♪ syrian refugees suffer a brutal winter while the country's opposition is searching for a common ground ahead of talks with the government plus. >> we will attend the next syria talks and we are not going to boycott them because of iran or anybody else for that matter. >> reporter: saudi arabia saying it is committed to peace in the region despite the diplomatic boycott of iran. ♪ you are watching al jazeera live from our health headquarters and

passing the controlled congress and chinese government intervenes to prop up its struggling stock market. ♪ the syrian opposition has released a list of demands ahead of u.n. brokered peace talks due later this month and they say they want to see confidence-building steps from damascus including the release of arbitrarily detained people and calling for immediate hold to the bombardment of towns and cities by heavy artillery and jacks and also want to ensure there is unhindered humanitarian access to those in desperate need of aid. and we have the founder of the group specializes in syria and the gulf region and he is questioning whether the talks can take place with fighting still going on. >> peace talks were pretty much

intensive care anyway and i think they are probably flat lining now. the opposition can't go to the table with carnage and starvation they can place on the ground and by the way these are not new demands and making the demands the close of the political process through the last year and they have organized themselves and in riyadh conference last month shows it's possible for independence and faction and rebel leaders as well as the political coalitions to come together and form a platform and they have been organizer over the last few days in order to get ready for those talks and demand and how can they go to the table when the situation on the ground is so divorced from the reality or unreality of what could take place in geneva. >> reporter: the bodies of 21 refugees have been found in two locations on turkey's aegean sea

trying to reach lesbos and coast guard rescued eight people and looshging for more survivors and camps in the region continue to suffer from the ongoing snowfall and hundreds of thousands of people living in tents in deteriorating weather conditions in turkey and lebanon, in lebanon itself some 200,000 syrian families at risk during the winter season and are in need of special assistance. kuwait has recalled its ambassador to iran in support of its neighbor saudi arabia. while saudi and bahrain cut diplomatic ties and uae downgrade relations and gulf state says they are in protest of an attack on the saudi embassy in tehran. tensions rose after the kingdom executed a shia cleric and abdullah says normal relations can resume when iran stops interfering in the internal affairs of other countries in

the region including saudi arabia. our diplomatic editor james base is at the headquarters in new york with more. >> reporter: diplomates obviously concerned with two heavy weight nations of the middle east which always had strained relations and now they are at a new low, having said that i suspect they will have been slightly heartened by the words of the saudi ambassador who said there will be no effect in his country's view about peace efforts with regard to syria and yemen. >> the break in relations between saudi and iran, what effect will it have on peace efforts in syria and in yemen? >> from our side it should have no affect because we will continue to work very hard towards supporting the peace efforts in syria, in yemen, wherever there might be a need for that. how is that going to affect the behavior of iran? we do not know. you would need to ask the

iranians on that. but the iranians even before the break of diplomatic relations have not been very supportive, have not been very positive in these peace efforts. they have been taking provocative and negative positions and lies and as such i don't think that the break in relations is going to dissuaded them from such behavior. >> reporter: u.n. knows both iran and saudi arabia are key players in both these conflicts and that is why the u.n. envoy for syria is in riyadh and going to tehran and in the next few days the u.n. envoy for yemen will also be visiting the region. the u.n. special reppitour in palestinian territories resigned and has been in the role since june 2014 says israel

continually failed to grant access of territories he was supposed to monitor and he says his efforts to help palestinians has been frustrated every step of the way. earlier we spoke to him and he said that it's important to see the situation on the ground firsthand. >> the problem is i got a lot of information by telephone call, by a scribe and by a video conference and i got indications that a situation on the ground is worsening so therefore i'm interested to see by myself the situation there in order to mitigate it and problems experienced by the palestinian whose human rights were violated. response of israel is they are disappointed and according to him the matter should be universal and should be to all parties of the conflict and not only violation on human rights but also to the palestinian

violation of human rights but this is not my responsibility. and the matter is given to me and if they try to change maybe they can fight in the human right council and try to convince others to amend it. palestinian man shot dead by israeli forces. the man allegedly stabbed an israeli soldier at a junction in the occupied west bank and the soldier has been taken to hospital for treatment for his injuries at least 145 palestinians and 21 israelis have been killed in an up surge of violence since the beginning of october. nts has more from east jerusalem. >> reporter: palestinian man shot dead by forces after he allegedly tried to stab and israeli soldier, that soldier has been taken to hospital with light injuries. the incident took place near gush junction in the occupied

