>> north korea's leader orders his troops to be ready for war as tensions with the south escalate. from al jazeera in doha, also ahead, the greek prime minister quits and calls snap elections. how it's just the latest in a series of shrewd moves. low on staff and supplies. we are in iraq where the country's healthcare system is struggling to survive. and surrounded by sewage, why these people in south africa are forced to live in dangerousously

unhygienic conditions. north korean leader has ordered his troops to be prepared for war with south korea as tensions escalate. he held an emergency meeting of the north central military commission late on thursday. according to state media, he told the army's front line troops to be prepared to launch operations. relations between the north and south are always strained, but it's become much worse in recent weeks. south korea accused the north of planting land mines which injured two south korea border cards. they started broadcasting propaganda across the border on huge loud speakers. the north fired several shells towards the speakers in

retaliation. the south fired dozens of a till larry roundroundsback. we are near the border between south and north korea. >> reporter: here we are about five kilometers away from the demilitarized zone. there is an air raid shelter, there is a handful of people, a bit fewer than 20, mainly elderly people and children who are still underground in that shelter. they say there is a level of worry despited they are used to these warnings. they heard the retaifire. south korea says it will respond to any north korea provocation. north korea says it's the south that's doing the provoking. it denies doing any rocket fire.

they have to end loud speaker propaganda broadcasts by 5:00 p.m. or there will be military action. >> we have an adjunct professor in seoul. he says north korea's war footing is quite unusual despite years of tit for tat attacks. >> we have had this before. we had occasional exchange of fires. in my recollection, however, the north korean leader raising the level of alertness for their military up to this, right next to the war declaration level is a little unusual to me. the exchange has been there before, but this kind of stated level of alert itself is quite

unusual. some people here in the south korea believes we should offer a gesture of reconciliation a little bit. not necessarily backing down on the military side of it. i don't know whether that kind of solution would be realistic or not. there is a conservative view that we have to do all we can and be tough on north korea provocation. the nation is divided in terms of its opinion. people in greece could be heading to the polls next month. the prime minister resigned on thursday saying he had a moral obligation to send people back to the ballot box. he's hoping the new vote will give them the mandate to push forward with tough new us a terrausteritymeasures. >> it takes less than a minute to walk back to the office. just as the first of the bailout dollars arrived, the man

responsible for negotiating the deal told the greek people their vote was needed. >> the people's mandate exhausted its limit. now the sovereign people should take the vote. you with your vote should if we represented the country with the difficult negotiations required. >> opposing austerity conditions, he has now accepted them. a u-turn too far. he is now the victim of a rebellion in his own party over the tough new measures worth more than $15 billion over three years. further painful cuts and far reaching pension reforms angered many in his party. the rebels have announced they will now split and form a new anti-bailout movement. >> we have to rely on the votes of the opposition to get the bailout deal through. it can't go on like that

forever. it needs to seek a mandate. he's trying to portray himself as the guy that got the best deal possible for greece. it's not a great deal, but no one else could have gotten a better deal. he's looking into the future with lots of optimism. >> reporter: he has decided to go straight to the nation in an attempt to silence his rebels and renew his mandate. and it could work. he played the election rule book well. by triggering two previous elections, he advanced his share of the popular votes by 20 points. that helped him take the party to power with 36% of the vote in january. a familiar shrewdness is popular now. he will ask the greek people to re-elect him. he will also be giving them

minimal time to organize. it suggests that wants a strengthened majority to finesse the effects of austerity. israel has launched a second round of strikes over western syria and the damascus countryside. earlier it targeted syrian army. it was responding to syrian rockets which landed in the region. they have warned the country faces partition. government reform measures need to be introduced immediately. it's one of several made by the cleric this month. it's believe he played a major

role in the corruption drive. more protests are expected on friday in iraq. people are sick of power shortages, foofoodshortages and. >> reporter: they dole out medical care and dispenses hard truths. >> living in a city with violence, daily violence, a city with no infrastructure, i try to give the best to those patients. it's not easy. >> reporter: while this government run facility is cleaner than many other hospitals, it's not immune to the crisis spreading through a healthcare system here many consider decaying and diseased. the shortage of supplies and well trained staff is nothing

new in iraq. but things are getting worse. even storing medicines at the right temperature is difficult. the medication stored inside here must stay refrigerated. that's why they have to keep working. and during this record heat wave at a time when there are so many power cuts, this hospital and others are relying on backup generators. back inside patients find that even on a relatively slow day, wait times are long. >> translator: if i had a critical condition and needed immediate surgery, i would have to wait a month to get my turn. and that's not practical at all. >> reporter: going to a private hospital would be far too expensive for this couple. the ministry of health isn't the only institution in the country struggling to deliver medical aid. the united nations recently announced a funding gap forcing 80% of front line health services in iraq to shut down.

