♪ >> announcer: this is al jazeera. hello and welcome to the news hour, it's good to have you here with us and i'm in doha and these are the top stories, ukraine defense minister says defeating separatist in the east will go on despite killing of a senior general. hundreds of syrians are leaving fearing a major battle is coming between troops and rebels and chaotic scene in north african territory and several people arrested linked to terrorism.

>> i'm robin adams with the sport and l.a. clippers basketball team is set to go for record $2 billion and we have reaction and analysis coming up, later in the program. ♪ ukraine's president elect says the man responsible for killing a ukraine general and 13 other soldiers will not go unpunished and they were shot down on thursday and separatist fighters say they used machine guns in the attack but government says their weapons were much more advanced air defense missiles. this is david in donak for us and david what is happening there? >> reporter: well, the latest developments are the acting defense minister in kiev has been saying the operation will continue with full force here on

the eastern front of the country. and that they have effectively cleared the south of the city and the west of the city of donsk of what they call rebel fighters. as we saw in the downing of the helicopter, the military helicopter, it does appear now there are new weapons and very sophisticated weapons in the hands of the separatist fighters so let's take a look at what has been happening over the last 24 hours. as fighting intensified on ukraine's eastern front a show of force on donsk, heavily armed separatist fighters deployed through the self declared biggest city to shore up defenses. but the biggest blow against the ukrainian army defensive came 160 kilometers from the russian border where a shoulder launched surface to air missile brought down the military helicopter and among the 14 soldiers confirmed

killed, a senior army general, the highest ranking casualty in the up rising so far. people were forced out of the administration building by separatist fighters including scores of chetchen volunteers. >> translator: there were orders here and we came to clear out the building. >> reporter: within minutes they started to strengthen defenses around the building and bulldozing some barricades for a fire zone. they had rockets and deployed a gun capable of taking down a helicopter gun ship. if the ukraine i don't know army does press home and attack the city, this will be one of their main targets. the russian foreign ministry in moscow demand the ukrainian government halts military defensive to prevent a catastrophe but it's building here and it's going to be hard

to stop. the al jazeera team were welcomed inside the building and given a tour by the fighters. it was a stark contrast of earlier in the day. >> translator: we attempted to film a convow of 8 vehicles heading into the city from the direction of the russian border. within seconds we were surrounded by a professional team of fighters in camouflage fatigues and they waived at us and took away our camera. >> what is known about the rebel fighters and there is talk about a chetchen connection to all of this. >> reporter: well, yes, it has been true, i was with the chetchens in the building behind me yesterday when they cleared it of office workers and strengthened defenses and no doubt they are from the country of chechnya and apparently the president of chechnya has said

he didn't order the volunteers to go in. they simply went of their own accord and these are men that are hardened in urban warfare. i was with them when they were fighting the russians and they really will have strengthened the positions here and skilled in the black art of urban warfare but exactly what else is happening in the city we have been touring the checkpoints and there is no doubt that now they have fresh rifles and new pistols and look like they have been coming straight out of the factory and supplies are getting in here and this is what is worrying to the u.s. secretary of state john kerry and let's hear what he has to say about it. >> there is evidence of russians crossing over, trained personnel from chechnya trained in russia who have come across to stir things up, to engage in fighting. we hope the russians would actually engage more proactively in efforts to now try to

deescalate, take advantage of the election, build a road forward where ukraine becomes a bridge between the west and the ea east. >> reporter: new president elect in kiev has said they will continue with the military mission here but this is not going to be like the fight we saw at the airport just outside the city at the beginning of the week where they killed and injured scores of the separatist fighters. this is a much more difficult situation. they are in the middle of a million strong city, million people here, too many civilians around this sort of area and the targets that the ukrainian special forces will get for them to use for tactics we saw at the airport and it will be negotiation and that is certainly what the russians want. >> thank you very much, david. spanish police arrested six people in an operation to

