Hello again im peter w. Watching the news hour live from my headquarters here in doha coming up in the next sixty minutes. In barcelona where as secessionist leaders prepare possibly to declare independence this week a huge crowd has gathered in defiance marching instead for spanish unity. Also this hour former Al Qaeda Linked fighters promise a battle to the death against Syrian Rebels backed by turkey plus. A giant fireball billows into the sky over the gunney and capital after an explosion at a gas station several people were killed also ahead. Restoring roads coliseum its only finds help returning its ancient monuments back to their former glory. And im fond of how much with all the sports news including Louis Hallett and with the japanese gone private take a huge step for clenching his balls. Well championship title. Thousands are marching in barcelona against catalonia splitting from the rest of spain people have traveled from all over the country right to the heart of the region saying they represent the silent majority opposed to Catalan Independence its been a week since that referendum on succession triggered a constitutional crisis the spanish Prime MinisterMariano Rajoy says hell do whatever it takes to keep spain united including removing catalonia as autonomous status. We have to return to legality and the key is to do so quickly and go back to normal to have the absolute reassurance that the government will prevent any declaration of independence from turning into something spain will continue to be spain and it will continue being spain for a long time. John hall is our correspondent in barcelona jonah good afternoon what are the chances here that they will just say we are now independent. Well i mean you know thats the question everybody would like an answer to peter it becomes a very difficult one even to speculate about because goodness knows whats in the minds of those process session is leaders in the Regional Government here in catalonia particular when they look at the size of the crowds that have turned out here today will be it ok many people have come in from other parts of spain but the majority are catalonians the talk is of well certainly hundreds of thousands perhaps five five or six hundred thousand people and they of course believe that they are the silent majority that their voices have not been heard their opinions not accounted for that there is an atmosphere of hostility towards those who disagree with the idea of independence but they believe they do have the numbers they are in fact the majority and a referendum polls tend to bear that out so the big message here on saturday and sunday rather from this crowd is were not all behind you and if you want to go in unilaterally declare independence we found our voices now with out on the streets a little earlier on i spoke to an opposition politician politician. Tony ramos and hes from the party field out on the else which is in the parliament here in opposes independence i asked him what the message was from him and from the people in this this crowd towards those who did come out and vote last weekend towards those who do passionately believe in independence heres what he had to say. My message is that there are ways to express your opinion by respecting the laws that we have all agreed on the way hes looking by them like what hes present they are arrangement with spain looks like i need a large majority to do that they dont have it then they having their views in the got on bottom and by violating and sabotaging. And thats thats why we have all these people here because they also want to remain god that they want to remain spanish and they want to remain you to be and its very simple its not smileys nationalism its simply a vindication of the rights and the freedoms that this punishment should give jonah obviously such a divisive a big divisive issue there across the country but is there a middle ground that madrid and barcelona could work with. Well i mean thats interesting because on saturday there were big demos also here in barcelona and in madrid and all over the country a slightly different tone and tenor to them to this protest on sunday on saturday they were talking about dialogue they were calling the politicians to come around the table to take the heat out of this crisis and talk about next steps so that if you like is the middle ground its not what Mariano Rajoy the Prime Minister demands that the leaders here simply give up any claim to independence before another step forward can be taken and nor is it that unilateral declaration of independence that would ask for in a very deep and dangerous constitutional crisis in a country that of course lets not forget has no civil war in the past so is there a middle ground well maybe it is a middle ground that revolves around dialogue but at this point peter that no one is showing any signs of giving in in that direction the Prime Minister as i say says therell be no talk unless independence calls are dropped altogether thats not something the secessionists here are apparently anyway planning to do jonah many thanks. And im Coalition Led by former Al Qaeda Linked fighters is promising a fierce battle against those who enter its territory in a province in syria. Is responding to an offensive by the f. S. A. The Free Syrian Army now turkey is backing the operation from its side of the border and they have opened fire from there. Miss me. It up of several armed factions now it includes opposition groups that were pushed into it live after Syrian Government forces retook aleppo last december the f. S. A. Crossed the border from turkey into the province on saturday. Is on the turkey syria border for us fashion as far as you know has this deployment now turned