the lead everythings of the u.s. and russia discuss the conflict in syria during their first fairs-to-face meeting for nba nearly two years. ♪ ♪ hello, welcome to al jazeera live from our head quart in other words doha, i am nick clark. also coming up. >> taliban fighters take control of a strategic city. is there life on mars? nasa scientists say flowing water is almost certainly present on the red planet. and we take a look at the how the fil philippines is take chag

the way they take care of the elderly who had been left to fiend for themselves. ♪ ♪ so the leaders of u.s. and russia have held face-to-face talks at the u.n. general assembly in new york over thousand best solve the conflict inner is ye. they had their first formal meeting in two years they agreed that a coordinated strategy was needed to fight the threat pose booed isil. obama says the u.s. is prepared to work with russia and iran there ha can be had no long-term solution for bazar al-assad. piewt i can said it's a mistake not to work with a sued's forces and risk the collapse of the syrian state. james bays our diplomatic editor has this from new york. >> reporter: russia's president normally avoids this annual gathering of world leaders at the u.n. being but he came here planning not even to spend a

night in new york. the center piece of his speech the grind coalition against isil. >> translator: we propose discussing whether it's possible to agree on a resolution aimed at coordinating the actions of all the forces that confront isil and other terrorist organizations. once again, this coordination should be babshould should be be principle of the u.n. charter. >> reporter: syria's city at the u.n. is still occupied assad's ambassador. it would be a coalition including the assad government and its government. floating a compromise idea that perhaps he could that on for a bit in the phase transition to a new government. >> yes, really. dictates that compromise will be required to stamp out isil and end the fighting. really. also requires a managed

transition away from assad and to a new leader. and an inclusive government that recognizes there must be an end to this chaos so that the syrian people can begin to rebuild. >> reporter: that idea t seemedo be immediate by displayed by france and the first gulf country troy speak here qatar. >> translator: is there a tyranny in the word that could acknowledge an alternative is it possible for a tyranny to allow an alternative to grow and development under its shadow. >> translator: i can see diplomatic efforts being made to incorporate bashar al-assad in the process, but you can't work together. you can't put together victims and the people who are killing them. assad is the origin of the problem. he cannot be part of the solution. >> reporter: in damascus, there may be some concern about the speech made by their staunching ally, iran said it wanted the recent nuclear talks to be a matter of diplomacy severe i

can't and prerouhani then added this. >> translator: as we aided the establishment of democracy in iraq and afghanistan, we are prepared to help bring about testimony is a idemocracy in sys yemen. >> reporter: the real business here takes away from the speeches in the general assembly chamber. this is the formal lunch with the second general of the united nations sitting between the russian and american leader. putin and obama later held a further meet to go discussion the situation in syria and ukraine after 4 1/2 years of war in syria. it's hard to be optimistic, but this is the first serious diplomatic push for 18 months since the collapse of peace talks in geneva. everyone knows a fresh effort to end the conflict will face immense hurdles. james bays, at the united nations. meanwhile u.s. president barack obama has chaired a u.n.

peace keep summit securing pledges from 50 countries for another 40,000 troops and police officers. pretty an's prime minister has a you announcessed dozens of british troops will be deployed to somalia and south suzanne, joining a u.n. contingent supporting the african union troops' fight against al-shabab. up to a further 300 peacekeeping troops may be deployed for missions in south sudan. barnaby phillips is more now from london. >> reporter: this is the most high-profile british military involvement in subsaharan africa since tony blared intervened if sierra leone in 2000. but this time according to the prime minister david cameron, british soldiers who go to south sudan and somalia will have a strictly noncombat role. speaking in new york prime minister david cameron said these interventions were in the u.k.'s national interests. >> we have always supported u.n. peacekeeping missions. they are vital to try to

stabilize and help some of these countries. it's right that we play a port in training. it's we will benefit if somalia has a future free of ex-stream i. we will benefit if south sudan can have a successful country and not drive people across med strain vinnie. >> reporter: this is the thursday final they have been involved in the fight al-shabab. it was likely to have broad political support in the you can, but that could change if british soldiers were somehow to get involved in the fighting or if they became the target of any attacks. the president of the south african continent left the u.n.

