egyptian court sentences a leading activists and 24 others to five years in jail for taking part in a protest and meanwhile retrial of two al jazeera journalist in egypt is adjourned and a new date is set. ♪ this is al jazeera live from our headquarters in doha and also ahead the u.n. envow to syria heads to damascus for talks with deal with aleppo and he even says the odds are against him, top secret al

jazeera obtained hundreds of classified documents from intelligence agencies from around the world. >> and the oscar goes to. >> and the academy awards are handed out in hollywood and we will tell you who is taking home a statute. ♪ a leading figure in egypt's 2011 uprising has been handed a five-year jail sentence by a court in cairo and blogger and activists was tried for violated egypt protest laws and people in the court erupted in anger after the verdict and chatting down with the military and them and 24 defendants face charges relating to one protest in 2013 in the capitol, the sentence is being appealed. money while the retrial of two al jazeera journalists in egypt has been adjourned and mohamed

and fahmy are accused of helping the outlawed muslim brotherhood, charges they deny and court adjourned the case because there were not enough witnesses a new court date for march the 8 and we report. >> reporter: it was a moment of hope mohamed fahmy and bahir mohamed freed on bail earlier this month but still bear the weight of criminal charges and a retrial, instead of dismissing the charges a judge adjourned the case until march 8th. the men are accused of aiding the muslim brotherhood and declared a terrorist organization before they were arrested on december 29 2013 and mohamed and peter greste spend more than a year behind bars. greste was deported back to his native australia a few weeks ago and fahmy told to relinquish citizenship and pay $3300

security bond and he went home to his wife and children and missed the birth of his son while he was in jail. >> i think i start crying and the first time my children tell me stop going to work. don't leave again. you spend too much time and work and don't go again, we want you to stay. >> reporter: arrest of the three journalist inspired a global campaign and protests. greste more than anyone is aware that the campaign to free our two remaining colleagues must be louder than ever. >> we have a platform, people have identified us with the cause very strongly and you know i think it would be a abrogation to walk away from that and it's important and it is worth discussing. >> reporter: fahmy trying to get deported to canada but in court his lawyer says no one knows where his passport is and until its found his life is quote, frozen. i'm with al jazeera.

the u.n. special envow to syria heading to damascus for another round of talks aimed at securing a freeze in fighting in alep pa-and mistura admitted to al jazeera the chances of a deal are very slim but says the u.n. will never give up the fight for the city started in 2012 and just about every fighting group including i.s.i.l. has a stake in the conflict and they say they killed 300 soldiers in the past week. let's take a look at what mist mistura plans to do after leaving, the special envoy will have talks and a u.n. small team will travel to aleppo before the beginning of march, the idea is for a halt in all area bombardment and attacks using heavy weapons across the city of aleppo. in the last week alone 48

civilians have been killed in the providence of aleppo according to the syrian observatory of human rights and we take a closer look at the situation on the ground. >> reporter: fighting in the strategically important aleppo providence is fierce and complicated and here rebel groups take on soldiers from regime but many other sides involved in this war. last week forces fighting for bashar al-assad and hezbollah and iran said they took part of aleppo and took parts of assad and killing his men and taking some prisoners they say. >> translator: rite you we freed the gangs from assad and iranians. >> reporter: and lost men to al-news yeah an al-qaeda affiliated group and fighting

for control of aleppo and withdrew but remains a threat from positions nearby and they have important supply routes for both rebel and government forces wins in aleppo would be important for any side in the fight. >> it's a big city the biggest in syria, it's the commercial heart of the country and has incredibly strategic links to turkey in the north, to the heart land and the center and towards lebanon, towards the i.s.i.l. controlled areas and kurdish areas in the east so it's an important, symbolic issue that they are willing to fight to maintain their control or the areas they control because the city is divided. >> reporter: cultural heritage being wiped off and show what is left of the old city one of the country's world heritage sites.

