♪ ♪ >> french troops headed to the front in mali, surrounding rebel forces north of the capital. the french president is expected to speak in the coming hour. hello and welcome. this is an al jazeera, live from goma. a helicopter has crashed near a busy railway station in the center of london.

rising anger in pakistan as protesters accused the military of killing civilians. quite a nightmare. japan's two main airlines grounded the dreamliner after another emergency. -- this is al jazeera, live from doha. french troops are getting ready for their first face-to-face battles with rebels in mali. until now, the french have said they would only provide air and logistical support to the maili -- malian army. >> today the ground forces are in the process of deploying. until now we had some forces in the capital to secure the population, are nationals, and european nationals, and to secure the city. now the french forces are reaching the north. >> nigeria is sending 200 soldiers as part of a multinational west african force that will number

more than 3000. let's look at where the troops are headed. french soldiers have already joined the mali troops 400 kilometers north of bamako. nazanine moshiri is in the capital. where are french troops now exactly? are they in rebel-held territory? >> diabaly is a town which is in the government-controlled area, in the north. the french are surrounding the town, from what we understand, with malian forces. there have been reports that there might of been some engagement on the ground, but we cannot confirm that. we have been trying to get

through to people in diabaly, but the phone lines and mobile lines have been cut off, so it is very difficult to get information on the ground. it is interesting that the french had consistently said they would only be striking from them and giving logistical support, but now it seems they are carrying out their first land offensive. the french have 800 troops here on the ground. they have said they will double have said theye will double back to 2000 forces or 2500 altogether. ansar al din is one of the armed groups who have taken over the town of diabaly with sophisticated weapons. they had been fighting in libya on behalf of qaddafi, where they

got the weapons, and also taken from the malians. they are able to take ground quickly. the french will have their work cut out for them. >> and west african nations are expected to send troops. when are they expected to arrive? the french do not want to go it alone here in mali. the terrain is extremely difficult. they would need more ground forces. 3000 forces will be sent from africa. the nigerians will be sending 900. respect around 200 to arrive dead sometime today. niger, around 500 in the coming days. the french and malians want the african forces on the ground as quickly as possible. >> thank you for that report from the capital of mali.

in the last few hours, a helicopter has crashed near a busy railway station in central london, killing at least two people. the helicopter hit a crane on top of a building. the accident happened early in the morning with many people heading to work. >> i was on top of the building and i saw the helicopter hit the crane and the helicopter came crashing down onto the road. the crane went into the side of the building. >> charlie is at the scene. is it clear now what happened? >> police are still not commenting on what caused the crash. they have revealed the number of casualties. 11. one of them in critical condition. people were presenting themselves at different

hospitals is why they did not know that number at first. one of the dead was in the helicopter. they have not announced where the other fatality came from. my colleagues have seen charred rubble down on the street at the site of the crash. there's a supermarket across the road. a large area of this part of london south of the river is cordoned off. >> is the fire now under control from what you are hearing? >> , firefighters did get here within about 10 minutes. there were called at 8:00. there were called by many people. there were 60 firefighters, eight fire trucks and so on. the flames were under control quickly. now they are trying to focus on

how to contain the piece of the crane that is dangling precariously behind me. there's an area hanging down that normally would be at an angle. they're working on how to dismantle that crane, perhaps a bit by bit, in quite a builds up area -- built-up area. >> any details on who was on board? >> it is believed the flight path for the helicopter was headed to the nearest helipad. no idea where it had come from or where it was originally meant to go or who was on board. i'm sure those details will be coming out later today as well as the casualties. >> thank you for that report from central london. there's been a wave of violence across iraq, leaving 24 dead and

more than 100 injured. two suicide bombers targeted kurdish political parties in the country's no.. one of them blew himself up outside the office of the kurdistan democratic party in kirkuk, killing 15 people. and there were other attacks in baghdad and elsewhere. taliban is claiming responsibility for suicide bomb attack targeting a headquarters. a car bomb killed three people and injured many more. now this report from kabul. >> this appears to be an attempt to launch a large-scale assault on the headquarters of afghanistan's security services. police are telling us one suicide bomber exploded a car laden with explosives at the entrance to the intelligence department headquarters. five other suicide bombers all wearing explosives vest ben tried to breach the hole left by the explosion -- then tried.

there were all shot as they try to get into the building and got no further than the gate. sources are telling us that regard that the gate were killed in the attack and there are a number of civilian injured. again, this is right in the center of kabul and at a busy time of day and a busy part of the city. this city is ringed with security checkpoints. they get tighter and tighter as you get closer into the city. this is one of the best- defended parts of the city, still someone was able to get this far with explosives and enough explosives to try to launch a major attack on one of the most important buildings in kabul. >> heavy rain is expected to cause further flooding in the indonesian capital jakarta. more than 6000 people have already been moved after their homes in the west of the capital were flooded. now this. >> this is the situation right now.

