the latest super pac scam victim? an ali velshi, on target, special investigation. ♪ >> announcer: this is al jazeera. welcome to another news hour in do what and i'm adrian and top stories, at least 30 people are dead on an attack on a former airforce base in pakistan. croatia warns it will close all border crossings if the refugee crisis worsens. thousands of israeli personal deployed in the mosque compound in jerusalem ahead of friday prayers. lawmakers prepare to vote on a

bill which could see japanese soldiers deployed overseas for the first time in 70 years. ♪ hello, we begin this news hour in pakistan where taliban gunmen stormed an airforce base near peshmerga what and taliban stormed a guard house and a mosque which is inside that compound, the base has not been operational for years but it is used as a barrix, one killed and an army captain and 13 dade and have taken at least 20 wounded to hospital. let's cross live to hartsfield-jackson nicole johnston who is outside the base in peshawar, nicole is that attack still underway and the operation to repel it? >> reporter: yes, it is, it is continuing. just in the base behind me we can hear helicopters overhead

and security forces passing by on the road and out here it has been relatively quiet and we know inside the pakistani taliban and the airforce backed up by the military are continuing their battle. >> nicole, security had been high in peshawar after an attack back in december last year. how was it that the taliban able to mount this attack? >> we had been expecting some kind of blow back from the taliban for the last nine months and they have been under a great deal of pressure, the military has been cracking down on them all over the country as you said ever since the last attack they carried out in peshawar in december and in the attack they killed 132 students so the military has been cracking down in them in the karachi and in the tribal belt and has been a big operation in an area called north wizarstan and in h the

agency close to here, a few kilometers away and pakistan taliban had dispersed during these operations, right now it does appear they have regrouped and managed to get together enough to carry out this sort of attack. it's a significant attack because it's their first big one this year since that peshawar attack last year. also significant because they managed to not only attack the guard post but they got inside the compound into a mosque in a residential area where there are many offices living in this area and shoot people as they were carrying out their morning prayers. >> what is the army telling you about the current state of the operation? you say this attack and the operations to repel it is still underway? >> that's right, we are not getting a great deal of information from the army at this stage. they say that the operation is

continuing. there has been some confusion actually, earlier in the morning it looked as if it had been wrapped up by the military in the airforce within a couple of hours and more information started to come out that they had, in fact, managed to get all of the pakistani taliban and why this operation is still continuing right now. >> nicole many thanks and nicole johnston there live in peshawar where that attack on that military base, that former military base is still underway. military leader whose seized the power in a coup in burkina faso agreed to release the interim president. michelle the interim president zita were captured on wednesday and delegation of leaders from the block of west african nations is set to arrive to discuss the crisis as gerald tan reports. >> reporter: uproar on the streets of ouagadougou 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, killing people. >> translator: if we were here today it's to stand up against the ego interest of the presidential guard killing civilians and threatening people. >> reporter: dramatic turn of events after a popular up rising last october ousted 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 a concern actors and political parties and civil society in order to establish a timetable for a quick presidential and legislative election.

>> translator: we don't intend to extend our power and do not intend to stay and do not intend to do more than what needs to be done unlike what 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 and many people are concerned the presidential guard does not want an election to happen. >> since the country became independent in the 1960s the army has been the main power and so they feel very threatened that real democracy is coming, that is the basic fact. think if they 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 remain detained and the country's air and land borders are closed and burkina

faso democratic transcript itch has been thrown into doubt. gerald tan, al jazeera. croatia is struggling to deal with thousands of refugees and closed 7 of its 8 border crossings and threatening to close the last as well and croatia has become the main alternative route for people traveling from serbia after hungary shut its border and created a bottleneck for people trying to reach slovania with the aim of ending up in austria, al jazeera mohamed is standing by at a refugee center while lawrence lee is in tavonik in the border crossing with serbia, lawrence in the last few minutes croatia's prime minister has said that the country cannot control the migrant influx and that croatia cannot and will not accept this burden any more. how would the complete closure of croatia's borders affect migrants who are attempting to get through it to slovania?

