tv News Al Jazeera February 23, 2016 6:00am-6:31am EST
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♪ 100,000 and counting just this year, europe's refugee crisis shows no sign of lessening. ♪ hello and welcome you are watching al jazeera coming live from our headquarters in doha and also in the next half hour afghans in a desperate situation as the european border fence being told they cannot cross over. [gunfire] with no let newspaper the fighting there are serious doubts as to the success of the plans for partial truce in syria whether it can become a reality or not.
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india students standoff and the police are blocked from a college campus and now there is a proposal to diffuse the crisis. ♪ okay, top story and starting the program with the continuing refugee crisis in europe, the international organization for migration says that since the beginning of this year more than 100,000 refugees and migrants arrived in greece and italy and most of them 97,000 people landed on the greek islands and more than 7,000 crossed into italy, more than 400 people lost their lives so far this year mainly on that sea crossing from the turkish coast to the greek islands and afghan refugees remain stranded at bashed wire fendss on greece macedonia border after being blocked from crossing and restrictions on
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afghans and allowing people from syria and iraq to cross over and those have a sit in on the greek side of the border and we have two reporters tracking that story for you and we are in kabul and hamad is in greece as well. hoda is in on the border between greece and macedonia for us. what is the atmosphere like there hoda among the people who are trying to get across but can't get across? >> reporter: well, certainly there is a lot of anxiety and uncertainty and that is facing really not only the afghans but the iraqis and the syrians who officially still can get through the borders but at the moment of being blocked by the afghans and we are just a little bit further away than the actual crossing, you probably see behind me buses and those are waiting to transport afghan nationals all
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the way back to athens from what we understand from the police here they are trying to make this as peaceful as possible so that with the afghans and explaining the situation at the moment the borders on the balkin routes are closed for them and not just the macedonia but the border of macedonia and serbia and several hunt stranded there and the same in serbia and i spoke to a journ journalist in serbia and many have been sent back to croatia and others in the past few days and the number is a thousand and it's continuing there as well so certainly you have this situation, the stumbling blocks all along the route and the afghans are anxious and when we go back to athens what happens to us and many say we try to go back and we have no choice and we heard a lot of people saying if we have to use smugglers, if
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you have to use traffickers that is what we will do. just a few days ago i was inside macedonia and officials there were telling me that since the borders are closing well the smuggling is now flourishing and the correspondent there and it would seem to be today that if something goes wrong, if there is a little blip in the conflict in helpman province the domino is huge and thehe river of humanity is huge as people pick up and leave and try to get to europe. >> yeah, peter, for those people who know afghans they know that they love their country, they want nothing more than to stay here and build their country but in order for them to stay they need two things to happen, they need security and need an economy that is making some progress and in a nutshell they simply have not seen that happen, that is why they are continuing to leave afghanistan at a time when many people were
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hoping that that trend would be reversed, when you look at 2014, the year when most u.s. and international forces started leaving a long with them left a lot of international organization, a lot of aid groups and many afghans depended on those organizations for work, depended on international aid to boost the economy, that simply has not happened, joblessness still a very serious issue here in afghanistan and then you look at the security situation, in 2015 according to a report more civilians died in afghanistan than at any time since 2001 over the past four days according to a senior military official you have afghan troops seemingly retreating from two critical districts in helman providence in southern afghanistan and these are the reasons that many afghanistans are taking the risks, taking desperate measures peter to leave afghanistan and you see omof the very tragic
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results in places like greece. >> serious questions asked over the years of the afghan security forces as how trustworthy they are when it comes to helman and how well trained they are, has that got in the way here as to the traction that they have or they do not have when it comes to their military operations? >> i think many critics of this government say the fact that security is deteriorating is an indication that afghan security forces are struggling to fend off insurgency in the taliban and no surprise that the afghan government insists that they are continuing the fight and pushing prospects for peace talks with the taliban today in kabul and the latest in a series of meetings between the government of china, united states, pakistan and afghanistan, these countries saying they are making an effort to get the taliban to
