♪ a truck bomb explodes in a crowded market in baghdad, 55 killed and 200 injured. ♪ hello, i'm mary ann and this is al jazeera live from london and coming up, dozens dead, hundreds injured and thousands left homeless after multiple explosions ripped through the chinese port of tianjin plus in northern buenos aires argentina where dozens of people have been forced out of their homes by the

flooding. and a star gazers spectacular and dark skies highlighted dramatic meteor shower. ♪ now the top stories fighters from islamic state of iraq and levante are responsible for a bomb blast in baghdad, the explosion tore through a crowded market and in a mainly shia muslim area killing at least 55 people, 200 more are injured. mohamed reports now from the iraqi capitol. in the blink of an eye the scene turned from mundane to murder. as a truck packed with explosives blew up in a crowded vegetable market in the city. the predominately shia muslim neighborhood in eastern baghdad is densely populated. as some searched for survivors others found the dead.

because the early morning attack was apparently planned to maximize civilian casualties, my rackys knew this would be the work of i.s.i.l. it was the third attack by the group in as many days. underscoring just how tenuous the security situation here is. on tuesday i.s.i.l. attacked two other areas where many shia muslims live in the city, dozens were killed and dozens more injured. attempts to deepen sectarian lines at a time when increasing number of iraqis are demanding their government work together. fed up at the lack of basic services such as electricity and clean water tens of thousands have been demonstrating against corruption. a call that has alarmed iraqi leaders who quickly swept proposals. protests planned for friday in the cities and it's unclear how it may attack the turn out in baghdad that experienced a brutal reminder of the security

crisis in the country, al jazeera, baghdad. the blast is one of the biggest to strike baghdad since prime minister hadi took over and as government forces move to drive the group out of its stronghold in anbar province, on monday 58 were killed and more than 100 injured in two blasts in the province. a market attack in july killed around 86 people. and many of those killed were women and children gathering to mark the end of ramadan. according to the u.n. about 15,000 civilians have been killed in iraq since the start of 2014. well, chairman of iraq's parliamentary block, a shia political coalition and says the bombing in baghdad won't fan sectarian tensions. >> the attention will not be as i.s.i.l. wants because most iraqis know most who are behind these attacks are not iraqi

sunnis and we can differentiate clearly between sunnis who are again i.s.i.s. and who are moderate to adopt a national discourse from the extremist, from the terrorists who have this very extreme discourse. it's clearly not sectarian although the motivation behind the attacks are sectarian because i.s.i.l. believed that shia and moderate sunnis should be killed and not muslims and this is not going to raise any tension. this is going to draw maybe distract the attention given to the areas where da'esh is occupying and going to distract the attention of the government from focusing on basic services and solving the political problems, maybe this is going to be the main i mean the main negative or the main the problem that this attack on such attacks

will create. ♪ now, seven people have been sentenced to death in pakistan over a series of attacks including assault on a school that killed more than 150 people. most of them children. an 8th person will spend life in prison as we report. >> reporter: the attack on the army public school in bashwar is not the first but it killed 151 people, most of them students, shocked pakistan and the world. it led to protests to many cities and the government reacted by announcing new measures which they said were aimed at combatting terrorism. these are the 7 men who actually carried out the attack and all died in the assault. now pakistan's army has confirmed the death penalty for seven other men linked to the

attack they were tried behind closed doors by a military court after pakistan's parliament amended the constitution to allow them to try terrorism suspects and the men were found guilty of tasks of collecting funds and transporting suicide bombers for the attack and following the peshawar attack they lifted a six-year moratorium on executions and since hanged about 180 people, and barbara al jazeera. correspondent kamal has this update tor update for us. >> reporter: the dead include the perpetrators of the attack on army public school in 2014 and also one of the people dead would involve in the attack on the minority's botched in karachi, one of the attackers

who was in the attack was given a lighter sentence of life in prison and up to the pakistan sport and the supreme court ruled that military courts were indeed legal and they were seen as crimes that were committed by the perpetrator and therefore the military courts now had the jurisdiction to try these people and the military still said they would have the right of appeal. people across pakistan are in favor of the death penalty and they want the military to be able to have speedy trials because that was the demand of the people, parliament had moved a special amendment in the constitution known as the 21st amendment so there is support on the ground, however civil rights organizations would be criticizing the move saying that the death penalty should be abolished. the death toll from a series

