this is the news hour. i'm nick clark. coming up, kurdish forces raise a huge flag in the iraq town of sinjaar to mark their victory over isil. u.n. looks at boosting its forces in brundi. concerns are growing that the violence there could spiral out

of control. >> and chop stick champions young and old prove their dexterity with the asian utensil. >> we begin in iraq where the kurdish regional president says fighters have taken control of the town of sinjaar. it was captured by isil last year and the group killed thousands of minority yazidis. it's a major supply route between the city of mosul and iraq. >> they've been arriving here since thursday hoping to go home to sinjaar town. this is one of the routes into

sinjaar and an important supply line. the news that kurdish forces have defeated isil and declared the town liberated in their words. like many here, abdul la wonders what he's going to find when he goes back. >> i just don't want to be here anymore. i want to find out what happened. i don't care whether my house is burnt to the ground. i just want to see my home. >> the kurdish pashmerga won't let people leave here because they say they need to clear and hold the town against isis. they parked car bombs in the area that they fled and that's a real problem. >> forces have declared a curfew in the villages saying they need to be clear and secure before anyone can return. that decision has angered many here who say they just want to go back to their homes.

>> why won't they let us through? i'm not a soldier but i'm wearing our military uniform to show solidarity with our troops. i don't want to live in the camps anymore. >> the offensive has cut off e ice -- the supply line for isis. >> without doubt, any victory will have a big impact on achieving victory in the remaining areas and without doubt the liberation on sinjaar will have a big impact on liberating mosul too, god willing. the u.s. says it's launched air strikes from syria targeting a british isis fighter known as jihada john. it's not confirmed that he was

killed. his accent made him instantly recognizable in a series of isil videos showing the murders of at least six hostages. in the last few hours, the u.k. prime minister praised the strike. >> he posed an ongoing and serious threat to innocent civilians not only in syria but around the world. and in the u.k. too. he was isils lead executioner. and let us never forget that he killed many, many muslims too. and he was intent on murdering many more people. so this was an act of self-defense. it was the right thing to do. >> the israeli military says two israelis have been shot dead in the occupied west bank.

it happened south of hebron. the army say they were travelling in a car when they were shot at from a vehicle driving by. let's hear now from west jerusalem. what more you got? >>reporter: well, according to the emergency medical services, the two people who died in this attack were a 40-year-old man and his 18-year-old son. now, it was an entire family that was traveling together in a van, an israeli family when this shooting happened. as we understand it, it was a drive-by shooting. some reports in the israeli newspaper say that the palestinian attacker was actually standing outside of the car but according to the military, it was a drive-by shooting that happened south of hebron, not inside the city, near a jewish settlement

>> and meanwhile, clashes in hebron today >> yes. the city is in a state of volatility since quite a while and it's really a microcosm of all that's cop happening in this conflict. during the clashes friday, one palestinian was wounded among others but this young man later died in hospital of the wounds he had sustained. just to give you an idea, this is over the tit for tat reaction going on in the city and they actually increase the conflict and intensity there, the anger there. earlier we were speaking to one of the residents of that city, a palestinian and he was saying that he saw no end in sight for what's going on. he thought that until settlers

are living among the palestinians and until the occupation continues, he sees no end in sight. he was actually very much afraid that this will increase in intensity. today's shooting, the use of gun fire is something that does not happen frequently but he did say there's a lot of weapons around and if this continues, certainly we will see it or he was afraid that there will be more kind of confrontation with gun fire, armed fires, and that, that would be a really dramatic escalation. so certainly there is a lot of worry among the pal -- palestinians and israelis living in that city. >> thank you very much. >> to myanmar to discuss the

transition of power. the national need for democracy party have gained control of both houses of parliament but an imparter of the seats are allocated to the military meaning it still will remain very influential. we have more now. >>reporter: just a few years ago, visiting the headquarters of the national league for democracy could have resulted in arrest. now it's the home of the party that will form the next government in myanmar. its members have been through so much at the hands of the army that ruled this country for 50 years that some cannot believe what's happening. >> i was arrested four times.

