. >>> but first syrian rebels have freed nine lebanese hostagings. hostages. the men were among the group of 11 people taken captive in may of last year. two had already been freed. they say they are on their way home from a trip to iran where they had been visiting rye will i -- religious sites. ai -- qatar's foreign ministry is said too have helped in their release. >>> andrew simmons in beirut. the pilgrims have their freedom in turkey and are expected back in beirut in the next 12 to 24 24 hours and possibly 48. and hinged on that is the release of two turkish airline pilots they were taken prisoner in retaliation. and then added to all of this is the potential release of a number women opposition prisoners from the syrian regime, dasmascus is expected to be involved in the release as well. there are three aspects of this and seem so many -- so many parties involved. and most importantly qatar playing a key roll in events recently we saw a release of a video of two turkish airline pilots. that was a demand to show that they were in good health and could be

which nine lebanese hostages were released by the syrian opposition.re held for more than a year on suspicion of supporting hezbollah. two turkish airline pilots were freed in lobe no one, the leband to help turkey free the hostages. now 62 female prisoners have been released by the syrian government. our correspondent joins you now live at the crossing. on the syrian border with lebanon where the women were released. good to see you. thanks for joining us. i want to talk to you in a moment about the significance overall significance of this deal. but for now, let's look at the mechanics. 62 women released. out of i believe a total number as per the agreement of 126 female prisoners, does this suggest that the syrian government isn't stick to go the letter of this agreement, or does it suggest that there are more releases to come? >> reporter: well, should be expecting more releases to come, but we don't have any confirmation that that will happen. from what we understand, when this swap deal was happening, the brigade had asked initially for about 370

> so who are these women, and where does their release fit into the deal to release the nine lebanese hostages? >> well, we don't have much details. what we know is that the northern storm brigade, who was holding the nine lebanese host iges, had put forward the names on top of other names, probably the most prominent name - a blogger that was detained in 2009, and charged with spying for a foreign country. that person has been released. it's a matter of her paperwork being processed at the moment, and she should come out of the other prison in damascus in the coming hours. who are the rest of the women? we don't know. there was no access to the women. we don't know when they were held or why they were held or were they come from exactly. we do know they were brought here to this noman's land area between syria and lebanon. from there they returned to the home inside syria. >> thank you for that. on the border between lebanon and syria. >> an explosion near the airport in damascus has been followed by a power blackout. this video, which can't be independently verified was posted on youtube and

. >> complex hostage release deal involving three countries is part done. nine lebaneseen held for more than a year are back in beirut. two turkish pilots abducted in retaliation have been freed. there's no word on the fate of dozens of women held by the syrian government. andrew simmons is in beirut and sent us this. >> 530 days after their capture a chaotic emotional homecoming for nine weary men who thought they may never get out of syria alive. nothing like a formal handover to their relatives. one woman is overcome and collapses. lebanese security could not hold back the rush of people wanting to embrace their loved ones. some of the freed hostages didn't have to walk. >> the relatives are in the crush. they have waited since may last year for the breakthrough. there have been false alarms. but this is a reality now. >> this woman, with a bunch of red roses searches for her father in the confusion. he is outside on the shoulders of his son and another family member, addressing the crowds, saying they had been on the religious visit to a shia shrine in iran, and that

nine lebanese hostages have been released. they were freed on the continue that damascus would release 200 prisoners. andrew simmons is live at beirut's international airport. there seems to be a delay to this very complex hostage exchange. take us through what has been happening there now. >> right now the mood is different to two hours ago. there was a lot of information suggesting that the whole process as under way. but there was a hold up. i have spoken to the foreign minister mansour and he told me definitively that the two turkish pilots are in the hands of turkish officials and are heading to the airport and will get on a plane which will take off to return to turkey, which will trigger a sequence of events meaning the return of nine hostages back here to beirut, and also a flight from damascus, we think, with a large number of released opposition prisoners. that is apparently the case. now, he said definitively that the deal has been done. he didn't detail what the delays were, but he made absolutely clear definitively

