♪ iraq's prime minister declares victory in tick -- tikrit as they have forces in the city. i'm sammy and you are watching al jazeera and also ahead. protests continue in ferguson after two police officers are shot. modi the first indian prime minister to visit sri lanka in over a quarter of a century. >> harry faucet from the chinese

village 19 months of a devastating flash flood here along with the damage serious doubts remain about the official government story about what happened here. ♪ iraqi government is now confident victory in tikrit is days away iraqi army backed by shia malitia and tribesmen on the front and recaptured some of the western neighborhoods and it focuses on the presidential complex and city center and we are live here in the studio and covered iraq for many years, is this battle in tikrit going as quickly as officials tell us? >> it's certainly going quickly whether it's as quickly as the officials are saying earlier in the week they said they would be in charge of the city of tikrit and would have taken it by about

wednesday and it has not happened and they are rolling back on that slightly but going quickly for a few reasons, the fact they have a unified iraqi security force which is shia malitia and sunni tribes can go in for places under i.s.i.l. control and the palace and governor building where they have most of their fighting force and this is sadam's hometown and people that are loyal in the hometown and the army who are very much part and parcel of the fabric of tikrit itself, so they know this very well and know how to fight back and they have something to fight for beyond i.s.i.l. ideology and it's an attack against them and it will be a real tough fight for them but iraqis are confident and saying they will take tikrit and you have seen this a lot.

>> go to another place and pop up in another place so the battle from here to mosul which is the biggest and the largest city in i.s.i.l. control will get a lot tougher. this is not by any means a template for how easy a battle might be and got inside the city very rapidly, there is a lot more fighting to be done. >> the show ain't over yet and thank you so much for helping us to understand what is going on in tikrit. another hotspot and the u.n. says it needs another $2.9 billion to help syrians caught up in the confront, with the war in the fifth year many people in the areas are in desperate need and i.s.i.l. is making it harder for help to reach people and bernard smith explains. >> reporter: from the moment they are born most syrians are now relying on foreign aid, here it means the difference between

life and death. >> this is a problem for all of us. >> reporter: i.s.i.l. emerged to take command as some areas in syria security concerns make it difficult to get aid through. >> we say it's a shrinking humanitarian corridor a common phrase it's just more difficult to get supplies from here to there and for sure going deep inside syria where we were able to get fairly easily get into there and the governance on the east side of the country, now that road is treacherous, it's very, very dangerous. >> reporter: but it's just not fighting that stops aid getting through, many of the governments and larger charities that supply smaller aid groups will not allow help to be sent to i.s.i.l. controlled areas and fear it will be diverted to i.s.i.l. fighters and this is aware house in syria and hints

at the mammoth needs of the country and at the start of the conflict group founders thought they would be needed for just four or five months. >> it was a really basic help with medical aid and needed bandages and needed cotton or for sometimes we would ask for it and really basic needs. >> gone from providing cotton and bandages and baby milk to what? >> providing complete hospitals now. >> hand in hand preparing for the next ten years and alarming prospect not at least because of the costs involved. this year the u.n. is appealing for $2.9 billion to help 12 million syrians more than half the population, the deliveries will cross borrowers in turkey and jordan and territory some of the most difficult in the world for aid agencies to operate in.

last year the u.n. got half the money it asked for to help syrians, donor fatigue is a real concern but without the donors and eight groups they help syria's next generation would have no chance, bernard smith on the turkey syria border. i.s.i.l. accepted a pledge of allegiance from boko haram in nigeria online and a spokesperson for i.s.i.l. said it expanded to west africa. until recently boko haram was in control of an area the size of belgium and this is the region it has been most active over the years and now they say they have taken control of areas in borno and two others and says boko haram is in these areas and controls several towns and battles are ongoing and we have been covering the story from abuja. >> response to this new audio recording in which i.s.i.l. accepts

