trying to end the conflict of a first time iran. the crisis in syria. hello. i am darren jordan in doha with the world news in al jazeera. more ahead. >> desperate scenes off of the coast of greece after a boat carrying more than 200 refugees, inc.. u.s. republican presidential hopeful trade blow ins their third televised debate. fifa said russia's right to host

was decided before it went to a vote. powers are heading to the austrian capitol. for the first time bashar al-assad's staunch supporter iran will take part. john kerry says the talks are for the best hope yet to chart a course out of what he called hell in syria. rossland jordan reports. >> reporter: elite iranian forces have been training, fighting, and dying alongside syrian troops since at least 2012. that's proof according to the obama administration that tehran is trying to keep bashar al-assad in power. but now, world leaders are about to meet in vienna in search of an end to the civil war and iran's foreign minister will be among them. the u.s. has finally agreed iran should be at the table. >> the challenge that we face in syria today is nothing less than

to chart a course out of hell. >> u.s. secretary of state john kerry has accused iran of destaplizing syria. in light of the waves of syrian families trying to escape the civil war and isil's takeover of key territory. kerry says now is the time for all concerned to meet. >> at the end of the day, nothing would do more to bolster the fight against daesh than a political transition that sidelines assad so that we can unite more of the country against extremism. >> reporter: officials say the u.s.'s decision to engage with tehran shouldn't be a surprise. >> the secretary is a practicing mattist on this. he is looking at this. he is looking at this from a very clear eye. it's our expectation people will come to this meeting with serious intentions about solving syria's problems. >> some observers believe iran's

troop losses could be forcing it finally, to support talks. >> i think if iran is accepting the dialogue now to sit at the same negotiating table with the rest of the community to find a with a out of the syrian crisis by log and politics. i think that is because it doesn't want to lose any more commanders. >> the russian foreign minister, sergei lauvrov will be in ve a because of his kuntztries's military support for assad. he they say they are looking from serious intentions from lavrov as well. >> they are probably going find since they are not going to be able to do resolve this militarily that they want to thing of a political resolution. >> there won't in be any liters of the syrian opposition attending the meetings because u.s. officials don't they are unified. a sign the obama administration is only willing to go so for, for peace in syria.

>> saudi arabia's foreign minister says the involvement of assad's alleys in the talks will reveal whether they are really committed to peace. >> the view of the partners in this was that we should test the intentions of the iranians and the russians about their seriousness in arriving at a political solution in syria which we all prefer. >> the greek coast guard says its rescued 242 people off of the island of lesbos after the boat they were in capsized. at least three people have died. but that figure could rise. rescue teams are still searching for survivors as paul brennan now reports. >> the fishing boats emerged from the darkness racing into port with no time to lose. huddled on deck, wrapped in tarp o tarpoleans, a few of the survivors of tragic sinking in the aegean they looked unsure,

whether to smile or weep. then the volunteers and medics sprang into action. a young child was among the first to be passed ashore, apparently unharmed but shocked into eye lens. many were much, much worse. in the darkness, the key site was transformed into an emergency center strawn with blankets. volunteers tended to many who looked to be suffering hypothermia and shock. some appeared to be slipping away despite the best efforts of specialist medics. a child wrapped in blankets was hurriedly transported to hospital in the arms of a

paramedic. other survivors were able to walk. le sp os has been receiving migrants. this is not the first sinking tragedy. the residents are deeply affected by it. babies are drowning. i am 67 years old and i can't hold back my tears. of course, it is a big state that must help since we are small and unable to do so, then they must do the job. there are people drawning. they are our own blood. yes, we are sorry but what else can we do? shame. >> more boats arrive with more survivors. these in apparently better condition. like so many sinks this year, the true total faulties from this latest tragedy may never be known. paul brennan, al jazeera. >> amnesty international has called for a full public inquiry

into reports that australian officials paid people smugglers to turn back boats carrying asylum seekers. the incidents in june spashd a parliamentary inquiry andrew thomas has more from sydney. >> reporter: this comprehensive and damming report primarily rates to an incidents that took place back in may when an australian military vessel intercepted a both of refugees coming from indonesia. and what amnesty international alleged is that the crew of that boat were paid a substantial amount of money, $32,000 to turn around and take their passengers back to indonesia. i am pleased to say that the author of this report from amnesty joins me. anna, what evidence have you got? >> it is compelling and coverprene prehencei. based upon detailed interviews. all 62 adult asylum seekers as well as six crew members. these people were held in

