♪ a mosque targeted in a deadly taliban attack on a former airforce base in pakistan. ♪ from al jazeera's headquarters in doha, i'm sammy and croatia warns it will close all border crossings if it worsens. the head of friday prayers the u.n. calls for calm and sniffing their way to success, we might the unlikely heros clearing

mozambique of its civil war legacy. ♪ begin with the latest from pakistan where the army is fighting taliban gunmen who stormed the airforce base and a group of men attacked the air base early in the morning and used as barracks to house soldiers and taliban attacked a mosque in the compound and 16 people there have been killed and nicole johnston has more. >> reporter: the reports are that 16 people have been killed inside a mosque inside that air base so this really ramps up the scale and the intensity of this attack by the pakistani taliban, a few hours ago it looked like the military ramped up the attack in two hours but reports are now it's ongoing. it's a real blow to the pakistani military that the

taliban was not only able to attack the guard room of this airforce base but they were able to get inside, into the mosque during morning prayers. we also know that priest security forces have been killed and the pakistani military said they killed 13 fighters, the pakistani taliban has a different story and they said their operation is still on going against the military and that one of their fighters has been killed and really a morning of high drama in peshawar in a city that has been relatively quite it up until this point and there have been helicopters heavying in the city and that area is locked down while the operation continues and we are waiting to see now how long it will take for the military to finally wrap things up there. croatia struggling to deal with thousands of refugees who made their way in the country and closed 7 of its 8 border crossings and threatening to close the last to and kcroatia s

the main robe from people traveling serbia after hungary shut the border and it's a bottleneck reaching sloviana and ending up in austria and 13,000 people passed in croatia in the past two days and thursday there were chaotic scenes in the country east as hundreds of thousands rushed past police to board buses and it lies along the border with serbia where thousands wait this cues to cross over. people who have made it to croatia are essentially trapped and have been moved into camps and don't know when they will be allowed to leave and mohamed visited one of the camps in northern croatia. >> reporter: thought fences were finally a thing of the past but croatia would be for him and so many others a route to slovania, instead he feels trapped again.

>> translator: i don't know why. >> reporter: tells me this delay is a complete surprise and that many here would have paid a smuggler to help them on their way if they only had the money to do so. >> translator: 2000 euros to take you from serbia to hungary and drop you off and then you are on your own. >> reporter: hundreds here came from serbia, many with met with force by riot police when they tried to enter hungary the previous day and children injured in those clashes are easy to spot and tensions are pretty much rising at this hour, most refugees i have spoken with said they expected to already be in slovania and meanwhile at this camp more tents are being put up and clearly preparations being made to handle the influx of people and most of the folks i have talked with said they don't know exactly when they will be able to leave. one syrian refugee is enraged by inhumane conditions he and his

family have experienced. >> translator: we have been treated like animals, actually animals are treated better than us and at the end of the day we are human beings. >> reporter: he tells me he has gone four days without a proper shower and that today things have even gotten worse. >> translator: i wanted to go to the toilet for ten hours, there are women and children and embarrassed to go in front of them, there is no cleanliness, no hygiene no nothing. >> reporter: croatia warned they don't have the capacity to handle the large influx of refugees and as it wears on the facility seems stretched beyond capacity and some refugees are sitting outside the makeshift camp and others go searching for solutions looking for taxis and buses and even sim cards, something, anything to help them figure out their next move, mohamed with al jazeera, in northern croatia.

>> reporter: dedication of leaders from the block of west africa nations are set to arrive in burkina faso and a coup who captured a president and prime minister and three people were killed on thursday after hundreds demonstrated against the take over and gerald tan has the details. >> reporter: uproar on the streets here and gunfire rang out as people protested against the coup in burkina faso's capitol. >> translator: people started to come out, in front of us we saw a military vehicle that drove directly into the people and started shooting and killing people. >> translator: if we are here today it's to stand up against the ego interest of the guard killing civilians and threatening people. >> reporter: dramatic turn of events after a popular uprising last october blasted the president when he tried to extend his 27 year rule, a transitional government had been preparing for elections next

