>> hello, this is the news hour live from london. coming up in the next 60 minutes, escalating tensions in yemen as houthi rebels seize an air base in the south. there are now reports of gunfire on the outskirts of aden. united in grief leaders of france germany and spain travel to the scene where a passenger plane crashed on tuesday killing 150 people.

the merging heinze and kraft, what at a means that means. hundreds of specimen go on display. >> houthi rebels are closing in on the city of aden. earlier at houthi fighters captured an air base defeating president hadi's troops. they have echoed the call and asked for arab countries' help to fight the rebels. meanwhile saudi arabia saying

protecting their border. >> it shocked many people that houthies have advanced this far south. taiz yemen's third largest city. every day this week they've taken a stand chanting for the rebels to leave. >> we swear that we'll drive out all houthies from taiz and teach them a lesson they'll never forget. >> houthi fighters reply with gunfire and tear gas. several were killed. many more injured. other reports say that the internal security officers themselves, the ones meant to be keeping the peace to join the houthis. these forces are said to be loyal to yemen's long-time ruler

ali abdullah saleh. people here are no longer sure who they can trust. the houthies have morphed from a mall unit to a larger force. in september it took over the capital of sanaa. president abd rabbuh mansur hadi escaped to aden in the south and it's in the south where most of the fighting it taking place right now. the tribes hearsay they're protecting their region against the rebels. saudi arabia has sent soldiers to protect its border with yemen. the saudi foreign minister had this to say. >> we hope that this will be ended peacefully. if it is not done peacefully we

will protect the region from their aggression. >> right now the houthies are fanning out across the country. they insist that they're fighting for for a fair distribution of wealth for everybody. many say they don't believe them, and these volunteers are grouping to take on the houthies with guns and ammunition. >> with me is a journalist who has spent a great deal of time with yemen. we have reports from the white house who say they're not in a position to confirm the whereabouts of president hadi. there are some reports saying that he has already threat the country, but yemeni officials have denied this, saying he's very much there in the port city

of aden. >> yes, i think there is a lot of confusion going on in yemen. there is huge amount of propaganda going on both sides. and so it's really unclear what is going on. i think wherever hadi is, he needs to be in a safe place. but if he has left the country it will be difficult for him to come back. >> this is coming at a time when saudi arabia is amassing troops on its border with yemen and there is expectation there will be military intervention on the part of gcc. how will hadi's presence affect that if he has not left? >> hadi has been the one calling for this. he has been calling for military intervention in some shape or form through the u.n. or through the gcc. it's unlikely that any gcc will

deport troops to yemen. what it will look like are airstrikes. that's something that they're looking at now and will be on the table. >> how important will that be to prevent aden from falling into houthi hands. >> i think it will be very hard to tell who is on what side. you have militias fighting each other, and it's a residential area so dropping bombs in the middle of aden is dropping bombs into a very economy kateed situationcomplicateed situation. >> that's the problem you have. you have the ex-president saleh and his loyalists. and you have the houthies and alqaida as well for gcc to get involved in it this way in a situation that is already so unstable, could there be unintended consequences? >> sure, and i think we've seen that already really, in the

tribal areas where tribes who are against the houthies are taking their territory have found themselves arming and ready to fight and in some cases have fought on the same side as al-qaeda. that does not necessarily mean that they are al-qaeda but they have been forced into the arms of al-qaeda as well. that raises the fear of driving the wedge of sectarianism into areas where it has not been an issue. they're trying to encourage a sectarian conflict as well. if you have local operators whether it be saudi arabia or others getting into that mix supporting one side or another emboldens al-qaeda and gives them a chance to create more chaos in yemen as well. >> given its manpower and military capability of the outies right now they've certainly managed to take a push

into sanaa. the port city of aden. are they strong enough to with stand any military intervention from the outside? how would they respond? >> i think its hard to tell right now. i think the houthies have surprised everybody and it's been clear for some time that they've had support from ali abdullah saleh and they wouldn't have been able to do what they've done without that. but how do you stop the houthies really? i don't think bombing is the answer. it will have to be at the negotiating table. but it will be interesting to see if they're able to take aden in the next few days. >> thank you very much. now other top story the leaders of france, germany and spain have been visiting the french alps where a passenger plane crashed on tuesday. all 150 people on board were killed. these are the latest developments. a cockpit voice recorder has

