hello there. good to have you along for this al jazeera news hour live from london. i'm david foster, and this is some of what we have coming up in the next 60 minutes. with new signs that russia wants to step up the involvement in syria, we get the reaction of the head of foreign affairs. beyond human control. the words of saudi arabia's temperature religious scholar on the hajj stampede. standing room only. the catholic pope presides over

mass in philadelphia, the final stop on his u.s. tour. in sports two-time rugby world champion south africa are finally up and running at this year's tournament after that stunning loss to japan. the spring box scored six times to win 46-6. european union's high representative for foreign affairs has told al jazeera that russia intends to step up its involvement in syria because it fears the imminent collapse of the assad regime. the comments came after reports russia has been building up a forward-operating base in the syrian port city. 500 russian troops are said to have been deployed there. russia insists it's more interested in finding a diplomatic solution to the four and a half years of war which

have seen 250,000 people according to the u.n. over 11.5 million displaced by the conflict, nearly 4 million people have fled to neighboring countries and indeed to further afield. the pentagon as a sidebar to some extent admitted that u.s.-trained fighters in syria have handed over ammunition and equipment to a rebel group linked to kadyrbayal qaeda. first what he had to say, our diplomatic editor at u.n. headquarters in new york. you conducted this interview, james. i wonder if you sensed whereas six months, a year, 18 months ago, any suggestion of russia getting further emeshed in syrian affairs would have caused alarm bells, but perhaps the europeans and others come to terms with the fact this may be the best way out. >> reporter: well, certainly,

david, there are, i think, different views among european leaders and some leaders including the u.k. have floated the idea but perhaps assad could stay on for a transitional period. what we've all been asking here at the u.n. general assembly is looking very, very closely at the speeches of president putin and president obama on monday, and looking at their meeting where they're going to talk about syria and ukraine is what exactly are russia's motives? on one hand they want to talk and want political dialogue on syria and oother hand they sent extra troops, at least 500 marines and building accommodations for possibly 2,000 russian personnel. they're sending fighter jets and tanks. what do we make of it? during an interview i conducted a short time ago, which is going to be broadcast on al jazeera for the "talk to al jazeera"

program, i said what is your view of what exactly russia's motives are? this is how she replied. >> i was talking about that with our russian friends, with lasrov, and last time i talked about this his fear was a complete collapse of the state structure in syria. this could be one of the reasons why russia is acting in this way. it could also be a willingness to show the fact that russia is an important, substantial player in this crisis. >> fascinating, james. i'll give our viewers the time of the interview later on. in the building behind you, the offices surrounding it, we see over the next week or ten days an awful lot of big players.

john kerry has been meeting the iranian foreign minister to talk presumably about affairs other than iran's nuclear program. we heard a little bit about what they were talking about and up to. >> reporter: yes. they didn't say very much when they came out and spoke to reporters. we know behind the scenes that john kerry is talking, i think, not just about that iran deal. yes, they're trying to nudge it along. they've done the deal, and they need to make hur sure that it follows the process that's been agreed. i'm sure they also spoke and we know they spoke about syria and yemen. secretary state of john kerry wants all states to be involved trying to deal with the issues, and that's an issue that i put to frederica. she was speaking with the foreign minister. she's very much of the view that iran needs to be involved and is

part of the solution. the only way to get it going in syria is to get everybody around the table. they need the neighbors countries, the u.s. and eu and russia. i think it's important to hear the new comments from higher representative magherini about the russian position. she says the foreign minister said they sent troops because they fear the imminent collapse of the syrian state and assad government. we never heard that russia fears it's around the corner until now. >> thank you very much indeed. it is a brilliant interview that james has conducted with frederica. we call that series "talk to al jazeera." you can see it on monday. i believe the time is going to be 1430 gmt. that's half past 2:00. 1430 gmt this coming monday.

