iraq moves a step closer to breaking up with the president of the kurdish region pushing for a referendum on independence. hello there. you're watching al jazeera live from our headquarters in doha. also on the program. one year after egypt's president was deposed, there have been more protests and deaths. more fighting in east jerusalem as palestinians prepare to bury a murdered teenager.

a picture of north korea as its biggest ally moves closer to its arch enemy. iraq kurds have taken another step towards independence. there are already semi-autonomous in parts of iraq, but now their president has asked the regional parliament to prepare for a referendum on creating their own homela homela homeland, which borders turkey. elsewhere in the shia-dominated south, there's disagreement about the future of president nouri al maliki, a shia. the leadership is not united on the issue. the biggest is the concern of the islamic state fighters in

vast areas of northern iraq and syria. it has already taken mosul and is fighting for control of tikrit. saudi arabia said it deployed 30,000 troops to the border of iraq. iraqi troops have left their posts. that's an accusation that iraq denies. we're in irbil where the kurdish president gave his speech to parliament. >> he has two main messages to the parliament here in the semi-autonomous region. the first was disputed areas like kirkuk which find themselves under the control of the kurdish forces after the withdrawal of the iraqi army following their retreat after the advancement of sunni rebels in the north. those areas barzani says will remain kurdish areas, a direct response to statements made by al maliki on wednesday that says because iraq finding itself in a

conflict with militants in the north, it is no excuse for the kurdish politicians to take this as an opportunity to create a status quo where these disputed areas suddenly become under their control. as far as barzani is concerned, they will remain kurdish. the second question was to direct them to form a committee that would set about the way in which those living here in the north of iraq would go to the polls in a referendum that would decide their fate, especially whether they will continue to be a semi-autonomous region in iraq or whether they separate completely and have their own state to add to the political chaos, the continued political struggle and power struggle here in iraq. you have already the sunni/shia struggle inside iraq proper with the inability of maliki to form a government. you have the fight up north with the militants, and now you have the kurdish issue as well.

so turbulent times here in iraq, and people will be monitoring how things develop very closely. also in iraq 32 turkish drivers have been released by sunni rebels. the men had been captured in mosul on june 9th. the foreign minister said that they moved to occur dish controlled irbil. they're holding another 45 meem abducted from the kurdish consulate in mosul. two died in egypt on the first anniversary of the military coup against president morsi. it's been a year of turmoil and violence. amnesty international says it has evidence of deterioration of human rights in egypt. a study was produced by the egyptian center for economic and social rights, amnesty says at least 16,000 morsi supporters have been detained. at least 80 people have died in custody.

amnesty says torture was used routinely in police stations and unofficial places of detention. almost 1500 men have been sentenced to death, but the grand musti has yet to give his decision. since january almost 3,000 civilians have died in political violence and more people have lost their lives in the past few hours. we have the report. >> reporter: denouncing this a year ago, these are supporters of president morsi fighting with security forces in giza. police fire tear gas to disperse the crowd. he wants to return to office. he was deposed by sisi last july. a year later, egyptians remain bitterly divided. >> translator: we don't see any change. we haven't seen any change in the past 30, 35 years.

we won't see any change in the next 100 years. >> translator: egypt needs a military man to fix things. it won't do having a normal person rule the country. if you look now, there's control now since sisi has become president. >> reporter: despite tight security and a wave of clamp-downs of muslim brotherhood supporters, they remain defiant. human rights agencies are alarmed about whether this is a deteriorating humanitarian situation. this is what amnesty international had to say. >> there were arrests, detentions and harrowing incidents of torture and deaths in police custody recorded by amnesty international provide strong evidence of the sharp deterioration in human rights in egypt in the year since president mohamed morsi was ousted. >> reporter: july 3rd, a day many egyptians will remember for

generations. the defense minister surrounded by secular leftist and religious leaders makes what many people consider a stunning declaration. >> translator: this includes suspending the constitution for presidential and parliamentary elections and the formation of a national reconciliation committee that will include young people. >> reporter: after morsi was deposed, supporters set up protest camps and promised to stay as long as it took for their leader to be reinstated. egyptian security forces stormed those camps. hundreds of people were killed accord to human rights organizations. attacks security forces were on the rise. >> translator: leaders of the muslim brotherhood was put in jail, and some now face death sentences. >> reporter: seen by many supporters as a savior, sisi was

