this is al jazeera. hello there. i'm julie mcdonald. this is the news hour live from london. coming up the russian protest -- due to lead into a morning rally for the murdered kremlin critic. the first direct flight from at the ran lands nigeria's president denies mishandling the bulk of the

crisis. israel's prime minister flies into washington and into a growing storm about his upcoming speech to congress. plus more in bars lowna with samsung's revealing of the new galaxy s6 smart phone. hello there. it was a protest of defiance. two days after the murder of a prominent kremlin critic thousands of people have marched in moscow carrying banners proclaiming that they're not afraid. he had been due to lead a protest on sunday against the war in ukraine.

the march passed off peacefully but a ukranian politician was detained on suspicion of being involved in a fire in ukraine last year that killed four russian protesters. >>reporter: maurice nimsov hoped the rally would be -- certainly it was vast. but he was not here to see it and his murder arguably is the main reason so many people came. we came to protest because they killed a man, a man who was telling the truth. we think the authorities actions are a travesty of justice. a man was killed for telling the truth. >> i came because boris was killed and not only because of that. because we need to fight. we cannot live like this. i look around and i want to

shout, people i love you. >>reporter: his face was everywhere. the bulletses that killed him said this banner were meant for all of us. but also present were thousands of russian flags, a statement itself. it's surprised many people that such a huge opposition rally has been allowed to take place right in the center of moscow. usually these things are kept on the outskirts of town. so maybe the kremlin is thinking that grief and sorrow are more manageable public emotions than political anger. and despite some anti-putin chanting this was a somber event, mostly quiet and well behaved. but included in the 50 or to arrests, a ukrainen mp detained

on suspicion of involvement in an odessa fire last march that killed at least 40 pro-russian demonstrators. big anti cream kremlin critic marches are rare these days. the challenge is now whether it can turn the emotion generated from the murder into a push for political change. earlier, i spoke to the former world chess champion turned political activist who was granted croatian citizenship after finding it too difficult to live in russia as a prodemocracy campaigner. i spoke to him about just how hard it is. >> it's not difficult anymore. it's dangerous. you can see it. one of the most vocal critics, my long time friend and colleague, has been murdered.

and that's a clear signal that if you are criticizing vladimir putin, your life is in grave danger. >> and, yet, we hear from the kremlin that -- >> hundreds of thousands of people in the streets of moscow are mourn boris. 86% is the number that is given by polls in the country where everybody is afraid to speak out. if you're so popular and confident, why not allow free press? why not allow a free and fair election? to the country, russian television, russian mad media controlled by the cellkremlin is working on 24/7 propaganda and

brain washing that has created an atmosphere of total paranoia and hatred and willingness to identify the right and wrong. >> just before his death, boris said in an interview that he truly believed that peaceful protest was still the way forward. do you think that's possible to have success through those means? >> i wish he was right. and he paid the ultimate price for his beliefs. even the ukraine knows boris was a big supporter of revolution but still feared the same kind of event in russia could lead to a blood shed. but i don't see any peaceful scenario. putin is going to stay in power forever. as long as he's allowed to stay. and he's going to die in kremlin and it will or could be the

biological death or it could be the result of another public turmoil. i am afraid that russia run out of the good option and murdered boris in front of kremlin, it's cold-blooded murder it tells that we are entering a very very dangerous place. >> and what do they lose every time a vocal member of the opposition is removed? >> you use such politically correct words like removed. killed. it's a message that no one is safe. he's not just a prominent opposition leader but a former deputy prime minister one of the presidential hopefuls in yeltsin's time. he could be murdered. what can be expected from others who do not have the same protection of fame and not politically connected to people both inside and outside of russia. it's a moment where many of my colleagues who are still free

because many of them are either behind bars or outside of our country in itself exile, they just realize that it's a moment where everybody has to make a very tough choice. but if you are standing tall as boris did against vladimir putin, you should get ready for the gravest danger of all yemen's president has accused his predecessor from conspireing with iran. the comments came as yemen signed a new deal with iran allowing up to 14 flights a week between their capital. the first such flight landed earlier on sunday. the shiite rebels who control the capital are said to be backed by iran and some politicians feel the flight could be used to the president ewe rain yum weapons and fighters to yemen.

