50 people are found dead in the back of a lauri in austria, as a summit in vienna tries to tackle the flood of refugees continuing to arrive on the shores of europe. ♪ i'm lauren taylor this is al jazeera, live from london. also coming up -- >> what started out as a natural disaster, became a man made disaster, a failure of government to look out for its own citizens. >> new orleans remembers hurricane katrina, as president obama joins the commemorations ten years on. missing but not forgotten,

nigeria marks 500 days since 276 schoolgirls were abducted. and up up and away why 100,000 white balloons are floating over london's common garden. ♪ hello. talks in vienna to tackle europe's refugee crisis received a sobering reminder of the urgency of their mission when up to 50 people were found dead in a truck. officials said the victims may have been dead for up to two days. we have correspondents at key locations throughout europe. barnaby phillips is in vienna. bernard smith is on the turkish border where millions from entered from syria. jonah hull is on the greek

island where boats full of people arrive each night. let's start in vienna with this report from barnaby phillips. >> reporter: it looks like nothing out of the ordinary a truck parked on a busy road leading into vienna. but this is the scene of a crime. when police approached this abandoned vehicle on thursday morning, the drive was nowhere to be seen. they saw blood seeping out of the back, and they were overwhelmed by a terrible smell. inside, they found the decomposing bodies of people who had been locked in and suffocated. we don't know the country of origin, even counting them is a slow, gruesome task. >> translator: how many people were in the truck? at this point in time, i can't tell you exactly. we think it will be more than 20

people. it might be 20 to 50 people transported in the truck, and all of the people have died. it is very likely they are refugees and highly likely they were people being trafficked from east to west. >> reporter: the summit was likely to be dominated by the refugee crisis, but this brought a grim urgency to these talks. >> translator: we are very much shaken by the news that up to 50 people lost their lives in a situation where criminals facilitating illegal border crossings did not care about them even though they were on their way to places where they thought they would be safe. this admonishes us that there is a need to sell v the issue and tackle the issue of migration in the spirit of solidarity. today there are more refugees than ever since the second word war. the austrian and german chancellors say they want to move quickly to a quo toe system

where countries take in refugees according to their size and economic capabilities. but certain e.u. country such as den mash and the u.k. say they will have nothing to do with quotas. the plan for quotas was first suggested by the european commission back in may. they called for governments to have the courage to take difficult political decisions. >> these people come to europe, and come to europe for protection. they need europe to protect them and we need to live up to our standards of human rights and respect of international obligations to protect them. we need the european approach, and everybody says so. >> reporter: the leaders also discuss ways of helping balkan countries to cope, and to create incentives for people to stay in

their countries of origin, but that's a long-term solution, and there are no immediate remedies to europe's refugee crisis. barnaby phillips al jazeera, vienna. >> a boat packed with refugees has sunked off of libya. it happened off of the coast. security officials say -- dozens have died. since the war in syria began, turkey has seen more than a million syrian refugees arrive. in that number is expected to rise significantly this year. bernard smith is in turkey near the syrian border. >> reporter: this is now a syrian town that's how one government official has described it. the population of syrian refugees, 110,000. turkish population, 108,000. it's more than double in just four years since the syrian civil war started. and there are another nine or so turkish towns in a similar

position. but the minister has warned that his country is at capacity. and if fighting continues and intensifies maybe another million syrian refugees could be headed this way, then he is warning europe to prepare to accept more syrian refugees, and a reminder from turkey's e.u. affairs minister that his country has spent $6 million so far in the last four years looking after the syrians living here. the europeans have offered about $80 million as a contribution towards that cost, but so far turkey hasn't received a penny of that offering of assistance. more than 33,000 people have crossed the aegean sea from turkey in august alone. jonah hull is on the greek island, a major gateway to europe. >> reporter: they emerge in the thin light of dawn. new arrivals some still in life vests. where do you come from?