elected president in june. sisi has rejected calls for reconciliation with a banned muslim brotherhood, and that has only raised concerned on more clamp-downs in egypt. israel has sent more troops along its border with gaza as tensions with palestinians reach a new high. the family of a palestinian teenager is expected to bury his remains in a short while. israeli police found his body on the outskirts of jerusalem after he was object deducted outside his home. earlier this week three israeli settlers were found deaf. nick shifrin reports. >> reporter: this morning the anger is still smoldering. in a few hours this community wilbury a 17-year-old it says was killed to avenge the murders of three israeli teenagers. the tension hangs in the air here. outside nothing has been cleaned up, and inside a mother surrounded by her family says there's a hole inside of her.

i feel, she says, like my heart's been ripped out. the family lives here in east jerusalem. this is their house right there. they say that mohammed was taken right next to their house right in front of these shops, and when the news spread of his death, this neighborhood exploded. this is a garbage dumpster that his neighbors use, the palestinian protesters used to fight israeli police yesterday. the two sides fought for more than 12 hours. today's violence has two fronts. in southern israel on the gaza border, palestinian rockets are beginning to find their targets. last night and this morning, two rockets slammed into this neighborhood, apartments hit directly but no injuries. three kilometers away is gaza. every night gaza feels like a war zone. in response to rockets the israeli military unleashed 15 strikes on rocket launchers and

training grounds. palestinian medical officials say at least ten were wounded, but despite the terrifying sound of f-16s in the air, 2500 gazians rallied last night in defiance and in solidarity with those protesters in east jerusalem and solidarity with her mother. he wanted to be a an electrician like his father. my son was burned. i hope the people that did this burn, too. >> let's join stephanie live now where the family home is. we've been waiting to get the body back. any news, any update on when it might be returned? >> reporter: we've just literally come off the phone with a lawyer of the family who has been with the father, and he told us that it seems that they will not be releasing the body today to the family. we know that the autopsy was carried out in the presence of a palestinian doctor. that ended an hour or so ago.

the lawyer said he was trying to have the body released today. he really wanted the family to get the body of their son back to bury him. this is why people here have been waiting for the last couple of hours to be able to pay their final respects, and we're now told that's not going to happen. israel will release the body on friday, and that, therefore, the funeral will take place after friday prayers. the reason for it he can't tell us at the moment, but we know the situation here is very tense. israel is concerned about the security situation. there are skirmishes going on just a few blocks away, smaller than they were yesterday. of course, it was a concern how tense the entire situation is here at the moment. >> yes, we can see some live pictures from very near where you are of those skirmishes going on all day. also we've heard from the cass sum brigade, the hamas military wing from gaza. what have they been saying?

>> reporter: well, she yus gave a press conference in gaza city where they warned israel that the rockets would continue to rain down on jerusalem and tel aviv if israel continued its campaign against gaza. israel has upped the air strikes on the gaza strip in the last few days in retaliation for what israel says is an increased amount of rockets from gaza into israel. we had three rockets land this morning, two landed on residential homes. no casualties. this is the back and forth. we also had prime minister benjamin netanyahu a few days ago blame hamas for the killing of the three settlers that started this whole bout of violence and tension. he blames hamas, which is also why this back and forth is going on. so i think we have to take their press conference and these words as sort of a message saying israel if you escalate attacks against us, we have the means

and the want to be able to fight back. so we do know israel has upped its military presence on that border, potentially in preparation of an escalation or just as a defensive measure. >> thanks very much for the update live there from east jerusalem. lots more still to come here on the program, including a push for another cease nier -- cease-fire in eastern ukraine. tracking a hurricane as it nears the u.s. state of north carolina.

