>> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ and a warm welcome from me david foster to this al jazeera news hour. these are some of the stories we're covering in detail in the next 60 minutes. russian protesters and ukrainian loyalists faceoff as russia's president puts military forces on alert. demonstrations too this time in turkey. the allegation of corruption will not go away.

and i'm jonah with the rest of the news from europe including awaiting sentence the two men who hacked a british soldier to death on a london street. and france's top court reverses a decision that would have sent three rwanda genocide suspects back to rwanda. so it's again the news hour begins with a crisis in ukraine. neighboring russia is turning up the pressure. moscow says it will protect its naval fleet. and putin has ordered military drills. russia's black sea fleet is based in the area, and that has been the scene of fighting between russian and

anti-government protesters. tim friend is in this the ukrainian capitol. these statements from russia, pretty new. tim, how is it going down where you are? >> well, you can imagine that everyone here is living on their nerves at the moment. it's not only the situation internally, but still extremely volatile of course because it's unresolved as ousted former president is still on the run somewhere, and there is as of yet no proper interim leadership, but as you have just been mentioning, this goes much wider than what is happening within the borders of ukraine, and in many russia itself, president putin ordering this state of preparedness. that's being typified in this russia, t -- at least the

information we're getting here in kiev. you can imagine when the situation is so volatile, people will be looking over their shoulders to see how this plays out. and of course it's not only the eastward flank, but also the european flank as well, and the prospect of europe becoming further involved, everyone playing this very, very ca care -- carefully, does they don't want to exacerbate the situation. you mentioned about the russia speakers being concerned about what a new administration in kiev may force on them,er so the russian speakers there very nervous about their future, although the parliament says it is not at the moment at least discussing accept aretism.

>> there are so many rumors but one that is relevant, that the president is hiding on board a russian naval vessel down on the black sea, but we'll get more from moscow as soon as we can. i want to ask you b a events coming up on independence square. we have been waiting for a cabinet to be announced, and they'll either get a thumbs up or thumbs down from the crowd. >> yes, it's extowardary isn't it? these are extraordinary times, so a list of proposed names will be brought to the square because the people here consider they are the people who are responsible for bringing about what they regard as revolution

and i think if the politicians had not included them in the process, at least symbolically, then they could have been storing up more trouble for the future, so that's the thinking behind the reading out of this list, so that's the latest on the political front here in the capitol. >> thanks very much, tim. as we said we're going to go to moscow, rory is waiting for us there. give us the details of what vladimir putin has said >> reporter: well, he has been announcing today that there is military drills to start taking place immediately. now this is something that many people speculate could be linked to what has been going on in ukraine. now the defense minister has

said this has nothing to do with what is going on in ukraine. but two of the four military districts are going to be going on several days worth of military drills. now what essentially this amounts to is a testing of the military readiness of those particular districts. it involves some 150,000 armed personnel. it includes some of the baltic naval fleet and includes some of the air force as well. the defense minister says this has been taking place near some of russia's borders, but again, specifically saying this has nothing to do with what is going on in this the yukraine. now although there has been that statement, i think it is probably going through the minds of many people of the russian government that holding military

drills at this moment, reminding russian's rivals of russian military might at a time when russia's prestige and influence in central and eastern kru krurp -- europe certainly wouldn't be a bad thing to do. >> rory thank you very much indeed. right now there appear to be two centers to the protest, one being kiev, the other krimia. that is where the russian fleet is. as i mentioned to the top of the program, a city where robin is there for us. >> reporter: ukraine's tartar supporters came out emphatically, they shouted

krimea is not russian. they say they belong is a proeuropean united ukraine. the muslim minority has been al-latin americaed by talk of acce separatetism. >> it is outraged by information, information involving parliamenting wants to separate our -- our muslim chrimea to different state. >> reporter: some want chrimea to return to russia. others want greater autonomy. this is a contest over who can shout the loudest, who has the largest number of supporters, and who cares more about the

future of chrimea and ukraine. police looked stressed. it may be up to them to keep the peace. ♪ anti-government protests are continuing for a second day in turkey. the rallies seen here organized by turkey's leading opposition. they are angry about a corruption scandal involving the government just a day ago. an audiotape was leaked of the president telling his son to

