al jazeera america. >> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ welcome to the news hour, i'm sammy from doha, at least 40 people killed by a syrian government strike on the marketplace near damascus. in vienna diplomates from around 20 countries including iran meet to try and end the conflict. more than 20 refugees drown as two more boats sink off the coast of greece. the last british prisoner released after more than a decade in guantanamo bay.

♪ at least 0 people -- 40 people killed in a market in syria and witnesses say around 100 more wounded when missiles were fired in the marketplace in the rebel held area in duma west of damascus and the toll is expected to rise as people are pulled out of damaged buildings. more than a quarter of a million people have died since the brutal civil war began in 2011 and diplomates from all of the important stakeholders and not the combatants on the ground are waiting for a summit in vienna and let's talk now live from the austria capitol and those scenes of human suffering is exactly what the world is expecting the vienna georgia -- gathering to

put an end to. >> that is absolutely right, sammy and the violence in syria a very stark juxt position to the talks going on here and they have tried to effect some kind of breakthrough and a compromise in syria to stop the violence and yet on the ground there the war just grinds on, the reports today that at least 40 people dead after a missile strike in syria, yesterday there were reports of people killed because of air strikes and many blamed on that and the syrian airforce and yet the diplomate here determined to try to finally get past this deadlock and diplomacy that has gone on so long with regard to syria. now, we heard a short while ago from uk foreign secretary phillip hammond how he felt about the talks and what everybody here hopes to accomplish and let's take a listen to what he has to say.

>> we are gathered here this morning to see if there is a scope of the gap on the iranian position on one hand and position adopted most of the other countries represented on the other. this is an exploratory discussion. we want to see if there is a way forward, if there is a way of establishing a process which can end the suffering and the killing in syria. >> reporter: once again a note of very guarded optimism from the diplomates that are gathered here. it really seems as though everybody here is setting the diplomatic bar very low. u.s. secretary of state john kerry yesterday heading into these talks saying trying to find a political solution to syria would be like charting a course out of hell and earlier today i spoke with the saudi delegation as it was heading into the hotel behind us and one of the morning ministry officials when asked how it was

going said quite pertently we will see and despite the presence of the iranians this is the first time iran which is one of the primary backers along with russia of syrian path bashar al-assad the first time they have been included in talks like this including syria's future and it's diplomatically a very big deal, very significant that both iran and saudi arabia arching rivals in the middle east will actually going to be sitting across from each other at the negotiating table this week and how or when that will yield results in syria still very much remains to be seen and with everybody saying that this will be difficult, it doesn't seem like anybody's coming out really expecting some huge breakthrough today. in fact, at this stage it's unclear if the talks will actually end today. initially we thought they would, there are some indications that

perhaps they could stretch on into tomorrow or even longer but despite the renewed push to get this in syria as we mentioned in the lead in to me as we discussed the violence raging out of control in syria and humanitarian crisis deepening everyday, sammy. >> let's thank mohamed bringing us the latest from vienna and good to have you with us and you heard mohamed and the bar is very low, is this meeting likely to go anywhere? >> look, this needs to be a important meeting in order to do what they have not done over the last four years. see, there might be war criminal o ors -- criminals and to let this thing go on for four years after geneva one and after geneva two

and not really putting the real negotiation and diplomatic effort to resolve the syrian crisis leading to hundreds of thousands of casualties and millions of displaced people. >> are things different this time, everyone was saying everyone realized it can't be won militarily and it goes and will be more serious about resolving this. >> unfortunately sammy i was reading something about the american civil war and seems like we don't learn and it's been 150 some years and it has been the same again and again and yes believe it or not and with hundreds of thousands of casualties people don't wake up and see look at this in a different way and need to be more responsible about the issue of syria. there is also of course as you know the nuclear talks that was between the iran and the united states, there is a russian involvement in syria and a lot of people i think from an ethical point of view misunderstood the russia-syrian relations today.

