you next time, i'm ray ♪ >> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ welcome to the news hour i'm in doha with our top stories. a new earthquake hits nepal near mt. everest and they sent every boat carrying migrants. >> we hope that a ceasefire will hold. >> reporter: iran backed calls for a truce in yemen which could help millions of desperate

people. the top u.s. diplomate arrives in russia since the fall out of ukraine and russia. ♪ nepal has been shaken by another big earthquake early reports say 13 people have been killed. police say another 300 are injured and hospitalized. now the epicenter of the magnitude 7.3 tremor was near a popular stop on the way to mt. everest and sent people in the capitol running from buildings and felt as far away as the capitol new deli and two weeks since they were devastate by another quake which killed more than 8,000 people and injured 17,000 and andrew simmons is live for us in kathmandu. now andrew tell us where you -- where are you now and where you

were when the earthquake hit, describe to us what happened. >> reporter: well just an extraordinary experience really. this is the building i was in along with the rest of our team. i was on the third floor when suddenly there was this what i thought was going to be yet another aftershock then it turned into something much more serious. the whole building was swaying. it almost felt like jelly. it was the most extraordinary and frightening experience i ever had in relation to a building that was just apparently i felt it was going to collapse. and then a whole series of thoughts start going through your head. heaven knows what the people of nepal have been through in the first earthquake which was much more serious, much more dramatic but i ended up thinking well can i jump out of a window? well no. can i shelter, shall i go under the door frame? i went under the table. it was only a matter of about 40

seconds i think but it felt like something like 10-15 minutes. as soon as the swaying stopped i ran down and joined my colleagues and ran down the fire escape steps and came out. and everyone is now instructed to be outdoors to try to keep as calm as possible. around the capitol there appear to be a number of buildings that have collapsed. there are appeals going out for people not to use their cell phones for voice calls because they are being jammed they are being asked to use as a message only. you realize an experience like this just how -- what a crisis develops how quickly and how bad communications are, no water, no electricity, they are all back on now but the cell phone system and even satellite telephones were not working and engaged and used by emergency services one would assume. >> what we know andrew about where this particular earthquake hit?

>> reporter: well, we are hearing that it was ins tory between the capitol and mt. everest, it's a conservation area and a fairly remote spot but it's also east of a very badly affected area which is sindu and i've been there a number of time and it's a poor rural district and very badly affected, whole villages have been destroyed there and heaven knows what sort of panic was going on in that district. we are hearing reports from the district, main district town in that area that, in fact, around about three to four people have died we are not sure of exact figure there yet, they have a large hospital in the area and dealing with casualties but no one is sure of the entire number of dead yet. it's going to rise there is no

doubt but the number of injuries alone in the kathmandu valley area are officially are 300 but we are hearing now police source saying that it's at least 500 in reality but that has not been confirmed. >> and andrew we are hearing one of the worst affected areas in the last earthquake has experienced more casualties. what can you tell us about that? >> reporter: that is the sindu area which is in actual fact something like a total of seven villages were destroyed in the first earthquake and now we are hearing that this area was badly affected yet again and there is a serious crisis developing in terms of freeing people from the rubble once again because so many buildings, so many old village homes that are made out of mud and rocks effectively have collapsed. we are also hearing that a number of buildings have collapsed in kathmandu itself

and people are being rescued from the rubble. one can only imagine the sort of terror that is going through the minds of people right now. they spent so long living outdoors keeping away from their buildings, being reluctant to go back but so many who have something left of a home and that is not a lot of people have returned to those homes now so going through this has left them in i would say to put it very mildly an incredibly bewildered freightened state. >> the last thing people there need right now. andrew simmons updating us there from kathmandu on the latest earthquake in nepal. now the international organization for migration has called on southeast asian governments to find and rescue hundreds of migrants believes to be stranded at sea and risk of death. meanwhile indonesia navy redistricted a boat full of migrants towards the malaysia coast after providing it with

food and water. on monday malaysia detained more than a thousand migrants from myanmar and bangladesh including dozens of children around 2000 people reached malaysia and indonesia in two days after thailand announced a crack down on smuggling and we have more from malaysia. >> reporter: this is one of three vessels that transported more than a thousand migrants from myanmar and bangladesh to the shores of malaysia this week. many of them were bangladeshi however officials tell us there were more than 400 muslims many of them were women and children. now the conditions on these boats must have been terrible. you can see clothes across the deck and cooking and baby items, there is room clearly beneath the deck as well as on top of the deck to house the passengers, the muslims we spoke to told us that food and water were extremely scarce and they

