>> hello everyone. this is the newshour on al jazeera. syrian refugees get to vote early in a presidential elect n election. a public holiday in free transport as egypt's authorities try to counter a low turnout in presidential e elections there. french riot police move in with bulldozers to clear mac makeshift refugee camps.

the fight against obesity epidemic getting bigger and bigger. thousands of syrians living abroad are casting votes ahead of next week's presidential e elections. >> poll all but certain to rubber stamp bashar al assad. in lebanon thousands have blocked to the embassy in beirut that is the one and only polling station there. lebanon is home to more than a million syrian refugees. only 40,000 are on the register. we are looking at voting in jordan where nearly a quarter of the population is syrian. you have a fraction, 35,000, estimated 35,000 who are actually registered to vote. let's go to beirut.

it was chaotic two hours ago. it looks the same now? >> it's still chaotic but a little more under control. we are in front of the syrian embassy. you can see the people going in to the embassy a couple of hours ago, the crowds were on top of each other, desperate to get in. some of them, some supporters support bashar al asaad. some believe he has prevailed after three years of fierce battles. for them, it's a reason to celebrate. other people who are here are out here out of fear, sfraed for families still in syria that they would be punished if they don't actually vote. they are concerned if they don't show up, they won't be able to go back to syria. many think he is not going to be

over thrown any time soon and he is staying. they are trying to deal with that reality. it's sad but we saw pregnant women, old people, parents with dehydrated children insisting to stay until they vote because they were determined that they want to show that they vote because they didn't want to bear the consequences of not voting. >> on the side of things that you mentioned, tell me if i can draw a parallel between the fact that you have support and all of these people going to vote there. is there pressure from hezbollah to make sure people get out there and vote and support the president? >> they are supportive. hezbollah is their ally. you saw some flags. the people here are basically syrians. refugees. many come from rebellious towns

and villages now under the control of the rebels and they have lost their homes in the destruction, in the war between the government forces afrom england, homs, aleppo. they came to vote despite destruction and the hurt they have felt throughout this conflict. now, people are resigned to the fact that it's going to go on for a long time and that they have to deal with the regime there. >> that's why they are here. >> i am going to pause and talk about what we are seeing if the cameraman will hold that shot there. this is actually an election process happening in beirut. the syrian presidential e elections and that one voting polling station, if you like, a syrian embassy in beirut. maybe you can tell us about what happened earlier. we might have the pictures as well as some pretty chaotic things later on which looked like they were turning a little violence? >> sure. you know, the people started coming here in the early hours of the morning. the streets were flooded with

voters since 7:00 a.m. in the morning. it took us like an hour to walk to get to this poling station and they struggled with the crowd. they have security concerns. sometimes they were very rough with those voters. we saw them beating them up with batons and saw them beating them up with tree branches, punching them and many were injured. but as i said, this is a very chaotic scene. in other corners, we saw soldiers trying to help people, giving them water, trying to help them with the kids. but for a while, it was scary here and for security, they are concerned that maybe some of the opposition groups will try to undermine the safety and security of the polling station. to this credit, we have to remember the syrian opposition feels this is a farce election, there is no check and balance on

it even inside the embassy. >> thank you as the crowd surges forth at the syrian embassy in beirut as they try to get in to vote. we will go over to jordan with the situation. it don't be more difficult. it looks incredibly quiet? >> this is a situation here that's very different from how it is in lebanon. as you can see, we are standing outside the syrian embassy. i am going to show you what's going on over there in that white tent. there are voters walking in, very small numbers. i think it is safe to say that this is low voter turnout compared to the number of syr n syrians who live in the country. according to unofficial sources of information, we understand because the syrian embassy didn't want to disclose these numbers that between 35,000 and 50,000 syrians, actually registered to vote in this election, and that is a very tiny fraction of the number of syrians who live in the country. they exceed 1.3 million.

