the skies above earth for the first time in history. ♪ >> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ welcome to the news hour. i'm sami zeidan in doha. the iranians are going to vienna. tehran accepts an invitation to take part in talks on syria's war. tanzania's elections throat into confusion. myanmar's government and opposition fail to select a single muslim candidate in up-coming elections. volkswagen announces its

first loss in 15 years as the emissions cheating scandal takes its toll. ♪ first to the diplomatic efforts underway to end the war in syria. iran has accepted an invitation to attend talks in vienna on friday. meeting will involve the u.s., russia, turkey, and saudi arabia, and it comes at a time of heightened iranian involvement in syria's war. our correspondent has the story. >> reporter: this is one of the funerals for iranian soldiers killed in syria. he's among the two dozen soldiers and generals who have died fighting there. the u.s. says nearly 2,000 iranian special forces are in syria fighting in support of the government. iranian generals have been assuring people that foreign military involvement is important. a commander had this to say:

but more countries getting involved in the conflict has not stopped the killing of civilians, and unlike previous years, many feel iran is being forced to publicly acknowledge the death of its soldiers. >> not a single day goes by that we don't hear news about the death of at least one or two iranian soldiers or commanders in syria. the commanders and military advisors have been in syria from day one. if they are acknowledging it now it is because they cannot hide it. >> reporter: lebanon's shia armed group hezbollah has also been burying its fighters. russia is providing syrias military with air cover.

syrian rebels who are supported by regional arab states have come under increasing attack, but they say they are defending their areas, and some believe iran's setback in syria could be forcing it to support negotiations. >> i think if iran is accepting the dialogue to sit at the same negotiating table with the rest of the international community to find a way out of the syrian crisis, by -- by -- by dialogue and politics, i think that is us because it doesn't want to lose anymore commanders. >> reporter: iran's invited to take part in talkst about the conflict in syria. and until the talks actually help ceasefire, soldiers from all sides will continue to be buried. in a moment we'll have reaction from peter sharp in moscow, but first rosiland jordan joins us live from washington, d.c. it doesn't such a long time ago

when the u.s. us was saying iran was part of the problem in middle eastern countries like syria. so what extent has there been a shift in u.s. policy? >> reporter: sami, the obama administration still considers iran very much a problem when it comes to syria, but that said, it is taking a more pragmatic approach, because it does know that the government in tehran does have a relationship with the government in damascus, so the u.s. is hoping that it might be able to persuade tehran to persuade bashar al-assad to actually take steps to move out of his presidency and allow a political transition to take place inside syria. this is, of course, a -- a strategy, which the u.s. has been employing when it comes to iran's nuclear ambitions, but it's not going into the situation with the efforts to try to end the syrian civil war

without acknowledging that the iranians are sending in military support and personnel to essentially prop up assad's government, but they still know that they have something which the americans don't have, which is the ear of bashar al-assad and they are hoping that they might be able to make good use of it, at least from the u.s. perspective. >> all right. that's the view from washington. i want to shift gears and go to peter sharp live for us in moscow. so what does russia see as the political transition plan it wants this meeting to produce? >> i think russia is taking a certain amount of credit for iran coming through and saying it will take part in these talks. sergei lavrov has been talking to his opset number in tehran for the last two days, and speaking to john kerry to talk

how we can get this conference widened, and president putin has let it be known that he is delighted with this widening of -- the of the consultations. it has been -- you know, there has been no success in bringing this conflict to a close. it's now in its fifth year. it has cost the lives of a quarter of a million people, and 11 million people displaced, and it's hoped now that the inclusion of russia and the inclusion of iran will -- who are as we said key backers of -- of president assad, virtually the only ones he has got in the region, that will provide a key factor in bringing together the other international countries -- bring about some sort of settlement. key to it all is what .hahs with president assad, and when it happens. russia and iran are convinced that he should be involved in at