after violence in her country. the violence is the worst unrest since french and u.n. peacekeepers were deployed after the year. taliban fighters have taken control of a strategic city in northern afghanistan. the security forces are fighting back against an early morning attack. which included the freeing of hundreds of prisoners, stefanie dekker has this report. >> reporter: the moment taliban fighters broke open the prison. around 600 prisoners were behind bars, including taliban fighters. the jail attack is just one of the string of events that has left the group in control of most of the city. >> the people of one deuce is you were the fear, they are inside the houses. nobody dares enter the streets or the city they are worrying about the attacks. >> reporter: the afghan interior ministry has spent forces. the taliban has made major gains

in kunduz since fighters surrounded the city early monday morning. the government leaders say the city will be retaken. there have been casualty on his both sides. bodies of taliban fighters and a policeman killed in the fighting salt civilians are also caught up in the battle for the city. it's the first time the taliban has taken such of kunduz since the u.s. invasion in two number one. it have the former northern strong hold before their government was overthrown 14 years ago. taliban fighters still hold some parts of province which lies in the north of the country with main roads connecting to the rest of afghanistan and the capital kabul. the u.s. and nato left afghanistan last year, leaving afghan force to his face the taliban alone. fighters are a powerful force on the ground. and have tried to take kunduz city before. afghan forces emergency today push them back. the question is whether they can do it again.

stefanie dekker, al jazeera. iran's president hassan rouhani says saudi arabia's handling the hajj stampede was incompetent. saudi authorities say a tote of 769 pilgrims died. critics believe the numbers may be much higher. india and pakistan is they have given diplomats around 1,100 photos of the dead for identification purposes. >> translator: i am speaking on behalf of a great nation who is mourning of loss of thousands of muslim pilgrims and hundreds of its own citizens who had come together in the grand and global spiritual gathering of the hajj, but unfortunately, fell victims to the incompetence and mismanagement of those in charge. due to their unaccountability, even the missing cannot be identified and the expeditious return of the bodies of the deceased to their mourning

families has been prevented. >> scientists at nasa say they found strong evidence of flowing water on mars. it's an historic find that go raises the prospect that life could exist on the red planet. john hendon has this. >> reporter: nasa scientists say the red planet is not the desolate try place they long thought it was. >> today, we are revolutionizing our understanding of this planet. our rovers are finding that there is a lot more humidity in the air than we ever imagined. as we ingest the soils they are moist. they are hydrated. full of water. mars is not the dry, arid planet that we thought of in the past. today we are going to announce that under certain circumstances, liquid water has been found on mars. >> reporter: researchers say a few billion years ago mars was covered with rivers, lakes and possibly an ocean but they believed only a small amount of frozen water remains. now nasa says a camera on its

mars reconnaissance orbit captures streak of flowing briny water on the red planet a basic building block of life and they say there is a water cycle that changes over the course of the year much like the water cycle on earth. >> these are dark streaks that form in late spring, grow through the summer and then disappear by fall. >> reporter: that raises the possibility of life, possibly microbial life and makes it easier for explorers to sustain themselves when exploring the planet as nasa hopes to do by 2030. >> today is fascinating result about the current water on mars is one of the reasons why i feel it's even more imperative that we send astro biologists and planetary scientist to his mars to explore the question of is there currents life on mars. >> reporter: the possibility of life on mars has been envisioned in science fiction but largely dismissed. >> it's weird, there is nothing here.

>> it's mars. >> reporter: the finding also raises the possibility that despite wildly varying temperatures that range from 56 to 21 celsius, it might be possible to grow food in greenhouse on his the surface. nasa managers say their latest discovery leaves many mysteries unresolved. they don't know where the water comes from or what besides salt is in it. john hendon, al jazeera. still to come on the program. two people have been killed and hundreds injured at a typhoon moves across taiwan. the emissions scandal at volkswagen is growing as german prosecutors launch a criminal investigation against the company's former boss.

>> what do you want american's to understand? >> there's so much injustice. >> workers are being injured constantly.

♪ ♪ held going, welcome back. i am nick clark. syria has been high o outta agan gentleman of the u.n. president obama and vladimir putin had their first full meeting in two years. the afghan taliban have taken control of the northern cities of kunduz the fighters entered the area during an early morning assault a monday. scientists at nasa say they found strong evidence of flowing water on mars, it is an historic find that go raises the prospect that life could exist on the red planet. a identify football has left at least two dead and 24 injured in taiwan. strong winds and heavy rains overturned cars and uprooted