of explosions in the chinese port city of tianjin has risen to 50 and these cameras show the aftermath of the blast, as many as 700 injured and 36 prime are still missing. makeshift towns set up to house those who have been forced out of their homes. adrian brown has more now from the site of the explosions. the heart of one of china's most important economic hubs, torn apart by multiple blasts. fires burned throughout the night, there were further explosions on thursday afternoon. as a pool of toxic smoke billowed across the city and local people not concerned for the first time about the air they are now breathing. >> translator: we are very worried, very worried about what chemicals are in the air and worried it may be toxic and could be harmful in the future. close to the epicenter of

the explosions the scale of the destruction is difficult for the survivors to comprehend what happened and why. >> translator: i thought it was a gas explosion, my bedroom wall was hit by a shock wave which threw me out of bed. >> reporter: other survivors thought it was an earthquake or a nuclear explosion. windows were shattered in homes almost two kilometers away. forcing the evacuation of hundreds of families. the flying debris sliced through hundreds of vehicles. temporary housing for migrant workers bore the brunt of the blasts. while this is a worker's dormitory and it has been completely shredded. the damage here really bears testament to the force of those multiple explosions, the people in here were lucky to get out alive. the number of dead is continuing to rise. many of them were firefighters. government officials say hundreds of people were treated

in hospital, mostly for cuts caused by flying glass and concrete. >> translator: my first reaction was to run. i then heard another blast and escaped and running wild and got blood all over my body. >> reporter: they say the blasts were caused by chemicals stored in a warehouse close to where thousands of people live. an investigation into how that was possible has now begun. adrian brown. the syrian city of aleppo has access to water after being cutoff for three weeks and u.n. unicef restored supplies to the city and they were cutoff in july after al-qaeda nusra front closed the main water station and forced to drink untreated water from wells and despite the restoration of supplies unicef said half a million people are struggling to receive enough water to survive. egyptian court has handed jail

terms to four policemen over the deaths of 37 people who had been protesting in support of ousted president mohamed morsi and they will serve eight years between them and rob looks back at the details of the case. >> reporter: august 2013 and death has become a regular occurrence in the chaotic streets of cairo, it's a month since the first democratically elected president mohamed morsi has been toppled by the military and struggle to find out who the people are with security forces and some look for names of family members of 37 gassed to death inside a van carrying them to jail. most of those killed in the van are later identified as morsi supporters rounded up when a promorsi camp was cleared and some were passersby and arrested by mistake and jammed in the over crowded space and crowds gather at a nearby morgue and

prisoners rioted and tear gas fired in the van to try to free a captured and beaten policeman and the van is sealed, the prisoners suffocate and die. the officer-in-charge of the convoy is the captain faruk. >> my brother was transferred to the prison. the prison was attacked and we don't know what happened to him. we were told that prisoners were killed and we were planning to visit him but we were told that many were killed so we came here to morgue to check for him. in march 2014 captain faruk is sentenced to ten years in jail for the manslaughter of the prisoners and three other officers get suspended sentences. it's the first time since the owing of president morsi they faced trial over the deaths of demonstrators. outside the court violence breaks out. three months later in june the captain faruk's sentence is

quashed on appeal. this latest verdict is from egypt's highest court, it is final and cannot be appealed. rob matheson, al jazeera. well, there is more still to come for you here on al jazeera. ending ebola, the world health organization predicts the virus could be defeated by year's end. and video that has put five soldiers behind bars and shocked a central american nation. a central american nation. ♪

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least 55 people have been killed in a bombing at a crowded market in the southern city district of baghdad. this is the third attack by i.s.i.l. in as many days. military courts in pakistan sentenced seven people to death in involvement on attack on an army school in peshawar last december and more than 150 were killed, most of them children. and the death toll from two huge explosions in an industrial area of northeast chinese port city of tianjin has now risen to 50. other stories we are following the world health organization suggested it could defeat ebola by the end of the year and margaret chan made the comments during a briefing with the u.n. security council but she also warned that just one new case can ignite a flare-up, the deadly disease erupted in africa last year and effected 30,000 people and killed more than 11,000. >> if the current intensity of case action and contact tracing

