emergency meeting in brussels. eu leaders gather to approve a plan to relocate 120,000 refugees across the continent. hello. this is al jazeera life from doha. also coming up on the program. volkswagen is in hot water. they need to discuss a response to the emissions rigging scandal. >> burkina faso's president says he's now back in power after he was taken hostage in a coup last week. thousands of muslim devotes from around the world gather in

saudi arabia for the hajj. well, we begin in brussels where european union leaders are preparing for an emergency summit to tackle the refugee crisis. this is a day after eu ministers agreed on a deal to relocate 120,000 refugees despite fierce opposition from some members. roman romania, the czech republic, slovakia and hungary all voted against the mandatory quota system. laurence lee is looking ahead at what will be discussed at the meeting. >> reporter: as far as europe's reputation for handling a crisis goes, not to mention its aim as a liberal idea, the summer refugee crisis has threatened the foundations of the union. it's witnessed people running for their lives and have to endure drowning at sea. the police in macedonia accused of beating refugees for daring

to pass through. hungary on the pretext of protecting christian values in europe constructed this fence the european union sought to tear down and the authorities tried to refuse the right of refugees to move on. one simply got up and walked off from budapest train station things began to change. hungary began to cave in. the people that walked from serbia over the border into croatia were put on buses. those durned on the hungarian border was near austria. so many people, volunteers stepping in where governments did not could barely believe the response from europe have been so disorganized. >> frankly speaking, we're talking about human beings here. the way they're treated is something they take with them. if you welcome them, they will be welcomed. they will take that with them.

they will be within europe. they will be with us. if you build fences, if you use water cannons, they will be against us. >> reporter: the one country in central europe to buck the trend is germany, but it's not been able to persuade the new eu members to the south and east of any moral or economic argument for more help. the proposed quota system looks unlikely to succeed. for all the good intentions of the quota system, the problem is that it doesn't really meet the demands of the refugees any more than it meets the demands of various european union member states because the refugees would be asked to go to places they don't want to go to in countries that don't really want them either. as summer ends the flow of refugees will decrease and the empty tents demonstrate the european countries gave up to stop people from moving through. europe may have a few months over the winter to figure out how to do it better next year.

>> laurence joins us live. i want to read something the slow vaccian prime minister is saying. he's going to court to challenge this idea of these mandatory quotas. there's been so much discussion. there's still so much disunity. is this all going to fall apart? >> reporter: well, it might i think is the short answer. slovakia is the only country that has said it will not accept what are supposed to be legally binding quotas. clearly, here in hungary and the czech republic and other countries as well, they think it is deeply undemocratic of the european union, and they would say particularly germany to steamroll them into accepting people who in some populations don't want them. equally and just as important if not more so is it fair to ask refugees that came all the way

over here and probably obviously have a dream of going to live in the netherlands or sweden somewhere to be told you have to live in slovakia when the refugees don't want to go there and they don't want them, either. the european union at the moment is intent on dodging all the questions. austria said that refugees shouldn't have the right to decide where they want to go, but for the european union leadership the most important thing is to try and pretend and suggest that as a bloc they can actually get through this crisis with some sense of unity even though it's perfectly obvious they don't have that unity at all. here's how the eu's foreign policy heads tried to make that point this morning. >> i really hope that on the basis of this decision yesterday, taken yesterday night, we can today together commission and counsel this evening and concentrate on what positive, concrete steps we can take together as europeans

altogether both on the internal and on the external side of our work. >> reporter: so obviously inside of that is there's a sense if you like force a source of morality as represented by german and sweden onto countries that don't think in the same way at all. there are enormous problems inside it, but what the european union will try to do as winter starts and presumably the flows lesson is bump a huge amount of money in the camps in the middle east to top them coming in the first place to speed up the process in the meantime to get people processed through more quickly and hope that perhaps that stops some of the flows this time next year. of course, with no solution at all to the syrian war, it's really hard to see how that's likely to happen. >> thank you very much. we'll leave it there. well, laurence lee there reporting on events. we're going to be seeing hopefully coming up in brussels with decisions made. in the meantime, hundreds of

