an underground fire has been burning for over a century beneath india's largest coal field. now open coast mining has put the flames to the surface would devastating consequences for the local population. is communities are destroyed and thousand suffer from toxic fumes what lies behind this human and environmental disaster people in power the burning city at this time on al jazeera. polls close in liberia's presidential runoff with voters choosing between

a former football superstar and a vice president. hello i'm barbara starr you're watching al-jazeera live from london thank you for joining us also coming up in the next thirty minutes crews former president i'll bet the fujimori pleads for forgiveness as thousands of protesters rally against his release from prison the kremlin says it wants a russian opposition leader let's send a volley investigated for calling for a boycott of next year's presidential election and the driving to a new future we examine the rise in autonomous vehicles and ask what it means for the humans who drive for a living. we begin the program a liberia where polls have closed in. presidential runoff vote it's the first

democratic transition of power in the west african nation in seventy three years but turnout has been low no voters are choosing between two candidates fifty one year old george ware who spent his childhood in the slums of monrovia before rising to become fifo as world football player of the year in one thousand nine hundred ninety five he later switched over to politics running for the presidency in two thousand and five and acting as the running mate for the main opposition candidate in two thousand and eleven now he is facing experienced political operator joseph who was worked in the private sector and the government holding the post of agriculture minister in one nine hundred eighty three and serving as vice president under l. and stunts and sirleaf since two thousand and six but the spite his years of service the seventy three year old it didn't actually secure certainly spec'ing who actually endorsed george where instead. of going.

to. resume to do this. they said i'm going to ruin their grid beer because of the curse of democracy that we went in one would do and do the work and i will do so. we have gone through the process this is what the president who's we're willing to live with well mohammed adel is life or a similar of you mohamed you have of course been following this election and polls closed what an hour ago now what do we know now in the results haven't come in do we have any indication of turnout for example. yes. all we know is that the tunnel was low compared to the fos around october vote counting is in polling stations across the country before submitting

that as olds from every polling station to the national telling center the electoral commission has two weeks within which to declare that it will split officials of the commission say they have they will do the declaration of the with in four days now looking out if the results of the first round and i think to go by george where international former international football ahas. thirty eight percent of the votes cast his open and just a vice president for the last three years is bunking on support from candidates who fell out of the race of him and where remain in the race for the rom of how ellen johnson sirleaf who he had been deputising for for the past twelve years has not given him her support and instead chose to buck george we are not a plus for george so many people predicting that most probably george will might

win this election will be interesting to see when we get the official results and of course there are liberia's made history already you mentioned ellen johnson sirleaf she of course was the first woman elected and the first as a woman in africa elected you know when this goes through will be the first democratic transition since nine hundred forty four in liberia but what this is actually tell us about the legacy of ellen johnson sirleaf i mean it's surprising i guess to quite a few people that she ended up supporting george way or not her vice president. indeed. the biggest legacy of ellen johnson sirleaf liberians will tell you is peace she presided over. interrupted years of peace something that is not a mean feat in a country that has passed through civil wars before and that has known military takeovers and this is what ellen johnson sirleaf is known for and probably one of

the main reasons why she warmed the nobel peace prize but other than she's a harvard educated economist she timeout on the economy although critics say that the economy of liberia when she took over was at its lowest on the only that actually thought of gold was up yet she she quadrupled it and now is a good place where who ever takes over from can start from although again it's the suffering of the moment due to the political and something to surrounding that and often also the outbreak. killed so many people here in liberia so ellen johnson sirleaf will be known for the piece she has presided over but again something that isn't confessed to is that she hasn't tackled corruption probe police or government has been accused of massive corruption scandals she also

says she hasn't done enough for conciliation between liberians so there will obviously be some of the challenges facing whoever does get elected as president to follow in her footsteps and for the moment mohammed though i know you'll be following all developments will speak to you again in a few hours from now thank you. former peruvian president i'll bet mori has apologized for the wrongs committed under his government in the one nine hundred ninety s. in a video. taped message from his hospital bed for him or he asked to be forgiven from the bottom of his heart thousands of people protested against his release in the capital lima on monday after he was pardoned by peru's current leader in what many believe to be a form of political payback shelob ellis reports. chaos in lima these peruvians are furious the former president alberto fujimori was