were often beaten as well. police say they are stepping up, they are monitoring the maritime borders because there are reports that thousands more migrants are still out at sea. >> we are stepping up on this on the sea to make sure there are no illegal encroachment. >> reporter: processed by the immigration department and what they are really aiming to achieve is refugee status in malaysia and for that to happen the u.n. has to recognize them as refugees and has to issue them with identity cards. indonesia says it will send back every boat with migrants and take responsibility for migrants if it's proven they are from myanmar and from back -- bangkok and a maritime export

and the 500 people arriving were given food, water and supplies by the navy and sent back to malaysia and saying they wanted to go to malaysia, is that legal what they have done here? >> well, given the circumstances of the crisis we are seeing right now that action is probably not legal. what we understand from the indonesia navy is they assess that those people voluntarily wanted to leave wanted to go to malaysia but of course given the circumstances, the likelihood that these people were being trafficked and facing very tough situation you as the story said of being beaten not knowing exactly where they are, that is not the way the law works. there has to be an independent assessment of the security of those people and decision of whether you're going to assist these people or whether, in fact, what the navy is engaging in is a rescue operation and should assist people and bring

them to shore and see if they are going to get refugee status. >> so what now then? does malaysia then have to take responsibility for them? >> clearly this is a regional crisis driven by the long-standing, very horrific persecution of muslims in myanmar, the fact that tens of thousands of them according to the u.n. have fled the country and seeking shelter, going to thailand, many of them unfortunately the authorities responded to this as a criminal legal issue and they crack down on the very extensive trafficking networks in thailand. the result has been the traffickers are avoiding thailand and moving further down in malaysia and indonesia, this is a situation where at least those governments involved very clearly need to have a discussion, they need to address the situation in myanmar and the persecution of the muslims driving them out to the sea and

come up with a rescue operation and more importantly they need to come up with some kind of international framework that as see if they deserve asylum or refugee status or simply need to be rescued from the hands and the clutchs of these trafficiccers. >> yeah, it certainly does seem as if individual nations, the individual nations involved in this are basically taking the approach that these people are someone else's problem and just kind of passing the buck so to speak. so if the solution is more of a international international, more of an international integration on this, what are the chances of that happening? >> well this is something that the association of southeast asia nations should be dealing with and hasn't so far but i think the current crisis is of such a magnitude it may spur them in that direction. there is definitely interest and

should reach out to the u.s., the eu to australia, also to the organization of the islamic conference who should be assisting with what is after all a highly persecuted muslim population fleeing myanmar. so this is now a genuine crisis and it's time for the governments of the region to really address it as a regional crisis instead of trying to play pass the buck with the lives of tens of thousands of people who are extremely vulnerable escaping persecution at home and in the clutchs of frankly evil traffickers traffickers. >> the problem is not going to go away any time soon good to speak with you on this sam, regional director at the international commission of jewish, thank you for being with us. the eu appealed to the u.n. for help to deal with people smuggling and asking for a mandate allowing military action

to destroy smuggler in libya waters and tens of thousands crossed from libya to europe already this year addressing the u.n. security council the eu policy chief admitted europe has been slow to act. >> 2015 looks even worse than the previous year and conceded in 2014, 3300 migrants died trying to enter the eu by sea. which means that three out of four people perished crossing the border and died in the mediterranean sea, three out of four. this tells us that our first priority is to save lives and prevent further loss of life at sea and we believe in the european union that this is a responsibility that we all share, not only as europeans but also globally. >> reporter: more than 30,000 migrants arrived in italy since the beginning of the year from ports in libya, some don't

intend to stay in italy but what happens to those who do? stephanie decker followed the journey of one teenager from gambia trying to build a life in the sicily town. >> reporter: time seems to be standing still, and he was 17 years old when he arrived ten months agree into from libya and taken to a center for minors and his dreams have been put on hold. >> i go to school three times i go to school and after that we are just sitting in the community without doing anything. so all that has been wasting time. it's wasting time because some people before they move from their country they have talents and knowledge. >> reporter: he applied for asylum but it's a long winded process and italy is overwhelmed partly due to the lack of an organized central system to deal with tens of thousands of applications leaving many in a legal limbo.

