>> a major economic summit in sergeant elsharm el sheikh. >> the road ahead is absolutely clear. so is the united states determination to support egypt's progress in any way we can. >> as sisi gets the world community to invest in egypt how will that help the egyptian people? defending their land against i.s.i.l. kurdish fighters are helping the

coalition in syria. the problem the u.s. sees them as terrorists. breaking a stalemate. after four years a u-turn in the investigation of julian a asange. >> we see this as evidence of being right over time. >> as swedish prosecutors change their tune what is next for the wikileaks founder? >> i would rather kill myself than get married to someone who is going to abuse me. >> women rejecting arranged marriages. good evening and thank you for joining us on al jazeera america. i'm antonio mora. >> i'm stephanie sy. we begin in egypt with the

political rest regulation of abdel fattah al-sisi on the political stage. >> three members of the military were wounded in an attack on the egyptian military. egypt has been rocked by instability. it continued in 2013 with thous terwith theout outouswith theouster of mohamed morsi. >> despite years of turmoil we are open for business. in his opening speech, president abdel fattah al-sisi welcomed and thanked those for their support. >> i'd like to thank all our brothers kings and presidents of the arab states that are giving us lot of honor of being here

today in egypt. the egyptian society is 25% of the population of the middle east. stability in egypt is a very important role for the civility of the whole region. we need to make sure that these powers will be for the benefit of the stability of the nation and for the region. >> reporter: it started off well with billions of dollars pledged by some of egypt's richest neighbors the aim is to secure billions more. it's a glitzy pr campaign, this is official video the egypt they want to promote. clean, easy flowing traffic businesses and industries ready for investment. but the reality is a little more complicated. on the opening day of the conference an explosion hit barclays bank in alexander another explosion hit another bank in the area. there have been small protests

dependence the government and against the conference. one slogan being used, egypt is not for sale. the muslim brotherhood now deemed a terrorist organization by the governs won't be to eager to see this conference succeed. accidentdissent has been heavily are suppressed in the past. there's been growing violence in the sinai peninsula plus the threat of i.s.i.l. affiliated groups across the border in libya. all difficult issues for the government to tackle along with sky high unemployment and low foreign investment. this may be an economic me, and egypt's economy could certainly do with a cash injection but this is about president sisi's political legitimacy. the head of the international monetary fund and the u.s. secretary of state. >> how egypt fares in the coming years and how it structures its

economy will affect the country's nearly 90 mill million citizens but others who aspire for a better future. that is why we are gathered here. we all all of us have a stake in egypt's success. >> reporter: who is present here what is said and what is pledged will be an indication about the level of international support president sisi and his policies hold. stefanie dekker al jazeera. >> let's look at how much money egypt has been able to get so far. saudi arabia, united arab emirates, two billion of it will go to egypt's central bank. saudi arabia will give a billion to the bank. >> the u.s. normally provides

egypt with more than $1 billion in aid mostly military aid each year. most of that money has been held up since mohamed morsi was deposed. >> we will work with you to absolutely secure the ambitious and important goals the vision that you have laid out here today. there is absolutely no question that the emergence of a strong, prosperous, democratic egypt is critical for the development of a strong and prosperous region. >> along with the economic leadership, president sisi seems to be trying to transform his image from military strong man to global statesman. earlier i spoke to paul salem i asked him whether sisi's transformation is genuine. >> the economic priority is real. he recognizes it. anybody who tries to govern egypt recognizes it. the economic problems in egypt

were a big part of the are uprising in 2011, the second rising against muslim brotherhood. this is a country of 90 million people very high levels of poverty, high levels of unemployment. so the economy really needs to grow quickly and sustainably for country to find stability and to find a path forward. i think president sisi recognizes that very seriously. i don't think it's simply sort of a play. >> he's being massively ambitious. he plans to create a are country like brazil did with brasilia. kuwait are promising $4 billion with saudi arabia and united arab emirates, can he really attract the kind of foreign investment that is necessary to bring egypt's economy back and create the secure egypt that the rest of the world would like to see? >> well the challenges are no doubt obvious than will not be a

