>> i will fight for me and i will fight for fifa. >> two of football's most powerful men vow to clear their names after being banned from fifa for eight years. >> hello there i'm are barbara serra. king maker of spain will tell you how this left wing politician can hold a key to power. live in madrid. the taliban gained control of a

key area in afghanistan. and the search for survivors as a devastating landslide hits southern china. >> i will fight for me and for fifa. those are the defiant words of sepp blatter. as he and high ranking official michel plantini are banned for having anything to do with fifa for eight years. $2 million payment made to platini five years ago. , both men continue to deny wrongdoing. but many believe 79-year-old blatter's career is most certainly over. al jazeera's paul reese was following the story as it

unfolded in zurich. >> sepp blatter once again the center of attention. the 79-year-old swiss fighting to get into a press conference as he fights for his very future in football. the uefa chief michel platini, blatter's association with fifa tarnished forever. >> i will fight for me and i will fight for fifa. suspended eight years for what? >> reporter: for years, the two leading figures at fifa had a agreement. blatter reneged on the deal and they fell out. now a gentleman's agreement from the past returned to halt them.

platini allegedly carried out work for blatter in 2011. ethics committee delivered the ban. >> the adjudicatory arm, banned mr. blatter for eight years. and mr. platini president of uefa for eight years. >> the ethics committee already decided he was guilty and seeking a long ban. blatter's demise was relatively slow. he hung on over half of his executive committee being exposeas corrupt. after fbi sweep in may, he finally resigned. he wanted a handover on his own term and even old allies decided

otherwise. if platini is going to have any chance of running for the fifa presidency he needs to clear his name before january 26th. that will involve going through both the fifa appeals committee and the arbitration committee of the sport. one is a footballing legend, the other is fifa's great political survivor. both brought down by the biggest ever football scandal. >> earlier, taliban claimed responsibility for an attack that killed six u.s. soldiers. three more soldiers were injured in the attack, near bagram air base. the largest u.s. military facility in afghanistan. suicide bomber on a motor bike

targeted a joint u.s. afghan foot parole outside the base. the taliban has been staging an offensive that has seen it take control of an area in southern helmand province, senior official warned the entire province was on brink of falling. in the recent months the group has gained ground in areas close by. imoku molu reports. >> gaining ground, against taliban, afghan soldiers and police are outgunned. >> translator: we are fighting to remove the taliban from this area. therefore we need support from our own army to help us. right now the area is controlled by taliban. >> reporter: this is helmand province, once controlled by the taliban. it is also the place where most of the world's opium is produced. on sunday, the province's deputy

mayor used facebook to plead with the afghan president. there is a serious need for you to come. since last night sangen district sector is almost completely under taliban control. >> although billions of dollars or hundreds of millions have been spent to develop an afghan national army, that national army seemed to lack strategic leadership. and this is why you see the taliban taking advantage of this. >> the taliban appears to be crisscrossing the country, seizing large areas. two months ago, its fighters took kunduz in the north for two weeks, crippling the city. now they've moved south to sangen in helmand province, the deputy minister says the entire area will fall unless they

receive help soon. imoku molu, al jazeera. in the last few minutes the leader of spain's people's party has insisted he will try form a government after securing the most seats in parliament elections. but neither mariano lahoy's conservatives nor their traditional left leen leaning rs won a clear majorities. >> reporter: pablo iglesias leader of podemos, chairman of a new kind of politics, free of corruption. to make that happen, he says he's ready to talk to anyone but the old parties must recognize the changes that have taken place in spain. >> so today is an historical day for spain. we are very happy for the fact that in spain, the two party

system has ended. and we are happy because we are starting a new political era in our country. >> but awkwardly, it is the incumbent people's party who came first and mariano rahoy wants to stay as prime minister. >> to plain the different options we are talking about for our country, it is not time for political opinion or political groups. we need to continue growing and we need to continue making the reforms that all the european countries are looking at us and saying, spain you are going in the right direction. >> reporter: madam chair will sit on january the 16th.