around 70 young people are housed here and many of them were only supposed to stay here for a short time but there is no where else for them to go so they end up waiting for this lengthy legal process to play out for an extremely long time. these young men complain about the conditions here. four or six to a room and also don't get the weekly pocket money they are promised and people who run the center say the money drips in sporadically? an over stretched and bureaucratic system. >> translator: the lack of money means they can offer insufficient service, not to say even a cheap one. i can't buy clothes very often and their weekly pocket money i can only deliver every two months that is why some of the boys are not happy. >> reporter: they will have their dreams and this long wait means they are getting incredibly frustrated young men usually full of energy, their future weighs heavily. >> need food and medication and

good life because in the future i will be a father and no one to take care of my family as it stands for my family you know. >> reporter: someone described those who are saved at sea as the invisible ones. >> translator: all our efforts and it's right is to take care of the people who risk their life at sea but then once they arrive at the port we forget about them. they get stuck in the system and they can't fill full their hopes, this is the forgotten tragedy tragedy. ♪ there is beauty and hope against all odds with patience and faith they will wait for the opportunities they risked everything for. stephanie decker, al jazeera, sicily. coming up, on the program gunfire reported in burundi as protests against the president's reelection plans enter a third week.

a master piece that set a new record at auction. ♪ so that still ahead and iran says it backs a truce in yemen. that is significant because the saudis have asked for a ceasefire to begin this evening in yemen around 20 gmt. iran foreign minuteister raif called for a trees between them and houthi rebels. >> translator: any ceasefire and halt on military operations is supported by iran to help victims of this war which are innocent children and women. this ceasefire must turn into a permanent ceasefire and talks to foramen clue civ government should be immediately resumed. meanwhile iran ship is on its way to yemen packed with aid workers and journalists.

it's part of a humanitarian mission being carried out by red crescent society and iran. more than 1400 people have died in yemen since the saudi-led air strikes began in march. thousands of others are suffering because of a shortage of food, water and fuel. the u.n. is urging all sides to stick to proposed ceasefire to allow desperately needed aid in. erica wood has more. ♪ much needed supplies being distributed to this place and families at a camp in central yemen. they abandoned their homes and left behind everything they own to seek safety from the fighting. >> translator: we in the leaders committee started distributing to displaced families and when we get to all the families we will complete the campaign and distribute even more aid. >> reporter: in the handouts are oil and bags of wheat, tea

and sugar. >> translator: before we arrived here we were own gauged in fierce battles with houthi fighters and we took shelter in the tents here and families are afraid of houthis and we left everything behind but now suffering from the water shortage and lack of basic necessities. >> reporter: further south on the port city of aiden people beg for help as they line up for the daily ration of drinking water. >> translator: people of good faith and the world we are living under siege surrounded by these houthis, no water no electricity and sewage is overflowing, our children's bellies are swollen and no medicine. >> translator: we hope they rush to aid our citizens what we lack is aid and relief. >> reporter: the constant bombardment of the capitol sanaa left many homeless. mohamed saleh and family have

been living in a sewer drain since their home was destroyed two weeks ago. >> translator: it's under ground. the environment is bad but it's safer to stay here than on the ground during the air strikes. >> reporter: yemen was already one of the world's most em povmover issued nations but after six weeks of fighting people are more desperate and hope the ceasefire to state on tuesday will hold long enough to get them the help they so badly need erica woods, al jazeera. the latest on the fighting in yemen and saudi arabia moved tanks and armored vehicles towards its border city and those reenforcements were sent after houthis attacked the city with artillery shoals and rockets fired from yemen and reported that two people were killed there and saudi-led air strikes are continuing across yemen in the capitol sanaa, maintenance and military manufacturing depos controlled

by the houthis have been targeted. we have the editor of yemen post and joins us from the capitol sanaa via skype and thank you for being with us and i want to ask you what is the prospect of this ceasefire holding, given that fighting has still been going on in this ceasefire is supposed to happen at 20 gmt tonight just a few hours from now? >> we hope it lasts but personally i'm pessimistic because of the two stubborn sides and the saudis and houthis both who have not succeeded in winning the last few days of war in yemen and did not go for either side the houthis lost a lot of weapons and men and saudi arabia strikes and it won't allow them to expand. we have two sides who want to show victory and want to go in the ceasefire with their heads raised up. as of now no one's head is

