>> [ explosion ] the red crescent calls for a ceasefire in benghazi as fighting traps families in libya's second city. this is al jazeera live from our headquarters in doha. also ahead - an armed group in the southern philippines extends a deadline to behead a german hostage president obama resists pressure for a west african travel ban as more countries ban travellers from ebola-hit nations we go to north korea to see

if forming reforms will end malnutrition and starvation. we begin in libya where the red crescent called for a ceasefire to allow families to leave. an offensive by general khalifa haftar has been launched. victoria gaetan by reports. >> reporter: benghazi is caught up in a struggle for control between forces loyal to the government, and rival militia groups. war planes bombed militia positions and people supporting renegade general khalifa haftar's forces dismantled check paints set up with other fighters. libya is under the control of

two governments supported by armed groups engaged in daily nighting. in the gerry arn area, south of tripoli, these are some of the families that left their homes to escape the fighting. >> they shelled our house in the middle of the night. my son was injured. when we got him to hospital the doctors said they couldn't do anything for him, he died. >> the town's university has been turned into a temporary shelter. there's no school. the children make the most of what little they have. >> our country is in a state of war, and the schools are closed. we had to leave our homes and come and live here. >> translation: because of the fighting we missed lots of lessons, which is sad. >> the nonstop fighting around the gerry arn area killed hundreds and forced hundreds to leave their homes. it's a pattern repeated across the country. violence and rivalry split libya

following the 2011 nato-backed uprising that topped muammar gaddafi. the rival groups are fighting for power and show know signs of abating. >> in yemen, fighting between houthi rebels and al qaeda-linked gun me killed at least 10 people. shia houthis have taken over the capital sanaa, and they are advancing in other cities. they have sent fighters to the city of ibrahim hassan tali al asiri, near an al qaeda strong hold. last week, a yemeni group vowed to confront sunnis. they are doing that with the confrontations. let's cross over to our correspondent joining us to tell us about the clashes. i believe they are taking place between the houthis and al qaeda. >> yes, there were overnight

clashes, sporadic fighting between houthi fighters, and fighters from al qaeda on the main road between the province and the east of the town of radar. it is a stronghold for al qaeda for years. it has a huge tribal support. so what happened is that the houthis are trying to send reinforcements to the town. on the other hand the ray allen fighters from the area surrounding converged on the town, trying to repel the houthis. in a strait development, the yemeni security forces clashed with al qaeda. remember this country has al qaeda insurgency for years, and the security forces are involved in a battle against the al qaeda fighters.

>> so the al qaeda are seemingly not responding passively to the gains that the houthis made in yemen, the situation adding to a list of challenges that the country is facing. >> yes. absolutely, this is a new reality for yemen, with the houthi advancement from their stronghold in the north province. sadder, south wards. they are in control of five provinces, and are expanding with virtually unopposed access. they control the key port of alhad agea. it is strategic, the houthis will have a bitter say in ruling the country, they'll have influence on any government formed. another problem for yemen is, as i said, the insurgency of al

qaeda, and a vivid separate movement in the south. the southerners are holding sit ins and protests, they want to resurrect the socialist state in the south of yemen. we are witnessing, i can say, the first stages of the disintegration of the nation. >> thank you. reporting from sanaa in yemen, omar al saleh u.s. led air strikes in and around kobane pushed back fighters from the islamic state of iraq and levant. there has been 53 strikes since monday. kurdish forces held the town, but i.s.i.l. fighters are in surrounding areas. media reports say a senior commander of iran's republican guard has been killed in syria. this is said to show a coffin carrying the remains of the brigadier general. he was killed fighting rebels in aleppo on behalf of the syrian

government in the southern philippines an armed group threatening to behead a german hostage extended their deadline. stefan okayer nick will be killed at 900 hours g.m.t. unless demonstrates are met. harry fawcett reports. >> reporter: new images of a man who captors say may have hours to live. the 71-year-old is shape in a hole in a ground, surrounded by fighters from abu sye af. he spoke to this radio station on wednesday. >> i'm sitting here in a hole in philippines, it's my grave. they have pushed me inside this hole. .

>>: >> reporter: they spoke to the leader of the group. >> we have delivered the news, it is a difficult thing. >> reporter: he was taken with his partner from their yacht. it's believed they are being held separately. abu sayyaf pledged allegiance to the islamic state of iraq and levant. it's demanding $5.6 million and an end to german support for u.s. action against i.s.i.l. in return for the hostages release. >> the use of the target is, indeed, a new challenge, and presents short-term crisis here in the philippines. >> the philippine military has 3,500 personnel deployed around the stronghold with ships stationed offshore or being directed from the military base. >> the philippine military is

