. >> >> announcer: this is al jazeera. >> hello, welcome to the newshour. we are in doha with your top stories. >> another wave of the syrian refugees reaches lebanon, fleeing from the fighting. we get an update. >> the afghan government releases 65 taliban fighters. a move condemned by the united states. i'm bernard smith, live in afghanistan with the latest. >> cc goes to moscow. the head -- abdul fatah al-sisi

goes to moss go, the head of egypt goes moscow. >> plus... >> if parents ask if you want to live or day, what questions pass a child's name. >> an emotional debate in belgium has party debates whether sick children should have the right to die. >> hello. afghanistan has released 65 prisoners despite condemnation by the united states. afghan president hamid karzai ordered their release several weeks ago. the men were held in the parwon detention facility. washington says the inmates pose a threat to diplomatic forces and insists they should be prosecuted under afghan law. here is what the u.s. don't of defense said in a pentagon statement:

bernard smith is joining us live, to tell us whether there has been any afghan reaction, afghan government reaction to the u.s. condemnation. >> the afghan government position has always been that there is no evidence against these men. the cases were, the government says here, looked at by a review board, and that review board decided that the 65 men should be released. the americans say, in addition to that statement that you just read out that the evidence presented against the men was never seriously considered. the americans say a lot of the men had explosive residue on their fingers. some of the biometrics matched the scenes of crimes. most of these men are responsible, say the u.s.

military for planting roadside bombs, the biggest killer of civilians and military. the americans say that these men are linked to the killing or wounding of 32 coalition personnel and 23 afghan personnel. the afghan government insisted on releasing the men several weeks ago. >> thank you, that is bernard smith reporting from western afghanistan on the prisoners' release. let's get more perspective and bring in a political analysis, live from kabul. you reader the reporter bernard smith talking about the afghan rehabilitation as well as the american reaction, and americans saying there is evidence to prosecute these men. afghans saying there isn't. how could it be on opposite ends of the spectrum here. >> see, it is more of the political discussion rather than the technical discussion of the

stage. as we know the relationship between afghanistan and the u.s. is at its lowest level. both parties are trying to do their best to use this opportunity and score as many points as possible. several activists - i believe that it is the right of each individual, according to the constitution of afghanistan to have a trial innocent in prison without accusations. it is very clear that the intent of the afghanistan government, on one hand is very popular. however, it is, indeed, important that if the evidence has been presented by the coalition forces, in particular by the u.s., it means that there is more of a political discussion rather than a considered technical discussion. >> you talk about the state of relation, and you describe it as low. what does the release likely do

to the relationship? >> there are certain reasons that the kabul and washington are not able to understand each other's positions and at the same time it is very much related to president karzai's stance, that he put in place to sign the agreement -- >> that is my question, does this make it more or less likely that hamid karzai will sign the security pact with the united states? >> see, i guess at this statement it is completely clear to all of us that the current government of president hamid karzai is in opposition to sign the bsa. the positions put in place is not accepted by the united states, and at the same time all the potential presidential candidates here have made it clear that they will sign the bsa without putting any

preconditions or strings associated to it. so i understand that the washington is also very clear in the sense that there are more insisting that hamid karzai should sign this and the elections, whoever is elected by the afghan people, he'll be the guy to sign the agreement. >> thank you for joining us from kabul in afghanistan. >> now, russia and the united states are set to hold talks been syria with the united nations mediators lakhdar brahimi. the meeting at the geneva peace talks follows the you assumption of a u.n. backed humanitarian proigs in homs problem operation in homs. aid supplies reached families and the government is hopeful more aid will be delivered. >> gerald tan reports. >> a welcome sight for a city

cut off. u.n. convoys bringing in much-needed food aid. for a year and a half people have been trapped in homs. the old city held by rebels, under government siege. nothing has gone in or come out. living conditions have deteriorated. >> the old city of homs is a tragedy. there is not a single building that stands erect and so everything has been affected. people are living if basements, tunnels, and are moving into the shells of buildings. they are eking out an existence that is almost unbelievable. >> on friday the syrian government and rebels agreed to a cease fire. since then hundreds of people have been able to leave ohms and basic food supplies such as rice and flower allowed in. the office of coordination of humanitarian affairs says food for around 1,000 people was

delivered to community leaders in homs. approximately 200 men, women and children were reported to have left the besieged area. aid workers said that many people were frail and had difficulty walking. >> the u.n. backed humanitarian operation is a vital step to building trust between the warring factions. there's skepticism on the ground. hundreds of civilians were engaged. some men have been detained, those of military age. elsewhere across syria the fighting hasn't stopped. bombs fell on deraa. rebel fighters are on the offensive in hama. it's hard to hone in on the ever-changing space of syria's war.

