reduces stress hormones can relax is us in the future the time may come when doctors prescribe a forest instead of medicine. in the aftermath of civil war peace and reconciliation or a loose leaf in the absence of justice. people in power on earth chilling testimonies of atrocities suggesting off our teams have failed to conduct full and proper investigations that could help heal resentment inflicted by conflict. cote d'ivoire partial justice at this time on al-jazeera. the united states pulls out. cuba embassy staff off to what it describes as specific attacks on its diplomats. with.

no i'm watching al jazeera live from london also coming up iraqi. protesters baghdad international flights into the region in retaliation for monday's. support for sunday's vote on it secession from spain and turning science fiction into science fact aerospace companies unveiled their futuristic plans to colonize mom. with. the united states government has ordered sixty percent of its staff in cuba to leave its embassy and havana it's said to be because of quote specific attacks on u.s. diplomats some of which have taken place in cuban hotels also used by american tourists

the embassy is now expected to stop processing visas and issues and issue a new travel warning so let's get more on this now for us state department correspondent patty call hainan washington d.c. what will do we know about these attacks. well you know this is really just a bizarre international mystery so here we have twenty one diplomats they say they were attacked by what's been leaked to be a sonic weapon of sorts now some said they heard a noise a hum one diplomat said he was sitting in his bed at this hotel and it was this really annoying hum and when he stepped away just a few feet away it disappeared when he came back he heard it again other diplomats have said they have no idea what happened they never heard anything but all of a sudden they all started coming forward with these pretty dramatic symptoms some said that they were losing their hearing and that's actually verified in medical tests others said they were experiencing dizziness and problems balancing and then cognitive issues they couldn't remember things and some have now been diagnosed we believe with traumatic brain injury so all of this was happening for months now the

state department says they haven't had any new incidents since august but they've been investigated so down they're taking these steps you might ask yourself do they have some evidence was cuba involved well the point is no talking to senior state department officials they say the investigation is ongoing they still have absolutely no idea what harmed their diplomats they say they are taking this step reducing and basically everyone but non emergency personnel and their families they're off the island because they want to reduce the risk to american diplomats they say this isn't meant to punish cuba they simply while they don't know they want to take these precautions so as you mentioned a couple of things sixty percent staffer duction that means no visas for cubans who wanted to come to the united states and we did ask the question so how many of people are going to be impacting this how many of uses do you give every month from cuba and believe it or not the state department is but a person who is briefing the press that he didn't have those numbers so we don't know how many people are going to be impacted by this but the bigger factor could be that travel warning to americans they're going to tell them not to go the reason

is they said some of these attacks were in the diplomats homes but somewhere in hotels americans will stay in hotels they cannot protect them so they're painting this is a precautionary step not a definitive answer that they have any idea what is actually going on with this international mystery indeed that there is a great deal that we don't know including of course who might be behind these attacks how could it affect reconciliation between the u.s. and cuba. well it's obviously thawed quite a bit under president donald trump remember this is these are two countries that didn't have relations for decades president barack obama went to the island a historic visit opened it up for american businesses did not get rid of the overall embargo only the u.s. congress can do that so when president trump came to office he made a big speech down in south florida where there are some republican donors who are very anti castro anti castro presidency he said he was going to make changes they were really just cosmetic so business as usual continues the state department going out of their way to say a bit that this is a diplomatic slight this is

a measure they believe that needs to be to protect their people and as you mentioned they don't know who did it they're not saying that cuba is behind it they say cuba is cuban officials are helping the f.b.i. investigate they haven't ruled out that this is being done by a third country i have to point out that the story in just a couple of hours sonic experts say sound just can't do what they're saidin has been done in cuba so it really is just a mystery. but you thanks very much patty colleen with all the latest on that story from washington d.c. . now international flights to iraq's kurdish region have been halted as the government ramps up pressure for the results of monday secession vote to be canceled shortly before the ban came into effect protestors outside erbil international airport when he's balloons carrying messages of peace a central government of baghdad has ordered for an alliance to stop services to the region but domestic flights will still continue as normal monday secession

referendum received a ninety two percent yes vote on the abdul hamid joins us live now from erbil international airport as a whole to tell us more about the disruption that this has caused over there and the reaction to this move. no more international flights to and from both. ports actually the parts inside is completely empty. and this should last until twenty ninth of december according to the director of the of the airport she says though that she has been trying to reach out to the authorities in baghdad to understand what exactly do they require these airports to do she said that nothing happens here without prior approval from baghdad in the first place and the airport

comes under. observers and supervisors come regularly to their present check that the standards of these airports. prime minister i've already on his side says that this is not a measure to. quote starve. people it's simply a measure to extend. the federal government to the entire territory of iraq so including the kurdish region but i've been speaking to people traveling throughout the day many workers. who came here to take part in this is. causing so much problems and they said that actually they thought that this was a form of collective punishment has to be said that you still have the flights operating from this airport but many of the people i spoke to said we took part in this referendum and we simply don't feel safe to transit through baghdad to catch

an international flight and all right. thank you. want to move to spain now where farmers have converged in barcelona on their tractors to show support for catalonia referendum protests have been taking place across the region against measures taken by the spanish government to stop sunday's vote. which it says is unconstitutional recent polling stations. say they will start with that track cattle i need to say more than two thousand stations have been set up let's go to john hendren who's in boston i know what's happening there now. well what you're hearing behind me is the sound you're monitoring here and listen to the way many cattle and see this is a rally behind me. for people in favor of secession people who want to separate from the. rallies or with many. around town you're in barcelona for several days now we have. rallies with those of not.

