she presents the main news on the privately owned channel lotus tv in southern india. it's not an issue that padmini was a he until the age of 16. padmini prakash is a transgender woman, someone who was born as a boy, but who feels like a woman and wants to live as a woman. to facilitate that, she had gender reassigment surgery when she was sixteen. >> i get positive feedback from viewers. when i'm out in public, people see me as a news presenter. i'm respected and that will help other transgender women to be respected by society one day. >> it was a bold step by the station manager to put a transgender woman on air. they're still outsiders in indian society. but it was also a clever marketing move. >> we want to make a name for ourselves with our programming. people are curious to find out what a transgender woman look like as news presenter, so they watch us. >> padmini doesn't care why people watch. she's happy with her life and that she can give her adopted son the love that she never experienced as a child. from a young age, she felt she was trapped in the wrong b

we found them in the rural heartland of southern india, in the state of tamil nadu. >> the main issue when we talk about trafficking - we can call it as bonded labor - it all starts because they have to pay an amount to get that job. >> sindhu kavinamannil used to work for a subcontractor in kuwait. now she advocates on behalf of migrant laborers. over the last eight years, she has interviewed hundreds of contract workers in iraq and afghanistan. >> debt will make you work anywhere. it doesn't matter if it's a war zone, doesn't matter if you're given a good food or good accommodation. these men are ready to sacrifice. >> govindnagaram is a village of six thousand people, several hours from the closest airport. locals estimate that eighty to ninety percent of men here have worked in iraq or afghanistan. >> if you have a regular job you might get 5000 rupees - that's $100 dollars for a month. but what the agents promise, you will get $800 dollars for a month. even i will think of moving there to get a job. >> we visited a small tea shop and word spread that we were looking to talk to pe

al jazeera, southern lebanon. >> india is now the world's number one arms importer.over past decade it has been steadily replacing it's antiquated stock pile of russian weapons. >> india's military is on a shopping spree. the past decade has seen the country rise to become the number one arms importer. since indians india relied heavily on the soviet union and later russia for most of its armament. >> there is no policy to go east west or any such thing. it's what we need. >> on analysts say that india imports arms because it has no choice. >> because we do not have a very robust distribution defense industry in the country. that's the reason why we're number one imports. >> india's arm imports have risen steadily over the past ten years. some defense analysts believe that it's india's military responsibility to buy more weapons. >> it is not enough. the threats and challenges are growing by the day. we have unresolveed boundary disputes, and in my view, we're not spending enough on defense to be able to cope with the growing threats and challenges. >> india has rece

southern nepal at the border within india.alis and indians can cross into each other's country freely as a result of a bilateral treaty signed in 1950, but the poorest border may the trafficking of women easy. police and ngos are working together to crack down on traffickers. still each year more than 10,000 women, mostly teenagers, are smuggled across and forced into a life of prostitution. a few hundred of them succeed in escaping from their captors or are rescued by indian authorities or ngos, but they're ordeal doesn't end when they return to nepal. many are shunned by their communities and labeled as prostitutes. in 2007, the government amended laws to criticalize n icriminale captors but everyone else. this has done little to stop the trade. this shelter in a residential area of katmandu is a place of refuge for 25 sex traffickers aged between 11 and 30. the group has two other such shelters in other parts of the country. she came here six months ago. still just 18 years old, she comes from a nearby village where she wor

india. there are droughts in southern africa droughts in ethiopia droughts in northeast brazil which is theest part of brazil. in peru and ecuador, you have catastrophic flooding in many places that washes out infrastructure. narrator: because of its devastating effects around the globe scientists tried to accurately predict el niÑo in advance to help people prepare. these attempts were unsuccessful until the mid-1980s when cane and his colleague steve zebiak set out to create a physically based computer model to predict these phenomena. cane: here is this el niÑo phenomenon which i knew about because it had caused these anomalies in wintertime circulation over north america in '77, '78. and i was living in boston at the time and it dumped this incredible amount of snow on us. we kept geing hit by snowstorms. and then we finally got hit by the big one. so, these el niÑo events if we could forecast them and get this information out there there's the possibility of taking actions that will mitigate these impacts. narrator: to understand el niÑo, it is first important to understand the dynamic