each day a different city comes into focus. right now it's homs. because of the pause in violence, providing a rare glimmer of hope that diplomacy may have a chance yet. >> while refugees from syria fled into lebanon after syrian opposition activists showed syrian war planes hitting the rebel town. this is the last rebel strong hold in the region. they are heading into - the refugees are, into the lebanon border. >> that is where stefanie dekker joins us. we have the diplomatic editor james bays standing by in geneva for the latest on efforts to revive the peace talks. first to stephanie to tell us about the significance of the talks. >> it's hugely significant, the last rebel held town on the

border with lebanon and syria. there has been expectations in the last three months that they'd go in and take the last up to so they'd be in control of central syria, cutting off a vital life line to the rebels. we are in nasab, it's a prorevolution town. also a lot of refugees have been coming into here. we hear that there has been shelling and fighting. it was helped by hezbollah. these are reports that there's fighting with rebels around five, six, 10 different groups. we are hearing they are protecting the last group. strategically important for the rebels to get hold of it. this is where the impact is felt. there's tens of thousands of syrians here, more people arriving. >> we are in a place where they are not registering, but identifying the new arrivals. this is a one-off that they will receive once they arrive here.

mattresses, jerry cans, stoves, everything that they need for their survival. certainly it's a process. the aid agencies are here and are trying to handle the influx of people. >> while the battle takes place, refugees extreme in, lebanon had peace talks continuing. >> the peace talks continue, and they continue to stall. i think there is quite possibly a link with what you are sighing on the ground, which is an intensification on the conflict and the fact that nothing going on here. the syrian observatory is one group, and it's hard to estimate these things. it estimates that more than 4,900 people have died since the

talks started. the intensification of the violence by both sides on the ground, possibly they are trying to strengthen the position on the ground while the talks take place. deadlock, and they've had to call in the russians and the americans to kick start a process. a russian mediator has been here 24 hours, an american counterpart, wendy sherwin arrived in the last few minutes. they sat down with a man chairing the talks trying to restart the process. at the moment it stalled and going nowhere. >> let's cross back to stefanie dekker. you heard james giving the figure from the syrian observatory saying nearly 5,000 people died sips the beginning of the peace talks. for those making it out to areas like where you are. what are they saying or facing when they come to lebanon? >> well, people are terrified.

people are exhausted. this has been a war going on for three years. it's difficult to understand what it's like for people living in the areas under the war. we spoke to an activist in yabrood, and he said it was look like a ghost town. people are petrieifieded and they want to leave. they don't feel safe because the road is around 30km. they don't feel it's safe, they feel it's the syrian air strike. they'd like to bring in a guest. you are working here. you are basically here - these are people arriving in the last couple of days. can you explain about the work. >> they are assisting the newcomers, in the towns over lebanon. as part of the emergency response, we are definitely monitoring the situation to get numbers about newcomers arriving

to here specifically. the unanimous are bigger that other areas. at this moment we are just distributing the newcomers kit. after beneficiaries, the refugees are preregistered. we have our teams with the newcomers package, consisting of food items, fuel vouchers, and the mattresses and blankets. >> tell me the numbers that you have been seeing coming in over the last few days. >> numbers so far are estimated about 500 families approximately. so 2,500 individuals. these are information in the last couple of days. >> are you expecting more? >> every day more refugees are coming in. but it depends on the situation and the road as you mentioned. >> for the danish refugee

council, thank you for joining us. it is dependent on the security situation. it is tense here. it is a town that is very prorevolution on the way in here. there was a check point, an area surrounded by predominantly shia towns. it tells you, really, the impact that the war is having in lebanon. there's a direct - people have their own allegiances against assad. there was an issue, a car laden with explosives that we hear from sources and the aid agencies that had to pull out for the evening. a complicated situation, whatever happened in syria having a directed impact. >> that's stefanie dekker reporting from lebanon. just to update you, a time note on the unfolding syrian drama, the u.n. ship arrived at a spanish naval base, as part of a

mission to destroy chemical weapons of syria. the next stop is a port in italy, where it will take on 500 metric tonnes of chemicals. the kapray has been fitted with two machines designed to neutralize chemicals. the destruction of the chemicals will happen somewhere in the mediterranean sea. >> here with the al jazeera al nusra. military law to -- al jazeera newshour. illegal wildlife trade. military law efforts. >> we head to hockey town, which produces more olympic medallists than any other.