while i was in jail, i didn't even dream of one day -- >>reporter: sunday, the people came out in huge numbers and overwhelmingly showed they wanteded the country to take more steps towards democracy. >> in 2010, we had to sneak into the country to cover it. and then a few days later, five years ago, we were here outside of the nld lead re as she was released from her sentence of house arrest. >> now many of the same people who held her captive and tried sew hard to keep her and her party out of the picture are handing over control of the country. but she herself cannot become president because she has immediate family members who are foreign citizens. she has made it clear that she'll be calling

the shots though. the pressure will now be on her and her mps to deliver on campaigning for things like human rights. one of the biggest things facing the country is religious intoleran intoleran intolerance. >> we do not recognize the -- they are just muslims who came from bangladesh. so she'll try to solve the problem. >>reporter: clearly many challenges are ahead as the nld transitions to the government

we have an author for the washington post and says the first thing they'll try to improve is the economy. >>reporter: it's clearly a vined occasion of a very, very -- vindicatation. clearly a quarter of the seats are still reserved for the military and the parliament meaning the nld cannot actually completely dictate what happens. they have to work with the military and this means that as a result of that, the nld say they seem to be moving forward with a little bit of caution and being strategic and she has said she will not make a speech until she speaks with the the sitting president and the commander in chief who retains a lot of power. the candidates have been told

not to talk to the press. so there's a careful looking forward of what needs to ham but clearly the nld now gets to make the man date for change that it has policewomansed the people and it will approximate held to that and the first big thing they're really planning to look at i think is the economy. they have to start cleaning that up very fast. >> the outgoing u.n. envoy to lib libya he admits violating u.n. security council resolution on libya. he has recently been defending himself against allegations that his decision to accept a post heading a uae diplomatic academy is a conflict of interest. u.n. security council is drawing up plans to send peace keepers to brundi.

it adopted a draft resolution on thursday condemning killing, torture, and human rights violations. >> jane dutton spoke with him. >> there is much contingency planning just in case the situation deteriorates. we hope it does not. also the threat of -- has been dropped. but we only know we are very concerned. we find the resolution to be

balan balanced which, as you know, have been that we -- even in the process of that, we need to have awe dialogue that is more -- that is broader and more inclusive. and also both inside anticipate outside the country. >> before you even get to the point of dialogue, it's trying to quell the violence that's happening on the streets. very inflammatory language coming from some of your ministers. can you talk us through what's going on there? >> some of the words that have been qualified to be inflammatory were clarified later. it was a statement from the senate abe also from the government which clarified the comment made earlier on by the prince in brundi. we have called on the african union to see for themselves what is fog on in those neighborhoods where the police is conducting

the process. all right. much more still to come including an aging mobster walks out of the u.s. court a free man. >> in tunisia, the u.s. secretary of state is offering support to the embattled government. lebanon has declared a day of mourning after two bombs killed 43 people in beirut in suburbs controlled by hezbollah. >>reporter: one by one, the

victims of thursday's bombing were laid to rest. those killed were store owners, shoppers, or just passing by. they died in an attack that targeted the the base of the hezbollah movement. many say it is linked to hezbollah's decision to side with the syrian government and if the aim was to turn the people against the armed group, it didn't take long to show nothing has changed. >> personally, i was against hezbollah's decision to involve in syria but right now i'm convinced they were right no involve in syria. they are taking proactive action. they're not wait forking isis to come. >> officials have condemned the attacks. hezbollah has been criticized for sending thousands of fighters to support syrias

president. the bombings came at a time when the group is stepping up a lead role in the war. this is how many say hezbollah's enemies are retaliating. >>reporter: the intention was to kill as many civilians as possible. the area targeted was a residential neighborhood and a busy market. the bombs tore lives apart and now the fear is a repeat of a series of attacks in to 2013 and last year. then, like now, the victims were civilians, and the message hezbollah and its supporters are sending is the same. we will not back down. syrias government says it's

gained control of another town in aleppo province. the changes on the ground come as world leaders due to meet in vienna on saturday. >> these soldiers are marching to the town taking control here is important because it places them close to the lea. activists say the advance is being aided by russian and syrian jets. the offensive in the north of here is carefully chosen. the advance comes a day after the syrian military took over an air base in aleppo. it had been besieged by isil.

