♪ >> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello there i'm barbara and welcome to the news hour live from london, coming up, in the next 60 minutes syrian rebels unite to take back several towns and villages from the government in the battle for aleppo province. pope francis calls africa the continent of hope as he receives a welcome from young uganda and the u.s. national security agency is preparing to stop mass

surveillance. experts say they are 90% sure they found a hidden chamber in egypt's valley of the kings which could be the tomb of queen nefertiti. >> sport live from doha and the cup team takes a title since 1936 and it's the merry brothers to put them in command position against belgium coming up. ♪ rebel fighters in syria say they recaptured the town and several villages in aleppo countryside from government soldiers backed by shia and iranian forces and reverses government gains made two weeks ago crucially several rebel groups joined forces including the al-qaeda el nusra front and inflicted painful

losses on troops in the area managing to hold back their advances despite the government getting help from russian air strikes. aleppo province has significant strategic value as it sits along the border with turkey and made it a key battleground for the past three years from the border here we are. >> reporter: syrian rebels on the offensive marred by divisions and short of weapons they are advancing on the city of aleppo. many armed factions have established a joint command center. this video appears to show them attacking government military posts in southern aleppo. the armed group el nusra front taking part in the offensive and its fighters played a significant role in the push to capture the village, syrian rebels say government forces are backed by thousands of fighters from iran, iraq and hezbollah.

>> strategic of syrian army is to cut the highways, not to take over aleppo, aenvelope po aleppo as a city is still divided haven't to go to eastern side. >> reporter: behind the mountains is another major front line and shelling these peaks which were recently captured by turkmen fighters. these mountains overlook the city of latakia. one of president bashar al-assad's strongholds, his troops backed by russian planes are trying to secure the area. and the fighting continues near the border with turkey there are growing fears of regional conflict. the russians and iran are staunch allies of president assad and the western and gulf nations insist the syrian president must go. >> believe the russians used the

fact against i.s.i.l. as cover to engage assad chances of staying in power and i.s.i.l. can only be defeated if president assad steps aside, al jazeera on turkish border with syria. iranian media reporting that a member of its elite revolutionary guards died in syria and brigadier general is said to have died fighting the northern city of aleppo, at least 64 iranians including senior commanders of the reve e revolutionary guard have been killed in syria while supporting president assad's forces. russian jets have reportedly attacked a town in northern syria close to the border with turkey. the air strikes targeted an area where several buses were parked. witnesses say that the vehicles had been used to get food and aid supplies to people in need. syria's army says turkey has recently increased its supply of weapons and equipment to what it

describes as terrorists in shipments disguised as humanitarian aid so what is going on in the region and for more analysis from washington d.c. is mark for political affairs under president george w bush and great to have you here on al jazeera thank you for joining us. so as we were describing there a lot of events happening, first of all let's focus on these games that we are hearing of towns several villages in the aleppo countryside. first of all, how likely is it that these gain also be maintained because we have seen a bit of a back and forth in the past few days and weeks. >> well, i think that is right but more significant is the fact that this was meant to be the big offensive that was going to be run by the syrian forces. aleppo has been encircled and has had rebel forces inside of it for quite sometime so about the ninth of this month the regime announced that it was going on the offensive, going to be retaking these towns,

relieved the siege of aleppo and what we are seeing today is that relief operation, that offensive is not going well and, in fact, there is a counter offensive being run by the rebels right now that is putting a lie on this notion that the syrians are going to be number one relieve aleppo and two kill the rebel forces in the vicinity. >> focusing on aleppo the town itself and the province just remind us why it's so strategic. >> well, three things, number one is the main city in the north and the second largest city in the country. number two it's very, very close to turkey. number three with that large of a force up north, the ability to resupply from damascus has been cutoff on the north-south corridor and you have the second largest city unable to be supported by ground from the

