>> welcome back to the newsroom. here are the headlines for you this hour. the evacuation of civilians from the ceiling city ofhoms resumes after a one-day suspension link to it deadlocked at the peace talks in geneva. no word on the fate of hundreds of toys and men detained for questioning. amnesty international slams the violence in central african republic, calling it ethnic cleansing. the french defense minister is now ask an international forces to put an end to attacks between christians and muslims by force if necessary. french president francois hollande continues his pr mission in silicon valley.

he will be pushing french innovations to tech leaders there after a glamorous state dinner at the white house last night. >> also coming up for you this hour, in a strange quirk of the french retail system, sales are held just twice a year. the winter season just wrapped up yesterday but it took a bit of a hit. we will take a closer look at why and what the government is doing to help. the 2022izers of areball world cup in qatar missing better welfare for the migrant workers. amnesty international will be on hand to see whether or not the new measures are enough. straight now to our top story roundour on "france 24,"

two of the peace talks in syrian the third day. no progress breaking the deadlock between the syrian regime and opposition. meanwhile on the ground, the evacuation of more civilians from the rebel held city of homs is once again underway. for more, i will bring in a regional correspondent from beirut. what has been happening so far with the evacuation? seeing this morning, vehicles taking food aid into old homs, the besieged old city held by rebels still. and those vehicles will bring civilians out. this evacuation has been going on since late last week. it is aimed at women, children, and elderly men. 1100 people have been brought out so far. many of those have been suffering from malnutrition. conditions extremely hard. no food, really, just people

scavenged fromod houses and wild plants. people have been suffering from malnutrition. about 500 of those brought out were children and according to unicef, many of them were frail, meca did, and terrified. obviously we were hoping the evacuation will continue. it is asked -- supposed to expire tonight. but the syrian regime has said it will consider extending it. ofwhat about these reports these hundreds of men and boys who were detained as soon as they were evacuated from homs? anymore word on that or where they are? that's right. they are not included in the number that i cited. these men were allowed to leave despite the fact men between ages 15 to 55 were not included in the evacuation deal struck.

there are a lot of concerns about these men. about 370 were arrested as soon as they left the town and about 111 of those according to a you want spokesmen have been released. the remainder are being questioned in a school in the presence of u.n. protection offices. a you want spokesmen has said over the last few days that those people should not come to any harm but they are concerned. allgovernor said he hopes the men will be released but that are concerned this plays to opposition fears that this -- targeting be these men. to pakistan, where nine members of an anti-taliban militia were killed in an attack near the troubled city of pesahwar.

hand grenades were tossed into a slain officer's home early this morning. one person killed was head of a militia supported by the pakistani government to fight militants from the surrounding tribal regions. on tuesday, another 13 were killed when attackers through more grenades into a movie theater. the violence comes just as the government was sitting down for peace talks with the taliban. amnesty international has slammed the violence in central african republic. labeling it ethnic cleansing. the french defense minister is now calling on international forces to put an end to attacks between christians and muslims by force if necessary. our reporter has more. defense minister is visiting the central african republic today, holding talks , of the new president course discussing security and what is needed to stop the violence definitively which has

been wreaking havoc in the central african republic. ofre is clearly still a lot work for international forces to do. french and african union troops combined, there are about 7000 soldiers on the ground and violence has been slowed in many areas but we are still seeing intercommunal tensions, pillaging, and lynchings. at the moment, the french troops, their main mission is disarming groups in the north and the west of the country. the french defense minister has hinted previously that he is seeking a prolongation of the french operation -- has not been announced. the defense minister and the central african republic also meet religious leaders here to get an idea the havoc this violence is caused among communities. in this town am a to the south of the capital, there were around 3000 to 4000 muslims, .hey have now fled

>> that is our correspondent in bangui. three days of national mourning underway in algeria for the end of the country's worst air disaster in years. this crashied in that left just one survivor. most of the victims were algerian soldiers and their families. catherine clifford reports. ane's wreckage was still smoldering as nearly 350 emergency workers braved wintry conditions, scouring the mountainous crash site for survivors. they found just one of the 78 passengers alive. a soldier suffering from head injuries. among the dead, soldiers and their families as well as four crewmembers. flying tohad been constantine, eastern algeria's main city. it lost contact with the control tower just as it began coming

into land. officials at the site said the plane broke into three parts and that women and children were among the dead. the army blamed bad weather, citing strong gusts of wind and a lack of visibility in the region in recent days. it is the country's worst air accident since 2003 when a jet crashed shortly after takeoff, killing 102 people. c-130ane is a u.s. built hercules turboprop which makers believed to be at least 24 years old. national media said one of the aircraft's two black boxes were recovered. the commission will be set up to investigate the crash. the presidency announced three days of mourning, calling the soldiers that died martyrs for the country. french president francois hollande took center stage at the white house tuesday. he was wined and dined with caviar, quail eggs and ribeye steak at a rare they didn't

