>> tech know, every saturday go where science meets humanity. >> this is some of the best driving i've every done, even though i can't see. >> tech know. >> we're here in the vortex. only on al jazeera america. >> this is al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton in new york. let's get you caught up on the top stories this hour. a deadline to reach an agreement on iran's nuclear programme grows closer. sticking points remain. >> president obama expands the role of u.s. troops in afghanistan tunisia prepare for elections since the 2011 arab spring spring. >> in tonight's deeper look,

it's been months since student abductions in mexico. we look at growing violence within the country. great to have you with us. we begin with a stalemate in negotiations for a nuclear program deal with iran. secretary of state john kerry is in vienna at this hour, delaying his departure. he continues to meet with rein's foreign minister and other world leaders trying to work out an agreement. the tentative deal is on monday in iran, the p5+1, including the u.s., russia, china, france, u.k., and germany. under the deal iran had agreed to roll back parts of its nuclear programme in exchange for the easing of some economic sanctions. the interim agreement went into effect on january 20th, 2004, and ex-powers on -- expires on monday. more from jonah hull in vienna.

>> negotiators spent the day hunkered down in closed-door meetings, giving little away to the media. technical teams have been hard at work, looking and testing different proposals and scenarios to see if one is better than another. john kerry, the u.s. secretary of state. zor zarif, the iranian foreign minister and katherine ashton finished trilateral talks. the german foreign minister arrived. his british and french counterparts are in their capitals. the russian and chinese have not left theirs, there's no indication when they mightment the indications we have as to where the talks are at comes from reuters, quoting a source in european delegations ag this, "chances of a deal by monday's deadline is small.

there's no significant progress on sticking points around the enrichment programme and the lifting of sanctions, and that discussions on a possible extension of the talks may begin on sunday." what exactly that means we are not clear - whether they may talk for a day or two more if they believe a deal is in site. or whether they may break up the talks to return at a future date remains to be seen. >> jonah hull in vienna. we invite you to join us tomorrow hours before the dead lun for an agreement. we'll let you know where the two sides stand, and you'll feigned out if there is a chance of a deal. that is tomorrow in "the week ahead", iran nuclear talks, 8:30pm eastern. 5:30 pacific. turning to afghanistan, president obama apparently changed course, expanding the role of u.s. troops to include combat. it was in may when the president said the u.s. would have no combat role in afghanistan next

year. according to the "new york times", the president decided to authorise an expansive mission for the military, ensuring that the troops will have a role in fighting in the country for another year. for more from washington, we go to our correspondent. >> in may of this year president obama gave a speech in the white house rose garden ensuring the nation and the world that the conversation would continue. combat may be ending, combat operations will not. according to the "new york times", u.s. troops will be able to attack taliban forces and any forces deemed to be a threat to american interests, or the interests of the african government next year, not only that, they'll do so on the ground and by air. that significant because under hamid karzai, the u.s. air operations were suspended because of concerns over

civilian casualties. we are told by the "new york times", that there was much debate. the president overruled the advisors in order to give the military what they wanted. the timing of the story is interesting. the news was released on a friday when, if anyone was talking about politics in the u.s., they were talking about immigration, foreign policy. little debate so far about this in the u.s. also, interesting to note, the afghan lower houses of parliament will be debating the bilateral security agreement and the status of forces agreement reached with the u.s. on sunday, and are expected to pass it. >> former director of the c.i.a.'s counterterrorism center says the policy change is welcome news to the general on the ground in afghanistan. robert grenier says the u.s. military's role will not be much different. >> i think the generals are given a little more discretion on the ground next year than perhaps was called for previously, but that is just an

acknowledgment of the fact that the military situation in afghanistan is eroding more sharply than it had been previously, and u.s. troops obviously want to be in position where they can aid african allies, the white house has not changed their position, they'll be less than 10,000, they have not challenged their role. they'll be trainers, support personal and will not be deployed in highly contested areas of the country. we need to see it in context. >> the significant change is the president's expanded use of air attacks and military combat operations in afghanistan. >> a report by the house intelligence committee says the c.i.a. and the u.s. military acted appropriately during attacks on facilities in ghazi, libya, the report found that security was lax at a state department facility.

