♪ amnesty accuses the nigerian military of war crimes in its battle to defeat boko haram. ♪ >> i'm lauren taylor this is al jazeera live from london. south africa admits it gave $10 million to a soccer official in the united states but was a world cup bribe. renewed fighting near donetsk. ukraine's government and separatists blame each other. family versus career. we look at the pros and cons of a growing number of women

freezing their eggs in the u.k. ♪ hello. amnesty international is ak casing the nigerian military of committing war crimes during its fight against boko haram. the military including senior commanders it says must be investigated for the killing of thousands of people. its report says since march 2011 more than 7,000 young men and boys died many military detention. and at least 10,000 were arrested on suspicion of being boko haram members and tortured. amnesty says the report is based on years of research and leaked military reports, as wells a interviews with many people. the nigerian military has rejected the report calling it biased and concocted. let's cross to our correspondent

who is live from the capitol. >> reporter: the military lauren has just respondented in the last few minutes, and what they are basically saying is that amnesty's report is biased; that it's not based on serious evidence that their sources are questionable; that they are relying on many unnamed sources; that they are not giving specific details as to how they came about this future that over7,000 men and boys have been murdered at the hands of the military. amnesty talks about making six missions to the region. they say that they spoke to over eight unnamed military officials. the nigerian military is saying who are those individuals? and then there is this line about 800 military documents

that were leaked to amnesty. the nigerian government is saying let's see those leaked documents. amnesty is standing by their sources, but the military says the organization doesn't want the truth, doesn't want to have the respect and understand the challenges faced by the military in operations against boko haram in the northeast. and as you say, lauren ultimately, they say amnesty international is bias. and of course they deny these allegations made by the military authorities. >> and all of this a headache for the new president, isn't it? >> that's right. prior to the president being

sworn in on friday he campaigned on defeating boko haram, and in the run-up to the campaign which i followed closely, he talked extensively about allegations of human rights abuses by the military. he says the military was in serious trouble; that there was a lack of proper leadership within the military and all of these allegations -- this is not the first time amnesty is making these allegations -- ought to be investigated. now he's in power, and people are asking how will he now respond to these allegations now that he is in power. he is effectively in one sense being asked to investigate his own. being that he is a former military commander. and his critics said he also had the path of somebody who didn't respect human rights when he was a military ruler here in the

1980s. we asked amnesty what has the response of the new president and administration been? they say they are still waiting for a response. we have reached out to the president's office asking for their response again, we're still waiting for any kind of reaction. but people will be waiting to see whether he does do what amnesty wants which is investigate these allegations. >> thank you very much indeed. ♪ sepp blatter has returned to work at fifa headquarters in zurich a day after announcing he would be resigning as president of football's world governing body. u.s. media has reported that the fbi is investigating mr. blatter. interpol has added six fifa officials to its most-wanted list. lawrence lee reports. >> reporter: if this was the first day of a new life for fifa you wouldn't know it.

sepp blatter was still at work. there was a mixed youth game on the grounds, suggesting the kind of sporting purity fifa's critics say vanished years ago. but his announcement that he was to go was followed by interpol releasing red notices against several figures from the americas. [ inaudible ] that question is not clear between the countries that supported him and those that hated him. >> we know the taxpayer's money was effectively wasted because of a corrupt bidding process. >> translator: look i'm not in blatter's shoes, but it was a choice with a lot of inconvenient facts. >> reporter: and who should replace latter michel platini,

or prince ali? the campaign group new fifa now believes someone with true significant, perhaps even the former head of the united nations should about as a control figure to offer assure rans to everyone. >> we made a proposal back in january when we launched that there was the implementation -- creation and implementation of an independent reform committee. and that needs to be lead by an imnext person someone such as mitt romney. mitt romney took on the role in salt lake city and did a great job there. >> reporter: it's not clear how belong blatter is going to hang around for, or whether he intends to try to find a successor cut from the same cloth as himself. the trouble is there is no other obvious unifying figure to

move forward. the question in global corporate football is whether it is possible to move ahead. >> lawrence lee joining us life now. the fbi case building momentum in the u.s. is that net really closing in on sepp blatter now? >> reporter: well it's easy to see why many think it is. four days ago he accepted the presidency. he was asked if he might resign. he said if i resign it would indicate i did something wrong. four days later he resigned. clearly we know the report has come out from the states that the fbi are investigating him, and here in europe the red notice by interpol against a number of people very close to blatter. the swiss authorities say that they are not interested in investigating him with regard to corruption allegations for the 2018 and 2022 world cup bids

but i think what is very evident now is if there is a case, the news isn't going to come out of here it's going to come out of the united states primarily, and what the fbi strategy is i think, is to try to get as many people around blatter to try to see if they can build a case from those people against him. but that could take months and months from now. >> lawrence in the last few minutes the fbi has said their investigation is now going to look into the awarding of the world cup to russia and qatar. how is that going to effect the governance of world football in the next little while? >> reporter: well i think what it does is creates a very difficult question for whoever tries to take over from sepp blatter. obviously a number of people prince ali i mentioned, he got 70 votes or more against blatter the other day. most of europe some of latin