pardoned by the current president pedro public christian ski a man they believe was trying to save his political korea peaceful. peaceful movement of seeing all the people mobilizing the police were following us in circling us they got close to us and threw bombs at us. fujimori was serving a twenty five year prison sentence for murders kidnappings and disappearances carried out by a government death squad during his time in office he led from one thousand nine hundred ninety into two thousand. started on sunday the families of his victims lead the charge to me. to try to see if any i'm angry because i think it's a violation of the memory of her family members it's a violation of the fight for the relatives for justice and truth a frail seventy nine year old fujimori was admitted to hospital on saturday

suffering from low blood pressure and haas arrhythmia he responded to the cry on facebook and think. i am aware that what resulted during my administration on one hand were well received but i recognize that on the other hand i also disappointed other compatriots to them i asked forgiveness from the bottom of my heart. critics say it was his son came g. who secure with the pardon he's a congressman in the majority popular force posse that's led by his sister keiko and saved president kaczynski from impeachment by abstaining from a vote last week. critics say it was in exchange for his father's pardon the president has defended the decision saying it was made because of fujimori's poor home. then it's obvious to all of us that the government he inherited at the beginning of the ninety's the country was in a chaotic and violent crisis incurred significant transgressions of the law as far as democracy and human rights are concerned but i also believe his government

contributed to national progress i'm convinced that those of us who believe in democracy cannot allow alberto fujimori to die in prison. the pardon was backed by a silent majority a survey in may found sixty percent of peruvians wanted fujimori free supporters criticize him with the defeat of the shining path in saving the economy from collapse. the fujimori's critics the death squad still hold them with he's imprisoned or not they say they will voice their calls for justice bellus al jazeera the kremlin says it's investigating with the calls by a russian opposition leader to boycott next year's election breaks the law election of all night has asked people to avoid the march vote after he was barred from running as a candidate officials say he's ineligible to take part due to a suspended prison there are only claims the charges are politically motivated or

a challenge has this update from moscow. it's no surprise that the kremlin seems sensitive to what looks like an attempt by alexei navalny to drive down voter turnout in march the talk has been this year that the kremlin is concerned about voter apathy and want to turn out to be around seventy percent if it dips much below sixty percent well they've got a problem with legitimacy quite how they will prosecutes in the valley for calling for a boycott that remains to be seen i think this can be viewed basically as a shot across as a warning now no one really believes the only would be able to be boots and if they went head to head in a votes the recent polls suggest that if a vote were taken now we don't get between two and three percent but perhaps factoring into the kremlin's thinking was the potential damage the valley could have done if he'd been allowed say on state t.v.

with his anti corruption message so in around he will now have to do his appeals and also go back to doing what has been very successful actually for him over this year which is his online videos his anticorruption message reaching out to particularly younger russians and calling them out on to the streets in parts of the country where you do not normally see political protests willing to give or again is a senior analyst in russian affairs of the consultancy firm i.h.s. market she says the kremlin's investigation into the valley will be viewed very differently inside russia. russian media which is totally controlled by the state has done a really great job to to portray this fallout as the fault of the west of americans that they're jealous of of rising russia under putin that they're trying to undermine russia by any means possible by sanctions the conspiracy that they were all prices jordan just to hurt the russian economy but on the other hand you have

a new generation that actually. they have no no other leader but putin and they want to change and this is the pocket of voters that nirvana is happening now. is playing a long term game this is not about upcoming elections time is on the site he's forty one who didn't sixty five and he knows that in the long term he stands a better chance than anyone else that is in in the political landscape at the moment to to beat for the presidency having said that i have to say that we haven't seen any change of government in russia that comes from bottom up something has to happen we've seen the ruling elite and something has to have been with the economy to try to bring all these factors together to see real change of government there's lots more to come on the program including in in through the by being it's all the

