>> keep the oil flowing, opec maintains production despite calls from the industry to push prices higher. hello there, i'm shiulie ghosh in doha. also coming up a food fight in india, maggie noodles aren't safe to eat regulators say, but nestle' says they are fine. and a cultural come back ten

years after the taliban destroys these priceless statutes. ♪ india's food safety regulators have banned the sale and production of maggie noodles a hugely popular food often served to children. they say dangerous levels of lead were detected in some samples. nestle' have been holding a press conference to try to i guess, reassure the public what have they been saying about maggie noodles. >> yeah absolutely. talking about why nestle' is still a deing -- dependable

company. and they are getting these maggie noodles back on the shelves as quickly as possible. the nestle' company has been very clear that their products will be back on the shelves as soon as possible. but many are asking how can the independent tests that nestle' have conducted and the tests that the regulators have conducted have such different results? >> what are people saying to you? because this is a hugely popular food product available all over india. >> reporter: consumers have certainly had a lot of questions about the safety of the product that they have been consuming many of them for many many years, if you talk to people across india, they say we have

grown up on maggie noodles, they remember the celebrities that have endorsed the product as well. it's almost part of the cultural product in india. many say they have taken the product off of their shelves as long back as a week ago since this product started to raise concerns. some also relied purely on selling maggie. vendors saying that the customers don't exist at the moment and they are desperate to find alternatives. >> thank you for that. a fourth person has died from mers in south korea. a further 41 cases have been confirmed. meanwhile it has emerged that a doctor infected with the disease came into contact with more than 1500 people. harry fawcett has more from seoul. >> reporter: after days of

underlying rumors and calls for more transparency south korea's government revealed one of the hospitals involved in the mers outbreak. it say 30 days were at st. mary's hospital south of seoul. the virus spread quickly here perhaps it was transmitted by staff or through poor air ventilation. it is not clear whether the virus has mutated into a more infection condition. >> translator: we have decided to release the name of the hospital in order to trace all of the people who have been in the hospital. >> reporter: until now such information has been the subject of crowd sourcing pinpointing locations where infected

patients were believed to have been treated. >> translator: this weekend will be critical the incubation for primary and secondary patients ends this weekend. if there's no further infection, we can say we stemmed the main tide. tide. >> reporter: late on thursday night such concerned were heightened when seoul's mayor announced that a doctor who had contracted the virus had been in contact with hundreds of people. before his association says he knew he had been exposed he went to two medical symposiums and a meeting with more than 1500 fellow owners of this apartment complex. the kind of contact the attendees would have had with that doctor is unlikely to have

transmitted mers. >> translator: there has been a big drop in the number of tourists coming in. this will hit more than 50% of our business. if it goes on i might have to consider shutting down. >> reporter: for most life goes on as normal but this deadly little understood diseases is playing on the find. for now they are simply hoping after a slow start, the government has caught up enough to slow and stop the spread of mers. the oil cartel opec has announced it will keep pumping oil at 30 million barrels a day. the 12 members have been meeting in vienna. despite pressure from energy

companies and some members, delegates have decided not to boost revenue by reducing output. it peak ed at $110 a barrel but by january it dipped below $46. oil extraction is an expensive business and that's not enough to cover many of the producers costs. our correspondent is in vienna for us. opec sticking with its current level of output were all of the opec members happy with this decision? >> reporter: no. and what is interesting about that shiulie is that if you were to have gone to the press conference at the end of the day, as we did. the opec member countries that were there, putting forth a face of unity, saying what was decided on today was the best thing for the rich and the poor

country members of opec but clearly the venezuelans, an an -- an goalans, clearly were not happy about this. they wanted to see an change. that didn't happen though and as i said the public face of opec really maintaining this is the best thing for everybody so they can keep the main market share. the other interesting thing happening here today, was the iran iran iran iranan delegation said nobody can stop them from getting their oil out in the marketplace. the iranians have a lot of oil,

millions of barrels in storage right now, trying to get out to the marketplace, but what is keeping that from happening is the negotiations on their nuclear program. everybody is acting as though there is no worry, and they will deal with that at a later time but if there were let's say another million barrels a day being injected into the marketplace, because of sanctions being released upon iran that could cause some havoc in the oil market. so there were undercurrents of tension, but at the engineer of the day, what opec is saying is this is the for the good of everybody. >> mohammed thank you for that. now in syria there have been clashes near the border with

