>> we cannot close our eye to say tanks that are crossing the border from russia and coming into ukraine. >> a new push for piece calls for an immediate ceasefire as fighting intensifies in eastern ukraine. >> also on the program government strongholds in the syrian capitol are shelled. >> we agree to disagree. >> europe's top economic power is skeptical about the greek government's plan to cut its

debt burden. >> i ask the government please to reopen the text messages. i'm really crying. >> deaf people signal their suffering in democratic republic of congo after the government switches off the internet. >> the u.s. secretary of state is calling for immediate ceasefire in eastern ukraine. john kerry met president poroshenko in kiev, kerry saying the u.s. wants a peaceful solution but will not close its eye to say russia's actions. it is part of a diplomatic push to end the fighting. angela merkel and president hollande plan to fly to moscow friday. nato has been meeting in brussels to decide on a new rapid reaction force planning to strengthen it's eastern

european flank. >> in driving snow, john kerry was the first to arrive in kiev on thursday, offering u.s. support ukraine and warnings to russia. >> we cannot close our eyes to tanks that are crossing the bored herb from russia into ukraine. we cannot close our eyes to russian fighters in unmarked uniforms crossing the border and leading individual companies of so-called separatists in bat jewel he'll be followed by the leaders of france and germany president hollande and german chancellor angela merkel. >> we will present a new proposal to resolve the conflict based on the territorial integrity of ukraine and discuss it with president poroshenko today and friday with the russian president because time

is of the essence. >> this latest flurry of diplomatic activity reflects growing alarm at the escalation of fighting in east he were ukraine. defense ministers made an early start to meetings which will be dominated by ukraine. they are expected to announce an increase to nato's response force with a new spearhead force of 5,000 troops deployable in days. crucially, it will ever six command and control centers in eastern europe. >> the important thing for nato is to of course underline that russia is responsible for violating international law for violating the territorial integrity of ukraine. >> they will discuss russia

upgrading its nuclear arsenal. this is a day when western leaders seek to engage both sides to stop the fighting and restart peace talks. they will talk while nato lays out detailed military plans on how they might have to respond if the talking fails. >> we'll have the latest on the situation in eastern ukraine in a moment, but first and update from moscow. >> moscow is waiting at the moment. it's seen that press conference between petro poroshenko and john kerry in kiev and would have been watch that go closely and made its own assumptions about what wasn't said in that press conference. now it's preparing for the arrival of angela merkel and president hollande friday, meeting with vladimir putin. there are few details about what exactly the peace niche initiative

is, but some expect the european to play good cop after washington's bad cop, so sit down with putin and may mr. president let's free this conflict here. what you don't want is for the united states to start funding and arming the ukraineen army with serious weaponry. >> there may be renewed efforts to try to bring a diplomatic solution to this cries. the reality here in donetsk remains very different. the violence continues. it continues to escalate. at least eight civilians killed, another 33 wounded here in the last 24 hours a sense of growing confidence amongst the

separatist fighters who have ignored calls for a ceasefire. we've sufficient returned from the town of debaltseve on the ukraine military controlled side of this conflict. incredible scenes of devastation there, a fear amongst civilians trapped in this town separatists will continue fighting hear. >> attacks followed rebel rockets and shell attacks which killed seven people in damascus. the army of islam warned of attacks on the syrian capitol this week.