saudi arabia's most senior religious scholar has said that thursday's stampede during the hajj was in his words beyond human control. the death toll has gone up to 769. 934 other muslims were injured during the pilgrimage in mecca. the king ordered a review of how the hajj is organized. some blame the stampede on road closures and poor management. well, i spoke to omar al-saleh, my colleague who is a journalist and also a pilgrim. he was in mecca, and this is what he told me earlier. >> reporter: the ground mufti represents the highest religious authority in the kingdom. however, the ultimate power lies within the hands of king solomon who ordered a full investigation and a review into all of the hajj plans to go further.

so to me i read into this he's not quite happy with what happened. now, in terms of what the ground mufti said, i think what triggered a statement like that as muslims, we do believe in fate and destiny, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't investigate a tragedy like that. i think what prompted him to say such a thing, he was trying to defend saudi arabia in the wave of criticism that triggered after the stampede. they were calls by iran and other religious scholars to have the hajj organized by a number of islamic states. i think that's why it triggered him saying what he said, but i think the investigation is going on go ahead. today, there's a press conference by the saudi health minister saying that the investigation is going to continue and will be transparent and declared within a few days. >> omar al-saleh reporting there

from saudi arabia. we'll examine why a law designed to unite iraq's militia and army with the hopes to defeat isil is stalling. we go underneath the waves and look at how to preserve oceans. scientists are working to reduce the impact of harmful fossil fuels on our world's waters. we have the sport and our female rugby players are looking to make a global impact as the men's world cup continues. pope francis has landed in nil devil for the final leg of the u.s. visit, and he began the trip by celebrating mass with 1600 people. he called on the church to place greater values on women, although he has rejected the yt of ordaining women in the past. francis is also set to attend the world meeting of families

conference where he was big in support of catholic families. more than a million people likely to attend the outdoor mass on sunday. >> translator: during these days of the world meeting of families, i would ask you in a particular way to reflect on our ministry to families, to couples preparing for marriage, and to our young people. i know how much is being done in your local churches to respond to the needs of families and to support them in their journey of faith. >> alan fisher is in philadelphia. alan, i think i can see some of the crowds lining the streets down there behind you. i suppose what we've seen is a political pope for a couple of days, and now we're seeing much more of a pastoral pope. >> reporter: well, the crowd you can see he essentially will

drive by in the popemobile in two to three hours time. tomorrow he will celebrate mass, and there's expects somewhere in the region of 750,000 to a million people to be here in philadelphia. we're seeing the more stin gent security i've ever seen at any event where it's difficult to get in and out of the center of the city. philadelphia wants to make a success of the event. what do the people here want to see? they want to see a glimpse of the pope. what do they want to hear? well, they've heard largely the themes that he's going to talk about again and again. he's talked about poverty. that is something that he's talked about several times in the past. he will talk about immigration, and he will do that in a speech at independence hall here in philadelphia in just a few hours' time. why is that significant? of course, independence hall is where in 1776 the declaration of independence was signed in the united states. as we heard pope francis tell congress a couple of days arg,

the united states is a nation of immigrants. so he will address the question of immigration and of religious freedom, but it's his comments on immigration that everyone is waiting to hear. is there an indication to the politicians here in the united states what he thinks they have to do, or will it be something slightly less confrontational, so we say, and perhaps just saying look we need to. >> there was a wonderful moment where your mic went is he going to say, and then we saw your lips moving and dinned hear the words. we have to wait to hear what the pope himself has to say. see if you can get that fixed for the next time. alan fisher, thank you. china's president xi jinping has promised $2 billion for a new development fund, which will invest in poor countries and help to fight global poverty. xi made the announcement at his first ever address to the united nations and said beijing would step up investment in the

least-developed countries by at least $12 billion by 2030. >> translator: looking to the future, china will continue to take a right approach to justice and interests by putting justice before interests and joining other countries in the concerted efforts to realize the post-2015 development agenda. china will establish an assistance fund with an initial pledge of 2 billion in support of developing couldnntries. china will continue to increase investments in the least-developed countries, aiming to increase the total to $12 billion by 2030. he's one of 200 leaders that agreed to work on new targets to improve the quality of life worldwide. they're call the u.n. sustainable development controls, everything from poverty to solution. no poverty is the first of the 17 goals. zero hung is another. the united nations is saying that saying one in nine people around the world is hungry. education is a priority, too.