one could make the argument that syria's regime has been strengthened and i would say there is another explanation that says putin owned assad and putin is the patron for the regime and if putin decides something for syria he will have to follow. >> is there common ground on the future of assad now? >> they are trying to make it all about assad which is kind of unfortunate. why would a person responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people want to be in power is beyond me and why does he want to stay in power until 2021 as they are insisting which is beyond me and i would like to see him go tomorrow but he is not going tomorrow anywhere and he is not going to stay until 2012 and we all know that so i guess now the negotiations behind the scenes and on the table in vienna is

how long would he stay. is he going to stay a future and become part of the transitional period but end up in the hague cause a war criminal? is he allowed to step in and stay in but without any authorities? and why a transitional government takes over in sierra and all of that remains to be discussed. >> the combatants are not there and a significant gap in the gathering, will the opposition accept if these guys go for the sort of arrangements you are talking about okay we will have assad for this period and then we will move out, what about the guy whose are actually fighting on ground? >> differences about talking about ceasefire and a peace agreement or reconciliation and today, just today the assad regime bombed duma and injured and killed people there and they will discuss the future, of course this is impossible.

so as a first step you need the patrons and i think to a large degree. unfortunately i would say already some of the regional and the foreign powers own the different warring parties in syria or at least have a huge influence on them >> they can make it happen and push the buttons. >> let's say they will have huge influence and leverage upon the parties in syria with the regime and unlike the iranians who were true allies in the regime and for russians to step in that is a different dynamic and if putin is too cynical to just want to continue using syria for ukraine or whatever that is one thing but we know that now putin is more able than ever before to put the necessary pressure on assad if he really wants reconciliation and a more peaceful future for syria.

>> it's going to go on all day if not all week and thanks so much. at least 22 people including 11 children have drowned after two more boats carrying refugees from turkey to greece sank in the aegean sea and one went down near the island of roads and the other near the island of kalamoose and 100 people were rescued from the water and john is here and have passengers been accounted for at this point, john? >> no, you still have some people missing, at least three of roads and one off the island we are here we are at lesbos and you have possible more people missing that you simply don't know about because all of these missing figures come from interviews with the survivors, if you had a boat going down with no survivors you don't know who is out there therefore the coast guard is always out there

in the waters all the time and figures are constantly changing and what we do know is from the famous wooden boat incident that went down off the waters 274 people have now been rescued from a single vessel and 16 drown and 7 of whom were children and one person is still missing and these numbers as you can see are changing from day-to-day and the incidents keep coming in, therefore it's going to be a very difficult task for the coast guard sammy. >> the incidents keep coming in, are we to believe then there is some kind of surge going on if he is trying to get into europe and perhaps as winter approaches? there is and speaking with the u.n. high commission for refugees we did hear that the average daily arrival figure has

gone up from about 5-6,000 to 7-8,000 in the last week and you can see the authorities are quite overwhelmed as we found out in our report yesterday on the beaches. these people are heading for athens and a perriless track on foot across the balkins and relieved they crossed the waters from turkey in rubber dinghys and most are refugees needing protection from the war in syria or the perils they face at home and this man paid the price working as an interpreter for u.s. coalition forces be being hunted down by the resurgent camp. >> they shoot bullets at my home and a letter on my door and my dad said don't worry these guys and because of my my family life

is unrest. take the money and get out of afghanistan. go wherever you want to go. don't come back in my home. >> reporter: he has waited for two years for an american visit yeah. he can wait no more and is asking for protection in europe. but the process for him and thousands more who arrive daily is bureaucratic and slow. this camp built for 15 00's over run by more than twice that many, they now spill over barbed wire fences over olive grows and no running water and no where to eat and no where to sit down and children escape briefly from the daily realities. this is greece's first eu hotspot where new arrivals are screened and there is room for about 10,000 people in camps like these across the country but greece has now been forced to raise that capacity to 50,000, most of it in government built temporary shelters and the reminder in private housing.

