al jazeera america presents only on al jazeera america of >> are saudi arabia hails its air strikes against houthis in yemen as a success. is you're watching al jazeera live from doha, i'm jane dut ton. dutton. bitting farewell to singapore's founding founding leader.

thousands paying their respects to lee quan yew. voting is extended another day because of technical problems in nigeria. we begin with the saudi led military intervention in yemen. the first phase of its air strikes have been successful they say with all of the communication centers destroyed but that hasn't stopped the houthi movement across the country. meanwhile the saudi led have air strikes hit sa hit sanaa sada and abas.

omar al saleh reports. >> to curb the rise of the shia houthi fighters, hadi is talking tough. >> withdraw from all provinces it occupies, leave state institutions and military bases and lay down its arms and return all the weapons it seized. >> reporter: leading the war against the houthis is saudi arabia. remains open for dialogue with conditions. >> we wish we didn't have to take this decision, but we stress that riyadh is opening its door to all from yemen to meet under the umbrella of the gcc within the state's legitimacy reject the coup

against it and stop threats from other countries. >> gulf states are nervous about the rise of iran, they feel iran's influence is creeping closer. by support of the houthis in the south. air strikes are now hitting positions just on the other side of that border joined by artillery from the saudi saudi side. fighter jets struck multiple targets, including command and control centers and weapons depo. dep depots. at the start of the military campaign urged arab leaders to stop their strikes. >> continuing dialogue is the best option to solve the problem and not the military strikes. i hope arab leaders don't bet on

a losing horse. you've tried that horse for four years. i call on you to take dialogue and have mercy on the people of yemen from these barbaric strikes. >> that could fall on deaf ears. saleh is accused of taking the part of the houthis the outcome could affect yemen's political landscape. omar al saleh al jazeera. >> saudi arabia already saying it's a success. what does that mean? >> well basically what the saudis are trying to do is target basically the fighter jets and destroy them. and long range rocket launchers.

these are the biggest concerns for them because they think that the houthis will be definitely willing to use them to retaliate against the u.s. led -- the saudi led air strikes and just over the last few hours they basically went after two main areas: the capital sanaa where you have the republican guard which is -- this is backed by ali abdalla saleh and the houthi stronghold, they are trying to destroy the ammunition and rocket launchers. very good situation by the end of the day because the houthis are very well entrenched in the south of the country and it is unsure whether air strikes alone will be able to disrupt the entire structure of the houthis. >> it's not going to be as easy

as removing them and moving on to another process? >> it is going to be very delicate. there is always annually alien are because they are not comfortable with the growing of the houthis and controlling the area of sanaa to amen which is going to make it extremely difficult. to give you an idea how complex the political landscape the son of ali abdalla saleh weigh was offering a deal to the saudis. if you lift sanctions on my father give me chance to become president, i will give you

insurance we will distance ourselves from the houthis. he was answered, we will destroy your army. hours later the air strikes began. >> was that a mistake? >> saudi arabia has been gathering intelligence about the houthi movements and when it reached the red line which was basically aden, basically they told them, if you reach aden which is the stronghold of the sunnis, this is what will happen. >> thank you. >> what is seen as a major below to government forces, since the war began, stefanie dekker reports. >> reporter: the syrian army is gone and opposition fighters are now in control here.

the city of idlib has been under the control of the syrian government, but now the rebels are in charge. a newly formed coalition led by the al news nusra front. al jazeera spoke with a fighter in the city. >> major advance of idlib city. there are no names of aral sham, sakora sham or any other. all fighters are fighting under sakur el sham. >> reunited with their families after what they say are years ton battlefield. returning to idlib now we are told thousands fled during this

recent offensive. air strikes have been carried on in the last four days, unpress tented in this area because it had been in government hands. idlib had been seen as a relatively safe haven during this war. for now there doesn't appear to be a lot of concern here. that fighters too busy reveling in their takeover of this significant city. idlib is the second provincial city to fall, the first was rah ca. raqqa. haas a huge blow to the army. stefanie dekker, beirut. >> one secure officer was injured in the fight the operation was part of the government's crack down on suspected armed groups after

deadly attack on tunisia's national museum. in a few hours thousands are expected to attend a solidarity march for the victims in the capital, tunis. tens of thousands in singapore are paying their final rmentsrespects to lee quan yew. 91-year-old lee is credited to turning singapore into one of the world's strongest economies. in his eulogy, singapore prime minister said his father was the city's guiding light. >> mr. lee went to the noble dream of a multiracial, multi country.