been recovered. the device is now in paris. investigators say that they've managed to recover some information from it. but they're also saying that it's just too early to draw any conclusions from these recordings. the second black box which records flight data is still missing. so far they have only been able to find parts of its casing. jac ky rowland is in the french alps. >> reporter: brought together by tragedy. the leaders of france, germany and spain arrive to the alps. they've come to pay their respects to the victims of the plane crash and get their latest on the investigation. their presence here underlines the international dimension of this disaster. >> we need to under what happened. we must do so. we owe this to the families of the victims. >> all day long helicopters have

been ferrying search teams to and from the mountainside. it's a massive operation involving hundreds of police and other emergency workers. the wreckage is scattered over an area of about four hectares. shards of twisted metal, nothing that could be recognized as a plane. it may take up to a week for investigators to examine the whole of the crash site. >> because the plane crashed in the french alps france has jurisdiction, nevertheless there is an international dimension to the investigation and officials from france germany and spain are asking that the airline provide detail information about the maintenance of the plane and the conditions of this flight. it's still unclear what caused flight 9525 to plunge from the sky, but this shattered black box may hold some clues.

it's the voice recorder from the plane's cockpit. >> there has been some difficulty reading the data, but it is great that we have found this. we have been able to extract information from it, but it's early to say what happened. >> reporter: 150 people were on board the aircraft at the time of the crash. no one survived. retrieving and identifying their bodies is a grim and painstaking task. >> the identification of the victims is essential, and we have to start with that because we owe that to the families of the victims. but it won't be done in five minutes. it will take weeks, and i believe that everyone should be aware that this will take a long time. >> reporter: after the visit of the three european leaders the community is now preparing to receive families of the victims. this will be a grim pilgrimage, but some may find it necessary in order to understand better how they came to lose their

loved ones. >> well, jacky joins us live now, and it is too early to draw conclusions of what caused the crash, but how important is it that the recording box is now in the hands of the investigators. >> it seems to be the only concrete evidence that investigators have so far. they don't have really anything that gives them an explanation of why this plane, afghani just areached cruiseing altitude would start to plummet and within eight minutes crash into the mountainside. now this voice recorder contains conversation between the pilots, it would also pick up any other sound in the immediate space. and investigators are really interested in the final minute

before the plane went silent. that's between 10:30 and 10:31 a.m. local time on tuesday morning. they want to see what were the pilots saying to each other were there any other sounds in the cockpit that would indicate some kind of an accident or disaster. they seemed to have ruled out an idea of an intruder or any kind of attack. but until they're able to listen to, analyze and make sense of those recordings they won't be able to move the investigation much further. >> this is going to be a very difficult time for the relatives of the passengers, who have been waiting for time for the bodies of their loved ones to be returned to them. >> yes we're not talking about bodies which were intact. sorry to go into these painful details, but we've seen the

state of the airplane just torn to shreds as it plowed into the mountainside. if that's what happened to the airplane, we can only manuel what happened--we can only imagine what happened to the people who were on board. it's a case of retrieving the human remains. dental records may be necessary even dna to identify the bodies because although of course people the families know that their loved ones, their family member was on the passenger manifest for the plane that's not quite the same, though, of being presented with a body, a coffin in order to be able to have a funeral, grieve properly and say goodbye in that formal way that would offer the families some kind of closure after the dreadful events on tuesday. >> jacky rowland joining us from

seyne-les-alpes. thein sport australia inlist the help of one of their greatest-ever players as they look to book a place in the cricket world cup final. >> now iraq's president said he's expecting u.s.-led air force to bomb tikreit. they have officially requested the air support. they've been fighting to push isil out of tikrit for the past three weeks. isil fighters are said to be among rebel force the battle has been raging in the city for four days. it was once the capital of the

roman province of arain y and they have enlisting the site since 2013. mohamed fahmy, baher mohammed's trial has been delayed. we have the latest on the journalists retrial. >> reporter: the evidence against mohamed fahmy, baher mohammed seems to rest on a report that includes video. it's supposed to proof the al jazeera journalists hammer harmed egypt's national security. but the members of the committee who issued that report testified that they either didn't see the videos, write the report or remember what they wrote. so a new committee was sworn in to view the evidence. >> to say that we published or we brought materials against

