♪ top diplomates gathering in vienna to talk syria and it's set to top the agenda. ♪ hello from al jazeera's headquarters in doha, i'm mar between dennis and also to come can zuma calm anger in south africa to rise fees and due to meet student protesters. i'm reporting from ivory coast where economic growth appears to have assured p president of a second term.

and it really is food for thought, we take a look at a new museum in london that devoted to what we eat. ♪ but we start in the vienna and u.s. and russia and saudi arabia and turkey are gathering to talk about the crisis in syria, it will provide an opportunity for diplomates to find out more about russia's bombing campaign and the meeting comes just a few days after vladimir putin met bashar al-assad and we go to barnabie phillips and is russia positioning it self to be in the driving seat when it comes to working out what is going on in syria? >> it does, marteen, russia has

taken bold and decisive steps in resent weeks and there is an obvious contrast between russia's actions and the actions and hesitancy and doubt of the united states but all four countries here are militarily involved to some extent in the conflict in syria. as you are suggesting some of them saudi arabia, turkey, the united states will have a lot of questions over russia's motives, a lot of skepticism, a lot of daughter so sergei fedorov the russian foreign minister expected here shortly and says russia wants to build an international coalition against i.s.i.l. and it wants to build some sort of political transition that will lead to a peaceful unitry syria and everybody wants that end objective but there is an awful lot of diplomatic obstacles in the way and we perhaps may see

some slight progress and may see where a possible solution could lie. >> essentially barnabie it's three against one because the russians say they would like president assad to stay in post and be part of a post conflict soluti solution. >> yes. there is an obvious difference between the russian position and the other three, the russians incidentally still saying if there are to be serious talks about syria's fate iran president assad's other key baker ought to be around the table as well, that is unpalpable to the saudis in particular but on the question of question assad's role, if you look at what john kerry was saying speaking in berlin yesterday he was saying there is one man who is an obstacle to a peace settlement in syria and that is president assad. does it then follow that president assad's opponents are

insisting he should leave immediately something he doesn't mention and something the russians certainly wouldn't support and the answer to that the more nuisances and not necessarily, there are differences of opinion here in you're europe and germany has been softer on the question and crucially we saw some statements from turkey last week and of course turkey has be ina vowed opponent of president assad and they were saying they could envision a scenario of him staying in position at least for several months during this transition so the devil might be in the detail and the russians may feel that they can say to their opponents if you like around the table look, we have to be realistic and we won't go on day one but we can pass and we can build this route towards his eventual exit and if indeed the russians want that and if indeed the other three countries

are prepared to take russia at its word on this. >> and we shall see how it will unfold in vienna and barnabie phillips live in the call capitol and pew tin is not there and accusing western governments of double standards in their support for syrian opposition and made the comments during this conference saying that the west is using some of the rebel groups as their pawns to fit their wider agenda in the middle east. well russia has faced criticism over its air campaign in syria and some saying strikes are targeting civilians and rebel whose are fighting against assad who are not part of i.s.i.l. >> translator: let's not play with words and divide the terrorist into moderate and not moderate. i would like to understand what is the difference. perhaps some experts believe that moderate is the head people

in moderate numbers or in some tender way. israeli police say age restrictions for muslim worshippers at the al-mosque compound in jerusalem are being lifted today, that is friday. let's go live now to our correspondent mike hanna who is at the damascus gate, the entrance to the mosque compound and can all palestinians worship freely today? >> yes, let me tell you for recent weeks i have been walking down through occupied east jerusalem and previous weeks i walked through at least three police checkpoints on my way and today no checkpoints whatsoever, for the first time in six weeks all restrictions had been liflt lifted to prays at the compound and if you take a look here these border policemen last week were standing at the gate, at the entrance to the damascus gate here checking the identities of everybody coming in, making sure they were within

the age restriction that has been imposed for so many weeks, today as you can see they relaxed and are having breakfast so clearly there has been a huge easing on the ground. we understand too that in several of the neighborhoods in occupied east jerusalem the security measures that had been imposed there are being lifted and eased somewhat and importantly police report there was an attack in the course of the morning, they say that a palestinian attempted to stab an army soldier near a settlement in the occupied west bank, however on this occasion the attacker was shot in the leg and arrested. now too soon to say whether this is any part of a larger patent and it may well be a coincidence but remembering in resent weeks the fast majority of those who allegedly carried out attacks were shot fatally, marteen. >> is this likely to do anything then to lift the mood and to ease tensions?

