when ever you. thousands are killed in a fire at a boarding school in kuala lumpur. hello again you're watching al jazeera live from headquarters here in doha i'm peter w. also coming up north korea provokes more tension by threatening to drop

a nuclear bomb on japan. syrian troops advance and do as or more talks to end the civil war. and zimbabwe brings a new technology for next year's election but some worry it could lead to voter for . more than twenty people have died in a fire in boarding school most of them were teenagers police say the blaze started on the top floor dormitory of the school on the outskirts of the capital kuala lumpur has run e.o.t. . it took more than an hour for firefighters to put out the flames at the daughter ana to faqir school in kuala lumpur by then many people mainly teenage boys had lost their lives the fire started near the dormitory on the top floor first thing in the morning it quickly ripped through the entire building thing i mean i went to

the interior of the building is one hundred percent destroyed the mattresses books and all of the things in the room were damaged but the cause of the fire is still unclear we're still investigating it would have been difficult for the boys to escape as the rooms had barred windows and the fire blocked the only exit a fire department representative says their bodies were found on top of each other suggesting there was a stampede to try and get out a community religious leader led prayers for the students but. he described the boys as cheerful when they held religious events with the community a happy group many of whom now have lost their lives under very sad circumstances rene al-jazeera ok let's talk live now to curate and rahman he is the fire and rescue department director he joins us on skype from kuala lumpur kiran drama we've got two reports one saying there was a wall built across and a scape fruit and the building wasn't certified from

a fire safety point of view properly what else do you know about that. ok ok thank you very much this initial investigation done by all. of us not issued by our local government and also by departments across investigation carried out some. men men and drawing that. approval. because that evolution. that that by our department to make sure that at least. in this school. because of the student cannot get out under fire because the only exit been blocked by the fire and spread is very fast and. people can see that because of smoke inhalation that sounds like the beginnings of culpable manslaughter here if

one or both of the two fire exits were literally bricktop and these young people were in a dormitory asleep on the top floor of the building not on the ground floor they were going to die usually the group being. gone for the second second floor of the building itself and of course based on any field common that you've been by i would have found one it's very clear that there was at least exhibit. number of bad. end up at the senate become. beriah once who didn't get good at the exit just to be clear mr rahman you're saying there were extra beds in the dormitory i.e. there were more people in the dormitory than the shooter. looking at that number up the bat. up the irishman but at the start of the rule if they have

property there now but that the six would be just nice but because that up but that to me if that the student in that's a little bit i mean almost sixty percent of the. what it was that be used but not. all that. i'm puttin it to see anything happen and that's why this is the issue that we all is the mind and the operate the up the social path is. the topic they have a competition it must comply completely good any comment on. by fiat is a must but the end of the ok within the relationship between the people that own and run the school your department and whichever bits of the local government who says that signs off on the the necessary paperwork how can this be that a school is up and running with too many students in

a small room because that's what you're saying it doesn't have the correct specific ation it's a fire trap in effect and presumably there will be a massive investigation into this yes. thousand feet didn't. have to be problem that would accomplish the bill being there must come to see us and also the local people to think ahead and there will be sure to see. but this is not. getting done this is the. dead unfortunately we face this problem who did mr drummond thank you so much for coming on and thanks very much for the the candor of your comments we do appreciate your time. north korea has threatened to use a nuclear weapon against japan after the un impose more sanctions against pyongyang the state run korean central news agency says japan is no longer needed to exist in

iraq it went on to say this before islands of the japanese archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb japan's cabinet secretary your shahidi sugar has condemned north korea's threat. this announcement is extremely provocative and outrageous and raises the tension in the region and it is an acceptable craig leeson is following developments out of tokyo. certainly this threat was considered and expected by the japanese because of the support that this country is giving to its alliance partners the united states over the recent strengthening of the u.n. sanctions against north korea but japan is taking this threat very seriously given the recent hydrogen bomb test that took place two weeks ago a bomb that was ten times stronger than the one dropped by the united states on hiroshima and the missile that was launched across the north of japan so it is

