♪ >> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ and you join us for the al jazeera news hour and welcome for me, david foster and this is some of what we have coming up, in the next 60 minutes. they crucified me, an activist missing for 8 days claims he was kidnapped and tortured. it's the great barrier reef at risk and australia gives the go ahead for millions of cubics of mud to be dumped nearby and bangkok protesters step up the

bid to topple the government. and the biggest e waste site in the world where young people risk their lives to make a living. ♪ and we start in ukraine, two disturbing stories of intimidation right in the middle of the country's political crisis and one involves journalists attacked by police, the other a 35-year-old political activist demetri says he was beaten, tortured and part of his ear cutoff and also that he was crucified and we are live from kiev and what does he say happened to him? >> and we are still trying to establish the full scope of what exactly happened to him but what

we know comes from a brief interview he gave last night. as you mentioned there he had been missing for more than a week. many people were fearing for his life after previous reports of abductions and cases of torture has surfaced and said he had been abducted by men with russian accents and subjected to horrific treatment at the hands of his kidnappers and this is what he had to say about his experience. >> translator: i was crucified and holes in my hands and part of my clear is cutoff and cut my face and not a spot on my body not beaten and i could not tell who they were because it was always dark where they kept me but the accent is russian and i cannot see very well because i have been in darkness so long. >> reporter: this was a man who was behind of the protest where

thousands of cars converged on the homes and offices of the most, important, influential people in ukraine. >> he was a very well-known figure and leading there a massive convoy of cars and a thousand vehicles to the home of viktor yanukovych, the president and he was known by the authorities to and according to his associates had received a series of threats and phone calls leading up to his eventual abduction. many people here believe that of course the authorities may well be responsible but there is an air of suspicion as well and the men responsible as i mentioned earlier spoke with a russian accent and there are questions to be raised about this and the case of other protesters who have been subject to brutal treatment of the hands of the authorities but also in a report

by human rights watch it's clear that more than protesters have been effected too. that report suggests that dozens of journalists and medal staff have also been brutally attacked over the course of the last few months and many of these cases and examples will undoubtedly be presented to the likes of john kerry, the u.s. secretary of state when he arrives here on the weekend. pressure on viktor yanukovych is growing and criticism of his treatment of protesters is mounting also. >> and the man who is sick with the flu and thank you very much indeed. and australia's great barrier reef watchdog has given the go ahead for mud to be dumped near the marine park and 300 cubic meters of mud and enough to fill the great pyramid in egypt and then some for a coal and

unlocking coal projects. and the world heritage site, one of the biggest tourist attractions is estimated to be worth $5.7 annually to the alls australian economy and theying fought it and lost and said it will harm the corals and the echo system and double shipping traffic in that area and andrew thomas sent us this report. >> already a u.n. agency is considering whether to describe the great barrier reef in danger and another huge threat to the reef has been approved and 3 million cubic meters of mud and sand dredged to deep this and they wanted it deeper so it can export more material and says 30

years dredging elsewhere had no negative impact on the reef but environmentalist disagree and they say that whether in another place it killed fish and turtles and they said runoff from land after flooding led to that and whistle blowers said it came from dredging operations are at least partly to blame and the watchdogs supposed to protect the reef will be different and 47 environmental conditions will be exposed and not dumped over coral reefs. >> it's important to know the disposal area has sand, silt and clay and does not contain sea grass betz. >> reporter: that is not enough and the material at sea that is dumped blocks off sea and killing life. >> we will see the condition of the reef only get worse and this is just the part of the wedge.