103 million young people cannot read or write. of that number more than 60% are girls. there are plans to take action on climate change. on improves life underwater is another major target, so let's hear from our environment editor nick clark in the u.k. he has more on what that means. >> reporter: plymouth, a city that lives and breathes the ocean. it was the home port of famous explorers like sir francis drake. from here they left to skodisco and settle new lands from australia to america. the fishing boats still come and go, but what they bring to market is changing. >> there was the reliability of the cycles that we thought we understood. it has changed, so when you used to predict certain seasons of the year you would see certain species in abundance, that seems

to have gone out of the window. >> reporter: these days they explore what lies beneath. week in week out fair weather or foul, a team from plymouth marine laboratory monitor the waters of southwest england and feed the results into a global network of data. really to get to grips with what's happening in the world's oceans, scientists must understand the difference between naturally occurring change and the change brought on my humans and to achieve that they will conduct long-term, consistent observations. these waters have been monitored for more than 100 years. temperature changes, current, plankton levels and now how climb change is affecting marine species. >> this observatory is quite unique in the sense of a number of species we're measures on seabeds as well as life in the water and the atmosphere above it. that's a very comprehensive look at the ocean.

it's how they might change climate change. >> reporter: a crew is dispatched to conduct a maintenance check on an observatory buoy monitoring ocean conditions. it takes data below and above the surface every hour. >> i think over 100 years we noticed there's been about .8 degrees centigrade temperature rise in the seas around plymouth with a baseline average of 100 years. we have one of the main things that they do is observe and allow us to take out the natural variations to look for long-term trends. back on shore the plymouth marine laboratories they're looking at the kind of intense co2 concentrations we might face in the future and what the effects are on organisms. >> so if it's spending more energies dealing with the effects, it has less energy available for growth and reproduction. those kind of changes can affect its success into the long term and also the success of generations to follow.

>> reporter: the work being done by laboratories like this across the world may not provide a solution to climate change but it will at least help us get to grips with what lies ahead. nick clark, al jazeera, plymouth, united kingdom. we will talk a little more about the u.n. and its goals laters in the program. probably in about 15 minutes, so if you're interested, it's worth sticking around for that. croatia has recorded its largest daily influx of refugees since the european crisis began. nearly 10,000 came into the country on friday alone. croatia has lifted its border bloke cade and begun letting cars and trucks through from serbia ending a week-long standoff. the refugees are going through croatia after hungary built a fence along the border to block the path. since the croatian border was blocked refugees went south to use a different crossing point.

croatia says 65,000 refugees have come into country from serbia in the last ten days alone. well, new laws in hungary allow the government to detain hundreds of refugees who came in across hungary's new fence with serbia drilling holing in it in some cases, and these laws allow them to be expelled back to serbia. from amnesty international they say the policy of criminalizing refugees is a breach of rights and leaves them extremely vulnerable. >> refugees can only enter the country in violation of the policies. it's highly problematic because of the rights of refugees. very, very few refugees are appealing the decisions, and if

they do, they don't stand any chance. defense lawyers use the argument that serbia is not a safe country. they use the argument that these people are, in fact, refugees who are seeking protection because they're fleeing countries where there's an armed conflict. none of these things are taken aboard by the court. we also know that people often say that they didn't have any other option, how to enter hungary, or they didn't know how to enter hungary illegally. they're basically put in an impossible situation. the refugee crisis is having a significant strain on the shangla agreement, that limits the need for passport control with borders across europe. >> reporter: a new iron curtain has been appearing along some of europe's borders. hungary is one of the front line states of the area, and this has been its response to the refugee crisis.

