the most prominent critic of putin is arrested after defying house arrest to join an opposition protest in moscow. ♪ hello, you are watching al jazeera live from our headquarters here in doha. also ahead, indonesia's president orders a massive search to find the remaining passengers and crew of the downed airasia jet. we report on the defense of

kirkuk where kurdish forces face a relentless battle with isil fighters. ♪ russian opposition leader aleksei navalny has been arrested after breaking house arrest to join an opposition protest. he called on people to join a protest in moscow after he was handed a suspended sentence for fraud. his brother is facing three and a half years in a labor camp. >> reporter: aleksei navalny arrives in court in moscow with state prosecutors calling for a ten-year term for the political activist. instead he and his brother oleg were sentenced to three and a half years. with aleksei receiving a suspended sentence. his supporters claim the trial is another attempt to curb

decent in russia. and the terms of the sentence will certainly remove one of the most effective political campaigners from the political stage. while depriving him of a long jail term. aleksei navalny is for many the credible face of russian opposition. he has been one of the most vocal opponents of president putin, famous for once calling the ruling party a bunch of crooks and thieves. but in february his political ambitions came to an end when he was placed under house arrest. his wife and brother always by his side. throughout his trial he has remained defiant. >> translator: this hunter which has laid their hands on everything in russia and is building resources based futal capitalism will sooner or later fall. the kremlin denies

influencing the judiciary. but navalny blames the establishment for trying to silence him. in just a few years this young anti-corruption blogger has become one of the biggest challenges to president putin's grip of power. now indonesia's president has instructed searchers to concentrate on retrieving the passengers and crew from the crashed airasia plane in the java sea. he spoke to the nation from the airport where the flight took off. several bodies have already been recovered and are on they way back for identification. it was carrying 162 people when it went down on sunday. families of those reason board were informed of the discovery a few hours ago, and there were scenes of despair as they begin to come to terms with the fate of their loved one. >> reporter: on the third day of waiting, finally news of their loved ones but not the news

they wanted. >> translator: we will find things belongings bodies of the passengersover the plane, and we are sure that everything will be brought back into our base. >> reporter: they found the the -- debris and bodies in sector 7. it was just 10 kilometers from where the air traffic controllers lost contact with the plane on sunday morning. in the evening the president came here to the airport. on the way he flew over the area where the bodies and debris were discovered. he then met with the grieving families. >> translator: i asked them to do massive search and i have told them to look for the plane and passengers as well as the crew. i have instructed them to focus own evacuating the passengers and the crew. >> reporter: with so many indonesians on board this was a

tragedy for the nation. the three days of waiting took its toll across the country, as it did with the family members. it will take some time before all of the bodies can be recovered and brought back to the airport where the plane took off on sunday. then the difficult process of identifying bodies and months possibly years before an investigation can reveal what brought the flight to the bottom of the java sea. two albanian sailors have been killed during the operation to bring the crippled ferry off of the italian coast to safety. simon mcgregor-wood has an undate for us. >> reporter: it seems the operation has shifted from a rescue operation to a salvage operation overnight, italian and albanian teams connected cables

to the ferry so it could be towed to port. but unfortunately one of the cables attached to an albanian vessel appears to have snapped and two albanian sailors were killed. here we're expecting an italian naval ship to arrive in the next few hours with over 200 passengers and members of the crew of the ferry. so they will be receiving medical assistance when that ship gets into port. a number of passenger who have been brought to shore in previous days have been recovering, and some of them spoke to the media and again, painted a chaotic picture to the crew's response to the fire. and here is what they had to say. >> translator: we heard people screaming and running out of their cabins so we left ours as well, and then we saw the smoke coming out from the ship and grabbed the life vests under the