a very serious threat the defense systems here have been strengthened or will be strengthened we've been told certainly that japan is hoping the united states in that regard by shipping fuel out to these ages destroyers these anti missile destroyers that are in the sea of japan these are part of a range of defense mechanisms that been set up by the alliance which include the missile system in south korea. and we have the patriot battery here in japan and of course the a.g.s. ships contain interceptors which it capable of locking on and taking out any missiles as they launched into space so certainly japan is in readiness the united states says that the defense system here is strong enough to contain any missile threat that should come from north korea. representatives of the syrian government and opposition groups are meeting in kazakhstan for

a sixth round of talks to end the six year long civil war the discussions in a stand being brokered by russia turkey and iran but many victims of the war a critical of the representatives at the talks saying they are too far removed from the situation on the ground is carolyn maloney. this is the kind of violence that is started talks on syria aimed at reducing the last round in july delegations from russia iran and turkey talked about creating four main deescalation. one of them is in the north of homs province where around one hundred eighty thousand civilians men women and children live under the control of a rebel alliance and i said. i'm the chief of police in a village that belongs to alcohol i feel sorry to say that the last talks gave us a negative impression they talked about a ceasefire but we only saw the opposite yesterday there was an ongoing mission in the sky. another deescalation zone is in the north west of the country including

northeast latakia west and aleppo and northern hama is home to more than a million civilians people in some parts have suffered years of war and were glad to see some relief since july but it hasn't lasted long enough. while since the previous talks gave us nothing except truce on warplane activities the average number of reconnaissance flights and the artillery shelling is the same i expect nothing but the same failure from the coming talks nothing is expected but force displacement. the last round of talks was aimed at getting rebel groups backed by turkey and government forces supported by iran and russia to stop fighting for six months and to get syrian president bashar al assad's government to allow humanitarian aid into rebel areas but moscow tehran and failed to agree. that were sent on well it was something we were hoping the last round of talks would let us see good results but in no way every day in alcohol or there is an

escalation of violence we still hope the next round of talks will decrease the escalation here i expect a new era in syria that needs new faces and new leaders so as to sort the crisis out once and for all. the syrian opposition is being represented at separate un backed talks in geneva with damascus to cooperate in the fight against isis they want to see a political transition to remove president assad from power but that's the sticking point for the government delegation whose focus is on getting rid of those he calls terrorists syrian civilians still hope for real progress on talks whether in a stand or geneva to bring them security and peace after more than six years without caroline malone al jazeera. charles stratford is in a stand for us where those discussions are taking place charles they've talked about these deescalation zones for a long time now how will they work i mean how will they be policed.

well it's these kind of issues that are going to be the focus of discussions here and a stone certainly rebel forces the opposition have so far said that they want no role for a rainy and or russian forces in policing these deescalation zones it was put on the table during the last meeting that possibly members of the commonwealth independent states the c.i.s. kurdistan in kazakstan may be putting forces on the ground but we've subsequently heard. there was a fairly muted response from the respective governments in those countries as well i mean there are a whole host of issues that are being discussed here focusing on these deescalation zones it's not just the policing of them it's the very promising is all of them themselves where in fact they start and end there is also discussion a lot of discussion here on the province of it leave in the north this full

deescalation zone that has really yet to to start although there has been a reduction in the violence as we heard there in cairo lines reports civilians saying and members of the opposition rebel fighters that they are still being bombarded certainly by what seem to be sort of artillery positions at times and there are concerns certainly with respect to italy because this area is largely controlled by an umbrella group called tata sham and many of the rebel forces in that group are considered not only by the syrians and the russians but by the international community as a whole is being affiliated with al qaida and they're overseas millions of civilians in these areas many that have fled from areas other areas expecting these so-called deescalation zones to be safe and although there has been a deescalation fighting certainly seems far from over in and around these areas.

