>> the hunt for the paris shooting suspects intensifies north of the french capital after a witness said he spotted them at a petrol station. >> coming up in the next half hour: [ bells toll ] >> france remembers the 12 people killed in an attack on a satirical magazine. >> the french president convenes a meeting with his cabinet.

>> overshadowed by the threat of boko haram. that. >> we begin in france where two suspects in a paris shooting attack have reportedly been spotted. an eyewitness said they were in the reims region north of paris. the two were said to be armed. the manager of a petrol station reportedly called police. on wednesday, 12 were shot dead in an attack at offices of satirical magazine, charlie hebdo. let's go live to paris where thousands gathered overnight to hold a vigil. what more do you know about these suspects who have been spotted? >> french media have reported extensively on an alleged siting

of the suspects. basically, the manager of a petrol station called the police to say that he believed he had recognized the two suspects as having come to the petrol station, apparently there was some kind of a hold up, they robbed the petrol station. another eyewitness spoke of two men armed and wearing masks. the police of promised to respond to every lead, not going to leave any stone unturned. they went to the petrol station questioned a number of witnesses, carried out a thorough search of the premises, but the two men if they were in fact the suspects were not there, they'd already gone. certainly, that was the one lead that's been followed. presumably the police are following other leads they haven't told us about yet but at the moment, the last siting was somewhere to the northeast of paris. here in the capitol itself, crisis meetings have been on

going between the president prime minister, other senior officials and heads of security and intelligence agencies. at the same time, as well, people across france have been remembering and paying their respects to the people who were killed on wednesday. to bring us right up to date of events of recent hours here's my colleague bash bephillips. >> france is grieving and not just for the dead. the french are also in grief because they know their country will struggle to recover from these wounds and they fear what will come next. that this is the center of paris. the silence was observed across the country a long, poignant pause. even as the country mourns, there was another attack on the streets of paris just south of the center. two police officers were shot.

shortly afterwards, colleagues heard tragic news, one shot, a police woman died of her wounds. yet again the killer got away. >> we don't know that there is as direct link between this attack and wednesday's attack on charlie hebdo but we do know that the gunman here used an automatic weapon and deliberately targeted officers in uniform. all of this adds to the sense of crisis in the french capitol. >> these are the prime suspects for wednesday's attack, the french police say cherif and said kouachi brothers of algerian descent are armed and dangerous. that there were reports they were seen thursday in a car in the region of northern france in reims. the french penalty said this is a time for national unity.

>> france has been struck directly in its heart the capitol in a place where the spirit of liberty and resistance breathes freely. the spontaneous gatherings throughout france show again that our great france knows how to come together and defend the ideals of the republic against those who attack it by killing journalists and police. >> brave words but many on the streets simply feel numb. >> i feel empty that something so unbelievable. they were like my family, and like me, they like too much laughing and against the killing in the world. >> whatever the eventual consequences will be, there is a

truce in france. for the priorities, the priority is camping the killers on the loose. >> you mentioned that cries meeting that the president had with his security cabinet. we know that opposition leaders and the former president attended the meeting as well. that's very significant isn't it? >> it is, because the president is clearly seeking to show people that he's leading by example, called for national unity, and also he said this is a time that all the difference forces within france have to work together. in order to delmon straight that he invited his old rival and opposition leader nicholas sarkozy, the man elon defeated in the election. the man who was president

before sitting in on sensitive meetings with heads of intelligence and security agencies so clearly politicians seeking to demonstrate that now is not a time for party politics or scoring political points, but working together to battle this very serious threat, which continues to be out there and be a matter of great concern for people all over the country. >> indeed, the terror alert in france is at its highest at the moment. >> let's get more on this from a historian-journalist mr. stanley, that you can for being with us. we know these attacks come at a time when europe is undergoing an internal debate over islamization of the continent shall we say and you say in a

recent article that europe obviously has a terrorist problem. that it sincerely does not have a muslim problem. just explain to us your stance. >> i think it's very significant that one of the policemen killed in the attack upon charlie hebdo was himself a muslim, which indicate reminds us the vast, vast vast majority of muslims in france and across europe regard islam so it's undeniable that france has a security problem. it also has a problem in that there are aspects of the culture which conflict strongly with islamist political tuesday. the idea that the correct response to this is to demand the muslim community explains itself or the idea that we should see what's emerging as a as

a buy near struggle is a mistake. >> every time an attack like this happens moderate muslims can feel guilt they feel the community will feel the brunt of the fear, the anger of the wider non-muslim community. that how should these moderate muslims react? >> it's really not my place to say. to give perspective britain for about 20 years had a problem with irish nationalist terrorism. now, this is no way reflected the views of either irish people or roman catholics. i'm part irish part roman catholic. the irish republic army in no