the reason is eastern european countries are overwhelmed by the convoys of thousands prompting some to shut their boarders and greek migration minister says european leaders were pressing greece to do even more. >> translator: instead of the 60,000 hospitality positions in one camp they were asking of us in which in reality would be more like a concentration camp we succeeded to get approval for 20,000 places of temporary residents. >> reporter: the greater in surge of refugees trying to beat the onset of winter the greater the risk to free movement. now, we have many reasons why there is this surge in numbers arriving from turkey and one is people are trying to beat the on set of the winter weather and the other is the smugglers themselves are keeping the pressure up on the refugees in order to keep their business going in order to keep their income coming in and trying to

make this a year around operation. we have heard from the tuesday sinking of the wooden boat and although people complain they are being crowded unsafely on to that vessel they were forced to accept the circumstances because the smugglers fired gunshots in the air and made everyone quiet down and the boats set sail and have heard the stories and must all be contributing factors to the increased fatalities and we have seen the images in august of a little boy washed up on the beaches of turkey drown when his boat sank and there was a pledge on european authorities then to do everything possible to prevents these people from taking their lives into their hands on unsafe seas. and since then according to at least one tally 70 children have been drown so clearly those efforts have a long way to go. back to you sammy. >> john thanks for the update from lesbos, cry osin the border between slovania and austria and

hundreds trying to climb over barriers and austria soldiers tried to stop them and a policeman was punched in the face. still to come on al jazeera more on syria war coming up, and look at the aerial campaigns and being able to soften the ground to a political solution to end the violence and questions over whether china's only child generation can afford to grow their family now and the government has allowed them a second baby and in sport new zeeland and australia name the teams after saturday's world cup final and we will have details next in the show. ♪ the last british prisoner in guantanamo bay has been released and has been held there since 2002, emma hayward reports.

>> reporter: held at guantanamo bay for thousands of days and never charged and never convicted and the last to be detained at the u.s. base. his supporters have always maintained he is an innocent man. and his family has been robbed of a father, a husband and a friend. the campaign for his release has been a long one. >> 14 years of torture, i mean torture is bad enough but when someone has never been charged and assumed innocent it's horrible. >> reporter: he was picked up in afghanistan in 2001, his family says he was doing charity work and that he was sold for a bounty to u.s. forces, u.s. authorities alleged he was leading a unit of taliban fighters, in his 13 years as an inmate in the world east most netorious prison he was never charged and went on hunger strike several times, one of the many prisoners whose only form

of protest was through their stomach and campaigners say he was held in appalling conditions and sometimes in solitary confinement and beating and early in his presidency barack obama promised to close guantanamo the legacy of the predecessor war on terror so far it remains open and is still the subject of human rights allegations. his release comes after 13 years, it's expected he will be reunited with his family including one child born during the national stage of his incarceration, the fate of the 113 inmates still inside guantanamo though is uncertain. emma hayward al jazeera. houthi leader in yemen says efforts to find the political solution have failed and the head of the houthi political committee says the war in yemen has become a matter of survival and calling on yemeni people to

continue the fight as he puts it and condemning the u.n. envoy and accusing him of being manipulated by the saudis and we have reported extensively on yemeni and is on the set and is this posturing? >> it's a major setback for u.n. to bring about a political solution to yemen's crisis and was hoping to have the warring factions meet in geneva or oman for a political settlement and this is not going to be likely any time soon because of the huge differences. this is the first time the houthis have been harshly critical of the envoy saying he is bias to the saudis and playing a negative role and at the end of the day they will have to continue the fighting for the battle of life or death. >> he is calling for the fight to continue, a big part of the houthis ability to fight has been because they got the backing of those forces loyal to

the ousted former president saleh and where does he stand on this, is he throwing the towel on the talks?. >> he has been saying over the last few days he is willing to negotiate a political settlement but for that to happen he wants the saudi-led coalition to come to end and the troops to pull from yemen so talks can start. he is an ally of the houthis and he is definitely going to back the houthis in the coming days so expecting his fighters to continue the fight with houthi fighters in that part of the country and do understand at this particular juncture they have to have the north under their control, if there is a cap old toll sanaa that is the end. >> is that the game plan because the tide has turned against them on the battlefield and are they on their way to the north, is that where they are heading? >> they lost in the southern part of the country and now the fight is focused in areas like

thai and marib and also now in on the outskirts of the capitol sanaa and after seven months of fighting huge sways of land is destroyed and people suffering and people stranded in different places and people forced to live in their own countries and there is absolutely no access to thai and humanitarian aid agencies have not been able to deliver food and medicine to hundreds of people who have been injured in thai so it's a dramatic situation in yemen. doctors without borders has been asking for an immediate ceasefire for them to be able to deliver aid and the back of the context people will definitely have to suffer in the near future in absence of a political settlement or international will to bring about a settlement. >> very sad prospect indeed and thank you very much.

