>> announcer: this is al jazeera. welcome to the news hour i'm darren jordan from al jazeera's news center here in doha, these are the top stories. captured mexico's drug lord who virtually took over an entire state is now in police custody. a bangladeshi american blogger has been hacked to death. and the american actor who played spock in star trek has

died at age 83. police in mexico have captured the country's most wanted drug lord servando gomez, is the leader of the knight's templar drug cartel. he was captured early on friday by federal police. his nickname la tuta came from his career as a school teacher. he became one of mexico's most well-known cartel bosses. he was the president's prime target in his offensive against the drug gangs. since the mexican government began cracking down on drug-related violence more than 100,000 people have been killed. john hullman is in mexico city and sent us this report. >> reporter: one of mexico's most wanted men taken without a

shot. servando gomez allegedly ran one of mexico's most powerful criminal organizations. in recent years they branched out from drug trafficking, to extorting farmers and shop keepers. he always maintained he was a man of the people. >> translator: at that time i was a drug trafficker i had a bit of money, and they wanted to steal from me. and i didn't allow that. i don't want to make the comparison to a historic character. but panko via was a major criminal. but there are things that run its course because there are people that do not establish though rule of law. >> reporter: but over the past two years, the cartel was under

threat. first from vigilantes and then the federal officials. gomez had been hiding for more than a year. authorities conducted a manhunt to find him. his capture could give a boost to the president beleaguered by scandals, and the on going investigation of the disappearance of 43 students. over the past year mexican officials have proclaimed victory. and the arrest of gomez will likely be held up as proof. a recent wave of willings in the state, though show his problems go beyond one man. >> john how significant is this capture and what made gomez so different from other cartel bosses? >> reporter: well, symbolically it's very important for mexican federal forces. this man had been appearing on various different media. he had a very public profile.

he was probably the most seen at least drug lord in mexico so they really needed to capture him, which they have done after a year-long manhunt, in which they pored federal police and troops into the state to try to catch sew van doe gomez, la tuta. he's a very interesting character even within the scope of mexican cartel leaders. he has done some incredibly terrible things while he has been almost controlling the state for a time but he was an innovator. he introduced different models not just the drug roots that go through mexico to the u.s. but also extorsion, businessmen had to pay him a cut to have their businesses. he was always interested in this exporting iron ore to china.

allegedly he exported tons of that. and his public relations, he had a high profile, mexican drug cartel leaders don't usually speak to the media, and he was an exception to that. he saw him as having some sort of idealogical background. behind his desk he has a photo of the famous revolutionary leader from south america. how deeply that went obviously not very deep this is a man who has been extorted and murdering across the state that he said he was going to try to protect. john hullman in mexico city. thank you. a bangladeshi american blogger who spoke out against religious extremism has been hacked to death in the capitol dhaka. he was attacked as he was returning from a book fair with his wife. roy who advocated secularism had

been threatened over his blog posts. >> reporter: avijit roy's family says the religious extremism he protested against may have lead to his death on this crowded sidewalk in dhaka bangladesh. he and his wife were ambushed. >> translator: i saw an unknown person bring out a knife and first hit him on the head and then the shoulders. i shouted for people to help but nobody came to save him. nobody came. >> reporter: police found the meat clevers but they haven't arrested anyone or said who might be behind the attack. roy's family and friends say they have no doubt his beliefs and writing made him a target. he was a professed atheist committed to tearing down fanaticism

fanaticism. >> translator: this has turned into a den of millitantmilitants. i demand the government punishes them. >> reporter: roy is the second bangladeshi blogger to be murdered in the last two years. he has been called a courageous andel kwenth defend herb of reason and free expression. natasha ghoneim, al jazeera. in iraq isil forces have attacked a city more than 100 kilometers away from the capitol baghdad. this shows fighters getting control of a crucial bridge. the group claims their suicide bombers blew up their vehicles and took over a iraqi check point. earlier this month, iraqi security forces foiled an attack

north of the city. iraqi forces have been trying to secure the town of al-baghdady from isil. the u.n. is condemning the destruction of artifacts from the ancient assyrian empire. around 1800 sites are currently in isil controlled areas. >> reporter: the ancient statutes from assyrian palaces are an inspiration for this man. as a soldier in the 1980s, he would hide a camera in his pocket to take photos of them in the museum. he says he hasn't slept since he saw the video of their destruction. >> translator: what is this statute? it's just stone. but it's what it represents.

