>> 41 people are killed in two suicide blasts in a hezbollah stronghold in southern beirut. hello there i'm felicity barr and you're watching al jazeera live from london. also coming up: [ explosion ] >> sinjar offensive, claim i.s.i.l. is retreating after a majority supply line breach between iraq and syria. former head of athletics

should resign. conspiring to import cocaine. hello at least 41 people have been killed and more than 200 injured when two suicide blasts rocked the lebanese capital, beirut. the explosions happened almost simultaneously. striking a shia community center and a nich nearby bakery in thee southern section of the city. right knew there has been no claim of responsibility for those bombings. lebanon's health minister said unexploded suicide vest was also found at the scene. >> translator: the number of those killed exceeds 30 and the number of those injured exceeds 200. a number of those suffered severe injuries and a number of

them died in hospital. body parts of suspected suicide bombers have been found. we might have escaped an extra catastrophe because the suicide bomb of a third did not explode. >> zeina khodr has an update. >> suicide bombers were involved. approached the area on a motorcycle. got off their motorcycles. the first one deb detonated abot 500 meters from where we are standing. then debt necessitated right outside this shia shrine. people are picking up human remains on electricity poles. there's a scene of carnage, wherever you look you see blood on the side of the street.

as you mentioned this is a crowded area, are popular marketplace. beirut may be considered a stronghold of hezbollah, in fact it is a stronghold of hezbollah but the clear targets were civilians. there is a lot of anger but at the same time there is a lot of people here say if they were sending a message to us we received that message but we remain defiant. our stance is not going to change. we will continue to support the group. >> more support when and if we get it. captured several villages from the islamic state of iraq and the levant. after capturing sinjar, the town is of strategic importance to control i.s.i.l. raqqa and sinjar, crucial to the

area. when i.s.i.l. captured the town in august last year they killed thousands of yazidi men and kidnapped the women and girls. those who escaped fled to sinjar mountain. imran khan reports. >> overnight coalition strikes hit i.s.i.l. strongholds in and around sinjar town. the operation is on the south, the west and the east. iraqi commander is confident they will prevail. >> today it is our duty to liberate sinjar, this is the duty of every iraqi citizen. god willing we will help people return to their homes. >> while the morale is high, the operation is not easy. kurdish regional president will

monitor progress. sinjar is considered kurdish territory and success here will be seen as victory against i.s.i.l. but i.s.i.l. fighters have proved themselves to be knowledge strong. when the armed groups control the town, it killed between 3 and 5,000 yazidi men according to rights organizations. that pushed the u.s. to launch air strikes in iraq and a month later into syria. if this operation is successful it could cut off i.s.i.l.-held raqqa in syria and mosul in iraq. denying them critical supply routes. use them as a staging post for final push but it's not clear if that will happen in the coming days. i.s.i.l. fighters have dug themselves in and are prepared

for a long fight. imran khan, al jazeera, erbil. >> rebel held town in the north of syria forcing the rebels to flee. earlier this week, syria's army fought its way into an air base breaking a nearly two year siege by i.s.i.l. and freeing military personnel hold up inside. well i promise you we would bring you upstairs on our main story, that is those suicide bomb attacks in beirut. al jazeera's zeina khodr is live at the scene of one of those blasts. zeina just update us with what is exactly happening at the scene right now. >> reporter: well as you can see they have sealed the area off. the lebanese army is now here trying to gather any kind of evidence on who was responsible. they do know that there were two

suicide bombers, this is what security sources have been telling us. and they detonated their explosives just minutes apardon. apart and these bombers were not far apart. this is a residential area, a civilian area, popular market, stores, shopping area, it was busy at the time of the attack. people were out shopping. i've been talking to peep here and there's anger, there's a sense of defiance but there's also fear. these young men they all live in this neighborhood. and what they've been telling me is yes, of course we're scared. we're scared that we're going to see more of these attacks. we have to remember that this is not the first time we've seen an explosion in beirut's southern suburbs and that civilians have been targeted but they stopped. there is there was a time when it was very frequent but it was over a year and a half. the people here fear that this

is just going to happen again and again. at the time, the lebanese army, as well as hezbollah, they imposed a lot of security measures in this area setting up checkpoints but it is very hard to stop people who are intent on killing and to stop a suicide bomber who arrived on a motorcycle. as you see there are so many side roads it is very easy to get to this area. this is not the palestinian camp. the palestinian camp is right next to this area. so this is some may call it the hezbollah stronghold but it is a place where hezbollah supporters live. and peel here feel that it's a message that somebody wanted to retaliate against hezbollah for its position in the syrian conflict. undoubtedly many believe that this is a spillover of the syrian conflict. >> zeina khodr live there from the scene of one of those two bombing blasts in beirut.