the three way deal was put into action on saturday when three lebanese hostages were released.nd finally on wednesday, the syrian government released 51 female prisoners. she has been in rids since she was 17. this is the website she accused of maintaining. >> arrested in december 2009, spying for a foreign country. most of them manage to return to their home in syria. >> they were discreetly handed over, no families or friends were there to welcome them. a stark contrast that surrounded the release of shiite pill games on saturday. they was part of a group of 11 who were seized by rebels in may went 12 after touring holy sites in iran. after the capture, a lebanese group calling itself, kidnapped two turkish fie lots in august, and posted the message online saying they would be released only after the lebanese hostages had been freed. the pilots are now back in turkey, at least 60 more women should be released in the coming hours for the three way swap to be completed. al jazeera under theboarder with syria. >> for more, let's go to a mar who is live for us. more women are exp

this is a key demand by the rebel group that held the lebanese hostages. all of which will lead to the release of two turkish pilots. we expect all of that to materialize and happen within the next moments or hours. >> thanks a lot. live for us in turkey. >>> at least 16 government troops have been killed at a car bomb at a checkpoint south of damascus. the suicide bomber blew himself up in a car in a government-controlled area. 15 civilians were injured, and syrian fighter jets have launched four air strikes on the area near the checkpoint. fighting between opposition and government forces is still going on there. >>> activists say there's hefr bombardment of the damascus sush bush. government tanks and troops were sent to the area on friday. earlier the united states called on syria to allow aid convoys to reach civilians trapped in the area as well as other damascus suburbs the u.s. state department says there's rourts of children dying without hunger. people are without basic necessities for nearly a year now. the suburb is under the control of rebel f

nine lebanese hostages were released on saturday after being held by syrian rebels. >> two turkish pilotsfreed on the same day. >> people are protesting on the capital to protest a stolen election. they want an independent investigation into poll results this year. >> germany has summoned the ambassador over suspicions that's the president as phone was tapped the white house is not ruling out it may have happened in the past. >> hundreds of students continue to speak out against military rule at university across egypt. of the students are respondings to call from the anti-coup. it's the latest one of a number of protests that have taken place since the start of the academic year since september. >>> and that instablity is having a devastating eforecast oeffect onthe country's tourismf they have not recovered since the coup. it's a tourist as dream but this is high season. a few quites toshe visitors have ancient sites to themselves. >> it's a little bit better it's safer and it's that time of year and it's a regular place for the tourists it's absolutely something very bad for us and for

time to recap the headlines. >> nine lebanese hostages are on their way home after being released by rebels fighters in syria. they were abducted in may >> the head of the maldooefs election commission tells al jazeera he doesn't know who is in charge. election. voting was cancelled after it was said to violate a court order. it's the second attempt to hold an election in the last six weeks >> thousands of italian voters are out on it street, angry at austerity measures >> a group of hackers linked to syria's government says it's behind the shutdown of websites. the syrian electronic army said it has taken control of the dot qs suffix and targeted the domain because of support for the rebels. >> let's talk to a technology adjournist from london. how easy is it to take down a domain name? >> well, it shouldn't be that easy, but it's happened before and it will happen again. they have previously attacked the people who run dome april names. this is a decent dry system. it's run by different organizations in different countries. their security varies. a lot of what they do has been thro

there's nine lebanese hostages freed and returned. bels who caught them demanded the release of female syrian prisoners held in the prisons of the syrian regime. once the lebanese and female prisoners are released there's another two turkish pilots held hostage in lebanon released. everything is very complicated. we understand it's about to come to an end within the next few hours. >> of course all of this is happening - all the violence and explosions while international weapons inspectors are in syria. what do we know about their timetable, time line, how close they are to being done? >> well, when you speak to the speaks men for the chemical watchdog, he's optimistic. i was talking to him in the last 24 hours, and he did say that he is optimistic that the first phase of their mission is about to complete. they visited a lot of sites that the syrian regime declared has chemical stockpiles. what is interesting is the spokesmen said that syria, after 1 november, will no longer have the ability or capacity to manufacture new chemical we

. >> an emotional home coming for nine lebanese hostages held by syrian levels for a year.hey were freed in exchange for two turkish pilots and the release comes after complex negotiations between turkey, lebanon and syria. andrew simmons reports from beirut. 530 days after their capture a chaotic emotional home coming for nine weary men who thought they'd never get out of syria alive. nothing like a formal handover to the relatives. one woman is overcome and collapses. lebanese security could not hold back the rush of people wanting to embrace their loved ones. some of the freed hostages didn't have to walk. >> the relatives are in the crush. they waited since may last year for the breakthrough. there has been false alarms. this is a reality now. >> this woman with a bunch of red roses searches for her father. he is outside on the shoulders of his son and a family member, addressing the crowd, saying he'd been on a religious visit to a shia shrine in iran and that protected their lives. >> the shrine, with his protection, our lives were saved. >> another freed hostage trie