bulk of syrian forces and are out there stranded on their own. >> focusing on the rebel coalition we were hearing and it's quite a hybrid force both rebel and forces from the al-nusra front we are hearing are key in the gains now the u.s. considers the al-nusra front a terrorist organization but just a few weeks ago the general who had been in charge of allied forces in iraq had actually brought up the possibility or at least his idea that perhaps the u.s. should start arming al-nusra and giving support to whoever is going to support i.s.i.l. and assad, what do you make of that generally speaking, his acertain shuns did not get much traction in the u.s. but do you think it's time to think this a different way about which groups the u.s. and rest of the coalition supports? >> i do and i happen to agree with general petraeus on that the fundamental strategic question is which is the most proximate enemy, i.s.i.l. and its associated movements or the

assad force? i think what general was suggesting is the external threat to the rest of the world in paris and beirut and as we have seen in egypt are these terrorist organizations. now nobody has a love loss for assad but eventually assad will go through a transitional process but i believe what general was saying is we need to be focused on not necessarily supporting the assad regime but going against these terrorists and that remains the policy of the united states. >> we have not mentioned it yet in the program and about to talk about it now but of course we know about the tensions between turkey and russia over the downed plane and according to turkey incusions of russian to turkish air space and highlighting every actor in this has different aims they want to achieve, what do you think is the biggest danger right now for the u.s. led coalition? >> well, i think the greatest

danger is that promises made by putin he wanted to work with the coalition are being demonstrated on the ground as completely the opposite of that. what putin is saying is let's go against i.s.i.l., let's go against the terrorists and the secondary effort will be to have a transitional process for assad but, in fact, as we are seeing on the ground right now the syrian forces are being supported by russian aircraft and iranian backed forces as well. so the question is who are the russians supporting? are they going to support the coalition and go against the terrorist organizations or are they going to try to keep assad in power? and so the greatest concern that i have right now is where does russia stand in this and do they want to be part of the over all coalition or want to keep assad in power and putin is giving us two different stories in that regard. >> former assist and secretary for political military affairs

under george w bush and thank you for sharing your views with us. >> sure. as we are mentioning there the turkey president warned while i.s.i.l. is a serious threat to syria there are other players who are equally dangerous and we have more now on the president's comments from istanbul. >> turkey's erdogan was trying to under line several messages in his latest address, with regards to the international campaign to combat i.s.i.s., what erdogan is trying to say is yes i.s.i.s. is a threat however the root cause to the problem is much greater than that organization. he says that actually the reason behind the blood shed, the reason behind the turmoil is because of assad. no differences between the pg and assad and i.s.i.l. terrorist organizations, what they do is commit crimes against humanity and let no one deceive anyone.

we went to syria because they invited us. if someone kills 380,000 people, if someone kills his own people are you obliged to accept their invitati invitation. >> showing the fragmentation who are combatting i.s.i.l. because for example washington believes it has a partner in the kurdish fighters and russia which claims to be attacking i.s.i.s. is actually a strong supporter of assad regime which itself has come under accusations through the u.s. treasury in the past few days of actually having indirect links by buying oil from i.s.i.s. the other important message from erdogan was his reiteration he was going to try and meet with russia's vladimir putin in paris when the two arrive for this air climate change summit. until now the kremlin has not responded positively or negatively to erdogan's request for a meeting but it's a sign that erdogan is trying to deescalate or publically show he

is reaching out to his russian counterparts and russia says nothing short of apology will do and erdogan says his country did not do anything wrong and merely depending its air space. relations between turkey and russia show no sign of improving following the downing of the russian plane on tuesday and putin ordered some restrict the hiring of turkish staff and turkey warned citizens against nonessential travel to russia. in a speech earlier president erdogan says he wished the incident hadn't happened. >> translator: the incident truly saddens us. we would never have wanted this to happen. however, it is not possible for us to treat such violations as visits from guests because guests only go to a place when they are invited and truly hope this is not repeated and never on the side of pain and suffering in our region and in all the world that we seek is peace, security and prosperity.

