ray suarez in washington. on america tonight, will welcome back. the top stories here on al jazeera... [ bell tolls ] ..a moment's silence has been observed in france to remember 12 people killed in the attack on the satirical magazine "charlie hebdo" in paris. several have been detained in the hunt for two brothers

suspected of carrying out the shooting. police issued arrest warrants for 32-year-old cherif kouachi, and 34-year-old said kouachi, who have not yet been arrested earlier the french president held a crisis meeting with his cabinet and former president nicolas sarkozy well, the sadness and shock in france has been echoed around the world. >> reporter: fro across the globe came one voice. france - you are not alone. vigils held in cities near and far from the america's asia. with condolences, condemnation. >> those who carry out senseless attacks.

we will stand with the people of france. >> the attack at this time is an act of terror against the news organization, and the freedom to report. this is unforgiveable. for reasons we cannot forgive such cowardly attacks and condemn them. >> obviously this is a horrific atrocity, absolute atrocity. this. >> in major european companies, they were quick to show solidarity. >> and we stand united with the french people against terrorism and this threat to our value, the rule of law, democracy, and it's essential that we defend those values today and day. >> reporter: muslim nationsar spoking out, posting this message saying:

nations. >> it was a horrendous unjustifiable and cold-blooded crime. it was also a direct sault on the cornerstone of democracy, on the bdm and freedom of expression. >> reporter: messages of unity pour in, not just in sympathy, out. >> cartoonists from around the world posted some emotional drawings of their own. now, hundreds of cartoons flooded the internet following the shooting at the paris satirical newspaper that killed 12 people. using the hashtag "jes suis charlie," meaning i am charlie, in french, artists shared their

powerful and satirical sketches. they used them to advocate for a free press. one that their colleagues, the french publication used. one of the most popular drawings were shared 62,000 time, within 13 hours of using the internet. it was penned by cartoonist david pope. pens and pencils were used in many. drawings, some depicting attackers. a police officer has been killed in a separate shooting incident in paris. emergency services are on the scene, 4km south of the city center. interior minister bernard cazeneuve said authorities are

doing their utmost to find and arrest the attacker. it's too early to draw connection between the attack at the latest latest incident. >> to other news, and polls closed in the sri lankan election. there has been reports of violence at several polling stations, due to the divisions. incumbent president is popular with the sepah lease ethnic group. many threw support towards the main rival. >> charles stratford is in colombo with the latest. >> the temple has been used as a polling station. we visited many polling stations and saw a steady flow of voters coming in. from the election commission in the capital cities, until 12 noon, they saw around about a

50% voter turn out. particularly in the north-east of the country, recording a 25% voter turn out. there are reports of one level of intimidation. according to the sensors of monitoring the violence. it was an explosion of grenade. no one injured and no one claiming responsibility for the explosion, and there was an instant of bus drivers in the central area. country that had gone to try to pick up voters and were prevented them from casting the ballot. it's difficult to gauge how free and fair it was, in the capital city, it's been quiet. >> to yemen where more than 10 houthi rebels have been killed. it happened when tribesman backed by the fighters attacked the gathering.

let's go live to the yemeni center with omar al saleh. tell us about the latest attack, what do you know about it? >> we know the attacks started wednesday when al qaeda fighters attacked a number of houthi targets in and around the checkpoints, as well as a few houthis taking them on the bases. the death toll is 10, a field commander from the houthi group has been killed in the attack. four vehicles were burnt. it belonged to the houthi fighters. witnesses said that they have heard loud explosions. heavy gun fire, and it continued well into thursday mourning. so the situation is volatile.

i have to give you an idea about whether it was a strong hold for al qaeda, and when they wept this last -- went in last object and the other allies retreated to the outskirts and they started a war of attrition to weaken the group. >> we are getting reports that the information minister's office - what can you tell us about that? >> yes, certainly it has. one of our producers spoke to the minister. she is not available, but said a number of armed houthis stormed the entire ministry of education, and said they were sitting in the office running. the entire lot.

