let me be clear. the use of starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime. >> u.n. chief ban ki-moon blasts all sides of the syrian conflict as a second convoy reaches the besieged town of madia. this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up, isil claims responsibility for coordinated attacks in central jakarta. seven are dead, and five are attackers. a baby and child among the dead after a police station was bombed in southeast turkey.

a report says corruption was embedded in world athletic's governing body and the leadership must have known. plus. box office hit "mad max" makes the running with ten oscar nominations. the united nations secretary-general says the starvation of people in the besieged town of madia amounts to a war crime by the syrian government. ban ki-moon criticized all sides in the conflict for committing atrocious acts. bank ki-moon said the people were in desperate need and are treated worst than hostages. a second international aid convoy arrived in the town. they needed supplies and they made their way to the area in 44 trucks.

news came of the death a 3-month-old baby of malnutrition in a village near by. let's go live to our diplomat mattic editor at the united nations in new york. very strong language indeed from baniec ki-moon. >> absolutely. almost five years of war in syria now, and i've been listening to many of his speeches over nearly five years. i think in my ways this is one of the strongest comments we've heard from the u.n. secretary-general carrying the weight of the entire united nations. in recent days when they've been discussing the situation in besieged areas, it in particular from madia, they say it may amount to war crimes and could be war crimes. ban ki-moon, the u.n. secretary-general pronounced on that issue with these comments. >> let me be clear.

the use of starvation as a weapon of war is a war crime. both sides including the syrian government, which has the primary responsibility to protect syrians, are committing this and other atrocious acts prohibited under international humanitarian law. >> james, the impression we get now is while the small amount of aid is reaching that particular area, this kind of starvation issue is happening elsewhere in syria as well. >> absolutely. 400,000 people, the u.n. estimates, are in inaccessible besieged areas. they even gave details of the numbers that they think are besieged by each group. it's clearly hard to get to half of the people because they're besieged by isil, an organization that is not cooperating with the humanitarian community in any way. i think it's important to tell you that i think right now the

united nations and other key international players believe it's an exceedingly important moment because we are just ahead of the fifth anniversary of the war in syria. we're just ten days away from the date when there are supposed to be peace talks on the bigger political issues. i can tell you that the u.n. security council, since ban ki-moon spoke in the last half hour, has called a meeting to take place on friday, an open meeting. they discussed the issue of besieged areas on monday. they're discussing it again, though, this time in open session so the world can hear the latest information coming from the humanitarian part of the united nations. i think the hope is that all of this pressure and those peace talks, which are supposed to take place in ten days, means perhaps they can get some progress on this area. ban ki-moon, the u.n. secretary-general spoke to

reporters and even described these as confidence-building measures. if they get humanitarian assistance it could help talks and build trust in the talks if both sides saw a benefit from humanitarian assistance, helping their communities on the ground. so i think you're going to see a real focus on syria and the humanitarian situation in syria in the next week. >> james, thank you very much indeed. caroline malone in beirut spoke to people that managed to escape from besieged areas of syria. >> reporter: they made it to lebanon from do you meuma, one areas under siege in syria. they share the story of how it was there and how they escaped. >> we went into a well and worked underground in a tomb. our heart is telling us we will get killed inside. when we got out, we took a breath of freedom. we begged for a piece of bread.

>> reporter: madia is on theout skirts of damascus. people are receiving aids without food or necessities because government forces and allies blocked off that area too. the aid deal is making many trucks to the more than 40,000 people as well as to the ville littles of in idlib under siege by rebel forces. >> the real solution to this predicament, to the plight of the people besieged in these towns, the real solution is for the siege to be lifted. >> reporter: this brother and sister have been smuggled out of madia and into lebanon, but their father was taken from the car by syrian authorities. >> translator: it's under siege. we would go for three days without food, and then we would go and get it and eat it. >> translator: we would go around madia, but it wasn't

really a school. we wouldn't read. all the kids would go stavring, their head spinning and flowing up and no one able to write or read or comprehending anything. >> there are 200,000 people under siege by i sisil. those who escape know how bad it can get with when they don't get supplies of food and medicine. >> translator: our heart is still there. we have kids still under siege and hungary. we know people that sold their homes to just eat, living in the streets for return of food. >> reporter: at the moment very few syrians are able to lebanon. the ones able to have escaped from desperate situations, but there's still more than 400,000 syrians living in areas held under siege by all sides in the war. caroline malone, al jazeera on the lebanon/syria border.