>> that's 20% of jordan's population. not all of them are refugees. half have been living in jordan as residents for several decades. the other half are refugeesed who have been displaced. the situation here is telling. it tells you that the type of syrians who have chose to live in jordan actually are against the government of syrian, bashar asaad's government. >> a very different situation. thank you to both of you. the syrian regime has been criticized for holding the poll in the middle of a raging civil war. more than 160,000 people have been killed when the uprising began in 2011. dana hoda traveled in turkey where she met syrian activists urging people to boycott the vote. >> a well-known syrian actor urged citizens to vote. as a promotional campaign called

syria votes. the government's opponents responded with a campaign of their own from their office in turkey, the syrian activists released videos ridiculing the poll. they have hoping to encourage people who live in government controlled areas to boycott a ballot they believe is i will legitimate and unlawful. >> we want to basic target the people that are not very proceed regime and they are trying to stay away from what's happening. we are trying to tell them, stay at home. don't vote. do not participate in this election because it does not represent all of the syrians. >> there are syrians who are not taking the vote seriously but they can't do much more than find humor in the president's decision to run for reelection. a turkey-based radio station, ana, he hasn't been able to use his platform to reach out to government supporters and according to him, it is getting harder for the opposition to

convince many to continue this struggle. >> people are giving up. they are saying they are not joining the government. they are saying i don't want this anymore. i don't want the rest of my children to die. i want to achieve with the $5,000 that i have. i have already lost my house. so that, i think, is a majority of how people feel. >> i met him in january. he was covering the first face to face talks between the syrian government and the opposition, so was this will activist. at this time they didn't believe the regime was serious. four months later, they say they feel more hopeless. >> this election is meant to bring more opinion press, make bashar al asaad sound like he is the legitimate president of syria. this is going to have -- to

worsen the situation, to make the world continue for, you know, a few more years at least. >> they say the poll will be nothing more than a show. they say assad will win the election, not the war. the regime may stay in power but that is different from governing and maintaining a destroyed country. >> we move to egypt where there is crackdown on dissent. the fairness of the presidential election. human rights watch says it has created a repressive environment which undermines the vote but presidential candidate hamin has extended the poll out to a third day. here are the details. >> polls opened smoothly for a third day of voting to choose a new president for egypt. there is a growing debate about the low turnout in the last couple of days. there are around 50 million

registered voters and state media and talk shows were encouraging people to come out. an official at the election commission says 37% of people have voted. why the opposition alliance which includes the outlawed muslim brotherhood insists not less than 10% of voters showed up. former army chief who led a coup against egypt's first civilian president is expecting to become t the next head of state. he urged egyptians to come out in millions to vote. his critics say he needs the high turnout to legitmize his coup. >> no one can hide the sun. people consider these elections illegal. people noted their votes have no value because they will fight e elections before and all had gone any vain. the only other candidate is

saying the, he -- he refused to pull out of the race. >> >> translator: everyone is interpreting the boycott to their aims. brotherhood said it's victim and the sisi says it's boosting the brotherhood's aims. the boycott came from the powers bigger than the procedureho brotherhood. it's the young people who were behi behind the 25th of january revolution. >> poles are scheduled to close at 9:00 p.m. and the officials are expected within -- the results are expected within days. take a quick moment to see what the two candidates' official online teams have been sailing as we go into the third day of voting. bring up the ipad. campaign page on twitter which hasn't been updated for 12 hours over there. now, that's despite the fact that he is protesting this third

day of voting. interesting when you go to the official page, and it's a completely different thing patriotism all around. the type of photos posting here, people holding up the c for and holding up long lines of crowds. bear with me. he has been tweeting -- not he but his campaign have been tweeting every 10 minutes or so. showing look people are getting out and voting. there are crowds of people despite the heat that is going on. trying to play the patriotic card and show people are getting out and voting on this third day. something else i want to show you quickly to draw to our attention. might dip to black. technology doesn't always work. state newspapers. this is the newspaper that says here in this headline, "heavy turnout and a festive atmosphere." you, you can see the pictures there of people celebrating in the streets. we have a second newspaper, and

the red headline says, "third day of voting" showing ideas of people celebrating, waving the flag. this is the type of thing of people being patriotic it. one last thing, the weather. that was a reason we have been given for why the voting may have been down. it's 33 degrees in cairo. it's due to get up a little bit higher. this is the hottest part of the day. it's certainly not been as hot today in cairo where it's the first day of voting on a monday. it was extremely hot day. >> that's one of the reasons for going to a third day. with that information, we go to the studio. okay. there are protests of the voting. but i thought a third day of voting would have played into his hands because we talk about

