>> all these labels the world throws at you, that's what drives me hello there. you're watching the news hour live from london. coming up yemen's government appeals for military help as rebels continue their march across the country. a hand shake in berlin but increasing pressure in athens to implement reform and the son of -- is jailed for corruption.

good night vienna the president is about to face his fierce european critic in austria. hello. yemen's government has appealed for military help from its gulf neighbors as the security situation in the country spirals out of control. rebels have held the capital since september and have now set their sights on other areas. the southern port of aden is also in their their sights. president is trying to establish a new government. saudi arabia's government says the standoff can be resolved peacefully. the security situation has seen the u.s. and united kingdom

evacuate their military personnel and the u.n. is warning that yemen is on the brink of a drawn-out civil war. >>reporter: this is a country on the brink of civil war if the the residents are not going quietly as thousands protest against the advance of fighters. in return, they're fired on and tear gassed. yemen's third largest was taken sunday with its government buildings and airport now under their control. they're increasingly divided by the rebels allegedly backed by iran. now the country's foreign minister is appealing for help to hold back their advance. >> they're expanding in territory

territory -- threatening and gathering their forces. we've expressed to the gulf cooperation council and the u.n. and the international community that this should be a no-fly zone. >>reporter: originally set up to respond to military aggression against member states bah rain kuwait saudi arabia it's a force 100,000 strong. but this conflict has already made fighters of everyday men. here tribal forces gather to threaten hudi forces against threatening their territory and adding more might to the fight could force yemen into sectarian war with foreign powers backing opposite sides. speaking in saudi arabia countries of the region will take necessary steps. >> and many others who have

come up strong for the president. >>reporter: either way, for the people caught in the middle each day of fighting deepens the suffering in this improof of a chain of factstyished country the white house says it can still handle any security concerns. we are live in washington d.c. right now. kimberly, how is the u.s. proposing to still have influence in yemen without any military personnel on the ground? >>reporter: that was a question put directly to the state department and their spokesperson said there would be no shift in the u.s. counterterrorism operations

despite the fact that 125 special operations forces have been pulled out and the evacuation last month of the u.s. embassy there as well. so this is obviously going to significantly impair the u.s. counterterrorism operations but the obama administration is still maintaining they can still conduct monitoring of conversations that they would use or do through intelligence gathering. there also will be armed drone strikes that will continue. this is something that's been conducted for a number of years now specifically targeting aqap al quaeda in the arabian peninsula. it won't be from a base in yemen but from air bases in saudi arabia and jabuti. so the u.s. maintaining that this will continue cooperation with yemen will continue but it will take on a different

footprint. >> has there been any reaction at all in the u.s. to the fact that the yemen prime minister has asked for support? >>reporter: there was a lot of pressing by reporters in two different briefings. josh earnest the white house press secretary was pushed on that but right now the administration is maintaining the line that they're going to really continue the status quo albeit that it will be from outside of yemen. the international community along with the united states still recognizes president hadi as the leader of yemen and although he's in aden this is still a recognition that the international community has recognized him. >> so as a result, there really is this position and sort of a

backing off of any suggestion of foreign intervention. at the same time the state department and white house both underscoring that they feel right now there is a need for all of the parties inside yemen to work towards a political solution. >> all right. thanks very much indeed. >> we can bring you the very latest on the situation because there's breaking news now about the yemen crisis. al jazeera understands that the warring factions in yemen have in fact agreed to go to talks at a time to be announced. any subsequent agreement would then be signed under saudi supervision. so there will indeed be talks taking place but both the warring factions have agreed to attend. with me now is the head of the middle east and north africa program at the advocacy group save the world. thank you for coming in.

that news just coming in. we've heard warnings before that yemen is on the brink of a civil war. is a political solution possible? clearly we're hearing both sides have agreed they will hold talks but talks have been held before. >> sure. i think people have been using the phrase yemen on the brink more at least ten years now and what we see is there must be form of some local -- for that long. but what you are seeing and have been seeing is conflicts breaking out in various different governments and various different groups of people for some years now. so it's a fairly widespread conflict. in terms of whether negotiations can work i think that we have to see some kind of consensus based legitimate agreement. whether that is possible or not is not clear. i don't see personally them actually desiring those talks right now but it's good to hear