dismantle what it's calling terrorist organizations. security forces launched a predawn raid in the north african enclave of malia for people claiming asylum and they say asylum seekers here and hundreds stormed fences to cross in the territory on wednesday and lee barker is live from malia and what can you tell us about these arrests? >> well, as you rightly said there the arrests took place very early in the morning, about 4:00 a.m., in a part of the city that has really been the center of quite a lot of police activity in resent weeks and months. six suspects were arrested and brought here to this military air field behind me where they were processed by special forces. the suspects themselves were hooded in brown hoods and then

put on board a military aircraft that left in the last few minutes destined for spanish capitol madrid where they will stand trial sometime in the near future. the suspects themselves are accused of operating a jahadist and sending out fighters to syria and, mali and there is a spanish jahadist and trained in south africa and who is according to the police has been involved in operations in mali. this is not as i said the first arrest like this in mali, only three months ago three more jahadists were arrested and they struggle with an influx of migrants of north africa, so operations like this are not uncommon but of course they do now face the possibility of

having been sent to madrid and others who arrived here to fill their shoes. >> you mentioned the migrants that broke through the border a couple days ago and what is their situation now? >> well, the authorities here have been struggling ever since around 400 or so migrants jumped the fence and they are now currently in a special immigration center that was actually built for only about 500 people but that center is now swamped and there are 2000 or so people there. the latest we have heard this morning is to deal with the problem, the spanish authorities decided to move several hundreds of those migrants from malia to the spanish mainland and this is a problem and they spent euros for a 12 kilometer fence and

people waiting on maracco side of the border and attempts to jump the fence will happen again and again. >> thank you. in syria rebel sources have told al jazeera that they are planning an offensive on the city of italy to push out syrian forces and accused of hundreds of cars fleeing the city after being warned by rebels to leave. nationwide presidential elections and government-controlled areas are scheduled for the third of june. rebels want to prevent it from taking place. there are 400,000 people living in the northwest city which could mean an exodus and we are on the turkish side of the border and our correspondent dana is there. dana let me begin and ask you what the situation or give us a picture of the situation in italy. >> reporter: what we understand hundreds of families have fled the city and advised to do so by

the rebels, the rebels didn't tell them why but we managed to speak to some and told us they plan an offensive and they are planning an offensive and would not divulge details and whether it will be pushing into government territory because the city is under control of the government or whether this offensive has anything to do with the upcoming presidential elections in syria. presidential elections are scheduled on june the third and they are planning to hold it in government-controlled territories. so it's not clear whether the rebels want to disrupt the poll and it's quiet be mind me because they close between 12-1:00 in the afternoon but we saw scores in turkey and some from the city and told us that some of them are leaving because they just don't want to vote. others say they are afraid if there is any rebel advance the government will respond with heavy air strikes and some of them even told us people do want to leave but they cannot, they are government employees and work for state institutions, if

they do not vote then they won't get salaries and civilians caught up in the conflict and you just saw an ambulance cross into turkey and we understand people have been wounded in air strikes in the province. >> thank you. people working for egypt's former military chief claim he won the presidential election with 92% of the vote. supporters of abdel-fattah el-sissi have been out celebrating, the interim government installed by abdel-fattah el-sissi last year turn out was 46%, that figure is disputed by the only other candidate in the race. >> translator: the democratic scene in these elections was hit by many violations, breaches and loss of neutral and i'm saying this through loving the country, a son of the country and a man who loves the people that we cannot give credibility or belief to the numbers announced

regarding participation. >> reporter: and some international observers are concerned the atmosphere wasn't right for an election. >> through the presidential elections we had observers around the country but we feel that suppression and dissent and restrictions on freedom of association and freedom of speech over the last months have made it not possible to have a democratic presidential election. >> i have to say a man who runs for many elections that i was able to observe were elections which were democratic and peaceful and not necessary always fair because obviously one candidate had more means and more backing than the other one. >> a former communications