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hello again. i'm laura kyle. these are the top stories on al jazeera. the president of iraq's kurdish region called for a creation of the independent state. massoud barzani called for a referendum on independence, a move that infuriates nouri al maliki. there have been more clashes in east jerusalem between israeli troops and palestinians for a second day. the family of the palestinian teenager who was murdered in east jerusalem are waiting for his body to be ruined for burial. on thursday rockets were fired from the gaza strip into israel and they carried out air strikes on hamas targets in gaza. two people have died in egypt on the first anniversary of the military coup that removed president morsi. they have evidence of a sharp

deterioration of human rights in egypt. staying in egypt and the three al jazeera journalists jailed there have been imprisoned for 180 days. they were sentenced to seven years each. mohammed was given ten years which he had a spent bullet in his possession that he picked up in a protest. al jazeera demands their release. peter glass is in cairo and they visited him in prison. we spoke to his mother loy wis earlier. >> it was a difficult day. it's really emotional and he was quite somber. i think the reality is starting to sink in now, and i found it hard, you know. it's not an easy thing to do, to go into the prison jail.

the conditions are very harass and stark and very, very dusty. it was not easy. that's all i can say. >> what about peter's health? what is his health like? what is his mood like? how is he holding up? >> as he said, he was quite somber, but he was absolutely so delighted to see us. you know, it was quite emotional when we arrived and also, too, when we left. unfortunately, we thought we had two hours with him, but it ended up we only had 45 minutes. so it wasn't easy to discuss the sort of things we would have liked to have discussed. he's okay, but he's -- it's not easy. it's not -- it's very, very difficult for him.

>> activists say islamic state fighters have seized a field in syria. they gave it up without a fight. fighters have also captured the oil-rich town close by. the isis is thought to control most oil and gal fields there. syria hasn't exported any oil since 2011 partly because of international sanctions. they used to export up to 370,000 barrels a day. we have more from the lebanese capital of beirut. >> reporter: it's more gains for the islamic state. today they were able to control the biggest oil field in syria. it produces about 75,000 barrels of oil a day. they have control over at least six refineries around that area. they also were able to take over cities and towns from a group,

which was supposed to be spearheading the fight against the islamic state in syria. now, tribal leaders are swearing allegiances to the islamic state. they control the area between the syrian/iraqi border up to the edge of aleppo. it's a huge vast of land about five times the size of lebanon. the successes that the isis made in iraq is obviously giving it momentum in syria. they get more recruits, and me have more weapons not only to fight the syrian regime but to battle the rival islamic groups that are in syria, which many countries had banked on and bet on to be fighting the islamic state. in the past few daze they have been retreating in the face of the advances of the islamic state of syria. china and south korea have restated that they want the

korean peninsula to be free of nuclear weapons. they met in seoul. it's the first visit to the kor reanypeninsula as a head of state, and a snub to north korea a country beijing has backed in the past. harry fossett reports. >> reporter: the president we welcomed jinping to south korea. they've known each other for decades. the president was the first chinese leer to prioritize a trip to seoul ahead of going to pyongyang, they used similar language about north korea. >> translator: realizing denuclearization and maintaining peace and stability are in line with the members. they should resolve the issue through dialogue and consultation. >> reporter: the recent missile firing is a sign of the displeasure and a public snub by

the traditional ally. >> translator: under circumstances with north korea launched missiles again while not dropping the nuclear threat to president jinping's visit is a clear message about denuke layerization. >> reporter: the talks centered on trade. south korea is reliant on china as an export market, and they committed to wrap up free trade negotiations by the end of the year. they oppose the move by japan to reinterpret the constitution. the welcome for jinping here has been as warm as the snub to pyongyang was icy. the relationship remains fraught with difficulties. while south korea relies ever more on chinese buyers or products, it relies on the united states and the 28,000 u.s. troops here for its security. >> the pentagon pretty clearly wants south korea to join in on the u.s.-led missile defense

system for the feeder, which could bring some south korea closer in with japan, which is not politically popular right now. meanwhile, china clearly did not want south korea to integrate its missile defense into the u.s. system. >> reporter: it encapsulates south korea's future as it weighs the allies and its biggest trading partner. harry fossett, al jazeera, seoul. two people have been killed in a second night of sectarian violence in myanmar. a muslim and buddhist were killed with 14 others injured. police were first deployed on tuesday after hundreds of buddhists attacked a mosque and tried to set fire to muslim-owned businesses. merkel and hollande have asked for ukraine to call a cease-fire. they're trying to secure a lull in fighting, but it continues.

