the united states says it's ready to help iraq step up the fight against i.s.i.l. welcome to al jazeera. coming up in the next half hour the first steps towards justice over a massacre carried out in the philippines six years ago. 21 police officers face sanction. cristina kirchner says goodbye to argentina. we take a look at what challenges lie ahead for her divided country. a new first, a vaccine for

dengue fever gets approved in mexico. the united states says it's ready to step up the fight against i.s.i.l. in iraq. ash carter has offered to send personnel and machinery to help push out the i.s.i.l. from romadi which was captured in may. it was seen as an embarrassing setback for the iraqi forces >> we're prepared to assist the iraqi army with attack helicopters and accompanying advisers our correspondent imran khan joins us now. if you could just quickly update us on the situation in romadi right now. >> reporter: what we've seen in the last 24 hours is two real

key territories taken by the counter terrorism forces backed by the iraqi army. the first was in the south-west of the city. this is a fairly significant chunk of the suburbs and it leads into a number of bridges that take you into the center of the city itself. we also saw the area of the military base that the iraqis had been using for a number of years before i.s.i.l. took it over. they managed to take it back as well. all of this has been a very long time coming. this operation began in the summer and it has been beset by delays. prime minister al-abadi had said it was only going to take a couple of days or a couple of weeks. here we are months on. these are the successes they've had in the last 24 hours which

are setting them up well to go into the center of romadi. we don't know how many i.s.i.l. fighters are within the center, but one of the key bridges that link two suburbs have been taken. it means that i.s.i.l. fighters can't be replenished in romadi. it looks like a real push to get in but we don't know how long it will take we heard ash carter offering military help to the iraqi forces to retake the area. al-abadi must be happy about this. >> reporter: he might be, but there is a disconnect about what the americans want and what they want to give, and what al-abadi has been asking for a very long time and what he is going to get. ash carter statement is we are willing to help if al-abadi

asks. that has been met with scepticism. i've spoken with officials here and they said they don't understand what the difference is. they have been asking for helps since i.s.i.l. have taken over. americans have delivered help and we need intelligence gathering and we want our forces to be trained and they want the coalition to be more unified when it comes to the fight against i.s.i.l., particularly you want cooperation between the americans and the actors that are involved in fight against i.s.i.l. we also want heavy weaponry to be able to go in. they don't want boots on the ground. it's likely that ash carter's at the same time is more to do with the domestic audience in the u.s. than it has to do with actually reaching out to the prime minister and the iraqi people to say we are wanting to help you. coming back to the political sensitive issue here in the u.s., also here as well, it is

being debated at length. it strikes me as somewhat of a more domestic issue and a domestic united states issue, the one that al-abadi will go that's great. they have been asking for this help since i.s.i.l. took over territory in 2014 thank you for that. turkey's president erdogan insists that his forces were invited to iraq last year. he maintains that several hundred soldiers outside mosul were requested to fight against i.s.i.l. al-abadi wants them to leave immediately. >> translation: when i.s.i.l. reached mosul and began to expand to the north of iraq, al-abadi visited us and requested troops for training.

we set up a training camp in response. everything happened with their knowledge. he hasn't said a word since the conflict in syria has been high on the agenda of a gulf corporation council meeting in saudi arabia. the king opened the summit asking the leaders to work together to restore stability in the region. he said he remains committed to a political solution in syria. the summit is being held at the same time as talks between syria's armed and political opposition >> translation: regarding the syrian crisis, the kingdom of saudi arabia is hosting the syrian opposition in order to help find a political position. there is a joint responsibility in fighting terrorism and extremist. the government of saudi arabia have exerted effort in this

regard. our islam rejects terrorism and extremism the number of people killed in a taliban attack in southern afghanistan has risen to more than 70. the gun battle at candies bihar airport lasted more than 24 hours. hostages were also killed in the tack which coincide with a conference in pakistan. pakistani leaders were urged to restart peace talks with the taliban. >> reporter: the government has launched an investigation to try and find out how the taliban got into the kandahar airport complex. it is home to a large military base as well as the civilian airport. the security is tight. the number of check points just to get into the complex itself. the taliban had released a video showing its fighters in military uniforms saying they got past the check points in military vehicles with foreign number plates and identification.

