and follow expert contributors on twitter, facebook, instagram and more. >> you're watching the al jazeera news hour. iran condemns saudi led airstrikes on houthi targets in yemen and demands an immediate halt to the operation. >> a french prosecutor says the germanwings plane crash was deliberate, not an accident. also ahead: >> i'm in the oil rich niger delta. how has the fall in oil prices

affected ordinary people? we'll tell you what they say. >> this week's sports stories the last remaining spot for the contradict final has been snapped up. the showdown coming up. >> we begin in yep machine and the latest on the sawed led airstrikes on houthi targets. let's bring you up to speed now with the latest developments. according to al jazeera sources the strikes ever destroyed iranian made missile launches in sanna. egypt confirmed it's sending four navy ships to help scour the area of aden. several other countries have joined the campaign. the strikes are in support of yep machine's embattled president adou rabbo mansour hadi. he was driven out of the capitol sanna last month by the advancing houthi rebels.

who was the scene in yemen's third largest city, taiz in the past few hours protestors came out to show their support for the saudi lid innervention. security forces loyal to the houthis ever made several arrests there. we begin our coverage with this report. >> operation decisive storm started thursday. saudi arabia said it has launched airstrikes against the houthi rebels with the aim of reversing the houthi coup. >> abide by this process and become legitimate players, but they will not be allowed to take over the country. >> jets from the coalition were involved in the airstrikes. the saudis say they have only targeted strategic conditions throughout the government and

want to restore the hadi government. the united arab emirates, kuwait and bahrain say they sent fighters jets to saudi arabia. several hours into the bombing the adjustment announced the creation of what the white house called a joint planning cell with the saudis to coordinate u.s. military and intelligence support. the u.s. says its policy in yemen is working. >>ive explained it is a success and has been for many years because of our efforts to push back and counter al-qaeda in yemen. that's something we've been doing for sometime now. >> iran supports the houthis whichever triggered fears that iran might be trying to spread influence throughout the region. the iranian government strongly criticized the airstrikes. the houthis say civilians were among the casualties. parts of yemen has been taken by force by the houthis. they held the president in sanna

until he fled to aden last month. there have been protests against the houthis in recent days, clad be in taiz city. al jazeera. >> live now to yemen. these are protests in sanna right now by houthi supporters. the houthis of course are backed by iran, who's foreign minister has called for an immediate end to the military intervention. >> military action, especially military action from outside yemen will bear no result but the flood she had and massacre of the people of yemen. it's all necessary for military action to end as soon as possible and dialogue toward reaching a solution. we believe the actions can only plunge the region into turmoil and have no fit for any of the countries which enter into such actions. >> a retired jordanian general joins us now live. good to have you with us.

let's start first of all with what's been achieved. what exactly has been hit by the sawed led airstrikes so far? >> in fact, the main targets which it's belonged to a military barracks, the -- some airports, then some command and control spots which belong to houthis and al saleh and i think the first air raised achieved some of their goals and it that to be continued to achieve the main goals and that goal, it has to be a political goals that the houthis, rebels will go back to the table of negotiation. >> ok. that may be the political goal. what's the military goal? what does the military finish line look like here? >> i think this campaign, it

will -- it may have -- it may build for many, many steps. it has to be a continue for days or sometimes weeks until it achieve the main targets. parallel with the air raised, i think then, there is a real need to make a sea siege on the sea ports to prevent any iranian ships which give iran to the houthis and for pieces and it just passes through swiss channel. i think it will be official force to control some critical spots, because the very complicated geography, there is a real need for using the

official force. after that, if there is a need to send boots on the ground, i think they have to make a new estimation to decide they will -- in my opinion, they will not need initially, but no one can be sure. surely they will send -- >> there has been talk about putting together a collective force. egypt has hinted that it might be prepared to send troops on the ground if it comes to that, who would be ready in reality to put their troops in yemen right now? >> i think sudan announced jordan is already and the dcc countries, except oman, all of them are sending boots on the ground but i hope there is no

