back here at 7:00 a.m. stay with us. a suicide bombing in afghanistan's capitol. the taliban says it's responsible. >> hello, i'm in doha with the world news from al jazeera. also ahead, syria's opposition said it's received assurances on providing relief to people as negotiations for talks continue in geneva. >> the new faces of politics in myanmar, taking their seats after decades of military rule. stepping up the fight

against zika. modified mosquitoes being used to slow the spread of the virus. at least 17 people have been killed in an explosion in afghanistan's capitol. several others were injured in cap bull near the police headquarters. new police recruits are among the dead. the afghan taliban has claimed responsibility. live to our correspondent jennifer glass in kabul for us. a pretty bold and blazen attack by the taliban. what happened in this one? >> it was a bold attack that happened in the early hours of the afternoon here in broad daylight. the suicide bomber, this taliban suicide bomber joined a line of new recruits and others trying to order the afghan civil police headquarters in the center of town and blew himself up, as you said. a senior official tells us 17

have died and dozens injured in that attack in the center of town. this is not far from the kabul zoo on one of the main roads in kabul closed for much of the afternoon as police tried to clear the debris. the taliban that tried to claim responsibility. this is the latest in a series of attacks around the country. two weeks ago there was an attack not far from there that killed seven afghan journalists. we've seen a number of suicide bombings here in the heavily fortified capital coming five days before there's supposed to be another round of talks to try to get the peace process started with the taliban again. >> what precisely are these increased attacks having on efforts to reengage the taliban and get them to negotiate peace with the afghan government? >> it's not clear exactly the motivation behind the taliban, whether the attacks are designed to show that they're opposed to

the peace process, some afghans say, criticizing the government for staying how can you make peace with a group that's attacking civilians and members of the government, whether this is a tactic by the taliban to give themselves more leverage at the peace table. now on saturday, we're expecting officials from the united states from china, as well as afghanistan and pakistan to meet in islamabad. this is the third round of attacks with these groups to try to move this peace process forward. president ashraf ghani and his government recognize that nothing can happen here in afghanistan, afghanistan can't progress economically or any other way until there is security here and these latest attacks here in the capital and around the country, the escalation of violence by the taliban has many afghans concerned about their future here. syria's opposition has received assurances from international backers about providing humanitarian relief to suffering people.

the group's been threatening to walk out of talks in geneva unless government attacks on civilians end immediately. the announcement came shortly after the u.n. human rights chief said there should be no amnesty on human war crimes as part of those negotiations. >> where allegations reach the threshold of war crimes or crimes against humanity, that is not permissible and clearly when looking most recently at the forced starvation of the people of madaya, there are 15 other besieged towns and cities that this is not just a war crime, but crime against humanity if proven. >> live to al jazeera now live

now. we've heard statements from u.n. officials. clearly they're very keen on getting these peace talks going, keep the momentum going in these talks. where do things stand right now? >> a lot of pressure being put on both the presence of the regime here and the opposition in geneva by the international actors in this conference, trying to make sure that things stay on course after a lot of delays, a lot of twists and turns. because there has been so much confusion, i wanted to go straight to the chief spokesperson for the agency, the high negotiations commit see here. he is with me here right now as a live guest. thank you so much for being with us. i want to ask you first, there's been so much back and forth about what exactly is going on today. we know there is scheduling to be a meeting within the next hours, who is going to be present with that meeting and what do you hope will be accomplished there?

>> thank you for this opportunity, thank you very much. yesterday we had the meeting with the envoy and will meet him in his office at the united nations building. there are many issues to be discussed and continue to be discussing, the issues we discussed yesterday. the delegation will be about 15 people to be there, you know, meeting. it will be including the head of the delegation. >> i believe there are important meetings today to start the objective for this investigation in order to reach negotiations.

>> arriving in geneva about an hour from now, you see the side who calls these people terrorists is only russia and the regime. we never heard that from other countries, but russia, all syrian people are terrorists,

but, you know, the regime is the only one that in their mind that this is the legitimate thing, but for us, the only terrorists in syria is the regime and what he recruited from outside and what he created in syria, he created this isil and recruited hezbollah and others from iraq and iran to kill his own people. now i believe you can tell who's the terrorist there. we are here and keen to make this process a success. we want to really lift this, you know, nightmare. we want to see a relief that syria, it's a big suffer there, five years, i believe it's enough, the responsibility of the international community to put an end to this one. >> very quickly, sir, if you have had to meeting already with mr. staffan de mistura and another today, does that mean

that you are participating in the talks? >> you cannot solve a problem within one hour or one day. these things take more than one or two meetings. we don't mind having many meetings, the main thing that we accomplish something. we didn't come here just to waste time or sit in our hotel rooms. no, we came here to save our children, to save our people from these massacres and you've witnessed many massacres by russia and the regime. we are here to put an end to that. >> thank you so much for being with us. we appreciate it. you heard it there, again, it just really goes to show just how complicated these talks are here in geneva, even on a day where there seems to be forward momentum, the fact that this meeting is going to be happening in a couple of hours, still a lot of very thorny issues to be dealt with in the hours ahead. >> thank you very much indeed. russia says it's conducted more

