humanity. for all the gold in the world and i've just got. this is al jazeera. hello i was the whole robin you're watching the al-jazeera news our life my headquarters here in doha coming up in the next sixty minutes the former u.n. secretary general and nobel peace laureate kofi anon has died at the age of eighty . also hundreds killed and tens of thousands displaced stans the indian state of carola is hit by the worst floods in a century. also a new leader at the helm it run car takes charge as pakistan's prime minister promising a corruption free government. and the state funeral in italy as more bodies are recovered from the site of

a bridge that collapsed in genoa. and i've just image to a few days sports news including indonesia's capital jakarta prepares to welcome fourteen thousand athletes to the opening of the asian games anymore later in the program. welcome to the news our former u.n. secretary general kofi annan has died and was eighty years old he served as the seventh secretary general from nineteen ninety seven to two thousand and six and was the first to rise to the top of the united nations from within the ranks of the organization itself he received the nobel peace prize jointly with the united nations in two thousand and one for their work towards a more peaceful world. well the current u.n. secretary general until you get terrorists has voiced his sorrow at the news that his predecessor passed away and in a statement good terrorist said you know that was

a guiding force for good it was with profound sadness that i learned of his passing in many ways kofi annan was the united nations rather than jordan joins us now from the u.n. headquarters in new york and one assumes that the tributes have been pouring in roles. the tributes have been pouring in of course you noted the statement of the current secretary general antonio good tanishq we've also heard from the outgoing high commissioner for human rights prince zaid hussein who considered mr on a mentor and someone who kept his spirits up while he was serving as the high commissioner for human rights. leaders such as theresa may the british prime minister just sent and the new zealand prime minister the former british prime minister tony blair notably at this hour we have not heard from the u.s.

president donald trump and that is a bit surprising given that the united states is the largest financial supporter of all the member states the united nations we have also heard from other leaders and organizations such as the organization that was set up in honor of nelson mandela the people there are very are just devastated by his passing they considered him a great gift to the world so really so a lot of. really emotional outpouring and a real sense of loss of someone who really did dedicate his professional career to public service roles as you walk along the corridor of the u.n. he will be the must be a general sense that you can perhaps in part because kofi annan came from the ranks all for the u.n. he wasn't a prime minister he wasn't a foreign minister but he was

a career diplomat. that's right it's saturday here in the united states as it is around the world and so most people are away for the weekend it's also the middle of the summer so a lot of people are taking advantage of the upcoming holiday to get a short vacation or holiday but he is perhaps the most well respected secretary general after commerce old who was the second u.n. secretary general he died in a plane crash back in one nine hundred sixty one but wherever you go around the campus people talk about kofi annan is courtliness they talk about his real sense of compassion they talk about the fact that he made trying to prevent humanitarian crises whether from environmental problems whether from hunger or because of war trying to prevent humanitarian crises from developing they speak very highly of the

work that he did in the use it as an inspiration for their own work today indeed for them and we'll leave it there with the euros thanks for thralls jordan at the u.n. now let's cross to london where our diplomatic editor james basis is waiting to i mean a huge loss to those old guys ations and the united nations that relied on sort of his years of diplomacy james and they often sold him out as a fresh pair of eyes all the problems of the world. yes a towering figure i think in the world of international diplomacy and in the history of the united nations it's worth remembering the u.n. is seventy three years old kofi annan had just a ten year term as u.n. secretary general but his mark on the united nations and global diplomacy spans more than fifty years he rose as we said through the ranks of the united nations and was the head of peacekeeping of the u.n. at the time of one of its biggest challenges and that is the genocide in rwanda he

certainly spoke about that later and said it was one of his greatest regrets that he was not able to do more to halt the violence there was a small piece of keeping mission there at the time and certainly some believe the u.n. should have done more at the time when he took the top job he was secretary general who saw then a new u.s. administration which went in to afghanistan after nine eleven and then a very difficult thing for a secretary general something with current secretary general is facing on syria he faced on iraq which is a divided security council them particularly divided among the five permanent members of the security council those five countries in many ways are the main masters of the secretary general and yet he found himself with the u.s. and the u.k. supporting the invasion of iraq and russia and china and france very

much on the other side and he had to try and steer a course which eventually evolved the u.n. going back into iraq to try and deal with the aftermath of the invasion but then you had fifteen years ago almost to the day the bombing of the u.n. compound twenty two u.n. staffers killed one of the black days of his time as secretary general iraq also one of the biggest controversies of his time as secretary general because to help the iraqis they set up the oil for food program but that grew increasingly corrupt and there were even allegations about. zone son kojo and his involvement with an oil company. james you know despite all the seriousness and the fact that this man very proud african could knock heads together and get people to talk around a table he did have a lighter side that perhaps we never saw that much but you were witness to that at least on one occasion. you know he did have a sense of humor which i think is what helped him through. some of these very

