♪ hope in yemen the u.n. claims rival factions agreed on transitional council to guide the country out of its current crisis. ♪ good to have you with us on al jazeera and i'm david foster and coming up, in 30 minutes and bail out after germany reject's greece's plea for more time. a major offensive for mosul in iraq, the u.s. sets a timeframe for iraqi and peshmerga forces to recapture the city from i.s.i.l. ♪ and trying to make a difference

in war-torn iraq with music for the people. ♪ well, we begin with news that reached us in the last ten minutes or so about explosions in the eastern libya city of cooper and we understand at least 20 people have been killed in what is thought though have been a car bomb the town is to the east of benghazi and more on that in a moment. meanwhile the united states and britain rejecting libya's call to lift a weapon's embargo and british foreign secretary saying they need a national unity government first and recognized by u.n. made the appeal to lift the embargo two days ago and neighbors nigeria and tunesia warned against war intervention because of fighting with rival malitia and thoughts now of richard from the british ambassador to the country says a

stable india is in the best independent of the entire region and europe. >> the sort of statements you hear from the neighbors, liberia and tunesia and egypt show the level of concern there that insecurity could spread and i think everybody in the region and including north and europe has an interest in stabilizing the country now because it's clear that an unstable libya in which the situation deteriorates poses threats for us all. >> we go to live in tunesia pretty close to the libyan border and i mentioned at the top of the program about the explosions near benghazi in a place called koobar do you know any more? >> we have confirmed there were at least two car bombs and one that targeted a police station

and one a gas station and unconfirmed report of a third car bomb and the significance here is that it's in eastern libya but also the hometown of the speaker of the dissolved parliament or if you want to put it another way now the parliament in tobruk. people i spoke to say that could be in retaliation of the egyptian air strikes in the sense that the government in tobruk welcomed egyptian movement in eastern libya. this is as far as we know at the moment. >> mere speculation about the motives for it and who may be behind it but for certain is the fact the united states and the uk say, no you cannot have weapons, this is an opposite call from the parliament in tobruk and what happens next for those who want to fight malitia and i.s.i.l. with extra

weaponry? >> well it's clear that the political track is the one favorite at the moment but the security council but the western countries. there is a meeting that is scheduled to start next week monday in morocco. i spoke to several members in both tripoli and tobruk and told me this time they were going to go there and try to reach some sort of national unity government, that is the aim but we also have to remember that they have met already in the past and once in geneva and once in libya and have not reached any kind of solution so far, there is an acknowledgment from the people i spoke to at least that they are also under pressure from libya themselves and they say these two governments, these two coalitions of malitias is actually making things much worse and basically leading to the partition of the country if

it's not already a defacto partition and a lot of pressure on these two governments to come to some sort of solution and to find a unified stance to really counter this spread of i.s.i.l. or affiliates around the country. >> thank you very much. there have been secret talks between egypt and libyan politicians to intervene in libya affairs from leaked conversations of the office manager of the egyptian president and conversation appears to focus on the role that egypt was playing with the g.n.c. term about elections and political factions in yemen have agreed on a people council and says it will help guide yemen out of its political crisis and agreement follows a coup earlier this month by shia houthi fighters and we have more.

>> reporter: yemen's political factions reach a deal on forming the transitional council. it's a new chamber in parliament which along with the house of representatives will be yemen's highest authority. >> this council will lead the country for the next two years, the representation within this council will be 50% and 30% for women and 20% for you. but, again, the details of the distribution of these seats have not been agreed on so this deal is an initial deal and very far from a final deal. >> reporter: and yemen's political crisis continues. the main factions are yet to agree on a presidential council which is going to be the highest executive body and interim government and how to reform the army and police and this band armed malitias. of the houthis who control the

capitol say their popular committees won't disarm and will have the upper arm in the areas that control. the sunni majority remains skeptical with tribesmen gathering in the providence and al-qaeda stronghold and form agree new force to defend their city against shia houthis. the predominately south anti-houthi sentiment is on the rise and the city of tys protesters take to the streets to denounce the houthi take over. the growing opposition to houthis rising influence is something many believe could trigger a wider military confrontation that may spin out of control. i'm with al jazeera. u.s. military commanders are preparing iraqi and kurdish forces to recapture the city of mosul from fighters and the

