this is al jazeera. welcome to this, al jazeera news hour with me, david foster. a look at some stories coming up. the protests continue in ukraine. now parliament has transferred powers away from president yanukovych. his whereabouts are still unknown. the free ukrainian opposition union says she doesn't want to be considered for the post of prime minister. in other world news a bomb blast in bangkok. anti-government protesters in

thailand are targeted again in the fight here always here among those who died. a recorded million dollar birthday for the 90-year-old president of zimbabwe where most men are lucky to reach that age. costly and controversial as the sochi olympics prepare to wrap up, we look at whether putin's pet project was a success. and greece uses its presidency of the european union to propose that carbon emission rules be relaxed for countries in recession. well, events in ukraine are moving at pace. crowds of protesters still packing kiev's independence square. they've seen the blood where i battle says between them and police just a few days ago.

a day after the president was apparently voted out of office, his powers have been transferred to the speaker of parliament who becomes interim president. he has told parliament it has until tuesday to form a unity government. viktor yanukovych has called the decision a coup, it's not known where he is. pictures have emerged of a helicopter outside his presidential palace. it's footage shows people loading lug on board the aircraft. yanukovych was actually the one that boarded it. let's go leave in kiev. what is the best guess, andrew, as where yanukovych might be? >> reporter: well, it would be hard to guess. he's certainly not in the capital, david, and right now we have the most unusual situation of some describing as a position where there are technically two presidents of ukraine right now.

the interim president appointed by parliament and indeed the man himself who has basically escaped from the capital and last reportedly seen trying to get out of the country on a charter jet, which was stopped from taking off in the east by border patrols. these officers then confronted his bodyguards according to the interior ministry report, and money was offered. eventually he got off the plane and drove off in an unknown direction. furthermore, there's more report from the east that two of his ministers, perhaps the prosecutor general and also a treasury minister, tried to get out through the vip lounge but were arrested at the same airport. then there was a firefight, a shooting between their bodyguards and the border officers. eventually they got away from this, and they drove off in an

unknown direction. so hard to tell right now, but also, as you rightly point out, in the early hours of saturday morning, cctv, black and white pibts, show two helicopters landing in the massive, sprawling residence area in the countryside outside kiev where the president lived in extraordinary luxury. these helicopters took off it said with the president on board. not only there, there was a fleet of trucks taking all sorts of furniture and belongings from the estate. of course, the next thing to happen was that thousands -- in daylight thousands of people were flooding into this place in an extraordinarily bizarre scene. it was like a walk around a stately home. people celebrating. the president going. so right now a strange concoction of emotions really.

serious grief here at the loss of so many people, and then an adrenaline of the politics of it all, the change. so many failed deals in such a short space of time and a young parliament now looking to the future trying to build a new country effectively and also more important than anything most people think some form of unity between the west, the east and the south. >> so with this new government, this possibility of a unity government the man calling himself a new president says it has to be sorted by tuesday. there will have to be a new prime minister. so who is likely to be the new prime minister, and is this because he's wanting to run for president? >> reporter: it does seem she's

likely to go withed presidency. she can't really show her hand right now, and it will not be timely. read into that what you will. two other contenders for the interim prime minister post are the head of the father land party being in the square a lot campaigns and a main opposition letter and the other is petro, who is an independent. the person that will answer your question more authoritatively on me on who the most likely contender is with me now and it's a political analyst. out of those two names, who would you say is the right person or the most likely person to become an interim prime minister of this country at such a critical time? >> people know who they are.

in this difficult time we need somebody to lead ukraine in the future. i think these two countries may be good for people, but maybe would be better for the ukraine. he was in position at a different time. he's in position. i called in some difficult points, but now maybe he can be better. for me it's not the best. >> what about tymoshenko? is she a good president for in country? many people believe she will win. >> many belief she will win, but she had her time to be the prime minister and president in her election, but now something changed. the mentality of the nation changed. now people don't believe

anything. just people tried to look at the action, and now tymoshenko doesn't understand that people changed in this time she was in prison. maybe she can be a press, but on the networks many people don't support her. >> what about yanukovych. do you think he's out of the country now, or do you think he will try to stay as he claims he will do? >> after what happened and what the journalists are found out, best for him is to go away from the country. now the system fell down, and now the people can see what happened and what was going on. it was very terrible for him. it could be bad for him, and i think it's best for him to be far from ukraine. >> alexander coleman, thank you

