the emirates is a second nation for the egyptians. [ applause ] >> translator: we have all the right and all of the duties since our childhood, we used to believe that egypt is that nation for peace, the heart of the arab -- the heart and the police of the best soldiers with egypt we will create history together. [ applause ] >> translator: history has taught us that when egypt is strong, is capable and able to keep the nation vital, to lead the nation and go and read about how many aggressors and invaders who were defeated on

the borders of egypt, and the movement of independence have also emerged from egypt. egypt's novelest egypt [ inaudible ], egypt! [ applause ] >> translator: go and read about the army of egypt, the commanders of egypt. [ applause ] >> translator: you understand that supporting egypt is an injection of vitality to the nation. what we put now in egypt is an investment that is going to be scene in the very near future. ladies and gentlemen the united

arab emirates has supported egypt through the last period and we have offered egypt for the last two years more than $14 billion. [ applause ] >> big numbers there, the ruler of dubai speaking at the economic conference in egypt. if you have just joined us this is al jazeera, where breaking our usual schedule to bring you this coverage of the economic conference that is underway in egypt. president abdul fattah al-sisi opened the summit about an hour ago after four years of political instability. egypt is pinning its hopes for economic survival on this conference. heads of state from across the region are attending along with foreign politicians and major global investors. president sisi promised to

target economic growth said ho wanted to achieve 6% economic growth and to reduce unemployment to 10% in five years. here is what he had to say. >> translator: egypt will always respect its international and regional commitments and egypt is also keen to create a competitive market that will help a lot in achieving the comprehensive development according to the plan of increasing the development growth to more than more than 6% during the five coming years. and this will go on with the aim to decrease unemployment by 10% during the next five years. >> we're expecting u.s. secretary of state john kerry to speak, and we'll take that speech live here on al jazeera, but first let's have a word with senior political analyst who is

still with me in the studio here. we were talking about the legitimacy of al-sisi and what this conference lends to that. >> i think that's probably why there is a conference in the first place. at the end of the day on the competitive cater, egypt is pretty low down there in terms of credibility, violence technological advancement, in terms of infrastructure, and so on and so forth. so the reason for this conference is that sisi's allies in saudi arabia and the united arab emirates have pushed for it. the idea is how could this conference allow or help the egyptian leader gain more legitimacy? the question we need to ask ourselves, why egypt in what is wrong with algeria, or whichever other country comes to mind?

well one is that [ inaudible ] has to create the environment for those countries to gain money. and capital is power. he has to make sure there is that sort of stability or incentive for international capital to gain money. and what you just heard earlier, $4 billion, the united arab emirates saying we already gave $14 billion, so subsidize the conference. >> john kerry is about to speak, what is he -- is he going to add a dose of reality here? >> it seems from what i have read already what to expect he probably will say that egypt is quite conducive, if you will for international investments. the problem for kerry is the following. like president obama they have already said look we're not happy that there has been a coup

d'etat d'etat? egypt. there is no egyptian parliament. the egyptian parliament has long been deposed and there is just one leader that gained basically from the beginning by a coup d'etat, and later bialek shuns, and now he is making all of these rules and regulations. this is not something that the united states is supposed to support, but it will support for pragmatic reasons. >> the president of sudan is now addressing the conference -- >> and some people are walking out already. >> yeah. already. >> saudi arabia comes, pledges $4 billion, and -- well we don't need to stay any longer either? >> well and also this president isn't going to be help he has bankrupted his country. but certainly he is there for his own reasons.

president bashere has not been doing well in his own country. he is there to gain legitimacy of his own. >> i'm wondering why he has been given such high ranking? >> he's president. >> yeah but why would he get in before john kerry. >> yeah. >> we were bandying around figures like 6% growth and investment of $4 billion, your average egyptian is unpleaed unemployment very high at the moment after egypt, just wants to know when am i going to get a job? when am i going to feed my family? >> certainly not any time soon although president al-sisi had made the argument that with such investments probably there will be more employment. but if we put things in

perspective. egypt has a population ten -- ten times more than israel, and it has a gdp, a gross domestic product equal to israel. so the egyptian economy is very poor. and as i said earlier, the competitor indicators are not very good in favor of the country. it doesn't have an advanced working class or high-tech logically networked working place, it doesn't have a good infrastructure, and the violence and instability are going to run in the country. president al-sisi can make promises to sell egypt, but at the end of the day, egypt needs to be on sale in order for those international investors to come in. those projects will have to be sold to the international investors at a discount >> yeah. >> meaning major infrastructure in the country are going to be given away at a discount.