>> well, the question many ask and it is just a few hours now that these restrictions have been eased at the checkpoints have been lifted but there is a tangible change in the atmosphere and certainly in this part of occupied east jerusalem, you can feel the difference. and the question that many are asking is why were these restrictions not eased earlier, very clearly there is no kind of security threat involved any more, very clearly the atmosphere on the streets has changed remarkably so the question remains why was it not done before, why was what was seen by palestinians as a massive provocation part of government policy in resent weeks, marteen. >> mike hanna our correspondent there outside the al-mosque compound and we go to south africa now because students are marching towards where the president is holding talks over plans to raise tuition fees and have been nationwide protests over the plans and some of them

have even turned violent and our correspondent miller is in pretoria and are outside the union buildings of course at the center of government in pretoria and students and protesters gathered rounds you and what can president zuma offer that will satisfy these people? >> well, the only offer coming from president zuma for the students here will be an assurance that there will be no fee increases at all. so far government has met with leadership earlier in the week and university leadership as well as students and they reduced a 10% increase even higher than that, in fact, they reduced that to about 6%, students weren't happy with that result and say they simply can't afford to return to university, many of them cannot afford existing fees and certainly wouldn't be able to afford any sort of increase and hoping the meeting with president zuma and leadership the second one this week will result into something

that is far more affordable and in this case is a 0% increase. >> in south africa when the students take to the streets the people have to listen, don't they and brought up wider questions hasn't it as to the position of young people in the new south africa and are discontent and also issues of polici policing. >> well, the issues around what young people in the country are facing of course very important and we saw this in the last election when it was all this talk around the born free and people who had reached the age of 18 and were now voting for the first time and there was concern by the ruling african national congress around certain loyalty and who would they vote for because they don't have the same loyalty of parents and grandparents necessarily have to the ruling party as the party that liberated the country. students, the young people in this country specifically looking for representation that will best benefit them and in

case especially with regard to education and also access to job and job creation so here from president zuma they are not necessarily loyal to the national congress however we have also seen student representation on campuses and those represented by the african national congress, we have seen some divisions around the way forward. the unity though has been unprecedented but the protests continue. we do see some political involvement and some agenda and this is the case when the african national congress addressed students in johannesburg saying they sympathize with students and understand their plight and the african national congress ultimately laying the blame for rise in education fees at the fees of university management saying they are doing all they can to ensure the universities, that students at university get

what they want from the administration. >> thank you very much and miller is there at the union buildings in pretoria in south africa for us. in france they say at least 42 people have been killed after a bus and a car collided. it happened in pusagar close to the town of lee born outside bordeau and the bus and car caught fire and 53 firefighters were at the scene. police in sweden say attack of the school which left two people dead was racially motivated and a masked man with a sword killed a teacher and student and wounded two others and police shot and killed him at the scene, most of the students at the school were immigrant families, local media say the suspect's social media account showed extreme right wing tendencies. lots to come still on this program. >> i have been wracking my brain about what more could have been

done. >> hillary clinton faces a marathon 11-hour hearing on the attack of the attack on benghazi and the consulate and battoning down the hatches and getting ready for what could be the biggest hurricane in the region's history.

>> we're here to fully get into the nuances of everything that's going on, not just in this country, but around the world. getting the news from the people who are affected. >> people need to demand reform... >> ali velshi on target weeknights 10:30p et ♪ hello again, let's have a look at the top stories here at al jazeera diplomates from russia, the u.s., saudi arabia and turkey are meeting in vienna to discuss the conflict in syria

and comes just a few days after syria's president bashar al-assad made a surprise visit to moscow to meet president putin. israeli police say age restrictions for muslim worshippers at the al-mosque compound in jerusalem are being lifted and they blocked some muslim men from entering the compound since september. south africa's president is meeting students and university leaders to calm tension over raising fees and it was brought to that stand still on thursday after a week of nationwide protests. hillary clinton has faced a 11-hour grilling by republicans over an attack on a diplomate compound in benghazi and presidential hopeful sparred with republicans over how she handled the incident and kimberly reports from washington d.c. >> reporter: it is the second time hillary clinton has