>>reporter: today, the official announcement of the decision to open this line the official news agency now under control said that news agency to describe this as an implementation of the president himself. so they opened this line and they have also at the same time sent high ranking delegations for the first time and they announced that in the past they sent people to iran but did not announce it. now it is officially described as a government delegation. actually, it is headed by the head of the bureau in the movement going to at the ran to discuss bilateral economic relations between the countries. here in aiden the decision has been criticized by the president and he describes it as illegal and void and he said he sent a message saying this should be

reversed. the president had been in a meeting with tribal leaders today and said everything should be done to reverse this situation. joining me in the studio is adam adam baron, a specialist on yemen. we see the first iranian plane landing today along with a heap of conjecture about what these flights are about. is it extending relations or something more? >> i think when you look at this, the key thing is that this is a very big symbolic gesture. this comes after the gulf cooperation council saudi arabia quatar.

certain countries have pulled out of the capital. that being said, they're also saying that they still have ties with other countries, and this is a very blunt demonstration and what they're trying to say is they don't need the gcc or the west and they can have relations with countries like iran and russia in addition to china in order to back the economy. >> although there will be some who, of course say doesn't this move just simply prove that iran was backing them all along? >> i think iran and huthies have interests, they need friends and iran is more than willing to have a power that they're friendly with creating issues on saudi arabia's southern border. and i think you have these things coinciding. at the end of the day, do they have very friendly relations with iran? yes, absolutely. >> on that note medical aid and people, that's what we see going in today as cargo.

the fear is of course that weapons and fighters will follow. >> i think when it comes down to it, it's an open question, what's going to be following in. i think you do see -- the key thing now when you look at the government delegation is heading to it. there's an aim for capacity building in the government of yemen. they have lost quite a bit of capacity and iran has an opening to build ties in that sense. there's always been this allegation that iran is sending weapons in. these allegations will never end and i think to some extent it's always going to be hard to prove. but i think it's key to remember that, you know yemen is not a country that needs more weapons. unfortunately. so i think the key thing is the power, the current ruling power they're looking for with the flights to iran is a sign of international legitimacy. >> if they're getting that from

iran, could that perhaps be a way for other international players to get involved? could it be a tipping point for them to say maybe we should look at this again. >> i think you have the divide now. russia is dealing with them. the iranians are dealing with them as legitimate power. that being said the gulf states have all moved their embassies down to aiden and i think this is the opposite of the best thing for yemen at this point. there needs to be talks and reconciliation. i think you're seeing vulcanization of the country. there is hope there can be some sort of peaceful end but what you're seeing right now is different international actors picking sides when in reality, right now -- say what is truly necessary is for there to be

some sort of peaceful power sharing arrangement. >> thank you so much for joining us. >> thank you now a teenaged girl has been beaten to death and set alight in nigeria by a crowd who thought she was a suicide bomber. witnesses say that when she refused to be scanned by a metal director bottles were found strapped to her waist. girls as young as 10 years old have been deployed as suicide bombers recently. this suicide bombing last week killed ten bystanders the president of nigeria has denied mishandling the boko haram crisis in an interview with al jazeera. he expressed fears about violence during the upcoming presidential election which was postponed because of security

concerns. >>reporter: with less than four weeks to go until nigeria's presidential election president good luck jonathan promised voters he would defeat boko haram. >> now -- monetarily. technology. monetary activities. then we'll begin to pick them and, of course -- >>reporter: and the president denied accusations his government has mishandled the boko haram crisis. >> it's not a personal mishandling. >>reporter: he is standing for re-election. the vote was postponed for six weeks because of violence in the northeast where boko haram has been most active. we asked him whether the

election date could be moved again. >> i don't think so. i believe the elections are going to be conducted. i don't see why we should postpone again. i will win the election. >>reporter: but if you don't, will you step aside? >> huh? >>reporter: i said if you don't win this election, will you bow out gracefully? >> of course. if someone else wins the election, of course. i'll go to my village. >>reporter: there are fears there could be election-related violence. more than 800 people were killed during the 2011 election. >> i'm not happy.

