it has been called the final assault. iraqi forces are battling to retake ramadi from i.s.i.l. you're watching al jazeera live from doha. coming up in the next half hour. one survive is pulled from a huge land slide in china and an arrest has been made at the dump. plus. >> reporter: every 15 cigarettes you smoke will cause a mutation it is a message that has been labelled medical pornography. a ruling is due to cigarette packaging in europe.

a mobile money trail, why trailer parks have become hot property for investors in the u.s. iraqi forces say they now control more than half of ramadi after a mission to retake it from i.s.i.l. the army claims to have advanced on the center of the city driving fighters out of many residential areas. >> reporter: it has been described as the final assault to recapture ramadi from i.s.i.l. the iraqi military says its troops are moving in on the center of the city. the provincial capital of the mainly sunni province has been under i.s.i.l.'s control for months. for weeks those forces have been trying to reach the main government complex, but ramadi is an urban battleground.

progress has been slow. i.s.i.l. is fighting back using suicide bombers. it is not known how many men the armed group has in the city, but iraqi intelligence believes there could be up to 300. there are also civilians trapped inside and it there are reports of casualties. the iraqi military are calling on people to leave, but i.s.i.l. is reportedly stop them so they can use them as human shields. i.s.i.l. stormed ramadi in may at the time much of iraq's western province was already under the armed group's control. ramadi's fall was an embarrassment for the iraqi government. they didn't put up much of the fight and withdrew quickly. months later they're back on the front line and the it is being led by forces. a member of the part says sunni forces are involved

>> there is big support from the coalition air forces. there is a big support from the fighters also. the attack was very good coordinated. they attacked i.s.i.l. from the area they didn't expected. so i think by the weekend it will be taken >> reporter: ramadi is a strategic city. it is on the doorstep of the capital baghdad and it connects to jordan and i.s.i.l. controlled territory across the border. losing it would be a setback. this battle is a test for u.s. strategy of relying on iraqi ground troops in the fight against i.s.i.l. victory here is not just about defeating i.s.i.l. it will determine if the shia-led government in baghdad is able to win over the community afghan forces are locked in a battle to hold back taliban

advances in the southern province of helmand. the army has made a push into san bernardinoing district which fell to the-- san bernardinoing which fell to the group. it is one of the main centers of afghanistan centers of opal um production. afghan forces have retaken some outposts near san bernardinoing but the main city remains in taliban hands. the governor warns the situation there could be get out of control. nato ended combat operations in afghanistan nearly a year ago. the afghan government has confirmed that british troops have now arrived in helmand. the ten soldiers are part of a nato force and will be based at camp zhorabuck. it is about 80 metres from san bernardinoing. >> translation: a group of british forces have been deployed in helmand to

participate in the support mission. they will support and help afghan security forces as advisers and they will not participate in the military operations. military operations are the task of the afghan security forces a 19-year-old has been pulled alive from the rubble of the land slide in the chinese city. the man was trapped for 60 hours under a collapsed building before being rescued early on wednesday morning. nearly 80 people are still missing after a huge pile of construction waste smashed into buildings. police have now raid the office of the company that was managing the rubbish dump. going to adrian brown with the latest from beijing. it is quite an feat to survive 60 hours under a subject land slide. are rescuers optimistic that they will find more survivors? >> reporter: i think the fact they have found one person alive will certainly raise the morale of those rescue teams.

let me just talk you through the sequence of events. rescuers finally reached this man known as tian zam in eye migrant worker in the early hours of wednesday morning. when they got to him, he was able to give his name. they said that his pulse was very weak, his voice was feeble, he was also able to give the name of a second person near by but that person sadly was found to be dead. at the rescue site itself there are real scenes of tran particular activity today. some 4,000 rescuers are taking part in this operation backed up by dozens of mechanical diggers. of course, the search for more survivors will go on. president xi jinping has said while there is even a faint hope of finding anyone else alive, we must continue searching. of course, the chinese do this thing quite well. i've covered a number of man made and natural disasters here in china.

what happens is a well-coordinated plan goes into action and we're seeing that plan in action right now we know that there has been a raid on the offices of the company that manages this particular dump. what can you tell us about this company and about that raid? >> we know that a deputy general manager of the company which managed the site, which caused the land slide on sunday morning has now been taken away for questioning. we don't know if he has been formally charged yet, but certainly there have been lots of questions raised about why this mound of soil, which included cement and instruction waste, was allowed to get so high-- construction waste. according to local media, as high as 100 metres which means it was vast. what caused it all to come tumbling down on sunday morning.

media reports say that a government report had warned several months ago of problems at this site, problems had been identified and the word catastrophe was used and catastrophe, of course, is what has now happened thank you for that. meanwhile, at least two people have been killed in a land slide in central peru. heavy rains called a hill side to give-way, spilling on to parts of a highway and covering a truck. it happened about 300 kilometres east of the capital. land slides and avalanches in this area killed dozens of people and destroy hundreds of homes every year. colombia has legalized the use of marijuana for medical purposes: president rejects the concerns that the move weakens

his party. it shows that marijuana can help treat pain, nausea and other conditions the european court of justice is said to rule on the future of cigarette packaging. the e.u. is pushing through tough restrictions from next year, but u.k., ireland and france are going further, forcing tobacco company to replaced brands with health warnings >> reporter: as more and more countries crack down on smoking, many of these iconic logos will soon vanish from the shelves. australia led the way three years ago with stark warnings and brand names break-in in standardised lettering. the australian government said it cut smoking rates by 15%. 65% of each cigarette packet will be will be covered in warnings next year, leaving much less room for logos