predict the french president has been caught in a messy scan but home over his split with his former first lady but the obamas did their best to keep the focus on the two countries 200 year alliance. after the stop in washington francois hollande is going to california. he will be hosting a lunch for the heads of silicon valley giants like google and facebook. hollande is hoping to get tech companies to invest in france but he also has some tough warnings to deliver. french president may be , but itrm offensive comes at a tricky time. just days before hollande's visit to silicon valley, google faced humiliation in france. it was ordered to publish on its website a large notice saying it had been fined 150,000 euros for violating the country's privacy laws. the internet watchdog rebuked

google about not coming clean over what it did with personal data it collected. while the fine with insignificant compared to profits, the notice marked an embarrassing first for google, bowing to authorities admitting wrongdoing. byarately, the firm was hit a far bigger financial sanction, one billion euros in unpaid taxes. the french government is also reportedly going after other big tech firms like facebook and linkedin for dodging taxes. last week, president hollande to criticize the practice of moving regional headquarters to avoid taxes after yahoo! joined the list of global firms relocating to ireland where corporate taxes or nearly one third of france's. >> we must take action. when i go to the united states i will make sure president obama agrees for our efforts to harmonize taxes. -- fore sits down with lunch with the likes of sheryl sandberg from facebook, google chief eric schmidt and twitter's jack dorsey, hollande is

expected to take a carrot and -- while voicing concerns. >> the constitutional court in thailand has rejected a we -- request by the country's main opposition party to cancel the recent election. that controversial poll was disrupted by antigovernment protests. the court said in a statement it had declined to consider the petition by the democrat party to nullify the vote on insufficient grounds. now, the opposition had claimed the vote was illegitimate as millions were unable to reach the polls that were blockaded by protesters. our correspondent has more from bangkok. >> looking back at the constitutional court the past years or so it has intervened in constitutional crises before. in 2006, there was an election, then also what kind of by the democratic party. the constitutional court in that instance ruled to nullify the election under very similar circumstances and a few months later we saw the military coup

coming in to oust the caretaker prime minister and install an interim military government. what we see from today is the courts have perhaps learned from the previous sort of interventions in politics, that perhaps they have been overstepping the mark a little and will try to let the system play out on its own. it also means really ostensibly a continuation of this confusion and almost political deadlock in the country. stuck in an are quagmire of legal battles and it seems very unlikely we will see a problem in the next few months him and we don't know where we will go from that. at the same time, while this was sort of a threat to the caretaker government there are also other sites to her rule, a corruption allegation, the national anticorruption commission investigating her for --a subsidy scheme. it is possible she could be indicted under that and could be

forced to step down through other means. l, another round of protests were planned for this week it even before this court ruling was handed down. what kind of affect my disposition have now on those protests? theye protesters, i think will continue on. in a sense you can look at the situation as attacks coming from all sides of the government. yet the anticorruption mission investigating them and you've also got these very belligerent protesters on the street, and at times, violent, some of them armed, occupying key areas of the city. also notable to point out that the constitutional court also pushed out and rejected some positions from them to look into the unconstitutional actions of the protests. what we are looking forward at his more deadlock and more protests and as time goes on it looks harder and harder for the government to stay in power. prime ministerh david cameron says his government will spend as much as necessary to tackle the

worsening flooding in england. more than 1000 homes have been evacuated so far. cameron canceled a trip to the middle east next week to deal with the crisis. moneyllion euros of aid has already been released. >> the message from david cameron is clear -- his government will do whatever it takes to solve the country's flooding crisis. thisney is no object in release. whatever money is needed for it will be spent. it will take time, but together, we will deal with these floods, we will get our country back on its feet, and we will build a more resilient country for the future. >> england's wettest january since 1766 has plunged seven parts of the country into chaos. more than 1000 homes had been evacuated along the swollen river thames as the bad weather spreads east from rural somerset. forecasters predicted more rain on its way.

16 severe flood warnings which indicate a threat to life remain in place. residents meanwhile have been forced to improvise their way out of trouble. many are scathing over what they see is a slow and ill prepared response from the government and local authorities. defense minister philip hammond bearing the brunt of one woman's anger on tuesday. >> not one environment agents -- they are in an office. they have no idea. we need the army. we said it yesterday. you don't say it seriously. what will it take for you to understand we are seriously in need? >> around 1600 troops have now been deployed to fill and distribute sandbags. insurers estimate they will be hit with more than a billion euros worth of claims. rail services have also been severely disrupted. >> here in france, the winter sales have finally come to an end. in that strange quirk of the french retail industry, stores can sell at a loss just twice a

year. results on how shoppers that this time a -- this time around the mix. the christ -- prices and poor weather partly to blame but also changes in the way stores are selling their goods. cooler start to the year for french consumers. winter sales, which just ended, were disappointing. if sales have lost some of their charm, it is due to private sales and other exclusive offers. in addition to a decrease in consumer spending. >> quality of the french are not as full. that extending the sales will not change much. are allowed tos hold sales twice a year. they are also allowed to hold floating sales, two additional weeks of his count, whenever they choose. this is now been judged ineffective but a french commerce ministry. they decided to do away with floating sales. instead, summer and winter sales