>> first the head of egypt's military, abdul fatah al-sisi, is in moscow to strengthen ties with russia. the high-profile visit takes place amid reports amid a $2 million deal. it's set to be funded by saudi arabia. paul brennan is live from moscow. it's the first foreign visit for abdul fatah al-sisi. quite significant. >> i think it is hugely significant, not just because it's his first foreign visit, but because of the country that he's chosen to come to, and that is rush ape. remember, the united states has turned its back, effectively on egypt in relation to military assistance, suspending 1.5 billion of aid, and frankly the hope was that that would, you know, turn egypt closer to

democracy or america's form of democracy. that has not happened. the united states created a vacuum, russia stepped in, it seems that the russians are happy to do a deal with the existing egyptian leadership, and are forging close links. last november the russian foreign minister sergei lavrov, and his defence minister went to the cairo. this visit is the reciprocal, the return event with the field marshal and his foreign minister. the expectation was, as you say, for big deal, $2 billion of arm. it hasn't been confirmed. but the foreign minister sergei lavrov was warm about when he was speaking about his visitors. . >> after we had our first contact in november and the two plus two format with russian and

egyptian foreign ministers, we have gone a long way to work on the agreements. today's meetings give us a good opportunity to draw first results. >> no confirmation on the potential deal. are we expecting anything else to come out of the meeting? >> what they have said - there's a couple of things to say. first of all, abdul fatah al-sisi is going later this afternoon for a meeting with president vladimir putin, at one of the presidential residences somewhere in moscow. they are not saying where. so it's possible that more news could come out on that dam. let's leave that open. there'll be closer cooperation involving, perhaps, a further meeting next month between senior russian and egyptian delegates. it's a warming of relations and closer ties forged as a result of this high-profile visit.

>> thank you paul brennan, reporting from moscow. >> now the trial of three al jazeera english journalists detained in egypt is due to begin on 20th february. they are part of a group of 20 charged, accused of having links to a terrorist organization. it's been 47 days since the staff were detained. the egyptian authorities took mohamed fadel fahmy, mohammed badr and peter greste. among the accusations, having ties to the muslim brotherhood, which egypt declared a terrorist organization. abdullah al-shami, from our sister channel has been in custody since july. al jazeera denies charges and continues to demand the release of its state. >> bell gun votes on whether to allow assisted suicide for terminally ill children. at moment it's limited to children at least of the age of

18. >> a small but vocal minority has been fighting a losing battle against plans to extend euthanasia to children. >> they say belgium is leaping over a moral cliff. the father who paid a harrowing price is a contestant. he has pictures on his mobile phone of the sun he watched dying from a brain tumor. tristan loved to play the piano and the sound of waves on the sea shore. the cancer took away his eyesight, his ability to walk and then his life. he was eight years old. he was brought out of hospital to die at home with his family. his father's last words, "tristan, it's time to go." . >> translation: i would never have tolerated a doctor coming to ask if we wanted euthanasia

for our child, i would never have accepted. if parents ask do you want to live or die, what questions crosses the child's mind "would it pleas my parents if i died, would it be for their good or mine?" >> there's no doubt the lower house of parliament will pass the legislation. polls reveal 80% of the population support it. >> a chance request for youth will have to be approved by a medical team. the child must also understand what euthanasia means. and supporting legislation describes it as a gesture of humanity. those opposed say it's insanity. >> the university hospital is one of the leading centres for treating childhood cancer. it's here the first case of euthanasia may be carried out on a child. under the present law a child must be 18. >> as a doctor you prefer that

no one will ask you these questions. even if it's legal, it's still difficult. certainly minors in institutions, or hospitals, like other minors with the same conditions, they have seen several minors with their conditions die in a horrifying way. they are scared. i ask you. >> to be or not to be. is that a question that can be asked of a child. it seems it will be in belgium. >> well, we are seeing some extraordinary weather extremes in different parts of the world. we have seen flooding in barinzi and bolivia. droughts in california and australia. let's get a look at everton, and the snow and ice and never ending rain in britain.