any citizen doesn't consider this as a statute or mere rock it's his ancestor. >> reporter: many here know first hand mosul's significance as the center of history and culture. isil took over in june when it seized the city. the most valuable pieces had been removed years ago for safekeeping. these ones were wrapped by museum staff to protect them. there is no protection from these men who smashed statutes from assyrian palaces and artifacts from the unesco world heritage site. nearby they used power drills to destroy statutes. the images of the winged bull are so iconic you see them everywhere in iraq. to people here these weren't just lifeless statutes most iraqis see them as part of their

legacy, stretching back to the beginning of the world's first civilization. this man is an art student. he says the loss of the statutes is incalculatable. >> translator: this is a symbol of iraq. this is my identity. >> reporter: there are ore major sites that many fear are also at risk. this was another capitol of the huge assyrian empire. the gold found here was one of the biggest archaeological treasures ever unearthed. almost as precious are the carvings told of empires gone and lost. >> they are unique and destroys them, i wish they looted them because one day they come out, you know in a hundred years let's say, it doesn't matter. things like that happen before. but destroying them they are

gone forever. >> reporter: these were excavated by the british and others in the last century. major parts of palaces were taken to foreign museums. those may be the only places left iraqis will be able to see their ancient heritage. the afghanistan government is appealing for international help in finding survivors of avalanches. >> reporter: the pangea has seen snow before but this is something different, meters and meters of it. turning valleys into silent gorges. in the provincial capitol it was anything but quiet. helicopters buzzed overhead.

hundreds of troops trudged uphill to secure the peaks, and a convoy of military vehicles blocked the only road through the valley. why all the commotion? the president was flying in to check out the rescue efforts. the problem is the only bit of rescuing we saw was a loan grader struggling to clear the main road meter, by painful meter. this is as far as emergency crews can get. the road has been blocked by snow, and that means that dozens of villages are being cut off, and right now they are not getting any help. at this rate -- clearing the rest of the road could take up to ten days. this man is desperate for news. his wife and eight children are in a village he can't reach. >> translator: all of my family is stuck up there in the canyon. i have had no contact with them for a week. i keep coming up here in case

someone comes from the other side of the pass. >> reporter: the government says it is doing its best. 1,000 security forces have been dispatched to the area. but people are getting angry at how long it is taking to clear the snow. >> translator: 18 members of my family are under snow. they are getting no help. cars and helicopters are only here for site seeing. >> reporter: it is dotted with tiny villages all caught out by the heavy snow and dozens of avalanches. >> translator: the machinery we have is grader for paving the road the bulldozer doesn't have chains on the wheels. if we get strong machinery we can clear the road quickly and get to the villages. >> reporter: high up in the mountains, thousands of their countrymen wait urgently to be rescued. nicole johnston al jazeera in

the pangea valley. still ahead the hong kong maid abuse case. plus it has been a battleground for two years, now the syrian suburb of duma have seen the heaviest aerial attacks that have lasted for days. >> reporter: and we'll here from the president of few fee about his thoughts on the winter world cup in qatar. that's still to come. ♪ the german parliament has overwhelmingly backed a four-month extension of greece's bailout program. the yes vote was expected after chancellor angela merkel party and smaller opposition parties voiced support. nick spicer has more on that vote. >> reporter: you can't say there is a lot of enthusiasm behind the vote but the majority was

massive. almost all voted in favor of the motion to give greece a little more time. two reasons why that happened first a feeling that there's really no choice if greece were forced to leave the euro zone the effects would be cats stwrofic. second feeling there is feeling in berlin that angela merkel largely got what she wanted. things went well on this vote it doesn't mean they are going to go well on any future vote. on opinion pole published this week show only one in five germans wanted the vote that occurred to give greece more time to go the way that it did. >> john psaropoulos joins us live from athens. john what has happened there? what has been the reaction in greece? >> reporter: well we have just

seen the first anti-government protest since the election a month ago. up until now, all of those protests have been organized by the ruling party in favor of the government to give it a moral boost as it tries to argue for the agreement that carried austerity terms which has been in force for the last four years. now we are seeing the communist party emerging from the left and trying to lure away votes not only in parliament but one is already taking a stand at some distance saying he will not put up the state companies in his portfolio up for privatization. so there is going to be some effect on the part of the communist party. >> john thank you.

