hello there, i'm felicity barr, and this is the al jazeera live from london. also coming up, germany's chancellor urges turkey to help diffuse the refugee crisis, and e.u. states move to close their borders. free after years in prison, celebrations in myanmar, as the government releases dozens of detainees. and we're going to be looking at who is making the news, and who is winning to bid at this year's

sun dance film festival. ♪ hello. tunisia's government has imposed a nationwide curfew after protests over unemployment spread to towns across the country. al jazeera's hashem ahelbarra report from the where the latest wave of demonstrations began. >> reporter: a family mourning its son. he was frustrated over lack of job opportunities. he climbed an electricity pole and threatened to commit suicide. he was electrocuted. his death sparked anger nationwide, and he has become the symbol of a younger generation that feels increasingly let down by its government. >> translator: my son died.

the government is responsible. it breaks my heart. those responsible for his death should be held accountable. >> reporter: he ruz relentlessly looking for a job. his father is a retiree and struggles to make ends meet. >> translator: my brother was put [ inaudible ] on a list of government jobs. then suddenly his name was taken off of the list. >> reporter: this neighborhood is one of the poorest areas, and where he spent most of his life. after the revolution that ended the regime five years ago this month, he was hopeful life would improve and the poor and unemployed would get a better chance. here anti-government sentiment

is on the rise. this and other poor areas have become the focal point of mass protests. anger spread, with unemployed young people protesting. they all say the government breaks its promises. the government is under growing pressure to show it is on top of the situation, and show its people it cares about their jobs, but at the same time it runs on a tight budget and may not be able to fund programs for jobs across the country. tunisia's prime minister has been in paris meeting the french president. france has promised $1 billion to help tunisia create jobs. the prime minister said the situation was being brought under control. >> translator: the situation is calming down. it's an economic problem, and people are demanding jobs. we have a program to try to

resolve this problem. that's one of the main goals of this government. we don't have a magic wand. we can't solve all of the problems at once. the situation now is under control. ♪ at least 42 people including at least 17 children have died trying to cross the aegean sea to greece. dozens managed to survive and were taken ashore, but rescue teaming were searching for others who still may be at sea. there have been more rivals on the greek island of lesvos. greece has become a major gateway for people fleeing war and poverty as they try to make their way to europe. and the refugee crisis is on the high agenda at the world economic forum. >> translator: we will have to face the refugee crisis for a long time. we won't be able to solve the

problem of syria in a few days. we'll have to find the right means to intervene there. but we have to live with this. it's part of our lives now. it is tragic the crisis is also the main focus of a summit between germany and turkey. angela merkel wants to stem the flow of people arriving, giving turkey aide to try to crack down on people smugglers. live now to berlin and let's speak to al jazeera's nadim baba. what was chancellor merkel hoping to get from the turkish prime minister when he arrived in ber len. >> reporter: what she really wanted to hear is how he could speed up the efforts that he says have started to slow down the number of refugees comes to

europe. germany took in more than a million migrants in 2015. for that reason she is under intense political pressure right now. the prime minister at the joint press conference they gave just a few moments ago said that turkey has started to implement measures to allow syrian refugees in turkey, and there are 2.5 million or so, as mrs. merkel was reminding us, turkey started to allow them to enter the work force, to get an education and so on, but at the same time, we have been hearing from angela merkel that all of that pressure has the not convinced her that germany should as some other leaders are saying start to put a element, a cap on new arrivals. she said that the humanitarian situation makes it imperative that refugees are in fact offered a legal way to make their way into the european

union. >> translator: we have once again heard about terrible numbers of people dying in the seas between turkey and the e.u. children as well. and we just cannot allow the illegal traffickers to have supremacy here, and that people endanger their lives. and people earn money when they really do not have the best interests of these human beings in their minds. that's why we have to make sure that this illegal immigration, is changed into legal immigration. >> germany has been seen to be sympathetic towards the plight of these thousands of people rife going europe. the same can't be said of other european countries. there is huge concern, isn't there, about the sheer number of people arriving. there certainly is. some states accusing angela merkel of being far too sympathetic, and basically breaking thing a whereby

refugees had to apply for asylum in the first country they entered in the european union last year, her decision to open up the borders, creating in some people's eyes a crisis which has now lead to many states reapplying border controls, which has lead to people like the french prime minister on friday to warn that the whole system is breaking down and that it threatens the very existence of the european union, which relies on that schengen agreement of free movement within the e.u. there will be a conference in london co-hosted by angela merkel which is aimed at raising money so that the conditions for syrian refugees in the region improves. but she really is desperately reliant on help of countries like turkey to stop the flow there. because as we keep hearing she

is not prepared to put strict limit on the new arrivals. at the moment, at least, she seems to be sticking to her guns, felicity. >> okay. nadim thank you for that. three syrian children and a young adult who werelying in this so-called wrinkle camp in france have been reunited with their families living in the u.k. activists say they hope their victory can be used as a precedent to reunite other refugee families. lawrence lee has this report. >> reporter: how easy it is, how simple a journey when there is finally nobody in your way to stop you. a small group of three teenagers, and a young disabled man, simply picked up their stuff, got on the train, sat for an hour, and then got off again in london. within an hour they were being greeted privately by their