it's all -- mali's government has signed a preliminary peace agreement to end fighting in the north. recent fighting and political differences over -- in the area known as

offering what he's called a last chance for them to abandon the group. the warning comes as his government -- held by isil including tikrit. he's promised to pardon fighters who heed his warning. here's more on the planned offensive. >>reporter: residents are continuing to leave the city of tikrit in preparation for a major military offensive to take it back. tikrit was one of the first cities taken over by isil in june. it's also a very personal fight for the iraqi military. it's near tikrit where isil killed more than 1,000 unarmed

new recruits. their families here are still trying to locate their bodies. it's a fight that includes u.s. air support, iranian advisors, and sunni tribal fighters. but it's part of the big offensive that will take back mosul and other areas near the syrian border. officials though appear increasingly cautious about when that major offensive will be saying now it requires much more planning and perhaps a police force to take control after the major military operation is done. we spoke with the prime minister at the reopening of iraq's national archeology museum about what that battle might look like. >> i think we are now discussing the whole operation. i cannot give timetables but we're working within this year

to -- with the people of these places that will be with us and i think there is -- i'm overseeing the whole organization of this military operation. it has to be military. security. and civil operation to save people and look after the well being of the people after the operation. >>reporter: iraq's national museum of archeology was reopened after a video of isil smashing statues statues more than 3,000 years old at the mosul. abadi called out to others for help the britain-based syrian observatory for rights says isil has executed over 1,000 civilians since june.

meanwhile, hasam has joined forces with the hardlined opposition movement after the group suffered a heavy defeat from the syrian al quaeda affiliates. this has rebel forces reject a u.n. proposal to establish a temporary truce in aleppo. the syrian government has agreed to send a fact-find mission to the war torn city. the rebels say they'll only discuss a peace plan if it involves the resignation of president assad. now, egypt's president has been in saudi arabia holding talks for a proposal of a joint antiterrorism force. the visit coincides with the

visit from turkey's president. tensions have been strained between the countries. a new leaked tape has revealed how egypt's army was using foreign money to fund the campaign against their former president before he was ousted in 2013. an egyptian tv channel has aired the footage from when he was defense minister. the aide is heard talking to another official about using money to bank roll the movement which led the campaign. >> yes please sir, we need 200 tomorrow from the tamarad accounts, that the uae already transferred. we need 200 only. yes, 200,000. yes, thank you so much.

>> staying in egypt, its supreme election committee says it's working on a new timetable for parliamentary elections after a court proved that a law was un-constitutional. it could delay the votes. egypt has not had an election for parliament since 2012 since the supreme constitutional court was not constitutionally elected the upcoming election is the third an final step in a road map that president sisi announced when he ousted morsi back in july 2013. the first was the adoption of a new constitution by referendum in january last year. the second was the presidential election. sisi won comfortably later that year. the election to give egypt to parliament again is due to be held in several stages starting

the 22nd and 23rd of march. tenses are running high in the gaza strip after it's been ruled that hamas is a terrorist organization. thousands of palestinians have taken to the streets to denounce the ruling while the leadership of hamas is calling it unwise an dangerous. >>reporter: this is the main registration for those hoping to travel from the gaza strip into egypt and the frustration here is clear. but what's less so is whether these people will get the travel permits they need. on saturday a court in cairo declared hamas a terrorist organization. many here now fear the egyptian authorities will close the area off for good.

