>> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello there, welcome to the news hour, live from doha, i'm shiulie ghosh. our top stories. taliban attack an army-run school in pakistan. at least 130 people are dead, most children. >> reporter: there were six or seven attackers and they were turning the classrooms and shooting students one by one. hundreds of billions of dollars are wiped off of the value of russian's economy as the ruble crashes to a new low, and share prices plunge.

plus -- >> how can someone like that be entirely at large in the community? >> australia's prime minister asks why the sydney siege attacker was not on a watch list despite being known to the authorities. ♪ at least 130 people, most of them children have been killed in an attack on an school by the pakistani taliban. witnesses and police have described how gunmen wearing suicide vests entered the classrooms, and started shooting students where they sat. a siege lasting several hours, ended the deaths of all of the attackers. the prime minister has announced three days of mourning. the school is located near several government and military buildings. nicole johnston has this report.

>> reporter: it was an attack many people in pakistan has feared would eventually come. the blow back as the taliban takes its revenge on the army for launching a military campaign against it. but nobody thought the target would be a school, and dozens of children would be killed in the shootout. at least six armed men stormed into the peshawar school. >> translator: the firing started suddenly. we ran towards our classes. there were six or seven attackers, and they were entering the classrooms and shooting students one by one. >> reporter: the army public school is run by the military. the taliban says it carried out the attack in response to the army's operation against it in the north. a spokesman for the group has

released this statement. >> translator: they burned our homes, and we were forced to put their homes on fire. we have advised that if there is an underage child, even if he is the chief's son, he should be given a way out. we know that there are no underage children in one area we hit. >> reporter: the offense against the taliban started sick months ago. the military says it has killed more than 1800 fighters and destroyed camps and weapons stores. >> translator: the government and the army has begun the operation against mill tanths as the results are good. this operation will continue until we ban initial this terrorism from our country. >> this year the taliban has suffered as some splinter groups have broken away. but this is a reminder of what it can achieve. a deadly attack in the last

place people expected them to strike. nicole johnston, al jazeera. >> kamal joins us live now. pakistan is struggling to come to terms with this attack. >> reporter: indeed. as you can see, i'm standing outside a hospital known as the lady reading hospital. this is a hospital that has dealt with many emergencies in the past, but we were told by the authorities inside this building that 31 of the dead were brought here, 45 of the wounded are also being taken care of here. we have seen family members, relatives, well wishers, all making a beeline for the hospital. there is a considerably large crowd here, but obviously because of the scale of the attack, and the number of people killed, other hospitals were also put on alert.

some of them have been taken to the combined military hospital. others to the teaching hospital, medical complex, so indeed a situation in peshawar, that the people of peshawar have seen in the past. but nothing this gruesome. children were the target, and according to the reports most of the people killed here today were children. >> and a lot of people seem to be saying that the government is so consumed by its own political problems that it has lost focus on internal security. do you think that is the case? >> well, to come extent yes, because the -- politicians have been bickering amongst themselves. they have refused to hold some of the parties to accountability for the election. but that also is affecting the

performance of the government. but this was an attack no one expected and everybody was taken off guard, because no one in their wildest imaginations would have thought that a school would have been targeted in such a way. the pakistani prime minister has called an all-parties conference at the governor's house here in peshawar. >> and the taliban are saying this was in revenge for the military operations in the tribal areas. so does that mean those operations have not been successful in decimating the taliban? >> reporter: well, the military launched a major operation in the middle of june, to deny the taliban the space to operate from. however, they have been able to disburse from that location. they have gone into other tribe alterer tos.

they have formed smaller units and are able to carry out punitive strikes. not long ago there was another deadly attack where innocent civilians were also killed. so it appears that the taliban has also regrouped after that military offensive, which saw a relative calm returning to pakistan. now, of course, that is over. >> kamal thanks very much indeed for that. the u.s. secretary of state john kerry is in london, and he spoke a short while ago and condemned this attack. >> this act of terror angers and shakes all people of conscience and we condemn it in the strongest terms possible. the perpetrators must be brought to justice, and we pledge our full support to the people of pakistan in this difficult hour. we will help them in any way that we possibly can.

