♪ this is al jazeera. ♪ hello and welcome to the news hour, live from al jazeera in doha, it's good to have you here, coming up on this program a massive car bomb in central beirut and at least five people have been killed. among the dead is mohamed a finance minister. in other news how to end the conflict in south sudan, african leaders are meeting in kenya to

discuss options. and dozens dead, thousands more homeless after ten days of floods and mud slides in brazil. ♪ we begin in beirut, the former finance minister has been killed in the blast in the capitol. the red cross says four other people died in the attack in downtown beirut and the convoy neighborhood in the city and dominick cain has more. >> reporter: this shows the immediate aftermath of the explosion and a car bomb detonated in the beirut downtown business district. the blast killed the former finance minister, the close aid to the prime minister and one of

the leaders of the future movements and the body guards were also killed and dozens of people nearby were wounded. the force of the blast blew out windows across a wide area and one retired general told al jazeera that all the leaders of the march 14th anti-syria group were due to be in the area for a meeting when the bomb went off. >> we were waiting for very important target and go to the meeting. but when you talk about terrorism, security can minimize the damage and it can release the operations but cannot stop. >> reporter: one academic describes what kind of man

mohamed shutter can be. >> a very ideological man who was one over the faces of the march 14 movement and the group. >> reporter: his killing comes as he was preparing for meetings in january of the tribunal looking at the 2005 assassination of the former prime minister. a prominent economist and diplomate he was the ambassador to washington in the late 1990s, but it's his closeness to start now which may have cost him his life. dominick cain, al jazeera. >> reporter: and our correspondent joins us from beirut, she is at the scene of the blast. and if i can first get you to begin by describing the scene there and what happened. >> okay, we are here in downtown beirut. as you can see the security

forces have got the area baricaded and keeping journalists away and it was a car bomb and he was passing by when the car exploded and he was killed with four other including his body guardian 17 other people have been injured. this is an area that is very prominent and rebuilt by the family. it was their own project and source of pride for them and a place where the tourist come and the lebanese come back for christmas holidays to spend time. most of the banks have headquarters here, shopping malls, movie theatres and a very up scale residential area. the camera man will try -- he is trying to show you the christmas tree at the end of this road. there is just over there is usually very busy in the afternoon. now it was early in the morning

about 9:30 in the morning and it wasn't that busy but security is usually very tight around this area, not only because as a residential neighborhood but because of the security concerns that have overwhelmed people here in the past two weeks specifically. security forces have bender recollecting roadblocks and checkpoints and stopping any suspecting cars and stopping people, checking them out because of the situation and we have heard many lebanese politicians warning that the situation is tension and volatile and something needs to stop it and after today it has been materialized. >> stand there for us and we have wally who is also a political player in lebanon on the phone for us and thank you very much sir for speaking to us. first i would like to ask your

reaction to what has happened. >> this is one of two people believing in dialog and a close friend of mine in a way we used to have long chats about the future of lebanon and the whole other world, a reasonable guy. i mean, the terrorist and it's a big loss and i cannot say more. >> and the fact that this happens at this point in time, the country was on a high security alert, can you tell us what you think the impact of this is going to be going forward especially for the country? >> it's a big go for the country. it's a big blow for the at the same time for the prestige of

the state but i mean the terrorists are everywhere it seems in this country and in part of this arab world. but i mean we have to continue to do our effort to consolidate the state at the same time and to be more vigilant as far as we can. but it's a quite big blow for us and big blow for the people. i mean, the people believe in what the circumstances are and we cannot solve our problems for the dialog. >> reporter: as our correspondent said we have seen violence escalating in resent weeks. do you think this is the combination, are you concerned the violence still could get worse? >> i mean, looking back at the past year already, we are entering the new year and i mean when we saw the explosions in

tripoli in the southern suburbs of the iranian embassy, i'm afraid that is going to continue. >> reporter: what message do you think this will send out to the world about the situation in lebanon? >> i mean that is part of the vicious circle and getting ahold of them. we have to do our best i mean to avoid it but it seems we are on the -- we are glad to that and what can i say more? we have to start. we have to hold, keep on holding i mean how should i say that? we have got to continue to try to find out a way to speak to

