i've every done, even though i can't see. >> tech know. >> we're here in the vortex. >> monday, 5:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. >> welcome to the news hour from doha. these are our top stairs. >> mother deaths in the mediterranean, survivors of the latest crossing from libya to europe say more than 300 drowned. >> more civilians killed in eastern ukraine hours before russia and european leaders hold crisis talks. >> too dangerous the u.k. and france follow the u.s. and close their embassies in yemen.

>> ready for blastoff, this is the european space agency's vessel that's about to test whether this reusable space plane will work. >> the u.n. is saying that 300 migrants are now feared dead after four boats sank in the mediterranean sea this week. they were trying to cross from libya into europe illegally. they left libya on rubber boats on sunday. >> the latest from the u.s. my commission for refugees. >> this morning at 7:30, nine survivors arrived. they confirmed that there were 203 people with them that have

disappeared. they have been saloed by the sea. in additional to that, they confirm that there was a fourth dingy so we do not know about the fate of another 100 people. >> the survivors are taken to the first reception center that now is working at full stage. they receive rance food, medical assistance, clothes. they arrive almost neighborhood, you know, they arrived without anything. then within 24 hours maximum 72 hours, they are transferred to other centers on mainland. >> the russian president vladimir putin is due to join talks saying that stopping fighting in eastern ukraine. leaders from germany france and ukraine are also expected in minutes ask the capitol of belarus. hundreds of people have been

killed. another two died when practice bus hit a shell station in donetsk in the early morning hours. charles stratford reports from the scene. >> this happened 8:30 local time this morning. it's one of the central bus stations here in donetsk. there were reportedly around 30 people here at the time. you can see the extent of the devastation. the people we've spoken to in local restaurants heard a massive explosion panic in the area. it's one of two places hit this morning in donetsk another strike on an industrial plant very close by. both sides of this conflict have suffered indiscriminate shelling. obviously yesterday we saw that attack on the ukrainian military controlled city, and it comes on a day of renewed efforts to cry and bring a truce to this conflict. it shows basically just how

difficult that's going to be. >> let's go live now to minsk to rory challands. >> whether it's a deal or not it's hard to say. there is an effort, leg work done in the last two or three days both in berlin and here in minsk, as well, with diplomats and representatives trying to get the different sides of this conflict roughly into a position where they might be able to agree on something so that when the leaders show up in here, show up in minsk later, they are closer towards an agreement. if you are going to draw your optimum from somewhere draw it

from the facts that all of the leaders, all four of them have now committed to coming here to minsk, but there is still a degree of peace six most neatably from the germans they seem to be down beat about this, saying if there is a hope of any kind of negotiated settlement here it's only a glimmer of hope. you can see why. as we can hear frow now from sergey lavrov, there is still finger pointing going on. >> i very much doubt at the height of the fighting when ukraine attempts to i am prove it's military stand on the ground probably to use it at the minsk talks, i don't see how representatives from luhansk and donetsk can agree to the control over the border should be considered the number one issue and is a preliminary condition for everything else.

>> if there is no agreement here then there are certain things that are likely to happen. the first thing that's likely to happen is the fighting continues. the separatists have been pushing forward in offensive since the beginning of the year, and they are likely to carry on with that. they will certainly try and keep on their offensive around the area of debaltseve and the ukrainian army will try to push them back further down towards the azul sea coastline. the european union may get more hawkish about tougher sanctions against russia and don't discount the possibility as the united states has been saying in the last few weeks that they might consider very strongly arming the ukrainian military. >> ok, rory, thank you very much indeed. that's rory challands there at

that pleading that's due to take place within the coming hours. line coming out on the reuters news agency says that the u.s. european army commander said training will be provided to ukrainian troops starting in march. the question as to however western countries should get involved in aiding and assisting ukrainian government troops is one of the critical issues they'll be dealing with of course in those talks. let's move on now. let's go to yemen. the u.k. and france are closing their embassies there just a day after the united states did the same. the u.s. is also urging its citizens to leave the country as soon as possible, pulling its diplomatic staff out because of the deterrer political crisis. the country.

