>> announcer: this is al jazeera jazeera. ♪ hello and it's 10 hours gmt, i'm david foster and what we have in the next 60 minutes, ukraine says its men are holding off pro-russian rebels who plan to have the town surrounded. latest opposition leaders jailed after losing a last-chance appeal after his sodomy conviction. ♪ celebrations for some but india's ruling bjp has been routed in state elections in

deli plus. i'm in hebron in the occupied west bank in a move the council of illegal settlement is trying to impose taxes on their palestinian neighbors. ♪ now, ukraine is denying reports by pro-russia separatists they surrounded the town and fighting has intensified in eastern ukraine despite bringing a peace dale and this is a key rail way town outside of donetsk and the fighters cutoff the main supply road from government forces. and charles stratford close to the action jane joining us now on the phone and tell us what you can.

>> reporter: it is certainly a lot of outgoing shelling on this separatist-controlled area. it seems to be increasing in the last half an hour. they still have control from last week and certainly indicative how close they have come to taking it as you say claim they have surrounded it and spoke to someone who said that he is saying back they had no communication. >> i tell you what we are going to have to do charles, unfortunately the sound quality on that phone line not good enough but we managed to record something with charles stratford a little earlier and let's listen to that now. >> reporter: we have just spoken to a rebel, separatist commander here and he indeed tells us that they are completely surrounded by

separatist separatists and ukraine military a denying it saying there are on going battles in and around the main supply route. now we were on that supply route yesterday at a town basically linked there and it has been the only road in and out and that is where we have seen some of the humanitarian corridors to pull people out and yesterday the ukrainian military we saw were basically in a state of disarray and reluctant to speak and wanted us out of the area immediately and seem to be calling their heavy weaponry bank and there were tanks being set up in positions, in fields that were not there only last week when we were there that were brought in. this separatist commander in yanakava tells us as he understands it there are no separatists here. he says that there are still ukrainian military inside but as i say the situation is very

fluid. the commander told us he has no direct contact with separatist fighters on that front line certainly on this side here so it's very difficult to stage or to verify anything but certainly what we have been reporting is consistent with what seems to be going on. russian leaders reporting a military exercise taking place in russian crimea and a man in moscow joining us live and give us details rory. >> reporter: basic common sense that anyone going in a negotiating situation wants to go in that environment with a stronger hand as possible. remember the minsk talks scheduled for wednesday hopefully to settle some sort of negotiated peace agreement for what is going on in ukraine, but in the run up to that what we are getting out of russia is timely reminders of russian military strength so these are

not particularly big exercises but they are significant in their location as you say, in crimea we are hearing that some 600 troops are on exercise there with tanks as well 50 tanks and then in the russian southern military district 2000 intelligence personnel are on exercise there too. now, this is essentially military theatre really from russia but as we were hearing from charles there what is going on on the actual on the fighting side of things over the ukrainian border is not there but it's real fighting and real deaths and real violence going on there. if it's true that the separatists have surrounded ukrainian army that is there then that is a real boot on the jugular of the ukrainian administration on the kiev authorities going into this

minsk meeting. the kiev authorities are also trying to push back and we have heard as of the battalion and used to be a regular division associated with the ukraine army is pushing separatists back down to the sea in a place and a town near the russian border. >> reporter: thank you, rory there in moscow. now, malaysia opposition leader lost his appeal against a conviction for sodomy and sentenced to five years in jail last month for accused of sex with a male aid in 2008 the country top courts upheld the conviction and anwar ibrahim and supporters say the decisions are politically motivated and seen as the biggest threat to the power which stretches back more than 50 years and robin has more from the malaysia government.