two days earlier they had a meeting and they were complaining about an editor for one of the state's newspapers. they demanded her to sack him. she said she can't. the houthis said "we can", and they went with their arms to that perp's house and asked him to resign. they told her that they would not be able to go to any one in the state, that is a member of the houthi group. it's testament to the political power. here. >> omar al saleh, speaking to us from the yemeni capital sanaa. >> five have been killed, 20 injured in a suicide bomb attack. three police men are among the dead, and happened outside samarra city. it's understood the attackers

were targetting police. thailand's former prime minister yingluck shinawatra is set to face an impeachment hearing before the country's military appointed government. she is accused of political corruption over a controversial rice scheme. there's concern the impeachment hearing would reignite tension. scott heidler reports from bangkok. yingluck shinawatra has been out of thailand's political scope since she was kicked out last may. weeks before the coup, she is was disqualified as prime minister by the constitutional court over her selection of senior servants. a court saw it as politically charged rule. on friday she steps into the spotlight in which she faces impeachment. yingluck shinawatra faces charges linked to a rice subsidy programme for a

subsidy launch. prices. >> translation: the rice scheme of the government aims to help the poor and reduce the gap between the rich and the poor. the programme failed and cost billions of dollars. she has been accused of ignoring corruption within the programme. critics knew it would fail and push the programme through to gain support and rural ties. one of the top goals of the government is to bring the people of thailand back again. welcoming celebration between those that supported the yingluck shinawatra government. impeachment could be it in gaol. it's a test for thailand's reconciliation process. it's a dilemma. on the one hand, they had to come up with answers or goods. i arrived at the post.

the government ceased power. corruption, they say, they have to come up with the proof. >> reporter: if the government feels it has the proof. it can impeach yingluck shinawatra, and can take it to the next level, criminal charges. if this happens, reconciliation in the deep political divide in thailand would likely be erased seen electronics giant samsung is making a show in las vegas. they introduced new tvs and smartphones during the event, and its chief executive gave the keynote. it's been reported now. >> reporter: it is the big annual party, consumer electronics show.

showcasing the gadgets set to become part of daily life. among the giants, samsung launching a new range of internet enabled tvs, operating on the samsung system. the chief executive making clear in the keynote that his and other company's rely on making all sorts of devices internet enabled as the internet of things becomes a reality. >> each of us is at the center of our own technology universe. it constantly adapts, and the changing shape as it moves through the world. >> reporter: for all its array of products, samsung is recognised for market-leading smartphones. in the core area it's been hitting hurdles. samsung is by war and away the smart phone. it is losing market share, down from 32% in 2013 to 4% in the

same period last year. a key problem is increasing competition in emerging markets like india and china. local bronze in the chinese markets have been making gains. in india, low cost phones - samsung is reported to be preparing to release a smart phone, the first after delays to run on tysan. >> i think tysan is for smart gadget like tv or cars. things. >> the man credited with making the global goint remains in hops, after a heart attack, the firm has plans for 2015 and will want to difficulties. a reminder you can go to the

website and read all of our top stories, and that is the manhunt for the two brothers cherif kouachi and said kouachi, believed to be behind the shooting attack on the headquarters of the satirical magazine "charlie hebdo." that attack killed 12 people.

. >> >>... it's not paris, it's not part of the greater paris area. it's within the commuting belt of paris. i am sure they'll be the employees in any town people providing services to the local community, shopkeepers. teachers doctor, and at the moment we understand local

people are locked in their homes, the mayor telling p people to stay off the streets. armed officers are on the streets. laurence lee described the situation from outside the up to where the police prevented -- outside the town where the police are preventing anyone from leaving. they are deploying in the town it is vital for the people to stay indoors to reduce the risk of any other civilians, any other innocent bystanders being harmed as a result of police provision. >> you mention said lawrence let's go him and find if he has more detail. lawrence we are looking at a shot of helicopter the cameraman is having to clean the lense of the camera. so heavy is the rain coming down where you are.