the 3 million cubic or 5 million tons of dumping is only the first of a number of proposals to expand ports and allow more dredging and dumping across the waters. >> reporter: the more projects that are allowed in other words the more fish suffer. the great barrier reef is supposed to be an independent watchdog looking after the interests of the reef. critics point out that it is a government agency and the government has made it clear the priorities are economic. this decision environmentalists say amounts of putting the interest of the coal industry above those of the greatest natural resource, andrew thomas al jazeera sidney. >> the united states is accusing syria of being too slow to hand over chemical weapons and 4% are left at shore so far and this is the u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel. >> the united states is concerned that the syrian

government is behind in delivering these chemical weapons precursor materials on time and with the schedule that was agreed to. we believe that this effort can continue to get back on track even though we are behind schedule. but the syrian government has to take responsibility of fulfilling its commitment that has been made. >> reporter: the syrian handling the chemical weapons may be slow but it's still going ahead and the pictures show an norwegian shipment on monday and they were first moved out in december. the first round of syrian peace talks will end on friday resuming in a week's time, not much progress so far. and diplomatic editor james is a t the talks in geneva and the

chemical weapons are happening and are there concerns of those at the u.n. about the tardiness of it? >> yes, i think there are concerns and concerns for some weeks now, diplomates i have spoken to, u.n. and u.n. officials and officials from the o pcw, the special agency based in the hague providing technical help for this process. until now they have been concerned but not wanted to blame the syrian side for stalling because they said to me, well, we know this is a very difficult operation and it would be difficult for any country to try and get chemical weapons from their storage bases to a port, the port of latakiar through a country that is effectively at war but the u.s. has now broken the silence and spoken out publically and condemned the syrian government, saying that they are stalling and it wants to see faster progress and it's worth seeing this in the bigger picture, in

terms of the international community there are to ways that the u.s. and western countries are engaged on syria and one is chemical weapons that deal and the russians americans broke it on that and would like to see syria moving faster and the other is the process in geneva and it was broken by the russians and americans and again there are claims here that the syrian government is stalling. >> reporter: just a quick few days before we move to the peace talks themselves, we heard from a russian diplomate who says that june 30 deadline for the destruction of all of the chemical weapons is still realistic. now, the talks themselves, breaking up today, resuming in a week's time does anybody have any where? >> no, not really. but that is still being described here and i think it shows the low expectations that many have as quite possibly progress because no one walked out, both sides sat here and

listened to each other. they listened often to each other yelling, one side yelling at each other and blaming the other for so many deaths and happened both sides of the table accusing the other of brutal tactics and killing people and deaths and they had to sit and listen to the other side and clear the air. they did on thursday's session sit down together and at the beginning of the session decided to stand in silence, both sides remembering all that had dad fighting in both sides in syria in a conflict that has gone on for almost three years, after in the plan is for them to go away and go away and speak to their own people for the government of syria's delegation to go to damascus and the opposition will speak to the wider constituency of the opposition and find out what they think about what has happened here so far and also i

think in this week's break they are going to have they will be speaking to other players in the international community and the u.s. and west will be speaking a lot to the opposition and expect on the other side the government of syria will be hearing a lot from the russians and the iranians on the way forward and ambassador brahimi leaving this hopes to have a more structured session going point by point and through the different obstacles when they come back in ten day's time. >> reporter: live in geneva. south sudan's neighbors say the cease fire agreement could be violated without peace keeping forces and the authority of development has 8 countries and they are incurring what they call a progressive withdraw of forces from front lines. thousands of people have been killed in the conflict and more than 800,000 have been forced from their homes. hundreds of thousands of

refugees they feel it's too dangerous for them to go home despite the cease fire and no food, no shelter because of the resent violence. and we report from a town on the border with uganda where tens of thousands have fled for sur supplies. >> no where to go and little to eat and they are under a tree sheltering from the burning sun waiting for their names to be pulled out. today is a good day for them. aid has finally arrived meaning that mothers won't have to worry about how they are going to feed their babies at least not for another week. among the half a million sudans have went to the border town but has taken u.n. more than a week to reach them and she is 8 months pregnant and expects to give birth within days and two other children and also taking

care of her three nephews who are orphaned by this conflict. rachel fled bor with little more than the clothes on her back and she went south as shaktar away from the fighting as possible and doing this for the sake of her children. these are her only belongingings unable to accommodate her in their home they allowed her to stay under her tree. here on the ground is where rachel and her children have been sleeping for weeks. >> translator: there is no where we can go. we have no today and water. and we sleep on the ground. >> reporter: where do you expect to give birth? >> here. yeah. >> reporter: and she was already in a poor town and the people here live in small huts with no running water or