fully declared this is not a country that belongs to any single community. it belongs to all of us. >> sahal raman joins us from singapore. there has been a lot of rain throughout the day but hasn't stopped anybody from turning out. what do they say? >> no, not at all jane. the rain has stopped certainly for the moment but it's been, about three or four hours of this rain. in many asia pacific countries rain is seen as a good owe men during a funeral. the lee family would be heartened by the rain. 15 kilometer route from the parliament house to the cultural

center behind me which is where all the vips have all assembled to hear that funeral service. although there seems to be not many people behind me now an hour and a half ago when that cortege arrived there were people six deep behind me, wanting to get a few. very important for the lee family to see hundreds of thousands of people lining the streets of singapore. it's a very difficult time. mr. lee was well loved by the majority. he had his distracters but when it came to his death this nation is very much a unified one. >> also, lot of respect internationally. some big names there. >> indeed yes. over 30 countries are represented here. i think the big names are

certainly from the u.s. the form he president bill clinton and former secretary of state henry kissinger, leader of parliament, former foreign secretary china's vice president lee yang chow, who attended nelson mandela's funeral in south africa. indian malaysia, philippines you'll note all the big names the prime minister of south korea, the prime minister of the philippines. the asean countries. singapore is an island nation, most of its economy depends on port services and many ships from those countries would have had those interactions with singapore as one relationship

that the country had. singapore is celebrating its 50th anniversary of independence. it's a very sad way to head towards that anniversary date in august. >> thank you raman. deal between western powers and iran on tehran's nuclear powers. plus, calling for help, we go on a bumpy ride with kabul's paramedics to look at the challenges they face.

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>> hello again, a quick look at the top stories on al jazeera. saudi arabia says it's destroyed all of the houthis' airplanes and communication centers as the yemen war enters its fourth day. meanwhile, on yemen's red sea coast. the syrian city of idlib has been captured by rebels. strategic center is only the second center to fall to rebels since the war began. the funeral of lee quan yew singapore's founding leader. >> in switzerland the u.s. is trying to negotiate a nuclear

deal to curb tehran's nuclear program. our diplomatic editor james bays has more from lausanne. >> these talks are now at a crucial phase. last week for the past three days, it was the u.s. secretary of state and the iranian foreign minister who were negotiating. now other leaders from countries have got underway. french foreign minister known to be a hawk in these negotiations. >> as for a nuclear bomb it's a no. the discussions have been long, difficult but they're pressing ahead nonetheless. what's important obviously is the content of the agreement but i also insist on the transparency of the mechanism as well as controls so that any agreement made is respected. >> reporter: germany's foreign minster has also arrived. the u.k russia and china are

expected. for intense sessions. u.s. secretary of state john kerry and mohamed jarar risksd zarif. >> i expect any time of the day or night. >> the u.s. energy secretary ernest moniz was giving nothing away. >> mr. secretary are things going well? >> well. >> are you hopeful you will get an agreement this weekend? >> they are going. >> germany's foreign minister has told reporters when he looks at the mountains it reminds him the hardest part of any climb is the last bit. that's where we are with these negotiations.

james bays, al jazeera lausanne. >> voting in nigeria's presidential election, because of violence and technical problems. yvonne ndege reports from the capital, abuja. >> rafael casts his vote for a new president and parliamentarians at the national assembly provincial office polling station in abuja. he's part of more than 60 million people taking place in this exercise. this process is happening in 120,000 locations in the country. >> the personal vote, i believe that can take us to the level this country wants to go. under security and education and the structure.