including this woman who holds egyptian passports and they have been coming here every other week to renew their travel permits. but with the main crossing barely open and only small groups allowed to cross whenever it is she doesn't know when they'll be able to go back home. >> i need to leave urgently because my daughter is sick with a serious brain condition. i had only planned to come to gaza for a short visit and now i'm stranded here. >>reporter: ties between hamas which runs the gaza strip and the egyptian government led by president al sisi have been unravelling for months. hamas has links to the banned muslim brother hood. with saturday's broader ruling it's feared the already strained relationship with cairo has gotten worse. egypt joins israel the united states, and several other nation who is have declared hamas a terrorist organization. but what remains unclear is how

or if the egyptian government will enforce the court's rulings. this senior hamas official says the court alack credibility and that the judgment against the group is unwise and dangerous. >> egypt should understand that gaza is not part of egypt. they also should understand that -- >>reporter: since hamas seized control of the gaza strip in 2007, it's fought three wars with israel. egypt has played a central role in brokering cease fires including the truce reached between both sides in august that ended a 50-day war that killed over 2,000 palestinians, mostly civilians. but many here are now concerned that it won't be israel's military that targets hamas now. still to come we'll be taking you back to gaza where

one of the world's most famous graffiti artist has done a new series of art work he hopes will draw attention to the damage there. >> thousands of supporters of the president of argentina take to the streets to support her state of the nation address.

>> tonight, the parents of captured american reporter austin tice. >> austin went missing in syria. >> campaigning for his release and maintaining hope. >> austin tice is alive. >> find him and get him home. >> a special "talk to al jazeera". tonight, 5:30 eastern. only on al jazeera america. a reminder of the top stories here on al jazeera. tens of thousands of protesters in moscow are marching in memory of a vocal critic of president putin. he was shot dead in moscow on friday night for the first time in several years a direct flight from iran has landed in yemen. and talking exclusively to al jazeera, the president of nigeria vows to defeat the group

boko haram. he expressed fear of violence during the upcoming presidential election. joining me in the studio to discuss how -- boris nemtsov. >> atmosphere in which an attack on an opponent of the regime could take place. and, of course officials can rush very quickly to suggest every other narrative but the

fact that he was an opposition leader could have explained his murder including a ukranian motive or indeed islamic terrorism. and i think the fact that they have rushed to these theories so quickly is very characteristic of the way that the kremlin works, throwing out lots of theories to try to muddy the waters. but it will be a long time before we find out. >> it was interesting to see that people were carrying banners and posters saying we are not afraid but the reality of course is that this propaganda the use of words like traitor and tierny is making people very afraid indeed. >> absolutely. and critical thinkers over the last couple of years have left russia. this murder is of course going to increase that sense of fear. but also possibly the elite and

people within the kremlin itself. they may have some misgivings about the current policies but they're not going to publicly voice those. >> how worrying is the atmosphere currently in russia? can you remember a time when the rhetoric against the west was quite so strong? >> i don't think it's been this strong are since the -- strong since the fall of the soviet union. of course we have seen violent periods in the 90s but there was a certain at that -- taboo. if you're in the kremlin and you look at that and assume, well, if i lose power, then i could also lose my life. >> what about the opposition, you know we heard from gary kesparov and he was saying if you're a vocal opposition member you're laying your life on the ground. we know they have an image

problem because of the way that anybody painted as a disdent is painted in the press. it's a massive challenge to have any voice at all if you're a member of the opposition. >> yes, and the forums for opposition are being closed down. it's much harder to operate anti-kremlin websites for example. the space for the opposition, the oxygen is being reduced, and it's getting very difficult for them to operate. sad to say, but russia is becoming increasingly authority --

authoritarian. >> authorities. she's been on hunger strike for more than two months in a moscow jail. early results show a coalition leading after parliamentary elections on sunday. estonia is now a nato member but was once part of the soviet union. there are concerns that russia may seek to destabilize other former soviet states. about a quarter of their population are ethnic russians

the prime minister of israel is set to land in the united states shortly. he plans to speak out against the u.s. and other world powers negotiating a deal with iran. here's what he said before setting off. >> i'm departing to washington on a crucial and even historic mission. i feel i'm representing all the citizens of israel israel even those who don't support me. i feel a sincere and deep concern for the fate of the state and the safety of our people. i will do everything in my power to secure our future. >> for more on this let's go live to washington d.c. netanyahu's visit is getting a lot of attention, no doubt. >>reporter: yes. and it's quite striking. it's not something you see every day, senior members of the