month until the elite presidential guard took over on wednesday. the man in charge now says the vote will take place but at a later time. >> translator: we have to discuss with concerned actors and civ society to establish a timetable for quick legislative and political elections and don't intend to explain our power and don't intent to stay and don't intend to do more than what needs to be done unlike some people think. >> reporter: general was chief of the presidential guard and long time aid of former president and his whereabouts are unknown raising speculation of a political plot. many people are concerned the presidential guard does not want an election to happen. >> the country became independent in the 1960s the army has been the main power and

so they feel very threatened that real democrat is coming, that is the basic fact and allow good elections to go ahead they will be marginalized and won't play the central political role that they play in the politics and in the economy. >> reporter: the u.n. has strongly condemned the coup and interim president and interim prime minister remained detained, the country's air and land borders are closed and burkina faso democratic transition has been thrown into doubt. gerald tan, al jazeera. japan's governor is making a final push to pass a controversial security bill. if passed it will allow japanese soldiers to be deployed overseas for the first time since world war ii and rob mcbride has more from tokyo. >> as this marathon session dragged on opposition parties are putting forward no confidence motion in the hope of

filibustering and forcing this crucial debate on the security bills out of time. for his part he and the ruling coalition are determined they will be passed by the end of this session and he is now up against the clock. the concern is that if these bills are not passed in this session then they will be hanging over into next week which is a holiday period here in japan. and the concern is that the kind of protests we have seen have signed the japanese parliament and may well be swelled and may well become angry especially if protesters feel they have a way, a possibility they could talk these bills out of the present session of parliament and believe this takes japan a dangerous step back to military and led to such disaster and they say it merely brings the constitution more up to date and in particular when it comes to the control of the self-defense

forces that japan can take a more active participation in security operations abroad in peace keeping operations and also working alongside american allies. u.n. security council is expressing grave concern over violence at jerusalem's holy site, the mosque compound in occupied east jerusalem and it called for calm after several days of violence with protesters and security forces and stephanie is live and usually a busy time in the area and i imagine today is no exception. >> reporter: yes, we are expecting prayers to start in about half an hour from now, there is a very heavy security presence not just in the city but occupied east jerusalem and 3500 extra security personnel have been deployed and i'll just step out of the way and let aman

show you because there are restrictions when it comes to men, any man under age of 40 will not be allowed to enter to pray in the mosque. in the area he is showing you now is one of the check point they are checking ages and many men will not be allowed to come in will be praying that. that is expected to be in about a half an hour from now however the situation here at the moment is pretty quiet. from other times we have corpsed covered it here when the situation has been tense there has been more of a build up. in the last 15 minutes or so more people gathered at that point where they will be praying but again it feels sort of calm at the moment but we do know there is a lot of concern here by the israeli authorities to try and keep things under control, also a lot of pressure internationally from the u.n., from the king of saudi arabia, from the jordan king who said that israeli relations with jordan will be put can they do not do anything to calm the escalation and the situation is tense and at the moment things here are pretty quiet. >> thanks so much stephanie

decker there. plenty more still to come on al jazeera, why this haze hanging over malaysia is choking relations with neighboring indonesia and we will look at a cosmic collection with the journey into the unknown. ♪ >> i kept trying to make him not be a boy... it's not working. >> transgender children. >> i'd sit alone, i'd eat alone, i have no one to talk to. >> some dismiss it as a phase. >> we're trying to pigeon-hole him into "tom boy". >> but is it reallt a crisis? >> when your child wants to die... that's what changes parents. >> meet the families on a life changing journey. >> i finally get to blossom into the beautiful flower i am!

>> as the global refugee crisis intensifies... >> they have travelled for weeks, sometimes months. >> and the e.u. struggles to cope... >> we don't know, they stop us here. >> what's being done while lives hang in the balance? >> we need help now. gunmen and stormed an airforce base in peshmerga what and

attacked a mosque inside the compound, 16 people have been killed there. croatia is struggling to deal with more than 13,000 refugees who arrived in the past two days and it has now closed all but one of the border crossing and refugees are crossing over in other areas. delegation of leaders from the block of west africa nations is due to arrive in burkina faso, at least three people have been killed in protests against a coup there. seven politicians resigned from the ruling coalition in the democratic republic of congo and signed a letter asking him not to cling to power after his term expires next year and we report from the capitol. >> reporter: he resides the ruling coalition. he is no longer the first vice president of the national assembly. he is one of seven senior politicians who say they can't

