♪ syria's latest air strikes on the outskirts of damascus are labeled a massacre. the u.n.'s humanitarian chief holds talks with the government. ♪ ♪ hill owe there, i am laura kyle in doha. coming up on the program. stiffer sentences and fines for journalists. egypt's president approves tough new security laws. going to the polls with a controversial former president hoping to make a political come back in slo sri lanka. and displaced by civil war, we meet the south sudanese

families praying for a peace deal at talks in ethiopia. ♪ ♪ syrian opposition activists have called government airstrikes on a rebel-held suburb of damascus a massacre, more than 100 people died in the main market in douma. making it one of the bloodiest attacks by the military in syria's three-year warm. 300 were injured. more air strikes happened as people rushed to help the wounded. zeina khodr joins us now. we are hearing of yet more air strikes on this area this morning. >> reporter: yes. accord to this syrian observatory for human rights, there were three air strikes targeting douma early this morning. there is still no word on

casualties. the syrian observatory also reporting that the government targeted other areas in this region. which is in the damascus countryside. targeting areas. now, this area really is a rebel strong hold. it has been a rebel strong hold for many years. and the government has not been able to recapture these territories. but over the years it has been targeting it. at the etched day the military still controls the skies. the government needs to make sure that the rebels are pushed back and defends their seat of power in damascus, like you mentioned this was one of the most deadliest attacks in the course of the syrian war. the high death toll is because first of all, the first air strike targeted a crowded marketplace. it was rush hour and people were there. and then when people came to evacuate the wounded, the civil defense, the people, they came to help those who were wounded. more air raids were carried out.

syrian state media did not mention these attacks, but a syrian military source was quoted as saying that air strikes were carried out in douma, but the military source said they hit a headquarters of the group islamic -- the islam armism we know a day earlier the islam army a your honor nod an offensive against the government and they managed to capture a base so this could be a message to the syrian government to the opposition particularly the is ilcivilians telling them they wl be punished for the actions on the ground. >> this message being sent even as the united nations humanitarian chief is in the government talking to the government trying to alleviate human suffering. >> reporter: yes. the top u.n. official for relief is in damascus, but we all know how the united nations has been really ineffective in solving the syrian crisis. it hasn't been able to find a

political solution. it hasn't been able to stop the fighting little. simply because the u.n. is divided the security council is divide and russia which has veto power is a ally of the syrian government. so the u.n. has been ineffective but what they have done is tried to alleviate the numbers inside. we are talking about 4 million people who are now refugees in neighboring countries. 12 million people inside syria who needing a and 7.6 million who are displaced inside the country. so the u.n. need to help these people and they want action stores reach areas, some areas are we sieged and in fact douma is one of the areas which has been w besieged for a long time and aid doesn't enter the area regularly. and that's why we saw doctors in field hospital as peeling for help saying we don't have enough medical surprise to help the wounded of they were really overwhelmed with the number of injuries in sunday's attack.

>> zeina khodr keeping us up-to-date with the very latest developments in syria from neighboring beirut, thanks very much, zeina. in neighboring jordan villagers are demanding better protection from the war in syria which is spilling over the border. many homes have been hit by stray shells and rockets. a report from the village closest to the border. >> reporter: a village in syria just across the border from the jordanian village. its residents say fighting between syrian troops and opposition rebel fighters is forcing them to live in a state of war. two weeks ago a stray mortar shell hit the second floor of this home. it flew through the house, penetrated the walls and floors and landed outside. no one was injured but he says his family suffered distress and fear after the rocket struck when everyone was asleep. >> translator: my pregnant daughter was sleeping downstairs when the rocket hit.

i was worried something would happen to the babe i want chirp in the area now face horror at night. some families briefly moved to other areas of the attack because their children were terrified of sleeping here. >> reporter: the jordanian government investigated but offered no compensation to repaired the blast damage. villagers have become used to the occasional stray mortar shell which lands near them but there is increased panic here because fighting has recently become more intense and frequent. in june rebels announced the start of fighting too push syrian tops out of the city. and all sides expect it to be a long battle. this family lives even closer to the bored the impact of more than four years of shelling in syria has cracked walls and smashed their windows. they are demanding more protection from the jordanian government. >> translator: if there was an early warning system i would be able to evacuate my family when i hear the siren. let the shell hit my home but not my children. we also wants an anti missile