>> at a discount but to the highest bidder? many what about china? is china interested in egypt? it seems to be in every other country it can get into at moment? >> how wouldn't it? especially since we're talking about the suez canal as well. i have personally seen a trace of their aggressive investment policy in africa, and egypt has tried to sell itself today as a gateway to africa. and when you look at the conference paperwork that's what also talks about. not only this an investment in egypt, sisi is selling egypt as a gateway to the africa and there could be joint ventures happening in egypt. >> all right. as we said u.s. secretary of state john kerry is expected to

address the conference. we'll take his speech live when it begins. it's due to start pretty soon. the summit in the red sea is hoped to attract billions in foreign investment. but there has been a fairly mixed reaction from some of egypt's people. >> translator: i think it will be very successful. it's the first real chance for egypt to attract investors to the country. >> translator: the conference is a great move for the country. >> translator: there is no money. there's nothing. people are losing their lives for nothing. there's no production. money has been stolen and the people are poor. >> there was a protest against the economic summit in cairo suburb demonstrators carried placards saying egypt is not for

sale. they called on the army to stay out of political life. the stakes are high for egypt's president sisi. the future of his leadership depends in part on whether he can secure proper investment for his people. hashem ahelbarra explains why egypt's economic conference is about more than just money. >> reporter: this is the kind of image egypt wants to promote, a hard-working and corruption free country open for business. but egypt's economy is in trouble. even with oil shipments and cash grants from gulf states, it needs around $60 billion of foreign money, which it is hoping to raise at the economic investment conference. >> we are welcoming visitors. >> reporter: the president has promised to sort out the economy. he's cut energy subsidies and

increased taxes. but comments he made earlier this week will do little to convince people he is sympathetic to the struggles of ordinary egyptians. >> translator: even if we don't have to eat, even if we starve ourselves, we build our nation and yes, we rebuild our nation. >> reporter: more than four years on from the revolution many people already don't have enough to eat. around one in four people live on less than $2 a day. slums have grown, and so has unemployment. tourism used to account for around a fifth of egypt's economy. there are some signs visitors are returning but the numbers are nothing like before the 2011 revolution. and this won't help attract tourists or investors. there have been a string of bomb attacks. this latest one killed two and injured 30 people.

>> when you see that some of these ied's have targeted foreign businesses telecom operators or retailers or whatever they are, it is definitely a concern. and investors would look to the government to try to give reassurance that that would be sde min initialling risk rather than a rising risk. >> reporter: and then there is the crackdown on descent. thousands have been arrested and prosecuted since the removal of president morsi in 2013. >> let's get a view from a senior lecturer on the muslim world. thanks for being with us. there is a wider political significance to this conference isn't there? >> yes, certainly. i mean for the last four years egypt has only been in the news due to regime change

instability, a very questionable change of government and a very precarious security situation, while underlying all of these problems is egypt's precarious situation, and this kind of high level, high-profile summit gives president sisi an opportunity to emphasize his role as statesman. and we have seen that being highlighted just now by the ruler of the united arab emirates who made very clear and pointed back to the times when egypt in the 1950s and 60s was the sort of undisputed leader of the arab world, but at the same time it's clear at present the country has to be bankrolled by

donors. >> palestinian president is speaking right now. the long term viability of al-sisi's hold on egypt very much depends on his availability to turn around the egyptian economy, doesn't it? >> yeah that is crucial. for every government the acute concern on the short-term is always security and stablearon alexis alexis -- and stability. but for the government to survive in the mid- and long term you have to offer something to the people in terms of their living stands. and i'm sure president sisi is really keeping his fingers crossed that nothing is going to happen in that particularly explosion i sinai peninsula. >> how long do you think sisi has -- how long will the egyptian public give him to turn

the economy around? >> that's a good question. probably not belong enough. we have seen it cost already president morsi his job when he was not able to demonstrate within the space of a year tangible improvement in living standards. and that will not be possible in such a short time frame, so he is walking a tight rope here but at least if he can demonstrate that commits are being made by the international community, he might be able to buy the time he needs. >> good to talk to you, sir. many thanks indeed for being with us. >> so abbas speaking now. we will continue to listen in here at al jazeera, and we'll let you know if anything news worthy or noteworthy is said and as soon as john kerry or