for joining us. an extraordinary time for this country with a lot of work ahead on a completely mysterious picture as to the whereabouts of the outgoing undoubtedly outgoing president and massive calls for justice against him for all that's happened here and all the violence and all the death. david. >> andrew simmons, thank you very much indeed. there have been clashes in the eastern ukraine. they're fighting with pro-russian supporters in the eastern towns. none straighters fought with police. we will go to david joining us on the phone where there's a standoff between pro and anti-yanukovych protesters. this is pretty close to the eastern border with russia. what's happening there, david? >> reporter: i'm standing with a group of anti-government protesters who have occupied the governor's building on the main

square here. i've seen molotov cocktails coming in. they're trying to defend what they sought here on the main square, and the riot police are trying to separate them. a much larger crowd of pro-government supporters who are being addressed by the government have been evicted from this building right now. now, the riot police are trying to separate the two, but it seems in the preparations i see around me that they're preparing and they have their helmets on. the anti-government protesters expect a move to be made against them right now. it's a very tense situation. there are large lines of antiriot police trying to keep the crowds apart. there is a great danger here of clashes, and that's the feeling. it's very, very tense. >> david, we'll leave it there. thank you for the update from the eastern part of ukraine. pretty close to the border with

russia. we've seen those crowds still in independence square back in kiev. many of them are pretty tired and wary about the scale of events that unfolded. barnaby phillips spoke to some of the them. he sent this report from the ukrainian capital. >> reporter: victory came at a cost. there's no euphoria in independence square. instead, we found grief. they've lost too much to celebrate, and there's too exhausted anyway. ukrainian politics is upside-down. the former opposition leaders noi now hold power. they deny they staged a coup against president yanukovych. >> translator: the government didn't want to listen to the people. it did everything possible to hold onto power and it crossed the line whether it killed people. now we need a functioning state as soon as possible, and parliament will work on this nonstop. >> reporter: parliament has been busy, dismissing yanukovych's

ministers one by one and setting election dates and appointing the new speaker as an interim president and consolidating the change in power. but what of yanukovych? these security camera pictures show his entourage fleeing his residence in the early hours of saturday morning. they took off towards the east. where they went and where they are now, we don't know. a familiar face looms over the new landscape. yulia tymoshenko from prison to politics in one day. i met a protester that won't show her face, but she wants a new type of politician and is not convinced tymoshenko is the answer? >> i'm not sure because she's a president with own bad history and her own baggage. we need someone new. not from old. >> reporter: with no police to be seen, the protesters are in

charge. they accuse this frightened, beaten man of being a paid thug hired by yanukovych to cause trouble. they drag him away. we don't know what happened to him next. these people have chased a president from power. they have torn down a state, but at some point they'll have to step aside if a new political order is to emerge in ukraine. they're not prepared to do that yet. ukraine's protest movement has seen many twists and turns, and much is still unresolved. it's become a life and death struggle to shape the future of this country. barnaby phillips, al jazeera, kiev. at least two people have died in a grenade attack at an anti-government protest in the thai capital of bangkok. dozens were injured. protesters have occupied the

site in the city center to r months. it's the second such explows since friday. demonstrators have called for the prime minister to step down since november. veronica pedrosa joins us live from bangkok. what's the story, veronica? >> reporter: well, this isn't just the second attack to happen since friday at this site. it's all the second attack in less than 24 hours to be carried out against anti-government protesters. last night there was an attack in eastern thailand, and at least 35 people were injured, and a child was actually killed. so you're seeing this increasing frequency of such attacks, and that is increasing the tension and pressure on the prime minist minister, who the protesters here want to quit because she say she's corrupt.

they want to replace her with an unelected government that would carry out reforms and then elections would be held. meanwhile, though, the situation for the protesters is that they want to keep on going. it seems a kind of spiraling situation of tension feeding violence. >> veronica, you've been covering this for several months now. do you see any change in the atmosphere? >> reporter: yes. i think that there is definitely a ratcheting up on the violence. there's pressure on the prime minister from every quarter. just the other day there was a decision by a civil court that some analysts see as part of a process of a judicial coup. it's not just that you siavii

lens on the streets, blood of thai people being spilled here in and, in fact, children. it's that the political institutions in the country are beginning to be so politicized that they actually endanger the rule of law according to such analysts. so this decision they're saying is a first step towards judicial coup, and the implication for thailand as a nation are extremely profound. whereas, there was a point a few months ago when nobody was sure how far this was really going to go. now it seems that the noose is tightening further and further on the prime minister. >> we'll leave it there for now. thank you very much indeed. that's veronica pedrosa in bangkok. 21 afghan soldiers were killed in a taliban attack in the eastern part of the country. several were attacked.