isil says it was behind a series of coordinated attacks which shook the indonesian capital earlier. seven people were killed, five of them were attackers. they struck at the heart of the city. when six explosions rocked a busy district. from jakarta, we have the report. >> reporter: the blast tore through the downtown area. at least six separate explosions and gunfire, a multi-prong attack close to the office of the united nations and the popular shopping mall. >> translator: he was on his phone. for about ten minutes he did that mass killing. >> reporter: indonesian television released these pictures of a subpoena carrying a gun. one bomb is known to have gone off near a starbucks cafe, and a police post was destroyed in one of the blasts. indonesia's president cut short a visit to oversea operations.

>> translator: we cannot be afraid. we cannot be defeated by these terror attacks, and i urge people to stay calm because everything is under control. >> reporter: isil has now claimed responsibility for this attack. the police chief has said that according to him there's a competition going on among isil for control in southeast asia, and that's why this attack happened today. the attacks were concentrated around tam ron street, a busy thoroughfare in bus yi jakarta. the traffic and people, which normally clog these streets, are gone replaced with heavy security. let's go to jakarta joined by wayne hayes. it seems that it's lucky more weren't killed given how busy it was at the time of the explosions. >> reporter: certainly. the location of the attack as

well, which is a central location in the business district of jakarta. many international hotel chains are here. it's where many tourists come to stay. it's where many business people when they visit town would stay in those international hotel chains. there are many large shopping malls in the area as well. so, of course, tragic as it is that two civilians were killed along with those five attackers and some 20-odd people injured, it certainly could have been a lot worse, that's for sure. >> what kind of measures is the indonesian government putting in place now? i know that the president mentioned that there's tight security on the ground. what else are they doing? >> reporter: well, certainly there will be an increase in security around those key areas over the next few days. the streets right now around the heart of jakarta have re-opened now, but the roads right around the capital city have been very, very quiet, unusually quiet

since the attack. the mall where much of that attack took place is it now fenced off. like i say, there will be an increase in security i'm sure over the next few days, maybe weeks and months. we will see more raids conducted by the counterterrorism units of the indonesian police like late last year when they arrested self people connected to some of these terrorist organizations, possibly supporters of isil. we don't know the identities of those five attackers killed in the violence on thursday morning, but what the indonesian police have told us is they believe they know who was the mastermind behind it. it's a man by the name of nihem who is an end neez ya that left to fight with isil in syria about a year ago. it's believed he's still there, and that's where the indonesian police believe he coordinated this attack from. no doubt a lot of investigation now going into what other support he might have had on the ground other than those five who

were believed to be involved in the attack on thursday morning. >> wayne hayes live from jakarta. thank you. six people including a baby and a child have been killed in a bomb blast in southeastern turkey. kurdish rebels are accused of targeting a police station with a truck bomb that brought down a nearby building housing police families. andrew simmons reports. >> reporter: it was an attack on turkish security forces, but here civilians asleep in their beds are rescued for what remains of their homes. one adult and two children were killed when this building next door to the police headquarters collapsed. rescue workers have searched through rubble looking for survivors. those who escaped serious injuries were in shock. this woman overcome after being guided to safety. daylight showed how devastating the damage had been. this is what remains of the