least the transitional stages of the -- of the talks for a settlement, but under no illusions that he will have to step down. but that's really not enough for some of the other members of the talks on friday like -- what? iran and the -- the other -- some of the gulf states who are saying -- especially saudi arabia, who are saying, look, his stepping down is basically a precondition for peace. >> all right. thanks so much. peter sharp there in moscow. there's a huge contrast between the hotel where diplomats will be staying and the refugees. the world health organization says it will be able to give $14 per person per month until the end of the year. >> what we have seen over the last month is that the international community

recognizing that we are -- and have been desperately in need of financial support to keep helping syrians have found the money to come forward and give us this lifeline for people for the winter period. right now we can cover people through until january, but obviously after that it is going to get difficult again, but the most critical point right now is during the really difficult winter months families can put food on the table for their children. >> reporter: syrian refugees in jordan have really been suffering in the past few months because international funds that go towards large projects that cater to refugees needs have been drying up slowly over the last year, not only in jordan but in the region. the world food program was forced to suspend 229,000 syrian refugees from its program. this has left many families so

frustrated and worried about what they are going to do about food. syrian refugees are not able to work legally in jordan. so they are not able to support themselves. but the world food program says that over the last few weeks it has received new international funds that have enabled it to reinstate the 229,000 syrians here in jordan into its food program and increase assistance to some of those families it considers extremely vulnerable. they say they will be able to continue supporting all of these refugees until january 2016, but it's very worried about what is going to happen afterwards, and whether it is going to be able to sustain and maintain these services and this food assistance. the world food program has been struggling with the lack of predictable of funding from international donors and has

been forced to operate month by month because it has not been receiving regular funds with the needs and numbers of the refugees growing. the palestinian president is asking the united nations for international protection. 63 palestinians and 9 israelis have died so far this month. nadim baba has this update. >> reporter: for the most part this speech by the palestinian authority president didn't contain any surprissurprises. it contains a repeat of threats, not to honor international agreements with israel if israel didn't honor those same agreements. he said they were already in violation of various agreements since the 1990s. but the urgent matter that abbas

brought up was what he called the need for the international community to establish an international protection force for palestinian civilians. >> translator: what we warned of has happened. the situation of human rights in the occupied palestinian territories including east jerusalem as a result of the continued israeli occupation and its practices is the worst and most critical since 1948. this calls for a strong and decisive intervention and requires shouldering the responsibility before it's too late. >> reporter: he listed a series of crimes that he said israel was currently committing in the occupied palestinian territory including the demolition of the family homes of people arrested by israel, settlement activity, and what he called extra judicial killings. he is accusing israeli forces and israeli settlers in the

occupied west bank of in some cases killing palestinians civilians and then using the pretext that they were trying to attack israelis, something which is disputed by palestinians in some cases. it is an issue which has been brought up by amnesty international saying that their own investigations lead them to believe that that has happened. abbas will be going later this week to talk to the prosecutor at the international criminal court in the hague where he will be taking a file -- where he'll be asking, rather for the icc to look into what he calls extra-judicial killings. but it's not clear if there will be swiflt action. tensions surrounding the al-aqsa mosque compound has been raising every day. >> reporter: fear, violence and

s suspicion have darkened the al-aqsa mosque. this site has never been as contested as it is today, a result of a movement that gained momentum two years ago. >> with the temple movements, starting their campaign, demanding jewish prayer on the temple mount, and importantly backed up by strong political players inside the coalition since june 2014, police have started putting severe access restrictions for wide parts of the muslim population, according to age, according to gender. it was never before that the reason was to allow jews toen der the place. >> reporter: this issue of access is at the heart of the recent violence. it began when muslims were

prevented from accessing the sight while right-wing religious groups toured the property. in defiance growing numbers of jewish activists have been stoking and enflaming tensions. these images of jewish groups touring the site is adding to the fear that israeli is slowly changing the agreed parameters that only muslims can pray here. it's the type of jewish visitor and their message that palestinians say they have an issue with. >> translator: for us non-muslims are allowed to visit with respect as guests. but this has changed, and these extremists say we want to pray, and this holy place is ours, and