accepts allegiance from boko haram is falling on deaf ears in nigeria, and saying the recording is empty, superficial and part of propaganda between the two groups to protect the image they are collaborating even when the military authorities say there is no evidence of i.s.i.l. and boko haram working together. meanwhile the nigerian army continues to do what it can to retake many of the towns and villages that were under control of boko haram and say they have recorded many successes in the last few days particularly in the northeast region where the worst of the fighting has been between multi national forces and the group. and in the last couple of days president goodluck jonathan also said within a matter of weeks the group will be defeated. now a u.s. drone strike in somalia killed a member of

al-shabab who planned the attack in the west gate mall two years ago in kenya and three people were killed when their car was hit, 67 people died in the west gate attack in 2013. relative calm returned to the streets of ferguson missouri after the shooting of two police officers on wednesday night. activists held a candlelight vigil and called for peaceful protest, the latest of many since police killed unarmed black teenager last year. [chanting] the night after the shooting of two police officers demonstrators returned to the streets, outside ferguson police department headquarters. >> what happened last night was kind of like random so it's not normal, it's not the norm at all and usually pretty peaceful at the protest and i'm a little nervous. >> reporter: they vowed to continue peaceful tactics like stopping traffic until they get

the reforms they want. >> we have things that are good and necessary like resignations but they are not yet justice and justice is not experiencing trauma or experiencing accountability with people who initiated or perpetuated the trauma and we have not had that yet. >> reporter: st. louis police are investigating the shooting that happened right outside police headquarters. >> this is really an ambush is what it is. i mean you can't see it coming you don't understand it's going to happen and you are basically defenseless. >> reporter: demonstrators who gathered outside the police station following the resignation of ferguson police chief had mostly dispersed and then the gunshots. >> a cop got shot. >> reporter: this was the account of a photo journalist who had been packing up when the shots rang out. >> this was the gun in the street and we ducked down and once we ducked down we saw the cop was shot next to us. >> reporter: they were hit one in the head and one in the shoulder and both released from

the hospital and the attorney general had this to say >> not someone trying to bring healing to ferguson. this was the damn punk, punk, who was trying to so discord in an area that is trying to get its act together and trying to bring together a community that has been fractured for too long. >> reporter: and the family of michael brown the unarmed black teenager shot in ferguson in august were adamant this would not affect their campaign we specifically denounce the actions of standalone agitators who unsuccessfully attempt to derail the peaceful and nonviolent movement that emerged through the nation to confront police brutality and forward equality under law for all. resent department of justice report did find racism in the ferguson police department but after a peaceful night of protest the focus is once again on the injured police officers

and finding who shot them. kristen, al jazeera, ferguson missouri. india's prime minister arrive in sri lanka and modi is the first indian leader to visit sri lanka in more than 25 years and trade and investment are expected to top the agenda and we have the latest from columbo. modi visit and return for the president who stopped there last month after he assumed office as president of the country, basically the exchange of visits very much a sign of relations between both countries and it had been tense between sri lanka given the close alliance with china during the final stages of the war and sri lanka staying close to china and antagonizing and raising concerns in the region particularly for big brother or

neighbor india but here we have seen that sri lanka has been sort of very proactively building bridges again and trying to foster that warmth once again. here we saw a very warm welcome for the state of the prime minister and has a packed schedule over the last two days and addressing parliament later on this afternoon as well as paying respect at an indian peace keeping force memorial the indians here during the late 80s to help the government at the time fight the tiger. tomorrow an even more historic visit for the north peninsula and the first by any indian leader and a sign of the times and sign of the emerging warmth between the countries. >> five years from killing his girlfriend and prosecution says that is not enough for oscar pistorious and the latest in the

legal battle and we will take you to the continent's oldest film festival.