>> shia houthi rebels increase their hold. >> the current situation is a result of previous accumulations. the collapse of the state and the breadth of violence, the militia's and militant groups in addition to the conditions in the south which are all signs. we stress the need for all parties concerned to lead up to their responsibilities. >> it's been four years since the start of mass protests which led to the fall of yemen's long time leader. the southern city was at the center of those protests and now they're back on the streets to demonstrate against the houthis who seized power in a coup. we have more mom taiz. >> the yemenis joined the so-called arab spring in 2011.

the protests were triggered here in this city and four years on, tens of thousands have come out to the streets to demonstrate in large numbers but this year obviously, the added message is not a celebration of the revolution but as one of the youth leaders told me, they are scared that the revolution is slipping away. >> still to come on this al jazeera news hour. >> on the front line in iraq, the elite golden brigade has a major fight on its hands. >> how on open sewer in vietnam is being transformed and the fishermen are happy too. >> selling t.v. rights in a record deal for one team. >> syrian state television say

government forces backed by hezbollah fighters captured several villages south of the capitol damascus. the state media is saying troops gained control of the village on wednesday morning. the british-based syrian observatory for human rights said the attack was spearheaded by hezbollah fighters. twenty opposition fighters were killed in the area on tuesday. >> barack obama is defending u.s. policy of not paying ransom to say hostage takers because it increases the risks of more kidnappings. the u.s. resident has also confirmed the deaths of the aid worker kayla mueller held hostage by isil. the white house is challenging isil's claim that she was killed in a coalition air strike. tom ackermann has more. >> relatives and friends of the 26-year-old humanitarian aid worker struggled with the news. they tried to find consolation in a letter that reached her

parents last year. >> in kayla's letter, she wrote "i have come to see there is good in every situation sometimes we just have to look for it." right now that's what we're all trying to do. >> the news of her death was confirmed in a private message from isil to her family. the white house said its intelligence agencies verified her death though not the cause or time. they also challenged isil's assertion that she was killed in a jordanian air strike. >> the information we have is there is no evidence of civilians in the target area prior to the coalition strike taking place. that certainly would call into question the claims that are made by isil. >> u.s. secretary of state john kerry said "isis and isis alone is the reason kayla is gone." unlike the three americans beheaded, she was never put on

display. her family requested no publicity for her captivity hoping for a release. isil asked for the exchange of a previous al-qaeda member now serving an 80 year prison sentence for attacking u.s. soldiers in afghanistan. her parents released a letter to them received last year in which mueller said she had not been mistreated and had a lot of fight left inside of me. she said i do not want the negotiations for my release to be your duty. if there is any option, take it. this never should have become your burden. >> a u.s. special forces mission attempted to free hostages, but failed to find them at the targeted location in syria. the white house says at least one other american is believed to be held captive in syria but not necessarily by isil. >> we are lucky to be able to speak to peter padnov, journalist and former hostage.

he's written about being held captive in syria. welcome, peter, thank you very much indeed for talking to us. it's a real pleasure to get some insight into what it was like. you were captured october 2012. take the story on from there. >> right well, i made the mistake of making friends with three young men in turkey. they brought me into syria and within 24 hours, i was in handcuffs, leg cuffs and they were beating me. >> who were your kidnappers? >> i think they were young men with nothing much on their minds except a fun time, but they quickly turned me over to al-qaeda al-nusra and then i was in trouble. at first i might have been able to get out of the difficulty somehow, because these people were very inexperienced i escaped from them, but as soon as i got into the hands of the actual al-qaeda group, i was in