candidate for the party in the up coming myanmar election has been attacked with machetes and was in hospital with severe head injuries and deep cuts to his hands. the opposition candidate was attacked by four men during a rally on thursday. and voters in myanmar head to the poles in just over a week. protesters in south korea condemning a visit by japanese prime minister and japanese flags were ripped up and anti-japanese slogans chanted in the capitol seoul and due to arrive on sunday with a meeting with south korean president and china's premier. china says it won't participate in a dutch arbitration court over maritime dispute in the south china sea, the court in the hague has ruled it has jurisdiction to hear territorial claims filed by the philippines against china. >> translator: this ruling was an inappropriate ruling made

ignoring china's rights. from this ruling you can see that the philippine's aim in pursuing the arbitration is not to resolve the dispute and it's to deny china right in the south china sea and affirm its own right, this is not approach to solve the dispute. >> reporter: people in china are welcoming the end of the one child policy and after 30 years the families are allowed to have two children and it's a proactive response to the country's aging population but not everyone is convinced as rob mcbride explains from beijing. >> reporter: with an increasing burden of an aging population abandoning the one-child policy is a cause for celebration for many. but it will be a long time before the change works through to produce a bigger working population to support the elderly and far from certain that all couples will take the opportunity of having a second

child. >> translator: i don't know if it will make enough of a difference because the intention of women having child is light. china has 20% of the world's population but we account for only 10% of the world's newborn children. >> reporter: on the streets a mixed reaction from a generation that has grown up knowing only one policy. >> translator: the one child policy was good when we had too many people but now we have money, there is no need for such a strict limit. >> translator: i have no time for more children so i'm not planning on having another. >> translator: it's a good thing. we have serious aging problems and need new blood. >> reporter: at one of beijing's parks a typical scene, babies likely to be looked after by their grandparents while their parents are at work supporting them both. many couples from one child families potentially face a double burden looking after four

aging parents while at the same time bringing up two children, this will be the generation bearing the strain of china's demographic imbalance, robredo mcbride, beijing. let's get to weather with rob and of all things the wet season in iraq is giving the fighting a pause. >> this is a change to the season. it was flooding in alexandria egypt and the same system and satellite shows rain in levante and more recently in iraq and the clouds are bright white. the rain came and keeps being pushed back again and the feed of moisture has a lot of rain and people woke up yesterday to knee-deep water in a good part of baghdad and not just baghdad but a lot of iraq had this but baghdad of course stands out and people living not far away from the city in tents that are refugees, this sort of weather i'm afraid is going to be repeated throughout the next two or three months but it hasn't

really ceased even now and the next 24 hours across the border and further north towards the ca caspien and to kuwait and saudi arabia and rain admittedly and also still falling but on its way out rather quickly like 34 millimeters but the obvious thing if you are watching this anyway is this huge and this is an is the category five, category five of the arabian scale and that is quite unprecedented and won't be a category five when it hits land and watch this one very closely, sammy. >> thanks so much rob and the u.n. is warning that the world is not doing enough to combat climate change, the leader of the u.n. climate change committee says current commitments to cut carbon emissions do not go far enough. a u.n. climate change conference

is due to take place in paris in december. we have the deputy director of the center for science and the environment, climate ngo and joins me live and good to have you with us. i want to talk numbers first. here is a number i pulled out of the climate action tracker group and says current emission cuts will mean a temperature rise of 2.7 degrees celsius, is that the ugly truth no one wants to face, we will not reach that cap of two degree no more than two degree celsius rise in global temperature. >> even 2.7 degrees i believe is an under estimation. i think we should be looking at least 3 degrees by 2100. this report actually confirms the fear that most of us had, that the indcs just don't go far enough, what this report says is