that they have agreed. >> it's interesting because the foreign minister has appealed to gulf corporation members saying they would like to have some intervention military intervention. >> yes. >> how likely is it that those countries would agree to do that? clearly qatar is looking to broker a peace deal but what about saudi arabia? >> on the face of it i would say they would prefer peace talks or negotiations. for the last month or so since hadi escaped house arrest and moved to aden he's been trying to put together forces in aden to augment the few militias that are available in order to be able to fight. he is going to need a stronger force behind him. so i do understand why he's

interesting for that. i do suspect that saudi would like to see the defeat of the huzis and whether it's possible that they are helping hadi finance some of his operations and i think whether you're actually going to see they continue to finance operations is definitely an option. >> is it simplistic to talk in terms of essentially a proxy war being carried out in yemen between saudi arabia and iran? >> sure. i think that is somewhat simplistic and also to put it in sectarian terms. essentially what you are seeing is a national-political conflict that's been around for a long time. essentially yemenis don't see themselves as belonging to a particular sect. the saudis have a history of backing every horse in the race.

so i wouldn't say that what you're seeing is a proxy war play out. i think particularly iran but also saudi are able to use this as propaganda but i don't think this is their conflict. >> thank you so much for coming in. thank you. now the greek prime minister has met the chancellor of germany, angela merkel to ask for a financial bailout. well i apologize for that. we're clearly having problems with that report. let's see if we can now hear

from dominick. >>reporter: the first official visit to germany for the greek prime minister, some media outlets here called this a political showdown in the chancellor's office. but he was received with the usual pomp and circumstance. once inside he spoke of the need to reach agreement on a european level. however, there was also a strong message for his own people. >> the differences between our two countries brings shadows over us. the reparations are not just a material thing. it's an ethical issue. it's not just about greece it's the greek and german people who spilled a lot of blood in order to deal with nazis during that period of time. >>reporter: for her part the chancellor repeated that she's given greece many many month >> we wanted greece to be a strong country economically. we want them to have growth. we also want greece to come out of this high unemployment and we

certainly want to make sure that this very high youth unemployment can be overcome and structural reforms are necessary for this a solid budget is necessary, and a functioning administration is necessary. i think that's clear for both countries. >>reporter: but behind all this is the reality that german economic strength is helping to keep greece afloat, potentially costing its tax payers many billions and now a growing number of people say they've had enough. >> we can help to solve their problems but the greeks must want this too. to give them more billions makes greece's woes worth in the long run. you buy time but no one can seriously expect that we'll ever see that money again. >>reporter: but buying time can only go so far because the prime minister of greece has indicated greece could default on its

debts within weeks helping to explain why he came to the german capital to try to build bridges with the leader of europe's economic power house but there's been no tangible process on the face of it. iraqi security forces say they've discovered a mass grave containing the remains of their soldiers. soldiered killed by isil fighters. the discovery was made just south of tikrit. it's unclear how many bodies were found as work to recover that grave site is still ongoing meanwhile, five pro government fighters have been killed and eight injured in a fight controlled by isil northeast of tikrit. iraq's foreign minister says they plan to storm the city as soon as possible. >> when we see that the time is right for the tikrit alliance we'll storm it as quickly as

possible. tikrit is in full siege. we're taking caution to not take any losses and to protect civilians in the city. the terrorists are surrounded inside the city. their morale is low. when the right moment comes we'll storm the city without any resistance or losses. >> the president of afghanistan has thanked u.s. troops for their work in his country saying they've all left behind an individual legacy making the comments during a visit to camp david in maryland where he's pushing for a long term aid commitment and talk to barack obama tuesday. >> the transition from international forces to up land forces has been smooth. we have endured immense sacrifice, but that's our patriotic duty. we want to thank you for the assist support mission because that is vital to the continued

relationship and buildup of the capabilities of our armed forces. >> the overall economy has been growing and the combined security forces are now larger and more capable. that is in fact no surprise to those courageous american service men and women and to the contractors and others who have been committed to this endeavor. >> israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu has apologized for comments he made during the election which were criticized as racist. he says he regrets causing offense when he accused -- vote against him. he is now expected to be nominated to form a new government. the presidential candidate in senegal has been found guilty of corruption and sentenced to six years in prison and pay