trouble. >> ok. you were held in captivity for around two years? tell us about the conditions in which you were kept. >> at first, they were very angry at me. they felt that i was an advanced guard of the american army, that syria was about to be invaded by the marines for c.i.a. or god knows who. they felt the c.i.a. was already present. >> they thought that you were a spy, not a journalist. they didn't believe that you were a journalist. >> they believe that had all journalists are essentially in the employ of the c.i.a., one way or another. perhaps, not all journalists are aware that they are doing the c.i.a.'s bidding but they do not believe there is such a thing as an independent journalist. i tried to explain this concept to them. they were not familiar with it. anyway yeah, i mean, in the beginning, it was very difficult. i was in -- i was in a verge

room that has been doctor's office before the revolution, but they had turned this entire hospital into a large kind of torture chamber. so i heard the torture day in, day out. >> you said that there were other hostages in this room with you. who were they? >> at first, i was by myself. the first three months between october and january 22, i was by myself and then they put another american named matt fryer into a room with me. >> you said you heard often torture, others tortured in another room. >> that's right. yes, they called it in a investigation. an investigation is really when they put somebody we they immobilize a person and beat him such that he loses consciousness. >> what sort of information do they want to find out? >> they were interested in -- they -- most of their prisoners were either people they accused

of moral crimes, crimes against the religion or people they believed were cooperating with the syrian national army. they were interested in any information that could illuminate a moral crime or connection with the syrian national army. >> were you fed? did you get food regularly? were you allowed to exercise? >> there were times when they fed me very well, and i thanked them for that. there were times when they starved us. >> was that part of the control that they wanted to exert over you? >> yes. there was a period when they were very angry at me. they felt i was dangerous that they wanted to punish me and so they deprived me of food. >> you were actually held then, you say by al-nusra front in the beginning, but then you changed hands. they passed you on to another group. >> no, no. i began with three amateurs who

picked me up off the street. they passed me to al-nusra and i was with them from the beginning to the end. >> what did they want in exchange for you? obviously we are talking at the moment about whether the united states is right to pursue not paying hostage money or ransoms. this is a position to the united kingdom takes and famously not taken by other countries like for instance, france and italy who it's alleged actually pay in order to get their hostages out. >> they told me they did not want to negotiate with my family and they never did negotiate really in any serious way with my family except making extraordinary demands no family could coli with. they were interested in having a discussion with the united states government, and, you know they, i think they, i don't think they ever had enough of a discussion to satisfactory them. the only reason i'm out is because a third party intervened.

>> in your time as a captive of al-nusra front what did you learn about the group itself? we know that they -- we often describe them as being al-qaeda linked but what did you learn about how this group operates, how it's financed, where it gets its weapons from. >> it is widely believed among al-nusra and other groups that saudi arabia is financing them, catqatar. in my time, i heard al-nusra interrogating prisoners under torture. you are taking money from saudi arabia no, they said. from qatar. no, they said. i spoke to them. they were not taking money from anybody. they are living on if --

>> perhaps in fear for your life a lot of that time, what has been the lasting impact, have you changed? >> i mean, i am very grateful to the people who worked so hard to free me from prison, and i am also -- listen, i through this experience i discovered a lot about what it is like to live in the area of syria that is now controlled by the rebels, so i am grateful for that experience, everything i learned during those two years. >> peter, thank you very much indeed for coming in. >> thank you for having me. >> we're going to move up to iraq now where special forces on the offensive against isil fighters in the central part of the country. they are under attack in the capitol of anbar province which isil seized eight months ago. victoria reports. >> these are members of iraq's elite golden brigade on

operations in rimadi. they are engaged in batting with isil fighters every day. it is the capital of anbar province. isil controls motor of an bar and wants to seize its capitol. >>ed golden brigade have achieved progress and we will continue, despite the difficulties. explosives and i.e.d.s are everywhere, in houses on streets. there are rumors this area will fall to isil. these are false rumors. >> witnesses say most of the neighborhoods have become regular battle grounds and intense fighting reduced the city to ruins. some iraq soldiers have been battling isil fighters for more than a year, but despite the current stand i don't have are

