more. tear gas and plastic bulle turkey as police try to disburse protesters angry over the state take over, over newspaper. ♪ hello i'm barbara sarah and you are watching al jazeera live from london and coming up, in the next 30 minutes greece's refugee crisis and regional leader calls for state of emergency on the macedonia border as thousands remain trapped. strong condemnation from pope francis over the murder of 16 people including four nuns as a retirement home in yemen plus.

♪ from rumba we will hear about the democratic republic of congo's symphony orchestra. ♪ hello and thank you for joining us turkish police fired tear gas and plastic bullets outside the offices biggest newspaper. authorities have seized control of the publication in a crack down on a religious group whose leader the government has accused of treason. the european commission is urging turkey to respect the freedom and here is carolyn malone. used tear gas, water cannon and plastic bullets for people demonstrating media freedom and taking a stand after they raided opposition of a popular newspaper replacing editors with state representatives.

>> translator: where in the world have you seen this before, this didn't happen when hitler was in power let alone turkey and incidents going on in syria are not much better. >> hundreds of protesters tried to block the newspaper offices on friday night. but riot police pushed through the crowds and by early saturday morning they got into the building. they pushed out journalists covering the story and evicted the editors. >> it has been heavy for the last three, four years and anyone who is speaking against the government forces is facing either court cases or prison or such control by the government. >> the police were acting under a court order to replace the management of the newspaper, the

daily turkish paper has a circulation of 650,000 copies more than any other newspaper. it is run by a u.s. based cleric guland who was once close to richard erdogan and accused of over throwing the government and leading what the turkish authorities describe as a terrorist organization. in the last few months businessmen close to him have been arrested and media groups linked to him taken over by pro-government managers. back on the streets people held up a copy of the last summer newspaper printed before its offices were raided. it reads the constitution is suspended. carolyn malone al jazeera. refugee crisis on the border of greece and macedonia is so bad a state of emergency should be declared by the governor of greece's border region and around 13,000 people are now trapped at the border crossing after the macedonia authorities closed it to syrian and iraqi

refugees. the refugees want to travel up through macedonia, serbia hungry and austria as most herd to germany and european countries and turkey are due to hold talks at emergency summit on monday and try to find some sort of solution to the crisis. >> the republic needs to open immediately the borders and the european union needs to have severe actions against the countries that are closing borders today, whether they are members of the european union or candidate members. this is unacceptable what they are doing. >> reporter: and we are on the greek-macedonia border for us and joins us live and you heard there the governor saying that there should be a state of emergency declared for everything that is going on there and tens of thousands of people gathered there just explain to us what is it there that makes him say that, what would he achieve by a state of

emergency? >> well, a state of emergency would actually pave the way for funds to be released. those are funds by the greek government and those funds would be pouring in to this camp probably to improve really the living conditions that are very dire and have limited action to running water but it's cold water and i've spoken to many people who say they have not had a shower in like ten days. there is also a lack of absolutely everything from blankets to baby formula to food because how it was organized in the past is that you had a camp that was coordinated by doctors without borders. now that camp has become sort of the epicenter of this camp, that is where everybody goes to find out what is going on to keep up with the news on whether they will be able to go through or not and then further down there is a border crossing and the latest figure we got for the past 12 hours is that only 100 were allowed in so that is

actually one-fifth of the daily cap of 500 that should be going through and not all of these 100 will stay there just half an hour ago i met with a very distraught young mother, she was carrying her kids and must be two years old maybe and crying and in tears because she went through the crossing, finally her turn had come after two weeks of waiting and she was turned back because she stated that she was going to germany for family reunification and her husband made that route a few months ago when the borders were open, now she is stranded here and these are stories you hear over and over again wherever you go around this camp. you also see people who come to you and that is something new and just noticed in the last two days telling you they are hungry and people asking you for do you have milk for their babies. one-third of the population of this camp is below the age of five. that is about 4,000 children. just to show you how dramatic it