black and white success or failure. the government has put upwards of $60 billion of things it wants to see funded over the next few years. that is ambitious but the government is hoping through the economic conference that other economies and governments in the world beyond saudi arabia, uae and kuwait, that others will begin investing and help rebuild infrastructure. >> what about the united states? what is the role that the u.s. should play or do you think will play? >> well, i think the fact that secretary kerry went was you know a high level signal. the u.s. and egypt are also supposed to start a strategic dialogue. that was agreed between presidents obama and sisi back in september to discuss their long term strategic and military relationships. there is no doubt they have some differences over domestic political issues but the u.s. still has an interest in the

economic success of egypt whoever governs it and the u.s. has an interest in coordinating with egypt on counterterrorism and other pressing security issues despite other differences. >> you mention counterterrorism. ironically this is taking place in sharm el sheikh. there is a group that has allied itself with i.s.i.l. do you think sisi will be able to create the kind of security within egypt that will allow the country to have a better future? and can he do it without too much repression? >> well, i think -- i mean the security threats in northern sinai and on the libyan border are real and serious. but i don't think they risk -- maybe that -- i don't think expect any advances allied with i.s.i.s. and so on, the -- over all security situation and other

parts of egypt is worrisome. it is not you know unstable place but there are groups that are trying to sow a sense of insecurity. the public in general wants security wants stability wants to get back to work. there were issues that were supposed to be overcome. the levels of repression have been extremely high and that is discouraging not only to foreign investors but to young people and people who are not engaged in violence who want to -- you know want a political voice and want a political role. >> well, pledging u.s. economic support for egypt today secretary kerry did not offer new military aid despite requests by president sisi. >> cia director john brennan says forces have softened i.s.i.l.

the rebels will not be defeated overnight but serious signs its engine is suffering. also told the audience if left unchecked i.s.i.l. posed a wider threat to the region and could attack the home lands of the u.s. and its allies. shia militia battling i.s.i.l. got more help, forces loyal to muqtada al sadr. paused their advance on tikrit to avoid ieds around town. >> battle against boko haram so much so president goodluck jonathan is ready to declare a victory over the group in some areas of the country. we're now learning foreign mercenaries are playing a part. >> victory in baga, mercenaries swarm into the area in borno

state and wrest back control from boko haram. they show a cache of weapons as proof of success. it is these very operation that are turning tide against boko haram. but the fight isn't being won alone. the government now acknowledges it is getting technical and logistic am support. being told al jazeera that mercenaries from nigeria and other countries are playing a decisive role on the front lines. boko haram has proven to be a major threat to nigeria and its neighbors. the group has also now pledged allegiance to i.s.i.l. which has called on its supporters to fight in africa. in recent months boko haram has mounted raids into neighboring

chad niger and cameroon taking a toll on vital supply links. >> translator: the situation has desert rated because the road is not as accessible anymore due to the insecurity. >> reporter: niger's government insists it has no need to unleash soldiers to confront boko haram. it has the support of the african union leading a national force. as it heads to general elections later this month some say the government's use of mercenaries is a push to gains that will translate into votes. jerald tan, al jazeera. >> fighting in nigeria is concerning to military experts. sean mcfate appeared on al jazeera america earlier tonight. >> that's the key issue here is when you link profit motive with war you create a market for force. and there's a couple of things.

one is that mercenaries can elongate and even create wars to remain employed or become bandits when they're unemployed. and also it really empowers super-rich. we could have a new superpower in the world of very rich people corporations et cetera. this is a significant development right now. >> in fact mcfate called this a dangerous development for the security of africa. >> after nearly three years holed up at an embassy in london, wikileaks founder julian asange. >> return of a disaster hit hard by heavy rains and flooding. some chinese residents are timely getting answers to questions after almost two years.