the attack took place in the province on the border with pakistan. we have more from the capital of kabul. >> reporter: this predawn assault on an afghan army outpost in kunar province was one of the largest taliban assaults in afghanistan in the last two years. security sources have told us that at least 100 taliban fighters made up from men from afghanistan, pakistan and arab countries were involved in the assault. afghan president karzai immediately canceled the scheduled tripe to sri lanka after hearing the attack, and he pointed the finger of blame again on pakistan. he called on the government in islamabad to take on the fight against terrorism. the afghans long and often accused the pakistanis of not taking fight against the taliban seriously, though it should be said last week pakistan suffered 23ed ises murdered by taliban

fighters again in the border area between pakistan and afghanistan. so pakistan also suffering from taliban assaults. >> we were talking there about pakistan and air strikes across the border in that country have killed at least 38 suspected fighters. it was in the northwest of pakistan. the military attacks were carried out early on sunday in tira valley very close to the border with pakistan. pakistan's military said some important commanders have been among though killed. members of hamas are staging a sit-down protest on the palestinian border are egypt. they're angry at the frequent closure of the rafa crossing by the authorities. israel and egypt blockaded gaza in 2007, but egypt re-opened the crossing in 2011. palestinians say the crossing is often shut, making it difficult for people and goods to get

across. still ahead on this news hour, we meet some of the many syrian refugee children forced to work to pay for their education. and a sweet tweet on his first day in office. ita italy's new prime minister says he'll cut taxes. canada got the ice hockey gold medal in soy chi. we'll give you the details of that a little later. zimbabwe's president has been partying to celebrate his 90th birthday. there were thousands at the sports stadium in an event believed to have cost $1 million. in an interview on state tv, he said he had no plans to retire. his actual birthday was on friday, but the party was delayed to allow him to return

from singapore after an eye operation. he had this to say for the former power, the united kingdom. >> the british are gone. we only love our country. we love our country better. we love ourselves better than we love you. we love our freedom! >> let's go to harry at the celebrations east of the capital harari. >> reporter: zimbabwe talked about to things in particular, the economy and perhaps the issue of succession. families are struggling, so the president said he's going to try

to push it in power basically hiring black youth to take control of the country forces and move the country forward. most support this idea, and they like how it's done. they say over the years the land has gone into the wrong hands and most people aren't benefitting from it. there's a sense of issues th that -- so people are still scared to voice their opinions on that. they tonight live quietly behind their own doors. he's told them he's not going anywhere and is still fit at as fiddle. if this isn't addressed properly soon, it could be trouble ahead for the country. the top of the hour around 40 minutes from now we have the closing ceremony for the sochi winter olympics. the question now is winding to a

close and how successful has been president putin's pet project? joe jonah howe will try to tell us. >> there were run-ups by the anti-guy legislation and overshadowed by the crisis in ukraine. the games are ending with russia top of the medals table, so as sochi prepares to stage the closing ceremony, how are those olympics being viewed? well, we can go to rory live in sochi to answer that question for us. rory, has it been a success, do you think? >> reporter: well, as you just said, jonah, russia is on top of the medals table, and never underestimate the warm, fuzzy feeling that that engenders in a host nation. so the athletes is have done well. this is good for public mood

here, and what is good for public mood here is good for slad vladimir putin. i think on that front these games have been a success for him, but looking back over the last two weeks of sport and also the controversy that preceded it, it certainly hasn't all been positive. when the sochi olympics finally burst into life two weeks ago, the event was already carrying huge burdens. for some, particularly in the west, these were the homophobic games. they were the terrorist games about to be blown up at any moment. the game cost a record $51 billion. there were even the dog killing games. pussy riot risked arrests for a

punning video, and they shot a spotlight on the many allegations of corruption. but president vladimir putin was proud. in the main russians were proud, too. these olympics are theirs after all. >> we've made no attempt to hide it. he said that this is the olympics, the road is the resurgence of the russia nation. for him it was extremely important to do this nation-building effort through sports. >> reporter: armies of charming, smiling volunteers made sure the visitors that had come felt welcome. despite the sfoimedisappointmen the hockey team, there was still russian gold to celebrate. it's often easy to forget that the olympics are actually about sport, particularly when they come with as much political baggage as the sochi games have. but the athletes will remember their successes or their failures long after the journalists have wandered off to find other things to report on.