minister now conducts opinion polls agreed the media may have been one sided but the vote was largely credible. >> translator: i believe that now after the votes were counted at the committees and it was broadcast live on television in 13,90 0 electorates you cannot tell my they were forged and they were not impartial and this can happen and not speaking about what happened outside the committees but inside the committees and there are comments for low turn out and where did the votes come from and how can you vote the integrity of this, this is out of the question. >> they banned al jazeera from reporting in the country and al jazeera is continuing to demand a release of its journalists detained there. they have now been held in prison for 153 days and the trial is due to resume on sunday and accused of conspireing with the out lawed muslim brotherhood

and al jazeera rejects charges against all of its staff. a fourth journalist has been held in a cairo prison without charge for more than nine months and his lawyer filed a third grievance with the attorney general demanding his release and he is requesting a medical report to document his poor health. and more to come this news hour. police in india arrest suspects in the rape and murder of two girls. we are live in new deli with more details. japan's prime minister puts himself on a collision course with china for a push for a greater role in regional security. and later in sport new york's nhl team celebrates a significant milestone and we robin will be here to tell you all about it. ♪ to pakistan where the prime minister has ordered an

investigation after a pregnant woman was beaten to death in public by her family. human rights activists have been protesting in the capitol islamabad against the killing and police in the city are being accused of standing by and doing nothing. and we have more. >> reporter: it's hard to imagine the horror of her last moments and beaten to death here outside the court by around 20 members of her family. they were furious she married a man she loved instead of agreeing to an arranged marriage. and she came to the court to contest the case filed by her father which he accused her husband of kidnapping his daughter. >> translator: we were going to go to the hearing of a case and present and when we tried to pass the family attacked us. first they opened fire and they were all around us and hit me and my wife. >> reporter: prime minister described the killing as totally

unacceptable and has ordered government officials to investigate. >> translator: the case has been registered. family members of deceased are among those charged in the murder case and other names are also being added to the case. >> reporter: public anger is growing at the police who are accused of doing nothing to save her. the human rights advocate say the difference is not surprising and there are hundreds of honor killings in pakistan each year, 2013 there were nearly 900 recorded cases and a few convictions because courts often site a lack of evidence. it's not just brutality of the murder which has shocked people, it's also how the local media have covered the case and in the language dailies strongly worded editorials were published condemning the murder and that is in stark contrast to the press where it barely received a mention and under scoring the

widely held belief here that cases like this are a family matter and not criminal. i'm with al jazeera, islamabad. >> police in india arrested three suspects for the alleged gang rape of two teenagers and the two cousins age 14 and 15 have been strangled before villagers found their bodies hacking from a tree. the girls had gone missing from their home in the district on tuesday evening. >> the police came to my house and informed me that my daughter has been found hanging from a tree. i want federal investigators to look into the case because i do not trust the state police. >> reporter: now with a new probusiness government set to take off they are eying opportunities in asia's third largest economy and we have this report from mumbai. >> reporter: south mumbai have been doing a roaring trade for

50 years. it's more than a market, it's a community with hundreds of small traders supporting hundreds of worker many people here voted for the party and the resent national elections. securing the b.j.p. a landslide victory. in return they want the new government to prevent foreign companies for setting up supermarkets in india. >> translator: our business won't sur viez if big stores open up our businesses will be finished, it's simple if people go to a mall all the small businesses will be finished, the people who earn daily wages will earn nothing. >> reporter: b.j.p. has promised to protect these mom and pop businesses by preventing outside investment in multi brand retail. but the new prime minister modi has a reputation for aggressively pursuing foreign capitol. >> with more than a billion people india is a massive market

for companies like walmart and there are few supermarkets here to compete against and if they can get permission to open stores they could make huge profits. the consulting firm deloitte predicts the sector here will grow by at least $230 billion next year. potential for investors is enormous but say consumers will also benefit from what is called foreign direct investment or f.d.i. >> one of the problems of india is high inflation particularly in the grocery segment so to say. it's believed if the foreign investment comes in this area, if you have f.d.a. in multi brand retail that will unleash a lot of activities which are positive for inflation control. >> reporter: investigators want the government to guaranty a business-friendly environment. >> mostly i think they need to