another expecting any kind of a breakthrough during these discussions. well it hasn't gone particularly well so far the five rounds of talks we saw last time the members of the opposition actually walked out at one stage as airstrikes or so they said it strikes continued against their full seize the fact of the matter is that a lot has changed on the ground in the last year or so in syria pro-government forces have made great gains with the help of their russian allies since russia got involved in two thousand and fifteen we saw government forces retake control of all of eastern aleppo they've also been these huge gains against isis forces in and around dia as. we're also seeing what seems to be great to participation even on the observer level by other countries here the jordanians are here as observers as

the americans and we've heard certainly from the white house we heard donald trump earlier this year saying that the removal of aside from power was no longer the focus a real focus of attention it was no longer a necessarily a prerequisite for moving any kind of peace process we've also seen the americans withdraw their military support and their funding of rebel groups and we're also hearing even today that the group as i was describing earlier this group tata sham that he's very much in control of. we're hearing today that the rebel forces that are beginning to actually do that on brother group we understand concerns among some of those rebel forces that they could be targeted the situation on the ground is hugely complicated but there are a lot of people here there is a general will to try and get some sort of last thing ceasefire in these

deescalation zones sorted out mapped out. in the next two days and of course it's very much a complementary effort to ongoing attempts by the u.n. the u.n. brokered talks in geneva looking at a wider political future in syria it seems as if there is a lot of determination here but there are a lot of very complicated issues to sort out on the ground charles many thanks. still to come here on al-jazeera we meet the palestinian farmers given a temporary reprieve to return to their land. made in. truck. and activists turning to social media and out to protest against a four day arms fire in london. from a fresh coast to breeze. to watching the sunset on the australian outback.

well stole my lane is now clearing out into the baltic sea a big area cloud head just driving its way further east still plenty of blustery showers and still very strong winds just around the baltic states well in areas of poland still seeing winds gusting as high as sixty kilometers per hour you can see how the top be packed come back in behind northwestern corner if you're on the cold side normally plus there right across the british isles the temperatures pick back to around sixty seventy degrees over the next couple days perhaps a touch colder than that are about fourteen cells just for stockholm we got some heat an awful. getting up to twenty seven degrees celsius in ankara still touching thirty and rising as we go on into friday could get up to about thirty three still wet and windy then across western parts of russia moscow twenty two celsius is still wet and cool over towards the western side if you just forty degrees celsius

in london at all the strength of the wind and it will feel significantly cooler than that but i was a possibility eastern parts of spying possibility of one of two shots into the west of africa but essentially all the parts of africa are looking fine and we'll see temperatures kyra thirty four celsius with high of twenty four for a bet. there with sponsored by qatar and. i just want to make sure all of our audience is on the same page when they're on line and want to see the u.s. citizens here you know what puts people if you find one in the same or if you join a sunset i was never going to file differently because i'm ducking down all the before but i'm the one this is a dialogue tweet us with hash tag a stream and one of your pitches might make the next shot join the global conversation. this time on out.

you're watching al jazeera the headlines today more than twenty people have died in a fire at a malaysian boarding school most of them were teenagers the local fire chief has just told how to zero there were too many people in one room and the correct safety measures had yet to be approved. north korea has threatened to use a nuclear weapon against japan after the un impose more sanctions against pyongyang japan condemned the threat saying the announcement was extremely provocative outrageous and unacceptable. representatives of the syrian government and the opposition groups are meeting in kazakstan for a sixth round of talks to end the war there the talks in a standoff brokered by russia turkey and iran. zimbabwe is bringing in