taking the threat seriously and increased its presence around the island, and the man in charge of that effort is issuing a threat of his own. >> if he is killed on friday, military action may follow quickly. >> we are planning and trying to get as much information to pin point the information, and perhaps use the force to do that. abu sayyaf fighters proved an intractable enemy for years, hiding in a jungle. the army nose where the german hostages are held, but acknowledges attempts to free them will be fraught with risks. ukraine's president petro porashenko has arrived in italy for a european and asian economic summit. he's scheduled to meet the russian president vladimir putin. and the two leaders will discuss

gas display disputes. 17,000 russian troops have been ordered back from the border ahead of talks. three caribbean countries have begun to restrict access to people travelling from guinea, sierra leone and liberia. the world health organisation is thought to be close to declaring senegal ebola free. dominic kane reports. >> this is a hospital in the capital. here, people with ebola and those incubating it are treating it, part of an outbreak whose threat convinced three caribbean countries to institute travel band, but not the united states, whose president says a ban can be counterproductive. >> history shows there's a likelihood of increased avoidance. people do not readily disclose their information. they may engage in broken

travelling, breaking up the trip, hiding the fact that they have been to a country where there's a disease in place. >> in west africa itself, the number killed by the disease is now above 4,500. guinea has been one of the hardest hit. it is home to 11,500 people. half of them live in poverty. the government spends $67 per person per year on health, meaning there's is 1,100 doctors in the whole country. >> in guinea, in the forest region, to make sure this is a disease, it's survivable, treated and isolated and managed. and together we want to destigmatize ebola, and ensure that we can as friend and partners overcome the disease throughout the region. >> the u.n. released an urgent appeal for the u.n. to donate money to a trust fund separated by ban ki-moon. on the front line against the

disease in south africa, aid agencies say that money alone is not the answer. we need more people to work here. not money, we need people. we need arms and legs. >> reporter: health workers are among the most at-risk people, as shape by the case of the u.s. nurse, who became infected from treating a patient, who wept on to die. she has been moved to a specialist unit. >> police in hong kong raided a key protest site, removing barricades, and clearing out demonstrators. officers arrived in the residential and shopping disilent of monk con. police encountrd little resistness. protesters are rallying against a decision to screen candidates in the 2017 election.

we are being joined from hong kong to talk about what happened in hong kong. particularly, it's interesting that police were not met with much resistance, or any resistance. >> that's right. they expected a lot of confrontations with that. particularly because in the run-up to this, most of the clashes we have been seeing are over there. the group were older than what you see here. it is pretty much more of a volatile area where there was a confrontation. there was a small group, realising they were outnumbered by the police and decided to comply, they packed up and moved away. we are hearing that they have set up another sight along the way, not at the pain intersection, but along an intersection and they put up barriers again.

it's smaller, blocks traffic. >> politically, where does the situation stand with the talks that are meant to be taking place, and who is going to participate in the talks? >> the people in mongkok were not necessarily supportive of the talks, they want change or demands to be taken by the government, or they are not moving. like we said, that seems not to be a big issue. the issue is the scene behind me. this is what is called umbrella sports, like a tent city, where the leaders are. and the leaders are from two main groups, and another grouped called occupy central. they have been talking to the government about possibly coming to discussions, which will start saturday. neither side are giving in on

their demonstrates, and the government clearly said that they will not relent on demands to change hong kong's political system by 2017. >> thank you, didia gopo lan reporting from hong kong. >> still to come, we'll cross to the himalayas for the rescue efforts for dozens of trapped or missing trekkers.

the top stories on al jazeera, libya calls for a

ceasefire in benghazi. the renegade general launched an offensive to take background from rival armed militias in the city. fighting between houthi rebels and al qaeda-gunmen killed 10 people. fighters have been sent to ibb, an al qaeda stronghold. >> an armed group in the philippines threatening to extend a german hostage extended their deed line. he'll be killed in about two hours unless demand are met the search is widening in nepal for dozens of trekkers unaccounted for. a series of blizzards and av lamption swept -- avalanches swept through the region. we'll cross to the himalayas, and sabina will tell us about the rescue efforts. officials are being criticized for not doing enough for the

rescue efforts. >> yes, they have not been. since the early morning, we don't know how many choppers have come in. the army who are working on recovering and rescuing from here, there had to - they have to sideline the effort, because a whole bunch of trekkers who have been stranded on the other side in the valley started moving as the weather cleared. half the way the road is completely blocked, the path is blocked. around 40 people have to be rescued. every 10 minutes or so there has been a shopper coming with, like, trekkers and were stranded in these areas. and the trekking agencies have been saying that it's the government's job to tell people not to start crossing the path,

especially when it is not clear, and the army is quite strained. they've been working on recovery for the past three days, and yesterday they found someone alive, but they can't concentrate on that work. they managed to find three - they managed to recover three bodies, and had seen three people, two bodies. they have not been able to go to the areas at all. >> sabina, give us a sense of how busy the mountains are at this time. october is the peak season there. >> it is. act and march and pap - they are the two seasons. hundreds of trackers come every time. the region gets around 60,000

trekkiers, and around 20,000 cross the mountain path every year. from what we understand from trekkers who were on the mountain passes, on the 14th - in the campsite that they had left, there were around 200 people in that - in a little lodge that they were in. and right now around 80 people who had been in one of the higher camps, trying to - they were trying to crossover. so it's quite a large number of people. you might be able to hear the sound of the helicopters and - another chopper is about to go and find more trekkers who are stranded. >> we sure can. thank you very much for the time being. on the rescue efforts going on in the heinrich himmler.

