in february one nine hundred seventy nine after fourteen years in exile in iraq and france with khamenei on the flight from paris was apple has signed bernie sadler who later became the islamic republic's first president today benny saturday lives in exile in france he fled iran in one thousand eighty one but his memories of that flight forty years ago are they did. some fit the plane would be shot down naturally we were scared but the excitement was stronger after thirty years of exile to see iran in the people it was more than we could imagine the enthusiasm the joy and. the bunny side helped commenee during his exile in france in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight he says france was chosen because iranians didn't need visas at the time and there was freedom of expression the french government was an ally of evolved sharp it didn't prevent common he's a rival saying he was free to visit for nearly five months the ayatollah lived in the countryside near paris it was in this quiet village on this street that

ayatollah khomeini planned the iranian revolution and each day dozens of his followers from across europe would come here to watch him pray and listen to him preach. the french government had hoped that harmony would bring iran democracy but if you changed after nine hundred seventy nine once france realized this wasn't just a transitory state and harmony's role wasn't only symbolic the french began to rethink then events such as the u.s. embassy hostage crisis meant france really changed its mind in the one nine hundred eighty s. france backed baghdad in the iran iraq war and relations with tehran broke down they continued to be strained for decades relations improved in twenty fifteen when france signed the iran nuclear deal they're far from one today but presidency matter will not cost supports dialogue with tehran so applause to. paris is iran as the only stable poland's middle east a ship that disappeared iraq and syria over so dear it isn't just

a great power to prison and clark or like obama believes iraq is a region's only country of the future. last year the french government accused iranian security forces of plotting to kill iranian m e k opposition activists on french soil it was the latest sign for france the forty years after the revolution iran is some way from being the reliable ally the paris has long wished for its ash al-jazeera nothing to france i have for you on the news hour and then pick scale legend lindsey vonn is less than a day from her retirement will have more on the americans glittering career and a bit. on the streets of greece anti immigrant violence is on the rise there or you have to go over. this and that this is

a plus or something and increasingly migrant farm workers are victims a vicious beating. a slam 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 zero on al-jazeera. the two thousand mile trip across europe seems impossible. as the balkans route begins to close for refugees it has become a race against time for one syrian family. it's a perilous journey from greece to germany but there's no turning back to the ravages of war left at home. sky and ground a witness documentary on al-jazeera.

welcome back time now for sport with leah. thank you merriam wall real madrid have moved into a second position in the spanish league standings after a three one win over their local rivals athletico on saturday casimir opened the scoring for santiago salaries men before the home team equalised but sergio ramos and gareth bale one hundred goal from madrid wrapped up a three one when you see him play it as he started going on madrid always plays to win we always come the time to live very end obviously at least to continue fighting for the title because they are a fantastic team with a great coach said now that we are sick and we must maintain our winning streak liverpool have restored their place at the top of the english premier league

standings after a three nil win over bournemouth on saturday said the georgian you know why now them and mohamed salah all found the back of the net for the reds their leading rivals for the title manchester city face chelsea on sunday but for now you're going clubs men lead the way we want to. play a convincing football we want to perform that's how it is and it most of course that was the reaction we wanted to show today for us and the boys did an outstanding now so i'm really. manchester united will also be keeping an eye on that chelsea man city game on sunday after their three no went over full and united are back in the top four but chelsea it would just need a draw to overtake ole gunnar so shires men let's just make sure we stayed until four in we'll do that if if we get some help but we go to just concentrate on our selves and that's what we don't. we can't really think about them to control

anything that all the teams do arsenal were also on the winning side on saturday against bottom of the table huddersfield and cardiff are out of the relegation zone after a two one win at southampton who have now dropped into the bottom three. well the nation is in mourning after ten young footballers were killed in a fire at the flamingo football training ground in brazil on saturday friends and family lined up to pay their respects at a memorial for the boys all the players who died were between fourteen and sixteen years old while the cause of the fire is unknown government officials say the club did not have permission to house the students. they were focusing on skiing and the end of an era for some we've seen one of the sport's biggest stars take to the slopes for the final time norway's axa lawns been both fought hard to the very end of the world championships in ariz sweden he narrowly missed out on winning a record third world downhill title at the championships he finished second by two hundred of the second behind his fellow countryman should still youngster. still