>> well, clearly it would affect them very much. i have to say that him saying that is clearly the direct opposite of what the government was saying two days ago when they said they would let people in and out of croatia irrespective of religion or nationality or anything else and you have to remember there is a lot of politicking for domestic consumption going on and no doubt in croatia there are people who said goodness me 8-10,000 people suddenly sprinkled around and can we really cope with them but the facts of the ground, whatever the government are saying is that even though they are closed every one but one of the road crossings here the refugees are still coming in and watched them coming in overnight and this morning and the croatia has been moving people successfully through the day. the last report of the thousands who had been here yesterday have now gone either by train or by bus and it's a very long cue but there is movement and people are

being moved elsewhere further north. so you know it's all relative really. it's clearly utterly inhumane and certainly better than hungary and let's talk from the u.n. human rights refugee convention. how do you think croatia is doing with this? is it coping do you think at the moment or not? >> i think croatia has been stepping in terms of fine tuning like yesterday initially and now they are trying to move but what is missing here and why i see the chaos and the mess around is absence of a coherent european response, you know. and time is running out for europe to come out with a response to deal with this refugee and migrant population. >> because winter is on the way. >> winter is on the way and the number of people desperate people on the move is increasing and we saw what happened at the hungarian border and now we are seeing yesterday what we saw

that was created over here, it all leads back to the same question and demand and ask if europe should step in and come with a coherent approach in terms of how it wants to deal with it and it cannot be left to one country like croatia. >> one question to the croatia government threatening to close the borders completely if they cannot cope with the numbers what is the result of that? >> we seen that happening in hungry and now the population has moved over here, we hope access to territory is maintained over here but countries will struggle as numbers go up and it's very important that europe steps in with migration with putting in place things that helping countries like croatia today where we are seeing this mess. >> thank you very much indeed, we are out of time and thanks very much and back to you. >> lawrence many thanks indeed and live to the capitol of croatia, al jazeera mohamed is

there, what is the situation where you are mohamed, how many of those refugees have crossed the border have made it as far as the capitol? >> well, adrian behind me is a refugee registration center, there is about 150 refugees in there. now with the refugees that are at this processing center have been told is they can go to a makeshift camp a few kilometers down the road and a fair grounds and can stay there but most of them are opting not to do so. in fact, we have heard over the last several hours that hundreds of refugees have left that fair ground site and that they started walking towards the border with slovania but that is a very far walk and that would take at least six to seven hours to walk from here and today we are told the heat is going to be a record and it's going to be a record hot day for september here in croatia. now, we know at least 14,000 refugees have crossed into

croatia in the past 24 hours and the question now is what are these refugees going to be able to do. i've spoken with several here at this center outside, they are trying to get answers to their questions and trying to find out if they can either hire a taxi, get on a train, get a bus to go to slovania, if they will let them in, if they can cross what is essentially a very porous border on foot and as we heard the last couple of weeks everybody we have spoken with today from iraq and syria and they are the two main groups of nationalitys i have spoken with today they want to ultimately end up in germany and determined to do so and say they came from serbia, they are glad they are in croatia but they are worried now they are going to get stuck here and need to get some clarification as to what they can do next. adrian? >> mohamed many things in the croatia capitol.

