my question as he arrived for his first session here since russia started pulling out it's forces later he explained that was a joint decision. >> our friends and allies, the

russians, came to syria by a joint decision, and today they will they have leave. it will be done through a join russian-syrian coordination action. >> he used the opportunity to attack the high negotiations committee, who had been at the same podium a matter of hours earlier, and in particular mohammed al-losh, who is a prominent member of the committee. >> it's not an honor at all to sit with terrorists in direct talks. he belongs to a terrorist faction that has hit embassies and killed citizens. that's why we'll never have direct talks unless this ask terrorist has apologized for what he has done and withdraw the suggestion. >> a man he should shave his beard. >> those diplomatic comments showing mistrust behind the scenes on a day where the announcements by the pyd only make this process even harder.

james bays, al jazeera, of the united nations in geneva. >> barack obama has i announced his nomination for full the seat at the supreme court. merrick garland has nominated. there is an empty seat on the supreme court after justice antonin scalia died in february. president obama's nomination must now be confirmed by the senate. >> he walked away from a comfortable and lucrative law practice to return to public service. he served as a prosecutor in president george wh bush's administration. he took a 50% pay cut. he traded in his elegant office

for a windowless closet that smelled of cigarette smoke. this was a time when crime in washington had reached epidemic proportions. he quickly made a name for himself going after corrupt politicians and criminals. >> let's go to roslind jordan, who is in washington, d.c. >> merrick garland has been on the federal courts of appeals in washington for nearly 20 years, but he built his career namely as a prosecutor in the unabomber and oklahoma city bombing cases when he was presented as nominee to replace antonin scalia on wednesday, he noted a bit of his philosophy that he said came from his family. >> as my parents taught me by both words and deeds, life of public service is as much a gift to the person who serves as it is to those he is serving. and for me there could be no higher public service than

serving as a member of the united states supreme court. >> the nomination ceremony in the rose garden was the easy part for america garland. he's now going to start making the rounds on capitol hill trying to meet with both republican and democratic senators to talk about his nomination, and to hopefully get a nomination hearing. in normal times this would be an after thought getting an nomination hearing. but it is 2016, and it seems that everything, including the nomination of someone for a lifetime appointment to the nation's highest court, is going to be very much an act of politician as well. it will be a question of how long america garland is willing to go through that process. >> roslind jordan reporting there. now moroccan government accuse

accus accuse--threatens to pull their forces. this trip from the western sahara so enraged the government of more rocco that is has threatened pull out of peacekeeping mission mis. morocco took over most of the mineral rich western sahara in 1975 and now controls the entire territory. it fought until the u.n. brokered a cease-fire in 1991. as they saluted ban ki-moon's visit to algeria, the u.n. leader described western sahara has being under occupation. >> they have endured a great deal of suffering in harsh conditions, and i want to draw the world's attention to a population whose plight is often overlooked.

>> it was enough to bring out hundreds of thousands of demonstrators on to the streets of morocco. they were angry with ban's perceived lack of impartiality. on the return to new york, ban met morocco's foreign minister. he told him of his anger at the demonstrations and said he was astonished by what he called the moroccan government's overreaction. but that's further irritated morocco, who now says they will cut staff at the sahara mission and pull its troops from other peacekeeping operations. in western sahara, the 19 1 cease-fire came on a referendum on the area's future, but that's never been held. instead, morocco said it's prepared to offer autonomy. the secretary germ remains personally committed to encouraging genuine negotiations

to achieve what the u.n. has repeatedly asked for, that's mutually acceptable political situation to the people of western sahara. bernard smith, al jazeera. >> okay, we're planning to talk to a representative of the moroccan government a little bit later. we're having trouble establishing a line, but we'll go back to that just as soon as we can. two suspects are still on the run after a raid by police on an apartment in brussels. one suspects with killed in the raid who was connected to the november 13th attacks in paris. he was found with an assault rival and an isil flag. two people detained after the raid have now been released. >> since november 14th, more than 100 house searches were conducted and 58 persons arrested. in addition to that 23 persons were arrested in linked investigations. a team of six police officers

were sent to the house composed of two french officers. this team is the result of the fact that the investigation is carried out by joint investigation teams composed of investigators. >> and french police have arrested four people in the paris region with one suspected of planning an attack. they say french media reports three men and a woman were arrested in a dorm raid. the press news agency quotes that the group had been under surveillance and one of the people was under house arrest. that has been the case since late february. >> we have information about one person that suggests that he could undertake violent actions in france. this man could have been in contact with people in syria and members of the islamic state. this person was arrested this morning along with three persons linked with him and checks are under way.