stabilize their whole taxation system in india which means there should be no unpredictability. similarly there are laws about land opposition which are really unfavorable. >> reporter: vendors are counting on the government to keep things as they are, survival depends on it, i'm with al jazeera mumbai. >> japan's prime minister will take a roll in the regional security and he will make a major speech in singapore later and japan and a number of other countries are involved in territory disputes with china and mr. brown has more. >> reporter: the chinese governments assertive push for sovereignty over islands in the south china sea has already put it on a collision course with vietnam and further north it is squaring off against another neighborhood, japan, over the

ownership of islands in the east china sea, administered by japan but claimed by china. beijing reenforced its sovereignty claim last november declaring an identification zone over air space surrounding the islands. since then military jets from both countries have been harassing one another, sometimes just meters apart. the muscularity of the posture can be overblown and japan has declining defense budgets for the last ten years and a resent increase, moderate increase under the current administration. but japan is growing more assertive by support from president barack obama. last month he said he would oppose any moves to undermine japan's control of the islands. >> u.s. interests are not directly involved it will look to allies so that strengthens the japan/u.s. role in southeast

asia to deal with vietnam and china aggressiveness in pushing sovereignty claims. >> reporter: two weeks ago the prime minister appeared to raise the stakes still further. he said he hoped for a change in japan's constitution that would enable japan to defend an ally under attack like the united states. china fears the proposed change could mark the first step towards a new era of japanese military. both countries fought a war in these waters 120 years ago. china came off worse. while the prospects of another conflict are remote analysts fear a dangerous patent is starting to emerge. adrian brown, al jazeera. we will stay in asia, a heat wave in china and we will tell you more. >> first time since 2010 the

temperature in beijing above 40 degrees celsius and hot weather in northern asia at the moment and actually that 42 degrees celsius on thursday afternoon, hottest day since 1951. the temperature is in the process of easing i'm pleased to say and we see temperatures of 36 celsius for saturday and this is where the change will come from, 23 degrees celsius on sunday and beijing around 35 degrees celsius, the wind is from an on shore direction. we have clouds pushing in from the west, a little more cloud also coming from the south heading toward shanghai. we have actually got a large forest fire burning in the northeast of china and going through the next few days conditions will help to ease that situation. so i will start to make things a little easier in terms of battling the blaze we do have in place here and this is further

southward and that will talk its way in north and one through the course of sunday and i'm afraid that does mean flooding for central china. former microsoft c.e.o. is set to be the new owner of the l.a. clippers basketball team and agreed to pay $2 billion for the franchise making it one of the largest deals in sports history. if that sale goes through it will bring an end to the ownership of donald sterling. he was recorded making racist comments and band for life by n.b.a. and rob reynolds is in l.a. for details. >> the reported sale of the l.a. clippers to the former c.e. o of microsoft for $2 billion brings to add end a month-long story which can only be described as taudry, it involved the 80-year-old owner of the clippers, donald sterling, who was in a conflict with his

mistress and having been recorded by that mistress making racist comments. she then released the racist comments on audio tape to the world at large. there was a very swift reaction from the national basketball association banning sterling for life from the game and making strenuous efforts to force him to sell the team. sterling gave conflicting signals saying at one point he would sue to retain ownership of the clippers. another point saying he was trying to sell. but now it appears the clippers will be sold to this record price. by the way, the last, most highest price for a national basketball association team was paid in april when the milwaukee bucks went for $550 million and this is a record at $2 billion. the deal was negotiated by the coowner, donald sterling's wife