has become and it was allowed to evolve in such a dramatic way over the past three weeks. >> pretty shocking picture you are painting there hoda and we have been talking about it for months and for months european countries had talks and had meetings, there is another one on monday with turkey, i mean what do you think they could or should come out of that because presumably people are still arriving from turkey even though we are seeing the images of many. >> absolutely people are still arriving from turkey. there has been a drop just because of the weather conditions but nothing more than that is stopping the smugglers to still send people across and try to do it at night rather than during the day. now people here want to get through at this stage, the european union seems to be hinting that everybody should go through the relocation program, a program that is for 160,000 people that all the paperwork

should be processed in greece at the reception centers that are being built as we speak and then from there people would be sent across europe depending on the quota of each country and it's difficult to see how you will convince all these people to move away from the area after such a long time and such a difficult time, not only for the living conditions but also emotional point of view, it has been a roller coaster for them. also the next point is that you have a lot of families that are separated. you have people who have gone ahead and now there are children or wives are joining them later so all of that is going to be extremely complicated for the european union to deal with. >> hoda with the latest there from that makeshift camp and as always thank you. well the refugee crisis is unsurprisingly a major election issue in slovakia where they vow

to protect the christian country from refugees and parliamentary election taking place right now and we report. >> reporter: made the daunting decision to travel from syria to slovakia. >> translator: i was hoping to work in a hospital and did not expect one day i would be a refugee in europe and the country where i apply for the job gave me a final negative answer and met smugglers and gave the money and after that it was over, there was no way back. >> reporter: with other refugees she arrived illegally on the greek island lesbos. that wasn't the end of the journey. it was then on to macedonia, serbia and hungry. as she crossed into slovakia she was arrested and spend four months in detention and doesn't plan to stay in slovakia long.

>> translator: the decision is racist and the police officers told me to go back where i came from, several times they told me i was a terrorist. >> reporter: one leading human rights advocate says her treatment has a lot to do with parliamentary elections. >> everyone wants to gain the balls and win the elections and will be happy if the hysteria will calm down and they will turn the page. >> reporter: robert has made the migrant crisis a racial and a religious issue. in one resent speech he said he wanted to monitor every muslim in the country. his party's campaign slogan is will prevent slovakia to prevent a muslim community from forming and confused some people in the capitol because the city is already home to thousands of muslims. >> many of us are married to slovak women and speak the language as i have told you so

it was for us little bit shock. >> reporter: opinion polls suggest the ruling party is unlikely to get enough votes for a majority in parliament which means it may have to form a coalition. perhaps that is a sign of a tough rhetoric has not gone down well with voters, al jazeera. ♪ china's leaders warning of a tough battle to keep economic growth on target and it has been cut between 6 1/2 and 7%, the lowest in 25 years. scott hydle is following events in beijing. >> reporter: he has been selling fruit at the morning market here in beijing since 2010. business is slow. >> translator: who is my boss? the communist party. where do the customers go? you have to ask the communist

party. business was really bad in the past year. >> reporter: he is not alone. it has been a turbulent year for many people in china, economic growth is at its slowest in 25 years. six kilometers away the most important event in china's political calendar is playing out. china, the last major communist nation has changed considerably over the last 30 years but the grandeur of the national people's congress remained, 3,000 delegates from across the nation attend. china's premier league opened the congress with a report on the last year and was mildly critical of the communist party. >> translator: there are still inadequacies in the work of the government, some reforms, policies and measures have not been fully implemented. >> reporter: he went on to say more work needs to be done on government corruption and misconduct and then it's not just china's economy that is slowing, it's global. >> this is the great hall of the people and what is going to take place in here over the next ten days for the most part is

political fear. that is because the most important decisions of how china will be run in government have already been made by top party officials. >> it is mainly a place where they put out the big messages including new propaganda messages for public consumption and then the meeting is actually discussing just merely specifics of how to implement these things or maybe how to tweak it to make it better. >> reporter: highlights to be released during congress and ten million more each year and annual economic growth at 6.5% or above but some economists think that just won't happen. >> i think there is something of a misnomer and it started with the government that somehow this higher level growth can be maintained and 6.5% that indicated they will be aiming for will not be achievable. >> reporter: not good news for people like him. >> translator: i will definitely go back to my hometown, maybe one or two years and beijing is too expend shun