appeared before a congressional committee to answer questions about what happened in 2012 in benghazi libya when four americans died. but the head of the committee insists this line of questioning is different. >> these questions lingered because the previous investigations were narrow in scope and either incapable of unwilling to access the facts and evidence necessary. >> reporter: so the former secretary of state is defending her actions. >> i've lost more sleep than all of you put together. i've been wracking my brain about what more could have done. >> reporter: this is the ninth investigation in more than 17 months, $4.5 million spent and turned up few new details, democrats charged the true motivation of the congressional committee is to destroy clinton's presidential ambush shuns. >> republicans are squandering millions of taxpayer dollars on this abusive effort to derail

secretary clinton's campaign. >> reporter: despite allies on the committee clinton found herself on attack and why she didn't personally see or responds to hundreds of e-mails requesting additional security in benazi and one from the ambassador who ultimately lost his life. >> how come no one is accountable and not a single person lost a single paycheck? >> he took the request where they belonged and took them to the security professionals. >> reporter: tell combative hearing went on for hours and clinton looking on be wildered as the top democrat and republican openly bickered. >> i move that we put into the record the entire transcript of sidney blumenthal, we will release the e-mails and let's do the transcript that way the world can see it. >> those are her e-mails, that is why they were released. >> it was the witness herself initially under attack who appealed to the feuding politicians to work together. >> i would like us to get back to those times congress men, 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 the work is not yet complete and interviewing more witnesses in the months to come and issuing a final definitive report in 2016, kimberly with al jazeera, washington. the u.s. and pakistan are calling for renewed peace talks between the taliban and the afghan government. the pakistani prime minister sharif is visiting washington d.c. and here is our white house correspondent patty. >> with the world watching the leaders of the u.s. and pakistan promised their relationship is only going to get better. >> we are looking forward to using this meeting as an opportunity to further deepen the relationship between

pakistan and the united states. >> it is my endeavor to further strengthen and solidified this relationship. >> reporter: the same pledge president barack obama made when he first took offices but big setbacks like when they killed bin laden in pakistan and the government wasn't told and u.s. officials accuse pakistan of supporting the taliban in afghanistan. members of congress have been pushing the president to use his leverage to push prime minister zarif to do more. >> i think he has leverage but he has to use it not publically but privately and i think that's the key, the key thing that he has to do because he has got to tell the prime minister from pakistan is here now look we had enough of this stuff and a lot of the aid we give you you are not going to get any more. >> reporter: the obama administration is withholding $300 million in military aid but that is just a fraction of what it gives pakistan, since 2002

the u.s. has given pakistan $31 billion just to pretend for economic development and humanitarian aid just over seven in security related aid and $13 billion to fight extremist groups but that figure has been diminishing every year. the white house was floating the idea of the sale of eight f 16 fighter jets in part because they want pakistan to agree to limit the nuclear weapons program but when the story leaked they were talking about it analysts say the negotiations fell apart. >> i think the hope was about three weeks ago and even then there would not be a nuclear deal but would have been some understanding, some mention that both sides agreed to move forward, that is over. there is going to be discussion about this, there is going to be pressure on pakistan to limit the weapons program, as far as i can tell from the pakistani side there is not much give on that so i think it's a conversation that won't go anywhere at the end of the day. >> strengthening the

relationship with few actual signs that it's working, patty with al jazeera, washington. prime minister david cameron and china's president met at cameron's residence checkers on the third day of his state visit to the uk and in a joint statement they praised the trip of opening up a golden era in uk-china relayings and went to a pub for a british favorite fish and chips and a pint of beer. zimbabwe awarded the equivalent of the nobel peace prize and say they are disgusted and the award is an attack on the people of zimbabwe and accuse him of using systematic torture to remain in power for 35 years and the prize committee says he is being honored for bringing political and economic order and improving people's welfare. a suicide bombing at a mosque in nigeria killed 11 people and

happened in dawn prayers in the northeast city of the capitol of borno state, the birth place of boko haram. voters of the ivory coast go to the polls on sunday and is expected to easily win the vote partly because of his work to turn around the economy but as tonya reports from the main city not everyone is feeling the benefit. >> reporter: the hkb bridge is the pride here, symbolizing ivory coast's revival, after civil war and post election violence which 3,000 people were killed the ivory coast economy is now moving forward. >> translator: i think the bridge is a shortcut and don't waste any time and i know any appointment i have i will make it. >> the bridge is part of the president's multi-billion investment plan driving growth of 9% a year.

