he said the drink is a toast to free speech. thanks for watching, i'm stephanie sy. this is al jazeera. hello, and welcome to the news hour. i'm in doha with the top stories on al jazeera. hostages flee an egypt airplane in cypress, bringing a hijacking situation to a peaceful end. police in pakistan arrest hundreds over the suicide bombing in lahore. the fbi says it's retrieved data from the san bernardino gunman's iphone despite apple's refusal to help. plus, thailand's military government says its new draft

constitution will return the country to democracy, but not everyone is convinced. the hijacking of an egypt airplane in cypress is over. flight ms-181 was on its way from alexandria to cairo carry i 56 passengers and it was diverted after a man threatened crew on board. the plane remains at the airport for several hours until all the hostages are released or managed to escape. the hijacker's motives remain unclear. gerald tann reports. >> reporter: hours later the final few hostages left the plane. one had to escape through the cockpit window. everyone else used the mobile stairs. they were escorted off the tarmac by police. i hijacker is believed to be among them. egypt's minister of civil

aviation announced the peaceful resolution. >> translator: all the passengers along with the crew were released. they are now safe and sound. this is what we worked on at any costs from the very beginning. the hijacking cannot be branded as an act of terrorism. all facts are now being analyzed by forensic experts. the hijacker is now in police custody. >> reporter: egypt air flight 181 was flying from alexandria to cairo when it was diverted to cypress. the hijacker has been identified and he's an egyptian living in cypress. separate media reported he gave a letter in arabic demanding the release of female prisoners in egypt and called for a meeting with his former wife that lives in iprecypress, but his motivat is still in dispute. >> translator: at some point the hijacker demanded meet with an eu representative. at other points he nanded to

depart from the airport and head to another destination. he raised no specific demands. >> reporter: also in dispute is where the hijacker was armed. he had claimed he was wearing an explosive belt. the plane's crew had to treat it as a credible threat. >> safe in the -- faith in the security system has been destroyed. the regime we're in now is that anybody, if there's no faith in security, anybody can make such a claim in the future, and the captain will do what he's told. >> reporter: at one point egyptian officials mistakenly identified another passenger as the hijacker, raising more questions about egypt's aviation security. the government says details of the investigation will be released in due course. for now it's marking a small victory, the release of everyone on board egypt air flight 181. >> let's get more from hostage

negotiator dr. james alvarez. he advised police forces across the world. he joins us via skype from london. whatever the negotiator said to the hostage, it worked. what tactic do you think they used? >> in general most people think hostage negotiations is about talking the perpetrator out, but it's more about listening them out. if you don't listen well, you won't know where the perpetrator is coming from and what is motivating them. if you don't know that, how can you get them to do what you would like them to do? >> in this case they say the hostage taker was unbalanced. does that make the negotiator's work much more difficult? >> not necessarily. in some cases it could make it easier. all negotiations are different and all negotiations are difficult in their own way. whether somebody is unbalanced or completely rational, it all depends on the outcome -- the outcome depends on the

motivations of the individual and of other conditions, but in either case it's about really listening to understand what's driving this person to have done what they've done. >> and negotiators, i assume, have to be prepared to talk and to be in contact with the hostage-taker for a couple of hours? >> that's right. negotiations can be very tiring, and most negotiators are in it for the long haul. in other words, most negotiators want to stay on the telephone or radio for the duration of the case. it's hard to get off once you're in, and most negotiators i know would stay there until they dropped from being tired. >> what kind of training goes into such scenarios for the negotiators? >> well, there's standard hostage training delivered by the major police forces in the field, the nypd, scotland yard, et cetera. i wouldn't be surprised if the negotiators in the cypress case

had training from the metropolitan police in london. >> in this case how many negotiators do you think were participating? >> most hostage negotiations teams are composed of five or six people with one main communicator on the telephone or radio at a time. >> how much coordination would there have been between egyptian authorities and cypress authorities? >> well, it looks as if there was a great deal, because it looks as if this is a seamless and highly integrated management of a situation. that's exactly what you want. at some point somebody has got to be in command, and i'm assuming that would have been the people on the ground. you're also going to run into language issues and perhaps there was -- there were a limited number of people available that spoke arabic, if that's what the perpetrator spoke. it's complicated but got done with amazing results today. >> if you were negotiating the situation, what would you be asking the hostage-taker?