refugees have gathered on the serbian border with crow way that waiting to be allowed to enter. they're using the crossing after hungary sealed it's border, 35,000 refugees crossed into croatia in the past week. top executives of volkswagen are holding a crisis meeting in the german headquarters. they admitted fitting 11 million cars with devices designed to cheat emission results. volkswagen representatives are represented in south korea, and the u.s. launched a criminal probe and france is also investigating the. the scandal has cost billions in share price losses in europe and $18 billion worth of potential fines in the united states. rob reynolds has more from berlin. >> reporter: with his company accused of serious and deliberate deception,

volkswagen's chief executive apologized and said such manipulation would never happen again. >> translator: ladies and gentlemen, many millions of people across the world trust our brands, our cars and our technologies. i'm endlessly sorry that we betrayed the trust. i apologize profusely to our clients and authorities and the entire public for the wrongdoing. >> the scandal has shaken german industry. >> we're all pretty surprised about that, and it's kind of a test for you not only for volkswagen, butt it's a catastrophe for all the german car makers and it's bad even for the brand made in germany because that is -- volkswagen is one of our really big brands that stands for german quality. >> even chancellor angela merkel was forced to address the stunning instance of corporate deceit. >> translator: the minister of

transport is in close contact with the vw company, and i hope the facts are put on the table as quick as possible. >> they found volkswagen installed software in vehicles that tricked the emissions test into giving the cars a passing grade, even though they emitted more pollution on the road. the company issued a statement saying 11 million vehicles are affected. it has set aside 6.5 billion euros for recalls and servicing, and it says volkswagen does not tolerate violation of laws and will make winning back security trust the top priority. unlike other auto recalls involving designs, flaws or defectives parts, volkswagen is accused of deliberately hatching a scheme to deceive government agencies and consumers. damage control experts say the nature of the scheme will make regaining trust much harder.

>> i think whenever you have a situation where something is calculated and malicious and there is a desire to deceive, the half-life is longer for recovery. >> reporter: on wednesday a committee of volkswagen's board members and major shareholders will hold an emergency meeting. a board member says he expects senior company heads will roll. >> so we've heard a little bit there from members of volkswagen itself. rob reynolds and outside the headquarters in northern germany. we're now starting, rob, to hear from the german government today. we did hear from angela merkel yesterday. the transport minister saying that he had no knowledge whatsoever of this scandal. in fact, the first time he heard about it was in the papers. i mean, these questions are going to keep coming for volkswagen, aren't they? >> reporter: they're going to

keep coming for volkswagen and you make a good point here. insofar as they keep coming for regulators as well. some of the lawmakers in the united states congress have been very outspoken about the failure of the regulations, the environmental protection agency in that country to catch onto the scheme. nobody was clever enough to find out what volkswagen was doing. yes, there's going to be fall outall around. now, this meeting taking place here today, we don't have any outcome for that. the company is really keeping mum about it. they haven't come out and said anything, but there's been a lot of speculation in the german media that the head of the company that you saw in the story we just ran is going to lose his job and possibly some others will lose their job. that doesn't mean that he knew

about the cheating necessarily, but he is known as a real detail guy, somebody who is very hands on and very concerned with tee tails of the company. so we are still awaiting word from this meeting of an executive committee of the board and some of the major shareholders to see how volkswagen is going to respond now. >> rob, what on earth did volkswagen have to gain from cheating? were they trying to cover something up, or what were they doing? >> reporter: they wanted to sell a lot more cars. they had an idea that they could market clean diesel vehicles, especially in the u.s. market, where the company had been lagging in sales with stiff competition with other companies including honda and toyota and

the american carmakers. so they thought that by having these vehicles which will pass emissions tests with flying colors they'd sell a lot more. they could appeal to consumers and say, look, here's a green-friendly vehicle, environmentally-friendly vehicle. only it turns out that the vehicles once they're on the road are emitting pollution at very high levels. so consumers naturally are not happy about this, and we're already seeing a flood of tweets on twitter, for example, of consumers in the u.s. and california and elsewhere who say that they feel ripped off by volkswagen. they won't buy any more volkswagen products. >> rob, this is it. volkswagen consumers pay a premium to own that. what does the company do to win the trust? also, they pay extra money. is there a form of compensation?