>> reporter: anwar ibrahim appeal against sodomy failed in a federal court and means he begins a five-year jail term and he continues to say he is innocence and the fight continues, those were his words in court. he was flanked by his family and friends and party officials but the larger questions now remain as to how the malaysia public will react to this verdict, what happened to the loose coalition that he heads and will his wife be able to take on the mantle of leading the political party that he is a part of? these are all questions that will be answered in the coming days and weeks, more importantly this case has received great criticism internationally and it will be interesting to see how the international diplomatic community react to this verdict and how in turn the prime minister's office here in malaysia reacts too. they were very quick to issue a statement on the result of the

prime minister's office said that the case had gone through a an exhaustive process and it's not the words that anwar ibrahim wants to hear but the words the government is willing to offer. >> we will bring in a senior fellow from the strategic and international studies in malaysia and if i could reach a couple of things he said after he was acquitted of the same charge in 2012 from the information minister thank god justice has prevailed from mohamed prime minister at the time of anwar ibrahim's first sodomy trial and vindicates approves there has never been a conspiracy. if the authorities were so happy with the fact that he had been cleared at that time why the need for an appeal? >> well i mean the decision to make an appeal is not made by the government it's made by the

attorney general's office the public prosecutors office and it's often conflated and the prosecution service is not the same thing as the government. they felt that the case that they had was strong enough that the acquittal was wrong and what is important to remember in this particular case is this is not a case about the government versus anwar ibrahim. this is a case about a young man who was a young age anwar ibrahim and he alleged that he was forced into nonconsensual sex with his employer that is a very serious charge. that's why the prosecution took it seriously. that's why there is a prosecution at all. it isn't just the prosecution for sodomy. it was because it was sexual assault. that is why it went so far. that is why it went through the allegation was first made in 2008. the trial has been going on from 2010 until now and it's finally

went through the whole process. >> when we have amnesty international and human rights watch within the last few hours saying this is a traverse city of justice and politically motivated and australian government among others saying that there has been a conspiracy here have they been hoodwinked all of these people by anwar ibrahim's case and talking about his innocence? >> i think that generally internationally there is an eagerness to accept the case that the opposition has been putting not just in this but everything. i mean the narrative really has been the same since 1998 when anwar ibrahim's troubles began, when he was first charged with sodomy and corruption and convicted of both corruption conviction stood, he served his whole term for that. the first sodomy conviction was overturned and that only happened because he attempted to

overthrow his mentor mohamed. if he waited then he would have become prime minister of malitia but the narrative is still in the groove from 1998 where anwar ibrahim was the hero and motao was seen as the authoritarian ruler and malaysia moved on the whole system in malaysia is completely different, the political makeup is different, the government is different. prime minister is not the same as dr. matar and this is simply not the case that something that his government would do. >> what do you make of the suggestion that with anwar ibrahim now behind bars quite possibly for the full term of five years that there is now nobody sufficiently qualified to lead an effective opposition? >> i think that is quite true. i believe that they mentioned the question of anwar ibrahim's

wife but i really don't think she is substantial enough figure. there is a lot of affection for her because she kept the thing for anwar ibrahim in prison before and effectively led his party for many many years. but i don't think she is not a substantial enough figure. and the problem is that there are people in other parties in the opposition who would be substantial enough but for political reasons the opposition still has to be led by an malay. for instance you can have it in the dap you have people like a considerable politician and everyone on both sides of the aisle would agree with that. but there would be a demand within the opposition which is three parties, the secular, liberal pkr and the party, chinese social democratic leading democratic action party and the islamist. the spiritual advisor said in

the past that even a deputy prime minister under an opposition-led government would have to be a muslim. so at the moment and the dap chinese are not muslims, so it really restricts the field. conversely, if a leader was to come from the islamist party this would be totally unacceptable to dap because they introduced the islamic law on the east coast. it shows it's not just a question of the leader the whole opposition in itself is in severe danger of just falling apart at the moment. >> thank you and talking to us there from kuala-lumpar a woman in hong kong guilty and told the court she was tortured and starved. her employer was guilty of 18 charges including assault and failure to pay wages and the case has protest among 300,000

people who also worked in hong kong. >> translator: . >> reporter: coming up on the al jazeera news hour accused by drug traffickers blown up in honduras and probably won't be long until it's repaired. and passengers welcoming the shape of things to come to connect the capitol and the people in ethiopia. and in sport extreme cold causing problems for competitors in the yukon ultra race. ♪ to india and surprise election for the common man party. it stunned the ruling international pjp with a