king abdullah speak, we'll be back there live. in the meantime let's remind you what else is happening in the world. turkey's coast guard has seized a cargo ship carrying more than 300 refugees. the officials said the coast guard shot at the ship's engine room after it ignored warnings to stop. the passengers who have been detained include 85 children. i spoke with the senior regional protections officer at the u.n. refugee agency. >> we are shocked and we are trying to learn what has happened. >> what will happen to the people who have been detained since this incident? >> we hope they will be released as soon as possible.

turkey has about one million or more syrian refugees. so there is no need to detain the syrians. maybe there is need to detain the smugglers, who have facilitated this trip and wanted to help them to get to europe to come to italy. there have been five big else haves coming from turkey with syrian refugees earlier this year. talks two end the fighting between libya's rival governments has again been delayed when the government from tobruk isn't show up. the u.n. met with members of the tripoli based government. the iraqi government is now confident that victory in tikrit is just days away. the iraqi army backed by shia militia and sunni tribesmen have

been advancing on several fronts. the fighting now focuses on the presidential palace complex, and pockets of the city center. nadine barber reports. >> reporter: pounding enemy targets on the outskirts of tikrit. about 3,000 iraqi soldiers and police have been attacking positions held by isil. they are backed by 20,000 militiamen, and a far smaller number of tribesmen. they have reportedly been slowed down by snipers, suicide bombers, and booby trapped buildings. this footage shows fighters stopping suicide bombers from reaching barracks. in the city center the commanders are triumphant.

>> translator: isil tried to enter ramadi city from all four sides, but thank god the police force and the triber fighters stopped them. >> reporter: in baghdad volunteers have been queueing up to donate blood for servicemen injured. it's an initiative organized be the union of iraqi artists. >> reporter: all iraqis including artists should participate. this is a simple thing i offer to my country. >> reporter: elsewhere the prime minister told a crowd of students that forces fighting isil had made huge gains but said they also had to protect civilian life and property. >> translator: there are infiltrators who want to tarnish our victories. therefore, we have issued strict orders to the police army commanders and to the popular mobilization forces. >> reporter: but while the government insist its forces are

advancing in tikrit any battle goes on. ten soldiers have been kilned in an isil tack meanwhile. a further 19 people were killed in a separate isil attack on iraqi army sites west of the city. the attacks are said to have happened shortly after mid-night on friday. the u.n. says it needs another $2.9 billion to help the syrians. millions of people are in desperate need of aid, and the threat of isil is making it even harder for help to reach them. bernard smith records. ♪ >> reporter: from the moment they are born most syrians are now reliant on foreign aid. here it means the difference

between life and death. but now as isil has emerged to take command of some areas in syria, security concerns make it difficult to get aid through. >> we say it's a shrinking humanitarian corridor. it's 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 in and the government that is 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 isil-controlled areas. they fear it will be diverted to isil fighters.

hand in hand is one group that hints at the needs of this country. the group's founders thought they would be needed for just four or five months. >> it was just like really basic help. what do you say medical aid? they needed bandages. they needed cotton or baby milk sometimes. just really basic needs. >> so it has gone from providing cotton some band-aids, baby milk into what? >> to providing complete hospitals now. >> reporter: now hand in hand is preparing for the next ten years. this year the u.n. is appealing for $2.9 billion to help 12 million syrians. that's more than half of the population. the deliveries will cross borders here and beyond into territory that has become some of the most difficult in the world for aid agencies to

operate in. donor fatigue is a real concern. but without those donors and the aid, syria's next generation would have no chance. swedish prosecutors now say they will go to london to question the wiki leek's founder. done that hull reports. >> reporter: at the ecuadorian embassy in london a police presence is poised day and night to arrest the wiki leek's founder. he is said to have welcomed the request to be able to interview him here. it is alleged that he committed sex crimes including rape involving two women in sweden in 2010 allegations he has always

