beautiful museum so countries around the world have walked to memorialize these events that have shaped them in is not about the political events that led up to my mission it's about the impact on each person who went through it it's really important that we highlight the stories of humanity hopefully one outcome on this would be that we remember our shared humanity and the shared history. and over the airport so face an embargo the threat from baghdad after initial results show iraqi kurds voted for independence in the referendum.

hello again i'm peter w. watching al jazeera live from doha also coming up the verdict is guilty local media in thailand say the former prime minister yingluck shinawatra has been sentenced to five years in prison for corruption. a landmark decision in saudi arabia will allow women to drive for the first time starting next june plus. it's a welcome break from the fear of a nuclear attack south korea holds a film festival to call for peace. russia and france have called on kurdish leaders not to pursue actions that may further destabilize the region they are the latest international powers to call on the bill to remain part of iraq in the wake of monday's session referendum moscow called for talks between baghdad and the courteously. the ship the french foreign

minister says a declaration of independence would trigger a new crisis meanwhile iraq is demanding the kurdish regional government surrender control of its airports or face a ban of international flights charles stratford reports from bill gates the rhetoric and threats continue and from both sides iraq the need that's out of that i still is still occupying some parts of kirkuk and some parts of iraq i sill is still a threat to the cities with some of our brothers in iraqi kurdistan a living we must not divide iraq according to or through or viral referendum that is completely rejected such language will go down well with the international community including the u.s. and the e.u. each sent the timing of the vote could weaken iraq's unity at a time when the fight against terrorism is paramount l.-a party says the kurdish referendum on independence was unconstitutional and the federal government will

ignore the expected yes result only a few minutes after the speech the kayleigh g president appeared on kurdish television masoud barzani invited in leaders of neighboring countries for dialogue but he remained defiant he said the wishes of iraq's kurds should be respected but . yes in the beginning we agreed on the constitution and partnership and the role of the kurdistan region in the establishment of iraq is very clear but you violated every agreement there is no need for anger and threats you have only yourself to blame. the results of the referendum on not binding but the kurdish president wants a mandate to push the baghdad government into negotiations towards independence for iraq's kurds. neighboring countries such as turkey fearful of the effect such a drive towards independence by the iraqi kurds could have on their own large kurdish populations have threatened sanctions and even not ruled out military

intervention against the kayleigh gee. that seems unlikely at this stage but the referendum is certainly increased tensions across the region already struggling to deal with so many problems and when the battle against terrorism is far from won. the federal government says chaos storage is must hand over control of their airports by friday or face a potential international air embargo the government also says that the k r g must hand over control of their international land borders by friday or neighboring countries will take control of them too the pressure on president barzani from both baghdad and the wider region continues to mount stratford al-jazeera erbil. joins us live now from bill how did do we know how the numbers here after the referendum actually stack up. we don't have any

official results coming out of the electoral commission what we. did was somewhere between. seventy five percent and there was a breakdown. around. where to put it where. we've heard. numbers. commission now i spoke to the spokesman of the commission earlier this morning. but they were hoping. these results.

clearly feels he has a mandate. well he's been saying that all along that you know. wants to continue negotiations after the. vote day. he's been saying that this is a non-binding referendum just. the people expressing their will however words of prime minister were very clear he said we are open to negotiations but the referendum and its results will not be a bargaining chip on the negotiating table so you have no these two stanzas two men and now both of them have to also speak today people today own constituency so publicly we will continue seeing the same kind of rhetoric nothing much is changing

for each time they speak it's more or less on the same lines but i think there are already some talks going on behind the scenes i actually just heard from the minister of transport and. both airports. and they said that they were communicating with their counterparts in baghdad with the civil aviation authority in baghdad and they said that the airports here actually had been opened with. approval of baghdad that they had been financed by the kurds that they're run by the kurds part that there's a civilian supervisory body that comes every year to check on that airport and that is done with with baghdad including to move it into airspace so he said that he didn't understand where was the issue and he felt that if that was a means of punishment because of the referendum of punishing the kurdish people of

punishing the. lives outside that uses those airports to come and see their families it was one thing that if they were legal issues that was another thing he was talking about low. the airport where the prime minister yesterday was about putting the airport under so of the federal border guards if that happens just missed a pause on the have a plan b. if the situation gets so very negative. well they're not talking about it publicly at least it's going to i mean when it comes to land crossings you can actually see maybe how do you federal border guards can deploy to them and actually officially those forces are on the. federal border guards even though they. kurds rather they are part of the ministry in baghdad where you rocky uniform even though they have