is sustained, the virus can be defeated by the end of this year. that means going to zero and staying at zero. >> reporter: the world health organization spoke us to earlier saying predictions are not premature but all groups on the ground need to be vigilant. >> it is very, very important that we do not get complacent. together with the population and together with turkey and all those who have been involved in the response so far, we have seen that one unsafe burial can lead to a number of new transmission chains so we have to be vigilant, what we got from the first trial and it seems that the vaccine is safe, efficient, again, further studies are needed and need more research to be really absolutely sure that the vaccine is playing a big role in ebola outbreaks and really for the time being we have to focus on these

traditional and methods that we have been using these past months that helped us to basically get down to the small number of new infections and again the vaccine and work on a new vaccine is a very promising sign and hopefully can be a very encouraging new tool in the future. the leader of myanmar's ruling party has been ousted as army and allies strengthen the political grip ahead of elections as erica wood explains the leadership has been gripped by infighting for months. >> reporter: limited action in and out of the headquarters of the ruling union solidarity and development party and surrounded by security forces locking many m.p.s inside and for months there has been an internal power struggle between the chairman of the ruling party and president. both a former top military officers and both have said they want to run for president in november's general election.

and a meeting to declare the candidates before friday's deadline also included an announcement that mann had been dismissed. >> translator: he is not on the new list of the central committee but he is chairman of the lower house of parliament and union parliament and also listed as a candidate in the lower house of the party too. >> reporter: the secretary-general has been dismissed and still question of what it exactly means for both men and their position in the ruling party. >> the army and to some extent he and his ministers feel that he has been a traitor, that he hasn't actually been playing ball with the executive and he has been trying to manipulate the parliament to change the constitution when, in fact, the army and the president are not ready for it. >> reporter: it has been seen as a blow to myanmar's path to

democracy just three months before the general election and it's supposed to be the least restricted since the decades old military coup handed over power four years ago. but in fighting and public protests have already caused election unrest. the party of opposition leader chi is expected to make major gains this the election but she is not allowed to run for president and they cannot have children with foreign passports. november's election seen by the international community as a test of whether myanmar's military commanders really are ready to loosen their grip on power. erica woods, al jazeera. turkey's main opposition party says talks to former coalition with the ruling act party failed, meetings between the prime minister and the leader of opposition chp party lasted for just under two hours and president erred want has a week to decide on the coalition

or possibly call an earlier election and correspondent bernard smith has this update from istanbul. >> reporter: turkey's prime minister says new elections are the most likely outcome after a failure to establish a coalition government with the opposition secular chp party and the talks have been going on since the results of the june elections failed to give the act party over all majority forcing them to the coalition talks and the prime minister seem to come close on various issues but it wasn't quite enough in the end. the opposition chp says it doesn't believe the akp was ever serious about sharing power for a full four-year term and it was only interested in sharing power for a few months until new elections. whatever the result has not gone down well in the market and turkish currencies have a new low against the u.s. dollar and there has been a stock market sell off. now it's up to the president

erred want to call new elections, him for the parliament will do this, the most likely date for them is sometime in november. yemeni officials say six civilians have been killed by houthi shelling in thai and deaths come as pro-government forces gain more ground from houthi rebels and now just 125 kilometers from the capitol sanaa. the troops loyal to the exiled president hadi have taken six districts in the city of ib and steven o'brien is relief coordinator for the u.n. and says the need nor humanitarian aid in yemen has never been greater. >> i was able to see for myself the terrible human cost that comes from this instability which has been ravaging yemen now for far too long. the scale of what is needed now needs to be operated to such a degree that we need all hands to be able to get the international ngos and u.n. agencies with full access both to this and also

sanaa and other areas in yemen which i have been in to see over the last few days and it's been absolutely clear to me whether talking to the six-year-old who happens to be blind standing in line with his mother waiting for food and they have been doing that from 6:00 a.m. everyday for the last two weeks waiting for food. these are real human stories and all have a joint cause, a joint reason to be concerned about the humanitarian conflicts and 80% of people taken across the country have to be totally even handed and impark to get access to each of them if we can and now is the time to scale up and now the is time for me and i see it myself to really ramp up the security council in new york at the various capitols of the world where donors generally are there and we need i'm afraid a lot more in order to meet the escalating and extremely emergency needs in yemen.