they say muslims should leave. >> reporter: there is an international push to calm the situation. israeli and jordanian officials say security cameras will soon stream live footage as a way to show what happens here. >> the major issue is that there is no agreement between israel and jordan and the palestinians on what is an aggression on the temple mount, so each side will see the same picture describe it in completely different words. >> reporter: there is deep mistrust, many say it will take more than words from the prime minister and a few cameras to ensure that their rights to al aqsa are not being threatened. still to come on the show -- >> translator: i really regretted it. i will never go back to south sudan. >> find out why thousands of south sudanese leave there is no future for them in their

homeland. and in sport details of the deal sepp blatter claims was in place to make sure russia would host the world cup. ♪ results from tanzania's presidential election could be delayed after votes from an island were annulled. the electoral commission says the poll was not free and fair. catherine soi has the latest. >> reporter: the electoral commission has annulled the election from that particular state, citing gross violations of the electoral law. it was talking about double voting, and also people being intimidated while going to vote. here in the mainland, tallying for the national presidential result is going on in this tallying center, but the main

opposition coalition has rejected the results that are being tall lived -- tall lived here, saying they are disleading tanz kneeians. the leker to call commission chairperson has also issued a statement saying that what the opposition is saying is not factual. he said that the results that are being announced have been signed off by agents from all of the major political parties. he is urging tan sa kneeians to keep calm. provisional results from 164 of 264 constituencies have been announced, and so far the ruling party candidate is leading.

ivory coast election commission says the incumbent has won a landslide election victory. he received 84% of the vote. the results will be send to the constitutional court to be validated. the african union has released a long awaited report into south sudan's civil war. it accuses the state of organized and systemic murder and both sides violating human rights. a spokesman for the south sudanese government, he says the government accepts responsibility for some of the crimes which took place. >> the government has agreed partly with this report that the violations -- there are some violations that . -- happened

during the coup attempt of 2013 and that's why the government has constituted in the aftermath of the 2015 coup attempt a commission of inquiry. when south sudan gained independence four years ago, many hoped to build a new life in their new country, but since then around 200,000 people have returned north to sudan because of the conflict. caroline malone reports. >> reporter: angelina is the mother of six children. she voted for independence four years ago. but she has been forced to leave her home and go back to where she used to live in sudan. >> translator: i really regretted it. i will never go back to south sudan, if you saw how they killed our loved one. you could not imagine how we

arrived in sudan. neighbors gave us beds. >> reporter: nearly 200,000 people have run away from violence in south sudan in the last four years. government forces are fighting rebel groups for control with civilians often becoming the victims. five members of this family were among them. regina's relatives were attacked her mother and sister killed and she still doesn't know what happened to the others. >> translator: my mother and sister were hit in the head. other siblings were separated from us, and i don't know where they are now. >> reporter: four years ago it was a different story after years of conflict, people voted to separate from sudan. the government helped to transport many of them back to areas they called home, a new country of south sudan. they were hopeful of a new life and peace after independence, but instead they got war.

>> translator: death is everywhere, people were buried in a very large graveyard. the kids were not safe either. even a pregnant woman has not escaped death. we have seen many shocking things in the south. >> reporter: less than five years after leaving sudan, they are back. this time as refugees who have suffered a lot. caroline malone, al jazeera. let's talk now to ambassador who is a former u.s. special envoy for sudan and south sudan. the violence and trouble in south sudan, because it is speak to the fail year of those countries like the u.s. who pushed for the separation of south sudan. >> i think it is the leaders who betrayed the people.

when you look back on the question on whether they should have been independent, i think you can look back on it in different ways, but i recall in the referendum of 2011, that if that referendum did not take place, there is very good likelihood that conflict would have broken out again between sudan and south sudan. so i don't think the problem was in carrying out the conditions for self determination. the problem play elsewhere. it lay in the institutions and leadership of south sudan, and i think also one error we made in that comprehensive peace agreement is simply to turn over to the south sudan administration beginning in

