only on al jazeera america >> part of our month long look at working in america. "hard earned". the growing scandal surrounding world football fifa's president cancels speaking engagements in zurich. ♪ ♪ you are watching al jazerra live from our headquarters in doha. also coming up, saudi-led air strikes kill over 100 people in yemen in one of the deadliest days of bombing since the start of the war. the pentagon says 22 people may have been exposed to anthrax after a batch of the deadly bacteria was accidentally ship today south korea. plus. >> reporter: i am florence looi

in western myanmar where the government's plan to cancel temporary i.d. cards threaten saysessto leave hundreds of thousand of people in bill low. hello, the president of football's governing body sepp blatter has cancelled a speaking engagement in zurich. 24 hours after seven top fifa officials were arrested. they are among 14 indicted by the u.s. accused of corruption. criminal proceedings have also been opened relating to the awarding of a the world cup tournament to russia and qatar in 2018 and 2022. blatter, who has been named in either investigation has said such misconduct has no place in football of the european body you i've a will meet later on thursday to decide whether to boycott the fifa presidential vote which was widely expected to grant sepp blatter a fifth

term, key response ors have expressed serious concern over corruption scandal. coca cola saying the investigation has tarnished the reputation of the world cup. fifa's chief medical officer has just addressed that conference in zurich, offering a message on behalf of press sepp blatter. >> president blat air apologize not to be able to come today because of the terrible incidents you have probably followed in the media. so he has to fulfill his duty in the management of the situation as president today which are probably more important than to come to us. even though medicine is very close to his heart. so he sends his sincere apologies and greetings to you all. >> wednesday was one of the deadliest days since the war in yemen began two months ago multiple saudi-led air strikes killed more than 100 people. the u.n. is again urging all sides to seek a diplomatic

solution. that's despite the postponement of peace talks in geneva victoria gatenby has more. >> reporter: coalition war planes bombed houthi positions in the capital sanaa. one of their targets was a car believed to be carrying houthi rebel leaders. >> translator: sometime in the afternoon a plane targeted a car that was traveling on the street near some homes. the houses were destroyed and the residents were injured. >> reporter: despite the air strikes the houthis continue to control large parts of yemen including the capital. people living near the site of this latest attack are angry they have been caught up in the fighting. >> translator: this is working men, not targets not military bases, we must distinguish between the two. this was an tack on the whole nation what for the children and women inside the homes. >> reporter: another air strike

targeted houthi rebels and fighters local to former president saleh. as they picked up weapons at a warehouse, coalition jets hit a houthi base and arms dope depo in a mountain area of the capital. peace talks meant to start on thursday in geneva have been delayed but a spokesman from u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon says the postponement is not indefinite. >> we are seeing the fighting continues, we are seeing the yemeni people continue to go suffer. a lot of people have different stakes in this -- in this conflict. we are asking him to put first and foremost on their mind the welfare of the yemeni people who are continuing to suffer. >> reporter: pro-government forces are backed by the saudi-led campaign for retore hadi to power. yemenis are increasingly suffering, victoria gatenby, al jazerra. we'll take you back to our

stop story and that is the growing scandal surrounding world football and fifa's president we were telling you a moment ago has canceled a speaking engagement in zurich where he was supposed to speak crossing over to lawrence lee who is joining us from zurich, there was an official statement read on his behalf as to why he didn't attend that conference and why he didn't speak. but what are we to make of his absence? >> reporter: yeah, that's the question isn't it. where is sepp blatterthing at all. it was a very short statement at the end of the day. and his official spokesman tried to push a line early on that said this extraordinary investigation in to historic corruption was a bat day for football but a good day for fifa. well outside zurich and outside fifa there are very, very many people that say exactly the opposite. it was a very good day for football and an absolutely awful day for fifa. it seems to me as of right now

it's five past 10 clock in the morning and the opening ceremony of this congress is supposed to be at 5:00 zurich time. these next few hours i think will be crucial in determining what exactly sepp blatter and fifa are going to do in response to this. blatter hasn't turned up to this vents, uefa rattily which is separately which is threatening to boy scott the ceremony and maybe by extension the voting process which is suppose to bed reinstalling blatter as president those meetings are happening this morning. is blatter with them? is he thinking about his future? what is going on? it seems between now and potentially 2:00 this afternoon some of these questions might be resolved either they are trying to stick their chins out and pretend that everything is really okay and get on with the opening ceremony or they cave in to the demand from uefa that the entire election process is postponed for six months and stop everything and try to start