we have a budget of 1,000 billion tons now to 2100 and the world will eat up 75% of the carbon budget by 2030 and after 2030 there are hardly any carbon budget for the world and going maybe 3 degrees or 3.5 degrees so i'm not optimistic we will meet the target of 2.7 degrees, that u.n. is talking about right now. >> so when do we -- do we have any idea then when the temperature is going to peek if we are hurdling above 2.7 and perhaps above even 3? >> we know this report says our emissions are not going to peak by 2030 and emissions of carbon dioxide will keep increasing and don't know when the carbon starts bending, that is not clear. what is quite clear is that in 2030 emissions will be at least 25% more than what it should be. we should be about 40 billion

tons if we really want to remain within two degrees it will be close to 55-60 billion tons. >> this is very worrying though, what does it mean for the world then if you are talking about we don't even know when emissions are going to peak and we are looking at three plus degrees celsius in terms of a rise in global temperature and what will that mean for life on the planet? >> absolutely. even at a temperature rise of about a degree that certain part of the world is experiencing right now you are talking about a category five a hurricane in arab sea which is unprecedented, before the interview started i heard that. philippines battered by hurricanes. you have droughts and floods. one degree is devastating for the poor of the world. think of two and three degrees is unimaginable. it will be devastating. >> i'm not sure we do want to imagine it. thanks so much for your

analysis. coming up, on al jazeera. >> life without parole for something you can put in your pocket. >> over crowding in u.s. prisons has a rethink of jail terms for drug offenders. street lights are one of the energy solutions being used to solve zimbabwe eastern -- energy crisis and we have details coming up, in sport. ♪

welcome back, let's recap the headlines on al jazeera, a syrian government missile attack on a busy market killed at least 40 people and witnesses say around 100 others were wounded in the rebel held area of duma near damascus and meeting in vienna for a second day of talks on the war in syria and iran is included in the high-level discussions for the first time out of the u.s. and its allies dropped objections. two boats carrying refugees from turkey to greece have sunk and at least 22 people including 11 children drown in the aegean sea. while the world diplomates talk peace in vienna, russia launched over a thousand air strikes in the past 30 days and we look at what is at stake for moscow. >> reporter: russia didn't start the war in syria but maybe trying to finish it. for one month russian jets have

been bombing areas across the count country. >> translator: we will support the syrian army only in its legitimate fight specifically against terrorist groups. >> reporter: 30 days and more than 1,000 air strikes later military analysts are still trying to determine who putin defines as terrorists. on one hand russia says it's going after i.s.i.l. fighters while some of the air strikes have hit i.s.i.l. areas, many haven't. the united states which is also bombing i.s.i.l. in syria isn't convinced about the i.s.i.l. line. >> assad has really chosen himself to fight i.s.i.l. >> reporter: last week assad made his first foreign visit in the four years he has been at war with his own people. the trip was a surprise but the destination wasn't. moscow is a long time ally. not long before the russian military campaign began assad admitted he was running out of

soldie soldiers. >> translator: the terrorism that is spreading today would without your decisions and actions have spread to even more territories and states not just in our region. >> reporter: russia's propaganda machine has been hard at work too slick internet videos glorify its role in the conflict but they are filmed from the vantage point of the russians. here are the ones that aren't. russia denies deliberately targeting civilians but with hospitals being hit russian tactics are also under scrutiny. >> what they are doing is if they have a target that they think they need to hit they are not worried about the collateral damage, hitting the hospitals and killing innocent civilians is something they have been doing really since they became involved. >> reporter: has any of this made a significant difference or shift in the fighting?

we still don't know for sure. the casualty numbers though may hold some clues. an estimated 595 people have been killed so far in the russian air strikes, most of the dead are not civilians or i.s.i.l. fighters but from groups fighting the syrian government, al jazeera. i want to speak now to a russian defense and military analyst joins us via skype from moscow, good to have you with us, first of all has the russian military intervention been a game changer and has it really pushed the government side into the sort of victory scenario that it perhaps hoped? >> to some extent of course it changed the game and the fighting has dramatically intensified, al-assad forces and their allies have began an offensive though it's kind of apparently not really as