that's when the king will sit. but if parliament can't decide by the middle of february then spain will have to hold new elections. barnaby phillips, al jazeera, ma drid. >> david chater is live for us in madrid. we have just been listening to mariano rahoy for about 20 minutes. what's he been saying? >> reporter: arbarbara, despie losing majority in the lower house of flairmt, he feels for the good of spain, stability of spain, pulling it out of austerity, he is the man to take spain on the mantle of

stability, but when you hear the other parties and the complex arrangement he is not going to have many people can he really talk to. we have already heard from pablo iglesias, the young maverick, age 37, a moral virk tr vick tr. pablo iglesias says he's going to remain in opposition. he doesn't want to talk to a man who represents a system, he went into politician to break that system. how could he help out, most natural as a citizens party, only got 40 seats, faded in the last two weeks of the election. so he is not a natural partner either. they don't want to start talking to mariano rahoy. they took away a lot of core

votes from the people's party and he wants to maintain those. we'll see if he wants to abstain from this process so where does that cleave mariano rahoy, worst we've seen in the elections. will give him the absolute majority he needs. i'm afraid sab chez gave mariano rahoy a pummeling during the debates on television and he calls him a than without honor. how on earth can those two people even in the cause of stability, in the cause of the spain sit in a coalition government together? it's not oij that they have a bit of personal animosity to them. instead of giving spain

stability, if you have got a grand coalition back, the very party podemos wants to break, if they came together for the sake of stability, it would only be a mar an. i think the banks and the shops and everyone else would know that. i fear barbara barbara that these coalitions will fail. everything is up for grabs yet again and we may see pod emos to push through to take a controlling place in congress of deputies. that's too far ahead to speculate on yet. these are all the issues that have come to the fore now. i don't think these are issues that can be sorted in the way that mariano rahoy has just been saying he wants to. >> very complicted there in

spain, david chater, thank you. let's go to russia now. it says it has been unable to retain enough data from the black box recovered after the jet because shut down over turkey. no to politicians, no to the african union. the winner is? the little bit can embarrassing slip-up at the year's miss yeuferyooufersunifieuniverse co.

bring your family and friends together to discover the best shows and movies with xfinity's winter watchlist. later on, we'll conspire ♪ ♪ as we dream by the fire ♪ a beautiful sight, we're happy tonight ♪ ♪ watching in a winter watchlist land, ♪ ♪ watching in a winter watchlist land! ♪ xfinity's winter watchlist. watch now with xfinity on demand- your home for the best entertainment this holiday season.

>> time now for a reminder of the top stories on al jazeera. the suspended president of football's governing body has been banned from the game for eight years. sepp blatter insists he will fight on after a ethics committee found that he and fellow fifa official michel platini had abused their office. an area in afghanistan has been attacked by a suicide bomber. and no outright majority in spain's parliamentary elections.

humanitarian issues worsen by the day, in syria. as many as 12 million need help. paul tradergian introduce us to some of the people involved in the issue. >> scouring the alleys of aleppo. when there are no planes drops bottoms she looks for anything to burn. >> cleem them with at least warm water. even wood we can't find and he heating oil is too expensive. everything is too expensive. >> her husband abandoned her and her kids. without any income, any means, she struggles to find milk for her infant. every day she worries about

putting food on the tame. these are dispris "desperate journeys: a global crisis" times for millions of syrians like this woman. other bonfire, this one keeps the neighborhood kids warm. >> we were at home but it was freezing there so we came down here to warm up with the fire behind us. on the way we found nylon bags, paper, just to keep the fire burning. at home we have no blankets or anything to warm us up so we come here until the fire goes out. >> aleppo is one of the longest continuously occupied cities of the world. the fires haven't gone out for 5,000 years. the five-year-old civil war has now turned brother against brother. it's permanently destroyed and changed lives like this man's. the air strike just destroyed the home he's lived in for more than 40 years. >> i came back to my home four days ago and found it destroyed by strikes.