it happened after a group of lebanese hostages had been freed, after being held captive for a year. >omar saleh is live. tell us about what you know about who is claiming responsibility for this. >> what we know is that at least five rebel groups, including nusra and a group affiliated to al qaeda launched a joint operation against a government army complex. the attack - the offensive started with a suicide car bombing at the entrance of the complex. it killed... >> and it appears as they we just lost omaral sala. it's difficult to keep connections. we'll keep more information shortly. in the meantime chemical weapons inspectors report progress on the ground in syria. they say they have checked 14 of more than 20 sites on the list so far. syrian state tv released a video of inspectors checking one such site. the organisation for the prohibition of chemical weapons says security remains a concern for its experts inside the war torn country. inspectors have about nine months to find and destroy all of syria's chemical weapons >> the manhunt for two convicted murders continued. they esca

. >>> nine lebanese hostages held by syrian rebels for more than a year are finally free. the release comes after a very complex exchange between turkey, lebanon and syria. andrew simmons reports from beirut. >> reporter: 530 days after their capture, a chaotic, emotional homecoming for neen wary men who thought they'd never get out of syria alive. nothing like a formal handover to their relatives. one woman is overcome and collapses. lebanese security couldn't hold back the rush of people wanting to embrace their loved ones. some of the freed hostages didn't have to walk. the relatives are in the crush. they've waited since may last year for this breakthrough. there have been false alarms, but this is a reality now. this woman with a bunch of red roses searches for her father in the confusion, but he's outside on the shoulders of his son and another family member addressing the crowds saying they had been on the religious visit to a shia shrine in iran, and that had protected their lives. >> translator: we visited the shrine, and with his protection our lives were saved.

nine lebanese hostages have been freed in syria they were part of a group of shia pilgrims captured by rebel forces over a year ago the still no end to the bitter fighting in the country with the rebels appealing for more money and a western military aid to fight the regime i just worry if an arsenal is one of the few journalists who has been reporting from syria and has spoken to members of the free syrian army inside rebel held territory. we cross the syrian lebanese border every day many times a boy and his son is a soldier for the free syrian army lawful job in this for we take injured people to lebanon hospitals we get i mean issued from there we bring in and out if i just want to go to see their families our cell is a safe haven. our cell is a mostly sunni lebanese village on the syrian border. along this road which appeared here in the first days of the conflict in two thousand and eleven it's possible to reach all of syria's main battlefields bring in weapons or militants and many have done in those two and a half years. damascus has repeatedly called on foreign nations to stop

nine lebanese men held hostage by syrian rebels for more than a year have returned home. two turkish pilots kidnapped in retaliation were freed as part of a complex deal. there's no word on the release of dozen of women's in syrian government gaols. >> u.s. bank jp morgan will pay a record $13 billion fine to settle bad mortgage securities. it was linked in part to the 2008 financial crisis. >> firefighters in australia attacking some of the worst bushfires are worried that changing weather will make their job more difficult. more than 200 homes have been destroyed in the worst-hit area. >> led poisoning affects thousands every year, particularly children. the wortion world health organization says there are ways to reduce the rick. led exposure is to contribute to hundreds of thousands of cases of children with intellectual conditions. children are at the highest risk, particularly the young and poor. we have this from nigeria's zamfara state where hundreds of children are affected by lead poisoning. >> this is a 4-year-old girl with lead poisoning. she's among many who

. >>> 9 lebanese hostages and two turkish pilots are now free. the release comes after a complex negotiation between turkey lebanon and syria. those are the headlines. america tonight is up next on al jazeera america. >> good evening, and thanks for being with us. i'm joie chen and you're watching america tonight's weekend edition. over the next few nights anonymous was rallying. as lori jane gliha reports, hactivists. a video uploaded to youtube shows a former steubenville, victim. >> he raped her harder than. >> a picture of the passed out 16-year-old being carried by two players from the town's legendary football team showed up on instagram. the assault continued, some deserve to be peed on. >> never seen so much l oferltl. two players were arrested a week later but she began blogging about the case, afraid that the popularity of the big red football team would prevent the attackers from being brought to justice. her blog came to the attention of anonymous. five months later when prosecutors appeared to be dragging their feet the group hacked

