on the explosion in istanbul. we'll see you tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. a syrian suicide bomber suspected of setting off an explosion in the heart of turkey says biggest city. hello, welcome to al jazeera, we're live from doha. also to come on the program, food and medicine finally arrive for people suffering in some of syria's besieged towns. on him prices continue to fall. crude is now below $31 a barrel, the lowest in more than 12 years. the first arabic language

song to top the israeli charts. the turkish government said a young syrian suicide bombers was behind an attack in the historic district of istanbul. ten are dead, among them german tourists. turkey's government will share details of the attack with berlin. we have this report. >> it's the heart of istanbul and one of its most popular tourist spots. this is the square, less than an hour after an explosion, the site cordoned off and security tight. schwa it was a suicide bomb. i saw it. it was chaos, everyone was running around. police didn't see this coming. they were upset, and trying a

evacuate the area because they said a second bomb could go off. >> it is the biggest city in turkey with a major attraction for tourists and turks alike. thousands visit every day. the district is also home to the museum and the blue mosque. some in turkey had been expecting attacks since turkish borders launched an offensive against isil, as well as kurdish p.k.k. fighters. in october, at least 102 people were killed in a double suicide blast on a peace rally in the capitol, ankara. >> i strongly condemn this attack, this apparent terrorist attack caused by a suicide bomber. i'd like to offer condolence to say those who host loved once r. ones and prayers for those who lost the lives. it's important to be united in the face of terrorism.

turkeys resolution stance against terrorism will continue. >> the district is now locked down. its people left bewildered that a suicide bomb blast has torn through their beloved and historic city. al jazeera. >> we can go live now to the square and al jazeera is there. what'sette scene around you now? >> i think it's fair to say that a sense of norm always is returning to the square. i'm seeing more people around me, and civilians walking around the square, and i also see that the railway, the tram system that connects up to the tourist neighborhood, the historic peninsula has started working again. >> the turkish government in the form of the government, president erdogan was very quick to identify what he said was a

suicide bomber and who it was conducted by. >> he was. we first heard from the president erdogan, speaking at a conference for a yearly gathering of turkish ambassadors. he is speaking to the ambassadors, confirms that it was in fact a suicide bomber, and said that he may have had a syrian link. later on following this emergency security meeting held by the prime minister in ankara chairing this meeting, the current spokesperson said that they've identified the attacker at a 20-year-old syrian citizen. >> ok. thank you. emery, our correspondent in istanbul, thank you very much. now we can speak to the senior

fellow in turkish studies, joining us from istanbul. that was an act that is claimed -- well not claimed, but blamed on those affiliated with isil. isil is bringing the fight to the heart of turkey, it would appear. >> well, isis has been trying to bring the fight to the heart of turkey now for sometime now. it has been doing this in the last one year, in less than one year, this is the fourth believed to be conduct the by isis, even though isis itself is not claiming all of them. i think this also will create some sense of urgency. what it is trying to do, the question is not why isis is

trying to bring the fight into turkey. isis is very much eager to punish turkey in one way or another. secondly, the fight between the isis and the kurdish and syrian kurdish rebels in syria is creating another point of friction between isis and the kurdish movement, but not not just in syria but also turkey. when you look at the nature of the four attacks -- this one is against the tourism and the economy. isis is trying to target turkey's ethnic or sectarian fault lines or the economic fault lines. >> that presents a significant challenge, then, doesn't it to the turkish authorities if

they've got so many fault lines and crises to deal with, is there a danger that the fight against the p.k.k., the kurdish armed fighters, that the turkish government is undertaking, is there a danger that they will conflate that particular battle with the fight against isil? >> i couldn't hear the last part. could you repeat it? >> i'm wondering whether the two different battles, one against isil and one against the p.k.k., whether the two battles could be combined by that the turkish authorities and conflate the two conflicts. >> well, to some extent, it is what turkey is aiming to do. on the one hand, turkey, the fight against the p.k.k. especially since the p.k.k. decided to bring the fight into turkey into your ban centers and also there is another fight going on against isis. i think the turkish government