>> there is good evidence that health warnings do work in terms of deterring young people from taking up smoking and helping adult smokers to quick. text warnings are fine but picture warnings are more powerful. >> reporter: like australia, they're also introducing plain packaging next year, something the tobacco giants are determined to fight. several leading companies all filed lawsuits at the high court in london. decisions are expected in january. there is also a claim that the white labelling contra even trade violations. the tobacco companies were not immediately available to comment, but pro-smoking lobbying groups will say it will have little effect.

>> it is basically medical pornography. some of the images are quite gruesome to say the least. i spoke it because i-- i smoke it because i enjoy it. >> reporter: in the past tobacco companies advertised their products freely. people were encouraged to smoke at breakfast, after sport >> >> there is something wonderful >> reporter: even in the shower. i need a cigarette. >> reporter: informed most countries have ban episode television tobacco ads >> every 15 cigarettes you smoke will cause a mutation. >> reporter: smoking is believe to cost the british economy around 20 billion dollars a year in reduced productivity and treating diseases. much more than the $14 billion the u.k. do government makes from tax. if struck down in the court, it

will have to rethink. tobacco companies are feeling the squeeze lots more coming up on this bulletin, including the benefit from land refors many years ago but now some zimbabweans are worrying about losing their farms. using explosives to create art. stay tuned. stay tuned.

welcome back. the top stories here on al jazeera. iraqi forces are advancing into

the center of ramadi as part of a major military operation to retake the city from i.s.i.l. the army says it now controls more than half of the city and it has driven fighters out of many residential areas. i.s.i.l. captured it in may in what was an embarrassing defeat for the iraqi government. rescue workers in china have pulled a survivor from a land slide. the 19-year-old man was trapped for 60 hours. police have raided the offices of the company in charge of the waste site. afghan forces are battling to hold back taliban vases in the southern province of helmand. the army has been advancing on sangin. activists say the israeli army

is holding medical treatment. two witnesses say they saw israeli soldiers shoot palestinians and then leave them to die. >> reporter: this man was shot by israeli soldiers in hebron in the occupied west bank. one witness who saw what happened says he would still be alive today if he had received medical treatment at the scene. >> translation: the israeli paramedics treated an israeli soldier and left him bleeding on the ground for an hour. >> reporter: it's not the first time that israeli soldiers and para medics have been accused of whitesides holding treatment to palestinians. in october another palestinian was shot dead by israeli soldiers in hebron. one witness says the soldiers did not give any warning before they opened fire. >> translation: they sprayed him with four or five bullets. the boy didn't have a knife as the israelis claim.

he was lying on the ground for 20 minutes before an ambulance came. >> reporter: an israeli human rights group says that withholding medical treatment is against the law. >> translation: during times of war and peace, no side is authorize to deny medical help to a wounded person. it doesn't matter what his nationality, color or race is. >> reporter: every time a palestinian is shot and medical treatment is withheld, the anger on the streets grow at least 35 civilians have been killed in air strikes in a busy market near syria's capital damascus. it is thought they were carried out by russian war plains. more than a hundred people were injured. >> reporter: they can barely believe what has just happened. air strikes thought to have been carried out by russian war

plains have flat end a busy market full of people. in the moment after the attacks, panic sweeps through. there are dead bodies everywhere and people are rushing to find survivors. they check if this man is alive. he is not, so they move on looking for injured people to help. this is the town of bazina in the countryside. people who live here say fighting between syrian government forces and opposition fighters has been nonstop for two months. they say the syrian regime is trying to break the deadlock with the help of russian air strikes >> >> translation: this is from the regime of bashar al-assad. this is what's happening to us. where are you muslim brothers? >> reporter: russia began bombing syria in september. it says its targeting i.s.i.l., but the institute for the study of war, a u.s. based think tank, says the russian air campaign

has mainly hit syrian opposition groups. >> translation: the russian and sir air strikes-- syrian air strikes have increased. they pretend they're targeting terrorists, but the majority of those killed are women and children. >> reporter: these are scenes that the people have become familiar with. what has begun as an uprise against government has descended into civil war. that cycle of violence is played out across the country for almost five years now and killed at least 200,000 people it was an image that shocked the world and highlighted the tragedys unfolding in the sees around greece and turkey - seas. the body of this boy, a tleerld syrian refugee washded up on the shore of a turkish beach in september this year.