now a court in hong kong has sentenced a woman to six years in prison for abusing her indonesian maid. the victim has welcomed the judgment but insists more reforms are necessary. a former 'em mroir was convicted of 18 charges ranging to assault to not paying her wages. our correspondent went to find out more. >> reporter: she has become a symbol for the plight of domestic workers. her case of abuse has shocked many around the world. for eight months her employer treated her like a slave. >> translator: i was tortured and beaten. i was never paid. i was allowed to sleep for only three hours in the afternoon. i was forced to sleep on the floor. it was very seriously abused. >> justice for ariana! >> reporter: ariana's case lead to protests in hong kong

internal bleeding and injuries all over her body she was admitted to hospital for over a month. on february 10th a judge found her employer guilty on charging of abuse. >> translator: my case became well-known because of the protests otherwise i would have been like so many. i really hope my case will not be the only one that gets attention. all of the other maids who are still quiet, should be brought to court. >> reporter: to prevent more abuse, the president has announced he wants to stop indonesians from going abroad as domestic workers. the president says he wants to preserve the country's dignity by banning maids from working abroad, but critics say the president's plan violates worker's rights especially in a country where they lack

employment opportunities. migrant worker organizations urge the president to protect the workers instead. they say the government should have put proper laws in place and ratified an international convention to protect the maids long ago. >> translator: the government indirectly legalizes this modern slavery and human trafficking if you look at our current laws. it is not written that migrant workers are human beings two should be able to defend their rights and determine their conditions. >> reporter: most of the workers are employed as domestic workers in this countries. the government insists this has to stop eventually. >> translator: what we want is that those working abroad have skills so they can fulfill job requirement. that will make our workers more competitive at job market. their rights will be more

respected worldwide if these two conditions have been met, then what the president means with dignyty will be fulfilled. >> reporter: ariana says the government can't stop sending women like her abroad but she hopes her case will be a warning for the thousands that leave their homes every year to make some money for their families. >> we spoke to one woman who says while the decision is a step in the right direction, more needs to be done to stop domestic worker abuse. >> i hope they get the message that if they don't treat their domestic workers fairly, there will be consequence. but, however, our government so far has not taken up any measure measures to stop future similar cases to tap, and i'm afraid that employer will still think

that, you know, this is the isolated case and it's not about me and -- and they will not really look at how they are doing with their domestic workers. because domestic workers all stay inside of private homes with their employers, and they are very worried difficult for them to -- to -- to tell others outside of the homes about their experiences. so and also many of them especially the newcomers have to pay back loans, which they have borrowed to pay the agency fees which can be as high as six month's wages, so they would rather keep quiet, and they will endure even illegal treatment of their employer. so most of them don't speak up. a large rally is underway in the maldives in support of the

country's former president who has been detained on terror charges. they are marches through the streets of mali. [ inaudible ] represents the opposition party. she says the protests will continue until the charges are dropped. >> these are all trumped up politically-motivated charges. in a surprise trial, it has been suddenly -- and manipulated to terrorism, and the current [ inaudible ] two judges who are presiding over the case they have been asked to provide witness statements and the person who [ inaudible ] in the prosecutor general, he has also provided witness statements. they are all the same. they are all manipulated and controlled by [ inaudible ]. and the judges [ inaudible ]

extremely unqualified, one of the chief judges who are presiding over the case he -- he only completed fourth grade. so we are absolutely sure and -- that he will not be afforded a free and fair trial. the protests have been peaceful. we have thousands of people on the streets calling for resignation, calling for release of the president. we have been out on the streets only for -- less than an hour actually, and the streets are completely full at the moment and this protests have been going on on a nightly basis for weeks, and they will go on until we find a solution. until we have the president released until the politically motivated charges are dropped against him. when a video of an english woman earring for the first time was posted on line the clip went viral. now jo has written a book about