again from scratch. >> if uefa decides to boy cod the election process what do the implications of that mean. >> reporter: this is uncharted territory. politicians are weighing in as well the french minister got involved to say things can't carry on like this and there should be a postponement of the entire process. there is a schism now really inside fifa with uefa saying things can't carry off. the asian football federation saying meanwhile it wants to continue to support blatter. but i don't think that fifa can enjoy anybody's confidence if there is this enormous hole mount middle of it. some of the football federations say they want to carry on as normal with blatters in control. and others saying they can't carry on like that. of course, meanwhile. all the investigation going on

in to the 2018 and 222 world cups as well. it has a slightly surreal quality about it. if sepp blatter try to pursue the opening ceremony tonight with all the fireworks and flag waving and everything is okay really kind of atmosphere, it is going to look very, very false. >> yeah, it will be interesting to see how this develops over the next few hours we'll let you go for now for the time being, thank you lawrence lee reporting from zurich. malaysian authorities. believe 139 people may be buried in grave sites on the tie boarder, 28 abandoned camps found in a remote jungle at the weekend where forensic experts have been exhuming the bodies. malaysia is investigating 12 officers arrested last year in connection with people smuggling. they are being questioned over the mass graves, the deputy home minister says the human smugglers ducked the police by operating in inaccessible areas. >> the indication we see from

thailand being the pipe that we saw water supply from the thailand border was 200 meters of water supply. it goes in to the camp. it seems that malaysia is completely isolated from the whole camp structure. and then because it's on the top of a hill, normally, like. [ inaudible ] our patrol don't normally go to the top of the hill. we stay on the side because normal people don't live on top of the hill. meanwhile in, myanmar rohingyas face even more uncertainty by the end of the this month their temporary registration cards are due to expire the ethnic minority is not recognized by the government and with no legal status many wonder if they have a future at all. florence l.o.o.i. reports from western myanmar. >> reporter: myanmar is the only country she has ever known. but she has seen her status go from being a citizen to a

noncitizen. she has had to vendor her temporary registration card to immigration officials. >> translator: i have already given it up. i don't know what will happen now. >> reporter: she used to hold a citizenship card but in the late 1980s the government took it back from the ethnic row minute ga minority to what she glocks. even belonged. even though manied have been here for generations, they were issued temporary registration cards, they still had some rights including the right to vote. but now, that is gone. this is one of the offices set up to collect temporary i.d. cards. it's in a former school building in a cam top displaced rohingya because they are allowed to travel in to town. the muslim rohingya lived separated from the he would anything bid i.ethnicbuddhist rah

kind. they were fighting between the buddhist and row huh begin. with elections scheduled for november and a possible referendum on constitutional reform before that, human rights activists accused the government of pantserring to a buddhist electoral. >> mostly the motivation troll reel toy strip these last remaining rights, the right to vote from the rohingya. and in so doing they are disinning franchising hundreds of thousands of other people that are eligible for citizenship. it's really this anti-rohingya drive motorcycle veiling it. >> reporter: but the government says there is nothing sin step behind their decision. >> translator: we will accept white cards until any mae 31st after that those that gave up their white cards can start applying for national identity cards. >> reporter: many rohingya doubt they will be granted citizenship. they say the government has let them down in the past for now

they remain a minority unrecognized and unwanted. florence looi al jazerra rakhine state myanmar. still think to do on al jazerra, while native americans are angry with the pope's decision to grant st. hood to an 18th century priest. and influencing the world's opinion about palestine using a literary festival.

♪ hello again the top stories on al jazerra the president of football's governor body sepp blatter will not attend a

medical conference in zurich, it comes after seven top fifa officials were arrested in switzerland. among 14 indicted by u.s. accused of corruption. multiple saudi-led air strikes have killed more than 100 people on wednesday, it was one of the deadliest days since the war in yemen began two months ago. malaysian authorities believe they have discovered 139 bodies in mass graves in the northern border with thailand. malaysia's investigating 12 police officers who were arrested last year in connection with people smuggling. and they are being questioned over the mass graves. in syria the head of al qaeda's affiliate al-nusra front has told al jazerra it will not rest until it topples the assad rah jim a propaganda war has been raging for medical as long as the actual fighting. rebel groups and the government continue to spread their message on the air waves and social media: mohamed reports.