>> well, i'd be asking him what he wanted. i'd be asking him what led him to be here today. what happened? people don't take hostages, don't hijack airplanes for small reasons. this man must have had what he felt to be large reasons. it probably had something to do in this case with his ex-wife. >> and for the one person that is chosen to negotiate with the hostage-taker, how is this particular person selected? >> that's going to depend on a lot of factors. on availability, on what the incident commander wants. in some cases it's simply who is up and next in the queue, in the order. it depends on a bunch of variables that are determined at the end of the day by the incident commander. >> okay. we thank you very much for joining us, dr. james alvarez. thank you. >> thanks. let's crossover and bring in

our correspondent harry fossett to tell us whether there's clarity on the motivations of this hostage-taker. >> reporter: no, there have been all sorts of discussions about what his motivations might have been. of course, we have those reports that it was to do with a woman. that's according to the prime minister of cypress. he was talking about potentially this man's ex-wife being the motivation for this entire incident, and there were reports that she was brought here to the airport as negotiations proceeded. at the same time, there were reports also of this man asking for female prisoners in egypt to be released, asking to speak to a representative of the european union. now, of course, these are unconfirmed reports so far. we only have to go by what we were hearing ourselves. we do know, though, that the

police here in cypress will hold a news conference at 6:30 local time in about 20 minutes' time. we understand that will be streamed live, and so we're expecting at least that we might find out a bit more about the details of exactly who he was, what he was doing, and why he was doing it at that point. >> and harry, just talk us through how it finally came to an end. it did end peacefully. >> reporter: that's right. it happened in the run-up to about 2:00 p.m. local time, so a little over four hours ago. at that time there were seven people held on board the plane. the two flight crew, one other crew member, and four foreign nationals, non-egyptian nationals. the police and the observers, the onlookers suddenly saw some of those people starting to come out of the plane. it seems they were doing so

without apparently much personal threat to their safety. one individual coming out of the cockpit window, and then after that the man himself emerged onto the tarmac. at that point he was made too lie down by law enforcement officers here. there was a very thorough search of him lasting about two minutes. then he was led away. so, obviously, he will be interviewed extensively in the hours since. we're waiting to hear exactly what police say he's told them and, again, trying to establish exactly what his motives were and whether indeed he had the wherewithal to carry out the threat he was making on the aircraft. >> all right. harry, thank you for that update from larnaca. police in pakistan raegsed hundreds of suspects over sunday's suicide bombing in lahore a day after the army launched a military crackdown with the prime minister

promising to stamp out such attacks. more than 70 were killed, nearly half of them children. meanwhile, security in the capital of islamabad is tight with thousands of protesters camped outside parliament angry about last month's excuse of a security guard. he was hanged for killing the governor of punjab who criticized the country's blasphemy laws. we have latest on the protests going on and whether a crackdown could possibly be imminent when we hear that police reinforcements are now arriving in islamabad. >> reporter: that's absolutely right. about 19 minutes a notice was issued by the government saying the protesters had two hours to leave the area just behind me. now, what's happened since them in the last half hour is all the lights have gone out across down through to constitution avenue

where the protesters are. police and reinforcements have come in. they're on three sides of the protesters. the fourth side, the backside is where the parliament building is. clearly they're getting ready to go in. islamabad authorities say there's 6,000 to 7,000 police ready to go in. there's about 1500 protesters hardcore still left. you might hear them giving speeches. the kind of things that they've been saying having very defiant. we're going not going to go. we'd rather die and we're here nor mohammad who we live very deeply. the government is playing hard line. they had the tactic by starving them out by not allowing food or water in there. they have generators, and that's how you can hear their speeches through the p.a. it looks like things are coming to a head, like i say. about 19 manipulate knits -- minutes ago a notice was issued

to give a two-hour deadline. the police are moving in on the protesters. >> thank you for that update. iraqi army shells killed four people including two children. it's believed the iraqi forces were targeting isil hideouts in fallujah. nine people, mainly women and children, were injured in the attack. there were around 400 isil fighters in fallujah which fell for the armed group more than two years ago. the syrian army is continuing the offensive efforts after capturing palmyra on sunday. fighting is taken place around isil-held towns in the southeast and southwest. the army will upalmyra as a launchpad to expand operations and cut supplies routes. it retook the city after daying of fighting backed by russian air strikes. stay with us on the news hour. still to come, you find out why former leader fidel castro wasn't happy about barack obama's historic visit to cuba.

