al-jazeera. voting closes in zimbabwe's paul without former leader robot gone be on the ballot but the opposition is already quiet foul. allow i maryam namazie in london you know with al jazeera also coming up india publishes a list that effectively strips four million people of citizenship in the northern state of assam. another round of diplomacy in sochi to try to find a solution to syria's war as government forces push into the southwest and firefighters battle against massive wildfires that have killed six people and

destroyed hundreds of homes in the u.s. state of california. we begin in zimbabwe where polls have closed in the country's first ever elections without longtime leader robert mugabe on the ballot however that didn't stop the ninety four year old from voting in the capital harare earlier or endorsing the opposition candidate nelson chamisa. already cried foul accusing the election commission of impeding the vote in in areas is the main challenger to the current president. for decades under mugabe with polls suggesting a tight race are in which house and brings us the latest now from harare. the e.u. election observer mission says in some places voting went well when other places it was totally disorganized this is they don't know where there's a simple logistical errors or it was deliberate it's too early to tell they say

what they're going to consult each other consult other election observer missions and come up with a statement in a few days' time. being told that if the international community don't endorse this election in three clear and credible in the much needed money that they need to jumpstart this economy may not come and many people who are waiting in line voters many of them and in florida who are hoping that this election could make the country move in a different direction investors come into the country open the factories and businesses that have been closed for nearly two decades visible were illiterate commission has said there had been a few issues here and there but they are confident that things have gone while the final results will be announced within five days. let's now speak to my studio guest charles laurie director and head of politics at a very risky maple croft thank you very much for staying with us so as we've been

saying this is the first election in the country without a long time to robert mugabe what does it mean physically way to have an election like this now it's a seismic event for some bob i mean if one imagines a country with the same leader for nearly forty years to have the next election with different candidates on the ballot means the election on skip is now quite different it's a wide open game previously it would almost be a foregone conclusion that sana p.f. would win such an election but now there's a real possibility is that the m.d.c. could score when. do you where do you put their chances than what what is that a genuine possibility because. despite feelings over robert mugabe himself is on it p.f. has been the established party in the country for so long and perhaps it's so much a part of the political landscape that they still do have a lot of appeal and sway with the population there there's no doubt they do this is

a party that has drawn support from rural areas right from the time of independence on nine hundred eighty s. there's no doubt that there's a lot of genuine support and if you look at recent surveys it suggests that both candidates are neck and neck but there's some variables in play which are quite interesting here if you look at the number of young voters who are coming off of voting either for the first or the second time they're much more likely to vote for someone like nelson chamisa who is closer to the age group who is much more are relevant to them he needs very popular rallies he's humorous and he represents something new and i think that's the key element it's freshness here how crucial is that youth going to be i think it could be the deciding factor in the selection individuals will come into this poll many with the long held views about whether they would continue to vote was on a p.f. or they have always been m.d.c. supporters but it's the youths who have so much to lose and use who for the first time many of them a feeling like they can vote freely without fear of state repercussions all right

thank you very much for now charles lowery well so far you observers have been saying that overall voting has been mixed they said it's been fine in some areas disorganized in those let's now focus on the pani district in west is in bob way malcolm webb is there for us malcolm tell us about how voting has been going that today. well this morning there were long queues at this polling station here it's about to close now any minute now it's finished the polling for the day became quiet in the afternoon but it had about seventy percent turnout at this station about to close the door then they'll be a short break for the agents then they'll to pound the boxes start counting those votes when they finish counting here the data will go to the provincial tally center this we happening across the whole country just in you know within the next hour in that data will go to the tally centers and be aggregated but it's going to take days before we actually get

a result that's going to come till saturday fourth of august so that's quite some time before we're going to find out who's going to be announced the winner and the verdict from observers so far has been mixed they said voting been smooth in some part of the country but just organized elsewhere what have you been hearing from the e.u. observer mission where you are or you spoke to the easy to observe a few minutes ago and he said that as he reported a minute ago very smooth in some places extremely disorganized in others and one of the problems he said was people being put in the wrong queues at polling stations being made to wait maybe six hours then told they have to join another line so he said he saw young people leaving in frustration not voting that he didn't know the scale of this thing and after consulting all their other observer team scattered across the country to work it out but another thing he said that his team had witnessed was people being bussed into a polling station who were local said weren't resident in that area said again