denied saying the sexual encounters were consensual. >> we see this as a victory for him. he see this as evidence that we were right over time that the prosecutor was wrong all the time, and we welcome her initiative. >> reporter: in 2012 he lost a supreme court appeal to prevent his extradition to sweden instead seeking asylum in the ecuadorian embassy. swedish prosecutors want to come to london now because some of the crimes will reach their statute of limitations in august. time is now of the essence. it isn't clear when this meeting may take place, but the chief prosecutor will now hope to be able to come here to london both to be able to interview him, and to be able to take a swab sample of his dna. if he were to face trial in sweden, he could then be

extradited to the united states where an investigation is ongoing into wikileek's release of hundreds of thousands of classified and diplomatic files. while in britain his embassy confinement under constant police watch has so-called the british taxpayer tens of millions of dollars. nigeria's government has admitted that it is getting help from what it calls foreign contractors in the fight against boko haram. it said the mercenaries were only helping in training and logistics despite claims they have been playing a much more decisive role assisting government troops on the front line. hundreds of mercenaries are believed to be in the country. until recently the armed group was in control of an area the size of belgium. this is the region where it has been most active over the year but now the military says it is

in control of many other areas. the military says that boko haram is now cornered in these regions, and the battles are ongoing. more now -- no meanwhile, isil has accepted a pledge of allegiance from boko haram fighters in nigeria. it is unclear whether this will make any practical difference. >> reporter: in this new audio reporting which was put up on the internet it is believed by supporters of isil a spokesperson for the group welcomes boko haram's allegiance. he says we announce to you the good news of the expansion of the caliphate to west africa because the caliphate has accepted its allegiance of our brothers. so far there has been no official reaction to this statement by isil by the government, but it is likely to fall on deaf ears. last week when boko haram announced and pledged allegiance

to isil many viewed it as the last kick of a dying force. the president says they are facing distinction. they have also said in relation to the whole question of any relationship between isil and boko haram is that there's no evidence of any capacity to collaboration or to launch joint operations anywhere in the region, and therefore, they see this as just propaganda. meanwhile efforts to curve the group's activities go on and in the last 72 hours, president goodluck jonathan has said he hopes to end the existence in the next two to three weeks. >> okay. we're back to the conference. at the moment somalia's president is speaking. we're waiting for secretary of state john kerry and for king abdullah to speak. we'll take a short break now, and be back with the headlines in just a few moments.

the turkish coast guard has fired on a cargo ship carrying more than 300 syrian refugees

who were trying to reach italy. the passengers include 85 children, and have now been detained. and the iraqi government says it is confident victory in tikrit is just days away. the army is pushing towards the center of the city as it tries to drive out isil fighters. ukraine's president says the u.s. has agreed to provide it with drones and other non-lethal equipment. john hendren reports now from donetsk. >> reporter: as daily bullets and mortars break the silence, both sides say they are bracing for a major military offensive that could come at anytime. >> translator: the ukrainian side has not withdrawn heavy weapons and now we're balancing on the razor's edge of a new conflict. >> reporter: the head of the

separatists parliament says ukrainian troops would likely to be blame for provoking a newson slot. >> translator: any prove vagus or fire towards residential areas of donetsk would lead the situation to explode in an instant. >> reporter: do you have reason to believe that that might happen? >> translator: yes certainly. it has jt just happened once or twice. over six months. we have had many civilian casualties. >> reporter: all it would take is for one more mortar to land higher for rebel forces to feel justified in an assault. and ukrainian troops too tell us they expect an assault. >> translator: in this village there are spotters for the so-called rebels, and mortar operators from the russian army. now we are strengthening the trenches preparing to respond.

>> reporter: each side accuses the other. but both seem to agree that it is rebel forces shown here training this week that would launch a new offensive. while the rebels say they want the ceasefire to hold there might be military reasons for them to launch a new battle. the u.s. intelligence firm sees three potential scenarios. they could take mariupol and create a land bridge or take ukraine's entire southern coast. in the most ambitious and least likely scenario pro-russian separatists could take their fight to the river. >> there is might be a higher likelihood that the rebels would

break the ceasefire, because they are gaining momentum where the government in kiev are focusing on rebuilding the economy rather than focusing so much on the eastern parts of ukraine. >> reporter: a renewed conflict would further rattle the already traumatized residents. relative calm has returned to the streets of ferguson missouri after the shooting of two police officers there on wednesday night. activists called for peaceful protests. al jazeera's kristen saloomey reports. >> reporter: the night after the shooting of two police officers demonstrators returned to the streets outside of ferguson police department headquarters. >> what happened last night was