difficult times because remember he didn't give up diplomacy when he gave up the u.n. he went on to serve as the u.n. and arab league's envoy in syria coming up with a police plan in twenty twelve if people had listened to him in a bay that power and then the war in syria would have ended some six years ago and also working very hard on me and my. crisis but i think behind the scenes there was a sense of humor that helped him through in fact i was joking with him in davos at the beginning of the year in switzerland and thanking him for his involvement in a video for the u.n. correspondents who do a garland dinner in aid of charity at the end of each year and he actually did a video for the christmas scarlet dinner last year and the main punchline of his joke was he hadn't actually been the secretary general at all throughout his time as secretary general his punch line was he'd been played by morgan freeman. really

and for the moment of course sir james will leave it there as we wait for more reaction from across the globe to kofi annan staff give our viewers some more background to the man himself and leave the legacy of promoting peace with varying results in two thousand and eight he was able to get kenyan president to why i came back he and opposition need to get to agree on a power sharing government but the deal eventually collapsed in twenty twelve he was named the un arab league envoy i was james just mentioned to syria promoting a six point peace plan that the un said president bashar assad had accepted in august of that year he resigned from his post things syria had not fully complied with the terms of the cease fire that he had pushed for. two years ago he began his work on an advisory commission looking into the humanitarian crisis in libya bars rakhine state his recommendations led to a government appointed panel which submitted its final report only this week. that

speak to dogs in oxford he served as a first officer to the un secretary general from two thousand to two thousand and three director of the project on un governance and reform at the university of oxford very good of you to join a somewhat is a very sad day just want to get your reaction when you got the news that kofi annan had passed away here i was stunned this morning he was a man of real integrity intelligent patient and had a real warmth about him so it's a huge loss to the world in terms of the work of the work very closely with him so how positive was it that he actually came from sort of the rank and file of the united nations in terms of knowing how the organization worked and how to sort of navigate sort of the diplomatic mind field that the un can be. i think it helped hugely to have that head start he didn't need to learn the job he already knew the u.n.

inside and out and i remember the way that he would greet the cleaner in the exactly the same way that he would agree to head of state in the corridor or so i think he carried a great humility with him into the role. probably coming from the rank and file help to help do that but it was a lot about him as a person as well we very rarely get the chance to speak to someone like yourself mr dawes who knows somebody has passed away so very well so if you could just focus on two thousand and three because that was a very dark here for the u.n. the iraq war was pending the lead up to it weighed most probably heavily on kofi annan supplied how difficult was it in dealing with as james has just mentioned in his live from london when you have a security council split you have the u.s. and the u.k. on one side or the rest on the other. i think anyone in that position you've got great pressures from from more sides and he i

remember he acted in a very nominal miss way. throughout that really stressful period and whilst dealing with a lot of issues other than iraq. i remember he told me once that his favorite book was siddartha by herman hesse or and i think there's quite a parallel there in a way the book is a fictional version of the story of how he he sees great poverty and great riches and and finds a middle path and i think that during the lead up to the iraq war kofi annan was similarly he'd seen great endemic poverty around the world he'd met leaders who were living a life of luxury but he was able to to keep a level and actually feel when he spoke to people feel that they were being heard so i think that was a huge asset to the u.n. i think we have it with the new secretary general antonio as well that human quality of being able to listen and be able to speak with with forcefulness but

with humility when necessary. in the end it was not possible for him to stop the iraq war but i think he carried himself with great integrity throughout that episode indeed he was very proud african and therefore one wonders what its legacy will be will it be any different from the way people remember him on the african continent to the way we should all remember him globally. i think he he was an african and he also transcended that i think there's huge respect for him as an older states person of africa cross the continent but he's also somebody like nelson mandela who is an emblem for all of us i think he really embodied the the the ideals of the u.n. charter in him himself as a. as an individual i think in particular who will be remembered for the creation of the millennium development goals so creating a platform for sustainable development as well as reducing conflict through

enhancing peacekeeping and making human rights central by persuading member states that they were indispensable for peace and security and for development so i think his contribution will be long lasting some doors that it's that it's been a real pleasure speaking to you and really getting an insight into the late cofield thanks very much for your time thank you very much. to our other top story of stranded people waiting to be rescued in the southern indian state of carola as heavy rain continues to batter the region more than one hundred ninety people have died in just over a week almost all the districts in the southern states are on alert with the flooding potentially affecting most of the thirty five million people it's so bad the international airport has been shut down for at least a week tourists have been told to stay away so far three hundred ten thousand people have been displaced by the flooding most of them are now living in the fifteen hundred relief camps that have been set up with more to ensure rain