international hotel chains are staking their claim signalling faith in the country's stability after so much blood shed. the african development bank partly paid for the bridge and moved its headquarters back here after a decade in tunisia to avoid civil war here. >> so with the peace and better infrastructure is coming a lot of investment which had very important things. >> reporter: violence of last action when the former president refused to accept defeat is not expected to be repeated and he is awaiting trial for crimes at the hague and people simply have no appetite for it. he is widely expected to win a second term because of the improvements with the economy here, the markets are busy, new buildings are popping up all over and the challenge is making sure everyone benefits. >> drives businessmen around the

city and wishes he was the one carrying the briefcase. >> translator: the economy is booming but what is the point if people like me don't feel the effects and we need more investors to start my own company but right now i have no choice. >> reporter: money spent in rural areas half the population is poor and inequality can breed unrest, tonya page, al jazeera, ivory coast. presidential hopefuls in argentina held their last rallies before the vote on sunday and president kirshner chose the successor who is leading in the polls and has served two terms and bars her from running again until 2019 and she has been in power for 12 years. catastrophic damage is feared along the west coast of mexico which is about to be hit by the biggest hurricane in the region's history, hurricane patricia is fast approaching the

pacific coast and a state of emergency has been declared in three states and gerald tan reports. >> reporter: taking no chances, mexicans living along the pacific coast prepare their homes and businesses for what forecasters warn could be a catastrophic storm. >> translator: it's better to prevent than to regret because i have windows i put in wood panels, the truth is i don't know how the hurricane will hit. >> reporter: hurricane patricia is sweeping across the pacific with winds topping 260 kilometers an hour. it has quickly grown to the highest hurricane storm and expected to make landfall friday afternoon mexico time. >> translator: given the situation and the reports presented by the national emergency commission, the secretary of interior has instructed the emergency declaration in three states of the country, kolima and ten

municipalities and 34 and 11. >> reporter: the bustling port city is in the direct path of patricia but not everyone is worried. >> translator: as a presented measure we decided to buy basic goods in case roads are closed we will have essentials at home. >> translator: we really didn't buy that much because they regularly say a hurricane will come but sometimes they don't hit, that is why i think the majority don't participate that much. >> reporter: many villages have been evacuated and orders to close schools and ports and government leaders say they are bracing for what is threatening to be the most intense hurricane to hit mexico's pacific coast, gerald tan, al jazeera. museums may not be to everybody's taste but the world's first food museum is hoping to change all that and jessica reports from london. >> reporter: on the big screen where the food you eat goes. >> the muscles in your us

esophagus can contract and relax. >> reporter: a voice guides you along the path and p pill camera goes from the esophagus and behind and the massage chair adds to the experience. >> the value and expense of the things they are holding they become very precious about it. what i love with this museum is you go away feeling inspired about food and inspired about what they can create and go away and having their own food adventures and it's more enabling and lively. >> reporter: let's visitors experiment with the changes taste of chocolate, you eat the same chocolate listening to four different sound scapes and the notes they take documenting their chocolate experience will be tab litted and analyzed. >> it has school noises and various characters from cartoons which resonated from my childhood and i don't know if that means anything.

>> menus at what life was at the table and a sign by winston church hill in 1906 and a christmas menu designed by british prisoners in a nazi war camp. >> instagram we use it of sharing our food experiences to carry favor with our friends and appears to be cool. in the past they did it in different ways and they would put on very elaborate feasts. >> reporter: the museum is passionate about education and want people to know and understand where our food comes from and that includes butterflies. they are big polinators-polinating the food we eat everyday, this is illustrating food security and hoping the exhibit will plant ideas in people's minds about how we get what we eat and the importance of preserving the environment for food. jessica baldwin, al jazeera, london.

now the popular u.s. children's t.v. show sesame street has a new kid on the block, she is orange head julia and she is the first autistic character on this long running program. it is all to draw attention to autism. ♪ but let's not kid ourselves. these moves send a contemplated message to china with regional power and territorial ambitions of its own on the high sees.