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sit down and discuss peace. however in the past couple months after each of these meetings it's stuff to glean substantial news saying they are closer sitting down and speaking with the taliban and we simply don't know how bright these prospects are, we are waiting to see what the outcome of this meeting is, a lot of afghan officials, senior officials saying the talks are close, when they are going to happen, how they are going to happen, it's not clear at this point. >> thanks very much. thousands of refugees have also been blocked at greece's main port near athens and the ships docked in the port and carrying 4,000 people who managed to reach the islands and many of them hoped to continue that journey across macedonia and on into europe and meanwhile near the french city of cali thousands of migrants and refugees face eviction from a
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camp known as the jungle and have until tuesday to leave the makeshift home and a thousand people could be forced to move to nearby shipping containers and moving to another major factor in the refugee crisis the war in syria and the latest pause in fighting should begin in the early hours of saturday morning local time but the main negotiating body wants international guarantees and the government though says it accepts the current terms and fighting continues on fronts in and around the city of aleppo and these are pictures of rebels fighting ypg forces in the city and our diplomatic ed tore james base has doubts surrounding the possible ceasefire. >> reporter: for almost five years the death toll has mounted everyday there has been blood shed and atrocities and the latest attempt to end all this, this document released jointly by the u.s. and russia and the two countries working on plans for a lull in the violence since a meeting in munich earlier this
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month. russian foreign minister sergei fedorov wanted a ceasefire for march the first and u.s. secretary of state john kerry argued that would allow russia more time for bombing to change the situation on the ground but ever since that meeting there has been delay and so in the end russia has got its way. >> translator: russia will work with damascus, the legitimate government of syria and we expect the united states will do the same with its allies and group supported by them. >> the deal done by the u.s. and russia calls on all the warring syrian parties with the exception of i.s.i.l. and the al-nusra front which are both on the u.n. security council's terrorism list to commit to a cessation of hostilities by this friday midday damascus time, 12 hours later that cessation is supposed to start on saturday. diplomates tell me that if it
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holds there is the possibility that peace talks which collapsed in geneva last month could resume within seven days. the spokesman for the u.n. secretary-general welcomed the news of the announcement of the cessation of hostilities but everyone is well aware how hard it will be to make it actually happen. >> the secretary-general strongly urges the parties to abide by the terms of this agreement, much work now lies ahead to ensure the implementation of the international community, the international support group and the syrian parties must remain stead fast in their resolve. >> reporter: and added complication though came from damascus, a statement announcing president assad wanted elections for his rubber stamped parliament in april. given everything that has happened in syria it's not a great deal of optimism about the proposed cessation of hostilities particularly as many observers fear there will be an increase in violence with the warring sides trying to make gains in the days before it is
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due to start. james base, al jazeera, at the uniteed nations. that is the view out of new york and we will go live to the heart of the story turkey-syria border and we will hear from omar and the question is when is a ceasefire not a ceasefire when it's syria because on one hand the syrian government says yes we will in theory go with this and yet on the other hand we were just talking to ada mass -- a damascus person and say we will carry on fighting al-nusra and i.s.i.l. and if they do that in the cross fire the conflict will carry on surely. >> absolutely. i don't think there are a lot of people who are optimistic about the cessation of hostilities and what that will mean to stop targeting ordinary syrians in the cross fire. the government in syria said in a statement carried out by the news agency that it will go with
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the cessation of hostility and provided by the russians or suggested by the rush shu russi and work with russians to determine who in the groups will be spared and this is a technicality they need to workout and also need to find out who are the other groups that are not labeled as terrorist and now the syrian opposition both in riyadh and here in turkey are very, very skeptical about this whole thing. >> translator: hour main concern the opposition is both russia and regime are not serious about their commitment to the cessation of facilities including i.s.i.l. and al-nusra by regime and allies to keep slaughtering civilians and trying to finish off the real syrian opposition and al-nusra front in the agreement can be another excuse to continue the destructions of our cities, this is why we need real guarantees by the international community that all the parties will be truly commits to the ceasefire.