is trying to go for a package deal, including both p.k.k. and isis, but the caveat with this is that of the capacity. in the end, the isis is not like p.k.k., which is much more a conventional challenge, where as isis seems to be much more an unconventional challenge. the turkish government and security forces have a significant challenge and given the fact turkey is neighboring one civil war and one failed state, and bolt of these creates security challenges for turkey in a very severe way. >> thank you very much indeed for talking to us. the u.n.'s humanitarian cheech said 400 people must be brought out of ma day. >> immediately for life-saving treatment. he made the call as food and medicines finally reach three

besieged towns. an aid convoy arrived monday. supplies have been delivered to the pro government villages. opposition groups are surrounding these places but many areas are not included in the deal. 176,000 people are said to be in urgent need of help in another area. 9,000 are trapped in madaya and another town. the u.n. said is as i will cut off 200,000 people in parts of the eastern city. we have a report from u.n. headquarters in new york. >> trucks carrying food and medicine finally arrive in madaya, a town of more than 40,000 people where they've been eating their pets and after that survived on a diet of soup made from grass.

>> we witnessed a lot and suffered a lot. people killed cats to eat them. others ate grass. i saw people sitting on garbage and eating from it. we need to break the siege. >> it is reported that as many as 28 people have starved to death, but at the united nations, the syrian ambassador seemed to dispute all this. >> the information concerning the humanitarian situation in madaya is based on false information. >> we've seen reports of death, some in the last few hours. we've been seeing pictures of starving people. are those fabrications? >> yes, indeed. >> so reports of mass starvation issued by the united nations and other humanitarian agencies and these deeply disturbing pictures of the town's population, including children suffering from malnutrition are, he claims, fake. he also seemed to have a different, second explanation. >> the terrorists are stealing the humanitarian assistance from the syrian red crescent as well as from the united nations and

they are keeping these in their warehouses and use it as a leverage of political and financial gain for them. >> the u.s. ambassador samantha power told the u.n. general assembly she had no doubt who was to blame. >> look at the grotesque starved or surrender tactics the syrian regime is using right now against its own people. look at the haunting pictures of civilians, including children, even babies in madaya, syria. these are just the pictures we see. there are hundreds of thousands of people being deliberately besieged, deliberately starved right now and these images remind us of world war ii. >> on the ground in madaya, one woman seemed to back the syrian ambassador's explanation. >> the situation in madaya is so bad, before the siege, we used to live a proper life. the armed rebels when they entered the village and acted as we all know revealed their true colors.

at the beginning, people were deceived, but it has all become clear now. they are nothing but traders of people's blood. >> getting to the truth in the chaos and turmoil of syria's long war is very difficult. the camera crew who filmed these pictures were operating under syrian government media guidelines. >> syria remains a country where it's difficult to speak freely and where basic humanitarian needs, the access to food is being used as a weapon of war. the u.n. now says it needs the urgent evacuation of 400 people from madaya who need life-saving treatment. james bays, al jazeera at the united nations. a logistics officer for the world food program was part of the convoy to madaya on monday and spoke to us. >> when we got in there quite late last night, it was dark. it was very cold and quite miserable. the people in there are, their

first question to all of us was do we have food, so there is obviously quite an issue with food. there are approximately, we estimate 450,000 people in there, and at the same time, simultaneously, there was food and the same items that went into madaya going into other areas, as you mentioned. we took a w.p. ration that we give out to all people in syria it has rice in there, it has pasta, it has paste. it's enough to keep a family going for one month, and we will be going back again in a few days with wheat flour to also give to the families. if you look at syria itself, there are many other areas that are besieged, and in the same dire conditions, and i can't even compare what i saw yesterday with anywhere else in

the world, because every situation is difficult, is different as you can imagine. it was very bad conditions, desperate conditions, i would say, and very similar conditions that we are seeing throughout syria at the moment in both areas, traveling around the country has become a challenge, getting transportation to go into these areas is a challenge, but we are getting there, we are making successes, and we are actually finding ourselves in these place, so this is a good thing. this was a very big success yesterday. >> still to come on the program, new claims that syrian refugees in lebanon are being forced into illegal jobs. germany changes its stance on refugees and asylum seekers following assaults on new year's eve.

