the last british prisoner

has been released after more than a decade in guantanamo bay. also russia again thwarts plans to create the world's largest ocean sanctuary in antarctica. syrian government jets have fired rockets into a market near damascus, killing 61 people, dozens more have been injured. it happened in the rebel-held suburb of duma which is often targeted by government forces to counter rocket attacks. in august 1, '17 people were killed in a single day of air strikes in the town, causing a global outcry. well it's the latest carnage to unfold in syria as talks are held between the foreign powers backing the rival sides. iran which supports the president bashar al-assad is involveder for the first time. it and russia are trying to close gaps with the u.s. and key

gulf allies, like saudi arabia. mohammed jamjoom is there, and joins us live. what has been going on? what have we heard from the key players? >> reporter: barbara the silence, really from the hotel behind us where the talks are being held is deafening at this hour. about three hours ago it was expected that the french foreign minister would emerge from those talks from the plenary session and -- and address the media here, and that never happened and we have not gotten any updates inside as to why. it seems to suggest, really, that these talks who everybody who is here has suggested they would be difficult, but it seems to suggest they have maybe even more difficult than these diplomats thought they would be. it's a very big deal that iran is here for the first time.

iran being one of the primary backers, alongside russia, they are now in a room sitting across the table from their regional arch rival, saudi arabia, which along with the u.s. and turkey and so many other countries here back the opposition. we haven't heard what is going on inside, but a short while ago there was a rather medium-sized protest going on outside. there were dozens of syrian opposition activists calling for the removal of bashar al-assad from power. they have since left the area. they were moved away from the hotel by police, they were here about an hour and a half and then they left. we're expecting u.s. secretary of state john kerry will be possibly briefing the press within the next couple of hours. we were also told by some of the diplomats that secretary kerry and his russian counterpart may

hold a meeting later today. there are questions of whether these meetings will continue into tomorrow. barbara. >> mohammed jamjoom reporting there. thank you. ♪ two boats carries refugees from turkey have sank off of the coast of greece. at least 22 people, including 11 children drowned in the sea. more than 100 people were rescued from the water. greece's prime minister says he feels ashamed to europe's response to the ongoing refugee crisis. >> translator: i want to say as a european a leader, i feel

shame for the ineffectiveness of dealing with this crisis and the quality of the debate. today the waves of the aegean aren't just washing up dead refugees and children, they are wiping out european civilization itself. many refugees fleeing conflict in their home countries are still continuing to risk their lives. >> reporter: these people are heading for athens and a perilous track on foot across the balkans, but right now they are relieved that they crossed dangerous water from turkey in these rubber dinghies. most are refugees needing international protection. still waiting for his travel documents is this afghan. he paid the price of working as

an interpreter for u.s.-coalition forces by being hunted down by the taliban. >> the taliban, they came and shoot bullets in front of my home, and they put a letter on my door. when my dad got the letter, my dad told me because of you, i told you don't work with these guys, and because you worked with these guys, because of you my life and my family's life is in risk. take the money and get out of here. >> reporter: he has waited for two years for an american visa. he can wait to more. but the process here is bureaucratic and slow. this camp built for 1500 is overrun by more than twice that many. they now spill over barbed wire fences into the surrounding olive groves. only children manage to escape briefly from these daily

realities. this is greece's first e.u. hot spot where new arrivals are screened. there's room for about 10,000 people in camps like this across the country. but greece has now been forced to raise that capacity to 50,000, most of it in government-built temporary shelters. the remainder in private housing. the reason is that'sern european countries are overwhelmed by the convoys of thousands, prompting some to shut their borders. greek migration ministers says european leaders were pressing greece to do more. >> translator: instead of the 60,000 positions in one camp that they were asking of us, and which in reality would be more like a concentration camp, we succeeded to get approval for 20,000 places of temporary residences. >> reporter: the greater the surge in refugees trying to beat the onset of winter, the greater the risk to free movement.

john psaropoulos al jazeera. the situation is not improving for refugees heading further into europe. there have been more chaotic scenes on the boarder between slovenia and austria. thousands of asylum seekers have been trying to climb overbarriers. they have trying to transfer people away from the area. even after scenes -- we have just seen them on tv, the scenes during the day, what is the situation at the moment? is it any calmer? do you get the sense refugees are passing through any faster than they were? >> reporter: at this moment, the situation here is much calmer, much better than it was this morning and especially yesterday, but still very, very tense. people are crossing the border

in smaller groups, by ten, 20 people, but the intensity is very, very slow, so the number of people is not decreasing here at the border between slovenia and austria. at this moment on the slovenian side there are more than 3,000. half of them are outside waiting to cross the board we are austria. official information says that from 7:00 am until this moment, more than 3,000 people crossed the austrian border, but influx of people is constant, so the number is not decreasing entire day. people are nervous. people are exhausted. many are sick. we saw people fainting. we saw medical help providing for them and the situation is

