>> more than 100 people are killed after a crane collapses at mecca's grand mosque. hello and welcome to al jazeera live from our headquarters inning doha. i'm elizabeth peranem. also ahead. we look at the crisis of children trying to locate to safety. japan are floods kill at least three people.

pontiff's visit to the communist island. we begin in saudi arabia where at least 107 people have died after a construction crane collapsed on the grand mosque in mecca. more than 230 others were injured in the accident. the holy city is currently preparing for the annual hajj or muslim pilgrimage. jerald tan has the story. >> the moment the giant crane collapsed, another video shows the chaos that followed. the construction crane toppled through roof of the grand mosque in the muslim holy city of mecca killings scores of people and injuring many more. >> nobody had a clue what

happened. it was somewhere the situation was a bomb blast and a bow blast, no. you don't know what happened, it was almost like that. >> reporter: for several hours scenes from inside the grand mosque showed emergency crews rushing to help victims and clear the debris. >> translator: incident happened at 5:23 p.m, due to severe rain. causing a crane to collapse, near a gate on the other side of the meshai area. >> this the buildup for busiest time in mecca, the annual hajj, where muslims make the pilgrimage to the home of the

prophet. >> i'd like to express my condolence cems ws, we hope gods the victims into paradise. >> the sheer number of people converging on mecca each year creates security and logistical challenged e-challenges that have results in results like stampedes. friday's tragedy will review a force oforce areview of measure. jerald tan. al jazeera. >> at the mosque when the accident happened. >> around 6:30 this evening, around 15 o20 ambulances, heavy rain and sandstorm, spoke to a

few people inside the grand mosque and basically they witnessed the crane falling on the third floor of the grand mosque and the doors were shut, people were locked in and there was slight pandemonium. just recently i just spoke to someone who had lost a friend someone from africa who got caught up in the actual movement, i think some congestion took place not because of the cranesut because of the people trying oescape. >> just as muslims from all over the world gather for the annually hajj. based on lunar siting but expected to begin around the 21st of september. something a muslim should perform at least once in their

lifetime if they can afford it. last year 2 million muslims took part. still struggling with the influx of refugees on their borders, still have failed to come up with a united plan. many that set out have been children. hoda abdel hamid has the story. >> children are often crammed in the middle. some are only a few months old. for others, it's an experience that will mark them, as much as the war they fled. >> translator: we were really frightened on the boat. i thought we were going to drown. we were also so scared that the coast guard would take us back to turkey. we had life vests, but we were so scared. i couldn't sleep on the shore of

lesbos that's it. >> they met ayman, they became like brothers they say. giving courage to each other, as they continue their travels. there is no age limit to be a refugee. entire families are on the move, walking on roads, sleeping wherever they can. there's little space for youngsters to be children these days. parents say it is for their sake that they beg their way through europe but often it's the kids and their resilience that gives them the courage to continue. decided to leave kabul after her school was bombed bithe taliban. >> see with my eyes that my friend died. my teacher die. that's not very good. that's very bad. after the bomb, we don't have a school because the school go to

air. and i stay in a home, don't go out because my father said, if you go maybe the taliban kill you because you are a young girl. we have difficult life. we have difficult travel. i wish, i wish i want better life without kill without stress. i want a life, simple life. >> reporter: the children have their own uncertainties and challenges ahead. he does know know when he will see his parents again. perhaps the road ahead is still difficult. the world doesn't want him or his friend aman. >> please don't be frightened us of, we're not scary people. we're escaping war, we don't

come here to hurt you, we don't eat people. we left to escape barrel bombs, we are here to be protected just a little. >> worries of an adult, felt by a child. hoda abdel hamid, al jazeera on the greek mast zonian border. >> from macedonia many of the refugees move on to hungary. there is an investigation underway for this footage which see hungarian police throwing food at the refugees. thousands of people are expected to take to london's streets on saturday demanding the u.k. does more in response to the refugee crisis. the british government has promised to take 20,000 refugees, but rejecting a plan

to resettle people already in europe. barnaby phillips reports. >> reporter: children who arrived in england without their parents, more than 700 in the handling of kent county council. local officials say there's a legal and moral obligation to help. >> these aren't economic migrants. they are young war refugees that have often witnessed atrocities that hopefully you and i would never experience in our lives. i have spoken to a 81 man whose mother and father were both murdered in front of of him. he started running and didn't stop until he felt safe in the united kingdom. >> the discuss about the refugee crisis in this country is in tangles with the wider debate about immigration as a whole. the conservative government won

the election promising to reduce the number of immigrants coming to britain and that helps explain its reluctance to now take more refugees. form he british ambassador came to this country from cypress as a boy. he belongs to migration watch, he session this country is less equipped than germany to take in large numbers of refugees. >> germany first of all has a population that is decreasing. it's a much bigger country. our population is increasing at a greater rate than the germans, so you're not comparing like with like, frankly. >> the advance guard of some 5,000 children who are to find sanctuary in britain. >> reporter: in the past, britain has been a safe haven for those escaping retribution.