>> reporter: as fighting intensifies in the yarmouk camp south of duh damascus, isil fighters scream their rallying cries. showcasing to the world how close they are to power. on sear general state television though, the mess inning couldn't are pro contradictory. i bombastic montage and message. whereby land, air or sea the countries armed forces are as strong as ever. in syria the propaganda war has raged almost as long as the actual war. listen to president bashar al-assad and he vow to his advantage wish the enemies of syria. >> translator: in order for us to have our victory we must have faith in our troops and we surely do. >> reporter: listen to opposition fighters and they swear the same. nothing less than total victory.

one rebel alliance called. [ inaudible ] claims it's consolidating positions if idlib and moving forward. they say they are recent advances against syrian forces have only made them more beyond confident and thai they'll fight on. >> translator: we are not murderers or criminals we fight against those that fight us, we fight against tyranny. the battle doesn't end at the birth place of the assad clan, we'll continues our focus damascus and on toppling this regime, i assure you assad's fall won't take a long time. >> reporter: and here is the leader of al-nusra, saying much the same. >> translator: we are preparing to storm the village and expel these gangs god willing we will declare the see south of idlib and it will be a free and liberated city. >> reporter: isil promising to

take far more than one country in their quest to establish a caliphate. truth and clarity have been two of the most obvious casualties. here is what is known. isil is now in control of large parts of territory stretching stretching far, as well as palmyra. while government forces have been pushed back, they still hold parts of aleppo and areas east of homs. meanwhile, they seem to be moving further south of idlib and also towards other areas. as the syrian conflict enters its fifth year, the only thing certain is how much civilians have surfed. suffered. with more than 300,000 people killed. the country's humanitarian crisis grinds on in the cruelest possible fashion. business despite all the boasting it seems clearer than ever that in this war, there are no bragging rights. al jazerra. u.s. military commanders are trying to find out how samples

of anthrax back tear year. accidentally sent to south korea and nine u.s. states. 22 people may have been exposed in south korea. the four staff are also being treated a is a recaution as a laboratory in utah mistakenly dispatched samples. the lethal disease was used in a now ban doned u.s. bio weapons program. alex jensen is a journalist in south korea and he says the anthrax scare is not causing alarm. >> certainly no members of the public have been reportedly exposed. this was contained on the air base which isn't in the city it's away from the city certainty, but still, you are talking about hundreds of thousands of residents in the vicinity it, could have been worse in terms of a populated zone though, because seoul 64-kilometers away, has somewhere in the region of about 10 million in the immediate

metropolitan area, nevertheless, it seems as though the an throbgsanthraxsports have been destroyed and the situation and the panic levels are under control. last month's earthquake in nepal is having a devastating affect on the economy. hydro electricity has long been seen as sensual to power chains but building new dams has been slow, however some think the quake could be a catalyst for change as harry fawcett reports. >> reporter: more than a month after the earthquake and this electric plant is out of commission awaiting repair. 13 plants across the country are thought to have been affected by the 7.8 magnitude game on april 25th. may's safe .3 after shack aftershock or both it. could tick at that months to get back online. >> translator: it's been severely damaged.

the bridge was damaged the hydro was damaged. >> reporter: but there are other threats to the safety of these facilities. what's interesting about the damage you can see here, is that much of it wasn't caused in the earthquake it was caused by flooding after a land slide that happened last year, it's a sign that the very geology that gives nepal potential for hydroelectric power also threatens it. further upstream the chinese company building this stopped work the day of the quake. but the government is telling investors this is just the time to put their money in to nepal after the big one so long predicted happened. >> we haven't had earthquakes for the last 80 years a big one hand now so let's say looking back at the history every 70, 80 years big earthquakes have gone in nepal hopefully they can be confident. >> reporter: participant says a landmark deal signed last year with india points the way. the agreement would see an indian company build a 900 mega wants plat.

nepal would receive electricity from i understand that in the short-term and export it another way in the long-term hydropower expansion has long been the subject of political wrestling. not just over concerns about what it might do to the country's natural environment but also over fears that a sovereign resource will be sold down the river to a southern big brother. >> it's not a problem. >> reporter: hydroelectric engineer and former water minister says india would get regularized water flow, free, and electricity on the cheap. >> if you export electricity it, the factories are going to be set up there. not here. and our guises won't get jobs in their country they'll have to go -- well, throwing qatar and saudi arabia and malaysia right now. grinding their bones off. they'll have do that in india in 50-degree heat now. >> reporter: nepal uses just 1% of its estimated 82,000-megawatt hydro elect tri potential. there is a broad agreement that this powerful resort needs to be pert harnessed as part of post