differently locations and, as far as we know, have not seen each other since the end of may. their telephones were remarkably consistent and packed up by video evidence as well as interviews we did with indonesian police. >> would this constitute a crime by the australian government? >> yes, it would under the tr s trans-inational crimes convention, it's obliged to criminal eyes people smuggling. it has done so. if the allegations that we make in our report are borne out, indeed, the australian officials involved would be liable to criminal prosecution. >> anna shay, thank you very much. the trouble for anybody who would like to prosecute any australian officials under this is it would be the australian government that would need to mount such a prosecution. they are very unlikely to do this. they have ♪this report. they haven't explicitly said that the payments didn't take place. they largely refused to comment. australia is proud of what it calls operation sovereign

borders, an effort to stop refugees from reaching australia. the prime minister, former prime primary tony abbot, prime minister at the time of this incident was in london earlier this week urging european leaders to adopt the same tough tactics australia has to stop refugees from coming to its shores. in the government's eyes, thes justify the means. >> the saudi led coalition is denying it bombed a hospital run by the doctors without borders. it injured one staff mer and destroyed the building. doctors without borders said it provided the cord ants them. >> the saudi ambassador denied coalition forces had anything to do with the hospital in yemen and lashed out at the u.n. secretary general, ban ki-moon who had condemned the bombing of that hospital saying that he did so before he had all of the

facts. of course, attacking a hospital and medical personell in a war is against the rules of war international law. now, the ambassador briefed members of the security council behind closed doors amid growing criticism that the war to return the internationally recognize president government of yemen to power is taking too great a toll on civilians. more than 5400 have been killed so far. >> the arab coalition aircraft did not carry out operations in this sada at the time of the reported incidents. the nearest area of operations was closed to the saudi/yemeni border about 40 kilometers north of the hospital. the causes of the blast which occurred in the hospital cannot be determined at this point of time without conducting a thorough investigation >> reporter: the saudi ambassador accused houthi rebels of blocking aid delivers and

touted his own country's record of bringing relief supplies to the people of yemen. all together, the kingdom of saudi arabia has contributed $247 million in aid. >> to the u.s. where the third republican presidential debate has just ended in a state of colorado. the economy took centerstage this time around, but at times, the exchanges became ill-tempered. a long running feud between jeb bush and marco rubio boiled over when bush stabbed his rival for allegedly putting campaigning ahead of his job in the senate. >> i expected that he would do constituent service which means he shows up to work. he got endorsed by the sun sentinel because he was the most talent he had guy in the field, a gifted. but when you signed up for this, this was a six-year term. you should be showing up to work. literally, the senate? what is it like a french work week? get like three days where you have to show up? you can campaign or just resign and let someone else take the job. there are a lot of people bromming paycheck to paycheck in

florida that are looking forg a senator that will fight for them each and every day? >> i get to respond? right? >> 30 seconds. >> i listened to jeb as he walked around the country ce and said you are modeling your campaign after john mccain, you are going to launch a furious comeback the way he did by fighting hard in new hampshire and places like that, carrying your own bag. you know how many john mccain missed? >> he wasn't -- >> jeb, i don't remember you ever complaining about john mccain's vote record. the only areason you are doing t now is we are running for the same same position and someone convinced you attacking me is going to help you. here is my bottom line. my campaign is going to be about the future of america, not about stacking anyone else on this stage. i will have tremendous admi admiration for govern bush. i am not running again governor bush, anyone on this stage. i am running for president. >> al jazeera's alan fisher watched the debate in bolder. >> people might thing they are just another debate, but they are important. remember scott walker. he was in the lead in the

republican field very early in this race but he had a bad first debate and a terrible second bedate. within a week, he was gone. who is under pressure this time? in the earlier debate, george pataki and bobby jindal because they are polling in single figures. in the main debate, jeb bush who is under pressure because he is declared early, became a frontrunner, got a lot of money behind him, a lot of establishment names saying he would make a good president but he is polling in single digital. if he doesn't put on an impressive performance, some of his backers are going to be looking for another candidate and he could well be the biggest figure to fall. ben carson is leading in the polls nationally at the moment and, also, in a couple of early states so he is under pressure for the first time. it's not donald trump who is the frontrunner for once. he's got to put some flesh on the bones of his economic argument. he has been talking about 10 percent tax across the board that means someone earning

