what they want in a way is to eradicate franco and t system that franco worked for 40 years. >> reporter: franco came to power in 1939, after a three year civil war. up to half a million people were killed during the conflict. during his ensuing dictatorship, tens of thousand his opponents were killed or icprisoned. franco was ideologly aligned with hitler's nazis and provided military and material support to the german led axis, but stayed out of the second world war. historian niolas sanchez albornez, now 92, spent six years in prison with three other students for opposing franco politically. >> ( translated further than expressing opinions and a certain propaganda and it led us to being arrested and to stand before a mitary court. the valley of the fallen is a monstrosity of the years after the war, it should be turned into a national cemetery and be neutral and respectful to all those buried there. >> reporter: once a week in a central madrid square, history buffs gather to tour significant sites in the fight again franco. the organizers are trying to preserve the memory of his oppon

franco supporters of course see it very differently. thanks to franco spaniards today have full bellies they have cars with air conditioning a second home in the countryside and in the summer they go to the beach we can thank franco that spain developed this way. spain's government doesn't want to see anymore franco france in the valley of the fallen but some thirty nine percent of spaniards want him to stay buried where he is along with this dictatorship forty one percent who are in favor of transferring him to a song that's not open to the public. you're watching news still to come the board of car maker nissan sachs imprisoned carlos gonesse chairman according to japanese media but is it a straightforward case of tax evasion or a coup to thwart a fun merger between renault and nissan. but first today's an important anniversary for any fans of music it's exactly fifty years since the beatles released their white album. with songs like. black bird and while my guitar gently weeps there are the track record is seen as one of the greates

franco supporters of course see it very differently. franks to franco spaniards today have full bellies they have cars with air conditioning a second home in the countryside and in the summer they go to the beach we can thank franco that spain developed this way. spain's government doesn't want to see anymore franco france in the valley of the fallen but some thirty nine percent of spaniards want him to stay buried where he is along with this dictatorship forty one percent who are in favor of transferring him to a signed that's not open to the public. we have some sports news now and in football the former chelsea striker didier drogba has announced his retirement at the age of forty four in one for premier league titles in the champions league in two glittering spells at chelsea this career also took him to china canada and the us. drug made more than one hundred appearances for the ivory coast at international level he was voted african footballer of the year twice. tennis star venus williams has settled a wrongful death suit related

the current spanish government wants franco's remains removed and an end to his glorification. franco build the self aggrandizing structure for those who died in the spanish civil war standing over the so-called valley of the falling is a cross over one hundred fifty meters tall directly underneath it is the body of the dictator him self franco used forced labor to build it and among the thousands who work there was nicholas sanchez albert north in one thousand nine hundred eighty painted some graffiti on a wall he wrote long live the free university and was arrested and forced to work in the valley of the fall and. first of the prisoners those forced to do the work were farmed out to construction companies and i remember exactly for how much ten percent as per head. it's a monument built with forced labor and a site that is never really mentioned in spain. franco's remains have been here since nine hundred seventy five spain laid him to rest just like his dictatorship there was a pact of silence which helped the country transition to democracy now the governing social democrat

franco supporters of course see it very differently. thanks to franco spaniards today have full bellies they have cars with air conditioning a second home in the countryside and in the summer they go to the beach we can thank franco that's developed this way. spain's government doesn't want to see anymore franco fans in the valley of the fallen but some thirty nine percent of spaniards want him to stay buried where years along with his dictatorship forty one percent are in favor of transferring him to a signed but it's not open to the public. you're watching your news with self a lot more to tell you about including iraq is maybe we're turning to most old but the former islamic state stronghold is far from safe we meet some of the experts tasked with clearing the city of thousands of unexploded devices that story and a whole lot more coming up right after this so you know. we would dive into the deep blue water. we would hunt the old fashioned way with spears. the boats we lived on never stayed in one place. and the sea would promise to