houses were wiped out a trail of death and destruction the philippine island where entire communities were devastated by strong tempted and heavy attacks in rebel held labors opposition groups fear it's the next the syrian city to be targeted in a bombing campaign started. hello and welcome back now across western parts of europe the weather is turning colder with the risk of snow across the alps but also further north across the u.k. will see some snow sort across the middle east ten centimeters of snow in places further south certainly temperatures struck in there madrid just making double figures but the winds come from the south further east so as to the temperatures a pair of good fries in quite nicely as they were looking at twelve in bucharest on

thursday there's a snow pushing down into the balkans region unsettled weather generally then across more eastern parts of the mediterranean but the cold air sitting across the u.k. and france temperatures of just five in both london and paris on the other side of the mediterranean sea we've got showers for coastal parts fall jira and certainly tunis will see a big drop in temperatures so head through into thursday it's looking quite cool further along the coast an indy car only seeing a high of eighteen across central parts of africa we have some showers for the bomb but otherwise weather conditions are humorously find plenty of sunshine for lagos nigeria and akron gallow with temperatures around thirty degrees for southern parts of africa we've got heavy showers for parts mongolia some be in zimbabwe through towards mozambique but further south is looking largely dry and fine should be a decent day in durban with highs here of twenty seven.

you are making. whether online made us response to drug use and the drug trade over the last fifty years has been criminal or if you join us on sat. in the morning. is a dialogue could be what leading to some of the confusion online about people saying they don't actually know what's going on join the conversation at this time on al-jazeera. a reminder now of the top stories on al-jazeera polls have closed in liberia presidential vote but turnout has been low voters were choosing between the former

footballer george where and the current vice president joseph walk by. former president mori has asked for forgiveness from peruvians from the bottom of his heart after being pardoned for corruption and crimes against humanity and the kremlin says it's investigating with a cause by the russian opposition leader alexei never alley to boy call to next year's election break the law. a powerful storm that left a trail of death and destruction in the philippines has been downgraded while it was on route to vietnam typhoon tembin failed to make landfall in vietnam. where hundreds of thousands of people were moved from their homes but experts say that heavy rain and strong winds from the weather system could still cause the infrastructure in the region well ten been devastated the philippine island of mindanao over the weekend where authorities have been criticized for not doing enough to help the storm killed at least two hundred thirty people and many more

are still missing rubble friday traveled to do border town where an entire neighborhood was destroyed. when the flood came this river was turned into a torrent throwing boulders and trees against the houses in its path it took more than one hundred homes and killed nearly fifty people those in the area had been told to leave but many had heeded the warning too late imo there are trying to evacuate but the surge was like in three to five minutes all the houses were wiped out. what's left of mary louis tim's possessions are below the ruins of what used to be her house she escaped with her children and her brother's family just in time well only until we were all crying and the water gap getting stronger and i told my brother i think we are going to die here they survived but another brother died.

their temporary home is now the local school it's also where rosemarie sort of yellow now lives with her children and ten other families in the one classroom she says she had never experienced a flood like it going on like the one i guess that there was a flood before but we didn't evacuate that time but after what happened this time i can't go back all. in a country that receives up to twenty life threatening storms a year there's been criticism of why mindanao suffered so badly as one of the most disaster prone countries in the world the philippines invests heavily in infrastructure and awareness programs to deal with severe storms but in mindanao the ongoing conflict makes that difficult and it's the poorest people living in the most vulnerable places who suffer the most in storms like this. community leaders have told people not to rebuild their homes along the river but the need to earn

a living from farming nearby means many in time probably will and when a future storm comes the river will probably take more lives rob mcbride elgin sera to board town southern philippines syrian state t.v. is reporting a government jet has been shot down over hama province it says the military jet was downed by rebels in the north of the area and the pilot was killed in the attack how much has been the subject of the heavy airstrikes by russian and syrian forces throughout the six year civil war. and turkey reportedly wants to use a syrian military base in the rebel held province of it as an observation post it already has some troops the ploy there as part of a deescalation zone the o. though that's having little impact on fighting on the ground civilian areas have reportedly come under heavy airstrikes by syrian government forces and their allies say the holder has more now from beirut in neighboring lebanon. those who were