$230 million in fines. the court ruled that he's illegally acquired companies in real estate while serving as a minister in his father's government. >>reporter: he was one of the most prominent ministers under his father's rule. his father was the president of senegal between 2000 and 2012 and over this decade-long period, he was known as the minister of the earth and sky. he was responsible for so many portfolios and lucrative deals involving the court which is a major port. he's also responsible for the construction of a new airport. these are multimillion if not billion dollars deals. this is where the opposition who is currently now in power say that he was involved in mass

corruption. he owns several properties around the world. now, since this century has happened, this prevents him from running in the next presidential election. you have to remember that this sunday is -- the members of the opposition have voted him in as their presidential candidate for the upcoming election but given the six-year sentence he's unlikely to be able to run. >> still to come on this news hour: coming up we'll find out why the pakistani military is holding its third parade in seven years. and back in the driving seat, the formula one star cleared to return after serious injury. singapore has begun seven

days of warning after the death of the country's founding father. he became prime minister in 1959 as singapore became a self-governing state. he took singapore into a merger with malaysia but it was short lived and the countries separated in 1965. lee then set about a massive program of reform and kept tight political control over singapore making it one of the most regulated countries in the world. it was transformed to become one of the world's wealthiest economy. le also introduced some of the world's strictist -- >>reporter: images overlook mourners at the hospital where he died. it's where people have been coming the last few days to

deliver their get well messages. now it's to send their condolences. tony wong is a retired civil servant. when he heard the news that he had died he was in pain. but he felt it was important to bring his two grand daughters here. >> life goes on but what he's done for us is so strong what's going to happen in the near future -- >>reporter: flags of the small nation were lowered to half mast to honor the father of modern singapore. singapore as the world knows it may never have existed without him. born in 1923, fourth generation chinese singapore saw his homeland occupied first by british and then japanese. after training as a lawyer he became prime minister in 1959. a post he would hold for 31 years. under his leadership singapore was transformed from a tiny poor

island to a high-tech metropolis. but it also had a darker side. freedoms micromanaged along with the economy. but the party returned to power again and again with his oldest son now prime minister. >> if i ran a western-style democracy and took a straw poll and went according to the poll we would have come to grief. >>reporter: while freedoms were sacrificed he repaid his people with economic miracle securing a legacy as one of the 20th century's greatest leaders. his body is now at the prime minister's office for a private family wake and on wednesday it will lie in state at parliament house so the people in this nation in mourning can pay their last respects.

>>reporter: in the late afternoon, hundreds stood in line to sign books of remembrance. a personal message from the people he led while condolence notices from leaders around the world were being received throughout the day. a spanish court has found the country's ruling party ran an illegal slush fund for nearly two decades. spain's high court -- tax evasion allegations. among them is a former treasure of the ruling people's party. the court says more than $2 million of undeclared money was used for building work at the party headquarters in madrid. france's political -- success in local elections. a conservative alliance led by the former president came first. the national front was second with just over 25%. >>reporter: it was quite a

convincing lead for the ump, the center right party led by the former french president. the national front did less well than some opinion polls had predicted but we have to remember that opinion polls are not an exact science. they're only a suggestion of voting tendencies. very much a disappointing performance by the socialist party reinforcing the overall trend that the socialist party seems to be losing favor and in particular the french president is not very highly rated at the moment. we must remember also that this was only the first round of voting because in france there is a system of two rounds. it does give people the luxury of maybe registering a protest vote making some kind of a statement in the first round while actually getting more serious in the second round. also these local elections rather national elections sometimes people vote in a

different manner. what often happens in elections in france is if the national front does well in the first round, generally people voting for parties that have been knocked out in had the first round will then rally together and vote for which other party is standing against the national front so we can expect to see lots of socialist party voters voting for the center right ump in the second round in order to keep the national front out. at least that would be the prediction of many people here in france. a report from doctors without borders has criticized the world health organization's response to the outbreak saying it was too slow. the global medical community is not prepared for another outbreak. >> all we know is that the delay that was caused by who not acting cost valuable time in preparing a response.