electricity. despite that when the fighting broke out the locals here tried to accommodate the thousands of fellow country men and women who sought refuge here and offering what little they had. this is the second time david has had to flee his home. in 1991 he was shot when bor was attacked by fighters and his face was disfigured, his life forever scarred and finds himself displaced once again, too scared to go back. >> i can eat but sometimes drinking water is very difficult, getting water is very difficult. >> reporter: with so many towns across south sudan all but destroyed they realized that many of the displaced have no where to go back to and a longer term strategy is needed. >> the initial plan was three months and looking at expanding that and recognizing there is going to be significant needs in the country for six months and even a year in the future.

>> reporter: one of the criticisms people have when it comes to emergency relief is that it doesn't solve the root of the problem. so while the people here are happy that food has finally arrived and unless the towns are rebuilt and security is ensured they will be dependent on handouts for a long time to come. and i'm with al jazeera, south sudan. >> reporter: stay with us if you can on al jazeera, we have this coming up, the head of the u.s. central bank steps down after 8 years and we will look back at ben bernanke's legacy and look at what lies ahead for his successor. dictating terms from behind bars, why prison officials in brazil are forced to strike deals with inmates to keep the peace. and why these footballers in spain boycotted their cup quarter final. ♪

it's a familiar scene but reaching a crucial time, opposition protesters in thailand have been marching through the capitol to days before national elections. they say they will boycott the vote and say they still want the government to resign and progovernment demonstrators cancelled their rally to avoid a consultation and wayne reports from bangkok. >> reporter: they had received information that they are gathering and could come under attacked and planned friday outside the capitol bangkok to show support for the government, to show support for the election but to try to avoid any violence they have decided to cancel that gathering. instead they will focus their attention on supporting the election which is to be held on sunday. the antigovernment group, the protesters are saying they will not try to stop people voting on sunday but it is clear they want

to disrupt the process as much as possible. on sunday they say they will stage the largest rally to date, that is a long campaign and people injured on both sides of the political divide and ten people have been killed. but protesters are vowing to continue their fight. the protesters move to topple thailand's government have not worked yet but the party is continuing. it has been three months since they started and while at times the numbers have looked low the pressure was enough to see the prime minister call in early election. but that wasn't enough for the protesters who were vowing to disrupt sunday's vote. >> translator: we could vote against the government but it would not guaranty justice in the next government and past elections it was clear they bought votes. >> reporter: as the days draw to a close, many of the protesters settle in for another night on the streets. it's at this time that protest guards increase security. in resent weeks there have been

several gun and gernade attacks. >> translator: we have to be careful in the nighttime because there are people who try to hurt us. >> reporter: some attacks have taken place in daylight. [gunfire] on sunday a protest leader was killed in the shooting by mystery gunmen. and he was also shot that day. one bullet went through his cheek. he says the attacks won't scare him or other protesters away. >> translator: i'm not scared at all. i will rejoin the protest when i leave the hospital. we have to reform thailand. >> reporter: despite the spor -- violence saying if they come together in numbers widespread violence would breakout and possibly civil war. it's difficult to see how thailand's political crisis will end and it has been dragging on

for years and the two sides seem more apart than ever and they believe the election is the only way to prove who has the right to run the country but the people here believe the election will prove nothing. ♪ for now the two sides sing the same anthem but have very different views of who should be in charge of the country and how it should be run. well, as the election day draws nearer it seems to have the election cancelled or postpone will fail and seems the election will happen but even if it does it seems clear they will be legal challenges afterwards and possibly even a case that the election will be declared null and void because of the disruptions that it has faced. >> reporter: we were telling you a little earlier about protests over dumping near the great barrier reef off the gold coast and we return there saying hello to richard and getting a