operation involving 25,000 soldiers is being planned for april or may. the u.s. will provide training and air support but no decision on whether there will be u.s. boots on the ground as they say. mosul iraq's second largest city with a million people held by i.s.i.l. fighters from last june and more from a street by street battle for mosul. >> reporter: the last month or so the grounds has been prepared for an all out assault against the city and air strikes cutoff major supply root between raqqa and getting 25,000 troops is how many the u.s. says are needed for the assault up in place will take a little while. also iraqis learned from defeat they faced against i.s.i.l. and much better prepared to take on i.s.i.l. fighters but a big

issue nobody seems to be talking about and that is one offensive yanukovich casualties, in the places that iraqi army has taken from i.s.i.l. fighters the civilian population fled but not the case with mosul and millions in the city of mosul itself effectively being held hostage by mosul, this is going to be a street to street battle and seen them repel and civilian casualties will be a big issue for the iraqis prime minl steral-abadi on the off set that was offered, we do welcome this help but need to avoid civilian casualties. syria's information minister says the u.n.'s bid for ceasefire in the city of aleppo can succeed only if foreign states backing the opposition get them to comply and both sides trying to expand the areas of control in the expanded city and we report. >> reporter: these are fighters from the front, alliance the

sunni opposition group battling forces in aleppo and regained form land in the north of the city. >> god is great, thanks to god the heros of the front will get the farmland and expelled god's gangs from here. >> reporter: the u.n. is trying to end the fighting in aleppo, it hopes a truce will ease the suffering of the people allow aid in and possibly lay groundwork for political process and until now opposition fighters have not been convinced. syria information minister says saudi arabia and qatar and turkey must convince them to comply with a ceasefire. >> translator: the success of any effort related to the war on syria depends on the capacity of the parties that finance the armed terrorist groups. >> reporter: the opposition holds the western part of aleppo government forces control the eastern part of the city.

but over recent months military has been closing in on opposition supply routes. the syrian government says it is prepared to suspend its aerial attacks on aleppo for six weeks in a trial ceasefire but opposition groups like this front will not guaranty president bashar al-assad forces will not take advantage to allow in the fighting. the u.s. for its part continues to launch air strikes on i.s.i.l. fighters in the region and signed agreement with turkey to train and arm moderate people fighting i.s.i.l. and opposition fighters could also target assad's forces. >> translator: these forces will fight against islamic state as well as other terrorist organization in the field and in the elements. >> reporter: the devastation in aleppo is enormous, the u.n. is pushing for a political solution but opposition groups need to be convinced that stopping the fighting doesn't amount to a surrender. victoria with al jazeera.

euro zone finance ministers having a meeting in brussels on crunch talks on loan repayment by greece and the government asked for a six-month extension to repay $200 billion. germany says no. and we see the greek chancellor the german chancellor in there and the french president who are the key figures in this as they go into begin the talks. we will hear from the analyst in london who says the financial markets are pretty nervous. >> finance minister wolfgang is attending the meeting of the finance ministers and there was supposedly a phone call last night between german chancer and greek pm suggesting there is still a willingness to come to some sort of compromise here but we are seeing reaction in financial markets where the euro is trading lower just because there is concern that these two parties are not going to quite

be able to meet in the middle. obviously as a deadline approaches which is february 28 when this current bail out program end, that is when greece needs this money obviously to pay back its debts, if no agreement can be reached that can be catastrophic in the short term for the euro zone and not as it currently stands the euro at different constituency and concerns in the market about the agreement we come to and it may be but it may be 11th hour situation. at the moment the more aggressive of the two sides is germany and some of the more nations like finland and rather than the greeks because we can see from yesterday a big sticking point was that the greeks didn't want an extension of the current program but they have actually come and changed and backed track and said we cannot extend the current program and we want to be flexible on the terms. >> reporter: ukraine's