the government questioning their version of events in launching its own inquiry into what exactly happened. this fight went on for more than 24 hours, quite fierce fighting, a number of explosions have damaged the actual airport terminal building itself. this is the second attack in kandahar within a number of days. there had been another attack on the main police headquarters in kan darks ahar aas well and the taliban in september having their largest military victory since being driven from power in 2001 when they managed to take over the city in northern afghanistan and hold it for more than two weeks. the afghan security forces facing a large challenge here, looking at how this attack on the airport could have happened and what they could do to prevent any sort of future attacks 21 police officers have been sacked in the philippines in connection with the deadliest attack on journalists in history. 32 reporters and 26 other people

were shot in the southern province in 2009. the policemen were dismissed for failing to stop the son of a political war lord and his body guard from carrying out the aattack. more from manila. >> reporter: this is the first time the families of the victims feel they have received any sort of justice. as it is, the actual criminal court case is going very, very slowly. it has been six years since this crime was committed and since then there have been over 100 suspects that have been maimed in this-- named in this case. as it is with only one suspect being tried in the criminal case, that will take at least 10 years from beginning to end of trial. so something like this in the beginning analysts say would take almost a century going by the average standards of philippine justice system. however, the president promised that there would be a conviction in case before the end of his

term. fortunately, the end of his term is in six months and it's not looking very likely that there will be any kind of concrete development towards that end. the main suspect, for example, actually died in detention because of an illness. on top of that, many of the other suspects are involved in bail proceedings right now and even though that is dragging out, it's delaying the actual trial from taking place. many of the victims' families already feeling that possibly after this suspension of the police officers, they might not see anything more concrete for years to come argentina's outgoing president has made her last public address before handing over power. cristina kirchner addressed her supporters. macri will be sworn in later on thursday. she has refused to attend his inauguration ceremony.

he defeated her in november. >> translation: these are the greatest things that i have given to the country's people, the empowerment of the citizens, liberties, rights, thank you for so much happiness, so much joy and love. i love you all. you will all be with me forever in high heart and know that i will always be right there with you. thank you everyone macri is facing tough challenges ahead. people hope that he will be able to deliver on his promise to improve the economy. >> reporter: on the streets of the city to send a message to argentina's new president. this is the leader of a worker's union and says he is ready to confront the government. if macri's policies hurt people like him.

>> translation: we are worried because even though we voted for a change, macri is a representative of the right. if he doesn't give zero policy, hunger and other campaign promises, then we will be on the streets. >> reporter: he is taking office in a divided country where voters have changed the leader for the last 12 years. political economic sovereign ultimately and social justice is on the list. >> translation: the election marked the fight between two models. one goes with the free market model and that's macri, the other one with the problems. what we are waiting to see is what the next government will do. >> reporter: that depends on the state of the economy. president cristina kirchner is leaving behind. she has said that one-- macri

said one of the first measures he will take is to liberalise the exchange rate, but that could cause inflation to spike and that's precisely what worries people here, that if that happens, a government by maci won't do anything to protect the poor and the working class. this is the former chief of a central bank. he says the situation is more complicated than the outgoing government would like to admit. >> all the coffers empty in the economy. if you look at the central bank, there are no dollars or reserves. if you look at the treasury, the deficit is bigger and gig bigger. the government will try to open the drawers and nothing will be there. the key question is how would you reconstruct a base of resources so you can make a new start? >> reporter: the challenge will be to do it without hurting

argentina's most vulnerable still to come here on al jazeera. >> a political show trial or the prosecution of a brutal war murderer. join me later in the program for the look at the trial of the ukrainian pilot. the only way to get better is to challenge yourself,