in many neighborhoods in jakarta. thousands of people forced to leave their houses after days of rain fall. many roads have flooded and it's causing chaos in the capital. her furniture is floating in her living room, but she has decided to stay and home and not to be evacuated yet. she says she has to be here and home because it's the water goes down, she has to clean up immediately. otherwise it cannot be cleaned and more. she is staying of stairs with a husband, who is sick and november stuff is safe upstairs -- and she knows that her things are safe upstairs. the water is about half meter high. in other houses in this neighborhood in has already reached a level of more than 3 meters. the disappointment with the government is growing.

they say they have only been talking and we of not seen any results yet. for many people in this area, 50 neighborhoods in jakarta, are very disappointed because this is happening every year. many had to spend the night here crammed together in this parking lot. the authorities are trying hard to provide them with food and medication. the last time these people were forced to leave their houses because of the yearly flooding in jakarta was five years ago. >> the japanese prime minister is visiting vietnam. abe will also stop in thailand and indonesia on his first official trip after being reelected last month. economic relations in and -- and china pose a growing military might is likely to top the agenda.

japan and vietnam are locked in a maritime disputes with china. they lay claims to a group of islands in the east china sea. islands farther south are claimed by vietnam, and several other countries in the region are claiming them as well. a u.s. talk-show host, oprah winfrey, has been speaking about her interview with lance armstrong. she would not confirm whether or not the ban cyclists confessed to taking drugs. he has been stripped of his seven tour de france titles and banned from professional cycling for life. we will find out what he says on thursday when the interview airs. venezuela's vice president steps in for hugo chavez. still ahead, his state of the nation address and his message to the opposition. and getting to safety. two japanese airlines have grounded the streamliners after another malfunction. what next for boeing? -- grounded the dreamliners.

>> hello and welcome back. if you look at the satellite image, you see lots of clout systems and almost everyone is associated with snow across europe. we look at the forecast for thursday. across the ukraine and in russia, very cold and snowy. central parts also seeing significant snowfall. that could cause transport disruption. simmering heading towards the mediterranean. heavy rain in rome, temperature 10 degrees. in the west, there's drier weather, but it is still chilly out. in the southeast, brightness guys, but london is just above freezing and paris is just below freezing. the iberian peninsula, there is a friend moving towards portugal. madrid should see highs temperatures of 11 degrees with

brighter skies. some weather going across the coast of algeria. ties of 13 degrees expected indonesia. central parts of africa, the rain continuing to push farther south. still some showers at high temperatures of 30 degrees. the heaviest rain across the more southern parts of africa in angola and botswana and there's been heavy rain in south africa. there's more heavy rain in the forecast.

>> welcome back. the top stories. france's army chief says the soldiers are preparing for ground assault against rebel fighters in mali. up until now the frontier said only african soldiers should carry out any ground operations. a helicopter has crashed near a busy railway station in new london in boxhall, kyliyah two

people. a helicopter crashed into a crane. the taliban claiming responsibility for suicide bomb attack of targeting the afghan intelligence forces headquarters in the capital, killing three and injuring many more. pakistan is blaming india after another of its soldiers was killed along the disputed border in kashmir military. officials in pakistan say indian soldiers died and killed the man without provocation. india has not responded to the accusations of our. two other pakistani soldiers and two from india have died in kashmir in the last 10 days. it's the worst flareups in almost 10 years. >> we are deeply disappointed. on back of my government, we feel the dialogue process should be uninterrupted. we feel the dialogue process today also offers an opportunity to be able to deal with this and many other crises. we must not close the door on dialogue.

we have to get back to being able to resolve this at any political level that is required. >> the political situation in pakistan remains tense. a deadline has now passed for the prime minister to hand himself into police to face corruption charges. on tuesday, the supreme court issued a warrant over a deal than he did as the electricity and power minister to build new power stations. hundreds of angry protesters in the shower head and brought to 18 dead bodies to the local governor's house. -- in pashawar. they said gunmen stormed the area and shot victim's tuesday. thousands of protesters have been calling for the government to quit in islamabad. it's the third day of demonstrations led by cleric calling for the military and judiciary to install a new interim government. we are in islamabad with more. >> it was a peaceful protest.