1 million people are affected. >> it means that all the kids that are going to be imooowh niced are not going to be. all the pregnant women are not going to receive assistance. >> 3 million people are displaced inside iraq. >> it's painful, it hurts. the people who need us most right now, we are walking away from them. when you are in a clinic that yesterday was providing antibiotics and today is closed because we don't have the funding, you have nothing but shame. you are ashamed. >> reporter: another blow to a country whose people need more help, but are receiving less and less. the speaker of brazil's lower house of congress and a former president have been charged in the country's largest corruption scandal. he's accused of taking a $5 million bribe on contract its

linked to petronas. opponents marched across the country. approval rating is at an all-time low. the economy sliding into recession. we have more from rio de janeiro. >> the people came out to support the president, not because she's doing a good job as the leader of this country, but many say no to the coup. they see that the impeachment made by the opposition really tantamount to destroying the democracy in this country. they are calling for him to step down. he's the speaker of the lower house. once a political ally of the

president, but since a few months waging against her inside congress. now he has also been indicted in this scandal surrounding the state owned giant petronas that var.>> it's great he's been cha. for us it's very important so the government can start working for the interests of the poor. >> reporter: even though in numbers they are no match to the antigovernment protest, the people are a cross section of society. now many would tell you this country has been through a very difficult time during the military dictatorship which was not so long ago. so they say unless it's proven, then she should be allowed to finish her term. anyone who wants to oust her

should run in the next presidential elections in 2018. >> stay with us on al-jazeera. still to come. >> the terror, confusion, it was unbearable. >> he survived by hundreds died. two years since the chemical attacks in syria. and a big pill to swallow. the european union says no to hundreds of generic drugs from india. the only way to get better is to challenge yourself,

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>> hello again.

the top stories on al jazeera. north korea ordered troops to be ready for war with south kree y after an exchange of artillery fire on thursday. the south put its military on its highest alert level. israel has launched a second round of strikes over western syria and the damascus countryside. earlier they targeted positions in the go lan golland heights. people in greece could be heading to the polls. the prime minister resigned and asked for the earliest possible election date. he's hoping it will give him the mandate to push forward with new austerity measures. what happens next, the prime minister resigned, what can we expect now?

>> reporter: the process now demands that the president asks the next largest party to form a government, the conservatives who have 76 seats. if they fail, the order will then have to go to the next largest again and that would be equal in size, both golden dome and the river. the far right party and the river is a reformist party who expressed their support of what are called here memorandum politics. in other words, compromise with creditors, acceptance of austerity and an attempt to keep greece within the eurozone. if you look at the numbers across parliament, none of those parties can form a government. even if all of the remaining parties that still support austerity politics got together, that means conservatives,

socialists and the river, they still don't have much more than about 116 seats. and that is far short of the 151 they need in order to government it is procedural and in a matter of days we are going to have the president appoint a caretaker government in order to oversee the transition to elections over the next month. >> it's been noted this would be the fifth election in six years in greece. how are people reacting to the prospect of yet another election? >> i don't think anybody really wanted another election. and that was bor borne out by opinion polls. there is a variety of reactions. some are surprised the government quit so soon after the january election. some people say they saw it coming. here is some of the reactions from today's morning papers. this is the official party.

it says a clear mandate calling on voters to give him the increased and broadened support he's asked for. this is the leading conservative newspaper, new elections, taking the view he need not have called elections except to clear up his own party which is divided between the people who support his u-turn and acceptance of austerity policies and the far left which wants greece to go back to national currency. and here is a ling left leaning newspaper, saying a big gamble for everyone which pictures of the party leaders across the front. many of those people run the risk of losing market share in this nearly liquid greek political market, notably the socialists who are particularly threatened as it moves towards the political center. >> thanks for that.

15 people have been killed in government air raids in syria. the planes targeted a town in the countryside. it's under isil control and is a regular target for opposition activists say the syrian government is targeting civilian neighborhoods. two years ago as many as 1500 people died when rockets filled with sarin gas struck a syrian town. the government denies being behind the chemical attack. survivors are worried they will never get justice. >> reporter: the dead and the doing. there was no blood on their bodies, noviceble injuries. the attack was different than what syrians had seen before. rockets carrying chemicals landed in a suburb in the morning of august 21, 2013.