her experience. [ sobbing ] >> it's all right. it's a big, big life-changing day today. >> reporter: this is the moment jo's cochlear implants were turned on and she could hear for the first time >> can you hear your own voice? >> yes. >> reporter: for 39 years, jo has been deaf until last year when she had a small electronic device a cochlear implant put into her ears. birds, music, her mother's voice, they all came rushing in. but more importantly, being able to hear has helped jo cope with going blind. another symptom of usher syndrome. >> i can hear things that i couldn't hear before and then with regards to being blind, i

feel less blind, because i can feel like i can sense the world around me. >> reporter: jo was born deaf into a hearing family. she worked hard with our grandfather on her speech. coins were the incentive. >> every time i pronounced a word right, he would give me a coin. and i can remember trying to pronounce my world perfectly. >> reporter: she would dance with others and try to hear music through vibrations. >> music has probably been the most exciting thing that i have had, this insteadable [ inaudible ] to my life has been the music. >> reporter: but the world is not all beautiful music, and jo has been surprised by angry sounds. >> i was very unaware of the bad side of dance, and i think that probably was what shocked me the

most. people arguing, and like and [ inaudible ] in the home. >> reporter: armed with her cochlear implants a quick smile and her new book jo is determined that her progressive blindness will not distract her focus on raising awareness of usher's syndrome. now the about or leonard nemo has died at the age of 83. >> the deeds of the many outweigh -- >> the means of the few. >> or the one. >> as the ultra logical human vulcan, he won a cult following. live long and prosper became a catch phrase for generations of his fans. he dried from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in

hospital in los angeles. ukrainian rebels and troops are pulling out of the conflict zone as the u.n. discussing a ceasefire. and in sport, it's a record breaking day at the cricket world cup. more on that, stay with us. ♪ >> now available, the new al jazeea america mobile news app. get our exclusive in depth, reporting when you want it. a global perspective wherever you are. the major headlines in context. mashable says... you'll never miss the latest news >> they will continue looking for survivors... >> the potential for energy production is huge...

>> no noise, no clutter, just real reporting. the new al jazeera america mobile app available for your apple and android mobile device. download it now he's out there. there's a guy out there whose making a name for himself in a sport where your name and maybe a number are what define you. somewhere in that pack is a driver that can intimidate the intimidator. a guy that can take the king 7 and make it 8. heck. maybe even 9. make no mistake about it. they're out there. i guarantee it. welcome to the nascar xfinity series.

>> tonight. >> i am a mother of a missing child. >> every parents worst nightmare. >> this could have been anybody. >> but in a twisted tale of neglect, abuse, murder and suicide. >> are kids today safer? >> who's to blame? >> i've answered your question. >> a dysfunctional family... >> the mother certainly played a role. >> a flawed investigation... >> do you feel that the police has been as fair?

>> and a missing child. >> i hope that the person that has her just bring her home. >> now, "america tonight" investigates the search for relisha. tonight, 10:00 eastern. only on al jazeera america. ♪ welcome become. a quick reminder of the top stories here. mexican police have captured one of the country's most wanted drug lords he was the leader of the nights templar drug cartel. he was the prime target in the president's drive to regain control of a state. a bangladeshi american blogger who spoke out against religious extremism has been hacked to death. he had apparently been threatened over his blog posts. the grman parliament has voted

yes on an extension of greece's bailout. in syria, at least 12 people have been killed and dozens injured in a car bomb attack in a town northeast of the capitol damascus. a bomb detonated near a mosque as people were leaving after friday prayers. staying with syria, a rebel-held suburb of damascus has been under siege for over three years. more than 100 people were killed by syrian government air strikes in the first week of this month alone. zana hoda reports. >> reporter: this baby was just over a year old. she died of malnutrition. she wasn't the first victim in duma the rebel-held suburb of the syrian capitol has been under siege by government forces for almost two years.

