an impact. >> let's do it. >> techknow, where technology meets humanity. only on al jazeera america. ♪ >> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello welcome to the news hour, i'm in doha and here is what is coming up, in the next 60 minutes attack on a pakistani university leaves at least 19 people dead. top diplomates from the u.s. and russia try to iron out differences and keep peace talks alive. the movers and shakers are talking about the challenges for the global economy. and a growing cold to boycott the academy awards we will have

a report from los angeles. the head of the pakistani taliban condemned and attack on the university a splinter group of the organization claimed responsibility and at least 19 people have been killed in the kahn university and include a professor and some of the attackers are dead and we report. >> reporter: security forces now patrol the fields along the university. gunmen had earlier taken advantage of fog to scale the walls, storm buildings and open fire on students and teachers. >> translator: we hear firing from the back of the campus and we thought maybe some people were fighting and the gun fighting increased and said stay

in the room. >> reporter: classes had begun for the day, 3,000 students study here and there were hundreds of others at the university too. 600 special guests were celebrating the birthday of the man who the university is named after. the university is in the same region where fighters attacked a school in december 2014 killing 134 children. and it was linked to the pakistan taliban and it spurred pakistani government officials to crack down on the taliban and other fighters, hundreds of suspects were killed or arrested. gunmen are among the dead in this latest attack, security forces are still combing the university looking for more. commanders say the nature of the attack and wintry foggy conditions make it hard to know how many attackers there are, al jazeera. political analyst joins me

live from islamabad and want to ask you first of all of the development of the claim of responsibility from this splinter group, what do you make of that? >> yeah, i think they have taken the responsibility and said the terrorist and suicide bomber attacked the university so i think this is probable cause and yesterday's bomb blast and the check force in peshawar was also claimed by the same group so it means that the group is still presenting on the province and it was just shortly talking to the reporter, he said all the terrorists seem to be local belonging to this very area so it means that the terrorist group is still having an influence and presence in the cities and suburb in various localities of the province. >> questions will inevaluatively

be raised about services in terms of whether they can do more to prevent this, what is your feeling on that? >> i think this is a very important question and a short while ago the national parliament also took up this issue where the defense minister said we are ready and we are fighting these terrorists wholeheartedly but largely most of the security ebbs period of times and political leaders are from the other side like the opposition side, they are complaining about the intelligence networks are operating the way the hideouts with sleeper cells and the pinjab are not being targeted and demands from people they should be in operation against the hide outs from the terrorist and leadership in the province

and questions are being raised the way they were taken and why others not taken and one of the leaders just talked to the president that ten days earlier there were reports ten days before that terrorists are going to hide in an institution so why these intelligence alerts were not taken seriously so i think already a debate is emerging gradually and it's getting strengthened that intelligence needs to be strengthened number one. number two the hideout and cells of the terrorist and they need to be targeted. >> thank you and joiningly us from islamabad and thanks for being with us. u.s. secretary of state john kerry is meeting sergei fedorov and russia and the united states disagree who should be at the

negotiating table over bringing about an end to a crisis in syria and talks set to take place in geneva on january 25 but now there are serious doubts of whether or not they will go ahead and the scheduled talks are expected to focus on the set up of a transitional government and joining us now with more on this is paul brennan in zurich where the talks are taking place and paul what can we expect today? >> well i think it's going to be difficult for the two men to find common ground on this, the indications are not good and seem to be quite far apart and let me bring the viewers up to speed with where we are with that, resolution 2254 set out a framework for talks and dialog between assad regime and leaderships with a view to political transition and elections in syria by the mid 2017, that is next year. in order to do that you need to

get them around the table and the question mark is who is to represent the opposition side of the argument. there was a conference in riyadh last month where it appeared that the opposition had agreed where their delegates should be and russia has come forward and insisting there should be another opposition delegation which russia says would more accurately reflect the totality of opposition figures. it is though potentially a scanner in the works and if it's late, five days before geneva talks are due to get underway and both obama and putin spoke last wednesday and authorized kerry and sergei fedorov to come here to zurich today to find some common ground and agree who should be in those talks but it is fiendlishly complex and prospects look quite slim at this stage. >> as you say the chances of that meeting taking place next