beds and went out to the deck dressed in whatever we were wearing at that moment. >> i was lucky, i was saved after nearly 24 hours. and this is a long time to feel with hope and feel that you will die and changes always. we -- we tried to -- to be together, to be connected to other people and to -- to say oh, it will -- we will be saved, but it was hard to -- to believe that always. >> reporter: so there is still confusion about the number of people who were actually on board the ferry. we had the ship's manifest that said there were 478 people who got on the ferry in greece but that's a discrepancy with this number of people actually found including the ten dead so that still needs to be resolved. and a prosecutor on tuesday said that he felt that more bodies would also be found once there is a proper chance for investigators to have a look at

the ferry. the ferry is being towed by the italians and should arrive here tomorrow morning, wednesday. investigators will want to have a good look to try to understand how the fire started and why it spread so quickly. in the u.k. a patient with the ebola virus has been moved to a london hospital. the health worker recently returned to scotland from sierra leone where she had been working with the charity save the children. she was put in a medical isolation unit in scottland, but after becoming feverish, the woman is now being treated in london. to gambia now where an attempted coup appears to have been foiled. witnesses say soldiers linked to the presidential guard were involved. the president is currently out of the country. with 20 years in power, jammeh is one of africa's longest-serving leaders. he took over in a bloodless coup

in 1994. in 2006 there was an attempt topple him while he was abroad. his critics accuse him of leading one of the most oppressive governments in africa. he is also a self declared traditional heeler who claims he can cure aids and asthma. >> predawn, it is reported that a large number of presidential guard officers and privates attempted to take over the presidential palace. the president is away overseas. one report suggests he is in france others suggest he is in the middle east. and many suggest there have been a number of deaths and injuries but everything is very sketchy, and now we're hearing that in

fact the whole thing has been quashed, and that there is now a situation where the -- whoever was mounting the coup has actually failed it appears, but we have no official confirmation yet. journalists and campaigners around the world have been protesting in solidarity with three al jazeera journalists who have now been jailed in egypt for more than one year. they are being held behind bars in cairo, falsely accused of aiding the outlawed muslim brotherhood, and damaging egypt's reputation abroad. an appeal is due to be heard on thursday. still to come for you on al jazeera this half hour -- >> i'm in the southern indian state. coming up, i'll be taking a look at the challenges a unique community is facing in preserving its architectural history. ♪

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>> sunday night. >> 140 world leaders will take the podium. >> get the full story. >> there is real disunity in the security council. >> about issues that impact your world. >> infectious diseases are a major threat to health. >> "the week ahead". sunday 8:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. ♪ welcome back. you are watching al jazeera. our top story this hour. russian opposition leader aleksei navalny has been arrested after breaking house arrest to join an opposition protest. the called on people to join the demonstration in central mass cow after he was handed a suspended sentence for fraud. his brother is facing three and a half years in a labor camp. these are live pictures coming

from the russian capitol. there is certainly an armed presence of security forces in moscow saying they were ready to deal with any kind of protest, and this one does not have permission, but nevertheless aleksei navalny calling on his supporters to rally together. after he was given that sentence of being guilty of fraud. he has managed to avoid prison a different story for his brother, who is facing a jail term. the judge did not explain the differences in the sentencing. let's talk to peter sharp from the russian capitol. we're looking at pictures of protesters who have gathered. the images suggest at least a couple of hundred present, far less than the numbers of people who said that they would turn out online. >> reporter: that's right. social media had the numbers pegged at around what 17,000,

well it's nowhere near that. er would reckon it's a thousand thousand and a half. it has been a pretty-good natured crowd all evening. shouting for freedom of navalny, and russia without putin. a crowd made up of all sectors of the community, young and old. i have seen children here. and also some bemused tourists. this is right beneath the walls of the kremlin. there was a sense of excitement when the crowd became electrify when they heard he was on his way. he was tweeting constantly on the trip from his house, and then tweeted that he had in fact been arrested. now this is a non-authorized demonstration, gathering. here in moscow you have to get permission for this and this is