2005, a large amount of -- [ inaudible ] no institutional oversight of how it was used, and i think it served to corrupt the whole system. >> i would like to point you perhaps to what hellen clark in 2014, she was head of the u.n. development program, she said quote, there was a focus from development partners on building a state but without addressing the profound legacy of long-term conflict. do you think that western diplomacy overlooked that concept? >> we had some programs dealing with conflict through the aid program that was working with large number of communities, and on this, under hilda johnson was heavily engaged in trying to tamp down and resolve some of those internal conflicts

so -- [ inaudible ] -- building the institutions for reconciliation was difficult. for example, we had a team in south sudan to help them work on the constitution, but they didn't want to work on the constitution. we had another team to help them strengthen the functions of the political party, but that team was ignored, so we had difficulty in dealing with some of those most sensitive political questions. >> that begs the question if you are working with teams -- or your teams are trying to work with partners who really weren't responsive to working in a responsible manner, why did the u.s. push so hard if things appeared not to be ready? why did the u.s. push so hard for so many years for separation? was it down to some analyst put it to evangelical pressure on the bush administration, or the so-called sudan caucus which

formed in the u.s. congress for domestic reasons? >> well, i think it's a mistake we pushed for separation from the beginning. the 2005 peace agreement gave the two sides six years to decide on whether unity or independence. and i think what happened during that time is that cartomb really did nothing to make unity attractive. and with the death of john, salvakiir, was focused more on independence. so neither side worked very hard to make unity attractive. by 2010, it was quite clear that the attitude in the south was against unity, and that when the referendum came, they were going to vote for independence. >> all right thanks so much for your thoughts on that.

>> okay. india is also hosting 54 african leaders at its largest ever african forum summit. some of them with the prime minister in new delhi to work on new ways to bolster trade and economic cooperation. they are working to catch up on investment in the continent. trade as more than doubled to over $70 billion. one of the african countries looking to benefit is zimbabwe. its president is visiting for the first time in 20 years to look for investment in the manufacturing sector. and as haru matasa reports, a recent partnership could help revive the steel industry. >> reporter: the sector used to employ more than 200,000 people. now it's fewer than half that figure. so government officials are looking to india for help in reviving struggling companies.

like the zimbabwe iron and steel company. india stands to benefit from zimbabwe's iron ore exports. >> it's a long-standing relationship, but given the fact that i would say the economy of zimbabwe has been going through difficult times, and that is obviously clearly has had an impact between the trade and the economic ties between these two countries, so currently i would say that things are somewhat dormant. >> reporter: thousands of people have lost their jobs because of electricity shortages, and businesses downsizing or closing. >> i was born in 1954. and in 1954, my parents worked in this company, and i also worked in this company, and raised my children from this company, but the wages they are paying now is something that is

very disgraceful. >> reporter: laid off workers have been told by the go that a new investor is doing. this used to be africa's largest steel manufacturer before it collapsed in 2008. more than 5,000 people used to work here. the place was busy. the steel was sold all over the world. now it's barely functioning. but some fear of i investigating in zimbabwe, because of political instability, acquisitions of corruption. >> the motivation behind [ inaudible ] is to scale up the involvement of locals in the economy. and it is a good policy, because it provides for political stability. if we can end up with a situation where we have a strong black middle class. >> reporter: zimbabwe's biggest

export is cotton. zimbabwe imports medical drugs from india and electrical appliances. so far the trade benefits india, something zimbabwe officials hope to change. stay with us, still to come, police brutality back in the spotlight in the u.s. after an officer throws a girl to the floor in her classroom. plus pushed out by land seizures while farmers in zimbabwe find greener pastures in mozambique. and we'll take a lot at baseball's world series.

volkswagen has announced a third quarter operating loss of nearly $4 billion, the figures come after the firm admitted fitting diesel cars with software to cheat carbon emissions tests. >> reporter: it has dominated the skyline for decades, and while steam still pours from the heard quarters of europe's biggest car maker, inside anxious times at wv, as it endures its first quarterly loss for at least 15 years. >> the first and most important

priority is helping our customers as quickly as possible, and as comprehensively as necessary. >> reporter: volkswagen is having to recall millions of cars around the world. after it admitted it had cheated on some emissions tests. for some of the 60,000 workers here it is business as usual, but there are worries. >> translator: it's a depressing atmosphere, we talk about it all the time. >> translator: the atmosphere is down. a lot of people are quite cautious, because they don't know how it is going to continue. the next year is going to be tough for vw, but surely vw will bounce back in the end. >> reporter: that's what many in this town are hoping for. vw has warned its profits for the whole year will be down. this quarterly loss is largely down to the huge amounts of money the company has put aside to pay for costs.