forecast over the weekend the government has pledged seventy one billion dollars in aid him but more good reports. homes nearly submerged in floodwaters. people forced to leave their properties behind in order to avoid the floods or landslides this has been the scene for over a week as the southern indian state of caroline battles heavy rains. the subsequent floods are being described as the worst in nearly one hundred years will be going to water levels are rising since yesterday the rains have been heavy it's still ongoing people are worried. the floodwaters and mudslides have killed hundreds of people since the start of the monsoon season in june. some parts of the state have received nearly double the average annual rainfall. ordered three thousand people have been forced out of their homes. and that has not been easy as waters flood access points in many areas leaving air evacuation as the only option the language

of. the rainfall has led to massive landslides where chunks of the mountain of come down blocking the entire stretch although the clearance team is working to open the road it's unlikely it will happen people have been shifted to camps in the nearby areas. where the forecasters say heavy rains will continue over the weekend but will ease afterwards but while that is good news for those affected in kerala the rains will likely be drifting to other states in the country people morgan are just they're under thomas joins me now on the line from what carroll is capital in at the border and andrew just painted the scene for us and exactly what's happening. well we're just south of the worst of the flotsam in this city of toronto from the weather is not too bad but it's extremely bad for the north as we've just been seeing there and here is just to update some of the numbers we now know that about one hundred exactly one hundred ninety four according to official figures have died

since august the non-tribal nine days ago and one hundred sixty four of them in the last five days you can just get an idea of how this is escalating or looks like there are now two thousand camps or people who've been displaced and the removal of three hundred thousand people living in both camps i mean that is a number that is higher than the population of some countries so the scale of this is just quite remarkable eighty dams have had to be open taxes what is tracing so much floodwater in so many places out there has been speaking to a colonel in the indian army even got fifty three helicopters actively working to rescue people and just in the last few days he says eighteen thousand people have been rescued so these numbers are just staggering under as you drive to the location where you are right now what did you see along the way well sort of small areas in terms of rescue and recovery and also the aid operation. we flew to

trivandrum and there on the runway we saw call go playing being loaded with huge amounts of what looked like bags the rice and looked like portions of water folk pretty bad going to be slightly further north as i say this city itself is a skate the worst of the rain we're going to start to drive north shortly to where it's even worse can see what we see there but right here it's not too bad for the rest of carola it's you can fly through the mountains and in the stream the dock situation still in a low before cost at super bowl fit their pace each for the range to ease a little going into next week it is still moving water coming down from the sky and that it's the last thing people here need i just want to stop writing and start getting something stop throwing things out but there's no sign of fact even the prime minister who was apprised of a fly over on saturday morning we did manage to go on but it wasn't until the afternoon flight when the prime minister times also had a job just you know things are pretty bad only if they'll hear of a moment we'll leave it there and we will follow events with you through the andrew

thomas stay in duvet at the foot of the. still ahead here on the al-jazeera news the u.s. threatens to impose more sanctions on turkey as the country faces tough economic pressure and mexico's president says he wants to put the fate of a new apple to a fight also in full to find out why jamaican king for into the same boat today is holding its hands frenzy in sydney. for macwhich to imran khan has been officially sworn in as prime minister of pakistan it's taken come two decades to get to the top job after retiring from the sport and turning his attention to politics he was elected prime minister in a vote in the national assembly on friday has the wrekin south party won the most seats in the elections last month col hyder hasa latest from islamabad. imran khan

take that prime minister of pakistan the order administered by the president of pakistan mr. and. many presidential palace and it. will be big against corruption in a country where corruption and in diffusion and i. said that he will provide employment today young in a country where the majority of the population. of turkey imran khan of course had a go ahead of him the country the economy is in poor shape. the united states are rock bottom. one is gone need to be improved emraan had. done he extended an olive branch to india thing that really got outstanding issue again looting the key issue of. the extra step.

of young leadership who have replaced the old guard who have ruled this country for several decades his. party and our country but he also has. many challenges board on the internal and external front. consul residues in saudi arabia of blocking citizens from performing the muslim pilgrimage the size its nationals were unable to get permits to travel to mecca saudi arabia saying an unspecified number of qataris have a ride for the pilgrimage the saudi arabia bahrain of egypt diplomatic ties with qatar more than a year ago. supporting terrorism a claim the qatari government strongly to the lead.