kind of random. it's not the norm at all. it's usually pretty peaceful. and i'm a little nervous. >> reporter: they vow to continue peaceful tactics until they get the reforms they want. >> we got some things that are good and necessary, like the resignations. but justice is either not experiencing the trauma or experiencing accountability with those that initiated or perpetuated the trauma and we haven't had that yet. >> this is really an ambush. you can't see it coming. you don't understand that it is going to happen and you are basically defenseless. >> reporter: that night the demonstrators who gathered outside of the police station, had mostly dispersed. and then the gunshots. this was the account of a photo journalist.

>> we saw the muzzle fire from a gun at the top of the street. so we just ducked down and then we saw a cop had been shot right next to us. >> reporter: the attorney gebal had this to say. >> this was a damn punk punk who was trying to sew discord in an area that is trying to get its act together and bring together a community that has been fractured for too long. >> reporter: and the family of michael brown the unarmed teenager shot in august were adamant this would not affect their campaign: a recent

department of justice report did find evidence of systemic racism in the ferguson police department but now the focus is once again on the injured police officers, and finding who shot them. kristen saloomey al jazeera, ferguson missouri. in south africa an appeal against oscar pistorius's conviction will go to the supreme court. the athlete was convicted of killing his girlfriend in 2013. prosecution lawyers want his sentence increased. the u.s. secret service is investigating two senior age engineers after a car crash at the white house. the pair are accused of smashing through a security bare grade of a night of drinking and partying. >> reporter: nothing unusual here the secret service doing its job. but just last week another embarrassment for the service which attracts scandal like the

white house attracts site seers. two agents left a party and drove their government car into a temporary security barrier, which had been set up because of an investigation into a suspicious package. it is understand the officers on duty wanted to arrest the two agents and test them but a supervisor intervened and insisted they be sent home. it has been decided that the inspect gor -- inspector general of the department of homeland security will investigate. one of those under investigation is a top member of the president's detail. he is often pictured close to barack obama's side. the other is a senior supervisor in the washington field office. this is the latest in a long line of embarrasses for the secret service. in october 2013 a woman was shot

and killed by police after she rammed a temporary security barrier outside of the white house. the former secret service director resigns weeks after a man jumped the white house fence, armed with a knife, fought off two dogs and got into the building before being stopped. and in january a drone was found on the white house lawn. if they are coming to the secret service they need to get rid of any anticipation of reliving their juvenile teenage years and feeling it is part of their ver illty. it's not about sex, booze, playing football on the lawn. it's about protecting the president of the united states with that kind of dignity and decorum that is fitting of the office. >> reporter: the white house says a full investigation is underway. this is the first real public test of the new head's

leadership and see if things are changing in the organization that should never attract headlines for doing its job. haiti will hold elections later this year. the current president isn't allowed to run gen under haiti's constitution. haiti has been in the middle of a political crisis for months now. local elections will be held in august. the presidential vote in october. scientists recently discovered where they think the recent west african ebola outbroke began. they traced back to a two-year-old boy to a village in guinea. >> reporter: these people aren't taking any chances. it's been reported that locals ate bats from this tree and contracted ebola virus

beginning what has grown into the worst outbreak of the virus ever reported. >> translator: the bats brought the ebola into this village according to the white man and government. we have decided to burn this tree so that no bat will bring ebola. >> reporter: the government issued a press release saying ebola was first contracted from a bat from this tree. >> translator: when the beginning when my children started dying and my wife i thought they were killed by tradition, although later the white man say it's ebola, and when ebola entered my village i was the first person to lose all of my family. >> reporter: the ebola virus has killed 10,000 people mostly in west africa. a vaccine is being tested and it's modeled on the vaccination

approach which was used to eradicate smallpox in the 1970s. investigators look at what is called the index case. but there are challenges. both guinea and sierra leone are still reporting dozens of new cases every week and the number of ebola deaths taking place outside of hospitals remains high and that suggests people wary of seeking help are hiding patients. under south africa's constitution, everyone has the right to an education, buddies -- but disabled children are often not able to attend school. our correspondent reports. >> reporter: this woman would like to be a fashion design or but to do that she knows she needs an education. she desperately wants to learn, but because of her disability,

she can't walk long distances. >> translator: it's very painful, because if i could walk, maybe i could do anything that i wanted to so when i see other kids go to school i just watch them. maybe one day i could also be like them and go to school. >> reporter: this 11 year old lives in the same rural area he has never been to school despite a letter his mother got in 2011, saying he should be enrolled in special education, but no one will accept him. south africa states that no one should be discriminated against on the grounds of disability. people in the rural areas say the government has forgotten them. margaret runs an advocacy group for disabled people.

