top diplomats gather in vienna, to s the russia's campaign in syria. topping the agenda. hello from a al jazeera's as headquarters in doha. after one of its soldiers is killed in a raid to free hostages. plus. >> i'm tanya page reporting from ivory coast.

president oassa is assured of a second term. >> devoted to what we eat. arhello, beginning in vienna, where authorities are gathering to discuss the conflict in syria. findings out more about russia's bombing campaign in the country. let's cross now to barnaby phillips who is in vienna for us. barnaby, what can we expect from the talks? >> reporter: as you were suggesting, i think there are an awful lot of questions of the russian he, from the other

three. united states, saudi arabia and turkey which have been amongst the most vehement critics of bashar al-assad, russia on the other side, now perhaps his most crucial ally. all four countries militarily engaged to different extents in different ways to syria itself. to that extent it is very important, i think yes, the anti-assad trees owe, want more clarity as to what russia's intlengserussia'sintentions are. what is its end objectives? as you were suggesting, those talks between putin and assad which took place a couple of days ago, what assurances did the two give to each other? i would suggest that those are the questions that sergey

lavrov, the russian minister who will arrive shortly, will have put to him. >> particularly the future of bashar al-assad. >> reporter: yes, exactly. and i suppose this is a question that those ar other three will have. what exactly do the russians want? are they looking for an international coalition against terrorism, as they said, are they defining that narrowly as i.s.i.l? according to the americans, the majority of those strikes have been against other opposition groups in syria and going forward, what kind of transition do they envisage, if there is to be some sort of peaceful resolution? president assad, does he stay,

does he leave before it, how long realistically will he remain in power, these are the kinds of issues that will be discussed in vienna. >> barnaby phillips, live for us in vienna. double standards in their support for the syrian opposition, he made the comments during a political conference in sochi. wider agenda in the middle east, russia's faced criticism over its air campaign in syria, some targeting, nonaffiliated rebels against assad. >> translator: let's not play with words and divide the terrorists into moderates and not moderates. i would like to know what's the difference. some experts say moderate numbers, or in some tender way.

>> questions are being raised, about the u.s. role in iraq, first combat death of a u.s. soldier sinc rosiland jordan hae in washington. >> reporter: i.s.i.l. has held the rake town of howaga since 2013. pentagon said the raid yesterday turned deadly. >> acting in support of iraqi peshmerga forces after they came under aassaulted from i.s.i.l, died after severing medical

care. >> the first to die in the u.s. led fight against i.s.i.l. there are now questions about whether the bowms ha obama admin has broken its promise to not be in an active combat mission. >> u.s. forces are not in an active combat mission in iraq, i can say that directly. >> reporter: despite the loss of the u.s. special ops member, thursday's raid could be seen as a test run for a larger operation. rosiland jordan, al jazeera, barn. >> israel has placed a series of age restrictions on muslim men

who want to enter the al-aqsa mosque compound since september. israel wanted to change access to the side. the mosque is sacred to jews and muslims. muslims are allowed to enter the site but not pray there. lightly injured, the alleged attacker is not injured. a 53 palestinians and nine israelis have died in the violence since the beginning of october and some israelis are rushing to arm themselves against possible palestinian attacks. the gun stores have reported a massive jump in sales as andrew simmons reports from the occupied west bank. >> reporter: they say it's never been busier in this shooting range.

jewish settlers living on occupied land. get cleared for a license, you unlike other citizens. more than 150,000 guns are owned in the area, that's a colossal amount of fire power ton streets. >> we literally can't believe how fast our predictions have proven right. because in the past few days there have been repeated killings of innocent people. >> reporter: palestinian, israeli and international human rights organizations say there's a shoot-to-kill policy and there has been summary executions. among recent cases the killing of a bystander, eritrean, in israel. he was shot by a private security officer. disputed accounts of how a

palestinian man was killed by a jewish settler in hebron. soldiers made no attempt to disarm him. many israeli civilians are setting out on an offensive of their own. this gun club in west jerusalem has sold out of cs gas and sale of other weapons are up 400%. what about yourself? do you carry a gun all the time? what do you carry? and back at the israeli settlement shooting range there's a massive increase in the number qualifying to carry a gun. 200% up, 400% up, because the situation, you know people afraid about urms can and yoursr family. you need to care for yourself. >> reporter: it takes just a day to be tested and receive a