and now it has to be approved by the majority of owners of the n.b.a. for the entire matter to become final and donald sterling saga to fade into history. >> and to shed some more light on this here is robin adams and rob was saying over there it has to be approved and is it guaranteed they will go through? >> it still needs to be approved by the 29 owners of the n.b.a. and likely to happen on the third of june, this coming tuesday, they will sit down and decide whether or not this deal actually goes ahead. interestingly for the deal to go ahead they needed the signature of donald sterling who is a 50% holder and owner of the team. because his wife and the sterling family moved to say he is mentally incapacitated they don't need them and she is the sole trustee and can go ahead with the sale. at the moment, the frontrunner

to win the bid to buy the clippers for $2 billion. >> that is right and he has a fairly lengthy list of buyers and how has he beat the competition? >> the long list includes google partners that spearheaded buying the l.a. dodgers baseball team for $2.15 billion and magic johnson who is a renown basketball star, the world over, david is the media mogul and oprah winfrey and he is still in the driving seat to by the franchise for $2 billion but we will only know by the third of june when the n.b.a. owners meet whether this will be the case. >> it seems like almost anyone with money was bidding for it. >> i don't have the money. >> me either and thank you for that robin, thank you. okay, still ahead find out why the nigerian president jonathan is attending an emergency

meeting in gahna. turning real life into fiction, foster kids who made a movie from their experience. and in sport afghanistan's wheelchair basketball team overcomes incredible odds and robin will be back for that. ♪

hello again and we will take you through the top stories on al jazeera, president elect vowed punishing those who shot down a military helicopter and a general was killed in the attack

on thursday. spanish police arrested six people in an operation to dismantle what it's calling terrorist organizations. security forces launched a predawn raid in the north african mali, and syria people are fleeing the city of islib and advised residents to get out and told al jazeera they are planning an attack. okay, let's focus on homs and they have taken it back and strict restrictions but al jazeera has exclusive access to a village north of homs and we report. >> reporter: he lives with his wife and six children in a one-room house, they use plastic sheets to cover the holes from shelling and he has no work and family relies on support from charity and relief

organizations. >> translator: as you can see there is shelling everyday with all kinds of weapons like artillery and rockets and destroyed 90% of the houses and forced the people to leave the village. >> reporter: the government regained control after rebels agreed to retreat from the central city of homs and it's on the outskirts of homs devastated by bombardment and this used to be a stadium and this is what is left of the central mosque. the roads here tell the story of why people had to leave. more than 70,000 families are believed to have left homs and surrounding areas and he is few who stayed because they had no where else to go. >> translator: we are suffering. we have nothing to do. we eat one day and don't find food for ten days. >> reporter: more than six million syrians are displaced internally and due to fighting they need urgent humanitarian

assistance and assad who will remain in power after the current elections insists he is winning the war but many of those in the village and elsewhere in syria wonder how anyone can win when there has been so much destruction, al jazeera. let's return to india now and police arrested three suspects for the alleged gang rape and killing of two teenage girls in the northern state and the two cousins age 14 and 15 had been strangled before villagers found their bodies hanging from a tree and the girls were missing from their village home on tuesday evening. and we are joined live from the indian capitol. can i ask you what the reaction to this has been, there has been quite an outcry. there has been an out cry especially in the village where this happened. safety is a big concern particularly in the state. and family members said their

outrage is directed not only at the accused in the case and also police. they claim police didn't search for the girls and refused to file criminal charges and that got a lot of villagers upset and surrounded the bodies and re-tuesdayed to let police take the bodies away until they agreed to file criminal charges. now this is just the latest case in a case against crimes against women in this country but the sheer brutality and the fact they were killed in this manner is causing a lot of outrage here. >> that is right, it's one of the latest cases of attacks against women and girls. is there a sense that justice will be served because of all the attention they are getting? >> well, that is the hope from women's groups and even family members here, but the problem is that this is an on going event, india's crime statistics show a woman is raped somewhere in this

