only on al jazeera america. tear gas and plastic bullets in turkey as police try to disburse protesters angry over the state take over, over newspaper. ♪ hello i'm barbara sarah and you and this is al jazeera from london and greece refugee crisis and demand for state of emergency along macedonia border as thousands remain trapped. china warns it is facing a tough battle to keep economic growth on target and 63 years after the death of stalin and why they are

nostalgic for the soviet years. ♪ turkish police fired tear gas and plastic bullets at protesters outside the offices of the country's 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 media freedom and here is caroline malone. >> reporter: police in istanbul used tear gas and plastic bullets and taking a stand after police raided a population newspaper replacing editors with state representatives. >> translator: where in the world have you seen this before and this didn't happen even when hitler was in power let alone turkey and the incidents going on in syria are not much better. >> reporter: hundreds of protesters tried to block the

entrance to 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 speaking against the government forces is facing either court cases or prison or such control by the government. >> reporter: the police were acting under a court order to replace the management of the newspaper and it has a circulation of 650,000 more than any other newspaper and run by a u.s. based cleric who was once close to president erdogan but he has been accused of trying to

over throw the government and leading what the authorities describe as a terror 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 newspaper printed but its offices were raided. it reads the constitution is suspended. caroline malone, al jazeera. refugee crisis on the border of greece and macedonia is now so bad that a state of emergency should be declared. that is the view of one of greece's regional governors. around 13,000 people are now trapped at the border crossing after the mass done yeah authority closed it to syrian and iraqi refugees and they want to travel up through macedonia serbia and hungry and australia because most are heading to germany and european countries and turkey will have talks at

emergency summit on monday as they try to find a solution to the crisis. >> the former republic needs to open immediately the borders and the european union needs to demand severe actions against the countries that are closing borders today. whether they are members of the european union on candidate members. this is unacceptable what they are doing. >> reporter: al jazeera's is on the greek-macedonia border and following those who arrive at the makeshift camp. >> reporter: state of emergency in this area is indeed declared it would pave the way for funds to be released to improve the living conditions in this camp. these are the latest arrivals and the only place they found to set up their tent is in between the rail tracks. their money will also go to compensate their local communities here for example many of the tents are now on private property and the farmers

are losing business. now these people have been camped here for the past few days and they have entered greece on the 18th of february so they have tried to go through and the protests should happen very soon but the border is more shut than open because of the chaos and also because they have stringent interviews happening on the other side by check and australia interrogators along with an interpreter. now at the moment the camp is coordinated by doctors without borders but has expanded so quickly that the various aid organizations that are here cannot deal with it. now, this is a cue for the food, people stand here for two, three, four hours and at the end of it they get a sandwich and some fruit simply because they are not enough hot meals for everyone. now, on this side there is another cue, this is a cue for those going through the registration process all over again because the paper they got when they first landed on one of the greek islands is not valid

anymore. there are mistakes on it and they are computer generated paper with a computer generated stamp on the paper and macedonia will not accept it any more and new paper even though it doesn't mean they will be able to continue their journey. the refugee crisis not surprisingly is a major election issue in slovakia where the prime minister vowed to protect the mainly christian country from muslim refugees. a parliamentary election is taking place now and we report. >> reporter: he made the daunting decision to travel from syria to slovakia. >> translator: i tried to find a job in turkey, i hoped i could work in some hospital. i didn't expect that one day i will be a refugee in europe. the company where i applied for the job gave me a final negative answer so i decided to meet a

group of smugglers and gave the money, 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 and crossing there she was arrested and four months in detention and doesn't plan to stay in slovakia long. >> translator: their 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 the parliamentary elections. >> everyone wants to gain the balls and win the elections so i will be really happy if after elections the hysteria in slovakia will calm down and people and politicians will actually turn the page. >> reporter: prime minister robert feko 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. if party's campaign slogan is will prevent slovakia to prevent a muslim community from forming and confused people because it's already home to thousands of muslims. >> so 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. the afghan taliban has said it will not participate in direct talks with the government until all of its conditions have been met. the group is demanding the end of what it calls the occupation by foreign troops.