his father lost his entire family that day. he has recorded a message to be broadcast on u.k. television on christmas day. >> translation: no translation (speaking in foreign language) the international

organization for migration says more than a million people driven from their homes by war, poverty and persecution have arrived in europe this year. more than 800,000 refugees and migrants attempting to reach europe have come via greece. the real numbers may be higher as countries are struggling to track all the arrivals. the u.n. says attacks by boko haram have forced many children out of school. more than 2,000 schools have closed and some have been looted or set on fire. zimbabwe's government wants thousands of farmers who benefited from its so-called lands reform program to pay an additional land tax, but the high cost of managing the property has left many of them struggling, and as our correspondent reports, there are fears they will eventually lose

their farms. >> reporter: this man is already paying land tax to the royal district council. he is one of about 300,000 new farmers who have been resettled on land seized by white farmers. >> the government is wanting tax. we want to stay here. >> reporter: the new additional land tax is between 3 and $10 a hectare. individuals with more than one thousand hectares of lands could end up paying tens of thousands of dollars in annual rent >> we wish that the level of rent be reduced so that the farmfarm remains viable. >> reporter: 99 year leases, and at the could loss their farms.

those who support the new law says it encourages people who benefited from land reform to see farming as a business and work harder to keep their property. the new farmers who are struggle aring say high electricity costs, low crop prices is to blame for under performance >> i think it is about looking at fifth of space, increasing the revenue base in the countryside. it results in intensification of land use. >> reporter: he doesn't agree. this season he is planting on 12 hectares of land. he says fertilizer will cost him more than $20,000, money he is still trying to raise. he worries he and many others won't be able to pay the new land taxes

millions of people in the u.s. are feeling the effects of the gfc that began in 2008. demand for low cost housing sky rocketed when families couldn't pay their mortgages and they moved into mobile homes and trailer parks. around 20 million people in the u.s. live in mobile homes. a quarter of those are retired and household income is only half the national average. rob reynolds reports. >> reporter: on the road to potential profits. investors are flocking to take a crash course on buying up trailer parks. about 20 million people in the u.s. live in low-cost, motor bike abell home communities-- mobile home communities. demands is high. as parks are bulldozed for

apartment buildings, supplies are dwindling. >> people are being squeezed out. >> reporter: a seminar is mobile home university. he owns 140 trailer parks and is an expert at squeezing money out of some of america's poorest people >> to be in this business and believe in it, you have to be a pessimist by nature. >> reporter: he tells park buyers to tear out amenities like playgrounds which costs make-up to maintain and above all to raise rent as high as possible without forcing residents to leave >> there's no regulations on what you can raise rent to at all. basically the park owner is free to raise as much as he wants >> reporter: investors are eau getting to get in-- eagre to get in >> they have a good return on

money, better than an apartment building with less management. >> reporter: a mobile home park is one of the best ways to go at cheap leaving. a used trailer can cost a few thousand dollars, payable in instalments. the ground rent in a mobile home park like this ones around $250 a month. many residents earn minimum wage or are disabled or elderly living on fixed incomes. 72-year-old says he can't afford to live anywhere else. >> it's easy to move from one town to another when you have a trailer. >> reporter: as the bus tour continued, it was shadowed by protesters denouncing the hard edge business practices mobile home university preaches >> they are coming in raising the rents rapidly, far greater than we've ever seen before. they are making massive profits on these communities, but they're also displacing a lot of

people >> reporter: some of the biggest names in u.s. finance, including warr and buffet and sam zchlt ell are making large investments proof that there is big money to be from the pennys of the poor you wouldn't normally associated art with chisels, explosives and hammer dreams. a street artist is using these tools to reflect development around the world. >> reporter: his studio may be in doors, but he prefers exterior walls of buildings to exhibit his art. >> i think it is good to exhibit, not just for culture, it makes life more interesting. >> reporter: he is an internationally recognised

graffiti artist. he uses chisels and drills, controlled explosions to create. >> it's a sort of process. you expose history. you make the invisible visible. >> reporter: a city landscape like hong kong is a perfect canvass. old buildings overshadowed by modern sky scrapers. it's what he wants to capture in his art >> i try not to reflect on the shiny of the building but on the shadow. i think the shadow is where the good work is and that is what interests me and where i want to put the focus on >> reporter: this building was once a busy cotton mill in hong kong. it is turned into a creative and cultural hub.

he was invited to document the buildings's transformation >> it is something we are proud of. we're eau jackeding different-- edjecting a different thing into the neighborhood. his art is displace around the world. the theme of his collection remains the same, to reflect on a city's changes and place of development by uncovering some of its past. what once started as an act of rebellion, is one that has won him an international following that continues to grow >> he is one of the influential artists of our time, but he has a strong following. he really has proven himself in the contemporary art scene as an artist worth watching outside of the urban art context. >> reporter: while a lot of his work are temporary

installations, with the changing face of asia, he says he won't be short of inspiration. sarah clarke for all the latest news, you can hand to our website. the address is al jazeera.com why the call to the polls is raising the stakes. for this community of faith. >> if we get one of those presidents, what is going to happen to us? what is going to happen to us, will they close them off? >> thanks for joining us, i'm when. many of us are focused on holiday deadlines . nowhere is that more evidence than in iowa. six weeks from today we'll know who the winners are. "america tonight" begins are