landslide victory in deli state elections and the prime minister modi from bj pchl congratulated aap leader anticorruption leader and it's the first major defeat for the bjp which won the landslide in last year's election and we have more now from new deli. >> reporter: this is the party election victory rally and it's a larger victory than most supporters here expected. for the party to have had such a large victory means they tapped into several different groups and always had their usual supporters, the poor and the working classes but now they also have had the middle class, the business class and the elite of deli and these are groups that actually voted for the bjp in a resent national elections last year. now the party was able to secure the support by making a wide range of promises from lower electricity prices to free water and better infrastructure in the city of deli to things like

public wi-fi. making such promises is of course the easy part and keeping them of course is going to be a whole different challenge altogether as a challenge that the party says they are up for. now in this whole election the bjp has said this is not a referendum on their support but their prime minister tweeted they will support the party and help them bring developments to deli. >> let's bring in the advisor to the think tank called observer research federation and why do you think the bjp got it so wrong? >> well i think it's not so much that the bjp got it so wrong but it's more how the op got it so right. i think after the string of victories that the bjp had there was some complacency in the local unit of the bjp and on the other hand like a season campaigner and very hungry for

power kept at the game and he has a terrific ground level organization which is totally in touch with his supporter base and i think those are the things that benefitted him. also of course i think he was helped by the fact that the traditional supporters of the congress are no longer as enchanted by this old party as they were earlier and looking for an alternative party to support which would support their interests. >> we talk about it we talk about it loosely as an anticorruption party and one of the things it wanted to do slightly more than 12 months ago when it did have a hold on deli was to bring in a panel which would put people on trial if you like if they were said to have been corrupt. is that still likely to happen?

>> well i think that you know he has a history as a social activist. he is also a disruptive innovator and those are the genes talking the campaign trial but he also said he is going to be here to govern for five full years and i suspect he would govern a lot more responsibly and effectively than you would judge from what is said during the campaign trail so we are likely to see. >> tell me how you think this may change and a brief answer if you would how this might change india's politics nationally and therefore facing the world at the moment? >> i think it already changed in politics nationally and illustrates coming to age of a completely new type of post

independence leader. both prime minister modi are the really new people and not from a dynasty, they are not part of a social aristrocracy and have the hunger and belly to win and willing to go the full round to reach that and i think this is what makes both the political figures extremely attractive to young indians and also to aspirational india and they are both articulate and charismatic and both presidential types of leaders so i suspect that the fact -- >> i'm very sorry but we have to leave it there. appreciate your time good talking to you. u.s. commanders say precise and effective air strikes near mosul helped to repel i.s.i.l. fighters and peshmerga forces have retaken areas around mosul which is iraq's second largest

city and under the control of i.s.i.s. since last june the nearby mosul dam controls the water supply for several large towns and we will go to baghdad and what does this mean in the scheme of things for retaking mosul? >> well what it means is that they are preparing the ground for indeed an invasion of mosul, the retaking of mosul. we have heard from iraqi officials and also u.s. officials that might come when sometime in the next three weeks and in the next 24 hours what we have seen is peshmerga forces backed out by coalition air strikes take three key bridge heads and these are very key bridge heads in the city of mosul itself and also we have seen jordan step up its air strikes in the wake of its pilot being killed by i.s.i.l. from 60 odd air strikes in raqqa and syria and mosul is a key supply line and seeing fighting and all

indications is the ground is being prepared for the retaking of mosul and what we are hearing like i said from iraqi officials that might happen sometime in the next three weeks, taking that territory will be very crucial and there will be a very big morale victory for iraqi and kurdish peshmerga forces and put i.s.i.l. under pressure in the territories they control in iraq and are seeing some movement now after on the city of mosul which has been in the hands of i.s.i.l. as you say since june last year. >> thank you, reporting from baghdad. illegal israeli settlement in occupied west bank is trying to collect taxes from palestinians in the area palestinian leaders say they won't pay. and we report from the occupied west bank. >> reporter: it has been a stressful few weeks for this man, in january the father of 13 received this letter under his door, it's a tax bill for over $22000.