goes home what was silver to go with two olympic and five world gold across all disciplines. i was just really focused because i was a little nervous morning to i wanted to pull off a good race so. super focused just looking out to know what was coming up me in front of executing my plan. in the finisher that was a more emotional because i mean when you're able to reason from a problem like this you got to be thankful because this is something for special as for the man and first place this is youngsters first ever world title to go with his olympic super g. gold from sochi four years ago and to make it more impressive he did it with a broken hand which he got on a training run in kitzbuhel in late january. and tomorrow it's lindsey vonn turns to hang up her ski boots the thirty four year old has been forced to retire after multiple debilitating entries while it's not the retirement she wanted she does

have eighty two world cup points to her name and is the most successful female skier of all time the downhill will be her last race ever and she said she's still going to go out for throttle even after wiping out and getting a black eye in the super g. earlier this week here's former olympic skier graeme bell but there is an expression that you know the queen is dead long live the quake and mccain is different is the one that's going to come through and place lindsey but you know because different would never be able to get to the stage that she is about have been for an uncivil and. inspirational force and she's not just for the u.s. ski team it's for all of whether. she's really lifted the schools over the years that she's complete because or did it and she's become bigger than the schools she's won perhaps the most famous winter sports to athletes. you know ahead of shaun white and of you know of everyone really. the fact that she can have

these crashes and pick yourself back up. is a real inspiration to a lot of people out there as well while lindsey vonn who will not break the record of eighty six world cup wins american mckayla schifrin is certainly trying to the twenty three year old already has fifty six when's and is expected to break bronze records but she also just pulled out of several events at the world championships vonn said she doesn't understand why shiffrin would pull out and said she could have gone on to win everything schifrin then responded on instagram and twitter saying many people believe i'm approaching my career in a way that nobody has before and people don't understand it but you know what that is fine by me because i am me and no one else. young chain winter olympics were hailed as a big success in paving the way for a friendlier relations between south and north korea but as celebrations begin marking the first anniversary there is ongoing controversy over the use of the

games venues south korea correspondent rob mcbride reports from. on this first anniversary it seen as a just cause for celebration. the so-called peace olympics are credited with the stablish ing friendly relations between north and south korea and history may show they lead to a long term reconciliation between north korea and the u.s. . the construction of infrastructure for china lympics has helped to bring in more tourists. all more than anything the olympics pave the way for improving the into korean relations and promoting peace it became a starting point in resolving the nuclear issue. as one of the olympic hubs the coastal city of hosted the ice rink events new roads and high speed rail links mean it's now just a couple of hours from the more developed side of the korean peninsula and the

local government is looking at ways of using the specially built for news. with the peace process moved away from the threat of war the province was not well known overseas but with the olympics last year three million foreigners visited here. but drive up into the mountains around peering chiang itself and the olympic legacy loses some of its glamour people and business owners have criticised the failure to maintain some of the facilities here. the main stadium which stage the opening ceremony is now gone with just a statue marking its location. celebrations to mark the first anniversary combined with the lunar new year holiday means that visitor numbers are up again but whether that can be sustained is far from certain the mountain that was once the venue for the downhill skiing events now lies bare local residents have set up

a protest camp here they want the government to keep the chairlift and other facilities going to keep the visitors coming you when you saw the country as a whole benefitted from the olympics and relations with the north improved as well but people here have been forgotten about they may come to be remembered well beyond chang as the games that lead to peace but for people living in the shadow of the imposing venues the legacy will be far more mixed rob mcbride al-jazeera chang south korea all right well that's all your sport for me will have more for you later though but i interact every looking forward to it thank you leah that wraps up the news alimony is coming out very shortly else in a couple of minutes more of the day's news they without you there.