thank zeina. recommended that the former head of the russian athletics federation, are resign as the committee executive. it follows the monday report of the world andy-doping agency. vladimir putin has ordered an internal investigation. but his athletes still face being suspended from next year's olympics. with me now is al jazeera correspondent lee wellings. tell us about the recent apply of the russian athletics. >> russian athletics sent its reply in the time ademanded by the world andy doping association. they will admit some things but also overall they will try to prove innocence. i think what they're trying to do is put a spotlight on

individuals, people who infiltrated the system. almost making themselves feel like victims not just perpetrators. in doing this you can move away from that big accusation of state sponsored doping. we've seen the response from vladimir putin. i think they will really want to make sure that they are looking to root out any problems and that they themselves understand some of the accusation accusatit have come their way. >> so that's the latest that we're layering from russia on the matter of doping. but we're expecting to hear from the iaaf on friday. >> that's right. in monaco. so they have not received this report, within the past couple of hours they have received this report. they will need proper time to digest it. that's why the meeting, a virtual meeting that links together the parties, they will have a discussion about it in the evening then look at whether they'll have a suspension, it's

going to be very difficult for them not to suspend russia, what i do maintain is will they see them ban russian athletics through to the olympics next year, they will try to look for a way to reintegrate russia before that time. they'll look for a way to get russia back into the being competition, that's what they'll look for there. >> lee wellings, thank you. people thought to have done in that twin suicide bombing we're hearing that the islamic state of iraq and the levant, i.s.i.l. has now claimed responsibility for those attacks in beirut. i.s.i.l. says it was behind the twin suicide bombings in beirut, the lebanese capital in which 41 people are thought to have died. many more items still to come, being raid that left one

palestinian man dead. and we'll thoad a remote south pacific island creating a buzz about salting the world's honey bee crisis.

>> hello again welcome back. a reminder of the top stories on al jazeera. 41 have been killed and at least 200 injured in a double suicide attack in the lebanese capital beirut. i.s.i.l. has claimed responsibility. a huge offensive has been undertaken to retake the iraqi

town of sinjar. olympic committee recommends the former russian athletics head valentin resign. health officials in the west bank, security camera footage those the israeli forces entering the al ali hospital. a warning some images are disturbing. >> reporter: have a look to the second row to the left. what looks like a man dressed in an abaya, and someone else disguised as a pregnant woman. the lead doctor says that's the deploy the elite israeli unit used to get in. >> so what do you think when a unit of undercover security raid a hospital? they came undercover not even as soldiers to arrest one of the patients, who was lying injured in his bed. the crime even became uglier

when they surprised the companion of the patient and shot him with five bullets and executed him in the hospital. >> reporter: the companion it turns out was the patient's cousin. abdalla al shelalda died of his wounds. the suspect is then wheeled out to the surgical unit. he is accused of stabbing an israeli man. his brother was in the room at the time. >> translator: the first thing they did was to handcuff my hands to a bed. abdalla was walking out of the bathroom as he was preparing to pray. the undercover security man asked him to stand at his place and as he was looking at them they shot him. >> reporter: but that version differs from earlier reports which say abdalla was trying to stop the arrest, at the time ef was shot. at the time he was shot. emotions in the city of hebron are already very strained. the last few weeks have been marked by protests and reprisal

attacks from both sides. separating facts from opinions, or even emotions, isn't straightforward. news of the raid is spreading. there's been a somewhat muted from the israeli side although i.t. has confirmed that the arrest did take place. imoku molu al jazeera. >> for years i.t. has been held up as the most generous european country for taking in refugees, since then, sweden needs to take order to its asylum system to stop people staying illegally. everyone who crosses the border will now have to show identification. >> this is not a fence. we need to have control over what people come into sweden because it's a matter of both the border control but also that you have to identify irs on then

the ferry before you enter the ferry. this is a problem for the european union, we need to manage it together. >> the razor wire offense going up in slovenia as a way to control the influx of refugees. slovenia is rejecting a formal complaint from croatia that the barrier encroaches on its territory. well, amazing things happen on the site of a summit in malta, dealing from one continent to another. the u.n. estimates around 1 million economic migrants and refugees will arrive by sea this year. so far, over 100,000 have made the crossing by sea from middle

east to malta. economics that cause some people to leave south africa. some say this amount of money isn't enough. lawrence lee errors. >> reporter: this is europe's offer to africa, 2 billion in cash, signed solemnly by the eu's leaders. in return they expect african nations to help repatriate many thousands who europe sees as economic migrants rather than refugees. even hungary's prime minister signed it. even with some of a smirk. but he had already made clear what many europeans think, africans should be made to stay out of europe. >> migration is not a win win situation from those countries from where they are coming, it is a lose lose situation and we don't speak openly about it. so we should change the language of the discussions and do not consider migration as a positive

thing because it is totally against the impression of the european citizens. >> yet as africa's leaders arrived it became clear how much europeans are offering and what africa says it needs. between two continents on crucial issues like agriculture in which western giants have undermined local economies. based on that, 2 billion euros look to many like chicken feed. >> translator: it's not enough. 1.8 billion euros is far from enough. the needs are far greater. that's why we've requested our partners to participate more money and above that we don't want just aid, we want reform. >> reporter: it's become abundantly clear just how differently europe and africa see the crisis. african leaders here in malta have reminded their hosts how

much of the world europeans colonized for money. in a way, holding out against europe in all this looks a little like revenge. african countries traditionally have found themselves overpowered in trade negotiations from european money and influence but not here. the african delegations here knew for once this was in the a crisis for africa but for europe about that seems to have given them courage to demand more. also, when the leak was made of the monetary plan, what africa wanted most, in repatriation, africa was getting its own back. >> the start of a longer term engagement where europe givers something and gets something in return. but no absolutely, one can thought say they achieved this goal and this goal was one of the main planks of what european negotiators came here for today.

