repelling i.s.i.l.the oormd group is forced from armed group is forced from the town of al baghdadi by coalition air strikes. i'm shilly gauche. edging closer to a deal, libyan rival groups. and weakening russian economy

means dining out is dying out in moscow. u.s. military commanders have said that iraqi forces have recaptured the town of al baghdadi. air strikes by the u.s. led coalition. al baghdadi is close to a military base where u.s. soldiers are being trained. jane arraf has the story. >> we just spoke with the iraqi minute industry of defense and he says they actually did retake the town three days ago but whether the entire town has been taken, the head of the municipality tells us by phone that there are parts of it that are still under i.s.i.l.

control. the same thing we are being told by the anbar provincial council. conflicting statements of how much have been taken but backed by u.s. led air strikes perhaps not as dramatic as u.s. central command would like to indicate, shilly. >> tell us about the air strikes. there has been debate about how useful this are but in this case they seem to be pretty effective. >> reporter: i think it's clear, when the u.s. got into this they have been absolutely instrumental in this fight against i.s.i.l. there's no dispute among the iraqi military among the kurdish military that they could have made the gains they have unless there were air strikes. it's not the effectiveness of the air strikes it's where they're used and what role the u.s. is playing in this fight in

general. i think it's important to note that the u.s. is making a big deal understandably about taking back baghdadi or most of baghdadi but still completely is not involved in the major fight the battle for tikrit, the one led by iranian backed shia militias. fallujah in ann bauer province, 13 soldiers and five i.s.i.l. fighters were killed in the attack. al jazeera has obtained exclusive video of the amount of destruction that was created in the town. brazil has approved investigation into top politicians, 50 politicians have taken bribes from petrobras key

allies to president dilma rousseff. >> among the 54 people accused of taking bribes were former president and speakers of both chambers of congress. all but one from president dilma rousseff's governing coition. coalition. lucrative contracts from petrobras the state owned oil company. speaking before the list of names was released she said her focus was on fixing brazil's struggling economy. >> translator: we are now entering a new phrase in confronting the crisis in which a number of different measures will be needed, a new trajectory so we can grow.

>> reporter: but the scandal has shaken the brazilian establishment, and rousseff who was just reelected last year and trying to stave off the opposition. >> under enormous public pressure pressure from public opinion to take this seriously this is an enormous corruption scandal involving the largest company in brazil, petrobras that happens to be state company. >> reporter: the petrobras scandal has been developing for months. >> translator: you wouldn't necessarily have to wait for the end of the investigation or for the sentencing process. if there was evidence against that member of parliament, it would go to the ethics board and then to the floor for an open vote for the chamber of deputies. >> under brazilian law elected officials can only be tried by

the supreme court and that body has to decide whether there's enough evidence to put them on trial. victoria gatenby, al jazeera. police are investigating reports of a suspicious package that might have caused the explosion, at least 20 others were injured. egypt's minister magdi abdel bashar, took his no position. seen as a restructuring of the ministry. eight guards were reportedly killed at the al ghani oil field, i.s.i.l. fighters battling southeast of sirte.

u.n. special envoy to libya has warned all parties taking out attacks hashem ahelbarra reports. >> they have agreed on principle in implementing a ceasefire pulling out militias from the cities and forming a national unity government. while the two delegations need to travel to libya to consult their government. if things go well they will return to rabat for a final ceremony. >> translator: there are signs of a deal, we are talking about guarantees, once there is a deal we will have a government that has a clear mandate. we will submit a draft of a

comprehensive deal and so form a government as soon as possible. >> reporter: a deal was almost unthinkable a few days ago. the bitterly divided governments of east and west libya don't trust each other. the tobruk government is recognized by the international community while the tripoli based government is considered the letting one by the country's constitutional court. it is this man the united nations envoy benderino de leonthat has been trying toon that has tried oconvince the sides. >> i am optimistic about if security arrangements which is a key element the new government needs a secure environment to work. >> reporter: at the start of

the talks the government of tobruk announced it's halting air strikes for three days. a gesture of goodwill, the representatives here in rabat say: >> there is no other way but to pursue a very productive national dialogue that could reach the stage of having a total agreement on both parties for the sake of establishing or constituting the government of national unity. >> libya has been beset by a power struggle. the power struggle of the islamic state of iraq and the levant raised concerns of instability that threatens to destabilize the whole region. despite all the optimism about signs of progress, there remains the trust deficit, that the warring fashions don't seem to have overcome to the point that throughout talks here in the capital rabat both parties

