the white house confirms the death of u.s. aid worker kayla mueller, held hostage by isil in syria. ♪ hello, i'm darren jordan live from al jazeera headquarters here in doha. the u.s. announces it is shutting down its embassy in yemen >> rockets hit the eastern ukrainian city of kramatorsk killing at least seven people. and egyptian president

welcomes the russian president. ♪ now u.s. president barack obama has confirmed the american aid worker kayla mueller. let's go straight to washington, d.c. where tom akerman has been monitoring events there. tom, it is the news that nobody wanted to hear but confirmation that she is dead. what more have you been hearing there? >> reporter: the family received a private message over the weekend announcing she had died and that was subsequently confirmed by u.s. intelligence. that's the public announcement today. president obama said in a statement she had been taken from us but her legacy endures. and he added no matter what it takes or how long it takes the

united states will find and bring to justice the terrorists responsible for kayla's captivity and death. neither the announcement by the white house nor the statement issued by kayla's family in arizona indicated the circumstances of her death. there was no comment either on isil's claim that she was killed in a jordanian air strike on a target. the white house has not -- as i said has not commented on that but secretary of state kerry in his comments said isil and isil alone is the reason kayla is gone. there were reports last year that even though her name was not in the public media, and her family did not wish her name -- her case to be publicized that she was among the hostages that u.s. special forces had tried to free last

summer but the -- what they thought to be the place where she was being held along with other hostages they simply had been moved. also the other reports that isil had last year given a laundry list of demands for the freedom of hostages in exchange for a pakistani woman who has been convicted of terrorism in attacking u.s. soldiers in afghanistan, who is being held in a u.s. prison after being convicted and sentenced to an 80-year prison term that also -- it was no indication as to whether that again, was a kind of a term that was issued by isis one of the conditions for her release. right now we do expect some further announcements or further comments about the case from the white house, and we'll bring you those as they -- as they development. darren. >> tom, thank you.

now the u.s. has announced it will close its embassy in yemen due to on going political instability. the announcement comments as the yemeni military says houthi rebels have taken over a central city. jamal, what more details are you hearing there? >> reporter: well darren we understand that this has come about not just because of the political instability, but security instability as the houthi rebels have conducted a coup the latest we understand as you say the u.s. ambassador has told staff the u.s. embassy will

be shutting down for the time being, and he will leave on wednesday. we understand either turkey or algeria will be tasked with conducting u.s. affairs. it's just another sign of how unstable the country is and how -- the security vacuum that has been created has made things very difficult, not only for the local government for yemen's government but also for international governments to operate here. obviously the u.s. also has a lot of negative sentiment towards it because of the drone attacks it continues to conduct. and obviously they are a prime target. and unless they can get that guarantee from yemeni security services that their interests are safeguarded then obviously it makes sense for them to withdraw. drone attacks by the u.s. has

increased since the houthi takeover. so that's the latest we are understanding from the situation. >> jamal thank you. now there's intense fighting between government troops and pro-russia separatists in eastern ukraine. at least seven people have been killed in a rocket attack in the city of kremers to k. there is a key railway town that the separatists say they have cut off. >> reporter: we were in a town which is as the crow flies around 10 kilometers from the target town. we spoke to rebel commanders there who indeed say that their fighters had surrounded the town. it's particularly significant because if the separatists were

to take control of it from the ukrainian military then it would link their territory to -- to russia. this rebel commander told us he had no communication with fighters close to that front. he did say he didn't believe there were fighters in the city. the ukrainian government denying that separatists had surrounded the town. certainly here this morning there was a lot of shelling out going and incoming shelling a town as i say that was taken over by the separatists only a few days ago. interestingly we were on the other side of the front line yesterday, at a town that has the single route that goes in and out and it was used as a humanitarian corridor to get civilians out. the ukrainian military were pulling tanks back and setting

them up digging them in fields. and basically the soldiers that we spoke to seemed very panicked by the situation. the russian president has been holding talk with the egyptian president. the two-day meeting has concluded with both countries agreeing to boost their economic and military ties. they vow together in their fight against what they call terrorism. president sisi earlier spoke of the importance of russia's help in the development of egypt during difficult times. >> translator: we have agreed to establish a free trade commercial zone to expand economic relations with russia and other countries. we have also agreed to boost nuclear cooperation and the peaceful use of nuclear power. it is important to our energy-development plans. police in egypt have arrested 21 football fans following sunday's stampede at a

stadium in cairo. meanwhile new video has emerged of the moments just before it all started. victoria reports. >> reporter: this is the air defense stadium in cairo, and these are supporters of the football team waiting to be allowed in. to enter supporters have to pass through a metal passageway. but as the crowd surges forward, the metal structure collapses. fans are trapped. people panic. with no barrier now in place to stop fans from getting in the police have to make a decision quickly. do they allow the crowd to enter the stadium or force them back. they decide to fire tear gas at the crowd. fans rush to escape and it sets off a stampede. security experts say the police should have handled the situation differently. >> they should have picked out ringleaders that are causing