country every 22 minutes. a year and a half ago there was a brutal rape and killing of a student in new deli and shocked the country in having open debate about this, for the first time rapes were discussed and sexual assault and women's rights was brought to the forefront. because of that tougher laws were brought in to protect women but as this case shows this is one of many actually that despite these laws these kind of crimes against women are still occurring in india. >> thank you very much, he was in deli. young men armed with machetes attacked a mosque in the central african reciprocal capitol bongi and left 11 people died and a quarter of the population fled their homes in the past year because of violence involving christians and military groups and we have more. >> reporter: an apparent act of revenge on the streets of bongi, young men tear apart a mosque in

the capitol central african republic. the previous day another part of the city, a christian church is attacked, a church leader says armed men threw grenades and fired on the crowd and 11 are killed and one is a priest. >> translator: we've had enough. the central african people have been massacred by the coalition who call themselves selica and massacred by miss -- missiona missionari missionaries. >> reporter: this has not stopped the violence between muslims and christians. >> translator: we have shed enough tears and i think we need to stop this, it needs to stop and i think what happened yesterday is the last straw. >> reporter: the seleka is alliance of rebel groups that over through the c.a.r. government last year and christian malitias known as antibalika rose up against them and the fighting split the

country along religious and ethnic lines. agencies struggle to deliver supplies to over a million people who have been driven from their homes and many trying to live their lives in midst of the fighting one side is as bad as the other. >> translator: before we had this he used to take away our fuel and other things. now we do not know who the real authority in the country is. as a driver you are promised escort and security but people are massacred in front of authority and no one dares to open their mouth. >> reporter: the attack on the mosque was at least partially motivated by frustration and fury. for months both christians and muslims in c.a.r. have known little else and i'm rob with al jazeera. >> reporter: good luck jonathan is attending an emergency meeting of west african states in gahna and 15 members and the purpose is to promote economic cooperation in the region and

looks at political and security threats. and this year nigeria will be a focus. friday's meeting takes place a day after good luck jonathan announced a total war against the radical group boko haram. events in mali and separatists are topping the agenda. and for more on this joining me now is the director of the middle east center and it's an independent think tank based in j joe -- johannesburg and boko haram and what is happening in mali, do you think they have the coordination to tackle such a huge operation? >> well, i think the meeting has been called as an act of desperation really. the situation in nigeria has spun out of control. and it now seems to the rest of the world it's out of control because of the aid of foreign

agencies and americans have discovered something called boko haram but it has been out of control for a while. the north of nigeria is effective under military rule. huge problem in nigeria and mali and promising not just the government and french and saying it is a situation where it has been taken over by rebels and both situations are very serious and both of them developing in the past days and so the summit is as i said an act of desperation to try and at least present a face that these issues are being addressed on a regular basis. >> boko haram and on the framework there how much weight does this group to have to do something and carry out something effectively? >> of course it's a strong organization and does have weight. its members do take it seriously and it is able to play a role

both economically as its name suggests as well as dismaticily, et cetera and represents a sub region of the african continent and can do a lot but in the boko haram situation i'm not sure it's able to. the question, the issue really, however, is that what we are seeing in nigeria is that with the kidnapping of these girls by boko haram you have this enormous amount of pressure brought to bear on the government by western countries and particularly u.s., britain, france for them to send in forces if it's african, c.i.a., whatever the case may be and you don't have the similar kind of effort by african governments. and i think this meeting coming really about four weeks late on this issue is an attempt to address this to say well as africans we also want to have some roll here. >> all right, thank you very

much, good to have you on with us. >> thank you. >> all right, to zimbobwai and trying to raise $250,000 to make repairs to the dam and it forms a border between the two countries but it's also old hand has developed several cracks and we have the report. >> reporter: this is the dam's huge size and one of the world's biggest and half a century it harnessed the river generating electricity for zimbobwi and the wall is cracked and needs to be fixed urgently to avoid what could be a catastrophic collapse. chief jackson is among 3 1/2 million people who live down river and they believe a river

