o. >> united states and turkey say they'll try to create a i.s.i.l. free buffer zone along turkey's border with syria. you're watching al jazeera live from london i'm david foster. ethiopia's prime minister defends his country's record after criticism from president obama. why the u.s. has taken be cuba off the list of state sponsors of terrorism not

enough. >> robotics, surgical technology. >> within the last hour we've had it officially confirmed that the united states and turkey are actually talking about the creation of what they've described as a i.s.i.l. free buffer zone along turkey's southern border with syria. while turkey is increasing its military operations both in iraq and syria. after last week's bombing in the city of suruc which killed 32 people. ankara has been accused of board of education an area of syria those known ago the ypg who are battling i.s.i.l. the turkish government says it's not battling syria and are looking into these claims. several days of strikes against kurdish forces in northern iraq.

those kurdish forces there known as the pkk. there's going to be an emergency meeting of nato. dhoard is inzeina khodr is in the border town of killish. >> reporter: it is cooperating with ground forces it says already inside syria. those troops are not syria's kurds who the coalition has been relying on but opposition groups who are fighting both i.s.i.l. and the syrian government. turkey's prime minister says they have agreed that those opposition groups should be protected. the agreement we reached has covered our concerns and expectations up to a certain level i cannot go into details but for example an important point was the air cover for free

syrian army and the armies against daesh. there is no confirmation from washington but open secret that turkey is unhappy with the alliance between the kurdish and the ypg. expanded its cover along syria's border with turkey. doesn't want to have the kurds create a state among its own kurdish population, the pkk which it has declared war on and more importantly it doesn't want the kurds to be the only force ton ground to be partners with the coalition. turkey has spelled out the conditions. the ypg needs to meet before it can be part of what the prime minister called the new syria. it will need to cut its links with the syrian government and cooperate with syrian groups.

particularly those backed by turkey. that's not all. the ypg is now accusing turkey of repeatedly attacking their units across the border an allege turkey denies. the syrian curds also accuse turkey both in turkey and syria. >> they are trying ouse the agreement with the coalition against daesh to target the kurds political parties and this is something unacceptable because we have to differentiate between the terrorists and the political movements that demand for humanitarian rights for some ethicalethnical groups. >> causing the most controversy turkey is now an active player on the syrian battlefield where

yet another front line seems to be emerging. zeina khodr, al jazeera. >> leftist organization hes, here is bernard smith who has been following developments for us in turkey. >> reporter: 15 people have been arrested in ankara in this latest wave of raids by the security services. the turkish authorities say all of those arrested are foreigners. part of a series of raids that have been going on for the past weeks and months in turkey. they picked up steam after the suicide bombing in suruc. but it's not just targeting i.s.i.l. supporters, potential i.s.i.l. fighters it's also targeting people from the pkk and from an extreme left wing

group here in turkey. its targets are groups it considers a threat against national security. across the border, they are claiming that the be turkish group shelled a town near kobani and again on sunday. the turkish military says it's investigating these games claims but says it is not targeting ypg but only i.s.i.l. positions in syria with those air strikes. and it's also been targeting kurdistan worker party base he pkk bases there. nevertheless the turkish military says it's investigating these claims of shelling of ypg positions in syria. >> that was bernard smith. we were talking about the

possibility creation of what they're calling an i.s.i.l. free zone on the border of turkey and syria. patty culhane what has been discussed between the two countries and what it might entail? >> reporter: well, i can tell you david they are being very vague. senior administration official says they are talking with turkey about how to set aside a safe zone, i.s.i.l.-free zone. that's pretty much it, they're not detailing who those fighters are. it does seem in washington the officials seem a little bit table aback. sometimes we see that in negotiations it's not uncommon in washington when they want to try to shape the public narrative they'll leak out the parameters they want the discussions to be based around. the off-camera briefing was

pushed back several hours. there are more questions than we have answer he now. for example, whoanswers now. they haven't been able to agree on what they call the moderate opposition. who decides who's the moderate opposition? the ones trained by the u.s. the last count we got from the u.s. officials almost a year in all they've done is train about 60 fighters. obviously that's not enough to hold atown much less the entire zone. there are questions to be asked hopefully a little bit more information as we see briefings across washington. >> i suppose some more may come out patty when we have this nato meeting at turkey's request. >> reporter: they have invoked the article that says basically everyone needs to help them defend themselves. one of the interesting stories is going to be how the u.s. handles any sorts of attacks on the pc.