how he needs the numbers to get the legitimacy or the man data of the people. >> i think that's probably right. but he can't be seen to be benefitting from this departure from standard practice. he is in a difficult positive. on the one hand, he is saying, we don't want an extra day of voting. we are happy with sticking with the original plan. at the same time, as you just showed, he is showing people going out to vote. >> more activity, in the last two or three hours, i would say, it's pushing outed this patriotic message and people queueing up. >> his tashtag is, go out and vote. >> yeah. the country's flag. so we talked about this before. i would like to go over it again. what sort of numbers do you think are needing to make this? >> it is a legitimate vote. >> to give the winner power behind them? >> i think they clearly wanted a better and bigger turnout than

they had for the constitutional referendum in december. they seem to be inching towards that. >> that was about 20 million, i think. >> yeah. now, they are claiming that they have exceeded 20 million. today, i am honking confirmed reports that in cairo, unconfirmed turnout is around 50%, they are saying. >> which would be good. >> which would be quiet extraordinary. so, i don't know if there is a particular magic number, for example, assume that cisi will get the vast majority. he wants to make sure that he gets more votes that mohamed morsi got. i think he cleared that threshold. like i said before, if you look at election e elections, turn out has been low. >> we don't read too much into the people who haven't voted. >> that's one theory you can say people stayed at home and not voted, that's on both. >> for example, in your piece, there was an egyptian commentator who kept referring to a boycott as if all of the people who didn't go and vote

were really boycotting. some of these people might be supporters who felt it's a foregone conclusion. why brave the heat when i don't need to. turn out has been low. we didn't, for example, the constitutional referendum held out mubarak was overthrown, it was much lower than had voted already in the first days of this election. we didn't say that the vast majority of boycotting. >> means they wanted mubarak to stay. it's hard to infer what's going on. >> wait until tomorrow when we should get official numbers. thank you, as always. >> as we report on this election from here in doha, we continue to demand the release of our journalists, still detained. the reason we are not reporting from there, these three correspondents have been held for 150 days now. their trial adjourned until june 1st, accessed of conspiring with the outlawed misslim brotherhood.

a fourth journalistly has been held in a cairo prison without charge for more than nine months. his laughers filed a third grievance to the attorney general demanding his release, also requesting a medical report to document his poor health. presenty more ahead on the newshour. african my grants make it to europe after storming spain's border in morocco. negotiations to secure the release of the school girls. >> later with robin in sports. now, in northern france, a makeshift refugee camp using bulldozers, hundreds of people have been living in filthy

conditions in the town of calae. many of them hope to settle. let's get an update from the site which, as we say, just cleared out by french authorities. talk us through it >> reporter: it was very difficult for many of these asylum seekers to watch what was happening to their possessions, their tents, sleeping bags, suitcases, just picked up by bulldozers and just piled high as rubbish basically, and what's been happening now is that they are trying to persuade some of the asylum seekers to get on buses and be taken away to a holiday camp to have showers. now, some of them have agreed to do that. others have said, no. they are worried and afraid that the french authorities will move them so far away from the port and it's important for them to be here because they see it as the only means of getting to the u.k., which is, for them action their aim. >> what happens further off from

that? >> the immediate thing. they have been taken away. what happens to them long-term, their plans obviously disrupted. >> yeah. i mean at the moment, they are going to be -- they are going to have to sleep rough on the streets here or elsewhere in france. even though the conditions were appalling, at least it was a sort of makeshift home for them. in the long-term, these are -- many people from war-torn countries like syria, somalia, afghanistan and countries where there are human rights abuses like aratraa and they cannot go home. they could seek political asylum here in france. they don't want to do that. this is the issue really for the european union and france and t italy in particular, which are taking the main brunt of many of the immigrants come across the mediterrrainian. the issue is under eu conventions and dublin, too,