and hard to make money. >> that is not the direction the communist party want people going and want people in cities working and spending and heading to what xi jinping says the beijing dream. the new drive to end africa's longest running territorial dispute and have scientists stumbled upon a new species of octopus after finding this very pale marine creature in the sea? ♪ ps pass time for reminder of the

top stories on al jazeera and police fired tear gas and plastic bullets in attempt to disburse protesters gathered outside turkey's biggest newspaper placed under state control. the greek government pushed to declare a state of emergency over the growing refugee crisis on border with macedonia and more signs that china's economy is slowing with the country's premier flagging of growth rate between 6.5 and 7% over the next five years. gunmen have killed 16 people in yemen including four nuns and happened at a retirement home established by mother theresa and we report. >> reporter: from a place of safety and care this home for the elderly became the latest casualty in yemen's war, gunmen raided the home and killed 16 people including four nuns and witnesses say the attackers surrounded the home in aiden and some asked to see their mothers

and handcuffed the victims before shooting them at close range. >> translator: forced the men and women outside with their hands tired and heard the sound of gunfire and came out and saw them all dead in the garden. >> reporter: 18 lived in the home by a charity established by mother theresa and came under attack in yemen in 1998 but members find it hard to believe that defenseless old people could be the target of armed groups. >> this news is really shocking. the details that i get is that it happened at 8:30 in the morning local time while the sisters were serving breakfast. >> reporter: in yemen's war aiden has changed hands with houthi rebels and pro-government forces and security within the port city remains sketchy and surrounding areas are still held by al-qaeda fighters and in the war 6,000 yemen people have been killed either children or elderly are no exception, al

jazeera. turkey and iran say they want to work more closely together to solve problems in the middle east. the turkish prime minister met iran's first vice president in tehran. relations between the two countries have become tense because they have backed opposing sides in the war in syria. and the 6 third anniversary of joseph stalin's death is marked in moscow and communist party joined with stalin loyalists to mark the passing of the soviet leader and it takes place each year in red square. some russian say a worsening economy left them feeling nastalgic but with the parliamentary election looming prospect of a resurging communist party is starting to worry the kremlin and rory challenge reports from moscow. >> reporter: they notice in moscow, hammers and stars

everywhere, communism is a part of russia's history and collective psychology too. resent polls suggest half of all russians still think they were actually better off under the soviet system and they told me the pride people feel for the past. >> translator: interest in stalin is increasing and it's understandable and celebrated 70 anniversary of world war ii and don't forget who was at the helm of the country and whose leadership the victory was achieved. >> nastalgia is longing for the past and the days of the soviet union are again but the communist party never went away as a political force and in the centuries it comes second in parliamentary elections and putin's kremlin always thought it was a manageable situation but with elections approaching again there are signs of the

kremlin is worried about the possible communist resurgance. this is putin's parliamentary party, at the 2016 convention they singled out the communists as its main electoral threat and putin surprised many recently with a rare attack on lennon and said the revolution planted atomic bomb under russia with the way he stitched the soviet union together. ultimately russia's parliament is a tightly managed body with almost no room for genuine opposition but political analysts nickolay mladenov think the poor economic situation can hurt united russia. >> the plan is not to make any changes, not to take any risk, to keep very old fashion party system including communists who are pretty loyal to the kremlin but not to let them to have too

many rules which will make them more autonomous. >> reporter: told me the kremlin learned lesson from 2011 parliamentary election when obvious vote rigging started months of protest and said putin would rather lose a few seats than go through that again. so the questions are can the communists really dent united russia's grip on parliament and if they do what would the consequences be, we will have to wait until september elections to find out but it's something russia's power elites are worried about, al jazeera, moscow. the after afghan taliban said they will not participate in direct talks with the government until all conditions have been met and demanding the end of what it calls occupation by foreign troops and taliban also asked for all their prisoners to be released and tony burke will berkeley is in capital with the latest.