aleppo has become an incredibly difficult place to live and people are without water and electricity aand little access to food and many hospitals are not functioning if at all and makes a ceasefire more important but no more likely as this kind of intense fighting continues, carolyn with al jazeera. hadi is meeting political leaders ap poses to the houthi take over and among them are leaders who organized daily protests such as this in ty and escaped house arrest and based in aiden and says it's ill legitimate. they met for talks in geneva and the highest level in 30 years and john kerry says

significant gaps still remain ahead of a march deadline for a deal and already missed a november target date and iran president accused developed nations of imposing what he calls scientific discrimination against countries like iran seeking peaceful nuclear technology. >> translator: forces sanctions in those leading the cause for the nuclear case are well aware of iran and intentions and goals and no one can claim that the nuclear program has a non-peaceful nature. al jazeera is investigative unit obtained hundreds of secret intelligence documents from agencies around the world, in the coming days we will reveal the spy cables with a.j. plus and the guard crayon newspaper and here is a round up of what is in store.

>> reporter: the spy cable, hundreds of intelligence documents leagued to al jazeera's investigative unit from confidential to top secret and come from the world's major agencies. israel's masid and britain mi 6 and russia and south africa which now faces the largest and possibly most damaging leak. >> the security agency that has not yet had edward snowden and i think south africans may get a shock with slide back of the democratic controls on the security apparatus. >> reporter: over the coming days al jazeera will review a wide range of stories contained within the spy cables and documents redacted to protect adensitys and story exposes secrets from all over the globe dating from 2006 right up to

december last year. they include the israeli true assessment of iran program and assassination plot targeting an african union leader and an mi 6 operation to recruit a north korean spy. >> governments and presidents ministers use the intelligent services for the unpolitical purposes but you can also have it flow the other way where the agencies manipulate the politicians for their own agendas. >> reporter: papers reveal abuses of power and cover ups carried out by the world intelligence agencies and expose unethical actions secret from companies and embarrassing security failures. overall the spy cables offer an unprecedented insight into the highly political and secret world of intelligence, phil reese, al jazeera. and our coverage of the spy

cables begins here on al jazeera at 1800 gmt and also have coverage on our website at al jazeera.com. coming up, on the program nigeria's president makes a surprising admission about the threat of boko haram. plus an arms expo in a region that is rife with war, we will look at who is buying the fierces firearms. do stay with us. ♪ he's out there. there's a guy out there whose making a name for himself in a sport where your name and maybe a number are what define you. somewhere in that pack is a driver

that can intimidate the intimidator. a guy that can take the king 7 and make it 8. heck. maybe even 9. make no mistake about it. they're out there. i guarantee it. welcome to the nascar xfinity series.

>> the new al jazeera america primetime. get the real news you've been looking for. at 7:00, a thorough wrapup of the day's events. then at 8:00, john seigenthaler digs deeper into the stories of the day. and at 9:00, get a global perspective on the news. weeknights, on al jazeera america . ♪ welcome back reminder of top stories on al jazeera, a leading

figure in egypt 2011 uprising sentenced to five years in jail prominent blogger and mubarack activist violated egypt protest law and him and 24 defendants face charge related to a protest in 2013 retrial of two al jazeera journalists in egypt adjourned until march 8 and they are accused of helping the outlawed muslim brotherhood and charges they deny and it was because of an absence of witnesses. rebels fights the government of bashar al-assad killed 300 soldiers in the past week and troops captured the northern suburbs of aleppo in sur rise attack but over run by the rebels within a day. australia prime minister announced new measures to tackle the threat caused by terrorism

and some muslims feel they are being unfairly targeted. >> reporter: walking back from the doctor with her younger sister she found a man blocking their path. >> we moved to the side but he kept coming towards us and he just whacked me with his shoulder and called me a bloody terrorist. >> reporter: she is increasingly concerned about how muslims are perceived. >> when people look at me they think that because she is wearing a scarf she must be a terrorist. it kind of breaks you inside. >> reporter: on monday as he announced new measures to counter the terrorist threat the prime minister conversely suggested muslims could do more to help. >> i've often heard western leaders describe islam as a religion of peace, i wish more leaders would say that more often and mean it. >> reporter: threats were rising december siege in a