the asians, escaping uganda, although they held passports, compared to the number of syrians now on the move. believe this country can take on many more refugees than it has committed to so far. that britain spends much more on foreign aid for syrian refugees than any other country in europe and the government will be very reluctant to make more concessions. barnaby phillips, al jazeera. >> the bomb has exploded in a camp for displaced people in nigeria. the camp was housing some of the 2 million who have fled violence of boko haram. flood waters have started to recede in northern japan but hundreds of people have no more

homes to go back to. more than 100,000 people have been affected by heavy rains across the country. at least three people killed and more than 20 others are still missing. wayne hay sent us this update by one of the areas hardest hit by the flood. >> this was the 18th typhoon to sweep across the country so far this year but something completely different. more rain fell in a 24 to 48-hour period than normally falls in the entire month of september. and it was simply too much for the rivers to cope with. in particular, the kinugawa river which burst its banks around 1:00 in the afternoon sending a wall of water into the city of jos rvetionsol and taking everything with it. good news the water is receding in many areas so people can go

back to their homes and begin a cleanup operation. there are still several people missing so the death toll could rise and a large rescue and recovery operation is underway. >> welcoming up in the bulletin we look at how the pacific island of vanuatu managed to dampen the killer effects of a typhoon. and sign language making sure it's not lost in translation. >> ground-breaking... >> they're firing canisters of gas at us. >> emmy award-winning, investigative series. >> we have to get out of here.

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>> good to have you with us.

i'm elizabeth p puranem in doha. the city is preparing for the country's annual hajj pilgrima pilgrimage. hungarian police have been recorded on camera throwing food at refugees. just illegal migrants breaking hungarian law. emergency cabinet meeting to discuss the flooding that struck northeastern part of the country. 16 missing. the power that ruled for half a century has returned. it's a big win for the people's

action party. rob mcbride has more. >> reporter: it's been a big win foe evere for the pap party. as been very telling i think for voters. for their part the opposition can argue that this is part of their long term strategy of changing the political landscape here. they made big gains in parliament back in 2011. largely over unpopular policies that were in place back then. as if the government has done a lot to change since then, for example, housing and immigration. sadly for opposition, those policies seem to have worked with the electorate winning back a lot of support that the government had lost. >> now six months ago, a

category 5 cyclone hit the pacific island nation of vanuatu. several people were killed and the damage was extensive. in march al jazeera's andrew thomas was one of the first to arrive after the cyclone hit. he went back to see the extent of the recovery. >> six months on, kaot sam is reenacting actions he thinks saved his family. how he lifted his collapsed house after the cyclone brought it down on his wife and children. >> translator: somehow i lifted up the house. >> reporter: all the family survived. nearly all in vanuatu did. whether i came back and saw the scale of the destruction, houses blown down as if made of straw, i was sure hundreds had died. those in the various emergency organizations that swept in

after the storm. but when communications were restored even the most remote communities reached by rescue teams the news was surprisingly good. nationwide just 11 people had lost their lives. a big part of why? simple, light structures. the deaths that were, were from flying an removes or collapsing brick walls. vanuatu doesn't have many of other. vanuatu has regular cyclone preparedness training. it has word about which buildings are strongest and how to get people into them fast. >> getting the cyclone, we do what we know to safe people. >> reporter: it helped too that the cyclone was slow-moving. hourly text messages to alert people to its exact path. >> the information the power of

the wind the location where the system is and what direction the system is moving. >> reporter: timing that the worst of the wind was during the morning helped some ielts islan. >> we are lucky that the cyclone came in the daytime. we have chance to move from place to place. and that's the reason why nobody was die in this community. >> but even in areas where the storm came at night, few were badly hurt. across the spask vanuatu's experience is becoming hope for a big dose of luck. andrew thomas, al jazeera, tana, vanuatu. >> the governor in the state of california has declared a state of emergency over hundreds of wildfires. dozens of fires are burning

