they did this over and over year after year tournament after tournament. >> a double investigation into fifa. seven top officials are arrested on u.s. bribery charges. as switzerland investigates how russia and qatar won their world cups. ♪ hello there, i'm felicity barr also coming up. hours after iraq launches an offensive to take back anbar,

isil suicide attack kill at least 55 soldiers. the e.u. asks its member states to take in 40,000 asylum seekers over the next two years. plus power to the people. a deal to resume fuel supplies in nigeria, days before the new president is inaugurated. ♪ hello, there are calls for sepp blatter to resign. seven executives were arrested in switzerland on wednesday morning and are expected to be extradited to the u.s. they include jack warner and jeffery webb, the former and current presidents of the north american regional body. the suspects are accused of pay or receiving bribes of more than

$100 million. in return for lucrative sponsorship deals. switzerland has begun its own criminal investigation into money mismanagement, specifically relating to the world cup wins of russia and qatar. >> reporter: swiss police arresting officials from football's world governing body. they are suspected of bribery totaling more than $100 million and face extradition to the u.s. the case is linked to commercial deals dating back to the 1990s for major football tournaments in the americas. 14 people have been indicted they include fifa vice president jeffery webb the head of north american football governing body, his predecessor, jack warner former south american football heads, and the chief of

brazilian football who oversaw last year's world cup in brazil. as part of their investigation, the fbi also raided the headquarters in miami. on the same day, swiss authorities also launched separate proceedings into the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 world cups. it was initiated in this november after their own inquiry of the garcia report. >> what would you expect from us? that we start to speculate and say, well maybe, russia qatar, we have to redo the voting? i mean russia and qatar will be played. this is what is fact today. and i don't go into speculation of what will happen tomorrow and after tomorrow and so on. >> reporter: sepp blatter is looking to win a fifth term on friday. fifa say blater is not connected to the blast.

>> the president is not involved. of course he is the head of fifa but is not involved so how can you say, okay he has to whatsoever step down. hehe is the president -- he is the president, and in two days there will be elections. if they reelect him then he is the president for the next four years. >> reporter: despite the arres the expected reelection of blatter and the vote will still go ahead. >> kristen saloomey joins us life now from new york. fifa has been accused of corruption for many many years, but finally it is the united states that is taking action on a huge huge scale. >> reporter: it is a wide-spread investigation going back several years. the attorney general described corruption in fifa as rampant, systemic, and deep rooted going back for two generationsover fifa officials who she says

abused their position for millions of dollars in bribes and kickbacks. 14 people total charged in an indictment that was unsealed here in brooklyn new york earlier today. seven of those people were arrested in zurich. among those arrested are sports media companies, sports marketing companies, who as alleged, paid over $150 billion in bribes to fifa officials in order to get the marketing rights to soccer to world cup, fifa events. soccer as it is called here in the united states or football as it is known elsewhere in the world. the charges that they are specifically being leveled with are money laundering wire fraud, and racketeering and the events in question the charges seem to relate to the 2010 and the awarding of the 2010 world cup in south africa and also the 2011 fifa presidential

elections, apparently bribes exchanged hands in regard to those elections, during which shet blatter wassal elected president. he of course has been president since 1998. he is not charged in this indictment, but officials made it clear that the investigation is ongoing and more charges could be possible. here is what the u.s. attorney lynch had to say. >> beginning in 1991, two generations of soccer officials, including the then presidents of two regional soccer confederations under fifa one being the confederation of north central american and caribbean football which includes the u.s. and the south american football confederation, which represents organized soccer in south america, used their positions of trust within their respective organizations to solicit bribe from sports marketers in exchange for the