never met with each other preferring instead to do business with the united nations envoy. hashem ahelbarra, al jazeera rabat about. experts say it's likely chlorine was used in three villages in syria last year. heated conflict with councilmembers as james bays reports from new york. >> reporter: a rare moment, a new security council resolution on syria is passed condemning chlorine acts and promising action if it is ignored. nothing was said about who was responsible for the chlorine attacks but there was little doubt. >> let's ask ourselves who has

helicopters in syria? only the regime does. >> that led to a stormy row just minutes after all the councilmembers had agreed on another resolution. chlorine bombs went off at a time when helicopters happened to be flying in the area and then he added this. >> translator: we provide the technical details and our colleagues it's easier for them to smile and say we know it's the government that's responsible. can we work at this in the security council no, don't admit the chemicals. >> it's easy to take away one sides supply of chemical weapons, then claim that the party whose chemical weapons you have taken away is not

implicated in the attack. >> translator: it's very strange that the united states said the use of chemical weapons by the government of syria was a red line and it could cause the united states to use force and yet after the events of the at onetbunlt of august they did not do that and syria did not cross the red line and the president said this was a red line and he didn't do anything. >> could they take action? that is a possibility but you just have to look at that row inside the security council chamber. it illustrates how unlikely it is they would reach an agreement identifying the perpetrators. james bays, al jazeera, united nations. >> coming up in the next 15 minutes. >> i'm harry fawcett in taiwan, where traditional policy, and

traditional chinese characters in everyday language but people are forgetting how to write them them.

>> former klansman david duke. >> america has been taken over. >> defending his controversial past. >> i did what i thought was right. >> that was then... what about now? >> i believe the zionists control the country. >> "talk to al jazeera". only on al jazeera america. o. >> welcome back, i'm shilly gauche, the top stories on al jazeera. coalition forces in iraq have driven out i.s.i.l. fighters in the town of al baghdadi near a u.s. training base. brazil has given go ahead of investigating politicians who

received bribes from petrobras. peace talks in morocco even as the conflict continues. i.s.i.l. fighters attacked an oil field near the town of zana. three europeans including a french nationals were killed. french president francois hollande denounced the attack as cowardly. witch docket doctors were accused of the murder of an albino woman in 2008. they believe the body parts of albino people have special powers. u.s. secretary of state john kerry is supposed to pete his

counterpart in ukraine, part of a heated tee bait with the ukrainian ambassador. >> translator: illegal pro-russian groups continue their attacks since the ceasefire on 15 february militants have undertaken over 750 attacks. >> according to data we have these days, some 300 military personnel from the united states have arrived and they will train ukrainian soldiers in the use of foreign equipment. everyone knows wherever american military appear expect bad things to happen. >> and some news just in. the russian news agency interfax

interfax indicate that who people have been arrested in connection with the murder of boris nemtsov. stranded for past four days, kathmandu airport is expected to be reopened after a turkish airplane ran off the runway in thick fog. a vigil held in malaysia, for mh 370. took off from kuala lumpur with 230 on board. massive search has found no trace and relatives continue to press for an explanation. malasian prime minister says the report into the disappearance is to be made public.

>> i hope can i receive the report today because the team is an independent investigation team and they have been sending the report to the government. >> suggested in the last 12 months in an open press conference that the plane had been taken over, yet we see a statement from the department of civil aviation saying it's an accident. we have no evidence of where the plane is or the wreckage or black box recorders how can such a statement be made? >> declarations of accident, that is important. because under ipo requirement if your plane take off from airport and couldn't reach destination after the search of a certain period we announce the plane lost and declaration of accident is the way forward. >> reporter: so there may be a probability now that the australians will wind down their

involvement in the search and recovery operation. when will you now take over and how long are you willing to continue to search for mh 370? >> i would like to repeat that we were advised by the team that this is the area to focus on. and expert team consists of professional bodies from all over the world. we have participation from aaid, u.k, ntsb from u.s., atsb from australia, from china we have boeing and all that i need and a big such team and all that we require and we analyze the data, shows that the plane is in the south indian ocean. >> u.s. president barack obama has defended the decision not to charge a former ferguson police

officer with the killing of unarmed black teenager michael brown. his death led to nationwide protest of police treatment of african americans. >> we may never know exactly what happened but officer wilson like anybody else who is charged with a crime bts benefits from due process and a reasonable doubt standard. and if there is uncertainty about what happened, are then you can't just charge him anyway just because what happened was tragic. and that was the decision that was made and i have complete confidence and stand fully behind the decision that was made by the justice department on that issue. >> according to the palestinian authority more than a third of married palestinian women are victims of domestic violence.