>> that's right, the river thames stopping at its highest levels in over 60 years. incredible amounts of rain fall at the moment. here is why. in essence wettest december in 5 years. wettest january in 104 years and wettest february. i noticed another two weeks of the month to go but we are into our wettest february. the rains rattling in from the atlantic over the next couple of days. the swirl of cloud moving into the north sea. strong winds and heavy rain piling through. strong winds, gusting as high as 180 k/hr, across the pennines. not quite as blustery, but blustery enough. we have brighter skies, showers, longer spells of rain as well. we'll see the rain continue to make its way through the next day or two.

the next area of low pressure piling through the atlantic. heavy rain through the republic of ireland. over towards brist ol. further problems across the south-west as much as southern england seeing spells of heavy rain. that has to be the situation as we go through the weekend. not as wet as we go through the state. we have got the next system in the wings. that'll be something making its way in to next week. that same area of rain is in the process of clearing from the eastern sea board, the same one that brought the icy conditions across the south-east on wednesday. plenty of snow up the eastern sea board, along the carolinas, and the north-eastern corner into the canadian maritimes. brighter skies will come through as they come on into friday. notice the snow across the eastern side of canada, a touch warmer in ottawa. a high of minus two degrees.

>> thank you. mexican police seized rocket launchers and guns in the western states. the haul found in a city of vigilantes, and they claim to have liberated the city from the powerful knights templar. hundreds of vigilantes joined a rural police force as part of an initiative to drive out gangs across the streets. adam raney reports. >> a victory. these men say they, with the security forces, liberated a group from the knights templar. over a sell ebb ratry lunch near the key town, they say the fight is inspiring others. >> translation: the government should worry about doing its job. if not. there'll be an uprising that they won't control.

>> the business area of the farm belt is the only place that the farmers turned vigilantes can sell their crops. the cartel controlled it, extorting, kidnapping and killing. the cartel insisting the vigilantes are a front for a rival gang. there are signs business is picking up. this man says things were slow when the gang extorted shopkeepers. things are better, but only just. >> on the surface it's clear things have changed. last month all the shops were virtually closed under threat from the knights templar. what is not clear is that the army, police and the vigilantes taken the town back for good. >> with the push, rising claims of human rights abuses. 40 complaints have been made in the past month. >> there has been reports of illegal and arbitrary detentions, people beaten and

mistreated. detainees are held incommune cardo. they are intimidated and say they are being tortured. >> the leaders are looking to the next challenge - work projects and social development, like this bridge that collapsed months ago. flanked by the supporters, they sound more like politicians. >> we rid ourselves of the knights templar, and need projects and businesses so the people can get good jobs. we are moving on, we are free from them. what we need now in the villages is public works project. >> farmers have a bright future. that is what the vigilantes are selling more than anything else. that's a strong message. >> coming up in the al jazeera newshour more to come. we'll hear more about the flooding in the u.k., thousands

going without power after the worst storms in 300 years. >> u.s. scientists claim a break through in the search for clean abundant energy. >> and copa del rey's showdown. jo will be here with that later. ♪

what is this place? where are we? this is where we bring together the fastest internet and the best in entertainment. we call it the x1 entertainment operating system. it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity. tv and internet together like never before. >> hello again. the top stories on the al jazeera newshour. >> afghanistan releases 65 prisoners from a detention center.

the u.s. says they pose a threat to international forces and should be prosecuted under afghan law. >> syrian refugees flee across the border into lebanon after activists recorded syrian war planes bombed a war town. the governor of homes is hopeful more aid will be delivered, and civilians evacuated from the city. they meet with the u.n. thursday. >> sergei lavrov, foreign minister, says his government will increase military cooperation with egypt. the head of egypt's military, abdul fatah al-sisi, who is expected to announce soon that he'll run for president, is visiting moscow. so as we have been reporting, afghanistan released 65 prisoners despite protests by the united states. the head of the review board says there were no legal grounds to keep them locked up. >> translation: we could not find evidence to prove that the 65 people are criminals.

