check us out 24 hours a day at our website, aljazeera.com. ♪ a suicide bomber strikes in kabul killing 20 people, the taliban claim responsibility. ♪ hello i'm barbara and you are watching al jazeera live from london and also coming up, on the program syria's main opposition groups arrives for talks with the u.n. special envoy after giving assurances about the humanitarian situation and myanmar politics and hundreds of new mps are sworn into parliament and a national emergency declared as drought

trumps fears over food security. ♪ hello and welcome to the program at least 20 people have bin killed and others injured by a suicide bomber outside of the building in kabul and they claimed responsibility for the attack and jennifer glasse has the latest now from kabul. >> reporter: the bomber chose the busy moments after lunchtime to strike and he blew himself up in a line of recruits and officers outside the civil order police. >> translator: it was a suicide bomber who detonated in front of the police civil order base, after the explosion i saw three or four wounded people, i did not know any more. >> reporter: dozens were wounded and killed. security forces raced to the scene and sealed off the area, a

main thorough fair in kabul and the latest attacks in the capitol and country in the resent weeks and many of the victims are treated at the city's emergency hospital and doctors say there were superficial wounds as well as grave ones and family members gather outside waiting for news. >> translator: i was in the area when suddenly and explosion happened and some 20 people received injuries and were lying on the ground the type of explosion was unclear. >> reporter: a nato statement said the attack shows the contempt the taliban have for the rule of law in afghanistan, the taliban have no plans for the development of afghanistan, targeting those who defend fellow afghans does not advance the cause of peace. on saturday officials from afghanistan, pakistan, china and the united states are scheduled to meet in islamabad to try to revive the peace talks. it's unclear whether these taliban at taxes are designed to end the peace process altogether to eventually give them a better

bargaining position if and when they come to the peace table. jennifer glasse, al jazeera, kabul. ♪ syria's main opposition group the high committee has arrived for a session in u.n. backed talks ending the country's bloody civil war and given a positive response and assurances that ongoing attacks against civilians and sieges on towns and cities would be addressed. well the u.n. envoy has now met both sides of the conflict for preliminary discussions showing the talks in geneva are finally getting off the ground. but the humanitarian vcrisis in syria continues and more than 3,000 refugees crossed into turkey in the past three days fleeing advances by pro-government forces and air strikes and we will go to james base who has been following the talks and james we heard in the

next half hour or so we are due to hear from the u.n. envoy staffan de mistura do we have any idea what he is likely to say? >> certainly he is going to be speaking to us after his latest meeting with an opposition delegation that started about an hour ago. when that meeting is over not clear if we are going to hear from those opposition members, whether they will brief us here at the united nations and it's interesting if there was a meeting on friday, a similar meeting in the same room, the syrian government delegation didn't speak to reporters and i suspect because the u.n. told them not to here in the united nations where the talks are supposed to take place. another interesting point on this is the meeting got underway an hour ago without one of the members of the delegation we were told was likely to be there, mohamed who is one of the commanders on the ground in syria who is here and was supposed to be their chief negotiator. he we are told was coming to this meeting.

we understand now that he has finally landed in geneva but he is not here yet and i think it's probably unlikely she going to make it in time for this particular meeting. he is a controversial figure because he represents one of the biggest armed groups russia says that people like that shouldn't be involved in these sort of negotiations but i think his arrival is quite pivotal because the armed groups in many ways are among the opposition are those that are most unhappy about this process. so i think having him here will be important. >> and james obviously the humanitarian situation in syria continues to be absolutely di y disaster, how important is that for the opposition there? >> well, certainly they have made the humanitarian situation top of the agenda because they have said all along before they even arrived to geneva that they are not going to sit down and proper negotiations in the way this is supposed to work is both

sides here at the u.n. headquarters in geneva in different rooms, so called proximity talks, they are not willing to start that and have been saying for sometime until some of the things that are in the u.n. security council resolution set up this process that was part in new york in december actually happen, they say they have been given assurances but what they want to see is actually concrete developments on the ground and among those is getting humanitarian access to those besieged areas and you remember the appalling pictures from madaya where people are starving to death and still suffering in places like madaya and really you can't stop this talk process until the people of syria see some sort of temporary relief and some sort of gesture before they can start negotiating about a new syria. >> we are due to hear from the u.n. envoy in the next hour or so and we will touch base after he has spoken and james base in