week looking very flimsy at this point and with the war still raging on in syria i suppose the fact there is some sort of a dialog taking place at the top level is something to hold on to. >> well, yes. there are question marks obviously political analysts have very different opinions as to the motivations for the things that take place and russia says when the talks do finally convene that the totality of opposition sentiment is not just groups which have been fighting assad militarily and includes moderate political groups. there is a question mark though as to what is a legitimate opposition and for example other groups which the assad regime and russians describe as terrorists so there is a legitimacy issue there and then there is the reality on the ground which is that russian

forces are mounting large numbers of air strikes, they appear to be paving the way for assad forces to be making progress on the ground so the situation militarily is changing and some analysts believe perhaps this is a delaying tactic because the dynamics on the ground are changing in favor of assad and he is trying to buy time, it's complex, it's difficult and frankly the task that faces john kerry and sergei fedorov here looks very difficult indeed. they have not even scheduled a statement at the end of these talks. now that gives an indication they are not expecting much progress to be made. >> live in zurich and thank you. and in the syria province here the observatory for human rights says the air base is ready to be used by u.s. war planes after completion of a runway expansion

and it will also be a headquarters for fighter jets carrying out air strikes against aisle-controlled areas in syria. on the ground people trapped in besieged areas are burning trash to warm their homes and have been cutoff by syrian government forces and their allies for two years now and alexander reports. >> reporter: winter is harsh in eastern guta and scraps of wood, pieces of garbage, in fact, anything that burns are pushed into the homemade stove. >> translator: my dad and i made the heater and we don't have fuel and we use garbage to make sure we are warm and it chokes us sometimes because it's strong. >> reporter: they use pots and pans, old pipes and bits of metal to build the family source of warmth, it's almost impossible to get heating fuel and the things they normally

burn now cost far too much. >> translator: you will see this, the charcoal, we can't even use this. it is too expensive and every now and then we use some so we can keep everyone warm. >> reporter: bargaining and haggling used to be common but with the wreckage of air strikes by russia and the syrian airforce there is no negotiation. for most people prices are impossibly high. >> translator: some of the wood here is from old houses, people are taking them down because this is all they have to sell. some of the wood i sell costs up to 100 syrian pounds. people can't pay that price. they don't have the money. some people cannot make 100 liters per day and how can they buy this. >> he and the neighbors are cutoff from freshwater, food and medicine and even winter seems to have turned against them.

alexander, al jazeera. >> defense ministers from seven countries that are part of the coalition against i.s.i.l. are meeting in france. the united states and france jointly hosting the meeting for the countries that contribute the most in the fight against the armed group. although i.s.i.l. has lost control of ramadi and other parts in month there is no time of taking the strongholds in raqqa and jackie what are some issues they are likely to be taking up there? >> reporter: well, essentially this meeting is bringing together the seven international powers who are most heavily engaged both in the air strikes and in training forces on the ground in the fight against i.s.i.l. and this meeting is going to be concentrating on their desire to accelerate and intensify that campaign.

one particular tactic they have been looking at recently has been cutting off i.s.i.l.'s financing and seen strikes against oil facilities and cutting off the supply routes, targeting those routes through iraq and syria which enabled the fighters to get vital supplies so those will be some of the issues that they will be looking at. >> and what should we read from france's role in this since the attacks in the center of france's capitol just a couple months ago, france has been taking a larger role in all of this in trying to bring together a stronger coalition, what does this tell us about france's ambitions here? >> well, the french have obviously been taking a very high profile role since those attacks in the center of paris where the war against i.s.i.l. came to the home territory of