that's actually already happened. events in ukraine have overshadowed these games to a certain extent. it's the people that live in this region who will be best placed to answer the question, was it all worth it? as well as those people, rory, athletes from around the world are in town, spectators and guests visiting russia. what do you think the international verdict will be? >> reporte >> reporter: well, in the last few hours the german chancellor angela merkel spoke to vladimir putin on the phone. they were talking about ukraine, but merkel did congratulate vladimir putin on a successful olifrmp yad.

she may have been polite, but one person thinks there's a success. maybe the best way to define it they weren't a failure. considering the odds stacked against them from the outset, that's no small statement here. all the brouhaha about the overspending and all the unfinished accommodation for the international journalists and all the security things, once the international journalists had stopped complaining and no bombs went off, it seemed things did settle down. the olympic games falls into this topic that gets talked about now, soft power. what is soft power? it's the way that countries try and rebrand themselves on a global scale, and i think that's certainly what russia was trying to do here. whether it was successful in that is something that time will need to be, i think, looked at over time. also, it will depend on russia's

actions in the next few years on an internal scale. i think it's a cop-out maybe, but we have to wait and see whether the games have been internationally a success for russia. >> okay, rory live for you us in sochi. thanks. now, in a sign of changing times, under italy's younger prime minister has taken to twitter a day after being sworn in. he's answering questions from his followers. the 39-year-old pledged to try to cut taxes, and he said cutting bureaucracy would be the mother of all battles. renzi has 850,000 followers on twitter. one asked him not to disappoint the country's young people of his own age. the new government faces a confidence vote on monday. and pope francis has handed down a list of commandments to the 19 men he elevated to the rank of cardinal on saturday. he told the select group who will help him run the catholic church to avoid behaving like they're in a royal court, and he

went on to specify what that means. no intrigue, gossip, power pacts, favoritism or preferentialism. he also told them they should be saints advising them to love those hostile or speak badly of them and to, quote, smile at those who perhaps don't merit it. pope francis outlined the code of conduct while celebrating a mass in st. peter's basilica with 18 of the 19 new cardinals. one couldn't attend because of illness. since becoming pope almost a year ago, francis has repeatedly told his top aides not to behave like a privileged class. i'll be back a little later this news hour with more news from europe including why people in the city are voting for a new mayor for the fourth time in as many months. we also have this in the news hour. a boost from mexico's war on drugs. the most wanted man is arrested

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protests continue in ukraine, and the freed opposition leader yulia tymoshenko doesn't want to be a prime minister in a new unity government. at least two people died in a grenade attack in an anti-government protest in the thai capital of bangkok. they have occupied the city for months and it's the second such explosion there since friday. 21 afghan soldiers have been killed. several more were kidnapped in kunar province near the border with pakistan. let's go through the events

that led to recent violence and political unrest in ukraine. in november the president, viktor yanukovych, rejected a trade agreement with the european union choosing cooperation with russia. protests began that very night. rallies increased and hundreds were arrested. in january the government passes an anti-protest law, which is seen by many to be too severe. by february 14th, amnesty is given to protesters and charges are dropped against them. four days later the parliament speaker rejects a vote on changing the constitution, and there's more violence. then a truce. only brief, though. on february 20th intense fighting between protesters and police led to a number of people killed to rise to 77. let's talk to lilly, russian analysts with global insight joining me now from london. let's talk about russia in this. when yanukovych said i'm going to stick with you rather get my

future trade deals from europe, it looked like russia scored something of a victory. yet, now what has russia done wrong? >> i don't think russia has done anything wrong, and i don't think it was a significant victory. i think russia, by august/september 2013 was preparing for a scenario that ukraine would actually go with the european union, and at that the point moscow was quite concerned about its financial exposure to the country and the transit of gas, because we shouldn't forget that about 70% to 80% of eu-bound russia gas goes via ukraine. it was, of course, important for russia to have yanukovych side with moscow. we have to remember that the credit deals and the gas price discount deals were very tentative expressing and