according to afghan law there was no reason to keep them in the prison, and no reason that the period they were in prison was unlawful or illegal. >> we have jane ferguson with us in the studio. she has repeatly been an assignment in afghanistan. you are the best person, i think, to tell us about the state of the afghan justice system at this point. >> the afghan justice system in itself came under criticism. often when taliban insurgents have been arrested, they have gone through the justice system. it is criticised in itself, because you find they can buy their way out or there's a way for them to get out quickly from jam. that's been an ongoing issue for years in terms of trying to shore off justice, making sure that those arrested by afghan forces remain in gaol. this is a separate issue in

terms of jurisdiction. the americans said hamid karzai, and he said this for a long time, never really were they allowed to have their own gaol, to operate a gaol to keep afghans on afghan gaol by the americans, especially those who had not been tried. that's what they are saying today, and have been saying in this ongoing row. that if anybody should try the men it's us, but we say there's not enough evidence to try them at this point. >> do prisoners in afghanistan have access to judicial institutions? it doesn't sound like it from the way that you are describing the states there or what is being done to improve it. >> in theory they do. there has been attempts at capacity building as they would call it in the states. at al jazeera, we have been out with afghan forces while they rest people. they are supposed to bring a representative from the judicial side of the government before they can arrest someone and

bring them back to kaboom. we are talking not criminal justice, but more to do with the war. they are supposed to have these institutions in place, people in fair trials and sentenced, and living out the sentences. in theory, that's the case. in reality, in afghanistan, justice is more murky and difficult to really see out. >> thank you. jane ferguson, our correspondent with us in the studio. >> a big meeting is underway in london to discuss ways of eradicating the illegal wildlife trade. thousands of animals are killed for ivory, horns and fur. we are joined now to by our correspondent to tell us about the meeting. what is at stake? >> the survival of a number of wildlife species. at risk because of poaching for

their animal, body parts, which are illegally traded, across the world generally but not exclusively. we are talking about rhinos, elephants, the amor leopards, among all the countries involved. they are all represented here, coming together to try and find a solution to the problem. let me read you briefly the words of british foreign secretary. we know that we are at the 11th hour, and it would be a tragedy in our lifetime if these species were lost always because of human ignorance and greed. >> this was the scene last act in the national park. elephant corpses, more than 300 killed by poaches for their tusks. they've used a devastating killing method, cyanide in the

drinking water. lions, high eenas and other animals in contact with the water perished as well. conservationists estimate 50,000 elephants die for their ivory, an illeague trade that doubility -- illegal trade that doubled since 2007. in parts of the asia, the demand for wild tiger parts reduced abundant populations to mere hundreds. >> in london they'll try to agree a coordinate response, being african nations, china, and key nations involved in a vast criminal industry. >> this week we are seeing

cooperation of a deeply powerful alliance. >> the chain of responsibility is a long one. during a 2012 investigation into rhino poaching, i saw the appalling results for myself. i met poachers and the families of dead poachers, villages for whom a few hundred dollars is a fortune. i was told that the middlemen, cross-border traders and corrupt officials could earn more that that. the true value of the horns in the hundreds of thousands is in the millions. rhino horn has the same chemical make-up as human fingernails. so where to start. with regulated forms of trade tore awareness and regulation campaign in places where the body parts end up. for a number, survival depends

on a solution. the illegal trade in wildlife is a vast criminal enterprise ranked in size after drugs and people trafficking and the illegal arms trade. a little while ago i spoke to mary rice, the deputy director of an ngo involved in investigating wildlife crime. mary, you described this as a watershed moment. some of them facing the prospect of extinction. why do you think this is a turning point. >> wildlife crime has been an issue. there's a lot of organizations trying to raise the issue. the fact that we had a meeting here, shows that for now, or finally, we are seeing real meaningful support and recognition of the issue.

>> do you think they are the world leaders or political leaders here, taking the issue seriously. finally. >> the fact that we are having the meeting in london, it's hosted by the royal foundation and the u.k. government, and we had four heads of state attending shows commitment, certainly, that they are prepared to sit around a table and discuss the matter and try to come up with meaningful solutions. one of the biggest problems has been, presumably, reconciling the interests of the range states with the so-called destination states. they are wall represented here. do you think they can see eye to eye? >> they are all responsible and have different responsibilities and roles in it. what we hope to see coming out of this meeting is we had verbal commitment. what we now need is actual meaningful proactive action