a new voter register ahead of next year's presidential and parliamentary elections biometric technology will be used for the first time instead of doing things manually but some people worry it will increase the chances of voter fraud vote rigging joins us live now from the capital harare as far as the powers that be there are concerned what with the problems with the old system. he also still had many problems he speaks to the opposition parties they will tell you that they did their own research they claim that they were names of dead people on the voters' roll and people voted twice sometimes three times for these things denied by the rings on a case party right now what's happening is our president robert mugabe is at state house he's jew to start raids it's the greatest in syria and they will go first and then the public will be allowed to their coverage the later on in the day what happens with january but some of the barbers have concerns about switching from

manual to losing to colleges to compile a new vote register. petering appeared her first voted in one thousand nine hundred eighty when zimbabwe won independence from britain he's participated in every election since then now the electoral commission is compiling a new voters using biometric registration technology peter has concerns he worries ditching the manual process in favor of technology may not be a good thing for. the day using new technology by village and has to be a new. system. in context of the problems of electricity it's the first time biometric technology is being used to register voters in zimbabwe officials conducted a practice run in april to test the system for years opposition parties have been demanding a new list of voters they accuse president robert mugabe's rulings on appear party of manipulating the current register you have thousands of people who died many

years ago then i'm still at the. end from my own research most of these dead voters they mysteriously resign actually polling day because their votes. zanu p.f. officials deny the accusations more than six million voters were on the electoral roll four years ago zimbabwe is essentially starting the process from scratch everyone who's eligible to vote has to register again commission plan. at least seven million people. but only four hundred out of an estimated three thousand registration kits are available electoral officials say the rest of the equipment is expected to arrive in the country in a few weeks we appear to be stampeding into the registration process. without necessarily having a full appreciation of what the entire process is going to be about so it's important that we do get a new one and it's important that we start the process but without adequately

planning for the process well setting ourselves up for disaster the presidential and parliamentary elections are next year the world's oldest elected leader is running for reelection when the date for the polls is announced. anywhere in the world is perfect but he just hopes to. win at least be acceptable to me. between now and the election what do you think the big issues will be for the electorate. the biggest is of course is there's a voter's role how credible is it going to be people are concerned about the time frame they want to end the registration process by january the kids aren't enough it seems so they've wondered how the government is going to fast track this process and then of course the violence as well you're hearing opposition talking about violence has started in the country in rural areas the concern about that and isn't doing lots of issues on people's minds right now the main thing that you think this vote is role. is the country going to be able to register everyone to be registered

before the january deadline. thanks very much reporting live from harare as promised in london is prepared to take action to hold the construction of a new jewish settlement in the occupied west bank farmers are being given a temporary reprieve being allowed back to a land that was previously blocked by the security forces. reports from ramallah. it's a bittersweet day mahmoudiya brahimi has finally been given permission to access his land but only under the watchful eye of an israeli soldier there are two outposts nearby and settlers have often had to rest palestinian farmers israel solution was to close access to large parts of land today legal owners meaning palestinians unless with prior coordination this means that people such as mahmoud can only work on their land a few days a year well that we usually plant wheat by early january but we're only given

permission by the end of february the week did not come out strong and we can harvest in time and i'm gutted especially when i see the sutler's farming my land is here and the settlers are on top of the hill and they're always working it pinches me in the heart the brain family owned about eight square kilometers just thirty years ago about ninety percent was confiscated by israel and this ignited a state this is on which plot of land and where is to be taken away from their legal owners is made by the civil administration basically the occupation headquarters here in the west bank now any land that is the not cultivated enough is confiscated under the pretext of security but then reality its allocated to settlers there now a hundred and fifty seven jewish settlements and one hundred more of outposts both illegal under international law of idea really is very simple is basically.

stealing communities are going to make sure but there will be divided one one from each other. in order to rule the palestinian population. to. this area of the west. indicates of the abraham's family the blue areas on this map i do once declared a state land the green areas are ones that have been taken illegally even according to israeli law and allocated to settlers. including the latest settlement construction given to go ahead by israel's prime minister netanyahu from the rooftop mahmoud can see the bulldozers digging his land taken away without compensation land grabs and settlement building are demain stumbling blocks to the peace process and. the. place we pay the price.