work with president joseph kabila and forming their own party to stop kabila from staying in par when his term end and others in a circle plan to join them. >> no doubt majority there are other people who are feeling like us and we know that the best moments shall come and join us and we will build a big coalition to fight this which is now coming in congo. >> reporter: on the streets people hope there will be no violence if next year's presidential election is delayed. the country has no money to hold elections but opposition says kabila is trying to hold on to power. the constitution says kabila can't run for a third term and u.n. urged him to respect that. >> we are working in the east to bring peace by neutralizing this and i don't think it is time for

men to create another policy in the west. >> reporter: supporters of kabila say he is a popular president. >> what is happening now, the building here and it's the same in the rest of drc, you know, this country has been destroyed for a long time but now there is a renaissance of drc. the building of drc and for that people love too much the president kabila. >> reporter: some worry delay to presidential election could take years and people know if that happens the religious peace drc had for a decade could end. harry from al jazeera. blanketed by smoke that forest fires that started in the hills around the city are starting to close in. dozens of firefighters are scrambling to put out the fires before they reach residential areas of kito and families on the outskirts of the city are

being told to leave their homes and government asking neighboring countries for help and david mercer has more. >> reporter: we are on the outskirts of the capitol city of ecuador and if you look around you can see the damage that was caused by his forest fires that have been going on for the past couple of weeks and low brushes absolutely charred and you can still smell the charcoal in the air and to my left you can see a house and how the fire came up practically to the doorstep just a couple meters away and hundreds were evacuated and they are back in their homes now and the fire chief we spoke to said the fires largely have been contained and that is thanks to firefighters around the country. it was in valleys like this one right behind me that the fires often started. the environment minister here said 70% of those were started by people and the interior minister has put out a $50,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of anybody suspected of arson, of starting

these fires. we are at the end of a very long, hot, dry summer in ecuador. the winds are picking up in the afternoon creating the sort of conditions that firefighters are afraid could start a fresh blaze. for now things are calm here but people are still on high alert. chile's president has visited some of the areas worst hit by powerful earthquake. she has promised aid for victims and urging people to help with the cleanup operation. 11 people were killed by the 8.3 magnitude quake on wednesday and triggered waves as high as 4 1/2 meters in some areas. indonesia deployed an extra 1600 soldiers to put out fires which have spread thick smoke across southeast asia and helicopters have seeding and water dropping missions and blazes caused by the illegal slashing and burning of forest during the dry season, the fires are set to clear land

for farming and palm oil plantations. the fires caused a thick smog which is spreading over neighboring countries and singapore is worried about the air quality over the formula one race and in malaysia. >> reporter: a cloud seeding operation and change in wind direction have sell disburse some pollutants in the area and it improved and have been allowed to reopen. the thick cloud of smoke or haze is caused by open burning in indonesia where they clear the land for farming or plantation use and it's illegal but enforcement is week. this is a problem that not only effects indonesia and neighbors where thousands of people complain of respiratory difficulties and visibility and

flights are cancelled and flights in singapore could be effected and indonesia had talks with countries before but have not been able to come up with an effective solution to tackle the problem which has been somewhat of an annual occurrence but they said to step up enforcement and police already detained several executives whose companies are alleged to have started some of the fires while it is investigating more than 100 others. tie land's military government released an out spoken critic from detention and it was the second time journalist was called in for so called attitude adjustment. wayne reports from bangkok. >> reporter: in military detention this thai journalist is still speaking his mind. >> i am very cautious in alarm but at the same time i think we need to inform the world and the

public as to what is going on. >> reporter: through his newspaper columns and on social media he has condemned the army's decision to over throw a democratically elected government last year. it was the second time he has been taken for so called attitude adjustment and if the criticism continues he could be charged with sedition. >> i think they are aiming at creating a climate of fear would people just just cooperate and exercise self censorship. >> reporter: freedom of speech and dissent what's been curtailed since the coup and they rejected a draft constitution earlier this month and means the process has to start again. that prompted allegations the government or national council for peace an order was deliberately trying to delay elections which now won't happen until the middle of 2017, being the prime minister retired general it will be thailand's

longest serving military leader since the 1970s. >> translator: some people try to distort information by leaking the ncpo influence on voting against the draft charter, this is groundless information and it's not true. >> reporter: the government has also detained academics and politicians, some of whom had their passports confiscated and bank accounts frozen and more alarming is the big spike in number of charges and convictions under thailand's harsh laws and criticizing the monarchy. political gatherings of five or more are ban and makes it difficult for the red shirt supporters of the previous government to show their oppositi opposition. >> translator: since the coup red shirt supporters shown discipline, all parties need to be careful but they don't run out of patience. >> reporter: the army says it seized power to return happiness to the people. many are wondering when, if ever democracy will be returned.