they can seek asylum in the first port of call, the first country that they arrive in. and that's basically italy or maybe malta. but they don't want to stay there. a lot want to head to northern rohn or the u.k. many people hear don't speak english. many of their relatives are in the u.k. it's difficult for them to get there. >> thank you for that, for the update on the situation. hundreds of people have forced their way through razor wire barrier to crossing the spanish border at the northern of morocco. it provides a rare land-base route for illegal immigrants. more from jonah hull. >> there are many land based routes. this is one where morocco meets melia, and these were the scenes in the early hours of wednesday morning. >> go! >> hundreds of illegal my grants

had forced their way through razor wire barriers and across the border. immigrants from all over africa regularly try to cross the fences at melia and spain's other african enclave. both out crops of land bordered by morocco on one side and the mediterranean sea. it's safer than the crossing others make by sea. in february, spanish police fired rubber bullets at a group of people as they tried to switcswim ashore. 15 drowned. in melia on wednesdays, more than a thousand people stormed the fences in all. around 400 managed to get across. they headed triumphantly to the temporary migration center designed to house 500 people, it now shelters some 2000. they will be processed here a few will be offered asylum in

mainland spain. many more will be sent balk. jonah hull, al jazeera. pro-russia demonstrators have been rallying in the eastern ukrainian city of donetsk. a crowd said they view the new leader as i will legit after voters elected a new country on sunday sunday. pro-russian separatists stormed the airport on monday. >> the organization for security incorporation said four monitors are missing after they last contact with them in donetsk two days ago. sglj there are reports out of nigeria that the former president has met with people close to bell helicopter in an attempt to broker the release of those 200 captured school girls. the armed group claimed responsibility for the kidnapping that took place more than a month ago in the northeast earnvil village of

chibok. what have you found out about this story? >> reporter: well, just like millions of nigerians and people around the world, former leaders in nigeria are concerned about the failure of the current government and military to find and rescue the kidnapped girls. now, the news agency reported over the weekend, the former president who left office in 2007 has met with representatives and intermediataries and some family members of bell helicopter at his farm in southwest nigeria to try and find a way of negotiating a deal that would see the girls free. now, we have spent all morning trying to reach out to him to speak to him directly about what happened. in the last few minutes, his people have come back to say actually no such meeting took place. he did not meet with bell helicopter representatives or intermediataries. it's important to point out, kamal, that in the past, he has been involved in negotiations to

try to bring about a peace deal between the government and bell helicopter. so, it's not impossible that something did happen or something is in the works since he is deeply concerned about it and wields a great deal of respect. >> what's telling is that we are talking about a former leader of nigeria. we are not hering from the current leader or the government or the military. what's going on? >> well, that's right. there have been concerns within the government about the contradictory and conflicting information coming out from various government sources. parliamentarians are saying one thing. the military is saying another thing. the presidency is saying another thing. clearly there is a concerted effort to spook with one voice on this issue and as a consequence, nobody is giving interviews to the public, to the media, or speaking to the public about what is going on. we are all being directed to the national orientation agency for

any new information as and when it's available. we understand the head of that organization is actually in the united states and inaccessibility moment. tomorrow is a public holiday, democracy day which marks 15 years of uninterrupted democracy here we understand president goodluck jonathan will address the nation early in the morning and we expect him to comment on the latest on the kidnapped girls and what's going on to find them and bring them home. >> thank you, live in abuja there. earlier in the news hour, when we were talking about egypt, i made a crude attempt to explain the weather. now we have a professional to do it. it is hot in doha, around the regionton clearly. >> very much so, cammal. he script had the heat yesterday. let me run this sequence through. see the cloud has been piling in during the course of the day. you get an indication the wind is coming off of the mediterranean wheried we had the wind coming off of the desert. the other 39 degrees.

today, we only got to 31. thoopings within the last hour. the temperatures from the, again, as we head through thursday into friday, we could see temperatures as high as 43 degrees. so it is going to be hot indeed for people. you want heat, as cammal says, you come to the arabian peninsula where it is blistering. the color may be false on this chart, there is nothing false about the temperatures that we have been experiencing. here in doha, we have had 47 degrees. you can swe are in the subtropical desert region. >> that's a sub tropical jet stream. the heat has been concentrated around the edge of the gulf, up the road, 49 degrees, hottest place in the world, probably so far this year. and doha not far behind other locations very close. we are likely to see record temperatures again and for night fall in india.

