t the price of human rights, pristine forests and clean water. >> indigenous communities under threat. >> this not a peruvian problem this is a world problem. >> and the world wide campaign to clean up dirty gold. >> i really didn't want a symbol of love between me and my husband to be associated with such atrocities only on al jazeera america polls open in turkey that are a crucial test for the ruling party. hello from al jazeera's headquarters in doha i'm jane dutton. more than 3,000 migrants rescued off the coast of libya warnings thousands more could come. world leaders arrive from germany for the g7 summit. greek financial crisis and ukraine are the topics.

we begin in turkey where polls have opened for parliamentary elections. 56.6 million penal are eligible topeople are eligibleto vote. they will be choosing seats for parliament. the ak party focuses on religious equality. the maim opposition is the republican people's party or chp wants a higher minimum wage bonus pensions and a mega city to create economic growth. the chp needs to win at least 267 seats to gain a part of the parliament. as a party of the kurds it's

been targeting young urban and secular voters. bernard smith joins us from turkey. i've been watching the picture behind you for afew minutes it looks busy and people are taking the election seriously there. >> one of thousands of schools open across turkey for voting today. this is a country that boasts a particularly high participation rate normally more than 80% and there are plenty of choices. 20 political parties on the ballot. representing every color and political persuasion as you could imagine and political candidates as well. polls are open until 5:00 p.m. local time and two or three hours later we mite be able to get an early indication of the way the vote is going jane.

>> why is the focus on the main kurdish party what is happening there? circulate with well, the hdp is the one party that is threatening to upset the political balance here in turkey p it's aiming to get 10% which means it gets automatic representation in parliament, if they get less than 10% it could deprecise the ak of a supermajority, in favor of a more executive presidency which is something recep tayyip erdogan has long wanted. up against the formidable and successful party that is ak party. just because you're kurdish doesn't mean you well vote htp there are risks for potentially great rewards of representation

in plaimplet parliament and depriving erdogan of his are control as he had hoped. jane. >> thank you bernard. rest accuse of nearly three and a half thousand people. hoda abdel hamid is following the situation closely. in the italian island of lampedusa. the migrants just keep on coming. >> yes they just keep on coming and actually we just spoke to the coast guard. they expect that throughout the day they will carry out several rescue operations. the weather conditions, the wind is not strong, the sea is quite flat and usually it is over the libyan weekend which starts thursday evening remember most of these migrant boats leave in the middle of the night or

predawn. usually thursday through sunday there are a number of boats that leave, 3480 migrants who were saved yesterday. they were found in nine fisher boats. these wooden very fragile boats where you have people on deck and below deck next to the engine and usually those next to the engine have their lives more at risk than anyone else and sometimes they suffocate because of the heat down there. they pack up to 120 130 people in these rubber dinghies so you can imagine what kind of dire situation these migrants are once they sail off but they usually find out of the situation how grave it is once they are already at sea. they were all picked up 45 nautical miles off libya hundreds of senate cal miles that

the call miles south of italy. that's where they have been picked up. >> more rescue attempts are being successful, which means more people are leaving their countries and arriving in places like lampedusa. what happens to them when they get there? >> lampedusa is a transit point. from there they get relocated to other places around italy. what happens is, first of all most of the ships would stop in lampedusa if you have severe cases on board people who are wounded. we gave assistance to a man who actually had a broke.leg and completely dehydrated. pregnant women can't stay because they get seasick. the 3480 that were picked up yesterday, have still not arrived in italy just about 100

have arrived. the rest are heading towards palermo, they should arrive in a few hours. we have no information where the others will be taking. but last week you had a large number, 900 that were taken to the island of sardinia a bit further from sicily. despite the fact that now you have this triton mission 40 countries taking part in it, all the rest accuse come to italy. so certainly the authorities are bracing themselves for a very difficult summer because also there's a huge uptick compared to last year, 30% increase already. >> thank you for that hoda abdel hamid. leaders from the seven richest nation are arriving for ag7 summit the fighting in ukraine

is said to be dominating the talks. dominic kane is live from the summit. dominic wanted to ask you about ukraine, that's one of the main focuses i believe. russia is not there so what are they hoping to achieve? >> jane behind me the officials here are going to erect the podium where the family photo of leaders will be, the g7 and the european union council and commission will be but one of them would won't be is vladimir putin, the russian president. g-8 voted to seclude his country, and said it was impossible to hold meaningful discussions with mr. putin and clearly those conditions prevail to this day which is why he will thought be here. analysts and others, one person told me they felt this was

oserious strategic error for russia not to be party to these negotiations, at the summit, mr. putin himself tried to assure nato had a russia would not be a threat, he said only an insane person could imagine that russia could seek to attack nato. but it's worth making the point that several european union countries with borders next to russia who want a permanent nato presence on their territory as a reassurance that nato would stand for them. the answer of mr. putin is something that will certainly be a matter for mr. obama and mrs. merkel, they're meeting right now they're having a bavarian breakfast getting a feel for the area in the town of clune and then in chaussenment.