>> a new twist today in the case

of julian asange. >> asange took refuge at the ecuadorian embassy in london. >> a police presence is poised day and night to arrest the wikileaks founder if he steps foot outside. from his nearly three year confinement inside, he has welcomed swedish to question him here. it is alleged he had a sexual encounter, and he has denied that they were anything but consent yul. consential. >> we see this as evidence that

the prosecutor was wrong all the time and we welcome her initiative. >> in 2011 asange lost an appeal to prevents his extradition to sweden. some of the crimes he is alleged to have committed will reach their statute of limitations in august. time is now of the essence for swedish law to be able to run its course. it isn't clear when this meeting may take place but chief prosecutors mary ann nye will now hope to come to london, both to interview julian asange and to be able to take oswab sample of his dna. if asang were to be facing trial in sweden, he could be extradited to the u.s.a where he was culpable of releasing

thousands of files. british taxpayer tens of millions of dollars. jonah hull, al jazeera london. >> earlier in the day al jazeera spoke for kristin arafnussen. he said the decision could have taken longer. >> i feel outraged it took so long to coming to this. four years ago the swedish prosecutor could take a step to finish this phase of her inquiry by interviewing julian asange instead ofsangeinstead of wasting four years of his life and 1,000 days in the embassy. >> thank you very much for your time. do you have any information on the timing of this when asange may be questioned by the swedish

prosecutors? >> no, i don't. it's amazing to me that kristin just said that it took four years to do this. asange lost his passport, he has been in custody for a thousand days and now they decide to question him and let me just say it's in part maybe because of the statute of limitations but because julian asange and his lawyers went to court and forced the prosecutor to either put up or let go of this case and the court said to the prosecutor, what's going on here? now the prosecutor after saying it was illegal for her to do it she says she'll do it. >> what do you think is going to happen after they question julian asange? they are going to take a dna swab. if they decide they want to continue the case could they arrest him? >> well, he's already given dna so that's unclear to me what's going on there. the answer is they will do the

questioning at the embassy. assuming they can do that, julian says he has been open to that for four years. the problem is if he has to go to sweden if they charge him i'm convinced the evidence won't go in that direction but the problem is what's sitting in the united states where i'm speaking from. >> i want to get at that. i also want to make it clear that who women have accused julian asange of sexual assault up to and including rape. if he stands for the constitutional right to free speech why doesn't he stand for right for these women to have due process in sweden? >> the question is why the prosecutor didn't, for four years julian has said he is willing to be questioned about this, and the prosecutor could have done it but she didn't do it. now he's asking all along he says look, i've been given asylum and because of what will happen to me in the united states and sweden is unwilling to recognize my asylum and

unwilling to say they will not forward me to the united states. if sweden said those two things we would have a different case here. it is not what happened in sweden. julian's problem is not about swee dern,sweden but that he could be serving life in the united states. >> the united states hasn't requested extradition. there is a serious hold into asange case. where does all of that stand at this point the u.s. investigation? >> the latest deposit there was a decision out of a court just two weeks ago that says there is an ongoing multisubject investigation of julian asange and wikileaks julian asange and others in wikileaks are in great jeopardy if they step their foot in the united states. >> there are others including the director of national

intelligence, james clapper who have said the action he taken by wikileaks are not only deplorable irresponsible and reprehensible they could have major impacts on our national security. why doesn't he just come to the u.s. and face justice? >> well, i might say there's almost no defense in the united states for espionage charges. you basically don't have a defense. and what -- >> but we don't know if he is going to be charged with espionage yet. >> that is certainly the investigation, the grand jury has been investigating espionage, it is an espionage investigation. as far as the u.s. position is here what julian asange published were war crimes, that were allegedly given to wikileaks by chelsea manning and others. >> he also published the identities of journalists and informants who have on both sides of the aisle who have

endangered lives. >> that is not the case and at the manning trial they tried to prove that manning had somehow endangered people's lives by giving out this information. they couldn't come up with one instance not one instance. what julian asange and chelsea manning have done is allow we have fought our war in iraq and afghanistan and other cases. >> thank you so much for your time this evening. >> thank you for having me. >> antonio. >> in the south pacific the cyclone pam category five has degraded to category 4 but one of the worst natural disasters to hit the area. evacuation orders are in place for vanuatu where more than 250,000 people are at risk.