now the asian games are underway in the indonesian capital jakarta with the opening ceremony festivities were in full swing on thursday when the ceremonial torture of arrived in the capital jakarta it's one of the world's largest multi-sport event second only to the olympics and it's the largest event as of a hosted with fourteen thousand athletes competing for gold and glory scott joins us now from jakarta well we knew this was going to be quite a show openness so do we know what's going on right now. so here we know right now that there have been some speeches that were kind of i think five stages to the opening ceremonies pre-show and then there was a performance on this massive stage in the stadium behind me that was built fifty six years ago for the very first asian games that was posted here in the very elaborate stage show and then we saw the parade of all the different teams all the different nations were participating there are forty five nations so we saw the parade there and one there was a kind of

a standout for that was the unified korea team north and south korea like they did in the olympics early in the year they marched together under a flag with the silhouette of the korean peninsula so that has been ongoing we're hearing now from some politicians will probably get more of the official opening ceremonies going forward to see that torch actually light the cauldron inside the stadium that's probably still going to come in maybe the next hour or so but a very long very elaborate opening ceremony so no indeed because any host city wants to sort of clean up its act for all of those international visitors and sports personalities that are going to be there both on the ground in the especially in the quality has been questionable in the lead up to this event. it has absolutely not something that the jakarta and indonesia has been grappling with over the last several years and big forest fires have really kind of contributed to the pollutants in the air here today opening ceremonies day luckily

in. for the organizers luckily it was a modern air quality and on the previous days it was unhealthy but just a couple days ago and it's kind of vacillating back and forth obviously moving forward they really wanted to stay the way it did today because you have got a lot of outdoor activities a lot of outdoor events so they want to keep the skies as clean as possible. they're hoping for that but yeah and also there was another interesting story you know there is the athletes' village about a half hour away from the stadium here and there is a river that goes by that's really polluted and it smells so what the government tried to do is clean that up before the game started that was unsuccessful so they put a tarp a controversy a move they put a tarp over top of the river to hide it and to hide the smell or hopefully clamp down on the smell a little bit so obviously they're doing some things but they can't really control too many things like the air what is the there that you know as the days go on for these two weeks of events that if the skies they like they were today let's hope certainly will touch it with you later in the day as the vent draws to an end

thanks very much scott now take us credit rating has been lowered by two financial agencies moody's and standard and tools now say it's become more difficult for turkey to make payments on its debts the country's already struggling with a financial crisis and sanctions from the united states gabriel alexander has will from new york. for the turkish lira it was a week that could not in soon enough he week that started with the lira sliding to a record low of seven point two against the us dollar the currency has lost nearly forty percent of its value against the dollar this year alone as a full fledged economic crisis continues to simmer the trump administration this week threatened to impose additional economic sanctions on turkey over the country's continued house arrest of a u.s. pastor on terrorism charges the diplomatic standoff led trump on friday to again say sanctions are justified turkey has in my opinion acted very very badly so we

haven't seen the last of that we are not going to take it sitting down they can take our face but some analysts say the u.s. is being overly aggressive with the sanctions and use them too much and use them to recklessly if you don't have allies on board when you use the. you erode their effectiveness over time however there are some signs of potential relief on wednesday qatar's emir tahmima bin hamad out funny visited ankara bringing with him promises of an investment package worth fifteen billion dollars the money will mainly be injected into turkey's financial markets and banks turkey also promised to inject more money into the economy here on wall street they're watching the events in turkey very closely but most analysts say they have not seen any significant signs yet that events there are objecting the u.s. stock market but elsewhere that's not the case markets in asia remain mixed and

european stocks were mostly down primarily because many european countries remain heavily exposed to turkey's debts while the list of grievances between these two nato allies is substantial this crisis ultimately boils down to a battle of wills between two lead. there's the big question now which one of them will blink first until then how far will the lire fall in the meantime gabriel is on to al-jazeera new york. times whether his cabinet it's interesting that india is actually one of our top stories with all those floods in the south the country that's right and just can't seem to get it right we cannot get it right immediately either below average or it's above average and this year is above average but i want to take you closer in to show you what we're looking at right here first of all of geography in the area of course carol is right here on the coast a lot of low lying areas but we do have those mountain range just to the east that we're talking those landslides as well as mudslides now in terms of rain we did have just the opposite effect just several years ago back in two thousand and

fifteen we were forty five percent behind the terms of rain back in two thousand and sixteen it was thirty one percent last year it was about nine percent so last year was about average but so far this year we have already seen two thousand three hundred forty four millimeters of rain just for the monsoon season across this region that's through june and to this date what that means is we are looking at it is forty two percent right now above average across this region now we still have about three weeks left in the monsoon season the big months in season across the area and the next couple of days we are looking at still heavy rain across much of the south so we're going to be seeing that rain continuing as we go through the next couple of days i want to show what we can you see on the forecast map there is the rain right there it is not going to be as heavy as it was but would be nice if we had a break of no rain so a lot of that water could recede and as we go here into monday you can see more rain is also in the forecast across the region as well as very heavy rain expected across much of the northeastern part of the country. let's get well still ahead