look at the weather in that world. >> across the north and the east and as we run this on the satellite image it's looking disturbed up there with areas of low pressure, certainly up towards the north, this trough has given some significant rainfall as you can see. more than 100 millimeters at the point but this area of clouds further towards the east which is giving more significant rainfall. and this has been associated with what was a tropical cyclone dillan and it has weakened moving inland but produced wild weather. coal ports in the northeast were closed because of the seas and major storm surge because of king tides and spring tides but with additional impact of that particular area of low pressure. now the good news of course really is the rain is needed because more than two thirds of queens is in drought at the moment and the rain will be useful and expected to

disintegrate as it moves in land over the next day or so. elsewhere the temperatures are rounds 40 degrees. now this time of the year we should look at temperatures of about 30 degrees and 26 and very hot in the coming days and looks like the weather will continue over the following few days, david. >> reporter: richard thank you very much. the u.s. chairman will be leaving the central bank on friday. they have been turbulent the last years for ben bernanke and on the receiving end of one of the world's worst financial crisis that began in 2007 and his successor will take over and we examine bernanke's legacy. >> reporter: in charge of the world's most influential central back and he was appointed chairman of the u.s. federal reserve in 2006 by george bush and no idea a global meltdown was coming, an expect on the great depression and one of the key players trying to stop another developing. >> he knew the things not to do.

so he might not have known exactly what to do but he could eliminate a bunch of things be disaster in the past and he is perfect for the job and we are very lucky. >> reporter: being in trouble he poured money in and helped banks in trouble and urged congress to provide enough money to stop a collapse. with modest economic growth it looked as if he knew the way out >> i think it's clear that in retrospect that the severity of the financial crisis and a number of other problems including the dysfunction of the housing market have been more severe and more persistent than we initially believed. >> reporter: and they were pushed close to 0 and printing money to buy bonds and notes which helped the housing market lift the stocks and improve the broader economy, not by a lot

but by enough. >> severe financial instability can do grave damage to the broader economy. >> reporter: there are still issues for the u.s. fed, inflation is 1% below what is healthy and backing off from easing and its liability have grown to $4 trillion. >> we are not out of the woods and people think that we are not out of the woods, if you go between the appalachians and the rocky mountains and you go out there to the great heart land of the country you see people who are by a large majority very concerned about the future. >> reporter: bernanke won't know if the action he has taken will be successful for years to come when he hands it over to janet yellen knowing he tried to go over the disaster he didn't know coming. >> reporter: this is extraordinary images of the world's biggest e waste site, a place in gahna and taken for al jazeera.com and showed people,

very young people burning computers, computer monitors and other hazardous material. they live there. as many as 40,000 people. here are some of the photographer's work. ♪ that is a journalist and league of environmental journalists

trying to prevented gahna from being a dumping ground from e waste and mike is on skype and you were one of the first people to highlight the problems at this place and that was about ten years ago and by the month you say it has been getting worse. >> it is indeed total devastation and a disaster of huge proportions and every single month we receive 500 container loads, shipment container loads from the industrial countries and germany and uk and the united states, australia and you name it and the public health consequences and why is nothing being done about it? it's an hidious place and it's toxic and many of the people there die in their 20s and you can see the smoke coming out. why is nothing being done to change it?

>> well, a greater chunk of the responsibility certainly rests with the countries that are sending these illegal shipments and dumping this in gahna because that is the source. these countries are uk, germany, holland ratified the convention and prohibits the trans boundary movement of e waste or hazardous waste but they are not putting together stringent measures of the ports to control the exits, the exports of these illegal shipments. >> reporter: mike, i mentioned at the beginning, 40,000 people are thought to live there and we see here computer monitors being used as stepping stones across a petrid stream, 40,000 people live there. what do they do everyday? what are their lives like? >> majority of the people will go to the e waste dump site each day, to dismantle and band the components of e waste and