>> reporter: well, you're right. you buy a german product, you're expecting a highly sophisticated, engineered product with a very good reputation. as you saw in our report, some business analysts are thinking that the whole made in germany brand has been sullied by this. now, it remains to be seen what volkswagen will do besides paying fines, besides paying possible criminal penalties. will they have to compensate the consumers who bought their vehicles? will they have to fix the vehicles so they're not polluting? it's all going to cost a lot of money, and i think it will take a lot of time. the first step is going on here in germany where the board is going to try and get some handle on this mess and try to figure out a strategy for regaining

trust. it won't be easy. >> indeed. the questions keep coming. thank you very much. burkina faso's interim president says he's back in power and has restored a civilian transitional government. he'd been taken hostage during a coup last week. coup leaders and the army loyal to the interim government have signed a truce on tuesday night. the presidential guard that staged the coup have agreed to remain confined to their barracks. the loyalists retreated to 50 kilometers from the capitals. the presidents have arrived in the country part of the regional effort to re-install the interim government. >> translator: now that i am free, i am resuming work, and i affirm myself in the national legitimacy, the transitional government has been reinstated at this very minute. >> we have this update. >> reporter: under the deal the troops have withdrawn or they're withdrawing at the moment out of

the capital 50 kilometers away. the presidential guard have agreed to remain in their barracks and two hours to lift all of their equipment. meanwhile, the military are to guarantee their protection and the protection of their families. the leaders are arriving today, and they want a deal signed today. there are several points of contention, and one is the amnesty of the presidential guard. remember, the presidential guard aren't only responsible for the coup that happened last week, they've been really in charge of the country for the last 25 years. there's a lot of resentment towards them, notably because they've been intimidating the population for so long to be involved in certain political killings of historical opponents. for the leaders, their main objective is to get burkina faso back on track more democratically and towards election. remember, elections were scheduled on the 11th of

november. now the deal is that this election would happen before the 22nd of november, and the elected president would decide what will happen with the presidential guard. for the people on the streets, it's really a relief. they're going back onto the streets, and it's slowly going back to normal in the capital here. still to come on the program, the crisis soars withle israeli blockade on the territory aif he cans the traditional eade sacrifices. roman catholics welcome the pope to the united states, but a record of americans are leaving the church. we'll tell you why.

hello. you're watching al jazeera. your headlines. european union leaders are about to begin an emergency meeting on the refugee crisis. on tuesday interior ministers overcame stiff opposition from eastern european countries and approved a plan to relocate 120,000 refugees. germany's transport minister rejected accusations that he had prior knowledge of volkswagen's rigging technology. the carmaker has admitted fitting 11 million diesel cars with divisions designed to cheat emission results. they're holding crisis meeting agos the headquarters. burkina faso's interim president is back in power and restored a civilian transitional government. he'd been taken hostage during

the coup last week. coup leaders and the army loyal to the interim government have signed a truce. now, 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 leaders in seattle that beijing 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. the philippines air force and navy are hunting gunmen who kidnapped foreign tourists from a holiday resort. they show them being abducted

from a resort. no group has so far claimed responsibility or made a ransom demand for the two canadians, within norwegian and a local woman. the suspected gunmen may have slipped past a naval cordon and escaped into the mountains. we have the report. >> reporter: government officials are being very careful about the information they're giving out today. until now they have not said which group is believed to be behind this abduction. it happened on monday night in a popular resort area if the island in the southern philippines. a group of about 11 armed men entered the resort and took two canadian hostages, one norwegian citizen and a filippino as well. they traveled down south further into one of the outlying islands in the southern philippines. now, the police say until now there's still no claim of responsibility, no demand has been asked. however, this is an active that is similarly and commonly done

by a known banded group that's believed to be staying at a stronghold in holo island in the southern philippines. there are several other armed groups here. yesterday morning the resort received a letter supposedly from the new people's army. they said this abduction was in retaliation for the killing of one commander. still, that's not been verified. many speculations at this point, but the police are saying is that pursuit of the abductors is now well underway here in the south. two children have died from a cholera outbreak in southern iraq that has claimed seven lives in less than a week. ten people have now died since the outbreak began 246 cases have been recorded, most of them in the town of abu gharib. despite attempts to prevent the spread of the water borne disease, the water and sewage systems are outdated after war and neglect.