the taliban asked for prisoners to be released and tony berkeley is in kabul with the latest. >> reporter: well, this has come as a surprise to many people in kabul because there was a mood of growing optimism in the city that these face-to-face talks between the taliban and the afghan government would actually go ahead in pakistan. the preconditions that the taliban are now saying are nothing new and want the prisoners released and want their leaders taken off the u.n.-u.s. black list and want withdraw of american forces and also cite that basically american forces are being deployed around afghanistan and want that to stop. they want u.s. aerial bombardme 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 it

was moving in the right direction. pakistan has played a big part in this. it has made promises 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 could be trying to get something from behind the scenes a little bit better deal maybe but also a message for the foot soldiers and what they want to hear because if they have talks without what they all wanted perhaps they would lose face and some way of coming to the end of this terrible terrible war with a lot of negotiations to be done in the meantime. china's leaders warning of a tough battle to keep economic growth on target and predictive rate of growth for the coming year is cut between 6 1/2 and 7%, that is the lowest in 25 years. scott hidler 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 and 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 changed considerably in 30 years but the national people's congress has 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 have not been follully implemented.

>> reporter: more work needs to be done on government corruption and misconduct and that 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 because the most important decisions of how china will be run have already been made by top party officials. >> it is mainly a place where they put out the big messages including some new propaganda messages for public consumption 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 of the five-year plan to be released during the congress, 10 million more urban jobs 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 of groet growth can be maintained, by our analysis the 6.5% growth they

are aiming for will not be achieved. >> reporter: not good news for people like he. >> translator: i will definitely go back to my hometown maybe in one or two years, beijing is too expend shun and hard to make money. >> reporter: that is not where they want people going and want more people in cities working and spending. heading toward what the president xi jinping calls the china dream, scott with al jazeera, beijing. still ahead on al jazeera the pope leads condemnation of the murder of 16 people including four nuns at a home for the elderly in yemen. plus ♪ from rumba we will hear about the democratic republic of congo's symphony orchestra. ♪

>> the only live national news show at 11:00 eastern. >> we start with breaking news.

>> let's take a closer look. ♪ welcome back, reminder of the top stories on al jazeera, police have fired tear gas and plastic bullets in an attempt to disburse protesters gathered outside turkey's biggest newspaper which has been placed under state control. the greek government is being pushed to declare state of emergency over the growing refugee crisis at its borders and there have been 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. the pope has led condemnation of the murder of 16 people at an old people's home in yemen, four nuns among the dead at the home established by mother theresa

and we report. >> reporter: from a police of safety and care this home for the elderly became the latest casualty in yemen's war. gunmen raided the retirement home and killed 16 people including four nuns and witnesses say the attackers surrounded the home in aiden and somed asked asked to be let in to see their mothers and handcuffed their victims before shooting them at close range. >> translator: they forced the men and women outside with their hands tied and we heard the sound of gunfire and when we came out we saw them all dead in the garden. >> reporter: 80 people lived at the home set up by charity established by mother theresa and missionaries of charity be became under attack in 1998 and hard to believe that 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 between houthi rebels and pro-government forces and security within the port city is sketchy and surrounding areas are still held by al-qaeda fighters and in the war more than 6,000 yemeni have been killed either children or elderly are no exception, al jazeera. the leader of the sudan opposition congress party has died. he had a heart attack after falling unconscious in his office and split from the ruling national congress party in 1999. and he is considered to be one of the most influential figures in modern sudan politics. the 6 third anniversary of josef stalin's death is marked in moscow and members of communist party joined with stalin loyalists to mark the passing of the leader and ceremony takes place each year at the grave on the red square and led from the

late 20s until his death in 1953. in some russians say a worsening economy left them feeling nostalgic but with the parliamentary election booming the resurging communist party is starting to worry the kremlin and rory challenge reports from moscow. >> reporter: it is often one of the first things newcomers notice in moscow hammers and sickles and stars everywhere and communism is a part of history and collective psychology too and resent polls suggest half of all russians still think they were actually better off under the soviet system. moscow exhibition of stalin era art they told me the pride people fear in the past grows. >> translator: interest in stalin is increasing and it's understandable and celebrated the 70th anniversary of world war ii and should not forget who

was at the helm of the country and whose leadership the victory was achieved. >> by definition nostalgia is a longing for the past and the days of the soviet union are gone but the communist party never went away as a political force and in the 21st century they consistently are second in parliamentary elections. putin's kremlin always thought that was a manageable situation but with elections approaching again there are signs the kremlin is worried about the possible communist resurging. united russia headed by prime minister is putin's parliamentary party, at the 2016 convention they singled out the communist at its main electoral threat and putin surprised many recently with a rare attack on lennon and said it planted and atomic bomb under russia with the way he sifted the soviet union together. ultimately russia parliament is a tightly managed body with