hello, again, let's have a look at the stop stories. the turkish government said a young syrian suicide bomber was behind the attack in the historic district of istanbul. ten are dead, among them german tourists. the u.n. humanitarian chief said 400 people need to leaf madaya in syria to get life saving treatment. food and relief that reached people in three blockaded towns. nigeria's oil minister is calling for an emergency meeting

of opec because of the falling price of a barrel. they've now hit a low not seen in more than a decade and its forecast to dip still further. at its peak in july, 2008, a barrel of oil cost more than $147. now it's fallen to around $30 per barrel and that's great news for us filling our cars or heating our homes but really bad news for oil producing countries like saudi arabia, resisting pressure from opec partners to cut production in the hope that price will be lifted. none of these countries getting enough for oil to cover their costs. of course, nigeria is suffering particularly. let's go live now to the nigerian capital and talk to our correspondents there. we've just outlined the very low price of a barrel of oil. how much is that impacting the

nigerian fiscal procedure that they're doing this time of year, setting out their goals and how much money they've really got to spend? >> it's having a horrendous effect on the nigerian economy. as you alluded to in the introduction, this country, some 70% of revenues item from oil. it's meant less money for the nigerian economy and the government. they recently put together the national budget which came to 301 billion u.s. dollars for 2016. they set this budget against an oil price of $38 a barrel. today we're reporting obviously oil has dropped to almost $30 a barrel, so quite a significant drop, so the question obviously arises how will nigeria finance its budget, and we think that's why the state minister petroleum, who is the deputy effectively of president buhari,

the minister of petroleum raised concerns that this meeting in be a boabu dhabi on thursday saying strategy needs to be rethought. it seems to be resisted by the main player in opec, saudi arabia, accounting for more than 60% of the oil that comes from opec countries. for one reason or another, not clear to many analysts, the saudis are resisting cutting back production in order or as a strategy to bolster the price of oil. the effect of all of this is huge challenges ahead in terms of how to finance nigeria's budget. >> thank you.

our nigeria correspondent live from nigeria. many are forced into illegal jobs facing abuse, the group's latest report said lebanese authorities are blocking many syrians from renewing residency permits. that means they can't legally work and can't go to the police when they experience abuse. some refugees report being underpaid, some even say they've been sexually exploited by their employer. caroline malone reports. >> hussein looks younger than 13 and works as an adult. he is employed in a garage to support his family, refugees from aleppo who escaped after their home was destroyed in syria's civil war. he feels a sense of responsibility to feed his parents and four younger siblings. >> i've been working for two years. i stopped going to school to be able to work to help my family, to be able to get a loaf of

bread. >> he earns $10 a week, barely enough to survive, even though his family also receives refugee aid. he'd rather be in school. syrian children often work because their parents face arrest for not having a residency series have a from the lebanese government. while many syrians live in refugee camps, thousands of other live in poorer suburbs of beirut trying to eke out a living that's been made harder by law that is restrict them from working unless they are span ford by a lebanese national. some offer sponsor ship. he hires only syrians he said work hard. >> the situation is really hard now for syrians, all of them. they are living in misery and every day they are suffocating them with these laws. majority of working illegally with no sponsor ships, most came from syria to work and live. >> human rights groups say since

visa restrictions were instituted, more work illegally. he can't find a sponsor. >> the last time i went to renew my papers they asked me my work. i said i stay at home. if they knew i worked here, i'd get penalized and sent back to syria. we are not supporting any side in the war. we just want to survive. >> many others can't afford the $200 needed for official documentation. syrians such as mow ma'am whose been living here since the start of the war. >> i don't have residency. the residency issue broke us. i don't have the means to renew may papers or a sponsor. >> with the older resigned to working illegally or younger and taking on the breadwinner's role as a child, most syrians in lebanon are just trying to earn enough to live off a struggle made harder by lebanese law. al jazeera in lebanon.