a pro-kurdish lawyer and advocate has been shot dead in turkey southeast city and had been speaking to media in the predominately kurdish city when he was fatally wounded, a police officer was also killed. and he had previously been detained for publically saying that the kurdish armed group the pkk should not be regarded as a terrorist organization. thousands of kurdish protesters have rallied in istanbul against the death and the march was broken up by police who fired water canyon and tear gas at the crowds and determined to shed light on this and launched an investigation. hundreds of protesters have been out on the streets in london demanding that their government stay out of the international air campaign against i.s.i.l. in syria. the prime minister david cameron says bombing the armed group is the only way to keep britain safe but critics want him to

consider a political solution first and we report that politicians are expected to vote next wednesday. >> reporter: outside downing street the first of what organizers say will be a tidal wave of protests and for now the crowds are modest but as parliament prepares for a crucial vote on syrian air strikes next wednesday these demonstrators including politicians, musicians and film stars want their say. >> in my lifetime have not seen violence promote peace and do not accept it in families and workplace and do not accept between a man and his dog and do not accept it between parents and children, why do we say violence is the solution to this? we certainly should be tackling i.s.i.s. but the way of doing it is not to go and bomb them which is exactly what they want and would dignify their position. and not trying to stifle the money going to them. >> reporter: the war coalition accused the government of having no clear strategy when it comes

to syria. they say that 14 cumulative years of bombings in afghanistan, iraq and now what is happening in the middle east only threatens to inflame tensions further and bring more blood shed to europe's streets. on thursday the british prime minister launched campaign of his own to persuade lawmakers of the need for air strikes and bombers hitting i.s.i.l. target in iraq since last year and said the fight against i.s.i.l. in syria should not fall to other count can countries. >> translator: not content with out sourcing to allies and if we believe action can help protect us then with our allies we should be part of that action not standing aside from it. >> reporter: two years ago david cameron wanted to launch air strikes to oust the president assad and it was defeated but after attacks in paris they have been assemble coalition to destroy i.s.i.l. seen by many as a more direct

threat to national security. this was the scene in 2003. when a different british government led by tony blair wanted to invade iraq and it was a war that many saw as illegal. today the prime minister says air strikes are needed for self-defense. growing number of people believe him. despite this opposition it's a vote the british government thinks it can win. nieve barker, al jazeera london. coming up, in the news hour defying a travel ban the coptic pope provotes outrage on social media. violence in macedonia as the country begins building a metal fence along its border with greece and later in sport barcelona has a rich vain in la-lega and all the big leagues in europe coming up. ♪

saudi-led coalition carried out air strikes on boats they say were smuggling supplies to houthi rebels in yemen and weapons were being unloaded from two fishing vessels when they were hit killing three smugglers and coalition imposed a blockade on yemen to stop weapons reaching houthis and those loyal to the ousted president saleh and we sent this update from the yemeni city. >> translator: saudi-led coalition jets carried out eight raids in the province with boats carrying arms, ammunition and fuel for the houthi rebels. the smugglers are agreed to be indian and asian sailors and operation carried out in the port part of the long coastal strip stretching more than 200 kilometers.

the yemeni army has not been able to maintain security there because it doesn't have sufficient marine capabilities and the area is quite vast and the saudi-led coalition gave previous warnings to the boats and also 12 kilometers away are facilities where the majority of production is exported from and an area that the houthi rebels along fighters loyal to opposed president saleh have been trying to control since the start of the conflict. there are also reports that african mercenaries are being into yemen to fight with the houthi rebels along the border with saudi arabia. last week the pro-government forces said they arrested 850 african fighters. in egypt at least four policemen have been shot dead, masked attackers on a motor bike are said to have opened fire at a security check point in the cairo suburb of giza and no group claimed responsibility for the attack. egyptian military helicopter crashed due to a sudden

technical failure in the province northeast of cairo and military officials said it was on a mission and crew members were injured but not specifying the number hurt or the severity of the crash. the leader of egypt's coptic orthodox church has been to israel in the first visit of its kind in decades. the pope the second traveled there despite a ban on pilgram to israel issued by predecessor who was against the occupation of east jerusalem and there attending the funeral of a senior coptic official and out cry on social media with many posts acruising him of betrayal and more from stephanie decker who is in occupied east jerusalem. >> reporter: the coptic church is very keen to this but this is not an official visit, this is an extraordinary visit and a human visit because the two men were friends. pope the second was a personal friend of the archbishop and