sports rights of their soccer tournament. they did this over and over year after year tournament after tournament. >> reporter: so one of the reasons that the united states is able to bring charges in this country is because of the use of the u.s. financial system which apparently was a key part of this bribery scheme as alleged by the u.s. attorney. so what happens next? the u.s. authorities are waiting for extradition of the officials from switzerland, that is typically an automatic arrangement with the swiss government. if those charged object in anyway, the united states has 40 days to write out their charges and submit them formally and after that the swiss authorities have an agreement to send suspects here to the united states for trial. so we will be watching for their arrival on these shores in the near future. >> kristen saloomey live with

the latest there from new york. thank you. al jazeera's andy richardson is in switzerland and joins us live now. striking of course is the fact that sepp blatter is not among those who have been arrested but as we have been hearing, it is now alleged there was corruption surrounding the 2011 fifa presidential election. >> reporter: yeah and we knew there was obviously serious problems with the 2011 election. if you remember the circumstances four years ago, mohammed bin hahman was due to stand against blatter in that election but he was accused of attempting to bribe his way to victory, handing out money to potential voters, and that resulted in him being banned from fifa and as it was blatter stood unopposed. now in the past fifa as we know is no stranger to facing

corruption allegations, but it is normally fifa who have been left to investigation themselves. what is so different this time around is there's an outside enforcement body that has come in through the rarefied confines of the five-star hotel behind me, where top fifa officials stay that couldn't protect them from being whisked away and arrested at dawn this morning. fifa and sepp blatter have come through corruption storms before but nothing on this level. >> the swiss investigation is completely separate from what the u.s. authorities are carrying out, isn't it? >> reporter: it is. and it's interesting why fifa tries to deal with this. they very quickly organized a press conference this morning, and said that that investigation was something that they welcomed that it was a

consequence of information they had given to the swiss authority. sepp blatter wasn't involved doesn't implicated and this would be good for the cleanup of football. how long you can argue that the fifa president is divorced and disassociated with what is going on at almost every level beneath him is an interesting one nch but within members of fifa regardless of all of this that is going on he is still enormously popular. friday's election against the prince of jordan he has support from europe and support from one or two countries in asia but beyond that the millions that fifa generates, and the way that they have distributed those millions to previously impoverished regions has made him hugely popular. so despite a number of calls for him to step down the election will go on as schedules, and he

should win. >> andy richardson, thank you. ♪ at least 55 iraqi soldiers have been killed in a wave of suicide bombings by the islamic state of iraq and the levant. the bombers attacked during a sand tomorrow in anbar province. it's not clear how many bombers there were. but the military says they were attacked from multiple sides. it happens a day after iraq announced a major offensive to try to retake anbar from isil. imran khan has the latest. >> reporter: shia militias mount an assault on isil fighters north of ramadi. there has been sporadic fighting since tuesday as both sides prepare to battle for ramadi. they are trying to take control

of villages and townes and use shelling and cut off their main supply lines. once the towns and villages are secured, then the push to ramadi will begin. >> translator: our aim is to meet our armed forces from other fronts. bracings have exclusively shelling and advancing towards isil heightouts. >> reporter: however, writer says the iraqi army tactics against isil are failing because they can't prevent suicide car bombings. >> translator: the iraqi security forces lack the intelligence and reconnaissance to prevent the attacks before they happen. and also the vehicles that isil use are heavily armored. the weapons the army use can sometimes be ineffective. >> reporter: despite that the operation goes on. this is the major supply line to anbar province for iraq security forces. it is used by military and civilian contractors.

surrounding baghdad you see these, they are called defense lines. now in many ways it's a very apt title because it's the last line of defense before the capitol itself. after here you get the headquarters of the 24th brigade, they are charge in reinforcements and logistics. now keeping the road open between here and anbar province and keeping the military supplied is crucial. equally crucial is how to deal with the car bombs. adapting to thu threats is an important part of warfare, but it appears that's something the iraqi security forces have yet to learn. the world health organization says the conflict in yemen has now killed up to 2,000 people including entire families. saudi-lead coalition have been carrying out sustained air strikes in the capitol sana'a. at least 36 commanders were killed at a police camp run by

forces loyal to the ousted president saleh. elsewhere yemeni sources they coalition forces flattened a naval base. 20 houthi fighters were killed in that raid. still to come on the program, queen elizabeth unveils david cameron's plans for the u.k. including a 27 referendum on britain's membership to the e.u. and as what -- wasp named after a harry potter character. just one of 139 new species revealed to the world.