>> syria. >> reporter: syria. >> yes. >> reporter: how was it coming over? >> not good. >> reporter: why? >> because of the waves. so it was quite hard. >> reporter: what are you looking for? >> the nearest police station. >> reporter: i think you have probably two, three hours more walking ahead of you. >> thank you very much. >> reporter: good luck. where are you from? >> syria. >> good luck. >> peace. >> we were on a rubber boat, and it was going up and down, and it was during the night. children, women, pregnant. that was the worst part, i believe, for everyone. >> reporter: we have been on the road for perhaps an hour now traveling from the capitol towards the most popular landing spot closest to turkey, as you can see the sun just coming up. we have passed five, six, groups, maybe 150 new arrivals

all together. more than a thousand newcomers on this island every day. men, women, and children. the beaches covered in life jackets and the remains of rubber boats, relentless waves of people washing up on the shores of greece. [ shouting ] >> are you happy to be here in greece? >> yes. >> reporter: do you feel safe now? >> yes. >> reporter: what do you think you will find here on this island? >> real life, or normal life. >> reporter: help? do you think you'll find help? >> yeah, maybe. yes. yes. we need help. >> reporter: and then waiting for buses that may or may not rife. after the relief and joy of landing these shell shocked faces belong to people who thought they left disaster behind. they thought they would find more than this.

jonah hull, al jazeera, greece. refugees are risks severe jiri as they clamber under and over a razor wire fence placed by hungary across the border with serbia. andrew simmons has more. >> reporter: this is the security fence that separates hungary from serbia. it's controversial for many reasons, not the least of which its cost, millions of u.s. dollars, but many refugees have managed to cut their way through or get over it, but there's another problem and it's big. the fence comes to an end here, leaving a wide-open space. you can walk in from serbia without any interruption, you can talk back into serbia. what is the reason? well, as i walk backwards, i'm coming into romania, which is a e.u. state. you can't put up a fence or wall between two e.u. states, so

therefore you have this anomaly with people being able to walk through three different countries. the nearest hungarian village is over there. it's a sleepy place where the local major has sympathy for the refugees, but anger towards the hungarian government. >> translator: it won't solve the situation. it's not for the migrants. the government want to prove they are patriotic and that they are saving the country. >> reporter: within a few minutes of our arrival, the border police did arrive to ask us a few questions. later on the romanian police also came to find out who we were. they even tried to explain the layout of the land. >> here is the border. >> reporter: but at nighttime and in large numbers refugees could easily cross here. right now they prefer more suitable areas nearer towns, but when the fence is completed, this problem will always remain,

a potential hot spot, a place that could be exploited by criminals, an example of the anomalies, the problems the e.u. faces in policing its borders. ♪ president obama is new orleans marking the tenth anniversary of hurricane katrina, which killed more than 2,000 people and caused billions of dollars worth of damage. 80% of the city was under water. he acknowledged the government's failure to help victims. >> we came to realize what started out as a natural disaster, became a man made disaster. a failure of go to look out for its own citizens. and the storm laid bare a deeper

tragedy, because we came to understand that new orleans like so many cities and communities had for too long been plagued by structural inequalities that left too many people, especially poor people, especially people of color, without good jobs or affordable healthcare or decent housing. >> angie gallagher is live in new orleans for us. andy how is this visit being received? >> reporter: well, it was very well received, the president spent a great deal of time with the african american community. he went to one of the oldest african american neighborhoods in the country. but i think the tone of his speech is what people will take await. we heard him really addressing the issues facing the people of new orleans, particularly people of color. he was talking about housing, income inequality, jobs, all things that have been lead bare.