went to university together and what they held in the coptic church in the holy land passed away on wednesday and this is why he is here paying his respects leading the funeral and the church does say he will not be visiting any official any religious places here. he will be finishing the funeral and then will be returning to egypt because they know the sensitivity of this issue. so certainly that is the message they say it has not changed not from the late pope when he said 1979 when israel and egypt signed those accords that muslims should be entering jerusalem together and say that is still the case and does not want this to be seen as a change in policy, an extraordinary visit and once this is done he will be returning to egypt. hundreds of thousands of people have turned out in campala to see pope francis on the second day of visit to uganda. the head of the catholic church has been attending a youth rally

where he gave his blessing to an estimated 150,000 people and called africa the continent of hope. earlier he visited a shrine dedicated to christian missionaries who were killed in uganda during the late 19th century. malcolm web sent us this update from there. >> reporter: pope francis gave a mass to tens of thousands of people at the shrine in campala where some of the first christians were killed because of their faith. and since made into saints by the catholic church and it's an important site for the catholic community in uganda and pope francis talked about people becoming missionaries in the communities and talked about turning hate to love, when he came here the city center the crowds were esstatic and people trying to get as close as they can trying to get a glimpse of him as he drove past in the pope mobile and hoping to get blessings and hoping he would give a better life to small

children they were holding on their shoulders trying to get them as close to the pope as they could but didn't give a strong message in kenya a few days ago where he came out critically speaking against corruption and inequality. at least two u.n. peace keepers and civilian killed in a rocket attack on a u.n. base in mali, at least another 20 were injured in the predawn attack and a u.n. spokesman says mortar shells were used to strike the compound and another called the attackers terrorists and said they fired the shots and then fled. this comes just eight days after a deadly siege at a western hotel in the capitol bomoco and 20 were killed and earlier we spoke to the spokesman of the u.n. peace keeping mission in mali and said attack is an a tempt to end the peace agreement the government signed with separatist fighters in june. >> we are doing everything for this.

it's difficult. it's a difficult mission. many with the peace process months ago. we are in the implementation phase. we know that some forces don't want peace to happen. but our job is to make it happen and we will do everything so it can happen. >> reporter: the suspect behind the shooting at a family planning clinic in colorado is due to appear in court on monday. 57-year-old robert l dear is being held without bail after fighters attack in the city of colorado springs. police officer and two other people were killed. u.s. president barack obama says this country can't let shootings like this become normal. staying in the u.s. the national security agency is shutting down its mass phone surveillance and replacing the program with more targeted methods. it will end its daily monitoring of millions of american's phone

records by sunday. the move comes 2 1/2 years after the controversial program was exposed by the former nsa contractor edward snowden. let's get more on this who is joined live from washington d.c. so they are shutting down the mass surveillance as it stands, what detail do we have about what they are actually replacing it with because they will still be able to listen to some conversations if they so choose. >> yeah, we should stress this is about the metadata, bulk metadata collection that was allowed under section 215 of the patriot act the call records and who people are calling and duration of calls and where they were and about the content of phone calls and the u.s. was sweeping up all of this information and storing it in huge servers, actually many in the nsa themselves is saying this is a bit unwielding and forms we have in the uso freedom

act and replaced that and telephone companies retain the company and nsa has to request it and actually does expand some data collection the nsa has and expands it for cell phone data and internet telephone and so on on one hand where there are supposedly more safeguards for american metadata we will have to see how those work and might take another whistleblower to find out if they are working and have to stress all the other things that edward snowden told us about the ability of nsa to search everything we do on the internet, hovering up of 200 million text messages everyday, all that stuff still is happening and no reform there, some are worried about the finality with which this reform is being discussed and for an international audience we have to stress this has nothing to do with you. as far as nsa is concerned they can do whatever they want and snoop on you and it's up to your own government to protect you and edward snowden showed us a