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>> we are scared. >>...have an organized right-wing movement trying to kill others. you're watching al jazeera. a recap of our top stories. the u.s. says it is ready to

step up the fight against i.s.i.l. in iraq. ash carter has offered to send adviceors and attack helicopters to help iraqi forces push i.s.i.l. from the city of romadi. afghanistan is investigating wednesday's taliban attack on kandahar airport which killed 70 people. peace talks are urged. 21 police officers have been sacked in the philippines for failing to prevent the deadliest attack on journalists in history. 32 reporters and 22 other people were shot dead. french investigators say a digital clue has helped them identify another suspect from the paris attacks. five of the seven attackers who killed 130 people across paris last month have now been identified. >> reporter: foued mohamed aggad was a french national who travelled to syria to fight with i.s.i.l.

he became a mass murderer at home in one of the most violent attacks in paris for 100 years. his father said he would have killed him if he had known >> translation: i knew he was in syria. he left two years ago. of course i'm surprised. i would have killed him before if i'd known what he would do. >> reporter: he was identified by by dna shared by the police by his mother. he received a quote "your son died a martyr on november 13". a neighbour said he never guessed he could be involved in such violence. >> translation: he always said hello and was respectful. he was a sweet guy. i know him, not more than that. i don't know what to tell you. i'm shocked. >> reporter: he left for syria in 2013 with a group of up to 12 men from the same area.

six of them came back in 2014 and were arrested, including his brother kareem. >> translation: he was in touch with his brother and mother. he always told them that he wouldn't come back to france and that he would go to iraq. >> reporter: it's not clear how he got back into france without being detected by security services. he became part of the group in the bataclan theatre who killed most of the 130 people who died on november 13 the lawyer for a ukraine pilot on trial in russia says she won't appeal if found guilty. nadia savchenko is accused the killing people last year. >> reporter: on sunday this woman is allowed to see her

sister where nadia savchenko is on trial for murder. because she might soon testify on this day, she was kept out of the courtroom. we weren't, though. what seemed like a brief minute we could film the woman ukraine calls a hero. >> translation: i'm an optomist so sometimes i dream the judge will say enough of this. the prngs's witnesses are lying. -- prosecution's. the testimonies don't match. let the girl go home. i believe in good, but the judges take orders here. >> reporter: this is what is nadia savchenko is accused of. last june two russian journalists died in a mortar attack in eastern ukraine. the army helicopter pilot had been fighting in a volume tea infrontry-- voluntary infantry

unit. she was captured by pro-russian separatists before the attack, so her alibi is strong. >> it is not a trial at all. we may predict that the court's final sentence will be as severe as it could only be. >> reporter: another burning issue is how she came to be in russia at all. the prosecution says that she crossed the border from ukraine illegally, posing as a refugee. nonsense says nadia savchenko. she has always suggested that after she was captured by separatists she was smuggled into russian intelligence agents. the u.n. agreed saying that she was kidnapped. the prosecutors refused to our invitation of commenting. most people we spoke to her want the trial to be wrapped up quickly and the town left in

peace. >> translation: of course she should be punished, but it's such a lengthy process, so expensive for the country. it's taking too long. >> translation: i think it's political. i think russia and ukraine should make peace and stop war. >> reporter: her supporters hope international pressure will help, maybe a pardon or deportation to ukraine or a prisoner swap. that is a decision that won't be made here they say. it will be made in moscow german chancellor merkel has been named time zeen's person of the year. the magazine praised her leadership on syrian refugees and the greek economic crisis. al-abadi was second on the list. donald trump came in third. strong winds have helped to clear the air in beijing.