determined they can win. >> we have been like this for a year now. our morale is high. we are still keen to do our job. every day isil attacks our conditions but have suffered huge losses. >> it's been eight months since isil swept to the outskirts of baghdad. the iraqi army seems to have found its resolve to fight back. al jazeera. >> found guilty for recruiting young people to isil, a sentence part of a mass trial of 46 young muslims, the biggest of its kind in belgium. we are outside the court. >> this has been belgian's biggest trial the trial of its kind and possibly largest in

europe as well. the judge in the passing of his verdict and handing down of his sentences decided that sharia for belgian established in 2010 is now passed as a terrorist organization the man who was leading that organization is the man who received the 12 year sentence for being the leader of this organization. he was allegedly a charismatic person who was actively recruiting dozens and dozens of young belgian muslims to go and fight for the cause as he would see it in syria and iraq. 46 in all, 10 we think have been killed fighting in syria. thirty are still thought to be out there. the clear message i think that the belgian authorities were trying to deliver with this mass trial, if you like, was to any

other belgian muslims thinking of going to syria that regardless of how serious their activities are out there if they decide to return to belgium, the authorities will pursue and prosecute them here. based on what we've seen from the judge in antwerp, they will receive very stiff jail terms. >> australian counter terrorism police say they followed an imminent attack linked to isil. two men have been arrested in sydney. >> when we did the search of the premises a number of items were located, including a machete hunting knife a homemade flag representing the terrorist organization i.s. and also a video depicting a man talking about carrying out an attack. we will allege that both men

were preparing to do this act yesterday. we built up information. we received further information which indicated an attack was imminent and we acted. >> thick fog in south korea is blamed or r. for a massive motor way pileup. two were killed, more than 100 vehicles were involved in multiple collisions. driver's side thick fog limited visibility to around 10 meters at the time. let's go to the weather to find out if it's getting any better for them in the korean peninsula. >> i'm pleased to say it is improved. we had light winds here. with the clear skies, the fog developed. we have not got those winds picking up. take a look at the satellite picture, we can see clear skies over the korean peninsula moving on. you can see the winds driving clouds in from west to east.

that is stirring things up, so things improving certainly in terms of the visibility province we have here. some visibility problems coming out of japan recently. there is parts of honshu where we had the snow drifting in as the cold came in. snow all the way down to the southern parts. we are seeing improvement in terms of temperatures going through the next couple of days. the winds coming from a southwesterly direction the king wind coming in across the korean peninsula drawing moderate air in place. mind you, we will see further snow coming in as we go into friday so certainly not done with winter yet. at least the winds stirring up enough fog out of the way for the korean peninsula. we have got some cold air in the cross central parts of the u.s. meanwhile. outside of denver, we are seeing mild weather in here recently, hot enough, temperatures getting

up to 20 degrees celsius across parts of denver, colorado staying under the marks the next couple of days and more this week. >> thank you very much indeed. >> invade in my, a once filthy water way has been transformed making the city a model for improving infrastructure. >> enjoying the air and view was unthinkable when growing up in this house. her family lived along the banks of the canal for 50 years. >> the mud was black mosquitoes all over the place. >> it took more than dredging and trash removal. this was the first phase of an ambitious plan by the

government the goal to clean up and reconstruct the canal that had become an open sewer for 1.2 million people. it took a decade and some were resettled give the government. the improvement on the surface is obvious along the eight-kilometer long canal that snakes through the center of the city. it's the 66 kilometers of suh lines dug beneath the canal that are the key to making it all work. >> the price tag shows the depth of the government ambition. this phase cost $316 million, nearly 80% of that came from world bank loans. >> our project is the first large scale operation with solutions and technologies being built at the same time. we constructed several layers of sewage and drainage lines. >> there are more areas of the city to be cleaned up. the project's phase two funding again, loans from the world bank was approved late last year,

$450 million. >> this man moved near the canal after the cleanup began seeing promise. >> the houses' value has increased. it has given the economy a new chance. >> for those who lived through the canal's dark past, the cleanup gives them something to pass to later generations. even if it's simply fresh air at sunset. al jazeera, ho chi minh city. >> still to come, greece's government gets a vote of confidence before the prime minister is due in brussels for a showdown over debt. >> apple breaks a wall street record becoming the first $700 billion company. >> behind the scenes of a professionally cycling team as the sport tries to put its troubled past behind it.

