>> thousands more antiislam protesters turn out around germany despite angela merkel branding them racist. i'm lauren taylor this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up. the u.s. charges two men for trying to carry out a coup against gambia's president. bangladesh on the eve of controversial elections. stopping the flow of syrian refugees in leive non.

lebanon and the world's biggest ice sculpture festival. is hello. thousands more people have turned out for antiislam rallies in germany. with angela merkel branding them as racist and urging germans to turn their backs on them. weekly rallies over what protesters call the islam fiction of theiislamfication of the country. also going dark in solidarity. thousands of protesters turned out in seven cities for counterrallies. let's go live to nadim baba .

how these proafts are spreading. >> lauren behind me thousands antipegida protesters, others in other parts of the cologne to stop a planned march towards the cathedral. several cities across germany are hosting margins by pegid after but in general the counterdemonstrations are larger. in berlin the police are talking about 10,000 antipegida demonstrators showing up. the pro-pegida draimentors areda demonstrators are far far smaller. the largest was in dresden a

couple of weeks ago which drew 17,000 people. that's what spurred her to actually make those comments. clearly, at least the minority in parts of germany from saying they would support the movement, one poll thought that 13% of the german population would attend the pegeda rally if there was one in their is vicinity. >> antigovernment protest? >> it's very, very mixed. we've heard tonight if i can show you, if the camera mancan move over, a group of several hundred pegida supporters, some have moved on and have gone through a train station where there was a confrontation just

verbal with some antiracist, what we have been seeing is antiracist politicians are holding the line that this is a manipulative organization and that they are driven by hatred. i was listening to some of the speeches which were denouncing the koran which were in their words backwards some of the protestors have hinted that they are antiislam they are worried about immigration but there is a fringe i've seen it smiestled the last couple of hours skin head groups taken to the street. >> nadim baba thank you very much indeed.

prosecutors in the united states have charged two men with conspiring to overthrow the gammiangambian government. based in the u.s. u.k. and jernlg any havegermany have been behind the attack. men of gambian origin have been charged with conspiring against a foreign nation. rob reynolds in washington d.c what do we know about the scale of this coup? >> well lauren, the u.s. attorney general announced the arrests saying that the united states strongly condemns such conspiracies u.s. attorney general eric holder. the two men will be charged with

conspiracy to carry out violent overthrow of a federal government which is a crime in the united states. in a federal court in minnesota we got details from an fbi agent who interrogated one of the plotters of a half baked coup operation that got underway on the 30th of december, last week in banjul the capital of gambia. the coup members numbered about a dozen people, all men all armed they came from the united states and the united kingdom all of gambian descent or leanings. on that day on the 30th they made plans to storm the presidential residence called state house in banjul. they fired in the air hoping the troops who were guarding the residence would simply run away,

instead the troops fired back, inflicting heavy casualties on the attackers at least four of whom apparently were killed. the rest of them then fled and these two individuals made their way back to the united states. president jammeh, yahya jammeh of gambia blamed the coup on terrorist groups who he said had received backing president jammeh from the u.s., u.k. and germany. >> thank you rob reynolds in washington. tensions are high in bangladesh. oirptionopposition leader khalid azea dominic kane has this report.

>> an eerie calm on the streets of dhaka. to promote the opponents of sheik hasina from gathering. monday is the anniversary of her reelection but the opposition bangladesh opposition party calls it opposition day. trying to create anarchy. >> translator: i'm requesting the bnp leaders to stop the anarchy caused by killing vandalizing and torching vehicles. because of your wrong decision, you are not in parliament today. you must blame yourself. stop this anarchy and work towards peace. then you may have some chance next time. >> perhaps for that reason, the police barricaded zia inside her party headquarters in the

capital until early afternoon. eventually, they let her leave. but a crowd of pro-government supporters had got to the gates. and armed with sticks, they tried to get inside the building. the bnp says its aim is to protect democracy. >> translator: khalid azea has clearly stated, the movement and the voting rights of the people in the country will continue until this government falls. whatever your political affiliation and ideologies, all of you should come forward. >> reporter: away from the capital the violence was worse. two people were shot dead in the northern district of napor. the political conflict between the opposition and government hits khalid azir and the

opposition against each other. hasina believes she has a mandate to govern. dominic kane, al jazeera. >> unprecedented new restrictions on syrians trying to cross the border into lebanon have come into effect. refugees fleeing the civil wars, for decades citizens have been able to travel freely over their shared border. it is estimated between 1.1 and 1.5 million syrians are in lebanon and that's the quarter of the total population. so the lebanese government has established new categories of entry visas for syrians including tourist and medical care. making no provisions for refugees. jane ferguson reports from beirut. >> for 20 years abel hamza didn't need vias to work in