only one more town remains between government forces and the road to southern aleppo. >> fighters in aleppo continue to fend off the regime and prevent them from advancinadvan. we were engaged in fierce fighting that lasted more than ten hours. >> even if we wanted to, even if you made the worst deal with the devil as one says and said well that's what have you to do to try to make this process go

forward, i got news for you, it will not stop because there are those invested in what has happened and in what has been done to them. who see assad as the critical component of the transition. >> the government's strategy seems to be making head way in reestablishing in areas it once ruled. but much of syria still remains out of its control. john kerry is visiting tunisia where he's going to speak about u.s. support. >> the eyes of the world are on tunisia. and america wants tunisia to succeed. tunisia is where the arab spring

was born and it is where it distinctly continues to bloom in ways that are defining the possibilities for other countries in the region. >> here's more now from the capital, tunis. >>reporter: the u.s. and other countries like to talk about tunisia as a role model for the arab world. but john kerry's visit was brief and very short on talking about going forward. there was talk of military assistance in terms of hardware, helicopter, the sharing of drone intelligence. publicly, tunisian leadership are pushing for more help in creating jobs behind closed doors.

one in five young people here in tunisia are still out of work. and the gaps between the rich and poorer parties of the country still exist. tunisia -- were awarded the nobel peace prize just recently. but many tunisians want more than just money. they want reforms to tackle corruption and security here. director of the mine where the shootings happened. he's accused of pressuring the minister of police of taking action two nephews of the president of venezuela are being held without bail in the u.s. on drug

charges. they appeared in court in new york. alan fisher has more. >>reporter: this is the four-page indictment that the men face. they're accused of trying to import five kilograms or more of cocaine into the united states. the key words there or more because some reports it was as much as 800 kilograms. this was a sting operation. the men were invited invited to a hotel in haiti and there they were taken to the u.s. if convicted, both men face life in prison. there's been no official comment from the venezuelan mission in the united states. a question was asked at the white house briefing and it was confirmed that two men from

venezuela had been arrested but gave no more details. no official comment from venezuela but we had a tweet that said neither attacks nor imperial ambushes will -- the former head of the venezuelan intelligence services was arrested and the president said it was a plot to overthrow his government. so these arrests will not be accepted well by the government there. prosecutors allege that vincent osoro played a crucial role in a 1978 airport heist. >> it was the crime immortalize

in goodfellas. >> this is the biggest heist in american history. >>reporter: but on wednesday, nearly 40 years after the robbery took place, the only person to ever stand trial for it, aging mobster vincent osoro was acquitted. >> there was a hold up of historic proportions. >>reporter: off screen, the 1978 heist gripped the u.s. >> authorities are saying they believe this to be the largest robbery in american history. >>reporter: armed robberies broke into new yorks kennedy airport. investigators found an empty black van but not the robbers or the haul. >> 5 million in undocumented cash, a million in gems and jewelry, which today would be worth over $20 million. >>reporter: he spent his career covering the mob. >> the various mafia families

had big pieces of action at jfk, the airport. everybody was involved. the bonano family, the gambino family. so when the mastermind of the airport heist planned it, he had to give cuts to everybody. >>reporter: that alleged mastermind was jimmy burke, aka, jimmy the gent. >> never rat on your friends and always keep your mouth shut. >>reporter: burke died in 1996 in prison serving time for unconnected charges. but the mob's once secret code of silence has begun to crack. >> most of the people in this case were killed, bumped off, knocked off, or died naturally. he's one of the last survivors.

so longevity in the long run did him in. he was indicted last year also for the 1969 murder of a suspect informant. prosecutors claimed he helped forge the plan for the hold up and got a heftty cut. testifying against the 80-year-old, several alleged mobsters including his own first cousin. but in the end the jury decided there wasn't enough evidence. as the verdict was read he pumped his lips and kissed his attorney on the lips. >> i got two years here and i'm dying to get home. plenty more still ahead here on the news hour.