showing tangible results, and with an immediate impact. some of that will include, for example, we would like to see the complete closure of all legal and illegal markets. all illegal markets to start with, and timely move towards closing down legal markets for ivory and tigers, they provide the cover for the criminals to launder ill products on to the marketplace. we'd like to see the responsibility of policing wildlife crime rest with the highest authorities of police, not only with the environmental agencies. so that is what we are hoping to see come out of the meeting. >> well, as we heard earlier in the newshour torrential rain caused bad flooding in the u.k. large parts of southern england are under water after weeks of rain and hundreds of homes have

been flooded. england had its wettest january since records began. we are joined live by emma. what is happening where you are? >> well, you can see the river thames moving fast behind me. there is a toe pass here, but that has completely disappeared. the river here has dropped a little in the past few hours. if you go a few streets away you are welly deep in water. i went for a drive around and spoke to a woman who told me she had to be evacuated from her house on tuesday and said there was an inch of water in her living room. there were three inches in her garden. she said she was a kilometre and a half from the river. she believed it was groundwater. it is a problem. of course, last night britain

was hit by a ferocious storm, wind of 170km an hour, battering parts of the welsh coast, showing pictures in the newspaper of people blown off their feet, blown over by the force of the gales. that has meant today there has been massive disruption to the transport network. some people trying to get from london to scotland. we are sat on a train. big problems. tens of thousands of homes without power today. it is this misery continuing in lots of u.k. >> do we know how long the flooding is going to last? >> well, that is the big question that a lot of people want to know. how long they have to put up with this. in places like summer set this has gone on for months.

we are expecting snow in some parts of the u.k., and more bad weather ahead. the river thames is believed it could reach its highest level for around 60 years. >> thank you. emma hayward reporting from staines in the u.k. >> you are here with the al jazeera, it's day 6 of the competition, big air equals big scores in the slope style. the latest on the medals in sports.

itch

>> it hello, scientists informant united states say they are a step closer to producing a form of energy that would be cheep, nonradioactive and abundant. it involved an experiments using 200 powerful lasers. rob reynolds explains. >> scientists say it's a major step towards the holy grail of clean energy. nuclear fusion. in a laboratory experiment reported in "nature", scientists at the lawrence livermore ad contained more energy out of fusion than was contained in the reaction. unlike nuclear fusion, fusion produces energy by forcing atomic party concludes together, rather than splitting them apart. it's the power that fuels the sun and stars. it does not create an explosion,

leaves no radio act active waste and produces no greenhouse gases linked to global warming. the fuel source is hydrogen, the most plentiful element in the universe. the experiment deploys 192 powerful lasers focussing energy in billionth of a second-long pulses. scientists did not reach the breakthrough point called ignition, a sustained reaction that produces more energy than used in the entire process. researchers say they have a long way to go before they reach that goal. >> a bomb attack op a police van in pakistan killed 11 officers. it happened in karachi. 25 other people are reportedly injured. >> we have more from islamabad. >> a deadly attack on a police bus in the eastern part of

karachi city leaves at least 11 killed and a number wounded. many of the wounded include civilians, and it appears the bus was targeted as it left the training facility and the radakabad area of eastern karachi. explosives rammed to the side, there were a number of civilian as utilities as well. the wounded were carried to several hospitals, many in serious condition. no one has taken responsibility for the attack. it happened at a time when there have been a them of attacks across the country. however, the taliban pakistan distanced itself from the attacks, but it appears that the splinter groups may be active. let's get an update on the

sports news in sochi. >> it's day 6 and big air meant big scores in ski style. it made a debut with the women earlier in the week. and has been a favourite. the men didn't fail to impress. the usa did the triple with josh christiansen taking the gold. the result lifted the usa to fourth on the table, behind norway and canada, but topping the standings are germany with six gold. >> slopestyle was one of the six medals, the women's 10 kilometre cross country reached the climax and the men's 20km biathlon. a sport makes a debut at the sliding center, the team relay luge featuring women's and men's singles and double. the fastest combined time wins gold on the skating short track

the 500 women's final will be healed later. christine ness bet will aim to defend her title in the 1,000 metres speed skating. the canadian men's hockey team begin their defense on thursday, plays norway. ice hockey is one of the most watched events with rival canada and the usa playing for cold. in the united states a tiny community produced more olympic medallists in hockey than any other. we have this report. >> they call in hockey town, usa. since 1956 it has produced eight olympic hockey stars, seven medallists. as you learn from banners and signs over town, two of them are in sochi right now. that's a big thing for a town with fewer than 2,000 people. everyone talks about them and where they are now and what they