defense system to intercept stray rockets and mortar shells. >> reporter: the government says the 375-kilometer-longboarder with syria is only protected from the jourdain jeff side avisail vinnie troops withdraw from all boarder posts. >> translator: we are taking every step in order to prevent attacks and stop any breach on our borders. >> reporter: the first death caused by the war in syria hit a workplace in june. last june. although the vast majority of jordanians back the rebel fight in syria. the protracted fighting frustrating and frightening villagers, al jazerra. egypt's president has passed a new security law that introduced special court and

harsher penalties for people seen as a threat. it's come through following the assassination of the prosecutor general in june. and has now been ratified president sisi. so those found guilty of forming a -- of forming or leading a group seen as a terrorist en i at this by the government will face stiff sentences including the death penalty. financing so-called terrorist groups will carry penalty of life in prison, journalist can be fined district contradictory authorities versions of the attack. an assistant professor at long island university and a member of the egyptian rule of law association. earlier she explained to my colleague what this new law will mean for journalists. >> any media that would defy the national narrative would be also fines. the law goes further never to not just muzzle the media and

prevent any real political participation from forming, but to move in to these special course where essentially they are to circumvent the law. if we remember what president sisi said earlier this summer, he said that there are so many obstacles to the work of the judges that i need to begin to circumvent them. >> i want to bring it now to the question of immunity this legislation provides immunity for those acting in the name. court being they judges, security personnel, the question is what checks are in place to insure that these powers are then not abused? >> absolutely. so part of this new law is the protection of police officers and security forces as they carry out their new duties. and so they will not be prosecuted in they are deemed going above and beyond the law. and so the law here is a system that is not protecting the sit sin are you thecitizenry they ag

the state. it's indicative the consolidation of power in the hands of the executive and there is not a check on not only his power but on his avenues of the dissemination of force. sri lanka is holding par almostly elections 15 million people are able to vote in the poll that has become more about personalities. lost out to rival. the new president called for early parliamentary elections after his reforms were blocked. he did he seed side today run for parliament against the new president's wishes and if his party secures a majority he could become prime minister. he's trying to rally support but the rivalry has created a split in the freedom party. the timing of the elections

could also be important. the u.n. human rights report on the war in the north is due for release soon after the vote. lets go live now. how is the vote going? >> reporter: so far we have seen how the voter turn out from the early hours of in morning, we have seen just over four hours of voting. it's been a good and healthy turn out. the election commission who i spoke to has confirmed this. at the moment we are heading in to afternoon and lunchtime and traditionally there is usually a sort of a lull, a bit of a dip in the numbers that come to the polling stations and that is what we are seeing now. but it's likely to pick up again from what we are being told byelection officials given the trends and we should see that happening. with me i have someone from the columbia university.

what are the importance of the election. what is the choice that the people are facing? >> after years of domination by the pack is family which was a surprising change in 2015. now the voters have been given the opportunity to change that. he needs the parliament that he can work with does the president. so the question is whether the election will produce a majority for a political grouping that the president can work with, or whether it's going to be a hung parliament where the boll of power in the legislature is difficult which will create problems for the president to work at the helm of an effective government. >> reporter: how critical is that choice as sri lankans come to the polls today in terms sri lanka's future journey? >> it's critical. it has implications for

constitutionalism and democracy it. has implications for ethnic relations think. relations. the minorities had a bad time under the rajapaksa regime and they are looking to the president con doll saying power in parliament and has significant implications for development, equipment development as well in the next couple of years. >> reporter: thank you. of the university. and as we see at the moment there is more than 3 1/2 hours left to go of voting and at the end of that, polls will close and we will see how sri lankans decide their fate. back to the studio. >> you will, thanks thank you very much. present more still coming up here on al jazerra. including precious work boobs withering in the sun and tents turning in to classrooms as education becomes the latest casualty of iraq's conflict.

plus. >> reporter: i am stephanie doarkt indonesian island, and i will be telling you why this island is being destroyed and why these men are risking their lives. and guess what, it's our obsession with gadgets like these that has something to do with it. it wasn't science at all. >> there's a lot of lives at stake, a lot of innocent people. >> how many are still locked up? >> the integrity of the criminal justice system is at stake, plain and simple. >> "faultlines". >> what do we want? >> al jazeera america's hard-hitting... >> today the will be arrested. >> ground-breaking... >> they're firing canisters of gas at us. >> emmy award-winning, investigative series. >> we have to get out of here.