almost no room for genuine opposition but political analysts nickolay mladenov still thinks russia's poor economic situation can hurt united russia. >> the plan is not to make any changes, not to take any risk, to keep very old-fashioned party system including communists who are pretty loyal to the kremlin but not to let them to get too many rules which will make them more autonomous. >> reporter: told me the kremlin has learned lessons from 2011's parliamentary elections when obvious vote rigging kick started months of mass protests and said putin would rather lose 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 certainly something that russia power elites are worried about, al jazeera, moscow. north korean cargo ship held in a port in the philippines, the first time since new u.n. sanctions against xi jinping have been enforced. arrived in the bay northwest of the capitol manila on thursday. sanctions were imposed after north korea's test of nuclear bombs and ballistic missiles and al jazeera harry faucet has more. >> reporter: well nothing controversial found on board this ship in terms of its cargo when it arrived in the philippines, it was carrying oil pod kernels from indonesia to the philippines and cargo has been delivered but instead investigators found safety breaches with fire and electrical equipment and for that reason they decided not to allow it to leave court and now it is empounded and the crew the 21 north korean members who were

cooperative in the process are now being deported back to their home country. it's a very tough response by the philippines to what seems like a relatively minor infraction by the operators of this ship, what we know about it is that it is registered in sierra leone and owned by a company in hong kong but it is operated by ocean maritime management, that is a north korean entity headquarters in xi jinping and operates on 31 ships which are now very much under scrutiny as a result of these most resent sanctions agreed at the u.n. and it was that the ocean maritime management operating the ship which in 2013 was found in panama with various armaments including two fighter jets under a big cargo of sugar. again nothing like that found on board this ship. it does seem to be an example of just how tough these toughly these sanctions can be interpreted if the countries involved wants to do so, the philippines of course is a

staunch u.s. ally and likely to implement sanctions to the letter even beyond perhaps, the question is whether other countries around the world will do the same and most importantly china which north korea does by far the majority of trade. four bodies have been found by search and rescue teams after a ferry capsized near bali and 17 rescued when it sunk between bali and java on friday and video showed passengers jumping in the sea as the boat capsized. guatemala is the birth place of the mian people and one of the largest population of indigenous people in the americas besides the official language of spanish there are 23 officially recognized languages spoken in the central american nation and as david mercer reports some of them are at risk of disappearing. >> reporter: he is determined to safe his people's language from oblivian his people the

shinka number more than 200,000 but just a handful of elders speak the shinka language fluently and he hopes to change that and he is starting by teaching the teachers. >> translator: if i die what is going to happen with this knowledge? it will be lost. but if i share it in the schools with the teachers and with friends it will flourish. >> reporter: since the arrival of the spanish five centuries ago racism and discrimination have chipped away at guatemala's indigenous cultures and with that their languages and now account for about 40% of guatemala's population still large enough a block to force the government into action. in 2002 guatemala passed a law recognizing 23 indigenous languages and law required the government funds be made available to languages that are in danger of disappearing. in spite of that promise the production of dictionaries and other educational materials in

indigenous languages have largely fallen to private groups. and he says the government should meet their obligations. >> translator: the government is minimal and not made the indigenous communities a priority and think they don't need help because they always lived and will always live the same way. >> reporter: isabella sanchez believes pride in one's culture is central, the 26-year-old was never taught shinka when he was growing up but he now shares what he learns with the students in this private school. >> translator: i want my students at least to learn the foundations of the language. i know that participating in their culture will open them up to many things in the future and they can share this knowledge with their family. >> reporter: shinka a language hanging on by a thread kept alive by what it means to them and hope what it will mean to the generations that follow. david mercer, al jazeera, in

guatemala. coming up, in part four of our series on dying languages the efforts to save the hoopa language used by native americans deep in the red wood forests of northern california. now 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, catherine soy has their story. ♪ 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 conductor'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 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 also 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 overcoming the odds. catherine soy, al jazeera. more on the website al jazeera.com. over the last 20 years japan's economy has been going nowhere fast. prime minister abe says the answer could be so simple, give working women the chance to shine. but will the men - and women of japan take up the challenge to change. i'm steve chao, on this episode of 101 east we investigate if japan's can be bridge its gender gap.