west bank. this junction is near the israeli settlement known as an area which has been a flash point in resent months. in fact, since october of this year there really has been a wave of violence involving palestinians and israelis, at last count more than 20 israelis have been killed and well over 140 palestinians have been killed in this latest unrest. now depending on who you talk to the reasons behind this up surge in violence if you will is of course different. the israelis say that the reason we are seeing this violence is because of palestinian incitement and say palestinian leaders and indeed social media is really fueling this kind of violence we have been seeing and has really inflamed the palestinian streets but if you speak to again those palestinian leaders who are indeed young palestinians they say that is

nonsense and they say this current unrest is really tied to the fact that palestinians have lived under occupation for now nearly 50 years and that they see no hope. barack obama is to issue a set of executive orders aimed at making it harder to buy a gun in the u.s. the president wants more background checks on prospective weapons buyers to try and reduce the number of shootings. defense and homeland security departments will be required to do more research on smart gun technology and obama will request new funding for 200 law enforcement agents as well as better access to mental healthcare for people who may commit gun-related crimes and tom ackerman reports. >> reporter: dozens of american deaths each day from gunshots and the president has his attorney general readying his options for narrowing access to firearms. >> this is not going to solve every violent crime in this country. it's not going to prevents every mass shooting. it's not going to keep every gun

out of the hands of a criminal. it will potentially save lives in this country. >> reporter: congress has refused to close loopholes in the law which allow unlicensed gun dealers to sell weapons without criminal background checks so obama says he will invoke his executive authority to tighten the regulations. >> a lot of the work thats that gone on has been to ensure we will have confidence in the legal basis of these actions. >> reporter: the top republican in congress speaker of the house paul ryan says obama's plans reach quote a dangerous level of executive overreach and the country will not stand for it. one of the republican contenders to succeed obama says he is acting like a child after his legislative defeats. >> mr. president because they reject your ideas repeatedly and now you're going to try to impose them anyway. >> reporter: the national rifle

association, the powerful pressure group which opposes any new gun controls says the obama administration is violating the rights of honest gun owners while ignoring the roots of the violence. >> untold secret in washington is that he has all the laws he needs to stop the blood shed now. take violent criminals off the street. prosecute them under the current federal gun laws and make sure they don't get to their next crime scene. that's the way to save lives. >> reporter: meanwhile federal authorities in the state of oregon are weighing what actions to take against a group of armed protesters who have taken over a public building in a remote wildlife refuge and promised no violence but refused to recognize the authority over the land. >> a strong tradition of gun ownership in the country. >> reporter: will follow-up executive orders later this week with the national broadcast devoted to gun violence and in the last year as president

demonstrating his determination to curb an epidemic of gunfire expected to claim more american lives than traffic accidents. tom ackerman, al jazeera, washington. a plaque honoring the people killed in attacks in paris a year ago has been unveiled by the french president and francois hollande led that ceremony and 20 were killed after a gunman opened fire on the magazine charlie hebdo and a kosher supermarket and four cartoonists working for the magazine were killed and heavy security is in place. still to come on al jazeera we will take you to the scene of that standoff in the u.s. state of oregon where protesters are still held up in a federal building plus. for the first time in 16 years the opposition has managed to gain control of the national assembly. i'm lopez and come to venezuela and how people are reacting to this change. ♪

>> my story is so many peoples' story. >> that could decide the election. >> it can be different.

>> "inside story" takes you beyond the headlines, beyond the quick cuts, beyond the soundbites.

we're giving you a deeper dive into the stories that are making our world what it is. ♪ the headlines on al jazeera the syrian opposition has given a list of demands ahead of u.n. brokered peace talks due later this month and calling for release of prisoners and halt to attacks on civilians and unhindeu unhindered humanitarian access. kuwait recalled the ambassador to tehran and attack on the saudi arabia embassy in tehran and earlier saudi called on u.n. security council to condemn that attack and saudi arabia and bahrain have cut the ties with iran while the uae has downgrade relations.