also, unemployment sparked the arab spring in tunisia six years ago. we'll see whether anything has changed. and france prepares to return to their national stadium for the first time since the paris attacks in november. we'll have the details coming up in sports. in sports. first an israeli soldier is appears in court where he's being investigated for murder. the case involves two palestinian men who stabbed and injured an israeli soldier. stephanie dekker joins us from jerusalem to tell us what we expect to come out of that court hearing, stephanie. >> reporter: well, you can never be sure, but i think there is an expectation that his detention might be extended while the investigation goes on. they've been in break, in recess for about two hours now, so we

expect to hear possibly quite soon as to whether he'll be released or his detention extended. we're having more details out of the hearing, that back and forth. one of the military police investigators saying that after the investigation it appeared that he, the 21-year-old in question, seemingly did not physically carry out the stabbing attack. there were two men involved, one of which was shot dead immediately. he was shot and incapacitated on the ground. when we see the whole video, the documentation of them being shot dead by the soldier in question, it seems he didn't physically carry out the stabbing attack. of course, again the progression cushion prosecution questioning the soldier's version of events. the soldier said he was worried and felt there was danger around. that the man on the ground perhaps had explosives on him and about to set it off. the army has already disputed that saying they didn't seem to follow protocol when the look at the video that the site wasn't removed. people were very close.

it's caused a lot of tension and debate in israel. we went to hebron and spoke to the man that took the video and documented the entire incident. the man takes us through the sequence of events he captured on camera. it starts moments after two palestinian have been shot after stabbing an israeli soldier. one is killed instantly. the 21-year-old is injured laying on the ground. fast forward, and a second soldier appears to be talking to a settler here in the back of the frame. he then makes his way to a colleague. they appear to have a conversation. the soldier then cocks his weapon, and about five seconds later he shoots him in the head instantly killing him. >> translator: i'm still taken by surprise by the shooting. i've taken hundreds of videos documenting incidents, and this is the most violence. >> reporter: he lives in hebron

surrounded by settlers. his home has been fire bombed and is being fixed and his front door has been shot out. every member of his family has been hurt or harassed in an attempt to get them to leave their home. now new threats after the publication of his sid yo, but he says documents life under israeli occupation in hebron is what his struggle is about. >> translator: i hope it will reduce the scope of violence between the israelis and palestinians. i hope they will prevail and do wising with the punishing of this soldier. >> reporter: his daughter runs in saying the army is here. she wants her younger brothers out of the living room. the soldiers ask about our car parked outside. he does not want us to be here. >> this is a closed military zone. >> reporter: he says if he with don't leave, we will be arrested. it seems since the video was published, the army doesn't want anyone here. the israeli soldier who shot him is investigated for murder which in itself is rare and led to an

outcry among a large segment of israeli society who hold the army in high regard. the u.n. special coordinator for the middle east peace process condemns what he calls an apparently an execution calling it immoral and unjust. there is a lot of support in israel for the soldier. the army here is part of the family. it's mandatory, so any family will have parents and sons and daughters that served. this is why you have extreme right wingers who call the soldier a hero and he should be released, but there's a feeling the soldier shouldn't be hung out to dry as it were by the army. when you speak to palestinians, they tell you many of these things happen and are never documented on camera, and that these young people, young men, young women who carry out these attacks are suffering under decades long occupation. they have lost all hope.

this is a way out. these people that do these attacks, they know they'll be killed. that's a sense of hopelessness of the youth that do this. very different, complicated situation and politically in israel a lot of back and forth. we heard the army spokesperson say it was ethically and morally a grave incident and politics should stay out of it. >> thank you. israel's parliament gave initial approval to a bill to allow members to suspend colleagues that support israel's enemies. they say it would give members the ability to target and sideline israeli palestinian members. the bill now moves to committee and can become law after two more votes. the fbi says it's managed to crack the security protocols on the iphone that belong to one of the san bernardino shooters. 14 people were killed in that attack in california in december. apple and the fbi had gone to court because apple said it could not crack the phone

without writing new software. we have the report. >> reporter: the apple brand is bruised. the star product the iphone has long been promoted at impregnable until now. the fbi says it succeeded in unlocking a device, and apple responded with a statement saying we will continue to help law enforcement with their investigations as we have done all along. we will continue to increase the security of our products as the threats and attacks on our data become more frequent and more sophisticated. for months the u.s. justice department has demanded that apple unlock data encrypted in the iphone used by the gunman, farook. they killed 14 people in san bernardino, california last december. now the case is being dropped and the fbi assistant director issued a statement saying, the fbi cannot comment on the technical steps that were taken to obtain the contents of the