as many as 40 people are reported dead. in the summer of 2013, floodwaters swept through non quo chen. residents were outraged of what they felt was the failure of the local government to avoid the disaster and an effort to cover up the death toll. now years later harry fawcett returns to the area to find out what happened. >> the river is a trickle now as winter keeps its grip often northeastern china but 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 has tried to talk to us and tell us what he believes has really happened here. once again the police are stopping us from talking to him. and so 19 months on, 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 were missing. it never released another figure. lifetime residents lee do do, said that was a serious underestimate. >> for the whole of the town, it's at least 170 or 180 dead, i know because i know this place very well. >> reporter: in 2013 we met lee su chen, she said the government assured the people the water would flow down the town. now she lives in a free apartment far superior from her old home 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 to get people out of danger.

the things we have heard in this second village that 200 died in this disaster not the 88 which remains the official government figure and second they complairn complain of a lack ever warning. the town didn't know what was heading their way. nod according to the party secretary, he insists he did warn the residents. what did happen here? >> translator: i don't know what happened here. >> you don't know how many died in your town? >> i'm just in charge of reconstruction. all these talks of death toll, injury statistics, reports, i have no idea. >> reporter: after weeks of rain in the summer of 2013 which filled the local reservoir of its safety limits, it was hit by

rainfall. man made disaster, officials stand accused of the doing too little to save lives. after our inquiries it had never thought to make it public until now. harry fawcett, al jazeera noncould chen, china. the battle in the syrian civil war are reforging relationships in the please. >> coming up the uneasy alignment with some kurdish forces. >> those three girls who left their home to join forces in syria.

>> welcome back. to al jazeera america i'm stephanie sy. >> i'm antonio mora. coming up in this half hour of

international news, not doing enough to help syrian refugees escape the plight of their country. first convene elizabeth joint british veterans to mark the end of combat operations in afghanistan. united kingdom was part of a coalition that fought the taliban after the september 11th11th attacks. the combat ended in december. a new look at osama bashar bin laden's life. they were taken in 1996 when bin laden was living in his tora bora hideout in afghanistan. >> the state department announced the u.s. will send another $70 million in nonlethal assistance to moderate syrian

opposition groups. 25 million will be used for defensive purposes, 30 million will be given to local authorities in rebel held areas. the rest will be used for training. the u.s. has provided syrian opposition groups with nearly $400 million since 2011. i.s.i.l.'s rise to power has complicated the landscape. stopping i.s.i.l. has become the priority. that means making some unlikely allies. zeina khodr reports. >> these are kurdish forces in syria. the people's protection units or the ypg. they have been on the front line in the war against the islamic state of iraq and the levant. these fighters say they are defending their land against i.s.i.l. and also the coalition's only partner on the ground in syria. the group is about pyd.

>> on the ground it is the kurds fighting i.s.i.l. that is why it is a matter of the coalition to support us but the support we are getting is limited to air strikes. it made us stronger no doubt but we are not receiving any weapons and am contiguous. >> reporter: the u.s. led coalition does acknowledge the ypg advances, but it's careful to identify the forces as ypg it identifies them as the antii.s.i.l.anti-i.s.i.l. forces. the pkk on european and international terrorist list. >> kurdish areas called radashaba by the kurds. they are very closely interlinked but of course they

have to be careful because the pkk is still listed as terrorist organization in the west. >> clearly the ypg's listing not among the opposition groups that the u.s. plans to arm and train for fighting in syria even though they have been in direct combats against i.s.i.l. before i.s.i.l. advanced into the region they were enjoying relative stability. they even had their own administration that ran their affairs. many interpreted this as a step towards creating an independent state but the kurds say all they want is autonomy in a democratic syria. the battle for the border town kobani is the first time the force coordinated in syria. at first it was reluctantly of reluctant to do so.

