syria's opposition group makes advances in the province of aleppo. we have the latest on fighting there. welcome to al jazeera. live from doha. also to come in the program. anti russia protests in turkey as the war on words between the two leaders escalate. the pope in uganda in his second leg of his trip.

a gunman kills three people at aa u.s. abortion clinic. the syrian armed opposition says it's now in control of talbaja in aleppo's southern countryside. the fighters say they've killed 40 soldiers and their allied forces. the al-qaeda affiliate group, which is known as al-nusra has' leased this video showing the damage caused in the area following shelling. the group says it suffered major losses against the syrian government during fighting for this part of the aleppo countryside. more on this from our correspondent who is in southern turkey. jew across the border. what do we know about this battle?

>> reporter: free syrian army and opposition groups are coordinating attacks in the southern part of aleppo and they are trying now to reverse some of the recent gains made by the syrian government. the main groups operating in that particular area include al-qaeda affiliate al-nusra and another. they say they have control of new areas including a syrian million tray post. there are two main front lines in the areas. the syrian opposition is launching attacks against i.s.i.l. positions but also they're trying to reverse some of the latest gains made by the syrian government it was only around six weeks ago, wasn't it, that the syrian government launched a major attack to secure this area and for the first time we are told

we saw a very strong showing of iranian forces on the ground. >> reporter: yesterday they had footage showing what it says was an iranian officer arrested by them, al-nusra. the syrian opposition, the government. there has been a significant build-up of iranan fighters in aleppo and also militias from hezbollah and also from iraq. some of those were rejected ghi the government saying it hasn't got boots on the ground, but it has advisers coordinating the attacks in different parts of the country. main of the main battle fields being aleppo. the opposition has been saying in the past that the syrian government has been severely

undermined and that is solely on the iranians and hezbollah to try and contain those areas and launch attacks against the syrian opposition. the latest development on the ground was mainly due to syrian military factions reuniting. the army, the nusra front, are now trying to unite in those areas and to repel the syrian government back by the different militias because they have been concerned over the last few days by the syrian army regrouping, mounting an offensive and trying to claim some of the territory it lost over the last four years. it's a very delicate situation for the syrian opposition and also for the syrian army thank you for that. bringing us the latest on what could be a very significant

development in the syrian war. on friday russia's foreign minister agreed with the syrian counterpart to push for a political plan agreed in vienna earlier this month, but as the russian air strikes continue, many are still fleeing their homes devastated by a war that has been raging for almost fev years now. in umadi, for instance, more than 1700 turk men who opposed the syrian regime have now fled to the turkish border and in response to the russian aeroplane, they're targeting the russian air base. have published on line show rebels are apparently getting ready to fire at the base. some of the russian air raids have been hitting i.s.i.l.'s main strong hold in raqqa. the opposition groups say eight people have been killed there, including five children, and this is video released by an i.s.i.l. affiliated group which

apparently shows the aftermath of the bombings. the dispute between russia and turkey over the downed russian jet continues. moscow has now imposed sanctions on ankara as the president erdogan warns russia not to play with fire >> reporter: strategic partners was how russia and syria were described. the foreign ministers were speaking with one voice with moscow on friday. >> translation: i.s.i.s. militants received weapons and free passage. they don't have to use par chutes. they received medical help. turkey made the step to shoot down the russian jet because it supports and encourages those terrorists >> reporter: they were meeting to step forward the vienna

process. >> translation: we have agreed that a list of terrorist groups that will be excluded from any political negotiations need to be drafted. it will go through the u.n. security council. it is absolutely clear that without it political peace talks between moderate opposition and the syrian government cannot take place. >> reporter: in southern russia there were military honors and a funeral. the marine was trying to rescue the clue. he and the pilot shot dead are viewed as heros in russia. not in turkey. these protesters are calling russia's military murderers. putin is depicted as a vam pire. erdogan has accused the russian president of playing with fire by bombing syria's opposition and propping up the syrian