>> the teachers have no training for disabled kids so they end up not learning anything because the teachers are not trained to teach the special children. >> reporter: that's the problem this woman faces every day. she almost gave up on school because she said teachers don't understand her needs. >> translator: these main stream schools, i'm not able to learn properly because teachers don't communicate properly with me. >> reporter: the ministry of education says it is doing its best to reach those who need it. >> 20 years into democracy, we are still talking about these challenges. we are doing everything possible to make sure that we -- we deal with the challenge and we get every child into school. >> reporter: but it's a long process and in the meantime this

girl and thousands like her are falling behind. they are having to wait to get their right to an education. erika wood al jazeera, south africa. proposal to limit access to the anesthetic catamine is pitting two organizations against each other. our correspondent looks now at what the measure means for people in bangladesh. >> reporter: it has been used as an ans theic since the 1960s. it is relatively safe and easy to use. but for people in bangladesh it is the anesthesiologists drug of choice. >> translator: it's a very valuable drug for short

operations. it's cheap to buy and the patients recover very quickly. >> reporter: but doctors like this might soon start having trouble getting their hands on this drug. that's because china is leading an effort to declare it an illicit narcotic. it's a hall lous again. but users say the fears are overblown. >> the addictive qualities are very low. it's not like heroin. if you take it the next day, you are like, okay. i'm going to give a break. that was a lot for my mine to handle. >> reporter: it does have side effects and long-term use can cause damage to internal drugs. >> in bangladesh no one abuses

catamine therefore, i think it's an illogical thing to make it illegal or put a tax on it or to restrict supply to hospitals. >> reporter: and many would say sales of the drugs here are already under control. a year ago you could go to any pharmacy and ask for it. today, however, every pharmacy will ask to see a prescription making it much harder for recreational users to get their hands on the drug. more restrictions could lead to shortages, and it will be the doctors and patients of bangladesh who likely suffer the most. britain has rejected u.s. criticism of its decision to join a new china-backed bank. the u.k. has applied to be a member of the bank.

china wants a stronger voice in how both banks are being run, but it has always been blocked by the u.s. britain says it will be able to help shape china's new bank and make sure it is transparent. china is being criticized for the detention of five female activists. human rights groups are demanding their release. also in china, it has been nearly two years since flood waters swept through the northeastern chinese village. the government was criticized for being unprepared and hiding the number of deaths. harry fawcett reported from the village in the days immediately after the disaster. 19 months on he has been back to try to find out more what happened.

>> reporter: this river is a trickle now. but the 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 the authorities of covering up the true extent of the death toll. another person tried to talk to us and tell us what he believed happened here once again the police are stopping us from talking to him. 19 months later we came back to find out what really happened here. the local government said 30 were dead and 40 were missing. this lifetime resident said that was always a serious underestimate. >> translator: for the whole of the town it's at least 170 or 180 dead. >> reporter: in 2013 we met lee who said then that officials had

reassured people that the water would flow past the town. now she lives in a newly built housing estate down the road but she hasn't changed her story. >> translator: they didn't expect that the flood would be so big. nobody told us. if they had, the damage wouldn't have been so bad. >> reporter: the nearby village suffered similar damage but no one died here. the difference locals tell us a concerted effort by officials to get people out of danger. there are two things we have heard out there this second visit here firstly that people believe 200 dies in the disaster, not the 88 which remains the official government number. and second the lack of an evacuation order. a community used to dealing with flooding simply didn't know what was headed their way. the party secretary insist that

he and his colleagues did warn residents. so how many died here? >> translator: i know nothing about this. >> reporter: you don't know how many people have died in your own town? >> translator: i'm just in charge of reconstruction all of this talk about the death toll i have no idea. >> reporter: after weeks of rain in the summer of 2013 which filled the local reservoir the town was hit be nearly half of its annual rainfall in less than a day. officials stand accused of doing too little to save lives and hiding the number of deaths. after our inquiry the local government raised its official figure, and says now 134 people were killed. it just didn't think to make it public until now. the u.s. refugee resettlement program is the