county-issued iphone, but i'm satisfied that we have access to more answers than we did before and that the investigation process is moving forward. the case has gripped the technology industry and civil liberty watch dogs concerned about what kind of precedent is being set. >> a lot of other countries that have similar desire to access information with broad sweep were looking at the outcome of this case to say, okay, if the united states has set a standard in which they intend to gain access to information, maybe we'll do the same thing. so there's a large reverberation possible from not only this case but similar cases going forward. >> reporter: the dispute over one iphone may be resolved but the longer confrontation over privacy and digit although security is far from it. the overarching question is how much right law enforcement has to personal information. an editor at a prominent chinese newspaper has resigned in protest that media

censorship. he worked for the southern metropolis daily. he posted his resignation letter online to criticize tight government regulation. last month the president toured media outlets and urged journalists to be loyal to the communist party. our china correspondent adrian brown in the studio to discuss this resignation. adrian, it's most likely causing major headlines in china, isn't it? >> that's right. in china this is seen really as an extraordinary act of defiance, because his parting words, published on his weybo's account, the equivalent of twitter basically said i can't stand it anymore. i can no longer follow the communist party and go down on my knees. that is very, very specific. very blunt language, and it's a measure of the pushback you're seeing by a certain number of brave journalists who are not prepared to tolerate the current crackdown on the media.

of course, this is china. there's only so much they can do. we have to see this in the overall context of what's happening in the country during the past few weeks. we've had 20 people who have now been -- disappeared as the police continue their hunt for the author of an anonymous letter that appeared on the chinese weybo media portal calling on the country's president to resign. the hunt for the author of that letter is intensifying. the president regards the media as a tool of the government. it's very important that he controls the media. >> why is this the case right now? why is there an increased media crackdown? as you speak to us, adrian, we showed pictures of the president touring the media outlets and putting forward his message. >> i think it's perhaps no coincidence this crackdown is happening as china's economy is starting toe falter.

xinping don't want the media asking questions about why the economy is starting to perform so badly. so in february just before the national peoples congress was held in beijing, xinping toured the headquarters of the three of the primary, state-owned news organizations and his message was a very blunt one. it was this. you have to be loyal first and foremost to the party. forget about the viewers, readers and listeners, your loyalty is to the party, mainly me. the chairman said revolution comes from guns and pens, and so far he has onside and he made sure of that last year when he staged an enormous military parade in tee tiananmen square. nows he's turns his attention to the media. this was starting to see a little bit of pushback. >> adrian, thank you very much for that. thailand's military

government due to release a final draft of its controversial new constitution. it will then go to a national referendum on the 7th of the august. the military suspended the constitution when it took power in 2014. we have the report from bangkok. >> it's an unusual job for military reservists. fans out across the nation by the thousands assigned to inform the thai public about a draft constitution and a road map returning the country to democracy. what's been playing out in thai politics the last two years since the army took over is something familiar. 2014 was the 13th successful coup in thailand, and if voted in, this will be the nation's 20th constitution. some feel this version is designed to further entrench the existing power brokers. >> we call this a state that

will try to strength know en thoo one power more compared to the last constitution. that's why they tried to enhance the scenarios. >> he added that those in control want to get further away from elections. the draft constitution calls for the entire 200-member upper house to be xoined by a committee. previously there were voted into office through general election. for centuries ago kult tur is a large part of thai culture and playing a big role in politics. here in the pineapple heartland, some admit they really don't admit what's in the draft constitution nor of what they're voting oin a few month's time. he's been working in this field for 40 years. he'd like a return to a civilian government. >> translator: i am concerned as i don't know anything about this draft charter. honestly, i don't like the military. i wish we could be freer like

other countries. >> reporter: some thais who need stability to make a living are happy with the military government's draft constitution. this man has been giving horseback rides on the beach for 15 years. >> translator: we can see that the old charter could have solved problems we have in our country, but only caused more conflict. >> reporter: the government's road map puts a general election on the calendar in mid 2017, but there's no indication what would happen if there's a bump in the road and the public turns down the draft constitution. still to come on the news hour, losing their innocence. more evidence that yemen's children are bearing the brunt of the civil war. and brazil's president is facing impeachment. now even ministers close to d dilma rousseff have lost their open. the world's best tennis

player, raul has the detail later in sports. >> [chanting] yes we can! >> an histic election. >> you and i, we're going to change this county, and we will change the world. >> monumental decisions. >> mr. president, there's a one

and three chance of a second great depression. >> first-hand accounts from the people who were there. >> their opinion was shocking. >> the challenges. >> he said, "i am president of the united states and i can't make anything happen." >> the realities. >> he stood up and said, "that's it, i'm finished."