america. not bad, but not good enough to unseat blatter. michel platini popular in some places, not so much in others. other people that are quite well-known but they are not strong enough to try to force blatter from office just at the moment. and frankly any of them to your question is faced with the most difficult question should there be a rerun of the 2018 and 2022 world cup bids because particularly for 2018 that has the potential to cause not just a sporting problem in terms of the amount of russia has already vetted in the world cup, but a massive political implication. it's very difficult to imagine western politicians wanting to actually cause even more problems in their relationship with russia than they have at the moment by trying to take the world cup off of russia and give it to a country like england

instead. >> thank you lawrence. qatars prime minister says this will have no impact on his bid to host the 2022 world cup. he said qatar sdefshed to win. calls to have the bid reviewed he described as a bashing campaign against qatar. south africa has denied that $10 million paid to a fifa fibl in 2008 was a bribe. he says the payment was aboveboard but he didn't know what mr. warner did with the money. >> the fact that a payment of $10 million u.s. was made to an approved program aboveboard does not equate to bribery. those who allege should prove their allegations. we refuse to be caught up in a

battle of the united states authorities and fifa. we have never been spokespersons for fifa and do not intend to speak on behalf of fifa. fifa has to speak for itself. >> ukrainian forces and pro-russian fighters have fought their first serious bat bat -- battles in three months. they tried to take one town but were stopped by forces loyal to the government. the separatists accuse government troops of firing at rebel territory around donetsk and say electricity supplies have been cut off trapping hundreds of minors underground. >> reporter: a spokesperson says that separatists fighters in eastern ukraine at around 4:00

local time mounted a large-scale attack using ten tanks and up to a thousand fighters. now the ukrainian army said it was forced to redeploy some pretty heavy weaponry in order to repel the attack weaponry that both sides are supposed to have pulled back from the front line as part of the agreement signed in february. the representative for the self proclaimed donetsk people's republic told the press that its forces were not behind the attack. denied all responsibility for starting it said that a number of civilians had been killed and up to 17 fighters. there were reports that possibly up to three coal mines had suffered blackouts as a result of the fighting. and there were reports of hundreds of minors trapped underground. we are now hearing reports that those minors had been rescued.

this escalation has been expected certainly amongst military analysts that we have spoken to here in moscow. the organization for security and economic cooperation which is monitoring the ceasefire talks about almost daily violations of the ceasefire by both sides. it was only last week that the separatists claimed that in one given day they suffered shelling around 30 attacks in various positions. the separatists fighter's positions around the region. but as i say, this is a worrying development, as both sides, so we're told try to forge some sort of long-term political peace settlement to this conflict. coming up in the program, as isil captures more ground a u.s. general explains how they could be stopped. and china puts more and more resources into rescuing passengers from a sunken ship. ♪

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♪ hello, a reminder of the top stories ear on al jazeera. amnesty international is accusing the nigerian military of committing war crimes during its fight against boko haram. its report says since march 2011 more than 7,000 young men and boys died in military detention. it has been revealed that the u.s. fbi investigation into fifa including scrutiny into the world cups awarded to russia and qatar. and there has been fighting in eastern ukraine between

government forces and pro-russia separatists, it's the most significant escalation of the conflict since the ceasefire was agreed to in february. general john allen has been speaking in doha. hashem ahelbarra has more. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: isil fighters capture a village on the outskirts of aleppo. they say they are determined to expand their territory in the northern part of syria. this isil video is said to show life in the syrian city of palmyra days after its was seized by isil. the group controls huge area stretching from mosul to anbar in iraq and villages in aleppo in northern syria. the former u.s. general in

charge of coordinating globl efforts to defeat isil knows that taking on isil or daesh as it is known in the arab world isn't easy. >> daesh is not an iraqi problem. it is not a syrian problem. daesh is a regional problem that is trending towards global implications. >> reporter: the international alliance was formed after isil fighters swept through the city of mosul last year. the coalition launched air strikes against isil in iraq and syria, but it's ultimate goal is to help iraqi security forces counter isil drain isil's financial resources, prevent foreign fighters from crossing into syria and iraq undermine isil's propaganda machine. in iraq isil took advantage of the growing frustration of sunni muslims with the shia-lead government to recruit more

fighters. >> we have to ask ourselves why daesh of ike have more than 70% of their members as iraqis where in syria they are less than 20% syrian? why people were not supported but accepted because they were suffering during years and years of very sectarian government of almall almall -- al-maliki. >> reporter: they are two countries divided along sectarian lines, a divide that plays into the hands of isil. an air strike has killed at least 70 people in the kirkuk province. it's not clear who carried out the attack. in syria 20 people have reportedly been killed and several others injured in barrel bomb attacks. the bombings also destroyed many

buildings. fierce shelling in the area added to the destruction in the town. the refugee camp south of damascus has been hit by several barrel bombs. the camp has suffered frequent attacks by syrian government forces and isil fighters. coalition air strikes have once again been targeting yemen's capitol. they are said to have targeted a military factory and troops loyal to the former president saleh. several northern neighborhoods in the city were reportedly attacked by houthi artillery. rescuers in china are planning to cut into the hull of a capsizedship. only 14 people have been saved