an investigation by the republican-led panel dismissed allegations that the president obama administration blocked rescue attempts. u.s. ambassador christopher stevenson and three others died in the attack. >> iraqi civilians, including women and children were killed during an air strike. the jets were targetting i.s.i.l. for more, we turned to imran khan in baghdad. >> according to the ramadi hospital eight casualties were brought in as a result of air strikes - four children, four adults, two of which were women, it has not been confirmed whether they were coalition air strikes or iraqi army air strikes. through the media, a sunni rebel group claimed it was the iraqi air force that mounted the air strike. the iraqi army, security forces have not confirmed that. whilst that was happening. the coalition air strike claimed

to have hit a training camp for i.s.i.l. fighters, killing 85. it has not been confirmed. all of this comes as an assault has taken place on ramadi, which began on thursday night and is ongoing. the assault on ramadi city is taking place in the north and the south, where iraqi forces with sunni tribal fighters are trying to push i.s.i.l. fighters away. this is a big assault since the iraqi army took it over in october. these air strikes were likely to back up and disrupt i.s.i.l. activity. >> imran khan in baghdad. vice president joe biden pledged additional humanitarian aid to syrian refugees. since the beginning of the war, it 1 million syrians sought protection in turkey. speaking from istanbul, they

continued support. >> because of what turkey has been doing, we are able to devote a little over $3 billion to the evidence, including $200 million to turkey, which is not nearly the cost they are incurring. collectively we are working to deal with humanitarian crisis in turkey, the largest burden thrust upon the turkish people. >> hundreds of demonstrators rallied. the protest was organised by a youth association to turkey, the same group responsible for harassing three u.s. soldiers. bernard smith has the latest from istanbul. >> despite four hours of talks between the u.s. vice president vice president joe biden, and turkish president recep tayyip erdogan, the u.s. seams to have made little headway in attempts to persuade them to take a more

active role in the fight against i.s.i.l. there's no indication that the turkish authorities will allows the u.s. to use air bases to launch sortees against u.s. and iraq. >> the air crafts will continue to fly the long journeys. turkey insists that it sees the regime of syrian president bashar al-assad as much of a problem as that of i.s.i.l., and wants the u.s. to take on bashar al-assad, and i.s.i.l., and wants a no-fly zone in northern syria, so that moderate anti-bashar al-assad forces can regroup and syrian refugees can be housed. the u.s. maintains that its priority is i.s.i.l., and this is where the divide regains between turkish and u.s. and today's visit by biden doesn't seem to have closed the

gap bernard smith in yit next, growing unrest in mexico. nearly two months since 43 students went missing, families are demanding answers. and calling for change to a corrupt government calling for impunity plus, under investigation - generic drugs under scrutiny for sky-high prices. plus, a lot to talk about in the weather. >> peninsula - this is the most snow they have got. it is buffalo, however, that is included in the flood warnings breaking out from the melting snow. 6-7 feet of that melting fast. we'll show you how soon we'll get close to 70, coming up.

>> it's insane. >> the borderland thanksgiving day marathon. on al jazeera america.

tonight we take a deeper look at growing unrest in mexico. protesters are demanding answers. police opened fire on the

students in guerra state on september 26th. president pena nieto is under pressure to find them. adam raney has more. >> violence in mexico is fuelled in large part by an insatiable appetite for illicit drugs in the united states, helping to spawn the gangs. they extort people in cities and downs. and when people do not pay, they rape family members, kidnap them or kill them. people are accustomed to high-level violence, and they can't take it. in the case of 43 missing students, it shows how upset people are, sparking anger and fear. protests across the country, numbering in the tens of thousands, if not more people participating. the president of mexico peno

nieto came to office promising to lower levels of violence, but that has not been the case that missing students show. and now he faces the biggest political crisis, and is trying to convince mexicans that he can inform institutions, the judiciary and the police and prosecutors to make sure that they investigate thoroughly crimes that they do that. we are in a country where 93% of crimes go on vetted. there's a high level of impunity. >> adam raney is joining us from mexico city. good to see you. what is the latest on the investigation with the students? >> well, they are still awaiting results from austria to see if remains found at one of the several mass grave sites are those of the 43 students. the attorney-general of mexico,

he said that members of the organised criminal group, united warriors, or warriors united, confessed to the fact that members of the gang killed the students. the way that he presented the evidence at a press conference is particularly what upset and angered many of the families and students in that area in guerrero. they don't buy the government's story and think they want to solve the case. they want to have separate experts from an argentine group confirming what ever remains to be said. it's still a missing person's case. >> adam raney stand by, i want to continue the conversation with christopher wilson, senior associate for the mexico institute at the wilson center in washington d c. a reporter with the new york review of books that covered latin america joins us from princeton new jersey.