>> translator: it took seconds before i lost my ability to breathe. i wasn't able to breathe or even to scream to alert my friends. so i have to pound my chest really hard just to try to take a single breath. i felt like somebody was tearing up my chest with a knife. >> reporter: he survived. hundreds of others didn't. two years later he has a new life in the united states. he remembers that day clearly. >> it was a scene from judgment day. dozens of people, men, women, children, running and falling on the ground suffocating. the terror, the confusion. it was something unbearable. i just didn't know what to do. >> reporter: this photographer was working in syria. he wanted to document the evidence of a crime he felt the

world should see. >> i asked the doctor. he showed me the dark, the dark blue of the color. the eyes and thing coming out from their mouth. >> reporter: even though he covered the war for many years, he can't forget whee saw. >> i'm a war photographer. when you see a body with blood, you are used to them. you think they are sleeping. then you realize like after one and two seconds, your reality becomes facing what's really going on. >> reporter: reality faced him years before. he was an activist where he used to film the suffering of people who continued to live under siege. since the attack he has tried to raise awareness. but he says it has all been in vain. >> i feel like i did nothing. i feel like after all this talking, all the people that i

met, thousands of syrians here, there is no hope. >> reporter: they didn't have the mandate to blame anyone. there is now a new resolution to investigate chemical attacks in syria. attacks before april 2014 wouldn't be included. yet again, denying justice to the people. britain's foreign secretary philip hammond will open the u.k. embassy in iran's capital on sunday. it will be reopened at the same time. the u.k. withdrew its ambassadors in 2011 after crowds stormed two compounds to protest sanctions imposed by the u.k. the reopening of embassies in both countries is a sign of warming relations after iran signed a deal on the nuclear program. haiti's legislative elections are about to bereheld

in about 20% of its district. violence during the first round on august 9 left two people dead. dozens of voting centers were forced to close. the revote will be held in late october. sri lanka's new prime minister has been sworn in. his party won 106 seats. that was seven short of the majority. but he's made a deal with a faction of the opposition group to build a coalition. 700 generic medicines made in india will be ban in the european union on friday. they allege the clinical trials were manipulated. india's pharmaceutical industry is considered the world's largest. $3 billion worth of drugs went to europe. the ban will cost businesses

$1.2 billion. india has responded to the ban by deferring talks on a free trade deal with the eu. we have more from new delhi. >> reporter: the multibillion drug industry has been hit by a ban on 700 generic drugs. they allege the trials have been manipulated. generic manufacturers here say banning all the drugs based on a technical issue is unfair. >> they have already done so much of the work on those molecules. they should be given some chances and it should be analyzed in another lab. >> reporter: even if and when that happens, those in the industry say the damage to their reputation has already been done. >> we have lost the prospective buyers which we could have got as a contract manufacturer. secondly, you talk about indian

companies or small companies like us, we'll face a lot of difficulty. >> the fear is the bad reputation could spread and affect sales in other countries, including the lucrative u.s. market. many of the drugs being banned by the eu are widely available here and in many other countries. local manufacturers are asking the indian government to do what it can to lift the ban. but this goes beyond a single industry. it's affecting negotiations for a free trade deal. india canceled talks set for the end of august in response to the drug ban, further stalling the free trade deal that was supposed to be signed last year. the free trade deal has been delayed over issues of human rights and trade protectionism. and the drug ban will slow negotiations even more. >> you bring in a new one.

>> reporter: it's willing to wait until its industries get the best deal. it may be a case of bad medicine pushing india to focus trade in other parts of the world. some areas of south africa are facing a sewage crisis with rivers of waste flowing through several communities. many treatment plants aren't coping with the increased demand and that's causing a smelly and unhygienic problem for people living nearby. we have the report. >> reporter: the sewage treatment plant is filled to the brim. it's operating at double capacity because it hasn't been upgraded to handle the number of people living here. the effluent is pumped on to the road forming a wide, shallow

river that skirts a rubbish dump and people's home. cows have been wallowing in it. nearby people are trying to make a living recycling rubbish. >> because we are sick about the water. >> reporter: it flows through farm land to the dam from where water is drawn and treated. it emerged last month that half the municipalities around the dam are releasing effluent containing unsafe levels of e-coli bacteria. >> we need to fight. our constitution and human rights are being violated here. >> reporter: government ordered the 824 sewage treatment plans, half failed inspections. although the picture looks dire,

the government says the water and sanitation situation is improving. >> even though we are seeing progressive upward movement, but not be satisfied that we are where we need to be. what kind of assistance do they need and what is it that we need to do. >> reporter: a planned upgrade can't come soon enough. these cows are eating grass growing in the dirty water. activist say what's worse, there are plans to replace the cows and farm land with 2,000 more homes. it will put more families in harm's way. her backyard is regularly flooded by sewage. >> they promise they will come and fix this pipe, but they don't do anything. >> reporter: while the government insists it's doing something, progress is too slow

for family whose have to walk past pools of sewage every day. there's lots more on our website, www.aljazeera.com. get the latest on all the stories we are following there. www.aljazeera.com. i'm ali velshi, "on target" - over worked and under pressure, corporate america making billions off the backs of stressed out american workers. working for the weekend - why your boss should embrace the 4-day working week. tonight we talk about stress on the job. we are not working fewer hours, employers wants us on the job, and in many cases they want us to stay in touch off the job via the phone. the work-life balance that s