the income inequality is widening at faster rate between african americans and whites more than any other city in the country. he addressed that in the speech he gave. and there couldn't be more of an apt neighborhood to make a speech like this. this neighborhood was hit incredibly hard by hurricane katrina, and even today, less than half of the population has returned here. you only have to walk a couple of streets to find derelict houses and the blight that people so often talk about. so he addressed many of the issues people wanted to hear. the question is how do you put it into action? there is still a long way to go here. you have gentrification going on in all sorts of different neighborhoods. and those issues need to be addressed, but it will take longer than another ten years to begin to lessen that gap between the poor and the more wealthy here in new orleans. >> what about something

specifically like housing? because an awful lot of people lost their houses in the devastation that followed. how far have they got with rebuilding or improving the housing stock there? >> reporter: it really depends where you go. the biggest problem i have been hearing from residents over the past few days is not the shortage of housing, but the price of houses, and particularly the price of remember. many say developers have come in and took advantage, and put profit over people, and that's causing a great deal of problems. the president did address those issues directly. but people are getting pushed out to worse neighborhoods, particularly in east new orleans, some of the african american people i have talked to feel they are being corralled into various neighborhoods deliberately. and one of the biggest statistics that is most

revealing is a hundred thousands african american never returns to new orleans post katrina. the number for the white population was about 10,000. that has changed the politics in this city. it means life for african americans here has got harder. some research i looked at said life here now in new orleans ten years after hurricane katrina is more unequal than before the storm. >> andy gallagher thank you very much indeed. still to come here on al jazeera, missing for 500 days, the families of the abducted nigerian schoolgirls refuse to give up hope of fining them. and the u.s. state of washington is in the midst of its worst wildfire season in a decade. ♪

♪ hello again a reminder of the top stories here on al jazeera. dozens of refugees have been found dead in a truck on an austrian motorway. president obama is in new orleans marking the tenth anniversary of hurricane katrina, which killed nearly 2,000 people. he stayed what started out as a natural nsa -- disaster ended up being a man made one. it has been 500 days since the schoolgirls with abducted by boko haram. the town they were taken from renewing their bring back our girls appeal. 57 managed to escape, but there has been no word on the others.

>> reporter: this woman's daughter is one of the 219 missing schoolgirls. esther refuses to give up hope. she remains bitter at the nigerian government. >> the government responded very slow. because [ inaudible ] biological daughters, i don't think they would sit for all this long. we want the government to do something to bring our girls back. we don't want anything from them but our girls. >> reporter: this woman is leading the march. she has been at the forefront of the campaign to put pressure on the government to rescue the girls. >> there are 219 girls out there waiting to be brought back home. and we cannot afford not to continue this. people say when will we stop? and we say not until our

daughters are back. they are our daughters. >> reporter: but the girls have not been seen since they appeared in this boko haram video last year. nigeria's new president says his government will not stop looking for them. >> there has been intensified intelligence and reconnaissance in a given -- you know, location in the [ inaudible ]. i think that in the past government had con tended with intelligence that was very [ inaudible ]. i think we're getting something deeper, clearer, and more specific. >> reporter: the president met with some of the relatives in july to personally reassure them the government is doing everything possible to bring the girls home. the government says it can't tell relatives and campaigners whether it knows if the girls

are still alive or where they might be, because it could put them in danger, but every day the girls remain missing parents and relatives are losing hope. human rights watch has accused the saudi-lead coalition in yemen of killing dozens of people with illegal cluster bombs. the group says at least seven attacks look place in the area that borders saudi arabia. the world health organization says there has been a spike in the number of people with den gay fever. ta'izz has seen ongoing battles between houthi forces and fighters loyal to the exiled president hadi. a number of people who died as a result of the explosion at china's port has risen to at

least 145. the former head of the harbor management office has been detained along with ten other local officials and executives of the company that ran any port. they are accused of dereliction of duty and abusing their positions. 12 have already been arrested after the explosion earlier this month. it is known as the jerusalem of africa, the town in ethiopia is famous for its spectacular churches hewn out of solid rock. it has been a place of pilgrimage for christians from all over the world. charles stratford met the conservationists facing a constant battle to preserve the irreplaceable structures. ♪ >> reporter: it's the spiritual home for millions of ethiopian orthodox christians around the world. ♪ >> reporter: the 11 churches