>> are miners across this region affected by the dodd-frank law? >> sourced from illegal mines. >> this is a serious problem. >> an undercover investigation reveals the real cost. >> there's no way of knowing what minerals are coming in. >> "faultlines". >> what do we want? >> al jazeera america's hard-hitting... >> today they will be arrested. >> ground-breaking... >> they're firing canisters of gas at us. >> emmy award-winning, investigative series.

kurdish forces have pushed isis out of sin jar. >> the israeli -- involved in

the operation including three factions in syria, kurdistan, and yazidi ethnic fighters. they're backed by the u.s. coalition. the pashemrgv have proved to be the most effective group against isil. let's speak to a former advisor to the iraqi government from london. welcome to the program, sir. this is on important development but still a long way to go >> indeed. i think this is the first strategic defeat for isil. the reason being as you reported, sinjaar is in the highway connecting mosul raqqa. so it's critical. i think it's going to have not

only psychological impact on isil but more importantly a military one. >> do you think the effort to take mosul will actually take place soon? you said it would take place soon and how difficult will it be? >> well, it's not meant to be easy. mosul is the second largest city in iraq. it's bordering the kurdish region. but this has been a strategy for the government. prayer to that they took tikrit. the significant one is cutting off supply lines to syria which is this time critical on the air and on the ground from the u.s. >> couldn't isil fighters bend the supply line by taking country roads and so forth?

>> under normal conditions, yes, but the u.s. has changed its position and there's been a lot of build up. it is not only providing air cover and attacks. it's providing advisors on the ground. it's working very closely with the pashmerga and there are other tribal forces working with the pashmerga so i think there's more coordination than other. there's a clear leadership and there's a lot of intelligence building up in spite of of a bigger operation that's going to unfold in weeks to come. >> however, it is right to say, isn't it, that in previous cases where isil has been ousted from a stronghold, they have come up with a counteroffensive. >> it's true. i think the root causes of isil's strength has not been addressed yet. isil has benefitted a lot for

regional powers. each power has its own agenda and never coordinated and this is i think the first time you see a higher level of coordination which contributed to this defeat. the root cause of their strength has not been addressed here. they have endless supplies of volunteers and a lot of resources and territory. but the defeat they suffered in sinjaar is significant and can lead to further defeats i think in upcoming battles >> thank you very much indeed for your perspective on this. the president of france says there will be another european summit this time with turkey to discuss the number of refugees from the middle east. at least $600,000 in turkey so far this year. >> it was decided that there would be a european council organized with turkeys

involvement so we can reach a plan of action and commitments can be made from both sides and resources can be made available for basic means to survive. >> meanwhile, leaders of slovenia and croatia have met to discuss security measures on their border. germany's decision to -- integrating new arrivals. a new scheme has already been announced. barnaby phillips has more. >>reporter: he is a young man determined to learn. he walked across nine countries to get to germany from pakistan.

he wants to be an engineer. thanks to a new online university specifically intended for refugees his dream is not an impossible dream. >> i can really contribute to the community. i can design a new feature for them. that's why i say help them help themselves. >>reporter: it's called kiron university. it already has more than a thousand refugee students. >> i'm 25 years old from somolia. my profession back home was a social worker. currently i'm a refugee in germany. >>reporter: these are the people who have made it happen, the team behind it. with crowd funding and grants

from donors, they can offer it for free. >> i could really make change and maybe enable thousands of people to study and maybe have something they can look forward. >>reporter: refugee students who spend first two years learning german and studying online will be allowed to come here in their third year provided they pass the right exams and eventually will qualify for a full degree. if refugees are to do well and integrate in german society, they need access to institutions like these, the universities that give people the skills and confidence to succeed in a sophisticated economy. so one challenge for the authorities is to open up these institutions in an affordable way but one that maintains high academic standards.