franco supporters of course see it very differently. thanks to franco spaniards today have full bellies they have cars with air conditioning a second home in the countryside and in the summer they go to the beach we. thanks frank oh that strain developed this way for sprains government doesn't want to see anymore franco fans in the valley of the fallen but some thirty nine percent of spaniards want him to stay buried where he is along with this dictatorship forty one percent who are in favor of transferring him to a song that's not open to the public. you're watching news still to come fifty years ago on november twenty second one thousand nine hundred sixty eight the beatles released their ninth studio album thanks to its plain white sleeve it came to be known as the white album a birthday reissue is back in the charts. but first to kenya where the ministry of health signed a two year contract to bring in one hundred doctors from cuba earlier this year the move is supposed to help improve access to health care in rural areas but it's a

also ahead digging up the past mass graves are excavated in spain to uncover the victims of the franco regime. the sri lankan parliament has passed a motion of no confidence against the president's pick for prime minister but the government prevented a formal vote from taking place now on tuesday the supreme court blocked president . as attempt to dissolve parliament and cold snap elections next year the decision opened the way for a parliamentary vote on his nominee for prime minister mahinda rajapaksa sort of center sparked a constitutional crisis in october by sacking the prime minister run away from a singer and trying to replace him bernard smith joins us live from the capital colombo burnet as far as this political drama is concerned where do we think it's heading next. peter it's very difficult to say it's been an act i was an extraordinarily angry short session of parliament this morning where the speaker called for a vote on a show was passed passing no confidence in the prime minister. and the cabinet pointed to him however and iraqi people. are refusing to go they also say t

here on earth franco we were bred justas listing almost two thousand three hundred execution victims buried in more than one hundred mass graves the rules. if we don't get all the hidden information out into the open then wounds will get deeper we have to bring out the dirt so the wounds could be cleaned and then heal. better. this is a farewell letter from one of the dead to his parents shortly before he faced the firing squad your norf we need yes you know i'm not a thief or a mo there please raise my daughter as the child of an honest working man jose paid or was executed in paternal in november one thousand nine hundred thirty nine eight months after the civil war ended he was a bus driver a member of the socialist labor union u g t his only child peter was just a toddler meantime piano free america all things considered i can't say i had to be their childhood but something was always missing and i have just had to live with that loss and with that pain peter hopes her father's remains can be formally identified within weeks where all i hope he is there and i hope my arms can do

they did in spain to uncover the victims of the franco dictatorship. wait really can't say goodbye parents for england to retire. in the team against the usa peter has that story in sports if you stay with us here on the al-jazeera news. hello there no rain on its way towards california but elsewhere across north america it really is very wet or down to this area of cloud hair it's given us an awful lot of wet weather across some of the southern states and is now pushing its way north woods a lot of that will be turning to snow as we head through the next few days as it hits that cold air so along with the east coast do expect quite a bit as we head through thursday and friday behind it still even though it's sunny it's going to stay for all the fresh was chicago just getting to around six degrees another one the system will be working its way into the northwest and that will be bringing us a fair amount of snow to move further towards the south a mess that area of cloud also affecting us in parts of mexico that will be working its way steadily southwa

after a year of research christophe and rebecca have learned heinrich franco star and was an officer in the bavarian army and he was thirty two when he died. now they're at the bury and war archive they hope to find out more about his life. he says just type in the subject you want to search. the world war one well known to be a little more specific. this is. the archive contains wartime personnel rosters and files all handwritten and old style cursive script but the students are well prepared and. i'm sure it's as no trying and. no. why not there's a t. . you know there's an age. i guess so if you're neutering and definitely this file has vehicle stern's military id with all his personal data he'd been a circuit court judge and a shuffle board single and an officer in the reserves to file contains a few surprises as well. you know. what did they find. this is serious this is right next door to our school. like they will tell us that's so that's why he went to the fridge or skim it was only a five minute walk from his house. senior archive director hines juergen baber has something s