each other. i mean, and to avoid going to extreme but that is my message and what other message can i say? >> reporter: mr. jim blood i know this is a terribly emotional time for you and you say you have a close friend of the doctor but political assassinations are not uncommon in lebanon. how much do you think this effects how government works, having to deal with the fear of constant political assassinations and security threats? >> i mean, to go beyond this, again, this is the necessary of having a government that includes everybody. it's better to have everybody inside the government although i know should i say the animosity between the 8th of march and

better to have everybody included in the government so as to reduce the damages that could come for further escalations or extortions, that is my message. >> reporter: thank you very much and jim blood a political player in lebanon and thanks so much for speaking to us. we can now go back to the scene itself and as we heard there wally jim blood talking disparaging and a good friend of the doctor and in despair of how the government will collect itself and move forward and what is the sense and the blow to the functioning of lebanon? >> well, what is the state of the government here? the government, the current government is a care taking

government and resigned 8 months ago and they were supposed to form a new government but it has been 8 months and not been able to do so because the political practice and differences could not agree on a formula for such a government and give us a lot of confidence and approve of it and go ahead and do it. this has been going on for 8 months and basically no government. you have the president that end in may. that is another one where people are fearing a political vacuum. the political differences between the different political parties also reflect on the functioning of the state whether in the security situation or ministries and people do feel a sense they are on their own in this battle, that is government is really helpless and paralyzed and the caretaker prime minister was outside the country and he cutoff his trip and coming back and condemned it but people are realistic and little he can do

to contain the situation and it's all in the hands of the politicians and more importantly the international and regional levels. lebanese feel they are going back to the days of civil war when lob non-was a battlefield for rivalries and ambitions. >> reporter: i want to give our viewers a bit of background and remind them a blast occurred in the city, a car bomb, around 9:40 a.m. that is about 7:40 gmt this morning and the finance minister was killed mohamed and let's take a closer look at the background of this man and believes to be the target of the bombing in beirut and he was the finance minister in 2008 and belongs to future movement and he was close to the former prime minister and son of the late leader who was assassinated himself in 2005. coming back to you, many have

credited him with helping rebuild the economy after the civil war of lebanon. he is held in high esteem in many circles, how much of a deficit does he leave at such a time when lebanon is struggling to get back on his feet? >> well, his financial and economic contributions is another controversial issue here in lebanon because some people give a boost to the country and he worked very closely with former prime minister and if they harm the working class and this boost came at their expense. so that is another issue. however, his contributions were also political. you said he was a very close advisor and aid to the prime minister and very focal and eloquent and depended on him a lot to relay the message to other people in lebanon or with international diplomate, foreign

ministers, he traveled the world and here in lebanon he was very vocal in criticizing the regime of assad and hezbollah and the crisis in syria, the fact that hezbollah sent fighters to fight alongside assad was a major point to criticize and demand over and over again everyday that hezbollah should pull troops out of syria. this is not a contribution for his role to help international investigators put this against them for the assassination and he was assassinated in 2005 in a similar car bomb, not far away from here, less than five minutes drive away from here and took 8 years for international investigators to identify the suspects and put an argument together and this trial is

supposed to start on january 16 in the hague and some people see the assassination of ties to the beginning of international tribunal and for the family and future movement and march 14 coalition which was formed after the assassination, this is a very cornerstone in their political agenda and in their goals because they feel pursuing these killers is very important for further assassination, so far this has not happened and the doctor was assassinated when he was in beirut. >> reporter: we were live in beirut and stand by for us there. she is at the scene of that blast. you can see pictures there, these are the latest pictures there of firemen and the fire being put out and smoke billowing and clearing the area and looking for clues as to what happened. the security situation has been deteriorating in resent months

and stems from a fully functioning government in the country. prime minister announced his cabinet's resignation in march because of the election, a caretaker government has been since to bring the troops together and earlier this month a hezbollah commander was shot in beirut and blamed for the death and last month two bombs went off in beirut killing 23 people. joseph is a specialist on eastern politics and is live from beirut. joseph, good to have you on. as we heard there there are so many events and so many factors leading up to this moment but i would first like to start with the security situation. we have seen many incidents in the run up to this, the security had been on high alert. do you think that this is the combination of it or are you