never going to happen. so the [ inaudible ] there was a sense of concern. people were coming out, and really didn't know how this was going to -- to end. it's still going on now, but police are here in very heavy numbers, surrounding the area. but it seems constant shouts for freedom, and pretty easy going. >> peter, the police there wasted no time in detaining aleksei navalny after violating the terms of his house arrest. has news of his detention reached the people there? what are you hearing about that? >> it's difficult -- i think obviously the news has reached them. but there's no sort of real podium for the speeches or addresses. i think the people here expected absolutely nothing less than that. they expected he would come. his [ inaudible ] as you said in the labor camp and was given a

three and a half year suspended sentence. this of course does mean that it takes him off of the political stage for that period of time. and there are parliamentary elections coming in 2016 so he won't be able to run in those. but this is very much a night that navalny will be remembered. and great concern here about what has happened now that he has been detained by police. because that obviously does break any sort of understandings and agreements that he had made in keeping to the conditions of house arrest. but of course you know, he knew this was going to be the case when he was headed here. >> we know that aleksei navalny, the date that was set -- the sort session for his verdict was brought forward, wasn't it? it was scheduled for next month, but brought forward the day before new year's eve, which in

russia is the most important holiday. in that doesn't seem to have deterred the people on the streets. how would you describe the sentiment there at the moment? >> i think there was a real sense of anger when he announced this huge rally that was being planned, when it was suddenly canceled without any notice mid-afternoon on monday and brought forward to this morning, and there was a feeling here -- i spoke to some of the political activists, and they said it really feels like the kremlin is running scared. they really didn't want to have that time to consolidate the crowd, and bring them in because they had a page devoted on facebook it to but the russian government approached them and asked them to remove it, and they actually -- they did. so i think there's feelings amongst the people here that the kremlin really didn't know what

to do. so they said let's get this over with on one of the oldest nights of the year and on a night when people are busy planning for their holiday. but we have people here that don't seem to be in a hurry to leave. >> we are watching live pictures from the russian capitol. supporters who have gathered in support of opposition leader aleksei navalny. he was found guilty of fraud, his brother also found guilty on the same charges, though aleksei's sentence was suspended, in other words he has managed to avoid a prison term. his brother has been sentenced to jail for three and a half years, but it was scheduled for next month, but the court brought that forward, and you can see people there have turned out to protest. aleksei navalny calling on his

supporters to demonstrate against this sentencing. so there you can see -- peter was saying perhaps a thousand thousand and a half people there. this is a protest that they did not have permission for. security forces were prepared for it. said earlier in the day that any kind of turnout would be dealt with. and you can see they definitely have a presence there. people are there. they want to make their voices heard. they are feeling very angry, but right now security forces on the scene there. we'll stay across that situation, and bring you anymore developments out of the russian capitol as they come to us. now to a key battle ground in iraq's city of kirkuk. isil is carrying out regular attacks to try to keep control of the area. >> reporter: on the front lines outside of the city of kirkuk

contact between peshmerga forces and islamic state of iraq and the levant is regular. there is a fair amount of in-coming fire here. a short distance away isil display their trademark black flag. >> translator: the distance between us is very small. in some places we are just 700 meters apart. they are always trying to push forward. >> reporter: so far the peshmerga lines have held. but isil fighters have been relentless in their push. the kurdish forces have had to adapt some drastic measures. fighting around kirkuk has always come with humanitarian impact. this is the road that links kirkuk to the west. it's now totally closed. and peshmerga fighters say they had to do that to protect themselves from isil bombings.