raised up and yesterday the massive air strikes in sanaa are what officials said were 180 air strikes in sanaa and that is what we say saudi wants to say there is victory especially with the houthis entered the territory into other districts inside saudi arabia and conducted attacks and evacuated and the ceasefire will continue if both sides continue to be stubborn. >> what sort of an impact is this continued saudi-led air strikes, what sort of an impact are they having inside yemen both in terms of the civilian toll and the positions of the houthi rebels there? >> very sad. right now 95% of those killed by the air strikes have been civilians. over 2000 killed mostly civilians. the houthi man power has not been affected very much to be honest. yes, their military depots many

have been destroyed but many remain as well. the houthis did not enter sanaa or take control of sanaa by those with the help of military posts. they enter sanaa with military power and fighters and those fighters go around and have been affected and why i say no one has been able to be victory with the war so far however the civilians are the ones who have been losing and suffering the most 38 days of continuous blackouts in yemen and these and commodities are nonexistent and food hunger and price hikes sometimes over 400%. >> good to speak with you from the yemen post joining us from the capitol sanaa. now heavy gunfire has been reported at a protest in burundi. demonstrations there against president bid to run for a third term entered a third week and

malcolm web is live on the out outskirts of the capitol and what is the latest there on the situation? >> reporter: we set up our camera here a short while ago with two groups of protesters moving along the street behind us, when they saw the camera they came crowding with signs and they are keen for their message to be seen by the world and activists organizing demonstrations today and tomorrow say they are pushing hard to try and get their message out because tomorrow heads of state from around the region and president with all the neighboring countries and the countries in east africa will meet in neighboring tanzania and burundi has been invited to come along to get the message seen by the world and some signs behind me mandate for president and others are calling back for the opening of a popular radio station here called rpa. so people here are keen to get

the message out ahead of the summit tomorrow and they are hoping east african president, the president of kenya and rwanda will pressure the president not to run for a third term. >> it certainly does seem from what you are saying that pressure is really building against hill both on the streets and at the diplomatic level so the big question remains is how is he going to respond in the next few days? >> well so far today there has been reportings of more police shootings at protesters and an unconfirmed report from local media that another has been killed and eu says more than 20 people have been killed since the protest started but there is a limit to how much violence the security forces can unleash because whenever the soldiers are around they manage to urge the police to use restraints. the soldiers and army is seen as neutral and as long as they are deployed protesters say they are relatively safe and what happens

in the coming days depends if protesters can keep the numbers and pressure up, if the army keeps them safe they means they can increase pressure on the government but if they are met with force then of course no way protesters with sticks and stones can stay there in the face of tear gas and gunfire. >> all right, malcolm web reporting to us there from burundi, thanks for that. now u.s. secretary of state john kerry has arrived in russia to meet president putin in the resort city of sochi and the first visit there since the start of the ukraine crisis and we will go to rory who is live in sochi and first of all what is on the schedule there? >> well it's serious meetings, the first one with the counterpart of john kerry here from russia, the foreign minister and they will be sitting down and talking about various things and after that kerry will be meeting the

president's residents over my shoulder down nestled in the trees between me and the waters of the black sea. the three men will be talking about we understand at least from the americans first of all iran. now this is the one bright spot really at the moment of russian/u.s. cooperation. the u.s. really wants to get that nuclear deal with iran tied in before the end of june and it needs russian help to do that. of course the u.s. has been concerned that russia is in the process of selling missile defense systems to iran and another area they will be talking about is syria. this of course is one of the main sticking points in russian and u.s. relations at the moment. the u.s. believes that assad has weakened at the moment the way he has not been for quite some time and wants to find out if there is flexibility in the russian backing of assad or whether russia is prepared for them to come to the negotiating table and another thing they

will talk about is of course as you mentioned ukraine, a lot of difference between the united states and russia over ukraine. they are both pledging that the minsk peace to process is the way forward but united states accuses russia and its pro-russian separatists in the east of violating ceasefire and russia says the army backed by the united states is violating the ceasefire and the u.s. uses this to keep the channels open and talk at the top of the russian political system and making most of the foreign policy decisions. >> and just connected with what has been happening in ukraine rory i want to ask you about this new story that just emerged about the opposition leader borris who was killed near the kremlin earlier this year the story is the opposition leader was working on an investigation into russian soldiers secretly fighting in ukraine when he was shot.

