the fall of the soviet union. >> now, the mayor of toronto made another confession about taking illegal trucks. rob ford admits he's bought illegal drugs whilst in office, as well as smoking crack cocaine. despite growing calls for him to quit the top job in canada's biggest city fellow councillors have no legal power to force him out. we have more from toronto. >> have you been to that house? >> i have no interest being in that house, i'm not a crack user >> a wild week in a sedate city.

toronto council passed a motion asking mayor rob ford to take a leave of absent to deal with alcohol and drug abuse. after admitting that he had smoked crack cocaine he dropped another bomb on his fellow councillors. >> have you purchased illegal drugs in the last two years? >> careful. >> yes, i have. >> in recent weeks ford repeatedly apologised for using drugs and public drunkenness. he vowed to stay in hospital and refused to take time off - as even his supporters on council call for. >> mr mayor, do you recognise there's a few of us that want to help you? >> councillor, the reason i drank or did drugs was not because of stress. it was out of sheer stupidy. >> no one to blame but myself.

>> no, there's no one to admit it but yourself. >> the video of the mayor obtained by the toronto "star" shows him ranting, threatening to kill someone. that made him the brunt of comedian jokes. he was linked to more drug use, drunk driving. police confirmed they were investigating the mayor, but are not charging him for now. elected in 2010 with a landslide, ford's support has been sliding. the latest opinion polls show fully quarters of torontoians want him to take medical leave. demonstrators are making it clear they want him gone for good. >> what council is doing is symbolic. it's impossible to move a mayor. by refusing to leave rob ford is

testing a system that was not designed with this chaos in mind. he's resisting calls from most of his fellow politicians and a number of citizens in this city. >> let's go to syria where government forces reportedly took the suburb in damascus, and other areas south of capital. areas controlled by the rebels for more than a year are falling one by one. they are also advancing on rebels in the country's second city, aleppo. opposition fighters call for reinforcements to be sent to the front lines. we have more. >> a battle for aleppo. opposition fighters dispatched reinforcements to a city. the video posted by the brigade shows the first batch sent to fend off advances by the syrian

army. >> government forces believed to be backed by regional fighters including hezbollah have been pushing in. the north-western city was an important commercial hub and syria's populous. it's valuable for the opposition fighters who used the north as a control base along the supply routes from turkey. with large districts under rebel control coming at risk of government attacks, fighters belonging to religious groups called for support to the front lines. it was in july of last year that the rebels made a push into aleppo. managing to control the eastern part and districts in the west and center. one of the main rebel objectives, aleppo international airport remained under government control. the army captured a number of

towns, including those opening the road for government forces towards besieged bases and power plants. >> it doesn't mean that the battle is finished or again is over. but it means that the regime will have big, big presence, if the syrian regime goes to geneva, it would go with conditions of the successful, with the conditions of failure. >> intense fighting killed many on both sides in the last few days. it's a turning point for the rebels who at one point managed to cut off all government supply routes to aleppo. in fighting amongst opposition fighters in recent months, it appears to cost them dealer. the division is sapping energy in the battle for aleppo.

>> we are taking you live to cairo. the russian foreign and defence ministers have been meeting this. egyptian counterparts they met. it's the senior russian delegation to visit egypt since the fall of the soviet union. the russians are competing with the united states for influence in the region. i believe the egyptian foreign minister is about to speak. let's listen in. >> a number of meetings have been held. including a meeting this evening with the president mansour. in addition to a joint meeting between the egyptian defence minister with his russian

counter part. the shape and nature of the visit, and the arrangement made at this particular point of time, amongst the busy schedules of both the russians and egyptian sides, all of this carry a great deal of significance on our part. we are looking forward to fruitful cooperation with our russian friends on a number of fronts. as russia is a key player on the international arena, this mandate that i should mention, that our relations are deep-rooted in history, today's meeting between myself and

minister sergei lavrov addressed a number of international and regional issues. in addition to other issues of bilateral interests. with respect to international and regional issues, we addressed the crisis in syria and the efforts being made and the ground work for the geneva ii con -- conference with only aim to address the peace crisis in syria. and the crisis in the middle east, the israeli-palestine negotiations, and the efforts made by the united states in

preparation for their negotiations. i propose and reiterated that it is significantly important to reach a solution to the israeli palestine conflict. i soup revved myp concern of any practices by the israelis on the ground which may disturb the negotiations making a peaceful amenable solution impossible. we also addressed a number of issues, including the neighbouring countries to egypt, namely libya, the sudan. nigs to the situation in africa, and -- in addition to the situation in africa and other areas of mutual interest. we also touched upon issues

relating to international peace and the necessity to create an area free of weapons of mass destruction in the middle east region, and a division of the nonproliferation treaty of 2010. with respect to the bilateral issues, we touched upon a number of issues, various issues, and i reiterate that our mutual cooperation is depleted in history, including the military brands which was tackled by the egyptian defence minister with his russian counterpart. it also extends to include other

economical aspects, including the high dam. it also includes the expansion of trade and investment. we also look forward to reinforcing further cooperation with - specially with the rising of the russian tourist coming to egypt. there exists an agreement between the two sides upon the necessity to convene the joint ministerial comity, which will give momentum to the mutual and bilateral cooperation. this will be reinforced by a committee of experts, which will specify the domains to be

stretched. without further details many other issues were tackled during our joint meeting and i believe i should give the floor to our guest the russian foreign minister to make a statement and then we will open the floor for questions. ♪ >> 24 is "real money." you are the most important part of the show. join our live conversation on twitter using the handle @aj real money. i've been telling you about the stock markets bull run. the s&p 500 which mimics the stock holds in your 401k has