pkk. they say turkey has a right to defend itself but at the same time the dialogue needs to continue and they neat to need to have a discussion on a peace accord that seems to be unraveling as we speak. as you think of it from the u.s. perspective, zeina touched on it a bit. they cannot have them taken out by turkey. >> pat i.s.sy we will leave 30th for now. thank you very much indeed. part of the war in yemen both sides in the conflict there are accusing one another much of breaking a humanitarian ceasefire. there has been a break by the houthis and saudi-led forces have hit back near the saudi

border. this latest response doesn't violate the five day hold in shelling which it initiated on sunday. yemen's government in exile says it's purely humanitarian, for 21 million yemenis who need assistance. >> as yemen's legitimate government we are with the truce. but we support a truce that is fully implemented. not to change conditions on the ground. >> united states has removed malaysia and cuba from its list of countries which have failed to combat human trafficking. in the annual trafficking in persons report released by the state department, malaysia was moved up a grade which means the u.s. thinks it has made some improvements in dealing with trafficking. but it's not quite doing enough to fix the problem. cuba also went up a tier. the u.s. says it's trying to increase the number of prosecutions in trafficking cases but it does say forced

labor and sex tourism are still widespread. thailand at the highest level u.s. blaming thailand of not doing enough, be corruption is rife. u.s. secretary of state john kerry, this is what he had to say. >> we want to provide evidence and facts that will help people who are already striving to provide a strong incentive for governments, at every level to do all that they can to prosecute trafficking and to shield at-risk populations. >> now roz rld where rosalyn jordan doing howls are dereiteration from all sorts of quarters about what the u.s. is doing here. >> that's right. there's accusation of

politicization in the decision to move cuba and malaysia from tier 3 which is the bottom group of countries that basically aren't doing anything to stop human trafficking to treer 2 watch where they might be doing one or two things but are not meeting the minimum standards set under u.s. law. now this is a case particularly in the case of malaysia, which the u.s. is trying to negotiate the transpacific partnership if it stayed in the bottom tier david, it could face economic sanctions lacking the ability to engage in this sort of treaty negotiation. so there are accusations from capitol hill that the obama administration has moved malaysia at the bottom of the lits for first time one step higher just so it can try to preserve this trade deal. finance theof course the obama

administration has agreed this is not the case. >> the alliance to end slave trafficking said, what was decided will have a detrimental impact on the integrity of the report and the be push to end slavery. how are negotiations going? >> we've had one briefing at the state department on monday where officials say they believe the report does have credibility is a useful tool in trying to improve the situation for millions of people around the world who are caught in sex trafficking and forced labor who are abused by their employers, if they move from one country to another. but these human rights organizations and other ngos are suggesting that there is a real lack of enforcement with the

u.s. process. because after all let's take a look really at what this process is. there are four categories, david. the top category, tier 1 says that at least for past year, the past reporting period, the countries in that group group have been doing just the minimum to make certain all that can be done to stop this problem. the other three categories, the three lowest categories find significant gaps. it begs the question whether or not this rating mechanism is actually portraying accurately how many countries are making actual progress and how many are not even doing bare minimum. so that criticism is certainly going to be coming not only from human rights organizations but also from members of congress. >> roz helping us to understand that it's not just the headlines we should read but the small print as well. rosalyn jordan, state

department. evidence that the most popular weed killer could be hazardous to humans. beautiful but endangered. there's new figures in the dramatic decline in the number of bengal tigers, stay with us if you can. an.

>> hello, it's good to have your company here on al jazeera. let me remind you of the global headlines. turkey has been accused of shelling a northern village in

syria to hold back the islamic state of iraq and the levant. one another are accused of breaking a humanitarian ceasefire. forces hit near the saudi border. u.s. having moved cuba and malaysia from the list of those countries who promote human trafficking. influenced by political decisions. chinese shares have had their biggest one day fall in eight years. the chinese government was trying to prop up the share market and earlier this month afforded brokers to guy shares using central bank cash. the shanghai composites plummeted more than 8%, worst figure since april of last year. hong kong, the hang hanseng down more

than 3%. somalia and african union troops against al shabaab president obama said, the attack in the hold in mogadishu are a reminder this the fight is not over. mr. obama was talking alongside ethiopia's prime minister, he praised ethiopia's economic record saying though that it needed to do more in the area of human rights. >> there's still more work to do and i think the prime minister is the first to acknowledge that there's more work to do. the way we think about these issues is, we want to engage with governments on areas of mutual concern and interest. the same way by the way that we deal with china and deal with a range of other countries where

the democratic practices for issues around freedom of the press and assembly are not ones that align with how we are thinking about it. but we continually bring it up. and we indicate that this is part of our core interest and concern in our foreign policy. that's true here, as well. >> we have addressed the number of issues of how the u.s. can support the strengthening of ethiopia's democratization process. my government has expressed its commitment to deepen the democratic process already underway in the country and work towards reason of human rights and -- respect of human rights and improving governance. we have reiterated once again that our commitment to democracy is real, not skin deep. we have both noted that we need to step up efforts to be strengthen our capacity in various areas.