>> reporter: this has come as a surprise to people in kabul because there was a mood of opposition in the city that the face-to-face talks between taliban and afghan government would actually go ahead in pakistan. the preconditions the taliban are now saying are nothing new and want the prisoners released and want leaders taken off the u.n.-u.s. black list and want the thaw of american forces and also cite that basically american forces are being deployed around afghanistan and want it to be stopped and want u.s. aerial bombardments to stop and they want to be kept in touch with what is going on. they say they have been kept out of the loop. this is basically a surprise to most people because the messages we were getting both from the afghan government and from the taliban was that there was a meeting of minds, there was a certain consensus that things had to be given and taken and this was moving in the right direction. pakistan has played a big part in this and made program millss i think to the main powers in the region and dealing with the

u.s. and dealing with china and they need to actually show that they have that kind of power to make things happen. meanwhile the taliban i mean they could be just posturing and trying to get something from behind the scenes a little bit better deal maybe but this also could be a message for their foot soldiers something they want to hear because if they actually go into talks without getting what they said they always wanted perhaps they would lose face and we are some way away of coming to the end of this terrible war with a lot of negotiations to be done in the meantime. u.n. secretary-general banki moon is in the disputed territory of western sahara to enthe long running conflict between morocco and the movement and the trip to africa is unlikely to make much headway as we explain. >> reporter: these refugees have been hoping for an end to western sahara's conflict for years. it is africa's longest dispute.

thousands have been living in camps like these sprawling a vast desert area along algeria's border with morocco and many hope there will be an end to the conflict soon. the police front has been fighting for an independent state in western sahara and it wants a united nations monitored vote to determine the future of the territory. a demand dismissed by morocco. the king mohamed the sixth visited western sahara recently and ruled out any compromise on the disputed territory, instead he has launched major development programs in the region and says morocco's sovereignty over western sahara cannot be challenged but the moraccan government says it's ready to offer the people of western sahara autonomy and it

began in 1975 when spain pulled out of the area and morocco took control and an armed rebellion soon followed. fighting continued until 1991, the year the united nations managed to broker a ceasefire and establish a mission in the western sahara city of lahoon. the ceasefire was the united nation's only success. the two rivals have held many talks in the past but failed to overcome their differences. now the united nations secretary-general banki moon is hopping to achieve what has alluded his predecessors finding a lasting peace in western sahara, al jazeera. music is a lifeline for many in the democratic republic of congo and now a group of self-taught young musicians is taking center stage and catherine soy has the story of

central africa's most dedicated symphony orchestra. ♪ it is early evening in one of the poorer neighborhoods of the capitol and the orchestra is rehearsing and most musicians have no steady income and during the day they do what they must for their daily hustle. we find them rehearsing the conduct's own composition, a story of the tribulation and how they are over coming it and created the orchestra back in 1992 then he had only three instruments in his father's chur church. >> translator: things have changed. years ago now we are seeing more congolese but there is still much to do.

♪ in downtown the local music dominates the night scene. people come out to listen and dance to songs by some of the continent's greatest artists. they have a rich music culture and we are listening to most popular kind of music in the country, getting people here to appreciate classical music has been difficult. ♪ the band tries out a classic tune. and tell us it's not something that would grow too much. >> translator: our music is so popular because it is our language. these young people today just want to play and listen to foreign music. ♪ back at the church the children's turn to rehearse and

they get to hit the notes that are passionate and practice everyday. he plays his violin and keeps him grounded, he is in secondary school and plans to join the main orchestra group and one day he plans to compose and conduct his own music. >> translator: i want to go abroad. >> reporter: the young musician and his dad have to go home before it's too dark. they live in a more dangerous part of the neighborhood. his older siblings are also in the orchestra and help where they can. they say the music is a perfect example of breaking barriers and over coming the odds. catherine soy, al jazeera. scientists have discovered what they think might be a new species of octopus. it's been discovered on the pacific ocean floor near hawaii,

it was found by a remote control submarine as the u.s. ocean and atmospheric administration was exploring the seabed and it was found four kilometers below the surface and i guess why it's so pale and more on the website al jazeera.com. >> i'm mei-ling mcnamara in canada here to discover how the great bear rainforest is being protected. >> i'm amanda burrell. i'm in london to find out how to make old houses green.