president sepp blatter apologise not to be able to come today because of turbulence you probably follow president sepp blatter a no show at the opening in zurich on a day seven top f.i.f.a. officials are arrested. you're watching al jazeera, live from our headquarters. also coming up. sponsors are shaken. feeta says it will reconsider the relationship.

the military send out live samples around america and south korea. >> the government plans it cancel i.d. fards threatening to live thousands in limbo. hello, f.i.f.a. president sepp blatter chaired an emergency meeting with contingental soccer bodies calling together regions, 74 hours after officials were elected. they are accused of corruption. >> they've been hope relating to the rewarding of the tournaments in 2018 and 2022. blahhed has not been named in either investigation. misconduct has no place in

football. they have to decide whether to boycott the f.i.f.a. election on saturday. key sponsors of the governing body expressed concern over the corruption scandal. the chief medical officer offered a message on behalf of sepp blatter. president blatt are apologised not to be able to come because of turbulence that you have probably followed in the media. he is has to fulfil the situation as president today, which are probably more important than to come to us. even though medicine is very close to his heart. so he sends his apologies and greetings to us all. we are a day away from the vote for f.i.f.a.'s presidential election. the european governing body is

meeting to discuss the arrests and is expected to decide whether or not to boycott the f.i.f.a. congress. on wednesday, u.e.f.a. whose chief called for the election to be postponed for six months. the english chairman believes that the prince can beat blatter in the elections. >> f.i.f.a. has taken a battering, and it now needs a hotelly different heardship and the important thing for f.i.f.a. is sepp blatter sustains down and someone takes his place, someone this believes in transparency and honesty. >> let's cross to laurence lee, joining us from zurich to tell us where sepp blatter is and what is happening in the ooufa meeting. >> [ laughs ] i wish i knew. >> that is still taking place.

>> since sepp blatter didn't attend the f.i.f.a. medical conference this morning, and then vanished it seemed impossible not to believe that he wasn't casting around to figure out how much support he's likely to get in the event of the election due to be held over the weekend. it goes some way to explaining why he's been holding an emergency meeting, to see what sort of confidence he can still achieve. the main grouping that has come out against him as you heard is u.e.f.a. or a large section of u.e.f.a. which is meeting at the moment. prince ali of jordan who is attending was mobbed by cameras. u.e.f.a. will hold an unscheduleded news conference later to decide what their strategy is to unseat blatter.

in the world football terms. they are not big. what they have in their favour is financial muscle because european fans tend to be richer. they have some of the best football teams in the world - france germany spain - not england any more - but these countries, if they threaten to breakaway from f.i.f.a. in the world cups that would be a disaster for f.i.f.a. they are trying to weigh up to what extent they'll play some of these cards, on the assumption that sepp blatter will not go voluntarily. >> there's so much going on in zurich and the story develops hour after hour. give us an idea of what the next couple of hours in zurich looks like? >> well yes. it is a good question. and i think certainly the gap between now and when the opening

ceremony is held is in four hours from now. we'll sense from u.e.f.a. that they'll not boycott the opening ceremony or the vote. the emerging strategy is they'll see if they can get enough votes from prince ali to unseat blatter. that will not happen but it seems what they'll try to do at the moment. and then assuming that we hear nothing from sepp blatter in the meantime there'll be the opening ceremony if he turns up at that and waits for the crowd and whatever else goes on. you'll have to assume that will be the point when we can say he'll try to tough it out and go through the election process. i suspect he'd do that if he thought he was not going to get enough streets win. >> we'll let you go and talk to you throughout the day. laurence lee reporting from zurich. criminal proceedings have been open relating to the repairing

of the world cup to russia. 2022 and 2018 to qatar. we'll find out what the reaction has been from russia to everything that is going on in zurich and the world cups. >> a somewhat expected fiery reaction from the russian president vladimir putin over the allegations. he's made comments in the last couple of hours, and is saying that the u.s. investigation is another attempt at getting jurisdiction over another state. and he is a staunch supporter. mr blatter, and he said that this investigation was what he described as m.e.r.s.ry means used by -- mercenary means by the u.s. to her -- to scutter the elizabeth of sepp blatter. it's interesting the context in