barack obama is to issue a set of executive orders to make it harder to buy a gun in the u.s. the president wants more background checks on prospective weapons buyers to try and reduce the number of shootings. protesters occupying a wildlife sanctuary in the united states are saying they are standing their group, they had been standing their ground excuse me, they had been protesting against jail sentences given to two local ranchers for starting fires and the ranchers have since turned themselves in and lawyers say the protesters don't represent them as allen reports from outside the city of burns ranchers and federal government officials have been involved in land disputes in that area for generations. >> reporter: a spokesman for the protesters told us specifically not to expect a lot of guns and any questions about how many protesters are here were left unanswered during our 45-minute tour of the national

wildlife property that this group walked into and took over. >> how is it going so far? >> emotional roller coaster and up and down and going great. there is no blood shed. this is not a violent or hostile situation. >> reporter: there are 15 or so buildings here, dozens of idle government trucks and swamp boats for marshs and heavy equipment and told us this was one of the sleeping areas and took video through a window of people prepping food but were not allowed into this kitchen. we didn't visit every building but were allowed to roam on our own and saw no signs of damage or vandalism. >> we want to be polite and neighborly and want to be citizens, we want to be respectful of one another. >> reporter: he is an arizona rancher who emerged as the group's main spokesman. where do you see this ending? >> i believe it will spread from

here. this grievance that they are dealing with here is widespread throughout the west. this is not going away. >> reporter: we saw nobody carrying a weapon but again didn't see every room. we asked dwayne if people here were armed. >> there is probably a weapon in every pickup truck within 100 miles of here and everybody says they are armed and each rancher i know has a weapon so, you know, i had a cougar on my porch last week so there you go. >> reporter: the group calls itself citizens for constitutional free m from held a morning press conference to outline grievances about use restrictions and federal regulations in an area where ranch iing was formed in 1908 a asked what will it take to end this protest peacefully. >> i would not say words would do it. i would say action would.

and that would be for the federal government to remove its unconstitutional presence here in the county. >> i want to talk directly to the people at the wildlife refuge and you said you wanted to held and it ended when a peaceful fro test became an occupation and the hammonds turned themselves in and it's time for you to leave your community. go home to your families and end this peacefully. >> reporter: so far lots of talking but no serious action has the protest that started saturday continues. allen with al jazeera, near burns, oregon. well china's central bank is spending billions of dollars and it is trying to stop a major sell off of shares in chinese stock markets. investors are worried about chinese economic prospects and they are continuing to sell their shares afraiding was halted on monday and followed a 7% fall in the stock market and

our china correspondent adrian brown sent this from beijing. >> reporter: tuesday was bad for stocks and shanghai and hong kong markets were down but the route is not as bad as monday when shanghai closed down 7% and 8% and hong kong almost 3%. the reason for the continuing jitters in the market is probably this on friday restrictions over the selling of shares are due to end and these restrictions r with were imposed in the summer and if they are eased it would mean a lot of cheap stock coming in the market bringing prices down further and the regulatory commission on tuesday issued a statement saying they would take action to stop shareholders in blue chip companies and let's be clear one of the reasons why some companies want to sell their shares is they simply have no faith in their companies at the

moment and trying to flood them off to individual investors but the government wants to protect those small investors and have seen plenty of evidence again on tuesday of government intervention in the market and have been buying up shares in blue chip companies but the day to watch this week is going to be friday. >> reporter: and talking about the chinese economy after years of rapid growth china became the world's second biggest economy and the growth meant it had demand for raw materials supporting the economies of countries around the world but now china is maturing into a more developed market and growth is slowing and that means its appetite for raw goods have shrunk and the rest of the world is worried who will buy their exports but things may not be as serious as investors think, the chinese government has massive foreign reserves and estimated to have more than $3 trillion to spend on another stimulus to boost its economy.

joshua raymond is the director of the trading firm broker and he explains what the chinese government has done to try and calm the markets. >> what the chinese central bank has done is announced just under $20 billion to pump back in the market to restore confidence and will have an effect and the other element they talked about is also there is a suspension on large shareholders of sending stocks and due to expire on friday and the heart of the problem is a concern on chinese growth and slow down of chinese growth and slow to 7% to potentially 6 1/2 or 6% and that is the heart of the story here and what we need to see is normalization of the chinese economy which will help to restore confidence globally. >> reporter: much to tell you about other world news and india saying the six gunmen involved on at tack on the air base on