effective as many say in moscow hoped it would be, it's very slow and many strategic points have not been taken and the opposition has continued to resistant so the russian bombs are following but that seems not to be enough to change the entire course of the war. and actually the bombing could maybe bring the warring fractions, the multiple fractions of the opposition more together because now they have a kind of clear and a need to resist. >> it's not exactly working on going according to plan, what military options will russia have to face at some point? will it be a decision on whether to pull out or to commit further like put boots on the ground? >> well, sources in the crowd say they are not for a very long time and we are going to come in

bomb, help al-assad win sort of and we withdrew and if he doesn't win, if it collapses then we will withdrew, at least that is what sources in the kremlin say but i don't see how that could actually really easily happen and say okay we see that the fence is not going no where and the bombing campaign is bogged down and we turn away and go and damascus falls or latakia falls and of course that is not the outcome the kremlin would want to see. >> how long has russia got and how long can it continue with air strikes before it has to faes that kind of choice if it goes deeper or goes out? >> actually it's already almost there. i mean there is a rule that first was discovered by the germans doing the blitz in 1940 the longer you run an air

campaign the less effective it becomes and run out of good targets and then also the psychological effect is diminishing the opposition and learns how to avoid your attacks so they will have to do something, sending in boots on the ground, moscow says we won't and that is not an option even if it's decided to because syria logistically is rather far off from russia, they will have to bring most of the things you need to sustain a serious ground campaign by russian troops through the work and could be problems with the turks or by air which is not very effective so i don't think right now moscow is really ready to intensify further and now we are fighting the limit of the ability of our pilots and making up to four authorities a day and don't think they can do anything

much more. >> thanks so much for your thought and analysis on that. israeli forces have shot two palestinians at a check point in the occupied west bank and israeli police say they opened fire after the men tried to stab a policeman. one of the palestinians has died. sunday sell shun day in turkey, it's a rerun of the vote in june which failed to win an over all winner and bernard smith reports from istanbul. remote kurdish villages like this in southeast kept it in power for 13 years until june and when many of the voters switched to the pro-kurdish democratic party known by the turkish acronym the hdp. >> translator: they voted because of the approach to the kurdish issue was way different to the other parties. >> reporter: and many people here say they are going to vote for hdp again on sunday.

the party includes non-kurdish, left wing and minority group voters but it was hundreds of thousands of socially conservative kurds who put the h hdp in parliament for the first time. >> translator: things change when kobani and bombs in ankora and who did it, i.s.i.l., and has the i.s.i.l. problem. we want peace, not war. >> reporter: many kurdish voters thought they were abandon by not being in the border town of saving kobani and since june a fight in the state and the armed kurdish separatist group the pkk and the process apk brought has unraved. >> translator: made them abandon the party and kurds u

nieed behind pkk and hdp hand nothing to appeal and win the hearts of the kurds. >> reporter: amid heavy security they held the last preelection rally there and ak pchl still has support in what is effectively the capitol of kurdish turkey but in june the share of the vote was just 14%, a 20% drop from the previous poll. the high levels of security may be one of the reasons why the crowds are down but even among those that have turned up the mood is quite somber. you get the feeling there is a high level of inenthusiasm, bernard smith, al jazeera. pakistan's government says thousands more homes were damaged in monday's earthquake than previously thought and 7.5 magnitude quake killed 272 people in pakistan, 800 schools

destroyed and we report from the swat valley. >> reporter: the girls remember when their school shook violently, she and her friends are still nervous about the possibility of more aftershocks. >> translator: our school was badly damaged and all the students are afraid to go to their classes and even the teachers have not come back. >> translator: everyone here is frightened and in shock, only a few people came back to college and are sitting on the lawn waiting for direction but no arrangements have been made. >> reporter: and because of the extensive damage to the building, it is no longer safe to be inside. classes are now held outdoors in the open. >> translator: no one is ready to risk their lives, the whole infrastructure is cracked and can be damaged at any time and are worried about studies and the government must do something. >> it will be difficult for many of the students to continue with their studies but the principal says she is not giving up yet.