lot of governments are helping nsa snoop and not protecting citizens. >> and snowden made his revelations more than two years ago now, obviously they have been controversial but in the fast past two weeks we seen attacks in paris and issue of security and surveillance take really center stage more than before in europe as well as the states so what kind of debate i mean has there been more intensified debates over the past two weeks over this issue ending of this mass phone surveillance and really how to handle surveillance in general? >> well, those against any kind of reform pounced on the paris attacks as reasons for not ending the legal authority to sweep up all of this information. one member of congress has already put down a motion to try and restore it. that is despite the fact that several official reviews found the bulk metadata collection had no impact on counter terrorism and did not foil one attack with the information gathered and

despite what turned out to be not true from obama and bush era officials and it was helping in counter terrorism. also the former head of the nsa has said that edward snowden should be hanged and so on. he has blood on his hands but again we have to remember there is no evidence that the paris attackers used the internet in their planning for the attacks or did use any encryption or policy safeguards that are in place. so it is a bit of a red herring but those who are against any reform have pounced on the paris attacks. >> with the latest from washington d.c., thank you. more to come in the news hour including green peace delivers a message to world leaders as paris prepares for the coptic 21 climate talks plus president obama is heading to par 'tiss paris with a plan to drastically cut carbon emissions but not everyone back home is on board,

i'm kristen in west virginia where there is strong opposition. and also coming up, a rugby great jona is given a traditional send off in new zealand. ♪

♪ reminder of the top stories on al jazeera, syrian opposition forces say they have gained ground against the government in aleppo province, al-qaeda affiliate al-nusra front helped in fighting, turkish president erdogan has remorse over the shooting down of a war plane on turkey border with syria but says the country must defend its border and head of the roman catholic church left hundreds of thousands of people as part of its african tour. the family of the syrian boy whose drowning off the coast of turkey triggered an international out cry will be resettled in canada. three-year-old allen kurdy says the canadian government approved

application to bring in the family and the original application was rejected which led to the families ill fated attempts to cross from turkey to greece. meanwhile police in macedonia fired tear gas and stun grenades at refugee whose are demanding passage through the country to western europe. scuffles broke out saturday and police pelted with rocks and comes as macedonia authorities began building a metal fence along the border with greece and moss macedonia letting refugees through but is stopping other groups saying they are economic migrants. >> if we stop we will die. we are the same. we will die there or here. it's the same. nothing changed. >> reporter: tell eu's 28 leaders will host turkey for an extraordinary summit on sunday with on going refugee and

migrant crisis top of the agenda and turkey has agreed in principal to an eu plan which will see them take in more refugees in exchange for more than $3 billion and freer travel for turks into the eu. lawrence lee has more now from berlin. >> reporter: spring turned to summer and autumn to winter and still they have not stopped. through all weather on this miserable trip. the eu has all year been accused of doing too little to make the journeys less dangerous. while european leaders were full of sympathy when the three-year-old body was washed up on a beach the main preoccupation has been how to stop refugees coming from turkey to greece as all. suddenly a plan is on the table, the german government is usual in the driving seat presenting this as an attempt at regaining control. >> i think it is not a fair and humanitarian solution to induce people to risk their lives and the lives of their children in crossing the mediterranean or

going on the balkin route on the track and offer perspective for legal entry in the eu and at the same time improving the situation of refugees in turkey. >> reporter: this is the known as little istanbul and germany has more years taken in migrant workers and deal means it may have to take on a lot more and sped up entry process to the eu turkey is also demanding visa free access to europe for its 75 million people. suddenly for turkey the refugee crisis is an opportunity. turkey has been trying to join the eu since before the berlin wall came down in 1989 and yet for all that time germany has blocked it on the grounds that turkey's human rights record is not good enough and suddenly all the talk of repressions and abuses is vanishing on the wind because the eu wants to pay turkey to keep the refugees out. given how many european politicians describe the

refugees as economic migrants, that sounds to some to be a highly hypocritical position for the eu to take. >> eu is ready to give up human rights. its own values, why the european union actually exists and it is doing this on the back of the most vulnerable people, the refugees. >> reporter: more than 3 billion dollars will be found and given to turkey for more camps and presumably more barbed wire and constitute a life for the refugees or perhaps not but the new fences have not worked and pushing them further to syria and iraq, lawrence lee, al jazeera, berlin. leading opposition leader has been arrested during anti-government protests in the capitol. in cosovo use the independence