not good. there's lacking of -- people are lacking of food, lacking of water, blankets, tents, and the minor incident happened this morning when people tried to break the fence and enter austria by using force, but nothing dramatic as it was last night, not a problem for the people for the refugees will be the better condition, the temperature as the night falls is getting down, so that will be definitely not a big problem. >> absolutely. even we have seen thousands of people make their way in austria for months now. before they used to come through hungary, now it's a different root, but they were reaching austria anyway, so what is the explanation for the delays that we are seeing now? >> reporter: well, officially

they say everything is under control, and they are doing their best to solve this refugee crisis, but the director accusing germany, because they say that german authorities are allowing only 50 refugees every one hour to cross the austrian and slovenian boarder. austria says they have the capacity to transport people from this location from the border to germany, but that would create another problem for themselves on the border with germany, and at this moment, they don't want to do that -- do do that, barbara. >> thank you. more than 50 people have been killed in 48 hours of intense fighting around the southern yemeni city. locals say houthi rebels have deployed snipers in area under their control, and civilians are increasingly being killed in the

cross fire. meanwhile efforts to find a political solution have failed. some viewers may find the images in this report disturbing. >> reporter: this is one of the latest casualties in yemen's war of attrition. she is 7 years old, and doesn't understand why grown ups are killing each other in her hometown of ta'izz. >> translator: i was playing on the street. i was shot in the leg with a bullet. >> reporter: it's a tough job for mothers to explain to children what are snipers and why they shoot at anything that moves. >> translator: my sister and her son were both shot by snipers. she was hit in her stomach and the child in his leg. today my daughter was also shot as she was playing outside. >> reporter: people in ta'izz say hundreds have died in weeks of intense fighting.

they say they have gained ground, but the houthis have deployed snipers on hills overlooking areas they control. >> translator: they have tanks, artillery, and heavy weapons. we are just armed with our conviction that we will prevail. we will continue to hold our ground. >> reporter: with no signs of a letup in the fighting. diplomating attempts also seem to be falling apart. the head of the houthis political committee is criticizing the u.n. envoy. back in ta'izz, snipers kill again. her husband says she was shot dead from a houthi-controlled area. women and children are vulnerable in any conflict, in yemen, too, they are paying the

highest prize. still much more to come on the program, including chinese parents are now allowed to have more children, but do they want to? a mixed reaction to the end of the policy. and the solar power startup that are keeping zimbabweans in business.

>> -- let's listen to what he minister has to say. >> we have decided to meet again within two weeks. as far as france is concerned, we shall do all that is possible to go in the direction of peace and security of syrian people because they deserve it. thank you.

>> that was the french foreign minister speaking there. he was saying that they will discuss obviously the situation in syria, doing all they can to restore peace in the country, because the people there obviously deserve peace and security and stability. a lot of countries present at those talks in vienna, france one. of course the u.s., and for the first time iran. of course that doesn't take away from any of the divisive issues that the countries have between them, notably what is to happen to bashar al-assad, whether he is to stay in some kind of transitional phase or not. we'll bring you more on that meeting in vienna. we can see there, the e.u. foreign policy chief. let's see if she -- it seems she is going to address the press as well. >> very long, very substantial meeting. we tacked mayor issues on the table. you will see the common

statements, but we found common ground to continue talks. come back to that. i would say that this meeting was definitely not an easy one, but for sure an historical one, as we had for the first time all of the actors around the table, and i would say a very constructive atmosphere, and i would like to express my thanks to all of those that took difficult decisions to come and sit together at this table, and i believe we have some common grounds on which we can build in the future. so there is hope for a political process to start under the u.n. auspices and with all of us coming together again. i thank you very much. >> e.u. foreign policy chief.

she said that they did find common ground to continue talking at any rate. she said it wasn't an easy meeting, but certainly an historical one, as she mentioned all actors are at the table, and by that i'm sure she meant iran which attends these sorts of meeting for the first time to try to find a solution to the civil war in syria. mohammed jamjoom will be following all of those developments. we'll bring you more on what the leaders have been discussing when we get more information here on al jazeera. well, it's been one month exactly since russia has become involved in syria's war. it has launched over a thousand air strikes in the past 30 days, and says that isil is the target. our correspondent takes a look at what is at stake for moscow. russia didn't start the war in syria, but may be trying to

finish it. for one month, russian jets have been bombing areas across the country. >> translator: we will support the syrian army, only in its legitimate fight specific list against terrorist groups. >> reporter: 30 days and more than a thousand air strikes later, military analysts are still trying to determine who putin defines as terrorists. on one hand russia says it is going after isil fighters. while some of its air strikes have hit isil areas, many haven't. the united states, which is also bombing isil in syria isn't convinced about the isil line. >> assad has really chosen himself to fight isil. >> 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, buba the designation wasn't. moscow is a long-time ally.