it was sent to him by the council of an illegal israeli settlement that neighbors his home in hebron for a tax which is paid by israeli residents who live in areas run by the israeli government. >> translator: i don't even know what this is. we've never heard of such a tax in hebron and i don't get services from israeli government everything here the land the water, all the services are provided by the hebron municipality. >> reporter: the land is surrounded by israeli settlements, 12 years ago a group of settlers corrected this makeshift synagogue on part of his property he took the counsel to court where an israeli judge ruled the structure should be removed, setting a legal precedent that law experts say it makes it unlikely he will be required to pay the council anything. it's clear to some the attempts to collect the tax won't work

palestinians say the reasons behind the demand is simple it's part of a long and well-documented campaign of harassment by the settlement's council. and he is the governor of hebron and tells me palestinians who live close to settlements are routinely threatened and intimidateated by settlers as part of attempts to push them off their lands. >> translator: as well as a way harass palestinians it is another israeli occupation and evidence to the international criminal court and other international organizations. >> reporter: council officials declined our request for an interview but told us anyone who lives within the settlement's boundaries are subject to tax. but with the previous court ruling in his favor it's unlikely he will have to pay the $22000 bill. still, he says his frequent battles with the council cost

him something he battles much more his peace of mine i'm with al jazeera, hebron in the occupied west bank. time in the news hour for the weather, rob is with me here and i know we are starting outside and you can't see anything can you? >> no the national day and of course you and i will be running home later, won't we yes? >> i'll be so far ahead you won't see me. >> the skies of course are relatively blue but you can't see, the surprising thing here is the wind is stronger than you might like for any activity such extent that throughout arabia the sand has picked up and the proper sand that knocks out visibility to a degree and winds are near gale force and blowing up to the iranian coast and it's about 27 degrees in qatar and 33 riad and not suffering the same strength of wind and won't change much in the next day or

so and it's pretty hot, 29 this time of year that is quite high. top of the screen it might well be of interest to us and lavonte going west to east weather wise and inducing the wind in arabia and the coast to the mediterranean and lavante and tomorrow and tomorrow strengthening winds and rain and this is all rain and might fall for a time as snow, the temperatures are on their way down 7 jerusalem and 11 aleppo and not just tonight and tomorrow, it's probably going to last until the end of the week david? >> rob, thank you. thank you very much indeed and those cold winds are heading up in the mediterranean and may be blowing through greece where the parliament is expected to vehicle on a new economic policy and party elected after promising to end austerity says

it will increase government spending despite the threat of running out of cash. and we have been finding out what greek people think of the reforms. >> reporter: the family live in gloom, a single light connected to the neighbor's electricity supply their own cutoff when they didn't pay the bill. he has been unemployed for five years, a business man reduced to looking for food. if it wasn't for the children he says he would have killed himself. this is the kind of family that he says he will help with free electricity and food and they cling to his words. >> translator: i believe in him because he is young and got a future in front of him, some of it will happen yes, i believe him, whatever he can do. >> reporter: also on prime minister side journalists at the national broadcaster, it was closed down by the previous

government, it said to save money but some journalists carried on working anyway and now they will resume paying them. >> we will celebrate for that. we feel great. we were waiting for that for 20 months and we are working for that for 20 months. we are here without money, we are working, you know the democracy will come back to greece and to us. >> reporter: but who is going to pay for all this? economist warn without help greece could run out of money within weeks. >> it seems that the government has promised a lot. in my view i do not think that all the fiscal cost of what the government has promised can be met with. reporter: the port here one of the biggest in europe the

previous government plan to prioritize it and raise one billion euros but they said the port will not be sold. if the greek government is going to start privatization of the port that would be a major statement of a new direction in economic policy and it would have repercussions, but greece's relationship with europe and also with investors right around the world. the dockers are happy and most voted for it and says it will protect their jobs but alexis has to balance their demands with the need to keep foreign lenders happy because popular support alone will not save this place or greece from bankruptcy barnabie phillips athens. >> what we have coming up on the news hour and stay with us for more attacks from boko haram as nigeria promises to destroy the group's camps within six weeks. . >> translator: my heart burns

and no appetite and my entire body is swollen. >> reporter: tricked into selling kidneys the village nl the poor duped by organ trafficics and all the sport including the and antonio spurs joining the 1,000 win club. ♪