a kurdish flag on it when it comes to the airport here is here is a much more complicated because that means that these guards will have to come into the kurdish region and take up their positions. and that could lead to really sort of a standoff because they will have to either land or come by and by road to those airports thanks very much to talk with the former prime minister yingluck shinawatra has been sentenced to five years in prison for corruption she's been found guilty of negligence over a rice subsidy plan a government set up before she was toppled in a coup in twenty fourteen the scheme to help farmers lost billions of dollars she wasn't in court to hear the full effect to she fled the country last month her family being figureheads for political organization which is one every toy election since back in two thousand and one when following the story for us to bangkok weigh in what's your reading of this five year sentence. yes so peter that

confirmation coming from the supreme court just in the last few minutes now and expecting the legal team now for the former prime minister yingluck shinawatra to emerge from those doors behind me and give more details about their response to this verdict it took a very long time for those nine supreme court judges to deliver the verdict to read through their findings into this case and ultimately to hand down the guilty verdict and a five year prison term for negligent negligence it took them out four hours to deliver that verdict i think it's probably expected peter i mean there was talk there was a maximum penalty of ten years for this and a lifetime ban from politics so i think given that she fled the country that there have been suspicions as well certainly in the time media that perhaps there was some sort of deal done to allow her to leave the country prior to that original verdict reading dates on august the twenty fifth so i think there was an expectation that there would be a guilty verdict today and certainly a prison to

a sentence which of course she's not in the country to serve does this mean realistically where in that she will never return at all along with her brother you know she's been accused fun guilty and sentenced. yes well you mentioned her brother the former prime minister as well tax and what was sentenced to two years in jail for abusing his power and he has been living in exile in dubai and that's been believed where the water is now as well so these cases against the two former prime ministers the sentences have no limitations on them because they are political crimes that's what they're deemed as being so basically they last forever so unless some sort of deal can be worked out unless of course the former prime minister yingluck shinawatra peals and is successful then yes ultimately means unless they want to go to jail they can never return to the country but i guess if you ask most thais regarding. maxence case that if you thought he would still be living overseas now after fleeing the country following

the two thousand and six q most sort of thought no some sort of deal would have been done now to allow him to come back possibly serve some length of jail term a shortage out before being freed perhaps as long as he doesn't enter politics again but no deal has been forthcoming so it's certainly a significant chapter in this man running political saager in thailand and of course the supporters of this you know wants believe that this is politically motivated it's designed to keep the chena want to plan and their party really the key players in their party out of politics for good morning thanks very much ok we're going to force the next thirty seconds or so because we want to show you what's going on inside a key government building inside the afghan capital kabul because the u.s. defense secretary james mattis we're being told is imminently just about to walk through that door he's made an unannounced visit to kabul having. been in india just a little earlier as far as the trumpet ministration is concerned of course this

visit is all about regional stability as donald trump was saying at the u.n. general assembly this time last week talking about his allies in the region talking about working with other countries a message from mr trump that was mirrored by the afghan leader that this is about re directing and renewing what the united states forces do on the ground in afghanistan you may remember that the u.s. president when he was candidate president candidate for the presidency donald trump campaigned on a ticket of a complete total and utter withdrawal from afghanistan as soon as was practically possible he's had to do an about turn on that there was a long delay between him saying i will get a new plan for afghanistan and what we now know the plan to be. people his critics would argue that the trump plan is basically the. iraq obama plan plus

something else not just to do with afghanistan of course james messy central message over the past few days has also been aimed at the government in islamabad the pakistani capital and also in india particularly in reference to pakistan of course afghanistan shares a border with pakistan the u.s. led forces particularly under the tenure of james mattis the u.s. defense secretary they want the government in islamabad to do more because as we know there is the pakistani taliban and the afghan taliban as well critics of what they're doing so far are saying well actually we're now in a situation of stalemate bear in mind that the taliban have been somewhat reinforced over the past what three years or so but this conflict goes back sixteen years we do have a translation let's just listen in to what's being said at. the support of thirty nine countries in fighting against terrorism and the second phase that they have

made in our country i want to thank them. especially the continuous the continuous second feis that americans are made in afghanistan and i want. also as a prison of afghanistan. and i want to thank the. the bravery of our. security forces. and i want to thank them from the bottom of my heart especially the. sons of children of this country who have. made sacrifices to defend the constitution of this country and it's a time. that. they important role that it was the john