than 1,000 airstrikes in syria this week. the defense ministry released these images of bombings. it's dropped 200 tons of humanitarian aid. 1400 civilians have been killed by russia since airstrikes began in september. in yemen, al-qaeda fighters say they reclaimed a town. according to tribal chiefs, most of the fighters who seized it come from surrounding areas. in sanna, dozens of houthi rebels and supporters of the former president al saleh have been killed in the east of the city after an attack by the popular resistance backed by the national yemeni army. the saudi-led coalition in yemen will investigate civilians deaths during its airstrikes against houthi rebels. the announcement comes after

sawed's ambassador to the u.n. defended the accuracy of the campaign. he blames houthi rebels for carrying out in discriminate attacks. joins us is a representative of doctors without borders. he has recently come here from taiz. tell us what you saw while you were in yemen, in taiz in particular, which has been under siege for sometime now. what he said the situation like there? >> the situation in taiz is very dramatic. it's been a long time since i saw such you a serious situation. it's a city cut in half by front line and with civilians on both sides being very seriously affected and very heavy shelling and rockets and tank fire are being exchanged on a regular basis, hitting civilian and civilian targets, as well as military ones. >> what about the situation elsewhere in the country?

are people able to get aid, are they being helped? are your workers able to assist the people in need? >> we are opening new hospitals. we are able to work, however, it's very difficult. the needs are great. as a multitude of things that we cannot do as on organization, and we find that there's not enough actors providing humanitarian assistance across yemen today in order to be able to assist the people. >> has your workers been caught in the crossfire? >> it's mostly the people of yemen caught in the crossfire. it's affecting families and brothers and sisters and whole towns. in taiz, sanna holding talks,

because vie visit talks in aden, most people are affected. also hospitals and patients and doctors, they are hit repeatedly from the air and ground, and facilities are amongst those. >> saudi arabia has said it will do its utmost to prevent civilian casualties. the number of civilian deaths is extremely high and saudi arabia said it will coordinate to prevent these. i want to know is that scored nation happening at all. are they reaching out to you before combating airstrikes? >> no, we don't coordinate airstrikes. we abhor any military activity within the conflict. we are in contact with the colation as well as any other party to the conflict and we have passed very strong messages to the coalition after three

hits on our medical facilities that this is unacceptable and we are demanding an explanation and independent investigation from them. >> thank you so very much for joining us an telling us about the situation in yemen. >> thank you. hundred was politicians have been sworn into parliament in myanmar hailing in a new era in the country. they won elections in november, ending 50 years of military rule. rob mcbride reports for al jazeera. >> members of parliament from myanmar national league for democracy finally take power. it is a power shared. after half a century in control, the military will still retain a firm hold. they get a quarter of all seats in parliament, keep control of important ministries, and can block any constitutional change. analysts say that will make it difficult for the n.l.d. to gone.

>> i think as a military in the parliament, the government cannot gone effectively. >> the military themselves will not say too much. >> is it going to be a good government, workable government? hello? >> during the years of military rule, n.l.d. supporter was constantly in and out of detention. reconciliation will take effort. >> it is a very sensitive time. negotiations need to take place to build trust. >> this is a country in need of effective government. often referred to as democracy on a leash, there's no doubting whose hand is on it. the hope is that the military feel comfortable enough in this delicate relationship that they don't exercise their powers. the list of priorities is long. getting all ethnic groups to

sign up to a analyses fire after years of conflict, ending the marginalization and percent accusation of the rohingya and the economy after years of stagnation. there are signs of recovery. >> he used to have a roadside store selling fuel from bosses. now he has a filling station. >> now nearly every house has at least one motor bike. >> among all the other priorities of this new parliament, the business of a new president. n.l.v. leader is blocked by a constitutional clause that would need to be changed with agreement from the military. in this new atmosphere of change, even that seems possible. rob mcbride, al jazeera, myanmar. >> still ahead on al jazeera, the race for the white house,

why the upcoming vote in iowa could be a decisive moment for u.s. presidential hopefuls. how pilots in south korea are taking off in big numbers to work for other airlines.

welcome back. our top stories on al jazeera, 17 people killed and several injured in a suicide bombing in kabul. police say the attacker detonated explosives near the headquarters of afghanistan's

border police. the afghan taliban has climbed responsibility. >> syria's opposition's received assurances from international backers about providing humanitarian relief to suffering people. the delegation had threatened to walk out of talks in geneva unless there was an immediately end to attack on civilians. politicians sworn in in myanmar heralding in a new era in politics. more than 50 years were ended of military rule. the world health organization is meeting with decide whether the zika virus should be declared a global emergency. the health agency warned the mosquito borne virus suspected of causing birth defects is spreading across the americas. representatives from affected countries will meet in geneva.