>> "inside story" takes you beyond the headlines, beyond the quick cuts, beyond the sound bites. we're giving you a deeper dive into the stories that are making our world what it is. >> ray suarez hosts "inside story". only on al jazeera america. ♪ held going, the top stories here on al jazerra. syrian air force has launched more attacks on the rebel-held douma in damascus, this comes just one day after more than 100

people were killed in air strikes on a market in the same district. egyptian as president has pass ahead i in new tough security law that will be dealt with in special court. it allows for the death penalty for people involved in what it calls terrorism-related crimes. and offers more legal protection to security officers. and sri lankans are voting in parliamentary election that his could see the former president make a political comeback, passio rajapaksa is rg for prime minute stir he was president for nine years until he was defeat ed in january of this year. the number of people displaced by the conflict in iraq is now more than three million. isil, and the government are fighting for large parts of the country and it's threaten to go claim yet another casualty. children's education, mohamed jamjoon reports from baghdad. >> reporter: in a climate that makes concentrating near impossible, and handbooks don't

distract from the heat, these internally displaced iraqi students are doing their best to learn. >> translator: we used to live in our own neighborhoods and it was like heaven. we used to go to clean schools and these schools would have proper roofs, but now they are studying here. >> reporter: while the boys here worry the world has forsake end them, they are determined not give on their education. according to uncief there are approximately 850,000 internally displaced school-aged children here in iraq. of that number, 650,000 have missed at least a year worth of classes. that's why schools like this are so important now. he fled anbar province with his family when isil fighters took it over in april. he is just one of the students who has been forced to miss months of school. >> translator: if we were back home i would wear a proper uniform to school.

i bounce dress like this. and we wouldn't be living now in tents. >> reporter: or studying in them either. teacher says the situation is even worse than it looks at the i.d. p. camp. >> translator: the most basic requirements of classes are not available. we have 90 students in three different classes. and only 30 textbooks were distributed. how can you teach 90 students with 30 books? >> reporter: he tells me that although 20 teachers should be working here now, a lack of funding hats meant only five make it every day. as his wife teaches english to another group of students in another tents she expresses even more concern. >> translator: we feel that this is a crime against these poor children, what did they do to deserve such harsh conditions they are happier than before since at least know they have a

makeshift school to go to, but these schools lack the basic requirement to teach them adequately. >> reporter: studying english the kits recite numbers written out for them. on a white board propped up by cinder blocks. despite support from uncief and other aid groups, 12-year-old mohamed says much, much, much more is needed. >> translator: it's very, very hot. the electricity comes and then it goes, and sometimes it doesn't come at all. >> reporter: outside, the next class cue queues up and at that timerred workbooks whit third son why mothers bake bread for an encampment where there is far too much huger. and the thirst for knowledge hasn't come close to being quenched. mohamed jam soon, baghdad. eye as' prime minister has overhauled its cabinet as part of efforts to stamp out

corruption, it has been reduce from the 33 members to just 22. iraqis have been calling for the removal of corrupt officials and the dissolution of parliament the plan will see four ministries removed including human rights and women's fares. south sudanese president is in oat ethiopia for last minute peace talks with his form he deputy and now rival. negotiations were thrown in to doubt last week when he failed to show up for the ongoing negotiations each african nation has set a deadline of monday to secure a peace deal or south sudan could face international sanctions. people back homer hoping to an end to almost two years of fighting. the conflict has divided tribes across south sudan. as natasha ghoneim reports, a few are learning to set aside their differences. >> reporter: tucked behind a market in juba, something more than these ramshackle shelters

is being built on this patch of dirt. here at the camp, displaced people from four tribes are learning to live peacefully with one another again. although they come from different villages, their journeys are similar. >> you find generally it's not only one person who has lost, but you are very many who have lost. >> reporter: meet this mother of eight. she came from one of the towns in south sudan decimated by fighting. she says the family had to abandon her 14-year-old son so they could save themselves. the last time she saw him, he was walking in to the bush to check on the family's cattle. >> translator: sometimes my heart tells me he's alive. but sometimes i get depressed and think negative thoughts. but a lot of people told me other people have faced a worse fate than you, so stop thinking about it. and left it up to god.

>> reporter: she and others like her at the camp are now neighbors with people from tribes who are killing each other elsewhere in the country. in fact, in other camps for displaced people within u.n. compounds, the tribes are carefully segregated and tension is high. but here they are building a community. on common ground of shared needs, fears and hopes. that's not to say members of different trials don't fight. but when they do, each leader of are the tribe gathers they had together to mediate. >> later when we are able to solve the problem, they are able to sit together and you find that they are even good friends. >> reporter: this conflict began nearly two years ago as a dispute between the president and his identifie vice presiden. people here say they are desperate for peace. because peace means they can go home again but she says she doesn't want people to go back to the way they were living before the civil war.