>> take a step back from the two main players. let's hear from our man mohammed adow in addis ababa. >> key territory from al shabaab militias. the president is referring to the retaking of the towns in southeast somalia and also in southwestern somalia by al shabaab, assisted by the thousands of ethiopiaian of ethiopian troops. doesn't mean that al shabaab is militarily as was shown on sunday when they carried out an astack on the hotel in mogadishu, the group has the ability to attack deep within government held territory and this is one of the reasons why the president has called for more pressure to be kept on al shabaab. now, while on his tour of ethiopia the president is, on monday afternoon meeting

delegates from the be south sudan peace process. these are the the negotiators from both sides the president is hoping to add more impetus to the talks and also add to the groups to come to a quick agreement. dmoaments say ifdiplomats agree if they don't agree by sunday, there are asset freezing of some of the leadership of both sides both the government side and also the rebilities. done by both sides in the conflict. >> forest fires forced dozens of homes to be evacuated in

catalonia. emergency services says it has now all been contained. it is the word's most popular weed killer and at the center of a big health scare roundup. used in more than 160 countries. yesterday we focused on france where it's banned after being suspected of causing 16. after menel fernandez reports in sri lanka it's waiting for other concerns. >> more than 69,000 people who have been diagnosed with chronic kidney disease a condition mostly diagnosed in male farmers in north central sri lanka. >> the body feels fairly weak, there is no cure but i have to keep taking medicine.

>> reporter: the husband along with other farmers blames glyphosphate. under the brand name roundup more than 30 years ago. after its monopoly ended other companies began making glyphosphate. >> the earth is saturated with roundup. >> the government banned glyphosphate. the weed killer made popular by monsanto is still available ton black market. we bought this can quite easily. despite its wide use researchers say it's not only killing weeds but humans as well. dr. at the university says he

believes there is a link between glyphosphate. >> once you use it there's a possibility of complex getting complex. that complex is never toxic but i think monsanto new this fact but they intentionally hide the fact. >> al jazeera contacted monsanto regarding the government's ban on the import of glyphosphate, released a statement saying, we are extremely concerned. this move by the have i sri lankan authorities, people here just want to make sure the products they're using on their farms are

safe. menle fernandez, al jazeera north central sri lanka. >> there's been a change in the list of bengal tigers. a recent survey of the tigers found only about 100 of them living in the area down from the 440 reported in the last census 11 years ago. some believe that the difference in the figures is because more accurate reporting methods have been used in this late us census. source now of bangladesh to help secure the future of this beautiful but endangered species. >> vast area, very few forest outposts and very few people

guarding the vast forest, which is about 6,000 square kilometers. i suggest that the forest department should increase its strength in outposts, as well as the staff so they can fight with the poachers. because the poachers are active all over the area. >> high tech, a term that might evocation images of the scene. tairtarek bazley reports. >> largely owe blif oblivious to those around them, researchers are developing what's called a soft

robot. >> soft robots are inherently safe. it will bounce off of you. what we like is to make systems that humans can collaborate? work together with the robot and you don't have the fear if the robot is going to crush somebody if the robot is soft. >> reporter: and it's the natural world that is the source of the designs. >> researchers took their ideas from the octopus. they mimic this by using silicon small gran granules to make a soft robot. >> if you have a rigid robot you can easily harm a person, damage tissue. the idea of soft robots will make an enormous difference.

so far we have a robot that is not capable of injuring the patient even though we have a very close contact between the robot and the patient. >> reporter: they are also looking at the whos of goats to look at how agricultural robots could be made more mobile. >> most of the robots have just wheels which are not suitable for the land that we have here, because we have farms in hills and we also have obstacles like rocks and trunks. so they are not going to be able to work in that kind of area. >> reporter: other members of the team are looking at human arm muscles to better understand how they work with muscles to control limbs. others are using a robotic finger to mimic the way doctors feel for lumps under the skin, not necessarily associated with

machines. these machines and techniques are years from being roltd rolled out but engineers believe they will form a generation of softer robots. tarek bazley, al jazeera london. >> why not look at our own high tech website aljazeera.com. he. >> we don't have a lot of time to wait. the conditions on the ground are getting much much worse. >> president obama calls for humanitarian aid. nato calls for an emergency meeting for a safe zone along