months later their cooperation continues. it is an alliance born of necessity not choice. zeina khodr, al jazeera beirut. >> president al assad said he would be willing to negotiate with the kurds. the two have been at odds for years. >> recep tayyip erdogan said stopping foreign fighters than helping refugees. >> the doors of europe and united states are closed to refugees fleeing violence in syria. they would make an immediate plea if their citizens noses were bleeding but they remain silent. >> crossing are syrian, turkey hosts nearly 4 million refugees. also today we have new video of the three british girls believed to have joined i.s.i.l. in

syria. released this video reportedly taken by a spy by a u.s. led coalition against i.s.i.l. helping the three teenagers into a mini van in syria. he is now in a turkish prison. >> al jazeera's syrian contributor, rasha good to see you. here we are four years after this war began. the horrors are incomprehensible. 1% of all syrians have been killed. chemical weapons, city after city turned into rubble. 80% of the people who stay live in poverty. there is no question the international community has failed the syrian people. what do you see is the biggest failure? >> you know i mean the syria conflict is the first in the history of humanity that has unfolded in front of the world

in real time thanks to the internet thanks to social media it has unfolded in real time from day 1. even though all sorts of parties everyone it seems had some thing some way to weigh in, from the beginning, very few came across and actually managed to help. and in fact now four years later, you just have so many hands involved in the conflict. so many different parties each with their own agenda competing agendas and proix proxy wars and the conflict has become so complicated one of the worst wars since world war ii. >> can the international players as you say who have been waging a proxy war can they even agree on what to do with so many diverging interests? >> yes, i mean that's the million dollar question. unfortunately so many players are involved, this is a proxy

war between iran and saudi arabia on some level, it is also a proxy war between russia and the united states although it's one or two steps removed. how do you get all these parties with competing interests to agree on how to resolve this conflict. and put the people first put the humanitarian crisis first. it's really a big question. but at this time, no one is able to solve it except for the powers that are directly involved and that includes iran and it includes russia. >> and a local power is certainly causing a lot of trouble and it grew because of the syrian civil war and that's i.s.i.l. how effective has the coalition effort been? >> you know, i always hear from people that there's one silver lining in the brutality of i.s.i.l. and that's the organization is so brutal, it's so -- its just

so medieval that nothing about it is sustainable. nothing about its tactics is sustainable. and actually what's going on, perhaps more than the coalition air strikes on i.s.i.l. country is that there's disintegration from within i.s.i.l. there's disillusionment from a lot of the foreigners that are going there to fight. there's even more importantly disillusionment from local syrians who have tolerated these foreign fighters in many regards, but are now growing resentful of them. because you know the foreign fighters go there and they get paid more money they get an apartment they get a car they get a pay raise if they get married or have a new baby. the syrian fighters are usually pressurized, put under more pressure to two to the front line and sacrifice their lives and the foreign fighters seem to be going there sometimes as tourists for benefit. so if there's one silver lining,

it's that. >> it's the brutality is hurting the group. but even if the fighter were to end -- fighting were to end what kind of country would be left and this whole point of civil war was to get rid of bashar al-assad. will he now survive? >> that is another million dollar question. it is very difficult to imagine a future syria with bashar al-assad there. although a lot of people say it is also difficult to move forward without the current government institutions in place. and without the current regime in place. so maybe one solution that keeps being discussed is to keep the government, keep the regime as-is but get rid of the head of the regime and that's the bashar al-assad. >> rasha, thank you for joining us tonight. >> millions of women around the world are forced into marriage against their will and it happens in the united states as

well. >> coming up next we will hear stories of women trying to break the customs that bind them. >> also victories in court for some muslim teachers in germany.