hide millions in cash. the prime minister says it was fabricated. turkey's president has signed a new law tightening the grip on the judiciary. and parliament has passed a law strengthening control over the internet. in december an investigation was launched into acquisitions of corruption at the heart of turkey's government. the sons of three cabinet ministers were among those arrested in a series of police raids. the government removed hundreds of police from their post. and then earlier this month f after fistfights in parliament, they passed a law tightening control of the judiciary. on wednesday the row reached new heights the prime minister accusing his opponents of a smear campaign over that tape

recording. our correspondent says turkey's government is on the defensive because of the scandals. >> two of the most controversial and high-profile amendments to laws in turkey hugely political and actions taken by the government to defend its position. we had the launch, the start of an unprecedented historically massive corruption investigation in turkey which pointed right at the heart of the turkish government involvement in gold fraud, gold trading, property fraud, corrupt contracts, you name it, it went right to cabinet, and some would claim right to the office of the prime minister itself. the government responded by reshuffling prosecutors, police

investigators, and awarding itself the supreme panel of investigators, and gives the government more powers to make decisions about which judiciary it wants to see serving, where they will serve, and what k action the government can take if it doesn'tn't like what it does. some are very unhappy with this, and they have said so, but the president has decided to side with the government and pass that bill. >> coming a bit later on this program. the pakistani government presents a national security policy for the first time. and a tough call, barack obama warns the afghan president that all troops could be withdrawn if he doesn'ting sign

a bilateral security pact. and we have some familiar facesment coming up in the champions league. ♪ two men convicted of murdering a british soldier on a london street are about to be sentenced at the central criminal court in the uk capitol. let's join jonah for more. >> reporter: the two hacked lee rigby to death outside of anner amy barracks last may. phil joins us live from central london. phil a protest of some sort happening behind you? >> yeah, there's a huge police presence here at the moment. you probably can't see it, but there are about 15 to 20 police blocking the entrance.

we have these protesters from various groups who have turned up, they have been here throughout the morning. it got quite uncomfortable for the police at one point. there was a surge of protesters towards the doors of the court. they were shouting, there was about 30 of them. the police were getting very worried, at one point they l kaed for enforcements, and four riot vans showed up. they are shouting various things. there are two far-right political groups here, and anti-war protesters who just turned up in the last few minutes, they have been shouting things about the british foreign policy in foreign countries, and there are war veterans, a few elderly gentlemen who are here to show solidarity for the family of lee rigby. because that is what we're doing

here today. this is the sentencing of two men who committed the most brutal of murders on a london street. it horrified people when it happened, and almost 12 months on it is still causing outranl here. >> we must fight them as they fight us. an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth. >> reporter: these were the seconds following one of london's most k sho -- shocking murders. two men deliberately hit lee rigby with a car, stabbed him multiple times and even tried to cut off f his head. the two didn't run afterwards. they waited for the police and attacked them when they turned up. their trial was held amid extremely high security.

their cry in court that their murder was the result of military involvement around the world. >> phil this is a court case that ended in december. why are we now at the end of february still waiting for sentencing? >> well, the judge is very clear when these men were convicted he was going to defer sentencing. life is the mandatory sentence for a murder committed in the united kingdom. but it also comes with a caw viet, you can be sentenced to life with a minimum of 20, 30, 40 years. which means at some point you could be releaseded.

a judgment came through the court of appeals, that allowed a judge to be able to sentence somebody to a whole life be no ambiguity. and it was that hearing that the trial judge had been waiting for. the sentencing was due to .happen around 2:00 local time. it is now 20 past 3 local tomb. the surge of police activity leads us to believe that something could be happening shortly. it is expected that these men will be given life sentences and that does mean life. >> phil, i'm sure we'll hear more later. and i'll be back with more news a little later, but now back to

doha. all foreign troops will leave afghanistan by december until the president signed a bi-lateral security agreement. >> reporter: u.s. troops have spent 13 years on the ground in afghanistan. fighting, training, and mentoring. more than 2,000 u.s. service personnel have died. the white house needs the bilateral security agreement. >> it appears the u.s. is engaged with afghanistan and is determined to have long-term footprint in afghanistan.