and robert franco welcome to q. no. looking there at your some of your movies it's amazing to think that the same person shot all that do you see a connection between your films. i don't really look for a connection between the films i just don't like to repeat myself and. i have a very eclectic taste as an audience member and i have a very eclectic taste as a director and so i like to really change things up as much as possible. so if i make a thriller you know the next film might be a romance. and the film after that might be a comedy. where are you trying to. trying to kill you oh yeah you're. trying to because the last time i tried to kill you sometimes some people hold on to things like. it's just what i've always done you first know your first feature is tattoo and that's interesting because typically here in germany at least a lot of first films there are other colonies or there's of all tore works best is a serial killer thriller serial killer and the cops trying to catch him how did that come about how did that

at the far right he didn't talk about who might follow the franco german town them all nazi didn't talk about irritations between france and germany at this point in time maybe some of that will be talked about later when he meets for a working meet sic much more concretely political meeting with angle about the chancellor's office and absolutely he was even talking about the franco german couple as opposed to just the alliance and very much these two countries leading europe but leading europe at a time of considerable difficulty we also got the sense in that speech then from the welcome as well that he was. that in fact high expectations briefly being placed on a man you are not conscious of this narrative time it's difficult to deliver higher expectations at a time when a manual macro is saying the solution is more europe and there are so many voices so many grouping so many countries around europe who are saying that is precisely what we don't want the president president mccrone is committed to his vision there are dozens he of the vision is remarkable but whether it can be realize

time so how would you describe your role you played a major part in the franco german reconciliation. saying bad things about germans in germany bad things about france in france that's the main go it usually works. i say a lot of bad things about germany and germany and about france in france nobody minds. why not. nobody minds if i said because i'm the way i am which means i can get away with saying and doing anything i'm an absolute advocate of understanding and reconciliation so what i say can only be right that's not actually the truth but i let people believe it. what is it that made it possible for the germans and the french to get along and talk to one another today as if these wars had never happened. is that how it is. i wouldn't say that's the case. they know full well that these wars happened and still that's how i describe it everything has been done to ensure the wars are not forgotten that nothing is forgotten. that hitler the concentration camps are not forgotten none of that should have struct genuine human communication between the germans and the french. not with ev

to confront the crimes of the franco era. a. year after retiring in the. story after the break. welcome back musgrave's are being excavated in spain in the search for the remains of more than two thousand victims of the franco dictatorship those estimated the bodies were dumped in sites across the country during his rule was called whole reports from paternal forensic teams all carefully digging deep into the ground to recover the remains. of the old bones give up their secrets hands tied in front shot by firing squad dumped in mass graves up to six meters deep most here were suspected leftists condemned to die by military judges between one hundred thirty nine and nine hundred fifty six the first half of general franco's dictatorship. now all forensic archaeologists and anthropologists are trying to match remains to names and return them to surviving relatives and immorality when i'm ashamed that in this country there is still so many mass graves to be examined this is a question of human rights and here crimes against humanity have been committed this is about democracy it's b

reviewing the troops of the euro corps franco german brigade the two leaders cross the clearing that there is testimony to a defining moment in european diplomacy. it was here that germany capitulated to france and its allies on november eleventh one thousand nine hundred ending more than four years of carnage on the western front. mccrone and their call unveiled a plaque in both languages reaffirming the value of franco german reconciliation in the service of europe and peace then another warm exchange before the pair later wreaths in tribute to the victims of the great war. they then moved on to the museum that houses a replica of the carriage used by the french general marshall founded on force as its headquarters at the site it was inside this wagon that fosse received the german delegation for the signing of the armistice big read the truth would come into effect on the eleventh day of the eleventh month at exactly eleven o'clock twenty two years later in an act of revenge at all fittler dictated the terms of france's capital ation to the nazis in the very same wagon. americal i