concerned this could flare-up even more and this is the beginning of an even more violent part for lebanon? >> as long as the developments in syria continue to disintegrate i think lebanon will be effected negatively for the foreseeable future. this is not the end. this will be part of a long string of assassinations and bomb ings that will go on for a while. the danger at this point is that as your previous speakers have said, the danger is that this particular assassination is different from the others because the individual was a moderate voice in the sunni community and leader of the march 14 coalition, someone who wanted to actually extend a hand to the hezbollah group. by silencing him i think his

assassination essentially telegraphed to the extremists that, in fact, you can not only fact in syria and do the killings as you have been doing for the past two years but you can now also move into lebanon and continue the assassinations pulling forth here as well. this is the danger, when a moderate voice like the doctor has been silenced. >> reporter: we talk about the government and the government trying to regain its control and regain control of lebanon and at the same time constantly having incidents like this that derail it how much of the fact this government is struggling to maintain its dominance and possibly it's ability to govern has led to this fragile security situation? >> the makeup of the lebanese situation is such that at no

time in the history perhaps with the exception of 1958, 1964 period, at no time throughout its history has liberty known allowed itself to have that and they have been compromised governments in order to make sure that dialog continues and they aligned and was on air was telling you that he was looking forward to a government that will be inclusive where everyone would be together. guess what, this has been tried and it has failed and it was his decision to leave the government two years ago that brought that and it was his decision to leave the government that brought down this government as well. so therefore these kinds of maneuvers are nothing new. governments are purposefully kept weak when security situations get out of hand as

they have been doing during the past few months it's easy to blame the government for not taking actions but the set up is such that no government is actually allowed to become strong. there is always one party that is trying to dominate the others inside the government to pretend otherwise is to essentially believe in santa claus even though we are in the period right now but this is not going to change the situation and the army in lebanon is the only army in the world that does police work, the army is not capable of defending the country and the argument from hezbollah is it's up to us to make sure the country is ours and it is weak and should not be surprised when

security gets out of hand. >> reporter: as you speak we see the latest pictures from the scene and firemen trying to put out fires still. you can tell that people are very distressed there. the fact that this has happened right now, you said doesn't surprise you. are you -- was it almost a certainty that something like this was bound to happen given the fact that we have seen the security situation deteriorate over the past few months particularly with having syria volatility in syria? >> i have to go back to my notes to look at the number of assassinations that have taken place since 2005 and even before. there is probably, the number is probably reaching over 50 now of politicians and several hundred innocent bystanders that have been killed. of course during the wars we had a number of casualties as well. in 2006 when hezbollah and

israel had a war, approximately 1200 people were killed. we are talking about a long string of deaths that has really colored the picture of this country. this is not going to stop any time soon for two reasons, one is lebanon is unstable. it has always been unstable purposefully by politicians not willing to create the institutions that will be the anchors around which people will rally. and second because of what is going on in syria. everything that is occurring in syria is spilling over into lebanon. let's not forget we have among the lebanese right now approximately a million and a half syrian refugees, not all of them in beirut of course, they are throughout the country but a number of them in lebanon, in the capitol city of beirut as well. so you are talking about a presence that is very important. and let us not forget that syria

has occupied lebanon and militarily for three decades and even though they are withdrawn in 2005, on march 14 members still believe the presence is subtle but present so the issues are not going away, lebanon is still unstable and as long as the syrian developments are the way they are lebanon will be effected and see more of these types of unfortunate tragedies. >> reporter: good to speak to you and get your thoughts and that leads us to comments that the army general made to us earlier and he talks about the assassination in beirut is directly related to the crisis in syria. >> we didn't expect assassination and we did not expect this operation in lebanon. in the last two months and also

in the next few months and since there is escalation in the operation in syria on both sides, what did they expect in lebanon also. and killing people, innocent people in the southern suburbs of beirut and also assassination. this is political assassination and related to lebanon which is very connected to the crisis here. >> reporter: well, we will bring you the latest on events in beirut but let's move on to other news around the world. 8 east african countries are in nairobi for the political crisis and reporters across the region covering the story for you and we start in juba for you. and if i can get you to first start by telling us what the

situation is there now. >> well, people say that things seem to be getting back to normal here in the capitol and it's a lot busier today and shops are open and government offices are functioning and one woman said after days of fighting and living in hell she thinks things will be okay and that is the general statement for people in the capitol and there is a bit of trouble and the fighting is not going away and people are hiding in u.n. bases and dead bodies all over the street and they are confident they will recapture them from the rebels and give them a matter of days and say the fighting will end very soon from the government side and people are hoping at least in terms of violence stopping it won't last too long. >> thanks for that. we are talking about the situation in south sudan and the moment and we go to nairobi where african leaders trying to