he has said the corruption in the political system must stop. he has been criticized by major political parties for the stance he has taken. they say the way he is progressing is not correct. people have been camping out the past three days, braving the cold in islamabad. they say they will continue to sit here until their demands are met. >> i'm here for the future of my children. we will not move from here. >> its fighting for laws and for our own rights against the law. >> i want to change and democracy of our country. i want to change of our

problems. we need a real government and not a fraud government. >> he has reiterated his appeal to various political leaders to join him. these political parties are not sure who is financially backing the party. they say there's election commission in pakistan which will hold free and fair elections. kamal in o live to islamabad. what is the latest on the trouble in pashawar? >> i just spoke to our contact who told me the protesters who brought the body to the governor's house are in a meeting with the authorities with their demand that the perpetrators of the crime, that

there should be justice, and that their perfume should be lifted so people can resume their normal lives. however, so far, there's no word from the government or the authorities. the incident took place a couple days back. these people were killed and dumped. because it was curfew, nobody could retrieve the bodies. there are questions asked to who carried out the attacks. some of the people who were killed, there were family paramilitaryhe pair liber forces. there are suspicions that the attack could have been carried out by an militant islamic grou. sometimes they attack civilians and military members. >> does anyone know where the

prime minister is? >> nobody has seen the prime minister in public since the orders were issued by the supreme court to ensure that his arrest would take place within 24 hours. the national accountability bureau was also told that if any of these people were to escape the country, then they would be personally responsible. they have already put all the airports on alert. they're keeping watch. the immigration authorities have been informed. still no word on where the prime minister is. >> thank you. that was a live report from islamabad. japan's two biggest airlines have grounded their entire fleet of boeing 787 dreamliners after a battery malfunctions forced and all nippon debt to make an emergency landing. so far, no airlines have

canceled orders for the new airplane. >> evacuating the aircraft after this and boeing 787 makes an emergency landing in western japan. every passenger and crew member on board managed to leave the dreamliner on an inflatable slide. all nippon is blaming a battery era and has grounded its fleet of dreamliner jets for second time. >> we are extremely sorry for causing grief to the passengers, their families, and those involved. until we know the cause and can explain it properly to our customers, we will not restart operations of these airplanes. >> ama has met several incidents this month alone. it had to cancel a domestic flight after the computer wrongly indicated there was a problem with the 787's brakes.

in two case is there was a minor fuel leak and a cramped cockpit button screen. states incident also prompted fellow japanese carrier japan airlines to ground its dreamliner fleet. it had a fuel leak in boston last week. >> people's lives are at stake and the transport ministry will do its best to investigate can guarantee people's safety. >> the 787 was designed to transform their travel by replacing traditional technologies with a new advanced components. the fuselage is made up of 50% materials, whichight makes it fuel-efficient. there is an all electric system that starts the engines, de- ices the wings, and provides the cabin with air pressure and temperature. some of the eight airlines using the dreamliner complained about the problems. it is not deterred qantas

airlines in australia from canceling its order of 15 new dreamliners. the first of those should be delivered in the second half of this year. the airline hopes that by then, any problems will be sorted out. if not, it will not only be qantas airlines thinking twice. >> shortly after the latest incident, the plane maker issued a statement saying, "boeing is aware of the divergence of the 787 operated to western japan. we will work with our customers and the appropriate regulatory agencies." in syria, activists say the death toll from tuesday's attack at the university in aleppo has risen to 87,. dozens of people are also injured in the two explosions at the second-biggest university in syria. the government and rebel forces are accusing each other of carrying out the attack. russia says it is now suspending operations at its consulates in aleppo.

airtran's president ahmadinejad has addressed parliament, urging reforms to try to revive the struggling economy. their economy has been hit by western sanctions over its nuclear program. president ahmadinejad. >> it is an election year. ahmadinejad used most of his time in parliament to defend his government post policies and to talk about how because of his government the country has advanced in just about every sector over the past eight years. but that is not what people wanted to hear. it wanted to hear about the economy and what he plans to do to fix it. in the past eight years, but prices have jumped on just about everything, but the value of the currency has dropped about 70%. the president blames international sanctions against iran's central bank and oil- based economy. he said sanctions are putting

pressure on the people and that's what the enemy wants. >> they are against the constructive plans of the parliament, country, and the nation, but they make other excuses for their actions. they're just against iran pose the advancement and impairment. prezioso took shots at his critics and the wallpaper. he said part of the problem with the economy is that the wealth is only moving from the port to the rich instead of the other way around. ahmadinejad also asked parliament to work with his government rather than against it. he said, without any cooperation, nothing will get done in iran. he only has six months left in his final term. ahmadinejad says he and his government will work until the very last day to get things done. but it's clear from the negative reaction that followed his speech in parliament that that they cannot come soon enough for many. >> in somalia, al-shabab rebels

are threatening to kill a french spy they've been holding three years. the rebels are linked to al qaeda from the sale failed attempts by france to rescue the intelligence agent code-named denis allex, has signed his death warrant. people were killed in the rescue attempt four days ago. officials in cuba opposing capital are reporting 51 new cases of cholera. one person has died so far. cuba has been free of the disease for well over 100 years. this latest outbreak is from the same strain found to have been introduced in haiti by nepalese u.n. peacekeepers. that unleashed an epidemic in 2010, killing 8000 people. 2010, killing 8000 people.