we're in a different place today but we should be much further along. this is not just a hatchet job against the w.h.o. but rather a reflection that the world is not prepared for an outbreak of this magnitude and what worries us is another out break in another part of the world with a similar setup in the countries of west africa we would have another huge problem costing lives it's a year since the first case of ebola was confirmed in west africa and since then it's killed 10,000 people in liberia, sierra leon and guinea. we looked at how people are coping with the epidemic. >>reporter: when ebola was at its worst last year julius was trying to save who he could but then he caught the disease. >> fortunately, i survived it but walking down the community,

people pointing fingers at me only as the one who came down with the virus. he is the one who people say die. and he's the one. it becomes somehow discouraging and worry some. >>reporter: even colleagues who showed no symptoms were made to feel isolated. >> the people who no longer come around me and stay away because -- i don't know. >>reporter: despite the stigma cloud is back at work. he's beat the virus and says it's now time to beat the misinformation about the disease. that's what liberia's government wants to do as well. in a few weeks, the world health organization had hoped to declare the country ebola free but that's now not going to happen because of a new case discovered days ago leaving many here worries. >> very, very discouraged

because our children -- education and to hear that there's a new outbreak of ebola is very discouraging and i feel very bad about that. >>reporter: it has crippled daily life. schools were closed for six months and in one year the disease has killed more than 10,000 people across west africa. experts have traced the source here in guinea. this is the spot where it's believed bats infected a toddler triggering the epidemic that also affected sierra leone and nigeria. the countries affected hope the worst is over now and that could very well be the case. still to come on this news

hour from london caught in the cross fire. south sudan's wild life faces new threats against the backdrop of civil war. agreements at last egypt, ethiopia, and the sudan finally reach an agreement about a new dam. either adequate and appropriate i can't

welcome back. a reminder of the top stories here on al jazeera. al jazeera understands that the warring factions in yemen have agreed to talks. the country has asked for military help to bring the country under control. the foreign minister says they're monitoring the situation on the ground. >> nobody wants to be pulled into direct military action on the ground. the majority of us consider it a final option.

however, if we felt compelled and felt it necessary, we would without question go ahead with the proposed plan. >> the chancellor of germany has told greece they wants them to grow in order to overcome high financial problems. their prime minister fears greece is running out of money after receiving billions in bailout aid. the presidential candidate in senegal and son of the former government has been found guilty of corruption and sentenced to six years in prison the prime minister of tunisia has sacked six police commanders after an attack on a museum in the capital last week. three gunmen stormed the museum last week killing 21 people. the country's president says a third suspect remains at large. the world's newest nation south sudan, is in the grips of civil war. the conflict is even affecting

its wild life with fighters from both sides being accused of butchering animals to feed themselves. nick clark has this report. >>reporter: the flight plan is northeast, then south towards the ugandan border. shanty towns soon give way to wilderness that has huge potential for tourist growth. >> you can fly two hours and not see anything but wild life and wild places no human influence. here is one of the last great places on earth. >>reporter: this is east africa's largest intact savannah, home to one of the biggest animal migration in the world.

millions of ant lope follow century's old migration corridors. there are elephant herds diminished in numbers but they were in sufficient quantity to make a full come back. the power of the white nile the waters of lake victoria heading for the mediterranean thousands of kilometers away. its potential goes beyond what you can catch out of it. south sudan has extraordinary natural beauty from the white nile to an area of the savannah three times the size of the serengetti, all this in a country country country country ravaged by war. >> the situation is that some wild life populations are being heavily poached by civilians, by

the government army by the army in opposition, the spla in opposition, and by the spla for commercial bush meat hunting as well as for feeding themselves. so there's a lot of pressure on wild life populations. >>reporter: and that's crushing roads for communities like this. they just want a chance to develop the resources they've got. >> we need peace and development. our children have been deprived. no school. and most of the population are illiterate. this will help us to overcome. >>reporter: south sudan has a beauty you never hear about. it's all just war and instability. with its wild life and tourism potential, there's a hope for the future but now even that is at risk. now fears of a regional conflict appears to have eased

after egypt, ethiopia and sudan signed an agreement over building an electric dam over the nile. leaders were fearful its construction could cut the water flow into the nile. ethiopia says the dam will not impact on egypt's access to water we'll go live now to a research fellow with the african growth initiative. great to have you with us on the program. as i understand it egypt has been very wary about the building of this dam. so why has it agreed to it now? >> well there are many ways to look at it but i think part of the problem comes from egypt, the fact that the ethiopians

have ignored protests and proceeded with construction of the dam. and i think officials in cairo probably came to the conclusion that to continue to oppose the construction of the dam wasn't going to do them any good only sour their relationship with ethiopia and good relations with ethiopia is very important considering the fact that most of the water flow into the nile comes from ethiopia. so i think part of the reason the egyptians probably decided to go along with what is happening in ethiopia is because they really need to have good relations with them in order to continue to enjoy water from the nile river. >> so a lot is resting on the trust between the three countries because as you say, egypt relies almost entirely on water from the nile doesn't it? >> yes, it does if the there is