the shhengen agreement was signed 30 years ago apolished passport checks and custom controls in the heart of europe. to begin with, it covered only five countries. today the schenn again area has a population of more than 400 million people. >> fortunately in the european union we have given up border controls between member states in the area to guarantee free movement of people. the unique symbol of european integration and sh schengen system won't be abolished. >> reporter: this is one of the most tangible benefits of belonging to the european union. as you can see, i'm just

crossing over from belgium into france, almost looking around me it looks like an ordinary high street in a small town in northern europe. there's nothing that tells me i'm crossing an international border. it's like this is all one in the same country. germany was the first country to open wide its doors to syrian refugees. ironically it was then the first country to partly close the doors again by reintroducing controls on its border with austria. where germany led other countries followed. >> one of the big concerns sha the drivers that led country to do this, that is, the large numbers arrives within the european union, are not disappearing anytime soon and these temporary controls are permanent in at some parts of the border and we see a graduation deterioration of the schengen system. >> reporter: the trains have been seized upon by far right

politicians. they want to abolish schengen and now they're using the refugee crisis to reinforce that agenda. >> translator: there is an urge the need to immediately halt all the signals the eu is sending. there's an urgent need to end schengen immediately. we need to take back control of the borders. >> ultimately it looks like schengen will survive, even in a slightly modified form. the crisis has laid bare bitterness and resentment between supposed european partners. less visibility the borders but much more difficult to remove. iraqi politicians are going to try and talk about a law designed to bring about national unity and defeat isil. it's called the national guard law. it's controversial, and it's also unpopular among many of those that it will most affect.

we have more from baghdad. >> reporter: seven weeks ago iraq's prime minister announced the battle to take ramadi city from forces but they haven't taken the capital of an bore province. also in that time a crucial piece of potential legislation designed to uanythings the army with the hope of defeating isil has stalled. the spokesman says the proposed national guard law at this stage is ineffective and will destroy iraq and not unite it. >> translator: we want the national guard on a federal and elitist force to answer to the prime minister. we have a clear rejection to the law in its current form in which we don't want a national guard force being divided by iraq's provinces. >> reporter: what the militias fear is if the bill is passed in

the current form, it could lead to the division of the army by sect and province. there are plenty of signs of iraqi unity across baghdad, but there's a real fear that the national guard law could mine a sunni, kurdish and shia army to face each other. there are political problems as well. sunni politicians say the shear militias are opposed to the law because they want to take over the army. others are skeptical the national guard law will be discussed at the next session of parliament because of the political positions of various parties. >> translator: sunnis believe that the military establishment is still owned and run by the shia camp, and therefore, sunnis need another force to stand up against shia prejudice. the law promotes sectarian provisions more than nationalism. in these continue, it might let lead to a political clash in

parliament. >> they have held on to territory for over a year now. the syrian conflict and the chaos in the region has benefitted the group. iraqi politicians know that isil needs to be defeated, but they're divided on how to achieve that. al jazeera, baghdad. stay with us if you can. we have this coming up. they're not in india, but they're the indian entrepreneurs making it big in america's silicon valley. we're off to mexico where people are demanding answers. the relatives of the 43 missing students have mass protests to try and get some answers inches it's more details on this crash that brought an abrupt end to qualifying at the japanese grand prix.

>> where we are standing right now will be the panama canal. >> this will be flooded. >> we have upgraded for bigger ships. >> now we go for weeks without water. >> techknow's team of experts show you how the miracles of science... >> this is what innovation looks like. >> can affect and surprise us. >> i feel like we're making an impact. >> awesome! >> techknow - where technology meets humanity. good tovp your company. this is the al jazeera news hour, and these are the global

