tv News Al Jazeera January 27, 2015 6:00am-6:31am EST
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♪ foreign airlines suspend flights in and out of baghdad after a plane is sprayed with bullets. ♪ hello i'm darren jordan and you are watching al jazeera and also on the program greece new leader naming the ministers that will be asked to negotiate a new deal with brussels. argentina president moves to country's intelligence agency including rogue spies of trying to undermine her. new york city shuts down as a massive snowstorm blows through the coast of the united states. ♪
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foreign airlines flying to iraq capitol city suspended flights after a plane was shot at as it landed at baghdad airport and it was hit by bullets as it came to land at baghdad's international airport. we will speak to jane who join us from the iraqi capitol and what more do we know about this incident including the fly dubai plane, what more can you tell us? >> darren it seems to have been small arms fire by fly dubi and the fire came from the wall beyond the baghdad international airport and the sniper fire is in a area controlled by iraqi security forces and still under control of iraqi security forces but understandably it has caused
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a lot of concern among international airlines in particular, after the incident the baghdad airport temporarily closed and then reopened to iraqi flights and a few other flights with a higher risk tolerance, this morning for instance an iran flight caring people landed and the rest and the international airlines have suspended flights and say they are waiting to hear what iraqi authorities can tell them about how secure or insecure the situation is. >> yeah that is an interesting point jane because there was a feeling that baghdad airport was pretty safe for commercial airlines and all that has seemed to change with air lightlines cancels flights in and out of the capitol. >> baghdad airport is key to security and when i.s.i.l. rolled through large parts of the country in june there was a concern the airport would fall that would have been an absolute disaster because it's central to
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the ability to take out large groups of people including the american military which uses the military side of the airport. there doesn't seem to be that level of concern at this point because the areas around the airport have been secured and are secured by iraqi security forces. this seems to be more of a one off event, not on the level of concern that for instance rockets or mortars would warrant but still any time there is gunfire against a passenger plane that is obviously going to cause a large amount of tension, concern, fears and among some airlines a decision to stop flying here for a while. >> jane i mean you say it's a one off event but what is it tells us about general security and when they cannot control something as important as the airport at the capitol? >> it tells us how easily stability is disrupted.
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it took a long time and a lot of effort and a lot of lives to secure the areas around baghdad and it's called the baghdad belt and traditionally been the staging ground of gunmen and fighters of all kinds to stage attacks on the capitol and when shia malitias secured the capitol with iraq cherokee military that was an area they concentrated on and pretty much got that secured but the fact you can actually shoot at a plane indicates how sensitive as well the aviation sector is. you will remember a couple of months ago there were concerns that i.s.i.l. would shoot down planes just flying over the air space and the u.s. directed its own airplanes to fly at a higher altitude and some other planes and airlines stopped flying over iraq completely. now, that is still the case it's still an indication that it is a is a volatile area and there is nothing more effective really than taking shots and hitting
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civilian aircraft. >> so jane in iraq capitol, thank you. gunman attacked a ludgery hotel popular with tourists in libya capital tripoli and reports they may have taken postages and three guards are thought to have been killed. al jazeera omar sent this update from the libyan capitol. >> translator: the hotel is known for housing vip guests diplomates and politicians and the u.n. envow and tripoli government and a standoff with forces and three men held up in the hotel and some workers have been injured from the broken windows and the car bomb. we understand that security forces are also pursuing other armed men nearby and our developments are still not clear. the timing of this attack is significant as it comes on the back of positive news from
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geneva where libya factions and politicians are meeting to try and put an end to the ongoing power struggle and why analysts believe those behind the attack are intent on sabotaging this on the libya crisis and no one claimed responsibility. u.s. president barack obama is on his way to ryahd to meet the new king salaman and on tuesday he wrapped up a three e-day visit to india but they cut it short to pay respects to the family of the death of king abdullah. appointing a cabinet and sworn in on monday and set himself on a collision course with brussels saying it's unrealistic to expect to pay the debts in full and more from athens. >> reporter: we have heard at least five names from very senior sources within the party, one of whom has already
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confirmed he will be in the cabinet. if i may just give you a quick glimpse the picture of the cabinet that is emerging to us is one of the highly technocratic and four of the five names we have heard so far are academic at universities here in greece and means, one, that there is a big influx of new blood in the political, on the political scene. the political personnel of this country particularly at cabinet level has traditionally been dominated by party figures. this does not seem to be the case here. that is a major break with political tradition here in greece. the second thing that appears to be emerging is that the people who are being named to these cabinet posts because of what we know from their previous positions and what they told us in previous interviews this line up seems to be bearing out the agenda as announced in the preelection period in other