france and that is really the problem facing these powers as they seek to intensify their campaign against i.s.i.l. and this is not a conventional war, this is not a conventional enemy, there are so many fronts and iraq and see where is where the focus is and i.s.i.l. is growing in strength in libya and seen the attacks in burkino-faso and france and taking this fight with i.s.i.s. and after the talks he flew to talk to president obama and also moscow to talk to president putin is of course significant that russia is not taking part in these talks in paris today. it is also involved in air strikes but largely against insurgents, not necessarily affiliated to i.s.i.l. since the targets the russians are getting are largely those provided by

the syrian authorities in france and the other western powers are critical in the way in which russia has been carrying out its campaign against forces in syria. >> jackie roland live for us there in paris, thank you, still to come on this news hour protests turn violent across tunisia and why the country is facing instability. and the search for a president, palestinian reality show like no other. plus in sports serena williams had another grand slam title and we will have details later. ♪ so that is ahead but first 21 people have been killed in two separate attacks in iraq, i.s.i.l. fighters targeted army barracks and killed eight soldiers southeast of fallujah

and 18 others injured when iraqi security forces tried to storm the village here and i.s.i.l. fighters destroyed the oldest christian church in iraq, satellite photos show the monetary reduced to rubble and it was built more than 1400 on a hill above mosul and i.s.i.l. fighters who control large parts of iraq and syria already destroyed buildings that they say is contrary to islam. political factions in libya have announced the makeup of a new unity government under pressure to provide stability and encounter the growing threat of i.s.i.l. and doesn't represent libyans fairly and rob reports. >> reporter: a significant step forward in libya's struggle to end political deadlock, the creation of a national government hoping to unite the two parliaments. >> translator: this was not achieved easily and we went

through major difficulties, challenges and even slip ups we knew we had to address because we were equipped with the spirit of agreement and knowing the phase our country is going through requires a lot of self-control. >> reporter: the new government has to convince all armed groups to put down their weapons and join the national army, it will have to move quickly to try to end libya's humanitarian crisis. >> encourage other stakeholders who still have difficulties with the agreement and with this new government really now to take the responsibility because the people of libya deserved it, the humanitarian situation is dire. >> reporter: many members of the general national congress in tripoli and the u.n. security council recognized parliament in tabrook don't back the agreement and factions and groups are not represented by the 32 ministers appointed to the new government and it will take on the growing threat from i.s.i.l. which continues to expand along the

libyan coastline but the u.n. which has been coordinating intense talks in morocco sees this as the best chance so far of reuniting libya which has been fractured by fighting for nearly five years, rob matheson, al jazeera. t.v. show giving palestinians the chance to choose a new president at least in theory, auditions being held for contestants who think they can do a better job than the president abbas and we report from the occupied west bank. >> reporter: it has all the ingredients of a reality competition, dramatic music, nervous contestants, a tough panel of judges and a major prize but the program al-raise or the president is not the winner with a record contract or cash, it's offering the palestinian presidency at least hypothetically. these auditions in the occupied west bank are for the second series of the president, here

consistent ens have to explain why they should be the one to lead the palestinian people and offer solutions to joblessness, political in fighting and the conflict with israel and she is hoping to be a finalist and they say it's time for them to have a say in how they are governed. >> translator: the gap between youth and leadership is getting larger and we have capable young politicians who can take the lead. >> reporter: while the president is popular with viewers, the actual president abbas is rapidly losing support and a poll by the center of policy and survey found two thirds of palestinians wanted to resign and fell shuns were held today the party would likely be defeated by its political rival and they conducted the poll and a prominent palestinian analyst

and will be behind a legacy. >> they say he is behind a status quo and his legacy is that he failed to take small steps and to be very, very slow in implementing them. >> reporter: 80-year-old leader made a televised speech where he dismissed concerns that his self ruled government may collapse under mounting tensions with israel went tearing the fourth month. with attempts to reassure the palestinian public there are still concerns about the lack of a successor or even a process in place to pick one and although hundreds of reality show competitors believe they could do a better job it would appear that even after 11 years in power abbas doesn't plan on stepping down any time soon. al jazeera, ramp la in the occupied west bank. the oceans may have more

plastic debris than fish by 2050 is the prediction which comes in a report produced by the ellen mcarthur foundation and published by the world economic forum and forum and they interviewed 180 experts and analyzes the findings of more than 200 research papers, their conclusions the amount of plastic being produced has increased 20 times in the past 50 years and in the next 20 years that is expected to double again, a quarter of all plastic is used for packaging and most of it is used only once then discarded. currently eight million tons of this ends up in the ocean each year, the equivalent of a dump truck of plastic rubbish every minute, a current rate that will have grown to two trucks a minute by 2030 and four a minute by 2050 by which time by weight there will be as much plastic in the oceans as fish.