billions of dollars have been stolen from malaysia meet the whistleblower who exposed big deals and criminal cover ups. when east investigates. the world's biggest heist. on how does either. it's a daunting climb to one of the holiest sites in due time tiger's nest ball astri seems to defy gravity every piece of the u.s. is expected to complete the pilgrimage to ensure peace and happiness when it became a democracy in two thousand and eight the time put happiness at the center of all political policy inspiring the un to pass a resolution urging other nations to follow betimes example but how do you measure

it ready brittany's happiness is what we ensure it's here that it is quantifiable but by simply turning its pursuit into policy time has done what no other country has. with the most brilliant people in the world production is under increasing strain to keep pace with a growing global population al-jazeera is environmental solutions program discovers new ways of feeding the world sustainably. eighty thousand just from this the. sea is the vegetable of the scene right there. for thought on al jazeera.

us by fighters say they're launching an offensive to drive the last pockets of territory in syria. well i'm maryam namazie in london with al jazeera also coming up on the program that. stream across the colombian border while foreign aid remains stuck course in a standoff between the duro and the u.s. . the typological party that wanted the king sr to be its candidate for prime minister backs down after he opposes her nomination and at least thirty nine people die after drinking cheap contaminated alcohol in northern india.

the u.s. backed syrian democratic forces have said they are launching the final battle to push eisen out of its last remaining pockets of land in syria kurdish fighters say the offensive is focused on the village of who's in east india resort province near the border with iraq facts by u.s. as strikes they've cornered i still in a small area consisting of just two villages early of a force of islip thames to attack a nearby base used by the us military was motorbike bombs more than twenty thousand civilians have been evacuated from the area including the families of i still fight has. been in this battle will be sealed in the next coming days. most of the terrorist in pockets of foreign in the last two months most with hundred cells there were arrested they were forward. the rivera in numbers

according to civilians who were leaving by tuesday maybe around a thousand civilians and between five hundred six hundred terrorists so that means that maybe close to two thousand or three thousand civilians. stephanie dowrick has more on the story now from istanbul. the syrian democratic forces say that it is the most hard core fighters that remain in this area it is a small area of territory it will be significant of course if the announcement comes within the next week or so that's according to u.s. president that obviously territory is over but there is still a huge threat from the group on the ground through sleeper cells car bomb suicide bombings that's been ongoing for some time there's also a huge humanitarian challenge over the last few weeks tens of thousands of people up to thirty thousand people have fled these areas most of them are families i salute family members they're being screened by the kurds also by foreign special forces that are on the ground and then they're being bussed to camps in kurdish

controlled areas of syria the situation there is dire the u.n. saying that over twenty children babies have died of my nutrition it is a desperate situation it has been a desperate situation over the years inside syria and i think we need to be cautious when we talk about to the announcement the looming announcement of that the fact that bicyclists lost its territory in syria and iraq there remain huge challenges ahead all these areas that have seen the fighting have been completely flattened people people's homes have been destroyed there is no infrastructure there is a lot of rebuilding to be done and of course these people that reside in camps the internally displaced will not be able to go home any time soon so yes it is significant that this final push is now under way but huge challenges remain ahead while you are aspired to joshua landis director of the university of oklahoma center for middle east studies he says that they're all still thousands of foreign fighters spread across iraq and syria who pose a threat. president trump has been very clear to say that this is the kayla fit

that is being destroyed not isis the terrorist group which will continue to survive and as we know isis members have fled to yemen to libya nigeria they're there they're scattered about the middle east but of course this is the we believe there are several thousand left scattered around iraq in syria and many of them are foreign fighters because the arab in iraq e fighters have been able to sort of slip away into the night and blend into the general population the foreign fighters have not their money as is has been whittled down their heavy weapons have been destroyed but there are.