clear the crisis and how are those talks going? >> well, we have just come back from the state house, the office of the president and seen arrival of heads of state, the message coming out from the east african leaders is to emphasize this is a political crisis, not an ethnic fight and therefore that is what they are trying to do here, to discuss a political resolution to this crisis. we have in the kenyan capitol, the south sudan president is attending. the other party, the former vice president accused of starting this rebellion is not coming for protocol reasons because of a state meeting but we understand the invitation would be extended to him for taking part in a later stage of the mediation talks. as i said the emphasis now is to try to find a resolution to stop the fighting because as the

talks are taking place fighting is still taking place on the ground and they need a cease fire and move on to the second step which is establish a political dialog between the two sides. >> reporter: the latest from nairobi where they try to find a resolution to stop the fighting. thank you very much. we now move to brazil where more than 40 people have been killed and 60,000 are homeless by flash flooding and mud slides and the rains began more than a week ago and a state of emergency has been in force for days now and we have the report. >> reporter: this is what ten days of torrential rains have done to brazil's state. and the land submerged by flood water, hills scarred by mud slides and communication links cut and tens of thousands of people have been forced from their homes. but they are the lucky ones. the mudslides have killed dozens of people and left more missing.

>> translator: we only hope they find bodies of my children because i think the chance of finding them alive is doubtful. >> reporter: in most places the people had little warning of what was coming. >> when i heard a noise there was no time and i was pushed against the wall and i found a piece of wood and grabbed on it to to pull free and i heard my daughter and i freed her and heard another girl and helped her as well. >> reporter: they are coordinating the rescue and relief efforts and the president came to see the operation for herself. >> translator: we have to save people and then guaranty them shelter. this is what you do when confronting a disaster, the first priority that is what is precious is human life and that is what we worry about saving first. >> reporter: with so much of the infrastructure lying in ruin it's clear when the waters finally recede rebuilding the state will be a difficult task.

al jazeera. >> reporter: so -- ♪

heavy down pours through sunday with risk of flooding and the western side of europe things will gradually calm down for

now. ♪ top stories we are following on al jazeera, a car bomb killed five people in the lebanese capitol. the explosion happened in the neighborhood, an up scale area in beirut. the former lebanese finance minister was among those killed in the blast and a prominent opposition figure and close aid to the former prime minister. the blast happened around 9:30 local time in a busy business district about three hours ago. let's hear from the people who were at the scene when the bomb went off. >> translator: we felt glass breaking and heard a sound and an explosion happened and an explosion continued to break and we waited until it was broken and went out and saw this. >> translator: as you can see all the shops here are damaged.

i consider all this terrorism. all this is terrorism. damage in the country and the people. what more can i say? god help us. god help this country. >> reporter: and we are live from beirut and if i can get you to talk by describing the scene around you. >> this is the new built area in beirut and this is the name of the company who built it. it's upscale and it's commercial and business and residential. and that building under construction is where the car bomb was parked. former minister was going in his car along that road to go to the center house, the former prime minister. that is where the doctor worked every single day and where he had his office and where we met him every time we had a meeting

with him, five minute walk away from here. we know he was killed with his body guardian 71 people have been injured. it's a very daring attack because this is an area where security had been since it started. you cannot film here without talking about a mission or the security people checking what is going on. how did attackers manage to park the car bomb in that street? we still don't know but they are looking for the faintest of clues and keeping people away and looking into different possibilities and there was one car bomb and he was a former finance minister and lebanese ambassador to washington and aid to the former prime minister and leading future movement and the march 14 coalition. >> reporter: thanks for that. we will go to political analyst who is standing by for us.

