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 says it took another town from the armed

group. the pope draws more support for the family in the final leg of his u.s. visit. hello. the european union high representative for foreign affair has told al jazeera that russia intends to step up the involvement in syria because it fears the imminent collapse of the assad regime. frederic a's comments follow up after they went to the port city. 5 hundred lu00 russian troops a. the four and a half year war has killed 250,000 people according to u.n. estimates. more than 11.5 million have been displayed with 4 million fleeing to neighboring countries. the pentagon has admitted that

u.s.-trained fighters in syria handed over ammunition and equipment to a rebel group linked to al qaeda. al jazeera's diplomatic editor is at the u.n. headquarters in new york right now. james, you had have very long interview, and she spoke about russia's desire to become more involved in eefs in syria. >> reporter: yes, and that is one of the very big questions, felicity at the u.n. general assembly. obviously the issue of refugees and one of the big reasons for the refugees, syria, is at the center of all the discussions going on here. and we have a very rare visit coming up on monday by president putin to the united nations. he'll be spoki speaking on the day as president obama. they will meet to discuss ucontain and also the situation in ear ya which brings us to the big question about russia's motives in syria. on one hand russia is saying it

wants a political solution. it wants to talk about ways to get a political solution. on the other hand, it says that it is sending extra forces to syria, particularly to that airbase in latakia. at least 500 marines are building accommodations for up to 2,000 military personnel. they sent fighter jets and tanks. what exactly is russia up to? that's the question for our "talk to al jazeera" program that i put to the eu high representative. >> i was talking about that with our russian friends, with lavrov in the state. last time i talked to him his fear was about the complete collapse of the state structure in syria. this could be one of the reasons why russia is acting in this way, but it could also be a

willingness to show the fact that russia is an important, substantial player in this crisis. >> james, how significant is the comments that she's made? >> reporter: i think it's significant for this reason. never before have we heard that russia is concerned about the future of assad and the regime. there's lots of speculate that assad is in deep trouble. he's even said he had to withdraw from some areas to concentrate on other areas. the fact that lavrov told her he feared the collapse of the syrian state, well, that's the first time we've ever heard russia, syria's close ally, suggesting that. so i think that is an important backdrop to the discussions taking place here on syria. they're not just involving the russians, of course.

meetings are going on earlier today between the iranian foreign minister zarif and the u.s. secretary of state kerry. they've been talking about the iran deal and yemen and syria, too. john kerry is saying that, yes, perhaps all countries including iran could play a roll in the future of syria. i asked frederica how hopeful she was that perhaps there could be an end in sight to the carnage. she said after four and a half years you can't be that hopeful, but it is important for the next few days because some key players will be talking about syria, and they will be in the same place at the same time. >> fascinating stuff. james is live at the u.n. for us. you can see the full interview at 1430 gmt on "talk to al jazeera" on monday.

saudi arabia's most senior religious scholar says that thursday's stampede during the hajj was beyond human control. 769 people are now known to have died in the crush. another 934 were hurt during the annual pilgrimage in mecca. saudi arabia's king has ordered a review of how the hajj is organized. some pilgrims blame the stampede on road closures and poor management. speaking at the u.n. the iranian prime minister offered his condolences and wanted a swift investigation. >> translator: i want to express my deep regret over the heart-wrenching event on wednesday for thousands of muslims including iranians. i express my condolences to the many families mourning the lost of their loved ones in the tragic event and emphasis the need for swift attention to the injured as well as investigating the causes of this incident and

others in this year's pilgrimage. >> we have this update from mecca. >> reporter: the grand mufti represents the highest religious authority in the kingdom, however the ultimate power lies in the hands of the king that ordered a full investigation and a review into all the hajj plans to go further. so to me, i read into this that he's not quite happy with what happened. now, in terms of what the grand mufti said, i think what triggered a statement like that sirs 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. there were called by iran and other religious scholars to have the hajj organized by a number

of islamic states. so i think that's why it triggers him saying what he said. i think the investigation is going to go ahead, and today there was 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. >> the leaders of burkina faso have their assets frozen. 14 individuals including the coup leader will have their assets frozen for three months. three political parties will be denied access to funds. burkina faso's government was reininstalled on wednesday. at least 11 died and 271 were hurt in violence following the coup. nigeria's military says it's making gains against boko haram in the north of the country. banki is the latest town to be retain from the armed group. nigeria's military says more than 200 boko haram fighters surrendered in banki on friday.

banki 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 defeat the group. the u.n. says since may 2013, 2.3 million nigerians have been displaced by the violence. al jazeera is one of the few international journalists on the ground in the boko haram heartland. traveling with the army, he sent this update from borno state. >> reporter: basically the military is still pushing boko haram attacks their positions, and from all indications boko haram is overrun now. as we left yesterday driving through to this place on front line, you notice a sense of optimism on the part of the people. people returning to some of these isolated villages and returns to their families and home that is they abandoned because of boko haram activity. now, to shed more light on this is the nigerian chief of army

staff. sir, despite the best effort of the military, we still see boko haram attacking isolated communities and isolated villages, and then we have issues of ieds exploding in other parts of the country. is it a source of worry for the nigerian army because it promised to 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 would take over the banki town with cameroon, and then unfortunately they carried out that out.

