president ping insures u.s. business leaders have chinese economy and fighting cyber crime. ♪ from al jazeera's head quarters, also ahead on the program. e.u. leaders prepare for an emergency meeting in brussels a after agreeing to share the relocation of refugees. soldiers in the philippines hunt for gunmen who kidnap core tests. also roman catholics welcome pope francis to the united states as a record number of latinos are leaving the church. ♪

♪ china's president has started his visit to the united states by saying beijing remains committed to financial reforms and an open economy. he told business lead nurse seattle that bay jinx wants to deepen investment ties, he also spoke about the controversial issue of cyber security. >> translator: the international community on the basis of mutual respect and mutual trust must work together to build a peaceful, secure, and open cyberspace. china is ready to set up a high-level joint dialogue mechanism with the united states on fighting cyber crimes. >> alan scheffler has more now from seattle. >> reporter: chinese president ping is headed for washington, d.c. in high-level talks with president obama. his first official state visit to the u.s., he'll meet with

members of the congress and first spent three days in the seattle area, former washington governor gary lock served as u.n. ambassador to china under president obama. >> between our two countries flow almost one 1/2 billion dollars of services and millions of jobs in america depend on that trade with china. our trade has grown astronomically over the last few years. >> reporter: xi is going to toure boeing plants and have dinner with bill gates, they are looking for some type of assurances that they can do business fairly in china without undue government interference. >> obviously a big concern about cyber security, the concern about the lack of the level playing field for american firms in china. discrimination against foreign firms as well as the lack of a rule of law. and inadequate protections of

our intellectual property, our trade seek relates. >> reporter: xi is the fourth consecutive chinese lead tore visit the northwest, long-time connection writer and current columnist dudley sees the area as a natural stop over. >> they want to encourage entrepreneurs to build companies that thrive not just in china but internationally and what betters than starbucks, boeing, microsoft of the. >> reporter: it will likely be a soft landing in the west before much higher talks back east. >> we are preparing a number of members that will indicate to the chinese that this is not just a matter of us being mildly upset, but it is something that will put significant strains on the bilateral relationships. >> i think it's a good cop bad cop situation, we can play good cop here and talk about an trip move yelich and good grade

relationships and. >> reporter: the visit comes as a time when china is flexing its military plus and trying to claim territory territorial cl. all expected to be on the agenda when the two presidents meet. european union leaders are holding a meeting on the crisis. after interior ministers overcame stiff opposition from eastern european countries and approved a plan to relocate 120,000 refugees. laurence lee has the report. >> reporter: it has witnessed people running for their lives and having to endure drown in

this sea. the police in macedonia a are accused of beating refugees for daring to cross clue. hungary on the pretext of protecting christanval-s in europe. constructed a sort of fence the european union had sought to tear down and the authorities tried to refuse the right of refugees to his move on. once they simply got up and walked off from budapest train station, things began to change. hungary eventually caved in. the people that walked and walked from serbia, over the board never to croatia were eventually put on buses those dumped odd the hungarian gorder ended up near austria others were near slovenia but once there they were offered better support and again you industry a beckoned so many volunteers stepping in where government did not could barely believe the response from europe had been so disorganized. >> frankly speaking we are talking about hugh he human beings here, and the way they were treated is something that thethey will take with them. if you welcome them, they will

be welcomed. >> reporter: they will take that with them as well? >> yes. they will be within europe, they will be with us, if you buildup fences, if we use pepper spray, we use water canyons, they will be against us. >> reporter: the one country in central europe to buck the trend was, of course, germany but it has not been able to persuade the new e.u. members to the south and east of any moral or economic argument for more help. the quota system looks unlikely to succeed. for all the apparently good intentions of the quota systems, the essential problem with it is that it doesn't really meet the demands of the refugees any more than it meets the demands of various european member states because the refugees would be asked to go to places they don't want to go to in countries which don't really wants them either. as summer end the flow of refugees will decrease and the empty tents here demonstrate that european countries finally gave up trying to stop the people from moving through. europe may have a few months over the winter to figure out how to do things better next