thank you all for being with us tonight. thank you. >> hello. >> i want to start with you, you have been covering this for some time. how do you describe the state of violence plaguing certain parts of mexico? >> i think it's been going on for a long time, at least 10 years, i would say. i do think that this is not the worst case of violence we have seen, and by no means the only case of violence we have seen. what made it so visible to people is that it was violence exercised against 43 students from a particularly poor state in mexico, and one of the poorest colleges or teacher schools in the whole country. in fact, shockingly poor. what has happened, i think, is that it's been setting off a succession of sparks, so that people are upset about the drug violence, people are upset about

the students, specifically. merchants are very upset about the loss of tourism. they are at the stage where they have announced they'll have to start letting people go. people are upset about their own safety on highways, passing through. there has been a marginal report that one of the bodies that was founded did not belong to the students, but belonged to a priest, a priest from uganda who had been kidnapped in april. really, there's a great deal of anger, unrest and fear that sort of snowballed i want to talk about the timing of these protests. in the last decade 100,000 people died. that number has been disputed. 27,000 missing. what is it about this case. 43 missing students sparked the

protest. >> the victims are young, they are students. they were innocent. they are not involved in any way in organised crime. and then it's about who the perpetrator is, it was the government. the local government, the mayor. and to have the government who is supposed to protect you, pass you, pass innocent victims off to an organised crime group. we are not clear what the instructions were from the mayor or his wife. there were some instructions to deal with the students. and they dealt with them in a horrible, horrible way. this is a horrible atrocity. it's unfolded before the eyes of mexico. the case didn't take a long time to get out in terms of the initial pieces of information, but it's been slowly unfolding, and we have seen the lawyers of the onion peeled back, the resignation of a governor, the - you know, the finding of many

other mass graves that did not belong to the students along the way. you know, i think this revealed and shocked mexicans, but not entirely, because they suspected that it was happening all along. why the students. you bring up good points, the young men are not wealthy, the families making less than $500 a month. what can the gangs have to gain in any of these cases? >> nothing. i think that something went wrong. there's no good reason for it, no justification for it at all, obviously. i think, you know, as the story comes out, what it appears that happened is that the students were travelling to the city of igwarla to -- iguala, to demonstrate. they commandeered some buses and arrived in the city. as they arrived there was information given to the mayor and/or his wife of what was happening. she, the mayor's wife was

planning an event, and there was concern that the everyone would be disrupted by the protests of the students. that's it. that's all they did. they arrived and maybe were going to get in the way of the actions of the local rulers. and some order was given, and at that point, to deal with that threat. then things went horribly wrong. how much of it was a deliberate attack, and there was a desire to kill the students, and how much was a miscommunication or getting out of control is unclear. >> adam raney joining us once again. who are the active players? what do the gangs want? what are they seeking? this is about more than drugsing right? >> it is. basically states like gurr air joe and others in the -- guerrero and others in the north-east have become kind of hunting grounds for the criminal groups.

a car tell or gang control the air. they don't just want to traffic drugs, they want to exploit the territory for whatever profit they can find. it may be charging people, extorting protection money, having a business to be operating in that city. that is what we have heard from people in the state. we had people owning line ranches paying an exorbitant amount of money, we are not sure how it's working out. it's profit, fuelling the violence. when you have so many armed groups in such parts of the country where there's little authorities, there's little to stop things getting out of control. there's nothing stopping them. there's not many cases taking the people away when things get out of control. this case had dozens of suspects arrested. it's because it's an anomaly.