nicholson also played in their lives played in afghanistan i want to thank them as well on behalf of the people of afghanistan and on behalf of i want to thank. president to try. and i want to thank them who have finalize the strategic. the new strategy towards afghanistan. and fighting against terrorism. creating a political and safe quite environment. you know i want to thank them for the environment that they have created and then clinton told that they have played i also want to thank the secretary general. our old friend for their continuous support. and support their faith. you know i want to thank them for the important role that they

have played and also the support that we have received from them. the strategy of america and nato is clear now. this and general mattis has decided. to. send the new troops to afghanistan and i hope the other members of the nato. but you know as it has been requested by the secretary general and general nicholson. for them to take forced to. take part in training and support of our forces. i want. thing from all departments or country especially dr abdullah to create. environment to achieve our goals. and i want to thank them for

creating that environment. especially. to the people of afghanistan who have always carried. their main burden on their shoulder and also the sacrifices they have made. and also the the patience that they have shown. and also they have all of them supported the constitution afghanistan's taliban and other terrorist groups. during the five things they've used our our people as their human shields. the main job of our security forces is to take there are people. i have. instructed all our security forces that during

their their security operations they have to prioritize the protecting the lives of the civilians. the international forces for training our security forces. to evaluate the situation and their priority should be to protect our people. the four year long. strategic. which were true which has been devised by our government. and the international community has. one. has also agreed with that to protect our people and the second forces that we are making that our children our brothers and sisters and mothers live. peacefully that.

our security forces will be will be prepared for the all challenges that they are facing. they will be so they will then stand on their own feet to defend the to defend somebody of this country. this four year just the four years strategic plan that we have it's going to be implemented to weaken. in a me and it's it's making good progress. i want to i want to thank the ministry of defense minister the interior minister and i don't. want to let it and we're going to peel away just for the next couple of minutes to wrap up some of the top stories from the afghan president there he started his address by bree by praising the bravery of afghan security forces he basically went on to say the taliban have used people as human shields they've had

a four year long strategy in place just now he's nudging everyone and i guess mr masters is on board with this to rephrase refocusing the existing and holocene to very clearly and very explicitly protect the civilians of afghanistan we will return to that as soon as the u.s. defense secretary james mattis gives us his distilled thoughts on where the administration thinks that policy is going next mr trump of course his boss back in washington saying i will not give you create numbers he doesn't want to make of self a hostage to fortune in that regard we'll go back to kabul as and when we can. human rights groups are welcoming a decision from saudi arabia to allow women to drive king solomon issued a decree ending the kingdom status as the only country where it is forbidden is portage again. activists like dr mahdi however jewish have been lobbying for decades for the kingdom of saudi arabia to allow women to drive and instead again

been teamsters again i'm ready my daughter is ready and also society is ready how much longer can we live in an oppressive society that prevents us from our full rights. by next summer dr mcgee how will be allowed to drive without risking arrest fines and punishment the new policy will allow women to obtain a driver's license without having to ask permission of the husband father or male guardian the kingdom's representative to the united nations talk about the policy during a meeting at the u.n. this is a historic day for saudi society for men and women and we can now say at last. so your abs hoping the policy will help the economy and the increased role of women in the workforce as part of the economic reform agenda and the efforts to streamline the amount of money that the state spends on its citizens with diminished oil revenue the idea of including more women into the labor force would would definitely help and so driving is one mechanism to increase women's

economic participation it was anybody could be other activists reacted on social media mundo a shot of his a saudi women's rights advocate who was arrested for posting a video of herself driving in two thousand and eleven to protest the law in a tweet celebrating the decree she use the hashtag women to drive and daring to drive she also said the fight for equality in saudi arabia is far from over i grew up in ultra conservative society the united states also welcomed the move by the kingdom well they were happy we're happy we're certainly happy to hear that if saudi women are now able to drive certainly here in the united states we would certainly welcome that and so i think it's a great step in the right direction for that country. another step that's been lauded by rights activists came over the weekend for the first time women were allowed to enter the king fahd stadium to celebrate the eighty seventh anniversary of the kingdom's foundation. the thought that i know how to steal and what saudi

women are able to do anything they respected and have proven themselves in every field they're not so weak as to be contained to one place. the right for women to drive may be a welcome step but some human rights organizations say the kingdom has a long way to go in guaranteeing equal rights for not only women but for minorities like those who are subjected to hate speech and violent attacks paul chatterjee on al-jazeera. well and forty thousand ranger have fled the military campaign in me in bangladesh in the past two days the continuing exodus raises the total to four hundred and eighty thousand in the past month they include six thousand children who cross the border without their parents and need shelter in bangladesh the un says to bring fifty million dollars is now required to pay for the crisis well the crisis is affecting the myanmar economy ascott hi-lo reports from the barge a city and commercial center gone international companies are reconsidering

