series doubts over planned talks to end the war in syria. you're with al jazeera live from doha. also on the program ewe ugandas recall the horror. live in tunisia where anger is rising over a lack of jobs. pregnant women are treated in chairs in hospitals as a health

crisis worsens in brazil. first, there are doubts over the talks to end the conflict in syria which are due on monday. there is disagreement over who will attend the meeting as lav love and kerry discuss the upcoming talks. >> translation: we don't have any thoughts about moving the talks from january to february. this is the position of both russia and the united states. we are confident that in the coming days in january these talks will begin the syrian opposition coordinator has accused russia of trying to disrupt the negotiations. >> translation: there must be a clear agenda for negotiations to work towards a political

transition and not to chat and waste time while syrian people are dying from shelling an hunger meanwhile, democrats in the u.s. senate have blocked a bill that would have made it harder for syrian and iraqi refugees to enter the country. president obama promised the u.s. would accept 10,000 syrian refugees within a year. >> reporter: the legislation, if it had pass is passed would have been additional restrictions on refugees from iraq as well as syria hoping to come to the u.s. however, the legislation needed votes in the senate and then a vote on final passage. it came up five votes short. it has been blocked as a result. critics of this legislation said that this would in many ways be very unfair and penalize those refugees in comparison to others who are trying to come to the

u.s. from other countries. it would really penalize those coming from iraq as well as syria in that there is already extensive vetting taking place. on the other hand, some pointed to the comments made by the intelligence that there have been cases where individuals with ties to radical groups had used the u.s. refugee program to try and gain entry on the u.s. there have been comments from the director of the f.b.i. as well as the homeland security secretary stating a fact that there was a feeling that the vetting process of refugees to the you u.s. could be more robust. in the end, however, the view was that the u.s. has a long history of helping those who are fleeing war torn countries to come to the u.s. and in the end this legislation was blocked the first of five former

commanders from a rebel army in uganda is due to appear in the international criminal court. the judges will decide whether there is enough evidence for dominic to stand trial for war crimes. our correspondent joins us live. >> reporter: there's a crowd, small crowd gathering here at a primary school. people are waiting to see him on a screen that is at the other end of that p tent and also a projector in a school classroom building behind that. when he does appear on the screen, we are expecting a lot of people to come from around this area because of what happened here in 2004. the lra rebels acamp for displaced people. we have spoken to some people living in this area about what happened. >> reporter: this woman's

8-year-old grandson was shot dead as she ran for her life. that was in may 2004. it was a crowneded camp for displaced people. rebels from the lord's resistance army attacked. she said a bullet hit one cheek and ripped off her jaw. she has been sucking her food ever since. >> translation: i want him to be given a death sentence if he ever comes back he will kill us all. >> reporter: he had been an lra commander since the 1990s. he was brought to the international criminal court a year ago just after his surrender in the car. the rebellion by the lra began nearly three decades before. many in the country said it was in response to atrocities committed by the government. they forced many to become

fighters porterss and sex slaves. they forced many in camps. thousands died of disease. at the time this whole area was full of huts and survivors say the rebels came in this direction setting them on fire killing others. there is a memorial here to those who died and the icc's prosecutor said he ordered the attacks. an hour's drive away we met one of his wooifs and their children. his family said he lived here until he was 14 and shouldn't stand trial because he was abducted by the lra on his way to school. his wife also says she was abducted by the lra aged just nine and then married to him. >> translation: the two people i want to see before the court is the leader and also the president of the country because he failed to protect us. our parents were killed.

>> reporter: for many here justice has been slow if not absent. >> victims in the area keep asking why only the lra is being prosecuted and why not the government. the challenge with the icc, they cannot prosecute crimes retrospectively. only for crimes that occurred after 2002. that is where the challenge has been in prosecuting other actors. >> reporter: there is interest in this pending trial because of what happened here. the court is now due to decide if there is enough evidence for the trial to go ahead before the judges of the international criminal court today are a range of very serious issues but, first and foremost today has got to be the nature and thement after evidence. do we have any idea as to the kind of evidence that is being considered by the judges today? >> reporter: we understand that

they've got together the investigators of the prosecutor have got together many witnesses for what happened here and for other crimes but it is somewhat unprecedented, this case because as his family say, as the defense say, he was abducted when he was 14 a child, typically the lra abducted children and brutalized them and forced them to do many things. they were terrified after that. the defense and ar their family say this is what he did as a result of that. he was essentially unduress they will say. this is an unprecedented case but what the prosecution will still allege is that as an adult he still acted independently and he commanded other child soldiers to go and commit more

atrocities and he is responsible for that. he never too took up the government's offer of amnesty during which many did. he continued to play a key role in the lra. because of that they will say he should stand trial even if the [indistinct] thank you for that police in the western tunisia city of kasserine have fired at protesters. the government has offered more jobs to try to calm the protest. t.