hot indeed cammal. >> thank you. i will attempt to stay at work longer to avoid heat. >> defining america's role in the world. barack obama prepares to outline his foreign policy for the rest of his administration. >> a state minister wants cyclists to be licensed. >> coming up, finding out how basketball is changing the lives of people with physical disabilities.

wherever you are watching around the world including the united states on al jazeera america, the newshour leaves you with top stories. violence in lebanon as thousands of syrian expattriots turn out to vote. the poll being held next week has been denounced as a sham by the west and the syrian opposition. human rights watch says the crackdown on dissent in egypt jeopardized the fairness of the election there. there has been an appeal to extend the decision to vote to a third day. riot police have cleared three makeshift refugee camps using bulldozers. hundreds of people have been living in filthy conditions with no clean water in the port town. the u.s. president barack obama is due to put forward his blueprint for the next stage of american foreign policy and is expected to deliver his speech at the u.s. military academy at westpoint new york within the

hour. so far, the lengthy and costly wars in iraq and afghanistan have defined president obama global strategy. live to washington, patty colhane is there to talk us through this one. you went to afghanistan, now laying out a full blueprint. what are you expecting? >> what he is trying to do is recapture the momentum. he has been criticized because of his foreign policy preferences. by my count, this is the fourth time he has tried to clarify what his foreign policy is. so this is what the -- his aides have been telling reporters. i am going to look down because i want to get this right. interventionist and internationalistist not isolationalist or unilateral. probably not going to be a catch phrase. he is going to defend himself against critics who say he is too hesitant to use military force. he is going to say that he always will prefer to build coalitions but the u.s. basically can't afford to go it alone anymore. and then, at the same time, he

is going to say in that measure what he wants is $5,000,000,000 from congress to do an anti-terrorism fund basically so that they can train people in other kuntz trees to tackle terrorism in their own borders. so that's what he is proposing or he will propose in about an hour. >> we are getting into the latest stages of the obama presidency patty. how does that fit into in usually by this time when you get to mid terms, talk about lame duck presidents, doesn't matter because they are on their way out. how big is this, i guess, in the scheme of the end of his presidency? >> if you look at polling, the one strong point he always had was foreign policy. the american people gave him high marks on that. they simply don't anymore. his moves in syria when it came to chemical weapons was damaging. he hasn't been able to recover from, first of all saying there was a red line. don't cross it. if we see chemical weapons used we will strike. basically up to the last minute, the military was going to launch a strike and changed his mind. he is trying to regroup from what many people call a pretty

disastrous foreign policy move when it came to syria. he is going to talk about syria. he is going to say they are going to increase help to the opinion zipings. we know the cia has been training opposition fighters in nearby countries. now, he said the u.s. military will do that. i can tell you the opposition came to and said training sure would be great but they need man pads, surface to air missile. the administration doesn't seem like they are in a hurry to give them that. they have been providing somewhat heavier rep ri. the president will talk about training not about doing anything that the experts could change the balance on the ground. >> good talking to you. patty col hane our white house correspondent in washington, d.c. there can be something else that president obama recently said. it's harder to end wars than to begin them. he said that about withdrawal from afghanistan. the u.s. has pent almost 13 years fighting the taliban with what many would say has been limited success.

we hear from a welcoming of the american withdrawal. >> if obama is sirius and he is sincere in his statement i personally will welcome. if he pull out all of his troops, even in 2016. it is too late. world should not worry about our future. we will manage our own affairs. woman's affairs, man's affairs, political situation, economic situation. all of those problems, we are facing. but this is our job. this is a job of the future government in afghanist to solv all of the problems nationally without interference of outside world. >> let's get another feed from kabul. a member of the afghan parliament. we thank you for your time. what's your view on the troop drawdown? how do you view it? >> hi. good evening. >> hi, there. tell me about what you think about the idea of what president