will be extended for five-six weeks. online sales also suffered on the period. transaction down eight percent versus last year but the average shopper spent eight percent more. >> er watching "france 24." let's look at the headlines. evacuation of civilians from the syrian city of homs resumes after a one-day suspension link to a deadlock in the peace talks in geneva. no word on the fate of hundreds of boys and men detained for questioning. amnesty international slams the violence in central, calling it ethnic cleansing. the french defense minister is now asking international forces to put an end to attacks between christians and muslims by force if necessary. president francois hollande continues his pr mission in silicon valley. he will be pushing french innovation to tech leaders after a glamorous a dinner at the

white house last night. the organizers of the 2022 world cup in qatar are promising better conditions for construction workers there. estimated 1.8 million foreigners are working on projects related to the biggest event on the foot all calendar. has been widely criticized over the treatment of those workers afar. their situation is the subject of today's inside look, and joining me is james lynch in london. thank you for joining us. you are amnesty international's researcher on migrant rights in the gulf. you published a report entitled "the dark side of migration" a few months ago. set the stage. how bad are the working conditions of the migrant workers in qatar? know frome independent research that around 15 migrant workers -- they have theirelays and 90% have

passports confiscated. so, we already knew before we started our research that these problems were there and they are not uncommon. i think what we found is that they are very consistent. workers can face long periods without pay and can face harsh working conditions. some will face problems leaving the country. have seen somee severe crises, with large groups of workers unpaid for a long time and unable to leave the country. sometimes really desperate so they are actually in need of food assistance. >> the organizers of the world cup have just issued this 50 page report. one of the measures of says it will penalize contractors who violate the welfare of the workers. is that enough? whichl, the standards apparently will apply to world cup stadiums -- so only really a relatively small proportion of the infrastructure that is being built before the world cup,

these standards, they are implemented, obviously that will be an improvement in the conditions of those workers. because we have seen too often before in qatar is there are standards in the labor law but not enforced. so, the key question is can the world cup organizers and force these protections set out in the documents. we want to see more how they will do that. the standard at the moment are rather they on what would happen if a company does not comply. so, that is what we're calling the committee to do. but ultimately we need to see the government do more to actually reform the wider system, because that is the only way workers who are working on, for example, roads and railways and hotels will be protected. that is all necessary for the world cup, too. >> what kind of pressure can be put on the government in qatar to make sure the new standards are in force and the system is reformed, as you would hope? obviously amnesty

international and other organizations will be continuing to put fresher on the government, but also there are many other bodies that can play their role as well. it is notable that in november, a slightly to take stronger one of the issue. having given the world mixed messages before and made soundings as if it is not their responsibility. we believe fifa does have a responsibility. it is good to see now fifa appears to want to engage in issue and work with the qatar authorities to address these abuses and put in place a sustainable changes, sustainable reforms, that will really work for the long haul. what we want to see is qatar take the opportunity of the world cup. it's got this huge spotlight on it. and our presence, as he mentioned, it largely get criticized. what we are saying to qatar to take the opportunity, make bold reforms and get credit for doing the right thing. these standards, while we would always want to see positive

efforts to improve worker welfare, these are not reforms. we with -- must not confuse this issue. we still need to see the government take the lead. >> how much do the human rights issues affect the average football fan? is there any way they could good on board to try to change things at of this world cup or do you -- move toward getting the movement in place? >> we hope football fans will be very much aware of these issues and interested in them. i think what they can do is engage with their national football associations, because made up of, fifa is the member states, and we would want to see the national football associations engaging at the highest level atfifa and saying actually this matters to us, this is not a side issue, this is not a distraction from the main issue which is, whether the world cup should be held in summer or winter. this is a fundamental issue fifa

needs to engage in so i think football fans could play a really important role. >> they give are taking the time to join us. james lynch, and the international -- amnesty international. sports news coming up. start with the latest from the winter olympics in sochi. sochi, a german made history winning the first women's olympic ski jump event. second -- her job was the longest of the night. the -- thefollow bronze. week has been incredibly surreal, says the young french woman. i try to do things as normally as possible. not to think too much. not the way i usually do. at the same time, this is unlike anything else. the olympic games, after all. once every four years but as i

said, it was all surreal. mentioned --as alexander of that skin used to hkin, iceight -- ovetc hockey team under pressure: first goal since the calgary olympics since being a unified team. kin expects the experience the russian team to whether the pressure. >> who hosts the olympic games probably have the most pressure and i am pretty sure we are in the same position like canada was four years ago. but i am pretty sure we have the we can handle the pressure. i am pretty sure everything will be fine. as soon as we are going to step on the ice, we are going to think about the game and how to win the game and not about

pressure and all kind of stuff. >> the russians will make the first appearance on home ice on wednesday when they take on slovenia in the opening preliminary group game. in case you haven't noticed, it's a sellout. beating -- on penalties. down with 14 minutes to go, scored twice in two minutes. win. the biggest shock of the evening came and cannes, [indiscernible] makes a penalty in the first half of extra time.

last-minute strike.

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