today's students are tomorrows architects, computer scientists, and engineers. germany needs more people with all these skills. educating refugees could bring enormous rewards. people have been protesting in the capital of haiti ahead of a presidential runoff. the credibility of the results are being questioned. eight candidates have called for an investigation into the the poll results. students have fought with riot police in napals in italy. they were protesting against education reforms. he wants to boost powers to head teachers and give tax breaks to private schools. two students were arrested and ones taken to the hospital.

the protest was billed as a million student march but it turned out to be much more than expected. students taking to the streets with a message that higher education has become an expensive business and they're being left holding the bill. tuition at u.s. colleges on average is now $32,000 a year, 40 million americans now have student loans and total student loan debt in america has more than doubled this last decade to $1.2 trillion. they want all public colleges to be tuition free. a cancellation of all student

debt and a minimum wage raised to $15 million. but some say the cost of government would be prohibited in the u.s. and doesn't address all the problems. >> it doesn't address all the costs associated which include living expenses, fees, books. and when americans normally think about going to university, they think about all these costs. tuition is just a small part of it. rallies were held across america, organizers fell far short of meeting their goal of 1 million people but the underlying issues they're fighting for have been goating more attention. >> we have hundreds of thousands of young people in this country in a moment where we're living in a highly competitive global economy who cannot afford to go to college. millions more are graduating deeply in debt. >> earlier this year, the president barack obama proposed

no tuition for entry level community colleges but it's yet to get past congress and even in small numbers, students are trying to build a movement to pressure for change in an education system they say favors the wealthiest at the expense of everyone else. 110 companies in china are facing penalties for not reducing pollution. chinas environment watch dogs say they failed to follow orders. china is one of the world's biggest emitters of green house gases. emergency water restrictions put in place in south africa. people have been asked to stop watering their gardens during the day to reuse bath water, and to take shorter showers. the country's main water supply has been hit by the worst

drought in three decades. six of nine provinces have been hit by the drought, three of them declared disaster zones. this machine is called the water from air. something new in south africa. >> we cool the air down, suck it into the machine, and then it goes through a filtration and sanitization process without chemicals and we're literally drinking yesterday's humidity. >> it could be a long term solution as taps run dry. >> the situation is very bad. actually critical. lots of residents don't even have tap water. >> we don't know how long it's going to take.

>> the larger unit holds up to 1,500 liters a day. they cost between $2,080,000 which is expensive for the poor majority. experts say they're working with entrepreneurs looking at ways to make the technology affordable. technology that is available in the market particularly that can be sustainable to our people so they're able to pay for it but also those that do not have money to pay for water, they can be able to be in the poverty stricken areas. people living in rural areas are most at risk. >> a lot of dams across south africa look like this. government officials say things could get much worse. water rationing will likely continue until the dry spell

continues. >> stay with us. sport is on its way. it will tell us about the bad weather putting a damper on one of the biggest darbies in world futbol. plus, south korea's international chopstick festival.