>> translator: we have lost many men to isil car bombs. we have also on many occasions captured their spies around our positions. we have no intention to reopen this road. >> reporter: on the other side of the blockade in one of the sunni villages we saw a queue of stranded vehicles. these men say all they care about is that isil does not return to cur -- kirkuk. ordinary life in this city is far from normal. this man operates this restaurant and says business is bad. >> translator: i secured my restaurant, but it's the general insecurity and the fighting that is keeping customers away. people are too afraid to venture out. >> reporter: kurdish peshmerga

fighters entered kirkuk after the national army abandon its posts seven months ago. in a country where history and past grievances play a key and violent part of the presence kirkuk represents anner are of fault line for now though it remains firmly in the grip of the kurdish forces. in syria activists are reporting government attacks in the northern countryside. air strikes are said to have targeted the town. syrian activists say around 20 people have been injured in government air strikes in the outskirts of homs. they dropped barrel bombs over the town. in yemen another city has

been seized by houthi rebels. local media say it happened on monday. it is the eighth city the houthis have taken since july. our correspondent has more from the capitol. >> reporter: tens of houthi fighters were deployed to the city, and they stormed the governor's office. now they are in full control of that city. the importance of the province as a whole, is that it connected at least three other provinces under houthi control. the importance of this incident is also clear that this is a clear indication of the houthi's their will to expand to gain more control over yet more territory. now the houthis have signed a peace deal called the peace and partnership agreement last september. that agreement calls on the

houthis to end their presence in different parts of the country, and also to disarm well clearly that hasn't happened, and the houthis are moving on to control more territory. on monday the houthis sustained some casualties, at least two were killed when a roadside bomb hit one of their vehicles. in other developments yemen's interior ministry says the coast guard has found the bodies of 24 african migrants who drowned at sea. the boat capsized in the red sea. tens of thousands of migrants make the journey every year. the main suspect in the 2008 mumbai attacks has appeared in court in islamabad. he was rearrested after a court suspended his detention on monday. the court cited a lack of evidence. police say the new arrest is linked to an abduction nearly

seven years ago. flash floods in the philippines have left at least 29 dead and many others missing. the storm destroyed bridges andway andways. in malaysia more than 200,000 people have been displaced by flooding there. five of the country states have been undated after usually strong rains. it's the worst floods in three decades in malaysia and the heavy reign is expected to continue until the weekend. to india where the pressures of a modern economy are threatening the ukraine architectural heritage. our correspondent reports. >> reporter: inside this palace lies the history of a family proud of its century's old traditions from hand carved

doorways to italian marble. it's a testament to the success of one man who braved the high seas and traveled east to earn a living. this 75-year-old is now the keeper of his grandfather's legacy. >> reporter: this house is for my whole family. years ago we all lived here. but to make money, my children have left. >> reporter: 80% of these properties built in the 17th and 18th entries are locked up. many of these houses lie in a state of ruin because of property disputes and a lack of work in the area. they built palaces like this one in more than 60 villages but few retained their old splendor. conservationists say maintaining a palace cost about $20,000 a year and that's money they claim that many owners would rather invest elsewhere.

and when owners decide it's time to sell the foundations of as they historic homes come here. it's a painstaking job giving these artifacts a new lease on life. but this man says reselling them helps to keep the history alive. >> reporter: people from all over india come here to buy artifacts. >> reporter: the king of the residence is the center of this trading community's power. >> we have tone a program called heritage home hunt. >> reporter: but this conservationist hopes a new program encouraging locals to document their history will restore this area to its full glory. >> i think it is one thing that will help or at least keep them happy, and they will realize,

and protect their houses as they do their temples. >> reporter: but for those who are still here the past is sacred. and this man says he will say until his grandchildren are ready to unlock their family history. politicians in haiti have reached a tentative agreement to end a political crisis that sparked protests around the country. they deal seeks to establish a consensus government. the agreement comes after the prime minister was forced to resiren earlier this month. the actress who became the first winner of consecutive oscars in the 1930s has died at the age of 104. her achievement made her a force in the golden age of hollywood cinema. she later settled in london and

made occupational appearances. >> you are stay up on all of the stories we have been covering the address is aljazeera.com. aljazeera.com. ♪ >> i had an american sitting here and he said to me are you actually running a holiday camp for criminals? and my answer to him there immediately was 'so what'? >> wow. i think this might be the only prison in the world with a sunbed.