killed in this airstrike were internally displaced syrians a woman and her two children their new home a tent has been destroyed whatever belongings they had now rubble they moved to tell it to convolute in the southern edges of the rebel controlled province of idlib and search for safety but in recent weeks the region has been the target of heavy airstrikes. the displaced from came here the planes came and hit them they're targeting civilians there are no unfortunates here where do you want us to go or i it's not clear if the bombing raids are being carried out by syrian government planes or those of its ally russia but what is clear is that the strikes are only increasing. they are putting pressure on the civilians the civilians will pressure the rebels not to fight because the regime has made major advances on the ground and. they want people to haze the ruggles and

the regime is trying to pressure the rebels to agree to a political settlement. the stepped up airstrikes coincide with a ground offensive by pro-government forces who have been advancing from the northern countryside of hama and the southern countryside of aleppo towards. they entered small parts of the province advancing into the administrative borders for the first time since the rebels forced them out of and two thousand and fifteen an all out assault on. fighters many of whom were forced other areas by pro-government forces it's still not clear whether the government. the whole province or whether it's just. control of some areas in the countryside. what is clear is that the government wants the airbase back it is one of the largest military airports in the norse turkey reportedly wants to use that base as an observation post already its military is deployed in some areas of as part of

a deescalation deal. it is supposed to be a safe area under the deal. the opposition now fears the presence of al qaeda linked fighters and will be used by the government as an excuse to step up the bombing campaign they also fear that pro-government forces are no longer busy on other fronts and are now turning their attention to adlib. beirut. well it's five months now since i saw fighters were driven out of the northern iraqi city of mosul it was there were stated on the ice during the iraqi government's fight to retake the city but this week residents have been able to celebrate christmas for the first time in years and there are signs that mosul's businesses are beginning to recover one of the phillips reports. in parts of mosul it seems a city is coming back to life the people relieved the economy reviving.

mahmoud a tailor saw all his equipment destroyed during the shelling somehow he must start again. i cannot resume work simply because i'm short of materials i need textiles and other equipment businesses and tradesmen must join hands to bring back life to decision the state and the people must come together and this has not happened yet. mosul famous for its markets selig projects from the surrounding countryside now the crowds have returned the people hope the city has left its darkest days behind of how to enjoy. how to get there more you're making swith progress at all levels industry commerce the movement of people we had not expected things to go so fast we are confident the residents of know and most will want to help the federal and local governments. but on the streets west of the

tigris the tangled debris of war has barely been moved this all that remains of the old commercial center the reconstruction of mosul's buildings and its people's confidence will take many years barnaby phillips al-jazeera. an israeli court has extended the tension of a palestinian teenager her mother and cousin they were arrested a week ago after this video was posted online it shows a sixteen year old the head of the mean pushing and hitting an israeli soldier the incident reportedly happened after her relative was shot in the face by israeli forces and critically injured i had as appeared in several of the videos that challenging israeli soldiers. you know hospitals in gaza have been forced to cancel operations after cleaners went on strike over delayed salary payments the health ministry says planned surgeries cannot go ahead as operating theatres aren't ready the cleaning staff are demanding overdue you pay from the palestinian health

ministry which is run by the national consensus government they say they haven't received wages for several months. a to z. an official says the united arab emirates has intelligence that female fighters returning from iraq in syria may be trying to use to mizzi and passports to stage attacks the e.u. e.u. a calls outrage earlier this week by banning female to new zealand citizens from landing in the gulf states leading to protests in tunis the north african country responded by barring emirates from flights from tunisia and demanded an apology button is in government spokesman says the u.a.e. did not communicate his reasons for the ban properly and says they won't accept how its citizens are being treated. we are not part of emirates we are a sovereign country and they should deal with us according to what normally happens in relations between two countries after the continuous calls with the in the right to through our ambassador in abu dhabi it appears they have lifted the ban but they