>> hello again, the his lines on aljazeera, the hijacking of an egypt airplane taken to cyprus is over. and the hijacker has been arrested. it was a terrorist act. pakistan says it has arrested hundreds of suspects following suicide bombings. at least 70 people died. and nearly half of them children. the fbi has managed to track an i-phone belonging to the san bernardino shooter. 14 people were killed in that attack in december. children are bearing the brunt of the civil war in yemen. the u.s. children's fund said that six children are killed or injured every dame the organization has released a new report saying that in the past year, 934 children have been killed and more than 1300

injured. there were nearly 850 documented cases of child soldiers with children as young as ten forced to fight. the report also estimates almost 6 million children live in poverty in yemen, and nearly 10 million require humanitarian aid. let's speak to the unicef representative in yemen, and julia, good to have you on the news hour. these numbers that you put out are quite horrific. when you say 10 million children in yemen require humanitarian aid. and how do you get them the aid that they require? >> well, we're able to deliver assistance across the country, and in most parts of the country, we can provide services. the challenge is not delivering assistance, but the challenge is so big there's no way for

any humanitarian service to supply that. the only way to solve it if it there's an end to the conflict. >> yemen has a recruitment of child soldiers, and what have you seen and how so? >> well, we have verified 848 recruitments of children, and we see that around the country. i've seen children ten years old with guns at checkpoints, and we see them coming injured in the conflicts, and it's just wrong, it has to stop. in yemen, there has always been a kurt of youth, young boys, taking up arms as part of the idea of what it is to be a man in yemen, but this is just going way beyond that. we're seeing children on the front lines, we're seeing massive increases in recruitment and more and more, it becomes an economic factor with problems in the economy

with the increase in poverty, more and more children are being dragged into the conflict to make a little money. >> how do you begin to address the psychological needs of children that have lived through this war? >> well, children are suffering because they are, because they have been blown up, killed, injured in bombings, they're terrified as a result of the conflicts, and the spattering because of the impacts on the health system, and we estimate 10,000 children would have died because of that. there are so many challenges that we need to deal with. part of that is the psycho social, and the services too. 390,000 children across the country, but it's only the tip oof the iceberg. >> the children that you've been able to reach -- i'm afraid that we have lost the

connection with the desk of unicef and our apologies for that. but we'll move on and tell you about the other news. because holding a national dialogue conference, which is aimed at bringing down unemployment rates. ban ki-moon and kim are attending. >> reporter: he's happy to be home. he spent a week in prison after being arrested in a protest that turned violent. his parents invested their savings pay for his education. he's a qualified engineer, but he complains the employment system in tunisia is against people like him. >> before two or three people were corrupt. and now everybody is the same. you pay, you get in. if you don't pay, you don't get in if you don't have any connections nobody looks at you. >> ban ki-moon is attending a

conference on unemployment. he says he's worried about the wider impact of looking for work. >> young men and women who are excluded from decent work find themselves in great difficulties, disoriented and alienated to the point that they can become vulnerable to extremism. >> reporter: this is the government's concern, that harsh reforms could lead to more unrest. in january, thousands came to the poor region in central tunisia. >> the government hasn't satisfied all of the had demands in five years, but the future is uncertain. >> the struggle with economic growth andent wage that struggled with the revolution 5 and a half years ago. the government says that the problem lies in tunisia's

education system. there's a disparagement between what people are suffering and the jabs available. but some blame years of corruption and an economy closed to competition. they have solved their political through dialogue, hoping that the society and the trade unions again can help to solve unemployment. >> this means that the government is not fighting corruption? of course it does. does this mean that the government is not fighting terrorists? of course it is. but however, the issues are too vague at the same time. >> ali lost hope of ever finding work here. he wants to leave tunisia and never come back. he says it's the only way that he can pay back his parents. aljazeera. >> brazil's minister, encreek

a, has equipped. several other minsters from the democratic movement party, known as the pmb, are expected to follow. with the ruling party, the workers party. roussef is facing allegations that she falsified budget numbers. on tuesday, it will decide if it will withdraw support from the embattled leader. gabriel, and we'll crossover when we can to get more on that story. and we'll tack about cuba. because former leader, fidel castro, has written a letter critical of president barack obama following his visit to havana last week, rejecting obama's offer for help. he said we don't need the empire to give us any presents.

