>> the u.n. brokered talks in geneva tries to end the five-year conflict in syria hello there, i'm julie mcdonald. this is al jazeera live from london. also coming up, refugees stranded in france wave a river in an attempt to reach macedonia. victims of a car bomb in ankara, turkey's president vows to crackdown on terrorism. and worth more than gold,

conservationists are trying to save a special tree from extinction. hello there, a warm welcome to the program. well, talks in geneva aimed at ending the conflict in syria. they also said they would like to see presidential elections within 18 months. who is at the geneva talks? the foreign ministers say that the syria sir post for the syrian president is not up for discussion. they do not want bashar al-assad to be part of it. russia wants ethnic kurds to be part of the talks, but they have not been invited either.

anand alqaida-affiliated al nusra also has not been invited to the talks. >> i don't know whether anyone else has a plan b, i'm only aware of a plan a, which is giving the maximum chances with the maximum pressure by international community in order to insure that this type of talks and the cessation of hostilities and the humanitarian task force is given the maximum opportunity. the alternative to that to my knowledge would be regretbly returning to where we were, which was basically an ongoing conflict, which is going to be celebrated sadly and tragically until this time. >> diplomatic editor james bays is in geneva and joins us live

now. hi there, james, what does syria's chief negotiator have to say? >> he said that they've had an useful meeting, but they said it was an useful meeting but then talked about what had happened in the meeting. it was mainly procedural issues that they had been discussing. now this is understandable in a big diplomatic gathering like this, you're going to talk about the procedure, they like to use the word modality. and that's the way you're going to do things. but i think it raises some suspicions. the main government negotiator was the government negotiated a few weeks ago when the people were here where talks barely got started because of an increased and intensified bombardment from the government and their russian allies, and they were the chief negotiated two years ago. last time there were talks it did not get beyond the agenda and argument of what order they would discuss things in. this clearly has been in the

past the syrian government tactic to argue about the agenda and never get down to the substance. they say they want to get very quickly to the substance, and they want to get to the mother of all issues, which is political transition. that, of course, takes you to who is going to lead syria to new elections in 18 moss' time, and whether assad could be part of that or in the. >> james, what is the next step in these talks? >> next step is the opposition. they will be here on tuesday. they get exactly the same procedure as the government. they have to have some symmetry to these things, some fairness to these things. they'll meet and have a similar conversation, and they will then brief the press again after that conversation. they'll have a chance to brief the press. they're very clear on their position regarding political transition. they say it must be a clear

change and a clear change in their view means that president assad and those closest to him, those with blood on their hands cannot be part of a transition process that then takes syria at the end of 18 months to what is supposed to be free and fair elections. those, of course, would be the first. if they did take place and they were monitored by the u.n. the first free and fair elections to make place tips assad came to power in 1970. >> james bays live in geneva. thank you. now more than a million syrians have taken refugee in jordan. a report by unicef said that 43,100,000 syrian children have been born as refugees. >> when the first syrian refug refugees first arrived, they

never dreamed they would be here this long. five years later there is a new generation being born here. this baby is the 5,000th baby born in the hospital in jordan's biggest refugee camp. most of the refugees here are from dara province just across the board from jordan. it's where the up rising began with protests against the arrests and torture of syrian teenagers. more than half a million more refugees are in jordanian cities draining the country's resources. the country has closed it's board to syrian refugees except for the wounded. there are a lot of wound: and the fathers and mothers whose lives are forever altered. >> we were in the battle. the plain hit us. we were about ten people. six were killed and the rest were injured. i was then taken to a field hospital.

>> this man is going back to meet his two-month-old son, name after his nephew who was killed in the airstrike. the wounded keep arriving. >> most of them at the beginning of the conflict. >> this boy was hit by shrapnel. more than thousand seriously wounded syrians were brought to jordan for treatment since the conflict began. a lot of them come here to a program that tries to treat their psychological as well as physical wounds. a jordanian therapist. she tries to make the children feel safe enough to cope with the trauma.