didn't know the scale of this didn't know if this is widespread but it's a potential malpractise he said you would be looking further into all right well thank you very much for now from the piney district in west isn't bob wayne malcolm where bringing us the latest. around four million residents of a northern indian state heart risk of losing their citizenship the government has published a register of citizens and to be included in that people must prove they came to india by the twenty fourth of march one nine hundred seventy one that's two days before bangladesh declared independence which led to hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing to india many of them settling in assam state officials there are telling the new foreign as they won't be deported but security has been stepped up to prevent any violence against them as porch reports india has tightened

security across the northern state of awesome which borders bangladesh thousands of bengali speaking muslims are worried about being sent to detention centers or deported. they sent me to jail without even listening to me. the state's new registry wants to identify people who entered india after the bangladesh pakistan war in one thousand seventy one. the names of four million people from the state's thirty two million residents are missing from the new draft of a citizens' registry is the guardian's very high cigar it is or it is very surprising it is unbelievable because they are his nose. are you legal infiltrators in our prime minister nouri and remote his government has pledged through move what it calls foreigners from us some state officials say people can appeal to have their names on the list how because you claim every person whose name has not been included in the draft citizens' list will have many opportunities to object to make

a claim on those whose names appeared on the revised registry are overjoyed and relieved that said i felt really good saying that the names of my family members have been included in the national registry of citizens those whose names are not on the registry continue to worry they fear if the uncertainty continues they might face deportation or risk becoming stateless culture dirge on al-jazeera. syrian government forces a pressing ahead with their offensive in southwest syria despite threats from my sil to kill civilian residents syrian state t.v. reports they're attacking on two fronts and have launched rockets at eisel positions in the basin region on wednesday i still killed dozens of people an abducted around eighteen more and attacks in swayed a province the on group is now restricted to a few pockets of territory close to syria's southern border with jordan well meanwhile another round of diplomatic talks to find

a solution to syria's civil war begins in the russian city of sochi representatives from russia iran are attending the summit to discuss the issues of deescalation zones in the formation of a syrian constitutional committee they'll also discuss pressing humanitarian problems like the right of return for syrian refugees earlier this month syrian rebels said they would boycott the talks but there are reports that some factions might have changed them lines and are sending delegations off to roll on the abdel-hamid has the latest now from sochi. certainly the government delegation and to some extent russia are coming into the storks in a position of strength thanks to the territorial gains made over the past twelve months and recently for example retaking control of the borders of jordan and israel. un envoys to find them is to or is also attending these talks what could be expected well it's very difficult to said this stage but we do know

that they're going to talk about the calls to choose then whether it is amending the one that was passed in two thousand and twelve or rewriting an entire constitution now the message coming from russia is obviously that the war is nearly over even though there is still the battle for libya looming and the situation in the north east of the country which is currently under control of the kurdish forces is a huge concern for now we are told that russia told turkey that that concern should not undermine the talks here in sochi for russia it is very important to make to un pass this message and make it clear that now you can start talking about the next phase in syria what happens in the post-war period even though there is a large chunk of the opposition to one that has been going to the u.n. led talks that is absent here in sochi and some are raising concerns about

how can you really have a. as a settlement of this conflict without their presence here. still ahead for you on the program mali says attacks and violence disrupted around a fifth of the country's polling stations during sunday's election and protecting maritime borders as the war in yemen spreads to the scenes. welcome back let's look at weather conditions across the levant and western parts of asia following picture for most and a pretty hot when the temps there fourteen tehran forty four in baghdad bit of a breeze as well i think lifted us a bit of an issue otherwise we're still seeing one or two showers around the caucuses fine conditions though for much of turkey and fine around the

mediterranean coastline so looking at twenty nine in the sunshine in beirut here in the arabian peninsula it's a fine picture forty seems to be the order of the day across the western side of the peninsula we've got forty two though here in doha but the humidity is fairly low the wind is quite brisk at the most below that for some time will stay like that so humidity not too much of an issue we've gone into showers in the gulf of aden and cooler cloudy conditions are along the coast of oman and that continues as we head on through into wednesday so let's head down into southern parts of africa a fine picture for the most part but breezy there for cape town with a chance of wanted to showers fine conditions around the eastern cape and looking great across much as him and into zambia twenty eight the high moussaka for central parts of africa are seeing the old shop pushing across chad for instance further towards the west so west africa seen some heavy rain at times you may see one or two showers affect in bamako in mali.