hello again, a reminder of the top stories here on al jazeera. there are calls for sepp blatter, to resign after seven top officials were arrested in switzerland on corruption charges. the swiss justice ministry says six of them are opposing extradition to the u.s. the suspects are accused of paying or receiving bribes worth more than $100 million in return to lucrative markets and sponsorship deals dating back to the 1990s. and three suspected isils comers have targeted a convoy in iraq killing at least 55 soldiers. the attack came on the second day of an offensive to recapture anbar from the armed group.

a severe heat wave has killed more than a thousand people in india, most of the douts have been in the southern states. in some areas temperatures have climbed to nearly 50 degrees celsius every day for the last five weeks, but there is relief in sight as forecasters say the monsoon rains should hit india in the next few days. 12 malaysia policeman have in custody as part of an investigation into mass graves linked to people-smuggling groups. forensic experts are continuing to exhume the bodies of expected victims. most are expected to believe rohingya migrants from myanmar and poor migrants from bangladesh. the european union has asked its member states to take in

40,000 migrants in the next two years. jacky rowland has the latest from brussels. >> reporter: for the first time we have heard concrete figures of migrants that the european commission is asking individual member states to accept. the key word is asking. this is a voluntary scheme. the united kingdom has said it is not going to opt into the scheme. and other countries have expressed concern about the number of migrants they are being asked to accept notably france and spain. at the moment we're talking about a figure of 40,000 migrants from syria, and eritrea, which the e.u. is hoping to redistribute out there member states over the next two years. there are also plans as well to

offer refuge to another 20,000 individuals who at the moment are outside of the e.u. but the united nations refugee agency have identified as being in need of protection. however, some aid agencies have said this is still a minuscule number when you bare in mind that from the conflict in syria alone there have been millions of refugees who are in particularly in neighboring countries like turkey jordan and lebanon. and they think the european union, these rich western countries should be stepping up to the mark and taking on more responsibility. the italian government says it will convert abandoned buildings into holding centers. that has angered some italians who say the buildings should be used to help italy's holeless. humidity humidity has more. >> reporter: they keep arriving

in italy on a daily basis. migrants who dream of a new live in europe. to reach this point they have put their lives at risk. this man's journey took him from eritrea, to sudan, to libya, where he was detained for several months. >> translator: it was dangerous. my parents sold everything for me to be freed and come here they transferred the money, and then it was taken to a beach and we left. it was a zodiac it was raining, water was coming in from everywhere, we were about to drown. we were saved be the germans. i was so happy to see him. >> reporter: his rescue was part of operation triton a mission initiated at the end of last year. but for most migrants italy is yet another transit point on their way to northern europe where they think there are more job opportunities.

many here in italy fear under the current atmosphere across europe and with the tightening of the borders, holding centers like this one could just become permanent homes. italy has so far bore the brunt of the influx of migrants. they have had to move them across the country wherever there is a an emmy building. this one will soon open its doors to the newcomers. an abandoned school is also being refurbished. it's on the outskirts of rome. people living here fear the sudden arrival of a large number of migrants. >> translator: this area is isolated. there are few public services. there are no shops, pharmacies telephones. there is nothing. these are people who are still in the process of being identified. we don't know who they are. it is something that scares us. this is a private area it could