so i call on everyone to remain extremely cautious regarding some information on a planned and imminent violent action. we arrest people every day. >> more from jacky rowland, she's in paris. >> the main suspect who was detained on wednesday is a 20-year-old frenchman of moroccan origin. he's someone who has already been to the police. he was arrested back in 2012 as he was planning to board a flight to go to syria. suspected of wanting to go and fight there. now, he's only just been released in prison in october of last year. in fact, he was already being held under house arrest since the end of february as part of the state of emergency here in france. now he was arrested as were three members of his entourage. that's how they've been described by the french authorities. his girlfriend and two other men, brothers, french

nationality of turkish origin. no weapons were seized just some computer material, usb keys and also a safe. apparently the arrests took place within the context of the heightened state of alert in france at the moment. it's not clear to what extent any plans they might have had were actually prepared or made concrete. certainly an one commentator on french media has been described as a intellectual project. clearly in the current climate, especially given those arrests linked to the paris attacks that took place in belgium on tuesday. french police decided it was better to be prudent in the current circumstances. >> stay with us here on al jazeera. we've got a story coming up 15 years hard labor. an american student in north

korea convicts of crimes against the state. and a boy gets to meet his sporting hero.

>> the only live national news show at 11:00 eastern. >> we start with breaking news. >> let's take a closer look. >> let's go to the global headlines. turkey and the syrian government teams that they have broker in geneva are dismissed. merrick garland has been

nominated for the seat of the supreme court justice. morocco is threatening to pull its soldiers out of peace-keeping missions over comments made by ban ki-moon. he said that morocco was occupying and morocco said that it insulted it's people. for more on this let's talk with morocco's tourism minister. i know you're not talking about tourism. you're just respond to go what ban ki-moon says. let me ask you is morocco going to suspend any cooperation it has with the united state united nations over peacekeeping missions have you decided that? >> well, listen, i'm here to present my political party, which is this is words never

used by the secretary general before. they're supposed to be impartial in this conflict. >> i understand, you already said that you think that the word is that wrong. but it's a word that has been used by the pan african parliament used at the african union it's president saying that western sahara our people are living under occupation. we fought against colonization and we cannot accept that in africa today. you're occupying western sahara.

>> we're not a member of the african union. and it is not only exist only paper. it is not a good broker of peace. that's why we've been working for the last four decades in order to find the solution. the united nations is supposed to be impartial. we don't feel that we down western sahara. we've invested a lot of money in those provinces and we've brought them were poverty in 1957 to what they are now. we've been working with the united nations in order to find the solution. we don't think there is a conflict. we think there is not a sufficient conflict that has been pushed or nurtured by algeria. and we don't think that there is a problem in western sahara. >> why not go for the referend

referendum, which is those seeking independence from morocco want. you say you'll give more autonomy. but a referendum was laid out by the united nations more than 20 years ago, and morocco has been blocking it since then. why not simply say you can make the decision yourself. when we tried to identify the people who would vote there with those who were refused to vote in the referendum. in that sense, in the identification of who should vote in the referendum, it did not work. so the referendum is unfeasible. that's something that the united nations decided. it was something that representatives of the different secretary generals decided that the referendum is not feasible.

in 2007 the united nations secretary council asked for the parties to bring forth a solution. one of the solutions was the moroccan proposal for autonomy. >> let me ask you this, and i'm sorry we have to be brief on it. but the fact is that it's rarely in the headlines, this conflict, this argument in the west coast of africa. and now it is, and it's embarrassing for morocco that it has reached this point. the discussion you're having at the moment is more about losing faith than practical solutions. >> i don't think it is embarrassing for morocco. we are in the sahara. the moroccan people mobilize to deal with this situation. we do not think that we're embarrassed, but like anyone who would cross the red line,

morocco is not occupying sahara. i don't think there is anything embarrassing and we're not afraid to talk about that around the world and then say these are our rights. these are our historical rights and rights we've been fighting for more a long time. and we're not embarrassed by this. >> thank you very much for coming on the program talking to us from morocco. thank you. >> the race for the u.s. presidential nomination is down to three candidates. when it began it was 12. now marco rubio has pulled out. donald trump and hillary clinton both pull away in their respective contests. mr. rubio suspended his campaign after losing to mr. trump in his home state. john kasich is the governor.