russia security service says around 2 1/2 thousand russian nationals are fighting alongside the islamic state of iraq and levante and iraq and syria and followed a russian military build up inside syria which the kremlin says is to take on i.s.i.l. but they believe it's more about keeping assad in power and peter who are these russian nationals who are fighting with i.s.i.l.? >> 2500, a large number of volunteers but you really shouldn't be surprised. the area around -- in the northern caucus is proving a fertile recruiting ground and they all have radical muslim communities. in pakistan for instance, in june, they even came out, a group of militants came out and

publically swore their allegiance to the i.s.i.l. commander and shouldn't be a surprise in that and chesna is keeping a lid on it. >> how does this link into russia's military build up in seer yeah -- syria and assistance it's giving to the assad regime? >> it's obviously of great concern. president putin only a few days ago said it was clear from his information that the volunteers who had gone out to fight on the side of i.s.i.l. would one day return home and he expressed his real concern that they would come back to their regions having been fully trained by i.s.i.l. in the middle east. putin is very much proceeding with his diplomatic effort to try and persuade the west to

make syria's army loyal to assad as part of a global effort to fight against as he put it fight against terrorism. we heard today from his spokesman that russia is prepared to consider the sending of military aid, possibly troops to syria if they were requested from the syrian foreign ministry but there has been no formal request as yet. >> peter sharp live in moscow and still to come on the program thailand military leaders put journalist and government critics on motive but some of them are just refusing to go away quietly. and why this haze hanging over malaysia is choking people with neighboring indonesia. later in sports blatter stood down pending another corruption

investigation with fifa. ♪ the u.n. security council has expressed grave concerns over violence at jerusalem's holy site, the mosque compound in occupied east jerusalem, thousands of israeli personnel have been deployed to the area ahead of friday prayers and the old city is one of the most contested sites in the world holy to muslims and jews and home to two of the important sites in islam the mosque and dome of the rock. jews believe this is one of four possible sites where the final temple will be built when the messiah comes to earth. live now to east jerusalem and al jazeera's stephanie decker is there, stephanie what is the situation now? >> well, it was relatively quiet and prayers were just starting when one man broke through the court behind the position and

started running around here and riot police on horse back chased him and i'll step out of shot and you see where the crowd is praying and he entered there and we heard the crowd shouting and that is when israeli security forces responded with stun grenades, three or four were thrown, the crowd dispersed and he was arrested. at the moment things are calm again but it's tense and another crowd being built but it's calm and does go to show the tension here and how it only really takes one person to spark any kind of response. of course there are restrictions here on who can pray, only men over 40 years old can enter and pray at the mosque and why is a crowd had gathered although i have to say it wasn't a huge crowd that prayed there, probably 100 at most and there is now a helicopter overhead that arrived in the last 20 minutes and monitoring the situation because the israeli authorities are extremely concerned seeing what happened over the last week and tension

surrounding such a sensitive holy site for muslims and jews of repercussions and spoke to israeli spokesperson and said 3500 extra security forces were deployed here in the old city and around areas in occupied east jerusalem and spoke to one palestinian man and he is very experienced in what happens here and the way he described it is he said it seems as if they have reconquered jerusalem in the sense of how many security forces are on the ground so it does go to show they are trying to keep things calm and pressure internationally from the united nations and saudi arabia and jordan telling israel they really need to keep this under control, actually we are hearing stun grenades being fired now, that sound behind me in one of the areas by east jerusalem and it is tense and you will be seeing and this will probably go on for a while but there you go so there are scuffles in the streets behind me and occupied east jerusalem but here in damascus gate the situation we

remains calm. >> wait to see what develops there, i want to ask you if you can remind us why the situation there at the alex compound is so tense of late, it's not the first time stun grenades have been used. >> it's not the first time. if we look at the past week what happened here is the jewish new year which allows jewish groups and right wing groups to visit the compound, that is seen as a real sort of provocation to muslims because they are prohibited of praying. of course as we say the jews believe their holy site but the status quo since israel and east jerusalem in 1967 means they can visit the site but cannot pray, there is a real fear at the moment that israel is trying to change the status quo on the mosque compound so this is why you're seeing this tension and was why a lot of international pressure is on israel to try and control this because this is not new. we have seen a wave of a right

wing politicians and extreme right wing groups over the last year trying to gain access to the compound demanding more prayer rights so it's extremely sensitive and this will, what we are seeing here today is part of an ongoing situation that of course anyone will tell you unless anything gets resolved politically, two-state solution and palestinians get this as the capitol east jerusalem this will go on for a very long time. >> we will let you find out what was behind, the noises there and possible stun grenades being fired and tense situation we will keep an eye on at al jazeera and stephanie in east jerusalem thanks and japan government making a push to pass a security bill. if approved it would allow japanese soldiers to be deployed overseas for the first time since the second world war war and triggered debate on the streets outside and the latest from rob mcbride in tokyo.