full of struggle the children quarrels of the mother he will then with. the she lived with. full of pleasure. an intimate look at life in cuba today. the thought of course under my boss had on me when i came out of a lot of all the people i've met hang. on al-jazeera. welcome back a quick reminder of the top stories this hour voting has ended in zimbabwe's elections

the first without robert mugabe in almost forty years old say the result is likely to be close millions of undocumented muslims in the northern indian state of us some are risk of losing their citizenship after being left off a new government register and another round of diplomatic talks to find a solution to syria's war is underway in the russian city of sochi. while in all the stories we're following six people have died and seven are still unaccounted for as wildfires continue to sweep across the u.s. state of california officials say they've managed to contain about seventeen percent of the car fire in northern california the largest and deadliest of ninety five is carney running it's charred an area the size of detroit all seeing more than thirty eight thousand people to flee their homes. or. has more now from the destroyed town of keswick. the entire community of keswick

california has been turned to ash nothing remains a once lively little town of about seven hundred people now resembles something like a far away planet from a science fiction movie the fire that roared through here was described as a tornado of flames there was nothing firefighters could do to stop it the way that front fire front was coming through it was going to do what it wanted to do we might be able to save one little spot here but the risk would have been real just announced to try and even be anywhere near there what remains are the remnants of people's lives there are small signs of life here like the burnt pages of this children's book it's silent there isn't a sound there's still a mandatory evacuation zone residents aren't being allowed back. only the occasional emergency vehicle passes by ironically the only color remaining in town

a red fire hydrant that was no match for the flames it's the middle of the day but the sun can barely be seen because it's so gray and dark here the sun can barely peek out through that thick layer of smoke and ash that covers the air not only here but in this entire region of california doctors say people that inhale the smoke now face health risks. by all accounts everyone here was able to flee just before the fire overtook them the residents are mostly low income the future of the historic town is now in doubt i don't know if they'll have the resources to rebuild if i hope it goes who have insurance have the opportunity with those who don't know it's. a low income type of area so i'm not sure that a lot of people will be able to rebuild. if they decide to rebuild it will be a new town because the old one simply no longer exists. or gabriel

joins us from shasta county california will describe the scene there. yeah it's basically like a ghost town we're not too far from where we shot that story that you just saw about fifteen twenty minutes outside the city of redland all of this area is still an evacuation zone mandatory evacuation zone that's why you don't see people picking through the remains of what are their homes where but as you can see this is someone's home or used to be somebody is home and it's easy to look at all of this but you see it and it's a real reminder that these were human life people that lived here fortunately they got out of here before with their lives here mostly in shelters in the city of reading most don't want to talk to the media they want to maintain their privacy but you can get a sense of how bad this fire really was and how fast firefighters say how fast it

swept through this entire area here this is very much a working class areas we saw from that story these are people with not a lot of means there were small humble homes here and the little that they had now completely gone you see a lawnmower here off to my right you see what was the kitchen and you can also see off in the distance perhaps some on the road back there some emergency vehicles crews that are still there and the haze that still hangs over this area that is smoke from the nearby fires here the good news all say this fire they say they're finally starting to get an upper hand on but there are still many fires burning throughout the state and yes and just looking at the image way you are and seen elsewhere that has been an incredible amount of destruction caused but these fires of also proven deadly having claimed six victims now what do we know about