>> the u.n. fierce 200 migrants ever drowned after four boats sank. dozens of others were rescued as they tried to cross from libya to europe in rubber boats. >> the united states army bill begin training ukrainian troops on the front lines the announcement made hours before leaders hold crisis talks. more civilians have been killed

on wednesday when shells hit a bus station in donetsk. >> the head of a group called sharia for belgium has been sentenced to 12 years in prison. one man was found guilty for recruiting for isil. it was a mass trial of 46 young muslims. >> now let's get more on what's going on in ukraine. our coach charles stratford went a few kilometers northeast of donetsk to the fighting at its fiercest very close to debaltseve. 19 government soldiers have been killed defending the town, which is an important railway hub. >> destroyed ukrainian tanks and heavy weapons abandoned in the snow this town is virtually deserted. fighters with the self proclaimed army of the donetsk people's republic took control from the ukrainian army a few

days ago and say they are advancing, tightening the news around the important town of debaltseve. debaltseve is a railway junction. we want to liberate it. we want to liberate all the territory of donetsk and luhansk. people voted for us because they trust us. we want to bring them freedom. >> it's not known how many civilians were killed here. >> this is a town 10 kilometers as the crow flies prom debaltseve taken over by the separatists a few days ago. we are hearing a lot of out going shelling increasing the amount of incoming. separatists tell us they have debaltseve completely surrounded. the ukrainian army denied the claim, but the day before, we were across the front line and saw ukrainian tanks digging in close to the only route in and out of debaltseve.

rocket launchers were driving towards the front. in the ukrainian military-controlled city 50 kilometers away, missiles hit a residential area and military base. >> we were feeding the kids, they were sitting at the table. the kids started screaming and the shells started to explode. it was judgment day. we started to round up the kids in groups and tell them fairy tails, kids, it's just thunder in the middle of winter. summer is coming soon and it's just thunder. >> authorities said the missiles were fired from the rebel held town. in front of you now is where the weapon landed. the long distance weapon from the artillery machine flew from a southern direction. >> the attacks are deeply significant, because it is home to the ukrainian military's eastern command. the separatists denied responsibility for the attacks.

the fighting is intensifying by the day in this region. in a separatist base, we find this ukrainian army prisoner. he covers his face. his tank was hit in the battle. outside hang the pictures of dead separatist fighters. a father grieves for his son. >> of course i'm proud. he was defending his motherland, his people, his family. >> with peace talks scheduled sons and daughters continue to be killed in the violence here every day. >> al jazeera eastern ukraine. >> the russian president was urged to sign a peace deal, warned if he doesn't there will be consequences. we have more now. >> the timing of this call for two leaders who haven't spoken in a number of weeks was hugely

significant. this was not barack obama calling up vladimir putin and asking him how his trip to egypt went. this is him laying down what he would like to see from the peace talks in minsk wednesday. we know the russians and cranes will be accompanied by the french and germans who have come up with a plan that they will lead to abextended ceasefire in eastern ukraine and lead to a demilitarization of the conflict. barack obama knows the damage the sanctions have done to the russian economy. if there is no peace deal, the russians will pay a price for the on going violence with increased sanctions from the u.s. and also from the european union. there was no talk about providing defensive weapons to the ukrainian army over barack obama, is under increasing pressure domestically to do just that. he's essentially saying to vladimir putin look, we want to deal and if you don't do a deal,

at the very least you're going to pay for it financially in the short term. >> euro zone finance ministers are meeting in brussels and greek ministers going to belgium for a showdown on their massive debt after winning a vote of confidence from parliament in athens. germany is warning against any renegotiation of the existing deal which is keeping the greek economy afloat. barnaby phillips reports. >> greece's prime minister told party that his country and all of europe are at the turning point, that there is no going back to austerity and conditions being imposed on groups from abroad. the humanitarian crisis has touched many in this country. like this family, they live in gloom. a single light connected to the neighbor's electricity supply, their own cut off when they didn't pay the bill.