>> reporter: as the marathon session drags on there are low confidence motions of filibustering and forcing this crucial debate on the security bills out of time. his part and the ruling coalition is determined that they will be passed by the end of the session and he is now up against the clock. the concern is that if this -- 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 protest 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 they believe this takes japan a very dangerous step back to the kind of militaryism that led to disastrous consequences and he

and conservative allies say this merely bring 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. tie land's military government released an out spoken critic from detention, it was the second time that journalist brook was called in for so called attitude adjustment. wayne hey reports from bangkok. >> reporter: after a brief stay in military detention this out spoken thai journalist is still speaking his mind. >> i am very cautious and alarmed 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 where people would just cooperate, exercise self censorship. >> reporter: freedom of speech and right to decent have been curtailed since the coup since a panel rejected a draft constitution earlier this month which means the process has to start again. 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. meaning the prime minister retired general will be thailand's longest serving military leader since the 1970s. >> translator: some people tried to distort information by linking the ncpo influence on

voting against the draft charter, this is groundless information and it's not true. >> reporter: the government has also detained economics and politicians, some of whom had their passports confiscated and bank accounts frozen but more alarming is the big spike in number of charges and convictions and under thailand's harsh laws and criticizing the monarchy and political gathers of five people or more are ban and makes it difficult for groups like the red shirt supporters from the previous government to show their opposition. >> translator: since the coup red shirt supporters have shown discipline and all parties need to be careful they don't run out of patience. >> reporter: the army seized power to return happiness to the people and many are wondering when if ever democracy will be returned, wayne hey al jazeera bangkok. 1600 soldiers to put out

fires with thick smoke in asia and have cloud seeding and water dropping missions and caused by illegal slashing and burning of indonesia forests during the dry season and fires set to clear land for farming and palm oil plantation and fires caused a thick smog that spread over neighboring countries and singapore is worried about the air quality for this weekend's formula one race and malaysia the haze has forced schools to be shut and lawrence has more from kuala-lumpur. >> reporter: a cloud seeding operation and change of win direction help disburse some pollutants in the air and improved that schools that were shut in several states this week are allowed to reopen. the thick cloud of smoke or haze is caused by open burning in indonesia where fire is used to clear land for farming or plantation use. it is illegal but enforcement is

weak. now this is a problem that not only affects indonesia but also neighbors where thousands of people complain of respiratory difficulties, visibility is reduced to the extent that flights are sometimes delayed or cancels and even talks this weekend's formula one race in singapore could be affected. indonesia held talks with countries before but yet have not been able to come up with an effective solution to tackle this problem which has been somewhat of an annual occurrence but they will step up enforcement and detained several executives whose companies are alleged to have started some fires while it is investigating more than 100 others. let's bring in metrologist richard and is there any sign that weather conditions could perhaps be helping to clear that smog? >> i know cloud seeding has a checkered history in terms of helping these sort of operations so i'm not convinced and as far as the ground is concerned you

don't go to grand prix for air quality and visibility. it's probably a drop below a thousand meters or so and shouldn't be a real issue but if we look across the region what you really want is strong winds and rain to clear the poor visibility. you see across the region it's a bit mixed in many areas and singapore it's unhealthy, 162 but get down on to indonesia and bornea and the province and it is 712 on the index but what you do notice is the pollution levels in bangkok are extremely low because bangkok has wonderful air quality precautions? no. because of rain in the region and vast amounts of rain still coming down from what has been a pretty active weather system remains a tropical storm vanco and looking at the forecast you want rain and strong winds. circulation is not particularly