it's repair bill will run into billions of dollars. the future of many of these workers now depends on how well vw cannery cover trust. vw says an independent investigation will take place to try to understand what happened. the company, one of germany's biggest, and one of the world's leading car makers could face criminal charges. emma hayward, al jazeera in berlin. turkey's prosecutor has taken control of some opposition media outlets days ahead of an election. the company runs two newspapers and two television stations. in the u.s. the fbi is

investigating a policeman who slammed a student to the ground in a classroom. the video has gone viral, prompting more discussions about police brutality. but the officer's boss says the video doesn't show the whole story. >> reporter: it has happened again. another video goes viral this time in south carolina. a teenager refuses to leave her high school classroom, and this is how the police officer responded. he has been was suspended. the justice department is investigating. another case of police force causing outrage. police involved death sparked rye r-- riots. now president obama is trying to get the sides talking. >> there are a lot of african

americans, not just me, who have that same kind of story of being pulled over, or frisked or something, and the data shows that this is not an aberration. >> reporter: crime rates in the u.s. in general are falling, but kansas city is seeing skyrocketing murder rates. >> i spoke to officers privately in one big city precinct who described being surrounded by young people with mobile phones held high taunting them when they get out of their cars. >> reporter: in baltimore the statistics are telling, there were 177 murders in 2014, with 2015 not yet ever, the number of murders had climbed to 270. at the same time, police are arresting far fewer people. almost 12,000 fewer, a drop of

34%. civil rights groups say that is a problem. >> in a democracy, the agents of the government do need to be able to take criticism, understand where it's coming from, and realize they are accountable to the people, and they need to address the concerns of the communities that they police. >> reporter: this police officer's boss says this video doesn't tell the whole story, that there is another video showing the student trying to punch the police officer. he'll decide if this is an appropriate response, but thanks to social media, much of the country has already reached their own conclusion. in just over a week's time, myanmar will hold its first contested general election in 25 years. phil rees reports. >> reporter: despite the prominent role that myanmar's

muslims played in confronting the former regime, the national league for democracy has refused to let any muslims represent the party. >> translator: nld has selected 1200 representatives and none are muslim. someone said i think they are concerned about the committee for the protection of nationality and religion, so it became an islamic purge here. that's the situation. >> reporter: the committee known by its burmese acronym [ inaudible ] is headed by a monk. he is notorious for his anti-muslim rhetoric. >> translator: in places where there are many muslims native

girls are being killed, men are being killed, women are raped and killed. members of the rohingya minority have been prevented from voting for standing in the election. this man was an mp for five years now the commission says its documentments don't fulfill the citizenship criteria. is this the beginning after a process to deny your right to live in myanmar? >> yes, i think this is the beginning to deny my rights in myanmar. the whole rohingya community may be at risk. >> reporter: london will publish a report thursday which condemns the government for trying to annihilate the muslim presence

in myanmar. the present regime is prepared to absolutely tolerate the kind of hate speech for the government's own ends, and that is to marginalize, segregate, diminish the muslim population in burma. >> reporter: the national league for democracy denied there had been a purge of muslims in the party. a spokesman told al jazeera, it is a better strategy to leave out muslim candidates in order to win. >> you can see the full documentary here and online at aljazeera.com/genocideagenda. now nepal's parliament has elected its first female president. the former defense minister won by 327 to 214 votes. >> reporter: it's an historic moment for nepal.

