>> a new front of. front. dozens of civilians are killed when missiles hit hospitals and schools in northern syria near the turkish border. >> when the militants are hurt when their defeats begin. >> president assad seems to back

away from a ceasefire. >> mutual security and the peaceful resolution of disputes. human dignity including respect for human rights and developments development that is sustainable. that ththat is our vision. >> president obama hoation hoste first asean meeting on united states soil. >> former haitian prime minister lau renlaurent mament tells al a what needs to be done to end the chaos. this is al jazeera america, good

evening i'm roxana saberi in for antonio mora. we begin in syria, where intensive air strikes hit syria and killed about 50 civilians. the white house condemned bombings being blamed on russian air strikes. action goes against the spirit of the end of hostility agreement signed last week. turkey says russia provided cover for kurdish rebels to capture a key town near border and syrian president bashar al-assad today expressed skepticism about the cessation of hostilities agreement. >> translator: until now we hear them requesting a ceasefire within a week. okay, who is capable of bringing together all these conditions in a week? no one. if the terrorist refuse to

ceasefire? who will make them accountable, who will bomb them? if they wanted to bomb them where can they find them, where are they, from a practical standpoint all this is difficult to implement but we are speaking of foundations. this cessation of operation must be done with the aim of improving the security situation and to reach reconciliations or deals or other things that we are doing today in a continuous fashion. >> today's bombs fell on one of the region's most vulnerable. zeina khodr has more from the turkey-syria border. >> there is no red line on syria's war, azaz, schools and hospitallest were hit. among casualties were recently displaced syrians who escaped from the fighting across aleppo

province. turkey had called azaz a red line. not because it is one of the few remaining strongholds in the opposition corridor but because it is being threatened by the ypg, a kurdish group called terrorist by turkey. >> they will see the most severe reaction, we will not allow azaz to fall. the whole world should know this. >> reporter: turkey has been capturing many areas from the option close to the turkish border taking advantage muc of a russian backed advancement. now at the door steps of the two

remaining opposition strongholds this the northern corridor. azaz and tel riffat, with the support of russian air power. air power is not only being used in aleppo in the rebel controlled province of idlib in the west. facilities were sowrted by doctors without borders and provided services to more than 40 thousand people. the organization called it a deliberate attack but didn't blame anyone but activists. just last week one of its facilities was hit in the southern province of dar rvetionah. >> the needs are for healthy facilities are desperate and the population relies on these to get health care.

we obviously denounced when health stlurs are target they had way. >> reporter: back in azaz, fear is growing. message from russia and its allies. dozens of families have already left towards turkish border. azaz is no longer safe, it is a front line that could trigger an even larger war pap zeina khodr, al jazeera, southern turkey. >> monday's air strikes on azaz is only adding to the war of words between turkey and russia. rory challands reports from moscow. >> reporter: through the haze of a wintery days turkish shells fall on land held by russian fighters. syria's fosyria's for text issyn

stronger. violent taken by turkey as a member country of the international syria support group. turkey is of course a nato country. and russia is aware it is a necessary fault line for the alliance. >> it doesn't depend on nato or russia. it depends whether erdogan wants to intervene in syria. france, germany, italy, spain wouldn't want to fight russia because of turkey's adventurism. >> russian insists they be involved in the stalled good evening negotiations. for turkey this is out of the question.

davutoglu was in ceaive on kievy where anti-russian feelings are evident. >> turkey's reaction if they continue to act in this manner, russia has basically made the munich agreement insignificant by the statement made today. >> reporter: russia has made it explicitly clear. but if it keeps hitting groups that turkey or its western or regional allies support and if turkey keeps on shelling syria's kurdish fighters then bears the risk of anticipated syrian cessation of hostilities will be dead in the water and there is also the risk that the regional powers in this complex proxy war might end up being pulled into outright conflict. rory challands, al jazeera,

moscow. >> the cry for a ceasefire comes loudest from the civilians trapped in the syrian war. desperate for medicine and food, supplies they can't get because of both rebel and government bleablgd. bleakd. blockade. victoria gatenby reports. >> pull off food rations with the basic items such as wheat flower, oil, rice, lentils and also we are loading ready to eat rations. >> reporter: delivering aid to syria ever since the syrian government and it allies gained ground, the number of refugees increased and the need for aid has become more urgent. >> we are talking about tens of thousands of people moving

towards the turkish border looking for safety. the wac is sending hundreds of trucks to syrian site every month. >> reporter: in the area of damascus up to 45,000 people are cut off from aid since government forces stepped up their offensive. in the town of madaya to the east of the capital, the u.n. says the government is using starvation as a weapon of war. hundreds need to be moved for medical help and up to 200,000 people are living under an i.s.i.l. imposed siege in the eastern city of deir ez zor, where food and water are running out. in the rebel held city of duma, aid has arrived, red crescent said it has medicines and milk for children.