>> i do this a lot and it's very difficult to manage but i hope that i will use my resources. >> reporter: many buildings in poor neighborhoods did not stand a chance against a magnitude 7.5 earthquake which hit northern afghanistan but was felt in far away places including here in pakistan. these schools were attacked by the pakistani taliban in the past. [bomb] most of them were rebuilt with foreign help but the resent earthquake has traumatized many. >> it was kind of a shocking traumatic situation for students. the building as you see was damaged significantly and we suspended the classes for the time being. >> reporter: many of the students here are now worried about their future after the deadly earthquake hundreds of institutions in the province are

badly damaged and therefore students are unable to go inside these classrooms. with winter fast approaching, the challenge for the government will be to ensure that tens of thousands of students don't lose more valuable time, kamal in al jazeera in northwest pakistan. more than 12 injured and one serious will i after a plane caught fire on the runway at florida's fort lauderdale airport. and mobile phone footage taken from behind dynamic airways captured the moments when smoke started billowing from the jet engines and saw fuel leaking from the plane as it taxied for take off. the u.s. government is preparing to release 6,000 prisoners to reduce over crowding. the inmates are all held in federal jails. they have been serving sentences for nonviolent drug crimes now

considered to be unjust and patty has more. >> always having fun. >> reporter: charles ford is a man who really likes to talk about his brother todd. >> comedian, he is the man in the room and always has that about him. >> reporter: his pictures show an inseparable pair and always smiling growing up in poverty in washington d.c. but this is where the pictures stop at 24 years old todd foster in his first run in with the law was found guilty of a nonviolent crime, dealing crack cocaine. along with seven others they possessed a combined 15 kilograms and that meant his sentence life in prison, no chance of parole. >> you sell drugs, you do get time but like life would parole for something you can put in your pocket, no, i never i would never see that in a million years. >> reporter: the judge had very little discretion because federal law requires mandatory

minimum sentences and basically it's a formula that looks at the type of drug, quantity and circumstances and that adds up to the sentence. the independent commission that oversees sentences changed the formula reducing when the present and past prisoners will save and shaving two years for drug offenses but people sentenced to life it means they will know freedom. part of the reason money. the u.s. spends $80 billion a year on prisons and they are over crowded. almost half of the inmates are there on drug charges. congress is considering lowering the penalties further but that has its critics. >> it's going to drive the crime rate up because these people are unfortunately they are going to go back many of them to what they did previously and that is victim the public selling poison drugs with heroin and crack and meth and poisons that destroy

people's lives. >> reporter: people who get out end up going back to prison and ford knows the challenges they are facing. >> with me in his life his support system he can go anywhere and say aa, you can call somebody i'm there and i'm going to be tied like this. i got to make sure he is right and definitely be good, i promise you that, he is going to have no choice but to do the right thing. >> after 21 thinking there was no hope of freedom now he will have a chance to find out. patty with al jazeera, washington. well, still ahead in sports we meet the u.s. teenager raising the bar of the world gym championships and this is coming up, in a moment. ♪

♪ welcome back, government leaders in zimbabwe are looking for the sun to overcome electric shortages and powers in the home and traditional street lamps being replaced and we report on the campaign to overcome an energy crisis. >> continuous electricity short analyzes in zimbabwe have not stopped him from working. the 50 solar system he has for six months keeps him in busin s business. >> in my business. >> reporter: zimbabwe currently produces about 1,000 mega watts of electricity a day, half of what is needed and to try and

plug the gap leaders are telling them she has to buy a solar powered heater because electric ones are being phased out. >> i don't think people will be able to afford looking at and people have been laid off jobs and it's not available. >> reporter: 100 liter water hearing cost 400 after installation and the lifetime is four years before some maintenance is needed. >> likely to serve 300 or more mega waters of electricity consumption and if we go solar it means we will serve 60% of what we pay for the energy. >> poor families are being told they can buy imported heaters at a government subsidized price which will be announced soon. >> we are working with both india and china but also with the countries outside those regions. we are waiting with european