here all the news out of the polls with voice that furia over a proposed law they say will reduce them to second class citizens and to see other older is set to make his italian league debut for you ventus p.c. we'll have more on that in sports to stay with us. it takes discipline and camaraderie. this is not a game or is it. what is a healthy balance between work and play when playing is a job at hand and fortune to be made. the story of the highs and lows of young. fast paced world of the pro game. state of play a witness documentary. as just. one of the really special things that work in

progress here is that even as a camera woman i get to have so much empathy and contribution to a story i feel we cover this region better than anyone else working for us as you know it's very challenging but in the particular because you have a lot of people that are divided on political issues we are we the people believed to tell the real story i'll just mandate is to deliver in-depth journalism we don't feel inferior to the audience across the globe. you're watching al-jazeera is a news hour on so ho robin a reminder of our top stories u.n. secretary general kofi annan has died at the age of eighty seven. secretary general

from one nine hundred ninety seven to two thousand and six i was the first to rise to the top of the united nations from within the ranks of the organization itself he received the nobel peace prize jointly with the un in two thousand and one. also india prime minister narendra modi has surveyed what's been described as some of the worst flooding in a century in the southern state of carola thousands of stranded people are waiting to be rescued as heavy rain continues to batter the region. but former cricket styron card has been sworn in as pakistan's prime minister it has taken the car more than two decades to get the top job after retiring from the sport and turning his attention to politics he was elected prime minister with a vote at the national assembly of friday. the remains of a family a husband wife and their nine year old daughter have been recovered from the rubble of the bridge that collapsed in italy on tuesday this brings the number of dead to war the forty with hundreds more injured and

a state funeral has taken place for victims of the disaster president. among those attending but sometimes blamed the government for the disaster and boycotted the ceremony for more of the funeral service for the victims and their families david chaytor joins me now from jeddah well it really was a service for all with all denominations being reflected. that's right the extraordinary thing about this tragedy is that there was so many nationalities involved this really was an international highway between france and italy and there were some seventeen families of course who as you said have boycotted the whole proceedings because they felt that previous italian governments had been negligent in the case of the maintenance of this bridge and they were responsible for it so they preferred to keep their grief in private and say farewell on their own away from the media spotlight and of course more importantly

away from the senior politicians who were attending the service but of course the. fresh bodies that were dug up from the rubble of under the bridge did hang over the service it was meant to be a time of coming together supporting each other to try and show some sort of sympathy for for their grief and to lessen that grief if they could but at the moment i'm standing in the square now that the whole ceremony is over standing in the square where the the owners and the people who ran the franchise for that bridge will be giving their first press conference appearing in public for the first time and there's a lot of anger against them because many people said there was an engineers report only last year that warned there were serious problems with the bridge and the spans that hold that the bridge up so everybody was looking now at them they're giving the press conference in a hotel on the square and to find out exactly what their next step is going to be

how much compensation they're going to give to the families of the victims to tell us more about exactly what went wrong and why it went wrong and of course the populist nationalist government here the coalition government have started proceedings against them threatening to withdraw their whole concession from them that's been hitting their share. of their parent company so the spotlight will no longer be on the victims and their families the spotlight will very much be on the men who were responsible for that bridge and are responsible also for many other bridges like it and the motorways across the whole of italy and serious worries at the moment about the the rate at which some of these bridges builds fifty's sixty's and seventy's and now deteriorating it seems a reinforced concrete doesn't last more than fifty years it was meant to last one hundred years but something's gone very wrong with the design just exactly what did

they know and when did they know it it is will come back to where we hear what they have to say for the moment david thank you. it's almost a year since me and miles military began a crackdown targeting muslim need agencies say seven thousand have been killed and seven hundred thousand forced to leave the country un investigators suspect a campaign of rape murder and arson was organized at the very highest level but it's on track for peace and reconciliation its government appointed panel has submitted its final report this was set up to implement recommendations of another commission which was led by former late u.n. secretary kofi annan now that the commission had called for concrete steps to ensure the rights of the rich and the whole violators accountable but the u.n. and rights groups say none of this has been done the security council will debate the issue this month the fact finding fact finders will present their final report in september wrote italy is

a rigorous searcher at deakin university he says we are boss government has consistently failed to implement kofi annan its recommendations. well the b.m.r. authorities have prevented any independent outside investigators from accessing northern rakhine state they've prevented the un. human rights council's fact finding mission on me and not from entering the country and dave prevented the un special repertory and human rights and me and my young he leave from investigating fully what has occurred in northern rakhine state but what we know is that seven hundred thousand disparate. refugees have fled across of the international front in tara and that happened coincidentally this week one year ago so this study one year ago coffee and then would have been in me and mark preparing to present the findings of his yearlong investigation into the situation in northern rakhine state and central to the recommendations that the late coffee and then made to the me and