year. well, laurence joins us liver now from the hungary-austria border. so they seem to have agreed this quota systems, it's only 120,000 people. are people there where you are now aware of this? >> reporter: yes, absolutely. they very much are. and i think in countries like hungary they don't want this to happen at all actual they absolutely hate it. the trouble is for countries like hungary and other countries that don't want refugees the system is legally binding. there isn't very much they can do to stop it. we have come to this border between hungary and austria to try to demonstrate how much quicker the flow of people has become overtime. a few days ago there were thousands of people here and now it's really almost deserted. over the last few days the flow has got better but i think the idea of this quota systems is only potentially going to make things worse because what -- as i said in that report, what i think it means in practice is

that the people who have already gone through who might be establishing themselves in countries like sweden or the netherlands or who want to come through and do the same are going to be told when they go through, looks, here we are, you are going to come with me and start off your new life in poland somewhere. that doesn't suit the wishes of the refugees any more than it does those countries. yesterday the austrian interior minister said he would stop what he described as asylum tourism and he said people shunt have the right to determine which country they go to. that's quite a statement. but i think really what you have seen happen, and you'll see it again today, when the european leaders meet. is the european union tried to display unity when actually it knows there is no unity at all. and i think really it will create more problems than it solves. >> well, yes, in that vaughn vaf this system doesn't what, the quota system, what other options are there? >> reporter: i don't mean this to sound glib but the biggest solution would be to sort out

the war in syria and there is no sign of any meeting on the horizon where that is concerned. >> okay, we appear to have lost lahr ends there, a shame about that. moving onto our next story, hundreds of refugees have gathered on the serbian border with croatia. again, waiting to be allowed in. they have been increasingly using the crossing after hungary sealed its border. 35,000 refugees cross ed in to croatia in the past week bench 340 refugees have arrived in the sicilian port in matheny in italy. they were picked up from a fishing boat off the island's coast almost half a million people have crossed the mediterranean to europe so far this year. new attempts are being made to resolve the political crisis in burkina faso following last week's coup. the president of senegal, togo and nigeria are due to fly there

to reinstall the president. >> reporter: the curfew is in place but the population are defiant, out on the streets feeling confident because they feel reassured by the military presence who promise today pro next them. the presidential guards, though, are back in their barracks, now concerning the framework agreement we are expecting the visits of senegal ease president, flyer year vinnie towing an and benen to propose some sort of agreement. remember the population here are very much frustrated with what they are poe poseing. because one of the points of amnesty offered to the presidential guards. remember, this isn't just about the coup that happened last week, the presidential guards have been in power for for the last 25 yards. they have been intimidating the population, even killing pretty cal a pones ends for them here in a civil society, there is no question about it, them that group disbanned they feel like

they have been robbed from these elections that were supposed to be held on the 11th of october. and they want to get back on track towards a democratic rou route. soldiers in the southern philippines are muppetting for gunmen that kidnapped foreign tourists from a holiday resort. cctv shows them being abducted. no group has complained responsibility or made a ransom demand for the two canadiens, one norwegian and a local woman. the suspected bandits may have slipped pass a favorral cordon and escaped in the mountains. we are following the story. >> reporter: government officials are very careful about what information they are giving out. they are not saying who did the kidnapping. a group of about 11 armed men entered the resort and took two ca nail vinnie hostages, one

norwegian citizen and a philippine a as well. they then believed to travel down south further never to the one of the outlying islands here in the southern philippines. police say there is no claim of responsibility. no demand asked. this is an activity done by a known bandit group that is believed to be staying in a strong hold in the southern philippines there are also several other armed groups here. yesterday morning the resort received a letter supposedly from the new people's arm armya communist group saying this is in retaliation for the killing of one of their commanders, still it's not verified. men speculation, but the people are saying pursuit of the abductors is now well underway here in the south. directors of volkswagen are going to be holding an emergency board meeting following fair

admittance to fitting 11 million diesel cars with devices designed to cheat emission test results. the scandal has already cost the company billions in share price losses in europe and $18 billion worth of potential fines in the united states. rob reynolds is at volkswagen's headquarters in northern nerve i didn't. so what is the latest with this? what's next? >> reporter: well, it seems like a normal day here with people arriving for their work shifts, but inside certainly anything but normal. there was a meeting of a committee of a board of the company last night, along with some of the major shareholders, that executive committee will meet again, we are told today we don't know when and we have not been given any information about the proceedings of this group so