so far after the ship sank on monday. adrian brown sent us this report. >> reporter: on a day of fading hopes, the chinese government is throwing what it can at this rescue operation. more than 5,000 emergency workers have so far been deployed. on tuesday they heard yells for help coming from within the upturned hull but nothing since. the most dangerous work is being undertaken by divers. and this is reportedly the last glimpse of the vessel reported by a security camera on a nearby ship half an hour before it capsized. access to the site remains blocked by police and paramilitary troops but on wednesday the government organized a boat trip for foreign and chinese journalists. the a message the operation will continue if there's even a slight chance someone a alive.

>> currently the focus of the operation is to try to find the survivors. they will keep the hope to the last minute. >> reporter: moving into position a crane that might be used to support the vessel if the decision is made to cut into portions of the hull. the government has promised an investigation, but it's clear what happened here on monday night is turning into the country's worst maritime accident in recent times. state media say the vessel was hit by a cyclone and capsized within two minutes. still unexplained is how the captain and chief engineer both survived. relatives tries to stage a demonstration in shanghai. the city where many of the mostly elderly passengers are from. even at a time like this such protests are illegal. for now they are not allowed to visit the rescue site either. so some go further upstream to

grieve by the river's edge. adrian brown, al jazeera, southern china. egyptian president sisi is in germany, seeking to boost military and economic ties. the president greeted him in the capitol berlin but his arrival has caused divisions among german politicians. a quarter of a million of greece's small and medium-sized businesses have already gone bust and there are thousands more barely surviving. john psaropoulos met with some. >> reporter: for three generations this family caught fish and sold them to restaurants, but the restaurants stopped buying during the crisis, so two years ago, the family reinvented its business

it now sells directly to high-end consumers, but most small and medium-rised enterprises don't have the money to finance their own turn around, and business around the country has fallen more sharply since the january election that brought the party to power. >> translator: the elections were declared and the market began to freeze. it has been dead for six months. people can rent a film for a week for 150 even that gives people cause now. they have to take decisions so we can make plans too. we're in total darkness now. >> reporter: greece's economy was supposed to grow by 1.5% this year the election and standoff have cut that to just half of 1%. a new study finds that greeks have already lost 4/10th of their income in the early years of the crisis.

that put a third of society under the poverty threshold. that's why this government was elected to bring more growth and less austerity, but the longer talks drag on the further it departs from that goal because people aren't spending and businesses aren't hiring or investing. a quarter of a million small and medium-sized businesses have gone under and many that remain aren't really in business. but the issue of growth has been ignored since the beginning of the greek bailout five years ago. >> we knew from the beginning that this problem could provoke deeper recession than the europeans were expecting. i think that everybody understands that with further austerity measures we cannot put on track growth in greece.

we cannot manage any further salary or pension cuts. >> reporter: it looks as though most greeks won't be living off of sushi any time soon. the fertility treatment commonly referred to as egg freezing is becoming increasingly popular in europe. demand is up 400% in just 12 months. >> reporter: melanie jackson is among a growing number of british women delaying motherhood until later years. as melanie approached 40, she decided to freeze her eggs to preserve her fertility. >> things were getting later and later, and i wasn't living a particularly settled lifestyle, but i thought i didn't want to grow old without having child or children. >> reporter: melanie continues to keep some of her eggs frozen

for future use. >> that time that you think is going to last forever, and suddenly you realize you are too old to sort certain things out, it just gives an assurance in a way. >> reporter: egg freezing has been around for decades, but now private fertility clinics are promoting their services to young professional women. >> freezing our eggs at an earlier stage when you are setting out on a career will set your mind at rest when you have achieved what you wanted in the workplace. >> reporter: the procedure involves giving patients expensive hormones. the eggs are stored in liquid nitrogen for up to 10 years. the process can cost more than $18,000. in the last year the number of inquiries into private fertility

treatment has more than doubled with egg freezing now topping the list of popular forms of fertility treatment. in the last 12 months alone, clinics like this have seen a 407% increase in people interested in freezing their eggs. the figure is more than double that in spain. most women around 40% are between the ages of 25 and 34 and the number of women even younger is on the rise. but despite soaring interest the success rate remains unclear. one of the leading pioneers has a stark message for women thinking about egg freezing. >> don't do it. there's a lot of evidence to suggest it's unreliable and there may be a considerable pregnancy loss. and we may be creating babies that might be at risk for diseases that we didn't expect. >> reporter: some experts believe it's too early to know the full effects of egg freezing but as the science

develops it could help more women make difficult decisions between work and family life. much more for you any time on our website, the address is aljazeera.com. and you can watch us by clicking on the watch now icon. ♪ sweeping changes in how the government spies on americans. the usa freedom act putting new restrictions on the nsa, plus a man under 24-hour fbi surveillance killed by authorities. and why you may not be paying less at the pump even though oil prices are taking a plunge. ♪