no resource of water especially given the technology we have today. and the hydrology of the area egypt relies completely on the nile and that water comes from ethiopia. >> so how difficult do you think it will be to keep this agreement stable? is there likely to be trouble ahead do you think? >> well we have to be very careful in analyzing this agreement. the agreement basically concerns the construction of the dam but that doesn't really solve all of the problems that the nile river basin has because the other eight countries that are associated with the nile are not part of this agreement so we have to keep -- we have to take into consideration the fact that in order for them to be -- for

egypt to have the security that it needs, the other eight members of this region have to be brought into this agreement and i think that is what needs to be done. the hope is that -- it will go ahead and bring the other countries into the negotiations so that they can have a country and an agreement that would apply to all the countries in the region. >> all right. thank you for joining us from utah. thank you for your time. police in afghanistan have arrested 18 people over the mob killing of a woman in kabul last week. police paraded them for the media saying all have confessed to their role in her death. a 27-year-old religious scholar was beaten pushed from a roof run over by a car, and set alight. her body was thrown in the kabul river.

pack stand's army has held its first military parade in seven years after cancelling the annual event due to taliban security threats but now a. nicole johnson reports. >>reporter: it's seven years since pack stand saw a show like this. every branch of the armed forces and part of the country was represented. it's been a tough year for the military. in december, more than 130 students were killed during a taliban attack on an army-run school. and for the last nine months the army has been pounding the taliban and 1 million people were forced from their home. despite the disply of heavy weapons and equipment, the defense forces need a new approach to take on the taliban. >> so the pakistani armed forces

which are not cut out for unconventional warfare are now getting trained to deal with these unconventional elements confronting them. this is the war against terror and the pakistani armed forces have to pick and choose their target which have to be intelligence based. >>reporter: this year's parade was a morale booster for the parade and the army. pack stand's decision to hold the parade is highly symbolic a message to the taliban in pack stand that they are not weakened by the war on terror. >> the message is that we are going to win and the message is that you cannot defeat us. we are going to protect this country, and you have no place, and you better surrender. >>reporter: the u.s. is still flying its drones in pakistani air space but there's not been a strike for months. and now pack stand has dropped

its own drones which can fire missiles. it also has locally made jf-17 thunder fighter jets built with the help of china. all of these were on display for pack stand national day. but when the parade is over and the military gets back to work the reality on the ground is there's still a long way to go to destroy the pakistani taliban. nigeria's presidential election is five days away. security is shaping up as a major election issue as the fight against boko haram continues. but the country's economic woes are also on the minds of voters. meanwhile, joint forces from niger and chad have killed more than 120 boko haram fighters. it's all part of a joint

force mission to take on the boko haram from one of the battle fronts in northeast nigeria. >>reporter: preparing for an attack on boko haram, the troops are up beat about this assignment after recent successes against the group. but as they are about to leave, the mission was aaborted. a large number of boko haram fighters were seen headed their borted. a large number of boko haram fighters were seen headed their way. every soldier was told to go to the trenches from attack mode to defense, a common position after six years. attacks by the military and counterattacks are all too familiar. the last two months have been particularly tough for boko

haram. >> the soldiers are still -- we have new equipment. between february to date -- >>reporter: battles have been won in many areas but the war isn't over yet. the military may have chased boko haram out of many towns and villages but the fighters now return to attack the same villages liberated by the military getting a lot of people away from their homes. >>reporter: but some are simply tired of running. >> we now put our hopes in the military. so far i'm encouraged by what we see but every day is like living your last day.

that's not a good feeling. >>reporter: and all around the northeast are signs of devastation. of sabotage. and unprovoked unprovoked violence. this deserted village is a notorious ambush point for boko haram. many have died here. territories may have been reclaimed but the human and material victims of this violence are irreplaceable. >> some analyst say the tide looks like it's turning against boko haram particularly since the involvement of neighboring nations. do you agree with that or is there still a long way to go? >> yeah. i mean looking at the territory

that were conquered by boko haram -- >> the military has had to involve other countries and if reports are true they're using mercenaries as well to try to gain ground. >> they're using mercenaries and that's -- sustaining what they have achieved so far. we do not want what has happened in 2009 to repeat itself when the militants went into other countries, armed themselves organized themselves came back