celebrations to protest against the government, opposition leader already wanted by the police was taken in custody after appearing in public to speak to the gathered crowds. activists in southern ukraine say they will keep blocking repair of power lines to crimea which has left the annexed russian territory without electricity for nearly a week now, muslim and ukrainian national lists are camped in tens and won't allow crews access to the downed pylons until russia agrees to demands including release of prisoners and blew up the pylons last weekend and moscow accused ukraine's government of torturing people by failing to fix the lines and kiev rejects that allegation. 24 environmental activists have been placed under house arrest in france accused of planning violent protests at the up coming u.n. climate talks in paris. demonstrations are banned under

the state of emergency after the par 'tis attacks two weeks ago and environmental green green peace has been allowed to float a hot air balloon by the eiffel tower to raise awareness of climate issues and calls cop 21 will try to settle on a deal of countries that limits greenhouse emissions and the global temperature rises. >> most of the developed countries in the world says if it goes more than 1.5 we dead, in the pacific the people there have a slogan that says 1.5 to stay alive and if leaders here especially of the big dominant countries ignore that appeal to be very serious about keeping a target of warmer as far below two degrees as possible then what does that say? >> reporter: french president francois hollande has held meetings with environmental groups ahead of the talks to

discuss ways to seriously tackle the problem of climate change. while around the world people have also been making their views clear in new zealand thousands took to the streets as part of a global protest calling for climate change, in japan demonstrators took a more sedate approach and commits 100 billion to combat climate change by 2020 and intended to press governments attending talks to taking decisive action. u.s. president barack obama is one of the many leaders heading to climate talks with aim of reducing carbon emission in the u.s. by 26% over the next 15 years. however back home his plan is facing legal challenges from more than half of the states. kristen explains. >> this is our fabrication shop. >> reporter: machines that make

and refeshish coal mining, equipment at phillips machine services are quiet, the company down to a four-day working week. coowner tom curbman has laid off more than two thirds of his workforce in the past three years. >> we used to do maybe as many as 30 of these in a year and as you can see we are not very busy right now. >> reporter: he blames competition from natural gas and president obama's clean power plan, federal regulations meant to drastically reduce carbon emissions. >> when you take an ax to a problem rather than a small pairing knife you tend to hurt whole segments of the society. >> reporter: beckley, west virginia is coal country, mining,'s deep roots on display at a museum replicating a coal camp where retired minors like roger lead tours through a mine from the 1800s and says coal

companies are not only making and hiring less but paying less in taxes and that means less money for local schools. >> if we got a leader that people think is trying to take their bread and butter off the table wouldn't you fight back? >> reporter: west virginia gets 95% of its power from coal so perhaps it's not surprising the state is leading the fight against president obama's clean power plan. but west virginia is not alone in opposition, some 27 states in total have filed legal actions to stop the plan from moving forward. but experts say the united states can't reach its goal of reducing emissions by at least 26% without tougher standards for the coal industry. >> clean power plan is the single most important piece of climate change regulation that epa has promulgated to date and that is because it seeks to tackle greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector which is

the largest sector of greenhouse gas emissions in the united states. >> democrats and coal states have asked the president to do more to promote carbon capture technology which they say would allow for reductions in greenhouse gas emissions still using coal to preserve their way of life as well as the planet for future generations. kristen with al jazeera, beckley, west virginia. pollution in beijing has reached dangerous levels with dense smog engulfing the city since friday, increase in burning coal for winter heating is being blamed for the problem. meanwhile in chile climate change is being blamed for causing the longest and largest drought in the country's history. lakes and reservoirs disappeared as rainfall has fallen 30% during one of the hottest periods in the last century. japan has decided to resume wailing in the antarctica ocean in march after a high hiatus

from last year and ruled that japan decades old hunt in the antarctica should stop to cancel the bulk of the whale for this season and they head to the polls on sunday in a closely watched election to mark the beginning of a new chapter in political history and vote delayed after a failed coup in september and comes a year after a popular uprising toppled the country's long stranding president and looked to the candidates looking to make history. >> reporter: last-minute hunt for voters and political campaigns draw to a close with three quarters of the country's population of 17 million under the age of 30 years, the youth vote will prove the size of the elections. music and mega phones are the weapons of choice for the candidates pushing for a high

