>> what is the show for today. ali velshi returns on monday. thank you for joining us. two opposition activists are killed in bangladesh, two years to the day after opposition activates marred by violence. >> hello i'm nick clark you're watching news live from doha. convoy of intelligence agents. surviving boark bokosurviving boarksurviving boko haram p and exploring pluto and beyond.

we look at the space plans for 2015. we'll start with some developing news coming out of saudi arabia. two policemen have been killed on the border with iraq. it happened in a police patrol area near arra. local police say one of the two attackers exploded a bomb that killed him. on saturday, the saudi arabian agency said it would reopen an office that had been closed two years ago. bangladesh nationalist party leader has been prevented from leaving her office in the capital of dhaka. mohamed, away more do you know? >> so far it's been confirmed that the two people who were killed are members of the

opposition rather they're activists of the opposition, local activists. it is not entirely clear yet who they were killed by. we are expecting more information from us about that soon. what we do know is that the -- these killings about violence that has taken place in the run up to last year's elections when you had 67 people mostly opposition activists killed almost every single day. that has not been the case for a while. that's definitely made people nervous about what might be happening later on today perhaps and in the coming day. >> mohamed we'll leave it there for now. we want to go to some background mohamed alluded to. this comes on the first anniversary of the parliamentary election, hundreds died in the run up of last year's poll. take a look at this.

>> signs that politics is still a dangerous business in bangladesh. politics prevent politician from leaving her office. >> translator: as soon as we declared our intention to have protest rallies to mark the anniversary, the government. >> the planned to hold rival demonstrations on monday. but they've been banned. ists beenit's bean year since ash election capped months of political violence here. more than 500 people died in the run-up to the vote. ruling parties say since the violence died down the government has focused on driving the nation forward. >> since our independence up till now only progress that has happened in bangladesh has land

thanks to prime minister sheik as inkna. in private members of the ruling party speak of the so-called singapore model. but it's unclear if bangladeshis are seeing the benefits. >> nasma begham used to be a garment worker but the jobs in that area have dried up. >> translator: the gas bills keep rising, the utilities keep rising but the landlord says he has to raise the rent because they can't pay the bills. >> reporter: her husband is also unemployed. nasman wonders how long she'll be able to afford these cramped quarters. al jazeera dhaka.

>> camp after al qaeda in the arabian peninsula said it was responsible. >> after the house used by the houthis as a base. that house belonged to a member of the shia group. there is one person injured in a blos, it was a big blast and it damaged the neighboring residences as well. not very far from the president's house the president of yex lives in yemen lives in that neighborhood. however on sunday a similar improvised explosive device exploded in the province of the houthis, that left four people killed and it was claimed by

koalaalqaeda in the arabian peninsula. >> special committee has also frozen assets of more than 100 members of the group. as part of an anti-coup alliance that has held power since mohamed morse was removed from office in 2013. have al jazeera's journalists peter greste, mohamed fahmy and baher mohamed have been jailed since the end of 2014. lawyers have requested they be deported from egypt. al shabaab has carried out another attack in the somali

exatcapital of mogadishu. jerald tan has the report. >> huge car bomb explosion i was shocked by the size of the blast. >> reporter: the target was the moving convoy of u.s. trained special forces. but in the end the victims were mostly pedestrians. walking along the road. >> translator: two security force he vehicles were chasing the suicide bomber. one drove in front of the assailant at high speed. then the bomber blue himself up in the middle of the cars. >> on christmas day gunmen penetrated the main african union base, seen as one of the most secure places in mogadishu. and just last week, an army

convoy was targeted in bedoa. in september a u.s. air strike killed the group's leader ahmed gadani while another killed the intelligence chief. >> if they lose leaders that the others will remain that their mindset will be maybe we need to talk, maybe we need to push our agenda through political means rather than warfare. >> but warfare is the present reality and al shabaab is showing no signs of backing down. jerald tan, al jazeera. >> suspected boko haram fighters have faced a military base in north nigeria. a town fleer lake near lake chad. over the years its mandate has expanded to fighting boko haram but its soldiers fled area on

saturday. residents of the northeastern nigerian border town of mubi have returned home. are mohamed idris reports how the town is struggling to recover, a warning some viewers may find images in his report disturbing. >> harvesting what is on the family farm on the outskirts of mob ink now have lost a substantial amount of produce. >> we were supposed to have had this in two months back. but due to this incident we are not up to until this time around. and due to this incident i lost my father who owns this land. >> as they work all around them are the sights and smell of death. the result of six weeks of occupation by boko haram. >> there's one dead body, and it's stinking so therefore we

cannot afford to have lost it, many people around us. you can found some dead bodies beside our farmland. >> on the way to town the streets are littered with evidence of the carnage. weeks after boko haram fighters were chased out mobi is largely largely deserted. security force he are in charge of moving out. but most -- goes are in charge of moving out. dark any hope of normalcy. shopkeepers are busy clear out their shops. hundreds of thousands of dollars have been lost. and the traders here face an uncertain future. >> translator: it's difficult to say if some will ever come back to this town.