need after the campaign will be very effective and it has a goal that can be achieved and there is no need for boots on the ground. no one as i mentioned can be sure about that. i hope from the previous experience of the egyptian, they have suffered a lot and first of all, one company, but at the end of the war, it was more than 40,000 egyptian soldiers on the yemenese soil. i think they have to concentrate on the air raised and the special force only. >> i know it's only early hours into this operation but is it successful so far in securing you aden and will president hadi be able to hold on to aden? >> i think if the air raid will

achieve the goals most of the tribes will try to go back and to have a very, very far distance from at-bat saleh and from houthis. president hadi at this moment, he has to do well. according to how to deal with the main tribes in the north yemen especially. in sanna if he he built bridge of confidence with these leaders of the tribes, i you think they will up to sad da without involving in the ground war. >> that's a key question, is it not? how much support does president hadi have when it comes to military forces and ground forces. we saw for example at the airport in aden, that changed hands twice in the last 24

hours? >> you have to know how the country deal with al saleh within the past 20 years. he has no job really, he don't know anything about yemen and during the last two years he did many, many strategic mistakes. the first mistake when he resold -- he is the main enemy and factor in the last six wars. >> the brigadier general -- so most of the yemeni tribe

leaders, they don't have a bridge of confidence with president hadi. he has to -- he has contact with tribe leaders and to build what -- to rebuild what remany from the yemen army under his command with his assistant. >> all right we'll leave you there for now. thank you so much. >> let's turn to the latest now on talks of iran's nuclear program, diplomats are back in switzerland for more talks. in lausanne, he joins us live from then. no doubt, one has to wonder, james, whether the fighting in yemen, the strikes are impacting at all the talks from the dynamic going on in lausanne. >> well, they've been very strict throughout this process not to deal with all the wider regional issues that are there

between the u.s. and iran and the tag face-to-face talks because they would have talked about syria or many other things over the months, but i think yes, you're right that when you have the iranian foreign minister and u.s. secretary of state bat talking and staying in the same hotel that there is possibly on the sidelines going to be discussion about this, given the close links between the u.s. and the saudis and close links between iran and the houthis, and also, those key figures will in between their nuclear talks be taking a lot of other calls. already we have some comments on the situation in yemen. the iranian foreign minister is saying we believe there's an urgent need to have dialogue among yemenese without external interference. although john kerry has done two hours of talks here, he's also had a conference call with the foreign ministers of the gulf cooperation council supporting the mel tear action, but again

saying that there needs to be political dialogue ultimately to resolve the situation on the ground. the nuclear talks continue. earlier on, i spoke to the head of the nuclear energy agency as he he involved and put questions to him he about the talks and the situation in yemen. >> are you confident today as you head back to talks? >> well, we are always confident. >> do you worry that this bombing taking place in yemen could that be a factor in all of this? >> i have no facts on that. that will be left to our foreign minister to say something about that not me, thank you. >> in terms of the nuclear deal, do you feel you are getting closer. >> thank you very much, it is a simple walking. >> thank you so much for your time. >> an unusually upbeat assessment there.

the u.s. said the talks made more progress than any other round in this long running negotiation. they believe they're getting close and they believe there is a possible part to an agreement. i've been telling you you for some time in this round of talks, when you see the other foreign ministers not just the u.s. and iran come here, but the other foreign ministers in the international community that means they're getting very close. we have important news on that, because we're hearing that the french foreign minister, who on friday is in new york, france, the current president and the u.n. security council chairing a meeting there, we believe from french sources, he will then be coming here to lausanne. i think that's the first of the other foreign ministers the french are known to be a hawk in terms of the international community in these negotiations. i think that suggests we're getting close. remember the deadline for the framework agreement is supposed to be at midnight on tuesday. >> more reason to keep our eyes on this story then. for now, thank you so much,

james bays. >> much more to come here on the al jazeera news hour. it's one of the most oil rich regions in nigeria but still one of the poorest. why communities in the nigeria delta struggle to get by. >> we report from the faroe islands with what i will meat is still on the menu. >> we have sport in about 20 minutes. >> french prosecutors say it appears the co pilots of the germanwings plane crashed it deliberately into the french alps the official has been speaking, saying the pilot was locked out of the cockpit just before the crash on tuesday. the night was en route from