niz arena alnisreen al shamia reports. >> she has been abused, first by her ex husband and then by her brother, when she got divorced. >> one day my husband brought a plastic pipe and beat me with it. i could no longer tolerate the pressure i was under. >> nadia has been living in the state run safe house for almost a year. it's been three months since she's seen her children. this is one of the shermts in settlements in the occupied west bank. a major problem is the women's

reluctance to come forward and seek help. more than two-thirds of battered women prefer to remain silent, and less than one-third seek help at shelters like this one. the patriarchal and conservative nature of their society forces women, sawa is a call center that offers psychological support to those around the palestinian authority. >> there are those who are still in dilemma wondering whether they should call. society views domestic violence as a family matter whereas we view it as a social problem. the palestinian social bureau of statistics says 37% of women in the palestinian authorities have suffered from domestic violence but the rate is much higher in

the gaza strip where it's 58% and attributed to the difficult living conditions there. >> the home has become a domain for anger and disputes. the man uses violence against the woman and the woman may use violence against children. this way the cycle of violence affects everyone. >> efforts have been made to help battered women bus the cycle of violence reams a difficult situation. nisreen al shamia, al jazeera occupied west bank. >> feared a quarter of those restaurants in russia could close this year. rory challands reports from the are russian capital.

>> manima makes a great pasta now its doors are closing. the perfect storm of economic factors ahave taken their toll. factors like the inflation caused by a weakened ruble. >> this place is became of italian cuisine everything got more expensive after the embargo, the ingredients got more expensive. >> for svetlana, it was a crushingly sad moment. this was a family restaurant. >> can you imagine what this means for our staff? some have gone from waiters to managers. we're closing with tears in our eyes. >> it's not just mamina pasta. these are tough times for lots of moscow restaurants.

a lot of industry experts are predicting a quarter of the city's eateries will close their doors in 2016. diners eating habits are changing. more people seem to be sharing food rather than ordering their own and drinking water rather than ordering alcohol. in short they're spending less. but the situation isn't as bad as all that say some in the business. yes times are tough but tough times result in better business models. >> translator: the market needs to refresh itself anyway. you have to find another way. it is very sad when some people lose their businesses when they can't pay their obligations or rent. >> if she can't find a cheaper place she won't reopen.

rory challands, al jazeera moscow. >> when china decided to change to a simpler form of mandarin as more of them communicate digitally, to remember how to do it is the difficult part. harry fawcett reports. >> these performances his way to show off its expertise. but he's worried that the proper accurate depiction of the traditional characters used in taiwan is under threat. >> people usually write on computers. they don't do handwriting anymore so they lack basic practice. when they try to write they just don't know how. >> reporter: to read and write to a high standard you need to

memorize around 8,000 individual characters. to allow such a huge vocabulary to be written electronically, shortcuts on screens and keyboards have been developed. for those who worry about the loss of handwriting they work almost too well. you input a symbol related to the pronunciation of the initial syllable and from that you can choose from dozens of characters. recognizing and choosing a character is very different from writing it from scratch stroke by stroke. to illustrate, we asked them to write a phrase with an admittedly are secret second character. a smartphone is sneaked into the test. none of the 10 people we approached got it right.

and some were embarrassed to even try. >> sorry sorry i forgot how to write, thank you. >> taiwan, much of it brought to the mainland by the qwo mintang what if succeeding generations forget how to write it by hand? >> by writing in traditional characters we might understand the way it was established. they gain a teener understanding of culture. >> children learn thousands of characters but skills are harder to preserve. holding onto them has been part of master kor's work. the artistry, he's doing his best to past on his knowledge to his children and grandchildren

now work in the family business. harry fawcett, al jazeera taipei. >> and can you keep up to date with all the day's news and developments on our website. that's aljazeera.com. hi, i'm lisa fletcher and you are many the stream. what if instead of proeffect thing civilians they are protecting each other over crimes as serious as murder. >> what happened to tease guys. why are all all okay with this team. >> we will talk about the kiln team, that may inhibit soldiers about speaking out against injustice. plus, millions of dollars spent on anti-bullying programs with little to no evidence that they work. why it may be time for a new