were carved out of the mountain side in the 12th century. these ancient places of worship represent holy sites in jerusalem and stories in the bible. the king built them so christians didn't have to risk the dangerous pilgrimage to the holy land. the frescos on the ceiling date from the 15th century. now these churches are of immense archaeological and historical importance, but the places of pilgrimage forrite openian christians around the world are literally crumbling away. the rock is highly sup -- sup septemberable to moisture. >> in terms of seismic activity, resilience, i mean a slight earthquake would destroy the place. the fact is that when you are dealing with natural strata in the terms of an historic building rather than a mine or

tunnel, there's very little you can do. you can't line it with concrete and steel bars. you see how the historic surface, lose those and you -- you simply are back into rotted geology, and that process isn't far off on the outside >> reporter: he shows us what he means. >> and if we start losing material like this, right through here, i mean, the only future for that, without some sort of intervention is this. the idea of the bandage is to hold it in -- in place until we can get there to -- to repair it. because every time it rains, a little bit more falls off, and if we weren't to do this, it would be a catastrophe >> translator: i'm lucky, because i come from this area, this heritage is a very big thing for us.

>> reporter: a number of churches have been covered to protect them from the rain while work is done. ♪ >> reporter: on a hill top close by, people pray. ♪ >> translator: the king didn't just build the churches as a human being. he built them with the help of god. >> reporter: it was included on the first-ever unesco world heritage site in 1978. preserving this extraordinary place of spiritual retreat for ethiopians of every generation is a challenge they pray they can meet. charlie pierce, al jazeera. police and anti-corruption protesters have clashed in honduras. [ shouting ] >> demonstrators are calling for the resignation of the president. they have been gathering every week for more than three months since the government was linked

to a million million dollars fraud at the welfare department. the u.s. state of washington is in the midst of a record wildfire season. international firefighters have been brought in to help battle the blazes. kimberly halkett reports. >> reporter: it started in late june, but the dozens of fires attacking the u.s. state of washington have now grown so large, thousands of local firefighters are struggling to contain the flames. that's why help has been brought in from as far away as new zealand and australia. >> we're able to get over here. >> reporter: they are battle a record forrest fire season that has scorched more than 400,000 heckers of land in the united states. and has yet to be contained. >> this is driven by the dry

conditions, the rugged terrain and the winds. >> reporter: the fires have bumped to just a few kilometers to the border of canada. officials are on alert for fear of high winds dropping embers on homes. in washington state, hundreds of thousands of residents have been ordered to leave. >> a lot f those people have followed those evacuations and they are in sherlts. >> reporter: a congressional hearing is being held in washington state to discuss how to finance the high cost of battling the fires. the governor has also been touring the damage that has scarred the state typically known for its natural beauty. nature is not cooperating with human efforts to extinguish the fires. they are expected to get even worse this week from dry conditions, high winds, and more winter storm temperatures in the forecast. london's common garden is

being represented at the beating heart of the capitol. 100,000 white balloons has been released and sized by the french artist who has been speaking to al jazeera about why he chose this to be his first public display out of france. >> i'm a photographer, and i'm used to -- from my heart. i have called this installation [ inaudible ] because it's a metaphor for a huge [ inaudible ] and i have created a bridge with the past. i wanted to connect people with the past, and to refresh their memories. >> every year we try to bring a bit of culture into kovant

garden, and he is able to mary the contemporary with the historic. >> it takes five days to inflate the balloons, and four nights to aim at something like 100,000 balloons. i don't count them, of course. and i have put a light inside like the -- the rhythm of the heart. when i have been contacted by kovant garden to come and discover this place with a kind of new heart to try to find something interesting in this place. >> it's a little strange. dish, i guess. but it's cool. i like it. it's kind of beautiful. >> it reminds me of a bit of thunder and lightning coming out of the clouds. >> they are going to be flocking around wondering oh, my goodness

what is this. it is amazing. >> and just a quick reminder that you can always catch up with all of the new and sport, by checking out our website. the address is aljazeera.com. and you can watch us live by clicking on the watch live icon. aljazeera.com. ♪ can can scientists. let's check the team of hardcore nerds. specialising in ecology and revolution. tonight the green game. san francisco's new stadium has solar power, the green group, and recycled water. how green is it.