democratic party laying into an israeli prime minister. senator diane feinstein calling him arrogant to suggest he speaks for all jews on a potential deal with iran on its nuclear program. it seems that taboo has been lifted for some democrats. netanyahu has been very quick to suggest if you criticize his policies you suggest israel shouldn't exist at all. john kerry seemingly trying to calm things down a little bit while registering some unease. >> we don't want this to turn into some great political football. obviously it was odd if not unique that we learned of it from the speaker of the house and that an administration was not included in this process. but the administration is not seeking to politicize this. we want to recognize the main goal here is to prevent iran

from getting a nuclear weapon. and on that israel and the united states agree. >> is this just a spat over a right wing prime minister or is there something deeper here? are deeper questions going to be asked about the strategic interest of the u.s. that's not clear. but what's clear is that the obama administration has had enough of an israeli prime minister speaking on matters. beyond that though as far as members of congress are concerned, yes, we've had a few

democrats speaking out but, remember, only about 30 or so democrats say that they're not going to attend the address to congress. that's out of 235 democrats in congress. so that's a fraction. so we'll have to see about that. and also about all of this. we have to remember that although there's other issues the u.s. government and congress remains in complete lock step with israel notably on the israeli occupation of the palestinian territories. >> all right. thank you. hundreds of mourners have paid tribute to the american blogger who was hacked to death outside dhakar university. hundreds of student activists, advocates, and academics joined a vigil for him. radical armed group has claimed responsibility for his murder. >>reporter: blind folds were placed on this statue at this university. it's meant to be a symbol of

liberation. but after the murder of the blogger, students and protesters are protesting what they call an assault on freedom of expression in bangladesh. all the free thinkers -- >> roy and his wife were attacked by men with machetes. his wife was seriously injured. police recovered the machetes but have yet to make an arrest. an armed group has claimed responsibility. roy's family and friends say he'd received death threats in the past. >> he was a target of the fundamentalist groups for a long

time. since his death, there's been reaction from across the globe. a u.n. spokesman says it's important that the space for freedom of expression be protected. reporters without borders ranks the country at the bottom 20% when it comes to press freedom. roy is the third writer to be killed by armed groups in the last 11 years in bangladesh hundreds of thousands of supporters have turned out for the president of argentina's state of the country address to congress. the speech comes days after a judge dismissed allegations brought against her by a prosecutor who died mysterious mysteriously -- mysterily.

>>reporter: it was going well until there were signs alluding to. 1994 bomb attack in which iran has allegedly been implicated and the president was accused of trying to cover up. she got very agitated. she said she needed no one to teach her lessons and that she had always fought for justice and accused the country's intelligence service of trying to cover it up. not her government. she also went to great lengths to try to emphasize what she considered to be her government's standing achievements, most presidents do, do that during their state of the nation addresses but she made no allusion to charges against her.

vazquez took office. samsung has unveiled its latest galaxy smart phone in barcelona. >>reporter: they want us to believe it's an occasion of great exception and it's no different here in barrs barcelona. this is a top end model.

likely to go head to head with the iphone 6. at the end of 2013 -- 24%. much of that market share has been lost at the low end of the market so that loss has been to new, fast growing chinese companies, lenovo and most worrying for samsung, the new kid on the block, sony. sony, for example, launched its first phone four years ago. it only sells its phone online and is understood to only make a tiny profit margin on each phone but packs the hand sets with features usually reserved for more expensive models. as a result last year they sold more than (6) 000-0000 hand sets making it the world's sixth biggest phone maker.

with so many people buying new hand sets and such stiff competition, you can see why samsung is hoping this device will help secure its future. stay with al jazeera for the latest in sport include body which teams are struggling to stay on course ahead of the new formula one season. and the cable guys are running hundreds of meters of electric wires above the earth.