there are large parts of mexico where gangs operate in impunity, and if not given a pass by authorities, sometimes it's because members of the local government are involved in the criminal gangs, members of the criminal gangs are somehow on the payroll. >> i want to look at the major drug cartels. we are about to see the bigger ones. guerrero state is in the territory. how do we fight the corruption? >> i think one of the problems is that mexico used corruption for so many decades. when the groups, plans, the drug families started to become more powerful, it was easy to feed into the corruption network. for example, in the concrete case of iguala and the 43 students, we know that mrs. mayor, for lack of a better

word, was the sister of three gang members of the unit war warriors, and they would deposit money to her every month, which in turn she fuelled into the payroll of the police, so the police knew who they were getting paid by, they were getting paid by and answerable to the guerrero gangs. it was easy for the mayor to say deal with this, and to be obeyed. knowing it was in fact a favour or a service for the drug gang. corruption. corruption is in every part of the country that people pay a small bribe to a cop who stops you on the street. then i am sure many, many mayors throughout mexico have to come to an arrangement with the drug

groups, because if they don't, they are under threat. any number of candidates and mayors have been kill. >> i there's mass corruption, how did peno nieto change the strategy on the war on drugs and violence. >> the previous president escalated or brought this up. what could be called a war on organised crime. the strategy is a frontal assault, going after the top leaders of the group. going after the military and the federal police. they were successful in some ways, in taking out a lot of top leaders. >> they took out 137 main leaders, and we saw the little more violent groups. >> that's exactly right. we saw the fragmentation. and the groups like in guerrero. it forced the groups to move from a strategy of trafficking

drugs to more focus on extortion and kidnappings, crimes where the society is the victim. so as that went on, as society became the victim, there was a demand to stop focussing on destroying organised crime groups and focus on protecting citizens, it started to happen in the second part of the administration. by the time there were presidential elections, the will of the people was for violence to go down, that was the platform that peno nieto ran on. so his strategy insofar as there has been an articulated strategy to deal with public security was to focus on crimes with the highest social impact on homicides, extortions, kidnap of course, and find ways to bring it down. it's unclear how he planned to do that. he came in at a moment in which the homicide rate was falling, not a lot, but a little bit

since he came into office. the major pending its such as a transition to a new judicial system that was pending, and just now, has the president begun to talk about that as an issue behind corruption and violence. what we are really seeing now is people demanding a clear strategy, and finally the president and his team will be forced to articulate one, or at least i believe so. >> adam raney, how much faith do the people have in peno nieto? >> i'd say they have very little overall. he has his supporters, as every elected official does, no matter how unpopular they become. beyond core scpuption commotion, people see their leaders as totally out of touch. you have at the same time that this crisis is happening for peno nieto, a whole conflict of

interest scandal surrounding a house that he and his wife have possession of. it's in the name of someone that they have longstanding relations with, a man in a company who received hundreds of millions of dollars from contracts from the state of mexico when pena nieto had a stake in the company. i say that to illustrate that when people see that scandal, why the government is not solving the problem of violence, they believe the wealthy politically city had no interest, and they see them as out of touch. you have the stepdaughter as president. she was asked on the red carpet what she thought about it the school - the name given to this

whole case. they said "we came out to have a good time, not to talk about that, of course i'm sad, but let's talk about the award." people in mexico, someone like peno nieto. really didn't understand the problem. he lives in a rarified world. he has nothing to do. he lives on very little money. seen as being out of touch. >> i'll talk about immigration reform. stand by. a lot of attention focused on the search for illegal children from honduras, el salvador and guatemala. there were more minors crossing the boarder, heidi zhou-castro explains what happened. >> the governor announced national guard troops will remain at the texas-mexican border for most of next year. it has helped to stem the flow of unaccompanied children crossing to the u.s., and we are getting a better idea about where the kids came from.

the majority were mexican. youths from honduras, el salvador, and guatemala were protected by human trafficking laws, allowing them to stay in the u.s. mexican children were not granted the same protection. those kids were returned to mexico within a few day without a formal hearing. those youth were at the greatest risk to be snatched up by organised crime, according to the u.n. cartels recruited them to be human smuggling guides. if caught, they'd just be returned across the border. 94% of crimes go unreported or uninvestigated in mexico. experts say in 90% of cases the violence in mexico was not enough to convince u.s. officials to grant asylum to people seeking to escape it. >> if you look at cuba, the u.s.