way spoke for me or my family. the idea that there is a relationship between those who act in a -- terrorists who act in the name of islamism and ordinary islams is false and has to be confronted, if only to disconnect islam from them. it is implied islam exists with extreme i on one end. that's not how faith works. islamists are something different, separate, a specific, historical political movement and i think we should when discussing this, we should seek to separate them from what islam actually really is. >> it's very interesting that you mention marginalize these

people and many have taken pain to say point out that those who conducted these attacks are part of an extreme minority. what then can be done to bring these people into the larger fold of society so that they do share the same values are democracy, of freedom? >> well evidently we haven't done enough. in great britain, we ever the problem of radicalization in schools and universities. that on the other hand, one has to ask one self, what exactly can be done. quite often people are drawn toward these movements are young, very often middle class not always alienated or unemployed but traveling and looking for adventure. many find training camps with isis. we've had converts to is laxism who have been white christian middle aged, single mothers. it's very difficult to predict who exactly will do this. the culture has to confront it,

acknowledge it exists and have security measures to assure those stops don't get out of control. the idea of rewarding it as a strictly muslim problem i think is misleading and misunderstands the nature of islamism itself. >> fascinating, thank you so much for speaking with us. tim stanley historian and journalist speaking to us from problem don. >> a police officer has been killed in a separate shooting incident in paris. officials say the woman was as to thatting to investigate a traffic accident when an assailant opened fire. the incident happened about four kilometers south of the city center. authorities say the shooting has not been linked to wednesday's attack on the officers of charlie hebdo. much more to come on al jazeera including in defense of liberty cartoonists around the world strike back after the deadly attack on the offices of a

satirical magazine in paris. >>

>> welcome back, let's look a the top stories on al jazeera. we're getting reports that two suspects in the paris shooting have been spotted. it would seem by the manager bay petrol station in the reims region north of paris. the two men are said to be armed.

>> an observing of a moment of silence in france. >> a meeting of the french president and former president with the cabinet. >> a few of those who died in the paris attacks were satirical cartoonists. cartoonists around the world are posting their cartoons in solidarity. hundreds of cartoons such this, using a hash tag meaning i am charlie. in french, artists shared their powerful and satirical sketches, using them to advocate for a free press denounce vials and to mourn their colleagues at charlie hebdo approximate one of

the more popular drawings was this one shared by a huge number of times for are a political cartoon. it was drawn by the camera times car are tunist david pope. pens and pencils were used to represent the victim it is in many drawings, with some depicting sharpened pencils threatening retribution for the attackers. charlie hebdo will publish next week with a run of 1 million. many french media outlets pledged support. >> the words don't only mean charlie hebdo is in other hearts it means the magazine has our full support. that was the offering by cartoonists for the newspaper in the hours after the shootings. the next day's is a deeper analysis the charlie hebdo flag over the presidential palace.

the dove of peace with newspapers for wings. he had known the men killed for 30 years. >> your readers say if you want to kill them, then you must -- then you should kill us, as well. >> we have to continue the battle. >> little the beginning. >> the french newspaper that described this as its own september 11. the attack is now etched in the national memory. just as the vigils in support have shown a resilience and silence in the national mood, some ever said the magazine's right to say what it wants will be financially and physically supported by the revert of the immediate. >> >> when you attack opinion freedom of speech, press

freedom, we are going stronger and more solider. charlie hebdo will resume and freedom of press will be stronger in france. >> outside the building, police stand guard. journalism is under attack here. >> france said its press and deliver democratic values have come under attack. the french media is going to ever a very important role to play in what hams next simultaneously to argue that people should be able to say what they want without fear of being directly physically attacked while at the same time not pandering to big god and particularly anti islamic values. >> the staff held their own silences. there is a lot of shock no doubt some fear.

there also seems to be a realization that there is an opportunity in all of this to further ice congratulate people whose opinions they disagree with. al jazeera paris. >> news out of yemen where more than 10 houthis have been killed. al-qaeda fighters attacked a gathering. we have more from the yemen capitol. >> sources suggest that fighting started late wednesday and it continued to the early hours of thursday. now, al-qaeda fighters backed by tribal leaders attacked a number of houthi targets. self people were killed, including a field commander for the houthi group. also there are reports of at least four vehicles set on fire after the attack. that used to be an al-qaeda stronghold and in october last

year, it fell to the control of the houthis. after that, al-qaeda as well as their allies in the area starting waging a number of attacks in the country. a group of hottie fighters stormed the office of the information minister. she wasn't at her office at the time. now, we do know that there are differences between the houthi group, as well as the information minister trying to force her to a point members of the group to leading newspapers, as well as t.v. channels owned by the state. >> the united states and allies have carried out 13 airstrikes against isil in both syria and iraq in the past two days. police sources in iraq say five people have been killed and 22 others injured in a suicide bomb attack. three policemen are among the dead. it happened outside a city where