$2 million pays 20 % and $20 a year 10 percent. and how he is going to funds important programs in the united states as well. so his place as the frontrunner could come under a greater bit of scrutiny if he doesn't perform well until these debates. it's going to be a very interesting two hours. >> time for a short break here on al jazeera. when we come back, a u.s. police officer loses his job after this video of him forcefully arresting a teenager in her classroom goes rural. more on that. stay with us.

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welcome back.

a quick reminder the top stories. iran has accepted an invitation to take part in talks on the war in syria. the first time he will be involved in the negotiations. they will begin on vienna on friday. a wooden boat sank off of the greek islands of lesbos. 342 others have been rescued. the third u.s. republican debate has been held in bolder, colorado. the economy, jobs and taxes dominated heated exchanges between presidential hopefuls african leaders have begun gathering in new delhi for india's largest ever african summit t india and its economic rival, china, are the world's fastest growing economies. to keep up that pace, india needs the natural resources that africa has in abundance, oil, gas, gold and other precious metals. it needs africa's market to sell what it makes.

trade between india and africa has doubled from throu$35,000,00 to more than 70 about. more from lib buy. tell us what we can expect from this africa forum. >> reporter: absolutely. you have mentioned the commercial side of things. what we are here something perhaps a bit of shift in discussion particularly as prime minister modi met around 19 heads of state as they began to arrive on wednesday in india and, in fact, the government suggesting that conversation is shifting to issues like anti-piracy operations action defense, and counterterrorism, suggestions that with threats like boca haram and ab shabaab on the continent, perhaps india has some expertise. an interesting shift there. as you said, a key focus as well action economics looking atting a greg culture moepingz that african nations are looking to india for and india appears very helpful top provide. >> why do you think india is

pulling out all of the stops for africa? what does it really want? >> reporter: well, just like china, as we mentioned, it wants what africa has: the natural resources, the lucrative markets, particularly in sectors like telecoms as well but there are other reasons as well, looking for support of other emerging nations as they -- as though that exist in africa for support ahead of its bid for a place a, a more permanent place in the u.n. execute council. it needs this kind of support and it needs this cooperation from other countries to get it over the line. and we should say india is also trying to steer its influence in other directions where china is really gone into the infrastructure sectors of africa, looking to help build institutions, education, healthcare, goverance on certain levels so it's got a different spin on what it's looking for from africa and what africa is looking for from it. we will have more in the next few hours as leaders begin to meet. >> midi was thank you.

p palestinian president makmud abbas says it is the worst since the 19148 arab/israeli war. he asked the united states to provide international protection. nadine barber has more from the occupied west bank. >> for the most part, this speech by the palestinian authority, president at the united nations human rights council didn't contain surprise you see. it contained a repeat of threats by mahmoud abbas previously not to honor international agreements with israel if israel didn't honor those same agreements. he said that they were already in violation of various agreements since the 1990s. but the urgent matter he brought up was what he called the need for the international community to establish an international protection force for palestinian

civilians. >> translator: what we warped 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 it's practices is the worst and most critical since 1948. at this called for a strong intervention and the responsibility before it's too late. >> i listed a series of crimes that he said israel was kurning committing in, in the occupied palestinian territorycurrently 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 palestiny'all civilians and using the pretext that they were trying to attack

israelis, something which is disputed a by palestinians in some cases. now, it's an issue which has been brought up by amnesty international on wednesday say that their own investigations lead them to believe that that has happened. make mahmoud abbas will be going later this week to talk to the prosecutor at the international criminal cost in the hague where he will be taking a file on -- where he will be asking, rather, for the itc to look in to what he calls extra judicial ki killings, but it's not clear whether there will be any swift action on that particular issue. >> turkish police have forced their way into the offices of an opposition media company days before an election police fired pepper spray in and used water canon to disperse. it's linked to a cleric who is critical of tiberduon.