barcelona to deuce. all 150 onboard were killed. >> the most likely interpretation we can make at this point is that the co pilot deliberately refused to open the cabin door to the captain. he then activated the button that triggered a severe loss of altitude. it can be interpreted as a deliberate attempt to crash the plane. >> we are joint from the french alps pace for recovery crews. what else are investigators saying is coming through? >> one of the reasons they ruled out is because they could clearly hear him breathing normally from the voices in the cockpit. they say what is odd is that there was not a single world from him. there was no response when the captain tried to reenter the

cock pit. there was no response when the plane's altitude alarm went off telling the pilot to pull up immediately. we can hear the search teams coming in in and out collecting body parts. there's one going over now. very loud. they're treating these body parts with the greatest respect. they're treating every piece as a human body, putting it on a stretcher and taking them out this is an incredibly lengthy process. it seems that the co pilot deliberately crashed this plane into the mountain. >> any idea why? >> there's very little we know about the co pilot.

he was 28 years old. lufthansa regularly carry out psychological and emotional testing on these pilots, and there was no indication that he might have been in some emotional psychological at your mole or in physical distress. his family has arrived in marseille at the same time as the victims of the passengers families but they are being kept very separate at this stage. we will bring you more information as we find out. >> talking about the families of the victims arriving there what can they expect once they get there? what's the process awaiting them? >> there have been two plane loads that arrived, one from spain, one from germany others by bus quite fearful about flying at this time. they are going to be greeted by a number of translators, medics and grief counselors and psychologist.

what they're really going to be wanting is answers. that some way want to get as close as they can to the crash site, but it's very inaccessible. it takes two hours on foot and most helicopters are having to air drop or winch in the search teams and forensic experts so whether they'll get any closer to where their loved ones final moments were is unlikely you. >> thank you so much for that update. >> syrian rebels launched an offensive on government held positions in the northwestern city. fighters from the al-qaeda linked group the al-nusra front have helped launch the investigation. at least 23 people have been arrested in tunis in connection with the deadly attack on the museum. security is tightened across the country in the wake of the assault which killed 22 people more than a week ago. the interior ministry said the

arrests mean they seized 80% of the group behind the shootings. two gunman were also killed during the incident. >> now nigeria's president and the opposition leader ever signed the pledge calling on voters not to engage in violence during saturday's election. goodluck jonathan and his opposition called on a free and fair election. security has been a big concern in the build up to the vote. ballot papers and results sheets have been sent under fleece guard to an electoral commission. >> oil is one of the major issues in this election. about 70% of the country's income comes from crude oil. relying on one resource so heavily has had a down side to the global price of oil falling tractly and hitting the economy hard. the winning party faces a serious challenge to cut spending or find a new way of boosting revenues to keep

nigeria in its position as africa's economic powerhouse. the niger delta is where almost all the oil comes from, and the region is one of the country's poorest. >> they know what they are doing is illegal but they don't care. young unemployed men steal crude oil from pipelines then refine it in the creek of the niger delta. they say this lucrative resource belongs to the community not the nigerian government or oil companies. >> when you have something and something is eating it, who owns it, you will be angry isn't it? we are looking for how to get part of it. >> the main claim to produce 60,000-liters a day from the improvised refineries. >> look at what this business is doing to the environment. this place used to be lush and green. locals say more than 200

refineries are in the area, but they need the money to look after their families. >> falling global oil prices mean less is earned. prices of basic commodities are rising. >> a well armed joint task force made up of forces from all security sectors patrol the creeks. oil accounts for about 15% of nigeria's growth domestic product, but is seventies 5-80% of government revenues. oil prices have been hammered by the drop enoil prices. >> the amount of developmental work, this particular administration has gone into, we've had to look at so many