turn out. and he served as prime minister under the former president and is a frontrunner and left government just a year ago after opposing plans to extend his rule. a business man and former finance minister is the other candidate. for some people the frontrunner ties to the former regime is a disappointment. >> translator: it suggests we don't represent change. we served under him with honesty and in the interests of our people. we have nothing to be be ashamed of. >> reporter: it's one of the poorest countries on earth. its ailing economy was effected by the crisis of blaze compori. and they want elections to bring to an end the crisis that engulfed their country for the

past 20 years. and no representatives of the former ruling party are allowed to stand for the presidency. yet officials of the congress for democracy party have been involving traditional others for support. majority in parliament will give them the right to choose the crucial posts of prime minister and speaker. >> translator: we are not happy at all. it's very unfair because we would have won if we were permitted to run for the president. our strategy now is to take over parliament. >> reporter: this is on the bay where experience in democracy we have this kind of uncertainty about the result of elections and this is a sign and indication that we are moving to a more democracy. >> if the elections are successful they will mark the first democratic handle of power in the history whose name means the land of honest people.

mohamed, al jazeera. still ahead on the program could the valley of the kings be home to one of egypt's great queens? the search for the legendary nefertiti enters a new phase. coming up, they continue to set the pace as the formula one season draws to a close. qualifying action coming up, in sports.

archeologists say they are 90% sure the tomb of egypt's boy

king tutankhamun has passages to a hidden chamber and could be the final resting place of the legendary queen nefertiti and she died in 14th century bc and is thought to be tutankhamun's step mother and one was she was laid to rest about 400 kilometers north of luxor, the new find could be egypt's greatest this century. >> my close examination of these scans highlighted the apparent presence of closed doorways on the west wall leading to a tutankhamun period store room labeled x in the cut away bottom left here. and that on the north to a corridor continuation of the two labeled y. the proposal i put forward was the burial of tutankhamun was actually a tomb within a tomb, what more do we know about queen nefertiti and ruled alongside

her husband the pharrah in the mid 1300 bc and had art of the sun god and promoted egyptian artwork that was whered radically different than predecessors and husband went to great lengths to display her as equal and making her one of the history's most powerful female rulers and more on this potential find from baltimore via skype is an egyptian art and archeology protesters at john hopkins university and thanks for joining us on al jazeera and officials say they are 90% sure there is a hidden chamber in tutankhamun's tomb and from everything you have seen and read of the discovery so far how likely is in this could be queen nefertiti's tomb? >> i think it's possible it could be nefertiti's tomb and i

think in particular it may even indicate that she had a closer family connection to tutankhamun than we had originally envisioned. >> so what impact do you think it would have, what do you think is the relevance are significant would this find be? >> well, if, in fact, nefertiti had been buried there and then was moved in order to place tutankhamun's burial within the tomb, it does underline the fact that much of the materials that we found buried with tutankhamun may originally have belonged to nefertiti just as nicholas reeves whose idea this all is has suggested for a very long time. and it also suggests that nefertiti may very well have been involved with tutankhamun's in leaving the otten cult and deporting to go to thieves away from the city. >> you mentioned that this tomb, if it is shown that nefertiti is

buried in sort of a chamber of the tomb it would show she had a closer relationship to previously thought with tutankhamun and how would it change the family link so to speak? >> well, one of the things that is interesting is that if she really is to the north of the present burial chamber it could be a typical configuration that we see for mothers and sisters of kings who have been buried in the valley. so it would be very intriguing to think about nefertiti as even possibly being tutankhamun's actual mother. >> there is not many people who would be able to name other kings or queens from 14th century bc other than tutankhamun and nefertiti, what do you think it is about these two characters that is so captivate the public even now? >> well, i think with tutankhamun it boils down for a