obama is talking about. >> let me start from the situation that we had in 2001. afghanistan was a land with totally traumatized population, no investment, no communication. i mean it. i mean you had no communication because if you wanted to call your family member, you had to get out of the country to pakistan and make a phone call. but after 2001, the situation changed. you have 3.4 million girls in the school. they have a very different situation in the economy situation of the country. we have a very different situation in do. situation that all of this is fragile. let me express that. the news, today news, obama surge, obama withdrawal from afghanistan ultimately in 2010, zero options really shocked the country especially the people who are active in democracy of

the country, who are active in decision making. the people who are running and going to face the election, i mean two people, two communists that are going to be the next president of the country, they promise to the people and all of those promise needs security in this country. >> but is it not time? isn't it now reaching a point with 13 years now, the u.s. has to leave at some point and the afghan government and army need to take their own responsibility? surely now is the time this has to start happening? >> let me tell you, the military situation in afghanistan. i mean we have afghan national army that they really have the moral to defend the country. because of that, they have no air force. how they can defend a country without air force? they need a lot of equipment. they need a lot of training, and

this military and army of afghanistan is not ready to defend country from the outside of the country. we have an army but this army needs more attention. >> i know we can't predict the future, but when will it happen? thirteen years at this point. >> that's a sort of line that president obama says as well. you know, when thereafterganistan be ready? the u.s. and the international community can't hang around forever. >> yeah. i mean this is a war that has to come to end, but it has to be a responsible end. let me tell you, in 2001, when international committee, e pesh specially united states came to afghan stan, they had two goals. nation building and state building. look at the state of afghanistan. we are the second most corrupt country in the world. we have a very big government. we are experiencing a very young

democracy. in this situation, they are going to leave afghanistan while the goals, ultimate goals that they had at the begin something not fulfilled. i think afghanistan people cannot go back and live in a situation that it was in 2001. they used to live better and we have to let them and survive, let them survive in this situation. >> okay. ? >> and help them to come in a situation that they can defend from their own rights and defend from their own country. >> thank you so much for your thoughts. a member of the afghan parliament joining us from kabul. >> a major faction of the pakistani taliban has pulled out of the group, the masud tribe says it no longer supports the group. it's been an ongoing source of debate, dispute even since the death of the previous leader on the issue of peace talks with the government. some taliban fighters accuse the government of killing commanders

during peace negotiations. the thai military is threatening the media. it came as the army released the release of 120 politicians, activists and academics taken into custody after last week's coup. from bangkok >> reporter: he refused to be silenced even noel gatherings of more than 5 people are illegal. these protests are organized through social media. >> it was agreed, i think for you to keep saying that, keep having power, doesn't want to give us back the power. we need to pressure he can't

express his opinion. tweets against the coup, a journalist regularly interviewed was detained last sunday. his friend says he continues his defiance despite detention. she faces arrest? >> i don't care much if i am arrested. this is why i see like proffit. somebody said if you still use social media, we will go to your house and take tour computer. uh-huh. also, you, yourself, and me, you, yourself, you will be arrested as well. >> the military has been very effective in silencing critics and banning negative information on the coup. as one source of information it hasn't been able to control so far. >> that's social media despite orders to stop posting criticism. >> when facebook stopped working for one and a half hours on wednesday, there was an

outcry. >> forced the military to immediately deny any involvement although the information ministry confirmed facebook was blocked temporarily. >> suggests popular social media will be harder than shutting down news sites. >> now, everything is under the control of the junta, blocking all information is possible. if they want to do this, they have to do it very briefly. people are so used to these tools that if the army blocks them, repercussions could be gate greater than what they are aiming to achieve. >> the military is using traditional and social media to try to create support for the coup. these pictures sent to the military's own television system are intended to show detainees are being treated well. they can control a degree of information. many belief influencing people's opinion may prove more difficult. bangk bangkok.