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we don't want this to be another trap for the real opposition will fall into and risk all what we have accomplished for the same of the syrian people. okay omar that is the line coming out of riyadh grouping and intriguing listening to and a snapshot on the thinking in damascus and their stance is we know we still have a solid, firm friend in the russians despite the comments from the u.n. ambassador from moscow working in new york. is that 100% rock solid do we thin think? >> i think so peter because the whole rationale in damascus and syria is they have a solid backing from the russians. this is the position of the syrian government, president assad did say that the russians and iran are the only two countries helping his legitimate government fighting what he called the terrorist onslaught
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on his country and said the other side and groups are backed and i think the thinking there in damascus is that the russians will not give on president assad now. when you look into the details perhaps of what the russian ambassador to the u.n. has said, probably it will anger or already angered i think the leadership in syria, the reaction of the syrian leadership angered the russians because i don't think the russians are willing to be committed to a fight in syria for long because remember they are already in the fight for five months and until now they have the upper hand to syrian regime forces to advance in a number of areas and i don't know how long that will take so probably at the end the russians will have to come to agreement with the other players in the international community as also players who are influencing the fight inside syria to realize
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that at some point there has to be a time where to bring all the sides, all the countries, the powerful countries to agree first on bashar al-assad and second to stop this brutal war. >> thank you so much. now to india where two students accused of sedation say they are ready to give themselves up to a court if their safety is guaranteed. the two are among a group of five students facing charges of sedation and held up in the university new deli for several days now and the police have not been allowed inside to arrest them. the president of the students' union is already in police custody and alleged they chanted anti-india slogans condemning the execution of a person. and they are demonstrating against cast based injustice and many are students accuse the government of cracking down on
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dissents and we are at the march. protesters from the country marking against the suicide death of a student here who killed himself in january because he said he was facing discrimination on campus, that marked this through the country and accusation of discrimination against other untouchable students and campuses and they are being taken by issue in new deli and six students have been charged with sedation for making allegedly the antinational remarks at a protest earlier this month. now many people here in the crowd feel that this is just part of the government's plan to crack down on freedom of speech and on dissent and why they are coming out in droves to march but politicians not missing on the action and are joining the marcher and making speeches and today is the opening session of parliament many opposition
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parties told the government they will only allow bills to be passed if the issue being brought up by this crowd is heard. >> well there is another separate cast issue going on in india, the government also struggling to deal with a cast-based crisis involving the relative relatively prosperous farming community and end days of protest and demanding access to more government jobs and university places, the demonstrators cut water supplies for millions and blocked roads and rail way lines leading to capital new deli and people died after the protests turned violent and this is from new deli. >> reporter: chief minister says they are trying to create a new category of affirmative action to give the jobs more access to government jobs and university quo tos and had visited the heart of the protest and he was heckled showing a deep distrust of the government and say they have been promised this many times before and, in
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fact, promised reservations stated by previous governments and each time it has been squashed by the supreme court. the chief minister has been now summoned to deli where talks are going to go to a national level where there could be higher discussions of what kind of concessions they can give to the jobs community. and where we have seen some of the worst violence and buildings burned and vehicles torched and shops looted residents told us they are mostly staying indoors in case the agitation flairs up again and blocks dismantled and trains resume and thousands of troops on the ground trying to maintain calm in areas where the protests have been and protests being felt in the capitol and new deli relies for most of its water supply and 50% of its water comes from one particular canal, that canal has been damaged by the protesters while the government says they are doing everything they can to try
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and stop a water crisis they are warning that there will be water short analyzes and take at least two weeks for supplies to return to normal in the city. still to come here on this program the global oil industry gathers in texas to talk about oil prices and find way to stop the slide. plus we look at whether a new tax on plastic bags will help reduce waste piling up on indonesia streets. ♪
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the international organization for migration says more than 0 100,000 refugees and migrants arrived in greece and italy so far this year. hundreds of afghan refugees are stranded at the greece macedonia border after being blocked from crossing over. and negotiators representing syria's rebels want international guarantees to be met before a planned pause in fighting can take place and syrian government has accepted the current terms. the israeli army demolished the homes of two palestinians in the pocket pied west bank and two men killed five people in attacks in the west bank and israel last year and more than 160 palestinian and 28 israelis have been killed in a wave of violence that began in october. hundreds of teachers are protesting against unpaid weighed outside the prime minister's office in ramallah. >> reporter: this strike is about three key issues and it's