southern indian state. coming up, i will be taking a look at why india's premier bike run as become a thumping global success. consulted on this? >> no. >> a controversial deal. >> we would love to have a mine in the community. at the end of the day, it is an issue of fairness. >> america tonight gets an exclusive interview with a foreign mining company accused of taking native american land. >> people have been very critical of your company, saying that it'll leave a permanent scar on the landscape. will it? >> an america tonight special report: "mining sacred lands". thursday, 10:00 eastern. ♪ ♪ >>> welcome back a reminders now of our top stories on al jazerra. prime minister benjamin netanyahu has declared the likud party the winner of israel's election. with 99% of the votes counted likud has at least 29 sets, signist union trails with 24 seats, its leader isaac herzog says he's working to put together a coalition. joint list palestinian parties is going to be the third largest four in the knesset. it's an alliance of four parties that ran under one ticket and they want to get 13 seats. the syrian govern

southern indian state. i'll be taking a look at why india's premiere bike brand has become a global success. >>> and in sport's mission impossible for manchester city as they try to overturn a one-goal deficit. details next. stay with us. ♪ >> now available, the new al jazeea america mobile news app. get our exclusive in depth, reporting when you want it. a global perspective wherever you are. the major headlines in context. mashable says... you'll never miss the latest news >> they will continue looking for survivors... >> the potential for energy production is huge... >> no noise, no clutter, just real reporting. the new al jazeera america mobile app available for your apple and android mobile device. download it now ♪ >>> welcome back. india is home to one of the world's largest motorcycle markets. in fact the company has surpassed harley davidson as the top bike maker. and now it has its sites on european and american markets. >> reporter: ask any enthusiast about royal infield, and they'll tell you these bikes are on a role. but the brand has had to make tough years. >> it is 140 years of unbroken [ ina

southern lebanon. >>> a new report out that suggests that india emerged as the world's largest arms importer, in thehe country has been replacing its soviet stock poil and as it grows it may need to buy more weapons. >> reporter: india military on a shopping spree and they seen it rise to be number one arms importanter and ionia relied heavily on the soviet union and later russia for arms because they gave india a line of credit. >> no policy to go east west or any such thing and it's what we need and there for we are willing to give it. >> reporter: analysts say india imports arms because it has no choice. >> we do not have a very robust defense base in the country. the defense policy opened only in 2001 to the private sector when they took office and that is why we are the number one importer. >> reporter: india arms imports risen steadily over the past ten years and defense analysts say the military responsibilities grow the country needs to buy more weapons. >> it is not enough. the threats and challenges to india national security are growing by the day. we have unresolved territories and bound

southern indian state. coming up i'll take a look at why india's plan has become a global success. >>> in sport, roger federer out for revenge against a man that knocked him out of the australian open. details shortly. you >>> welcome back. the world health organisation says in a plan to tackle dementia is not put in place, the world's health systems will go bust. the numbers rise and unlike other illness, little has been done to prevent it: in a motel we speak with the doctor. first kim vinnell with more. >> reporter: the world health organisation is warning a tidal waive of dementia is coming and global health care systems will go bankrupt. 47.5 million people around the world are living with dementia. a case is diagnosed every four seconds. in the next 14 years, the total numbers is expected to reach 75 million. it's particularly bleak in africa, and latin america, where the numbers of people is forecast to quadruple in the next few decades. here is the world health organisation's dr margaret chan. >> i can think of no disease placing a burden on families communities and societies. i can think of nothing,

today when a bus carrying a college bowling team crashed in southern indiana and this is the scene on i-65, officials say that 16 members of india tech's bowling team was on board as well as coaches, it's still not clear how many people were hurt or what could cause the crash. >> the boston marathon bombing trial turned its focus today on the days after the attacks. among the witnesses the man that was allegedly carjacked by the terrorists. the witnesses testified they later picked up brother dzhokhar tsarnaev and they saw moments after the carjacking victim escaped. prosecutors say that the video shows the brothers running back to the car and speeding off. >>> we are learning more today about another embarrassment for the secret service after two senior agents were put on desk duty because of an alleged drunk driving incident. one is a member of president obama's personal detail. they were driving a vehicle last week after allegedly drinking at a party for another agent that was retiring. they allegedly drove the car through security tape that had been set up outside of the perimeter of the white house. >> the most important pa