cost cuts and strategies to help us continue to keep afloat and to also pay salaries. >> for those struggling to get by, this cheap often low quality fuel is affordable. one use powering generators. despite one of the larger producers of oil in the world nigeria i go still battling to meet its energy needs. al jazeera in the niger delta. >> at least two have died in flash floods in one of the dryest regions in the world child northern desert. that's happening while areas in southern chile struggle with huge wildfires. >> earth quakes, volcano reputations, forest fires and now this, this natural disaster-prone country is now battling unimaginable floods in the world's dryest desert. in chile's northern city in the desert region, torrential rain

has turned the streets into rivers. the river which 24 hours ago carried no water overran its banks. hospitals are partially underwater. roads are blocked and communities cut off. further north authorities ordered the evacuation of at least 30,000 people. the president has declared a state of emergency and gone personally to the flood other stricken areas to oversee relief efforts. >> while residents in the desert are struggling to hold back the water, here in southern chile which is normally famous for its green, lush vegetation and wet weather, the worst drought in 50 years is devastating the region, prompting authorities to declare an agricultural state of emergency. food for thought for those who don't believe in climate change. >> back in the desert, the freak floods have prompted major copper mines to reduce operations to a minimum as a

precaution and given the weather, authorities fear the worst is not over. the rain that these dry regions used to pray for now turning into a curse. >> richard has more. >> some amazing shots coming from chile. this is the dryest place on earth, annual rainfall is around 15 millimeters here, about a quart are of what we get here in the deserts of qatar. to see that rainfall picture is truly exceptional. easy to say it's all part of the el niño system, but it's not that straightforward. with a drought that's been going on for quite some time, you you can't blame that on el niño. as it stands, it looks as much of chile and peru is going to be

dry as we look through towards friday and indeed the start of the weekend. so certainly as far as the forest fires are concerned, i can't offer any great sign of improvement as far as the weather's concerned. in north america the weather is averting to type, in that march has seen 40 tornadoes within the u.s. and so far we've just seen seven, all occurring across oklahoma in the last 24 hours including an ef5. looks as the storm system is moving away going towards the east. >> there's a lot more to come on the show. we'll report from columbo. the window into an underwater world, we'll show you how coral reefs play a role in our own delicate ecosystem. that ahead ensport the rockets

to victory against new orleans.

>> french prosecutors say the pilot was locked out of the cockpit before impact. >> u.s. secretary of state john kerry is meeting with his reasonian counterpart to limit iran's nuclear prom by the 31 of march deadline. >> for months now you the advance of the houthi rebels challenged yemen's security, but the direct intervention of saudi arabia raised speculation that yemen is part of a wider performy war between regional powers. >> at the center of the conflict are the houthi rebels, the movementablely from the north of yemen adheres to the shia branch of islam and received support from iran. saudi arabia often seen as the leader of the sunni muslim world accuses iran of fomenting the

arrest in yemen and launched a mel tear cam pane against the houthis, a 10 member coalition including five gulf states and other sunni led nations. the houthis are opposed by armed group's including al-qaeda and the houthis appear to be club readying with some yemenese security forces still loyal to the former president al saleh. >> the houthis for their current reach depend very much on the support of the military, which means that they're depending very much on this alliance of convenience with former president al saleh. it's not clear just how long this is going to continue. i suspect some of their aims are divergent at this point. >> the battle lines are anything but clear but there are strong sign that is yemen is descending into civil war with several competing states and armed

groups involved in the crisis. >>ar are, leaders are meeting. egyptian foreign minister says his government fully supports the joint military strike against houthi forces in yemen. >> we are supporting the legitimacy of the yemeni state so that it can carry out its national responsibility to keep the integrity of yemen territory and the interests of the yemeni people. yemen is witnessing disturbances that brothers in the gulf with the support of yemeni national forces are trying to bring back yemen on the road to stability and democratic transformation. >> a professor of middle east history at qatar university joins me live in the studio in doha. good to have you back with us. you think we are going to get this joint arab force, talking about of the egyptian foreign minister today we heard calling for? >> i think the egyptian

suggestion--riyadh was able to convince different players to be involved. >> had military participation by a number of countries. >> yeah, 5gcc countries in addition to another five countries, and we are hearing you know, that other countries are supporting actually the whole operation. i think the arab military or ground forces, this will be something, you know, we discussed, of course, but whether this will be implemented or not this will rely on the prefers experience saudi arabia has in yemen. there would be assessing those experiences and how much those actually shaved or influence the politics of yemen so maybe this will be one element to be