castro was the leader until 2006 when he handed over the reins to raul. covering more from santiago. >> reporter: fidel castro's letter, entitled brother obama, shouldn't really come as that much of a surprise. it is a true reflection of the divisions, the contradictions within the communist party, between the old guard and those who want change. who believe that the country needs to open up more, particularly economically. fidel castro went over and over, saying that we don't need anything from the so-called "empire," the word evil is presumed. we don't need presents from the empire. but at the same time, raul castro has thanked president obama for having eased the u.s. economic embargo as much as he can to allow for more trade, more commerce, more exchange between the united states and

cuba. there's a contradiction there. and what this means, i think, he believes like others on the island that this new, kinder, gentler version of the u.s. policy toward cuba is an attempt to underred mine the country's one party communist state and it's system. it might be the fact that fidel castro didn't meet with obama when the u.s. president was there. he's the only president who has visited the island who hasn't paid respects to the so-called commandante, the leader of the revolution. president obama has begun to flush out lows nore his foreign. long-standing security packs with japan. >> for the first moments of his campaign. >> i will build a great, great wall on our southern border and i will have mexico pay for that

wall. mark my words. >> reporter: donald trump with the changing u.s. reese was the rest of the world. several months n. he started to give a little bit more detail, foreign policy under president trump. in an interview with the new york times, he revealed that he would renegotiate with the standing with japan, saying that the u.s. needs better terms. he would cut oil from saudi arabia to force it to a more to combat isil, though the u.s. needs energy, and with japan and south korea to develop weapons, and withdraw more from both countries unless they pay more for the deployment. he hasn't thought about step two or three. >> he very much has a cost benefit analysis toward it. and i think that many people would applaud. he seems to have a win-lose approach to foreign policy. that is if america wins, somebody else has to lose, and

if somebody else wins, america is by definition is losing. that's concerning when we talk about international cooperation. >> the news conference being held by a police spokesman following the hijacking of an egypt airplane in cyprus. and let's listen in. >> implemented the action program to deal with events like this. we had two incident centers. together with the police, and another crisis unit at the airport. all the relevant services the area wars cut off, in order to secure the area with all of the emergency service. members of the police immediately started

negotiating, and gradually, we managed to secure the release of all of the hostages. after six hours of negotiations, at around about quarter to three, the 59-year-old egyptian hijacker was convinced and came out of the aircraft and was arrested by the police. we need to note the essential participation of the special negotiating team. and they managed the entire incident flawlessly. from the search of the aircraft, no explosives were found. not on the 59-year-old's person, or on the aircraft itself. the motives do not appear to be related to terrorism.

what a significant is that, the handling and the management of this incident, in corporation with the state authorities, and furthermore, we must note that the specific person has been arrested for criminal acts. he's being questioned, and we expect tomorrow he will be led to the court for indictment. rewards to specific incidents, there are questions which need to be asked, following the inquiry rewards to interrogation of this person, and the and there will be an inquiry into the event.

his ex-wife was mentioned and it seems there was a letter delivered. was evolved in this? yes, there was a letter, which was in the possession of the suspect, and this letter has been addressed to his ex-wife. what i need to say is, the content of the specific letter is being examined by the prosecutors. there seems to be a weakness of the aircraft crew to take on the seriousness of the story as it has unfolded.

we have referred to the outcome, but however, as this story unfold ed, from our part, we needed to take action in the way that we did, in order to achieve success. the significance is the positive outcome. we observed all of the procedures with taking into account the safety of the passengers. did you believe that he had explosives? there was some object that we needed to examine, but they weren't explosives or weapons. the important thing, as i said, that we have identified that

neither on the aircraft nor on the person, neither on his person were there any explosives. he's being led to court >> reporter: have the authorities discussed -- has he been asked to be ex dieted to egypt? >> no, it's too early for this to be disgusted. we're just at the initial it stage of our investigations. our aim at this point is to investigate the whole event. independently, as i referred to previously, there are -- there is no evidence that this is a terrorism attack.