found the syrian government for accepting lebanon's desire to facilitate the release of the lebanese hostages by freeing the female prisoners. so it's a very complicated situation here. >> okay, omar. thank you. >>> at least 12 people are dead following a series of explosions in iraq. six people were occurred and another ten injured in a twin blast that targeted the chief of police's house nir the city of tikrit. further west people died and a dozen more were injured. >>> the giant u.s. bank, jpmorgan chase has reportedly agreed to pay a record $13 billion fine. the u.s. justice department is trying to reach a settlement into bad mortgage loans the bank sold to investors. they were a major cause of the worldwide financial crisis five years ago, and the main issue is whether the bank sold mortgages that it knew were riskier than they appeared to be to the customers. financial analyst louise cooper says he could lose his job if the fine is confirmed. jpmorgan was recorded as being the one big american investment bank that had a good crisis when you put it like that, because it didn't have the p

nine lebanese hostages and two turkish pilots are home. the release comes after complex negotiation between turkey, lebanon and syria. >> those are the headlines. i'll be back at 11:00 pm eastern. first "consider this" next on al jazeera. [ ♪ theme ] >> the u.s. government opened for business again after a shutdown. dc looks for a path forward. the government is back to work. now what? how does the republican party heel itself, what is next for obamacare, are there winners in the mess? also, what happened to all the claims of transparency in an obama white house. a scathing report from the committee to protect journalists includes a quote from a veteran reporter calling the white house the most closed control-freak administration he's covered. amazon.com is a huge business. why doesn't it turn a huge profit. is its ceo jeff bezos more like steve jobs than his pleasant public personae would suggest. i'm antonio mora, welcome to cr. the government -- "consider this" the government open after a shutdown. the fight over obamacare, is far from

kidnapped two pilots in august, and posted a message online saying they would be released only after lebanese hostages had been freed. athletes six my more women should be released in the coming hours for the three way swap to be completed. al jazeera must now with the boarder with syria. in australia, the fires rage on, strong winds cause the blaze to player up in the blue mountains just west of sidney. etch though it has cooled down the area is still at high risk, especially as they warn of the dry season ahead. hungs of homes have burned down across tens of thousands of acres of land. >> is i'm meteorologist, we are talking about the fires now, the wind really picked un, but today it has died down a bit. and cooler temperatures are helping a little bit. with less wind they are able to drop some water down. actually lighting fires to get rid of the fuel there and that has helped just a little bit. still dry, that storm has really moved off the coast can, so even though it is clear, and dry, not nearly as winddy. the situation is not over, sidney is in there, there's the blue mountains. so the smoke

nine lebanese hostages abducted in syria last year have been freed. the release comes after a complex negotiation between turkey, lebanon, syria and the syrian rebels. andrew simmons reports from beirba bayroot. >> their homecoming was a kay on theic emotional ent. the men and's made their way out in the crowd. they expected there will be a delegation. can he. >> this was quite a problem, a set of negotiations with turkey involved as well and nothing could happen until there was an absolute clearance on the security of the turkish airline pilots and they are safe so now, after all of this time, the men are with their loved ones in beirut celebrating their homecoming. >> inside syria, bombing killed 16 soldiers at a military checkpoint outside damascus. a human rights group says at least 15 syrian rebels died in the gun fight that followed. >>> omar osali reports from tne board ner turkey >> early saturday morning, at least five rebel groups launched a joint assault against a government army complex south of damascus. one of the main groups is al-qaeda

the release of the lebanese and the turkish hostages came after secret talks, diplomacy, phone diplomacy on behalf of lebanese security officials, with the qataries and the turk and the syrian government and syrian rebels. it started with mediation from qatar, and then it involved the other players in the region. and other players, of course, like turkey, as well as syria and lebanon. now it's not clear whether the third deal will come to all of this, because that was the key demand made by the rebel group. they want the female prisoners out. that's not confirmed, so i'm not sure. but there is some sense of relief with officials from leban lebanon, officials from syria. this may lead to a good step forward with perhaps solving the wider picture, the wider conflict in syria, and when you look at the turkish military intelligence, involving talks with lebanese, qataris and the syrians, you would think they would meet and discuss the bigger problems they face or disagree on inside syria. we are seeing this as a positive step that could lead to perhaps trying to end or slow down the war in s