government. >> translation: the day this incident happened i requested a mealing from him. i wanted to hold a telephone conversation with him, but he's not returned my calls yet. there is a climate change conference in paris. i believe he will be there. we can meet there and discuss these matters with him. >> reporter: for the moment the kremlin isn't answering. it is ramping up economic pressure on turkey. while formalised sanctions are being drawn up, russian snktors are finding hygiene reasons for reject turkey produce. russia's bombing continues. these are some of the latest deadly strikes against sam darks da in a town near the behr door with turkey breaking news coming from mali. reports being reported by the reuters news ago, in the

northern part of the country have been attacked. they're saying that they've heard mortar fire coming from the u.n. compound. of course, just last week 20 people were killed when gunmen raid the radisson blu hotel in bamako. lots going on in mali. we will keep you across the details as soon as we get them. more than a million people have gathered in uganda where pope francis is celebrating mass. the pope prayed at the shrine honoring a group of converts to christianity who were killed in the 19th century. he arrived on friday and addressed the president and mps. gay rights activist $have urged him to use his visit to alert the issue of home owe phobia in uganda. the country has one of the fastest growing populations in the world. many people want to have smaller families. this poses something of a dilemma for catholicss.

>> reporter: many of the women here have recently given birth. they were referred to this family planning clinic. if they follow previous generations, on average they will each have more than six children. this woman already has eight. she has come here because she doesn't want any more. >> translation: my husband does not have a job. i have no way of earning money. we struggle to afford the basic needs of our children. even a place to live. >> reporter: so she and her husband have agreed she should undergo sterilisation at this clinic run by a charity. people who come to this health center, can get free condoms, pills or injections. the women are waiting to go into that room for implants or sturmisation procedures. about a third of the women here are using contraception, but the catholic church says all of these methods are wrong.

pope francis is seen as progressive on many issues, but his position on contraception and that of the catholic church remains controversial. people should only use natural methods but failure rates are high. this bishop has worked here since 1970s. he twenties natural contraception. it is more complicated. it demands more attention, care, knowledge of oneself and one's body, the body of the other one as well, but it is much more respectful of, indeed, the gift of life. >> reporter: as always life of the streets of the capital, there's a government policy to try to slow the booming population. experts say increasing access to family planning is crucial. if that doesn't happen, they say future generations will stay trapped in poverty. with the population to be produce, they have to be healthy, skilled, sufficiently

educated. if the population grows uncontrollably or in an unplanned direction, then those conditions cannot be met. >> reporter: rose struggling to afford school fees for her children, legality alone for any more. opting for sterilisation was a tough position. traditionally people value big families and she is one of the 14 million catholics. she comes to this churn in her village every week. she says her faith means a lot to her, but she has had to reject the priests here taught her about family planning. she says the church won't help her pay for her household bills and she can't cop cope with any more mouths to feed live to malcolm, you've highlighted in your report one of the contentious issues between catholic church teaching and the way they have to live.

what about homosexual rights? >> reporter: definitely a controversial issue still. it's widely discussed among human rights activists outside here. here it has been discussed little since last year when the controversial homosexual act was over turned in the constitutional court and that was following threats and cut aid money. the bill was over turned and it has been discussed relatively little since. there's still a colonial era law that homosexual is illegal. it has never been enforced. the homosexuality rhetoric has made life difficult for people here. activists say that they've contacted to give an audience with the pope. we don't know if he has agreed

to that. we don't know what pope francis is going to say about this issue, but generally he is very diplomatic when he speaks. he doesn't preach hard messages that would prove divisive, especially to a conservative audience like the one he will be speaking to here i guess he will continue with his theme of interface dialogue and better interface relations, the theme that he started with in kenya. >> reporter: yeah. we can expect to hear more about that in kenya. he talked about christians and muslims coming together and talking together. that's a relevant issue too. there were bombings here in 2010 in a world cup final. that was in response to ugann darks provide - uganda providing the troops with the boots on the