discussed, but i'm not sure that will be implemented. i think at the moment, they will rely on the air strike. they will rely on, you know, bringing back what is left of the yemeni forces together, the military institution together under hadi and try to get as much as they can from the tribe elements and get them onboard. >> that's a strategy that's been tried for a long time and here we see president hadi almost driven out of yemen now. the history of campaign, particularly the middle east, even if they begin with airstrikes usually end with some form of ground force intervention. who's going to provide that? not the arab league. >> this is the operation basically started at midnight. what's important is after that operation now, what is the plan

for yemen after, you know, the last minute operation, what they have in mind? according to the -- >> do you think they have a plan? >> i think the main purpose now the main aim is to stop the progress houthis are making. >> stop aden falling. >> stopping aden and stopping the fact that houthis are, you know, controlling yemen. this is the idea. they want to stop houthis this is the first aim. the second aim i think is more in geopolitics. they want to send a message to iran that there are other players who can play the same game. >> this is the red line. you've done it in syria and iraq. >> this is our back yard, you you can't play here. >> to what extent is yemen bringing together some arab unity? arab states have a bitter division over all kinds of issues. >> i'm not sure this will bring a lot of arab units.

those countries will work together in yemen. every country comes with its own agenda it's own view on what's happening. >> sorry, we have another event. we take you to other developing stories we're following here, that is of course tuesday's plane crash in the french alps. the germanwings plane was owned by lufthansa. there is a news conference right now. let's listen in. >> in our group those observing us in our industry and know that we select cockpits personnel very carefully because this is certainly part of what we believe in and for selecting our people, we don't only look at

cognitive objective competence, we also give room to psychological capabilities. we are cooperating as a german society of aviation, and this is the so-called d.l.r. test, and they can certainly say that this test is certainly recognized tool to be applied at an international basis and we're very -- of this and what happened today. what we heard today was not imaginable for us. the two pilots of course went to -- tests and at the flight school in phoenix arizona they did their training. the co pilot did it or started it in 2008 after a time of

waiting for eight months, which might happen. he first worked at a flight attendant in order to bridge it and since 2013, he had been active as the first officer on airbus 320. i would like to mention that during the training six years ago, that was a longer interruption, then the personal -- to continue and even saw all of the medical tests and also all flight examinations and checks and was successful in doing so. he was if it for flying without any restrictions. his performance was without any

criticism. nothing at all was striking in a company like ours where we are so proud of our selection criteria, our safety criteria, et cetera, this is even more of a shock than it is for us and the general public. a few hours after having heard this we can only speculate on what has been the motivation, what might have been the motivation of the co pilot and at this point, i would like to very consciously say that i thought this is the most terrible event of hour company and we have full trust in our pilots, myself and my

colleagues. they are and will continue to be the best of the world and this is certainly what weaver done here. in lufthansa, they are an integral part of our friends and what has happened here is a tragic individual case of events and i would very much like to underline this, and together with the family members and friends of the victims and i think millions of people, we are dealing or trying to deal with this enigma and it will take long time until we understand what has happened, but of course, we are professionals and therefore, we will do everything possible to present findings of

all investigations. our people are on spot in france and this will continue to be so. i would like to repeat, irrespective of your safety criteria and even if they are very very sophisticated and high flung, you can never exclude such an individual event. no system would manage to do so. let me tell you something that is personal. i work in lufthansa as an engineer as a pilot and for many years i've been shouldering responsibility as an executive, irrespective of their -- safety came first and that this actually happened to us is a very sad fact. thank you very much for listening.