demonstrating that even after yanukovych chose to abandon eu association deal, the russians weren't sure whether he would be able to deliver fully on his promise of joining customs union. >> okay. in yanukovych is still president, as he maintains, because he says there weren't enough mps to get him sacked, where does that leave ukraine? >> it leaves ukraine in a political vacuum, and once -- what the opposition parties are trying to do is abandon opposition and effectively become the ruling parties of former governments and solidify their power as soon as possible. that's why they brought forward snap elections now planned for 26th of may. what they will try to do is ignore what yanukovych is doing,

realizing he hasn't got much support in terms of the police, army, and the eastern regions are equal. while they might not be happy with the current changes, they probably will not go out on a straightened claw-back power for viktor yanukovych. >> yul yulia tymoshenko complained she was suffering physically with a bad sxk was on a hunger strike. she got international attention, but i'm wondering, is she the cohesive binding figure that she might like to appear to be from her hero's speech in independence square? >> she certainly is a revolutionary leader, but i don't think that she's necessarily proven to be a good leader in the office. she had held the prime minister's office on a number of occasions, but she managed to fall out with her orange

revolution friends. indeed, she emerged yesterday and called for people to stay on the streets, but even amongst people who were there, i'm sure there were many who were questioning whether tymoshenko should be the face of the new government. she's very charismatic, and i don't think that she would easily leave the political scene or political limelight, and it may not sit well not only with the opposition members but also with eastern ukrainians who see her as no better than yanukovych or people really across the ukraine who believe that she betrayed their trust in 2004 and '05 when she came to power with other orange revolution leaders but never delivered on the promises of change and reform.

she was talking again yesterday -- >> i beg your pardon. just a final thought on where russia and the european union stand on this. angela merkel and president putin released a statement saying they agree the territorial integrity of ukraine must be respected. what does that mean to you? >> it's quite important to quiet those speculations that have been raging mostly in the media about geopolitical standardoff and cold war terminology, which wasn't necessarily the right interpretation of the crisis. i think eu and russia are aware that there are some tensions within the country. they want to express jointly that neither side wants to see ukraine to fall apart. i think it's an extremely unlikely scenario anyway, and what they're trying to say also,

particularly the eu, sending a message to current opposition parties saying you have to make sure this is a democratic change. that all parties are included, including those that represent eastern ukrainians. so national unity government truly in the meaning and not exclusive that involves revolutionaries. >> we thank you. that's lilly talking to us about events unfolding in ukraine. appreciate that. >> thank you. suicide bombing left a senior al qaeda operative in syria. the fighter was killed on sunday in aleppo. he's the representative of the al qaeda leader zawihiri in syria. they aattacked the city of daria, and they released these

pictures. they say it shows barrel bombs dropped over the area, and this is pictures of the aftermath in government air strikes in the southwest of the country. the red cross says so far humanitarian access in syria is only possible in a few areas. simon made the comments after the u.n. security council adopted a resolution to send humanitarian aid into the war-torn country. they say more than 9 million syrians now need help. the man who has often been described as the world's top drugs lord has been arrested in mexico. guzman also known as "shorty" but not to his face had been on the run for 13 years. he was captured without a shot being fired. adam brady is live for us in mexico city. is this a big a deal as the headlines would have it to be?

>> reporter: well, it's a very big deal at least from a pr and political point of view for the government. this was not only the most wanted drug lord in mexico but one of the most wanted men in the world. the u.s. had a $5 million award on his head. in mexico it's around 2$2.5 million. he had escaped from prison in 2001 before he could be extradited to the u.s. there's a lot of speculation about whether or not he's going to be extradited this time to the u.s. the government there wants to try him on charges of smuggling, on charges of murder, on dozens of charges. he has several indictments out against him in new york and chicago and other cities. of course, this is a big deal. some in mexico compare it to the u.s. taking down osama bin laden. that's questionable internationally. if it is the same kind of capture or takedown of a world criminal, but this is clearly a big deal here. what we don't know yet and what's hard to tell is what's