the fires that are raging elsewhere in the state. yeah that six victims just here at this car fires are calling it they're calling it the name of this fire is the car fire yeah there are as i said seventeen major fires burning just in the state of california there are over twenty five fires burning throughout the western part of the united states the california fires are mostly being started because of three reasons number one incredibly dry conditions as you see where i'm at now is very dry dry conditions it's very hot to the temperatures here been over forty degrees celsius and then the other issue is a lot of people saying a change in climate here just really moving these fires much faster than they have in previous years with very high winds one of the other fires in central california and that's shut down the famous yosemite national park that's

a national park that is visited by four million tourists a year including international tours from all over the world to go to that park to see the famous half dome part of that park as it's called that national or national park yosemite it's a first time it's been closed down because of fire since one thousand nine hundred firefighters are saying it's mostly a precautionary reason because there's a big fires burning around that national park listen as soon as firefighters get a containment on this fire in the coming days they say they're going to be out of here moving on to the next fires this is shaping up to be the worst fire season in california in decades without a doubt that conditions are really bad thank you very much for now and again as ana brains on the latest from shasta county california. mali's government says a fifth of polling stations were affected by violence or attacks by gunmen jaring sunday's election nonetheless the president. praised the election as largely

successful saying its credibility had not been affected results in a week's time mohammed vall has more now from the capital bamako. and here. counting ballots by lamplight through the night the voting process went smoothly in the mali capital on sunday a great relief for of oddities after weeks of security concerns results from twenty three thousand polling stations across the country are now in but it will take days to count them all it may be friday before an earlier official result could be announced president seeking a second five year term he congratulated himself and the people of mali for their relative calm democratic process moving them to believe it's a real pleasure for me to perform the citizen act and it's to start a victory for the people of mali who have voted calmly and serenely this vote will have demonstrated our democratic maturity and our status as

a great people that optimistic view is being eco the across the political spectrum and focus your money what money has devoted a million people have to so that the country can through the world more game have a more credible government that you can have spent five years in different than you know five years or mali is seen as a country adrift with problems of corruption and government which has led us where we are today and we have to turn to page one hundred twenty nine that is what i hope we came here for peace we came here for mali that's what many voters here tell us and there is a consensus among them that for any democracy to be meaningful it has to bring stability and security to the nation. but election day did not pass in total peace ballot boxes were reportedly confiscated in the area of timbuktu there was a mortar attack on a u.n. base in the northern town of i could hug with one shell landing in the polling station. armed groups affiliated to al qaeda in the islamic magreb have repeatedly

warned they would disrupt the election opponents of president brought him back akita blame him for the failure to defeat armed groups and and ethnic violence his main rival so while a c.c. has gained tremendous support from those who say they are unhappy with the start squirrel opinion polls have shown the two in a tight race close enough but on the election might be on the horizon some advice alleges iraq from a court. the u.n. is warning that as strikes by the saudi coalition in yemen and pushing civilians at extreme risk the conflict is not only causing the world's worst humanitarian crisis it's also affecting international trade us weak saudi arabia temporarily suspended oil shipments for the bubble mendip straight which connects the gulf of aden to the red sea it's actually going to aim now has more on efforts by djibouti to protect

the western portion of the waterway. this is the battlement deb straight between yemen and djibouti it's a crucial waterway leading to the red sea fears that the war in yemen is expanding to the strait have prompted you to take action would be we begin to intensify or see patrols as per the instructions of our president in order to protect the maritime border from any threats last week saudi arabia halted oil shipments through the strait after it says who the rebels attacked two of its oil takers in the red sea the attack caused minor damage to one of its tankers but this is spent can cause oil prices to spike in global stock markets and prompted the european union to warn that this is a threat to international trade. hundreds of law ships by through here every day since my country is overlooking the problem and the strait of responsibility is to

protect our security and to fight against illegal boat smugglers traffickers and pirates since mid june the saudi u.a.e. coalition has launched an offensive in the port of who died in yemen and saudi arabia says the primary goal is to safeguard the path as ships travel to the red sea but other than worsening the existing humanitarian crisis the coalition has been unable to retake the port analysts say delays in the delivery of crude oil could have an effect that's felt far beyond the region but saudi arabia says it won't allow its oil tankers back into the babil mendip straight until it deems it's once again safe natasha game. bulldozes and construction crews have started what to see it off the border between iraq and syria the iraqi government says the aim is to stop cross border attacks by myself itas the project has a long way to go before all six hundred kilometers