first many are seeing and the people we spoke to and the situation in syria has lent to this deteriorating lebanon and your thoughts on this bomb attack? >> one must say of course what happened in syria has taken its impact on the lebanese situation and other bombings through the skirmish that is taking place and lebanon is under difficult political and security conditions, especially there is a lot of big vacuum that will happen in lebanon and no

government and pretty soon have no president and the parliament of lebanon is not actually the function as it's supposed to be. so the country is divided and this assassination that is going through the street of lebanon and finally today with the assassination will open lebanon to more deadly attacks to come as things move closer to tell shun of the president of lebanon. >> reporter: one thing was clear, he was a vocal anti-assad regime proponent and very much vehicle liked his views on that and the question now would be is this a spill over from the syria

situation that hezbollah has been strongly supporting? >> basically i'm not sure i understand that question. if you can clarify that question again. >> maybe to begin with as many are saying he was particularly a target because of his anti-assad stance to begin with. >> reporter: well, a lot of people have been 14 of march were against this and the deaths and i don't put any blame at anybody at this point. i guess if we have to leave it to the security apparatus to find out who is behind the assassination, we have to remember that there is somebody that is in this world who wanted to create tension and friction in lebanon just like a few weeks ago we had a major assassination

and of hezbollah and we had a major assassination and figure in the future organization. so those two, if you add them together somebody wanted to create the version in the country and take the country into a road that shouldn't go in the first place. the bombing that has taken place in the country basically the whole logic if somebody was alive and wanted lebanon to be another iraq and wanted lebanon to be another syria and wanted destruction and that is why we see this today. i think if this sends any message at this point we have to look at it very carefully and in line very carefully and see how we can minimize this impact because in the end the lebanese has to come together to discuss their differences and to see who

is behind all the killings and who wanted to have lebanon at this difficult road which is so full of blood and dysfunction. >> reporter: that is the question that everyone is asking and good to speak to you and thank you. joining us now is the director of the islam fire center of the american university of beirut and thanks for being on the program. along that line of thinking is this a spill over from the syria situation? >> well, you have had spill over from syria to lebanon and spill over from lebanon into syria. hezbollah and some allies in lebanon have been fighting inside syria against groups that have come from north lebanon and into syria to fight hezbollah to bring down the regime. the tensions in lebanon far predate the syrian civil war and the last three years of war in

syria clearly had an impact on lebanon negatively in terms of tension, fighting, stalemate politically and every other way and the fighting in lebanon between the various groups, that fighting has been going on for 20, 30 years and it was isolated in tripoli and siden and northwest lebanon on the syrian border and why this is happening now and why i think this is so significant is that formerly isolated and politically protected in sacred areas the heart land south of beirut and the heart land of march 14 which is this area that was attacked today, i say that area, these areas were off bounds and they are no longer off bounds and the gloves are off and the groups are attacking each other and who is doing the killing will be found out by investigators and they are more proficient at this than they were 10, 15 years ago

but you have people attacking and bombing hezbollah and senior officers and now attacking a leading figure in the march 14 movement, the former ambassador and close advisor and very distinguished, articulate and smart man and he is a march 14 figure who is critical of hezbollah and syria and it's much more than spill over from syria. it's a process of the internal tensions in lebanon, the fighting in syria and the iranian regional cold war which is no longer a cold war, it's a hold war, all three converging together and leading incredit mentally to the steps we have seen in the last three, four, five months of attacks at the iranian embassy and now the people are terrified there is going to be more of this. >> reporter: you said yourself he was a moderate man and calling for dialog, why do you think he was such a target?

>> because he is a very prominent, articulate leader in the march 14 movement. he is a very effective speaker. he was deeply engaged in international meetings and he represented march 14 in many things but he was also a man who always thought the possibilities of dialog to solve issues peacefully and politically. that was not possible and is not possible up to now in lebanon because of the severe ideological divide and the rigid positions that the march 14 and the march 8 groups have taken which are partly a reflection of internal political conditions but also a reflection of this regional cold war that the iranian, syria and saudi's are waging and using lebanon as a battlefield which had often been done in the past but now it's different because it's the

iranians and the saudi, who are the drivers of the political tensions but the lebanese are not helpless victims and they actively in many cases seek external patronage and support and protection and of course funding and guns and training and other things. so this is the real tragedy of modern lebanon but the internal tensions are so linked with the regional and global players like the americans or the french or the chinese in various ways and the real dilemma is you can pick out three or four possible perpetrators for the assassination today and there are three or four possible motives for who would have done this so we have to wait for the investigate to provide evidence and then we will possibly have a better picture in the weeks ahead. >> reporter: you said the violence had been ramping up