strong around in region and singapore no great changes and showers few and fair between and tie land plenty more rain coming down heading through saturday and getting through sunday and you can see a few more showers breaking out and perhaps one or two affecting singapore and i doubt it but it should be moving away from bangkok and the sun will come out here and the air quality is going to be absolutely sparkling. >> richard thanks and midway in the news hour and anchor against austerity measures leads to the biggest problem in years. a mecca for doors and muslims arrive in saudi arabia and ask if religious santaty has been sacrificed. boxing makes a rare public occurrence and we will tell you why a little later in sports. ♪

♪ hello again and good to have you with us adrian for the news hour and top stories at least 43 people have been killed in pakistan after taliban gunmen stormed a former airforce base in the country's north and army says that 21 of its troops were among the dead and fighting against the taliban at the compound is now over. croatia is struggling to deal with more than 13,000 refugees who arrived in the past two days and closed all but one of its border crossings and refugees are still crossing over the border away from the main crossings.

thousands of israeli police and security forces have been deployed for the mosque compound in occupied east jerusalem and security has been tightened ahead of friday prayers and jerusalem's holly site after three days of violence. air strikes from the saudi-led military alliance targeted an army base in capitol sanaa, a huge fire broke out at the site following attacks and building used by houthi rebels to store weapons and the cabinet had the first meeting since march and prime minister returned to aiden on wednesday from saudi arabia. he and president hadi left a year ago when they took over the capitol sanaa and let's get a view from the deputy editor in chief of the newspaper based in yemen and joins us live from skype, live via skype rather from the city of aiden. good to have you with us. what is the significance of the

cabinet meeting for the first time there in aiden since march? >> it's very significant. a lot of people have been calling for the government to come back since the victory of two months ago. it is delayed move that should have happened two months ago and with people here in aiden. >> after everything that has happened there in yemen, how do people feel about their president now, hadi, how much popular support does he enjoy? >> there are a lot of demands by the public for a new administration, a new way of doing business. they want -- there are a lot of demands for example of appointment of young professionals, inprofessionals, a way to go away from the parties, political parties and

the corruption. corruption is a very big deal right now. a lot of people are associating the old regime with corruptions and don't want to see people coming bam from riyadh coming back into power again and this is the resistance voiced concern about several people who came back from riyadh and should not be in office anymore. >> there is a sense that at least aiden is safe enough for the government to return to, is there a sense that perhaps the war is reaching its end game, that the worst of the fighting perhaps is now over? >> the worst of the fighting is over in aiden but the security is still far away. we do have a lot of armed groups on the streets of aiden and we are seeing a lot of insecurity

like for example last wednesday the oldest church in aiden, st. joseph church was burned to the ground by al-qaeda members and we have seen assassinations of government officials in broad daylight. one of them was the head of the accountability agency, mr. ali killed in front of his doorstep, house doorstep on monday. two minors, for example, were executed for allegedly aiding houthis last sunday. so security is still a far prospect and aiden is not secure. the government is operating now from a hotel that is secure with a huge force and they are not leaving that hotel. they live and work there. >> reporter: good to talk to you, thanks indeed in aiden. millions of muslims around the

world begun the mecca the birth place of mohamed for a thousand years and generates billions of tourism revenue as we report. >> reporter: the markets of islam's holy site are busy throughout the year and during the season it is hectic with an endless stream of people during mecca and he works at this shop and says business is flourishing. >> translator: normal days we sell 60-80 but during ramadan it goes up to $1600. >> reporter: all kinds are available here and thousands of shops like these are scattered around the city. >> translator: gold here is pure. the gold we have back home is mixed with copper. >> reporter: the biggest religious gathering of muslims also generates a lot of cash.