>> i can't see the helicopter from here. it must be to the west. look at the friedroad from the east there's a road coming through, so there's some traffic coming through from the other side. what that tells you about the police exclusion zone i can't tell you. the prosecutor's office has, for the time being. denied there has been a fatality, a shooting fatality. i don't know whether it's saying it didn't happen ... sorry, laurence lee has disappeared momentarily. we'll get him back of course. jackie interesting lawrence was telling us that the prosecutor's office of this particular area denying that there'd been a

fatality. french media have been roble the are are robles are are are are prosecution roble -- reporting that one person has been killed and two injured in the change of gun fire. >> there has been an official denial from the prosecutor's office that one person was killed. no comments about injuries. that is an official report. it's important in the very rapidly moving news situation, to distinguish between official and local media reports. the local media reports have until now been fairly consistent and accurate in terms of what is reported officially by the interior ministry. at the moment we don't have official reports of casualties or anyone being killed. we have media reports of a

number of people injured in that siege situation in the light industrial zone. we had reports of one hostage held. obviously we'll give you the confirmation and further details when police or the prosecutor's office gives them to us. >> let's go back because we were abruptly cut short with laurence lee. you are back. you were starting to tell us about the official denial from the prosecutor's office regarding the death of one person. what else have you discovered. >> the only other report from another agency reports that dash

we are close to the airport for the north of paris, they are saying because it's close to the airport two air france planes altered landings at shall degal and that's is of concern for me but it has been reported. it shows how difficult the aviation authorities regard the situation to be because of the heavily armed nature of the suspects. >> i'm not sure if you are able from your exact position whether you are able to get a sense of the vicinity in which you are, there are reports of schools being evacuated in this region. >> that would be unsurprising and in keeping with what happened in the hours after the

attack at shally abdo. at that point children were immediately kept inside school and the doors locked or the schools evacuated. it's the same thing to happen. in a small geographical area entire suburbs, it's separated by fields from paris. it's about 8,000 people. if there are a school or two here then they'll want to get the children as far away as possible because the last thing anyone would want is for a school to be the center of a hostage situation. you only have to think of other areas as to what could go rang. so it makes sense for authorities to get the children out. >> i'm looking now at a statement on the website saying

students are confined to schools schools - it's the school morning. they've been confined to school and been asked to stay indoors, people. back to jacky rowland. if you wouldn't mind take us through the sequence of event this morning. for anybody that has turned the information. watching this live feed from a small town north of paris. they'll wonder what is going on. take us through what happened tad. today -- take us through what happened today. >> we got the first report that there was a development in the hunt for the two suspects, approximately 1.5 hours. french media started firing in a

region to the north of paris outside the airport. we heard about a high speed car chase, a woman reporting two men she recognised as the suspects in the "charlie hebdo" shooting. she said they hijacked her card. we saw images of a chase involving police vehicles on a rain-swept motor way we under or we were told to the north of paris. we started to hear reports of what was described as a hostage situation. initially they said it was a shock. we were hearing reports on french media that it was a shock in the small town on dammartin-en-goele and we started to get information about what was going on. we have learnt more seen and had confirmation of what was

happening. police were moving into the town. there's about 1,000 people in the town to and is to the north of tarrize. -- north of paris. police sealing off the town approaching anyone from going, and preventing anyone from going in or out. we learnt the two suspects from not in a shot but in a light industrial zone. we learnt that the suspects were inside a warehouse in dammartin-en-goele. in that printing company, in the industrial zone is where they were. reports of hostages being held. there were reports of possible casualties during a shooting.