the leader has declared damascus a military zone and a tarts. that was in response to a series of government airstrikes in the stronghold of the group. we have more. >> this is the aftermath of government airstrikes on rebel-held positions in duma on the outskirts of damascus. victims are taken to field hospitals. the army has recently suffered major losses in this area, largely controlled by the army of islam, one of the main opposition armed groups in syria. after almost four years of fighting in which thousands were killed and entire areas reduced to rubble, the violence continues. in a damascus suburb, the army has also launched airstrikes using barrel bombs. fighters have been trying to

control this mountainous area. if they capture it, they say they can easily smuggle weapons to the outskirts of the capitol. government attacks are aimed at driving rebels out of the areas that surround damascus. this is a convoy from the army of islam on its way to shell areas in the capitol. >> our attack is a retaliation for attacks on civilians across the country. we issued warnings to civilians to avoid military areas. >> they have concentrated their control in many areas of damascus. here its fighters attacked government positions. >> we do not favor the situation to be like this, enexchange shelling from both sides. we don't accept bombarding civilians even if it was by the opposition. neither the criminals of the

syrian regime nor the international community responded to our calls to put civilians out of the on going conflict. >> the army of islam has also expanded north where it has joined an alliance of religious armed groups against government troops. the syrian military remains in control of most of the city. now it's on the offensive. government jets attacked this stronghold on the outskirts of holmes. the city is crucial for the regime. it's fall may pave the way for the rebels to capture damascus. >> the king of jordan visited the hometown of the jordanian air force pilot burned alive by isil fighters. king abdullah paid his respects to the family of muath al-kaseasbeh. his father is calling for his son's death to be avenged. jordan executed two iraqi

convicts on death row for attacking jordanians. >> the new greek finance minister met his german counterpart for the first time. we have a report from berlin. >> the german finance minister was always likely to take a tough line. he was a key player in negotiating five years of austerity for grease and not about to let greece walk away. he said they'd agreed to disagree. >> i can't hide my skepticism about some of of the actions announced by the new greek government even though my colleague told me they are not confirmed yet. in our opinion, they are not moving in the right direction. >> if he was disappointed, he didn't show it. this was simply the beginning he said of deliberations that will put an end to a never-ending

crisis. >> we didn't reach an agreement. it was never on the cards that we would. we didn't even agree to disagree from where i'm standing. from where i'm standing, we agreed to enter into deliberations as partners with a joint orientation towards a european solution for european problems. >> greece's new prime minister and his finance minister have visited key european figures and institutions this week, lobbying for a plan to restructure greece's enormous debt burden while holding firm to their election pledge to abandon five years of bailouts and austerity. the response in brussels, paris and rome has been look warm. in frankfurt wednesday with that the european central bank announced it would no longer accept grease government bond as collateral for loans to greece's increasingly shaky banks.

for the new greek government, abandoning austerity may be easier said than done. >> the message was said. whether it was heard already is open, but i hope was heard that it's not only a decision of some greek voters how the rest of europe should handle the greek debt. it's something where other parties have also something to say, and of course, they have to find a compromise. >> the new greek government is looking for support in europe and running out of places to find it, and there wasn't much support here at the german finance ministry, where the message to greece seems to have been turn back your plans to abandon austerity or we may turn our backs on you. >> outside the finance ministry, a small group of leftwing protestors sympathetic to greece's position, but this is a minority view in germany. a new poll indicates 68% of germans are against debt relief

for greece if it walks away from its commitments and the german government is acting accordingly. >> al jazeera berlin. >> still to come here on al jazeera, after the taipei plane crash, the mayor hails the pilots as heroes for avoiding high rice apartments. >> we'll see a confusing picture at the berlin film festival. stay with us.

>> start with one issue. add guests from all sides of the debate and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get the inside story. >> ray suarez hosts "inside story". weeknights at 11:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> welcome back. the u.s. secretary of state called for an immediate

ceasefire in eastern ukraine. john kerry met president poroshenko in kiev. french president hollande and german chancellor angela merkel are due there later on thursday. >> syrian government airstrikes killed more than 70 people in rebel-held areas near damascus. the attacks followed rebel rockets and shell attacks that killed at least seven people in the syrian capitol. >> germany's finance minister is skeptical about the greek's proposal to cut its massi debt burden. he said they agreed to disagree. >> boko haram fighters have killed more than 100 people in northern cameroon. the nigeria armed group attacked a town along the border between the two countries. the massacre comes amid a major regional offensive against boko haram. african leaders agreed to send troops to fight the group.