trees. most of those wounded were hit by flying debris. hundreds of thousands of homes are also without electricity with authorities warning down pours could trigger down slides, now the latest from taipei. >> reporter: the businesses, a lot of flights are still canceled. they haven't resumed as well. train stations are just starting to operate again. reports that there have been landslides in the new taipei city over 24 people believed to have been injured and more than 33,000 people are in homes without power. it seems as if the preparation of the taiwanese government, on top of that riley good up from structure of the city itself and the entire area has really helped really contain the damage that tie fan dujuan has caused. it's not as bad as people feared it would be. there is a lot of cleaning on the roads, debris is being cleared up, in order to make

sure that life goes back to normal here. it's definitely leaving taiwan's area of responsibility by 1:00 p.m. local time. around 5:00 gmt heading now towards china. still a lot of worry over the possible delays in infrastructure and transportation, but at this point right now it's out of taiwan's responsibility by 1:00 p.m. local. thousands of refugees have been cueing up at the croatian serbian border as they journey north towards more prosperous e.u. countries. more than 100 buses have arrived at the border down. the croatian government says more than 70,000 refugees entered the country in the last few days. colder temperatures are making it difficult for refugees to his stay healthy. >> there is more and more people who are old are in this sun rabble groups. as the cold is coming. and so a lot of pregnant women

who give birth on their exodus and a lot of small children under five years. mostly they are healthy, but they suffer from injuries that was due to this -- this road that they took. and also they can't prevent, par hygiene, related diseases. spain's prime minister has addressed the nation with a plea for calm after separatists won landmark elections in catalonia. they have polled less than half the votes and their coalition might prove difficult to you un. jonah hull has more. >> reporter: on sunday night, catalans partied like freedom had arrived. but morning brought more sober analysis. in madrid the prime minister called for calm. he held out the prospects of

talks and promised to use the constitutional court to block any moves towards independence. and the headlines in the mainstream spanish press, they won the election but love the referendum. the majority of catalans don't want to go. >> they have won the election, they have the majority remember but they have failed to get 50% of the vote. that was actually very difficult. but had they don that they would have an extra legitimacy allow to even declare independence unilaterally. >> reporter: after the euphoria, legitimacy does emerge as a problem and that absolute majority in parliament is another. it depends on a far left party joining the coalition, a citizens movement that has already called for acts of civil disobedience against the government in madrid. >> we have all heard of grand coalitions of course between right and left but you plan to bring in the far left, the

anti-capitalists, how on earth do you all expect to agree with one another enough to govern led let alone declare independence. >> it's called democracy. it's called democracy. we are living in an exceptional moment and we are going to manage the situation a cords trowtle of the polls n that sense, obviously, the diversity of the society is clear. but we are in a transitional pert and we will manage this the best way we can. >> reporter: they are may going a good show of their plans this coalition, but really this is the broadest, post-op opportunistic of arrangements and you can't help feeling a little bit as if the hopes of independence are being planted here in slightly shaky political ground. but the triumph of democracy is seldom a victory for everyone. >> translator: i hope it end with an agreement and that catalans get a better deal out of all of this. i just hope it doesn't end in a big confrontation amongst catalans. i hope it all turns out well. >> reporter: and there at a minimum, lie the hopes of

everyone. jonah hull, al jazeera, barcelona. switzerland's competition watch dog investigating several international banks alleged to have manipulated pressure metal prices including ubs. deutche a bank, hsbc and barclays. the emissions scandal at volkswagen is growing. the auto make is audi division say more than three million of their cars are fitted with emission test cheating devices and now germany has started an investigation against the vw former bombs. >> reporter: the public prosecutor's office in the german city has announced that it is watching a criminal investigation in to martin, the former ceo of volkswagen group. who resigned under pressure last week. the focus of the probe says the prosecutor's office will be on potential fraud surrounding volkswagen's now admitted scheme

to cheat emission testing by implanting special software in to 11 million of its vehicles that make their diesel engines appear when tested to be less polluting when, in fact, they were much more polluting when driven on the highway under actual driving conditions. now, it was less than a week ago that he was a highly respected german executive with nearly unlimited ambitions and running the company that sold more cars than any other car maker in the world. today he is until disgrace, out of a nobody and facing potential criminal charges. and there is also news that the audi division of volkswagen has announced that it has more than 2.1 million of its vehicles are involved in this emissions testing cheating scandal as well. german authorities have given

volkswagen a little more than a week to come up with a timetable explaining how the company will bring these polluting vehicles back up to national standards for emissions. now, as far as the ceo on concerned, when he resigned he made a point of saying that he had no knowledge of this scheme to cheat the emissions tests and the board of directors of volkswagen as they send his resignation also said there was no evidence that they had -- that he had any such knowledge. now, the new ceo of volkswagen group is from their porsche division. he is mattias mueller, he's been with the company for a number of years and obviously he has a very large job to do. volkswagen faces more than $18 billion in potential fines in the united states alone. and since news of the scandal