microwaves, computers and refrigerators and salvage metal and copper and they will sell to buy food and it's because e waste is available and these people would go there to work and try to get money to do whatever they want to do. but it's just because the e waste has been shipped and dumped illegally at the place which used to be a waste land. >> reporter: we saw the cow trying to feed and get some nourishment and mouth be almost impossible for them and you say it's dumped here illegally so what do the authorities in gahna do? somebody must be making some money out of this. >> well, from my investigation so far, it's not clear that somebody is making money. if there is any money to be made at all, then that money has been made by the countries that are shipping these things here and dumping them here illegally. so far as i know the government and authorities in gahna have condemned the practice and not

healthy but it's a developing country and much of the government does not like what is going on. i think there is a limit to which developing countries would want to commit resources to fight this menace and why would they want to commit so much to deal with problems that have been created by other countries. i am very much aware that the countries and the agency is putting together some measures to control. but that leads to greater chunk of the responsibility rests with the developed and industrialized countries. >> reporter: if i can throw this one out, i understand what you're saying about outside countries wanting to get rid of it and shouldn't be allowed to do so but way are the people of gahna allowing it in? >> it's difficult to control these things at our ports because the e waste is labeled. sometimes a second-hand function

of equipment donations and it's very difficult to have people at the ports to check these things and mean as lot of money. >> reporter: okay, thank you mike and mike is there talking to us from gahna, al jazeera.com a great deal more there on that story. the work of our photographer who we sent to the e waste dump and still ahead here on al jazeera, taking election debates to living rooms and afghanistan is rapidly expanding tv channel to get ready for the biggest test to date and the empty beaches of bangladesh as the political crisis hits tourists. and at sport we will see how golfers were at the holes in the world, the phoenix open. ♪

♪ the top stories on the al jazeera news hour, a prominent ukraine activist who went missing is found alive and saying when he was taken he was kidnapped and torture and calling on the government to investigate other attacks on protesters and journalists in the past few weeks. australia's great barrier reef and watch dogs given the go ahead for millions of mud to be do you remember ped near the marine park and clears the way to build the world's biggest coal port. and the news agency reported the russian diplomate and delays in

handing over chemical weapons are due to security issues in transit and 4% of the dangerous arsenal has now left the country's shores. well brazil's biggest and most powerful criminal organization was born out of a prison gang in south palo and call the shots in many prisons and officials are in fact forced to cut fields with gangs simply to try to keep the peace. and we went to one such place, the second of the three part series on brazil's prisons. >> reporter: this is a central prison complex in the city here with massive over crowding, it is more than a prison and also a centralized area of criminality both inside and outside the prison walls and guards control maniac ses to the prison complex, the open secret is this, security and discipline in the main prison blocks is run by the gangs themselves.

the police rarely enter to keep the peace but they say it's facilitated the proliferation of crimes such as drug dealingen even extortion. >> translator: drugs are sold in prison and many are drug addicts and mothers receive from calls inside the jail from gangs demanding they make payments to their bank accounts. >> reporter: in the past three years more than 50 kilos of drugs and thousands of cell phones and guns have been seized from inside the central prison with 2500 inmates above capacity prison officials admit they have to strike deals and have power to leaders and say they still have all the control. . >> translator: the moment we agree on some rules with a leader and if he does not fulfill what was agreed upon we can transfer him elsewhere and diminish his power and don't want that. this is a way we have to control the power. >> reporter: the divisions

between criminal factions within the jail are stark to avoid gang on gang fighting. >> there are four different prison gangs and each one of them controls a different wing of the prison and they are not allowed to mix. but critics say by dividing the prison like this and allowing the inmates to control themselves, leads to the gangs extending their power beyond the prison walls. >> translator: the confiscated guns in the jails are not used to confront the guards but rather to help maintain the drug trafficking that happens in the jail and it's profitable to them and controlling a wing of the prison, implicates inside and outside of the jail. >> reporter: and leads to the criminality making the jails over crowded in the first place and i'm with al jazeera. >> reporter: and u.n. says it's