>> beautiful place it is. dominic what are the other issues. >> the islamic state of iraq and the levant will be raised at the summit and then grekzit greek threefg euroleaving the euro zone, greece was supposed to make its most repayment of bailout money to the institutions athey call them to the imf and chose not to, chosen to bundle them at the end of june, 1.5 billion to the institutions, whether they will do so or not is something the leaders will have to discuss because of the potential of what they call greksit. what we'll be having with the

european president in the next hour or so. >> dominic thank you. >> still ahead violence and vandalism in mexico ahead of a tense mid term election and in burundi where there's a growing clamor of fear, the standoff against the president deepens. inspiring new beginnings... >> these workers got the fight in them, they just don't know it. >> facing up to old demons... >> i am really really nervous... >> lives hanging in the balance... >> it's make or break... i got past the class... >> hard earned pri

>> we're here to fully get into the nuances of everything that's going on not just in this country but around the world. getting the news from the people who are affected. >> people need to demand reform... >> ali velshi on target >> hello gen you're watching al jazeera a reminder of our top stories. polls have opened in turkey for parliamentary elections 56.6 million people are eligible to vote and they'll be choosing

candidates for 550 seats in parliament. the u.k. is warning half a million people are waiting in libya to try to make the trip to europe. on friday alone there were 50 rescue missions to save nearly 3.5 thousand people. greece's debt crisis and the latest flairups are set to dominate talks in germany. israeli military says it struck what it calls terrorist structure that was located in the north of the gaza strip. third rocket attack from gaza in the past three weeks. syrian rebels have captured villages close to the port city of latakia linking syria to the

mediterranean coast. >> moving closer to the key port of lakaktakia. >> artillery tanks an machine guns. >> this map of northwestern syria shows why this battle is so important. the syrian regime has lost parts of aleppo, and linking idlib with latakia on the syrian coast. the city is the be family home of the l are assad assad family.

province of aleppo remains divided. the syrian regime is on the back foot here. it will not give up the northern province of latakia and the aloite sect to which he is a member. kim vanel, al jazeera. >> two officers carried off by demonstrators in the southern city of oaxaca. several troubled areas in the south to try to keep the peace. the mid terms will provide a test on what they think of the president's rule. enrique pena nieto came to office promising economic development. adam rainey reports from the

town of nuevo leone people have seen little of either. despite reforms in education and sectors of oil and telecommunications the poverty remains deep rooted. massacres involving security forces and corruption scandals have made pena nieto the most unpopular president in 20 years. against this backdrop, mid term elections a referendum of sorts on the president the first time independent candidates have been allowed to run. the results could show that traditional parties have lost their strangle hold on the electorate. >> if the electoral sends a clear cut nefnlg that the society's fed up with construction it would do wonders for the economy. >> mexico has its success stories for sure and rich

industrial nuevo leone state plants pump out products mainly for the united states. business leaders here say the country's never met its full potential and they hope after this election some consensus will be reached that will push the economy forward. this plant owner says reforms are not enough. >> we need to make sure some of the reforms passed in the past years came value and implement them and create value out of these reforms. >> point to the ruling pri party and its winning the most seats in congress. but candidate for governor as expected it can lead to a

weakening of pena nieto's election. >> these elections are going to be some kind of pointers on what we can expect for second half of his term. >> and campaigning has predictably not been without violence. some candidates have been killed dozens others have been attacked and ballot burning teachers calling for a boycott of the election. a failure of the election pena nieto and his party could do well without. adam rainey, al jazeera nuevo leone, mexico. >> rescuers paused to remember those who died on the eastern star on the yangtze river on

monday. 430 are confirmed dead. government linked militias, allowing the government to be be conducted freely. haru mutasa reports if bujumbura. >> he protested against burundi's president pierre nkurunziza. >> we don't know if you will be arrested shot and killed. >> reporter: despite the fear of some other opposition members are working out in the open. they say they will keep doing this in volatile areas until nkurunziza gives up his plan to run for a third term, a violation of the accusation. burundi has been relatively peaceful since the civil war ended ten years ago. this situation is not like a civil war where thoingt played a ethnicity