more authorities was concrete steps and those concrete steps ought to have would have included citizenship rights for the world's largest stateless group the wrecking of muslims there are hundreds of thousands of who today will be praying that the recommendations coffee and then made one year ago will someday be implemented because this situation would be significantly improved if that was the case. parliament is debating a bill that could make it difficult for women to pass on their citizenship to children activists say the proposal discriminates against women so they're trying to block it. these women are protesting in the midday heat and got hunting they say they refuse to be treated as second class citizens. because parliament is debating a new bill that says women need an apology husband in order for their children to

be in a party citizen activists say the constitution itself which was adopted in two thousand and fifteen is discriminatory. although it says a child of an apology mother or father can be citizen there are clauses that do not allow the poly women marry to foreigners to pass on their citizenship to their children. to groom had to go to the supreme court to get citizenship for her children her husband whose mother is also in a poly citizen has no citizenship. my husband is trying to get citizenship for his mother his father died when he was young we went to the courts and even though the fortune struck the local officials to do was necessary to give my husband citizenship the local authorities refused. bureaucrats many of whom are seen as socially conservative can now make it more difficult for people like dip these husband to obtain citizenship difficult bill is deeply problematic now nepali

women have to prove that the father of their child is in a palace that isn't a requirement that is just not there for men the only other way out is to say that she doesn't know their identity off the father in an already deeply patriarchal society where women face many indignities this bill is seen by these women as yet another level of discrimination. been there is a member of parliament who has been a strong advocate for women and equality last year about sonia and there are some parliamentarians who think men are the only ones who can save the nation's sovereignty they think women are inferior yet there are many who have come to realize they shine and they were voted in by both men and women so we are objects in this bill while the debate goes on in the parliament women's rights activists say they will not stop protesting until they're treated as equal citizens sabinus

russia al-jazeera that men do. xico as president elect says the fate of a controversial new thirteen billion dollars will be decided by referendum vote will take place in october and there's been well lopez obrador made the project one of the main issues of his campaign from mexico city a motto rodriguez reports. almost from the moment the ground was broken struction of the new airport in mexico city has been to focus of controversy accusations of overspending and corruption tainted what is the biggest public works project right now in mexico president elect and his monologue with a brother has long threaten to cuz of the project as part of his pledge to crack down on public waste and improve mexico's finances. on friday a lot of others said it will be the mexican people who ultimately will decide on its fate. all mexicans will decide there will be

a public consultation transparent and honest to reflect the feelings of most mexicans and that result will be binding. the airport is being built on the lake bed of lake takes a to rain prone to sink in flooding and they quakes. a challenge that contractors solved in part of to save by heath's thousands of tons of rubble and it will cost me an extract from around one hundred fifty mines like this one in the state of mexico that material is being used to strengthen the saw up for event the sinking of the new oil but it's been done at a price and resulted in even more controversy as many of the mines are you legal those such as to so you say they are dealing with the consequences of the over extraction of work when the well you know i mean we didn't go to the mine the mine came to us we're just fifty centimeters from the edge of the sinkhole these are our homes and those are the people threatening us. distance complaints about the mines

have been made to with indifference by the local authorities when we visited the mine we were ordered to leave you know the residents of to say yuga will be among those making the voters head at the national level about the future of a project which many had hoped would become a symbol of a new mexico. i just needa mexico city. all still ahead on al-jazeera is news he beat michael phelps not the lympics dodgers of schooling is preparing to defend gold at the asian games we'll hear from him in sports with peter. on the streets of greece anti immigrant violence is on the rise. and increasingly migrant farm workers are victims a vicious beating. is helping the pakistani community to find

a voice the stories we don't often hear told by the people who live them undocumented and under attack this is iraq on al-jazeera. when people need to be heard. but there's been a refugio muscle in his life it's not the only life. and the story needs to be told . and also i testify in the. bad guys that al-jazeera has teams on the ground to bring new documentaries and live news on air and online.

well time to spoil his piece of what we had the winter olympics at the beginning of the we've just had the football world cup and pull to extract the guns and spend ten great in many years yet the opening ceremony at the asian games in indonesia is currently on the go let's go straight to jakarta and speak to our correspondent scott hyde who is covering the games for scott good of you to be with us it's the woods second largest sporting event behind the olympics and even today sumi is on a grand scale isn't it. absolutely peter yet it's been going on it's not only that on a grand scale it's ongoing it's probably going to end up being about five hours long there are different segments to the program the opening ceremonies there's a pre-show then there's a very big stage show actually in kind of different sections it's a massive six hundred tonne stage has a volcano replica it has a working waterfall so very elaborate they were cultural displays of indonesia's