president poroshenko asking for u.n. peace keepers to help control a ceasefire in east of his country, a truce was called on sunday but this has not stopped sporadic fighting and poroshenko is concerned about debusana which troops withdraw from on tuesday. >> translator: i'd like to add that the situation is getting more exacerbated because with the support of the russian army militants virtually wiped out debusana from the surface of the earth and now it reminds me of the moon landscape. >> reporter: we have been close to see the damage for himself and he filed this report from a check point by the cross. >> reporter: these are the russian soldiers who are claiming victory in the battle for debusana, many vehicles flying the russian flag and allegiance to moscow is openly

declared taunting ukrainian president one fighting shouts hello from russia poroshenko. street by street combat continued here for four days after the supposed ceasefire deal. small numbers of ukrainian soldiers are still thought to be hold up stranded inside the town, the dead lie where they fell. on the approach road to debusana at a cross we found the aftermath of a battle and littered with debris of increasingly desperate struggle and numerous casualties on both sides here. there is a burned out ukrainian tank absolutely blackened by intensity of the fire and the fighting, there are more vehicles here, a further tank down on the far side, two bodies are still lying in the open over behind the camera there as well. a fighter from the russian city described the final assault.

>> translator: the battle finished the day before yesterday, the ukrainians were running out of ammunition and we hit the main ammunition store, a truck came to resupply them and we managed to destroy that as well and yesterday it was quiet and shooting with rifles after that they retreated. >> reporter: ukraine's government says retreat from debusana was organized and soldiers who were there tell a different story and many speak of a chaotic withdraw racing over open fields constantly under fire from separatists, tanks and mortar and now there are fears that capturing debusana may not be the limit of separatists ambitions and attention going to the south of the region. >> translator: in the area of maripol concentration of rebel forces being observed but the situation is being monitored and servicemen in the residential area are passing on intelligence that those forces are being prepared for a possible offensive. >> reporter: on thursday

ukraine's national security council agreed a formal request for united nations peace keeping force to be deployed to eastern ukraine, there is no guaranty that the request will be granted but they are fast running out of options, pawn brennan, al jazeera in cross. still coming on al jazeera the mayor of venezuela capitol caracas arrested and accused of plot agree coup. and one of america's biggest super market chains are far from happy. ♪

>> start with one issue. add guests from all sides of the debate and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get the inside story. >> ray suarez hosts "inside story". next. only on al jazeera america.

the stop stories and explosions in eastern libya we understand killed at least 20 and blasts from the town east of benghazi. rival factions in yemen agreed on what they call a people's transitional council and u.n. mediator says it will help guide yemen after political crisis following a coup earlier this month carried out by shia houthi rebels, u.s. military video says air strikes on areas controlled by i.s.i.l. fighters in iraq and 25,000 iraq and kurdish troops prepared to recapture the city of mosul in april or may. explosion at a hotel in somalia killed at least three including a policeman in mogadishu close to a presidential palace and no

one has claimed responsibility for carrying out the attack. a critic of venezuela president arrested and accused of a coup and adam has more. >> reporter: this is the moment when the mayor of caracas a leading opposition figure was led away by security forces the venezuela intelligence agency is seen on some of the vests and aids to the mayor said the men did not identify themselves or give any reason for arrested the mayor. hours later hundreds had gathered outside the agency's headquarters in the capitol demanding his release and his wife spoke to al jazeera. >> translator: i hold president nicholas maduro personally responsible for my husband's safety. >> reporter: after arrest nicholas maduro took over television waves and accused them of plotting to topple the

socialist government last week. >> translator: antonia was captured and under order of the prosecutor's office to be investigated according to venezuela justice for crimes commited against the peace of the county and the constitution. >> reporter: had the backing of the u.s. government and u.s. state department called that claim baseless and false and the venezuela government often cites plots to over throw it with no hard evidence and it has been a year since major protests broke out against the government with massive food short analyzes and spiralling inflation and a main opposition leader lopez spent a year in prison on wednesday hundreds of people had gathered to mark that anniversary and protest again. adam rainy with al jazeera. thailand military government says it is holding a public forum to hear out critics of its plan to boost a messy energy production and concerns about

transparency and revenue but the prime minister says he wants to reduce thailand's dependence on expensive imports and veronica reports from bangkok. >> reporter: taking on thailand's military government these energy reform activists are protesting against the government plan to hold an around of sitting for oil and gas concession. >> translator: we are here to protect national resources which belongs to everyone in country, concessions are not the right answer to reserve our energy the government says there is not much left if there is not much left why would you want to open for possession. >> translator: very aware of energy, i don't think the government should break the promise they made to the people people are smarter these days. >> reporter: many of the energy activists protested against the previous government of the prime minister to grant energy