police complex targeted by a pickup truck full of explosives. one officer was killed, the wife of another policeman in a residential part of the building died along with her five-month-old baby. the authorities blame the kurdistan workers party, the pkk. the turkish government's t two-year ceasefire with the group fell apart last july. now strict curfews are in place of selected districts across the southeast of turkey. >> translator: i strongly condemn the attack on our police station in our town last night. five civilians were killed and a police officer was murdered in the attack. 39 citizens were wounded including 6 police officers. >> reporter: the prime minister says the commitment to what he calls counterterrorism remains steadfast. this latest did he haevastation kurdish conflict in which 40,000 people have died in the past three decades shows what turkey is still up against, and it

comes less than 48 hours after the isil attack right at the heart of the old city. in turkey right now no one really feels easy. andrew simmons, al jazeera, istanbul. still to come this half hour, as the world health organization declares the end of the ebola outbreak, we meet the men whose lives were destroyed by the epidemic. in this class. >> the british actor alan rickman as died of cancer at the age of 69.

the top stories on al jazeera. u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon says the tens of thousands of people starving to death in madaya amounts to a war crime. isil fighters have launched a series of bomb blasts in jakarta killing two civilians. five attackers also died. at least six people including a baby and a child have been killed in an attack on a police station in southeastern turkey. the iaaf must have been aware of drugs cheats in russia but did nothing to stop it. that's part of a second report commissioned by the world antidoping agency. the former president also stands accused of organizing and enabling conspiracy and corruption within the sport's governing body. although the head of the commission backs the current

president, sebastian coe. >> as far as the ability of lord coe to remain at the head of the iaaf, i think it's a fantastic opportunity for the iaaf to seize this opportunity and under strong leadership to move forward out of this. it's an enormous amount of reputational recovery that has to occur here, and i can't -- i can't think of anyone better than lord coe to lead that. >> lee wellings has been following events in munich. >> it's difficult to see how it could be much worse for russia and it's athletics and it's sports. russian athletics is suspended at the moment and a task force is trying to find a way to readmit them. will that be in time for the olympics in rio in august? there's plenty of skepticism

about that. they talk about the years and level of collusion between senior people in russian athletics and above the and the governing body of world at electr athletics themselves. the positive doping test of the russian did not come to light particularly before one that takes place in moscow. we knew it because of what happened in the first report, and you saw what happened to russia then. can they put it right? putin name was mentioned. we have to put this through the film, because the former president said he could turn to putin to smooth it over. we don't know if he's telling the truth, but it shows how high up this could go. north korea's ambassador to kuwait defended the nuclear program. he said north korea needs a strong nuclear deterrent to

protect it against aggressors like the united states. they say they successfully tested a hydrogen bomb last week. >> it is our sovereign right to conduct this at this time. so in the future too we will continuously strengthen the nuclear detonation unless it's rolled back on the hoss time policies against my country. >> it claimed the lives r more than 11,000 people last year. now the world health organization declares liberia ebola-free. many people are still living in the shadow of the virus. we have the report. >> reporter: the crematorium in the county or what is left of it. it's a place she returns to with

great reluctance. at the height of the ebola outbreak in liberia and as bodies piled up in the sfreets, franklin and a group of other men did what few liberians had done before, they set fire to their dead. for four months they burned close to 2,000 bodies. >> reporter: many liberians cannot to blame franklin and other ebola banners as they're known for cremating the dead. international experts recommended cremation to stop the spread of ebola at funerals. in this nation liberia believes the dead will come back to haunt the living if they're not well buried. angry mobs demolished franklin's house.