i just picked myself up and i'm now roaming. >> reporter: before the fighting more than 2 million people lived in aleppo. many are now hopeless, some lost, most looking for a helping hand. >> it's the regular people who feel sorry for me and who are helping me to survive. every few months i get some aid but it's not enough. i just yell and scream from time to time. realizing my situation is so dire sphwhrp. >> drones flying over what was once a famous tourist destination. the cultural capital of syria threatens its future and it's past. those who are have been able to leave have left. those who have to stay behind don't know how they will survive. paul tradergian, al jazeera. >> at least 80 people are still missing beneath a giant flow of

construction waste which buried 30 buildings in southern china. our china correspondent adrian brown reports. >> reporter: at times like this manpower is not a problem in china. 1500 rescue workers are now searchings for signs of life, hoping survivors may have found an air pocket. if people are alive they're in damaged buildings trapped under yards of mud. by monday afternoon more than 24 hours after the landslide there was, though, still hope. >> translator: since 2:00 a.m. on monday we have rescued 700 people and located 300 residents. with the rescue work, we have carried out yards ever

construction debris. >> t mud spill is covering a vast area. equal in size to 14 football fields. >> an area of around 380,000 square meters has been covered by the mudslide disaster. the distance ranges from a few meters to many tens of meters. >> many know where that debris came from, waste from cruk sites had been dumped here for years. according to chinese media reports it was at least 100 meters high and apparently, legal. this was china's latest man made disaster. it's only four months since a huge explosion at a storage area for dangerous chemicals in the northeastern city of ten yen.

gien. investigators must find auto if there are others who are nadged as well. to help clear a toxic waste it's part of red alert measures. the highest of chinese capital's air pollution reading. a number, have the city's cars have also been ordered off the road while schools will stay closed until tuesday. india's supreme court has released the youngest convict in the case. maximum sentence of three years as a juvenile. after widespread protests, the government proposed changes to the upper hous up law but the lt

cleared parliament. blaise compaore is wanted for questioning, compaore fled to ivory coast after being convicted last year. analyzing the body of president tomas, sankara. several brults have been found in his body. >> burundi's president, au wants to send 5,000 troops and worried that the country is headed

towards civil war. pierre nkurunziza decided to run for a third term. mohammad adow has the story. >> government of burundi was able to protect civilians. they also said they will appoint a commission of inquiry to look into the killings that have happened in the country, since april but particularly, the killings that happened on the 11th of december. on that friday 87 people were killed in the capital bujumbura. they have only one more option, ang act which allows them to maintain in a country even before the divorce.

fest they can only be done at the summit. only can be invoked by african presidents. however, they have not agreed on invoking it in the past. and that is where burundi might get its escape. >> rwanda's president has praised last week's referendum which cleared the way for him to run for a third term. but in his annual state of the nation speech today, paul kagame failed to make clear if he would be standing in the 2017 elections. rwanda ah's elects commission's. >> it is a privilege and a duty to serve rwanda. not an entitlement.

no individual is there forever. but there is no time limit on the values, institutions, or progress. >> nigeria's rivers have been busy hubs for shipping and a life blood for local fishermen. but these sources of water are drying fast, ahmed idris reports. >> mohammed has been a fisherman all his life. the skills have been passed down from one generation in the family to another. because it is thbecause he consr as life. >> fishing is very important, that is where we feed and live, actually, will make our start as

fishermen and so are we. >> the rivers aren't yielding as much as they used to. this is a confluence, a meeting point of the benway and the niger. this used to be a very difficult hubs. people earning their living from the water have seen their incomes dry up. water becomes shallow. as a result, many figurer mefn had to swix jobs to feet their families. >> their raise is official now, but you cannot sustain yourself with snishing today. that's why are we, boats don't

situation even worse. >> the government has attempted to dredge the rivers, most people expect that dredging means that all the debris is cleared and the flow is improved. but we haven't seen that. my understanding is that only certain channels have been dredged for channels to come from the atlantic ocean to this part. but even that has not come to the level that is impacting critically on the economy of the state. >> so now fishermen can only watch and hope that some day soon the fish will return. and restore their likelihood >> aimmediatahmed idris, al jaz.

a rocket has ar launched the progress to deliver fuel, water and food and in preparation of its arrival two nasa astronauts took an unplanned spacewalk, hoping to fix a part before the spacecraft arrives. this was the memo that miss colombia had been told she had retained the miss universe

title. >> i have to apologize, miss universe 2015. >> host steve harvey realized he had made a mistake. miss colombia was the rir runne. she had had it before. miss philippines was the real winner. more on aljazeera.com. >> i'm russsell beard, in southern kenya, where the latest development in human elephant conflict resolution is creating a real buzz. >> and i'm amanda burrell in indonesia, to see a wasteland restored. >> and i'm sergio quitana in arcata california learning