it's still not known whether any of the aid has been delivered. victoria gatenby, al jazeera. >> reuters reports that i.s.i.l. used mustard gas last year. lab results came back positive for sulfur mustard after 35 soldiers got ill on the battlefield last august. the group did not identify who used the gas, but an unidentified fiecial was reporteofficial hasreported to d i.s.i.l. about. internationally recognized government in tobruk. jamal el shael reports. >> national unity government has been formed. >> translator: we've now

submitted the ministers name to the parliament which we hope will approve the parliament. taking into consideration the dangerous situation libya finds itself in. >> since the overthrow of moammar gadhafi, the countries had two competing governments since 2014, the u.n. backed parliament in the eastern city of tobruk and remnants of the general national congress added to this i.s.i.l. has increased its attacks over the past 12 months. taking over oil fields, kidnapping and killing hostages and just a few days ago, the armed group released video which appears to show the downing of a fighter jet. the united nations has been trying to get a political agreement signed for years. initially through its envoy

bernadino leon, was highly discredited when it was revealed he was offered a high paying job by united arab emirates. progress appears to have been made. presidential council was formed a few weeks ago. libya's politicians are now urging the world to support the newly formed unity government. >> translator: we call on all regional powers to support the libyan people's efforts by backing this unity government. we call on the international community to do the same in supporting the people of libya. >> reporter: this week marks five years since libyans took to the streets in revolution. they had hoped it would bring about freedom and prosperity. jamal el shael, al jazeera.

a journalist and three members of her crew are under reaforarrest in bahrain. anna therese day. the four americans were arrested during demonstrations marking the fourth area of the aish arab spring uprising. uganda's main opposition leader kizza besigye was detained twice when he tried to hold rallies in ka mrvegpala. mrvekampala. >> we thought we had the right to vote for anyone we desired. there is tension. they are tear gassing us, we don't know where uganda is

going. we will straight as ugandans. >> yoweri museveni seized power in 1976 and is one ever africa's longest serving rulers. in burundi, turmoil since last april when the cup's president announced woe seek a third term which violates the constitution. more economic sanctions on burundi if it doesn't improve its human rights record and end the country's political crisis. haiti swears in an interim president. coming up the hurdles the interim government faces to end the political chaos in the

country. and pope francis makes ocontroversial visit to mexico's indigenous community to bring attention to their plans. h

>> haitian lawmakers have elected joselerme privert. as interim president.

teresa vo reports from port-au-prince. >> it's been weeks of tension and protest in haiti but many hope that joselerme privert is the man that will take the country owl of the current political crisis. >> translator: these are extraordinary circumstances. we need to learn from this. the political crisis shows us the necessity to take advantage of this moment and we can show the world that we can do it. >> reporter: he's a man close to former president rey anyway are preval and close to jean bertrand ayer aristide. >> can make something into change the situation, the people live if now.

>> privert was officially sworn in on sunday at haiti's national palace where he vowed to reinforce democracy in the westerwestern hemisphere's poort country. president privert is supposed to stay in office for 120 days, and in that time, he needs to guide the people to free and fair democracy. in fact many people leading the protests showed up at the swearing-in ceremony. >> we didn't really want that solution. we wanted more the justice system. that the president issued some of justice system but after eight days we know the president i think is better for the country to have a president. >> reporter: privert also enjoys the support of the international community. the united states ambassador says he's optimistic.

>> we really welcome the election of the provisional president, mr. privert and other steps will be put in place as well according to the calendar that was agreed to no the accord. >> reporter: haiti is going through one of the worst food security crises in years ago. political instability has only added to this country's proble problems. joselerme privert has the challenge to give the haitian people a leader that will help them improve their lives. teresa vo, al jazeera, port-au-prince. joins me from miement, thank you for joining me mr. la mont. >> thank you very much. >> what do you think of mr. privert's election?