into an operation. Yes the operation is under way and by the way peter as we speak the turkish president. Is the living god speech of the members of the ark party and hes basically saying that the reason why the turkish army is interfering now is to repair to the National Security of turkey basically referring to the year for it is still the start of the two thousand and fifteen explaining the reason why the turkish government had to start this process more than an operation to repair. I say im sorry from entertaining permanent positions on the border with turkey and saying that now turkey is also going on the same campaign to try to secure the border area but as were going to see in this report moving deeper into syria could be very delicate for the Turkish Military. Turkish artillery shelling heya to hit a sham positions inside syria. The former alqaeda affiliate groups controlled most of province and this border area is the focal point of what turkish authorities refer to as a serious campaign. And the Free Syrian Army is sending reinforcements to that i had. The starting point for the new cross border campaign. Thank you but which has thousands of fighters is vowing to fight to the death news of the new campaign is raising concerns for civilians in there. If the turkish army enters back by russian planes they have committed a massacre a few days ago and that is for sure and acceptable to me and to any muslim who rejects the presence of occupiers in our country. The russians are the first and last and i mean of the Syrian People are backing Bashar Al Assad how can they be supporting the Syrian People. The new push by turkey comes after an agreement with russia and iran last month to set up a deescalation zone in. The turkish army will be operating in the city while the russians will be deployed outside of the province it is one of four deescalation zones the others are the askers of the capital damascus that are on the border with jordan and northern parts of helms. What established after iran russia and turkey decided to set aside their differences and find a permanent solution to the syrian conflict. Do you get the sense that for the military planners in ankara they will have to finesse this if only by the by the day perhaps because turkeys had its fingers burnt before it lost seventy people not so very long ago. Indeed and this explains why and now they are trying to. Put this whole operation into different phases days one is the basic one the Free Syrian Army moves into the area and takes on a at the head of the fighters for the time being it seems that the Turkish Military will be conducting Surveillance Reconnaissance missions and sharing intelligence where the Free Syrian Army phase two will be when the Turkish Military crosses into syria. Permanent post inside syria for as long as the the escalations agreement continues but as you know but as you know peter the head of the sham is the most powerful faction now operating in the last the are convinced to hand over their weapons or at least pull out from there were likely to see some heavy fighting in the coming days and it is something that the Turkish Military is definitely going to take into consideration fashion thank you the army in the democratic republic of congo say rebel fighters of ambushed a bus and sank villages in the countrys east its unclear how many people have been killed the fighting is continuing in the beni territory in north kivu province Security Forces blame the attack on ugandan rebels called the allied Democratic Forces or a. D. F. Congolese soldiers have been trying for years to wipe out numerous groups in that area. Plus more news on the sports still to come here on the news hour for you including a tight race in liberia to find a replacement for africas first elected female president. And thousands of homes are without power this Tropical Storm nate lashes the United States. Wild scenes in costa rica as they took their spot on the twenty fifth of. Sportsmens with santa in about thirty five minutes. The gas tanker explosion in ghana has killed at least six people and injured thirty five others in the capital acra the blast led to a second fire as catchy love has not explained. To much of the film there nobody would doubt the blast was overpowering witnesses looked at the towering flames in disbelief. And most wanted. Gone as government says a tanker caught fire at a gas filling station in graph the flames spread across the street to another gas station triggering a second explosion. But all the fear confusion people ran to safety and so. Look at my hands this witness was injured as he made his escape i want to thank you its like a stunt man overflight you know like that man that like this isnt the first time ghana has gone through a similar situation in two thousand and fifteen a blast at a gas station killed at least ninety people aljazeera is corresponded amma boateng covers the region she says these type of explosions are not uncommon this deadly blasts could lead to changes people already beyond what. I feel prepared that kind of boy be made to go to in the going its a question thats been asked before but this tragedy could make the issue a priority got him up a civilian out of zero. Staying in africa campaigning in liberias president ial election on tuesday has just come to a close twenty candidates are in the running to succeed africas first elected female president Ellen Johnson sirleaf now they include the Vice President a businessman and a former World Football of the year but it was reports from the capital monrovia. Candidates for liberia president ial and parliamentary elections i know last minute effort to win over voters their range from the flamboyant to the everyday person. One thing they have in