increasingly concerned about a clamp down on the media in egypt. the u.n. human rights office said authorities are systematically targeted al jazeera staff since a coup removed mohamed morsi program power last july. it has been more than a month since they detained three english journalists and fahme and greste are without charge since december the 29 accused of spreading false news and links to the muslim brotherhood which they classified as a terrorist organization and said the cases have been referred to the criminal court and the al jazeera network has not been notified of any formal charges and two more from our sister channel detained about charge for more than six months and al jazeera rejects the allegations against all of them and continues to demand the unconditional release of its journalists and let's bring in rupert from the u.n. high commission for human rights

talking on behalf of them, the commissioner. we obviously are very concerned about our journalists but there are others doing the same job being persecuted as well you say. >> that's right. i mean, it's a broad picture of the treatment of journalists in egypt is really worrying now. foreign journalists are being targeted and i think the systematic nature of attacks on al jazeera illustrated that other tv crews from other tv channels are being accused of being al jazeera reporters and sometimes attacked by crowds of government supporters for the most part. and physical attacks. just last weekend i think at least five journalists from different stations were shot by live fire or rebel bullets. it's getting very serious indeed and making it extremely different for journalists

national and international to function in egypt. >> reporter: when he picks um the phone and calls the people she has a direct line to in egypt because she has those sorts of contacts what kind of reaction does she get? >> well, we have been in ongoing discussions we egyptian government very frequently over the past through years and through the period since the egyptian revolution and issues related to the treatment of journalists have periodically been a problem throughout and getting much worse now so this is an issue we raise quite freak ln ashould be said it's not just journalists but civil society and ngo and activists who also have been subjected to severe intimidation and harassment, not just by the authorities but also by mobs, by groups of general public if you like or shadow groups and also by the former government during that time and

we also spoke out of treatment of media under the government of president mohamed morsi. >> reporter: there are people who clearly think we believe in our importance too much and we being journalists worldwide and we should be concerned about other human rights violations there. the reason why we think this is important is simply because of free speech and ability to be able to see what is going on, is that your concern too? >> absolutely, it's a fundamental human right the freedom of expression and there are elements of that and people cannot express themselves freely if the journalists are too frightened to report or arrested or intimated or channels are closed down. for those kinds of very severe actions a government needs to have evidence of actual crimes, recognized under international law, not simply the kind of vague charges brought against al jazeera journalists this week

and the charges are extremely vague and aiding a terrorist group, what does that mean? actions that are harmful for the national interest. what does that mean? you need very clear crimes, if somebody is doing a violent act whether he is a journalist or a priest or normal citizen obviously that is a crime but journalist reporting news that may be unfavorable to the government and that is not a crime. >> reporter: we thank you very much for your time on this program and for your attention to this and that is rupert talking to us from geneva. with elections coming up, in april a rapidly expanding afghan media is stepping up coverage of what will be the biggest store -- story in the country so far and since the end of taliban rule in 2001. jane ferguson went to the news channel and saw how it's getting

ready for the presidential polls. >> reporter: he will be live in minutes. he is calm and does this several times a week. and anchors afghanistan's most popular political shows and this is the biggest story of his career. in two months his viewers will vote in a new president. the election has brought with it a whole new approach on tv, town hall debates, candid interviews and hours of in-depth coverage and the ambition showed at the most watched tv network is reflected in everyone here. >> the work behind the scenes, they also want to become more professional and want to know more things and want to work with other leaders and maybe media leaders and here when the professional persons come from around the world they teach the young people and become more and more professional and they can

lead to other channels and we have the experience of that. >> reporter: there isn't much time to hang around as preparations are made for the next show. this news studio is one of the busiest in afghanistan, recording hours of election-based programs and it's from here where millions of afghans will follow the progress of their elections in the coming months. many of those will be young voter, something the bosses had in mind when designing their new election shows. >> we are talking about in a whole new generation you know and in 2014 elections and that generation wasn't there five years ago. so that generation itself was very enthusiastic and motivation for our coverage. and then we think, you know, the majority of the afghan population is helping to engage in a lot of policy discussions around the elections. >> all 11 presidential