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words breaking with the policies of the socialist and conservative coalition up until now. >> reporter: holocaust survivors gathered at a memorial site in poland to mark the 70 year and anniversary and mostly jews were killed between 1940-45 and they joined about 300 survivors to remember the day. argentina's president moved to disband the country's spy agency announcement comes after a scandal involving the death of a prosecutor accused the government of covering up the bombing of a jewish center in 1994 and we have more. [chanting] after more than a week of controversy and protests argentina's president has announced a major shake up in the intelligence service. she says it will bring transparency to the agency. >> translator: i have taken the decision for the secretary to be
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dissolved and a federal agency of intelligence to be created and direction led by a general director and a sub director and appointed by the executive and requires the agreement with the senate to be able to function. >> reporter: prosecutor alberto was found dead in his apartment last week a day before he was supposed to testify in the inquery into the 1994 bombing of a jewish center and he spent a decade investigating the attack which killed 85 people and accused the president fernandez in a plot to cover up the bombing in order to sign an oil deal. some analysts say the powerful spy agency operates with too much autonomy and a musky history, the president responded to allegations she and her government are involved in a cover up. >> translator: no one is going to blake mail me no one is going to intimidate me i'm not afraid of them they can say what they like make the
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accusations that they want to let the judges call me may the prosecutors denounce me it doesn't bother me but they are not going to move me not one centimeter from what i thought. >> reporter: police continuing the investigation and a bill will be sent to congress and restrict the contact and influence between government officials and the new agency i'm with al jazeera. now millions of americans will soon be waking up to a white out as a huge snowstorm bears down on the northeast, more than 7 1/2 thousand flights have been cancelled because of the winter storm and kim vanel reports. >> reporter: new york's iconic covered and at times barely visible, used to the cold commuters tried to get a head start on monday. even the fury kind prepared and bracing the blizzard to get home and hunker down for the night.
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>> i'm going home now yes, i am. just came from work they closed early and going home. >> reporter: junior valdez won't be going anywhere. >> i'll be here and in the building for 36 hours straight 4 hour shifts at a time and 2-hour breaks in between so we will do this for 4 hours, i'll switch with a guy. >> reporter: by mid afternoon new york city was nearly dark. and come early evening time square had almost emptied. winter storm juno new york's mayor warned should not be under estimated. >> best to do is stay indoors and stay off the roads and sidewalks and this is something i want people to start acting on as quickly as possible. >> reporter: that advice though didn't reach everyone. without snow chains there was little these drivers could do. >> crazy. >> reporter: it was slow going for those trying to get last-minute supplies. >> we got to get stuff so we got
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to do what we got to do. >> reporter: strong winds whipping up nighttime flurries making life difficult for emergency services. millions will be waking to a sea of white. kim vanel, al jazeera. lot more still ahead on al jazeera and we will tell you why some t.v. stations in the democratic republic of congo are facing a blackout. missing mexican students march to demand answers from the government four months after that disappeared. more on that. stay with us. ♪
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welcome back reminder of the top storyies on al jazeera, airlines in and out of baghdad cancelled flights in and out of the airport because of security concerns. earlier a passenger plane was hit by bullets as it came to land at the airport. greece's new prime minister is due to announce the cabinet members in the next hours and one was sworn in on monday and formed alliance with the right wing independent greece party. argentina will disband the spy agency claiming rogue agents were behind the death of a former prosecutor and he was found dead a day before he was supposed to testify in an inquiry of a bombing of a jewish center. now a shortfall in pledge donations to rebuild gaza forced the u.n. palestinian refugee agency to suspend cash assistance for repairs, more
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than 96,000 palestinian homes damaged or destroyed during 50 day offensive on gaza last year and agency received less than a third of $20 million required for the rebuilding effort. and we have a spokesperson from unrwa and says the situation in gaza is unacceptable. >> reporter: it means the suffering of hundreds of thousands of people will increase. it means the whole cost of repairing the damage and paying rent for tens of thousands of families will not be paid any more. we are now out of money for that. this means also that the required group actually here in gaza is in a great truce because of the whole of the story and the frustration and anger is rising every moment here in the gaza strip and it's really very dangerous to everybody. right now the blitz from the
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donor, international community, arab donors did not reach georgia georgia -- gaza but what about the billions of dollars that has been bludgeoned or compressed? we have to tell the truth to the people also and the international community to tell them what is going on in gaza is unacceptable. we are in bad need for the first quarter of this year for $100 million to continue the proper process that we started just three months ago. indonesia military suspended recovery efforts for an air asia jet that crashed last month killing 162 people on board and rough weather and poor visibility hampered navy efforts to recover bodies and fuselage and a few bodies recovered flying to singapore.