government the u.s. government recognises the cuban communist government as oppressive, and it is easier for a cuban immigrant to claim asylum in the u.s., showing the country of origin is important in their case for claiming asylum many of these children recruited as child soldiers, our panel joining us. do you see immigration reform, border enforce. enacting a real change here? >> i think i will quote the founder of an online newspaper saying the crisis is not at the border, the crisis is in el salvador, in honduras, is in the state of guerrero. one of the more dramatic things that i saw coming out was the students who said "as children we worked in the poppy fields,

we had no alternatives. we could work in the fields or hide. we could go to the united states or join the drug groups as latele guides, as adam was saying. there is no other choice. yes, it is increased awareness of crossing the boarder. >> does the united states need to play a greater role. >> the united states is one of the players. they have the potential to play an important role in supporting mexico, supporting mexico in dealing with issues of corruption, they play an important role, and there is definitely space for that. in a country like mexico, for

everything bad that we are saying about what is going on, there's a fact that mexico is a large country with a growing middle class. if mexico devotes resources to reform of law, it has a lot of resources to do that. it will be mexico, not the united states, leading the effort to reform mexico and protect its citizens. >> what does real reform for the people look like, adam? >> well, i think real reform is that they are safe to carry out their lifts. mexico is trumpeted as having a democracy in 2000. when it was elected out of office. in the 14 years, in many ways,

quadi life has gone down, if you look at it as people wanting to be safe, that they don't have to pay bribes to get things like a driver's licence or marriage certificate we'll leave it there. thank you all, appreciate your time coming up on al jazeera america - the cost of generic prescription drugs is on the rise. some more than 1,000% in the past year. details just ahead. >> in western new york state - braying for flooding as -- bracing for flooding as a massive snow fall begins to melt.

in ferguson, missouri, anxiety is increasing ahead of a grand jury decision that could come next week. the jury will decide whether or not to bring criminal charges against police officer darren

wilson, the officer who shot and killed michael brown last summer. since brown's death, ferguson has been the scene of ongoing protests. the federal government sent 100 federal bureau of investigation ates ahead of the decision. over in buffalo, fears of flooding as the city continues to dig its way out of snow falls. nearly 7 feet of snow left much of buffalo at a stand still, trapping people in their homes, shutting down schools and closing businesses. as temperatures rise, melting snow could release 5 inches of water, between now and monday. earlier today, governor quooemo plained the cons -- como explained the reaction. >> we have operations including 425 pumps and generatos, 55 poets are being brought in as we

speak. three helicopters, 29 vehicles that can do rescues in 4-5 feet of water. and 185,000 sand backs, in case we need them. >> the state is ready. governor como says the place should prepare for the worse and hope for the best. >> rebecca stevenson, meteorologist, joins us. >> temperatures are warming, bringing a wave of warm air tomorrow night, along with heavy rain and wind gusts anywhere from 40 to 60 miles per hour. all that together melts snow quick limb. as we were saying, or noting. meteorologist estimating snow depth. water content, 4-6 inches. that with the rain and wind,

we'll see problems in the way of flooding up to a couple of feet in some spots. the running on the hills will be fast. freezing drizzle in a lot of places. causing, in detroit, a plane to come off the runway. we have so many issues out there, in was a huge scare. so this particular plane was coming from portland oregon, flying into detroit, landing, it was a great concern, which was was everyone okay. and at last check, everyone was okay. they did deep plane solve. scary moment for the focus fly into detroit. a lot of ice. risk of drizzle all around buffalo and erie, peninsula. warming up fast tomorrow, and the rain coming in tomorrow night. we have a flood warning.

it is a warning. we know that we'll get a lot of water running off very fast. >> temperatures on sunday in the morning hours, upper 30s to low 40s as we get through the day, to the 50s, staying overnight. nothing below freezing, and into the upper 50s and so many places. the other spot is in texas, severe weather breaking out there with powerful gusts and heavy rain. >> back east, near record highs. >> potentially, yes. from below formal to above. >> the price of generic medications has been sky rockets. no-name drugs costing hundreds more than a few years ago. it has attracted the attention of congress, we have more. >> reporter: for more than 30 years the use of generic drugs lowered the cost of medications for millions of