>> welcome back. a hunk of space junk has fallen to earth in a blaze of glory. it's thought to be a discarded piece of rocket called wt 901 1f. >> when you think about astronomers whether the professional ones or the amateur ones like me, you think about watching planets, stars, satellites. but there's a new field of the field looking for space junk. literally the debris we've

scattered across low earth atmospheres. they're beginning to create new fields of debris. we have 21,000 objects up there moving at incredible speeds. several miles per second meaning it's very dangerous to satellites we rely on. so being able to predict the movement of that stuff, particularly when it makes contact with the atmosphere or surface of the earth god forbid, it's very dangerous. that's why this object is being watched very closely. in the past we've been very bad at predicting when this stuff is going to come down. when sky lab came apart in 1979, there was a lot of solar activity that caused drag and it behaved in a way that we did not expect. we thought it was all going to hit the ocean and in fact part of it came down in australia.

many of it is of great concern. to truly validate this two-meter object as it comes in and burns up in the atmosphere really represents the opportunity of validating our -- mitigating this stuff come down on our heads in the future. >> another star coming up very soon but first of athletic's world govern majority saying russia should be banned from activities. there are accusations of a doping agency in russia. they will vote whether russia

ought to be suspended while the case is being fully considered. lee wellings has been following the story throughout the week. can you talk us through the process of how this vote is going to take place? >> the meeting starts in monaco in just over two-hour's time. it's just going to be a conference call. in fact, some of it accepting the charges put to them and then of course the crucial thing they have to decide the whether they have provisional suspension of russian athletics. it's not just whether or not russia is suspended or not. it's how they can be reintegrated in time for the olympics in rio next year.

i think that's all part of the politics for now because i don't think anyone wants a situation where russia is completely -- >> the ioc really want to see russia banned from those rio games. >> we know the world antidoping agency wants to see russia banned. people around the world want to see russia banned from the olympics. but that's not where the international olympic committee is coming. they have a very close relationship with russia.

futbol association currently filling the shoes and serving a 90-day ban from futbol activities. now the last four places at next years european championships will be decided over the coming week with players taking place.

weather permitting, argentina and brazil will take place in qualifiers. a storm resulted in the match being postponed. argentina have failed to win either of their two qualifiers so far. ecuador, three wins from three but then qualifying in uruguay. >> australias futbolers will

travel to bangladesh on tuesday for futbol qualifiers despite security concerns the teed the futbol federation of australia say they're happy with security arrangements. australias cricket team we cently withdrew from the country. steph curry helped the golden state warriors helped the team maintain their record on the

season. it's the third time he's topped 40 points this season. he's a three-shot lead at the masters in shanghai. birdieing four of his last six holes. he is on nine under par. >> okay. that sit for now. >> south korea has crowned its first chopstick's child progidy.

is. >> i practice with my mom a lot so i was able to move lots of beans. i practiceded a lot. it's part of an annual cultural festival. officials decided to make the most of a shared culture going back 2,000 years. >> we can hopefully open a new future to harmony, coexistence,

and cooperation. >> they divide as well as unite. kor korea. >> the medium sized metal chop stick that you find here is the perfect compromise. some find them a little bit slippery. back in the hall it's the final of the team event. after the days practicing, victory is sweet. >> i'm so happy by body could fly away. we put in the work and practiced hard. and the prize money of nearly $1,000 they can afford to eat well as well as skillfully. >> that's it for the news hour. got more news in just a couple of minutes.

bye for now.

>> i've been asked to keep my voice down cause we are so close to the isil position >> who is in charge, and are they going to be held to accout? >> but know we're following the research team into the fire >> they're learning how to practice democracy... >> ...just seen tear gas being thrown... >> ...glad sombody care about us man... >> several human workers were kidnapped... >> this is what's left of the hospital >> is a crime that's under reported... >> what do you think... >> we're making history right now... >> al jazeera america >> it's the biggest question out there. >> go inside the groundbreaking research. >> are you ready to have your brain scanned? >> ready to go! >> challenging your deepest beliefs. >> feeling the spirit is very subjective. >> i don't buy that. >> techknow's team of experts show you how the miracles of science... >> this is what innovation looks like. >> can affect and surprise us. >> i feel like we're making an impact. >> let's do it. >> techknow - where technology meets humanity.

iraqi kurdish fighters raise a huge flag -- hello there. you're watching al jazeera live from london. also coming up on the program, five years to the day that her house arrest ended, her party passes the threshold for -- after a suicide attack which killed