years. >> anthony: where's franco buried by the way?g gravestone? or did they sort of just roll him into a ditch? >> aitor: it's a huge place >> anthony: if you were -- i'm not suggesting you do this, but if you were to visit franco's grave, unzip and take a piss on it would you be arrested? >> lourdes: yeah. >> aitor: no, you would be on the news all around the world. >> anthony: would that make you popular or unpopular? >> aitor: uh popular. ♪ >> anthony: for the main fried hake cooked with txakoli and steamed clams. ♪ >> anthony: so what's the best thing about this city for you, i mean you've lived here your whole lives. >> antonio: i mean so many things, so near. i have friends near i have all the coast near, i have the mountains near, i have very very good gastronomy. >> aitor: it's the way of life. >> antonio: and it's a way of life. >> aitor: it's the way of life. you are able to keep the very same group of friends until you are old. >> antonio: and you can see it there. >> aitor: yes, yes that table. >> antonio: and they're in 4

franco was now about to embark on a successful career with the spanish foreign legion in morocco. in one thousand nine hundred twenty one franco had been promoted to deputy commander of the legion spain controlled a strip of land in northern morocco that includes a v. for mounds of the rest of morocco was a french protectorate during world war one local residents were forced to work in the mines that provided wrong materials for french armaments factories. in september nineteenth twenty one the people of the reef region declared their independence from spain. pat the uprising was led by mohammed abdul karim who managed to unite the various berber tribes. on july the twenty first the insurgents inflicted a decisive defeat on spanish troops at the battle of. the rebel and suffered. eight hundred casualties out of a force of about three thousand experts differ on the number of spanish troops that were killed or wounded but the losses were huge. in september nineteenth twenty five french and spanish units supported by warships landed on the northern moroccan coast pushed inland under

very symbolic indeed, talking about the franco german brigade, a brigade made up of these two countriesrence today, a joint military brigade compared to 70 years ago, these two were on opposite ends of europe, fighting each other. the two leaders paying tribute at the monument to peace. a moment of quiet reflection. woman speaks german.. trumpet plays. bugle plays they sing they sing french national anthem children sing ode to joy children sing ode to joy studio: france and germany's leaders stood side by side for the national anthems, french and german flags raised beside them, now walking into the museum where a replica of the carriage ready was signed stands. the carriage was destroyed during the second world war but an almost identical carriage now sits there, thatis identical carriage now sits there, that is ready was sign the book of remembrance. —— that is where they will sign the book of remembrance. this day began very rainy and very cloudy, but rather beautifullyjust as the french and german leaders walked out to the monument, the clouds have cleared and a beautiful sun has li

and has carried out investigations in other cases for most notably during the franco period in spain or crimes related to the franco period in spain so the argentina has is a fertile legal ground for enforcing international humanitarian and human rights laws things like the geneva convention and the torture convention to other news now help end the war in yemen prevent a massive famine and save tens of thousands of civilian lives that message has come from five major aid groups to the united states they are calling on the department of defense to cut its military support for the saudi embassy coalition force and to change their approach to the conflict muhammad reports from across the red sea in djibouti. in a joint letter to the u.s. government the five chatted to say the whole to us but its support for the sodium but out to coalition would save many lives the u.s. they say is fueling a crisis that the us a vehicle in sequence is four million civilians. the international rescue committee from america care u.s. save the children and the with generosity council say that fourteen milli

reviewing being troops of the franco german brigade. lead by national forces in the world established in the late one nine hundred eighty s. . the data since been deployed internationally. stations as well in france and in germany. the. police. well she focused but the older one crucially god commanded me to go home and through all the she indulged in mothering was the cool side they're fun up. to sort of fun to shoot photos for you want to go to conclusions we got to understand. you through the because you don't look at people you can these are new we're going to do when they're. more like hundredth anniversary of the end of world war two you know they are going at the science or the army i was signed a century ago and expected to be unveiling a plaque because he will commemorate. area and they're in his rants. for now these ceremonies continue it all glossy home to call in their last chef who want yours are going to come up with we've got. the two leaders now making their way expected to be unveiling us national black they're on the s

