♪ joining the fight against isil. the first peshmerga fighters head to the besieged syrian town of kobani. ♪ hello, i'm martine dennis in doha. also to come on the program, enforced migration, egypt displaces thousands to create a large buffer zone along the border with gaza. bangladesh war crime charges, the leader of the largest party is sentenced to death for murders committed more

than 40 years ago. it is now thought more than 5,000 people have died in the west africa ebola outbreak, according to the w.h.o. ♪ but first kurdish forces battling isil in the syria town of kobani are being boosted by more fighters. dozens of iraqi kurdish peshmerga are now on their way to the town. and a contingent of syrian rebel fighters have also arrived to join the fight. >> reporter: for turks it's an unprecedented sight. a armed kurdish fighters being escorted through turkey. the turkish government is allowing around 150 fighters to

transit its territory after pressure from the u.s. to do more to stop kobani from falling to isil. turkey is been in conflict with kurdish separatists for more than 30 years, but they don't see iraqi kurds as a threat, so it is letting them through. as the convoy made its way, the u.s.-lead coalition launched more air strikes apparently focused on the border crossing. it's there where the peshmerga might enter syria, and so has been a place that has been the focus of repeated assaults by isil fighters. >> instead of finding a way to reconcile between the different parties the united states now decided to arm more people and train more people, and this will only long prolong the war and it will be more heavy than it is now. >> reporter: the peshmerga are bringing heavy weapons with

them. it's this hardware that the curds in kobani say they desperately need. for more than a month now, they have held their ground with small arms and grenades as well as air strikes. there are also reinforcements to the free syrian army. but this is a battle where both sides have thousands of fighters, and where is isil -- particularly seems to be able to easily replenish its ranks. we have been talking to general john allen. he is the man put in charge of chord rating the anti-isil coalition and explains turkey's role in the conflict and what is needed now to push back isil. >> it's not going to be a short period of time. it's going to take the cooperation of many of the members of the coalition over a period. we're going to combine our

efforts in a number of ways to accomplish, ultimately the objective of degrading isil and ultimately defeating it. neglect of the operational requirements of the military forces, frankly sectarian policies, which replaced key leaders within the iraqi security forces, and i think what we're seaing and hearing now is the iraqi security forces of the future will be iraqi security forces of all of the people. three training centers, where elements of the free syrian army, moderate elements of the syrian opposition will be trained and equipped and returned into syria, where they will conduct operations against darche, but also defend themselves from other elements in syria to include the regime. turkey has made important contributions already to the

coalition. we're seeing unfolding today the positive outcome of conversation between the peshmerga, the defenders of kobani and turkey to provide for the reinforcement of kobani, and beyond that, i'll simply say that we are in are conversation with turkey about the role that it can play within the coalition and ultimately dealing with darche. >> hundreds of egyptians living in northern sinai have been forced to leave their homes for a planned buffer zone. now their homes will be demolished to create the protected area between egypt and the gaza strip. egypt says it is designed to stop attackers from getting into northern sinai. >> reporter: they have been leaving with whatever they can carry, abandoning homes and l e lively hoods.

they live within 300 meters of the border crossing along egypt's board we are the gaza strip. the egyptian government says it is to become a buffer zone, to protect the north sinai border and to keep attackers and weapons out. the buffer zone will expand to 500 meters, right along the entire 14 kilometer border, and include water trenches to stop people from digging tunnels. more than 680 homes are to be destroyed to create it. >> translator: around 600 houses have been evacuate sod far, but there are still some families refusing to leave. they say it is better for them to die in their homes. the army has threatened to destroy the houses even if the the families haven't left. >> reporter: the decision follows an escalation in the fighting in north sinai over the last three years. that violence spiked on friday

when an attack killed 31 soldiers, the worst against egypt's military personal in years. egypt declared a state of emergency there. hamas, which controls the gaza strip has been accused of supporting fighters angered by the removal of egyptian president mohammed morsi in a military coup last year. it's something that hamas denies. it's officials are angry at egypt for also imposing stricter border-crossing rules. no one has said they are behind the attack, but an al-qaeda offshoot in the region has claimed similar attacks in recent years. egyptian officials are still discussing compensation with the hundreds of people now forced to give up their homes, but staying is not an option, anyone still there when the deadline expires has been threatened with arrest.

now the zambian vice president has been named interim leader ahead of fresh elections. he is taking over for michael sata who died in the hospital of an undisclosed illness. >> reporter: the phrase if at first you don't succeed, try and try again, best described the late zambian president. he lost elections three times, but kept trying on his fourth attempt he finally won. sata known as the king cobra because of his sharp tongue initially made foreign investors nervous. he criticized the chinese for

mistreating workers. but when he took over the government he toned down his stance, and promised he could grow the economy. on the ground there are signs of development, but many people in the country are still pour. >> have the quality of life of the people improved? i don't think very much. has the infrastructure or development in the country improved significantly? i don't think. but there are some infrastructure that have been put in place. the economy has grown. but not grown to a very high level. you don't hear people talking of zambia as being the place to invest, the place with the highest gdp growth. >> reporter: on the political front sata's critics said his tolerance for political opposition was questionable. protests often weren't allowed to take place, and they also