the german government wants to be able to deport foreign born people more easily when they're convicted of criminal offenses. let's go live now to the german capital berlin and our correspondent there dominic cain. tell us more about these new measures and why they are being put into place. >> we heard this afternoon from the interior minister and the justice minister basically that they want to toughen the measures, they are going to reduce the length of time that a sentence can be before which a foreign err or asylum seeker convicted of a crime can be deported. until now, it could only be done if the defendant, the convicted person had been found guilty of a serious criminal offense, which accrued a three year prison sentence and their country of origin was safe to be returned to. we hear the ministers' in tent to change the rules so the time gap will be reduced to one year

and at a stroke giving themselves more power insofar as this is concerned. all of this is happening in the aftermath of the events in cologne on new year's eve, when hundreds of women say that they were the victims of sexual and physical assaults which took place in that western german city on new year's eve. of course, we've heard from other politician. we know that angela merkel said it could not be right that offenses such as these could happen and nothing done about it. this is clearly the government reacting to what it considers to be a rising sentiment here that something needs to be done. >> dominic, thank you. for the first time, a song entirely in arabic has topped the israel charts. the band gives traditional rhythms and lyrics from yemen a hiphop treatment.

>> it's been viewed on line more than 2 million times. ♪ >> it stormed to the top of israel's pop music charts. the song, "love of my heart" is her first single its success is an impressive feat for any group, but it's almost unheard of for a jewish israel band that seems traditional folk songs in a nearly extinct dialect of arabic. the three sisters who make up the group know they are unlike any other band in israel and they're proud of it. >> music is a language in itself, so i don't think it should have any borders or something. we just want people to enjoy our music, no matter where they come from. ♪ >> the sisters are descendents

of yemeni jews who moved to israel after it was created in 1948. like many israeli jews whose families come from arab countries, they grew up singing the songs of their ancestral homeland. 300 trace their ancestry to the middle east and 20% of israeli citizens are arabic speaking palestinians. both communities have historically been among the poorest and most disenfranchised in israel. >> on the surface, it seems a given that an arabic language song should achieve commercial success in israel, given that the majority of the population comes from arabic speaking countries, but there is another reason this is the first to top the israeli music charts. for decades after the creation of israel, arabic music and this music more broadly was rarely played on israeli radio. the early leaders of israel were

european jews and their culture dominated. that slowly started to change in the 1970's with a select few artists achieving commercial success. all those blended arabic with hebrew or music which gave their music a distinctive israeli flair, something they have not. >> i think the design of the system made it very clear from the get go, from the very early 1950s that you need to work twice as harder to prove to us that you are not that kind of arab. >> from tel-aviv to tangiers, brooklyn to beirut, they hope to continue to transcend israel's race politics and history with their music, selling records and packing dance floors while doing so. al jazeera, tel-aviv. the best footballer in the

world for the fifth time in his career, this was the award. >> the 28-year-old barcelona forward picked up the fifa award monday opinion this is the first time he's won the title since 2012. his great rivalry faldo was second with barca's teammate coming in third place. i accept this prize with a lot of sincerity and tranquility. i'm enjoying it, also thinking of my team and teammates, all that we have been able to achieve this year. this is what enabled me to receive this prize so i am enjoying it and sharing it with all of them. keep up to date with the day's major stories on the al jazeera website, aljazeera.com.

there is the main story of the day, it has been what is being described as a suicide bombing in the heart of istanbul, turkey's biggest city. find out more about that on the website, aljazeera.com. an explosion leaving 10 dead in istanbul, turkey's president saying it was a suicide bomb attack. a final address, president obama getting ready for his last state of the union address, a speech expected to try and define his legacy. back in business, those daily fantasy sports sites allowed to stay open in one state despite legal efforts to shut