this time around we know that few boko haram members have been killed. so this is about sustainability. even when mercenaries and other soldiers are going back to their countries. >> thank you if the now, the 2016 u.s. presidential race officially kicks off with texas senator ted cruz announcing he's planning to run. alan fisher has more. >>reporter: he'll be the first of many. >> i believe in the power of millions of courageous conservatives rising up to

reignite the promise of america, and that is why, today, i am announcing that i'm running for president of the united states. [applause]. >>reporter: ted cruz is the first republican to officially enter the race to be president. the senator from texas enjoys support from the right wing of the republican party from christian conservatives, this announcement appealed definitely to them. >> imagine instead millions of people of faith all across america coming out to the polls and voting our values. >>reporter: he's perhaps best known for a 21-hour fillbuster. >> do you like green eggs and ham? i do not like them sam i am. >>reporter: support for the act that brought a 16-day shutdown of the u.s. government in 2013.

his stance angered democrats but also a number of senior figures in his own party. >> ted cruz is going to use his political ideology and persona to make himself the underdog the one fighting against the establishment, the one who's speaking out for those he bes to have no voice. so he's going to use the voice that a lot of people may not like him to his advantage. >>reporter: stepping into the ring first gives him a platform, creates buzz but with rich donors finding other potential candidates, it's something he needed to do. jeb bush son and brother of former presidents is a front runner. and there's also chris christie, the governor of new jersey is a popular figure while the

governor of wisconsin is picking up support as another conservative group. he was born in canada to a cuban father but his u.s.-mother makes him a natural-born citizen. now he's in the race forcing others to make their move sooner than they wanted. still ahead on al jazeera, the president of south africa comes under attack in political cartoons deemed too controversial for state television. and

. >> there is a lot of good food here. it's just an advertisement for fish and chips but it lampooned the south african president. he's shown eating with his family at his sprawling home a controversial -- >> it was popular, it got peoples' attention. in advertising, we look at what people think and see. >> it was hugely popular with the public but someone higher up

didn't see the humor. south africa's state news banned it. but it still got plenty of hits online. >> i think it was hilarious. it captured exactly what everyone was thinking. >> it's awesome. pretty awesome, yeah. >>reporter: another of his popular animations featuring an african jesus also got him into trouble. he says he's not setting out to offend. only to poke fun and to push the boundaries. the killings at a newspaper in paris in january have only confirmed his views on freedom of speech. >> people will make fun of you in this world and say bad things about you so you just need to grow up about it and accept it. ♪♪ >>reporter: he says his animations have had around 88 million hits online. he's one of the first south african animators to feature

local voices cultures and issue >> it's refreshing for it to be south african. >>reporter: but he's had to struggle to get his work on tv. >> do you feel like you're a bit of a ground breaker in a way? a black south african talking to south africans of different languages? >> ground breaker. [laughter]. >> i can see, yes, to a certain level. >>reporter: he says he has a lot more ground to break to make african voices more main stream. all right. lee's here with our sports. >> football's european governing body says the conference needs a next place at the next world cup increasing the allocation from 13 to 14 spots in the 2018 world cup in russia.

>> 19 of the top 32 ranked associations are european. the last three winners of the last three world cups were three european teams. so i think it's absolutely objective and fair to be asking for one more position only. >> he also said the professional european football leagues are alone in their opposition of the dates for the qatar world

cup. >> i go to dinner and tomorrow i go to the congress and i will address the congress. >> on the pitch, qualifiers for next year's european championship in france resume on friday and the story of this tournament so far is how many of the bigger nations are struggling. the netherlands -- saturday without eye -- barcelona may be celebrating victory but there's more trouble for the club over alleged tax evasion. spain's prosecutor has requested the national court open a trial against the club and called for jail terms for the president of barcelona and his predecessor.

the two-time world champion has been cleared to drive following a head injury. he also suffered a concussion after a crash a month ago and was forced to miss the race of the new season. and a former olympic champion from south korea has been banned for 18 months for doping. he tested for testerone in december. he will also have to return the bronze medals he won at last year's asian games. and that is all the sports for now. >> thank you very much for that. and that's just it from this particular news hour. thanks for watching but please stay with us. i'll have more news for you in a couple of minutes. see you then. bye bye.

hello again. this is al jazeera live from london. coming up a hand shake in berlin but increasing pressure on athens to implement structural reform. a former presidential candidate in the sudan is jailed for corruption. >> i am announcing that i'm running fo