fiermfirearms permit. easing tensions or plans to reduce tuition fees. on thursday central johannesburg was brought to a standstill as students march to the anc headquarters. fanida miller was there. >> student protest continue on an 8th day, as the students protest the 6% increase. this area in johannesburg as stayed out of protest, shutting the campus to striking students. but protesters were determined to bring classes to a standstill. >> there last been an awakening of sorts. there has been an increased

amount of cavism particularly on campus this year. and it has been increasingly informed by a ideologic position that is really positive, really talking about the identity of young south africa. >> dparnd demanding the attention of the country's leadership. the headquarters of the ruling african national congress. the anc said a unilateral decision was made without thought to the plight of the students. financial aid to the tune of $4 billion it's the government along with donations and student fees that support the running of universities. while students disperse, the day's demonstration failed they

say. >> they became it's been here for the past two weeks, just to advance the political careers, away made a mockery. >> reporter: president jacob zuma will meet with students on friday. famida miller, al jazeera, johannesburg. >> we'll take a quick break. still ahead on the program, when we come back. >> i have been racking my brain about what more could have been done. >> hillary clinton faces an 11-hour hearing on the attack on benghazi. plus. >> i'm john holman, coming up.

>> governments secretly paying ransoms. >> we were told never to disclose that they actually paid. >> are they saving lives or putting more at risk?

>> hello again, the top stories on al jazeera. meeting in vienna to discuss the conflict in syria. i.t. comes just a few days after bashar al-assad made an unannounced visit to moscow to meet with vladimir putin. questions being raised about america's combat role in iraq after one of its soldiers was killed in a raid to free hostages in i.s.i.l. first combat death since the group began in june of last

year. easing tensions over plans to raise tuition fees, nationwide demonstrations in south africa, central johannesburg brought to a standstill by demonstrators last wednesday. after bus and car collided in france, it happened near the hand of leborne outside doe. death toll is expected to rise, we'll bring you more details. hillary clinton has faced an 11 hour grilling by republicans over an attack on a military campaign outside benghazi. kimberly halkett reports from washington. >> it is the second time hillary clinton has appeared before a congressional committee to answer questions about what happened in 2012 in benghazi,

libya where four americans died. but the ahead of the committee insists this -- but the head of the committee insists these questions are different. >> uncabluncapable or unwillingo access. >> the former secretary of state ais defending her actions. >> i've lost more sleep than all of you together. i have been racking my brain over what could have been done. >> this is the ninth investigate in the last months, $4.5 million has been spent but dredged up few new details. >> republicans are squandering millions of taxpayer dollars on this abusive effort to derail former secretary cloudiness's presidential campaign.

>> why she did not personally see or respond to additional e-mails, including one from the ambassador who ultimately lost his life. >> why has no one been held accountable? how come not a single person lost a single paycheck? >> he took those concerns to where they belonged, he took them to the security professionals. >> top democrat and republican openly bik erd. >> i move that we put into the record the entire transcript of sydney bloo bloomenthal. >> it was her that released. >> i would like us to get back to those dimes congressman. beirut, we lost far more americans, not once, but twice within a year. there was no partisan effort. people rose above politics.

a democratic congress worked with a republican administration. >> despite hearing from its star witness, the committee says its work is not yet complete. it will be interviewing more witnesses in the months to come and issuing a final, definitive report in 2016. kimberly halkett, al jazeera, washington. >> britain's prime minister david cameron and china's president xi jinping have met, on his third day in the u.k. opening a golden era, they say, in british-chinese relationship. sharing a bit of fish and chips and beer. chinese equivalent of the nobel peac prize. the committee says they honored

mogabe's work to zimbabwe, and mogabe's critics accuse him of using systematic terror. expected to easily win the vote partly because of his work to turn the economy around. >> the hkb bridge is the pride of abujan symbolizing i'veary coast's revival, 3,000 people were killed, ivory coast's economy is now moving forward. >> i take bridge as a shortcut. i don't waste any time. i know any appointment i have i will make it. >> parts ever the president's multibillion dollar investment plan, driving growth of 9% a

year. international hotel chains are staking their claim, signaling faith in the country's stability after so much bloodshed. the african development bank paid for bridge, after a decade in tunisia, to avoid civil rightwarhere. >> has had very important. >> isn't expected to be repeated. he is awaiting trial for war crimes at the hague. many people don't have appetite for it. >> the president is largely expected to win a second term. markets are busy, the are benefit is t for everyone.