very diverse culture we're here from the president of course he had the national of the nation team march around the inside we saw the united korea team behind the silhouette of the korean peninsula on the flag in front of them like they did in the winter olympics and then you know it's still ongoing now we've had a couple of fireworks go up in a little bit but yeah it's a very very grand scale. it's an important event for indonesia with the eyes of the wool watching what measures have been taken to ensure the security. security well one hundred thousand police and army personnel have been deployed will be deployed over these two weeks of these games so that's something they're really obvious to concerned about there have been some attacks recently down in the southern part of the country so they're very focused on that and they really try to make people feel as comfortable as possible like this village where i am now this is there are food vendors there are different entertainment positions around here

for the people who didn't get into the opening ceremony tickets are quite expensive for indonesia and seventy three hundred fifty dollars a lot of indonesians can't afford that so to make them feel comfortable to make them feel as though they're part of this all the indonesian indonesian population they created this this zone this sand zone if you will out here so they can come nestle inside but they can still participate in the opening ceremonies for the asian games asian games and you know i spoke with one of the organizers earlier today and as you mentioned it is very important to this country because it's you know they're on the world stage right now it is a regional event but it's really getting a lot of attention so they feel organizers this this can really elevate the position for indonesia in the international community and they hope that will meet out more investments more tourism and so they really look to these games as a chance to showcase the country and we've been witnessing that in these very elaborate opening ceremonies that are and we'll be keeping a close eye on that over the next fortnight also scott hydel in jakarta thank you so much north and south korea competing together for the first time at the games

women's basketball team lost again yesterday but one supporter was just happy to see north and south combine. don't think souray actually write a really loud leave me out like it just want to aim at me right now except they are not korean we all together share not to get mad we talk to family. like that not knowing anything we are actually one major thing it's an important games for the koreas but also for the host nation indonesia or james dorsey is a senior fellow at singapore and then young technological university and he says it's as much about diplomacy as it is about doing well in the middle stable i think it's very important obviously companies. well. we know our. regional but also. know from the.

no longer. it's called. the. and company one of the ways that companies rank is how they perform. the ability to hold. and how they perform in. the book or it's all in the way. if you think back that they can build. goodwill relations with. more between north korea the problem with four of them go along. with it could be a problem if there was the political will to go. there are a number of sports that are normally seen in the mainstream roberd unique sports in

fact which are historically important to asia like a pin check silat which makes its first appearance at the games the term traditionally describes hundreds of indigenous combat styles in southeast asia with fighters also able to use weapons such as knives and mash a's not for the faint hearted however in competition at the games a non aggressive form will be used with punches kicks sweeps and digs aloud legend has it the ancient martial arts sports came about after a woman watched a tiger do battle with hawk on the complete other end of the scale the second of the sports the asian games was able to get through the sheer dual bridge yes a card game a mind game the oldest athlete to come people is eighty one year old li hung fung of malaysia bridge is a deep rooted in indonesian society and the hosts are expecting to dominate in

the c. pack attack role of the gravity defying form of foot volley ball was first introduced in self east asia in one thousand nine hundred ninety an extremely energetic sport where players acrobatically twist their body aiding them to launch a return ball over in it using their feet. swimming is one of the more conventional sports and singapore star jones of schooling could well shine at the asian games he shot to fame at the twenty fourteen games in south korea where he won gold in the one hundred meter butterfly and then stormed the gold in the same discipline at the rio olympic games beating michael phelps in his last race before retirement schooling says he's ready to defend these title this time in jakarta. yeah no asian games i was very sure. i'd say it's you know there were four championships.

that under the olympics and so you know it's always nice to come back and race in a crowd like this i'm excited to see what i can do i've been feeling good leading up to this and yeah it's it's always a stage from comfortable performing so i'd say you know i don't really think about medals right you think about research yourself and so i come into the speech just trying to race myself trying to raise my own expectations and that's all i can focus on and that's the best thing to do. i remember lympics still you saying bolt of jamaica has been causing a fan frenzy in sydney a whole baeza football trial at a league side the central coast mariners fans cheered and posed for selfies with the a time in the big gold medalist sprinter at sydney's airport both who retired from athletics at the world championships in london last year has trained with germany's brasier daughter and south africa's sundowns and norway's storm's god say it's as he pursues a career in football something he says is one of these dreams. of

my last season in charge and feel that. i knew what i'm capable of know what i can do so. giving me the opportunity to show for me. to call a serial. ok let's go from a straight it's leno and christiane to another makes these silly our debut for your answers later on the portuguese star signed for one hundred million dollars in the summer and scored twice in a friendly last week now new manager hopes he can do the same in their opening new game begins. consider not this will be his very first match playing in the tally league and this is something new and he's very curious to know they'll be better and how the teams play here it's the beginning of a brand new season and the new challenge for us tennis world number two roger federer has aged in tough closer to an eighth title at the cincinnati masters after