candidates have already been interviewed by the channel. as the rest of the world watches the election unfold the presidential hopefuls know this channel is the most important to their ambitions. a constant daily count down to vote shows on the screen reminding viewers of the days left to the first time afghanistan sees one elected leader pass power to another. the country's media want to make sure that happens under the watchful gaze of local journalists and millions tuning in. jane ferguson, al jazeera, kabul, afghanistan. >> reporter: let's bring in the editor and chief of afghanistan's biggest newspaper and joining us now live from kabul. apologies if i did not get the pronunciation quite right but i want to ask you do you believe you and the prince and the broadcast media in afghanistan are able to give a representative view to the people of that country of what is happening with all the

restrictions? >> thank you very much. of course, we see afghanistan media, information provided to people came from different media outlet's. the largest achieve -- achievement is the development and we have limited number of independent media out let's and different types of media and some supported by different countries and the different war lords and different officials but they are independent media outlet's which are more respected by people of afghanistan and they are the ones that provide accurate information and the reliable information is just counted from news channels and these newspapers and the platforms. >> reporter: i notice for example that sometimes last year you were called in to see the attorney general, you personally

because of a story you were about to run that linked certain people to corrupt practices. do you get pressure from central authorities? >> of course. there are a number of journalists in afghanistan especially under area of journalism. there are a number of media outlet's which are fighting with corruption in the country. and when we reveal some corruption cases and ministries with bodies we feel there are many pressures even before the publishing of the articles because some of them are trying to stop us publishing the reports and some others are just complaining after the publishing the report and take us to different kind of pressures. sometimes even they are visiting the office and the media office just to put pressure and to stop

independent operation of media outlet's. >> reporter: and we wish you the very best in reporting on these momentous days coming up, in afghanistan and thank you for being with us from kabul. coming up, we will be taking a look at celebrations for the lunar new year, it's the year of the horse. and we have the sport, including. >> finally in the wild, the national championship and can the local clubs that have been so important to community survive? ♪

al jazeera america. we open up your world. >> here on america tonight, an opportunity for all of america to be heard. >> our shows explore the issues that shape our lives. >> new questions are raised about the american intervention. >> from unexpected viewpoints to live changing innovations, dollars and cents to powerful storytelling. >> we are at a tipping point in america's history! >> al jazeera america. there's more to it. ♪

and political unrest and street violence in bangladesh hit many sectors of the country's economy and hotels say tourists are staying away and business is tough for them and we sent an investigator. >> it's peak season and no one is here and they are realing from political violence and few areas have been effected as the biggest tourist destination, the beach resort of the bizarre and wondering why he invested so much money on these beach chairs and there is no one around to rent them. >> translator: i rent the chairs by the hour and they are empty and usually tens of thousands of people here and now there is barely one hundred. >> reporter: tourism had been booming and hotels built across town. over a year ago political

activists started rising and at one point blocked all roads to the bizarre. many of this hotel's guests were trapped and not able to leave for days and since then tourists have been staying away. >> we have 496 rooms out of which 240 rooms are for the guests and we used to fill all the rooms but nowadays it dropped to 10-15%. >> reporter: until recently this has come before the tourist and that is the case because there is no one here, on a romantic break the lack of crowds are unnerving. >> reporter: they married recently and the king required for a vacation but didn't think it would be this quiet. >> translator: it does feel strange. it's not a total place we are used to. it's not good and the beach is too crowded but this, empty is

very bizarre. >> reporter: it has died down in the past few days but the threat remains and business is poor and they need to hold out longer until the beach chair investment starts to pay off, al jazeera in bangladesh. >> not very happy. time for the sport as promised. >> david, thank you so much. it's transfer deadline day for many countries in europe and many is expected to be spent but it's a different story for one club in spain and the players boycotted the quarter final due to unpaid wages and players and coaching staff were in unison. they had demanded that club president lavine and board step down by kickoff and the group failed to do so and claim they have not been paid in months and the match was abandoned after one minute. and they will go to face barcelona in the cup semi final.