>> next on al jazeera america. technology, it's a vital part of who we are. >> they had some dynamic fire behavior. >> and what we do. >> don't try this at home. >> techknow. where technology meets humanity. coming up next. only on al jazeera america. ♪ welcome back let's recap the headquarters on al jazeera, iraqi government is confident victory is days away and pushing to the center of the city as they try to drive out i.s.i.l. fighters. activists in ferguson missouri call for peace and two police officers were shot against police racism on wednesday

night. india prime minister visiting sri lanka and the first indian leader to do so in more than 25 years, trade and investment are expected to top the agenda. it has been nearly two years since flood waters swept through the chinese village and the government was criticized for being unprepared and hiding the number of deaths. al jazeera's harry faucet reported in the days immediately after the disaster 19 months later he returned to try and find more answers. >> reporter: the river that runs through here is a trickle now as winter keeps its grip on northeastern china but destruction it left in the summer of 2013 is still visible. we arrived four days after the flash flood to a town full of grief and anger. they were accusing authorities of covering up the true extent of the death toll. another person tried to tell us what he believes happened here once again the police are

talking to him. so 19 months we have come back to find out what really happened here on the 24th of august 2013 the local government said 30 were dead and 58 missing, it never released another figure. lifetime resident said that was always a serious underestimate. >> translator: for the whole town it's at least 170 or 180 dead. i know because i know this place very well. >> reporter: in 2013 we met this woman who said then officials reassured people the water would flow past the town and now she lives in a newly-built housing estate down the road in an apartment superior to her home and has not changed her story. >> translator: they did not expect the flood would be so big, nobody told us if they had the damage would not have been so bad. >> reporter: nearby village suffered similar damage but no

one died here the difference locals tell us concerted effort by officials to get people out of danger. there are two things we have heard through the second visit here firstly the people believe 200 died in the disaster not 88 which remains the official government figure and secondly they complain lack of a warning and lack of evacuation order, a community used to dealing with flooding simply didn't know what was heading its way. so it was the disaster minimized so local officials could escape punishment and not according to secretary and insists they did warn residents so how many died here. >> translator: i know nothing about this. >> do you feel the senior local government doesn't know how many people died in your town. >> translator: i'm just in charge of reconstruction, all this talk about the death toll and injured and statistics reports, i have no idea. >> reporter: after weeks of rain in the summer of 2013 which filled the local reservoir

beyond safety limits it was hit with nearly half a meter, half the annual rainfall in less than a day, for many here this was a manmade disaster and officials stand accused doing too little to save lives and heading the number of deaths and after inquiries they raised the figure and says 134 people were killed and it just never thought to make it public until now harry faucet, al jazeera, china. a judge in south africa passed a decision on whether prosecutors will be allowed to appeal the conviction of oscar pistorious to the supreme court, the para olympic athlete was accused of killing his girlfriend in 2013 and live to johanesburg and joined by erica woods and what exactly did the judge say in his ruling today? >> well she decided that the decision, well defense trying to argue against this couldn't be heard in this court, this

needs to go to the supreme court of appeal. so essentially what happened in decembers last year the prosecution went to the court and said the judge is wrong and used the wrong law when she downgrade oscar pistorious's sentence from murder to culpable sentence and in prison for five years and taken to the court of appeals and they say it can't go to the supreme court and saying they will essentially decide as a supreme court whether that conviction of murder or culpable homicide can be heard. >> so what happens next? where does this lead the latest technical development where does it lead efforts to try and appeal the ruling? >> well we don't have a date yet as to when we are going to

hear from the supreme court of appeal that will happen later and likely we heard today to hear about a date until after may. but what essentially both sides want is of course the defense don't want this to go any further and are quite happy with the lesser conviction of culpable homicide and fk o -- and it's a five year conviction on the side of the prosecution they say they want a far bigger sentence and want oscar pistorious to be convicted of murder and with that comes a much bigger prison sentence and they say that would send a much better message to the public about violence against women. of course there is no argument against the fact that the shots that were fired by oscar pistorious led to the death of reeva steenkamp, what is under dispute here is whether it was murder or whether it was culpable homicide and we won't find out what will happen there until it goes to the supreme

court later this year. >> thank you for that. lawyers for wikileaks said they welcomed to question him in london and he has been in the embassy for 2 1/2 years in a bid to avoid extradition to sweden and faces allegation of sexual assault and rape which he denies. the british fantasy author terry prachet died at 66 and fought a battle against alzheimer's disease and campaigned for research and gerald tan has more. reporter: known as an satirist and novelist and observer of human nature and famous of 40 books set in a fantasy universe during his four-decade career he wrote more than 70 books and translated into 37 languages