far and how to handle the damage control from this extraordinary scandal which is ballooning all around this company. and then as you mentioned, there will be another full board meet on the ground friday. but certainly the dimensions of that scandal are growing. people are very upset and other automakers have now jumped in to a test to the -- attest to the fact that they have not used similar defeat devices as volkswagen with bmw. honda, toyota and, renault saying they don't use anything like those devices, software implanted in dee's the vehicles by volkswagen in order to pass emissions tests, but then actually when the when the vehicles were on the road they were emitted pollutant at sometimes 40 times the levels

that they were appeared to be emitted the test. >> do we know how this scandal was uncovered? how were they found out 123467 there was suspicions by some european environmental agencies and by the environmental protection agency in the united states. they then went to a specialist laboratory at the university of west virginia that did tests of the diesel vehicles in real conditions on the road as well as during the testing where you might take your car in for an emissions test that, sort of thing, and they found this discrepancy. and then they were able to trace this to a bit of software in the complex computers that drive modern cars in the volkswagen vehicles that essentially turned off the pollutants during

testing, but then turned them back on in order to give the car better performance in it was on the road. of course it was done deliberately. it wasn't an oversight or a defective part or anything like that, that you would see in other auto recalls, so it's something quite different. and a scandal really on the scale of nothing that i can think of other than the recent british petroleum oil spill in the gulf of mexico. it's on that stage, on that scale rather and it will cost volkswagen many billions of dollars and some corporate heads are likely to roll in the next couple of days. >> okay, rob reynolds, thank you very much for that. coming up on the program, we will report from a camp in jordan where 10s of thousands of syrian refugees are losing u.n. food aid. sure, tv has evolved over the years.

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♪ ♪ hello, you are watching al jazeera. reminder of our headlines. china's president has started his president to the united states by saying beijing remains committed to financial reforms and an open economy. speaking to business leaders in seattle. xi inping stressed china wants to improve investment ties. the presidential guards have remained to be confined to

barracks while the loyalists said they would retreat 50 miles way from the capital. european union leaders are due to hold an emergency leading on the refugees crisis on tuesday, interior ministers overcame stiff opposition from eastern european countries and approved a plan to relocate 120,000 refugees. now, the u.n.'s world food program has been forced to suspend food aid to hundreds of thousands of syrian refugees. the cuts mean a third of syrians living in jordan will receive no help. nisreen reports. >> reporter: they are used to survive because of the united nations world food program. it was only a dollar and a half a day you, but it was enough for the family to get by. now even that small amount has been cut off as of this month. it's illegal for refugees to work in jordan but they have no choice. they take turns looking after the baby while the other works.

between them, they earn just enough to buy baby milk, eggs and yogurts. >> translator: we have no more fears for the future. we don't know how worse our situation can get. >> the world food program says it is seriously underfunded it news has to make life and death decisions about who to feed and who to cut off. they are in the same position, he works illegally on a nearby farm. >> translator: i was faced always to return to syria because i am being enslaved here. my boss makes me work 13 hours a day for only $14. is that enough for my family? >> reporter: the wfp says food insecurity levels are skyrocketing. almost 70% of refugees in jordan live under the poverty line. after losing their food assistance refugees here say they have lost faith in the international community. those who work for humanitarian agencies say they are also frustrated because they are no

longer able to maintain their services. and are worried that desperation will push some refugees either to go back to syria or to risk the treacherous journey to usual. for many refugees it is a fateful decision they must take in the coming weeks. >> people are now telling us that they have lost nope a better future here in the region. many people are considering returning to war in syria. and those people who are in the worst situation have told thousands they will risk their life to his reach europe. >> reporter: syrian refugees fled their country to escape war and because they had no food. in jordan the authorities struggled to cope, relying on the u.n. and ng on. s where they could. but now those resources are also drying up. along with any hope. let's return to the story of the kidnapping regarding four tourists. in the philippines. country representative for the philippines at the asia

foundation and he joins us live from manila. we saw some video earlier, and very clearly the gunmen, not wearing any hoods, so not too bothered about being identified. do we know who they are now? >> reporter: well, we don't actually have any claim of responsibility yet. but it is most likely that it's the. [ inaudible ] which considerably does kidnap for ransom across the southern philippines. >> okay, sorry, carry on. >> reporter: so we don't quite know where they are going. but they typically retreat to the -- where they have community that his they can rest in and keep their hostages in. they currently have about 10 kidnap victim says someplace there. >> and what has the government said so far?