potential investment. like this abandoned fund park in central yang gone much of the country is still waiting for the development and foreign investment many hoped would come hopes were high when sanctions were lifted and the country was reconnected to the world after nearly five decades of military control the west has started to invest here but remains limited the main trading partners are still myanmar's neighbors. hoping to change that trade groups are working to encourage more businesses and investment from europe and the united states. but they have run into a problem political fallout from the revenge or refugee crisis in myanmar's rakhine state after a recent six country tour in europe to drum up investment a member of one group said the treatment of revenge it was brought up everywhere they went and that was before the recent violence in rakhine that sent hundreds of

thousands fleeing into bangladesh the crisis is having a knock on effect with small business managers some clients at this tour company have canceled or postponed their trips not only for my business for the sake of industry because we within over twenty one years into his industry we face a lot of you know the prizes and challenge. laws and regulations of foreign investment are changing after years of being closed. continued international condemnation and concern over the right hand your crisis could have an impact on foreign help on big infrastructure projects like the much needed upgrades on yangon energy railways. china has been a longtime main trading partner with myanmar going back to the days of military rule myanmar's leaders are working to diversify and move away from heavy reliance on trade with china want to converse feels that if western nations start to slow

investment because of the range of prices it could force me and mark to remain reliant on china we are still in the. investment agreement. even this is in the process. it would have some impact. so even in the best of conditions more time is needed to attract foreign investment myanmar hopes to land but right now with the world watching events in rakhine it might be pushed farther down the track it's got harder al-jazeera yangon of all kaino is expected to erupt any day now on the indonesian island of bali there have been hundreds of tremors around the area of mount ongoing and more than seventy thousand people living in villages on the slopes of the volcano have been evacuated to temporary shelters the last time mount

agung erupted was fifty four years ago when more than eleven hundred people die. and we're taking a back to the events taking place as you can see there from your screen in kabul the nato secretary general in stoltenberg there flanked by the u.s. defense secretary james mattis and us regarding the afghan president just open the mikes and get a sense of what his thinking is on where we are today it led to the nine eleven terrorist attacks on the united states. in which almost three thousand people were murdered we cannot allow that to happen again nato leaving would also risk further instability in the region including refugees fleeing for the safety of europe these risks to our own security to our own societies and to our own credibility are too

great and they would be devastating for the afghan people night don't doesn't quit when the going gets tough we keep our promises that is why i very much welcome that many nations have pledged. further contributions to our mission here in afghanistan including more troops from the united states and i welcome president terms new condition based approach to afghanistan and the region with nato is help afghan forces have come a very long way today they lead the fight against taliban and international terrorist groups and their president putting real pressure on the enemy asked to do so we will continue to work with them in many different areas including

supporting afghan special forces building up the afghan air force and strengthening commom control nato is committed to funding the afghan security forces until at least twenty twenty and we will continue to provide almost a billion dollars each year to the afghan defense and security forces so we will stay committed and the count on the afghan government to make good on its commitments. she reforms for good governance the rule of law fighting corruption and protecting the rights of all its people including women and goes and we need continued efforts towards a last thing inclusive political solution to this conflict

the taliban must understand that they cannot win on the battlefield they have much more to gain around the negotiating table i encourage the afghan government to prepare the ground for peace and reconciliation so i welcome the kabul process the initiative that you've missed the president launched in june you can rely on our support and nato will continue to support a peace and reconciliation process that is afghan led and afghan owned we encourage all countries in the region to support this process to play a constructive role in helping to stabilize afghanistan and to shut down sanctuaries for extremists groups no one underestimates

the challenges this country faces but i know that together we have to celia nce under the thumb a nation to make afghanistan stable and secure for all of its people and for our own security thank you once again was the person you met is to make his opening remarks thank you. for hosting. altenburg and myself here today we're grateful to you and keep executive a doula. and i would say to mr president that this delegation stand united in our desire to advance peace in afghanistan and remove the impulses and manifestations of terrorism that threaten the innocent we are here today to support afghanistan

because instability in south asia as secretary general and the president have already stated and the extremism that it cultivates endangers all nations as well as the people of afghanistan in recognition of these vital interests and thanks to the national unity government i would just say that the support of the international community has now rallied under the nato flag and we are here today as evidence of a new strategy that has given us a new opportunity and secretary general stoughton burd strategic and unflappable leadership at nato has been key to this opportunity our nato commander general nicholson has earned the trust and admiration of the afghans and the international community while leading the thirty nine partner nations of nato as resolute support mission each nation stands united with.