concessions but succeeding energy says they would stick with the plans and instead the people want the government to switch to a production sharing contract system and have an open demand about it and say it's more flexible and better for the country. five people are band under marshal law in thailand but people here are saying they want to have a say in a resource that belongs to everybody and that this is not actually a protest. since the protest the administration delayed the bidding until next month and the prime minister calling for calm and inviting stakeholders to workout differences of the street and in government house. the forum held on friday has taken the wind out of the sails of the protest and security was tight to prevents further demonstrations at the seat of government. the energy activists met with government officials in a rare

public consultation under current marshal law and he hopes the form um understands. the chain walmart says it will increase wages and benefits for nearly half of its workers and tom ackerman reports on what is behind that move. >> reporter: the global retail giant which earned more than $16 billion in profit last year has become a glaring symbol of corporate greed to labor organizers and some of the disgruntled workers. >> their logo is save money live better and workers should also live better. >> reporter: workers awarded for service and given more chances to advance. >> making changes to our pay, strengthening the opportunity to progress within the company and offering more choice in scheduling. >> reporter: over the next year the company says it will boost wages to an average of $13 an

hour for full-time workers $10 an hour for those working less than 40 hours a week and that is below for average retail workers but higher than what the lowest level staff person are paid nationwide. the company also promises to offer part timers more working hours and the chance to pick more predictable schedules and this comes as walmart is reporting the first rise in traffic in more than two years and analysts say concessions are in part a response to competition among u.s. merchants for better trained retail workers. but walmart's new starting wage of $9 still falls far short of $15 minimum demanded by campaigners. >> that is not enough for a full-time worker to keep the family of four out of poverty and many walmart workers are not full time workers and asking for full time work. >> reporter: they want to raise the federal minimum wage for the

first time in five years, almost half the u.s. states this year are raising their own minimum wage levels only a handful of them as much as what walmart will be offering. al jazeera in washington. >> and while iraqis are said by infighting and continuing war with i.s.i.l. a tradition of music in the country is kept alive to entertain the people and she has been listening in and in baghdad. expected things happen when conductor visits. on this day he is playing his chello at a home for senior citizens and he had a friend who played recorder 50 years ago. after he died he kept the recorder and taught himself to play to keep his friend's memory alive. the wood is cracked now and he is blind but the music is as moving as ever. there are decades of memories here wrapped up in these melodys

and asks for a traditional song those who have forgotten us she tells us later she has not seen her daughter in seven years. and her late husband a teacher was an amateur musician. >> translator: he used to play the violin but when we lived in 1990s we had to sell it. >> reporter: normally plays much grander venues and trained in europe he is the coconductor of the symphony orchestra and could live anywhere but he wants to make a difference in iraq on this day he is joined by other volunteers and mohamed and faruk on gurvir and he founded a music school and found the most effective way to spread the love of music to go out and play. >> i head to these places almost every other day of the week

between hospitals and senior houses the streets of baghdad, churches whatever the book market, the fish bucket whatever it's possible to create exposure. >> reporter: across town they turned a little used community affairs building a center for music classes for young people and include tuition paying students and residents of an orphanage and still learning the basics here but many of the lessons are outside the classroom. a lot of these people have only ever known war, music gives them escape and realization that life can have other possibilities and it has brought this community center back to life as well. ♪ in the spare room the part-time musicians figure out what they are going to play and give lessons to any of the kids who want them and all have day jobs but they say they supported their music and are trying to give that back and they hope

instead of playing with guns more kids will play guitars, jane with al jazeera, baghdad. if you want more on all the world top stories go to our website that is al jazeera.com and not just the headlines but behind the headlines too. ♪ hello, i'm luis suarez, this week's white house -- ray suarez, this week's white house conference wrestled with subject from new york, to paris, to baghdad - people ready to kill others to reach political goals, and it's hard to investigate, arrest or kill your way out of it. the global problem our national strategy, and what is down at