terms of what russia's relationship is like with the u.s. and the west. analysts across the world described it as buying in a worst state than it has been any time since the ippeding of the gold war, allegations made by the u.s. with respect to russia's role in supporting separatists in the used of ukraine,ing it that russia denies, and russia's annexation of crimea. these investigations the scandal in f.i.f.a. had nothing to do. only last month sepp blatter met sepp blatter at the side lines of a sporting event and told the russian president that the world cup steering commit re disadvantages five stars, pore

with russia holding the world cup. there's a lot at stake. f.i.f.a. said the alleges will have no are no impact as to the venue changes, boat with 2018 and in qatar in 2022. there's a lot at stake here. $50 billion, it is said is spent on the building of this world cup. 11 stadia across the country. it's an embarrassment for russia. we look forward to what will be one of the largest sporting events history. >> charles stratford reports from motorcyclescow. >> andrew woodward is a marketing expert and said spon seniors had been through cases like this before. >> i wouldn't expect to see

sponsor pull out of f.i.f.a. at that time for the reason all of these companies have invested hundreds of millions over the last, you know, four, eight, 12, 20 years in football. so at the - at one instance, there's no logical reason to, you know, withdraw from the sponsorship. you would be wasting a lot of money. marketers around the world are smart. if there was to be a vacancy in your category for sponsorship, in the hottest property in the world. plenty of companies will line up to take your place, and competitors. you'd buy a lot of money, but could be letting competitors in. just to bring you news from reuters, it is saying that the confederation of african football says it's opposed to postponing friday's f.i.f.a. election referring to the

presidential election meant to take place on friday. the confederation is opposed to a postponement moving on to other news the malaysian government shings 139 victims may be buried on makeshift graves. 38 were found in the remote. 12 police men are questioned. a government minister says the smugglers avoided police. >> the indication we see, the accessibility from thailand. the supply from the border. 200 meters. it goes into the camps. you see that malaysia is is blated from the whole structure, and then because it is on the top of the hill. normally like what i see, on

top of the hill we are on the side. normally it's on top of the hill hundreds of demonstrators led by monks marched through the city protesting against criticism of the treatment of the rohingya muslims. the group is calling on the government to resist pressure to recognise and grant more rights to the rohingya. by the end of this month they'll face more uncertainty in myanmar. the temporary registration cards due to expire. they are not recognised by the deposit and many wonder if there's a future at all. >> myanmar is the only country they have ever known. she has seep her status

-- she has seen her status go from being a citizen to no citizen at all. >> i have already given it up. i don't know what will happen now. >> reporter: she used to hold a citizenship card. in the late 1980s, the government took it back from the rohingya ethnic minority to which she belongs. the government sees them as illegal migrants from bangladesh, even though many have been here for generations. they were promised citizenship documents but were registered documents but were registered temporary cards. they had some rights, including the right to vote. now that is gone. this is an office set up to collect i.d. cards. it's in a former school building. it's in a camp for displaced rohingya. they are not allowed to travel into town. the muslim rohingya is segregated from the ethnic buddhist community. three years ago there was religious fighting between the

two sides. it was partly the animosity causing the government to revoke temporary cards known as white cards. with elections scheduled for november and a referendum on constitutional reform, human rights activists accused the government of pandering to a buddhist electorate. >> mostly the motivation is really to strip the last remaining rights, the right to vote, from the rohingya. in so doing, they are disenfranchising thousands of others eligible for citizenship. it's an anti-rohingya drive that is motivating it. the government says there's nothing sinister behind the decision. >> translation: we'll accept white cards until may 31st, after that those that gave them up will be granted identity cards. >> many doubt they'll be granted citizenship, saying the government let them down in the past. for now they remain a minority, unrecognized and unwanted so that was florence louie

in western myanmar on the flight of the rohingya there. still ahead on al jazeera. after the flooding comes the clean-up. crews face a massive task in houston. why native americans were angry with a decision to grand sainthood to an 18th century priest. details coming up.