a red smog alert has been lifted some the chinese capital. schools have opened. china correspondent adrian brown has more from beijing. >> reporter: this is proof that the pollution comes as quickly as it goes here in beijing. 24 hours ago i was wearing a face mask. today we have relatively clear skies are and clean air and the government is taking credit for some of that. on thursday it was said that pollution levels in the capital had dropped by more than 30% since the red alert was imposed early on tuesday morning. that saw the number of cars on the roads halved and some two thousand factories to shut down or halt. the red alert has expired and everybody know that the smoggy days will return. what the government will have to

decide is a long-term strategy to ensure that it can get more blue schuss and this could involve decisions very painful to the economy because it could involve large factories having to shout down a shorter draft of an international climate agreement has been released at the u.n. conference in paris. some politicians and environmentalists say there are major sticking points. >> reporter: this is the new slim-down draft text. it's still a long way to go. there are a number of brackets reduced from 700 to 300. i will give you an idea what we're dealing with. there is this idea of reducing the 2 c target to 1.5 degrees. this itemises three options, below 3 degree c, but scale up to one and a half or option

three below one and a half. that is the sort of thing that this document is full of. they're going to have to resolve here. also the choice of words whether it shall be shall, should, other, or designed to implement or achieve or carry out. all these individuals words have to be fixed up. the president of this climate conference says he want it all to be over, the gavel to go down at 6 o'clock on friday night. looking at this you you have to wonder whether it will happen the world's first vaccine against dengue fever has been approved in mexico. as mm-hmm as four money million people are infected every year. a professor of micro biolouiolo melbourne. he said it must be widely used in order for it to significantly reduce the number of cases >> this is going to be a

uniquely for many vaccines. this is really made for dengue in endemic countries rather than european or american countries. so this is a vaccine that will be given over three dozes, three-- doses, three vaccinations. it will be given to 9 and above. it can prevent particularly importantly prevent hospitalisation in around 80% of those who get vaccinated. so this is good news. the profile of in vaccine tells us that it would need to be widely used to cause a very major reduction in the prevalence of dengue. what we think it will do is reduce the impact of dengue as a public health problem in endemic countries. it will reduce the number of

children and young adults who end up in hospital with their illness, but it won't eradicate dengue. so we will still need traditional approaches of months key toe control-- mosquito control under u.s. law children as young as 12 can work in tobacco farms. human rights watch has released a report on the hazardous condition some of them endure. >> reporter: she is 17. she can't legally buy a cigarette in washington dc but she has been exposed to in particular teen for at least - in particular teen - nicoteen. now she is on capital demanding change. >> i'm here so they will raise the age because it's the 21st

century. we should not have 12 yeerldz working in fields. >> reporter: she describes tough conditions in tobacco fields of north corolina. >> throughout throughout the day i would start to feel sick and i get bumps on my skin from the tobacco. i just get dizzy and it's just a really bad place to be. sometimes there are rows that are maybe twice my height, so you're in between two rows and you're just suffocating from all the heat. >> reporter: the two largest tobacco companies in the u.s. no longer hire under 16s, but hrw says no children under 18 should be exposed to tobacco and pesticides as their bodies develop. both companies do require children under 18 not to engage in hazardous work "as defined by u.s. regulations". the problem is u.s. regulations

are very weak. they allow children as young as 12 to work without protection with tobacco and pesticides. there is no federal right to organise or bargain. neither the companies responded to our request for comments. >> none of the companies have policies sufficient to protect all children from hazardous work in tobacco farming. >> reporter: in fact companies do have more stringent standards in the rest of the world. >> reporter: not here in the u.s. where these cigarettes defer to u.s. law. js eye didn't respond to my question as to why children in the u.s. didn't need the same protection as kids elsewhere in the world. the obama administration appears to agree that things are just different here in the u.s. under pressure from farm lobbies it withdrew proposed regulations

on agricultural child labor and said it respected what it called the rural way of life a quick rider. you can keep-- reminder. you can keep up-to-date with news on al jazeera.com >> i'm mei-ling mcnamara in canada here to discover how the great bear rainforest is being protected. >> i'm amanda burrell. i'm in london to find out how to make old houses green. >> and i'm yaara bou melhem in indonesia's south sulawesi looking at how the efforts of