there were reports of one person being killed. they have been denied by the prosecutor's office. local media reported that there has been a number of people injured. we have no confirmation of that. the interior ministry confirmed that it is underway and the interior ministry confirmed the intentions to negotiate with the suspects. clearly the objective of the police is to capture the suspects alive because the man who potentially have intelligence information which the police wished to tap into to establish whether it could be the largest network. the other crucial thing in all of this is the existence of hostages. and french media report one hostage, and clearly hostages

incident people being held by the armed men. that does change the equation for those special forces. the forces who have surrounded the area special forces. obviously we don't have eyes on in the town itself. but special forces who must be moving in on the warehouse. they have a number of different techniques at their disposal trying to communicate and establish a communication, some rapport or dialogue with the suspects will be important. their number one priority if there were hostages will be to secure the release of the hostages. they were betrying to persuade the gunmen to release the hostages. they'll have a greater latitude to operate. they'll be offering food inducive. it will be the most total lockdown. electricity cut off, water being cut off, and lighting being cut

off. if you cut off essential services to people you limit the siege situation that can last for. >> jackie thanks for that. jacky rowland there getting us up to date with the rather fast sequence of events that has occurred today, within the last - certainly within the last two hours, i would say. thank you for that for now. i think we can talk to remy perform iert an assistant professor from qatar university. he is with me in the studio at doha looking at the live pictures. whilst we are looking at the live pictures i'm interested to find out how this is playing out politically. of course, president francis hollande massively unpopular, isn't he? this is what he needs to do in order to make things good for

him. >> he was massively unpopular because of several issues. he was perceived to have a lack of authority. and also because of economic issues. that may be the moment for him to step up. so far, he has been very well managed at the head of the state, the head of the - the prime minister keeping it down. they were not sharing information. in this situation you do not want the news to get out to the global public. you want to operate freely and have the security information in relation to the terrorists. it's a good job. he has appealed for there to be tolerance, and for there to be - first of all, on the political front. how much unity is there amongst french politicians, we saw one of the politicians jump in at

the incident at "charlie hebdo" making a certain amount of political capital out of the situation. >> absolutely. there's unity over the board. there'll be a large demonstration on sunday. definitely they are using the event to its advantage. they were calling for an official invitation. the president is not going to call a party leader for the global movement. they are being ostracised and trying to capitalize for political gain down the road. >> you have dramatic pictures. look at what we are witnessing. what are french people likely to think as we watch this drama unfold within their country, and in a small presumably typical small town in the french countryside, this one not terribly from paris. how does this shake a french person's view of themselves and their country.

>> i called people from the last couple of days everywhere is in a high level of stress. we are not used to it. terrorist actions do not occur on a regular basis. this is a regular incident around 70 terrorists people were afraid this could happen if the situation is confirmed, how you might be tricked. and hopefully the service is well trained, showing a capacity efficient in the past to effectively get rid of the tourists or isolate them without casualties. >> we have to deal with the issue, and that is that the main suspects in the. they are teamed up in the warehouse in demetar. they are french of algerian parentage, but they are french. at the time of the actual

incident they invoked the name of islam. they had done that in order to avenge the prophet mohammed. how is this likely to resonate in terms of the tensions - existing underlying tensions. social tensions that can be expressed religiously. >> they are born in paris, raised in paris. whether they are from france is irrelevant. they are brainwashed by propaganda online or different local personalities. how is it going to be played? >> hopefully it will strengthen the idea of having a gathering of multiple profiles and origins, but the danger is politicians using this for their own purposes causing a rift.

>> we look at the dreadful pictures of special forces on the streets of a small town outside paris. it's not just france is it suffering. it's much of europe. we have seen anti-immigration and importantly demonstrations on a large scale taking place in germany within the last couple of weeks. it's had problems with how it deals with a young generation of muslim people muslim or in this case french and muslim. it is occurring. >> it should not be overstated. we are seeing the demonstrations. we saw demonstration, and all over france there'll be something of historical proportion. this case is not new. if you are looking at the videos

involved in the events all that happened in the last few years, there has been a movement of individuals going in and training coming back. it has maybe understated or been underappreciate. >> as you say, it's obviously a tiny minority of people of extremists wanting to perpetrate acts like this. is this an indication shall we say, of the western countries that we are talking about, having failed if they exclude a number of these young people who are, as you say, citizens of france born and bred. educated, raved in the french tradition. it means social policy failed them. >> any time when you have a situation which is not