what more do we know on that? >> well this report that they were working on has been finished by other members of the opposition and various economists and other investigators. and this report was looking into two main areas really russia's military involvement in ukraine and the financial consequences for russia of that involvement. so what it alleges is that a number of russian military personnel were persuaded to resign from the army so that they could go and volunteer and fight in eastern ukraine and boost the forces of the pro-russian separatists taking russian military equipment with them. now, this report alleges that these paratroopers were told if they were injured or if they died, if they were injured then they would get compensation, if

they died then their family would get compensation. that compensation it's alleged has not been paid out so a number of relatives of dead servicemen have sued or at least approach approached him and asking him to represent them asking him to put this story out there. >> all right, rory challenge reporting to us there from soshi on the meeting between kerry and russian president putin. let's get the weather now with richard to tell us what has happened to the typhoon. >> well i'm pleased to be able to report that our typhoon has sort of cleared away from the philippines, weakened into a tropical storm and moved away north of us. but i want to take you back to the tent as this particular system went close to the philippines and got interesting shots from the satellite imagery and this comes from the institute of satellite studies

at the university of west michigan and this is the northern end on the left hand side of your screen and as the sunrises the clouds and low level clouds in another and storms pushing on the other arms of the typhoon. the current situation and as we look at now northern parts of asia it's here we have got quite a lot of cloud pushing in and active weather system across this region and as well we also have got our tropical storm. this is going to be running along the coast of honshu over 24 hours and produce stormy weather in combination with the frontal system across northeast asia and very wet indeed. you see dry weather eventually pushing to japan and heads in the pacific and slowly dies. ♪

you are watching al jazeera, recap of the headlines nepal has been shaken by another big earthquake earlier reports saying at least 13 people have been killed and 600 injured and they were devastated by a major quake only two weeks ago which killed more than 8,000 people. there has been heavy gunfire in burundi during another protest against the president, demonstrations against the president's bid to run for a third term entered a third week. indonesia commanders say boats carrying migrants will be sent back and they landed in indonesia and malaysia in the past 48 hours. let's get more on this in dakarta and the indonesia say

they will send back every boat carrying the migrants and essentially taking the same approach that other nations involved in this have taken, so where does that ultimately leave these migrants? >> yeah indonesia military confirmed from now on they will send back all the boats with migrants coming in indonesia waters and different than what they have done in the past because since 2009 many boats from myanmar came and landed here and all being accepted and now on sunday two boats arrived here and basically were also accepted because these people were already at the shore but one boat that came yesterday was actually towed back out of indonesia waters and military described the situation as being very bad and very dire and actually went up to the boat and said there were 1,000 people on the boat. there was a bad smell and heard screams from people in that

boat. what they did, they gave them some water, some food and medication and some fuel and some directions to malaysia and towed them back out of indonesia waters and said they will do exactly the same thing with any other boat that is coming in the near future and there are many out there still and they know that. >> all right, reporting to us there from dakarta. now chad's president says the war against boko haram has not been totally won because of the armies of chad and nigeria are working separately. and added the lack of synergy in the field has allowed the wanted boko haram leader to remain illusive and we are live for us in the nigerian capitol abuja and why haven't these two countries worked together more because it would seem like the obvious thing to do here? >> well the president came to nigeria to congratulate

president good luck john than for conducting a free fair and peaceful election at the end of march and it was during this meeting discussions were held about how to tackle the boko haram insurgency and he made those comments about their being no synergy, little cooperation, that would help to fight boko haram and ultimately achieve better results, those were his words during a q and a with journalists which followed this meeting with president goodluck jonathan. it's not clear what the basis of what president debbie is saying because the picture painted by the nigerian authority, nigerian military authorities during the fight against boko haram and the step up in the fight against the group over the last few months has been incredibly different. nigerian authorities have stood firm in saying there has been good cooperation, there has been good coordination between themselves and not just chad forces but from cameroon and republic who also have been fighting boko haram and look at