ground forces mom chad, nigeria and cameroon are fighting the armed group. cameroon can't defeat boko haram alone, said the communications director. >> the international community needs to understand that this problem cannot be handled by cameroon or the five countries niger, cameroon and nigeria. we need logistics. we need intelligence. we need equipment which will enable us to face this ferocious terrorist group to help us work out a problem a plan that we will put at the disposal of the

trick ken union the security council in order to give us an official mandate and other countries to help us so we can curb, we can rad date boko haram. >> a team drop the international criminal court is in nigeria ahead of the presidential elections next week. they are urging all parties to refrain from violence before, during and after the vote. >> no one should be incited to commit violence, elections should be held under peaceful circumstances, and a warning that anyone who incites violence anyone who commits crimes the prosecutor is watching and the office of the prosecutor will not hesitate to take action against anyone who incites violence in nigeria. >> sending text messages or using the mobile internet is

impossible in democratic republic of congo. the government pulled the plug to stop dissent. the deaf community are cut off too. >> at this asking for deaf children it's time for physical education. students here use sign language to communicate with each other and their teachers. beyond that, they depend on text messages and mobile incidenter neither. the government switched off those services following anti government protests. it said people use them to instigate violence and looting. the children that we meet are not happy about it. phone calls television and radio are still on, but of no use to them. they say they're completely cut off. >> my parents live far away from here. i have not been able to communicate with them for two weeks. i ask the government please to

reopen the text messages. i'm really crying. >> they write sign to say show us this boy is inspired by the protest against the charlie hebdo attack in france last month. >> the children here learn skills that help them to get work when they leave. these girls are learning how to sew. normally the things they make raise money for the school, but they depend on text message to say communicate with the buyers. now they can't so the garments are left hanging on the wall. >> she learned to sew at the school as a child now runs a sewing co-op for deaf women. the people who buy the items don't know sign language and she's not able to talk. >> communication by text message is one of the only ways we can make money. because we can't communicate now, we've lost a lot of money. >> the deaf community here in congo are struggling and there are many.

the lack of health care here means infections often cause loss of hearing. the association for the deaf have more than 500 members in the province, but without internet or text messages, the only way to meet is if they walk around for hours looking for each other. >> sometimes our members have accidents and need help. for example if someone is hit by a car without sms he can't contact us or contact his family to come to the hospital. >> the group secretary wants to watch this story on line. he won't be able to hear what we say and won't be able to see us, either unless the internet comes back. there are few services to support people with disabilities. the children at the school are luckier than others in the villages. one of the few things that makes the hard life a little easier that been taken away. malcolm webb, al jazeera in the

democratic republic of congo. >> a coalition led by the tunis party, with mensters in the new cabinet, tunisia is a success story of the arab spring but faces economic and security challenges. >> hundreds of child laborers were recently discovered in a plastics factory in southern india. police rescued at least 350 children working in the plant. nearly 200 of them are from one of india's poorest states. >> the pilots of an airliner which crashed in taiwan are hailed as heroes. the mayor of taipei said main lives were saved as the aircraft stricken with engine failure scraped past high rise

apartments and plunged into the river. the pilot are among those dead, another 12 of missing. we have a report from the crash scene. >> deep into a second night still they bring ashore the fragment of the flight. they seem so light so flimsy. it's hard to imagine they were part of the fuselage designed to with stand the forces of flight, no match for the final steep plunge into taipei's river. incredible that anyone managed to survive. this man did and he saved four ours unbuckling their seatbelts also the water rose around them. >> i saw the others were drowning. if i did not move quick enough to help them, soon they would have been dead. >> he was one of several to say something seemed wrong before takeoff. one father reportedly moved his family to the right side of the plane on hearing a strange sound from the port engine. inside last message the pilot said there was a problem with an