this is a criminal act. which is being investigated. the investigation examines all the details. we can't find anything to indicate such. we are referring to the facts of the moment, whatever emerges during the investigation, from this point forward, is from the witness statements, and the investigation as it emerges. the involvement of any other person, this will be then

investigated. we must talk about cooperation, with all of the services involved. and emergency services. >> he has been arrested as a suspect in a particular crime. >> so this is a criminal act, and not a terrorist act. the police in cyprus referring to the hijacking of an egypt airplane that was taken to cyprus earlier today. the police giving the news conference about the hijacking, no explosives found onboard. and it does not appear to be

terrorism related. after six hours of negotiation, the hijacker was arrested by the police, but it is very much still the initial stages of the investigation. harry faucet joining me, and harry, as i'm saying, the police chief is saying still very early stages of the investigation, and still a lot of questions that need to be answered about what exactly happened. >> reporter: that's right, and as you were saying, they're making it clear that this was not, in theirestmation, an act of terrorism. but it appears to be a criminal act and that the man has been arrested and will be inbe indicted tomorrow, local time. the other thing, the letter

thrown out of the aircraft by the alleged hijacker, thrown onto the with his ex-wife. and with that said, all of procedures have been observed to ensure safety. and it has been a successful operation, and and there was no explosive nor weapon found either on this man's person or in the aircraft afterwards. with all of the heightened fears that there were of the 81 people onboard, it seems that there were no immediate threat weapons, but an extremely

terrifying incident for all involved, and it now appears to be over and everyone is safe. >> let's bring you more on the political crisis in brazil. so a major ally of d roussef, ad will the government actually break up? >> it will be a huge, huge step back for della roussef to fight off impeachment here, and two hours from now, we'll hear from the biggest party in brazil, and 25 different parties make up the congress behind me. they control over 69 votes in congress, and they are expected to announce that they are

breaking away from della roussef's coalition. what that would mean from her, it would be a devastating blow, and it would be very difficult for her to reach the 79 votes that she needs to stave off impeachment. and that's why you see lawmakers peal away from della roussef. but of awful political parties in brazil, this is the most important, has the most votes, and they have been the most important ally of della roussef's party. but if they decide to break away, it would be making her chances of fighting off impeachment very, very difficult. >> all right, gabriel, reporting from brasilia, and thank you. now, an update on sports. >> football first, the france national team will play the first game since the paris attacks last november the stadium was the target of three

suicide bombers, that blew themselves up and extra measures have been put in place for the team's return. they can protect fans, and they plan to host the european championships in june. earlier, i spoke to the french football expert, attending today's game. during the terrorist attacks, he said that it took quite sometime for the people inside of the stadium at the time to realize the horror of what was going on outside. >> . >> it took until the second blast for people to realize that something outside of the stadium happened. and it wasn't until halftime for the news to filter in that something more sinister was happening outside of the city. and certainly more people started to find out more details on what was happening, but it was quite clear, especially to the end of the day, when france scored their

second goal, quite a few people inside of the stadium didn't know what was happening inside of the city. and the players on the pitch didn't know what was happening either. an eerie atmosphere, and they were not focus on the football game, but what was happening outside because the threat was raised on the german side, i think that we'll see a similar one as on the 30th. >> with the attacks in belgium, the number-one team had to lose the friendly vote from brussels to the african nations now, the qualifier between egypt and niger, that

kicks off in an hour. the egyptian government has allowed 40,000 fans to play the game. an official ban was imposed in february of 2012, and this is the reason that it resulted in the deaths of 74 fans. the egyptian league was canceled as a result. this is after 24 were killed after the match in cairo, and it resumed just after a month later. australia have topped their world cup qualifying group as they continue their bid to reach the 2018 finals in russia. they were taking on jordan in sydney, jordan in the last qualifier, but this game appears to be a bit of a

reality check. arguably, the geil of the night, australia is in the third and final phase of asia qualifier. now, it has been more than seven months since serena williams suffered the shock exit from the miami open. she lost in the fourth round in key biscayne on monday. and a 20-match winning streak in the tournament. it will be the first time that she has not reached the quarter finals here since 2000. that's all your sport for now. now.

al jazeera america. highjacking of an egyptair plane end with hostages escaping and the highjacker giving himself up. ♪ i am lauren table, this is al jazeera live from london. also coming you feel. after the suicide attack targeting families at a park in lahore, pakistan questions more than 5,000 people. hundreds protest for a third day in islambad, demanding strict islamic law of pakistan. dilma rousseff faces another blow with brazil's biggest party