. >> fighting the coup, a new coalition is formed in sanaa to take on houthi rebels. [music] >> you're watching al jazeera live from our headquarters in doha. [ gunfire ] the cat for tikritthe battle for tikrit against isil. plus sigh cone pam crashes into the island nation of vanuatu, at least eight people are killed.

narendra modi visits sri lanka. yemen's houthi rebels have taken over the capitol say they have reached an agreement with iran to boost the economy. meanwhile, a new coalition has been formed against the houthis in sanaa. presidents and close aids remain in aden after escaping house arrest last month. we have reports on the political stand off. >> there is a power vacuum in yemen, and iran appears to be capitalizing on it. since the shia houthies forced the president to flee the capitol, iran has found a willing partner. a houthi delegation has just returned from a two-week mission to iran with an economic aid package. a houthi spokes than said that iran is pledging to expand a port help build a power play

and provide yemen with enough oil to last a year. they say that the pledge will boost the economy. a spokesman for the exiled government says that the only ones getting a boost from this deal are the houthis. >> the iranian interference is about troops. i don't think iran cannot forwardafford that kind of money. >> it comes after the recent announcement of direct flights between the two countries for the first type. the flight from tehran brought aid workers and supplies. they fear that it will bring more weapons to arm the houthies. they protest the power grab, a new coalition has been formed in sanaa to fight the cool coup,

and the president is in aden clinging to power as yemen appears to be slipping towards civil war. al jazeera. nuclear talks with iran are making progress, but important gaps remain before any deal can be reached. that's according to the u.s. secretary of state. john kerry said that this at the economic development meeting and defended the obama administration from republicans in congress, who tried to intervene in nuclear talks by sending a letter to iran. >> let me make clear to iran, to our p 5 plus 1 counterparts that from our point of view, this letter the letter was, in fact, incorrect about the pow that they do have. it's incorrect to the

assessments of what type of agreement this is. as far as we're concerned the congress has no ability to change an executive agreement per se. >> john kerry said that the u.s. will make a decision soon on the unfreezing of millions of dollars in suspended military aid to egypt. they unveiled plans for a fewcal toll, and just one of a series of meg series announceed. iraqi forces have halted their advances on tikrit. earlier the army said that the city would be freed within 72 hours. the iraqi military is now holding position on the outskirts of tikrit. it has managed to take several

towns north and south of the city. the control of the tikrit, the former home of saddam hussein is seen as crucial in the battle. staying in iraq in the town of gwar, isil has blown up a bridge it lies 48 kilometers northwest of erbil city. we have the latest from baghdad. >> essentially what iraqi militia commanders say is that they need this time to get in reinforcements into tikrit. now they managed to take back part of the city, but still isil remains in control of about half of it. and even in the areas where it's not in control any more they have left behind boobie-trapped

buildings, explosives almost every everywhere and neighborhoods ringed by snipers. that's why it has taken so long, and they're calling for more militia reinforcements as well as explosives experts. they need to go neighborhood to neighborhood street to street and clear some of those explosives before the iraqi troops and the militiamen can move further in. they say that's expected to take a few more days, but then again of course, the worry is who is going to maintain control of the city? which force will be able to hold it? after they drive out isil. isil has been engaging in battles in other areas as they're driven out of tikrit near kirkuk there have been battles in the past few days with peshmerga forces. in samarra there were airstrikes on an army post. isil managed to capture more than ten iraqi soldiers.

that's not the only place. in the north in the town of gwar 40 kilometers from erbil peshmerga kurdish force commanders say that isil has blown up part of a bridge. now that bridge was previously blown up by peshmerga forces, but then repaired. it was blown up initially to halt the advance of isil fighters towards erbil. but the fact now that isil has destroyed the remaining part that have bridge could indicate they're coming back into areas where they have been driven back previously. by kurdish forces and u.s. airstrikes. >> now, to the devastation caused to dozens of tiny remote islands in the south pacific ocean. vanuatu is trying to pick up the pieces after being struck by cyclone pam. eight people so far are known to have died. venturing out of their hopes to assess the devastation left by

cyclone pam. van knewvanuatu was hit by 270 kilometers winds on friday. the category five storm the most severe on the scale blew down trees and tore apart homes and businesses. residents could do let but wait. >> i'm waiting for the roof, and i'm holding on for dear life here. all i can do during this is think about people in vanuatu who has no shelter. this is going to be a horrific humanitarian disaster. >> as pictures of the disaster slowly emerge, of the concern are for those who live in smaller villages and smaller islands.