the pakistan border last weekend have been killed, no gunfire had been heard since late monday night on the base and seven indian soldiers and six fighters killed in the assault which began on saturday. police in northern china arrested a suspect over apparent arson attack on a bus and the blaze killed 17 people and injured 32 other passengers and happened in the city and police are investigating the man's motive. u.s. government suing volkswagen for violating the clean air act, the german care maker has admitted selling diesel cars fitted with illegal software designed to cheat emissions tests. volkswagen now faces multi-billion fines for deceiving its customers. volcano experts monitoring the

ash 7 kilometers in the sky and it's near guatemala city and know vacuum -- and no evacuation orders yet. he wants a safe transition of power after calls for rallies raised fears of unrest between government and opposition supposupe suppo supporters. >> reporter: signed and debated laws he says helped lift venezuela people out of poverty and after the reelection he accepts defeat but he is calling on his supporters to protest during tuesday's assembly inauguration. he says the march will be peaceful but the opposition has often claimed that groups like his function as armed malitia-like groups that attack their detractors.

>> translator: social movements are going to show support for the revolutionary government and tell the far right we are not willing to lose the social and political achievements of the past 17 years. >> after gaining power in 1998chavez vowed to transform the oil-rich nation to a socialist paradise with subsidized food and free housing and clinics for the poor contributed to his unchallenged popularity. but his successor nicholas miduro lacks his charisma and the oil prices that helps fund the programs are long gone and face chronic food shortages and the world's highest inflation rate and neighbors in the community traditionally supported the late chavez and revolution but in strong holds like in the government has lost all support. content that the government has

become so widespread the opposition secured 112 of the 167 seats in december's parliamentary vote. its newly elected president has vowed independence. >> translator: we will not be a counter power. we will be a atonomous and have an assembly that the past assembly never played. >> reporter: super majority threatened by a supreme court decision to block three opposition legislatures. >> claim no vote but i have no indictment and what i know is from social networks. >> reporter: mashing in tuesday's inauguration and fears are growing that the power will fail and there could be a repeat of the political street clashes that in 2014 left 43 venezuela

people dead, virginia lopez, venezuela. tales of the biggest ship in a port and the big containers shows how the u.s. is lagging behind the shipping industry in asia and europe and malaysia chan explains. >> reporter: called the benjamin franklin owned by a french shipping company making a stop here at the port of oakland and a few days earlier los angeles called a mega ship because it can hold 18,000, 20 foot long shipping containers at maximum capacity. the usual ships that dock here hold about 5,000. >> it's important to demonstrate that the port of oakland is not only ready for these ships but capable of handling them efficiently when they come to call. >> reporter: to give you a better idea this is the cma-cgn benjamin franklin and this is a boeing 747 or as compared to the aircraft carrier the uss-hw bush

and it's the mega ship's main voyage and a few in the country at the moment that can handle something of this size. oakland dredged to accommodate larger ships and raised the height of eight of its cranes but what port officials harold as the biggest cargo ship to visit the united states will mostly shuttle containers between asia and europe and when it comes to shipping the u.s. is behind the times. while mega ships already dock regularly at ports in asia and have for years, in the u.s. major ports are just starting to make upgrades needed for mega ships with bigger cranes and dredging to deepen waters. >> the federal government needs to develop a comprehensive international freight strategy and arrival of very large vessels is a stimulus to have these particular parts of the infrastructure get their act together. >> reporter: oakland and los angeles may have welcomed the benjamin franklin this time but

doesn't mean other port can handle many more such calls and proponents of mega ships say fuel carrying more cargo per trip and means less pollution. >> it's a considerable challenge and puts stress on the lives and the dredge company and moved the cargo a short distance from the ports to dance lating facilities where they are often put on rail cars to be put to other parts of the country or facilities where the goods are repackaged for on ward movement. >> reporter: at a hefty $150 million u.s. price tag some shipping companies believe it makes economic sense and ports recognize the far-reaching economic benefits of mega ships. >> the port of oakland employees 450 people but it influences 73,000 jobs. that many jobs depend on the port. with increased cargo comes more jobs yet so we see a true economic benefit to the region as the big ships arrive.

>> reporter: that is the hope but as mega ships dock with frequency it's how quickly american ports can keep up, melissa chan, oakland, california. reminder you can keep up to date with all the latest news on our website, al jazeera.com. middle, an execution upsets delicate alliances, put be two rivals often a dangerous collision course. president obama's biggest diplomatic achievement of 2015, the iran nuclear accord could be in trouble. things boiled over this weekend when sunni dominated saudi arabia executed a prominent shia muslim