hopes and the practical tosca that they both have to face as they seek to strengthen once again the franco german relationship the franco german relationship at the heart of europe for their vision for a stronger europe well to talk more about this now i'm still joined in the studio by political correspondent peter craven in the studio with me and of course kate brady who has been listening to those speeches as well from the chancellery good to have you both with us now to you first just give us your take on what you just heard there from chants of america and president michael. well it is a warden word that we heard both in that press conference now and also earlier today in president in manuel's address to the german parliament it was this word of unity or togetherness and i think both the french and german leader of very keen to push forward with a frank are german relations and they're both very aware of the importance of their role now in the future of europe of course. touched on the fact as well that they brics it will be part of the this working meeting. now going into this afterno

with support from the franco german youth our face the project of youth for peace prepared one hundred peace messages. in which the german war graves commission cooperated with our french partner organization and the british embassy. creating artistic wars on the subject of war and human destiny and the president you have already. acknowledged these results through a football project initiated by berlin team had to be a c. and the german war graves commission junior teams from different countries meant to visit and care for the graves of their classmates who fell in the first world war and of course to play football together. it's all of this displays the will. and commitment to it. maintaining and achieving peace and this gives us confidence for the future. and we will hear more. regarding the experiences that are football teams gained in belgium where during the christmas of nine hundred fourteen german and british soldiers spontaneously climbed out of the trenches book too. interrupt the war with a friendly football match. and we will talk to you about this then. the miracle of chri

in eighteen seventy one after the end of the franco-prussian war france had been forced to see this us and part of lot end to germany. in one sus troops that had been defeated nearly five decades before now demonstrated their loyalty to france. i think. that. if it was it was. schoolchildren kissed the french flag. but not everyone in the region shared that enthusiasm catholics a nice us felt more secure in the german empire than they had under the second french empire considered by many to be hostile to the church in addition say sions had come to appreciate the efficiency and order that characterized german rule. trench president point cathy was born in law in. one county believed. it would be impossible to achieve a lasting peace with germany given the kaiser's aggressive approach to foreign policy so he sought a lie and says with russia and britain and works to strengthen the french military . the. german troops returning home after the war found that society had been severely disrupted. the. emperor of the harem of the second stepped down as german emperor and king of prussia on n

ban on all fighting aged russian men from entering the country and ukrainian president of course franco has again shown evidence of what he says are russian military tanks amassing along this country's border the tanks just kilometers from ukraine are said to be close to where russia stores its ammunition and weapons systems. our correspondent david stern in kiev is following these developments for us david how worried is ukraine about combat aged russian men entering its territory. well apparently very worried about it as you say the president has announced that the men between the ages of sixteen and sixty will be prevented from coming into the country this is part of a general crackdown or restriction he said on all foreigners coming in but they will be targeting in particular russians and the reason he said was to prevent them from forming. from forming that military groups but this is all part of the general martial law that we saw introduced to pass by parliament earlier in the week and we've been waiting to see exactly what the elements of this martial law is now it's coming out

high school students from consul there trying to learn as much as possible about an officer hundred franco who once attended their school. this is the friedrich's and council a lot of the students here are studying history. this is a monument to the fallen soldiers of the world wars. fourteen eighteen fourteen under w. this must be i'm being closed down and i never hear stuff like this the start of a major research project and you come on let's buy some as if we're studying what we can about him so that we can get a better idea of what the war was really like that in the villages as being closed down attended our school and he studied a lot of the same subjects that we do you know so we can relate to him pretty well that's enough it seemed he just was the most is that. most of them were actually volunteers. they had taken their final exams early. by the age of seventeen or eighteen they were dead the same age as rebecca and christophe here the students visit the war archive in munich. we don't want anything like this to happen ever again. it's not realistic to hope for peace everywhere but