spirit is to blame. >> translator: it's true, the yamio yamioyami is responsible and when the river is blocked the river is angry and will make problems for all of us. >> reporter: he doesn't believe that, his business is one of thousands that depend on the constant flow of tourist. >> it's of concern for us because we are on the receiving end and we hope the government is doing whatever possible. >> reporter: they insist they are. but they do need to raise $250 million before the complex repair work can begin. to get a sense of scale, take a look at lake kariba over there and held back by the dam which is 24 1/2 meters thick and if we look here at the sheer drop you get a sense of the volume of water held back by the dam and how catastrophic it would be if

anything went wrong. the minister of energy says the threat is not implement but treating it as if it were, pushing the project through quickly. >> we want this done as soon as possible. we don't want delay. we know what can happen for procrastination on this and we are concerned. >> reporter: some still have not been connected to tell tr-- the, electricity and the power of the water demands respect and if you think the cracks can be the result of a spirit or on age alone, zambia. staying in africa, in malowi they will see if last week's vote stands or if a recount is required and she says she is ready to step down if the court

ratifies the ballot but thinks it was fraudulent and they have to release the votes by midnight on friday. and still ahead on this program, we will be in thailand where traditional tourist attraction suffered a blow because of the fight over who runs the country. and the series against oklahoma city, action from n.b.a. coming up, later in sport. ♪

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the thai says they will go against protesters and includes the curfew on hot spots and we visited to see how military rule is affecting tourism which effects the economy. >> reporter: oiled, massaged and ready to fight in front of tourists and thai boxes and a draw for tourists that arrive in thailand but months of political instability have taken a toll. >> translator: if there are more tourists i will earn more but with fewer tourists like this it affects my wage. >> reporter: crowds are a sign for the island, 80% of public revenues from tourism and down 60% in the last six months. tourism is as much a political issue as an economic one and

international airport to make a political point. some tourists simply are not concerned and it's true that even though a curfew and marshal law have been imposed in the whole country, there have not been peace with problems here and nevertheless 40 governments warned their citizens about traveling to thailand. >> we want to advise the country people to exercise some caution in bangkok by all means and at the same time they should say, well, it's not authority. >> reporter: the features do seem a world away from bangkok's urban sprawl but they are the same nation. what is happening in the corridors of country have serious consequences for everyone. ♪

the military is probably hoping their coup is a game changer in the bitterly fought political contest. both sides indicate this is a fight to the end, veronica in thailand. and now to someone else who can pack a punch, here is robin with the sports news. >> good to have you along and l.a. clippers basketball team is set to be sold for $2 billion, and c.e.o. steve agreed to buy the franchise to end the ownership of donald sterling who has been ban for like for comments and he purchased them for $12 million in 1981 and they will vote on the sale on tuesday. if the sale goes ahead the l.a. clippers are the most expensive n.b.a. team and the previous sale was in april when the bucks were sold for $550 million sold

to two executives and how does this stand up? n.f.l.'s miami dolphins were purchased for $1.1 billion and bought in 2005 for $1 point 4 million by malc oshgo , the bil and magic johnson purchased the team for $2.1 billion back in 2012. the spurs are edging toward a big pay for themselves, one win away from the place in the n.b.a. finals and the spurs beat the oklahoma sun okc and more popularly known, five of the western conference final serious 117-80 point gives the spurs a 3-2 lead and game six is in oklahoma on saturday.

>> don't get too excited about yourself if you win and don't hang your head and do a pity party if you lose. what is important is the next game, just like the next play in each game is important. and they have been around long enough and o.k.c. is the same way, you come back and play again. >> reporter: nhl and new york rangers are headed for the stanley cup and beat them 1-0 to win the eastern conference title 4-2. and dominick with a goal and rangers have a place at the stanley cup finals for the first time in 20 years. >> we are not there yet. i mean, we have given ourselves the opportunity to compete for the cup. it was, you know, a great shelling tonight. we played in my book probably our best game of the playoffs. >> reporter: and third action

at the french open shortly and will face roger federer is in action later and a big result in on friday. in the last few minutes she was beaten in straight sets by world 72. it means the top three women seeds are out of the tournament and williams out in round two she was stop seed and defending champion and number two making an early exit as early as the first round. and mcalroy leads the tournament in ohio by three shots and is now the world number six of the p.g.a. championship win and shot an opening round of par 63, this is world number one scott and had the title last week and also in action finishing on three under 69.