ceo of plastic pollution coalition. >> reporter: the ellen mcarthur foundation i believe produced the report which came out today called the new plastics economy rethinking the future of plastics and they layout various points but i think a very important point to make and everyone should note is we all have the power to reduce the amount of plastic we use on a daily basis and when we talk about plastic one of the really big problems and what we focus on is single use and disposal plastics because they have been designed with designed obsolecence used for a short amount of time and deliver food and beverage regs to us and really there is no system in place that helps take these materials back nor do something with them. many of them are down cycled or landfilled. >> let's get all the weather with stef and i'm hearing it's

cold in europe. >> people covered in snow from a storm a few days ago and what is happening in eastern parts of europe and where we saw the worst of the snow and most of the snow arrived on sunday but it was so deep that people are still digging out. these pictures were just from yesterday showing all the snow that is still on the ground clearly people still struggling to get around. further south we have a different problem with the weather here and this system as it skirts its way eastward and bringing us a fair amount of wet weather and dragging down the temperatures and it's cool and wet and the maximum is getting to eight degrees and that is below average for this time of year and lots of rain and not feeling the eight degrees it may read on the thermometer and on high ground we will see some of that turn to snow and further north still feeling wintry for us here and temperatures

bukarest is minus eight and scandanavia will go south and colder behind it with minus three is the maximum on thursday and the other minus two. the real exception is out to the west where the temperatures are getting above freezing here but we are going to see lots more in the way of wind and rain there as we head into friday. >> thanks very much stef, kenya troops carrying out ground and air operations in the southern somalia region from attack on a base and soldiers killed in the attack have been flown to the kenya capitol and we report now from nairobi. >> reporter: soldiers killed by al-shabab in the region are brought back home and over run a military base on friday killing many soldiers and abducting several others and the soldiers

had only been there for a fort night following an interpretation of the african union peace keeping mission and two other equally deadly attacks on burundi and uganda troops happened last year during similar rotations. >> the errors are caused by the complete schedule by an entire battalion regarding capture from al-shabab and this technical area happens because there is not a smooth hand over from the previous era into the new one. >> reporter: talk appears well timed to take advantage of the interpretation when fresh troops arrive. military commanders not revealing details of the attack and still don't know how many soldiers were killed, abducted or still may still be missing and families saying they are not receiving much information and the continued presence of kenya troops in somalia is once again the focus of debate.

a cartoonist says the current debate on an exit strategy should focus on why the troops were sent there in the first place. >> we went in unilaterally to quote, unquote defend ourselves or start setting up a buffer zone in order to defend our borders, that is the reason we went across, to defend our own industry. by that measure operation was a failure. industries is a mess because of the attacks of al-shabab and actually increased when they went across. >> reporter: he says what happened cannot be shrouded in secrecy and an exit strategy should focus on why the troops were sent there in the first

place. we may never know precisely how many soldiers died or what exactly happened but the president has vowed the government will avenge their deaths and say kenya forces in somalia will not withdraw, at least not yet. al jazeera, nairobi. orthodox christians around the world celebrating apiphiny when they believe jesus christ was baptized and one of the biggest festivals of the year in ethiopia and we report. >> reporter: this is one of the biggest days in the ethiopia orthodox calendar and it's a day people here believe that jesus christ was baptized and thousands of people gather at churches like this one and then they walk a few kilometers to an area that is supposed to symbolize the river jordan. the women play an instrument called a beginner.