the results over the last few months boko haram have been diminished in the northeast and the armies are working together. president debbie did not get into the specific details or specific operations where there may have been a lack of coordination and would approach the presidency of a further clarification and reaction to these comments but they are yet to come through with any response. >> what is the current state of the fight against boko haram, it certainly does seem in resent times that nigerian forces have at least made some gains in that regarding a number of girls have been rescued in resent weeks? >> that is right, it would appear that boko haram has been greatly diminished since president elect mohamed beat jonathan and jonathan joined the presidential election at the end of march and you have virtually been able to hear a pin drop in the northeast vis-a-vis attacks by the group and military

authorities here say because they are winning the war against the group. we had in the last few weeks hundreds of women and girls rescued from boko haram in the forest which has been considered to be one of the last remaining strongholds of boko haram and as i say the nigerian authorities are painting a picture of the battle almost virtually being won against boko haram and president goodluck jonathan who leaves office at the end of may have promised nigerians this group is facing imminent elimination and by the end of his tenure as president boko haram will virtually be unheard of. we have heard of some attacks here and there, small scale and not claimed by boko haram and not clear who may have been behind them but the overall picture as far as military buses are concerned is that boko haram is soon to be over as a group, the effectiveness and attacks are soon to be brought to a complete end. >> reporting from the nigerian capitol abuja. greece repaid a loan of more

than $800 million to the international monetary fund but threat of bankruptcy remains. greek finance minister says the crash crisis is critical after failing to find a breakthrough at a meeting of euro zone ministers in brussels and john reports. >> reporter: it promises to be a long tense summer in greece, the protests are small now but could grow bigger if the new left wenting government is forced by international lenders to compromise on austerity for much needed bail out funds and brussels and talks with the other countriesen the central back and imf are progressing to unlock billions in aid for greece but there is evidence and skepticism still about a new economic plan offered by athens. >> some important issues have now been discussed in depth but more time is needed to bridge the remaining gaps. we have a joint interest with the greek authorities to get that agreement as quickly as

possible. there are some time constraints and constraints and hope we reach it before time and money runs out. >> reporter: so greece must wait a little longer try a little harder to get their hands on a much needed $8 billion slice of aid but there isn't much time. the existing bail out program expires at the end of june and in the meantime the few other sources of revenue available to the government in athens must pay salaries and sanctions and billions of loan repayments due in the next few months and greece is under pressure to reach a deal here. >> by necessity and are flexible and red lines are such with common ground. >> what is the timeframe now? >> the next few days i think. >> reporter: the government insists it will stick to its red lines on labor reforms and pensions, no more cuts and no

plan b. that is the promise they made to tell elaborate in february and keeping that promise could cost the government and greece the ultimate price bankruptcy and an exit from the euro al jazeera, brussels. a secular blogger in bangladesh and ananta bijoy das has been hacks to death by a mass gang wielding machetes and the third such killing this year and worked for a number of websites and one moderated by another killed in february. chad has more on this for us from daka and just fill us in on a little more on what happened here. >> reporter: well it happened some time 9:00 in the morning in the northeastern city four masked gunman as you recorded attacked and brutally stabbed the blogger to death. he was taken to hospital where he was pronounced dead. and increasing concern in

bangladesh of repeated attack on free thinking secular blogger by unknown assailants and some say they are islamic extremists or other elements but no one could come up with concrete evidence who was behind blogger's attack and people in bangladesh are increasingly concerned about free thinkers and bloggers and writers who are targeted by elements and the government has not been that proactive because no one has been arrested in the last two bloggers that were killed and this is the third incident. and increasing international publicity especially who was killed two months ago. it was widely publicized all over the world and the government seems to be inactive in coming up with concrete evidence or arresting somebody who were behind the killing. >> all right, chad live for us there in daka thanks for that. >> thank you. french president francois

hollande is wrapping up his caribbean tour in haiti and went to cuba on monday becoming the first western european leader to visit since 1986 and met the father of the human revolution fidel castro and french leader called on the u.s. to lift trade embargo on cuba and we have more from havana. >> reporter: untying the eyedknot ten years after they froze political and cultural ties with communist cuba in response to the arrest of 77 people french president francois hollande is here to declare by gones be by gones. >> translator: this visit is taking place in a context in which at last it's possible for cuba to have all the necessary conditions to interact with the rest of the world, as you know france has always been in favor of lifting the u.s. embargo that hinders cuba. >> reporter: speaking at the university of havana made it clear that france wants to take