>> it's been very, very destructive cyclone and hitting a country that has using a lot of traditional shelters and housing, which means that they're quite vulnerable. >> the u.n. said there are unconfirmed reports that dozens of people had been killed in the northeast. vanuatu's president, away to attend a conference in japan is unsure of what he'll return to. >> i speak to you with a heart that is heavy. i do not know the impact of cyclone pam on vanuatu. >> people who were in shelters returned only to find their homes destroyed. >> there are destructive winds rain flooding landslides, see

surges and rough seas. it will impact several islands. >> cyclone pam is forecast to pass north of new zealand next. vanuatu has born the front with downed power lines and flooding, and many areas cannot assist. >> the vice president said he was putting himself in quarantine for 21 days after one of his bodyguards died of ebola. still on al jazeera, we look at how the war in syria has led to the rise of isil.

>> weeknights on al jazeera america. >> join me as we bring you an in-depth look at the most

important issues of the day. breaking it down. getting you the facts. it's the only place you'll find... the inside story. >> ray suarez hosts "inside story". weeknights, 11:30 eastern. on al jazeera america. >> the top stories on al jazeera, a new coalition has been formed in yemen's capitol aiming to counter the coup by houthi rebels. earlier houthis struck a controversial deal with iran to boost the economy. the u.s. secretary of state said progress has been made in the iran nuclear talks but important gaps need to be overcome before an agreement can be reached. >> iraqi forces await vital

reinforcements. they said that the city would be freed from isil control within 72 hours. they are now holding their position in the outskirts of tikrit. 300 syrian migrants are detained in turkey after coast guards open fired on their ship. the police fired arrested three crew after the captain refocused refused to stop. when opponents of president bashar al-assad began their response in 2011 isil did not exist. now there are questions whether more could have been done to prevent its growth. >> reporter: no one in the west could have predict what had isil could become, but they should have. the focus was on the aftermath of the arab spring. in 2012, in the middle of what

is now a full-blown civil war the syrian government was accused of committing civil rights abuses bringing this warning from president barack obama. >> the red line for us is we start seeing a chemical weapons moving around or being utilized. >> a year later obama said that he had proof that chemical weapons had been used. he tried to build public support for intervention. it did not work. >> the united states just came off of two wars in the middle east. there was no appetite for a third. >> it was on to northern iraq, where u.s. trained iraqi troops dropped their guns and ran. when isil fighters came within 40 meters of erbil the u.s. air war began. but it was the beheading on cam

tradition of two americans that got the public's attention. >> the beheadings of the american journalists had an effect. no question it had an effect. the idea that here's a country where they fought a decade's long war and now they're taking territory. that had a powerful effect on americans as well. >> since the start of the conflict the syrian asked for help but to no avail. >> if this group is to fight isis take control of territory either the regime will have to leave them alone or they'll have to fight the regime. it's possible that the regime

will leave them alone for deacon friction purposes with the united states. but i think it's unlikely. >> reporter: it's too simple police tick to say that the u.s. could have prevented the spread of isil across the region, but it is clear that the obama administration earths to limit it's own footprint has not worked. roslind jordan, al jazeera, the state department. >> israel's opposition leader has promised to reignite peace talks with palestinian leaders if he's elected prime minister in tuesday's election. >> he mass met poisons officials more times than any israeli politician in the past year, and the leader of the opposition, who heads the left of center labour party says he's committed to making peace. >> i think it's a mistake that we think it's over.

>> it is not true. i'm telling you absolutely. if is possible, absolutely possible still to make peace with the palestinians. >> in the days leading up to israel's general election on march 17th, herzog is waging a rival against benjamin netanyahu. opinion polls suggest that the zionist union bloc will win more seats than the right-wing likud party. no matter of the outcome of israel's general election little will likely change. >> of course there are differences, and netanyahu is the worst for palestinians with his coalition right-wing

orthodox coalition. of course, the left are better for palestinians for daily life. but to reach a final settlement that the palestinians can live with, i don't think that any of them will say that. >> this man runs his sandwich stall in ramallah, he said that it gets worse every passing year and that a final settlement is unlikely. >> israeli politicians are like two sides of the same point. nothing will change for us. >> president mahmood abbas has publicly declared that israel's election does not interest him. but what does is the decision by prime minister benjamin netanyahu's government to withhold hundreds of millions of dollars in tax revenue belonging to the palestinians authority saying that whoever is elected

as israel's next leader must change that. al jazeera ramallah, in the occupied west bank. >> well talks between libya's two rival parliaments have been postponed for five days after one side failed to show up. the meeting in morocco was halted because of the absence of a delegation from an u.n.-recognized government base ed in tibruk. they would meet merits from the tripbly tripoli national congress. serbs are fighting on the pro separatist sides but a small number of croatians are fighting in ukraine. >> this is where a young man was brought up. and this is where he is now. in the bad lands of eastern ukraine fighting for the