pakistan's neighbor and arch rival india has condemned the act. the prime said: so who are the pakistani taliban. what do they want to achieve. the movement is an umbrella organization based in the northwestern tribal areas along the border. the aim is to institute a strict form of islamic law. the group opposes the government's alliance with the united states and other countries. the pakistani taliban has been responsible for numerous attacks

on civilians as well as the pakistani military. in 2012 members of the group shot schoolgirl malala yousafzai in the head. malala, a nobel peace prize winner has condemned the attack: malik is spokesman for the pakistani prime minister. he said the government didn't expect to pay such a high price for its military campaign against the taliban. >> when we went in, we knew there would be some sort of blowback. we didn't understand that the blowback would be in a school -- that the target of the blowback would be next children. so it's very sad, and we're trying to do our best to provide

security to the people, people all over pakistan, and also the idp's who are very shortly going to be rehabilitated into the areas, who gave enormous sacrifice for their country. >> let's speak to a political analyst, joining us now live from islamabad. thank you for joining us. what is the strategy here of the taliban? because this attack has appalled so many, it's produced a sense of unity in pakistan which is pretty rare, a sense of unity against it. so hasn't this been counterproductive? >> well, this is an unprecedented attack, one of the most deadliest attacks in pakistan. and it has shocked the nation, and it has unified the nation. the prime minister of pakistan is there. the army chief is there.

tlaeder -- the leader of the opposition is there, everyone has condemned the attack, and this -- there appears to be a very wide scale condemnation, and it has brought the country together as never before. because in [ inaudible ] pakistan such an attack as not happened. the last terrorist attack was 2007. there has been a gap of seven years. this is a very deadly attack and has created unity. >> so how is the government going to respond? is it going to strengthen the pakistani army? >> well, the pakistan army is waging an operation in the north, which is coming to an end. and, you know, it is said that in about a month or so, the last few [ inaudible ] will be

cleared from northed pakistan. this was expected. this is a revenge attack -- >> but if the point of the operations was to weaken the taliban, that doesn't seem to have worked. >> well, the taliban -- it was expected. there is general surprise that the taliban has reacted in this way. and more revenge attacks will happen. the military and government should be prepared for these revenge attacks. after all the taliban has been dealt with a fatal blow, and the army has taken its time, done its homework, and, you know, has been prepared as never ever before. >> is there anything else they can do apart from just being prepared for revenge attacks? for example, what about the possibility of negotiationing? there were talks with the taliban earlier this year, can those negotiations be taken

forward? >> yes, they can be taken forward, but there has to be sort of a lull. because the government of pakistan cannot be seen on weak -- you know, weakened at this time. so offer a gap of maybe a few months. you know, there will be negotiations because the government and the military want to end this terrorism once and for all, and in the end, there has to be some sort of negotiations with the taliban in afghanistan and pakistan also. it is expected and will happen. >> thank you very much indeed for speaking with us. appreciate your time. and within the last few moments the u.n. secretary general has been speaking about this attack. let's listen in. >> mr. president, excellencies, before addressing today's formal agenda, i would like to say a

few words about the blood curdling attack today in pakistan. the hearts of the world go out to the parents and families who have lost the loved ones in the horrific attack at the school in peshawar this morning, which has taken the lives of more than 130 people, the vast majority are children. i condemn this heinous act in the strongest possible terms. no cause can justify such a brutality. no grievance can excuse such horror. it is an act of horror [ inaudible ] defenseless children while they learn. schools must be safe and secure learning spaces. getting an education is every child's right. going to school should not have to be an act of bravery. i extend my deepest condolences,

to the people, government, and particularly, to those touched by today's tragedy. the united nations will continue to support the efforts of the pakistani authorities in their fight against terrorism and extremism. i urge the government of pakistan to make every effort to bring the perpetrators to justice. excellencesies, let me now turn to today's agenda. >> the secretary general of the united nations there speaking about that horrific attack on the school in pakistan. there's more to come here on the news hour, including putting the breaks on isil's recruitment drive. france and spain make a series of arrests. plus moves towards statehood, palestinian leaders create their time line for the creation of palestine to john kerry. and the football world cup winners announces his

retirement. we have all of the

[ technical difficulties ] >> and the biggest companies for whom a special independent rate is set, but in general if this rate persists then the investment process will stop. >> reporter: the pain that this hike is likely to inflect on russia's economy may well be in vain. before tuesday morning was even over, it has continued his tumble. there's not much that individual russians can do about this. so this website advocates a little calm. watch the ruble fall against the dollar and real time while listening to a relaxing soundtrack.