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thai airways cutting 5,000 jobs in a recovery plan and company planning to scrap unprofitable roots and sell off assets and working on a plan to save the struggling carrier from bankruptcy. police killed dozens of protesters in democratic republic of congo and demonstrating against changes to election laws and as malcolm web reports the government has been criticized for clamping down on press freedom. >> reporter: a popular television journalist in the capitol here and hosts a talk show that is critical of the government and shows us where he was covering the violent anti-government demonstrations last week this is the video the cameraman filmed that day and think the president is trying to change election laws to extend his rule. these protesters were pleased to see him there but after that he says he was stopped by a police
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major major. >> translator: he took the camera then he fired his gun next to my head. he took the camera in the police car. i could not run away because he had taken my property. >> reporter: the intimidation doesn't end there. this television station has been off the air more than a work and called channel contasa and owned by a politician and accused the government of switching it off because it broadcast the call for protests. >> translator: the government says we must have democracy but we cannot have democracy without freedom of the press, since they closed us down it means there is no democracy and there is no freedom of press. >> reporter: during the process the government also shut down the internet and text messaging services radio france international was switched off for a day too, this t.v. station belongs to the catholic church and it's popular and transmitters switched off by the government and now the studio is
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empty and seen being more neutral than the studios belonging to the politicians but priests who run it say the reason it's switched off is they aired the message from opposition calling for demonstrations. the spokesman said there were more opposition stations on air but had to close it to prevent violence and looting. >> we cannot accept to use radios television to call people to commit criminal offense, to call people to kill each other, to call people to loot if you do so we stop you. that is our responsibility. >> reporter: back at channel canchasa they pass the time watching football and say the closed t.v.s will be back on soon but press freedom is under threat and closers will lead to self censorship malcolm web, in the democratic republic of congo. >> reporter: commander of the armed group the law resistance army made its first appearance at the international criminal
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court and dominick accused of war crimes and crimes of humanity and the first to go in front of the court, 43 students that disappeared in mexico and family and friends still seching the truth of what happened and protests of the government they believe may have some involvement in their disappearance and we report from mexico city. [chanting] [chanting] they accuse the government of lying and killing the students. with each passing day skepticism and suspicion deepen over the story how the students disappeared four months ago here. and one student's remains have been identified and driving the suspicion are inconsistencies in the evidence and the police may have been involved and the army looked the other way, reports the government denies.