there was about seven wounded unfortunately. we have these isolated attacks in communities, villages and on routes as well, but this will not deter us. we are determined. we continuously update our strategy, our plan as well as the troops and taking care of that. it's a sense of worry, but you can see the ied attacks have been reduced. we're closing up to the factories of these terrorists. so it's a source of worry, but we're on top of the situation. >> can we also that the nigerian armies are close to achieving the objective of crushing boko haram before the end of november? he promised it will be over by

the end of december. are you on course to finish boko haram? >> definitely we're on course. we have a three-month deadline given, and we're sfil in the fifth month. you can see the progress that has been made. i think by the end of this month hopefully first six, seven weeks of the month we'll make substantial progress and i'll be thinking of mopping up and, you know, checking on those isolated areas. >> as the nigerian chief said mop-up operations are being done to ensure the safe return of people that fled homes because of the attacks of boko haram. right now the military is saying that boko haram fighters are surrendered in the hundreds because of the pressure being applied on them by the nigerian forces and troops from neighboring country from cameroon, niger and chad as well as being in the public, which is contributing to the effort to

crush boko haram. the chief of army staff said they are 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 that probably in the next one month they will end the insurgency in northeast nigeria. still to come on al jazeera, preserving ocean. scientists working to reduce the impact of fossil fuels on the waters. we're in japan's underworld where authorities are moving in on tokyo's criminal gangs.

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a reminder of the top stories on al jazeera. the european union's high representative told al jazeera that russia intends to step up the involvement in syria because it fears the imminent collapse of the assad regime. saudi arabia's most senior scholar said thursday's hajj stampede was beyond human control. the number of people that died in the crush rose to 769. nigeria's military says it's making gains against boko haram in the north. pope francis has arrived in philadelphia on the final leg of his u.s. visit. he began the trip by celebrating mass with 1,600 people. when he called on the church to face place a greater value on women, although he rejected the

idea of ordaining women in the past. francis is set to attend the world meeting of families conference where he'll speak in support of catholic families. more than a million people are expected to attend his outdoor mass on sunday. >> translator: it is a story about generation after generation of committed catholics going out to the peripheries and building communities of worship, education, charities, and service to the larger society. >> alan fischer joins us now live from philadelphia. what sort of reception has the pope received so far? >> reporter: very warm here in philadelphia. you can see that benjamin franklin parkway is now filling up. this is from the papal motorcade that will make its way around here in an hour or so as he heads to the meeting of the world gathering of families. there was probably a lot less people here when he was in the

church nier hereby to deliver the service there. it is taking people about an hour to get through security. it is that tight. there are definitely tens of thousands of people in the center of philadelphia right now. this area is expected to be packed this evening for a an concert. the archway in the distance next to the museum which is perhaps famous world wide because those are the steps rocky ran up in the very first movie. the concert has aretha franklin and andrea bow chel lee and the present is mark wahlberg, the moouch vee star. the pope will give an important speech at independence hall, which is where the constitution of the united states was signed in 1776. he's going to talk there about immigration and religious freedom. it's his comments on immigration people are waiting to hear. the founding fathers conceived

the united states and came forward with the constitution. the point he has made is they were immigrants, and therefore perhaps america needs to look at the way it deals with immigrants in 2015. >> alan fisher with the latest there life from philadelphia. thank you. the families of 43 missing mexican students have been marching through mexico city to mark a year since their disappearance. the government alleges local police handed them to a drug gang, which executed them. the families have always rejected the official investigation and called for the president to step down. independent human rights organizations have dismissed the government's investigation. joining us live from mexico city is louisa newman. an important day will for families of the disappeared. >> reporter: hello? felicity. i'm having difficulty haerlg

you. could you please repeat. >> yes. i was appointing out what a poignant day it is for the families of the missing students. >> reporter: absolutely. yes, absolutely. even though it's probably small consolation, they do know that there are thousands and thousands, probably millions of other mexicans who are thinking about them and supporting them on this day. thousands of them are right here today. i'm at the angel of independence monument at this moment. the relatives are marching towards here carrying photographs of their sons with signs that read, alive them took them. alive we want them back. this is a day not just of co-mem he rags of the one-year an verse rather from the day these 43 students were attacked by police with drug travenlgers and local authorities and disappeared without leaving a trace. it's also a day of outrage they say to demand justice. they say won't be silenced until

get satisfaction. a lot of people here are carrying this flag made specifically for this day. as you can see, it's a mexican flag in black as a sign of mourning for what has happened. there are people here from all over this city of mexico city and other parts of country to show their support. at least 21 people were killed and 20 others injured in the outbreak of violence in the central republic. it's in retaliation for the killing of a tax driver. the muslim driver was killed for unknown reasons that led to the. they made the announce during the first ever address to the