>> you could say this is start of something better for africa, something might come out of all this tragedy. but if europeans are genuine not wantinwanting africans to come,y have to do more. lawrence lee, malta. burundi, pierre nkurunziza made a rebid for power. al jazeera's catherine soy is in bujumbura and sent this update. >> the military and the police have been in this neighborhood, have been conducting door to door searches. they have also settle up set up checkpoints. the atmosphere in parts of the city is very intense. people are afraid they've left their homes and gone to safer

neighborhoods. bodies have been found in the streets, rivers, bushes, almost everywhere, some security forces, government officials are however also been tart targeted. the government says it's trying to stem out a growing rebellion, escalating violence has been brought to the u.n.'s attention and this is taking an ethnic dimension they also worry about the progovernment youth group whose members have been accused of carrying out some of the atrocities. the government here is down playing concerns, officials we talked to said all is well the government is doing its job and just trying to keep the country safe. and any other country doing same would not get as much international condemnation. >> two of the venezuelan president's nephews have been indicted in the united states of drug charges. coming at a sensitive time for

nicholas maduro facing election in three weeks time. >> reporter: there has been no reaction from the venezuelan mission in the u.s. the white house spokesman confirmed that the two were in custody. the dea had taken the action they did on tuesday. he would not confirm them. except for a tweet just after midnight on the official account and it actually read neither attacks nor imperial ambushes will affect, we have one rming , victory. eventually returned to venezuela but maduro at that time said this was nothing more than a u.s. plot to undermine his government.. given time between the arrests and the election we may think

nicholas math roe play make that connection this time around as well when he make mitigation ang officiaanofficial statement if r does. >> thousands of eanl of 18th auy protesters. >> it is a wakeup calm for syriza. many people thought the party ignored their worker on the left. unemployment is stuck at just under 25% and many don't believe the party's promises to reduce poverty. syriza is cutting $5 billion from the budget next year as the economy continues to shrink. half of that is to come from pensions and no group of

pensioners is more worried than the self employed because their fund the bankrupt. >> translator: the problem is broader policy, when small businesses are closing and professionals find themselves on the street the pension fund can't gather enough contributions. >> being almost 60% of their pay goes to taxes and social security. the highest margin in the developed world. like many self employed people, sophia has fallen behind in payments and is trying catch up. >> translator: i don't know if i will ever have a reward for money i'm paying now. it's as though i'm throwing it down a sewer. if there were a choice would i opt for private insurance without question. >> reporter: these are both at this march unhappy at work and retirement. a year ago the labor unions were behind syriza. they thought the left was greece's best chance of breaking the vicious cycle of spending

cuts ant recession. it's not just pensions, syriza promised no new taxes and promised pensions of $800 a month. now that it's given in, unions are falling against it. he thinks the government should crack down on undeclared labor. >> you can't cut pensions and allow 6 billion euros worth of contributions to go uncollected since last year. that's the size of contribution evasion right now. businesses are in arrears to the system. if someone works 25 days a month, they declare 15 days worth of contributions. >> but peenlszing imloishes could lead to severity without justice. pushing grease down to unemployment. john siropolous, al jazeera,

athens. >> honey bees, migh mite diseasd modern agriculture are killing them off. one bee keep are thinks he might find a solution to the looming crisis. >> east of the international date line, newwith way, hidden away in the frerts are hive forf honey. >> 99% of bee keepers in the world would cry to see these bees like this. they won envious of abuse hives just ticking along. >> can you do that even with a mask on. that's crazy. >> they're happy. >> and he's producing a range of organic honey products to fund his dream. a bee sanctuary he says newway

has the perfect climate to breed calm clean bees. >> you've got the right kind of island. if you go too small you can't get the scale up. if you go to large, this is the perfect size island for this project. >> new aim is isolated. the nearest country from here is 300 kilometers away which is why a bee sanctuary could work. >> the leader of newa k due to a small workforce and long shipping routes. >> if we need to borrow money to ensure that in fact we can accelerate the process we'll do that. i think all ways around we're talking to them about the possibilities of becoming joint venture partners. critics say newway is cyclone prone. newway want scientists to come

here to experience the buzz for themselves. drew ambrose, al jazeera, newway. >> can you see more on the bees, facts at 2230, for more news go to our website, aljazeera.com. with spectacular landscapes- new zealand is a pristine paradise- ranked the freest country on earth. but this south pacific nation has the second highest imprisonment rate in the western world.