hello, the headlines on al jazeera. faefa president sepp blatter chaired on emergency meetings with continental soccer bodies.

six regions called together seven hours after top officials were arrested. among 14 indicted by the u.s. accused of corruption. the top body is meeting in europe and expecting to decide whether to boycott the f.i.f.a. congress. the presidential election on friday is tipped to grant sepp blatter a fifth term. the leader of al nusra front accused the u.s. of coordinating with the bashar al-assad regime in bombing areas under its control. the u.s. does not want to assad regime to be toppled, they said. >> translation: there's no one air space for two war planes. in the civil aviation there should be coordination. how about the military war planes in case of the civil aviation, their routes the saudi arabia airline takes off. they coordinate between each

other. how about the military war planes, do you think there's a u.s. war plane flying at the same time with another war plane belonging to the syrian regime and there was no coordination. >> translation: do you accuse america? . >> translation: yes, we have documents. we have pictures that there were syria and u.s. war planes flying at the same time in yemen popular resistance forces say they pushed back the houthi rebels. those loyal to ali abdullah saleh, former president, shelled residential areas, killing dozens of people. 18 houthi rebels have been killed by resistant forces in battles. three fighters were killed. >> british mps are to start debating the planning of a referendum on whether or not to stay in the european union. >> queen elizabeth opened parliament following the general

election won by the conservative party, it wants an in or out vote before the end of 2017. the prime minister david cameron is touring the european capitals before he tries to renegotiate and improve the terms of the membership of the e.u. u.s. military commanders are trying to find out how samples of anthrax bacteria were sent to south korea, and nine u.s. the pentagon says there's no risk to public health but 22 people may have been exposed in south korea. four staff were treated as a precaution after a laboratory in utah mistakenly dispatched stamps. the lethal anthrax disease was used in a bioweapons programme. >> severe weather pounds parts of the u.s. state of texas. several people were injured when a tornado struck a gas-drilling rig near the town of canadian. there's a clean-up in and around houston as teymuraz gabashvili

reports. -- gabriel elizonda reports. >> heavy machine ray brought in to clear the roads after the flooding receded. crews are out in force as it's clean-up time in houston, this is why. record rainfall made highways impassable in the city. hundreds had to be pulled to safety as cars were engulfed by floodwaters. >> i tried to open the door, and it wouldn't open. i went for the windows, and cotton the roof. they came over and helped me out. >> houston, home to 2 million people is america's forth largest city, every part was swamped with water. then there was this disturbing scene. a casket with a woman's body inside. unearthed by floodwaters by a nearby cemetery. it was discovered by a man riding his bike. . >> i never found anything crazy like this. i didn't know what was happening. i was a little scared. i'm what the heck. >> they are in clean-up mode. this is a major underpass shut down, because it was flooded. i want to give you a sense of how high the water levels went.

they went all the way up to the top of the retaining wall. people have not seen flooding this bad for decades. because of flooding, 46 counties in the state of texas have been put on states of emergency. in the town of wemberley, one of the hardest hit several are missing and dead. with forecasters predicting rain, people are on edge hoping it won't be another night of scenes like this. a severe heatwave continues in india, it's killed over 1,000 people in the southern state of andre pradesh alone. several tours soared to over 47 degrees celsius. most of the victims are the elderly, homeless and labourers, and are suffering sun stroke and chronic dehydration. several in south korea have been diagnosed with respiratory

syndrome for m.e.r.s. several caught the disease. one victim broke quarantine and is in china. officials are trying to locate him u.s. has called on china to stop building artificial islands in in the south china sea. the u.s. military will act in the region in line with international law. the islands have been contested between china and its neighbours. >> a u.s. congressional delegation wrapped up a visit to cuba saying washington would not seek regime change saying an embassy would open in havana for weeks. both will work towards restoring diplomatic relations, after more than five decades of embargoes imposed on the islands in. >> a state of emergency has been declared as anti-mining protesters begin a demonstration