relatives, already living in britain. the brother of one of the teenagers could barely continue his excitement at the prospects of being able to look after his little brother again nch >> translator: i want to provide him with all of the affection he has missed out on. i want to make up for all of the time he was alone, so he never lives another day alone again. >> reporter: this happened as the result of an activist group. one of them gave up her job and goes about trying to find relatives of children who have come to the refugee camp. the children were allowed to come because of a court ruling. the government argued the children should seek asylum in france and then try to get transferred to britain. it isn't clear exactly how many more children might be able to come. it is worth bearing in mind, all

of this has happened despite, rather than because of the actions of the government. but the u.k. does still have an independent legal system, and that could have ramifications in other european countries as well. what for instance of the refugees in denmark trying to reach family in sweden. civil rights campaigners and other countries may be able to use this ruling as well. >> the knowledge that this will hopefully help a couple hundred other children is a wonderful development. we also know it's a big blow to people smugglers across europe. >> reporter: it is however, no help to the thousands of other refugeeses and migrants still stuck in france without families already in the u.k. but all the same this was a night of celebration for the

activists. as for the syrian children, they disappeared into the london night and a new life no longer surrounded by police with tear gas, but instead a warm bed and a roof over their heads, some love, and finally some refuge. myanmar's government has begun releasing more political prisoners as it winds down its time in office. more than 30 detainees were freed on friday, and there may be more releases in the days ahead. wayne haye reports from thailand. >> reporter: there were emotional reunions around myanmar as inmates walked free from prison. some had been held for years for their activism for having protested and voiced opposition to the governments, but their joy at freedom was mixed with sadness for the political prisoners left behind. >> translator: i'm not fully happy as the government is releasing prisoners separately, i want all of the activists, political prisoners, students, farmers, workers, still left in

the prison. >> reporter: the current government is made up largely of former generals who ran myanmar as a dictatorship for 50 years. at times they brutally crushed discent and accept an opposition leader under house arrest. after an election in 2010, the government embarked on a series of reforms. this woman's party won last year's election and will form the next government on february 1st. after campaigning for democracy and human rights for so long, there is hope that she will finally be able to help myanmar move on from its dark past. >> translator: i highly believe our problems will be already, because our country is now under our mother. this will be different. that's what i believe is our mother is in power now. >> reporter: there are still many political prisoners to be freed and many more problems for myanmar to overcome. the army will remain powerful, but it seems the old guard are

trying to right some wrongs before they step aside. all right. still to come on the program. police in somalia, say 22 people were killed in a hunt by al-shabab gunmen in a breach-front restaurant. and we're going to be live in the east coast of the united states as it braces itself for a huge snow visit. ♪

>> water is a human right! >> flint in a state of emergency. >> this can cause death... all kinds of health effects. >> we're already having trouble, but now what little i have has to completely go towards water. >> only on al jazeera america. ♪ hello, again, and a reminder of the top stories on al

jazeera. a nationwide curfew has been imposed in tunisia, where there have been wide-spread protests over lack of jobs. at least 42 people, including 17 children have reported to have dies when boats sank trying to reach greece. and turkey's prime minister is calling for more help from the european union. the east coast of the united states is preparing for what could be a huge briz ard. the states of arkansas and virginia are already seeing heavy snowfall. other surrounding cities have snowplows and salting machines on stand by. they are calling it potentially crippling. residences have been warned that road and air travel could come to a stand still.

robert ray is in charlotte in north carolina right now. i see the snow has already arrived but it is forecast to get even worse, isn't it? >> reporter: felicity, indeed it is. greetings from a cold, icy, snowy, north carolina. we're not at the epicenter, washington, d.c. but already here, we have seen 6,000 power outages, four fatalities, due to this weather. and you can see this is just a blanket of snow, not incredibly dramatic. but the issue is ice. this part of the country hovers around 31, 32 degrees fahrenheit, and when everything freezes over, you can't drive. it's very tough conditions in the mountains west of here,

about 50, 60 miles, they are expecting over a foot of snow with even more power outages. unfortunately the airports are closed up and down the entire northeast corridor, and salt trucks are running all over here. the governor came out and made a statement saying they already dropped 12,000 tons of salt on the roads here in north carolina alone. >> that's an extraordinary figure. what sort of advice are people being given as to how to deal with this weather? >> well, you know, in this part of the country, because they are not used to this kind of weather, the governor and officials are telling everyone to stay home, but some people do have to get to work. public transportation is open right now, but schools are shut, universities, colleges closed, the government is also closed, and also just in, just in the past half hour, the city of atlanta, the capitol of the