ethiopia orthodox christians believe king david played it for god and they have the arc of the covenant symbolizing jesus and the patriorch follows them. >> translator: for me and all the people who follow the ethiopia orthodox church it's a very special day as you can see. >> translator: i love the celebration because it's part of our history. >> reporter: so tens of thousands of people have gathered here now and come from the respective churches and are waiting for the patriarch's arrival and the combination of the ceremony happens in the morning. ♪ in the early morning light the

patriarch has water symbolizing the river jordan and use hoses to spray the crowd. yes. >> translator: i'm very excited to have been covered by the holly water. >> reporter: ceremony practiced for more than a thousand years, a celebration for the young and the old. charles stratford, al jazeera. take a quick break here but still ahead china has a swedish rights activist for violating the laws of national security at risk. ♪ find out why students in south africa are learning mandarin and oklahoma city are starting to look like serious championships and the latest from the nba in sports. ♪

♪ hello again and the top stories on al jazeera, 19 people gunned down by armed men at a university in northwest pakistan. six of the gunmen were reportedly killed by the military at the kahn university and they claimed responsibility. top diplomates in russia and u.s. are meeting in syria to talk about the conflict and john kerry and sergei fedorov will discuss the growing uncertainty over peace talks which are planned for next week.

defense ministers from seven countries are meeting in france, they are part of the coalition against i.s.i.l. discussing how to intensify their campaign against the group. now the european union has expressed its concern over the detention of european nationals in china. a swedish national was detained on suspicion of endangering national security and accused of running an unlicensed human rights group in china and we are following developments in beijing. >> reporter: state media portraying the detention and confession on state t.v. as part of an operation of smashing an illegal organization and they are reporting on his confession said the organization is involved in training and hiring workers together and then distort and fabricate information about china, information that would hurt china and also accuses the group of stirring up disputes of instigating public confrontations with authorities.

in short activities that would jeopardize china's national security and who he works for and cofounded is known as the chinese urgent action working group and states the aim is to promote the rule of law in china and does that providing legal aid to people who say human rights have been trampled on and does that by training lawyers here in china and issued a statement saying it believes the accusations against peter darling and the organization are baseless and it's nothing more than an attempt to criminalize human rights work here in china. it also appears to be part of a bigger and worrying trend, a crack down on human rights lawyers and defenders taking place since mid 2015, amnesty international says more than 250 activists and lawyers have been arrested since then, more than 20 are still believes to be in custody. one of the nine have been formally charged. now these figures are hard to verify because of how opaque the

criminal justice system is here but they do indicate a broader and more worrying trend, a crack down on human rights activities and suppression of various civil rights elements in chinese society. >> returning to our top story the tat attack in pakistan and kamal is live from the scene of that attack and now kamal i understand you got here just a while ago and tell us what you have been seeing and hearing there. >> well, as we headed here we were able to see a number of ambulances leaving the compound and also saw a number of special forces who were involved in that operation in the morning and also leaving the compound so reports indicating that the military and the police combined security operation is now over, relatives of those students who are inside the compound are outside waiting to hear news about their loved ones.

now importantly the pakistani military chief also flew in to inspect the premises, the attackers of course using the advantage of fog. this is a rural sort of area with trees all around and were able to get through the back wall into the compound. most of the fighting we are told took place near the boys tostile that was the primary target and of course alerted thousands of other students who were commemorating with poetry reciters to commemorate the death anniversary of a nationalist leader to whom this particular university is named. >> kamal inevitably questions are going to be raised about the security services in pakistan and the intelligence services and whether they could have done more to prevent this. >> that is an excellent question because the security that has been faced by this particular

country means that all these education institutions are saying it's physically impossible to give that kind of security against a group which is determined, which is well armed, is carrying explosives so these attacks can take place anywhere but what is fightening is the fact it will have an adverse effect on the educational system here because parents are afraid to send their children to school and universities. >> kamal live for us there, thank you now world leaders and business executives in the ski resort of davos for the world economic forum, the meeting is being over shadowed by the plunging price of oil and there are growing fears for the world economy after the imf cut its combroet forecast and kamal is in davos and joins us live there from there, kamal.