>> in tonight's in contact segments we look at forced marriage with women. >> risking the threat of violence even death. 24-year-old nash yah el said is as tough mentally as she is physically. she lives in her own new york apartment and supports herself. it's the life she fought for but not the life her father envisioned for her seven years ago. >> it was either leave or kill myself. because i couldn't put myself through that marriage ever. >> you'd rather have killed yourself than got married? >> i would rather kill myself

than get married to someone who is going to abuse me and not give me my rights as a woman. >> when nashua was 17 and still living in egypt her father promised her to a man. as was the privilege of certain households. >> i'm going to go from my father's house where i was abused to another household. that's not an option. >> but she did have an option, she was a u.s. citizen because she was born here she called her plotting in new york, who she was taken from when she was two years ago. >> i called my mom and she got in touch with the state department and the fbi and they arranged omeeting to see how they could take me out of the country. >> nashua spent monthsing

figuringfiguring how to escape. >> not everyone has the option. when you are growing up in a culture that is telling you this is the norm. >> and the u.s. is not immune for those cultural expulsions. there are as many as 3,000 confirmed or suspected cases of forced marriage in the u.s. from 2009 to 2011. one of those cases was noor al maliki. she refused to marry the man whose her father chose for her. >> i fell in love with someone and that wasn't okay with him. >> al maliki is serving 34 years for murder. >> it hurts it hurts a lot.

>> freedy release has turned her story into an orthodox cause. >> it was my worst nightmare that i would not be married off by the time i was 19. >> a match maker chose reese's husband. she knew it was a mistake. >> it was not a happy marriage. >> april the first. >> turning over a fellow jew to the secular authorities and by going to the police and getting a restraining order i had committed that sin. >> reese struggled to get a divorce. it took five years. her family still shuns her. today she is helping women like herself leave forced marriages with her website unchained at last. >> women are brought to the u.s. as part of an arranged or forced

marriage. getting them legal immigration status is so important for them. >> her service pairs them with attorneys who will represent them for free. >> obsessed by the idea that i need to make an impact in this world. >> wa earnednashua earned a college degree. she works for the ibrahim project. in an ironic twist she says her father is proud of what she's doing now. >> when you grow up in a culture that say you're not good enough because you need a man and men need to do certain things for you, you overcome that challenge and you show them you're better than any man out there. >> another weapon in the war against women discriminatory laws, there are many on the books that are holding women back. earlier i talk to yazmin hasan on the devastating effects these laws have on women.

>> women don't have the right custody over their children have the right many countries have laws that require wives to obey their husbands. many countries require women to have sex with their husbands and they don't recognize marital rape as a crime. women can't have certain types of jobs, women can't work at thiet. in russia 456 jobs are where proibted to women women can't own property, especially married women, all property is registered to husbands. >> laws that allow men to act violently towards women or empowering for women? >> if you are a citizen of a country and that country does not give you equality does not see how are you going to achieve gender equality? in the last couple of years we've had groundbreaking reports where women and men the equality between women and men

has been seen as essentially to economic development economic prosperity and very importantly to world peace. >> so what is it that keeps countries from at least when it comes to these economic laws allowing women to be treated fairly is it culture what is it? >> governments can change culture. government policy changes culture. i was just on another panel with a researcher from south korea where she says south korean government has changed policy for gender equality and they have changed gender policies in that country. >> for good or for ill. >> good policies policies that value women more and treat them as equals can have huge life changing effects for men and women alike in this society. >> even here in the united states there continues to be a problem of sexual assault against women. >> absolutely. >> the statistics we've heard of is one in five women the