>> this will affect our behavior, our feelings. >> there is a generation of syrians learning to live with the legacy of war. al jazeera, jordan. >> refugee desperate to cross the board from greece into macedonia are evading authorities and waiting to around 300 refugees including dozens of children have left the camp in greece where they have been trapped since the macedonia border was closed. thousands of people have been stranded on the greek side of the border. illness is now taking its toll on some of the youngest refugees. we have more now.

we're having technical problems. now turkey's president has vowed to crackdown on what he calls terrorism in ankara. president erdogan's words came after victims were taking place. a car bomb exploded at a busy transport hub on supplied night. more than 100 other people were injured. state media is reporting four suspects have been detained in the county's southeast. well joining us live from ankara is al jazeera's mohammed, what is the atmosphere like. >> there is a sense of shock. it's a palpable sense of worry

we've had all day. people have tried to come to terms with this very frightening new reality that they've been faced with in the past six months. we must remember that this is not just the second bomb attack that has targeted the heart of ankara in less than a month. but it's the third attack. there was an attack in february. there was an attack last night. and at a time when the government has repeatedly said that they're pulling out all the stops to protect the citizens of this country the fact that these attacks have happened in the heart of the capital at this time really raising fears one woman we spoke to a bit earlier, she was with her family. and she said to us that this has happened so many times now that she is surprised they weren't

dead. so that really gives you a sense of the fear that the residents are feeling today. >> this attack has sent a clear message that the government is directly under fire. what has been their response? >> well, the government has been meeting today. they've been going over the findings of the preliminary investigation last night. we see forensic teams throughout the day and clean up crews. there have been emergency meetings conducted by the cabinet. they're still in session. we're waiting for some type of announcement from the government recording possibly who may be hyped these attacks. the government said last night that as early as today they might say who they thought was behind these attacks.

some say that this take is linked to the pkk. we've seen that the government has conducted raids genes pkk targets inside the country, but also air raids by turkish air raids targeting 18 encampments of the pkk inside northern iraq. that happened earlier today as well. now that is not to say that the government has claimed that the pkk, the kurdistan workers party is behind these attacks. but there are growing indicati indications that the pkk is the main suspect, and it seems at though at this hour the government is going to keep conducting these raids, keep arresting those affiliated with the pkk. >> mohammed there live with the latest from ankara. still to come. an al-qaeda linked group say

that it has carried out an attack on the ivory coast. we'll tell you why tens of thousands of chinese miners are taking to the streets. we have all that and more.

>> welcome back. a quick reminder of our top stories here on al jazeera. the envoy to geneva has described the meeting as a moment of truth. hundreds of refugees desperate to cross the boards from greece

into macedonia are evading authorities by wading through a river. turkey's president has vowed to crackdown on what it calls terrorism after supplied's bombing in ankara, which has left 37 people dead. and it's been an emergency cabinet and security in the ivory coast after the holiday resort town. 18 people were killed along with three attackers. an african affiliate of al-qaeda is claiming responsibility. >> this is how we started on this beach. you can see there is a flag there because security forces are going to try to secure this explosive affiliate here. the attacker came from right to

left and entered two hotels before entering this one. this is where they sprayed bullets right across here. midday on sunday. there were so many people sun bathing, and they all fled inside the hotel. come with me here. they all fled inside the old t hotel to find a safety spot. this is where the forces entered the hotel. al-qaeda has claimed responsibility for this attack, and the choice of the ivory coast is not a copies dense. there are 500 french soldiers here, and they're very popular with french ex-patriots living here in the ivory coast. >> now, the iraqi military said 22 of its soldiers have been killed at least 16 others injured in the islamic state in iraq and the levant attack. isil targets northwest of rama ramadi. seven soldiers remain missing.

in the west bank three palestinians have been shot dead in two separate incidents. israeli army said that two palestinians were killed near a bus stop after they open fired at the entrance of a judicial settlement a few minutes later some were shot dead after injuring two more inside. the current wave of vie license escalating since october of last year and left 199 palestinians and 28 israelis dead, and increasingly children are becoming involved with some even as young as 12 of being accused of attacks. >> they might look carefree but these youngers are used to seeing violence on a daily basis.

>> i was just ten meters away when they shot him, sens said the 14-year-old. he fell to the ground. there was blood coming out of his mouth. the soldiers came after us. we ran away and they shot two other boys in the leg. the wave of attacks started last october and a quarter has been under 18. this footage shows a 13-year-old after his arrest. he carried out a stabbing attack in occupied east jerusalem along with his cousin who was shot dead. in some cases they're even younger. this 12-year-old was arrested at the entrance to an illegal settlement near hebron for allegedly carrying a knives were she's currently serving a 4.5 month sustains. >> they imposed a huge fine on us. her sentence is disproportiona

disproportionate. four and a half months is a long time. it's very different in the house now. >> for her family this is clearly a difficult time. at the wage of 12 she's the youngest flip in an israel jail, but there were 400 other behind bars. for this organization of palestinian rights it's part of an disturbing cycle of events. it will increase the, and they're forced to interact with soldiers all the time. >> her brothers and sisters are looking forward to having her home again, but it's hard to say