four letter word which is gold and with nefertiti it probably boils down to her beautiful statute in the berlin museum which really does depict exactly what her name meant in ancient egyptian, the beautiful one has come. so they both have their own amazing gravitational forces. >> i see brian egyptian art and archeology protester at john's hopkins and thank you for sharing your views with us, thank you. >> thank you. get the sport now, here is robin. >> thank you very much, great britain 2-1 lead in a double, double to andy murray and took on the belgium pair of david and steve and the britts took the first 6-4 and belgiums the second by the same score. and the merry brothers will take the next two sets 6-3 and 6-2 to win the match and britain has

not won since 1936 and reverse singles take place on sunday, that will decide the winners of the best of five final. striker jamie is the first player in english league history to score in 11 matches and broke the record of ten games by scoring at home to manchester united and three years ago he was playing non-league football for fleet wood and it's 1-1 and winners will go top of the table. manchester city briefly occupied the top spot and beats hampton 3-1 and beat them 3-2 and everton through 3-3 and crystal palace sixth after they had new castle 5-1. return to paris since the attacks in the french capitol two weeks ago. held before the 4-1 lead victory

and fans due to the lack of police forces available and the country is in a state of emergency. 130 people died on november the 13th and the suicide bombs outside the tour di france where the national team were playing germany. barcelona extended lead of the top of the spanish premier league to seven points and enjoyed a rather easy day out and victims this time and a double from lamar taking the scoring tally in the league to 26 and messi making the first league appearance since it started since a knee injury in september added another a 4-nil win and could be trimmed because second place atletico against espaniol 1-nil and take on sporting heehaw. back to sport and we will be on

poll for the final days of the season on sunday and the grand prix, the sixth race and mercedes has been quick at qualifying with hamilton and final lap and rossburg could use the seconds and hamilton and will start sunday's race in the third. >> before it was close in the other direction, now it's close in this direction. i'm quicker at the moment and very pleased about that and enjoying the moment and happy to be on poll again. >> struggling with the car a little bit this weekend but working really hard to make some changes and had to take something off the car but it's really quick today. >> reporter: the first day-night test match between use australia and new zealand and the pink ball has not helped with the 224 and it was 6-62 in

the first session and eventually dismissed for 224, 13 wickets in total falling on saturday in addition to the 12 on friday, new zealand closing with 116 for 5 and the second inning giving them a lead of 94 runs, a three-day test looking very real possibility in this country. charles has a three-shot lead game in the final round of the daniel championship taking part in south africa and the country club is right on the edge of the national park and no surprise to see animals wandering around the outskirts and they continue to enjoy seeing birdies on the course in the third round of 70 ahead of herbert with 13 under. jordan spieth is three shots off the lead after the round of gulf and had the shot of the day on the 17th hole at the australian

golf club in sidney and 76 and 7 under over all. local leader ten under par and third round included six birdies. 95-90 to the cleveland cavaliers and the star player lebron james and the first time with the cavaliers former and the streak continues with james scoring 25 points and 11 rebounds. mourned at the traditional pacific island send off in oakland and wife and children joined by the governor general for the tradition day of the family event. former memorial will be held at oakland's park on monday and thousands of people are expected to attend and he died from cardiac arrest and suffered a rare kidney problem since 1995.

that is your sport and it's back to barbara in london. >> thank you, u.s. republican presidential hopeful donald trump has seen his ratings drop by 12 points in just a few days. in the five days up to friday his popularity dropped from 43% to 31. his support among republican voters fell after he said that he was in favor of placing all u.s. muslims on a database and he is currently under fire for what appeared to be an impersonation of a disabled "new york times" reporter. trump has since said that it was just his representation of someone groveling, much more on that and everything else we have been covering on our website, the address on your screen right now al jazeera.com. that is it from me barbara sarah and we will be here in a few minutes with more of the day's news and see you tomorrow,

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syrian rebel groups join forces to turn the tide against government soldiers in the crucial aleppo province. ♪ this is al jazeera live from london and also coming up, pope francis calls africa the continent of hope after he gets a welcome from young uganda. national security agency prepares to stop mass surveillance so what now? experts say 90% sure they found a hidden chamber in egypt's