♪ you are with us on the al jazeera news hour and i'm david faster and global headlines, ukraine denying reports from pro-russia separate tipss they

-- separatists and cutoff the main supply road from forces and the key rail way outside the separatist stronghold of donetsk. malaysia opposition leader lost his appeal against the conviction for sodomy and anwar ibrahim was the biggest threat of the hold on power which stretches back more than 50 years. india's common man party won a landslide victory in deli state election and led by anticorruption campaign stunned the bjp and won last year election by a large margin. taking you to cairo now and the state russian president of vladimir putin and in side the car with the russian flag at the front. earlier we saw him being led by calvary and now we see a

motorcycle around the russian president as he continues his two-day trip to egypt. so this is egyptian state t.v. giving the trip to egypt by vladimir putin full coverage. massive stretch limo flown in as we understand from moscow especially protected. and putin here in egypt just ahoed of the minsk meeting which will or will not settle the crisis in the ukraine. the early minsk agreement many people believe having been torn up as pro-russia separatists continue their advances in

eastern ukraine. to be met by the egyptian president sisi there. and plenty of circumstance given the situation around the world at the moment one of those who is not entirely sure of rights and wrongs of what may be happening in minsk is barack obama saying he is yet to decide whether or not the united states should supply weapons to ukrainian government forces and has been welcoming the german chancer who is pushing the minsk plan from washington. >> reporter: the distance the leaders want to say there is no gap in pro-russia as they continue in eastern ukraine for people being moved and angela merkel with the plan drawn up by french and presented to russians may have a way out and meeting

on wednesday. barack obama is coming under pressure to provide weapons to ukraine but willing to give diplomacy a chance for now. both leaders ago say no deal will mean stricter sanctions with the russians. >> if diplomacy fails i asked my team to look at all options, what other means can we put in place to change mr. putin's callus. >> translator: if at a certain point in time one has to say that a success is not possible even if one puts every effort into it then the united states and europe have to sit together and try and explore further possibilities. >> reporter: european union backed and shuns with foreign ministers in brusel but delayed imposing them to see if talks in minsk workout. >> reporter: we are deleted there are talks going on but

when we see them withdrawing troops and closing the border and stopping the flow of weapons we cannot relieve the pressure in any way. >> reporter: they warned against deadlines and ultimatums and says there is work to be done. >> translator: we are getting ready for wednesday if within that timeframe we can agree on a number of positions that we have talked about in the recent past. >> reporter: the u.s. and general leaders want russia to believe there is united approach a commonplace to end in ukraine and harsh consequences if russia doesn't help and sanctions and military could hang on developments in minsk and that is a huge and important meeting. >> thanks everybody. >> reporter: al jazeera at the white house in washington. geographically connected it is not the ukraine to events in syria and wider middle east but politically there is some sort of connection involving all of those we have been talking about, the u.n. envow series in

damascus with talks of the government this man is expected to meet the foreign minister and looking for a truce in aleppo that is syria's biggest city and he plans to push for aid in the city and aleppo having been the heart of clashes between government forces and competing rebel groups. prime minister also making it clear damascus will not be accepting any foreign intervention, any foreign ground troops to fight i.s.i.l. >> translator: i clearly say we are keen and defending syria's sovereignty, we won't allow anyone to infringe on sovereignty and not in need of foreign ground troops to enter syria to fight i.s.i.l. the army is carrying out a commission with courage. >> reporter: egypt prime minister says a stampede of the football stadium which killed 19