>> reporter: pardon? sorry. >> have we had any response from the government? this group is well known to the philippine government. >> reporter: well, the philippine government has been, of course, trying to chase down these kidnappers, it's quite some distance from their home base, so that it would take them several days to moving at night or trying to avoid detection. it would take them several days to get there. so they are attempting to i want district them. both near the original kidnap site but also around the island of their most likely destination. >> how often do kidnaps take place in this area. >> reporter: well, there are a number of different kinds of kidnapping that go on, sort of routine mom and pop kidnapping where people raise small amounts of money. but over the years the kidnapping of foreigners has proven to be quite lucrative and

a major source of fundraising for these islamic militants and so they continue to try to do it because it has been successful. >> thank you very much for that. we'll leave it there. thank you. >> reporter: thank you. so the latest we have there is that they are suspicions it may be the group that were involved in the kidnapping of four tourist in the southern philippines. now, pope francis is making his first ever trip to the united states. president obama greeted him at st. andrews air force base in washington. he is due to address congress in the u.s. capital and the united nations in new york. pope francis will be hoping to win back catholic americans who left the church, particularly the latinos who are 1/3 of the community. many have been abandoning at their faith or other churches,

andy gallagher reports now from miami. >> reporter: for the catholic church, hispanics in the u.s. are extremely significant. many were raised in the faith is and have a growing influence on both the religious and political future of north america, the catholic church has a problem. los angelelatinos here are leavn large numbers, many are switching faiths and joining episcopal and evangelical churches while others are not joining churches at out. former priest left the catholic church in 2009 after meeting a woman he's now married to. he says roman catholics whose priests practice celibacy needs to adapt to modern times. >> i don't really believe in the francis effect. because i don't see the reformer pope everybody talks about. you know, people that are married again are not welcome to communion. that's a fact. homosexual persons are still excludeed from a full life in

the church. >> reporter: researchers say many hispanics are more a track ted to community-based services of other christian denominations. at the rate at which los angelee leaving catholicism has surprised many. perhaps more importantly, less than half of those below the age of 30 even consider themselves catholic and for the church, they are a key demographic. hispanics under 30 make up around half the u.s. population of latinos and many reject the church's teachings on birth control and homosexuality. religious experts say it's a significant sign of changing times. >> i think part it have is that because those that are born in the states or that came here at a very young age and are raised in the states it's just not part of their upbringing in the same way. i also think with immigration, you lose that generational continuity. >> reporter: if hispanics are as many believe the future of catholicism in the u.s., then the church may be trouble.

if they continue to drift way from the faith or go elsewhere, the catholic church will steadily lose members and for now that seems inevitable. andy gallagher, al jazeera, miami, florida. russian president vladimir putin is due to attend the reopening of moscow option central mosque. thousands of russian muslims are expected to attend the ceremony on the eve of the eid holiday. turkish press erdogan and the palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas will also be attending that ceremony. well, let's cross live now to moscow and speak to peter sharp, a lot of heads of muslim countries attending and the significance really is that mr. putin himself will be there. >> reporter: that's right. let me just step out of shot for a second and you can have a look at the mosque itself. it opens its doors today. one of the biddest mosques in europe, and finally opens after a decade of construction.

it costs about $170 million, funded by private donations, not by the state. across the muslim world. but it actually won't solve the problems of overcrowding. now course only has five mosques and there are, believe it or not. nearly 2 million muslims in moscow. in moscow alone. and by 2050 half the population of russia will be muslims. the new mosque is really a vehicle for russia that helps russia position itself in the middle east at a time when it's military foot print in syria is growing. now of course this morning it's religious ceremony this afternoon it will be the political agenda as you said the president of turkey and the palestinians are here and will

be meeting with vladimir putin. pete are sharp in moscow, thank you very much. and plenty more on our website the address for that is al aljazeera.com. you can get the latest there on the refugees story too. aljazeera.com. this is techknow, a show about innovations that can change lives. >> the science of fighting a wild fire. we're going to explore the intersection of hardware and humanity and we're doing it in a unique way. this is a show about science by scientists. tonight: technkow in search of the great american prarie. >> we're in the prarie state yet ironically, we have such little of it left. >> farming and overdevelopment killed it, now get ready for this...