activists say 264 civilians died during that time 188 of them children. >> translator: we couldn't find medicine. we couldn'ting find milk and when you do it is very expensive, and we cannot afford to buy it. >> reporter: people are not only dying of starvation duma has been a battle ground for years. it's just 7 kilometers northeast of the center of damascus. it was the first area in the damascus province to see anti-government protests. four years later it is the main opposition strong hold surrounding the government-controlled city. in the first week of february more than 100 civilians were killed in what was described as one of the heaviest aerial attacks on the city that lasted for days. this mansur vooifed. but his wife and seven month old

daughter didn't. government aircraft targeted the neighborhood. it was in res pongs to a rebel attack on central damascus. >> translator: on that day my wife was scared to stay home alone. she took my daughter and went to her sister who lives next to us. i few minutes later i heard the plane and the explosion and came back to see house destroyed. >> reporter: some question whether the casualties had any benefit. he was not one of them. despite losing his family and home, he still believes the struggle should continue. now close to 1700 syrian refugees with returning to what is left of their homes inco kobani. the town was recaptured last

month by iraqi peshmerga aided by u.s.-lead coalition air strikes. in egypt, two people were injured when police opened fire on demonstrators, the protests started after friday prayers in giza. police used tear gas to disperse them. there were also protests in other cities. israeli soldiers have fired tear gas and rubber coated bullets at protesters in the occupied west bank. this hebron six palestinians and a foreign activist are being treated in a hospital. there have been similar protests in a village where four people were injured. they were marking the tenth anniversary of the resistance against the construction of the israeli separation barrier. people in the small kingdom of [ inaudible ] will go to the polls. this was brought forward two years after an attempted coup in

august. erica wood reports. ♪ >> reporter: in one of his final rallies before the election the current prime minister makes a plea for votes. he is trying to get an outright majority, rather than having to take part in another rocky coalition. >> [ inaudible ] continues so this is for the future and the future is [ inaudible ]. [ laughter ] >> reporter: the 2012 election resulted in his first coalition government. it was hope it would solve its long history of political problems, but it didn't last long. in june of last year the prime minister dissolved parliament. in august he fled to south africa alleging the military had staged a coup. the military denied the occasion. and they blamed thomas for not working with his coalition

partners. it is promising to make changes. >> to restore the dignity to the office of prime minister which has brought into such horrible disrepute by the incumbent prime minister. that's point number 1. to restore the confidence of the people in their own government. >> reporter: this country needs a stable government the u.n. has identified it as one of the least-developed nations in the world. it has one of the highest rates of livehiv, and more than half of the population is living under the poverty line. >> they have resolved our cause to [ inaudible ] government and will win with a vengeance. >> reporter: so this is going to be a free and clear election. >> of course. >> reporter: african union observers say they are concerned about potential violence at the

polls. the army has promised it will stay in the barracks but the city police and regional forces will be providing security at the ballot boxes. the people here will be looking this time for a government that will bring them leadership and stability. ukrainian president has confirmed that heavy weapons have been withdrawn from the front lines in the east of the country. he said his forces are ready to return if necessary. >> translator: as you know yesterday in fulfillment of the minsk agreement, we started the withdrawal of some heavy weaponry from the line of confrontation. however, this is the only first step. the very beginning of fulfillment of the minsk plan which we fought for, which are still being violated by the enemy. that's why at anytime, at any moment our servingsmen are ready

to return to their previous positions and repel the enemy. well as those troops pull out in eastern ukraine, the united states security council is meeting in new york to discuss the fragile ceasefire. james bayes has been listening to what has been going on. >> reporter: the security council has been briefed by two key officials by the osce the organization on the ground monitoring the situation in eastern ukraine. they are also the organization that has been arranging these minsk agreements and getting all sides together in minsk. they say the situation is now at a cross roads. we have had a great deal of violence. a total of 6,000 people now believed to have died and one million have been displaced. but they do confirm that in the last few days the amount of violence has reduced. and the heavy weapons are starting to pull back.

there have been lulls before and then the violence has flared again. they say they have problems getting access to parts of eastern ukraine. they want more information from the two sides. they want to know exactly where the heavy weapons are being taken to. they also want more support from the international community, more sophisticated equipment, more access to satellite imagery. they would also like more drones. when their mission started they had four drones. one was shot down and they would like more than three drones to patrol this vast area. to the u.s. now where what has been billed as the largest gathering of conservatives in america is underway. the conservative political action committee will hear from some of the biggest names in the republican party. allen schauffler explains. >> reporter: they are the committed, the concerns the faithful, cpac is one of the