with intermittent bursts as you said explosions, violence, attacks, how much worse do you think it could get from here? >> well looking at b lebanon's modern history it could get a lot worse because it has a terrible civil war between 1975 and 1990 and i was there in 1975 and it was pretty awful that was going on, the killing that was going on and my guess is it will not happen again. the lebanese do not want another civil war. they are not stupid enough or wreckless enough to allow themselves to make another civil war especially if they are crowded by external parties, what you are likely to get is what we see is continued low intensity warfare, manifested by

fighting or targeted attacks, assassinations, car bombs or missile, small missile rockets that are fired at particular targets. the nature of these attacks is they are usually politically targeted and not putting bombs in shopping centers. they are trying to terrorize entire populations and trying to attack specific targets or hezbollah or iran or whoever it may be and the fear is this could escalate and then you would get crazy people and killers putting bombs in shopping centers and restaurants and just destroying the whole country and i don't think it will happen because political leaderships made it clear in 7 or 8 years they will not allow themselves to slide back in a civil war and the central government in lebanon is much more able and willing now to intervene using the armed

forces, using its investigative forensic capabilities to try to find out who is doing these killings and also to step in with armed forces to separate people who might be fighting on the ground. one theory about the killing is that he was ready to make testimony and to do a television interview about the special tribunal for lebanon which is the international mixed tribunal to try to people accused of killing the former prime minister and five people have been indicted and all of them have some kind of link or association with or something connected to hezbollah in some way and some people think that he was killed because they didn't want him to be part of this process when the actual court started its proceedings on around january 18 is the target date. that is just one theory going around. so there is many possible reasons why somebody would want

to do this and to keep the country in chaos but my suspicion is you will just see this level of political violence continuing until the major players in the country and the major patrons outside the country agree to wind it down, to allow the country to get back on to a normal trajectory of life and development because nobody wins in this situation, all the lebanese are suffering and everybody is paying a heavy price. this is a huge shock to investments and tourism and development. >> reporter: pictures of panic of people running around and you can just tell that this has shook the nation and thank you very much, good to speak to you from the american university in beirut. let me first remind our viewers what happened. about three hours ago the sound of a blast was heard across the city. a car bomb had exploded.

people saw a plume of black smoke rising from the downtown district and it was revealed that five people died in the blast including a prominent politician, a former finance minister. and we are at the scene. and, you know, we were talking about the impact of this on businesses in particular, on tourism. tell us, not just particularly about the loss of the doctor but what now this bombing does to lebanon economy wise? >> yes, well the whole country is suffering and there have been several shaktar bombs and some were attacking beirut and hezbollah and took place in a

residential and commercial area and an am -- embassy and tensions have been building up here and in the past couple of months the security situation has been deteriorating. since the summer people have come -- become resigned to the fact the country is not going to be able to escape the violence raging in syria. an attack like this surprises people because it's a daring attack in the middle of beirut, downtown area. i would show you the camera man and maybe he will be able to show you more of this. this is a commercial, business and residential area. this is an area where many tourists will come and visit and spend a lot of time here, shopping, going to restaurants, having parties at night and living in these very luxurious apartments and that is where the car bomb was believes to have

been parked at 9:45, 9:48, he was going to a meeting and what is called here the center house and it's a five minutes walk away from here and that is where the doctor had his office and many times we met with him over there and he was very eloquent and very driven and enthusiastic to promote and push the agenda of the future movement and the march 14 coalition. the march 14 coalition is a coalition that came to exist after the assassination of prime minister. and it had a few goals. and it wants them south of lebanon was done and wanted also justice as the perpetrators of the assassination of the prime minister to be brought to justice. on january 16 it's going to be the beginning of the trial. now we also have just heard from the former prime minister who was a very close aid to the

doctor, he said he condemns the attack and killing and says whoever assassinated his father are the same killers who assassinated the doctor. >> reporter: live from beirut at the scene of the car bomb explosion and thank you so much and we will come through you through the day for updates and following the story very closely. ♪

a christian population and it has revenge attacks and called anti-balica and the violence is forcing many people to seek refuge at a make-shift camp by the airport. >> translator: i cannot go back home. if it's secure yes but if not i cannot go home.

if we have to stay here a year it helps us stay alive. >> reporter: more than 1600 french troops have been deployed along the african union peace keeping force of about 4,000 but the situation was complicated by soldiers in the au force with celica fighters. >> we are enforcing the military commanders and put in place a strategy in order to cover all eight districts in bangi and also most effected areas. >> reporter: generations christians and minority muslims lived side by side. but people here say the ongoing blood shed is not of a religion but of resources and control of central african republics largely untapped mineral deposits, i'm with al jazeera. >> reporter: let's get some sports news, here is andy.