this shows a ship hitting an iceberg before the ruble and a barrel of oil sink below the waves. but despite the black humor, this is clearly no laughing matter. the mortgages these people have on their homes are in dollars, and this is a rare display of public anger on moscow's streets. this kremlin will be watching closely to see that this doesn't spread. >> translator: they will take my flat. the fine is growing. it's unbearable how much it costs now. also i have to pay insurance on this mortgage which is also in the dollars. my mom and my daughter will end up on the streets soon. >> reporter: blink on the streets and the currency board has changed again. russians can't see the bottom, but they know they are not there

yet. we are joined by the director of sovereign risk incite. good to have you with us. this is big trouble for the ruble, isn't it? a lot of analysts are saying it has been hit by a perfect storm. >> yeah, the attempt to try to stabilize the falling ruble with the dramatic 16.5% increase in interest rates has created panic, rather than stability as more and more foreign investors and even russians themselves are heading to the exit doors, simply because the ruble is falling. >> so what options does russia have? because it can't keep hiking interest rates can it? >> well, ultimately it's a vein attempt, because all they have is limited reserves $400 billion and the use of interest rates, but the higher you raise interest rates the more you

squeeze your own economy domestically with more expensive loans and credit, which is already contracting in russia. they can't control the ruble because it is linked to the oil price. as lock as oil prices continue to fall, the ruble will. so they are in a really harsh position. the next thing to watch is the banking system. as the dollar -- as the ruble falls, it means that high currency loans may be difficult to service, so we might see banks getting into trouble. >> so if they can't stabilize the ruble there will be a lot of knock-on effects, and it also means recession is much more likely next year. >> yeah, absolutely, we have seen a number of smaller banks fail. credit extension is now negative in dollar terms. so we have a credit crunch. it is going to be very difficult to take out new loans. a lot of russian corporates and

banks have been excluded from rolling over their debts, and that means even more downward pressure on the reserves. and they have about 12 months before they hopefully can stabilize that, but really it's an oil price that would do that. >> this is a disaster for vladimir putin, because he came in to power riding in on the wave of high oil prices and the stability of the ruble. >> absolutely, i think part of his long-standing popularity is because he did take russia out of chaos. but it now seems we are re-entering that kind of chaos, particularly if we have a banking crisis. in that was always part of what happened in the original crisis, so the credibility of putin, the strong man, who can't manage the economy will be hit, i think, and more questions will be asked

about his overall government. >> good to speak with you as ever. thank you for explaining that all for us. >> thank you. well the fall of oil prices as we just heard is one of the factors damaging russia's economy. gas is also experiencing a similar trend, but the gas market is very different. the host of al jazeera's "counting the cost" has more now on the big players in the gas game, russia among them. >> reporter: if the world is to screen itself off of oil, then gas is the obvious alternative. which puts the members of the forum in a pretty handy position. they are russia, qatar, the uaherbing -- uae, and a whole host of african nations. you can also add in kazakhstan,

iraq, the netherlands. but the first countries control 62% of the gas reserves. the group says we're not a cartel. we have no plan to manipulate prices, rather we want to understand how to exploit this resource for better gain. there was a thought of setting up a gas bank for developing new fields and pipelines. it hasn't really gone anywhere, though. but also competors in delivering gas to asia and europe. but gas prices are falling, which means there are winners and losers. take the global head of advisory for energy and resources explains a bit more. >> so let's look a little bit around the winners. if you look at what has happened to the lng price in asia, that's