a leadership role in a renewed cuba eu dialog. francois hollande made latin america and caribbean one of his priorities but it's not just political. both france and francois hollande are key to position themselves economically ahead of when the united states lifts its embargo against cuba which would make trade and tourism flourish. american investment lawyer says it's all about capturing american business. >> where are the americans going to go to now? i know the forbidden paradise now cuba will open up, the americans will be there, i want to have a dutch hotel taking care of the americans, that is what you are seeing. >> reporter: ♪ he is accompanied by executives of top french firms including the liquor giant and handles sales of havana club rum and hopefully soon to the u.s. the french president has not

alluded publically to the thorny issues of human rights that led to the eu freeze. instead he offers to make france a quote faithful ally of cuba. this time apparently without any conditions. ♪ i'm with al jazeera, havana. i want to tell you about breaking news and the new u.n. envoy arrived in sanaa part of continuing efforts to end the fighting that has gone on there for about two months now. u.n. envoy arriving in the capitol sanaa and more on events in yemen as and when we get them. still ahead all the sports including barcelona trying to seal their place in a champion league final with eunich with a big lead. ♪

♪ hello again and picasso smashed the record for the most expensive sold at august and $179 million was paid for the master piece and that is $37 million more than the previous record and john has more on who is willing to pay so much for a pricey painting. >> welcome to this evening and looking forward to the auction. >> reporter: in rockefeller plaza in new york and the women of niger part of a sale with

impression and post war and contemporary art. the biddings fast and furious, another one for the record books. >> most of these young collectors who have become billionaires are not collectors in the traditional sense, working, studying looking at art. >> 110, 115. >> these collectors tend to be more impulse shopping. >> what is that by the way, is that a woman? >> probably could be a woman, could be a bird. >> reporter: there is nothing quite like teasing an art dealer, it's okay and he has heard it before a private art dealer and remembers a different time. >> most of my collectors were lawyers and doctors, professional people who made a good living. we didn't have hedge funds in 1980. >> reporter: today's buyers are not collectors in the traditional sense but young

billionaires from silicon valley and russia and china and middle east seeking a good return on their investments. >> when you have people who are worth let's say a billion dollars or more whether they pay one million or five million or ten million this is not a major part of their investment. >> reporter: the picasso wasn't the only big sale multiple works of art sold for tens of millions of dla dollars and they have one tuesday night in new york and key paintings are expected to sell for record amounts like this one estimated at $40-$60 million. >> is it a blue square on a yellow background? >> that is michael who must be thinking who is this person? >> 1954 monument by one of the most famous expressionist. >> reporter: just because top buyers are seeking a good investment doesn't mean they don't appreciate the art. >> i think that you can do both i think that a lot of art today

has tremendous asset potential. >> reporter: but buyer be aware if you are seeking to pep up your portfolio of stocks and shares. >> we saw what happened in 2007 2008 if there is a meltdown these works of art will go down considerably. >> reporter: no sign of that yet though. >> picasso selling it here $160 million. >> reporter: john. >> it's yours. al jazeera, new york. time to get a little sport now. >> thank you very much. one of the most successful quarterbacks in nfl history tom brady says he will appeal his four-game ban for cheating. the new england patriots has been punished for alleged involvement of using under inflated balls in a game and we have more. >> in january officials noticed there was something odd about the balls used during the new england patriot over the colts

in the semi final game on the road to super ball and the balls were under inflated and made them easier for quarterback tom brady to handle and throw accurately. sports fans suspected this and last week a month-long investigation concluded that patriot staff members most likely had deliberately let the air out of the balls and that brady probably knew all about it. much of the evidence stemmed from text messages which the employees openly discussed altering the balls before games. on monday the national football league announced brady who has denied any knowledge that his balls were tampered with would be suspended without pay for the first four games of the season saying that he was guilty of conduct detrimental to the league his three-year contract is worth $27 million. the patriots will be fined $1 million and will forfeit two

draft picks. the league noted that patriots coaches have been caught cheating in the past and that brady had been uncooperative, refusing to hand over his texts and e-mails to investigators. brady's agent called the quarterback's punishment ridiculous and said he would appeal suspension and patriots went on to win the superbowl in february, there are no plans to take the championship away from them. rob reynolds, al jazeera. for more on this now i'm joined by nfl broadcaster michael carson and thank you for talking to us, let's talk about brady first and his appeal. do you think this is the right move and how damaging is the whole thing for his reputation? >> of course it's the right move and there was never any doubt that he would appeal it once the shock of the suspension came out. i'm not sure his reputation will be dented at all. if you go back and look at what has happened the nfl let quarterback or teams decide how