>> reporter: thank you and working up this morning to a couple of things and one a lot of snow behind me and taking a while to get used to the cold and two more economic downturn and that is really what people are talking about here, oil going below $28, china's market are down 15-16% now and only a few weeks and pointing to an acute problem i think right at the moment, someone who can answer some questions for us is the guest and secretary-general of oecd for the organization of development and thank you so much for your time today. >> thank you. >> let me quote you something here william white the chairman of your own review committee has said the situation is worse than it was this 2007, the macro commission decision to fight downturns is essentially all used up and that is economically a terrifying situation. >> well basically there is nothing new. i mean this has been happening now for many months actually. we have all announced we were

going to down grade our economic projections in sometime and the imf came out yesterday and will come out in the next few days and we will say that it's a little weaker than it used to be and we make a big deal about china not because we did not know that china was going to deaccelerate and everything we said is happening actually but because of this turbulence in the stock market do you remember the stock market tanked in august? nobody does and nobody cares any more because you can't decide on economic policy based on the behavior of the stock market. >> you can't but this time the difference between now and 2007 is we are watching this happen and almost happening in slow motion and hit us in 2007 and we know about the markets and china but there is nothing we can do about it. >> yes, there is this yogi bear déjà vu. >> i thought you would talk about picnic baskets. >> basically you can do stuff

but the question is we continue to rely on the bankers and they have run out of ammunition because they have been the heros of the last four or five years and it's a time for the finance ministers and the trade ministers and for the environment ministers and innovation minister and education ministers, it's a time to go structural. it's a time to go green, it's a time to go institutional, it's a time to go social, it's a time to do all the structural measures that we did not take in the last four or five years because we were depending simply on along term things which is good and have to think long-term but have to brace ourselves for a short-term crash them. >> kamal if we had to say these were long-term issues in 2008 and 2009 and fighting the short term perhaps we would know be in better shape. now, it's never too late to

start to do the long-term things but if you delay them and if you delay them and you delay them you know before because it was so good, why did you need to take measures? then we tanked. it was so bad. you could not take the measures, now we are in the post crisis suffering the fact we did not take the measures so we should take them right away so this is what we have to do, get on with it, you know, it's not a question of shrugging and not doing anything about it and we can do something about it and there are raw materials or oil and will suffer. >> can i quickly ask you. >> for the others. >> can i ask you about that because oil is a major faector and it's 28 and taking actions to protect themselves and not looking at the bigger picture. >> frankly the bigger picture in general one year ago we said this is a bonus, the drop in the

price of oil is good for the world, half a percent or one percent plus is going to be better for the whole of the world economy and we have all the wind in our sails and low prices of oil and low interest rate and the weak euro and things have not happened yet and why is that? productivity remains freightfully and why is that, investment is growing at 2-3 instead of 7% which is cruising speed and trade is growing 2% instead of growing at 7% which is the cruising speed and do people know that credit is not flowing particularly to the european areas but also in the medium and small enterprises in many of the developing countries because banks have become so absolutely, you know, cautious

but also because they tightened the condition and who were the big engines of growth in the last ten years, emerging economies and dramatically deaccelerated and you have all the four cylinders of the growth engine in the last eight, six, seven, eight years that are at half speed and why are we surprised what is going on. >> pleasure talking to you, thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. >> so you get the word there hasam we maybe should have seen this coming and really if some of the struggle and long-term structural chances put in place after the last crisis or this one saying we did not get out of it maybe we wouldn't be in the position we are in now and back to you. >> fascinating discussion kamal and live for us in davos and more to come from him throughout the day and protesters demanding jobs in tunisia being confronted by riot police and a night

curfew in the province and unrest spread to three cities and protesters demanding work following the resent rise in unemployment, a jobless man committed suicide two days ago and the arab spring up rising started when a struggling market vendor also took his life. now school kids in south africa will soon be speaking mandarin a pilot program to teach the chinese language in schools and are questioning why the children are not learning african languages instead and we report from pretoria. >> reporter: welcome to an mandarin chinese class in south africa and they are learning one of china's popular languages. ♪ what is this all about? >> it's about three little kittens who are singing together and they are working together.