across six western u.s. states. thousands of kilometers have been destroyed in the past few years. a curfew in the turkish city of jesru is set to be due to expire. kurdish politician he said the death toll includes at least 20 civilians. britain's parliament has rejected a bill to change the right to die laws. religious leaders raised moral objections to the proposed bill and prime minister david cameron says he opposes i.t. nadim baba reports. >> reporter: the protest was passionate on either side of an emotive issue. on friday the u.k. parliament debated legislation allowing doctors to prescribe a terminal

doas to dose to a patient with n six months to live. argued that it would clear up a legal mess. >> those that have reached a voluntary clear settled decision to end their lives, can now be clear from loved ones that without exposing them to the law but they cannot have the assistance of professionals. they can have amateur assistance from nearest and dearest but they can't have professional help. >> leslie close is a firm believer in what she calls assisted dying. her brother don was once a keen marathon runner but was diagnosed with a motor neuron disease. he injected himself with drugs. >> he couldn't speak, but you could tell from the kind of grunting expressions he made

that he needed something. but he didn't want to get to the point where he couldn't even do that, where he couldn't tell that you his nose itched or he needed to go to the lavatory. that certain timetable at somebody else's demand. >> ending their lives in switzerland, change in the law would simply mean people in distress wouldn't have to travel abroad but opponents say it would mark the start of a slippery slope. this member of the campaign group care not killing is also a medical doctor. >> i've had two or three patients come up to me say would you help me do away with me doctor? no what's your grounds, first i'm a christian, second i'm a doctor. they say you're a doctor you're loud to do this. pressurized into something they didn't want to do themselves but feel they ought to. >> when it came to the vote the

legislation was easily defeated but these campaigners say they will continue pushing for what they call dignified dying. nadim baba, al jazeera, london. >> protesters clogged the city, separatist coalition of parties is heading the polls ahead of catalonia's regional elections this month. jailed venezuelan leader leopoldo lopez has promised to continue his fight against the government. lopez was sentenced to nearly 14 years in prison. accused of insighting violence. >> today i visited le leopoldo n jail. he said we are committed with the people with the truth with the reason and with justice.

>> cuba has announced a massive prisoner release ahead of pope francis's visit next week. 3500 prisoners will be released. pardons will take effect within 72 hours. lucia newman reports. >> the prisons are losing some of their inmates. >> the council of state and the republic of cuba, agreed that on the visit of his holiness the pope, they will release 3500 prisoners. it's similar to when pope john and benedict visited. >> many people may think that it's a publicity stump because the pope is coming. it seems to me it's a reflection of the reality we live in.

>> it's the pope's coming. it could be that miracles are beginning to take place. >> but not for everyone. this, quote, gesture of goodwill secludes those who have commitmented rape, illegally killed cattle and in other words, dissidents. although the government denies it has political prisoners, the human reconciliation commission estimates there are 50 in political prisonership. marking the d detant, not this time round it seems. the most visible opposition group known as the ladies in white is asking for a meeting with pope francis to discuss human rights. a meeting that the vatican has

apparently ruled out. lucia newman, al jazeera. 12 men in india have been found guilty over the 2006 mumbai train bombings. a court convicted them of murder and conspiracy. the men are expected to face death penalty or life in prison. 189 people were killed in the bombing. two engineering graduates in india have invented a device, improved communication for speech and hearing impaired people. divya gopalan met the inventers. >> reporter: the aim of the project was just to graduate. their idea was to create a prototype that would eventually allow everyone to understand sign language. they explained the glove is equipped with sensors which

detects finger movement. while an accelerator meter measures hand movements. and translates. crish nakrishnan is a scientist. >> i haven't seen this application. if time allows and they are properly guided and mentored they can make it as a product and will be available for very cost effectively available to the general public who are disabled. >> the prototype can currently recognize only eight phrases. the creators of the gesture vocalizer say it can be adapted to any number of sign languages. to find out we take device to a school for speech and hearing

impaired. >> can you ask him what he thought of the device when he used it? >> he says that it would be a good thing to have although there are only a few phrases right now. if there are more it would be like speaking like everyone elsewhere old people would be able to understand him. >> much research is being done across the world on bridging the gap on communication for the hearing and speech impaired. similar ideas are being developed but there isn't anything effective or affordable in the market yet. the inventers of the gesture vocalizer said they were aware they were venturing into a new area when they started. >> votes coming forward, after this project, we did, many companies of companies. >> if developed to its full potential many experts say it won't just be a break through in

technology but also one for society. divya gopalan, al jazeera, carala. >> just a reminder that you can always keep up to date on all the news at our website at aljazeera.com. fp