the start of the school year has been postponed until next month as a precaution. wheat prices have risen in gaza. that means they can't afford the muslim tradition of sacrificing livestock on the holiest holiday of the year. we have more. >> reporter: as the eade holiday proms, life is hard. the ritual of buying cattle for sacrifice is xobl for everyone. is impossible for everyone. >> translator: it's really expensive compared to last year's prices. we are in a war and can't afford the prices anymore. >> reporter: restrictions by israel and the nine-year long siege caused prices to rise. cattle owners saw a drop in demand during a season they rely on to make profits. >> translator: for every kilogram for cattle there's been increase of 2 u.s. dollars.

when people see the prices, they turn back and walk away. >> reporter: a new government import tax is making things harder for shoppers. hardly anyone can afford the prices at livestock markets. >> translator: the government has imposed a tariff on everything imported into gaza, and the eade comes along with jewish celebrations, can which makes the prices rise. >> reporter: it should be a time of happiness and reflection, but not for gaza. thousands of muslims devotes from around the world gather in saudi arabia for the hajj. the pilgrimage is a central pillar of islam. the journey is meant to cleanse the faithful of sin and bring them closer do god. the followers of islam must move together through a set of rituals at different sites around the holy city of mecca. more than 2 million muslims will take part in the spiritual journey from all around the world. the final hajj rituals began on

tuesday and they will last for five days. on wednesday muslims gathering on the mount to praise god and ask for forgiveness. omar is in mecca and sent this update. >> reporter: this is the essence of hajj if a pilgrim missed being here, he or she will have their hajj invalidated. now, this is considered the pillar of hajj. we have about 2 million pilgrims gathered here in the mountain and asking for mercy behind me. they ask god forgiveness. around sunset they will leave and they will continue the rituals of hajj. now, having 2 million people in one place poses a security threat for the authorities. we understand that they have put 50,000 security troops to secure

the area here and in other areas which they consider the rituals of hajj. we also have -- when you have 2 million people, you need to deploy a lot of medics. we understand around 15,000 medical teams are deployed, and they hope the hajj season will go smooth and well. thousands of russian muslims have celebrated the re-opening of moscow's central mosque. now one of the biggest in europe. president vladimir putin aarrived alongside his turkish counterpass. the original mosque was demolished ten years ago. the $170 million reconstruction has room for 10 thousand how worshippers. pope francis is in the u.s. during his visit the pontiff will hope to win back catholic americans that left the church, particularly latinos that make up one-third of the community in the u.s. many are abandoning their faith or joining other churches. andy gallagher reports.

>> reporter: for the catholic church, his pan his panics are significant many were raised nat faith. the catholic church has a problem. latinos here are leaving in large numbers. many switch faiths and join episcopal and evangelical services and others aren't attending churches at all. this former priest left the catholic church in 2009 after meeting the woman he's now married to. he says roman catholics whose priesting prall 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. people that are married again are not welcome to communion. that's a fact. homosexual persons are still excluded from a full life in the church. >> reporter: researchers say

many hispanics are more attracted to community-based services of other denominations. the rate which latinos are leaving catholicism has surprised me. one in four latinos are catholics and more than half below the age of 30 even consider themselves catholic, and for the church they're a key demographic. hispanics under 30 make around half the u.s. population in latinos, and many reject the church's teachings on birth control and homosexual. religious experts say it's a significant sign of changing times. >> i think part is that because those born in the states or came here at a young age and are raised in the states, it's are not part of their upbringing in the same way. i think with immigration you lose that generational continuity. >> reporter: if hispanics are as many believe the future of catholicism in the u.s., the church may be in trouble. if they continue to drift away from the faith or go elsewhere,

the catholic church will stea steadily lose members and for thousand that seems inevitable. just to remind you that you can keep up to date with all our top stories on our website. the address is aljazeera.com. >> thousands are gathering in washington ahead of this morning's papal meeting at the white thousand. pope francis and the president will sit down as the pontiff begins his first full day in the u.s. >> chinese president trying to sell american companies on doing business in his company, but china's volatile market has investors worried. >> an american icon has died.