five suicide bombers detonated their main trucks on the highway. it's understood they were targeting police. >> polls have closed in sri lanka after a day which saw high voter turnout throughout the country. election monitors reported for sporadic incidents of violence, but for the most part, peaceful. we are joined live now from columbo. any indication yet which direction this election will go? >> it's still very early stages yet approximate behind me, you see one of the main counting centers here in the district, part of three main counting centers for the votes in this area being tap late. we are hearing the initial face of counting and voting that taken place. however, it will still be

another hour or two before we get occasions of preliminary results of that count so in terms of which way the vote is swinging very early stages yet. >> with that being the case, just give us an indication how the voting went throughout the day. >> a notable thing is the number of people outside the polling stations. that now in terms of the sort of turnout we're hearing even at the end of the day many sort of unofficial occasions that the voter turnout was extremely high indeed around the polling centers, we did see a very high voter turnout steady stream in certain places, long queues in

others. that a very strong sense of people wanting to play their role and part in this election and this is what we heard from some of them: >> it was time for sri lanka voters to cast their ballot. running for a third term, the president had one standing in his way. >> when there's one leader for a long time, there must be a change or else it becomes an out contractic rule. >> he saved our country from war. >> it became a fight for political survival as surprise assault was mounted with the help of the rainbow coalition. >> compared to the hype leading up to the election, the day has

been uneventful and the next hours will be a wait for the contenders vying for the presidency. >> allegations of wrongdoing emerged. observers are looking at it closely. >> in our assessment, the concerns raised by various groups about abuse of resources and impartiality of the media and preelection violence, they will all go towards establishing in our judgment whether there has been a level playing field. >> already earning a place in history, ending one of asia's worst conflicts thursday's election results will reveal if he becomes the country's first president to win a third term. >> given this sort of surprising level and intimidation and violence escalating in the run up to the election today the

actual polling day has been quiet. behind me, you see one of the main counting centers with a quiet air of busy activity going on people going about their business. that there is a heavy security presence of people manning the barricades with weaver seen polling agents, representatives of political parties that could come observing the count in each polling station. very much getting on with their business we've heard the results will trickle in from 10:00 tonight and it might be as late as the end of the day tomorrow according to the elections commissioner when we have a final result and a or declared at this presidential election. >> >> thank you for that update. speaking to us from columbo. >> egyptian military officials are saying the army is doubling the size of a buffer zone along the border with the gaza strip. now the plan will seep the expansion of the existing 500-meter buffer zone in the north sinai peninsula to one

kilometer. more than 1200 homes will be destroyed and residents evictim. the buffer was created in november in a bid to halt the passage of weapons and fighters through cross border smuggling tunnels. >> this thursday marks one week since egypt's court ordered a retrial for our three colleagues. al jazeera continues to demand the release of our three journalists. the three journalists have been wrongfully jailed in egypt for 376 days, accused of broadcasting false news and helping the outlawed muslim brotherhood. >> the attacks by boko haram in north and central nigeria overshadowed long running disputes over land religion and ethnicity, claiming hundreds of lives each year. we report on some of the forgotten conflicts.

♪ >> another day another funeral. this time, it's for the local chief. he was shot and killed in an ambush, one of 80 people this farming community has buried in the last year. the threat of more violence is ever present. >> we feel we are not nigerians because we cannot imagine being nigerians. the general feeling is that the community has been neglected. >> this state of neglect is forcing many to leave. homes, farms and businesses have been left behind. their owners are looking for somewhere safe. >> thousands of victims leaving camps like this across the country. they couldn't live side by side in peace in their villages. they say the government is likely focused elsewhere fighting boko haram. >> the dispute caused by many

things land to local politics and religion. many people in local communities blame the killings on these people herdsmen, but say they are blamed unfairly. >> these attacks have been going on over two years or five years i think so. they don't know how to handle bombs or guns. >> they are victims of targeted killing themselves and abandoned by government. authorities deny accusations of neglect. that. >> this is not correct for anyone to think that government has abandoned anybody. the primary responsibility of any government at any level state or federal is to provide security for its citizens and government has expectations. a lot needs to be done. >> the effort to crush boko haram is continuing.

that until the government defeats the violent group the conflicts of a land and allegiances will be put aside. >> keep up to date with the latest news at aljazeera.com. .com. >> the last gunmen shot masked gunmen shot 12 people, including police. that's next on "inside story." >> hello, i'm ray suarez. charlie hebdo has been insulting