national security, now they say we didn't say that. >> earlier this year the appeals court ruled that there was not enough evidence to convict the journalists of aiding the banned muslim brotherhood muslim brotherhood. they spent more than hundred days in jail. legal experts have called the charges against them baseless. last month peter greste was deported to his native australia, and the judge released mohamed fahmy, baher mohammed on bail. despite their frustration they said last week that the witnesses helped their case. >> i think it was a success. they all said that we were not responsible--they didn't write the statement. >> both men might be free on bail. but they have to check in with the police every day. fahmy, a citizen of egypt and canada, was forced to give up his egyptian citizenship. he's trying to be deported to

canada, but his passport has disappeared. right now they only hope that it will allow them to prove their innocence. >> president el-sisi has addressed ethiopia's parliament. the two countries are working to improve relations after a long-standing dispute. on monday egypt-ethiopia and sudan signed an agreement addressing the usage of nile waters between the three countries. the project has been controversial since it was announced in 2011. the 6,000 mega watt dam on the blue nile is being built at a cost of more than $4.7 billion. once completed it will be africa's largest hydroelectric dam. the blue nile supplies 85% of the water to the nile valley where all of egypt's $82 million live. they want assurances that the

dam will not cut the water's flow. has cairo received these assurances that the dam does not jeopardize their water supply effectively? >> well, there is always some problem with thought issues. one is the inadequatecy of international law when you have cross border resources. secondly the complexity is the whole nile base of the nations is a 1929 treaty. there was an accord in 1959 and another recent one now international law a treaty is much stronger than accord.

secondly, the other issue is what we call customary use. you cannot just have a project there, and stop or affect the use of water that people have been using for thousands of years. the visit was positive and they're talking about-- >> they're talking about the previous president morsecy. >> yes. >> the egyptians they always have this option.

i was told in 1978 that they would only go to war if someone touches the nile. but war is never a long solution. >> but is the deal they have on the table agreeing to share the supply, is this more of a long-term solution? does it prevent that worst-case scenario you mentioned? >> it's a positive solution, but i think articles 2, 3 and 8 the word use the word security of the dam and the word in number four, which is not harming the interest of others. because it's only three nations it's actually much easier to manage than nine nations with the whole of the nile basissen. basin.

>> it's a fascinating issue. thank you for sharing your analysis. >> thank you. >> nigeria will close its land and sea ports from midnight wednesday to midnight state. yvonne what will these closures mean? >> well, this is a significant development sticking to the timetable of these planned elections. the elections were supposed to take place in the middle of february p at the end of february the elections for state governors at the end of february, they were postponed because of a security situation in the northeast. many are worried that this they could be postponed again. but officials say that it is not going to happen.

that president jonathan has given his approval of the closure of the land and sea borders, and what they're hope something that all will go off peacefully. it's a very significant announcement. >> it is a very significant announcement, yvonne. what about other preparations for the election? >> well, the electoral authority, the independent national electorate commission said that they're ready to hold the election. as i explained because of the security situation in northeast a decision was taken to post postpone the vote to fight boko haram. the electoral authorities say they're ready to go. the security forces, that's the military, also the nigerian mrs. force they're also to go to be participating in some consent in trying to protect people during voting, trying to

insure that there is no violence. the people are able to conduct the election and take part in the election in a free and fair and transparent manner. so it's also just a few more days to go. and nigerians are generally excited in anticipation of this vote taking place. >> all right, thank you very much. yvonne, with all the latest from abuja. now, benjamin netanyahu has received a formal request to form israel's next government. he's expected to head a heavily right-leaning cabinet and should control over half of the parliament seats. as prime minister he'll have six weeks to put together his new coalition. his re-election on march 17th came as a surprises and was largely attributed to his right-wing rhetoric in the run-up to the votes.