in the south. weeks of deadly protests have been held. activists say it will pollute rivers and destroy rice crops. three protesters and an officer has been kill. >> calls to impeach the president has been made in brazil. dilma rousseff has been suffering record low ratings as critics connect her to a fraud scandal. >> reporter: these members of the free brazil movement walks to close it a month from sao paulo to brasilia, to hand deliver a petition demanding that president dilma rousseff be impeached. they are as certain of their demand as they are of thar 1,000km journey. >> we consider the mounting pressure coming from the people, sooner or later leading to impeachment.

the indignation of the general population is evident. the government is no longer sustainable. we believe that even if it doesn't happen now, it will happen in the near future. the legal framework is there, the population wants it, and all we need is the opposition to listen. >> reporter: though small, today's protest is the third time that the brazilians took to the street demanding that the president be tried for corruption. a similar process in sao paulo last month was attended up with half a million people. what might have once seemed like an outlandish request is slowly gaining with brazil's radical groups. >> this is proof that people are dissatisfied with the way politics have been conducted, and by a government that is resembling a dictatorship. the free brazil movement believes change must come through impeachment. not everywhere agrees dilma rousseff must leave government, but they want to see a change in the way politics is being done in brazil. political reform is discussed in

congress, under consideration of the elimination of campaign funding by private firms. as well as the question of compulsory voting. change is slow to come in a country that has been under the same party rule for more than a decade. no evidence linking dilma rousseff to any wrongdoing in relation to the scandal has been presented. to many though, the rampant corruption inside the state-run oil giant shed light on how disconnected the political elite has become from the people that let's get an update op all plans by pope francis to declare a roman catholic priest a saint in the united states are proving to be controversial with native americans. they say serra's efforts to convert ancestors amounted to

genocide. melissa chan explains. >> the vatican and its new era under the progressive leadership of pope francis. one of his missions - bringing the church closer to the people. part of that strategy the canonization of serra. he would be the first latino saint in the united states. the missed fatherhood of serra were beautiful places. for some native americans they were prisons, essentially forced to work in the fields for the missions, forced to stay in the missions and forced into christianity. the mission settlement wiped out local population, whether by disease or the barrel of a gun. best estimates say 100,000 indians died in the decades following. for indians, the impending canonization of serra is an affront. >> we talk about serra in the negative. there's no one that talks about serra in the positive.

>> reporter: they are tribes vastly downsized as a result of european arrival across the continent. gatherings like this allow american indians to celebrate, and also, in many ways, cling to what is left of their culture. >> for us it's different. we look at it as our people were devastated, you know, what happened. it affected our culture and whole livelihood. >> by choice or by force, some 5,000 indians were baptized during serra's administration. >> mission delores, the 7th of the 21 missions in the state. and where andrew galvin, a descendent of those very mission indians, that father serra

converted, works as curator. >> he is calling us to be saints. >> galvin's is the minority voice. >> i believe he was one of the champions of native people, in protecting my ancestors, because he founded mission san francisco. >> vincent disagrees. it's a bit of a family feud. he's galvin's cousin. >> it's amazing, for me i see a horrible place of colonisation, where there was suffering, pain, degradation, death, diseases. >> criticism of the pope's decision prompted a response from the church. the archdiocese published the following: >> the two sides look at them through vastly different lenses. pope francis declared this year a year of evangelization. serra's sainthood would fulfil that spirit. one of men that brought for better or worst, christ to the

new world. much more news on our website. there it is on your screen. all the day's top stories on aljazeera.com. >> an anthrax scare in nine u.s. states and air force base overseas the live virus accidentally shipped from a storage lab. >> rescuers in texas in a desperate search for families missing days after floods swept away their home and the state is bracing for more rape and flooding. >> where is seth blatter? fifa's controversial president skips out on a public meeting as top officials are arrested.