thank you very much. >> the genocide trial of two former khmer rouge leaders resumed in cambodia. they face charges over the mass murder of vietnamese people and the muslim minority group. the same court gave them life sentences for crimes against humanity in august. the united nations estimates a third of people in north korea don't have enough to eat. that is despite improvement in the supply of food since the country's famine in the 1990s. the government is promising to enhance food production. therese bo travelled to north korea and was given access to a model farm. >> this is a cooperative farm in sariwon city. it is portrayed as a model farm in north korea. >> kim jong un came here and kim jong-il came here tight times.

now our dear leader provide us with necessary fertilisers and said we should try to be more scientific. our dear leader said if we produce more than 10 tonnes, we'll be rewarded. >> new they are able to sell the produce grown in the garden. >> translation: thanks to our dear leader, our country has great development. we have electricity and farming conducted with machines. >> the landscape is beautiful here. there is much we cannot see. >> we are not allowed to film the workers, because they are dirty and they don't want to be filmed. we are not sure what is going on. >> when we had the chance to film a field not part of a tour, a man screened at an old lady to get out. >> the world health organisation says that hunger and malnutrition is common,

especially among mothers and children. international humanitarian agencies say food production improved but is lower than ideal. >> translation: compared to previous years, production improved. north korea needs 5.4 million tonnes. producing around 5 million, and the rest can be supplied around international organizations. >> it's difficult to know what conditions are like in other parts of the country. people here are used to living in hardship. at this model farm. it is not the exception. they insist things are better than before. >> human rights group freedom house is calling on the u.s. to help secure the freedom of an american activist and other demonstrators in egypt. sultan is accused of spreading

false information. highs trial was postponed on wednesday. he's been on hunger strike since january and send back to prison from hospital, he is in critical condition. freedom house issued the statement: . >> meanwhile, a keynote address on behalf of gaoled al jazeera journalist peter greste has been read out at a media award ceremony in london. it recognises sournalists who showed integrity, courage and spirit. peter greste and mohamed fadel fahmy and baher mohamed have been detained in eguilt for 293 days, falsely accused of helping the outlawed muslim

brotherhood, and are appealing against the convictions. >> jonah hull has more. >> reporter: as journalists gathered at the front line club for an award ceremony, one member of the club was absent: he is serve a prison return. he was given a lengthy sentence. in a keynote address, compiled by peter's family, based on conversations and delivered by co-deft sue turton, he reflects on dangers for journalists in conflicts defined more and more by ideology. >> my point is in all these battle ground, whether hot or cold, journalists are no longer on the front lines, we are the front lines. in this conflict, there's no such thing as a mutual

independent reporter. if you cross the lines in pursuit, fundamental principals of balance, fairness you join the enmy. >> peter greste believes his incarceration is against journalism. >> the acquisition of news abroad has become increasingly daction, to the point now i think it's severely threatened. editors and news organizations are wondering if they can send people to places like syria. >> peter greste's family are keep to stress that they put the speech together based on conversations during prison visit. he and fellow prisoners are restricted in what they are allowed to write. the worry is privilege could be revoked if the authorities believe anything has been smuggled out. the men are not free to speak

their minds, a campaign in news rooms, online and capitals sought to build pressure for their release. their predicament is close to the heart of many journalists, sometimes at risks for doing their jobs. >> vote counting in mozambique's presidential elections is under way. more from the capital mo putto. >> voters are reading up on allegations of electoral fraud. the main opposition accused supporters of the governing free lemo party of stuffing pallet boxing. the timing of power cuts was suspicious and some polling stations opened late. there was no justice, it was not transparent. in the north where opposition is strong, there was much control. >> it's possible that has happened. i don't know. if all these reports are true -

i wasn't there. we are waiting for the final result. >> once counting has finished at polling stations, results are sent to centers like this. where the votes are tallied. by law the maximum electoral commission has a maximum 15 days to produce a result. if it uses that time and takes that long the opposition and public become suspicious. >> a spokesman for the electoral commission said in the three main crowds, that it gathered at some polling stations to intimidate voters. . >> we know there are logistical problems sending helicopters to remote areas. we haven't had formal complaints from other parties. >> the incident is relatively isolated, considering there were 17,000 polling stations. the head of the observer mission, and the national

electoralommission said on the whole the voting was smooth just a reminder you can keep up to date with all the latest news on our website aljazeera.com. it's inside story.