ground for african and u.n. mission. so in response they were bomb elide. there hasn't been attack since, but the soldiers are still there. that theme of reconciliation between christians and muslims will probably come up and next he is meant to be going to the central african republic where there has been issues along religious lines thank you for that keeping us coos the developments as pope-- across the development of pope francis. more to come, including some of those who planned a recent attacks in paris were based in belgium. we look at the issue of the country failing to deal with radicalization. plays. >> reporter: using dram to atto send a message on the problem of child marriage in zambia.

you're with al jazeera. these are our top stories. syrian opposition says it's now in control of a city south of aleppo. it says it has killed 40 government soldiers and their allied forces. the al-qaeda affiliated group has suffered major losses. russia is applying more pressure on turkey following the shooting down of its fighter jet on tuesday. more jankss have been imposed on ankara which has - by moscow

which has not responded to turkey's request to meet. meanwhile the turkish president erdogan has warned moscow not to play with fire. more than a million people in uganda have gathered at an open air shrine where pope francis is addressing the masses. a shooting at the birth control clinic in colorado has killed three people including a police officer. nine other people were wounded in the stand off before the suspect surrendered. the motive for the attack ununclear >> reporter: the perpetrator is in custody. the situation has been resolved. there's no continuing peril to the citizens here. >> reporter: that marked the end of a five-hour stand off between a gunman and police at a planned parenthood clinic. later authorities revealed that three people had died. unfortunately, with this

tragic situation today, we have to confirm that we have two civilian casualties on the scene and we have the death of one police officer. >> reporter: that officer has now been identified as 44-year-old garrett schwaze. just before noon friday police responded to the planned parenthood building after a call that shots had been filed. a white male having a type of long gun. officials have since determined it was a rifle. police also say the suspect brought several bags with him to the scene. some were left outside. others were brought into the building. there was a normal business day at the clinic with staff and patients inside. relatives like this man came to the scene to check on family members inside. i heard some shots, you know, people were shooting for

sure. i was on the phone because i was talking to my sister over the phone and she couldn't really talk and i heard that somebody was shooting. >> reporter: after exchanging fire, police say officers were able to convince the gunman to surrender. we did officers inside of the building and the officers were able to shout to the suspect and make communication with him and at that point they were able to get him to surrender and he was taken into custody >> reporter: police say they still don't know why the suspect chose to attack this planned parenthood center. jim hooley a new poll suggests that the level of support among u.s. republicans for presidential hopeful donald trump has dropped by 12 points in less than a week. the day it follows a series of controversial comments by donald trump including his mocking of a new york times reporter who is

disabled. it is the biggest poll drop since july. the french president has vowed to destroy what he calls the army of fanatics responsible for the november 13 attacks in paris. francois hollande made the comments at a memorial ceremony on friday. families of the victims and some survivors gathered at the historic square. francois hollande also said his country is united in its fight against terrorism. >> translation: to all of you, i solemnly promise that france will do everything to destroy the army of fanatics who committed these crimes. it will protect its children. i promise you also that france will remain herself as the dead loved her as they would have wished her to remain a search for those responsible for the paris attacks continues. belgium police have charged a sixth person. prosecutors accused the man of being part of a terrorist group.