flourishing for the last 10 years, the weakest link of society are the ones and in the case are immigrants high school drop outs people who were not given the chances through the republican system to be able to become individuals. the essential element is the muslim authorities, showing that this is 0.001% of the muslim community that are supporting those actions. and to see also the marks of europe and around the world. when you look at the french press, all the marks of support coming from the countries in the middle east and europe showing that... >> it was very interesting. you are making a valid point early on as soon as this became apparent what had transpired in paris, there were messages of support and condemnation of the support for france and the values of france from turkey

tunisia. >> syria, indonesia - all the signs. and they are important. they show the french society that it is marginal it's not representing a religious order, it's individuals in the path of fundamentalism. and they should not - it's a large peaceful community such as the modern community in france. targeted as seen. >> this is the situation that has to be managed at the political level. this is the responsibility for what comes next on the doorstep of francis hollande. >> and sarcozy and all the political leaders were invited to tackle it. unfortunately not all were invited. >> let me refer you to the picture we are looking at now. a couple of military helicopters landing in the field close to or just outside the area the

vicinity of dammartin-en-goele. that is the town where the current hostage, we think, hostage drama is unfolding. we are looking - long shot there of emergency vehicles. what we think is there may be one hostage there. there has been an change categorically denied by the prosecutor's office. the correspondent there - i think we talked to him now. i think we may see him. he is there and has been taking us through the sides of the town. 40km away from paris proper. it's what appears to be an industrial area. the warehouse, a printing

company. we can talk to laurence lee now. he is there. laurence lee, we have been seeing vehicles consistently. charles charles. >> we'll move away we'll try to get some height so you can get a sense of the sheer numbers of cars about underneath the motor way brim. and the town the center of this, and the small roads, a kilometer in the distance - it's the position we are in at the moment. you probably get a sense of a lockdown i was talking about

from the police from the outside going in or going out. and certainly ensuring that the two suspects who we know are holed up in there. >> this is the route there's nothing to the north or the south that they can get out. the point at the moment is to give and try to control the situation on the ground. >> laurence lee, you can see that half the authority's problem is us the media. you can see - already, just behind you is many satellite dishes. the media have descended, of course, upon this which must be

a graphic situation, the most important news story that occurred in france for certainly the last couple of months. >> yes, and you can see the last thing the police want is for the cameras to get in the way as they try to control the situation a kilometre up the road. the only position from here that you can see anything at all is basically on that mound where you can see up the road into dammartin-en-goele. you can probably see the weather - there's low cloud, driving rain. it's misty. if there are helicopters up in that direction, you can't hear them you can see them from here. each if the air is thick with cloud. it's difficult to get a sense for what is going on.

all we are left with are french media reports from police sources as to what is going on on the ground the prosecutor's office says it's not true. it's fluid, moving fast. what the police on the ground we must assume is trying to do open a line of communication with the gunman trying to bring it to an ending without it ending in violence. a paramedic helicopter arrived on the scene. have you an idea of the situation. do you know if there were people injured there are - that has been denied by the prosecutor's office? >> no i'm afraid i can't tell you. we absolutely saw it. you probably can't see here because it's probably too low. over the motor way brim up the

road there's a treeline. we saw the helicopter go the other side of the tree line the knows pointing south towards paris. it was a landing. we assume in the town but we have not seen it take off since then. i can't tell you from here what it's doing. >> latter laurence lee, thank you for now. we'll talk to francois guere, a security expert. joining us on the line from paris. thank you for talking to us here at al jazeera. give us your assessment of what is happening right now at dammartin-en-goele. >> well, it is clear, there's a demonstration of what is happening and we have a

situation which is now totally isolated by forces a down isolated by forces and the forces will try to invest the whole location and parts of the operation which is critical of individuals with heavy weapons, and probably who are - we have

individuals who probably will lose their life. we have what would be by far the best solution where we could understand what is the motivation and nature of the war that they are wagingagainst france as a whole. >> cap can i ask you to stay on the line francois gere because we'll explain the situation. we are looking at a live shot of dammartin-en-goele 40km north-east of paris. that is