ukraine's military says it's attacked over 100 separatist positions since tuesday when an earlier cease-fire ended. paul brennan has more from eastern ukraine. >> reporter: diplomat efforts continue to try to put a cease-fire back in place here in eastern ukraine. on wednesday we had the foreign ministers meeting in berlin calling the contact group together by the weekend to put the cease-fire back in place. it's important sometimes to listen to the voice of the fighting people, the soldiers who are engaged in this kiev-led anti-terror operation. we've been given rare access to a ukrainian army position. i don't know where it is but we've been told not to. a disputed with intense fighting is in that direction, and done nefk is further away behind it. the sentiment strongly from the soldiers here is that they are deep reply fraus traited at the slow pace of this progress.

the kiev government every day lists how many targets have been hit. the reality here on the ground is they want to get into donetsk and into the separatist stronghold as quickly as possible. they don't want a new cease-fire on saturday. they want to finish this, because the fear is among the people here that to let it prolong could lead to civil war. it seems that the president himself might agree with them. president poroshenko on thursday morning said that he was naming a new defense secretary, a new defense minister. he's also going to name a new chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, and he says he's going to fire some generals. so it seems that the frustrations of the people and of the san dieoldiers at the ukn army might be shared to the top. people on the coast of the usa in north carolina are heading up and leaving because of a hurricane.

the hurricane could interrupt celebrations marking independence day. jay gray is on the outer banks of north carolina. >> reporter: this storm is intensifying up to 80-mile-per-hour sustained winds right now as it moves towards the coast. the forecast says yeah, but look at the current conditions. the current conditions are not so sure. it's been beautiful. the waves are calm and the wind not real bad at all. that's not the case up and down the carolinas, though. the outer banks will likely see the most of it. some places get a spitting rain right now. they're seeing a little bit of a pickup in the winds here. we expect that to start this afternoon moving into the evening when it will be very intense. you talked about it. a lot of people are here starting the long july 4th weekend. officials are warning them, you've got time right now to decide to ride it out or move to higher ground. if you're staying, and most say they will, make sure you're prepared and have supplies and that you can sustain yourself for a couple of days even without electricity.

most of all, don't get near the water. they're concerned about that for people who haven't been in these situations. the rip current is very dangerous, and that's when you run into problems, when people get a little too ambitious and overzealous and want to experience the full force of the hurricane. not a good idea. they will clear the beach off when they have to and make sure everybody is as safe as possible. everybody is watching to see what kind of fourth of july fireworks there are. activists condemned a new antiterrorism law in pakistan that gives them power to shoot suspects and detain people without charge. the government says it's needed to fight armed groups like the al qaeda. we have the report from islamabad. >> reporter: she misses her husband a lot. she hasn't heard from him for nine years. it's believed he was taken off a public busby security forces on a trip. >> every day i feel that my

heart will not stand it anymore, but then i have to do the counseling myself and say, yes, he's alive. he will come back. i continue my fight. >> reporter: until this week, pakistan's security forces had no legal authority to hold people without charge. once the president signs off it, there will be a new law giving the state power to detain people for up to three months without a warrant, shoot suspects on site with an officer's approval, and force the accused to prove they're innocent. she campaigned for not only her husband's freedom but the cases of almost 2,000 people who have disappeared, believed to be at the hands at the security agencies. she says the anti-terror law is a threat to the public, especially the part about shooting suspects on site. >> this is the worth part that they can do the offense, they can kill anybody, any citizen of

pakistan on site, and then it will be just that. >> reporter: the government says it needs this law to support the military campaign against foreign fighters in the pakistani taliban. it's valid for two years. >> we needed a very comprehensive and effective law to fight this menace of terrorism. and being benefitted from the united states respective laws, being benefitted from indian laws, we have legislative and now we feel that we are with an effective level of law to deal with these terrorists. >> when the bill was first presented to parliament in april, people protested and the opposition was against it. since then it's been amended with the articles and it passed easily. that means pakistan now joins

the ranks of countries with tough anti-terror laws. critics say that's nothing to be proud of. nicole johnston, al jazeera, islamabad. just a reminder, you can also keep up to date with all the news on our website at aljazeera.com. can we teach robots morality? the u.s. is betting millions on the prospect. later from catching criminals to reading emotions, mind-blowing advances in facial recognition software, bringing computers frighteningly close to mind-reading.