unemployed for five years a businessman reduced to looking for food in dust bins. if it wasn't for the children, he says, he'd have killed himself. this is the kind of family alexis says he'll help with free electricity and food and they cling to his words. >> i believe in him because he's young and has got a future in front of him. some of it will happen, yes, i believe him. whatever he can do. >> also on the prime minister's side journalists at the national broadcaster, it was closed down by the previous government it said to save money. some journalists carried on working anyway, and now they will resume paying them. >> we celebrate. we feel great we've been waiting for that for 20 months and we are working for that for 20 months. we are here without money.

we're working, you know, the democracy will come back to greece and to us. >> the port, one of the biggest in europe, the previous government planned to privatize it to raise 1 billion euros. the post will not be sold. the dockers are happened for this. most voted to protect their jobs but alexis cipris has to balance the area, because popular support will not save grease from bankruptcy. >> the outcome of the greek parliament vote was never in doubt. more important are the negotiations between greece and the their european partners to try to reach an agreement to keep greece in the euro zone. al jazeera athens. >> boko haram intensified attacks in nigeria and

neighboring cameroon in the past few weeks. those who escaped speak of murder rape and other forms of cruelty at the hands of the fighters. we met some of them in northeastern nigeria. >> this 14-year-old is witness to some of the worst massacres carried out by boko haram. he still has nightmares. boko haram destroyed towns. he is one of hundreds of boys forcefully drafted by the violent group. >> before launching any attack, mostly at night the loaded us on to trucks and armored carriers. they are given things to burn the homes. >> for months, he was forced to carry arms and ammunition. >> my worst experience was

initially, they face a tough resistance. they couldn't break through the weapons taken from the task force base help to say capture and destroy. >> he escaped when boko haram took him along. he saw his chance to escape where residents were leaving. he is now reunited with his parents. he is trying to adjust to life after three weeks in captivity. the mother of six was held, along with 150 other elderly women. at one point she gave up hope of giving out alive. >> i gathered my children together and told them to pray. maybe will there will be a miracle. it's hard to sleep there. we kept hearing gunshots day and night. you just can't sleep. people were dig en masse from poisoned food.

they told us to leave and follow us killing us if they could. >> there is a risk of sexual exploitation and abuse by the fighters. thousands are found ref final in the state capitol. >> people forced to leave their homes arrive daily. among them are men and women held captive by boko haram. it seems everyone here has an unpleasant story to tell. >> as the multi-national force begins the movement to crush boko haram locals here are preparing for more displaced. al jazeera northeast nigeria. >> within the last minute or so, the reusable space plane has been launched by the european space agency, its launch pad in french guyana. it lifted off 1:22 ago. engineers hope this test flight

will last for an hour and 45 minutes, then survive the scorching heat of reenentry. the same of this test flight is said to important collect data. >> this is a step to master the technology for next step. eventually being able also to look at this type of application, so bringing back to people from infrastructures, not only that, but the capability to bring back launcher stages, for example for reusable launch vehicles, as well as to open the way to the possibility to bring back samples from asteroids from other planets. this is a fundamental step today. we are going together a lot of data. we have motory sensors infrared cameras. we are going to master

atmospheric reentry phenomena. >> still to come on this al jazeera news hour: >> i'm jessica baldwin in london. amongst these old masters a chinese copy lurks. the challenges to find it.