sidney cafe showing how an individual could cause havoc and they have 400 high priority counter terrorism running, double a year ago and said 110 australians traveled to iraq and syria to fight and could prove dangerous if that i returned home. too often abbot said the system was giving people the benefit of the doubt. >> if there is a choice between latitude for suspects or more powers to police and security agencies more often we should choose to support our agencies. >> reporter: new proposals include appointments of the national counter terrorism coordinator and dual national naturalty if posed a threat. >> particularly how you withdraw citizenship and under what that is and contrast to that. >> reporter: if they make excuses for islam fan fanatics.

>> with us or against us is very george bush like and very unhelpful and going to impact on australia's short term security interest and long-term security interest. >> reporter: the danger say some is that measures to tackle threats could alternate the very people australia's government most needs help from andrew thomas, al jazeera, sidney. members of the al-qaeda linked group al-shabab called for attacks on shopping malls in united states and canada and europe and the armed group told them to target the west and including the mall of america in minnesota and europe's largest in london and 2013 al-shabab attacked the west gate mall in nairobi where 60 people were killed. good luck jonathan under

estimated the threat of boko haram according to an interview he has given to nigeria media and carried out attacks and controls an area as bill as belgium and we have this update from abuja. >> reporter: president jonathan touched on the key political issues touching the country and the key thing is the fight against boko haram in the northeast area. during the interview he basically said within the next three to four weeks boko haram would be significantly diminished, not eliminated but power reduced and admitted the authorities made mistakes in the fight against boko haram and underestimated the capacity of the group but that now soldiers were far better equipped to deal with the crisis what is the likely reaction from the public to this interview?

divide and has to be said there are those who welcome this interview and be happy that president jonathan is speaking directly now about what the government is doing to try and deal with the country's problems but there are those in the opposition and opposition supporters who will say that this is too little too late and elections coming up on march 28 and this is just an attempt by president jonathan to try and bolster public support for him and for his government when confidence in what he has been doing to fight boko haram and other issues like corruption is at an all-time low. former president of the maldise will face court on monday for violating the constitution and mohamed is charged under antiterrorism laws for trying to detain a senior judge in 2012 and protesters faced off against police after the former president was arrested on sunday. the number of people who died when a boat capsized in bangladesh has risen to 69 this

happened in the river about 40 kilometers northwest of the capitol daka and the shipping ministry ordered investigation. afghanistan's army has launched a series of large-scale operations against the taliban and for the first time it's without the help of nato forces and taliban is planning counter attacks and we have details. >> reporter: afghan soldiers on their way to offensive in six districts in the providence and considered a taliban stronghold and major drug trafficking held and this is with the offensive, the first of its kind with international troops and confident it will weaken taliban fighters. >> troops and forces proved that they are capable of defending the country and as you are aware we have planned many independent operations and right now we have very good operations going on in

helman. >> afghan military and police fighting for years to fight the taliban and have been drying up and numbers dropping to 228,000, afghan government allowed 14,000 international troops to remain but most of them have been left to train, advise and assist the soldiers and u.s. considering a complete pull out by 2016. >> considering a number of options to reenforce our support for president ghani's strategy including possible changes to the timeline for the draw down of u.s. troops. that could mean taking another look timing and sequencing of base closures. >> reporter: as the afghan army launches its offensive these fighters in the province prepare a counter attack and have rare access to fighters and say they are fighting against a foreign invasion and those who support

it. >> translator: i trained them so they can sacrifice themselves in the name of god and as they are waging battles following god's orders and fighting in situations to please the almighty. >> reporter: no breakthrough in negotiations between taliban and afghan government. so no plans for peace in afghanistan, only war. i'm with al jazeera. breaking news now from kenya where the much anticipated decision on the security laws act of 2014 has been announced by the high court. now the object of this law just to remind you is to fight terrorism according to the kenya government terrorism and has many lives in kenya but kenya opposition say it's violates human rights and is inconsistent with the kenya constitution and we have harry on the line from