geneva, thank you. at least 85 people have been killed in suspected boko haram attacks in northeast earn nigeria over the weekend, gunmen opened fire on civilians and set fire to homes in the town which is about 12 kilometers from the capitol. more than a dozen villagers are still unaccounted for and some of the bodies have been burnt beyond recognition and boko haram has been stepping up attacks on villages as it loses territory to the nigerian military. al-qaeda fighters say they reclaimed the town of a zan in yemen and had controlled the area until 2012. according to tribal chiefs most of the fighters who seized them come from surrounding areas. al-qaeda and the arabian peninsula expanded during the war with a security vacuum in the country's south. more fighting in yemen's capitol sanaa, dozens of houthi rebels and supporters of saleh have

been killed in the east of the city and after attack by the popular resistance backed by the national yemeni army. go to myanmar where hundreds of politicians have been sworn into parliament. harolding in a new era on politics and they won elections in november ending more than 50 years of military rule but as rob mcbride reports the military will still have a significant influence. >> reporter: members of parliament from myanmar national league of democracy or nld finally take power but it's 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 nld to govern. >> i think as a military is

sitting in the parliament and the energy of the government cannot govern effectively. >> reporter: the military themselves were not saying too much. is it going to be a good and workable government? hello? during the years of military rule nld supporter was constantly in and out of detention, reconciliation will take effort. >> translator: it is a very sensitive time. negotiations need to take place to build up trust. >> reporter: this is a country in need of effective government. often referred to as democracy on a leash there is no doubting whose hand is on it, hope for the nld is that the military feel comfortable enough in the delicate relationship they don't exercise their powers. the list of priorities for the new mps is long, getting all ethnic groups to sign up to a national ceasefire after years

of conflict. ending the marginazation and persecution of the minority rohinga after stagnation and there are signs of recovery. he used to have a roadside store selling fuel from bottles, now he has a filling station. >> translator: saw a car or a motor bike but now nearly every house has at least one motor bike. >> reporter: and among all the other priorities of this new parliament the business of a new president. nld leader chi 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. the government in southern africa has declared a national emergency to combat the

crippling effects of on going drought, el nino is having an impact on the country as we report from the district. >> reporter: she packs away her empty corn bags, a continuing drought means her crops have failed and she has run out of food. >> translator: it is going to be very difficult to live in this situation because i live in farming so i don't know what i'm going to feed my children. >> reporter: her village in the district relies on the food it grows despite months of no rain, the planted maze hoping for a successful harvest but that is unlikely. he explains by now these plants should have been five times their height. the world food program says the drought will hit 80% of the rural population the hardest, most people in these areas depend on sub sistance farming and portable water and making

the situation worse. farmers are recovering from two successive crop failures and drought in 2013, according to the world food program malnutrition and dizzy and livestock deaths increasing and more than a half of the population survives less than a dollar a day. >> if we do not react now we have people who have lost their assets, their cows, their sheep, they're selling whatever little asset they have. it needs to build forth into poverty. >> reporter: a third of the population will need food assistance, the government has mrenl pledged 10 million for drought release but the agency responsible says it needs three times the amount and is still waiting for the money. >> delays and it goes without saying that we are a bit behind. >> reporter: this is the largest dam in the country and second biggest in the continent and at the lowest levels in a

decade and part of the highlands water project which ex sports its water to neighboring south africa bringing in much needed income and across the mountains farmers say any rain now would be too late and as winter approaches communities worry about the road ahead. miller with al jazeera. still ahead on al jazeera the first of big tests for people vying to be the next u.s. president, we will go live to iowa plus the scam which has defrauded investors of $7.6 billion in china. ♪