>> a fire at a hospital for the overlade in south korea has last 21 people dead and six others critically injured. police have taken an 81-year-old man who suffers from dementia into custody on suspicious of arson. it's the second in as many days. >> cadbury is pulling products after traces of pork were detected. dairy milk and roast almonds have been taken off of the shelves. a group of non-governmental organizations say they will sue. it is a mainly muslim country. pork and its by products are considered unclean. an increase in the number of cycling deaths has led to a controversiam proceed foesal. one plane politician says it's time cyclists are licensed. >> jimmie mcdonald will never regain the full use of her hands. she and occurs on a back ride when a car plowed into all seven of them.

three cyclist including tony broke their backs. her nerves were tornto from her arm. >> i was having a lovely ride until we got hit from behind and i just remember a huge whack. >> the number of people who use bicycles is falling in australia while cyclist deaths are rising. now south wales road ministers thinks a crack down could be on cyclist, a world-first come pulse occur license for cyclist? >> we have a license for cab drivers. if they misbehaviomisbehavior, apply it. we have nothing with cyclists. >> advocates say licenses would be counterproductive. they have put people off cycling. driver's side would be less used to bikes, making roads more dangerous for those who continue to ride. much like the mandatory helmet laws. a cyclist without a helmet, he

is regularly stopped by police. >> governments around the world look at helmet law and say, no, it's not a good idea. australia was reason it's not a good idea. the reason for that is because when helmet law came in, less people rode bikes. >> melbourne have bike schemes for the barely used. helmet laws are blamed. >> fewer cyclists means drivers less utilities to dealing with bikes. the argument some cyclists make if you have a crash, you will be better off, compulsory cycle helmet laws make it more likely you will have a crash in the first place. >> a recent inquiry in the state of queensland put little evidence helmet laws increased cyclists and put off cyclists. it's recommendation that the law has been lifted was rejected by state government. julian and tony think their

helmet saved their lives but they don't want more rules already. cyclists they think are victimized enough. sydney. >> more to come on the newshour. sports news where palestine's ball is on the verge of qualifying for the first time ever. robinarians will show you how they can book their place in just a moment. ds - all the way.

al jazeera america, take a new look at news. the european congress on obesity has begun in bulgaria.

european specialists are working on a series of recommendations aimed at improving public health ranging from warning labels to weight loss programs. this from london. >> a weekly weigh-in at one. busiest slimming centers. people are here for advice on how to lose weight and keep it off. as the number of obesity cases increases worldwide, u.k. doctors are now referring more people to weight loss specialists. >> at the group tonight, we have booked a fabulous -- we have lost a fabulous 84 pounds. well down. >> our members are encouraged to cook healthy food from scratch using fresh fruit, vegetables and we just find it much easier to stick to this plan -- well, i do, than any other diet that i have ever tried. >> modern lifestyles are making us increasingly fat, and in richer nations, the economic slowdown has fueled appetite did for cheap, colalorie rich food.

it's expensive. it cost the u.k.'s national health service more than $8,000,000,000 a year. scientists have known about health risks of things like smoking since the 1950s. although it's taken 60 years for warnings to appear on packets, the same kind of progress, though, hasn't been made when it comes to beating obesity. although our foods may be better labeled than they were, health experts are calling for a major re-think. >> as with tobacco, what it requires are what we call a multi-laird approach, education, stock warnings but i think you need to place it in the context of the fact that cheap, energy-deposition, i e fattening calories which are usually quite tasty are available from one evened of a city high street to the other >> reporter: health experts are appealing for new regulation to restrict the abundance of

unhealthyfood and want more advice to help people cut calories and increase exercise. >> the battle against obesity is about changing habits and improving lives. al jazeera, london. >> riot police in brazil have fired protests after 300 indigenous protest tavs con fronted police close to the new world cup bought stadium there. they are unhappy. it would shrink some reservations tournaments. only two weeks away, isn't it? >> i have been counting the days. sports desk. >> you know when williams sisters at a tournament very early that tennis is changing? >> going to start. a big head into the last hour

serena williams has crashed out. she was beaten by a relatively unknown of spain the biggest win of her career. it took 64 minutes an hour after 19-year-old anna the older william sister, sevenus might he had her first french open title this year. the world number 29. american made 47 unforced errors on round 2. started the second round match. another frenchman 29th seated in the last 30 minutes or so. jokovich confirmed his spot in the third round. against jeremy chardy.