become a ghetto. >> reporter: a group of homeless people have also set up shop in front of the school. they say italians in need should come first. >> translator: there is nothing for us nothing. we can't ask for anything. we have nothing left and then we see these situations. the migrants get housing, they get help and then what? i have nothing against them but we are the ones becoming foreigners in our own country. >> reporter: and while those who made it this far are relieved to have fled war torn libya, many here worry about the future identity of their hometowns. the british monarch, has unveiled the new conservative government's political road map for the next four years. among them the motives announced are promise to voters by the end of 2017 they will be able to have their say on whether the

u.k. should say in the e.u. or not. lawrence lee has more. >> reporter: the queen's speech. no austerity here but pomp and ceremony by the bucket load. she arrive to outline what her new government plans to accomplish. and the prime minister now has a gift of an opportunity to refrain the u.k. and its relationship with europe is at the heart of it all. >> the e.u. has changed a great deal since 1975. we have a new strategy. the bill in this queen's speech makes clear the referendum must take place by 2017.

>> reporter: the idea is to first of all make life a lot more uncomfortable for people who are here. and secondly that people will send messages back through their own grapevines and networks they will be reporting to their friends and relatives that you have a tough time when you come to the u.k. and you might want to think about whether you are going to bother. >> reporter: others also want out of the human rights act. they say foreign-looking criminals have more rights than british citizens. of course the anti-european right-wing would argue that things like this, reducing rights for migrants repatriating laws to the u.k. would be far easier accomplished if the u.k. simply chose to leave the european union and that's why it will be the predominant topic of

conversation here at least for the next two years. by and large, though business wants to stay in europe. and campaigners are stepping up the fight. >> we wouldn't be able to get rid of all of the rules, as an example, norway they have to comply with 70% of the e.u. rules. so we wouldn't be able to stop complying with lots of the rules. >> reporter: the main opposition labor party doesn't even have a new leader yet, so the loudest voice is that of the scottish national party. it may easily demand a new referendum on leaving the u.k. if the rest of the country votes to leave the e.u. lawrence lee al jazeera, london. columbia's farc rebels say one of their peace negotiators were was of 27 rebels killed last week by armed forces.

farc say he was visiting troops to discuss progress at the peace talks when they were surprised by the air and ground assault. rebels have suspended their ceasefire with the military following that attack. mat-- madagascar has voted to dismiss the president. the future will now be decided by the constitutional court. the president came to power in january of last year critics say he hasn't delivered on economic policies, and claim he has stalled on implementing reforms. nigeria's outgoing government has agreed to pay $800 million it owes to oil companies to end the country's fuel crisis. businesses banks, hospitals and airlines have been forced to scale back operations. most companies in nigeria rely on diesel generators for power.

>> reporter: more gas stations now sell petrol but the queues are as long as they used to be a week ago. lives and bidses have been disrupted, but the situation is even worse in other places like rural towns and villages across nigeria. drivers spending hours if not days in queues to try to get petrol. >> i cannot go to work today. even if i get it today, i cannot go to work. >> reporter: the other alternative is to buy from a flourishing black market just meters away from installations like this where the price can be as high as four times the government price. now the power situation across nigeria is worsening by the day, more towns and villages are thrown into darkness because of power cuts and this is coming two days before a new government comes into office an indication that the new government will have a rough start to administration and governance in

nigeria. the world wildlife fund has released a list of 139 species discovered in the micong last year. kim vinnell reports. >> reporter: we have the dementor wasp named after a character in the harry potter series. it injects venom into cockroaches, which keeps its prey arrive but in a zombie like state. from vietnam, the color-changing thornny frog. the males have spikes and the female can tell the males who are ready to breed by how the spikes learn. and the long-fanged bat. then there's this snake from cambodia it lives in trees and only comes out at night, but

it's not venomous and just one has been found ever. many of these species are already under threat. the world wildlife fund says a real commitment is needed by all of those in the area to protect them. much more on our website, aljazeera.com. ♪ this really is the world cup of fraud, and today we're issuing fifa a red card. >> a soccer scandal heard around the world. 17 people are confirmed dead from historic flooding now a texas town is on alert that a dam may break. another