what the long-term effects will be on her and her family. al jazeera, in the occupied west bank. >> german chancellor angela merkel said she will continue with her existing refugee policy despite her party suffering heavy losses in regional elections. the anti-umbrage party made huge gains. some widely regarded as a referendum on merkel's support of the migrant crisis. she said that the loss of their support has been difficult. >> we have of course evaluated and assessed the result of the original elections--eveningnal elections and we have to say that yesterday was a difficult day for the democratic union and we discussed it in that sense. >> to pakistan, victims were

killed when houses collapsed. we have the latest from islamabad. >> at least 49 people have been killed in rain-related i wants in pakistan because of a heavy weather system, which has been sweeping over parts over the areas. pakistan's northern area and pakistan-administered kashmir. the meteorological department is warning that the next few days will be critical because they expect more rain up towards the north. and that of course means that the management authority willing meeting. >> demanding that their employer

gave them six months work of outstanding wages. china is dealing with an overcapacity with its industrial and mining incidents. al jazeera's adrian brown has the latest now from beijing. >> this was a very big protest. we haven't been able to independently verify some of the pictures we've seen on social media, but they chose minors clashing with police. miners with their families. they demanded to be paid saying in many cases they've gone for 12 to 6 months without being paid and without receiving benefits. is this a sign of what may to come as china embarks on this delicate task of trying to shut down loss making inefficient

steal meals and mines. in the past the government has poured cheap money into the state-owned enter praises to prop them up, but that has the effect of creating more debt. the question is how horde do they wheeled their axe and it shows that they wielded the acts too hard. they had denied that the workers were owed money. they made that statement, and then backtracked saying that it was, in fact, a mistake which caused even more anger. >> scientists have spent five decades in search of life. what they have discovered is the presence of methane.

they say that presence of the gas could show there is life on the planet. >> now hong kong was named the fragrant harbor centuries ago but the tree that gave it that name could now become extinct. worth more than goal i gold, it has become the target of gangs. >> the wood lands are protected making the area popular for hikers. but these residents are not here to hike. they're on patrol looking for criminals. >> i think they will come back. to cut the other part of the

wood. >> this eke co-farm is on the edge of the path. they witness firsthand the disappearance of the city's most prized species. a tree so rare its internationally protected. >> they cut down more than 50 trees within two weeks. >> the tree's wood oil or resin is sought after that is used in incense and perfume. the surging prices and the oil fetching more than gold. with the tree all but wiped out in china, hong kong has become the target of illegal loganners. >> they not only take the root out of this beautiful tree, they also take the root out of our earth. >> it's not just in this park

but a number of country parks across hong kong. visitors are reporting signs of illegal harvesting that they believe to be the work of gangs from mainland china. if this continues the fear is this tree, which is threatened, will become extinct. this is the last commercial plantation. there are 6,000 plants here. most are young. but all are sustainbly groaned. they hope to replace the illegal trade and feed an industry that is worth up to $12 billion u.s. dollars a year. >> it is valued at $1 million u.s. dollars. >> but it is the old trees that are most valuable. it is used for wood artwork.

conservationists now want the government to step in and protect what is left. >> i think within this few years the trees will disappear in hong kong. >> with just 16 people arrested for illegal felling last year, the fate of this rare accidented wood does not look bright. >> now the outskirts of cape town are among the toughest areas in south africa where children face an uncertain future. but there are those who help children escape poverty and unemployment. >> it's soccer not cycling that most south african youngsters are inspired here. but here bmx biking has a small and passionate following. this is a place for kids to hanging out after school.

the economy said that many come here with the need of guidance on and off the bike. >> in terms of leaving his or her household hungry but coming to train to make sure that he achieves his goal. some of them will have issues at home. maybe the guardian or whatever was drunk last night. he'll make sure that he's here at 4:00. >> this is more than just a cycling academy. there is a lot of emphasis on academic achievement as well. the excitement of arriving and potential to be sports stars that draws these children in, but if they don't maintain good academic standards they could have their bicycles taken off them. so before they're allowed to ride they have to study. the academy provides tutors on saturday to help kids who are struggling with their lesson. the classroom walls are covered with inspiring photos.

this is the academy's biggest star. both his parents were killed by the hiv virus, and he grew up in a shack. now he ride with a professional riding team. from the school bus he goes to the home that he shares with his grand mother. his mother tied when he was a child. >> there is lots of violence. that that's why i chose to be at the academy. it takes me away. >> last year he was stabbed in the back by a gang member who thought he was someoneless. he feels much safer on a bike training with friends who all have the same dream. the academy kids say that they're dormed that life's obstacles will not ruin