going to be the impact on the cartel that he ruled for decades. this is one of the most professional and largest criminal organizations in the world. there's no lack of men waiting to take the place of joaquin guzman. marines are also searching for his lieutenant in recent days, and they have been unable to arrest him. this is not just going to end because joaquin guzman was arrested. we will see this cartel continue to do daily business of trafficking drugs, people, running prostitution rings and doing a the lo -- a lot of violence activity in mexico and across the border. >> not just this cartel but others as well. we saw the rise of vigilante authority approved. what difference will it make? you take a bucket of sand off the beach, there's still an awful lot of sand there. >> reporter: what's interesting, if you look at it, every year or every couple of years a huge

leader of these drug cartels is taken down, and the government says this is a big victory. but the fact remains that the body count really goes unchanged, and over the past two decades if anything it skyrocketed as drug cartel leaders and lieutenants have been taken down. now, enrique has been savvy and political in the political front in the office. he changed the narrative. they don't publish drug war killing statistics anymore. they say the focus for mexico is to grow economically, and the security issue though important isn't as important as growing the economy. people at least abroad seem to be taking well to this stand. in mexico nieto has 50% popularity because people realize they live in an extremely violent and corrupt country where there's no security to be said to make sure these gangs can't operate with impun knit. >> thank you. that's adam brady in mexico city. voters in the city are whack

in the polls. it's the fourth time they have done it. they vote in mayor elections this time, and we'll find out why in our london news center. >> david, the previous elections failed because of violence and the winner of the last vote refusing to swear allegiance to kosovo's ethnic albanian authorities. they're voting for a mayor for the serb area that divides the city. two main contenders this time around are hard line serb goran and oliver ivanovich currently in prison suspected the committing war crimes in the kosovo war. security has been stepped up for the vote. last month a serb candidate working with the government was shot dead. we can talk now live to al jazeera's marco who is standing outside a polls station

there. >> what's the atmosphere like given this is a divided city. security pretty tight i would imagine. >> reporter: yeah. i'm outside of one of the biggest polling stations here in north mitrovica. some 10,000 serbs can cast their ballots here on this polling station, and the situation here in mitrovica is calm, and the main reason may be because of the huge security measures imposed in the last 24 hours here in north mitrovica. i don't know if you can see behind me. in front of the polling stations there are members of eu police forces that are stationed here in kosovo. 20 meters from there, there are members of the kosovo police forces and the third security linked are the members of the international security forces that are in coast seo.

members of the international organizations that monitor these elections are satisfied with how they're going through some 20% of the borders already turned out. the polls will be closed at 1900 cd. >> marco, give us a sense of how important these elections are to the serbs, the serb population, of course, a might not population living in kosovo. >> reporter: norpt mitrovica is important for serbs in kosovo, especially for the northern part of seos co-. that part of kosovo doesn't recognize the authority of the republic of kosovo. they are going to belgrade and backed by belgrade. the person who is elected to be the mayor of north mitrovica will be a big political figure here, because this is the biggest town with the majority serbian people living inside of it. because of the community of

serbs that has to be formed according to the brussels agreement that was signed by belgrade and pristina in april last year. everybody questions here who the people are going to vote for, whether it's the guy who is backed by official belgrade or the other guy who is almost a month in prison in pristina for war crimes in 2000. some of them think that people in north mitrovica will vote for him in spite of that, because they think that all of these alleged war crimes that are put on ivanovich, there is some kind of pressure to serbian people living in the northern part of kosovo to be somehow involved in the government and to be put to live in republic of kosovo,

which they don't recognize. >> okay. marco, we'll leave it there in north mitrovica. thanks. greece is using its six-month presidency of the european union to propose that carbon emission rules be relaxed for countries in recession. about a fifth of the country's electricity comes from plants that burn cheap fuel, but those plants have to pay millions of dollars in penalties to the european union for polluting. from northern greece, we have the report. >> reporter: this is one of europe's most polluting power stations. it produces about a fifth of greece's electricity. last year it also produced 13 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a greenhouse gas because it burns brown coal, a dirt coal pulverized and blasts into 30-story high furnace. the greek public power station faces annual bills of $200