what do we know about talks negotiations that may be under way to form a government? >> well, those talks are certainly under way, certainly when mr. netanyahu secured 30 seats in the march 17th poll. far short of the 61 seats he needs to form a government with the outright government, but this is israeli politics, and coalitions are how governments are formed. whatever the case, in this brief statement that he made after it was announced by the president that mr. netanyahu had the support of over 61 recently elected members of parliament to form the government, they both made brief statements. and mr. netanyahu made an interesting one referencing what you were saying earlier in your introduction about these comments that was made during his election campaign. i'll read a few points out to

you of this statement that prime minister made. netanyahu made. he said he's aware of the responsibility ahead of him and he sees himself as prime minister of each and every israeli. he went on to say that he'll work towards repairing the rips, as he described them, that were caused during the election campaign. he also said that he hopes to make peace with israel's neighbors and went on to say that he sees peace with the palestinians, but added the caveat that only if israel remains secure. he also addressed the issue of the tensions with washington with the united states, saying that u.s.-israel relations are still very important however he ended by saying he will still work towards trying to stop any sort of deal with the iranian on the nuclear front adding that

some of his neighbors in the middle east support him in the view of a bad deal with the iranians would be bad for the region. so mr. netanyahu trying to back pedal some of the comments he made during the election campaign. he has been making them for a few days now. but as he tries to build that coalition government, it really does seem to be in the courts of the u.s. and his regional neighbors if his apologies and his back pedaling, for lack of a better word, is something that will be recognized. >> in jerusalem, thank you. still to come for you on the news hour. cuffed in front of the cameras. why two high-ranking ukrainian officials were arrested during the cabinet meeting. myanmar's wine makers look to branch out. and in sport troubled waters race against time to clean up the rio olympic

regatta.

>> i came hire here today especially to express my sympathy with the relatives and friends of the victims of german wings flight 9525 since there was a high number of spanish people on board. this, of course, is why we're here to express our sympathy to the people of spain.

this meeting, it's hard to describe in words, it was very emotional for all of us, including the management of german wings and myself. i think what they have gone through is incomprehendible, and it was difficult to be there. it was difficult to be there. our folks now will be take best care of relative and friends of our victims of yesterday's flight. i'vei was with the german

minister of transport and foreign affairs. it was a terrible sight to see the small pieces of debris. we have arranged with the french authorities for possibility of those relatives who want to get close for the scene of the accident will get there tomorrow. we'll have a lufthansa special flight leaving at 8:45 to marseille with the support of the french authorities, who will be able to bring the relatives of and friends of the victims near the crash site, which is still blocked off and will remain blocked off. we'll do whatever we can do an around the clock to help with needs. we've arrangeed for counselors and other resource. we've offered immediate

financial help for those who are in need, and we believe the next step will be for those who are interested to go to the site tomorrow with our flight, which is also going to be offered from duesseldorf, where we have a big group of relatives and friends. believe me 20 years in this industry lufthansa and myself, we still cannot understand what happened yesterday. lufthansa has never in its history lost a flight in a cruise flight. we cannot understand how an airplane in perfect condition with two experienced trained lufthansa pilots were involved in such a terrible accident. after taking care of the relatives and friends of the victims, the next priority, of course, is to find out how this

accident could have happened, and how we make sure that this can never ever happen again. it's too early for speculation but i'm very happy to say that are working with the french authorities, the german authorities, our technical experts who all have con screened at the accident site for the investigation. we're very glad that the first flight recorder was retrieved yesterday, and the french authority confirmed just a few hours ago that one of the audio streams is readable, so we expect hopefully over the next days more information. of course, we hope that the rescue teams will very soon find the second flight data reporter as well, which will provide us a complete picture of the accident

accident. after i visited the site yesterday, i'm very sure that we will be able to find out the cause of this terrible accident as soon as we have those data recorders retrieveed. running an airline, and enduring such accidents are terrible. we at lufthansa do our very best to help those. of course, we know we can never make up the loss. so yes that's why i'm here, to help those who will help the people here in spain and yes this meeting was emotional and it's showing us that this accident has caused terrible pain. thank you.