>> translator: what has happened has happened. it's in the past. what you want is for peace to come. >> reporter: the end of the war could also mean she, like so many mothers, could finally find out what happened to her son. natasha ghoneim, al jazerra, juba, south sudan. chinese premier has visited the site of last week's explosions. 114 people were killed in the blasts which were centered at a warehouse storing highly toxic chemical sodium cyanide. the explosions were so strong that nearby houses were destroyed making people homeless. those people have now started frosting. as adrian brown explains. >> reporter: the protesters who have been gathering outside the hotel where government officials were briefing the local and international media, have not yet disbursed. they were still demanding a meeting with government officials. the protesters here comprise

relatives and family of those who are still missing, as well as some of the 6,000 people made homeless as a result of wednesday night's multiple explosions. some of them are carrying banners saying we support the party. we support the government. but please buy back our homes. our homes are now worthless. we can't live there anymore. i spoke to one woman who returned to the town from the united states to live with her father and she told me they had no idea the dangerous chemicals like sodium cyanide were being stored so close to people's homes. this is what she had to say. >> i can't believe it. i can't believe the entire thing. we just saw it was like a. [ inaudible ] it was a curse, no chemical there. >> reporter: you had no idea chemicals were being stored there? >> no idea. everyone around there didn't know there were dangerous chemicals storing there. >> reporter: demonstrations like the ones that have been taking place here today are very rare in china.

what is different this time also is the fact that the authorities, the police and the soldiers who were here watching over the crowd, have allowed us to interview and film the protesters. now, in the past the authorities have moved very quickly to shutdown demonstrations like this with the media often being round up and briefly did h deta. that has not happened it's as if the authority here have received orders to give the illusion of transparency. but it is a significant moment. for one thing the authorities will worry about is if these demonstrations were to grow in number. and if the grief was it turn to more widespread anger. rescue teams have spotted the wreckage of a missing passenger plain in indonesia's remote region. the airplane with 54 people on board lost contact with air traffic controllers half an hour after taking off from the the city. it was headed to a settlement

around 280-kilometers south. the illegal minding of tin is becoming rife on two indonesian islands as high demand for the metal a vital component of mobile phoned and laptops as stefanie dekker reports the minding activity is having a demonstrating affect on the island and its people. >> reporter: caked in sand it's almost as if they have become one with this pit. this is an illegal tin mine and yoyou can find them everywhere n the island. it's dangerous work. we are told an average of 70 to 100 miners die every year. >> sometimes they are bury today days before we can recover the bodies. sometimes four to five people die in a land slide. if you dig like seven or eight meters, then the risk of the sand falling on us is much higher. >> reporter: for this job it's the best paid on the island so they are willing to at that i can that chance. young children often help their

parents, some have died around these mine pits too. tin from here and its sister island end up with companies such as apple, samsung and sony. it's used to make our phones and laptops work, one of your gadgets possibly includes tin from here. illegal mining is making more money than the legitimate companies. the free for all means the island is being torn apart. you don't get a sense of the damage tin mining has done from to this islands from the ground, but take to the sky and the consequence of the world demand for tin becomes clear. the landscape scared by abandoned and active mines and we are just showing you a small part it have. but it's like this across large parts of the island. >> translator: there are so many old mine pits, almost 20,000 then they started mining the sea in 2006. so now we have noted that we have lost at least 75% of coral reef around the island.

>> reporter: it's low tied when we visit the mines at sea. mining in water is refuted to be more dangerous here too the sand walls collapse. there is a difference. they can't see it coming. >> translator: if you are asking whether it's worth the risk, which is our life, then, no. but what else can we do? other jobs don't pay well even for our daily needs work this job i can even save some money. >> reporter: the divers can make three times the minimum wage, but there is no compensation when something goes wrong. and that is something the government is now highlighting. they want to legalize these mines and admit they are losing a lot money because of them. >> translator: by legalizing the mines we can save money for the minors safety and the environment then we can manage the money properly. >> reporter: but we are told and we have seen, that little is being done by the government, the companies or the people to fix the land after the mines are abandoned. the damage at sea could be even

harder to fix. the tin will run out one day, the question is, what will be left of this island to provide for its future generations? stefanie dekker, al jazerra. much more on our website, aljazerra.com. >> this is "techknow". a show about innovations that can change lives. >> the science of fighting a wildfire. >> we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity, but we're doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science... >> oh! >> oh my god! >> by scientists. >> tonight, techknow investigates vaping. >> whoever bought this got way more than they bargained for. >> yes they did. >> it's everywhere... in clubs, street corners and cars. they say it's safe, it can help break the cigarette habit. >> if i had to say what is more ng