headlines. the high representative of foreign affairs told al jazeera that russia now intends to step up its involvement in syria because it fears the imminent collapse of the assad regime. the pentagon's admitted now that u.s.-trained fighters in syria handed over ammunition and equipment to a rebel group linked to al qaeda. saudi arabia's most senior religious scholar has said that thursday's hajj stampede was beyond human control. authorities have now rerised the death toll up to 769. you see pope francis in philadelphia having a mass on the final part of his u.s. tour. let's go back to one of our top stories. the united nations general assembly reply. it's formally adopted the 2030 agenda for sustainable development and a new set of

development goals, which include gender equality. let's speak to women's rights campaign campaigner ossman live from the united nations. if you had one point to hammer home to those listening, those who presumably are in power and you'd like to see them change their minds, what would it be? >> nothing is going to be sustained and developed if fe leave women behind. from everything that we have seen, women are left behind time and again. women have to be fully participating in development. women have to be fully participating in peace. and then maybe we will see development, maybe we will see peace in this world. >> you talked very much from the arab perspective. so give us your view there about the arab countries and how they seem to be approaching or not approaching gender equality in your view.

>> i think arab -- what i work is on gender, and i don't think arabs are any different regardless of what everybody is saying. arab governments are no different from other governments. i'm at the united nations and i'm sitting in some meetings. like they say, it's raining men. you see men in black suits and hardly any women. you select arabs saying arabs are more conservative. in america they don't have any women. i don't think it's an arab or european issue. it's a world, transnational, the gender issue is transnational. that's how we should look at it. if you look at all the delegation. >> are wre talking largely about opportunities or situations in which women find themselves in conflict zones, for example, where there don't appear to be

any special tribunals for people that assaulted women or where women go to get any kind of protection? >> we have a campaign called jut for all. she was a human rights campaigner that was assassinated in her own house in libya. the united nations has been pushing at least the government of libya before to make sure that, you know, they find and imprison the people that did that. since there is no strong judicial system in libya, then we have asked and appealed to the united nations high commissioner for human rights to assist in the situation and to send a team there to investigate what has happened. right at this moment, yes, they're thinking about it. we haven't seen anything take place. yes, women find themselves at

the international level, at the national level with no protection. what you have is a resolution of the united nations 1325, which some of the pillars are protection and prevention of violence against women. it's during conflicts and of course we have yet to see that solution. >> that's much more than we have time for. i wish you the very best of luck in your campaign at the united nations. we're moving from the united states and the united nations now to middle eastern politics. a number of houthi rebels have been killed in yemen. there's been a rocket attack on the central city. some have lost their lives in heavy gunfire near the yemeni border. they continue the air strikes against the houthis around

sanaa. these rebels are searching around piles of rubble after an attack. saudi arabia has been fighting houthi forces there for six moss. dozens of soldiers are killed. estimate is 4,500 yemenis have died. an admission that syrian fighters are handed over am mission and iement to a link linked with al qaeda. they gave 25% of the uz-issued pick trucks and am missions to al nusra group, which is a terror groups. they trained 5,500 rebels a year to fight syrian government forces. what began on the grouped in july, 54 u.s.-trained fighters attacked and a second group of 70 were went into syria last week.

worth talking about i would say. crystal is with us, director of the council for arab/british understanding, in terms of red faces this is an enormous embarrassment for the united states. you spend all this money to trien people to fight the good fight and they join the army. >> it's still in shambles in syria for the united states. here we are, the world's greatest military power, and half a billion dollars. it can't get any forces on the ground, so to speak, to fight isis at all. the head of the program, a skwen, general lloyd austin having to tell senators that they only have four or five guys actually in syria. i mean that is simply amazing, but it's par for the course in everything they've done with the syrian opposition so far. they haven't managed to sourt out a coherent military format to deal with the assad regime. they failed with that.