million if it continues to emit at current rates. under eu law they must buy permits for each ton of co2 it pumps into the area. the idea is to offset carbon emissions and encourage the uses of more environmentally friendly sources of energy. instead of moving away from it, they're investing $1.8 billion in a new cleaner plant. lignite is the only abundant greek fuel. they generate under half the electricity from it. there's enough to burn for decades. by far the cheapest form of energy, so if greece is to fuel an economic turn-around, this may be the best option. yet, the fires of industry are going out. greece's biggest steel smelter used to employ 2.5 million people and only 100 remain. >> the greek industry pays twice as much for electricity as neighboring italy. we have 32 euros per megawatt

hour. we may 18. spain and chance are cheaper. they're the countries we compete with for the north african market. >> reporter: the cost of electricity will rise with the price of carbon. >> with the of 3 to 4 euros per ton, whereas normally it should be around 15 to 20 euros per ton. the power companies are now taking advantage of that, and the fossil fuel lobbies. >> reporter: for security and economic reasons, greece may have to use native energy resources, but wind and solar power also native have suffered from underinvestment. government policy seems to have protected neither industry or the environment, and both are running out of time.

when you look at the substances being taken most of them are stimulants which have been detected, and then you look at the quantities and see how far it is. >> it was a good day of medals for the host country. russian driver completed the bobsled double. the 39-year-old added the four-mangold to the two-man title that he won earlier in the games. the united states claimed bronze. russia also swept the medals in the 50 kilometers cross country skiing. legkov took the gold. host russia topped the medal table with 13 golds. they finished the games in second play, and canada won the final gold at sochi finished

third with 25 medals in total. the 2016 champions have been drawn. defending champion spain should have been drawn with the ga bralt tar but they were moved to the next group due to the u.s.'s decision to keep them apart. spain will play in group c. >> translator: in fact, we cannot do anything. we have complicated rivals ahead because apart from their quality, there is the inconvenience that many come from eastern europe, and it can be a problem facing their cold weather. >> gibb bral tar is in group d. and they will take on germany, scotland, poland and the republic of ireland. the runner-ups, italy will take the tril to malta.

they will qualify with a best placed team. the other eight teams in third will meet in the playoffs. you can check out all the groups along with reactions on the sport section on our website. that's al jazeera aljazeera.com/spots. swanzi fought back, but they forced liverpool that won 4-3. sturridge and henderson netted twice. in the other game newcastle beat aston villa. spanish premier division has a new league leader. real madrid at the top of the table after barcelona lost at real. we have more. >> days after being charged with tax fraud over the signing of nama, the brazilian was one of six strangers by barcelona on

the side that beat manchester city. they were 1-0 down after half an hour. gorca's header deflected in from alex song. barcelona quickly equalized. they scored their only shot on target in the first half. despite being level at halftime, the coach lost his cool with the referee and was sent to the stands. barcelona lost 3-2 last season, and it would again be a painful night for them and the 15th goal of the campaign with them down in front. for r before they could regroup they conceded again. this was the goal. 3-1 is the final score. barcelona haven't won there since 2007. it means they're now 3 points

behind new league leader real madrid. he scored real eights first in the 3-0 win. the host was still without the suspended rinaldo. in his absence the world's most expensive player proved his worth with real's second. and substitute isko rounded out the scoring in the closing stages. madrid could rejoin real at the top of the table later if they win. richard parr, al jazeera. munich has the chance to extend their lead at the top of the league to 19 points when they face hanover later on sunday. that's because second place lost 3-1 away on saturday. it ends a back week for them having been beaten 4-0 at home on tuesday. australia are dhasing the second innings total of 448 in the second test against south

africa. earlier they got an unbeaten 127 on day 4 in port elizabeth. south africa declared on 270 for five australia's started steadily. stain ripped through the middle, but chris rogers is still at the crease with an unbeaten century. the aussies are 200 for 7. rafael nadal survived a scare to reach the final of the rio open. the king of clay has been unbeaten. it wasn't his night against the fellow countryman. he got off to a shaky start and dropped the opening set. he managed to level the match, but he struggled in third that went to a tiebreak. he had to fight two match points before winning this semifinals, near two hours. that's it for me. >> that french open is coming up soon. thank you very much indeed. that's it from the news hour team, but i'll be back in a couple of minutes.

good morning, to you and welcome to al jazerra america, am morgan radford live in new york city and here are the stories we are following right now. independence square in kiev full of people this despite the uncertainty of ukraine's future. and as a 2014 winter games come to a close, we'll take a live look at how they'll be remembered. ♪ ♪