questions are being asked about whether local politics in belgium is getting in the way of national and european security. >> reporter: armed personnel carriers on the streets of brussels, a sign that things are far from back to normal here. alerts like thure's scare at the grand mosque when suspicious powder turned out to be harmless is extra work for the police. demands are being put on emergency services here. for many years there has been another problem and that's multiple layers of administration. for this city alone there are six police forces. in molenbeek the district where some attackers lived everyone is aware of the ongoing security threats, but the woman who has been mayor hear for the last three years says it's not fair to blame local police with their limited budget for failing to stop the attackers. >> translation: we didn't do enough to fight the phenomenon

of radicalization. the state security, the justice system, the federal police all probably didn't pay enough attention or do enough to check these radical movement. >> reporter: adding to the complexity in belgium there's the country unique political set up. this place is the national parliament, but it is just one of five parliaments in brussels. apart from the european parliament there's one for the dutch speaking region, french speaking community and one for the brusselss region. some politicians who want belgium to split into two parts have accused the south of being too slack when it comes to tackling terrorism. this journalism says it's not entirely fair. it hasn't put its money in prevails. it has kept its money and at the same time the problems in brussels grow and grow. the other is another strange situation, is that it's 5 kilometres from here, from molenbeek, so you can't say

we're not responsible for molenbeek. it is in our country, molenbeek is part of us. >> reporter: for the opposition greens, part of the problem is depravation and the lack of integration programs for immigrant communities. they're also calling for better security cooperation between national and local administrations these people were known. they were known in belgium by different security forces. we didn't the have man power to analyse the data and at the same time we see there were difficulties getting the data from one service to another >> reporter: the threat level has just been lowered for brussels, but making people here feel truly safe may mean a lot less finger pointing and more action by the politicians world leaders are gathering in paris on monday for the u.n. climate change conference and in the coming hours the french president is due to meet international environmentalists. the conference is being seen as

an important opportunity for poorer countries to highlight how they're suffering from the effects of climate change. according to a new study just released just ahead of the talks chile is experiencing the longest and worst drought in its recorded history. it has seen a 30% drop in rain levels during one of the hottest periods over the last 100 years. the report stresses the main causes are not natural cycles but, rather, what it calls man-made climate change. a few testing laboratory has found high levels of led in instant pasta produced by nestle. it has over double the permitted amount. just days ago instant noodles were returned to shelves in india afternoon being band for excessive levels of led. nestle is unaware of tests being conducted on its pasa.

with shoaled brides, the practice is xhn in zambia where almost half girls are married by the age of 18. cultural traditions are being challenged add a land summit. from the zambian capital. >> reporter: the girl in this drama is about to ares forced into a marriage. she is crying because it's the end of her childhood but soon she is saved. most of the time there is no rescue. while marrying someone under 18 is illegal in many african countries, most have customary law where it is allowed but soon zambia may not have a dual system. for zambia, we've decided to just have one law. so we have a marriage bill right

now. that doesn't come out for customary marriage >> reporter: by 2050 the number of child brides in africa will double to 310 million. at the first summit at ending child marriage, reasons are being discussed to end, to include child protection rights and all policies to urging villages in the rural areas to combat it because that is where the problem is greatest. child brides are more likely to be in abusive relationships, contract hiv and to die during childbirth, but plan international is trying to teach girls about their rights and provide a way they can earn money. this is the sound of opportunity for these women. the mill means these girls can earn a lively selling ground maise. this girl got married when she was just 15. >> translation: i had no choice

because my parents couldn't afford to take us to school. i was just at home doing nothing. i didn't want to get married. >> reporter: education is key. she now also wants to teach her daughter about girl power. >> translation: it means girls coming together with energy, not the old ladies, just us because we have the power to change our lives as girls. >> reporter: she is trying to take control of her life by breaking the cycle of poverty so her daughter can stay in school creating a new tradition for her young family. tania page, al jazeera now, the count down to christmas is well and truly underway, particularly in the australian capital canberra. there they've broken the world record for the most lights on an artificial christmas tree. the 22 metre tree was clad in

518,838, that's 518,838 lights and as i say, smashing the previous record. that record of just over 360,000 lights was set by universal studio in japan. s in japan. >> each year, nearly 12 million arrests are made in the united states. >> is this pretty full for you guys? >> no, no this is just average, i guess you could say. >> okay. >> that's the population of los angeles and new york combined, booked into thousands of local jails. >> do you know how long some of these men have been held