more than 3 million people are expected to perform this year and some estimates suggest that pilgram will spend millions of gifts, transportation and housing. now, this annual pilgramage will boost the saudi economy. revenues will increase once the expansion of the expansion of the grand mosque is over at the end of the year and the accident that killed more than 100 people earlier this month could delay the project's completion. the secretary-general of the chamber insists saudi arabia is not doing it to earn more money. >> we are not looking for the number as significant as the service we are providing to the local market which is the one and the government will not be eliminated and we are not orientated country and we are

not a tourist place and we are doing what we call the religious tourism. if you look for expansion projects you will not get any benefit, it's not economical but what we are doing for the season is because we are being honored. >> reporter: there are over 1.5 billion muslims around the world, most of them want to perform where mecca would remain rich and busy. al jazeera, mecca. a mass rally underway this finland and the capitol has tens of thousands of workers begin a strike of austerity measures and we go live to rob reynolds is there and what is this all about, rob? >> well, the square behind me was full of about 30,000 workers earlier today. they are protesting the government's proposed austerity measures adrian and includes

cutting out annual paid holidays, reducing the amount of over time people get for working on sundays for example and a whole slew of other measures. and when we spoke to the union members and other workers in the crowd they said what bothered them the most was that the government was not adhering to the traditional fingerish way of doing things and achieving a consensus between the state, the commercial or business sector and the labor sector. instead the government they said was trying to impose some reforms on them and they say that that makes them angry. on the other hand the government says that the economy is in very bad shape, the productivity is very low, the unemployment rate is approaching 10% now so some drastic austerity measures are needed to cut the cost of labor and restore productivity for

finland vis-a-vis other countries like sweden and germany. >> rob reynolds in helsinki. mexico arrested a drug gang member suspected of ordering killings of 43 students and lopez was captured on wednesday and they were missing last september after a protest in the state and we have more from mexico city. >> reporter: the man arrested could be a key part in the puzzle of what happened to 43 students who were abducked last september in mexico and kidnapped by the police and apparently turned over to a gang and lopez was part of that gang and his former accomplices and former head of that 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 over a week ago a

group of independent experts released an over 500 page report and one of their findings 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 that they were unidentifiable. so now it's going to be very interesting if the testimony of lopez becomes at any point public and if he can throw any light on what exactly did happen that night and to those students. the historic city in central niger was once a thriving hub for tourists and resent kidnappings of foreigners and tribe disputes are keeping people away and we report. >> reporter: they call it the jewel of the is a saraha and desert travelers on camel routes and this is what remains of

those days, the historic red hughs, mineral and old palaces. ♪ the local dance performs the dance, in normal times the city would be bustling with tourists. but they face tough times. artifact such as leather work and jewelry are sold worldwide but amid growing violence, kidnappings, the tourists have left and business is bad. >> translator: we used to sell items for a thousand dollars, now we can't even sell them for $100, artifacts are almost vanishing and need clients who can buy our goods. >> reporter: forced out of school when he was six years old. his father wanted him to work in the tourism industry. he became the family bread

winner but now things are differe different. >> translator: i haven't met a single tourist over the last six years, my dream is to see us back to the days to being packed with foreigners. >> reporter: this hotel used to be fully booked for most of the year. now its owner faces bankruptcy and the only guests are his relatives. the local tourism authority though says there is a plan to get the tourists back. >> translator: there was a decline in tourism activity but the government is doing its best to bring tourist back, our priority now is to improve security in the northern part of the country so that there is peace. >> reporter: but peace maybe i'll li illusive in the area and has been marred by violence and instability and more recently a transit point for thousands of refugees making their way through the desert heading for

europe. al jazeera. just ahead here on the news hour, i'm lee welding at the home of english rugby for one of the biggest events and the world cup is about to get underway. ♪

>> protestors are gathering... >> there's an air of tension right now... >> the crowd chanting for democracy... >> this is another significant development... >> we have an exclusive story tonight, and we go live...