lebanon. seven people have been killed in fighting in hezbollah strong holds, al-nusra an al-qaeda affiliate says they have killed and wounded more than a dozen fighters. pakistani officials says eight of the ten men convicted for trying to malala yousafzai were convicted. in april legal and security officials announced that ten men were sentenced to long jail terms following a secret trial in malala's hometown. it's not clear if those acquitted have been released yet. the united nations security council is meeting to discuss the developments in the ukrainian crisis. there has been a surge in fighting after months of a ceasefire. kristen what is happening with

that meeting? >> reporter: well the russian ambassador to the united nations has just begun speaking. there is a briefing from u.n. officials and also the osce which has been monitoring that's fire in ukraine. and everyone is concerned about this escalation just yesterday, thursday the president of the ukraine, petro poroshenko warned a possibility of large-scale violence reigniting was very real. he warned that russian troops had amassed on the border and we're seeing increasing violence in a strategic town. the european union has sounded alarm bells as well. so they are getting an update on the information there. the osce representative told the council he is definitely

concerned about a decrease in the security situation there, but also seemed to calm down the tensions by saying this was not necessarily a further intense indication of the violence but just a movement to a different area, because this ceasefire has been shaky in the past several months but a warning that two parties in this conflict have not given up the military tract for a more political one, and the united nations is calling on all sides to go back to the negotiating table and work towards a more political solution. >> but as far as a concrete outcome, kristen, are we likely to see that from the security council? >> reporter: i don't think we're going to see that today, shiulie, we have russia of course a veto wielding member of the security council on one side of this issue with the united nations and the europeans on the other side of this issue. the russians are accusing the

ukrainians of ratcheting up the tensions and provoking violence in this area in an effort to increase sanctions. the europeans say that it's very disconcerting what is happening there. you have american defense officials meeting in germany to discuss possible counter measures to russia's movements in the area. so a lot of tensions but two very distinct sides, so we don't expect any concrete outcome from the security council, just an airing of views. >> kristen thanks for that. kristen saloomey in new york there. voters in turkey are electing a new government on sunday. the ruling party insists the economy has been their main

success. >> reporter: the produce is fresh and abundant at this market, each with a price tag. >> translator: we can't make ends meet. i have two children on a pension of around $500 a month. >> translator: we are happy with our income at least prices aren't increasing every day. >> reporter: the ruling party came to power in 2003. they have built more railroads and airports. the economy grew. massive infrastructure plans lured foreign investors. turkey's gross domestic product reached $822 billion in 2013. annual income per person has tripled since 2002 to almost

$11,000. but new indicateers are raising concerns. it is the first time in years that unemployment has risen, and the main opposition parties are trying to seize the opportunity. statistics from the turkish government and international bodies say last year's growth rate was just over 3% while inflation was around 9. unemployment levels rose to 11%, and the lira lost more than 13% of its value against the dollar. turkey relies too much on construction low borrowing rates, and debt say some. we're breaking into that report to give you some breaking news that iraq's [ inaudible ] one of saddam hussein's most prominent deputies has died. he was in prison. he suffered a heart attack on

thursday. al jazeera spoke to his son who expresses outrage that the iraqi government hasn't alerted the family and he only learned of the news of his father's death through the media. after hussein's removal from power in 2003 he turned himself in to american authorities and had been in prison ever since. i think we can go to our correspondent, imran khan who is on the line for us from baghdad. so he died after a heart attack. he was an old man, and he wasn't very well at all, was he? >> reporter: that's right. in 2010 they did pass the death

sentence on him. the death sentence was for his role in a variety of things including the execution of shopkeepers and merchants. he has always been a controversial figure but he was spared a lot of the -- the [ inaudible ] convictions that a lot of the other regime [ inaudible ] he was a very high profile figure. this will shock a lot of people but he was an old man, he was in his 70s, and it was not unexpected. >> his is a face that a lot of people internationally would recognize, because he often deputized for saddam hussein, and became washington's best contact within the iraqi regime before the u.s.-lead invasion in 2003. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] in the media. he was always a man who

represented a number of organizations within iraq. you have to remember, he was seen [ inaudible ] saddam hussein put him in his place because he was a christian. and he put him in that place because he was a christian, because he represented a mix of [ inaudible ] and some people think it is unheard of that we would get that kind of person [ inaudible ] he is a very -- he's certainly an historic figure within iraqi [ inaudible ]. >> imran thing you very much indeed for that. updating us on that. still to come here on the program, raising the wreck of a chinese cruz ship. the government says no more

survivors are expected to be found. and age high new rules for mexico's elections open the field to some far-out candidates. stay with us. ♪