cracked down on homosexuality. michael sata had shown signs of aging when he was elected in 2011. even then there were concerns about his health. he had his supports, but also his enemies. sata managed to keep zambia relatively stable economically and politically. now so south sudan, the world's youngest country. thousands of people have died and more than 2 million people are now living as refugees within their own country, following the ten months of fighting there. south sudan's president has been speaking about the conflict to al jazeera, and he explains that the country lacks political unity, but that it's up to his main political rival to make the difference. >> if you are really interested

in -- to know when will the -- the peace come to south sudan, you better ask my opponent. because for me, i am for peace. i have never attacked him in his position. he is the one attacking. >> reporter: but you will have to compromise, won't you? >> i compromise when i talk to somebody, and he understands me. >> reporter: so this ideas that you both share power, is that feasible? >> no, there is no sharing of power here. there is to be an agreement. we reach an agreement to stop fighting, we will go for elections. >> you can see the full interview at these times on "talk to al jazeera," saturday, sunday at 8:30, and again, at

1930 greenwich meantime. so no excuse, you can't miss it. al jazeera continues to demand the release of its three journalists who are held in prison in egypt. they are wrongfully accused of helping the outlawed muslim brotherhood. still to come, india's hunt for black money. the supreme court gets a list of people, some of whom may have already stashed their cash abroad. plus russia offers the u.s. help after a commercial supply rocket exploded en route to the international space station. ♪ >> we begin with the growing controversy. >> answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> real perspective, consider this

on al jazeera america >> a brutal drug war >> this here were the remains of 31 people that were found... >> thousands disappearing >> the cost of kidnapping and killing a human being is almost zero >> fault lines, al jazeera america's hard hitting... >> today they will be arrested... >> ground breaking... they're firing canisters of gas at us... emmy award winning investigative series... new episode the disappeared only on al jazeera america

♪nly on al jazeera america hello again. let's have a look at the top stories here at al jazeera. dozens of iraqi kurdish peshmerga are on their way to the syrian town of kobani. the peshmerga will boost kurdish fighters who have been battling isil for weeks. hundreds of -- egyptians are being forced to leave their homes for a buffer zone in northern sinai. and guy scott has been named interim leader of zambia. he is temporarily succeeding michael sata who died of an

undisclosed illness. the w.h.o. says the death toll from ebola has now exceeded 5,000. nearly 14,000 has been infected by the virus. but the w.h.o. says it is cautiously optimistic that the rate of new cases is slowing. >> our goal here is to reduce the number of contacts that any positive case has and an awful lot of that can be done with simple behavior changes. so i think what we're probably seeing is a combination of -- of those two pieces, along with the fact that they were isolating cases in huge numbers. >> all right. let's take a look back at the past ten months and how this ebola crisis has been unfolding. ♪ >> translator: the virus is found in animal's biological secretions, if you are in contact with it, you run the risk of getting infected. >> translator: we immediately sent samples to two

laboratories, then we had the confirmation that it was ebola. >> translator: we have been put out of business. if we can't sell our meat, our families are going to go hungry. >> translator: certain members of the family escaped our control, and through their movement have increased the number of infections in certain areas. >> these borders are quite pore us in fact, so we have to be careful there, and we need to be prepared. >> we don't have to wait for a confirmation. this is ebola until proven otherwise. >> [ inaudible ] so ten will be infected. >> the outbreak of the ebola virus disease in west africa meets the criteria under the international health regulations for a public health emergency of international concern. >> heavy health toll among health workers depletes one of the most vital assets in the

control of any outbreak. >> [ inaudible ] the government [ inaudible ] if the result shows that the spread is minimized. >> with a war you can run and hide somewhere. you can go outside of the boundaries of sierra leone, with ebola there's nowhere to run to, because the countries that you would run to are refusing you to go there. >> it's spiralling out of control. it's getting worse. >> someone who had contact with this individual, a family member or other individual could develop ebola in the coming weeks, but there is no doubt in my mind that we will stop it here. ♪ >> you do not have even the food for work. >> exclusion, restriction, is

not the appropriate response to this. ♪ now the leader of bangladesh's largest relious party is being sentenced to death for war crimes. the charges date back to murders in 1971. >> reporter: as head of bangladesh's main religious party, he is one of the highest profile men to be tried on war crime charges dating back to 1971. he is the tenth person to be convicted, which has been criticized by human rights groups for lack of judicial process. >> the trial is necessary for -- for justice. i mean heinous crime. it's a crime against humanity,

genocide, massacre, and everything. >> reporter: this is bangladesh's national monument to those killed in the war fof independence against pakistan in 1971. independent researchers estimate between 300,000 and 500,000 died. the bangladeshy government puts the number at 3 million. supporters say they are a long overdue way to bringing justice of those who committed atrocities during the struggle. critics say the trials are flawed and politically motivated. guilty verdicts against other leaders in 2013 sparked violent protests. his defense lawyer says his client didn't get a fair trial. >> in every country the war crimes trial takes place to close one chapter, and begin a new chapter. this is an exception in