>> that is not what the yuj men expected, they thought they would be awarded and sieved apologies from the people that shunned them. they're still waiting. the banishment from the community makes it already a terrible time for them. their lives remain virtually destroyed. their time is spent drinking alcohol and taking drugs. that's what they have to do to get through their macabe task. >> i did that for my country. if we're going to have that it will be between it. >> reporter: the men are now forced to live together sharing a same room in a house not far

from the crematorium. the place they hated so much has beco a home of sorts. nigeria's president ordered an investigation of the kidnapping of schoolgirls by national hockey league. they nanded that more be done to bring back the girls taken from their dormitories almost two years ago. the president said last month he had no information on the girls' health or whereabouts but was willing to negotiate with boko haram. a former british soldier that tried to smuggle a 4-year-old afghan girl into the u.k. at her father's request has been cleared of all charges. rob laurie has been charged with putting the girl's life in danger. the 49-year-old father of four was given a suspended 1,000 euro fine by a french court. in a news conference earlier he explained his actions. >> she fell asleep on my knee.

i remember it was freezing cold that night in october. i looked down, and -- you know, how can you leave her? what i don't understand is why other people around the world are not getting so emotional. these children are -- it's tragic. the british actor alan rickman died from cancer at 69. he was best known for playing snap in the harry potter films. we take a look back at his career. >> reporter: he was best known for playing villains, but alan rickman was one of the best loved british actors of the past 30 years. he brought a cultured menace to numerous cinematic movies, most recently in the harry potter movies. >> fame isn't everything, is it, mr. potter?

>> j.k. rowling, the author of harry potter, led tributes on social media tweeting there are no words to express how shocked i am to hear about his death. he was a magnificent actor and man. alan rickman is dead he was near hero. thank you for being with us. we're sorry you had to go. rickman's fellow actor steven frye what desperately sad news about alan rick marn, a man of talent and wicked charm and stunning screen and stage presence. he'll be sorely missed. he first achieved global acclaim in "die hard" opposite bruce willis. the story goes he was offered the role two days after arriving in los angeles. it was the start of a long hollywood career. rickman won a golden globe award and emmy for his lead role in the 1995 film rasputin echlts

the sheriff of nottingham in robin hood: prince of thieves earned him a bafta award. he was a cellist in the supernatural romance truly madly deeply. [ singing ] >> in the 2003 film "love actually," he played a conflicted husband attracted to his new secretary. like many british actors, rickman started out on the stage graduating from drama school. he returned to theatrical roles about his career. he was modest about himself but ambition beneficiaries about his work. a film, a piece of theater or music or book can make a difference. it can change the world. he died surrounded by family and

friends. he was 69 years old. phil la very well has more on this year's oscars. >> we're well into award season now. who is up for what at the oscars next month. there are loads of categories, 24 to be exact. these are the ones that get the most attention. best director, best actor, best actress and of course best picture. first of all, let's look at best director. adam mckay is up for that for the big short, and also back at the oscars again. he won for "birdman" last year. will it be two years running for him. george miller for mad ma"mad ma fury road" and lenny abramson for this is ruth. >> for five years we made life in that small room, that person as nurturing as normal as you could. >> wow. >> they're fine.

>> you are so old now. you know what we're going to do today? >> what? >> we're going to bake a birthday cake. >> there's best actor michael fas bender up for the portrayal of steve jobs. bryan cranston and there's the marti martian's matt damon. will getting an oscar be as hard for him? that's true up against leonardo die cap row for the revnant. last year's golden boy, eddie redmayne, will "the danish girl" bring him more success. >> the surgery has never been attempted before. >> it's killing you. >> it's my only hope. this is not my body. i have to let it go. >> so the best actress is charlotte up there for 45 years, brie larsson for room. jennifer lawrence. keep your eye on this one.

this is cate blanchett. now she's up for an oscar as well for "carol." >> yes. >> what a strange girl you are. >> why? >> long enough space. >> and then there is best film. this is the big one. that's why there are eight films in this category. some familiar names that we've seen in other categories, but there are two that are getting critics extra excited. they are "bridge of spies" and "the revnant." this is the one to watch.

so the countdown is under way. the nominees are now known, and there are just six rather long weeks to wait and a lot of predictions and a lot of excitement still to come. >> go to our website, aljazeera.com. >> i'm sylvia rowley in the south of england where support for small scale sustainable fishing is catching on. >> and i'm russell beard in bangkok to meat a team innovative urban farmers turning air polution into protein.