people was a tragedy and says it's an attempt to distort egypt's reputation and during the visit we have been showing you the russian president vladimir putin and putin there for two days he went to the opera with sisi his opposite member, as we see the two leaders there, live pictures out of cairo. now the bigger picture about international events will be there covered by the two presidents al-sisi looking at ways to improving stadium security after that stamp -- stampede and caused the lives of 19 people and the prime minister saying this was perhaps done in whatever way to distract attention away from the visit that we are watching now. and there will be a press

conference pretty soon between those two leaders we understand and the canadian government is calling for immediate release of our man fahmy, the al jazeera journalist and canadian citizen in jail in egypt for 409 days with producer mohamed and foreign minister wrote this a tweet prime minister personally raised the case of fahmy with the highest level of egyptian leadership and canadian leaders raised the case with fahmy with officials 15 times in the last 9 days. and we understand this is an upsetting time for the family. we continue to call for fahmy's immediate release, as we do fahmy and mohamed accused of supporting the out lawed muslim brotherhood that they and this company strenuously deny and the retrial has been some time coming and it will be now thursday of the week the third

al jazeera peter greste on the right there has been unconditionally released. now, twitter is saying the governments are demanding more and more customer data in its latest report of what is known as transparency the social media company says who made the most content removal request and it was turkey 477 content removal requests in the second half of last year twitter saying it complied with half of those requests that is over five files more than any other country. turkey temporarily banned twitter in the run up to last year's local elections. russia is 91 removal requests and complied twitter said with 13% of those but did not deliver on russia demands to silence critics of kremlin and 43 requests from germany dealing with alleged hate crimes. the u.s. made most requests for data. the 3200 requests yeah 3200

amount to nearly half of all those made and twitter handed over data in 80% of all cases. nigeria says it's determined, in fact, it believes absolutely that it can defeat boko haram and avoid another postponement of the presidential election and scheduled february 14 and delayed 6 weeks to give time the country says to improve security on monday the national advisor on security told journalists in all known boko haram camps will be destroyed by the time of that. now international coalition being formed to try to drive boko haram from strongholds and on monday the parliament voted to send troop whose will join a nearly 9,000 strong force from nigeria, chad and cameroon and boko haram released pictures here which it says are in response to the announcement of that international force abu, the leader of the group in the

video claiming he will be able to defeat the coalition. more attacks from boko haram along nigeria's border on monday. borders that is in plural. suspected members of the group kidnapped 20 people in northern cameroon between kozo on the nigerian border and 12 of those taken were killed. next door explosion in a local market in the town and a third attack in four days. our correspondent mohamed adow reporting on the fight of the control of the strategically important nigeria town. >> reporter: this is a town on the nigerian border with cameroon until recently a stronghold for boko haram fighters. it's not under the control of chadian troops and patrol around the town in case boko haram fighters decide to come back. >> translator: they are now outside the town.

we have combed the whole area and no one is here now probably some of the injured are hiding in some houses particularly remote abandon houses. >> reporter: for nine months boko haram controlled camp -- cameroon with law on the town and big parts remain deserted and most of the people were forced to leave for neighboring chad and cameroon and others escape to northern nigeria and further chadian troops other left and these men are suspected of belonging to boko haram. they are finally released but only after convincing the forces they are not affiliated with the group. the battle for this has not been easy one for the chadian army and lost 17 of the soldiers during fighting with boko haram. yet some of the residents say they didn't mind boko haram's rule of their town. >> translator: we are used to going and coming back from the farms with no problems and the only thing boko haram asked to

do is teach the children the karan and we pray and have a karan they left us alone. >> reporter: nigeria and neighbors put together an original force of 8700 soldiers to fight boko haram. the threat by boko haram caused delay of nigeria elections by six weeks, the chadian troops are part of original effort against the radical group and any town and village taken from fighters bring reality of a postponed election a little closer mohamed with al jazeera, nigeria. it is a horrible thing to say but business is booming in the port for traffickers in humor grands and people are tricked into selling body parts and what is worldwide a billion dollar black market. as we discoughed women are the new targets. >> reporter: people in the village central napal say