yemen is divided between north and south the southerners are with us, and the northern provinces are now divided. >> still to come on this news hour india's prime minister tours sri lanka's civil war zone calling for closer ties between the government and tamils. plus... >> i'm barnaby phillips in croatia. we have reports of how men in the former yugoslavia are now fighting in ukraine. >> and in sports, find out who had an ace up his sleeve at the pga events in florida. >> first on the eve of new talks with iran, u.s. secretary of state john kerry said it's unclear whether an interim deal on its nuclear program is within high speed chase. the u.s. and five other major powers will resume negotiations if with iran in switzerland. the group wants to limit iran's ability to create enough nuclear material to build an atomic bomb. they say this will be the last round having set a deadline for the deal at the end of the month. >> from the beginning these talks have been tough and they've been intense and they remain so. we've made some progress, but there are still gaps, important gaps, and important choices that need to be made by iran in order

northern india including the eastern areas-r still seeing some showers and a little bit of that snowfall. we're likely to see about ten centimeters of snow across the himalayas including southern. but as you can see, the system will be weakening. so we're not going to be seeing that much rainfall. so the recovery process is cooperative -- the weather is cooperative with the recovery efforts. a little bit toward the east though, we have some thunderstorm warnings but it's on a low level. and as you can see, that's clearing off too. now, further toward the east we have a disturbance in southern china that's bringing sma rainfall across the area. and that's pulling into the western areas of japan. quush yue has kyushu has been seeing the heavy rainfall and that's pulling into much of japan including tokyo as well. the system over toward the korean peninsula is now bringing 20 centimeters of snowfall to the northern areas of the korean peninsula. and snow will also cover much of northern japan. the rain will be coming in in tokyo starting the evening hours today. and as for the forecast, looking at some clearing skies on tuesday. a very short break break because we have another ro

india for the next 24 hours or so and the snow still falls. after that it is a weakening line so for tuesday's this is about southern kabul and most of the sky clearof the hindu and more snow but probably not too much thankfully. >> thank you, rob, still ahead on the news hour at a conference on weapons of mass destruction gets underway in doha they are criticized for not doing enough with the stockpiles and chelsea, with the first trophy of the season to satisfy their manager and that is coming up with jo in sport. ♪ hello and the top stories on ann, iraq army launched a major offensive to retake the hometown tikrit from i.s.i.l. fighting alongside government forces and aisle freed 21 assyrian christians and still holding captive more than 200 people from the minority community in syria. russia's foreign minister sergei fedorov says tangible progress after meeting the u.s. counterpart in geneva about the conflict in ukraine. we are in qatar and nato has a conference on how to control weapons of mass destruction and the meeting is a month before u.n. wants to reach a deal to show nonproliferation agreements from nonnuclear states and u.n. breaks d

southern neighbor to prevent it being overtaken by shia rebels backed by iran. >>> just got a bit of breaking news here. it's coming from sydney. it's in the world cup cricket and australia have beaten india by 95 runs. so it will be an australia versus new zealand final, as australia beat india in the semi-final. >>> okay u.s.-led coalition war planes have attacked islamic state positions in the iraqi city of tikrit targeting presidential palaces, where it's believed i.s. leaders have their headquarters. iraqi government forces and iranian-backed militia have been trying to retake tikrit for a number of weeks now. this is the first time the united states has become involved in the operation. we can get the latest now from iraq. rami is in baghdad. perhaps you could explain why it's proving so difficult to take back tikrit? >> well from what we gather it's the fierce resistance that's been put up by those fighters of islamic state, who remain inside the city. that's probably the main cause. we've been hearing lots about booby traps along the road which have hampered the advance of iraqi forces as well as their shia militia allies. and also snipers inside and simply the decision taken, it