did not give us details on how the ban was lifted. this year has seen a real drive by auto makers to get autonomous vehicles on the road in the u.s. and the u.k. with humans no longer behind the wheel developers say that more than a million lives a year could be saved but that change will mean job losses with some estimating redundancies could be in the millions or insley takes a closer look. in this brave new world events official intelligence the first direct effect on all our lives will be in transport it's already begun and it will change humanity in many ways it's well enough known by now that driverless cars and lorries are being trials the future we're told may involve our children not having to learn how to drive please press the automation button to place the car to go to me to move a satirical was this one even sitting in a simulator you feel

a lack of control if you don't grip the wheel or press the brakes dragging on for real involves a leap of faith who to listen to that is true the thing to the steering wheel you are now free to engage in other times the engineers here assure the technology is good enough for driverless travel on motorways if not in congested cities because there's too much going on. you know this is extremely busy and complex environment with lots of potential destructors people running across roads. so i think that's probably too complex we've certainly troy the contemporary vehicle automation both on the motorway and in urban environments. they don't work at all in urban environments and even on motorways they require regular interventions by human drivers. the future it seems may be a combination of systems moving us from port to driverless port modern rail systems

near airports are driverless and people use those quite happily the paths of the cars through space would be similar to if there were you know some physical guide to them so i think in some cases so long as the as the speeds are fairly low it's probably a safe proposition. true believers in driverless transport say we will be able to sleep or work in our vehicle but if that sounds good it will also mean the loss of millions of jobs and i wonder trades unions want to know how those jobs will be replaced we're looking to see massive massive investment in electric vehicles driverless vehicles future mobility we need a great leap forward it's easy to understand this concern in the u.k. there was a massive shock when car factories which had traditionally employed thousands of people all shut because of foreign competition this used to be the jackie were factory in the west midlands now it's going to be a warehouse the advent of driverless cars and wide automation could be

a far greater shock still the british government reckons that driverless cars could create up to thirty thousand jobs in the u.k. which sounds ok until you hear evidence that says that in this part of england alone automation could cost three hundred thousand jobs it becomes pretty clear that governments like the one in britain in the job strategy for automation and quickly were asked to consider a world in which no humans at the wheel of a vehicle means accidents will not happen more than a million lives will be saved every year driverless vehicles will be on the roads and soon but will human souse jobs rely on transport except them and can we learn to trust the machines to safeguard the lives of those we love lawrence lee al jazeera london. interesting points much more on our website the address al-jazeera .

take a look at the headlines here on al-jazeera polls have closed in liberia's presidential runoff election which will see its first democratic transition of power in seventy three years voters chose between the former footballer george where and the current vice president joseph both candidates have pledged to revive the struggling economy and kickstart infrastructure projects they're competing to succeed ellen johnson sirleaf who is stepping down after twelve years election officials say the turnout has been low muhammad though has more now from one. if that is. anything to go by the way into motion former international footballer. of the vault cost his opponent. vice president for the last. support from candidates will fell out of the race after him and where remain for

the ramble. hiro's former president mori has given his phone proof from the bottom of his heart thousands of people have protested in lima after president. pardoned mori he was serving a twenty five year prison sentence for corruption and crimes against humanity during his time in office in the one nine hundred ninety s. the kremlin says it's investigating with the calls by a russian opposition leader to boycott next year's election break the law alexei navalny has asked people to avoid the march vote after he was barred from running as a candidate syrian state t.v. is reporting that a government jet has been shot down over hama province says the military jet was downed by rebels in the north of the area and the pilot was killed in a packed hama has been subject that the heavy airstrikes by russian and syrian forces throughout the six year civil war hospitals in gaza have been forced to

cancel operations and hospitals after cleaners went on strike over delayed salary payments the health ministry says planned surgeries cannot go ahead as operating theatres aren't ready the cleaning staff are demanding overdue pay from the palestinian health ministry which is run by the national consensus government those are the headlines coming up next it's the street of half an hour of. protons neutrons and electrons quarks ever heard of a quark i have but i don't.