lebanon, now the lebanese government has changed rules. syrians will have to explain why they are entering the country and entry is not guaranteed. >> i've been working in lebanon since 1995 and now i'm stuck in lebanon. there is no way i can leave now back to syria. lebanon has been protecting us and now we don't feel safe. >> working class neighborhood of beirut most are confused about the new rules and came to ask us what is going on. but it is not yet clear what will happen to those already living inside lebanon who don't qualify for visas under the new rules. not all syrians in lebanon are registered as refugees. many came here years ago looking for work. some escaping from the recent war split their time between the safety of lebanon and visiting relatives inside syria. now if they leave there is no guarantee of being let back in. >> translator: i have a

daughter still living in aleppo. i risk my life to go visit them. now they have blocked us and i won't be able to see them. >> reporter: it is not just working class syrians 0 will be affected by the new rules every syrian will have to explain to the lebanese government what they're doing here. many own businesses inside lebanon. now when they enter lebanon they will have to tick a box on the paperwork declaring themselves students business travelers tourists and prove i.t. it. >> if they're not a refugee they must present documents to explain the reason for their visit, this is to control and secure the flow of syrians. the norm many countries around the world the border between syria and lebanon has historically been open. now syrians fear that freedom of movement is fading.

jane ferguson, al jazeera beirut. >> three saudi border guards have been killed, police say one much the attackers detonated a suicide vest, two days after saudi arabia announced it would reopen an embassy in baghdad which closed 25 years ago. al-aqsa mosque, head of the organization of salt lake islamic cooperation arranged visits for tens of thousands of arab tourists. still to come this half hour, after being freed from boko haram, boston marathon bombing suspect appears in the court after a jury is selectfor his trial.

primetime news.

>> welcome to al jazeera america. >> stories that impact the world, affect the nation and touch your life. >> i'm back. i'm not going anywhere this time. >> only on al jazeera america. >> a reminder of the top stories on al jazeera. thousands have turned occupant for antiislam demonstrations in east germany. chancellor angela merkel urged germ answer to turn their backs on them. overflow of gambia's president, president yahya jammeh. clashes broke out on the first anniversary of controversial elections. sheik hasina has accused opposition leader of trying to

create anarchy. the united nations has stepped in to stop the execution of 54 soldiers in nigeria. they have been sentenced to death for disobeying a direct order to recapture three towns from boko haram. the u.n. says they didn't get a fair trial. boko haram killed dozens of civilians and soldiers, after they seized a town over the weekend. only nigeria troops are stationed there. meanwhile residents of the border town of nubia returning home after it was held for six weeks by boko haram. mohamed idris reports a warning you may find some images in his report disturbing. >> on the outskirts of mobi left it attended for two months when boko haram fighters overran the town. they now have lost a substantial amount of the produce.

>> we were supposed to harvest this 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. >> reporter: as they work, all around them are the sights and smell of death. the result of six weeks of occupation by boko haram. >> there is one dead body there and it's stinking so therefore we cannot afford to have, likewise many people around us, you can found some dead bodies beside our farmland. >> reporter: 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 desserted. security forces are in charge of mobi now but despite their presence most people are staying away. many businesses remain shut,

dark hopes of for any quick return to normalcy. at the central market traders are busy clearing debris from their burned shops. a large section of the market was set on fire, 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 the debris hoping for some miracle but the truth is people are desperate. >> reporter: the area is now accustom but with boko haram's history of attacking towns and villages repeatedly people are left with only one thing: hope. hope that the recent victories by the military and vigilantes

will hold. mohamed idris, al jazeera nigeria. kenyan capital are building collapsed, some were killed one a child. officials say the upper floors of the apartment block were being built in quick succession putting pressure on the lower floors. a turkish parliamentary commission body is affect backing president recep tayyip erdogan. a plot to unseat him. dozens of officers in turkey have been arrested part of an investigation into eavesdropping. of dozens of officials including the president. led by u.s. based cleric betula

gerlin. >> al jazeera continues to demand the immediate release of its journalists, peter greste, mohamed fahmy and baher mohamed. a retrial could begin within a month. lawyers for peter and mohamed have filed requests for them to be deported from egypt. an aircraft from the former libyan general khalifa hafta two were killed two were injured. a spokesman for libya's internationally recognized government said the ship had acted suspiciously. france's president putin president has pledged to strike at armed fighters in eask sahara africa's sahara region. 3,000 french troops have been delloyd to france's former colonies.