beating argentina leonardo in his first match on friday the thirty seven year old beat fellow swiss stand very late on friday to reach the same finals of the tournament six seven seven six six two was the final score players have been forced to play more than one match in a day due to heavy rain interrupting the usual share duel this is roger's first tournament since wimbledon. novak djokovic has also through to the same easy one is rain delayed match against google dimitroff and then the couple of hours later the bets are off you know surrounding djokovic now faces croatia's marin challenge as he looks to become the first man to beat the nine oscars to. india are fighting back in not ingham against england on day one of the third test against england after a sixty run opening stand across works took three wickets to reduce the tourists to eighty two for three at trent bridge captain virat kohli is thirty eight not out

and a junkie of the honey is there on thirty seven with the indians one hundred fifty five four three. the rugby world champions new zealand have made a strong start to the defense of their rugby championship by beating australia in sydney thirty eight thirteen even though the australians were leading at half time the all blacks running six tries to one to make the school line look overwhelmingly one sided two of those tries came courtesy of the hollow. thanks very much is all the sport thanks very much peter now for thirteen years at the back of a factory in iraq les abandoned there was talk of reopening it then talk of demolishing it but now there are plans to transform this twenty six hectare complex into a place where people can enjoy the arts the tasha guinea reports from solar minium . since it was founded more than two hundred years ago so lemonade in northern iraq has been

a city devoted to the arts. it's that celebrated legacy that makes it unsurprising that someone looked at this long abandoned and dilapidated tobacco factory and it vision and a sprawling cultural arts center. that is no doubt there will be a huge impact on the people also the money of all people know that people here are thirsty for alton culture and they are always spot dissipating in or holding a cultural activities people even come here from other cities it has a special history from one nine hundred sixty one to two thousand and five so i'm in a a tobacco factory rolled out carton after carton of cigarettes including the first kurdish brand the government run factory was the second largest industry in the city's history it employed more than fifteen hundred people the former iraqi president saddam hussein's persecution of the kurds destroyed tobacco farming in

northern iraq these machines produced their last cigarette pack thirteen years ago now the hope is this will become an arts hub where movie and television shows are produced musicians can practice and perform and artists create and show their work the cultural art center will pay tribute to its historical roots the plan is to save these machines and create an exhibit devoted to the solomon a yet tobacco factory. and the beginning of the cultural center project we agreed that the exterior of the building will be preserved there will only be eight innovation inside therefore the building remains as it was all easily and the next generation will know that previously for more than forty years this was a debacle factory. the kurdistan regional government has allocated almost six

million dollars to the project but no one can say how soon construction will begin in earnest let alone finish. through the now they call them situation is difficult but we hope that it will change and it should be better then we can overcome all the obstacles that we are facing when the cultural art center does open it promises to be a place where the history of industry and the future of the arts are preserved natasha going to name al-jazeera silliman a northern iraq it's fascinating to be watching the elders there and use i'm back with more news on the other side of the break we'll continue our coverage of the tributes being paid to if you know the late secretary general of the united nations this is the news and i'm still robert thanks very much for your time and your company.

every weekly news cycle brings a series of breaking stones happened wasn't a truck didn't happen on a boy told through the eyes of the world journalists images matter a lot international politics chilling the listening post as we turn the cameras on the media and focus on how they report on the stories that matter the most of the big third if someone from the country who guides you who needs you to this story of the byline tells us who wrote the nist post on al-jazeera. she's the head of four generations of family and the bearer of forty years of suffering fools a heart or a hinge a refugee in her ninety's as fled persecution in myanmar three separate times in her life first in one thousand nine hundred seventy then one nine hundred ninety one and finally in two thousand and seventeen. they beat

us they kidnapped as they detained does. ghoul and her family span almost a century in age bonded through blood and displacement they now all live in a single hut located in the world's largest refugee camp in many ways what's happened to this particular extended family really mirrors what's happened to so many other rohinton who face decades of repression and abuse the range of aren't just the world's largest group of stateless people they're also among the world's most persecuted minorities. full of struggles but i mean nobody that of christendom which a. lot of them battle. full of pleasure i think was only. a good an intimate look at life in cuba today it got a little more detail and i carry a gun i think that it will be a trickster i think this is my cuba on al-jazeera.

former u.n. secretary general and nobel peace laureate kofi annan has died at the age of eighty . hello i'm so robyn you're watching out there life wide quarters here and also coming up hundreds killed and tens of thousands displaced as the indian state of carola is hit by the worst floods in a century a new leader at the helm in one car takes charge as pakistan's prime minister promising a corruption free government also a state funeral in italy as more bodies are recovered from the site of a bridge that collapsed in genoa.