>> are there any connections. >> let me explain the question to those who couldn't hear you. the question was yesterday the plane was delayed but there was obviously no explanation why. >> there is no reasoning behind this but the congestion at the airport, which caused air traffic control to give us the latest start time for the aircraft than according to the schedule. so no relationship to the incident whatsoever. >> how many people will go on the flight tomorrow morning? >> this will depend on the resources of the french authorities to bring people closer to the crash site.

we have 150 seats, and we'll find out over the next hours how many of those we can fill to make sure there is transportation provided on the ground. the german and french authorities are working on this. this area is hardly accessible,. >> we have another question here.. [ inaudible question ] >> yes the aircraft passed

check in duesseldorf two days ago, we also talked to the captain who operated the aircraft monday afternoon and also confirmed that the aircraft was in perfect technical shape. >> the trench authorities

confirmed in the afternoon there was no distress signal from the plane received, neither vocally over the radio nor technically over the transpointer. and i think today is not the day to talk about strategy and instruction of lufthansa. [ inaudible question ] >> this is part of the official records of the french authorities, when the aircraft was last in touch with air traffic control when it entered the air space that it was cruising through. that's part of the records that the french government has given out today.

[ speaking in german ] >> they'll find the second black box if it didn't go into the water, and i'm sure this information from the second box will be enough to establish the cause of events. there were no additional information published by the french authorities on the findings of the first box. [ question in spanish ]

>> we have victims from total of 18 countries. right now there is a family from mexico city on its way to frankfurt, who asked for assistance. we will do exactly the same in caracas. we will fly whoever wants to come to germany or to france over the atlantic, and we would also support them financially. >> thank you very much. >> all right we've been listening to the lufthansa along

with thomas winkle man the bossment germanyof the german budget airline germanwings as they try to establish what caused the airbus to crash. running through a few points that were mentioned there. german and french authorities are working together to get families to the relief center. obviously this area is not easily accessible, so they do need the help of police and security forces to get people there. the french authorities confirm that no distress signal was received from the plane just before it crashed and this has been something that has been--it slightly increases the confusion around what might have caused the crash and what went wrong. we heard the ceo of the lufthansa that never in the

company's history have they lost a plane in circumstances like this, with two experienced pilots on board. he said of course the priority is to discover exactly what caused the crash. they hope to find the second flight data recorder to really get a fuel picture of exactly what took place before the plane crashed, and of course what went wrong. he described a very emotional meeting over there because, of course, this is an accident that has caused terrible pain to a great deal of families. just to update you the search investigators do now have the voice recordings from the cockpit. that's very significant in trying to establish the cause of the crash but the second data recorder, they have managed to find the casing, but they haven't found the actual recorder itself. they have not been able to access the data in the second flight in the second black box. that's going to be crucial now. no doubt that will be a priority. and of course there will be relatives wanting to get to the

scene of the crash. it's going to be a very emotional, painful time for them now as the grim task gets under way of identifying the bodies of the victims and returning them to their loved ones. no doubt that is something that will take some time. so of course we'll bring you any more information as it comes in to us. i want to move on to another story that we're following closely today to u.s. food giants set to merge in a move that will create the world's fifth biggest food and beverage company. heinze is buying kraft foods. it comes as kraft battle sluggish u.s. sales in a changing consumer taste. thank you for hanging in there and good to have you with us. just how significant is this deal? >> i think it's another milestone in what we call monopolyization, the process in

capitalism if in which many firms compete, and the winners basically absorb the losers, and you end up with one or a small handful of firms who exercise enormous power over the market and the lives of their employees. this is a very big step in that unfortunate direction that this type of economy displays in a great deal. >> all right professor if i think you've knocked your microphone off. if you could kindly check for your microphone, we'll be able to hear you more clearly. the sound of your voice is a little muffled there. i don't know if you managed to-- >> how is this, is this better? >> yes that is much better.

so yes, you were saying that this is part of a process that we've seen in recent years particularly since the economic crisis merges and acquisitions in some industries. you've seen an acceleration of that as times are tougher for companies. but is this also a natural process, survival of the fittest fittest? it's about cutting costs and companies that are not able to compete in the marketplace well, it's inevitable that they will be acquired or perhaps the alternative is that they go out of business, which might be worse. >> well, i don't think there is much risk that they would have gone out of business. what you see here is a process designed to make more profits. the companies even in their merger announcement said that they see almost $2 billion worth of what they politely call cost savings.