quake recovery. just how it should be done is a divisive issue. harry fawcett in nepal. columbia's fork rebels have confirmed within of their very peace negotiators was killed last week. martinez was among 27 relates killed in an attack on a camp in south western co colombia. peace talks continue despite the recent he escalation in violence. thousands of cargo trucks are stranded along the bolivia-chile board never icy conditions after customs workers went on strike demanding better working conditions, land locked bolivia uses chile's pacific port to move cargo. the peruvian government has diddeclared a state of emergency as anti-mining protesters begin a 48 hour demonstration in the south. the army has been sent in to rep quell weeks of deadly protests against a mexican-owned copper

mining project, three protesters and one police officer have been killed. pope francis plans to declare an 18th century spanish priest as the first latin american saints in the u.s. he built built a string of missions across california, but many native americans say his aggressive efforts to convert their ancestors amount nod genocide. melissa chan explains. >> reporter: the vatican and its new era under the progressive leadership of pope francis, one of his missions bringing the church closer to the p people. part of the strategy the cannon sigh saying of the first latino saint in the united states. the mission's fatherhood established were just beautiful places but for some native americans, these were prisons essentially they were forced to work in the fields for the missions, they were forced to stay in the missions, and they

were forced in to christianity. the mission settlement wiped out local populations whether by disease or by the barrel of a gun. best estimates say some 100,000 indians died this in the decades followed the establishment of the missions, for indians the impending canonization is an affront. >> we talk about him in the negative. there is nobody that talks about him in the positive. >> reporter: they are tribes vastly down sized as a result of european a arrival across the continent, gatherings like this allow american indians to celebrate also in many ways clings to what is left for their culture. >> for us it's different we look at it as our people were devastated, you know, what happened and it affects our culture, our whole lifely whole whole lifely hood. >> reporter: by choice or by

force some 5,000 indians were baptized during sarah's administration. mission dollar he is, the seventh of them. works as curator. >> sarah is calling us to be saints. >> reporter: he is the minority voice among california indians. >> i believe he was one of these champions of thought i have peoples, in protecting my ancestors because he founded mission san francisco. >> reporter: vincent madina disagrees. it's a bit of a family feud. he's galvin's cousin. >> canonizing this, for me, what i see as a horrible place of colonization where there is suffering, there was pain, degradation, death diseases. >> reporter: criticism of the pope's decision has prompted a response from the church. the archdiocese of los angeles

published the following quote. a staunch advocate for the native americans he fearlessly confronted the government on many occasion to his better their situation. california today would not be the same without him. the two sides clearly look at this through fastly different lenses. pope francis has called this the year of he advantage lie saying. one of for better or worse christ to the new world. melissa chan, al jazerra carmel california. a major topic at the palestine literature festival being held across the palestine territories, as imtiaz tyab reports. >> reporter: it was standing room only at the opening of the palestine let true fet valve it was held in the occupied west bank, it was the first of several taking place in cities across historic palestine. throughout the week, people here

will visit ancient sites and meet palestinian writers and activists. they will also travel to cities like hebron who has been divide booed i an israeli settlement considered illegal under international law and to haifa a seaside city in israel to see how palestinians live under an israeli state. >> the people that come in are people who are influential in the various fields of culture so when they actually the experience of having a cultural festival in palestine then they become part of the pressure of public international opinion. >> reporter: before this vents in occupied east jerusalem writers were take own a tour of the old city and the mosque, one of islam's holiest sites and the western wall an important place of worship for jews and where signs of israel's occupation seem to be every that. writers from all over the world will see firsthand how

palestinians live under israel i occupation from military checkpoints to illegal settlements, and segregated motor ways. malika booker is a writer and poet from london this is her first visits here, she tells me seeing this is unlike anything she had imagined. >> i don't know i just feel really sad. and i feel helpless. you know, and also i don't think i will be the same again from this visit. >> reporter: in past years events were also held across the gaza strip. enabling writers from arab countries and the palestinian dais practice to entering the blockaded territory but israel, which controls entry along its borders, has refuse today grant the festival or its participants access so writers there decided to organize their own workshops

and readings like this one. they say nothing will stop them from sharing their stories. imtiaz tyab in scratch ruus legal. >> if you got to choose how long you would get to live for how long would you want to live for? >> immortality ell, i want to be with my family. i don't want to miss out on any of the fun >> my kids are probably like most kids out