engine. >> the airline though, denied media reports that the turbo prop took off with an enchecked faulty engine. >> the reports are not true. we can present the document that is proved we had checked the plane before take your and will send the document to the civil air put thattics administration. >> the prime promised an inquiry into transasia safety standards. there was a desperate mission to find the missionling. relatives gathered to hold a buddhist ceremony. the dive teams worked in short shifts in frigid water with visibility at near zero. even as night brought still work conditions they worked on. >> throughout the night we've

watched them bring ashore mangled, twisted pieces of airplane evidence of just how often violent this crash was. relatives want to see their family members brought to shore. that is prove ago difficult task. al jazeera taipei. >> the citer of the silk road website faces life in prison, in new york found guilty of seven drug and money laundering charges. he'll be sentenced in may for allowing users to anonymously buy drugs weapons and other goods. it had 1 million drug deals worth at least $200 million. >> an outbreak of measles in the u.s. has led to a fresh debate on the effectiveness of vaccines. the disease is believed to have spread to more than 100 unvaccinated kids. politicians are reacting, and

it's crossing party lines. >> the peesles outbreak linked to disney land in california has now spread to fantasy land, according to some, as american politicians weigh in with their thoughts. >> new jersey governor chris christie a liningly republican presidential contender next year seemed to imply that parents could skip the shots. >> parents need to have some measure of choice of things, as well. >> other republicans were unequivocal, including john bainer. >> children ought to be vaccinated. >> hillary clinton tweeted: >> we've been warning folks that this problem with measles was going to occur and other vaccine preventable diseases because of lower incidents of those getting shots.

we have been concerned about this for quite some time. >> with conflicting advice, some people have been uncertain what to do. marcella piper terry doesn't trust the vaccine. >> they say they are safe, they are safe. not for my child. >> what has helped the virus to spread in the u.s. and other countries is the small number of families who have decided not to have their children vaccinated, out of religious beliefs or concern over vaccine safety. disney land gets tens have thousands of visitors every day. public health officials say one of those may have carried the virus, a virus that since then has become as widespread as the debate surrounding it. al jazeera, los angeles. >> this year's berlin film festival has had a confusing start at least in the eyes of north korea. it's been incensed by the movie "the enter view." despite assurances it wouldn't

be shown at the festival, it's due to the screened elsewhere in the capitol. >> they love a drama at the berlin film festival. they've been at the center of their own. sony knows how that feels hacked and humiliated, remember, allegedly by his people and all because of this, the movie "the interview" which mocked kim jong-un and the fallout moving from hollywood to here. >> the movie goes on general release here on thursday. north korea got the city of berlin and about her lib film festival confused. it described the showing as terrorism and vowed vengeance for the humiliation. the exact words were merciless punishment. queue some rather hasty moves this man had to race to the north korea embassy saying it is

just a coincidence that it's opening on the same day. pyongyang did eventually pull back albeit privately. aside from that drama, there is plenty more to see here on screen over the next week and a half. the golden bear is the big prize they're competing for here, with everything from that i am about her made to say cinderella on show. iran is doing it without the director even being here. he is bound from making films until 2030 after he upset his government. tax see is in with a real shout for the top prize as he watches from home in tehran. >> he doesn't stop, because that's what he's doing making films. he's expressing himself via film so he needs to make them and he will never stop. the films he makes are great and for us a great way of promoting his work to the world. >> over the next 10 days, the movie world will watch the crowds will freeze trying to watch, and even north korea will

be keeping an eye to make sure the crowds keep looking at this and not this. al jazeera, at the berlin film festival. >> a reminder, keep up to date with all the news on our website, the address aljazeera.com. hi, i am lisa fletcher, and you are in the stream. a look at why young african-americans are turning to twitter to discuss the issues their local communities won't. their struggle to preserve their culture in the u.s., may found at an unbearable cost. another view of multiculturism, captain america in a turbin, how one man turned the icon oven it's