most important republican gatherings of the year. >> the men and women gathered here today will play a critical role. >> cpac is a very important voice for republicans. it may not be a majority of republicans. but it is a very substantial segment of the republican party, and it is the most passionate segment of the republican party, so it's important to appeal to cpac to burnish your republican conservative credentials. >> for presidential hopefuls this meeting won't mean your secure of the no, ma'am makes, but it can mean you could lose it. a poor speech failure to connect with the audience here could derail a campaign. what this is a predominantly white middle class republican gathering. a party that needs to connect

with african-americans, hispanic, and women, it leaves them a lot of work to do. >> they were saying they were going to go with the values and, you know, letting people know what their message is and their conservative fiscal message, and social message as well. >> reporter: jeb bush will be one of the biggest names here. the reaction to him could be significant. but the event tends to throw up a surprise a minor character that wins over the crowd. for onoff operative, the people who leave the hall will be taking the message out to the country, selling the person they like the best. >> we're a big party. we have a lot of opinions, but these are clearly the conservatives. these are the people who will be out there knocking on doors, supporting candidates and everybody is here to make their best impression on them. >> reporter: it is a sort of pop

idle for politics. republicans have lost the last two presidential elections, and they don't want that to become a habit. alan fisher al jazeera, at the cpac conference in maryland. time for another short break, when we come back we'll have all of our sport. including the story of the man who changed the face of the nba.

♪ welcome back. now the actor leonard nemo has

died at the age of 83. as the ultra logical human vulcan he won a cult following. live long and prosper became a catch phrase for generations of his fans. he died from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease in los angeles. we are talking to the founder of a website. this comes as sad news for the legions of trekkies around the world, won't it? >> it absolutely will. star trek was the entry way to signs fiction for so many people. the show continues to have incredible influence today. it's still a huge part of culture around the world. >> what do you think leonard

nemo brought to the program? >> the interesting thing about the spock character was that he was hall f vulcan but he was also half human. so we saw that struggle wheen the rationality of the vulcans and the passion of humans. even though spock was an alien, we identified with him very much. >> the show itself mark was very scientific. scientific. >> everybody -- basically they had cell phones mobile phones with them. at that time in the 60s, we were very excited about tock knowledge, and we knew those things were coming and star trek was brings those things to us from the future.

>> how do you think fans will remember leonard? >> i think that they will remember him as an incredible actor who did a lot for the world besides being spock, he really got involved in science and and and s and tronmy. he will be remembered as one of the most important people in science fiction ever. >> what is it about star trek that makes it so enduring you know 40, 50 years now, and the brand is iconic and as strong as ever. >> yeah, i think the reason is because star trek was about people, and relationship between people. sure they had all of the cool technology and science fiction, but it was this multi-cultural group of people who had problems, and they were solving them and learning about themselves and their place in

the universe how could you go wrong with that. thank you for talking to al jazeera. >> thank you. back here on earth. time for all of the sport. >> it has been a day of records at the cricket world cup. [ inaudible ] smashed 162 off 66 balls against the west indians. it was the biggest score even scene in australia. >> reporter: this was always going to be an exciting match, featuring some of cricket's biggest hitters. south africa got off to an ideal start, setting the tone bringing up 50. [ cheers ] >> reporter: riley chipped in for the pro he is with another half century. but this was just the beginning of a full blown batting assault as the captain came to the crease.

[ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: striking boundary after boundary to hit the fastest 150 in one-day history off just 64 balls. there was no stopping him, finishing unbeaten on 162. south africa scored 408 for 5, the highest total on australian soil. the windies never even got close. three days after a double century, chris gone to three. marlin samuels bowled for a duck as the west indies crumbled, as they conceded a world cup record 257-run defeat. >> it is good to see a time like that hustling around. you could see the odds were almost like open really

to -- to fight. and it was a great turn around after the disappointing loss. south africa will next take on pakistan. sarah coates al jazeera. to football and fifa president has proposed that the 2022 world cup in qatar shouldn't take place any later than december 18th. his comments come just days after a fifa task force recommended moving the tournament from the summer to november and december. it is also qatar's national day. the dates will be confirmed next month. the idea of a winter world cup has angered those in european football especially england's premier league. they say it will cause unwanted disruption. but he says there is plenty of time for any problems to be ironed out. >> they are not very happy. and it's no good now to make a