their own balls would be and there is a rule they have to be within a certain pounds per square inch of pressure and one pound per square inch but quarterbacks like brady like it softer and others like it harder and play with balls that are over inflated and the referees don't do anything about it. so tom brady is according to the report more likely than not to have had at least some knowledge the balls were deflated but there is no suggestion in the report that he actually knew they would be deflated below the legal limit rather than say at the bottom of the legal limit so i think that is the line he will take and that the punishment way overstates the crime. >> let's talk about the fine $1 million is one oof the biggest fines in nfl history, do you think it's too much? >> for this offense, yes. what they are saying is because the patriots eight years ago were fined for taping other

teams' signals on the sidelines to study them that they are repeat offenders and that is the reason why the fine and the punishment of draft picks which is actually more serious to the future of the team has taken place. but they also said that the patriots coaches and owners and managers had no knowledge of all this. so it's very strange that two very low-level employees would be the people who are blamed and the team would pay this in draft picks and money. >> michael quickly what can the nfl do to cleanup the image after this string of scandals? >> strangely enough this is about the worst thing because as scandals go it was pretty minor and had no effect on the games involved and the punishment is worse than some of the serious scandals they had and one of the first things they need is an independent procedure for taking care of these problems both the ones on the field, but more importantly the ones off the field that have really hurt the

nfl. >> michael nfl broadcaster and thanks for talking to us golden have two a piece with grizzlies and carry who led to victory and 27-year-old in mvp and top scoring with 33 points and 101-84 and the game five in california on monday. similar situation in the east as the atlanta hawks have levelled their playoff series with the washington wizards at two all, and teague scored 26 points when they won. and buying munich for the champion semi final and barcelona one 3-0 and eight match winning streak and had a goal in seven but the last time they faced in at the alliance

arena two years ago lost 4-0. if barsa loses it could be the last of the season because of a dispute to end the spanish season is still unresolved and league is taking legal action to try and stop players striking in support of the country futbol federation and we report from madrid. >> reporter: battling in may is a familiar scenario in spain, what is different this time is their title race may not finish spanish futbol in turmoil after they ordered suspension of futbol from the 16th. >> can it be resolved? >> reporter: because of disagreement with the government over the running of the game predictably the core of the dispute is money. on one side of the dispute is the spanish league who have been holding their meeting and they are in agreement with the

government on how television money should be shared among clubs, on the other side is the spanish federation and they are not happy at all with how they feel they are being disrespected and decisions made without them being properly consulted and they have the backing of the players. if a strike were to go ahead over 60,000 players and 30,000 matches across spain would be cancelled and the matches on sunday would be halt with barcelona four points clear in the season reaching climax and the league season is due to end on the following saturday, if the dispute is not resolved by may 30 the spanish cup final between barcelona would be hit and has to be resolved by june 6 because barcelona stars mesi need to be released for copper america. the league president is taking legal action but will have talks with the players' union and government this week. >> translator: i received a phone call this morning from the

supreme court, i was informed that on wednesday at 10:30 in the morning there will be a hearing to judge league allty of the strike. >> reporter: spanish futbol fans blame federation chief, an fifa vice president and his organization has effectively taken the ball away and now they need to consider the damage if it is not returned in time. lee weldings al jazeera, madrid. second stage of the tour of california to extent his overall lead, the british writer claimed his 11 stage victory of the season in 196 kilometer race and edged out peter again by a quarter of a wheel. and now leads by eight seconds. that is it for me. thanks very much and stay with us on al jazeera, another full bulletin of news is straight ahead.

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>> protestors are gathering... >> there's an air of tension right now... >> the crowd chanting for democracy... >> this is another significant development... >> we have an exclusive story

tonight, and we go live... ♪ a new earthquake hits nepal near mt. everest and rocks the capitol kathmandu and 16 people have been killed. ♪ hello, i'm in doha also ahead [gunfire] gunfire in burundi as protests against the president's reelection plans enter a third week. no refuge and indonesia will send back every boat caring rwanda migrants. >> we hope a ceasefire will hold. >> reporter: iran backs a truce in