assad admitted he was running out of 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 appear to 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 hospitaling being hit, russian tactics are also under scrutiny. >> what they are doing is if they have a target they think they need to hit, they are not worried about the collateral damage, and hitting hospitals and silling innocent civilians is something they have been doing 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 isil fighters, but from groups fighting the syrian government. the last british resident to be held in guantanamo bay has been freed. he had been held there for 13 years, and during the last eight years, he was cleared for release twice. he flew back to the u.k. today. >> reporter: after more than 5,000 days inside guantanamo bay, he was finally back on british soil. flown back to an airport on the edge of london, a moment his family and campaigners had longed for. >> he will have a mix of

euphoria, because he was never sure this was going to happen. and at the same time there is this crashing back down to earth where he has to figure out all of the things that are wrong with him physically. he is going to then have to start rebuilding his relationship with the family, where he hasn't seen his wife for 14 years, and he hasn't seen his kids since they were very small and he has never met one at all. >> reporter: he was never charged with anything. he was detained in afghanistan in 2001 while working for a charity. in 2002 he was transferred to guantanamo bay. by 2007, the bush administration had cleared him for release. still in custody in 2009 when the obama administration also cleared him for release. he went on hunger strikes several times, one of the many prisoners to protest in this way. campaigners say he was held in

appalling conditions sometimes in solitary confinement and allege he was baent. his release comes after years of relentless campaigning by his family and supporters. he now has to try to rebuild his life. it's expected he'll be reunited with his family including one child born during the initial stage of his incarceration. his release comes after more than 13 years inside the world's most notorious prison. many will be asking how and why it took so long to free him. israel has agreed to release bodies of palestinians who died in recent fighting. all were killed in hebron in the occupied west bank. on friday israeli forces shot another two palestinian at a check point in the occupied west bank. israeli police say that they opened fire after the men tried to stab a policeman. one of the palestinian has died

and the other is in critical condition. 67 palestinians and 9 israelis have died since the beginning of october. meanwhile israeli police have shot a palestinian accused of stabbing a student in jerusalem. stephanie decker has more now from west jerusalem. >> reporter: this is the first incident in two weeks in jerusalem where we have had according to the israeli police, they say a 23 year old from occupied east jerusalem area behind the separation wall in the occupied west bank but technically jerusalem's complicated area, but they say he stabbed a student. in that student is inned no rate condition. this happened on the line which separate west from occupied jest jerusalem in west jerusalem. and we had one of our al jazeera colleagues on the ground. he saw the latter half of what happened. he didn't see an attempted

stabbing. but he said he saw a young man lying on the ground who was then shot seven or eight times. a lot of these incidents have been happening in the occupied west bank. the latest wave started here in jerusalem and moved towards the west bank. this is the first time we have had an incident of this nature in the last two weeks. turkish voters are going back to the polls on sunday. after recent bomb attacks, fight inning with kurd separatists, and deepening economic concerns, some fear a similar outcome this time around. >> reporter: remote kurdish villages like this one in southeastern turkey have helped to keep the ak party in power for 13 years until june. that's when many voters switched to the people's democratic party, known by its the acronym, the hdp.

>> translator: the kurds who voted hdp did so because their approach was much different from the other parties. >> reporter: the party has broadened its appeal to include none kufrdish, left-wing, and minority voters. but it was hundreds of thousands of socially conservative kurds who put the hdp in parliament for the first time. >> translator: thank -- things changed when kobani happened. they have introduced the isil problem. we want peace not war. >> reporter: many kurdish former, a kp voters felt the government aban goned them by not intervening in the battle to save the border town of kobani. and since june there has been renewed fighting between the state and the pkk. the peace process the akp

brought about has unravelled. >> translator: all of these security operations by the state in the region made the kurds abandon the ak party. kurds are united. and this time the ak party has done nothing to appeal to and win the hearts of the kurds. >> reporter: the akp held its last preelection rally. the akp still has support in what is effectively the capitol of kurdish turkey. but in june its share of the vote was just 14%. a 20% drop from the previous poll. the high level of security may be one of the reasons the crowds are down, but even among those who have turned up, the mood is quite somber. you get the feeling there isn't the high level of enthusiasm there was the past election. chinese authorities have rejected a ruling made by an

international tribunal to take on a case over disputed territory in the south china sea. they have ruled it has jurisdiction to hear territorial claims filed by the philippines against china. some of the areas are expected to sit on vast undersea deposits of oil and gas. >> translator: this ruling was an inappropriate ruling made ignoring china's rights. you can see the philippines aim in pursuing the arbitration is not to resolve the dispute. it's aim is to deny china's right in the south china sea. new photos released by the u.s. space agency reveal even more detail about pluto and one of its five moons. the images were taken by nasa's new horizon spacecraft in july,

when it was 1.7 kilometers from the dwarf planet. the green shows unprecedented levels of ammonia surrounding a crater of the moon. it is now 3.1 billion miles from earth. more on the website. president obama is sending special forces to syria. the first full-time deployment of u.s. troops there. releasing exdrug offenders, thousands of federal prisoners are being set free starting today. why many will soon be deported. >> amen! >> amen! high school football assist important coach shows up at his teams latest game. how his stance is