little bit of noise about fifa and about the world cup in -- in qatar, but finally, now there is more than six years, six to seven years to prepare, and there is goodwill. there will be a solution and i'm sure everybody will be [ inaudible ]. the europe league match against roma had to be stopped twice. it was hulted in the first half when a giant plastic banana had to be removed. in the second half the home fans reacted angerly to a player being dismissed. dutch police had been on high alert following fan trouble in rome. they detained 17 locals and one italian, before the second leg kicked off. >> translator: this kind of behavior is not helping the

club. actually these incidents are damaging the club. these incidents really can only damage and hurt. novak djokovic will face roger fredder in dubai. djokovic got there by winning in three sets. federer crushed his opponent in straight sets. the swiss currently leads 19-17. the international cycling union has called for the estona team to be stripped of their win. it follows an audit ordered that found a number of anti-doping violations. the new york yankees batter

alex rodriguez has been welcomed back by his teammates and fans as he joins his team for spring training. the 39-year-old made his return after completing a season-long suspension for doping. his return is not only divided opinion and his team manager says rodriguez needs to prove his place ahead of the opening game of the season on april 6th. >> i think the most important thing that comes back is his offense. and hopefully that is the quickest. it's hard to say. you know when i watched him take ground balls, his hands seem to work fine. his throws seem to be fine. when he took bp that seemed to be fine. but it's at that faster pace that you can see. you open it's his offense. minnesota vikings adrian peterson will be reinstated back into the nfl after a judge lifted his suspension for child

abuse. the vikings star missed 15 games last season after he admitted to striking his young son. he will resign with minnesota or be traded to another team. 42 points from lebron james helped cleveland to a win over the team with the best record in the nba. meanwhile morris scored 29 points for the suns westbrook forced the game into overtime with a 3-point play to make it 109-109. bledsoe then netted in overtime. the suns won 117-113. staying with basketball tributes have been pouring in following the death of the first black nba player. he made his debut in 1950. and went on to win a

championship with the syracuse nationals. magic johnson was one of the many who paid tribute who tweeted: four time nba champion tony parker of the san antonio spurs also paid tribute: and eight-time all star, vince carter said: there's more sport on our website. check out aljazeera.com/sport. we have got blogs and videos from our correspondent right around the world. that is all of your sport for now. i'll have more later, darren. >> dwlieng very much indeed. i would em-- elephants have rampaged through a village in

india. villagers and rangers came together to drive them out. at least ten people have been killed in elephant stampedes in the area since january, rangers say deforrestation is forcing the elephants into residential areas where they are destroying vegetable fields and banana plantations. a u.s. embassy could open in cuba this spring. diplomats are meeting for a second time this friday. but for some cuban americans scepticism still lingers. ♪ >> reporter: 24 is the city ballet in central florida. a small dance company are big

ambitions. it's autistic director wants to bring ballet to the masses. he defected from cuba more than ten years ago. dancers like ricardo who has only been here for four months, the 23-year-old came to the ewes alone, most of his family is still on the island. he tells us he hopes that any changes are positive for both countries, but he especially wants change for cuba its people and his family. ♪ >> reporter: like ricardo, this dancer made the difficult decision to defect to the u.s. she too left her friends and family behind but she has a clear goal in find for the future. >> translator: my ultimate hope and dream is that my family joins me here in the united states.

even if the situation were to get better in cuba. but i realize it is a personal decision, and i would understand if they didn't want to leave their country. >> reporter: the ballet is home to three cuban dancers who recently defected. they all came to the u.s. for a better life but like those who came before them they are realistic about the pace of change. >> it's going to take time from both countries in my humble opinion to get to a good relationship, and, you know, something that can be really good for the -- for the cuban people. >> reporter: all three of these cuban dancers that made the long and difficult journey to this small company are watching the process scarefully but with caution. but all three of these young people now have bright futures tempted by expectations of what might happen in the months ahead. that's it for me. stay with us here on al jazeera. more news at the top of the

hour. thanks for watching al jazeera. bye for now.

>> mexican police capture the country's most wanted drug lowered with the the teacher turned cartel leader, known as la tuta. >> this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up: >> rescue workers struggle to reach remote villages in afghanistan after an avalanche. >> protests over the murder of a blank ledecky blogger who spoke out against extremism.