♪ reminder of the top stories on al jazeera 20 killed and many others injured by a suicide bomber in the afghan capitol kabul. behind a negotiating committee are meeting with the u.n. special envoy staffan de mistura for indirect talks aimed at ending the syria civil war and hundreds of prodemocracy politicians have been sworn into the parliament in myanmar with a new era in policy for the country. voting will get underway later in the u.s. state of iowa as the republican and democrat parties choose their candidate for the election and after months of campaigning which at times has been heated and angry it will be the first real test of how the candidates are viewed by the general public and allen fisher

is in des moines, iowa and he sent us this update. >> reporter: this is where presidential campaigns come to die, performance in the news of iowa outside the top three and dreams of the white house can melt away but republicans and democrats will caucus here, gather, talk, set aside the paws and publicity and pick the person they want to be as president. it has been going on for months and feels much longer than that but 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 sports, the first indication of where america's two main parties are headed. this has been a strange campaign. the conventional wisdom is this will end up a contest of hillary clinton from the democrats and republicans jeb bush but one event changed the dynamic on the face of american politics. >> donald trump getting in the race. i think if you look back on this election it was going to be a

very different kind of conversation and a very different discussion had donald trump not decided to run. >> reporter: trump is the most talked about and most covered candidate and provided the most big moment of the campaign. >> donald j trump is calling for a total and complete shut down of muslims entering the united states. >> reporter: the republican field packed outsiders like trump takes cruz and carson challenging establishment figures like bush, senator rubio and chris christie among others and that exposed divisions in the party on key issues of immigration, taxation and the best way to handle foreign policy. on the side of the democrats the field narrowed to three with two frontrunners and self acknowledged socialist vermont barry senders and wants healthcare and free education and higher taxes to pay for it all and he is appealing to the

party and the sharp contrast between and inside both parties say people are fed up with politics as usual. >> seeing both parties are getting and moving to ideological extremes and happening more obviously on the republican side and republicans if you poll them they really dislike their own party leadership. that is not really happening on the democratic side. i think the democrats it's more that there is a lot of anxiety about hillary clinton. >> reporter: politicians take a lot on success in iowa and the last two republican winners have not secured the nomination and still the parties spend time and money in the state and why the iowa caucuses matter because everyone thinks they do. allen fisher, al jazeera, iowa. kimberly is live for in des moines in iowa and finally we have come to this day and kimberly and get some idea how the candidates are doing with the public, what can we actually expect from the candidates today? >> they are continuing to advocate to their supporters to

come to caucus in the evening here. what we have seen so far is that donald trump is holding rallies, we've heard some of the numbers are a little smaller than we have typically seen and it's a weekday in iowa and we have seen it from marco rubio and hillary clinton shaking hands with seniors and what is important is what happened over the weekend and the ground game is where people get out and shake hands and make sure they meet as many people as possible was intense for democrats and hillary clinton shook hands and met 125,000 households and happened with 76,000 for bernie sanders but an is really interesting is how much money the clinton campaign is spending in iowa and generally on her campaign to essentially receive the same result as her main rival bernie sanders and in a statistical dead heat with hillary clinton with a slight edge in polls in iowa and had to spend enormous amount of money to do so, 74

million compared to bernie sanders and in the last four months received 53 million and many were small private donors really giving about 27 each on average and shows just how much hillary clinton had to work to really again achieve essentially the same result. it is a bit worrisome for her campaign, something she is working hard and says she is in it to win it. >> and she was way ahead in iowa wasn't she according to the polls and it's interesting kimberly and we are have been focusing on donald trump and emergence of a clear winner next to him but should we look at the democrats and realizing that it's not such a done deal for hillary clinton? >> indeed, i know if you look at when bernie sanders announced candidacy hillary clinton was the inevitable candidate and ahead of about 50 points compared to bernie sanders and now there are really just a few percentage points apart and have to remember something here with high profile endorsements from

the times and the register and that is certainly going to help her but she has trust factors to overcome as well as the e-mail scandal that continues to nag and if hillary clinton is the nominee will work hard to earn that. >> kimberly from iowa and thank you. the world health organization is meeting to decide whether the zika virus out break should be an emergency, the mosquito-borne virus is spreading fast across the americas and illness expected in causing birth defks but no firm link established and urgency in the search for waste to try to control the disease but vaccines many years away a company from the uk is trying a new approach and controlling the mosquito which actually spreads the virus and al jazeera paul brennan reports from england. >> reporter: this is the