he was a member of the party that was in opposition to the former president martelly who appointed you. >> senator privert was someone i had the pleasure to work with for two and a half years. he was chairman of the finance committee on the senate. he holds great experience in the public administration and holds respect in the political circles in haiti and certainly we hope and every haitian hopes that he can carry out the mandate to organization the selection the runoff in 120 days. it's going to be a tough task but you know all the parties have now agreed that he is the right man to lead that transition. and we all hope that that is the case so that the country can move forward and have an elected president and elected congress so that we can stabilize the

country and the country can move forward towards better days. >> there was a first round of the presidential election actually back in october and an independent investigation found that it was flawed in favor of president martelly's favorite candidate. do you think it was? >> well, there was certainly a lot of irregularities. there was an independent commission put forward and the independent commission came with a report and the report had several recommendations in order to create confidence. the report found that there was many cases of irregularities for many candidates and irregularities that need to be fixed. because the idea is to have you know somebody that's elected by the people, and for the people. so the trust in the process has to be paramount in order for the haitian people to elect their leader. it has to be free and fair. >> what needs to change, though? do there need to be more

independent investigators? how would the next election be different from the last one in october. >> there was a set of recommendations made which the independent commission appointed by the president then martelly. there were 12 points and out of the 12 points there were about 50% implemented an the other 50 were not. so it's important to carry out all the reforms which call for changes in the electoral council which is going to happen, changes of the way of some of the procedures at the voting booths and generally measures that will create confidence-building is what is needed in hayet to ensure that the next five years will have political stability, social stability and for hayet again to take back the stability that it's seen you know in the past few years. we had a period of stability, we had a period of progress after

the earthquake and we need to get to a legitimate mat elected president after that has happened. >> made progress in the past two years but still the poorest country in the western hemisphere. what does the new government need to deliver to the people? >> job, job creation, jobs jobs. we have the highest rate of unemployment in the hemisphere. there needs to be some plan, working to put an industrial court in the country, to relax some of the investment laws in order to make haiti a sought after vacation destination, we had increase over 2,000% in the

last few years, that needs to continue. all haitians want is the opportunity to send their children to school, to have a decent dig any certified job for them to do better, and for the country as a whole to have less unemployment. you need to have measures also put in place that will ensure. transparency. you can have international audits, there are different strategies that can be put in place to ensure the confidence from the donor side that the funds will be allocated and used for the right reasons. and the disbursement flow also can be managed in a way to ensure transparency. so once transparency, once the the mechanism is there, then rest should implicate the country's government legitimately elected government as well.

>> thanks for joining us, mr. la mont. >> thank you very much, it was a pleasure to be here. >> president obama is hosing the asean summit in southern california, coming up, the subjects to be discussed. and how unaccompanied minors are living on the margins of society in sweden.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america, i'm roxana saberi in for antonio mora. coming up in this half hour of international news a warning about a curriculum moment for european union. but first a look at the stories making headlines across the u.s. in our american minute. the death of supreme court justice antonin scalia has set off a political fire storm on the bench. president obama says he will announce a replacement in due time but republicans say it should be up to the next president. elliot spitzer's spokes woman says a claim is false, spitzer resigned two years into

his term after revelations that he had sex with pursuits. prostitutes. segments of maryland have been hit with eight inches of snow and ice. wintery mix of dangerous driving conditions. president obama is the host of association of southeastern asian countries, in rancho mirage. gmarga ortigas has the story. >> on tuesday they will be talking about security issues that they have shared concerns over, including counterterrorism and other policing matters.

but for most part president obama sees enhancing and strengthening the relationship of the united states with southeast asia as central to the rebalance of foreign policy to the asian pacific region. >> since i took office we boosted trade between united states and asean by 55%. the region is our fourth largest gs trading partner, creating 500,000 american jobs. u.s. companies has been the source of funding for asean lifting people from poverty into the middle class. >> reporter: but there are those that see this really as the u.s. trying to assert itself and its dominance over the southeast asian region and indeed over the entire pacific region because china the biggest country in that area already

holds quite a pom.com nans in terms of its military and financial interest over the smaller companies. now many of those countries are actually embroiled in bitter territoriality disputes with china at the moment and do not have a unified stand. this is something the united states president wants to address in this summit as well, even though there will be no formal declarations or statements to come out of this and this is meant to be a very informal free wheeling discussion to enhance the relationships of the two sides. >> marga, president obama is facing criticism for inviting some of those leaders to sunnylands. will this also be an issue there? >> indeed, there were protesters at the entrance of sunnylands, many of them see this as an

endorsement of southeast asia which has very poor human rights results, what they are trying to do is deal with asean as a region block and boost asean's existent as a group by dealing with them as a whole as opposed to individual countries. now they're saying inviting all these leaders here to discuss shared concerns with president obama is by no means should be treated as an endorsement of governments that might fail in terms of their hooux right records or indeed i governing their countries in more democratic ways. >> marga ortigas, reporting for al jazeera in rancho mirage. gordon thanks for joining us. >> thank you.