russian-back the separatists. that's him on the right. and here he is amongst a group of serbs helping the separatists in the battle of debaltseve. >> greetings from serbia, they say. we spoke to them through the internet. why, i asked him was he fighting a war in another country? >> we serbs owe a great debt to russia. it has saved our country many times. when i saw what other fascists were the west are doing i couldn't sit back and watch on television. i will stay here until our victory, and i don't care if i'm locked up when i go home. >> we traveled from serbia to neighboring croatia and this is the capitol of zagreb. from this country, too men have gone to fight in ukraine. only these croates have gone on to fight with the ukrainian army

army. they are fighting with bat italian with links to the far right fighting in mariupol. they say they're not worried the numbers are small. but i asked the foreign minister if these men were breaking the law by going to ukraine to fight? >> no, they would be breaking croatian laws if they were joining terrorist organizations. but the ukrainian army is not considered a terrorist organization. >> our information is that they're fighting for the battalion that is a freelance group with the ukrainian army. >> which is still not--it doesn't fall under the category of terrorist organizations. >> i met a member of the group that is in touch with the croate fighters and sympathetic too them. should we think of these fighters as mercenaries? >> they're paid about 100 euros a month, which is less than minimum wage in croatia. they get messages of moral

support from people here through the internet. i wish them good luck. they'll need it. >> some of those who have gone are veterans of the balkan wars of the 90 '90s. but some are extremists. barnaby phillips, al jazeera, zagreb. >> an ask rescue helicopter crash, seven people were killed, including a sick baby who was being flown to hospital for treatment. in the capitol of belgrade. disciple babbzimbabwe's infrastructure is in i will repair. but with money from china to help. >> president mugabe is here to

see what $100 million chinese money can buy. he said that that he hopes the new equipment will boost confidence in zimbabwe's medical facilities. >> zimbabwe's economy is in trouble. it's suffering from falling foreign investment and unemployment. mugabe faces bans in the west for human rights violations, so he has turned to china for help.

>> china is already africa's biggest trading partner and has been investing heavily because it needs timber and melt for its growing economy. others see china's investment as a lifeline. >> what the chinese are doing is moving in the right direction for the nation. >> zimbabwe has used shy chinese money to buy new ambulances x-ray machines, incubators, all vital equipment desperately needed. but this latest charm offensive by the chinese comes at a price and it's one that zimbabwe will be paying back for years to come. al jazeera. >> if an u.s. citizen is being

tested for the ebola virus in honduras. the healthcare worker is in serious condition in the u.s. hospital after testing positive for ebola in sierra leone. he's the 11th person to be treated in the united states. a candle lit vigil was held for police who were shot and wounded in the united states. ferguson is the focal point over the national debate of race and policing since the killing of a black teenager by a white officer several months ago. the e.u. will verynasheed was charged with ordering the arrest of a chief judge when he was president in 2012. the e. usaid that this conviction raises very serious

questions about maldiv es legal system. the u.s. is also condemning the jail sentence. >> china says four people were killed men an aircraft dropped a bomb. myanmar said it was targeting rebels who want to the take over the kokang region along china's south border. meanwhile, rescuers have pulled 167 people from the sea and brought them to safety. 136 remain unaccounted for. narendra modi is the first indian leader to visit the former stronghold of former tamil fighters. they were defeated in a civil war six years ago. india has been calling to

promote reconciliation. we have this update. >> the indian prime minister making several really important points. we did hear him talk about india india's support for sri lanka basically a process that he said would be expedited by introducing the 13th amendment, constitutional changes. now, here in jaffna again behind me you see the historic jaffna public library, a place of culture and learning. it was burned down, and it's been rebuilt now. he came to meet the governor and other officials and watched a cultural performance by school children, but his messages are not just political. it is that affinity between india and sri lanka an affinity

that has been strained in recent years. but here in the northern province not just as is he talking about india standing side by side with sri lanka in pursuit of a future, including the tamil minority, which he said would bring equality, justice and dignity and peace for all and he did talk very much about the fact that the tamil national alliance, who he spoke to should nottic rocking the boat and acknowledge the fact that and realize it's just two months since the new government took office, and it's march, there is a lot of work to be done in given equality and addressing the grievances of the tamil people might need some time. >> he was a man who deified colonial rule to lead india to independence now a statue has of mahatma gandy has been israeli unveiled.

he's the first indian to be honored this way. there he is unveiled. more on that story and much more news on our website at www.aljazeera.com. www.aljazeera.com. [ ♪ music ♪ ] this week on "talk to al jazeera." author, globe trotter and commentator on race and culture, taiye selasi. >> there is a sense that certain people have to explain their presence. to say that racism is not that race isn't felt. >> the london born, twin daughter of african parents