half this year, so for people like japan, that buy 70% of the lng, that is absolutely great news. if we start looking at who is the possible losers, that can be people like america. shale gas is cheap. however, if you start liquidfaction that and add the transportation price, and compare it to lng cargo, those two might not be -- or the margin is not there anymore. so america can be a loser, yeah, because of the drop in lng prices. >> but the key to remember is gas is not a global commodity in the way oil is. currently it's a point to point market, i sell, you buy. which means it is limited, but

with huge potential to grow as well. australia's prime minister has described the siege in sydney that left three people dead as an appalling and ugly incident. andrew thomas has more. >> reporter: for 16 hours, it has been the scene of a siege. on tuesday morning, it became the backdrop to an in prompt tu memorial. torie johnson was the manager of the shop targeted. the other victim was katrina dawson, a barista and mother of three. >> i think it's just a very sad day for sydney. certainly, i'm the same age as katrina. i have got one child, i just -- find it very difficult. >> reporter: people started to lay flowers early on tuesday morning, and kept coming all

day. as the floral tributes increased, though, so did the questions. could this brazen siege that ended in such a dramatic and fatal way been prevented. the hostage taker killed when police moved in, was well-known to authorities. he had been convicted of sending hate mail to the families of soldiers who died in afghanistan. there were serious outstanding charges against him too. he was out on bail over allegations he had been an accessory over his ex-wife's murder, and separately over sexual assault. the police described him as disturbed, and while he said the attack was politically motivated, he was careful to avoid that it was islam terrorism. >> he was consistently weird. i don't think anyone would want to imlate that.

>> reporter: part of the place remained closed on tuesday, a crime scene. but a bigger part was an ever-growing memorial. people started to lay flowers here in martin place first thing on tuesday morning, and you can see how it has quickly become a carpet. this isn't just about those who died. the real sense among people here that sydney changed over the course of this siege. that the city's innocents was loss. still to come on the program, we'll be taking a look at the australians showing solidarity with muslims who fear a black lash after the siege. and the u.k. moving to put women workers on a more equal footing with their male colleagues. and in sport, lebron james leads the cavs to their sixth home win in a row.

details later in the program with sunna. ♪

>> a deal went against they're own government >> egypt mismanaged it's gas industry >> taking the country to the brink of economic ruin >> this is because of a corrupt deal to an assigned to basically support two dodgy businessmen an israeli one, and an egyptian one... >> al jazeera exposes those who made a fortune betraying an entire nation >> you don't feel you owe an explanation to the egyptian people? >> no...no.. >> al jazeera investigates egypt's lost power on al jazeera america

♪ welcome back. i'm shiulie ghosh, the main stories on al jazeera, at least 130 people, most of them children have been killed in an attack on a school by the pakistani taliban. a siege lasting several hours ended with the deaths of all of the attackers. russia's currency has continued to fall despite the central bank's effort to prevent its collapse. the ruble crashed to record low lows. on emergency government meeting has been called. tony abbott has paid tribute to the victims of the siege in sydney. two hostages were killed along with the gunmen. the storming of a military school by the pakistani taliban, which says it was in revenge for operations by the army. the military has been conducting

a ground offensive aimed at clearing out fighters. hundreds of tribesmen have been killed, and tens of thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes. we have been speaking to several political and military analysts about the threat of the taliban, and what it means to pakistan. here is what they had to say. >> the government has the state has not -- not launched the counter narrative. number two, internal security is not the priority so far. the -- the political wrangling [ inaudible ] in islamabad, the opposition parties and the government parties, the political wrangling, i think defoe cuss the government. and and even the counter terrorism department in peshawar they have also been not working properly. what has happened is that the hot targets are a little

difficult for them to penetrate. so i think they have chosen the soft target, and this will create a huge psychological impact. and this is exactly what they wanted to do. demoralize the nation, the people, the parents, everyone, so they go against the military campaign. but it is going to be just the opposite. we had the operation in 2009 targeting sawatts specifically. that is inland, as opposed to the tribal regions which have always had a conflicted relationship constitutionally with the country. but that operation happened and the military sort of -- you know, did its job, but the -- the capacity of civilian administrators and elected leaders, and social leaders to construct a counter narrative to