>> reporter: but the seven-year-old admits it's not as easy as it seems. >> if you say this for instance you can't say this because it's not the right term. >> reporter: the government is piloting the project in at least 30 schools in the providence. >> the children are like sponges and they can just absorb and the best part is they can remember for a long time. >> reporter: children here have to learn two south african languages in school and any foreign language is a third additional option. south africa has 11 official languages and most people speak at least two, people who don't want mandarin in school say children won't get a chance to learn and speak the other indigenous languages. the education department says mandarin is not being forced on children. this year all schools that don't offer african language now have

to offer an african language as a compulsory language starting from grade one and incrementally introduced and next year grade two until the whole system does at least one indigenous african language. china is africa's biggest trading partner and some teachers are not impressed by introduction of mandarin in the curriculum. >> the government emphasizing the china or chinese people should also learn our languages and we look at it as perhaps another form of colonization. >> reporter: regarding textbooks and proper facilities and says there are huge challenges in the education sector but say exposing children to other languages could mean other opportunities for south africa's future generations,

pretoria. still to come in the news hour ahead of the final fight paquia says why he got into boxing and why he is now getting out. ♪

now the backlash on the oscar ceremony is growing with more like george clooney criticizing it and no african/americans not nominated and has a hash tag so white. >> reporter: after rolling out

a white oscars for nominees for the second year in a row the motion picture academy is under fire. the academy overlooked performances including michael b jordan in creed and beasts of no nation and straight out of compton among others. >> i got something to say. >> reporter: activists called on african/americans to tune out of the awards broadcast. even the coproducer of the broadcast who is african/american said he is upset. >> what is especially frustrating is when movies like compton and movies like creed, you know, when the cast of star wars gets overlooked you just go oh, man. >> reporter: many people took to social media to vent their anger with the hash tag oscars

so white trending on twitter. so why are the oscars so white again this year? well some observers say hollywood just doesn't provide enough good roles for black actors but many others cite the makeup of the academy itself whose 6200 members are overwhelmingly older, male and white. the president of the academy said she is trying to boost diversity. >> what is important is that this entire conversation of diversity is here and that we are talking about it and i think we will not just talk because people will say well don't just talk, you got to do. >> reporter: british actor alba says lack of diversity is not just a u.s. problem. >> i didn't come to america because i couldn't get parts, i came to america because i was running out of parts. >> reporter: i went to hollywood boulevard to ask the public what they thought. >> i don't think it's good.

i don't think it's right. there is a lot of black talent in hollywood. >> many of the positions, producers, directors, executive producers it's very much a white neighborhood. >> this is not like the black guy business is not performing, it's like when it comes down to the oscars and everything they get the short end of the stick again. >> reporter: hollywood and the film industry worldwide now being forced to take a hard look at itself. rob reynolds, al jazeera, hollywood. time to get all the sport here is farrah. thank you so much and serena williams is still on course for a 20-second grand slam title and number one breezed through the match at the australia open and beat the 90th ranked of taiwan in 6-1-6-2 on wednesday and took just an hour to wrap things up with an ace, her 7th of the match and williams will face in

the next round and beat sister venus two weeks ago. >> i don't think it will be easy. they are more than likely playing really good so i definitely will be ready for that. obviously i will ask what she thought of the match. >> reporter: maria is through the fifth seated and made light work and sarapova who won 2008 beat her russian opponents in straight sets 6-2-6-1. >> her game was a little unpredictable so i had to make some adjustments and came up with a few good shots and errors and big first serves and shorter ones and was about adjusting today. roger federer is playing in the 65th straight slam against