mosquito and spreads denge and chikungunya disease and yellow fever and now the zika virus and how to control and eradicate with numbers in the bills and can reproduce prolifically. >> one female in three months can produce 15.6 female of spring or able to spread the disease. and the solution of this company architect is to breed in preventing them from reaching adulthood. >> reporter: in this lab genetic biologists use an antedote allow them to create millions of male mosquitos and they do not bite or spread disease but once released in the wild the genetically modified males can descimate the population. >> when we release the males they can't tell the difference

between ours and a wild one and it will be a 50/50 straight bet and if she mates with ours the off spring will die so it's simply a numbers game and need to put more males out there so more of the females mate with ours because every time a female mates with one of ours they are not have viable of spring and you bring the population down and what that means in practice is that in a town within six months you can reduce the mosquito population by over 90% and that is in every case that we have done it. >> reporter: between april and november last year in partnership with the authorities and the brazilian city architect released 25 million of the modified males and achieved 82% drop in the number of wild mosquito larvae. the trans genetic males are identifiable through a color marker invisible under normal light which is passed on to their larvae off spring and monitoring the success rapt of the males with wild females is a simple matter seeing how many

larvae is red color and they have a factory in brazil mosquitos every week and building a bigger facility to produce tens of millions of mosquitos a week with regulatory approval. the site of fumigation vehicles blanketed with insect side has an effect with a self destruct gene is a far more effective tool and u.s. regulators are now looking keenly at the trans genetic mosquito with a field being considered in florida. paul brennan, al jazeera. israeli troops shot dead a 18-year-old palestinian man in the occupied west bank after an alleged stabbing. this is a day after another palestinian man was killed after wounding three israeli soldiers when he allegedly fired at a check point outside the city of ramallah and blocked

nonresidents entering the city while it carries out security checks and 167 palestinians and 25 israelis died in the latest unrest which began in october. uk approved a scientist's request to edit human genetic code. the controversial technique was pioneered in an effort to understand how embryos develop and it crosses too many ethical boundaries and could lead to one day designer babies and hope gene editing could treat conditions such as hiv or inherit diseases such as muscular dystrophy. chinese police arrested 21 people connected to an investment scheme that allegedly defrauded investors of $7.6 billion. executives from china's largest peer to peer money lending company are accused of stealing from about 900,000 people. according to state media the

suspects scammed people online using funds from new investors to pay old debts, they allegedly concealed the evidence by burying the account books. it started off as a celebration of the written word but now columbia's hay festival is taking on depressing social problems and this year it's inequality and we report from the city. >> reporter: when the hay festival was brought 11 years ago columbia was still a country struggling with violence and international relations. but today with a peace deal at hand and enjoying a tourist boom international events like this one have become common. >> from columbia we can help a little bit to at least create almost like a vote of confidence to the columbia people and beginning to come here and have

the right we didn't have before. and we are creating space for the dates to imagine this to the world. >> reporter: big names in literature and the arts still are the backbone of the events but from a simple celebration of the written word the festival has gained confidence and began to tackle head on political and economic issues. >> that what you need is a combination of government and market. >> reporter: this year's top tickets are reknown economist thomas and chang casting how to reduce economic inequality. >> more than ever with all the social tension in the world and the rise of national leader and politics of age we need to have a way for people to better invest with a different admission and i think this kind of festival where different people from very different countries come together and talk

it's absolutely essential in today's world. >> reporter: but the hay festival is attended mostly by columbia and here also one of the country's poorest cities some doubt of the real impact for the larger population. at this book market just outside the city's walls, few have even heard about it. >> translator: no, i have not heard about it, hay festival, what is that? >> reporter: others wish they could be involved. >> translator: we done don't see many benefits and those who go to the events do not come here and locals do not even know about it. >> reporter: festival organizers acknowledge limits and offering free tickets and sending people to towns and surrounding neighborhoods. it's a long process in a country still stifled by a huge divide but one worth fighting one talk

at a time. al jazeera. much more on that and everything else that we have been covering on our website, the address on your screen is now al jazeera.com. caucus day in iowa, the american people get their first official say in this year's presidential election, they are discussing the next steps in fighting zika, a deadly series of attacks in damascus over shadows talks to end the conflict in syria plus. >> ladies and gentlemen welcome to diverse t.v. >> reporter: one hollywood award show dials up the diversity. ♪

producing millions of the