they're failing in terms of getting ground forces to deal with isis in syria and haven't dealt with them to get them made for the force. >> is that the end of this expeditionary force of 5.,500. we're talking about less than 100 who have done this. what about the reminder who have yet to be trained here to go over there. in some ways one hopes it's the end of it, because at the rate they're going, one would hope that somehow they found a political solution to all of this. at this rate they're going to take years and years to get up to the 5,500. >> our top story is about the russians indicating them to get more closely involved. frederica sdz i talked to lavrov about this. we're talking about assad remaining in our albeit transitionally. do you think this conflict will

come to an end with russia holding the balance of power? assad with a puppet government controlling maybe one-fifth of the country and the rest of it controlled by whom? >> it's very difficult to predict exactly what will happen. what is really clear is is that russia seems to be a lot mr. serious about what's going on in syria than the united states. the americans have a quarter-hearted approach to what's going on. the russians have demonstrated they're very serious and they committed forces and a significant amount of weapons and funding to backing their guy in damascus. >> are they backing they're guy because they like this guy or because they like isil spreading. >> it's to make sure whatever happens in damascus even if bashir assad does something, they have a regime in damascus. that's their interest. they're not wedded to him as an individual. we just see that putin the whole time is being consistent and he is going to put russian

interests first. now, in terms of fighting isis, the americans are bombing from the skies but they have no forces on the ground. how will that be addressed? quite clearly, a year on is not really knocking them back in the sort of way that president obama, for example, talked about. >> we saw possibly something unimaginable two years ago, which is an axis involving perhaps iran and russia on the one hand and western powers on the other. sort of propping up president assad with the aim making sure isil doesn't -- >> it's not inconceivable to avoid the issue of state collapse. if the government in damascus as opposed to the president himself, the salaries they pay to civil servants and very few hospitals and run the schools still going, of course, that would all dissipate and be chaos

to answer the already existing chaos in the rest of the country. so the little the state is able to do would vanish. that would be a huge problem. but what we really need to see is determined political will to end this conflict from all the main players. it's just beginning to see signs that they are more interested in doing that. so that is a positive. >> we're working together. chris, we could talk about in as indeed we have for years. thank you very much indeed. conflict in nigeria. we've been reporting a lot on that now. the military is making gains against boko haram north of the country in banki in northeastern borno state. the latest town taken back from boko haram, nigeria's military says more than 200 boko haram fighters surrendered in banki on friday. it was used by boko haram as a staging post for cross-border attacks into cameroon.

nigeria's president has given his military until november to defeated the armed group. since may of 2013, 2.3 million nigerians have been displaced by the violence. to one of our few international journalists on the ground, and travelling with the nigerian aem, he sent this from borno state. >> reporter: the military is still pushing boko haram, attacking their positions and from all indications boko haram is overrun now. as we left driving through to this place on the front line, you notice a sense of optimism on the part of the people. people returning to some of these isolated villages. peel are returning to their farms and homes abundant because of boko haram activity. to she had more light is the generally. despite the best light of the military, we still see boko

haram attacks isolated communities in isolated villages in their numbers, and we have issues of ieds exploding in other parts of the country. is it a source of worry for the nigerian army because it will deal with this as quickly as possible? >> thank you very much, ahmed. potentially we've degraded the boko haram terrorists. as you can see just yesterday about this time we wanted to take over the banki border town. then unfortunately they carried that out, and we look at that for the soldiers. there were about seven wounded unfortunately. we continue to have this isolated attack in communities, villages, and on routes this

way. this will not deter us. we are determined continuously updating our strategy, our professional plan as well as the troops taking care of that. so it is a sense of worry, but you can see the ied attacks have also been reduced and closing up to the last factories of these terrorists. this is a source of worry, but we're on top of the situation. >> reporter: can we see also that the nigerian army is on course to achieve the objective of crushing boko haram? the president promised it will be over by the end of november. are you on course to finish up boko haram? >> definitely we're on course.