many traders have lost everything money goods and even customers. yet some, despite their losses come back to whatever degree hoping for some miracle but the truth is people are desperate. >> reporter: but the area is now calm but with boko haram's history of attacking towns and villages repeatedly people are left with only one thimg. thing. hope, hope that the recent victories by the military and the vigilantes will hold. mohamed idris, al jazeera mobi nyjer. when we come back. fighting for a strategic are area of northern iraq. are its glory days over?

>> it's a chilling and draconian sentence... it simply cannot stand. >> this trial was a sham... >> they are truth seekers... >> all they really wanna do is find out what's happening, so they can tell people... >> governments around the world all united to condemn this... >> as you can see, it's still a very much volatile situation... >> the government is prepared to carry out mass array... >> if you want free press in the new democracy

let the journalists live.

>> hello gen and welcome back. the top stories here on al jazeera. the two activists from the main opposition bangladesh opposition party have been shot dead. comes on the first anniversary of the controversial parliamentary elections. al shabaab has carried out another attack in the somali capital of mogadishu. attacking foreign trained elite agents. there has been an explosion in yemen at a house used as a base of houthi fighters in

sanaa. comes hours after another blast in dama city south of the capital. now to the fight against the islamic state of iraq and the levant. 11 iraqi fighters and are opposition fighters have been killed. one of the areas government forces are trying to secure from i.s.i.l. in northern iraq curved peshmergakurdishpeshmerga fighters are trying to regain control of a town of. of mohammad adow has the story. >> a few meters away is the village of sultan abdalla. a few days ago it was a heavy

site of fighting between the i.s.i.l. soil and kurdish forces. peshmerga now control the village but it is within the range of i.s.i.l. fire. we were advised against going into the village. >> it is the front line, so occurs with the mortars almost daily, between us and them, it is a very long front. >> they say i.s.i.l. has killed some of their men. a few kilometers behind the sultan abdalla front linings is the village destroyed military vehicles and walls riddled with bullet holes are stark reminders of the battles fought here. in some of the villages recently retain by the peshmerga life is slowly returning to normal as more people feel courageous enough to return to their homes but they are facing many problems.

this family remained behind when the rest of the villagers fled. he says they need urgent help. >> translator: we have no food. no fuel, no cooking gas. no electricity and even more essentially, we have no clean water. we appeal to the authorities to bring us water and food. it's very cold and the children are suffering. >> reporter: he feels relieved that i.s.i.l. is no longer in control of their village. >> translator: we are punished for even the small erst smallest actions. if someone smokes cigarettes they say you are not a muslim. if someone had family that was part of the government military we are punished. >> they accused some of its sunni arab residents of supporting i.s.i.l. and arrested them. >> my cousin is one of the 16 people taken away by the peshmerga. we don't know where they are.

they accused them of being i.s.i.l. members but they're not. >> reporter: back at the front line peshmerga fighters take advantage of a lull in fighting to prepare their weapons. other clean their guns. they say they are outgunned by i.s.i.l. and unless these changes their lines would not continue to hold. mohammad adow, al jazeera on the front lines of northern iraq. syrian government has launched more air strikes around the city of idlib. it is a village in the country side outside idlib. civilians have also been injured by shelling in a residential area east of the capital damascus. reports say more than 30 people were wounded in the city of duma. for the first time syrians hoping to enter lebanon will face stricter rules. they will have to declare their

reasons for entering the country. lebanon is trying to maintain its security and monetary situation. nearly 1.1 million refugees have fled to lebanon. former head opted not orun for reelection. hoja the coalition's ambassador to turkey received 56 votes while the secretary general received 50. palestinian president mahmoud abbas is in discussion to call for end of israeli occupation of palestinian territories. the u.n. rejected an earlier draft last week. >> we will go against again to the u.n. security council in maybe a

week. the only arab member in the security council we may go again and again and again. we will never be bored in going to the security council until they recognize us. >> myanmar has marked the 60th anniversary, the first time since 1962 that such an event has been held. as erica wood now explains. ♪ ♪ >> just before day break the ceremony marking myanmar's independence from british rule is watched by government officials and members of the public. it's the first time the day has been celebrated in this day since the military took power in a coup 52 years ago. a statement from the president was read out calling for public cooperation, so the government can transition smoothly into democracy. but away from the military parade a skeptical crowd geared