>> it goes back to a rupture between what was a close friendship and relationship between patelagulan and erduoan. they were once close friends. gulan had -- he is an islamic preacher with millions of followers here in turkey and worldwide. but towards the of 20s 13, prosecutors and police perceived to be close to him launch corruption investigations into members of erdouan's close circle ince is then, the relationship has collapsed. erdouan has accused the other of trying to topple him and the turki turkish. this has led to a crackdown on businesses and organizations deemed sympathetic or deemed to have links with the gulan and his -- with the gulan movement. so this crackdown today on kozak

holdings. it comes close to e lepingz on sunday here in turkey where opposition groups would say the media is generally under a lot of pressure from the government but, in fact, this crackdown on gulan, his supporters and companies connected to him has been going on really since the end of 2013. >> the german chancellor, angela merkel has arrived in china ahead of talks aimed at boosting business. merkel is one several european leaders who have been firming up their link with bay zinning even though its economy is sluggish. the trade mission includes the new chief skelths of volkswagon. volkswagon announced a third quarter operating loss of nearly $4,000,000,000. the figures come after the firm admitted fitting diesel cars with software to cheat carbon emission tests. from berlin. >> reporter: it has dominated the skyline for decades. while steam still pours from the headquarters of europe's biggest car maker, inside, anxious times

at vw embroiled in scandal 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. >> volkswagon is having to recall millions of cars around the world after it admitted it cheated on some emissions tests. for some of the 60,000 workers in, its business as usual, but there are worries. it's a depressing atmosphere. we talk about it all the time. >> yeah. 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. >> 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 incurred in the scandal. it's repair bills will run into billions of dollars while price of restoring consumer confidence is hard to quantify. the future of many these workers now depends upon how well vw can recover trust in its brand, a brand which had been built on reliability and trust. vw says an independent investigation will take place to try to understand what happened. the company, one of german's biggest and one of the world's leading car makers, could face criminal charges. emma hayward, al jazeera, in berlin. >> a police officer in the u.s. state of south carolina has been sacked after being filmed throwing a black teenager across a classroom. ben fields was fired after this incident on monday where he is seen throwing a student to the

ground and then across the room. field was called to the high school to deal with a student who had allegedly been disruptive. suspended fifa president has told russian news agency that the 20s 18 world cup will not be taken away from the country. the 79-year-old also claims that an unofficial agreement within fifa in 20s 10 decided russia would host that world cup and that the would take the 2022 event. bl blatter claims it was shifted from the u.s. and towards qatar. qatar's minister hit back with an interview. >> what do you say of the chairman of the english football association who thinks we won't see a qatar world cup once the criminal investigation is completed? >> i want to see his face when we host the 2022. when we won the 2022, we won it

because we presented best find ever. i said this before. i will keep saying this: we deserve to have a 2022 world cup in qatar, in an arabic state, an islam i can country degree. it needs such a tournament for the youth of the arab region. i think we deserve to have one. >> you can see that full interview with you qatar's foreign minister on "up front" at 1930, gmt on friday. that's 1930 gmt on friday. one of the world's driest places has burst into bloom. as robin mathison reports, a chilean desert has been transferred after rare august rain. >> a carpet of color spread over an arid land, chile's desert has sprung to life, the most spectacular growth seen in nearly two deposition aids. >> we have not had such a large

flowering in the past 18 years. in 2010, we had a large flowering. but already this year has passed all of the previous ones. >> this life comes from tragedy. torrential storms devastated chile's northern region in august, caused mudslides and riverside were so swollen, they burst their banks. 28 people died. but the rains have watered the seeds of more than 200 different for theic plants lying dormant for years. they, in turn, have attracted birds, insects, lizards and rodents. for some locals like ramon cortez, it's an unforgettable experience. >> for us, it was a miracle because i have never seen what the grass looks like until now. >> and it's fascinating tourists? >> so unusual, it's surreal. i am having breakfast with the flowers. >> the flowers will eventually die as the intention dry heat

soaks up remaining ground water. until then, chile's desert is bursting with life. rob mathson, al jazeera. all of the news, of course, on our website. there it is on your screen. aljazeera.com. [ ♪ ] everything you are looking at at some point were covered with water. a lot of people want to move away, they can't afford to sell their house, throw another well. >> how did we get to this point. >> assuming that water would never run out.