we need some quality time in order to design the u.s. military presence beyond 2014. >> reporter: president obama emphasized a u.s. commitment to helping keep the april president lal election secure. the 2009 poll was marred by allegations of wide-spread fraud. in his phone call, the u.s. president made clear he is not backing any particular cap -- candidate. >> if you are planning to engineer the outcome of this election, we will not welcome it. we will be firm and calling for a credible election, and still looking forward to see a popular

government emerging. >> reporter: all of the contenders in the presidential election say they will sign the bi-lateral security agreement. they know tied to it is $8 billion a year. without foreign troops on the ground to help keep an eye on how that money is spent, the governments are unlikely to release the clash. there has been a significant change to its security strategy. it revealed that more than 50,000 people have been killed in violence since 2001 at a cost of $78 billion to the pakistani economy. this calls for better coordination between agencies, and also aims, to target the

headquarters of armed groups, fighting the state. the strategy appears to be in place in this area where pakistanis are leaving their homes. the government says it is prepared to launch a full-scale military attack against the taliban and other groups. now to news out of egypt where a -- al-sisi is to keep his job the prime minister designate was asked to form a new government after the entire cabinet resigned on monday. al jazeera is still demanding the release of its staff being held in egypt. the three have now spent 60 days in prison, accused of having

links with a terrorist organization and of spreading false news. al jazeera rejects the charges. another journalist has been held since august. he has been on a hunger strike for more than a month proest thing his imprisonment. one of al jazeera's camera was released earlier this month. here is what he had to say. >> translator: i was later transferred to a prison, where i also had a reception, and by a reception, i mean all of the transferred detainees are stripped of their clothes and walked between two rows of guards. we were beaten and battered all the way long. cells were 2 by 2.5 meters only. we were four person in the same

cell. it was too small so we had to sleep in turns. we were prevented from praying, food was very mad, we could see bugs crawling on the plates. although many were suffering from heart disease,s, we were denied medicine. i spent five months in this prison, where daily visits by guards were very humiliating. clothes were thrown in toilet, my first baby was born while i was in jail. i saw him for the first time only for three minutes. my wife was harassed during the

visitation before my eyes. i stood helpless. now we turn to the crisis in ukraine. there have been scuffles in this the chriema peninsula. robin joins us where the rallies were held. how strained is it in the area? and how difficult for the police to keep these rival groups apart? >> reporter: david it was difficult because there was so many people all crushed into a small space, and for that reason we had crowd control issues. there weren't enough police really there to control things. and there may have been some serious injuries. but generally there was an awful

lot of shouting. it was a huge shouting match. and what we had largely, i would say, a pro-new ukraine let's call it. those who are happy with the change of power -- because the government is still forming in kiev -- they are happy with that, and they were largely comprised of ethnic tartars, who are a large minority here. and they came out today to show their support, because the regional parliament was going to be discussing ukraine's future, and there are a lot of deputies in this parliament who are talking about the possibility of chrimea breaking away, and potentially even rejoining

russia, because it used to be part of russia. what we had were two opposing sides, two opposing opinionsment coming together, and fortunately it seems violence was largely avoided. because the head of the tartar came out and said you have made your point, go home now, and don't listen to provoking. he is urging his community to remain controlleded. >> robin we were reporting early on about the russians doing anything they could to protect their interest on the black sea, and this is an area, this part of the world, i'm wondering if we're seeing old tensions revisited or if the present crisis has brought to a head

something -- something new? >> reporter: i this there are underlying tensions here that always come out in a time of political crisis. often there are -- there are new things to be achieved politically, so there are opportunistic movements that mighting want to say that now is our time to get more power or have more independence. the ethnic tartars, they want to be part of this ukrainian movement that has foughted and struggled in the kiev for all of these months. they have a very negative association with russia because of the way they were treated in the soviet union. hundreds of thousands of them were deported to places, and they have come back over the years, and they are now struggling to make a home for themselves again, and they have

reacted very badly to the way in which things have been received down here, where the ethnic russian has been hearing all sorts of bad stories about what was going on in this kiev. they support what is happening in this kiev, and that's why there is this crush, if you like, this disagreement between the two communities. >> we'll leave it there. thank you robin. coming up china's choking capitol, a health alert in beijing as smoke reaches critical levels. and we reporter on the remarkable invention that could change the way that burn victims are treated. in sport two time grand slam champion gets off to a winning start at the mexican open. ♪