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>> translator: we have seen the facts, nothing is clear, the government is contradicting itself. >> reporter: many people outside of mexico's idea that federal police and soldiers took part in such a gruesome crime is literally unbelievable but this is taking place in a country where federal police and the military have been linked to thousands of cases of human rights abuses torture, rape and murder. it's not just leftist protesters who doubt the official story, this dumpb dump is where the government says the students were killed and burned and they say that is science fiction. >> translator: it just can't be true. it would require tons of material for such a fire. tires and wood and that's not possible. also the site is too small and remains that you would expect from such a fire weren't to be found so there are a lot of factors that make it impossible. >> reporter: others are still searching for the truth like these people looking for the students in mass graves. among them family members of the
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missing. a sign of desperation and rejection of the government's story. meanwhile here in the capitol and across mexico protests continue, a call for the truth, a truth that may never fully come to light, adam with al jazeera mexico city. the former cuban president fidel castro broke silence over the warming relations with the united states, in a letter to students at the university of havana he said while he didn't fully trust the u.s. he did think the two nations should work together. he said they should resolve their differences peacefully in accordance with international principles and rules. the u.s. government says it has broken up a russian spy ring in new york and charges laid against officials accuse of attempting to gain access to economic intelligence and recruit sources. it's been six years since u.s. president barack obama promised to close the guantanamo bay
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center in cuba and many are still locked up in the prison and we report on the barriers facing the u.s. administration. >> reporter: it was the first executive order barack obama issued as president. closing the prison at guantanamo bay cuba but that was six years ago. the prison is still open. president obama called that unacceptable during his state of the union speech. >> so it makes no sense to spend $3 million per prisoner to keep open a prison that the world condemns and terrorists use to recruit. >> reporter: despite obama intention congress passed laws that limit what he can do in the band administration efforts to move detainees to an empty federal prison in the state of illinois and congress won't allow the detainees to be tried in federal court. recently a group of u.s. senators introduced a bill that would suspend nearly all detainee transfers for two years
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and ban all transfers to yemen. >> it's one thing to make a campaign promise, but if you look at the security situation that we are facing around the world right now now is not the time to be emptying guantanamo. >> reporter: and then there is the problem that predates the obama administration the status of 35 men known as indefinite detainees. both the bush and obama administrations called these men too dangerous to release, some are unable to stand trial either because they claim they were tortured or because the government says it doesn't have enough evidence to try them. some of those detainees can now ask a parole board to clear them for release. so far six of them including this person of kuwait have been successful. human rights lawyers say this process is slow but it is working. they add that it's unrealistic to think that the president could just release all of the detainees on his say so. >> it seems totally implausible
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and i think he could but i don't think he would do that for all of the people. i think it's not so much it's a legal bartow him doing it as much as a practical bar and i think he is being very very careful. >> reporter: the challenge for the obama administration is to convince a skeptical congress and a good number of u.s. citizens that guantanamo poses as much risk to the nation's security as do the men it's holding, roslyn jordan al jazeera, washington. a public inquiry into the death of the ex kvg spy is due to open in london, a critic of the kremlin died from radiation poisoning in 2006 no one has been charged with his death and strained relations between the british and russia governments and we report. >> reporter: a full 8 years since the image of dying alexander ya in ko emerged and the case has a huge shadow do of
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relations between uk and russia ever since, hotel in london he drank tea with a rare isotope and was dead within three weeks. russian agents including this man were blamed. it was described as an execution ordered by the russian states after it transpired he had been working for the british security agency mi-6 investigating alleged links between the russian government and organized crime syndicates. . >> reporter: did not have inquery to establish a cause of death had to suspends even that after the british government refused to reveal sensitive information. but last summer just four days after the malaysia airlines jet was shot down over ukraine british ministers changed their minds, leaving many to conclude they have decided that relations with russia had got so bad there was no point in denying an
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inquery to protect diplomatic relations, and friends say it's about time. >> the inquiry has an option of holding closed sessions where they will review the files of mi-6 whereas we know already from the judge, there is a prima-facia evidence showing the russian state sent those assessments. >> reporter: the inquery will antagonize further between the uk and russia. this inquiry has more power than inquest and the re-mitt is not only to decide exactly how yanko died but also to establish who it things the most likely culprits were and that inevitably is bound to put the russians under the spotlights and inquery doesn't have the power to require them to come from moscow to give evidence any more than the british government can have them extradited for
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murder. and the significant parts of it being heard in secret maybe the truth will come out which is all she said she wants, in moscow no doubt it will be billed as a pointless witch hunt lawrence lee, al jazeera in london. u.s. secret service recovered a small drone that crashed on the grounds of the white house, the device did not pose any kind of ongoing threat and secret service said a hobbyist has come forward and taken responsibility the two foot long recreational aircraft. finally, a single engine plane has landed safely after taking a nosedive over the pacific ocean. it runoff of fuel off the coast of hawaii. the u.s. coast guard captured the dramatic moment when the pilot had a parachute system and extraordinary pictures as the plane hits the water t pilot coming out and rescued by a
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passing cruise ship that had been called to help. and a quick reminder you can keep up with the news on your weapon site on your scene, new and improved on al jazeera.com. that is al jazeera.com. >> taking often the pleasing name deflate gate because of the football used by the patriots in the game up to the super bowl. we're looking at cheating with no softballs. that's inside story.
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