>> thank you. england had their best day so far and the series with australia and finishing the day in real trouble on 164 for 9 and today started badly for england and kevin peterson 71 and balanced out for 255 and australia really struggled with the cricket ground but at a personal caught and and wick etand a rain delay play getting underway between south africa and india they are closing in on a century there in india. right now 189 for 1. and manchester was in a point of english league leaders of victory are liver pool and taking a lead in the game and goes from vincent company and put city ahead 2-1 and that is how it finished, liverer pool was first to fourth and manager

could face discipline after complaining about the referee. >> i was very proud of the players. i thought they were absolutely outstanding. no help whatsoever from the officials. and never go on about officials but i thought today they were horendous in terms of performance and nothing went our way but they took the game to a game that was a top site. >> reporter: and the team out in front after 8-3 and one win at city and have come from behind and two goals and lucas and just that west ham and now in the relagation zone. >> that was the turning point of the game but after that we took our chances and after that we responded very well and won the game in a convincing way.

>> reporter: nba western conference champions the san antonio spurs beat the mavericks on thursday and got a good start and the san antonio and ended the first quarter ahead and 15 in first half points and spurs were comfortable midway, 58-51 and they did not give up and trailed by just three with the clock running down. that is more magic and san antonio with a six point league and 22 points and spurs winning 116-107. there is the third in the western conference but portland trailblazers that topped the table and beat them 4 and 27 points and helped the houston rockets to defeat the grizzlys 100-92. wimbledon murray lost on return from injury at the tennis

championship. the world number four has not played since back surgery in september and he was beaten in straight sets by francis joe and he will play world two in friday's semi finals and switzerland and they saw number three seed back from a break down to take the first set 7-5. and 6-1 to reach that semi final. more sport from me later on but that is it for me for now. >> reporter: thank you very much for that andy. let's now go back to the scene in beirut and we are hearing that six people have died in a car bomb blast that happened about three hours ago in the central downtown area, restaurants and a coffee shop were destroyed and there is

glass everywhere according to witnesses and among dead is a former finance minister no had chatah and killed in the blast and the city is now in lock down, but there has been high security alert for the past ten days according to our correspondent who is at the scene there. security had been expecting an attack and there had been checkpoints everywhere and 24 hours ago one of the main roads had been shut down in anticipation of an attack and when a suspicious vehicle was set to have been stationed there but three hours ago a bomb, there was a bomb blast in central beirut killing six people. there is people and they are conducting investigations and clean-up operations is underway. the whole of beirut is under lock down and high security and we will get you more on this as we get it and update you throughout the day. ♪

the stream is uniquely interactive television. in fact, we depend on you, your ideas, your concerns. >> all these folks are making a whole lot of money. >> you are one of the voices of this show. >> i think you've offended everyone with that kathy. >> hold on, there's some room to offend people, i'm here. >> we have a right to know what's in our food and monsanto do not have the right to hide it from us. >> so join the conversation and make it your own. >> watch the stream. >> and join the conversation online @ajamstream. here is more. >> beneath the fluorescentsun in a former meat packing plant is the latest trim in farming. they call it "vertical farming." these fields grow on floors on at industrial park and farmer john adel and his staff agrees user. >> my shipping proceed did you

say 1500, 2,000 miles to get are. >> the plant of the indoor -- as the indoor formers call it doesn't grow corn or soybeans but mustard, high end micro greens on the plates of white-napkin restaurants. these fish supply the vert liser that number issues the i'm phil torres. coming up this week on techknow. it's roll-call for the santa cruz police. # . predicting the times and locations where these crimes were likely to occur. >> alright, where are we going? >> put your hands behind your back. >> can science predict crime before it happens?

♪ political assassination, a huge explosion rocks beirut killing a former finance minister and increasing sectarian tensions in lebanon. the crisis in south sudan, african leaders meet in kenya to discuss the on going conflict with the hopes of bringing an end to the escalating violence. corruption probe in turkey, and calls are louder for the prime minister to step down the prosecutor in charge of the investigation is silenced by being removed from the case. arctic rescue, researchers trapped for days and could be home ward bound as crews look to break the ice and clear