state of georgia, they are closing the entire downtown at around 12:00 eastern, coming up here. a couple of years ago, perhaps the viewers and everyone around the world members seeing those traffic jams where people went five, six miles and it took 12 hours in their vehicles. certainly we're hoping that doesn't happen again. but it's a very similar scenario to what happened back then. >> all right. robert stay warm. thanks for the moment. as many as 22 people were killed in an attack on a restaurant in mali's capitol. al jazeera's correspondent reports. >> reporter: daylight in mogadishu reveals the full horror of the attack, as the grim task of identifying the dead beginning. al-shabab fighters say they are

responsible for this carnage at a popular beach front restaurant. >> translator: it was 7:00 at night when we heard gunshots followed by explosions one after another. there was so much confusion. we didn't really know what was going on. last night was bad, like a nightmare. >> reporter: a wedding ceremony and a graduation dinner were underway whern armed fighters rammed a car into the restaurant. they then stormed the building, shooting at customers. >> translator: many people were killed. i have seen mothers fathers children and young people among the bodies. >> reporter: a well-planned attacks from an organization that the authorities thought was struggling and on the defensive. >> unfortunately security services even in the west seem to really understate the threat of groups such as al-shabab. they have been very good at

planning operations even outside of somali. >> reporter: last friday they attacked an african union military case in somalia. in april last year, al-shabab fighters killed 147 people on an attack on a college in kenya, and in 2013 fighters from the group stormed the westgate shopping mall, killing 67 people. four years ago somalia's government pushed al-shabab out of major cities, including mogadishu with the help of african union soldiers, but attacks like this show that the government and its supporters still have much more work to do. and the president of neighboring kenya has promised to destroy al-shabab. he vowed to defeat al-shabab

after visiting soldiers recently injured in fighting against the armed group. al-shabab claimed it killed more than 100 soldiers when it attacked an army base last week. >> the friday attack has only renewed our determination to destroy al-shabab and all terrorist groups that threaten kenya. every kenyan must understand that this is a war that requires that we all be united as a nation and that we stand shoulder to shoulder to face the enemy of humanity; that we should not be deterred no matter the challenge that they try to push our way.

a splinter taliban group which claims responsibility for an attack -- pakistan claims more attacks will come. >> reporter: importantly, the pakistanis have told them that they have evidence that the controllers for the deadly attack on the university were operating from inside afghanistan with details of their location, possibly in the mountains. now this is all happening at a time when a splinter group of the taliban pakistan has issued

yet another threat, warning the government that there would be more such attacks. >> translator: pakistan is not an islamic state and after extensive call sultation, we have decided from now on chair colleges, schools and universities will be our prime targets. because we are not going to kill the soldiers, the judges or politicians, but we target these nurseries from where they are groomed. we will kill them inside these educational institutions. north korea says it has detained a u.s. student for committing a hostile act. also he entered the country on a tourist visa. harry fawcett has more from seoul. >> reporter: well, this news came through on the north korean state media kcna, saying north korea had detained a u.s. citizen, a student for a supposed hostile acted against the state.

also this media report saying that that act was tolerated and manipulated by the united states government. the u.s. embassy here in seoul is only confirmed that it has seen these media reports, it is referring any other questions to the state department in washington. but there has been some corroboration from a tour agency in china who says he was on one of their tours and was detained on january 2nd. they say they are acting closely with the swedish embassy which looks after u.s. interests in north korea, also with the north korean ministry of foreign affairs, and the state department trying to get this man released. he is not the first u.s. citizen to be detained in north korea. one tourist left behind a bible

in a hotel, these kinds of things have gotten people in trouble in the past. there was a u.s. student with a green card, he was detained after crossing illegally into north korean territory from china and was kept for some six months before being handed over. so this isn't the first of its type, but this is a new u.s. citizen detained in north korea. the largest independent film festival in the u.s. has kicked off. rob reynolds takes a look. >> reporter: the rocky mountain air in this town is full of expectation. independent filmmakers from 37 countries are showing off their artistic creations. >> it's a budget list item for me. >> i think people are pulled

here, because they know this is where the best content in the world for film is. >> reporter: 120 films will be screened this year, called for more than 4,000 submissions. the focus is on narrative. >> to me the most important thing is the story. and storytelling is what it should be about. >> reporter: among the most talked about films this year, "christine," it's a dark drama about a female journalist trying to break into the male dominated world of 1970s tv news. the israeli produced film "sand storm" tells the story of a family reconciling its beliefs. "birth of a nation" takes its name from dw give its blatantly

racist 1915 silent epic. in the documentary division there is buzz about "new town". it takes on the debate on gun violence, focusing on grieving families that lost children in the sandy hook school massacre. and the legendary german filmmaker is back with "lo and behold," a look at the digitized interconnected world humanity has made. the festival is waiting to see if this year's festival will pass 2014. >> there is a big difference between the bubble of the sundance film festival and what main stream audiences will be

interested in. >> reporter: you can be sure many of these people are hoping their labor of love will be the next "blare witch project." as ever there's much more on our website, use the address aljazeera.com. ♪ forecasters are warning 70 million people to prepare for what could be an historic snowfall. >> i guess they want to get a little publicity, but that's a dying paper. an abbankrupt ending to the first federal trial of faulty ignition switches. plus how an american student wound