there was a three-month deadline given, and you can see the progress made. i think by the end of the month, first and second week of demands will show substantial progress and we'll be thinking of doing it and checking on those isolated areas. >> reporter: as the nigerian armies have said, most of the operations have been conducted to ensure the safe return of people who have fled their homes because of the attacks by boko haram. right now the nigerian military is thas that boko haram fighters are surrendering in the hundreds because of the pressure being applied on them by the neighboring currents from cameroon, niger and chad which has been in the public to contribute to the effort to crush boko haram. the chief of army staff said they're also gaining much more on boko haram through intelligence and also the level

of cooperation between these countries to defeat boko haram is very high. they foresee in the next one month they will end the insurgency in northeast nigeria. >> we're reporting from nigeria. the families of 43 missing mexican students have been marching through the capital to mark a year since the young people's disappearance. the government says local police handed them to a drug gang which then executed them, but the families always rejected that official investigation and have called for them to step down. we are off to mexico city to join that march and our latin-american editor lousia newman. ike looking at of the crowd behind you this is more than the relatives involved. it's about become a national cause. >> reporter: absolutely, david. there are hundreds and hundreds of people gathered right here at

the angel of independence, which is an emblem mattic gathering points in mexico city, as the parents and relatives of the 43 disappeared students march towards here carrying posters and photographers of their child and saying alive them took and alive we want they want back. this is a commemoration of one year in the grizzly crime of students attacked by police and then the bodies just disappeared. only some of their fingers were left behind. they say that what they want is they want justice. they not only want -- and blame the government for covering it up, but they want a new investigation led by international investigators, and, in fact, the president that met with the relatives a couple days ago says he agrees there will be a new investigation.

it has re-opened and will last as long as necessary. now, people here are carrying this flag made specifically to commemorate this date. it's a mexican flag in black as a sign of mourning. ordinary mexicans say that this crime shows the dreet of impunity and corruption to which they're victims of here. they insist this is an embarrassment for the mexican government, which wants to get to the bottom of it. most people here say they simply don't trust the authorities to investigate. they think they're covering up the crime, although no one really knows what happened to the students. they do know, however, that the original version that their bodies were dumped into a rubbish pit and burned alive calls to water discounted by independent investigators. a year later they're starting from almost square one, david. >> thank you. you're with us on the news

hour. in another couple of minutes we'll tell you how candidate are cause an upset against italy at the rugby world cup.

india's prime minister is spending the weekend in the home of technology. 1 in 6 were started up by indians. fascinating story as general hen dron relates.

>> reporter: they arrived in silicon valley from india in the 1970s. witnesses to the birth of global epicenter of technology. they rode the first wave of indian software engineers to the california coast and came hungry. >> being immigrants, we came with nothing in our pockets. we're living on a small income and a little bit of savings was not that unappealing to us because we come from just nothing. >> reporter: both have since been tech ceos. they and their fellow indian immigrants dominate the tech industry, including the top jobs at google and microsoft. now he funds tech companies in india. >> the goal was to help everybody start companies in an effective way. so that organization has done very well and brought indians together. >> he led a stanford university study that revealed the astoning influence of indians here. they make up 6% of the silicon

valley work force but 16% of the ceos of new start-ups here. 40% have at least one indian founder. one reason? they helped each other. >> in america worry all indians. it doesn't matter if we're hindu or muslim. it doesn't matter. we're all indians. so why not behave like indians and help each other? >> reporter: the s.a.p. center is fully booked on the speech on the tech ties that unite the u.s. and india. there's more than 50,000 that requested free tickets. that's an impressive sign of how strong those ties are. modi won't just highlight the united states, but many brought it back to their country. >> it only started in the last five years. india has seen a flurry of new start-ups. start-ups that are ultimately going to affect what happens in the u.s. as well. >> reporter: just as indians have formed a little bit of

india in silicon valley, modi hopes to bring a little more silicon valley home to india. al jazeera, san jose. we have andy and we also have the sports. >> thank you so much, david. two-time rugby world champion south africa are finally up and running after the stunning loss against japan. the spring box run in six tries against somoa. three goals by j.p. peterson in a 46-6 win. to noshing play scotland. italy survived a ska against canada to show the first win of the tournament. canada scoring the opening dry. when it was disallowed due to a forward pass in the 46th minute, kandz lost a bit of momentum. they put italy ahead and a next