in effect this means laying off a large number of workers. which in the american economy is going to make matters worse. it will be good for the profits of the company involved but it will be costly for all kinds of workers, communities that see their facilities in those communities shut down and so on. it really forces in this country, as it does everywhere in the world, a debate that should have been happening long ago whether you're better off

>> welcome back. now they've been called the rain forest of the sea. coral reaves occupy less than 1% of the ocean floor but are home to a quarter of marine species. >> it's a window that came into the underwater world. this new show is a way to look into the past and the future. the teams brought together corals that are nearly 200 years old with the examples of diverse

creatures that that make the reefs their home. >> they're dependent on the reefs for their well-being. coral reefs are build up of limestone so they can break waves from storms and protect cities from storm damage. one of the highlights of the exhibition is this. it's a virtual dive. you can get as close as possible to the coral without actually being on the sea bed. it does give you a good impression of just how much marine life the reefs support as well. over the last 35 years half of the coral reefs have disappeared because oceans have become more acidic. these pictures come from a huge

underwater project that is trying to find out where corals thrive in as well as areas that may need protection. >> three cameras are synced together, a computer that controls the camera, and this underwater propelled vehicle which allows the diver to move along the reef crest. this moves along and the cameras take an image every few seconds. over the dive we'll record the coral reef over two kilometers. >> which gives you an idea of how painstaking it will be to map all the world's reefs but the scientists say it will be worstworth it. >> let's go to sport now. >> thank you very much. in a few hour's time australia will take on india in the semifinals in sydney. the number one side against the defending champions, the winner will play new zealand in supplied sunday's final.

michael clark and australia looking to get some revenge over india after india knocked them out of the last world cup finals. >> i thought india were going to be one of the toughest teams to beat and my main reason for that as been the conditions so forthey've played well in australia. >> they have been in australia since november with test series and one day match series. they didn't win a single match but they turned that all around in the world cup winning all seven of their matches so far. >> you know, if you look at the way the last month has gone, it's been really good. so we have to make the last four months we spend here by winning

the semifinals and the finals. we don't mind staying for five months. >> tottenham club football has taken a break with the international games taking over. there is a series of world cup and european qualifiers for the next seven days, but first it's the friendlies germany against australia. this is taking place in frankfurt. germany has not had the best start today. two wins along with a defeat and a draw in their opening four matches, trailing tottenham by three points. they see this game against the socceroos as an ideal build up. >> australia's win in the asia cup in january shows their team's strength. they're leaving behind countries like japan and south koreans who have been leaders for a long time. australia why will be a test for us as we prepare for our

qualifying match. they are unbelievable sports men who never slack off or give up. >> less than 500 days to go now until rio 2016, organizers are insisting that today's building sites will be next year's impressive venues. but troubled waters may still lie ahead for one of the main olympic sites. >> this is in rio de janeiro. ideal from above but sources tell us a different story. pollution and toxic run off more than visible and in 500 days it will be hosting olympic sailing events. >> we expect and trust to have the bay and it's waters ready to host athletes from the entire world, and these waters will be equal for everybody. >> at this shopping center in

rio, fish caught by divers have been put on display to raise awareness to the environmental issues at the base of the problem. officials promised to clean up 80%, but the city admits that this goal is no longer achievable. >> it's obvious that it is the responsibility of all of us, all of us meaning the government, society has also it's part. i think we missed the opportunity to clean the bay. >> west of the city at the main olympic park officials say all the venues are on time and on budget. >> 60% of our budget comes from the private sector. so we're using the public-private partnership to reduce the high cost of public money. so we're delivering the game with a huge legacy and saving

public money. >> after the rush preparing for last year's fifa world cup in brazil officials are adamant that they won't face the same problems. test events will start in july, building towards the opening ceremony on august 5th of next year. everyone hoping that it will be smooth sailing until then. al jazeera. >> now less than six weeks to go before the most eagerly awaited oh boxing match with pacquiao versus mayweather. >> thank you very much. that's it for now. do stay with al jazeera. all of our top stories coming up in just a few moments after the

break.

>> confusion over president hadi's where abouts as houthi rebels converge on aden's airport. i'm lauren taylor, this is al jazeera live in london. paying tribute to the victims of yesterday's plane crash. and residents still scared after mudslides kill nine and wreck hundreds of homes in peru.