nepal's parliament just elected the first woman president of the country. they voted her to be the ceremonial head of the nation. >> translator: honorable [ inaudible ] has received 327 votes. as for the results honorable [ inaudible ] has been elected the president of nepal. >> reporter: earlier during the day this is what she had to say. >> translator: i shall put the welfare of the nation foremost and ensure the problems of this country are solved. >> reporter: like many other leaders she came to power after the death of her husband. the current prime minister is also from the same party. while many are excited to have a women president, some women's rights activists find the moment bittersweet. >> translator: back in 2006 she was the one to propose amendments on moving unequal

clauses from the constitution. ending violence against women, and giving citizenship to kneeally children. but she has gone back on her words now. >> reporter: late shi she has been criticized for her statements especially when she reportedly said women fighting for their rights are under western influence. the current constitution make it difficult for single women to pass citizenship to their children. a woman was also elected speaker of the house. and there is hope that election of a woman president is not just a token move, and that the president will advocate for equality for women. south korea is experiencing its worst drought in more than four decades. a major reservoir is only 20%

full. harry fawcett reports from the worse effected area. >> reporter: the reservoir is emptying by the day. its water supplies nearly half a million people in this area, as well as agriculture and industry. it's a slow-motion crisis that accelerated this summer with rainfall just two-fifths of normal levels. the man from the water company briefs women's group members who want to spread the word about water conservation. the government is urging a 20% reduction in household usage. >> now when i see the problem is we get the idea how serious it is by looking at the water shortages. >> reporter: this reservoir should be 60% full in a normal year. but it stands at 20%. the drought is increasing the

problem. in any normal year this area would be under water, but if there were to be normal average rainfall it still wouldn't make up the shortfall. people aren't just worried about a one-off drought, rather a long-term problem. >> reporter: usually south korea sees more than 70% of its annual precipitation in summer. we have had draughts for the last ten years, and last winter and spring rainfall was 50% of average. >> reporter: the shortage has hit hardest on coastal rice paddyes. farmers say they have lost between 30 and 100% of their crops. without double the usual rainfall between now and next spring they say they won't be able to plant their crops.

>> translator: we need the government to bring in more water from someplace else. >> reporter: the government is promising to put in a pipeline, but with a pattern emerging of consistently drier weather over the whole country, bigger solutions are sure to be needed. still ahead, how thawing relations between the u.s. and cuba will be a game changer for cuban athletes. that's coming up in sports. ♪

♪ >> welcome back. dozens of farmers from zimbabwe have ended up in mozambique after armed groups seized their land and gave them to black zimbabwes. our correspondent reports. >> reporter: kevin gifford left zimbabwe more than ten years ago. he says he was supposed to move after his farm was seized by armed youth when the president began his land reform program. it was a scheme that look land from white farmers and gave it to black farmers. >> from having nothing been produced here, we have a farm of 460 hectares, and we 'em plea anywhere between 175 to 350

workers here. >> reporter: more than 200 zimbabwe farmers have moved to mozambique. they were attracted by the safety this country offered and cheap land leases. the farmers say they have been treated well so far. >> reporter: i think mozambique has been very good to us. it started with the president inviting us to help development his country. of course we have had our problems, everybody does. but, yeah, i'm comfortable here. >> reporter: 2 hour's drive down the road to this tomato farm. >> we started initially very small and we have now have 12 hectares of horticulture. in terms of tonnage it is quite big. >> reporter: but it's not only the new farmers who are doing well. it seems the new wealth is

trickling down to locals. in a region with high unemployment rate, these farms have given the local economy a much-needed boost. hundreds of young men now work on these farms. the farm workers know why the zimbabwe employer are here. >> translator: what happened in zimbabwe if it happens here it will be sad for us, because he is helping us a lot. in this community, there's a lot of unemployment. >> reporter: back at the farm kevin says he would love to return to zimbabwe one day. but for now he has bigger concerns like finding new markets for his produce. time for all of the sports news with andy. >> thank you so much. suspended fifa president has told russian news agency that the 2018 world cup will not be taken away from the country. he claims an unofficial

agreement within fifa decided russia could host the tournament and the united states could take the 2022 event. and he says the uefa boss played a key roll in shifting the cup away from the u.s. and to qatar. here is our sports correspondent lee wellings with his take. >> this is all about him managing to not only try to excuse himself from any blame but to put much of that blame on michel michelle pat teeny.