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the black sea fleet is based in chriamea. and in istanbul, protests are continued for a second day for a corruption scandal allegedly involving the prime minister. two british men who hacked a soldier to death will be sentenced shortly. the upheaval in ukraine, a little bit more detail. the situation in kiev is still uncertain. david reports from the ukrainian-russian border. >> reporter: ukraine's border with russia stretches for more than 2,000 kilometers in this

town on the edge of the frontier, the decaying symbols of the soviet union are everywhere. planted in the middle of rich farmland there is nothing here to mark the horrors of stalin's policy. this bread basket of the soviet union suffered a famine which killed an estimated 6 million people. in the center of the town the only monument was to those who died in the war against the nazis. the deposing of president yanukovych has divided people even here. >> translator: we call this life? it's not. it's a funny farm. if i had a chance i would have fled to russia. >> translator: europe is important, but we cannot cut ties with russia. a lot is dependent on those ties. >> translator: we should fix the

country, build a normal functioning legal system which will serve the people and not 450 members of parliament. >> reporter: employment is vanishing from this town along with his young families. the money never came here, and it shows. this town once supported a population of 16,000 people, but since independence it has been in decline. the economy here is as frozen as the river that gives it its name. the river flows in to the town from russia, by the time this ice thaws, relationship with russia may be forced into a deep freeze. we were forced out of the town by nighttime the taxicab driver received death threats for

carrying us. there are more afghan refugees in the world than any other country, but that could soon be overtaken by syrians escaping the war. the un expects the number of syrian refugees to be more than 4 million at the end of this year. nearly 4 million syrians have fled, the number of afghans was 2.6 million. the number of syrians needing aid has gone up since october. more than 9 million need some kind of help. and the death toll is now more than 140,000. the un secretary general is asking president bashar al-assad's government to allow aid into syria, but that has already met stumbling blocks. >> reporter: the bombs, the

gunfire, these are the familiar weapons of syria's civil war. many areas have also been under siege for well over a year, nothing is getting in, and no one is making it out, and that means food or the lack of it, has become a powerful new weapon. people are starving, and even though who do have something to sell say it won't last long. >> prices have doubled, the price of goods are rising and people are starving to death. >> reporter: aid has been trickling in, and a un resolution opens the door to get more into syria, but there is already a holdup, and the un keep is blaming the syrian government. >> i call on the government to authorize more humanitarian staff to work in syria. it is not credible to cite the

bureaucratic procedures as reasons for delay. when it is the government that controls the areas. >> translator: the situation reminds me of a hollywood film which has an excellent director and actors, one that has a script that is not very credible, very truthful, and flaying want contrast with the amount that has been spent on the so-called humanitarian film. >> reporter: the un says the situation for syrians is deteriorating rapidly. and syrians could soon overtake afghans as the world's largest group of refugees. >> deliberate denial of humanitarian access is a war crime, so is the use of siege or

starvation as a method of war fair. so are the attacks of humanitarian workers. >> reporter: hundreds of thousands of syrians live in war zones. almost every day they see unspeakable horrors, and it's these people that the un wants to reach. police in nigeria are hunting for suspected -- boca harran fighters who attacked a college. >> reporter: this is what is left after the college after four hours of uninterrupted violence. many boys and men were killed. dozens are also receiving treatment for injuries sustained during the attack. the residents accuse the security forces of abandoning

the school children. >> after the four-hour period of killings and [ inaudible ] there were no security men around to contain the situation. >> reporter: just over a year ago, gunmen forced their way into another school a few kilometers from here. many nigerians say they don't feel safe after these recent attacks. >> i don't think that we are seeing military expenditure matching the budget that has been made. i don't see that we're deploying soldiers in enough numbers, and i don't see that we are achieving any meaningful curtailment of the terrorists. >> reporter: thousands of soldiers have been deployed to

the northeast, yet any attacks continue. in the building behind me, officials are gathering for an international conference on security. it's not clear how that will help people under attack. since the beginning of this year, boca harran fighters have milled more than 3 million people. for now the school is closed, parents and students of other schools live in fear, wondering if they will be next. france's highest appeals court has reversed a decision to extradite three rwanda genocide suspects back to the capitol. >> david the three men face charges relating to their aledged role in the 1994 massacres.