♪ time now for sport and here is joe. >> thank you. career at fifa may be at end and suspended pending an investigation and blatter accused of reselling 2014 world cup tickets at five times their value and jerome valcke was on the route to moscow to mark the thousand days to the world cup but the plane returned and it's two corruption investigation that led to seven leading officials being arrested in may. another event affected by fifa corruption scandal is copper america in the usa and marketing company that owns the commercial rights for the tournament has been implicated and accounts frozen by u.s. investigators and

organizers from govern bodies met in mexico on thursday to try to restart the stalled competition. the world's third largest sporting event kicks off later on friday and english faces figi for the world cup and 20 teams taking part over the next six weeks and lee weldings reports. ♪ the rugby players nearly 200 years after an english school boy picked up a ball and ran with it and created a sport and they are running with the oval ball as rugby has returned for the 8th world cup and popularity is still growing. >> looking at something like over 2.3 million tickets sold. it's undoubtedly going to be the biggest world cup ever and looking at half a million people coming from overseas and anticipate an audience of about four billion and one of the big objectives of course is a

celebration of rugby but to show it and be the showcase of it around the world for rugby. >> reporter: but tickets in england and whales say it's a sport for the rich with fans unhappy about average prices of over $150 per ticket. >> it's just for the rich. >> fans do come to events like this have a ticket at good price and can go watch the games. >> reporter: team to beat are new zeeland and defending the title they won four years ago led by the formidable richshy mccore. >> it's not about retaining but winning the game. and much that it's silly but it changes you. how you approach it i think. and the reality is we have not won new zealand. >> reporter: opening game is what could be a mismatch of size

and standing. it will be played at london's olympic stadium as organizers targeted big venues and new fans rather than traditionalist, and 8 out of 13 are football stadiums and the semi final and final will be played here and the host will play figaen england the 2003 champions are one of the only ones that can win the tournament but progress of smaller nations like japan the next tournament will say if it has been a success in london. world rugby is seeking increased control over the media, strained relationship between journalists and sporting organizations is a growing problem and we will be exploring in a special series over the next three days, a number of different players in the sports media game, firstly the governing bodies and clubs who

often hire teams and are boasting their own t.v. channels where they can sell exclusive content, broadcasters who spend sometimes millions of dollars for the rights to show live sports and gain access to athletes or coaches and then there are the rest of us, news channels, print journalists et cetera known as non-rights holders who have media accreditation to attend sports and they have begun asking for money in exchange for accreditation and al jazeera english are asked to pay to organizers of australia open tennis the rally in south america and world champ championships in beijing and we refused to pay and fifa offered accreditation once we made a payment to be able to broadcast highlights of the tournament. in part one of our controlling sports series andrew thomas reports on why this year's rugby

cup angered journalist in australia. >> reporter: when it kicks off in london some people will be missing from the crowd. instead they will be on the other side of the world. australia's team have made the trip of course but much of the australia media has not. two big newspaper groups and one of australia's news agencies are shunning the event because of what they see as the editorial interference demand by world rugby the tournament's organizers. >> we simply want to tell our stories and we done need to be told how to tell the stories and who we can tell them to. >> reporter: seeking to control the advertising that ran alongside news content and limit what video could air and for how long. the tension is just the latest. media organizations are increasingly frustrated about controlled sports and administrators demand over coverage and the sports bodies, the main motivation is money.

within melvin's global headquarters for australian futbol or afl what looks like and is a newsroom and paid for by the afl itself it's the editors insist independent. >> people are not stupid. fans are not stupid. they come for authentic news and that is what we provide to them and why we have such a big audience, if you pay our wing we would have a fraction of the audience that we do. >> reporter: but not all are convinced. >> when i go on to a website and when i read a newspaper i am delegating the responsibility of that witnessing process to somebody else. i cannot have faith that that is happening if it's coming out of the words of a sport organization. >> reporter: then the impact this digital newsroom has on the wider media. on screen advertising and sponsor ship mean the afl itself is taking money that would in the past have gone to traditional media companies.