lebanese pilgrims have now been released. we will look back at one of the worst attacks on french military in recent history, the 1983 beirut bombing. after being held hostage for nearly a year and a half by syrian rebels come a nine lebanese shiite pilgrims were filled -- freed. their release was the result of intense negotiations involving syria, turkey, lebanon, and qatar. a case that highlights how the syrian conflict is affecting neighboring countries. >> a hero's welcome for the turkish pilots who spent just over two months in captivity. their prime minister is on the tarmac to greet them, as well as relatives and the crowd of journalists. i'll being held hostage the two say they never -- while being held hostage, the two say they never lost faith. >> we will be healthy emotionally. we need to stick to these rules. >> the turkish airlines pilots were abducted outside their hotel in beirut by a group named [indiscernible] , previously unheard of. the men put pressure on them to really nice nine men -- to release nine men kidnapped on october 12. after diplomacy, all hostages were freed. it appears as though officials played a key role. >> qatar is supp

lebanese execute couldn't hold back the rush of people wanting to embrace their loved ones. some of the freed hostages didn't have to walk: the break through, they are happy and this is a reality now. >> this woman with a bunch of red roses searches for her father in the confusion. he is outside on the shoulders of a family member addressing the outs, saying they were on a religious trip to a sideline and perhaps it protected their lives. >> with his protection our lives were saved. mother tried to convey his sense of relief. >> i thank god. i never thought i would see my family again. in the begintion, they treated us well but then it was really bad. in the last few months, they imprisoned us in a room where the temperature would reach 50 degrees. the doors were cogstandsly closed. >> in istanbul, the two turkish airlines pilots were also being reunited with their families. no chaotic scenes here but plenty of emotion and gratitude for the intention negotiations brokered by qatar which enabled their release. in beirut, set up where the nine men had set out a year and a half ago. yes remain about the

is ranjani chakraborty, ♪ >>> two turkish pilots held hostage in lebanon since august have appeared in good health in a videotape shown on lebaneseevision. they were kidnapped on august 9th. the abductors have been demanding the release of shiite rebels that have been held since last year. the winner of this year's booker prize is to be announced in just a few hours. whoever wins is likely to choose what types of book people read. past winners include life of pi, and the english patient. >> reporter: the quiet interior of a london book shop. readers deciding what to pick. whichever wins this prize may greatly influence that. judges have one year to get through the dozens of novels in the running, while competing to become a worldwide success. this author knows how tough the competition gets. >> for any writer, i think that idea of having an audience and an audience who maybe wouldn't read it otherwise is terribly important, and that's what it does. it's -- it's one way of drawing the public's attention to a book, and the public may or may not like it, but at least they may pick it up and look at it, and that's important to me. >>

. >> a total of it 11 hostages have returned to their families in lebanon and turkey. it's part of a complex deal between lebanese, turkey and syria and syrian opposition fighters. the rebels freed nine lebanese shi'as held since last year, two turkish pilots kidnapped in retaliation in lebanon were let go, and more than 100 female prisoners in syria james are expected to be released. >> 55 students have been arrested after fighting with egyptian police in cairo, protesting against the military backed government. security forces used tear gas to disperse demonstrators at the university. dozens of bushfires are burning in australia, forcing thousands of people to leave their homes. the government has declared a state of emergency in the state of new south wales. one man died, 200 homes have been destroyed since thursday. andrew thomas has more from the blue mountains near sydney. >> despite all efforts the fires are burning. the blue mountains, west of sydney orange and grey as they are blackened. this is a situation likely to get worse. weather forecasts, which had predicted rain over the coming days were wrong.

hostage to this political regional conflict that we're witnessing right now. >> reporter: thank you for joining us. as you can see it's not just the lebaneseovernment that is effected, it is really effected by the crisis in neighboring syria. >> all right. i want to thank our correspondents. inside syria rebels are fighting government troops in the eastern province. [ explosion ] >> video there show rebels using mortar. the city has been repeatedly shelled recently. activists also released video, they say shows fighters storming an area where 20 solders were killed. and in the damascus suburb, the army has been shelling rebel positions. several people have reportedly been wounded. >>> dramatic new footage has emerged of the attack on nair i nairobi's westget a mall in september. at least 71 people were killed. stephanie decker reports. >> reporter: heavily armed and on the phone, these new cctv pictures give an incite to the gunmen. gunfire can clearly be seen here. one attacker takes the time to pray as two others sit by. at one point we see a woman with small children. she seems to be limping. followed by what appears to be an injured yo