>> a wall street record, the first company in the u.s., apple is worth more than $700 billion. $710 billion if you want to be precised. the value is largely down to the

success of the iphone. in terms of value the world's next biggest company is exxon-mobil with a market cap of $385 billion. that was based on yesterday's close. apple is now worth the same as long time rifle microsoft and google combined. we are told why apple has become such a massive company. >> they have products, iphones and another product coming up by apple, which is the wristwatch, these three things are going to make apple even bigger going into the second quarter. now the reason for that is because the businesses or the corporate culture is still very much in microsoft. now the recent collaboration with i.b.m., we believe that is going to be the key because

apple has done a massive collaboration, so we strongly believe that clop reaction will reach a strong result. if that happens people working in bigger corporate will be using apple products and that would be ipads and more iphones. the big caution is that they have sold nearly 74 million iphones, so that means more people coming into apple ecosystem. the noise is reduced on the market when people say we need to have a bit more cheaper phone on the market are not listening to that noise of the market. we say we have our own category, our own market and this is what we are going to aim for. they are not worrying about the cheapers phones coming up. they are not in that market at all, they are in completely separate market. >> an interesting point to note

that if you take inflation into account, microsoft was worth more than apple at its peak in 1999. it was valid at $850 billion in today's money. >> time for the sports news. >> the world's most widely watched football league, has sold its television rights for $7.8 billion. british broadcasters won five of seven packages of matches for a three year rights contract which begins in 2016, while the rest were awarded to its main rival for british sports. the league is expected to receive an additional $3 billion when it sells the rights to international broadcasters later this year. >> our club's at the top of having to compete with real madrid and barcelona only to quote the numbers here, you will know their own television

incomes which are larger than any of ours. this will get our top clubs nearer to the european clubs and you in the room will be the first to criticize the premier league if somehow or another they don't fair as well in europe against those clubs. >> broadcast deals put europe's top division leagues apart the english premier leagues new contract will bring in $2.6 billion a season. that's a 70% increase on the current deal. in spain clubs organize their own individual t.v. contracts. they total just over $850 million a season, more than a third of that goes to barcelona and real madrid. the german league can produce powerful teams but way down on their english counterpart. all these football leagues are way down on the cash paid for top u.s. sports. the nfl leading the way on $7 billion a season.

for more, we're joined by sports lawyer kevin carpenter and he joins me now live from london. kevin, firstly 70% sounds like a huge increase. why do you think it's gone up so much? >> good afternoon. everyone was surprised including media analysts and financial experts and those working in sports about the figures. there are a number of factors that contribute to that, the incredible success of the premier league brand around the world. chiefly, it's been the battle between sky sports and b.t. for a number of different sporting rights but in particular football and we saw they took the champions league right away from sky. this is sky's flagship product and the majority of subscribers subscribe for sport and premier league so they have to go in high on this blind auction so people are surprised by the huge percentage increase.

>> will international broadcasters ever to pay much more for their next contracts. >> interestingly the u.k. rights have matched the current overseas t.v. rights deal with a new deal. there will certainly be an increase, but i wouldn't expect it to be in the same proportion as it has been in the domestic market in the u.k. >> there's only been one english winner in the champions league in the last six years. with this new deal, will premier clubs be more dominant in european football, do you think? >> certainly that's what the chief executive of the premier league said yesterday in his press conference, that they are looking at competitiveness across europe. certainly you would think national consequence of the wage increase that will come will be more success but that's not always the case. real madrid reached the championship final last year and received a significantly less amount of t.v. revenue than

barcelona and real madrid, yesterday scored competitive team and great money. there are a number of other in tangible factors not just the amount of money you have. >> do you think the premier league will eventually overtake the nfl for the cost of rights? >> i don't think that's likely to happen anytime soon, particularly in the domestic market simply because of the population difference. as you already mentioned it's nearly double per game what the nfl has with its broadcast contract. it will be interesting to see how the overseas markets do develop and the what the premier league can squeeze from those. >> we'll have to leave it there from now. kevin, thank you for your time. >> contradict now fell for at duck as his side warmed up to pakistan in a warmup match. it's the first time in four matches he has not scored any runs. 85 runs helped england post 250

for eight in sydney. a partnership of 133 by captain helped back stan reach the total with seven balls there hitting the winning four. pakistan won the match by four wickets. >> a big win for liverpool a late goal helped them win 3-2. >> nicky terpstra leads the way in cycling the course may be flat but the desert route has been giving the riders a far from easy time. sarah coat spent the day with one of sports emerging teams. >> a new day rises in a sport continue to go rebuild from use of drug tainted controversy.