the genocide was sparked by the death of then rwandan president, when his plane was shot down on april 6th, 1994. it lasted just 100 days between april and june of that year, but in that time, an estimated 800,000 were killed. emma hayward has been in paris. >> reporter: it is almost 20 years since the genocide took place in rwanda, about 800,000 people were killed in just 100 days. the fight to bring those suspected of the violence to justice. but the highest court has decided not to extradite the three suspects. all men had denied any

involvement in what happened in rwanda in 1994. up with of the lawyers for the man said that the decision made here today was the right one. >> translator: my clients have insisted they are event from the beginning. but if they are called to answer to a french court, they will address this, but today they are saying in rwanda they have no chance of a fair trial. >> reporter: france has been criticized in the past for the failure to extradite suspects. a former guantanamo bay detainee has told al jazeera that britain's intelligence agency new of his trips to syria before he went. he is suspected of attending a terrorist training camp. he is a well-known activist. he was among four britains arrested on tuesday and spoke

exclusively to al jazeera last month. >> reporter: he remains in custody and the police are continuing the second day of his investigation at his home. officers continue to go through the property for evidence. he is alleged by the authorities of attending a terrorist training camp in syria, and facilitating terrorism there as well. talking exclusively to al jazeera, he said he was very open about the trips he took to syria, and even had meeting with an agentsy to discuss the visit, and no problems had been flagged. >> eventually we arranged a meeting, where we spoke about any potential threats to the united kingdom from syria from british citizens going to syria, and i think they were convinced there was no tangible

existential threat of british citizens going to syria. and so i returned on my second trip with their full knowledge and returned after that, and retained fine and traveling until ten months after the fact when my passport was taken away. >> reporter: his colleagues are also adamant that it this has more to do with his [ inaudible ]. >> now back to you in doha. >> thank you very much. we have sport coming up next.

take a new look at news.

♪ strong winds are clearing dangerous levels of pollution in beijing thankfully for those people that live there. the city has been covered in smog which is 20 times higher than levels that are considered safe. >> reporter: in the city they can finally see the sun. after nearly a week of smog, they have been suffering from hazardous pollution levels. this province has had some of the worst air. >> translator: the smog was really bad this time. we couldn't even see the sun.

>> translator: there are too many cars and too many factories. the government should do something as a priority. >> reporter: you can see and smell the pollution, you can also touch it. this is the car we have been traveling around in. it was last washed three days ago. and this is what has built up on the roof since then. the people of beijing have been breathing this for a week. widespread discontent even anger at the perceived inaction by the government to tackle the problem has been largely limited to social media. other residents have found innovative solutions to deal with it themselves. this business spraing up to

clean the care. >> it's more and more a preoccupation, an obsession, there is a rarely a conversation i have here where it doesn't come up. >> reporter: people in beijing won't be putting away the air filters just yet. what's behind it all? let's get some expert analysis. >> well the burning of fossil fuels which creates this smog is a problem for many industrialized countries, but china produces more than 3 billion tons of coal each year. for many cities, you are k looking at valleys in excess of 800. they are burning a very dirty type of coal, and as a result,

we're seeing high levels not just in beijing but also towards the east in soul and south korea and tokyo in japan. high-pressure keeps a lid on the atmosphere, and the air just circulates around and around, and what it really needs is something to clear it away. and this frontal system should at least introduce cleaner air in the coming days. >> thank you very much, richard. time for the sport. >> thank you very much. chelsea takes on [ inaudible ] in the last 16 of the champions league. they will come up against some familiar faces. >> reporter: welcome to istanbul for absolutely the match of this knockout stage. facing chelsea and moreno who originally brought him to the

club in 2004. he won the champions league with the last kick of the ball. he is asked that the fans appreciate what that will mean for him. they have had big results most notably they beat real madrid here last season. it was in the second leg. it wasn't enough for them to progress, but it got incredibly close. moreno a bit embarrassed this week. i can tell you that chelsea have scored more goals from more players than last season. that's why they are a threat. they are a hard one to predict. it is a hard one to predict tonight, but i can tell you it will be emotional.