five guatemala soldiers are behind bars accused of beating up two young men and the inwas recorded on a mobile phone and went viral when it was posted online prompted questions about the military's role in civilian policing and david reports from guatemala city. >> reporter: abuse of power captured on video and guatemala soldiers viciously beat two men in a town two hours west of guatemala city and it's rumored they were delinquents and warned them this is how they were trained and the video went viral in guatemala with support of actions and others shocked by the barbarity and disregard for the law. guatemala authorities launched an investigation. on thursday the soldiers in the video were arrested and brought here to public prosecutor's office, over the coming days they will face a judge on abuse of authority and maltreatment of

a minor. for more than 15 years guatemala's military helped with police and patrols to assist the police force created at the end of the country's civil war but unable to curb crime and the president himself a retired general ordered more soldiers on to the streets. analysts says that puts guatemala people at risk. a government accords states that combine patrols must be under police command. >> translator: it's worrying that in the video we don't see any police officers in the patrol, in spite of the institutional failings the police are trained to serve the community and guaranty the safety of citizens, soldiers in these combined patrols don't have specialized training to carry out this kind of work. >> reporter: military officials are quick to highlight guatemala's role in peace keeping missions abroad and support they receive at home. community leaders in the town where the video was recorded

signed this document asking that the army continue their patrols. >> translator: i think this was an isolated incident and cooperating with the authorities to deal with it, i don't think it will have serious repercussions as we have seen and violators of human rights and we are with guatemala institutions and help to ensure the safety of citizens. >> reporter: some are calling the soldiers heros and say they should be released. a court will now decide if these men went too far. david mercer, al jazeera, guatemala city. more rain and strong winds are expected in argentina's buenos aires province where a series of storms have caused severe flooding and thousands have been forced to leave their homes and at least three people have died. and we report from there. >> reporter: trying to take assistance to those cutoff by the water. volunteer firemen are working day and night to help those in

need as the rivers and streams in the northern part of buenos aires flood the area. experts say 35 centimeters of water fell in a matter of days and he lives here and trying to save what little she has left. >> translator: i have never seen anything like this. last year something similar happened but not like this. this is a disaster. thousands of people have been effected. at the university here 80 of them have taken refuge. we are told hundreds of others have been placed in other schools around the city. and she and her daughter say they have no where else to go. >> translator: we lost everything, all our belongings and trying to get clothes and food here but i'm not sure how we are going to go on. >> reporter: this is the second flooding in the last year. the sixth in the last four. >> people have been living in this university for almost five

days and most of them have been victims from flooding in this area in the past, that is why they are demanding more government action. the government says they have invested in millions of dollars in the area. and claim that more funds are needed to prevent the river from flooding again. >> translator: we understand that large-scale developments need to happen here. they need to broaden the river so it adjusts to the increased water levels, after six floods more precautions need to be taken but that can only be done by the federal government. many of those effected live in the city's poorest areas near the river. they claim they cannot afford to move. they only hope that immediate action is taken so the next storm doesn't force them out of their homes. al jazeera, argentina. and the annual meteor showers have been a special occasion for star gazers but unusually dark skies made it

more spectacular and kristen reports. >> reporter: when you wish upon a falling star it makes no difference where you are. but where the moon is a big factor in being able to see the meteor shower and this year the view ing has been good in the north because of the moon or the lack there of. >> you don't get a good view and also years where the moon is particularly bright and one of the special things about this year is it is a new moon and there is no moon light and no interference from the moon this year. >> reporter: debris from a commit or astroid creates fireballs and want to know what it's made of and impact of satellites that are orbiting the earth. >> the earth is literally colliding with the debris that has come off of something like a comet and as it does that all of these tiny pieces of sand or even maybe a tiny pebble-like thing basically burns up in the

earth's atmosphere making it look like a streak of light coming across and call it a shooting star. >> if you missed the light show wednesday don't worry as long as the sky is clear more shooting stars should be visible this evening, kristen, new york. remember more on our website al jazeera.com. >> i'm nidhi dutt, in indonesia, where orangutan conservationists are climbing to new heights. >> and i'm russell beard in flanders in belgium, to meet to meet the urban ne