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about salary and pay raises and promotion but these key issues are issues that teachers here in the occupied west bank and indeed in the gaza strip have been fighting for sometime and, in fact, an agreement was reached between palestinian authority and teachers union in 2013 to address the issues but never implemented and why we are seeing so many teachers come out to the street and, in fact, 20,000 palestinian teachers have been protesters to makeup the largest segment of civil servants underneath the palestinian authority and they are some of the lowest paid and they are saying they want to change that now they had said they will also continue their strike until a meaningful deal is put forward to address these issues, now the palestinian authorities for their part have said that they will not only meet those agreements that were agreed in 2013 again salaries, pay raises and promotion but they will also give everybody a pay raise of 5% but as we have
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been seeing on the streets here in ramallah that that just isn't enough for these teachers. fiji has been receiving humanitarian aid following the cyclone that killed at least 29 people and nearly 8,000 others living in shelters and aid agencies are handing out vital supplies and andrew thomas is there. >> reporter: the big issue in the aftermath of this cyclone is communication, the government simply doesn't have it with big parts of its own country, phone lines have been cut, air strips blocked and can't fly in, all they can do is aerial surveys and that doesn't tell you very much from a big height so boats are now leaving full of military people and full of people logistic people and surveyors as well and should establish how many people are injured if anyone has been killed in some of the outlying items and what supplies are needed most where. two boats the first two left on monday, further ones will follow on tuesday and into wednesday
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going to all of these outlying areas but it's a long and slow process, just to get a picture of where help is needed most, on the main island where i stood infrastructure is getting backup and running and you can see the building behind me one of many but the north part of the main island is badly effected but not the big cities of mandy and dodged the worst of the cyclone but the north is bad and the outlying islands where news is just beginning to filter through and what is known so far is not particularly good. oil industry leaders are meeting in the u.s. state of texas discussing strategy to boost the oil after ten year slump and it's dangerous for oil dependent economies in middle east and south america and john henry now from houston. >> reporter: the storm clouds over houston are a fitting back drop from the brain trust gathered here and world oil leaders agree on one point there is no hope for a quick fix for
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oil prices and the international aid agency released a forecast that said they will not return until 80 until 2017. >> 2016 we will see the oil prices being weak and we are seeing a balancing starting in the markets and 2017 the prices. >> reporter: the price of crude plunged from 145 a barrel at its peak in 2008 to 30 range now leading to 300,000 layouts worldwide and something near panic in the industry. >> companies on the brink of bankruptcy in the united states, these are little companies in shell country, you are looking at venezuela government at 180% inflation and 6% contraction in the economy and you are looking at companies like chevron who
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never posted a loss and we are at a historical bad moment in history. >> reporter: low prices hit mexico's companies hard. >> translator: like the other oil companies of the world it has challenges driven by international low oil prices and have to overcome them through smart financial decisions and pemex will have to focus on cutting expenses and greater efficiencies and have to prioritize investment. >> reporter: houston alone lost 60,000 jobs since prices began to crash. the best that oil executives and leaders of oil producing countries can hope for now is a long-term plan to return oil prices from 30 a barrel range to something nearing 100 but some forecasters predict prices could fall further in the 20 range and analyst say the perfect storm that caused prices to plunge and a surge of oil in the global market and weak efforts to restrict production show no sign
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of ending soon, john with al jazeera, houston. now indonesia is the world's second biggest plastic polluter after china and it's following the example of some other countries imposing an extra charge on plastic bags and we are in dakarta and saying why this is so urgently required. >> reporter: they found nearly 10 million plastic bags are handed out to indonesia shoppers everyday and these plastic bags even find their ways to places like this and clogging up indonesia waterways and polluting the seas and rivers and streets and the park and the forest and 187.2 million tons of plastic waste is being produced in indonesia every year and makes it the second biggest polluter in the world after china and plastic waste has become a trap to marine life and tourism and people's health and to reduce all the plastic waste the government has now started a pilot project in nine cities
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where people now have to pay for their plastic bags and it's 200 which is 1 cent of a cent but there is a lot of resistance here in the shop. >> translator: i don't agree to this policy and i think they should give me a plastic bag every time i go shopping. >> that is why some stores are still reluctant to implement the new policy and activists complain that plastic bags are too cheap and won't stimulate people to bring their own shopping bags and they are still resisting a higher price for plastic bag for 1-10 of a cent to 1-5 of a cent it's clear a lot more needs to be done to cleanup the message local governments have made some progress but environmentists say a large awareness campaign is needed to change people's minds about how to treat their own waste. some of the world's best snow borders showing off their
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skills in los angeles, the air plus style event in the second and japan secured the title 14-14 triple corke and if you know what that means, it looks impressive at the least and more news on the website al jazeera.com. # president obama got another reminder of the urgency of dealing with america answer heroin epidemic. it came during a meeting with the nation's governors at the white house, where the
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