>> wishes is he the one carrying the briefcase.. >> the economy is imoomg what's the poinbooming.right now i hav. >> and while money is also being spent in the rural areas, half the population is poor, and inequality can do tanya page, al jazeera, abujan ivory coast. president christina kirchner's opponent is leading in the polls. she is constitutionally barred from running again. she's been in power for 12 years. thousands of greeks have demonstrated against ongoing

austerity measures. government is still negotiating with lenders to ease the conditions. police in sweden say an attack at a school which left two people dead was racially motivated. a masked man carrying a sword killed a teacher and two others. most of the people were from immigrant families. thing perpetrator's showed troubled tendencies. hurricane designated as a category 5 storm, hurricane patricia. the search for joaquin

guzman, also known as el chapo acknowledge the army has launched a campaign to find him in the mountainous northwest. helicopters fired,. >> walked days to get to the town of cosalan from villages deep in the sierra madre mountain range. >> we walked for three days day and night. by the second day i had no shoes. sometimes there wasn't a drop of water to drink. >> reporter: they're fleeing the mexican navy whose helicopters fired on several communitiesefore ground troops stormed through. they were hunting this man, joaquin guzman, known as el chapo, the country's most wanted drug lord. they missed him but not the

communities of mar bervetionarb. >> she remembers run being to try protect her two-year-old daughter. >> i cried and screamed and begged thebegged them not to ha. i told them we were not bad people. the only thing they did was shoot at us without regarding who was there or who they killed. >> when we visited the village the day before we found only animals, all their owners had fled. this little village is in the middle of nowhere. to have the helicopters appear from nowhere and have their homes peppered from those helicopters. the people living here are still too scared to come back. it is just the latest of

knowledge incidents in which the military have trampled the rights of citizens. >> translator: military forces are meant to kill not detain people or take them before authorities and that means there are frequent human rights complaints against them. >> reporter: many support or at least fear el chapo in the mountains in which he was born and raised. that may explain the army's aggressive approach as they entered this community's home. it's made them few friends. john holman, al jazeera, mexico. event kill bring together people of various ethnicities from 24 countries. they'll be completin complete cs sports. as virginia lopez reports.

>> first time ever from tribes from around the world, new zealand and russia have joined in. it's not traditional sport being event, the emphasis is cultural and spiritual, very much a coming-together of indigenous people around the world. someone we spoke to said it was a perfect cultural exchange with other people. >> now museums may not be to everyone's taste but the world's first food museum is hoping to change that. jessica baldwin reports from london. >> on tha journey through the hn body. a voice guides you along the path the pill takes from the

esophagus to the stomach and beyond. a vibrating sense chair adds to the experience. >> the value and the expense of the things that they're holding, become very precious. what i love is you go about feeling inspired about food, what they can create, and having their own food adventures, much more enabling, much more livenly. >> chocolate farm you eat the same chocolate listening to four different evocative sound scapes. notes the visitors take documenting their chocolate experience will be tabulated and analyzed. >> it had school noises an their various noises and it was totally bitter, i don't know if that means anything. >> reporter: menus provide a snapshot of what life is like at the table. one signed by winston churchill

in 1907 and a christmas menu, by nazi prisoners in a war camp. >> sharing our experiences, they were put in very elaborate are diets. >> they want us to know where our food comes from. >> butterflies, the under-valued pollenator. how we get what we eat and the importance of preserving the environment for food. jessica baldwin, al jazeera, london. >> the popular u.s. children's show sesame street has a in kid on the block.

orange-head julia is the first awe it is tick member. be to draw attention to the malady. much more on our website, as always, aljazeera.com. >> why was his nickname pepper? >> i never heard of pepper being bad for nobody, salt is bad for you, salt will kill you. i never heard nobody dying from pepper, everybody loves pepper. and he was dark skinned, so. >> brandon ros f