i would be very grateful to you if you actually ask your questions loud enough. >> you you say there is no way of preventing an accident like this. i'll take the microphone. you say that there is no way of preventing an accident like this but were there no procedure by which the pilot the captain go ahead have entered the cockpit door by perhaps entering a code to override the locking system? >> thank you for the question. in our industry, since the events of the very dreadful of the 11th of september the access to cock pit was changed and maybe my colleagues can actually supplement my experience and my experience as

a pilot the doors have been rein forced so that access is not possible so that the door cannot even be opened by weapons. when one of our pilots leaves the cock pits for example for biological reasons, he he he or she can ring a bell. there are screens in order to detect who this person is, if this is a colleague or somebody from the rest of the crew, there is a button which you can press and the door will open. the authorities and those retrofitting the dorses to it

that that's, we have to take into consideration that somebody might lose consciousness that somebody might lose consciousness and there is a bell to ring and if nobody reacts, the door will open electrically and automatically and this can be -- he. >> he was flying without restriction, the words of the managing director of germanwings talking about the track record of the personnel who is now suspected of deliberately crashing the germanwings plane into the french alps, an event that killed all passengers onboard. he went on to say it was more of a shock for us then the general public, calling it the most terrible event of his company. you went on to deflect responsibility, saying despite all safety procedures, you can never exclude what he calls such an individual event.

not a lot of answers but we'll bring you you more on this story as soon as we get them. >> let's return to our our top story, the airstrikes in yemen. a senior fell at the center of american progress joins us live from washington, d.c. this operation perhaps different in the sense that we see regional countries leading it. just how involved is the u.s. at this point? >> it's been announced that the u.s. is offering some support in the background with an operations center and perhaps with some intelligence and advice. it's actually not all that rare, when you look at what happened in libya over the last six months or so and the fact that the united arab emirates and egypt have engaged there or if you look at syria's civil war you see many actors from within the region, including qatar saudi arabia playing a very active role even before isis.

the middle east is tearing itself apart. you've got many actors to have a lot of weapons have a lot of money and they're getting involved in fights like the yemeni civil war. i think this is just the latest dangerous episode of a region that's deep lip at adds with itself. >> i think fighting al-qaeda and isil has been one of the major priorities for u.s. policy in yemen. will any of that have to change now you if the houthis are prioritized as more of a threat and well technically al-qaeda and isil are part of the anti houthi force. how is u.s. policy going to make sense of all these apparently contradictory forces? >> well, i mean, i think the u.s. will stay focused on al-qaeda in the arabian peninsula. it's still seen as one of the most dangerous threats to the homeland security, and with this coalition of forces, that is led by saudi arabia, we're quite likely to remain as focused as

we are on that, even though there is this additional threat of the houthis. the main thing us again to focus on the region and the fact that you've got so many different forces within countries, but then aoss the region, that are fighting in a way that's killing thousands of people in a power struggle, the u.s., i think will stay focused on its wore interests to stop a terrorist attack to do what it can to help stabilize the regegion. when the region is so fundamentally at odds with itself, destroying companies lebanon, libya syria iraq and the u.s. today has a much more sort of distance role from that, that the key is sort of what are the actors in the region doing. >> is it destroying countries or destroying states? do you see a common theme of the collapse of the states and influence of central governments? >> well, i would say it's both, but it's destroying countries in

that these conflicts have been very deadly, as we see in the syrian conflict as unfortunately i think we'll see in yemen, as well. the fundamental point is it's not only saudi arabia versus iran or the shia-sunni sectarian tension, it's a broader struggle that has led not only to the collapse of the states, but societies in the most vulnerable, people of these sow seats. so really, and i think the one trend you can see are those countries that have more oil resources, more weapons are going after each other in those places that are more fragile have secretarial sections and are simply more poor. >> thank you for your thoughts on that. >> thank you. >> we've got more details on that story the situation in yemen, as well as all the stories we're following here on our website. you can head over there find video, opinion and analysis, all of that for you you on aljazeera.com. that's on the ground.com.

>> it's ban tradition in the faroe islands for centuries, but now the hunting of pilot whales is under criticism. animal rights activists say the killings are cruel and unnecessary. we have the story from the north atlantic.