with impunity to continue its land theft and the palestinian state their brains now have a small amount of land left mostly out of their reach their own one thousand five hundred olive trees. will be ripe but mahmoud doesn't know if he will be able to reach in time. in the occupied west bank people who live in the british territories in the caribbean have condemned the u.k. government for a slow response to major destruction caused by hurricane four people were killed on the island and five died on the british virgin islands when the oregon tore through the region last week during a visit to the area of the u.k. foreign secretary boris johnson promised long term support. the u.k.'s recent multi-billion dollar arms sale to saudi arabia has been the focus of protests. in london with concerns that british meat weaponry is being used against civilians in yemen that's not in baba reports activists are increasingly using social media as

well as more traditional methods to get their message across. export the island kingdom it's meant to look like a car advert rather burnished aluminum. made in britain. dropped off. but this video by save the children is aimed at getting the u.k. to stop arms exports to saudi arabia over its bombing campaign in yemen on a stray doesn't know what's going on and not shange full and so i think what we're really hoping today is that this isn't just a one off that it's media will. you know more activism going forward and more people being honest and more people have their voices heard the videos being released on social media to coincide with a huge arms fair taking place in london. in the run up to the show peace activists

staged a series of protests nearby and made sure it was all online. some close down access roads. are home to see the icy grapevine from the bridges on the engines. others former members of the armed forces try to get delivery trucks checked for illegal equipment such as landmines which have been sold at previous events it is a great trying to transport like weapons or a convention of you know taking traitors and then obstructing highway in total more than one hundred people girl arrested getting the story into the mainstream media there's been a whole week of activities and direct actions here and many involved will know they won't stop the arms fire from actually happening just down the road they have managed to slow down equipment getting into the site and perhaps just as importantly they've raised awareness not far away a different kind of protest and makeshift art gallery highlighting the arms trade

with a new work by british artist banksy as topical as ever organizers say only ten percent of londoners know about the arms fair and that needs to change. protestors in campaign is excellent well can they go out time and time again. different approach so using perhaps top target a different audience bring new people. questioning things. ending the events that you know this cassette boy whose political video mash ups have been seen by millions on you tube while these people may already be on their site they're aiming to reach a new audience on social media. al-jazeera london. these are your top stories so far today more than twenty people have died in a fire at the malaysian boarding school most of them were teenagers police say it started on the top floor dormitory of the school on the outskirts of kuala lumpur

the police are investigating whether an unapproved waltz. stopped the students from escaping killed in drama is fire and rescue department director he says the school wasn't built to the required safety standards it would be. with the local people if they get it and they will issue with you. but. getting there. and dead and what did it leave we did problem you did well the people who escaped the building have been describing what happened. thing actually going on and i was sleeping about five thirty a.m. i woke up because i thought i heard sounds like a corner store and i opened the window to check if it was a thunderstorm but i could only hear the voices of villagers screaming outside and when i got out from my room i realized the fire had ravaged a turd floor of the ashram north korea has threatened to use

a nuclear weapon against japan after the un impose more sanctions on pyongyang the state run korean central news agency says the four islands of the japanese archipelago should be sunken into the sea by the nuclear bomb japan condemned the threat saying the announcement was extremely provocative outrageous and unacceptable representatives of the syrian government and opposition groups are meeting in the capital of council stand for a sixth round of talks to end this six year long civil war there the talks in a stand being brokered by russia turkey and iran however many victims of the war in syria are being critical of the representatives at the talks saying they are too far removed from the crisis on the ground. zimbabwe is compiling a register of next year's presidential and parliamentary elections biometric technology will be used for the first time some people are worrying it will actually increase the chance of vote rigging. headlines the news continues here on

al-jazeera next program. i will see you very soon. facing the reality that they have not does not belong to them it belongs to the international community getting to the heart of the matter they can understand the chinese leadership. on how to see. this time. how can you tell.