federer is in action against argentine schwartzman. trailing. het 15th seed in four sets to stepenick. the oklahoma thunder beaten the spurs in game 4 of the western conference final. this contest, 40 points and 10 rebounds. 105 to 92 points. series is tied at 2-2 and moves to san antonio from game 5. >> that's on thursday. >> i tried to come in personally with a defensive mindset of trying to help my team win. kevin those guys got me some open shots and i wasability knock them down. >> ball teams are continuing preparations for the world cup in brazil which is now a little over two weeks away. nigeria play a warm-up in london for the next few hours, the game has been overshadowed by

allegations it has been targeted by match fixers. british police say they have received information illegal betting sinned kits based in asia could be trying to rig the friendly. >> i don't know where it's coming from i don't know where it's coming from. >> as it comes tom -- does it come as a shock to you? >> it is. we are not here for that. we are here to play, to, you know, see if we can improve and get ready for the world cup. i don't know. maybe some sort of joke is around the corner and it's not very pleas ants, you know. >> fifa president said the visit to the middle east with a meeting with israeli prime minister netanyahu having met palestinian president makmoud ab abbas. cautiously optimistic over

travel for players and officials which has hampered ball development in palestine. >> but i have to say that on both sides, they have said that the contact between football organizations are good. and with that, they have obtained already good results but in the view of the palestinians, not enough. >> meanwhile, the palestinian team are on the verge for qualifying for asia's biggest tournament despite despite being 156th in the world. the afc challenge cup in the maldives. both goals for palestine by awag a: the winner qualifies for january's asian cup in australia. montrey'all canadiens, winning game 5 of the final series with the new york rangers.

a hat trick, montrey'all a 7-4 victory. rangers are one win away from a stanley cup. the series lead has been reduced. madison square garden. we tie it up 1-1 and a couple of minutes later, they make it 2 to 1 they make it 4-1. tie it up for 4, a couple of minutes, next scoring chance, in the back of our net to make it 5-4. a different game than we have had so far in this series. we are going back home. >> afghanistan's only real basketball team is in italy for the first ever competition. the squad was four years ago. here is the story

>> reporter: high speeds this is the only wheelchair basketball team in kabul. players have come here from all over the country. some have spinal injuries from car accidents or genetic problems from birth. but the majority are victims of the country's decades of war. they aren't content to keep hoop dreams in kabul but are travel to go europe hoping to become champions. >> 15 years ago nuri suffered a spinal cord injury from a happennell wound and hasn't walked since. >> we have been training for four years. we ha we have never gone abroad. god willing, we do well. we are a strong team. i think we can win. they are trained by a coach from the united states and will base

italy's national team. given their relative inexperience, they aren't expected to win. it pros to be a special experience in the just for them but for dr. alberto cairo, too, originally from litaly. the physio therapist has lived in kabul for 24 years. he created the wheelchair basketball program after realizing patients needed more than medical treatment. they feel more self confident. they understand they can do many things. they are strong enough. they become stronger to cope and to face the hard life they have to face every day in afghanistan. it's true, to be disabled, to be a paralyzed person, a spinal cord injury is difficult everywhere in the world. here disabled people still face considerable discrimination in afghanistan. many rarely leave their homes and are often excluded from public life. these players are determined to show the world how capable they

are. ays, kabul. on our website, we will also have the latest from the deciding england and sri lanka cricket match. sri lanka, 23 from 2. >> thank you, robin. >> news coming out of the u.s., the award winning maya angelo, died at 86. cancelled appearance held in her honor, she wrote essays, poems, a prominent civil rights act visit. the first one, "i know why the caged bird sings" which brought her international recognition. m maya angela, dead at 86.

we are back with more in just a few minutes.

hello. i'm del walters in new york. you're watching al jazeera america. we're awaiting the president right now. the president about to deliver the commencement address at west point. he's expected to announce a major foreign policy shift for the u.s., all of this one day after the president announced a major drawdown of u.s. forces in afghanistan on tuesday announcing plans to end the presence there by the end of his term in office. three years ago there were more than 100,000 troops stationed in afghanistan. the president saying he will lower that number to 32,000 this