>> gordon, president obama was just meeting with asean leaders a few months ago. why is he meeting again now and this time for first time in the u.s? >> well this meeting the substance is the symbolism. clearly what he's trying to do is say the united states is focusing on a different part of asia. you know meeting is held at sunnylands. it was only two and a half years ago that president obama hosted xi jinping with the shirt sleeves summit, meant to create a cordial relationship with beijing, look china if you don't want a cooperative relationship with united states we can have one with asean. >> so i've heard some people are calling this the anti-china summit. would you say this is an anti-china summit? >> i don't know if you can use the term anti-china but we can't

feed the hunger of chinese leaders, that centrality, asean is important, $2.4 trillion of gross domestic product, america's fourth largest trading partner and 7th largest economy in the world so we are saying it is important. >> asean, some ofists members have close ties with china. how much can the u.s. rely on asean? >> as an organization you can't rely on asean at all. the fact they are not having a communique at all acknowledge laos, cambodia, burma, prevent asean from make declarations on things like the south china sea. they will talk about the south china sea tomorrow but no communique, that's important from china's perspective to make

sure the organization does not go on record. we can count on asean members but not those three so therefore the organization is split. >> and in terms muc of economicu mentioned the importance of trade relations with asean. we have been hearing about controversy about the transpacific partnership here in the united states, we're wondering if the u.s. senate is actually going to ratify this. it is likely to come up in the summit and several nations in asean have not signed it. do you think this will be used to push them to sign it? >> i don't think it will be used to sign them. china is expected to be the biggest beneficiary of this deal. we don't need them to be persuaded to go into it. important for u.s. commerce but also for u.s. security in the region so therefore i think this message is really directed to getting ratification through the congress.

>> and i asked marga in the earlier interview what she thought of the issue of human rights because president obama has faced some criticism about inviting some of these leaders who have a history of human rights, a shady human rights history. what do you think he should do about it? >> well, this is fascinating because we host china here and we give them a state visit as we did with xi jinping in september and people complain about that as well. but this is not really the legitimization, much worse abuse abusers of human rights. i think through economic prosperity you do change these societies as we have seen in a number of them. i think this is a good thing for human rights. even though president's message is what muted, i think that's okay. because in the long term we're pushing the region for a much

more liberal system. >> we hope with open ties we will have a much more open relationship. thank you. >> pope francis spent the day in chiapas the poor poorest part oe country. >> make up most of the population of mexico's poorest state and the pontiff used the visit to underline the miss understanding and seclusion from society. some have considered your values culture and traditions to be inferior. others imovmented.

intoxicated. >> for manuel mendez, survivor of a massacre, the fact that pope francis has come means something. >> i feel like this is the real pope in favor of the indigenous communities the marginalized and the survivors, particularly because i lost six of my family in the massacre. i'm very happy he came. >> reporter: mexico's government may feel differently. chiapas has long been a problem for them. particularly because of a group of farmers known as zapatistas. in choosing areas like chiapas which suffer from marginalization, poverty and corruption, he's taking a different line. francis has used this visit to

decree that indigenous languages can be used in mass and people sing and pray in their own tongues. evangelical christianity and islam. this brief visit has at least encouraged the faithful and these struggling in this poverty-stristricken state. john holman, al jazeera, mexico. travel bans have been removed by president alexander sanctioned because of election irregularities and human rights abuses. eu bans were lifted because of the release of political prisoners and the lack ever violence in elections in objection.

presidenunemployment rate or 40% and thousands of citizens, between ages 25 and toart have left the country. the administration ever president could no longer ignore constant call for economic reform. >> translator: this will be a year of significant reforms for bobosnia and hercegovina. believe me we want to catch up with our neighbors. >> a warning from the european union the council's president says the strain of the refugee crisis and britain's membership demands may bring an end to the organization. among britain's demands the u.k. wants to reduce immigration from the rest of the eu and wants protection for its banking industry. >> this is a critical moment.

it is high time we started living this argument more than to our own. it is natural in negotiations that positions harden as we get closer to crunch time. but the risk of breakup is severe because this process is indeed very fragile. handle with care. what is broken cannot be mended. >> negotiations between britain and the eu continue, both sides say they want the u.k. to remain. >> officials have lost track of 10,000 children's who entered sweden. neal jazeera's mohammed jamjoom

reports from stockholm. >> reporter: in sweden's capital you see them all over, these unaccompanied minors are running from the system while hiding in plain sight. for three days every attempt we made to interview these children was met with fear. some questions were answered far from the camera. other questions were greeted with first skepticism and later, hostility. by night, police watch out for them. by day, social workers look out for them. >> i cannot really understand that some of them try to avoid us and when they don't know what we want with them, this is actually just a way for us to be able to offer them support. >> ellen works specifically with plok ann streeploksmormore rock.