53-year-old does not have much longer to live. his one kidney has failed and the other they say was stolen from him a decade ago. >> translator: my friend asked me to go to india with him. he said i would be fine. i went with him and this is what happened to me. i found out 24 hours later, now my heart burns, i have no appetite and my entire body is swollen. >> reporter: he was only asked to donate blood on his trip to india but traffickers took his kidney and given $800 and was told to go back home more than 100 people from the village said they have been tricked by arrogant arrogant traffickers but only 300 registered so far. >> translator: in the registered cases we have came only after many people had their organs trafficked and they are strong traffickers and we can only crack them at a level, this is an international network. >> reporter: people here say some who sell their kidneys now get plastic surgery to cover

their scars. i asked locals how many of the houses had been victims of kidney stealing and one counted and another one said no further questions questions. and many are weary of outsiders. some residents say media attention brought embarrassment to the village and others told us it is difficult for traffickers to operate here and activists say traffickers moved to other districts and women are the new targets. they allow close relatives to donate kidneys. >> translator: traffickers used fake documents to make victims look like family members and it's easy to get marriage certificates to make it look like a wife is donating a kidney

to her husband. >> reporter: this illegal trade may have destroyed many lives here but the demand for kidneys remains high and as there is money to be made traffickers are never far away. i'm with al jazeera central napal. we have fara with us on the news and brings with her the sports, the celebrations continue for the african champions as they return home. ♪

♪ honduras a country the man hub

of trafficking hundreds of tons of cocaine across the americas and fighting a cat and mouse back and forth and people are making the fight even more difficult as mary ann discovered. >> reporter: every week on they get rid of landing strip by drug traffickers and the military showed us dozens of landing strips and say planes left behind were transporting cocaine mainly from columbia and venezuela. but it's a seemingly never ending task. this is the fifth time the army has tried to destroy this landing strip but look at the damage the traffickers get local people and less than 24 hours they repair them. man groves lakes and rivers intertwine with patches of land and use this complex territory

to load drugs on trucks to take inland or speed boats to head north to mexico and the u.s. and said many of the local community is involved in the trade. >> translator: big boats and planes also drop drug bundles and tide brings them ashore and people wait for them to tryout their luck. >> reporter: but local fishermen here say they have never seen any drugs on the beach beach. the military says it is reducing the drug flights and that last year it confiscated 11 tons of drugs. >> translator: honduras used to be a transit point but in the last two years we have seen narco labs and left us terrible violence. >> reporter: the drug trade fuels violence in the country with the highest murder rate in the world. and she fled with her children and grandchildren from their home because rival drug gangs were dumping their murdered

victims. >> translator: we had to leave our home everything and came here we are starting from 0. i feel bad but i'll get used to it. >> reporter: a community where residents take turns to watch out for turf battles and protect their families. soldiers say they are confident they will be able to control the region but their fight by land air and sea covers 17,000 square kilometers with limited resources the communities worst effected are yet to see the progress i'm with al jazeera, honduras. >> reporter: blue skies and sunshine there, blue skies extremely cold where we are going now with the sport. >> yukon arctic ultra extreme race through canada north has minus 45 degrees and 85 competitors dropping out because of the bitter cold and daniel

reports from the trail near the central yukon. >> reporter: it's been an extremely eventful first 24-36 hours in this yukon arctic ultra race, a number of competitors, 11 or more pulled out because of cold weather and one a man who was leading the field when we were filming yesterday, a man from poland and he actually was taken to hospital in a helicopter a first for this race. to get an idea just what this kind of cold and what this kind of environment can do to the human body we talked to a human scientist and doctor a man who specializes in extreme environment and what they do to people. >> these are first signs so to speak, if you lose dexterity in your hands the nose the ears the hands, the fingers and lose dexterity as i said and of course everything is becoming more difficult and probably you are no longer to get yourself out of a problematic situation whereby the problems you know