♪ welcome back i'm shiulie ghosh. the top stories on al jazeera, one of saddam hussein's most prominent deputies has died. the iraqi officials say he died on thursday after suffering a heart attack. opec has agreed to keep oil

production at current levels despite pressure from some of the members to cutout put. oil prices fell after the announcement but have since recovered. and india regulators banned the sale of maggie needles after finding a level of lead that was unsafer. nestle' denies the allegations. the chinese government says there is no hope of finding survivors after monday's cruise ship disaster. >> reporter: the three-day recovery effort yielded little so the only option to remove bodies was to try to right the eastern star. helping to slowly turn the vessel up right.

net nets were spread around the ship. >> translator: attempts were made to search for bodies of victims, and we'll pay attention to leaking oil. >> reporter: this began after the government confirmed on thursday night that it didn't expect to find more survivors. drivers dove through murky river searching for bodies. along the river bank volunteers are helping in the grim process of recovery a task that could go on for many days. there are more than a thousand family members in the city closest to the accident and where many local people have been traumatized by the events.

such spontaneous gathering would normally not been allowed, but they allowed the individual ill to go ahead because so many wanted to express their sorrow. >> translator: we came here to pray. we hope the dead people can leave the earth peacefully. >> reporter: a city filled with sadness, and with so much more to come. adrian brown, al jazeera, in southern china. thailand is facing a huge migrant crisis as it cracks down on human trafficking. the government is trying to stop the country being used as a transit point for people smugglers. >> reporter: people in thailand's government know the recent exposure of camps of trafficked people along the border and the boats that

mostly rohingyas, have put the issue of human trafficking on the international agenda like never before. people here told me in previous years there have been little more than talking shops among government officials. the presence of the prime minister here to give the keynote address suggests that this issue is being taken more seriously. he was keen to point out this issue is one of his government's top three priorities and officials were landing out the list of the amendment to the anti-human trafficking laws. the issue is whether this will amount to more prosecutions because thailand's record on that score is pretty poor. just 104 people were prosecuted last year despite the attitude

that it is getting worse, not better. the world was shocked back in 2001 when the afghan taliban blew up the giant buddha statutes. now almost 15 years later, the ancient city has been declared a capitol of culture among southeast nations. >> reporter: well as you may know, europe has a cultural capitol every year now south asia has decided to have one as well. so it's a real queue that they have decided that this should be the first one. in many ways this is a largely symbolic naming as a cultural capitol, because there is major security concerns. this weekend we have a huge delegation of hundreds of officials from across

afghanistan here for the inauguration. we're also expecting some south asian high officials and ministers to come here to sell operate it as well but we have just heard from local officials that they won't be coming because of those security concerns, and that's the real issue and challenge for afghanistan, and the issue is how can they secure the country to be able to receive foreign tourists here to create a tourism industry. all 500 national congressional seats are up for grabs in mexico. and independents are being allowed to run for the first time. >> reporter: question what will a footballer a clown, a reality tv star and a vigilante have in common? answer they are all candidates in mexico's midterm elections. a growing disillusionment with

the major parties has lead to an electoral free for all. this man is better known as a national football hero than a politician is one of the new candidates entering the race. he says he must be able to do better than mexico's notoriously corrupt political class. >> translator: the important thing is to serve the people. something many politicians don't see. they forgot in them and that's why i'm running. >> reporter: his campaign partly powered by a superhero alter ego is hard to take seriously, but so is the establishment. all of the major parties have been involved in corruption and bad government scandals and that's why the doors have been left partly open to candidates

who didn't make their names as politicians. the most prominent candidate is a straight-talking cowboy boot wearing political veteran. he is playing to packed arenas on how he will lower violence and clean up corruption in the rich northern state. >> translator: what i want to do is shift the focus from political parties to the people. someone needed to start doing that, but no one dared to until me. >> reporter: more independence can only be good news. >> the problem with our system is that it needs some renewal and therefore these external shouts of independent candidates winning some positions can be that external shock needed. >> reporter: the man best placed to win that shock is this man. he alone is tipped to win his

race. if he does it will send a warning to the underperforming parties that if they can't do better the citizens now have other choices. and you can keep up to date with all of the day's news on our website, aljazeera.com. new job numbers out today, a good tine for the economy. a hack attack on the federal government personal data stolen on up to 4 million people. the u.s. pointing the finger at china. and newly leaked documents from edward snowden claimed the nsa has explained its spying in secret including collecting information on americans. ♪