the violent extremism i think that's what is at question here. the u.s. secretary of state john kerry is in london, where he is meeting the palestinian negotiators. >> this isn't the time to detail private conversations or speculate on a u.n. security council resolution that hasn't even been tabled no matter what pronouncements are made publicly about it. many of us share a deep sense of urgency about this. given the constant threat of escalation and the dangers of a downward spiral of violence. >> lawrence just to clarify for viewers the pal -- palestinians want withdrawal of occupied land

by 2016. but there seems to be a lot of caution about that resolution and about putting any time table on the israelis. >> that's exactly right. you heard him say we're alterably concerned about the escalating violence, we all want something to happen. there has got to be a path to peace but at the moment we're not going to say whether or not we're veto this palestinian deal. what he went on to say after that was that there needed to be a carefully calibrated set of steps to ensure that things didn't get worse, and what he means by that is that he doesn't want to get boxed in anymore than the israelis do in putting a time line on the construction of a palestinian state. netenyahu said in rome we will absolutely not stand for this.

he, i think, like previous secretaries of state who have tried to head their head around this, are looking for road maps. they want to try to take both sides together. the palestinians would say in response, we have tried it and tried it and tried it again, and it's not getting anywhere. and it's more or less the last chance. the palestinians have been bullied by several european states saying they are in favor of state hood. and that's what has prompted the palestinians to go to the underupwith this resolution. but john kerry seems more than a little reticent to adopt what the palestinians are doing, and that mean at the very lease an extension, and more likely a veto. >> the europeans are also putting together a proposal,

which may be more palatable to the u.s., because that one wasn't talk about deadlines. >> yes, this is a french plan. it is different in content, but the time line is the same. it is still two years to statehood. it is a bit more hazy on some of these details, but all of the really big issues particularly right of return to palestinian refugees, final status issues, how to join up gaza and the west bank, they are not even mentioned in any of this. and the other problem is for the palestinians, because it has pained itself as being increasingly powerless. what happens on the street in public opinion if this gets vetoed by the americans, do people then give up? they see the israelis as not

wanting to -- participate in this. so if there is no resolutions then where does anybody go. because it isn't as though the western countries have any better ideas. >> lawrence thank you for that. lawrence lee in london there. israeli forces have shot dead a 21-year-old palestinian during a military operation in a refugee camp south of ramallah. the israeli forces raided the camp and confrontations broke out between the army and youth there. spanish and moroccan police have arrested seven suspected members of the network which say they were trying to recruit

women for islamic state of iraq and the levant. they were based in a town in morocco. four women including one minor were arrested. another arrest was main in the mainland city of barcelona. here is the report. >> reporter: in total seven people were detained in morocco and across the border in spain. according to a statement issued by the minister of interior, the two were arrested one town and more were arrested in other towns. most of the people detained were females. and their role was to recruit women that would go to join isil in syria, and/or iraq. their role would be either to marry fighters, or indeed to carry out suicide attacks on the

front line there. now this is not the first time that such cells are dismantled. and that has to do a lot with their special status. those are spanish enclaves on moroccan territory. some refer to these areas as really europe land border with africa. the people who live there have spanish passports, so it's very easy for them to cross the straight of gir brawl ter, go to turkey and then into syria. there is an estimated 2,000 fighters who have joined the battlefield, and the majority of them are thought to have been from those two towns. a shootout happened during a

battle between two key rebel groups. the rebels say they now control the bases. in yemen, local sources say at least ten people have been killed and many others injured after two car bombs exploded during a gathering of houthi rebels at a checking point. women and children are among the victims. this f after a disruptive session in the yemeni parliament caused the speaker to call off a vote. there were a majority in parliament are frequently at odds with the current president. tribal sources in egypt have told aljazz that the army has raided 23 homes in sinai.

they visited the region for the first time since the military began the operation. the army together with the police also stormed homes arresting 18 people. al jazeera continues to demand the release of our three journalists who have been imprisoned in egypt for 353 days. peter greste, mohammed fahmy, and baher mohamed were jailed on false charges of helping the outlawed muslim brotherhood. they are appealing against their convictions. politicians in the u.k. have voted in support of a law which will force companies to publish what they pay men and women. it's designed to reduce wage inequality. simon mcgregor-wood reports from london. >> reporter: despite over 40 years of equal rights legislation, there are still huge discrepancies over what men and women get paid for doing the same job.