international violence against women act has been reintroduced in the legislature violence against girls and women not just here in the u.s. but around the world. >> i think if they pass this law it would be a huge step forward. because u.s. foreign policy influences a lot of what happens overseas. the resources that are dedicated to certain things can be game-changing and this law allows for resources to be dedicated not to just addressing violence against women but preventing it, education employment and health opportunities for women and then looking at services for victims of violence against women. so i think it would be huge. u.s. should be a leader. >> in all of your years participating in advocacy for women around the world in which area do you feel there is still resistance to change? >> the big easy resistance is where things have -- the biggest

resistance is where things have been changed in israel that does not allow women to get divorced without consent of the husband, and she era sharia law. efforts all the time to stem that tide it has not decreased so i am very disheartened about that but progress has been made in women's education, i think is great, i think this is an issue as we go into 2015 and the postdevelopment sustainable goals for the next ten years 15 years, women's rights have to be prioritized because i think that's the way for the future. >> yazmin hasan global executive director of equality now. >> in germany muslim teachers can once again wear head scarves in class.

overturning a 2003 ban against head scarves in class. today the court ruled teachers can wear coverings as long as they are not disruptive to class. undermining the principle of religious neutrality in schools. >> making certain he or she gets the education he or she is entitled to. >> the challenge of serving the disabled. that's coming up on al jazeera america.

>> the world health organization says the ebola death toll has topped 10,000. and in the u.s. doctors at the time national institutes of health are fighting to keep an

american health care worker from becoming another victim, arrived this morning from cyril. rural areas like the quazulu natal province, because of lack of facilities and poorly trained teachers. erica wood reports. >> she would like to be a fashion designer but to do that she knows she needs to be to have an education. because of her disability, she hasn't been able to go to high school. >> because of my disability, i could do whatever i want to, i watch them maybe one day i could also be like them and go to school. >> 11-year-old kilani lives in the same rural area. he's never been to school, that's despite a letter his

mother got in 2011 saying he should be enrolled in special education. but every school she's approached won't accept him. south africa's constitution does not deny people the right to education because of theirs disacialt. theydisability. they do get a disability allowance but not enough to cover their cost. margaret runs a school for special needs children. >> there are no training for disability kids. so they end up not learning anything because the teachers are not trained to teach the special children. >> reporter: that's the problem she faces every day. she almost gave up on school because she says toomps don't

understandteachers don'tunderstand her needs. >> these mainstream schools i'm not able to learn properly because teachers don't communicate properly with me. >> reporter: the ministry of special education says it's doing its best to reach those who need it. >> it's regrettable that 20 years into democracy we're still talking about those challenges. we're doing everything possible to make sure that we deal with the challenge and we get ever child into school. >> reporter: but it's a long process and in the meantime, thousands of disabled children like her are falling behind. having to wait to get their right the an education. erica wood, al jazeera manguzi south africa. >> in our global outlook segment we focus on the victims of the

syrian conflict. francis le monde. under the headline, middle east has never experienced a disaster of this magnitude and quote no one knows what will come out of syrian revel or when. >> syria another arab catastrophe. mid march of 2011 as the beginning of the syrian conflict but they will need to do something meaningful if they don't want to remember the day with a word more meaningful than calamity. a nilation and the west is letting them. joseph walker writes that libyans could deal with i.s.i.l. within their own borders if they were empowered to do so and he criticizes the government for not taking a stronger stand for

libyan people. jeff corwin 800 pound sting ray, corwin and his crew caught the ray in thailand, while filming the show ocean mysteries. corwin says it's a great sign the ray is now alive and pregnant. corwin appeared on al jazeera last month. >> that looks like something off of a jules vern novel. we'll take a closer look at the complicated and desert rating relationship between u.s. and venezuela. sunday 8:30 p.m. eastern and 5:30 p.m. pacific. that is it for al jazeera america's international hour. >> that's it for us i'll see you again in an hour.

next up is maintain. >> on an "america tonight" special report: drugging america. >> marv and linda lost their son jason last august. >> i never thought he was going to die. >> the tomah va told them his death was caused by an aneurysm. >> despite the va's most serious warning, they