australia's orca green edge team are one of the fresh faces emerging in cycling. >> some people think we are not serious because we have so much fun, but that's the way australia does it. it's competition for these riders and its crew. >> i think you would be surprised how much effort is takes to build up a team like this. apart from the riders, 50-60 people working for us, so that's a small factory we have. >> painful leg cramps and constant challenges from rivals are the least of these riders worries. it's the pellment that is gill get you. >> the cross winds are hard to explain unless you're out there. if you can make the front but at the end there's only so much road you'll be in the desert,

the dirt. >> with burning lungs and stinging skin won't see them quit, receiving treatment on the road for open gravel wounds will definitely slow riders down. >> seeing them competing a huge part of their job is to always be available for a drug test. they say it can be very inconvenient, in this era testing is non-negotiable. >> you can see with racing, the sport's changed and it's coming out of a bad era and growing again. >> people controlling us are also fans from cycling and that's what we want, that other people from other sports look to us like they're really doing it well. >> exhausted and in pain from a hellish 195-kilometer journey they've finally reached the end of the stage. >> for me, that's probably one of the craziest stages i've seen

just yeah, the wind storms, the sand blowing over the road, it was like going to war. it's almost like end times apocalypse type send area know. people push harder in a panic. >> memories will fade and they'll be back to do it all again tomorrow. al jazeera doha. >> there's much more support on our website. for all the latest, check out aljazeera.com/sport. that's it for me for now back to you. >> thank you very much indeed. can you spot a fake painting from the real mccoy? an art gallery in london is challenging visitors to see if they can tell. we investigate. >> the picture gallery is one of the world's oldest, filled with hundreds of paintings rembrandts reubens worth millions if not billions, but

amidst them lurks a copy worth $126. the challenge for visitors is to spot which is the fake. is it this one? the shading's a bit heavy-handed. this one some of the brush strokes look hurried. is it this one? is the paint still wet. >> i put a replica in one of the frames so basically every picture in the whole place becomes open to suspicion. i think that heightens the sense of scrutiny you give to every piece. >> the gallery september a high resolution digital photograph to china where most of the world's mass reduced art is painted. reproductions, any period or style are big business in china. the artists are trained at experts in making copies. in one studio, 5 million replicas are produced every year. that poses interesting questions, like what is art and

what gives it its value? philosophers have pondered those questions for a millennia. >> the value isn't just what it looks like, not just an appearance it's a product of someone's effort and skill and technique and originality. >> it's god to have a show like this because increasingly, art is becoming an asset in the hands of the world said 1%, alongside their stocks and bonds, so a show like this really makes you look at the picture and see it for its beauty rather than its price tag. >> visitors have until the end of april to register the picture they think was made in china. after that, the copy and original will hang side by side and the public can decide what is art. al jazeera london. >> stay with us here. we'll have another full bull 15 of news coming up. we'll have the latest on the talks taking place in minsk.

>> rain pryor >> everyone wants to be that thing... and i'm not that thing i'm like hello... i'm me... >> surviving a chaotic childhood >> i'm like dad... they're hookers in this house... >> ...and breaking free and following her own path >> when you come to a show of mine... someone in that audience didn't like what i just said... >> every sunday, join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time... talk to al jazeera part of our special black history month coverage on al jazeera america

>> more deaths in the mediterranean as 300 drown trying to reach europe. >> hello. also to come, more civilians killed just hours before russian and european leaders hold crisis talks in ukraine. >> the u.k. and france follow the u.s. and close their embassies in