this woman started a petition to change the law. >> one woman wrote in and found out a colleague who was doing exactly the same jock as her, at the same hours, was paid 9 thousand pounds more than her. and at the end of that year, while he got a 2,000 pound bonus, she was given a hundred pounds of shopping vouchers. >> reporter: a report this year shows the scale of the so-called pay gap. it says on average women earn 23% less than men. it gets even worse for women over 40 when the gap grows to 35%. all of which means if a woman in the u.k. wants to earn as much as her male equivalent, she'll need to work until she's 80 years old. the new law will force every company with 250 workers to

publish their pay. >> it's not just a women's issue, because no husband or bad or brother wants to see their loved one paid less than what they deserve. so if you get transparency, then you can hope to put it right. >> reporter: at pricewaterhousecooper, they are already doing it. >> some of the gap is because women are in certain positions and not others, but you are onlyic approximating for some positions from half of the working population. that is killing our business sense of it. >> reporter: the causes of the pay gap are complex. it has to do with maternity leave, and not enough women becoming top managers. still to come, we have got all of the sport for you.

ice hockey's biggest star is the late toast be struck down by an outbreak of mumps. we'll have all of the latest for you after the break.

♪ welcome back. let's get back to our top -- our story on the siege in sydney. and there are concerns that there could be a backlash against the muslim community, buzz the gunmen was a muslim. bah social media campaign is helping to ease those fears. >> reporter: it's the end of the day in sydney's west, but this

group of ethnic iraqis are on a mission. they are catching a train into the city to pay their respects to the victims of the hostage drama. >> we want too say that we standing with the community, that we also are gravely scarred by this event. >> reporter: it's something they felt compelled to do, particularly given the potential for an increase in religious tension following the siege. as they made the journey, they kept track of the latest on social media, in particular posts with the hashtag, i'll ride with you. a hashtag that has seen people across the religious and ethnic divides coming together online. it's being seen as a solidarity with muslims who may be scared about backlash. a woman noticed a muslim passenger who was removing her

head scarf. she approached the woman and encouraged her to put the head scarf back on, and told her she would ride with her to help her stay safe. recently there have been several incidents of religious abuse on public transport. >> i do feel quite scared. so i think this was a really good idea to show people that i represent the majority, not people who try to commit atrocities. >> reporter: leaders in the muslim community say the social media campaign is giving them hope that there won't be a backlash. >> i find that in this country people tend to unite more and we start to understand each other a little bit more. >> reporter: the endest nation for this group, like so many others was martin place, the seen of the siege. they prepared for a long wake to

lay their flowers in memory of their fellow australians who were killed. >> now let's get to sport. >> thank you. prosecutors have rejected michael garcia's appeal. he has investigated allegations of corruption into the awarding of the 2018 world cup to russia, and 2022 event to qatar. but he was unhappy at the statement given by the independent judge, calling it materially incomplete. fifa said the statement is not legally binding, so it can't be appealed. >> and to talk more on that we're joined by our correspondent live for us from london. lee this story doesn't seem to be going away. what does this all mean now? >> no, it won't go away for sometime yet.

no response as of yet from michael garcia. it will be interesting to see if he tries to go to the court of arbitration for sport. whether he tries to walk away from fifa. that he has just had enough. maybe we'll wait until friday the most likely day that there will be a further development in morocco, when he can decide whether his whole report can be made public. but this development won't surprise people. they are used to what goes on with politics and the law and the legal side of fifa. they are used to saying the people looking into this are independent. i have no control over this. what fifa wants and keep wanting a closure. they thought they had it, and then michael garcia, came out and said no. this is not what i said, pa -- and that's why there is a form of battle at the moment.