americans. in 1984 an act streamlined the process to approve generics once the original patent had expired. it's estimated generics account for 86% of all drugs dispensed in the u.s. it makes sense when you consider it can government 30 to 80% less than the originals. >> according to the president. generic medications save patients $239 million last year. and 1.5 trillion in the last decade. more than one out of four americans do not fill their prescriptions because they cannot afford the course. >> federal records show that 1200 drugs increased in cost by on average 448% from july 2013 to july 2014. some of them are pretty common

medicines. one of the dramatic examples is this one used to fight infections, a 500 pill bottle went from costing $20 to $1800. >> if generic drug prices continue to rise, we'll have people all over this country who are sick, who need medicine and simply will not be able to afford to buy the medicine that they need. >> independent vermont senator are introducing a bill to cap price, and they want the generic companies to reboot costs. drugs in question represent a small percentage of 12,000 non-branded drugs on the market

pharmacist robert frankel owns and operates two pharmacies in south-eastern peninsula, and he testified at the hearing, joining us via skype to discuss the cost. >> production problems, raw material shortages, the f.d.a. increased scrutiny on plants in india. where over 40% of drugs are manufactured. there's a consolidation in the marketplace where different manufacturers are buying each other out. causing fewer manufacturers to create drugs. it's the decision of the drug manufacturers to set the price. all of these factors can increase drug prices by 5-10-20%. it's understandable when competition decreases. there's no explanation for a drug to go up 1,000 or 8,000%. >> he says there should be an agency to oversee the cost of the drugs.

a watchdog is needed over the generic companies. the university of virginia is suspending fraternities after allegations of sexual assault surfaced. the school is re-examining to cases of how it responds to sexual violence. it is said to last until january 9th. it's in response to a "rolling stone" magazine article on wednesday, detailing the gang raping of an 18-year-old female at a frat party. the fraternity is under investigation. still ahead - the birthplace of the arab spring tunisia, is celebrating the democratic process with 27 candidates for tomorrow's presidential election. >> israel returns to a controversial policy that many say will escalate tensions with the palestinians.

welcome back.

tunisians will go to the polls to elect a new parliament. for the first time there'll be more than one name on the ballot for president. there are 27 candidates in all, and a lot of excitement about the process. omar al saleh reports. >> reporter: campaigning in tunisia's presidential election has been loud and lively. voters are looking forward to exercising their democratic rights for the first time. >> we want someone who moves tunis forward, and serves the country. >> translation: i hope tunisia will get better and all will be united. >> reporter: the president was deposed which a vote in 2011. it would have been possible to run for the top job. candidates like this one are free to address supporters near the ministry of interior, a

symbol. for many tunisians. this is the first multi candidate election. in every other vote. there was not a real chance of winning. as for campaigning this time around it is one of the -- some of the liveliest this country has ever had. >> there are 27 registered candidates. some have pulled out. most are running, promising to bring stability, promising to improve the economy and create jobs. according to some. secular party, in tunis, they won the most seats in the parliamentary elections last month. the speaker of the parliament in the 1960s, and in the '90s, and the prime minister - he campaigned to restore the prestige of the state and ruled

with experience. second in the polls is the current president. a long-time human rights activist, campaigning to champion the force. other candidates are in the race too, and prove all polls roping. despite the fierce competition, analysts believe they have matured. all parties seem to have a tendency for consensus, forming a national unity government, and realise the social, economic and external dangers facing tunisia. >> for the first time ever, people can't say who will win the presidential reforms. there's talk of a second round of voting, something that only a few years ago would have been difficult to imagine

and bahrain the polls closed for voting in the parliamentary elections. it's the first votes since a government crackdown. bahrain is a divided nation and many chose not to participate. nicole johnson has more. >> reporter: the government act bahrainis to turn out and vote. many did, not everyone. the largest shia party, and three other groups boycotted the vote. >> unless we agree on the system, that represents the people and makes officials accountable. and serve and protect their rites. we cannot participate. in bahrain, a sunni muslim monarchy rules over a population which is shia. the imbalance caused tension. in 2011, shia's protested, demanding greater rights. it was crushed by the