>> this tradition that has beenen place for over 500 years it's time for this tradition to disappear, because the world has changed and therefore i think this also should change. >> the intervention isn't welcome, of course, the islanders compare their whale hunt to the slaughter of farm animals behind closed doors. >> it looks very much worse than it is in reality and blood is helping that you all see when you kill an animal.

this compared to all the other things we don't see any pictures all around the world. >> here on this island archipelago, those who take part in the whale killings say they should be able to live off the resources of the sea as they have done for centuries. the activists reply that it's a gruesome slaughter. you can't height cruelty behind tradition. >> the tradition is being eroded by regulation and by outside pressure on a tiny nation that values tourism as a sort of revenue. some for row citizens believe that the whale hunt may die out in a little more than a decade. >> australia cricket outplayed.

with he explain. >> defending champions india heads held high. unbeaten in 16 straight matches but they were up against an australian side in tent on winning a fifth title on their own turf. >> the aussies battled first and were in trouble. david warnner removed for 12, but in came steve smith australia's saving grace as it were. he hit 105 of 93 balls. it was far from a solo effort. aaron finch also chipped in with ate one runs. australia posting 328 for seven. india may have fansied their chances of chasing the targeting down. conditions were in their favor a 76 run opening stand no fear. australia a little nervous

india eventually dismissed for 233, australia powered into the final, looking for their fifth world cup crown. al jazeera. >> fans are coming to terms with the defeat. >> we heard personal stories of businesses allowing employees to watch the match at work just so that they could continue to be productive. we also heard of personal stories of students who took the day off school to watch their super heroes take on australia in one of the biggest matches in a long team. markets like this that are usually seething with traffic and people of all kinds and activity have ground to a halt. there is absolutely not much going on. roads that are usually choked with traffic are an absolute

breeze to drive on and we anticipate that they will be perhaps for some days as india perhaps comes to the realization that it's loft the semifinal of this world cup. india has not been able to make it two final appearances in a row and two victories in a row so at time of contemplation and disappointment in the world's largest cricket loving nation. >> it's been our focus now to football world champions germany were given a fairly decent workout. australia getting the germans off to a good start. >> the house found itself trailing five minutes after the break. 2-2 the final score. >> more international support to look forward to on thursday.

african champions i've oary coast, undoubtedly the standout fixture. >> soaring 25 points in 10

assists. a mighty come back from 17 points down in the first half. eventually win 95 points to 93, the rocket pretty much in the playoff picture now. a win might secure them a post season spot. that's all your sport for now. >> they've been called the rain forests of the sea coral reefs occupy less than 1% of the ocean floor but are home to a quarter of all make rein cease cease. a new project is showcasing how reefs play a role in our own survival. >> it's a window into an underwater world. london's natural history museum offers a chance to look into the past and future. the corals are nearly 200 years old. diverse creatures make reefs their home. the aim is to highlight the role

reefs play in our own delicate ecosystem. >> hundreds of millions of people live within a kilometer of the coral reef and are dependent on them to their economic well being by fisheries or using them as tourist industries, or also coastal protection, because they are build ups of limestone so they can break the waves from storms and protect the cities from storm damage. >> one of the highlights of the exhibition is a virtual dive. it means 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 reef supports, as well. >> experts say over the last 35 years, half the world's coral reefs have disappeared often due to oceans becoming more acidic through pollution. dredging near australia's great barrier reef is concerning. this project is trying to find

out where coral is thriving, as well as areas that need protection. >> it is three cameras that are sined together, a computer that controls the camera and then this underwater propelled vehicle, allowing the diver to move along. as it moves along the cameras take an image every few seconds so over a typical dive, we will record the health of coral reefs over two kilometers. >> which gives you an idea of how painstaking it will be to map all the world's reefs. if it can help save this unique university scientists say it will be worth it. >> that brings us to the end of this show. stay with us here. we've got another full bull 15 of news coming up in just a couple of minutes and of course if you want to stay abreast of all the stories we've been bringing you here on al jazeera you know where to go, our website, you can see on the front page the situation in

yemen, at aljazeera.com.

iran condemns saudi-lead air strikes on houthi targets in yemen, and demands an immediate halt to the operation. ♪ hello and welcome to al jazeera, i'm sami zeidan live from our doha headquarters. also coming up the germanwings crash was deliberate and not an accident. and nigerians are voting in elections