add up add up and become worse. >> reporter: the cold weather is causing more than just physical problems to the competitors, equipment is actually malfunctioning in the frigid weather, one italian mountain biker pushed his bike 65 kilometers to reach the check post and go inside and maybe fix it. >> i broke my bike. >> reporter: organizers say, look if there are problems they should happen earlier in the race and it's easy to rescue on the trail if needs be and the big challenges that lie ahead of terrain and even colder weather in the high country it's better to have climatize for that and they will finish on the trail, 160 kilometer race and after that 300 and 400 kilometer race and for several more days and at the end of 10 or 12 days the 690 kilometer race is the longest,

toughest and coldest athletic event in the world. san antonio spurs beat indiana pacers to give the coach his 1,000 career victory and tony parker led the spurs with 19 votes and shot with seconds left in the game and capped 95 and he is the 9th nba coach to achieve 1,000 regular season wins. >> translator: i've been here a long time and had good players. that's the formula. getting the players is difficult but i've been fortunate to have good ones. >> reporter: afghanistan on the verge of losing to india in the warm up match, 150 from sharma and 88 from rayhan 364 for 5 and afghanistan trailed by 24 wikts and 24 balls remaining. celebrations for the african

champions ivory coast after they returned home from equitorial guinea and given a welcome home and hundreds of thousands of fans at the airport and filled the streets of the capitol and they beat ghana on 9-8 on penalties on sunday the only other prior success was back in 1992 with this being their third and final appearance in nine years years. >> translator: you have to understand that things take time and the time has finally come for us, to be honest in the beginning this was it but today is the day when critics have been silenced. >> reporter: he has come up with many interesting quotes during his career and the striker has been at it again, and has been at the unveiling of his own wax works at the museum in paris, the sweed took a selfie with the model and posted it on social media, the right is

made of wax and the left is made of steel. and that is all your sport for now and it's back to you, david. >> yeah yeah don't you just love them. traffic congestion is under attack in ethiopia's capitol and testing a new light rail system much of the money has come from china, our reporters went for a ride and this is what she found. >> reporter: this is the newest public transport, the government has just completed, the light rail connecting ethiopia's fast expanding capitol and for many here it's an marvel and a milestone and people came to see for themselves the trains being tested and will be ready to carry passengers in about three months and they say he won't miss the fast trip. >> translator: i will only use the train for a few years but i'm glad my children and grandchildren will benefit.

>> reporter: the 41 chinese built light rail trains will have capacity to carry up to 60,000 people in peak towns and reduce the over crowded and over burdened road transfer system by almost 50%. this is a strain in central africa and a fast chinese built model in africa definitely big progress from a country trying to shed off an image here and that is a famine here two decades ago. and it's not just the rail way, there is construction everywhere and most of it backed by chinese investments and building highways connecting country to neighbors and dams and huge housing estates and if ethiopia wants to develop taiwan and china did and some are worried the country may be relying too much on china. >> making yourself dependent on one country is not suspended,

you have to be very careful and strike a balance and at the end of the day what matters is it's your own domestic capacity to generate savings. >> reporter: government officials insist the country is well within its means and has been taking manageable low interest long-term loans. >> we are not only taking the loan we are taking the technology also our people our young contractors are working with chinese so after a short time we will distract but ourselves. >> reporter: many ethiopians proud of achievement and hope the benefits of this group will soon trickle down to them catherine, al jazeera, ethiopia. also out of here thanks for me and the news hour team and

marteen is next. ♪ special report >> unfortunately, you can't "should have", all we can do is move forward >> a nation forced to take a closer look at race. >> ...check which ethnicity... i checked multiple boxes... this is who i am... >> what does it really mean to be the minority? >> black history comes up, everyones looking to hear what you have to say, because you're the spokesperson... >> how can we learn from the past? and create a better future? an al jazeera america special report race in america all next week part of our special black history month coverage on al jazeera america

♪ the fight and ukraine says the men are holding off pro-russia rebel who claim to have surrounded the town. ♪ hello i'm live from doha and also to come on the program, malaysia opposition leader jailed after losing a last-chance appeal against his sodomy conviction. anticorruption aap supporters celebrate after routing the bjp in state elections i