gathered and protested for the release of political prisoners the place where myanmar's rulers officially severed ties with the british in 1958. >> though we got independence from the british we are not liberated yet. the authorities can arbitrarily detain us any time if we speak out. >> opposition leader awngs aung san suu kyi. >> we need to restore the values we once cherished and now lost. >> there are no celebrations

inian gong for independence day but people have been marking their celebrations in their own way. >> we just want to have fun on this day. we don't know anything about politics. >> translator: the vision of independence the rulers are selfish and corrupt. if that can be change, then our government will improve. >> the government promised it will be a tradition that will change as it moves into democratic rule, human rights abuses discrimination of ethnic minorities and the jailing of political opposition. erica wood, al jazeera. >> rescue teams have resumed the search for the wreckage of airasia flight 8501 from indonesia. the plane's black boxes could

possibly be located near where five large pieces of wreckage were spotted in the java sea. more bodies are expected to be identified. >> we hope for a survivor just one at least one of them, but i hope that we can come back alive. the not we hope that all of them will are -- all of their bodies at least will be here. we don't want any missing bodies, at least the -- if the dive sometimes i want them ohave a proper burial. >> in the yuts thousands of people paid their respects at the funeral of the new york police officer wenjian liu. he was shot dead along with his police partner in brooklyn. they were ambushed by ismaaiyl

brinsley. some police officers turned their back on mayor bill deblasio as he gave a eulogy. they accuse him of not backing the police during a wave of antipolice protesters. the families of 43 missing students in mexico say they'll search themselves. they blame the government for not investigating the missing students. >> translator: we're going to go and look for all of them. we're not going to take government into account anymore because it doesn't do anything for us. they are just telling us that we circulate give up. how are we going to give up? would president enrique pena nieto give up if it was his son? >> russia once known as a science superpower and a hub for discovery and innovation, russia might have sent the first man

into space but the golden age has lapsed in recent years and many experts have left the country. in our first part of a two part story rory challenge takes a look at the brain drain. >> boris is used to this, he is already aware of the challenges faced by russian scientists, are challenges that go beyond wrapping up warm. >> resources and budget located for science decreased in years so i think main policy that science is not very important. >> this observatory was built in the 1950s which was a golden period nor soviet science lasting through until at least

the 1970s. but the collapse of the soviet union dealt a blow to this research. it drove many of the scientists who left soviet science well, beatingbeating for the west. russia's document academy of sciences in the top 12 of scientific institutions and rank russia 15th for scientific research. they are structural as well. >> that there are still some programs but it is very unclear actually what we want at the very end. so money invested, but then it disappears and we come back. so they're not approaching in my opinion some good goal.

>> vladimir putin shook up research funding with a decree saying institutes should compete for it and stop assuming they'd just be handed cash. another policy sea change for russia's scientists to cope with when they just want to reach for stars. rory challenge, al jazeera moscow. >> it looks like russia will not be alone in reaching for stars. the new year appears to be, a place for new exploration. >> after a nine year journey for space nasa's new craft will make the closest ever approach to pluto this year. over 10,000 kilometers of the surface. letting us know little of a planet. >> pluto whether we call it a planet or not the furthest

heavenly body in our solar system a large body will be visited by a spacecraft that we launched a decade ago to me that's mind boggling. >> in april another craft dawn is set to arrive at the planet seres, between thing planets of mars and jupiter. the problem of space debris will also get attention in 2015. threat to satellites and the european space agency is set to test new capture technology based on fishing nets. >> the net essentially opens up and being in space you don't have any problem with drag. and when the net reaches the body of the debris the net impacts on the debris and the masses continue their courses so they wrap around and they entangle the debris in a way

that is impossible to disentangle. >> once caught they plan to drag the debris down towards earth where it will burn it in reentry. a craft on the surface of a comet, most of the year will be spent analyzing it as it approaches the sun. >> water and gas and all the other materials for many scientists that is a very big deal. >> in april nasa is set to launch ovehicle, to log the solar wind, and how the earth's magnetic fields affect the planet. india, china japan and russia are planning a number of satellite launches, giving us a better understanding of our planet's place in the solar

system. tarek bazley, al jazeera. >> meanwhile you can explore the planet in which we live in, at aljazeera.com plenty of comment as well as the day's news. aljazeera.com. aljazeera.com. our dimgit al producer is bringing in your comments from