>> reporter: people say they have been marginalised by the government >> they don't do anything. just to steal the money.

welcome back. these are the top stories here at al jazeera. there are doubts over whether talks on syria's future will go ahead as planned on monday. the russian foreign minister has met his u.s. counterpart in switzerland to try to work out

the differences, but there's disagreement over which opposition groups should attend. the first of five former commanders from a rebel army in uganda is due to appear in the international court. the judges will have to decide whether there is enough evidence for this man to stand trial for war crimes. one policeman has been killed during violent protests in the western city of kasserine. they're demanding jobs and accused the government of turning its back on a region that is in poverty and has unemployment. egypt's highest court is court is

the results of an inquiry into the poisoning of a former russian spy are due to be released today. two russians working directly for the kremlin are expected to be implicated. >> reporter: good luck. take care. >> reporter: this man seen here was a former russian spy who got political asylum in britain. that's not disputed. what is is how he came to be poisoned in november 2006. as he lie here dying, he was working part-time for the u.k.'s intelligence service mi 6, just the month before he had accused moscow of being behind the murder of investigative journalist. he fell ill shortly after meeting two russians at this central london hotel. it it

>> reporter: when russia's voement in any talks to end the war in syria is so crucial. in the inquiry was about who did what and when the what happens next might prove a tougher

question to answer the u.s. president has said it's inexcusable that families in flint michigan were not warned immediately that the city's water in dangerous amounts of led. president obama met the mayor of flint to pledge his support to deal with the crisis. led levels in the water rose in the city which is close to detroit after it switched to a new supply source. the governor of michigan has apologised and the state assembly has approved 28 million dollars to help fix the system >> yesterday i met with the mayor in the lighthouse. i told her that we are going to have her back and all the people of flint's back as they work their way through this terrible tragedy. it is a reminder of why you can't short change basic services that we provide to our

people and that we together provide as a government to make sure that the public health and safety is preserved doctors in brazil have declared an emergency because of the spread of a mosquito-borne virus. it's added to the workload of an already over worked hospital system in several states. our correspondent is reporting on how critically ill patients are being turned away >> reporter: this woman has been pacing up and down for four hours after arriving here still bleeding from an apparent miscarriage. >> translation: we are human beings not dogs. i'm waiting for and told there is no not able to see the

doctor. >> reporter: she is not loan. there are many here waiting to be admitted >> translation: i'm here with my daughter and they say there's no space available. i'm terrified. can you see her there. she is suffering to give birth? what can we do? we have to go to another hospital by bus. >> reporter: we're told women are undergoing cervical examinations in chairs. another wing looks as though it were in a war zone. patients packed into car dors. many forces to wait for a week for emergency surgery. all over here public hospitals and clinics are collapsing due to lack of funds. what you see here is the result of years of mismanagement and accumulated debt on many levels compounded by the worst economic crisis in brazil in decades. it is a crisis impacting not

only the health sector but in many of the largest states. a public health emergency has been declared in rio where the state has run out of money to pay for doctors and nurses. here an epidemic of a dangerous new virus called zika has been seen a health emergency being called. >> translation: there is a lack of rooms and resources. people need to protest. >> reporter: given its own need to slash spending in the midst of a deep economic session, the federal government argues it can only provide limited emergency funding to the states to alleviate the crisis. back at the maternity ward this woman can take no more. what time others do their best to comfort her. -- while others do the best to

comfort her, as they yell nor a doctor who doesn't arrive. you can find out more about the problems affecting brazil at the moment and, indeed the rest of the day's news as ever, on the al jazeera website. aljazeera.com >> welcome to 101 east. i'm steve chao. in taiwan, an epic david and goliath battle is playing out. in one corner - factory workers who say their former employer exposed them to dangerous cancer-causing chemicals. in the other, an electronics company with deep pockets. 101 east joins the workers hoping to change taiwan's labour laws.