stroubl. if they have got to show a use of force, show you have got force but in an unaggressive manner. because the moment you start using batons or bullets, you are just adding flames to the fire. >> reporter: the fan association accuses police of a massacre. but officials say the police officers were overwhelmed. this is not the first time tactics used by egyptian police have been questioned. last month, protests to mark the four-year anniversary of the egyptian revolution were met with force by the police and army. at least 25 people were killed. egypt's prime minister has called the stampede a tragedy, but also said it is being used to damage egypt's reputation during a visit by vladimir

putin. after the deaths on sunday the public prosecutor ordered the arrest of the head of the supporter's group, and the egyptian football federation has postponed all league matches indefinitely. the canadian government is calling for the immediate release of mohammed fahmy, the al jazeera journalist and canadian citizen has been in jail in cairo for 409 days. along with producer baher -- mohammed fahmy. canadian officials raised the case of baher mohamed 15 times in the last nine days. we continue to call for mohammed fahmy immediate release. they are accused of supporting the outlawed muslim brotherhood. charges they and al jazeera deny. a third al jazeera journalist

peter has been released and is now back home in australia. still ahead on the news hour aid for the victims of syria's war, the u.n. chief talks to us about efforts to raise money. celebrations in delhi, as an anti corruption party wins state elections in a huge setback for the prime minister. more on that. stay with us. ♪

>> the stream, >> your digital community >> you pick the hot topics and express your thoughts the stream it's your chance to join the conversation only on al jazeera america ♪ welcome back. a reminder of the headlines here on al jazeera. u.s. president has confirmed the death of american aid worker

kayla jean mueller. obama has vowed to find and bring to justice those responsible for her death. the u.s. has announced its intentions to close the embassy in yemen >> at least seven people have been killed in a rocket attack in kramatorsk in eastern ukraine. u.s. commanders have carried out air strikes against isil fighters near the iraqi city of mosul. mosul is iraq's second largest city and has been controlled by isil since last june. im has more from bagdad. >> reporter: what we have seen in the last 24 hours is coalition air strikes, mainly the americans and british, helped kurdish peshmerga forces

take over three key bridge heads towards the north of mosul near the dam itself. we're seeing a big push from the kurdish peshmerga fighters and the isil fighters being put under pressure in mosul, and it feels as though there is a preparation for a ground offensive going on now. iraqi officials say they expect a ground offensive to take place within the next three weeks. we have also heard general john allen, say the taken of the citying will be a key morale boost. and when that happens they will need coalition ground support. that's the strongest statement we have heard when it comes to ground forces in conjunction with kurdish and iraqi forces. so there seems t be a real push to take back mosul. in syria we're seeing a lot of pressure being put on isil. the jordanians have mounted at

least 67 different air strikes. isil are coming under tremendous amount of pressure. but critics say there still needs to be a political solution to the conflict against isil that the sunni tribes particularly in the west of iraq need to be brought into the political process. meanwhile the united arab emirates has resumed air strikes against isil. oilt grounded its jets in december after a jordanian pilot was captured and murdered by the group. but on sunday it resumed its flights. this comes after the european union announced it will give jordan more than $100 million in loans to deal with the war. the u.n. envoy is in syria

to meet with the government. aleppo is at the heart of intense fighting between government forces and opposition groups. the foreign minister has also made it clear that syria will not accept foreign ground troops to fight isil. >> translator: i clearly say that we are keen in defending syria's sovereignty. we won't allow anyone to infringe upon our national sovereignty. the syria arab army is carrying out its mission with courage. more than 3 million have left syria to seek refuge. another 7 million have been internally displaced. the u.n. office for the coordination of internal affairs says more than 12 million people are in need of assistance.

valerie amos says the u.n. faces be challenges. >> when i first went to syria to persuade the government that there was a humanitarian crisis four years ago, we were talking about 1 million people in need. and now it's 12. and the reality is much worse than that on the ground because if you look at what happened to infrastructure healthcare roads, to the economy, it means the majority of skirians are impacted by this crisis. we have lots of checks and balances in place to make sure that the aid that we deliver gets to the people that need it. we use all kinds of things like photographs, of deliveries and make sure that the people who are meant to get the aid report back that they have received it but there are times when aid will go missing.