the action, the spotlight turns to this meeting on thursday and friday, the executive committee, where dominic of the order and compliance committee will have to decide is this thing going to be published in full? and that's what the public want, then they can make up their own mind, they'll be able to see if there has been a cover up and a case to answer, or maybe people are going over the top with what punishment should be dished out. and remember, it's punishment for individuals. there is con stan talk about a revote with the world cup, and that's not going to happen on friday. >> lee wellings thank you very much for that. former france and arsenal striker has announced his retirement from football at the age of 37. he is also france and arsenal's

all-time leading scorer. he left the new york red bulls last month, and played for monaco, juventus, and barcelona. he helped them win the french league in 1997. after a brief spell at juventus, he moved to arsenal. there he scored 175 goals, which helped them win three premier league cups. then he joined the club in barcelona, and ended his career with the new york red bulls. the claimed the world cup with france in 1998, followed up with successes at euro 2000. manchester united [ inaudible ] captain have been

named among suspects in a match-fixing probe launched by spain's prosecutor. it relates to a la liga match. they were both playing for the team who won 2-1. avoiding relegation to the second division. and [ inaudible ] have adjusted to the wet weather in morocco. the u.s.-lead champions league holders will meet mexico in the semifinals on tuesday. the conditions were so bad [ inaudible ] has now been declared unplayable, and the tie has been moved to [ inaudible ]. the competition at the last full stage and come into the tournament on the back of a club record 20 consecutive wins. >> we are ready to play here,

and of course, we are trying to do our best, because their possibility to say we are not ready, and this is for us, good motivation to do our best, because we want to give happiness to our supporters here in morocco. sidney crosby is the latest player to have been diagnosed with the mumps. at least 13 others from the league have been affected. >> reporter: the outbreak of mumps in the nhl has now hit the league's biggest star, pittsburgh penguin's captain is the latest to be infected. forced to sit out monday's game after tampa bay. >> as far as i know, he -- he will return tomorrow or the next day. one update, though, we have one

player that has the symptom for mumps, and that's bo bannet. the tests will come back tomorrow. so we don't know whether it is positive or not. >> reporter: the viral infection affects saliva glands. it is spread through contact commonly through sneezing, coughing, and sharing water bottles. >> this will probably linger on a little bit longer than something else. but the other guys who have come down with the same symptoms and the same illness, seem to have kind of bounced back now, and seem to be healthier and stronger. so maybe at the end of the day, a break and the rest will be good for him and the penguins. >> reporter: doctors say mumps outbreaks are rare, but they are very hard to control. the first known case in the nhl

was in november when an anaheim ducks player was struck down with the virus, now the league is desperately trying to stop it spreading further with more than 13 players from five teams affected so far. in line with the nhl's infection control sub committee they have send guidelines to all of the teams. >> it seemed in my long history of my lifetime, that the mumps were gone decades ago, and now here we are dealing with it again. >> reporter: knew to the nature of the virus, officials admit it is visual wally impossible to preverdict how long with outbreak will last. the nfl player's association has filed a lawsuit for the handling of adrian peterson's child abuse case. he was suspended for the rest of the season for beating his four

year old son. peterson claimed that the league agreed after his legal case was resolved he would be allowed to return to the team, but his ban was upheld under their new policy. the cleveland cavaliers beat the hornets for their sixth consecutive victory. lebron james was the star of the night. kevin love added 22 points and 18 rebounds. the cavs went on to win the gam 97-88. and there's more on our website, you can check out aljazeera.com/sport. and there are details on how to get in touch with our team using twitter and facebook. >> thanks for that. we'll see you later on. and that's it for this news hour. from all of us here in doha, bye

for now. ♪ >> protestors are gathering... >> there's an air of tension right now... >> the crowd chanting for democracy... >> this is another significant development... >> we have an exclusive story tonight, and we go live...

>> i'm joie chen,

i'm the host of america tonight, we're revolutionary because we're going back to doing best of storytelling. we have an ouportunity to really reach out and really talk to voices that we haven't heard before... i think al jazeera america is a watershed moment for american journalism >> a nightmare hostage standoff in australia ends in tragedy. how vulnerable is america to lone wolf attacks? also is waterboarding torture? surprising findings. israel could drag in the u.s. i'm antonio mora, welcome to "consider this," we'll have those stories and much more straight ahead. >> brazen act of terror, in the heart of downtown sydney. >> heavily armed police stormed the cafe, releasing several hostages.