largest in the world. melissa chan has the story of some in los angeles. >> reporter: in their small apartment they prepare breakfast, their children 14 and 9, get up for school. the daily morning routine at the household though is never taken for granted because they are north koreans who fled during famine. >> translator: one by one people died from starvation including neighbors. i had no choice. i wanted to live so i defected. >> reporter: one day, these children will learn that their parents had another life and other children but for now they have chosen to say little. >> translator: i don't want to share our story with my children yet. our past isn't important to them. i want them to start a new life.

i don't want our past to cast a shadow over their lives. >> reporter: some three or 400 north koreans live in the united states, few come in part because of the daunting task of learning english, and a lifetime of propaganda had taught many america was the enemy. the kims chose not to live in south korea, most of the north korean refugees do soul provides financial assistance and programs to integrate them but north koreans face discrimination there. >> translator: south korean society treats north koreans a certain way. i didn't want my children dealing with that. >> reporter: so in the end, a world away from north or south korea was california. kim now works as a masseuse in a small shop in l.a.'s korea town. you have to imagine a north korean arriving here.

you need to find a job, you don't speak english, you don't have many skills. what about health care and insurance? even the concept of insurance in the u.s. is something you have to learn. some concepts stunned chin. >> reporter: you have freedom of expression here. >> reporter: both children are fluent in english and tell us the little they know. >> reporter: what do you know about north korea? >> nothing much. but i know it's a terrible place to be. >> i know something. it has a very, very very terrible leader. that's all i know. >> reporter: what parents do say to study hard aim for college, and in that the drive and energy takes right after their parents, but applied in the u.s. that will produce a vastly different life and outcome.

cyclone pam has struck the south pacific nation packing winds of more than 250 kilometers an hour. it is feared the system could trigger storm systems and landslides. the british fantasy author terry pacert has died. he was 86. >> reporter: he was known as a satirist, novelist and observer of human nature. he was most famous of his world series comparing books set in a fantasy university. he wrote fore than 70 books over his career. they were translated into 37 languages with sales topping 85 million copies. he was britain's best-selling author in the 1990s.

in 2007, he was diagnosed with early onset alzheimer's disease he spent his final years advocating for critically ill parents to be able to choose assisted suicide. >> 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 controversial. >> reporter: now he was honored by the queen in 2009 for services to literature in his final moments he remained eloquent he announced his death on twitter, saying: that was then followed by just two words, the end. now, it might not have the glamor of venice but the film

festival in columbia is important for hispanic filmmakers. >> reporter: this is a strong film bringing a stark dose of reality to the proceedings. the director says it's the festival's duty to remember the country's brutal history. >> translator: it's our way to contribute to our peace process through cinema. we can't build a different country if we don't know what has happened to us if we don't remember, if he don't understand the horrible things that have happened that we are all responsible for. >> reporter: 53 films are competing in the festival. latin america's troubled history and the struggle to define its identity seem to be common

themes, but while some of the films have already been shown around the world, they often have a hard time finding an audience back home. it's difficult to imagine anything further apart from war and poverty than this beautifully restored center. but it's here that festival goers are lining up. the problem for these films is they often lack distribution in regular theaters across latin america. something that starting this year the festival promises to change. the festival is becoming a focal point to market latin america films throughout the continent. 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 america films in latin america.

>> reporter: frank is a director of one film. after a successful present accusation at the canneses festival, it has been distributed out there europe. >> translator: until people understand better who we are, it will be difficult to change that. we need to form a new public. >> reporter: for a week at least here filmmakers do have an audience keen to discover the stories this continent has to tell. the main news this hour, egypt's neighbors have pledged billions of dollars to support its egypt at a conference which is underway right now. u.s. secretary of state john kerry expected to speak shortly. i'll see you again. bye for now.

neighbors promised billions of dollars to help their country's economy. the economic summit in egypt. good to have you with us ear on al jazeera, i'm david foster. coming up in the next 30 minutes, defeating boko haram. nigeria admitting that mercenaries are helping in the fight against the armed group. corruption scandal, a huge rally expected in support of brazil's president over a scandal at one of the country's biggest companies.