government, backed by tanks from neighbouring saudi arabia. this is the first election since those tense days. on thursday, in the north-western village, it was tense. demonstrators march through the streets. on friday, instead of voting, some tried to block the traffic and prevent others from voting - scattering rocks and rubbish across the street. police fired tear gas in the area. more than 660 candidates are competing in bahrain's election. however, the real power lies with an unelected political leadership. the el-halifa royal family. after crushing the opposition in 2011, the king announced an inquiry into human rights abuse, finding detainees tortured and shias fired from their job. now the government wants to reach out for the opposition,

and blames iran for meddling in bahrain's affairs. >> invitation for dialogue, a second invitation. they refused to participate. in their mind bahrain should be deliver delivered. >> whether protesting or voting, they are a long way from national unity. it's deeply divided and the memories of unrest and oppression during the arab spring are fresh. few spect this election will pring the sunni and -- bring the sunni and shia communities any closer together israel is renewing a controversial decade-old policy demolishing the homes of palestinians accused of killing israelis. the homes of two palestinian men involved in a deadly attack of a synagogue were targeted.

the revival of the act has caused unrest. human rights watch called for is to be stopped. israel discontinued it in 2005 after it was found to be ineffective in guinea, a taxi carrying ebola-tainted blood was hijacked. a red cross courier and eight passengers were robbed earlier this week. the men stole money, julie and the samples. -- jewellery and samples which were on their way to a test site 28 people were killed in an early morning bus attack in northern kenya. somalia al-shabab took credit. they said they hijacked the bus, singling out and killing 28 passengers, soon to be non-muslim. there were 32 survivors. the military struck back with air strikes, killing 45 rebels. >> in africa, boko haram fighters attacked in in

north-eastern nigeria. it's not the first time the up to was targeted. it was attacked in august. this time 50 people were killed. >> still ahead on al jazeera america how you can sing whether john lennon, and help children around the world. plus.... >> i'm wayne hays sitting down to lunch with japanese school children, to find out why they are among the healthiest in the world.

[ ♪ music ] talk about a unique approach the john lennon classic "imagine" ♪ imagine all the people ♪ living for the day ♪ imagine there's no countries ♪ it isn't hard to do...

. >> sponsored by u.n.i.c.e.f., it's called the imagine project. every day people encouraged to record their own version of the song. some will be combined with famous artists for a world version released in the lead-up to the new year's eve. all to raise funds for u.n.i.c.e.f. and awareness of children's rights. >> very good. back in the u.s. government school officials and parents struggle to design school lunches that are healthy, safety and affordable. wayne hay has more from tokyo. >> reporter: in this fast-paced modern world japan is taking time out to help children prepare for a better tomorrow. meal tame at elementary school is on event, not just an opportunity. it's part of the education process, where the children are taught about the food they are eating and where it comes from.

>> marinated salad has cabbage, carrot, bean sprout, peanut paste. >> reporter: the nutritionist is a full-time member of the teaching staff. on the member is rice, which is a staple of the japanese g diet. fish, great for brain development and fresh seasonal vegetables. they try not to include too much fat, assault or sugar, and the best thing is the children seem to enjoy it. >> there are no snacks after the meal and no canteen to buy extras. there aren't many complaints. >> translation: i like the vegetables and toasted soy flour, things we don't get at home. >> reporter: the meals are prepared on site. the deterrence is less than three meals. schools in the tabbingio suburbs used to have some of the highest

obesity rates in japan, until embracing the healthy eating programme, developing it further. the health of children improved. and they are the envy of others. >> governments come to visit us, ask us to explain the programme. two years ago we have 30 case, last year there were 20. >> their meals created such a buzz they decided to publish a cookbook with recipes, and it sold more than 70,000 copies. they are cooking the meals for local government staff to buy in the cafeteria. the health of japanese children is not perfect. officials admit it's harder to convince them to resist fast food. obesity rates have been dropping, something not many can claim. that will do it for this hour. thank you for joining us. i'm thomas drayton in new york.

"consider this" is next. have a great night. ♪..all the people ♪ living life in peace ♪ you may say i'm a dreamer ...♪ president obama dares congress to act as he goes it alone, changing american immigration policy. also, is our war against isil unfocused and underfunded? and americans feel alzheimer's more than any other disease. so why does it get so little funding for research? hello, i am antonio mora and welcome to "consider this." those stories and much more straight ahead. ♪ ♪ there are actions i have the legal authority take as president that will help make our immigration system more fair. i am announcing those actions.

>> instead workingog