united nations. he said beijing would step up by 2030. they have agreed to work on new targets to improve the quality of life around the world. these are the u.n. sustainable development goals covering poverty to pollution. no poverty is in fact the first of the 17 goals. zero hunger is another. the u.n. says 1 in 9 people around the world is hungry. education is also a priority. 103 million young people can't read or write, more than 60% are girls. there are plans to take action on climate change while improving life underwater is another major target. our environment editor nick clark in the u.k. has more on what that means. >> reporter: plymouth, a city that lives and breathing the

ocean. it was the home port of famous explores leer sir francis drake. from here they discovered new lands from australia to america. the fishing boat still come and go and what they bring to market is changes. >> this is the reliability of the sickle we thought we understood has changed. we used to predict certain seasons of year, and you would see certain species in abundance. that has gone out the window. >> reporter: these days they're exploring what lies beneath. week in week out fair weather or foul, a team from plymouth marine laboratory monitor the waters from southwest england and feed the results into a global network of data. to get to grips with what's happening in the world's ocean, they understand the difference between naturally occurring change and a change brought on my humans and to achieve that

they need long-term consistent observation. these waters are monitored for more than one hundred hundred year, country and plankton levels and how climate change affects marine species. >> this observatory is quite unique in the sense there's a number of pa meters we're measures as well as in the water and the atmosphere above it. that's very comprehensive to you with the ocean given the understanding about how things happen naturally and how they make change climate change forever. >> meanwhile, a crew is dispatched to conduct a maintenance check on an observatory buoy monitors ocean conditions. it takes data below and above the surface every hour. >> i think over the 100 years we've noticed there's about .8 degrees centigrade temperature rise in the seas around plymouth of the baseline average. one of the main things the observatory does is allows us to

take out the national variations for long-term trends. >> back on shore the plymouth marine laboratories look at the intense co2 concentrations we might face ft nut. >> if it expends more information energy, it has less energy for growth and reproduction. it can affect the success into the long term and also the success of generations to follow. >> reporter: the work 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. to japan now where yakuza gangs are flew a shake up. >> reporter: in the shadowy world it threaten to be the

biggest up hooefl in years centering on in man. he's the boss of japan's biggest crime syndicate, seen here being released from prison several years ago. unhappy with the way he is running the organization, it is reported that a rival faction has now broken away. this writer has studied the gang for more than 40 years. it could have impact on other groups given the fractionive nature of the underworld right now. >> translator: the yakuza's influences on politics and the economy is diminishing. the split is happening in this kind of climate, and there's a danger it could lead to a turf war between the gangs. >> reporter: part of the problem is the link between organized crime and the wider economy. heavily dependent on the economy, the heyday was in the bubble years of the 1980s.

in the leaner years times are tough with the number of member falling to an all-time low of less than 60,000. at government level they make it tougher. any companies now found to be doing business with the organized crime gangs face being prosecuted and publicly named. it is part of the countrywide attempt by law enforcement to crack down on the gangs, but he's seen previous efforts come and go. >> translator: the police said they would destroy it since 1965, but the fact they still exist as the biggest organized crime syndicate shows how sloppy their methods on. >> rob mcbride, al jazeera, toke i don't. india's primary is spending the weekend in the home of u.s. technology, silicon valley. 1 in 6 start-ups there are led by indians.

john henry reports. >> reporter: they arrived in silicon valley from india in the 1970s, witnesses to birth of the global epicenter of technology. they rode the first wave of engineers to the california coast and came hungry. >> being immigrants, we came with nothing in our pockets, so we're living on a small income or no income and just 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 foal le indian immigrants dominate the tech industry, including the top jobs at google and microsoft, now a venture capitalist, narin gupta funds companies here in india. >> it was to help everybody start companies in an effective way. so that's the organization that has done really and has brought indians together. >> he led a stanford university staudy that revealed the

astounding influence of indians here. they make up 6% of the 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 we're all indians. it doesn't marry if we're hindu or muslim, it sdaent marry. we're all indians. let's behavior like indians and help each other. >> reporter: the s.a.p. center is fully booked for prime minister modi's speech. more than 50,000 requested free tickets. that's an impressive sign of just how strong those ties are. modi won't just be highlights the achievements of indians in america. many brought their expertise and entrepreneurship back to their home country. >> it started in the last five years, and there's a flurry of new start-ups. start-ups that are ultimately

going to affect what happens as well. >> reporter: modi hopes to bring more silicon valley home to indian. more on our website at aljazeera.com. northwestern university is in the middle of a 40 hour work week. >> they are traveling more than even 10 years ago, they're being asked to sacrifice more they're asked to treat their sport as a year-round endeavor. so the demands on them are so intense that it has put them in a situation where it's like a fight or die situation. >> players earn no pay other than a scholarship to attend class.