nairobi and what have they decided today? >> reporter: proceeding still going on but made a ruling on media section and state basically wanted to prohibit media of publishing photos of dead bodies and deal with terrorism and reporting that and this incident happened a while ago in a mall in nairobi, shot a lot of people in the name of terrorism and the government says if the media is not allowed to show those kinds of images it will make the work a lot easier to track down terrorists and do jobs properly. the jobs orders said they understand they are living in troubled times and terrorism is a big risk to kenya, the state must find balance between not violating people's right answer also trying to deal with the issue of terrorism and they should be prohibited in doing certain things for terrorism and saying it's an unjustifiable

limitation of freedom of the media and they are talking about the issue of the terrorists and the state saying they should be held to a certain time there is a time to rule on that what is it about going in tuesday kiss sooner or later going to trial. >> the high court has ruled against the state restrictions media's ability to publish dead bodies and report on security operations and we will have more on the decisions in nairobi later today on al jazeera. the largest arms expo in the middle east and networking opportunity for the top military brace and stephanie decker says it has the latest technology spanning air, land and sea. >> reporter: these are uncertain times in the mid east and even though this is mick believe part of the opening

ceremony of the idec conference there are very real fears here. >> basically being in civil war, libya being pretty much in civil war as well at the moment and sinai and who can take over in yemen and these things really happened since the last idac so arguably people would be looking at much more conventional military capability. >> reporter: threat to islamic state and iraq is also a concern for delegations here not just iraq and syria but danger of their cross border reach and top military men from all over the world, secretary of defense and chiefs of staffs rubbed shoulders and a chance to network and deals here have been worked on a long time and an opportunity to look to the future. defense is a multi-billion industry and talking about weapons of war and why countries

are secret coming to the details and we have been asking all day and no one will speak to us. middle east big on defense with saudi arabia and arab and others top spenders and despite falling oil prices there is no concerns that it would be cut and fueling war and often falling into the wrong hands and some we keen in knowing who they are selling to. >> legislation is one of the most rigid in the world and we kind of have a disadvantage in international competition due to german law but on the other hand no one wants to put a german soldier anywhere in the element. >> reporter: but reality is that war is a dirty business and these weapons kill not just who is perceived as the enemy but

many innocent civilians as well. old traditions to welcome the world's military might with newer ways to control and more effective ways to kill it's all in the name of national security but some would argue these weapons cause the exact opposite. stephanie decker al jazeera. now hollywood's biggest night is over the oscarers have been handed out and academy watchers say the picks we predictable with birdman taking the top award for best picture and we are in los angeles with who went home with the gold statute. >> the oscar goes to birdman. [cheers] no surprise there, birdman always stood a good chance and inevitable it would be this or boy hood that took the big one and the crowning as best director minute earlier gave an indication that birdman would

get best picture, the two often go hand and hand and not the best actor but went to eddy for the professor of hawking in the theory of everything and his speak was incredibly humble and you can see this is a man just getting a hang of the business. >> this oscar, this oscar this belongs to all of those people around the world battling this. >> and the oscar goes to julianne moore still out. >> reporter: through the award season and taking everything she comes across and not a doubt she would get best actress and her performance in still alice universally praised and patricia arquette and 12 years making the movie and had a big political

point to make. >> our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights for women in the united states of america. [clears and applause] i'm not going to leave you, i'm not going any where and i will stay with you. >> press one took best documentary short, this is a snapshot of volunteers on the found talking war veterans with ptsd talking them out of taking their own lives. >> i will be immediately implicated. >> reporter: feature went to citizen four the story of edward snowden leaks about the nsa mass surveillance program and filmed by journalist he asked to help him from the very start. hollywood big night is over for another year and was it an evening of surprises, quite honestly no, the predictions were spot on and control overseas and movies that were omitted too but ultimately the academy did what the academy

does, it picked the films it likes and there are 25 very happy winners as a result. phil with al jazeera at the oscars in hollywood. >> plenty of the oscars and winners on our website al jazeera.com and that is al jazeera.com. you are at the listening post and here are some media stories we have been tracking