you expect him to win in his home state of ohio. everyone all this pushes touch closer to the number of delegates needed to secure the republican nomination. he's got 621 at the moment. he needs 1200. on the democratic side hillary clinton beat bernie sanders in four states and has the edge in missouri and almost has the double of his tally of delegates and is the firm favorite to glimpse the democratic nomination. let's wrap it up with john hedron. >> i grew up in a little town. >> john kasich's home state of ohio has put him back in the race. >> when you listen and you find your purpose you're on five. >> he has one strategy available to him. team up with the other anti-trump candidate. texas senator ted cruz to block

the billionaire. >> the possibility that kasich wins through delegates is virtually zero, but there is a greater chance that he and perhaps with ted cruz as well could deny trump the absolute majority of delegates, and then we go to the summer and see how the republicans will try to sort this all out. >> if that happens, the republican party will have their first contested convince since 1948. it means that the delegates are freed up and then anything can happen, and any candidate can win the nomination for the ultimate prize. after sweeping florida, north carolina, illinois, donald trump has half the delegates he needs to secure the nomination for republicans. for hillary clinton the road ahead looks clearer than ever. >> i think what we saw the democrats are consolidating around their frontrunner. secretary hillary clinton is gaining votes.

she's enlarging her margin of delegates and i think she's well on a path towards the nomination. >> clinton's democratic rival bernie sanders has vowed to stay in the race until the end. but increasingly she's focusing her fire past saunders. >> that doesn't make him strong. it makes him wrong. [ cheering ] t >> to the man she expect to be his rival. >> an u.s. student has been sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in north korea for crimes against the state. he was arrested in january for trying to steal a propaganda poster from his hotel in the capital of pyongyang. last month he hel he told a press conference that he had made the worst mistake of his life. >> five-year-old palestinian boy who was orphaned in an arson attack in his home last july is

making a dream trip to spain to meet his sporting hero. his brother and parents were killed in an attack carried out by israeli settlers in the occupied west bank. he himself had serious injuries. his story has come to the attention of one of the world's most famous footballers. >> like many five-year-olds, ahmed is just getting into football, and his favorite player is the real madrid stri striker cristiano ronaldo. in every day life the person he's closest to is his grandfather. that's because his home in the occupied west bank was fire bombed by israeli settlers last year. his 18-month-old brother was killed straight away. his father died a week later and in september citizen his or her also succumbed to her injuries. >> ahmed asks me every day about his parents. he asks me where is heaven? how far is from my house? the other day i found him

looking at his mother's photo. he told me that he was asking her where she was. i believe ahmed will need more psychological help. >> his treatment at this israeli hospital is far from finished, but he's surrounded by staff and volunteers who make sure that he feels loved now thanks to lot it's of planning by well wishers he's meeting cristiano ronaldo. >> he was wearing a shirt of ronaldo. we pictured him on facebook. some guys from the soccer association saw him on facebook and said if he loved ronaldo, we can connect with the club there, and maybe he can visit him. and so they did. >> ahmed face as much longer journey, his rehabilitation. but at least here at the hospital they're trying to give him as much of a normal childhood as they can. >> and that means lots of love, as well as an once in a lifetime

trip to the spanish capital to his footballing hero. al jazeera, tel aviv. >> you'll be able to get all the stories we cover here on al jazeera, plus more like that one. if you go to www.aljazeera.com. it's www.aljazeera.com. >> this week on talk to al jazeera best selling author mitch albom. >> i use death to ricochet your attention back on to life. >> albom's latest novel is "the magic strings of frankie presto", a tale about the greatest guitarist to ever live and the lives he changes. the writer's first dream was to be a musician. >> i didn't write anything until i was already well into my twenties, cause everything i