are doing. the whole community is proud of them and what they have done. >> hockey is everything here. for decades people have loved a game that is not nearly as popular in their country as baste ball or basketball. longer winters, a proud condition and an isolated location plays its part. >> it's a quite place to live, not too much traffic. not so much to do when i started. >> plenty of excitement at the local arena. high school bands fire up the crowd for a junior turn. the high school girls defend a 5-year winning streak. the coach says it helps to life in a hockey-mad town. >> you have the backing, you have the coaching, you have the available ice time. do you have the tradition - is it possible, can you believe in it. i think we have the right environment. >> henry bouchet agrees, he won

silver with team usa in 1972 in japan. he had a message from his home town during the ceremony, half a world away. >> i remember getting a telegram from everybody in the world. it was 6 feet lopping and all -- long and all the names of the people that i knew from the small town. talk about having a lump in your throat. >> in an age of email, skype and social media, it's easier to support players who are far away. that's what the people of hockey town will do for the next few weeks. >> two towns, two teams naturally enough. divided loyalties at the arena, but not when team usa takes to the ice in sochi. that's when every player, men and women is a home-town hero. >> well, the crew of the

international space station has been watching sochi, and snapped this photo of the city at night. the fish stadium, where the opening ceremony was held is recognisable as the brightly coloured structure in the mid. >> new york yankees captain derek gooeta said he will retire at the end of the 2014 season. the 39-year-old made his announcement. he is regarded as a great short stop and he missed much of last season because of injury. >> how will he be remembered? >> firstly, as a champion. heap has won five world series in a career with the yankees. he's been selected for 13 all-star games. he's the hit leader with 3,316 to date. and is certain to be a feature hall of famer. >> the n.b.a., even conference

leaders the indiana pacers crashed to a loss to the denver maverick. good news for the miami heat. lebron james on fire, leading by 21 at one stage. the warriors never gave up, hitting 29, putting his side two ahead. lebron james was not about to let anyone steal his thuger, hitting the -- thunder, hiking the buzzer sealing the win. >> football da- barcelona beat real madrid. lionel messi with the opening goal. socio dad pulled a goal back making it 1-1. 3-1 to barca on arg nate.

knappo lit take take on floren tina: the final on may the third. >> a hat rick helped bayern munich make the german cup. hamburg the unlucking team on the end of the drubbing. >> arsenal missed a chance to go top of the premier league after being held to a goalless draw. leaving him a point behind chelsea. ever son, crystal palace game called off. liverpool with victory at fulham. >> he may have launched a football team, but david beckham put aside his role as an mls franchise owner and returned to

hisson as a u.n.i.c.e.f. ambassador. hundreds turned out to see the former england football captain as he visited a camp set up for victims of the super typhoon. >> india is one of the countries where film makers face strict state censorship. a director said he was forced to make nearly 60 changes to a movie. the berlin film festival is giving them a platform to show films in full. >> bollywood is the public place of indian movies. thousands of these films are made every year. for those that go further than this, there may be problems - one in particular - censorship. there has been real uproar in india, not with fans, but those that decide whether a film can be released. as far from bollywood.

the film explores some of the big issues, rape and homosexuality. in places it is derogatory about gandhi. you can see it in full at the biennale. to show it in india the director had to make changes. >> we had outright denial saying that our film is not justifiable. we appeal it. they suggested 56 changes to the film. >> films like this form a huge part of the biennale's identity. of course, you have the big obligatory red carpet. the hollywood stars. away from this you have these smaller independent films with controversial issues, likely you won't get to see. here at the biennale, they really do.

that's where critics point out that film festivals are an important tool. >> the film festivals held have been sold out. it's a good sign that there has been a lot of interest in a film like that. that message should reach india. you can't ban things because it will be shown abroad. it makes it more embarrassing. >> this takes a look at india's uncomfortable side. it's a film that makes the authorities feel less than comfortable, says its director. >> it is clear case of political free speech control by the state. >> india may be changing, but movies like this may be harder to come by for some time yet. >> thanks for watching the al jazeera newshour. for viewers in the united states, back to your normal programming an al jazeera america. for the rest of the our viewers,

more in a moment.

>> a nasty dose of winter brings the south to a stand still. now the powerful storm is bringing snow and misery to the north-east. >> there's no option. this is the only option we have - taking to the streets because we have no media or press. >> an anti-government protest ends with blood shed in the streets. a student march in venezuela became a deadly