there's urgency for a search in ways to control the disease. with a potential of vaccine many years away, a country from the u.k. is pioneering a new approach, aimed as controlling the mosquito which spread the virus. we have a report from the u.k. >> this is the mosquito that spreads dengue fever, yellow fever and now the zika virus. how to control and eradicate an insect which numbers in the billions and can reproduce prolifically. >> one female can produce 16 million off bring, all able to spread the disease. the solution is to breed in a mortality gene that prevents the offspring reaching adulthood. >> at this lab, genetic

biologists use an antidote and allow them to create millions of the male mosquitoes. the males don't bite or spread disease. once released into the wild, they can decimate the mosquito population. >> as we release our males, the females can't tell the difference between our males and a wild one. if given the choice, it will be a 50-50 straight bet. if she mates with ours, then the offspring will die. it's simply a numbers game. we need to put more males out there so more of the females mate with ours, every time a female mates with one of ours, she's not going to have viable offspring, so you bring the population down. in practice, that means in a town within six months, you can reduce the mosquito population by over 90% and that's in every case that we've done it. >> between april and november last year, in partnership with the authorities in the brazilian city, the company released 25 million of the modified males. it achieved an 82% drop in the

number of wild mosquito larvae. the transgenic males are identified through a color marker which is passed on to their larvae offspring, monitoring the offspring is a simple matter of seeing how many of the larvae show up with a red color. the company already has a factory in brazil producing millions of the transgenic mosquitoes every week and building a bigger facility to produce tens of millions of mosquitoes a week in anticipation of regulatory approval. the sites of fumigation vehicles blanketing neighborhoods with insecticide might assure the human population but it has shoulder lived effect on the mosquito population.

introducing a self destruct seen appears to be a far more effective tool and u.s. regulators looking at the program in florida. alan fisher reports from des moines, iowa. >> this is where presidential campaigns come to die, a poor performance in iowa and dreams of the white house can melt away. both republicans and democrats will caucus here, gather, talk, set aside the polls and publicity and pick the person they want to be president. this campaign has been going on for months, though feels longer than that. here, now in iowa, in the frozen midwest of america's winter, the contest really begins to heat up. here, we will get the first real test of public opinion. the first vote, the first

indication of where america's two main parties are headed. >> this has ban strange campaign. the conventional wisdom was this would end up a contest between hillary clinton and jeb bush. one event changed the dynamic and face of american politics. >> donald trump getting into the race, i mean, i think if you look back on this election, it was going to be a very different kind of conversation, very different discussion had donald trump not decided to run. >> trump is the most talked about, most covered candidate and provided the most incendiary moment of the campaign. >> donald trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of muslims entering the united states. >> the republican field has been packed outsiders like trump senator ted cruz and ben carson challenging establishment physician bush, and govern chris christie among others. that's exposed divisions in the party on key issues like

taxation, immigration and the best way to handle foreign policy. on the side of the democrats, the field narrowed to three with hillary clinton, and another outsider vermont senator bernie sanders. he wants to see university health care, free college education and higher taxes to pay for it all. he's appealing to the political left of his party in sharp contrast inside both parties are that people are fed up with politics at usual. >> we see that both parties are moving to ideological extremes. it's happening more advicably on the republican side and republicanslike their party leadership. the deps, it's more that there's just a lot of anxiety about hillary clinton. >> politicians stake a loss on iowa success. the party spent time and money in the state and that's why the iowa caucuses matter, because

everyone thinks they do. alan fisher, al jazeera, iowa. the israeli government approved the creation of a new prior space for non-orthodox jews president western wall in jerusalem, which will allow men and women to pry together. until now in line with orthodox believers, men and women have prayed separately at the western wall. it is a remnant of the retaining wall on the mount on which the holy temples once stood and considered the most sacred site in judaism. south korea pilots are taking flight, many leaving the bigger airline for better pay in china and elsewhere. those left behind are threatening to strike. >> the korean training center, new pilots are being trained. this. >> practices an emergency

landing. it's a prestigious job with the nation's flag carrier. why are so many colleagues leaving the company and country? the first reason is to korean airline system does not provide hope for the pilots. there is a huge gap in salary compared to neighboring countries, especially china. >> last year, 122 pilots left the company, more than seven times the year before. a third went to join the aviation boom in china for double or triple the pay. trade union leaders here demand a 37% air rise. korean pilots say they already earn about $116,000 a year. >> the increase of about 1.9% this year, so the gap is too big for us to tell with them, so right now the numbers they are asking for is quite

unacceptable. >> the flood of departures creating a safety issues. recruiting from overseas is going up. the union say many don't have the necessary experience. >> the union concerns about safety are called unfounded, that they have the ability to train up new pilots and experienced ones to fill the gap. >> there is as gee traffickical issue. south korea's relatively small size mean pilots on domestic routes are in command of many more individual flights. >> the labor intensity and stress could be doubled up, more frequent flight pilots. when we are investigating by government, they don't count that kind of frequency effect. >> whether it be for more money,

less stress for both a growing number of pilots are opting for a one way ticket, many bound for china. al jazeera, seoul. you can keep up to date with all the news all the time on our website, aljazeera.com. the very latest on all of our top stories there. caucus day, after months of campaigning, iowaens set to pick their candidates in the first presidential contest. the world health organization talks the zika virus as the outbreak continues to spread. ladies and gentlemen, welcome to diverse t.v. diversity dominates just weak after oscar nominations are criticized for being too white.