common though is that they stand on issues look and sound the same and this is forcing many voters to narrow their choices down to all the allegiances of tribal region and personality. Fact the population not growing. Candidates with developmental. Platforms Many Political observers believe that voters are not asking the right questions which is really tragedy. Corney is a product of the countrys broken education system. She and her neighbor take turns teaching their children the little the no. Literacy rate is about thirty percent. Some candidates have promised better life. From Poverty Reduction to education and providing infrastructure one thing what the one so far is a complete. Record itself. That emerged from. The Election Commission is confident of successful elections that could lead to a transition from one democratic government to another for the first time in more than forty as. One of the challenges we had of course were. Some part of our country difficult to reach because. We were blessed to have the mail here will graciously agreed to provide air support or transport. A president ial aspirant needs to win more than fifty percent of the vote to avoid a runoff for legislators though a simple majority will do. But it greece. What rovio. Military has been accused of carrying out atrocities against the. States denied by the me and my government in a makeshift camp in coxs bazaar in neighboring bangladesh and how much im jus met one Young Refugee who survived an attack by the army on the same day that Human Rights Watch said mass killings were being carried out. Despite the relief his family tries to provide eighteen year old ranger refugee muhammad is still haunted for a while his mother and siblings try to give him a brief respite from the extreme heat and humidity but no matter how much medicine is given or the number of bandages applied his scars both physical and psychological will remain. He took us out from home and tied our hands behind our backs they pulled us along the roads and kicked as they pulled us through the village through the jungle and took us to join another group of people that they made as lie down on top of one another mohammad all says when soldiers from me and mars army began shooting at them he was hit twice in the back. At first he pretended to be dead but then again when i opened my eyes to see if theyd left a note when i opened my eyes they saw me and shot me here two of his brothers were killed in the armys attack on mungo village and state on august twenty seventh mohammed all was convinced he also would not survive a mood in the clinton level and i thought i would die so i prayed i thought to myself im not going to see my relatives anymore mohamed tools brother sure if i was desperate to get him some help theyre going to doctors but theyre not doctors we couldnt find any doctor there was military everywhere so i couldnt go to the pharmacy and get him any medicine people were telling me i should go break down the door of the pharmacy and bring him medicine but i couldnt go there because of the military. Tells us that in addition to his two brothers who were killed dozens more of his relatives were also executed during the attack a recent report by Human Rights Watch included interviews with witnesses and survivors who told the organization that me and morris military didnt just carry out mass killings that day but that they also sexually assaulted stabbed and beat villagers who were gathering for safety in a residential compound and while the u. N. Has called the actions of man mars military a textbook example of ethnic cleansing man or as government has categorically denied carrying out any atrocities against the ranger. Or mohammad tools heartbroken mother there is no time to dwell on the past taking care of her family even in conditions as miserable as these is her priority as a living why didnt they when i see my sons williams i dont feel like going back to our village and also i set fire to a high end they set fire and everywhere we saw that we had no choice but to leave they may have been able to leave the violence behind but for mohammed its clear the horror of what he lived through will never really go away. At the tank ali refugee camp in coxs bazaar on the river. In the u. S. More than one hundred thousand homes in mississippi and alabama without power as Tropical Storm nate moves inland from the u. S. Gulf coast knew it was being downgraded from a hurry can shortly after making a second u. S. Landfall in mississippi it killed at least thirty people in Central America warnings of dangerous storm surges remain along the gulf coast for the latest lets take you live now to new orleans and our correspondent Daniel Daniel how bad has it been. Well i think peter mostly a huge sigh of relief here in new orleans im in a neighborhood which was hit very hard by Hurricane Katrina in two thousand and five when Something Like a thousand eight hundred two were killed and billions of dollars worth of damage was done almost no sign of damage here the levees the investment put in the flood defenses seems to have held out here as you mentioned there have been power cuts in many parts of the region in Louisiana Mississippi and alabama but it does seem as though the flood damage was minimal people are getting are getting up early sunday morning here people are out and about assessing the damage but certainly here in new orleans it seems to be minimal people out and about now to sort of resuming their lives seeing what damage has been done for those people who live outside the levee system they ok are they the people who lost power. Some of those people lost power many of those people were evacuated as a precaution they will be returning to their home of this morni