we saw this in somalia, with al-shabab, when tiny amounts of aid went missing. we are very worried that there are reports that this is happening in syria. and these are being investigated. last year 90% of what was pledged at the kuwait conference in january 2014 have not only been pledged but committed. i think it's important to look at time. the pledges are made in january of last year. this year the conference is in march, so sometimes it takes donors some time to go back and say this is how we would like the amount to be pledged to be divided up. the kuwait funding that we receive doesn't cover all of the funding that we ask for. it's a contribution. last year we raised about 55% of what we asked for, for syria and

neighboring countries. so the shortfall was overall because there was a lack of funding. it feels very very pessimistic right now, but i think we have to have hope for the people of syria. they are the ones suffering this reality every single day. my colleague is doing his best. we are doing our best to get to as many people as we can, and we have to continue to put pressure on the leaders to come to some kind of resolution of this. it's more than four years without stability and peace more people will suffer. palestine is opening an embassy in sweden this comes after the president is recognizing the country for the first time. he met with the swedish prime minister to try to gain international support for his cause and cementing tries. he hopes the visit will open

doors to pushing peace deals with israel. there is a regional force consists of troops from nigeria, chad, and other countries. they sent nearly 3,000 soldiers. boko haram launched itself first attacks in the country last week. the results of an election were a blow to the ruling party. faiz jamil has more. >> reporter: the party is enjoying a second win in these state elections. last time around it formed a minority government but stepped down after only 49 days. it had failed to keep its promise to pass anti-corruption legislation. now with an overwhelming

majority, people are expecting action. >> translator: we have done our duty. we voted. now it's up to them to do their jobs. >> reporter: the party was able to gain such an overwhelming majority by appealing to a brood range of voters. its leader thanked those voters and supporters. >> translator: we have to serve people of delhi. i cannot do anything alone. i am very small man. [ cheers and applause ] >> translator: i believe together with 30 million people of delhi, we can make it a city that both the rich and the poor will be proud of. >> reporter: he also thanked his wife for her support. but it was women who were thanking him. that's because the party has promised to keep them safe in a city where women are attacked on a daily basis.

>> not even a single guy has tried to touch me anywhere. >> reporter: over at the bjp headquarters supporters of the governing national party were shocked. they won several state elections on a of development last year. but this is the first serious setback for the prime minister. voters in delhi say they still want development, but expect better from their politicians. >> translator: this is a victory for the people of delhi. this is a victory for honesty, and the force of delhi is now with the honest people. >> reporter: the next step will be keeping campaign promises. now the real work begins. gaining votes is one thing, but it will be difficult keeping them all happy. . this party says they are ready for the challenge.

one policeman is dead in afghanistan after a tall ban attack on a police station. two suicide bombers detonated their explosives. three more taliban gunmen managed to get inside of the building. reports say four policemen were injured. nearly 6,000 people have been evacuated from jakarta, due to wide-spread flooding. 14 evacuation centers are now open in the city. the rains will expected to continue for the next few days. malaysia's opposition leader has begun serving a five-year sentence for sodomy. his supporters say the charges are politically motivated. >> reporter: hundreds of people arrived at malaysia's top court on tuesday morning, chanting their slogans and waving party

flags in support of anwar ibrahim. the former prime minister arrived. together they heard the five-man court lead by the chief justice dismiss anwar's appeal. the court ruled that there was overwhelming evidence that he sodomized his personal assistant in 2005. news of the verdict and the sentence angered his supporters. >> i'm just disgusted by how they will do anything in their power to bring down one man, you know in the country, up to like raping the whole judiciary system. >> some say that we need to have good argument good evidence, but, again, it's up so the judges. >> reporter: the government issued a statement:

the authorities were taking no chances with security. when we spoke to anwar on monday at his final support rally, he was upbeat. >> there is no basis for them to even consider the slightest possibility of a conviction. i'm innocent and i expect to be freed. >> reporter: that's something human rights campaigners had always -- also expected >> it shouldn't be a crime first point. and second point it's selective prosecution, going after someone because they are politically prominent, a thorn in the side of the government and someone they want to remove from the political scene. >> reporter: now the opposition coalition are looking for a new leader and face an uncertain

future. what is clear, is that the decision made here will be discussed and debated by malaysians for generations to come. and "inside story" is covering the implications of anwar' bra heem's conviction after this program. it features anwar's daughter. representatives of the world's largest economies have wrapped up their summit in istanbul. they have been discussing and exchanging ideas on pollty. turkey assumed the presidency of the g-20 in 2015 and is scheduled to hold a series of forums throughout the year. the former head of the international mon -- monetary fund has given his first testimony at a trial.

he is accused of aggravated pimping at a luxury hotel. it is not illegal to pay for sex in france but it is against the law to run a prostitution business. an lek -- electrician in france is being accused of steals hundreds of works of art from picasso. he says they were a gift after working on his homes picasso's family says he is lying. two families have won over $2 million in compensation for discovering their babies were switched at birth in france. a nurse assistanting accidentally mixed up two babies and gave them to the wrong mothers. one of the families said it is a relief the mistake had finally

been acknowledged. >> translator: now each family is going about their lives. in the interest of stability, we will just go about our lives. and you request keep up to date with all of the news on our website, aljazeera.com. ♪ hi, i am lisa fletcher and you are in the stream. some say it is a violation of their constitutional rights. we will check out the online movement. >> correct me if i'm wrong did i stumble into mexico, or is this still the united states. >> plus, futurist predict that by 2020, we'll have our own digital twin. who may make our daily lives even easier, performing tasks and even consoling our