broke, its share price has fallen off a cliff. mexican immigration agents is rescued 150 migrants trying to reach the united states. they were found hid nene truck traveling in the state of. [ inaudible ] they had gone without food and water for four attorney hours and some were close to losing consciousness. the mayor of a small brazilian town has turned herself in after being on the run for a month. the 25-year-old was accused of stealing more than $4 million from public funds. the second mayor in the same state is also being accused of miss appropriating funds set aside for school buses we have a report. >> reporter: in brazil's north eastern state, is the sort of quiet agricultural town of which not much is ever heard. it also has the type of local government which under bra sim's federal system can lead to a catastrophic misuse of public resources. a year ago eight students were

killed in a car accident on their way back from school. the deaths might have been prevent the if they had been riding in a school bus for which there were funds available. but the bus was never bought. instead they rode home in the back of this pickup truck. the expense of local corruption became painfully evident. >> translator: she was my little girl. i wish i had been there to yank her out of the truck. i want justice but nothing here changes. the mayor should be condemned. he should have bought the school buses. >> reporter: instead of justice, these bereaved parents have received death threats on their phone. >> translator: they can send all the threats they want, i will not give up. >> reporter: but there is not an isolated case. almost half of the mayors and other local authorities in this area have been accused of corruption. >> translator: in communities with greater needs, the amount of money coming in is higher.

and oftentimes funds get deviated and our judicial system is plagued with loopholes that even if found guilty authorities can return to power. >> reporter: 17 students survive the crash. but the memories that have night's event changed them forever. >> translator: my life will never be the same. i also dreamt of being a fire woman and now i am always sad. always remembering my friends and thinking of how sad their parents are. >> reporter: although school buses were finally purchased, other public works like these have stopped. while the local mayor is investigate today miss aloe straighting funds. this the alter was built for honor the memory of the eight victims that died here. for the relatives it stands as a symbol of system are december i casystemiccorruption. plumes of smoke and clouds of ash have spewed from a volcano from the andes in southern peru.

scientists observing the volcano say the cash and smoke showed up some 4,000 meters in little sky. the volcano had been dormant for several years until it started erupting again around about two year old ago. in the fulfill peens relatives are expected to look after family until they pass away making the idea of rest homes for the elderly a foreign concept but that is changing. there is growing concern over how many of the country's 7 million elderly have been left to phoned for them smples. >> reporter: she's 101, for 40 of those years she's working on this foot path. a widow with no children, she says she will will stay here until the day show she guys. >> i don't want to be too much of a burden. one must do what one can do. if you can't then you must suffer through it. that's how life is, child.

>> reporter: her situation is rare in the philippines where the elderly are usually cared by by extended family. but more people are now fending for themselves. many wander the streets until they are found by social services. this is the largest of only four government-run centers for the elderly in the philippines, spread across 10-hectares and made to look like a local village there are 240 clients here at the moment. they get their needs tended to for free around the clock. to be accepted here, the elderly must have no request else to go and no family to care for them. their numbers were always small. but that's no longer the case. the government estimates that close to 1.5 million elderly people have been left on their own. and social workers are concerned that many have been abandoned on purpose. so institutional like this will take them in at no cost to the

families. >> the main reasons why they are here is because they were ban te abandoned by their own children. their children want to earn to survive and no that nobody left behind to indicator to the elderly needs. >> reporter: she has been here since her husband died three years ago, as best she knows, her children are working in the u.s. she lost touch with them years ago. >> translator: even if i am not with family, i am grateful to god that i was brought here. i am lucky. i don't go hungry. we have medicine and someone to care for us. we have everything here. >> reporter: more families are asking the center to take in their relatives. some are everybody willing to pay. it's a development social workers say is reflective of a change in filipino society. but on a sidewalk in the heart of manila's old down, lola prepares to sleep for the night.

she won't be moved. she is, no matter how much the world changes around her. marga or teague, a al jazeera, manila. more on all the stories we are covering, of course, you can find on our website. aljazeera.com is the address. aljazeera.com. i'm ali velshi. "on target" tonight, stranger bed fellows. like it or not, america might need russia to defeat i.s.i.l. even with an oppressive regime. a man who knows all too well when you cross the kremlin. world leaders have descended on new york to address the united nations general assembly. it is an annual event of pomp,