>> and now the other match taking place on wednesday the portuguese forward has missed the last three league games through suspension, renaldo scored 9 goals already this season. they have a poor record in germany. they have only won only in 25 visits. >> translator: he is of course highly motivated as he was not allowed to play three games in a row, and he was obviously very disappointed, but he is able to prepare himself for this game. so i expect to see a renaldo who is mentally and physically in top condition. >> manchester united season continues to go from bad to worse. they now face a huge battle to stay in year's competition.

the greek side goals leaving united with plenty to think about. the return leg is in manchester on march 19th. >> i take responsibility for my team, and i'll always [ inaudible ]. we didn't play well tonight, and, you know, we have to play better. we can do. and the one good thing is there a still a second game to come. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] beat st. petersburg 4-2 the other last 16 game played on tuesday. they were caught cold at the start of the game and scored two goals inside the first 5:00. india are closing in on victory in the first match of the asia cup. host bangladesh set the target.

india needs 13 runs with 7 wickets and 26 goals remaining. now to tennis where second seed got off to a winning start at the mexico open. he lost the opening set of his first-round match against world number 34 of spain. but the world number 7 fought back to level the match. he eventually powered to 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory. >> it is very, very hard even at this time of night. so it's good to get through that one. no problem for a top seed david fehr. last year's runner upbeat his opponent in straight sets 6-2,

6-3. he has won three titles here. the los angeles lakers continue to struggle in the nba. they ended up losing 118-98. the lakers have the worst record in the western conference this season. paul gorge was the top scorer for indiana with 20 points. and after a break from the winter lakers in sochi, the sabres beat the hurricanes 3-2 on home ice. and there's more on our website, you can check out aljazeera.com/sport. and that's it for me, david? yeah, jolly good. thank you very much indeed. a new invention could signal a major break through in the way burn victims are treated.

it's all about a prototype printer. it will produce human skin for a patient's own cells. doctors say it could revolutionize the process of skin graphing. daniel reports. >> what we do is use different solutions that are compatible for cells. and this is the printer card ridge. >> reporter: leanne is working on a phd in engineering. this is a 3-d printer that should be able to produce human skin from a patient's own cells. the cells will go in to essentially inkjet printer nozzles, and then combine to produce enough skin for a graph for patients with severe burns. >> in general, we're very disconnected to burns, so to see the impact and the intricacy of

how skin needs to be regenerated, how -- how the time scale is very important in terms of saving someone's life, so there's a lot to -- yeah, to take into account, yeah. >> reporter: burns are horrific injuries, at present skin is transplanted from another part of the body on to the burn. this could be the biggest break through for them since antibiotics. >> we can exactly mimic your original skin resulting in greater healing, and possibly no scarring. >> it may be possible to produce entire organs for transplants. >> we're engineers, train as an engineer, and graduate students and researchers in this project

have trained from different angles, from cell biology, building micro systems, so it's important to work together to create something that is new. >> reporter: the inventors hope to produce a device that is relatively cheap and portable, and could save the lives of burn victims around the world especially in poorer countries. that could make it one of the biggest and most productive steps forward for 3-d printing technology. scientific mystery solved in chile. they believe they so unravelled the mystery behind a graveyard of whales. archeologists think the animals died after ingesting toxic

algee. their carcasses then washed into the estuary before being covered by sand. ♪

welcome to al jazeera america, i'm del walters. these are the stories we are covering for you. a british soldier murdered in brood daylight, his killers learn their fate today. and russia orders military drills that it says are not related to the events in ukraine. lawmakers drill bankers that allegedly helped americans hide billions of dollars. ♪