with sales topping 85 million copies he was the best selling author in the 1990s until surpassed by j.k.rowling and then he was diagnosed with early alzheimer's disease and he advocated for critically ill patients to be able to choose assisted suicide and he spoke to al jazeera on the matter. >> i would like to see assisted dying in this country for, shall we say, for those cases which are not yet, which might not be considered controversial. >> reporter: now pressure was honored by queen elizabeth in 2009 for services to literature and he remained eloquent and announced his death on twitter saying terry took death's arm and fooled him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night and then

followed by just two words, the end. u.s. secret service investigating two senior agents after a car crash in the white house, the pair accused of smashing through a security barricade after a night of drinking and partying and we report from washington d.c. >> reporter: nothing unusual here, all guards in place, secret service doing its job but last week another embarrassment for the service which attacks scandal light the white house attacks sight seers, they left a party and drove their government car in a barrier which had been set up because of an investigation of a suspicious package. officers on duty last night wanted to arrest the agents and test them if they were over the alcohol drink drive limit but a supervisor intervened and insisted they just be cents home. because of seniority of the agents it has been decided inspector general of inspector of homeland security will carry

out the investigation, m almost an outside eye looking at the inside of the secret service. washington post newspaper which broke the story says one under investigation is a top member of the president's protective detail and mike is pictured close to barack obama's side and the other is a senior supervisor in the washington field office, this is the latest in a long line of embarrassment and security lapses for the security and october 2013 a woman shot and killed by police after she rammed a temporary security barrier outside the white house. the former secret service director after weeks after a man jumped a white house house armed with a fight and fought two dogs and got in the building itself before being stopped and january a drone was found on the white house lawn one former white house insider says there needs to be a change in culture and better vetting. >> if they come to secret service they need to get rid of any anticipation of reliving

their juvenile teenage years and fielding it, no the secret service is not about sex, it's not about booze, it's not about playing football on the lawn it's about protecting the president of the united states with that kind of dignity and that is fitting of the office. >> reporter: a full investigation underway and clancy appointed last month to take control of the secret service and this is the first public test under his leadership to see if things are changing and should never attract headlines for doing its job, at the white house. powerful cyclone struck the nation and packing winds of 185 kilometers per hour and feared it could trigger storm surges and landslides and caused damage to the solomon islands and over a quarter of a million people could be in the storm's path.

costo-rico volcano has ash up to one kilometer in the air and most powerful in decades and san jose stopped flights because of visibility and tourist sites are closed. the glammar of caan or venice but columbia is an important showcase for latin american films, many of the stories told deal with the history and they have a claim abroad and finding an audience at home can be harder and the festival is trying to change that. >> reporter: the drama to join farc rebels and hide pregnancy and this is a choice for the opening of an international film festival but it is bringing a stark dose of reality to the proceedings and says it's the

festival duty to remember the brutal history. >> our way to crib to our peace process through cinema and we cannot have a long lasting peace or build a different country if we don't know what happened to us, if we don't remember, if we don't understand the horrible things that have happened and we are all responsible for. >> reporter: 53 films are competing in different categories, in the week-long festival in one of columbia's most fascinating cities and the troubled history and the struggle of identity seem to be common teams and some of the films have already been shown in major festivals around the world they often have a hard time finding an audience back home. it's hard to imagine anything further apart from war and poverty than the perfectly restored center here but it's here that festival goers are lining up for the realistic story and the film and often

lack distribution in columbia and across latin america and something starting this year the festival promises to change. it's a focal part for latin films throughout the continent and 400 industry professionals are expected this year. >> translator: we want to recognize ourselves as latin america, as a gigantic market of 600 million people who speak the same language but it's very difficult to circulate latin american films in latin american. >> reporter: the director and after a successful presentation at the caan festival it got distribution deals throughout europe but struggled to do so in latin america. >> translator: until people understand that we are seeing itself represent and under stand better who we are. >> and here film makers do have

an audience keen to discover the stories this continent has to tell, al jazeera, at the film festival. >> reporter: you can get more on the film festival as well as all other stories we are talking about if you head to our web page at al jazeera.