francois hollande has ruled out further intervention. lawrence lee reports. >> the fall of gadhafi has been the strength thing of strengthening. paris is that the increasing disintegration of libya into rival heavily armed factions is leading to an open supply route for weapons outside of libya and through niger and thus rearming groups in mali all over again. consequently announcing that france would be buying more drones and would be constructing a new military base. just outside the southern libyan border to block the routes being taken by heavily armed fighters. >> translator: we know that in southern libya there are very heavily armed hot beds.

it is a refuge, we have set up a base and i will tell you something here in confidence if we can on the radio maybe they can listen to us. we will strike them every time they will come out of these places where they are hiding. that is why there is this base. >> reporter: tall same, the most cursory of looking at a plan shows the difficulty of policing libya's borders. the borders to the west and to the east are vast and unpoliced. the setup of the base is designed to take those distances into account. >> translator: this is not a static base, it is a dynamic military base that can dacht according to the terrorist threat. it will have ground troops, special forces and air contingent with drones to find terrorist armed groups in the different countries. >> reporter: france has said it won't intervene inside libya by itself but president hollande suggested it would if the united nations allowed it for the

stabilizization of northern africa caused by libya's collapse may lead to yet more internationalinternational intrerntion which international intervention which led to moammar gadhafi. >> the death of a two month old baby girl was buried in this area after the mayor of her home town refused to grant a burial plot. the french human rights ombudsman is investigating which caused widespread outrage. a bombing killed one woman and left three others injured. home slid hundreds of meertle pleerts meters downhill. built on top of an abandoned coal mine.

thousands are being called as a jury panel for dzhokhartsarnaev. april 2013 attack killed three people and injured hundreds more. tom ackerman has this report. >> reporter: dzhokhartsarnaev now 21 has pleaded not guilty to the charges including use of a weapon of mass destruction. he and his older brother tamerlan are accused of setting off two exploifs devices near the starting line. >> looks like an ied of afghanistan. one guy with his leg blown off another with his foof blown off. >> alerted by the faith shooting of a university police officer also allegedly committed by dzhokhar. tamerlan was killed and later

dzhokhar was captured. >> why would young men who grew up and studied here as part of our community resort to such violence. >> prosecutors said dzhokhar, an ethnic chechen explained his actions, retribution for innocent victims in iraq and afghanistan. eric holder who personally opposes capital punishment authorized the charge. government has not executed anyone since 2003. tom ackerman, al jazeera. >> the u.s. navy will use highly sensitive sonar scanners to search for the airasia plane. 162 people were on board the flight when it went down in waters off indonesia.

so far 37 bodies have been recovered. hundreds of firefighters are still trying to contain major bush fires in southern australia. 29 people have been injured and 26 homes destroyed along with vast swaths of home and willed wilderness. >> the world's largest ice sculpture event reporting from china's winter wonder land. >> five days of working in subzero temperatures, the reward, a single block of ice harharbin ice festival.

patterns inspired by nature. >> it's transparent clear the ice, and you create fourth dimension side, that is what happens. >> but the competition is not the main draw here flor is it this ice rink rather unusually for tricycle rides. it is also not for the horse drawn carriages even though they add a nice touch. people come for this. when day transforms into night and the buildings are lit up like some gaudy yet magical winter wonder land. fleeneon lights of every color light up the blocks of snow anditis inside and out. each year, the fix gets up bigger even more elaborate structures, and officials say they are expecting more and more people a 10% increase from the

1.1 million who visited last year. >> the steam trains clamor on and off when you have enough. >> it's mazing. it's like seeing the sea or the desert for the first time. then suddenly you just go, wow! >> translator: it's my first time here. i'm from the south. so i've never seen snow and ice carvings before. i'm very excited. >> reporter: the cold is not a deterrent. even with temperatures sometimes dropping to minus 40° celsius. the people here have found a way to celebrate winter and in doing so turned their city into a spectacular display of art and magic. florence louie, al jazeera harbin flornn northern china. unexpected motorists the speedy emu which escaped from a nearby farm, has been caught on

camera pacing in front of other vehicles. the bird safely returned home to its owners. and more for you any time on our website, the address is aljazeera.com, watch live. a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. let's check out the team of hard-core nerds. specialising in ecology and evolutio