of course the public looking on in horror at all of this for months and years will be saying why is there any kind of agreement taking place? but there is for mr. blatter to continue to stir things up. we always have to be very cautious at his words. he talks about fifa being an commercial organization, and then he says it is not a commercial organization. the kansas royals beat the new york mets 5-4 butting on after the longest game in history. >> reporter: beaten by san francisco in last year's world series, this was a chance to make amends for kansas city. and escobar brought the royals off to the best-possible start

against the new york mets, hitting a homer off of the first pitch the royals received. a single helped the mets draw level at 1-1 in the 4th before an unexpected drama. the host broadcasters saw both of their generators lose power. upon resumption it was curtis gra granderson who brought the game and the mets back to life. their lead has stretched to 3-1 before the royals fight their way back in the 6th inning. a mistake by eric looked to be a crucial moment for kansas city. they were two outs away from an

opening victory when at the bottom of the 9th, alex gordon turned hero for the royals. ball 4 and it would take an extra 5 innings to decide the game. finally at 12:19 in the morning, after a five-hour epic, the result was decided. the longest opening world series game on record. >> two things you don't want in game 1, and one is to go 14 innings, and the other is to lose. so to find a way to grind that game out against a great team over there -- both teams were matching pitch for pitch. we had opportunities. they would make big pitches and get out of innings, but, you know, to grind through that game and win it in the 14th inning was big. >> reporter: it took just a matter of hours to recover with

game 2 scheduled for wednesday. one of the mets star players deflected from cuba to the u.s. four years ago, following the path of many other athletes, but as melissa chan reports, a political thaw could change things. >> reporter: these men are the future of cuban baseball, if they play well on a sunday afternoon they might join cuba's version of the new york yankees. but some dream of a future well beyond that in the united states. >> you play baseball anywhere you always want to compete at major league baseball because it's the highest level of baseball. there is no league in the world like it. >> reporter: to get to the u.s. cuban ballplayers usually defect to a third country first in order to negotiate as international free age engineers. the salaries do not come easy. they have had to risk their lives and leave their families. >> translator: the way things

are right now between cuba and the united states, i think it should be easier. since both governments are looking for ways to have ties. i think it's easier. of course i would like to have my family here with me. >> reporter: more than 350 players have left cuba since 1980, but normalization has sparked an exodus. about 100 players have left in the past 12 months alone. players are worried major league baseball could one day negotiate directly with the cuban government, meaning smaller paychecks. escobar grew up in this neighborhood in havana. these men, his childhood friends played baseball in the streets with him. >> translator: some of them say they want to be just like escobar and other stars. he hasn't been forgotten. he won't be forgotten in this neighborhood. >> reporter: escobar once played for cuba's team, and while the children here consider him a

legend, cuban officials label him like others who left, defect defectors, athletes who abandoned the country. when his team won the nationals, the cuban government gave him his house, and when he left for the united states, well, the government confiscated it. >> the cuban sports officials -- the cuban government will say -- has an immense amount of power over the players. >> reporter: cuba makes considerable investment in its players from a very young age, and it now faces a future where it would lose even more of its top talent, but the u.s. would be paying for that now, directly to the cuban government. okay. sami that is how your sports looking for now. >> thanks so much, andy. stay with us here on al jazeera, we have another full bulletin coming up in just a couple of minutes, so don't go too far.

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>> i've been asked to keep my voice down cause we are so close to the isil position >> who is in charge, and are they going to be held to accout? >> but know we're following the research team into the fire >> they're learning how to practice democracy... >> ...just seen tear gas being thrown... >> ...glad sombody care about us man... >> several human workers were kidnapped... >> this is what's left of the hospital >> is a crime that's under reported... >> what do you think... >> we're making history right now... >> al jazeera america

taking part in the talks, iran is invited to join russia and the u.s. in vienna to try to resolve the war in syria. hello there, i'm barbara sarah. this is al jazeera live from london. the palestinian president asks the u.n. for international protection as he says the situation is the worst it has been since 1948. paying the price of the emissions scandal, vw announced their first quarterly loss in 15