played a huge role in the violence. there is time for dialogue and that is not too laid for burundi, former president tried to get the opposition to talk. he believes if there's going to be peace nkurunziza must step aside. >> let's hope that the international community the subregion and the duration of all of burundians will make on him enough pressure so that he will be obliged to stop his candidacy. if this is not done and if he don't accept i can assure you no, i'm afraid that we will

assist burundi to another war. >> opposition leaders say they are being systematically secluded. the ruling party says that is not true. >> there have been so many cases of people who have been attacked to some members of the opposition. >> reporter: elections scheduled for this month have been postponed despite a security crack down and several arrests, those against nkurunziza say they will stay on the street until he goes. this could be a long standoff. haru mutasa, al jazeera bujumbura. >> stop the spread of middle east respiratory syndrome elementary schools will also are closed. five people have died from mers and 40 new cases have been

reported bringing the total to 64. two out of three young people show signs of depression for some, talking about the issues taboo, but psychologists feel they have suffered located the reasons. rob mcbride has the story. >> part of the problem is a failure to recognize depression. >> not talking about it the schools feel if we talk about it that indicates we have the problem. if they do they kind of never use the word like suicide or depression, that's kind of always side stepped. >> with her partner she's developing a computer game that's designed to help. in this desert island people at risk of suicide can be

identified with the choice e-choices they make. >> if we approach it from a clinical perspective it opens up this dialogue with schools. >> reporter: the pressure to excel academically in this highly competitive and overcrowded city starts as soon as children put on their first uniform. although suicide rates among the young are no higher than elsewhere they have been on the rise and a study showed 60% of students surveyed showed signs of depression. if young people didn't suffer enough stress there is the issue in hong kong, last year's occupy protests were a sense of social upheaval. the demonstrators may have left the streets but the uncertainty about the future persists. those protests, according to experts, provided a release and their failure ended up in

despair. >> see i have a hopeful future, even for time being i have a difficult life, i have the motivation to live on to continue. >> reporter: there may be innovative ways of dealing with them are being developed by the same young people. rob mcbride, al jazeera, hong kong. >> the united states marine corps are putting women to the test. all branches of the military are ordered to open up units currently restricted to men later this year. al jazeera's kristin saloomey visited the gender experiment in action. >> it is a long way to the top but all in a day's work for 22-year-old corporal jacqueline

dean. 6 loo 00 marines male and female rl participate. it hasn't been easy. >> when we first arrived we wers introduced to men who weren't even used to women in the marines. body weight every day close to five miles now we're here carrying 75 pounds for six miles so your body doesn't have the chance to recover. >> for eight months these marines have been training in a grueling atmosphere. breathing can be hard and the basic task of even breathing can

be difficult. after marines are asked to record how they're feeling the information collected will be used to set gender-neutral standards. >> we have found that all the marines are capable of performing the task. what we're trying to ascertain is to what level they are capable of performing the task. we'd like to see what type of individual can thrive, what is their height their weight their lean body mass. >> heard to measure is unit cohesion but on this be they have earned a grudging respect. >> you think what am i here to could and i keep pushing on. >> the results will be presented to the commandant of the marines this summer. the women say they will push on

to prove they are not only willing but able to serve. kristin saloomey, al jazeera bridgeport california. >> pilgrims are braving a heat wave that have killed at least 15. al jazeera spoke to one pilgrim sayeen shahid and asked him to explain his pilgrimage in his own words. >> i have been coming here for the past 20 years for spirit yul spiritual l inspiration. following teaching of the sufi

saint. other important shrines but i haven't found a true and real essence in the devoteees of these places. are i never beg or ask anyone for anything because a true mulla never begs. he finds all his needs are taken care of because allah is the real provider. women are not allowed to visit shrines because it is forbidden in islam. anyone who can control his temptation is to the sufi saint. those who come with a pure purpose always take away blessings from here. but those who come for just fun go back without anything. they will fail and not succeed in anything unless they come here to seek solace.

>> and if you want to eight a journey to our website please do. the address is aljazeera.com. we are leading with the elections underway in turkey, the polls have been open for several hours now. we'll have that update throughout the day. ay. >> i'm russell beard in barbados meeting the islanders who are buiding a green ecomomy.