>> reporter: as expected there was some violence in the north. several people were killed in yobe and gombe state as boko haram attacked some people going to polling stations. many security officers were used to protect voters. during the last election in 2011, voters were undeterred. >> i should not be afraid because i know, there's nothing that i should fear for. because choosing my leader is in my hands. if i do it, and even though somebody is angry with what i did, well it doesn't have anything to do with my life. i believe. >> thousands of foreign members monitored the vote.

pvcs were used in the election. >> what they are doing is taking the pvc and making sure that that is in line with the card reared. that's taking a bit of time. sometimes they try 1-2-3 four times until they identify you are the right person. >> the incumbent president jonathan voted in his state and the main presidential opponent did too. voting is being extended into sunday in places where there were technical problems or election materials arrived late. that is according to the electoral commission. it could mean that the final results are delayed for several days. yvonne ndege, al jazeera,ing abuja, nigeria. the nigerian military have detained two other al jazeera

journalists ahmed i describes and omar abuja. al jazeera is demanding their release. >> speaking to us via skype few technical problems, outbreaks of violence in certain areas but how would you describe how the voting has been going so far? what stood out for you? >> well, across the country the news we're getting is very interesting. it would appear that president jonathan and the people's democratic party and pgb are not doing well at all. which in nigeria is not well at

all, normally the incumbents do extremely well. and have a massive impact. however in river state which i am stationed right now and by the way i'm primarily a journalist, there was tremendous violence, a lot of disruption and intimidation by the ruling party. probably incidents in which the opposition were also guilty, as you know these things tend to cut both ways. but what i would say is predominantly the pgb fared very poorly and there were concerns about murder, homicide. river state seems to be a

pecularly unusual case study. it seems to be the most strife riddens. the first lady, dame jonathan, comes from this area and has made it a personal issue that her husband wins. i must say it's very tempting to believe that theory because you don't see this level of aggression and lawless owners in other states. >> one of the concerns obviously with this delay is that it could lead to some sort of further violence as we saw in the last elections. how tenuous is it all feeling at the moment? >> well, i don't know how i honestly what i'm seeing is a strange -- everything seems to be going fairly well in other parts of the country as i said. it looks as if this government is on its way out, of course you

can't say yet i could of course be wrong. the violence i'm trying to explain that it's such a unique case. and i don't think what happens here is a microcosm of what's going to happen in the whole country. it's just that unusually bizarrely terrible scenario here. everywhere else, for example in abuja people -- voters were allowed to stay and watch their votes being counted. whereas when i voted yesterday river state my ballot papers were seized and put to one side. so i voted for opposition. i understand this didn't happen in other parts of the country. >> hmm unusual. great getting your thoughts, i do appreciate it. >> okay, bye bye. >> in guinea, the president has declared a 45 day health emergency in an effort to stop the spread of ebola.

meanwhile in sierra leone police have fired tear gas in a crowd protesting a three day lock down. people say they desperately need food and supplies. dozens of new cases are still being reported in sierra leone every week. in the u.s. state of indiana hundreds are protesting against a new law that could signal discrimination against gay people. the proposed law allows people in businesses to refuse doing things they believe would put a substantial better on their religious beliefs. indiana's governor supported clarifying parts of the bill. billions of dollars have been spent in afghanistan during the past 13 years to improve the country, but little has been done to improve the ambulance service. 24 hour transport to the capital's estimated 6 million people and it is struggling.

al jazeera spoke to one nurse. this is his story in his own words. >> translator: my name is abdel kayum. i'm a nurse working with kabul ambulance. my team is me and a driver. my duty is to transfer patients to a hospital. our dispatcher in the main office calls us on the radio. we are told to proceed for example to abdel rah he'll shahid school area. we are given information about the patient's condition we administer first aid and determine which hospital the patient should be taken to. we face many problems with traffic judge jams. motorists do not give way to ambulances. we only have 18 ambulances and so many people in need of urgent medical attention. when there's an explosion it becomes more difficult to help

all the injured people. my worst memories are from an explosion in abu fasal in kabul. the explosion injured more than 100 people, about 50 others were killed. we asked help from every organization. we faceed trouble getting to hospital. if we had more ambulances perhaps we could have saved many more lives that day. >> cities and towns across the world switch off their lights to mark earth hour on saturday night. this was the french capital paris. a special dance floor used the energy from people's steps to repower the eiffel tower. the iconic structure was turned off for five minutes. hosting the earth climate summit in december. turning off some of its iconic monuments in buenos

aires, the obelisk went dark to mark the occasion. and this was the scene in new york. the plug was pulled on some of the billboard lights in times square. earth awareness to raise awareness of climate change and its effects. this is techknow a show about innovations that can change lives. the science of fighting a wildfire. we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity but we're doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. tonight techknow investigates gold at any cost.