the issue of what to do with them has been a extremely controversial one at a time when antiimmigration sentiment is growing. the country's interior minister readily acknowledges how hard it would be to find the best solution. it is easy for children to go missing. >> yes, we don't jail children because they are children. we have the u.n. charter of

human rights where we have a certain responsibility as well. we have to deal with different children different ages different ways as well. >> reporter: some he says should be put in locked activities. one where we found placed in a refugee camp. >> i whereas put in school and i learned a lot of swedish in a pretty short time. then i was refused asylum and it was such a shock. >> reporter: twice he appealed that decision, twice more he was rejected. fearing deportation he ran off. petty crime he tells me was the only way he could make ends meet. >> there are stories in the paper, they aren't getting involved in it to hurt others.

they are doing it because they can survive. >> words echoed by so many on the streets of sto stockholm. can teenagers have incorporate to go even somehow they keep going. mohammed jamjoom, al jazeera, stockholm sweden. >> coming up. the baby who is in the middle of a showdown between a hospital and australia's government. plus the arrest of a student leader in india, leads to arrests boycotted classes and government warnings. >> tomorrower israeli prime

minister ehud olmert has begun an 18 month sentence in prison. hwas forced to resign amid the corruption allegations in 2009. a hospital in eastern australia has emerged, as a focal point of human rights.

baby ashah. >> personalizing everything that is political, 300 more people is here to support her, stop the baby and her parents of being deported to naru. under australia's tough policies were immediately deported to the island of naru. there the mother got pregnant. the baby was born here but the parents and bane were returned to naru. in january of this year, the baby had an accident. boiling water was poured on her and now she is brought here to australia. now that she is better the hospital woulgovernment would ld her back to naru.

the hospital staff won't let her to be discharged. for natasha you know the mother very well. you were working with save the children on naru with her. you have been able to see her. how is she how is the baby? >> the baby is doing well thankfully, she seems to have healed quite well and the mother is overwhelmed. for the couple of weeks since she arrived, that turned into the distress over returning to naru. with all this support and movement she is completely overwhelmed and feeling better. >> why will the hospital not discharge her? >> they are saying she doesn't have a safe home to go to. i guess that is what any hospital or doctor would do. we're waiting for baby asha to have a safe home to go to.

>> thank you very much. the mother and child are being held by two guards. this protest has grown in numbers every evening since then. the protesters say they won't leave here until they get a guarantee the baby won't be deported to naru. there are 300 or so who stand to be deported to naru, if the australian government gets its way. they say every case will be dealt with compassionately but didn't want to give any incentive to have people smugglers bringing refugees to australia. babies and those with medical needs will be dealt with compassionately. it's hard to square that circle. >> andrew thomas reporting from

brisbane. now to our global view segment with a look at how news outlets across the world are reacting to various events. have pakistan's don, a deal to sell eight pakistan f-16 jets, the paper says there is angry rhetoric on both sides and resentments are likely to grow deeper. u.s. and pakistan should focus on becoming better allies and forging trust rather than buying and selling weapons. the deal between the u.s. and pakistan is very disappointing. washington gave these jets as counterterrorism tools, the prairp says the u.s. should stop all military aid to bcts, will only emedz bolden pakistan's support of terror. the times in the u.k. published this cartoon, dimitri

medvedev, seg this country is killing civilians. this cartoon shows, what civilian blood on my hands? arrest of a student leader, afteal jazeera's divya gopalan s the story. >> students shoatd up in force on campus. hundreds gathered to protest against the arrest of their student union president on said itiosaiditionseditioncharges.

>> after three days of detention, his court appearances are overshadowed by protesters outside the courtroom. >> we speak to, this is what. >> a decision that angered many on campus. >> we're extremely anguished bought of this, why are they continuing to make a critical out of him? >> protests have been held at the university on a daily basis. there have been warnings by politicians. i can assure you that every action we take is to protect our country and any 18th-india activities will not be

tolerated. >> this is an ataj ton left movement but there is an attack on address. that's why we're finding out that the people are support thrag. >> reprime minister narendra modi bjp government came into fest ak in 2014. these yoouft students say it last become a national issue here. expressing views and every citizen's right to freedom of speech. divya gopalan, al jazeera, new delhi. >> that is it for this edition. coming up we'll speak with one of the owners, more news in two

minutes. minutes.

>> good evening, i'm erica pitzi. this is al jazeera america. >> we are one justice away from losing our fundamental rights in this country. >> i plan to fulfil my constitutional responsibilities to nominate a successor. >> the fight to replace justice antonin scalia, the republican strategy, plus... >> there's no doubt in my mind thated