alexander to get there and took the first set 6-3 after winning the second 7-5 he crushed 6-1 for a straight set victory, 34-year-old is looking for his first grand slam since 2012. right now on court is men's world number one yanukovich from france. fixing through tennis and gambling hit the spotlight this week but the vetting industry is getting closer to the sport with a book maker as one of the main sponsors at the australian open and gambling on matches while you are in the stands may land you in trouble and we report. >> reporter: big names have made tennis big business and that goes for betting on the game too. with hundreds of tournaments and thousands of matches, there is almost always a game set or

match point on which to place a stake. a resent estimate put the tennis betting market at $5 billion and with such big money changing hands it has led to a shadow doing practice and it's a mobile device to transmit the score seconds before it's on t.v. or the internet and that person has an advantage to put a bet on and beat other gamblers and most common in tennis and connects sindacates millions. >> and the grand slam and millions and $60 million have been traded online during the space of a couple of hours. it's happening at tournaments all around the world and each tournament there are at least five and reports this year i think of 2015 i think there were around 40-60 people court siding

throughout the tournament. >> court siding came out of the shadows in 2014 when a british man employed by an sindicate was arrested at the australian open for using a device in his shorts to transmit scores and he was later released because the practice isn't illegal. . >> it's not that court siding is not illegal about gambling and taking advantage of technical differences and time wise but rega regardless it's cheating, the same as doping. >> reporter: they are cracking down with warnings on tickets and spotters looking for court siders in the stands, one of the reasons for a tougher approach is that tennis bodies are already selling their scoring data for millions of dollars which is being passed to big betting companies. >> sports today have been so integrated with sport betting, it's almost an interdependent relationship and seeing sport

protecting the sport bookings if you like is what it's about. >> reporter: the integrity unit is behind the crack down and tui did not comment on court siding and told al jazeera its work is carried out confidently. while the majority of tennis fans are at tournaments to see their idols in action some may only be interested this a different high-stakes game. al jazeera. oklahoma thunder win the fifth game beating nba western denver nuggets on tuesday and kevin durant was the standoff and double doubling with 30 points and 12 rebounds and pushed hard and even coming within three points of oklahoma city and fourth with the thunder held only and russell westbrook with 27 points of his own with oklahoma winning 110-104. eight division world division

many-paquia is are ready for his fight and squares off against timothy bradley for the third time on april 9 in las vegas and he won the first and paquia the second and the ten time world champion plans to take up a career in politics. >> i remember when i started boxing i started boxing because i wanted to help my family, my mother and now i end my boxing career because i want to help my country men the philippine people. >> reporter: less than 200 days away they are forced to make further budget cuts and spectator grandstands at the rowing and beach volleyball stands have been scaled back part of a $500 million cost cutting initiative and brazil is suffering from the worst economic crisis in decades which is affecting several aspects of olympic preparations and half of

the 4.5 million tickets set aside for locals have been snapped up. saudi arabia's hopes of making the men's football tournament are over and crashed out of the asia for rio2016 and needed to beat japan to stay in contention but the samurai blue who qualified for the next around defeated 2-1 in group blue and they progressed to the olympics. north korea's hopes are still alive and qualified group b ahead of saudis after drawing 2-2 with thailand and north korea takes on qatar next and that is all your sport for now and now it's back to you. >> thanks very much and stay with us here on al jazeera, another full bulletin is straight ahead, we will have the latest on the attack on a university in pakistan where students and a professor are among the dead and plus the day's other top stories.

stay with us. >> farm workers striking in mexico. >> all that tension is about what's happening right now. >> you can work very hard and you will remain poor. >> what's the cost of harvesting america's food? >> do you see how it would be hard to get by on their salary? >> yeah. >> today, they will be arrested. >> they're firing canisters of gas at us. >> emmy award-winning investigative series. >> we have to get out of here.

♪ attack on a pakistani university leaves at least 19 people dead. ♪ hello i'm in doha also on the program top diplomates from the u.s. and russia try to iron out their differences and keep the syria peace talks alive. we are in davos where the world's movers and shakers are talking about the challenges for the global economy. ♪ experimenting with a new language, students in some schools in south africa are learning mandarin. ♪