countries and in particular germany because of the good technology in the solar sector but we are working with countries and would welcome any investments into the energy sector. >> reporter: this current energy crisis is partly being caused by low water levels in the hydroelectric dams and aging power stations. regular power cuts mean they do not always work and being replaced by solar ones and eventually all major highways will have them. estimated 8 million of zimbabwe 13 million people don't have access to electricity. using more solar energy could change that. government officials are hoping the energy crisis will be solved within the next three years. harry with al jazeera. all right it's time to catch up with all the sport. >> thank you very much australia and new zealand rugby holding

final training sessions and will face off with the rugby world cup and this is the only change for the match and both nations have won two world cups previously but this is the first time they met in the final itself and coach miker checker has conspiracy claims he has been deliberately refusing to call them all blacks in the bid to make them seen less intimidating. >> and we bit off the fashion australia is australia and new zealand is new zealand and it's a fight against nations and can i say all that now for you? yeah, right, i can. hang on, ohhh, hold the guys. >> reporter: i'm intimated and will call them black and in

change and new zealand for the first team to successfully defend the trophy and expected to announce retirement after this match though he insists he has not made any decision on his future just yet. >> i really want to play this weekend and want to play this tournament and now this weekend the best i can and still do the same things you do if you play for years and don't think this is the last time and last time and has not entered my mind at all this week and that i'm going to have to have a good reflect on things after this but i want to do this week right. >> in the same week suspended by the international olympic committee anicka -- and in kuwait it is revoked after they denied a visa and more pressure on one of the most senior members of the ioc and fifa,

kuwait suspended by both organizations due to government interference. the turkish football federation has an investigation after refugees were held hostage after a controversial decision in a top tier match and they ordered they be locked in after failing to award the home side a penalty in the draw. and he said he only allowed their release several hours later after a call from turkey's president erdiwan. soccer season in the united states is reaching its climax for the start of the playoffs and it began with an absolutely dramatic launch with kansas city and portland the home team took the lead in the second half and kansas to equalize and in extra time and kansas took the lead

and brilliant from christie and timbers turn to level in the 118th minute and that meant penalties and this is when this happen, kansas defender salon seeing his spot kick go everywhere apart across the line and up to the goal keepers to settle it and portland with a crazy scoring his penalty and then saving timothy's efforts and through to the western conference semi finals and will play the vancouver whitecaps. on saturday the biggest game in african clubfoot ball will take place and will host tp of the democratic republic of congo in the first leg of the african champion's league final and the first time the u.s. has reached the final in the 78 year history, however it's the second successive season that a club side reached this stage and this is winning the champion's league just last season.

well appearance in the final comes at a time when nigeria football is flushishing at the club and international level and the first time algeria football made an impact on the stage is 1982 in spain where they beat west germany in the group stages and improved on the performance at the 2014 world cup in brazil reaching the knock out stages for the very first time and taking winners germany to extra time in the last 16 and as a result nigeria moved to 19th in the fifa ranking and the top side and clubs enjoyed resent success and mentioned them and became the first algerian team to play in the world cup last year in morocco and now u.s. and hoping to become the northbound second club in two seasons to win the african champion's league. >> translator: preparation has gone very, very well and are all focused on this match which is historic for the club and all

like it so for the moment all goes well. >> reporter: now, american simone has become the first woman to win three consecutive titles at the world gymnastics and dominated the women's individual all around final as well, the 18-year-old overcame stumbles during the beam and floor routines to take the gold metal ahead of the reigning olympic champion and gabby has not lost a meet of any kind in more than two years and one of the favorites at next year's rio olympics. i'm sure you will be hearing lots more about the rio games but that is all your sport from now from me. >> thanks and stay with us on al jazeera we have another full bulletin of news coming up, in just a couple of minutes and of course there is our website al jazeera.com.

>> tough that the country gave up on me. >> look at the trauma... every day is torture. >> this is our home. >> nobody should have to live like this. >> we made a promise to these heroes... this is one promise americans need to keep.

♪ a done deal after wrangling well in the early hours of the morning and congress approving a two-year budget deal with a show down of the white house. convicted rapist the target of a six-day manhunt killed in a shoot out with police. the biggest one-time prisoner release ever, the justice department sets people free from u.s. prisons. plus praying for their coach, the high school football assistant coach suspended for leading after game prayers shows up at his team's latest game, his stance is creating a rift inside and outside the school. ♪