shot of the day goes to this man, phil nickelson on the 13th hole and saved par and managed to stay four under. >> i feel very comfortable with my game at the minute and it's obviously it's showing right there and very happy with the round of golf i played today. >> i would like to get out tomorrow and get moving in the right condition if it's good and low scores all week so hopefully get it going for 18 tomorrow. >> reporter: a team of athletes from afghanistan is in italy to take part in an international basketball competition, getting there has been a major challenge for the players, many of whom have never left their war-torn country and as claudia reports the players have overcome war and disabilities to find new joy in life. >> reporter: big cheers for afghanistan's national wheelchair basketball team at its first international

tournament. this team of disabled athletes traveled from the war-torn country of italy to face the th nation's champions. >> i play here in a tournament with very strong team and champion and the team of italy and championship of italy teams and i'm so proud. >> reporter: four years ago the players were complete amateurs and now playing against international teams abroad and the team is worth so much more than a score, just being here feels like a victory. some of them were born with disabilities, others suffered spinal injuries from car accidents but most are victims of the country's war. he was hit by a shrapnel in the

spinal cord at 8 and lived in a wheelchair ever since and basketball for him was a real game changer. >> when i'm on the court i play basketball and don't feel i'm a disabled person. i feel that i am a normal person and as a normal person that they work, they play, they have fun. yes, i feel like that. >> reporter: most of the players were treated in the red cross hospital in kabul. once there they went from patients to athletes. it was a challenge at the beginning because we did not know how to play. we did not have that. so it took some time to start. and then we managed to get a trainer and we just started. >> reporter: the game ended with a win for the home team. but the players from afghanistan have achieved so much more. they bounced back from the challenges of being disabled in a country ravaged by war, i'm

with al jazeera, cantu. >> that is sport for now but more on the website on al jazeera/sport and nadal at the french open and how you can interact with the team using facebook and al jazeera/sport. new york film festival opens this week and one film was written and acted entirely by young people who grew up in foster care and we report how they turned their experiences into an inspirational movie. >> we are here to take your daughterers from the home. >> reporter: children enter the foster care system in the united states forcibly taken from an abusive home. for others it may be due to a parent's death or in the case of her a parent's drug addiction. >> when she came she was like get some of your stuff and i didn't know what to take, where

am i going, what to take. my mom is not going, just me and my brother? >> reporter: in all cases it's a real life drama here played out in a movie called know how from actors who lived through it. >> we are doing screenings of the film. >> reporter: it's a product of the possibility project run by paul griffin and he has been teacher theatre to under privileged kids for a tool for their own empowerment but after staging a play based on experiences of foster children he saw an opportunity. >> the impact on the audience was overwhelming and we heard that from audiences and felt they were learning something they never seen before which was a surprise to us and didn't see it coming. >> you are very intelligent and you have to pass the test. >> reporter: illustrate hard facts and 50% of american children in foster care finish high school and 60% are convicted of a crime. the film took three years to

realize and a major commitment from a group of young people struggling to get their own lives under control and are showing it not only at film festivals but to agencies and social workers in charge of children in foster care. many working on the project it was the first time they openly talked about their experiences. >> we don't think we will go off and be like the next denzel or holly berry, we did it because it's important to tell the stories. >> reporter: their goal is to improve foster care and provide a happy ending for more children in the system. kristen with al jazeera in new york. stay with us on al jazeera, we have another bulletin of news ahead, but you can always get more news on our website, our top stories and more details on the top story and ukraine and a live blog with more details. ♪

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