spanish journalist richard martin said it's hard to see an immediate solution to the dispute. >> the first thing to say is by the spanish federation law and they are ban from next year's competition and fined between 3,000-6,000 euros and tomorrow there is a general board meeting which the president and lavine and he wants to resign will be attending and hoping that perhaps somewhere he will announce his resignation and the main problem is that in the past he will be paid and promising three times over. so there is another man who has been shown open to dialog and compromising and i think they are not very hopeful about the situation but something had to be done. >> reporter: the nfl says number of concussions in both preand post season games dropped 13% from 2012-2013 and ahead of

superbowl sunday when denver broncos take on the seattle seahawks and training hard but in very different ways and as al jazeera john henry smith reports. >> the broncos have already used up their one nfl allotted day practice in pads and will be padless for the rest of the week. now they have been getting plenty of work outside to get used to the frigid conditions at met life stadium and the seahawks are practicing indoors and they have to answer for the strategy should the seahawks lose sunday and they have been anything but sloppy and the sea hawked has 23 turn overs than given up and the number one emphasis in the program, so much so that thursday's practice like every practice was called turn over thursday, a day the defense tries to take the ball away and the seahawks offense works on

not giving the ball away. another interest practice choice the two teams are making is in regards to noise, the broncos are piping in crowd noise as they do for road games but turned the volume down from the level he normally keeps it at because in his experience with the superbowl coach the crowd noise is lower at the superbowl than an average road game and carol is loose for the seahawks and hip hot music playing through every practice, i'm john henry smith, al jazeera. >> reporter: bubba watson are tied for the lead after the first round of the phoenix open. [cheers] the 16th hole at scottsdale is considered one of the rowdyist in golf and watson got a birdie and 2012 with a 7 under par 64.

[cheering] and the 6 nations of rugby with italy favored to take the title and success is not rubbing off on welch clubs and a part of the community have been in decline for decades and lee weldings reports. >> these players could be the first team to win the championship three consecutives times and while the national team has past glorys for a nation that lives and breathes the sport, the clubs that under pin towns and communities are in decline. and this is a town in wales have a decline of strong industry and mining, and steel but the worry in resent years has been the decline of the focal points of the community, the rugby club. the heros are known beyond wales and taking on the best of the world on the local ground

including the all blacks, south africa and australia but it was replaced by a regular system that many people in the valleys, towns anvd villages did not wan and the money of peter jeffrey's kept them alive two years ago and now he runs the club. >> depending on the success of the future, much like everywhere else is facing difficult times and i think this gives the town a good community spirit. >> reporter: a few decades ago products are plentiful and making a huge impact for club country and british lines and still heros across this town. >> it's where they live and choose to live and that is the major point. it's where my family lives. and there is no reason to go anywhere else. >> it becomes in your blood, my

whole family was involved with that and when they created the regions, they basically through 100 years out of the window. >> reporter: and wales are currently producing good players despite the system and this is the goal kicker signed by big money by the french. >> and created the moment at the top level and going well and the grass roots level is not going well in producing players, that is going to run up to. >> reporter: the two major welch football clubs reaching the league for the first time could be seen as threatening but nothing can repleas the importance of wales, whether it's a six nation game at the melinimun or pride at the club. i'm in wales and al jazeera. >> reporter: there is much more sport on our website, for the latest check out al jazeera.com.

it's the first day of a new year and public holiday in east asia and these are the celebrations from across the nation and thanks for watching. ♪

>> the struggling midddle class >> we just can't get ahead... >> working longer hours, for less pay. >> people are struggling everywhere. >> school loans... morgages... inflation... taking it's toll... >> we live paycheck to paycheck...

>> now in a continuing series, join ali velshi as we follow families, just like yours, as they try to get by... >> we're all struggling financially... >> america's middle class: rebuilding the dream only on al jazeera america! ♪ the u.s. getting involved in ukraine's crisis and john kerry meeting with opposition leaders today and the u.s. is considering economic sanctions. >> we cried all we can cry and suffered what we can suffer and don't know how much more to take. >> reporter: a mother and 8 children killed in a house fire, how the cold weather may have contributed to the tragedy. >> i'm not one to ask for handouts. it's actuary