play out. >> we were pretty disappointed to be honest. i thought, you know, our guys gave it everything we could. we played with some real emotion and real energy, but in the end it wasn't quite good enough. to get that result was we came here to win, and we didn't win. >> in a few minutes time england takes on whales. it's the 127th game and one of the rugby's oldest and fiercest rivalries. with this group contains australia, whoever loses could face an early exit from the tournament. >> the wales game is also massive. for me growing up from the age of 5 watching england versus wales, six nations and things like that with my old man is special for me. like i said, the added spice of it being a world cup pool, the

hardest pool. this could be incredible. i can't wait to get out there. >> the hype and everything is all you guys, and quite rightly so. we're generally thinking it's a game of rugby, 15 aside. the pitch dimensions are the same, and we're just going out to prove everybody that wrote us off we have a huge show in the game. huge anticipation is building. barcelona stricker messi could be out for eight weeks after injuring his knee. he was injured in just the third minute in the game. could miss five la ligagames and three champions league matches. two goals from swar vez saw barcelona win 3-1. manchester united won over sunder land. kevin dee brown put city ahead,

and spurs responded to win 4-1. the city slipped to a second straight loss. harry cain scored his first club goal of the system. sanchez scored a hat trick in arsenal's 5-2 win at lester. daniel sturridge is back from injury. he scored a couple. chelsea had to come from two goals down to dre 2-2 at newcastle while units is after a lead games for the first time in two years. >> to continue is very difficult in this league, but you can better stay on the top of the league table than like last year. rosburg is in poll position and lewis ham to know is in second. qualifying came to an end earlier than expected following

this huge crash involving red bull's daniel cav yet. the russian lose control there but he was able to walk away from the wreck an. many of the drivers "consider this" to be the most challenging track in the world. now, while rugby's 15 aside format is currently on for the world cup, next year we see the rugby making the olympic debut in rio. right now winning teams are competing for the sing spot open to the accomplishment. tanya is at that qualifying event in south africa. >> reporter: the rugby team is training in johannesburg for a week getting used to the attitude. it's history in the making. only a single winning women's team from africa will qualify for the olympics. women's rugby is feet feuering for the first time. unlike the competitors, the south africans are professional sportswomen and one of the favorites. >> we're not taking this for

granted. we know that every game we approach will be very tough, so the team is coming in. we don't jr.ed underestimate them at all. we'll play every game like it's the final. >> they say up to 40% of new players taking up rugby in africa are women and girls. he believes that the perception that women on the continent are held back from contact sports for cultural and religious reasons is outdated. >> today the countries where rugby is well-developed on the woman's side are tunisia and a very good start in egypt, in morocco. companies are it's affordable and that means no issues. women's teams are underfunded compared to men's side. the captain plays in the national cricket team and olding down a full-time job. none hafrpers her love of

country. >> it's a good game. i like that team. >> while women's rugby is growing in popularity, it lags far behind the men's side in every way. regardless of which team qualifying for rei don't, the fact women's rugby will be there will do a lot to advance the sport. for those who don't make the cut, the chance to play against other african teams is one to be relished. the players say they just need more opportunities like this tournament to improve their competitiveness not only in africa but on the world stage. tanya page, al jazeera, johannesburg, south africa. action from england versus wales in the next news hour. that's all the sports for now, david. thank you very much. england and wales, and i've got a journey home. i'm not going to listen to anybody. i'll watch it when i get home. nobody tell me what the result is. that's it for me. felicity barnes is next. bye-bye.

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syria's war, the eu tells al jazeera that russia intends to step up the involvement in the conflict. you're watching al jazeera live from london. also coming up. saudi arabia most senior religious scholar insists the hajj stampede was beyond human control. making gains against boko haram. nye jaer ya's military s