sports organizations used to need mainstream media increasingly they feel they can bypass it arguably controlling the message and the money. andrew thomas, al jazeera, melvin. for more we can speak to jamie, a rugby correspondent for australia one of the organizations who protested the restrictions of world rugby and is live from sidney and what did they want to impose on journalist and why your organization has made this stand. >> yeah, hi, joe, look, essentially it comes down to fair use. fair use is what we determine in the media is what we can allow to show essentially on our websites in this context, highlights, footage of games, world rugby is there and all the footage, all the rights to all the highlights so that is fine and it essentially determined we

only sort of show about 90 seconds of highlights and would not play the whole video for instance and that is fair use. they wanted to impose sanctions upon us that would actually contra vein what australia law states and asking us to bypass country laws to satisfy demands and what it essentially comes down to is a cash grab from world rugby and guaranteed the sponsors a clean bill so no rivals can advertise so your viewers might sort of see when they sacrum on websites to watch highlights, that annoying little video of advertisement that comes up before you can see the video footage, that is essentially how modern media is making its money and had to be creative with print circulation declining worldwide and it's an important part of our business and really this is biting the hand that feeds you from world rugby and really wouldn't be in a position to command the

sponsorship dollar they do without the help of media and employing journalists in the world and spending thousands of dollars and sending us to us tournaments and across platforms and we simply ask that we be allowed to operate under our own country laws and decline that so we basically decline to cover the tournament and we won't be accredited so we won't be cov covering games and not in stadiums or training session. >> is this a level of control that is new or a longstanding problem for journalists? >> rugby tried it before and did the same thing in 2011 and we were not accredited so we've had this business model if you call it for two successive world cups now and we can surely see new sports trying to increase their

power over mainstream media in the way we report and cover and use the fair use footage, you know, as mentioned in the report, you know, the ifl and cricket australia and the hiring top journalists to report on their own games and in a bid to sort of take leadership away from traditional mass media and on to websites where they can benefit further from advertising dollars but you have to ask yourself as of that are they expecting the afl website to uncover the blood doping that we had earlier this year and cricket to uncover match fix and it just doesn't happen. mainstream media has a roll to play with governance of major sports and that is what we will continue to do with or without the support of the sports. >> jamie rugby for australia and thank you for joining us and explaining your stance there. in part two and three of controlling sports series we go to india and uk to look further at the issue of sport and the

media on saturday and sunday right here on al jazeera. to golf and jason day can make history at bmw championship on friday, an eagle and nine birdies on thursday put the australian in the chance of breaking 60 in his opening round and play had to be suspended because of bad weather with one shot away from being the 7th playing to make 69 in the history of the pga tour. also in action jordan spieth the two time major champion acquired the first ten holes but on the 11th of the day spieth made this hole in one, the second of his career! and made their way to the finals of this year's tournament defeating host and 2013 champions france in over time. 66 all at the end of the final quarter and put themselves ahead responding when it was needed and then delivered this coming up, slam dunk to get his side further ahead and spain was

80-75 victory and clearly the stand out with 40 points of his own. mohamed ali made a rare public appearance to receive an award in his hometown louisville, kentucky of the legacy in and out of the ring and considered among the greatest heavy weights in the history of sport and also an out spoken advocate of civil rights and antiwar movement and out of the public eye in resent years as he battles parkinson disease and that is the sport for now. look at this and before we go we want to show you stunning images of pluto taken by the nasa horizon and this was taken in july and you can see icy mountains and planes snapped from 18,000 kilometers above pluto surface and the first space craft to visit pluto and the collection of moons and more on al jazeera just ahead, see

you in a moment. ♪

♪ more than 40 people are dead after a taliban attack on a former airforce base in pakistan. ♪ hello this is al jazeera live from doha and i'm adrian and ahead croatia warns it will close all border crossings if the refugee crisis worsens. leaders in burkina faso release the interim president and west african leaders try to resolve the political crisis and japanese soldiers can take part in combat operations overseas