>> he's using his platform to raise awareness of challenges in gaza. >>reporter: the 2014 war between hamas and israel left parts of gaza in ruins. and much of it still needs rebuilding. both these themes are explored by graffiti artist banksy in his latest works in gaza. >> a young foreign man came here and painted this picture. when we asked what the picture means, he says an animal has the right to live so what about a human? there is a huge destruction here and we're here to support the palestinian people and send the

message to the world that palestinians are being destroyed and the occupation destroys everything be it human or animal. >>reporter: he has documented his trip in a short film. it starts off like an advertisement for a dream holiday but it follows the artist into underground tunnels and then onto rubble-strewn streets. the film describes gaza as an exclusive setting and well away from the tourist trap. children swinging from an israeli surveillance tower and a greek goddess with her head in her hands. just some of his works that have appeared among the rubbish and abandoned buildings. he's known for the social and political messages in his art work. but some are too busy simply surviving to bother about art. >> this has been here for more than a month. it was drawn in the night because we saw it suddenly in the morning. we didn't care about it.

gaza streets are full of posters and drawings and graffiti. >>reporter: he's been a strong supporter of the palestinian cause. his previous work included a painting of a girl pulled upward by balloons on israel's west bank separation wall. this is not an artist who uses the walls of galleries to get his message

arsenal is up to third. >> three more points in our streak and if you look at our run since november, i think, yes, we are in a good position. i think on the fluency front, we can do better but today was just

to win the game. >> chelsea has meanwhile won the first trophy of the season lifting the league cut after winning at wembley. they doubled their lead. now real madrid looks set to drop points at the top of the spanish league. ronaldo with the goal from the penalty spot. barcelona will be within two points if that game finishes level. defending champions losing more ground. they drew nil nil earlier. the hosts of the 2023 africa cup of nations will not move

their biggest footballing event from january to june because it coincides with their rainy season. last week fifa said they had already agreed to the switch. and cricket, sri lanka chasing down a victory the getting 310. sarah coats reports. >>reporter: growing up in wellington singing the national anthem. ♪♪ >>reporter: england were perhaps thinking about how to save themselves and their world cup campaign. with their opening in middle order batsman gone easily england's young gun stepped up.

the 24 year old carving out a career best 121. >> we've dropped catches and sloppy bowling allowing sri lanka to easily chase down their target. at the crease their batsman thrived. they dropped to 312 for 1. >> i think anything can happen in this tournament. you know. we were one down when things started. but we came back really hard.

but that's not the end. we have to play against ausa in the next match. so we want to win that match also. >> when we bowl one bad bowl, every couple of overs or every over, you're going to be punished. and we were. >>reporter: england now needs to win their final two group games against bangladesh and afghanistan to avoid being knocked out. sunday's games saw pack stand keeping their world cup hopes alive with a win over zimbabwe. pack stand going on to win by 20

rounds. >> you need to be really aggressive in your bowling lineup because if we are not getting that much runs then we have to fight. still, we have to just keep looking for a win. so this is the way how we have to approach the game. >> formula 1 testing ahead of the season has come to a close with mercedes again, setting the pace. despite finishing sixth fastest in this session in spain, the defending champions have been consistently testing. not such a good day. he suffered a crash and was slowest overall. the new season starts with the ausaen grand prix on march 13th. okay. that is how sports are looking for now. i'll hand you back to julie in london. andy thank you.

astronauts have completed their third space walk in a week to install over 200 meters of cabling on the international space station. >> and our first view of butch willmore as he makes his way outside the hatch on the quest air lock. >> venturing into space attached to a tether for nearly seven hours, two astronauts rigged up the cable in preparation for new crew capsules and also installed new communications cables. 40,000 revellers have come together to celebrate rio's 450th birthday. a 450-feet long cake was made to commemorate the occasion. it will extend right through to the olympics which rio hosts next summer. that's it for me. we'll be back in a moment with more of the day's news.

bye bye.

the legend of ronald reagan looms large over american tax policy, to this day a new generation took the supply side economics tour and learned a top lesson. doesn't necessary trickle down. i challenge the man who probably has more influence over your taxes than anyone you vote for, grover norquist. and a riveting documentary on the ravages of the crack epidemic, a preview about the man who flooded the streets of los angeles with a devastating drug. i'm ali velshi, this is "real money".