a secure as emraan call reports from baghdad. what was once an open border crossing between friendly neighbors is now walled off iraq sealing the border with syria for national security reasons it's already completed a twenty kilometer stretch. iraqi helicopters patrol from the air the iraqi army stands guard on the ground. we have implemented a strategic project just like any other country in the world to protect our borders frankly speaking this is the best approach in terms of implementing security and we can protect ourselves from infiltrators smugglers and terrorist. the threat from isis has been dealt with after the iraqi army recaptured seize territory and declared victory last year however so-called eisel sleeper cells have taken advantage of the open border and infiltrated from syria securing the border has been welcomed by government leaders in damascus. the syrian side wants to secure the border area also so they can prevent cross border infiltration and so far both

countries have had success in capturing fighters but iraq's priority is to secure the border because of the absence of a completely secure syrian border the construction project began in june concrete walls fences and sand barriers surveillance towers to be installed in the coming months if it's successful iraq will close the rest of the border with syria some six hundred kilometers however it still has to deal with what it calls sleeper cells that are inside iraq in some of the main cities and in the countryside. baghdad. the lead investigator into the missing malaysia airlines flight m h three seventy says he cannot exclude the possibility of foul play or hijack the plane disappeared on its way from kuala lumpur to beijing in two thousand and fourteen with two hundred thirty nine people on board a long awaited independent report says it was probably deliberately diverted and

flown for more than six hours after communication was severed but investigators say they're still unable to determine the cause. not of the opinion that you could have been an event took by the hundreds but heard the same time we cannot deny the fact that there was an atom but we cannot deny the fact that as yet another license the systems many need to know with intent or otherwise so we feel that there is also one possibility that could account for all these young the ruling or any possibility we're just saying don't know what we do we cannot exclude propose the author the person or party or unlawful interference. now eritrea and somalia have signed an agreement to establish diplomatic relations the latest store in the horn of africa off to ethiopia and eritrea and investigate

of war somalia's president has been in the eritrean capital s. mara since saturday is a reflection of how diplomacy in the region has been transformed since ethiopia's leader reached out to eritrea so more on that story and everything else we're covering right here al jazeera dot com. a quick recap of the top stories this hour polls have closed in zimbabwe's first of elections without longtime leader robert mugabe on the ballot well gobby says he's supporting the opposition candidate nelson chamisa not his successor and former ally amisom and gaga election is seen as vital for zimbabwe's international credibility. is in harare zimbabwe is no that is the international community doesn't endorse these elections and say they were free the and credible and all that talk about investors coming to the country may not happen and most

people who are voting way young and unemployed they really want to call me to come to recover the really want jobs they need these elections to be endorsed by everyone especially international community. and our other top stories millions of undocumented muslims in the northern indian state of risk of losing their citizenship the government says citizens must prove they came to india by the twenty fourth of march one nine hundred seventy one which rules out the mass exodus of refugees who fled to india when bangladesh declared independence two days later another round of diplomatic talks to find a solution to syria's war is underway in the russian city of sochi representatives from russia turkey and iran will all attend the summit to discuss the issue of deescalation zones and the formation of the syrian constitutional committee six people have died and seven is still unaccounted for as wildfires continue to sweep across the u.s. state of california officials say they've managed to contain about seventeen percent of the car fire in northern california the largest and deadliest of ninety

fires currently burning mali's government says attacks by gunmen or other violence disrupted around a fifth of polling stations during sunday's election in the northern city of kid i'll fight his five rounds at one polling station counting is underway with results two in about a week. and bulldozers and construction crews have started to sail off the six hundred kilometer border between iraq and syria the iraqi government says the a miss to stop cross border attacks by i so fight. as the top stories the news hour is coming up in about half an hour's time do join me then coming up next it's inside story.

indians no more four million people have been left off the list of citizens in the northern state of asylum modi's government argues they could not produce valid documents so have they become stateless and will this create further division this is inside story. hello and welcome to the program. four million people in northern india effectively lost their citizenship after their names were left out of a national database of registered citizens the list now includes only those who were able to.