wane hay, al jazeera, bangkok. mexico arrested a high-ranking drug gang member who is suspected ordering killing of 43 students and captured on wednesday and students went missing in september last year after a protest in the state and john holman is in mexico city. >> reporter: lopez the man who has been arrested could be a key part in the puzzle of finding out what happened to 43 students who were abducted last september in mexico, they were kidnapped by the police and apparently turned over to a gang and lopez was part of that gang and his former accomplice and head of the gang behind bars testified that he is the person who ordered the killing and then the burning of those students in a municipal rubbish dump and that is the official version of what happened but since then just over a week ago a group of independent experts released an

over 500 page report and one of their findings was they said that it was scientifically impossible that an open fire in that rubbish dump could have burned those 43 students almost to the fact they were unidentifiable and it will be interest if the testimony of lopez becomes at any point public and if he can throw any light on exactly what did happen that night and to those students. mozambique declared free of land mines and follows nearly 20 years of intensive work to rid the country of almost 200,000 of them. tonya page explains. >> reporter: these huge rodents are success with getting rid of land mines and the southern african nation is the first large country to be completely cleared of the lethal legacy of the civil war and it has been slow, painstaking work that has

taken two decades. about 170,000 land mines have been cleared from human rights watch and says it's a breakthrough for the continent. >> mines take away land for the common development and er ratification and mozambique can use it for agriculture and development and infrastructure and many possibilities and great news for us. >> reporter: the land mines may be gone but the effects are clear, it's estimated they called or wounded hundreds of people whose foot was shattered when she took a wrong step. it is 16 years since the antimine ban came in force and 162 countries have signed on, mines are rarely used in conflicts now but countries like china have millions of land

mines stockpiled. when it was in effect 20,000 were killed or injured by land mines and today that is down to about 900 and mozambique achievement being land mine free can inspire other countries it's possible to be rid of land mines. these weapons are designed to kill or maim while the people of mozambique may be safe work is going on to clear in sri lanka and gola, johannesburg, south africa. artifacts on show in london, the first time many of them have been seen outside russia, the exhibition honors soviet innovation and the cold war rivalry between the east and the west and lee barker reports. >> reporter: reunited with her capsule, the first woman in space. and it's a museum piece and when she took off in 1963 this

journey could quite easily have been a one-way trip. i asked her if she was ever scar scared. it was work she tells me, if you were afraid you would never be allowed into space. this capsul is a close friend and she returned a hero of the soviet union and the only woman to fly an solo mission in space and they kick started it with the first, the first satellite sputnik one and the first man in space garin and 1965 they carried out the first space walk together with the first space summer salt and many artifacts never left russia and some needed to be declassified before they can travel and early achievements were a challenge by

the u.s. who eventually beat moscow in putting a man on the moon. it may be a legacy of cold war tensions that often here in the west these major achievements are sometimes eclipsed by nasa moon landings but when it comes to the space race there is one winner, soviet union. >> they landed on venus and the first probe to land on another planet and if you think about it calmly they are important as the lunar landing which is sexy and pr but all these other things are just as important scientifically. >> reporter: with the space race long over, tensions have been replaced by cooperation and joint missions. after the u.s. grounded its shuttle fleet in 2011 it now pays russia $63 million per astronaut per trip and talks about achievements from the

space craft to the space toilet, meaningful moments in humanity's journey into the unknown, lee barker, al jazeera at london's science museum. if you want to get more on the stories we have been telling you about just head over to our website, you can see our front page there with the lead story situation. i'm ali velshi. the tale of two economies, the haves, have not and why the pressure is building on the most powerful bank in america. plus middle class collects. why black americans are hurting more than most. it snoop the federal reserve's decision not to raise interest rates tells you about how lacklustre and meaningless this economic recovery has been for many americans, and the level of debate protest and speculation befood