bangladesh. this twiel has divided the nation. this trial has rocked the nation. every time a defendant -- death sentence is given to defendant, there is protests on the streets, and many people have been killed by the security forces. so it appears this is not going to solve the problem of bangladesh. >> reporter: several more are still on trial, probing decade's old national wounds that have never healed. now the indian government has given the supreme court a list of more than 600 people, some of whom are accused of illegally stashing their money in foreign bank accounts. it's part of the government's new clamp down. >> reporter: facing pressure to act, the indian government on wednesday moved to bring back black money, untaxed cash deposited in foreign bank accounts. it handed a list of accounts in question to the supreme court, while indians can legally bank

overseas, why some choose to park money abroad has long been a concern. >> the government gave a list of accounts. there are about 627, or 628 accounts. >> reporter: tackling the black money issue was one of the agenda the party promised during its election campaign earlier this year. the prime minister said if elected his party would bring back billions of dollars from foreign bank accounts in its first 100 days in office. that deadline has passed, and now those who want the government to act faster are demanding the list be made public. >> we hope that the society will recommending disclosure -- or will order the disclosure of

most of these names, because it is important that the country comes to know who are these account holders. >> reporter: in recent years tens of thousands of indians have protested against high-level corruption. numerous governments have promised to crack down on tax evasion, but this is the first time any names have been forwarded to the country's highest court. >> it's a good idea. but if they can get the money back. >> corruption is on a very, very large scale. and everything that this will bring an overnight change, i'm sorry this is not possible, but yet we can hope to see changes in doing years. >> reporter: the illegal 234r0e of money out of india has cost the national economy billions of dollars over the past ten years alone. the government's decision to crack down on black money has been widely welcome, but corruption is deeply rooted in

indian politics, so the question many are asking is how far are authorities willing to go? the russian space agency has offered to help the u.s. get its supplies to the international space station and a commercial american cargo rocket exploded. rory challands has the details from moscow. >> reporter: 2.6 metric tons of food and equipment destroyed in an explosion. the u.s. space agency, nasa, and its commercial rocket contractor, must now figure out what happened to the rocket. >> it began to go wrong around 10 to 12 seconds, i believe. i don't have the exact time. range safety initiated the flight termination system around 20 seconds, maybe a little bit

more. so most of this happened in the first 20 seconds of flight. >> reporter: another view of the explosion was filmed on a mobile phone as spectators gathered to watch. a vast fireball lights the sky, followed by the shock wave boom. it's the first accident since nasa hired orbital and another contractor. nasa hasn't carried out its own mission since it mothballed the program in 2011, but a lack of their own rocket engine no how mean much of the technology is of soviet design. that may surprise some people considering the current geopolitical tensions between the united states and russia and the international space station

and just his sorts of rocket engine contracts are pretty much the only areas of scientific cooperation these two countries have left. so will russia assume the manning of the space station. russia says it is ready to help more if nasa wants to ask, and a russian rocket launch without hitch on wednesday. but six russian rockets have failed in recent years. it's reliability record is far from perfect. nasa insists there is no iss supply line crisis. >> the station is in great shape. the crew is in good shape. we have plenty of work for them to do and plenty of supplies to keep them going for quite sometime. >> reporter: in recent years the u.s. has been trying to downsize to a new era of commercial space enterprise, recent events suggest in our cash-strapped

era, it's an ambition with sometimes explosive consequences. now the world's largest collection of art, historical documents and natural specimens has never really been fully cataloged. but now thousands of volunteers are helping to get it done. tom akerman reports. >> reporter: the shelves in this vast storeroom contain just a small fraction of the 137 million artifacts gathered by the many museums and research centers of the smithsonian institution. items like the largest collection of bat specimens. or primary historical documents. the institution's staff has a big enough mission just scanning and digitizing its backlog of artifacts plus more than keep

arriving, but transcribing the details of each item so they can be fully accessible to researchers, that's a task requiring many more hands. thanks to online crowd sourcing, fore than 3500 people have signed up. the volunteers aren't necessarily very knowledgeable in their fields of interest. >> it might be someone who liked signs when they were in high school, and said hey, i would like to transcribe this scientist's diary and pick it apart and see what i can share. >> my favorite would be the field books. >> reporter: volunteers like these sisters from new zealand who spending a few hours each week transcribing. >> a did a little bit of the art of handwriting, and i'm also recently [ inaudible ]. >> i'm also in contact with all -- through twitter with a lot of other volunteers for the smithsonian, so we do a lot of

talking about what we discover. we help each other out. >> reporter: if you thought computers had made human transcribers obsolete, well, not yet. an optical character recognition, or ocr machine doesn't decipher the text of this field note. the smithsonian isn't the only institution that has turned to crowd sourcing, the new york public library has can -- asked for help in transcribing its collection of an insent menus. tom akerman, al jazeera, washington. don't forget you can always

go to the al jazeera website, aljazeera.com. you can keep up to date with the developing stories, and a lot of background information as well, lots of analysis, in particular zambia's president, find out more about him on aljazeera.com. ♪ >> they work in the darkest depths of the earth, your honor seen and unheard by the world above.