only. want to vote in this election that's actually ten percent more. they were planning to vote in this. referendum rather weeks ago and that suggests that the rather harsh actions of the spanish government have taken have actually driven people to the polls despite the fact that the spanish government has told them this is an illegal referendum that they should vote and that banished national police will closing down the polls interestingly the local police. are the people seventeen thousand of them who cover this region on a regular basis. those who believe today there will be no force so it will be interesting to see what that means technically fall under the national police and. be coordinating with they do not seem to be

on the same page so the question is how many people are going to make it to the polls or will those polls be open and then what happens after that. there is no minimum threshold to make this a legitimate allow. however many people. say yes he has committed himself within forty eight hours that is by tuesday declaring independence so we will find out on sunday whether or not that happens but right now everything is. very keen to have their voices heard thanks very much john hendren in. as many as sixty revenge refugees a feared dead after that boat capsized in waters off bangladesh thursday but hundreds more continue to make the perilous journey for me because they've been warned of an imminent crackdown in central iraq stay ten of

a challenge re has more now from cox's bazaar and bangladesh. i mean. you can see the beach behind me this is where the boat wreckage tragedy took place on thursday evening we spoke to some of the survivors in this boat wreckage they told us there were at least two hundred people in that boat. by the bangladesh. something hard on the sea and capsized. a lost my mother sister brother in law. i lost family members. this boat i meant for only barely twenty five to fifty people you can see the boat on my left side part of the wreckage there's other wreckage all spread across the bridge now most of this people are fleeing central iraq the people in northern part came to their villages and told that you need to flee because the army is going to crack down in the central part of the villages at least within the last two days there's been thousands of people have crossed into

bangladesh the exodus isn't over the pace is slow but hundreds of people are crossing into bangladesh every day we spoke to the authorities there say that two thousand five hundred people on. the twenty five thousand people between when it crossed into bangladesh the camps the temporary shelter just an able to cope with the sheer number of refugees coming into bangladesh. china and russia throwing their support behind the myanmar government's handling of the range of crisis russia play many of the attacks on civilians in the burning down of villages on a hinge equips while china community to back the myanmar government in solving the crisis china condemns the recent volunteer talks in myanmar who are kind state. supports me and asked effort to keep its domestic situation stable it behooves the international community to view the difficulties and challenges

confronting the government of myanmar through all objects exercise patience and provide support and help so i have for you on al jazeera dozens killed and injured in a rush hour stampede in india's commercial capital known by also. the tiny baltic country of estonia already has one of the internet's most recognizable brands but how do you replicate skype success. keep watching to find out how this country is putting tech innovation. welcome back we'll look at weather conditions across central and southern parts of china and taiwan plenty of showers around as you can see hong kong of those and going to pick up some showers on saturday sunday maybe a bit brighter foods you should be far below says young sea river valley got this

area of rain developing that's going to be quite heavy also lots of showers across indochina at the moment for northern parts of vietnam laos miramar particularly coastal areas is looking fairly wet here let's head across into south asia and still plenty of showers in evidence particularly across more eastern parts of india up into nepal bhutan and bangladesh they're seeing some heavy rainfall and at miramar too is looking quite wet these areas will continue to see some heavy rain as we head on through saturday and for the western ghats we've got rain say from on by down towards bangalore has been very wet in recent days but for central and northern parts of india and across into pakistan weather conditions are looking draw and fine and there are with highs of thirty five in delhi thirty two in karate here in the arabian peninsula the temperatures just easy off a little bit around the gulf states the community also just starting to drop thirty eight the maestro in doha and abu dhabi on the other side of the peninsula fine

conditions for medina with highs here forty. water scarcity is a serious problem we use more than probably you need to why is your risk. impact if the plans aren't demanding as much water you don't need to irrigate as much as me is the age old technique of collecting water bottled water just came out of the air and we'll compare that to some tough water which could provide a solution to the problem of global with a gas tank you know at this time. welcome

back you're watching al-jazeera the top stories this hour the united states government has ordered sixty percent of its staff in cuba to leave its embassy in the capital have anna protesters outside erbil international airports have released balloons carrying messages of peace just before iraq halted international flights to the kurdish region and farmers have converged in boston on their tractors to show support the catalonians independence referendum. now in all the stories we're following closely at least thirty two people have been killed and another twenty seven injured after a stampede in india's commercial capital by it happened during morning rush hour on a pedestrian bridge connecting two railway stations. crushed against the steps of this railway overpass or the bodies of commuters flattened as a stampede of passengers pushed them to the floor i. go by police say

forming concrete hate part of the hombre and people panicked thinking the bridge was collapsing a monsoon downpour made things worse as they were also people sheltering from the rain. because when the stampede happened because there were too many members of the public on the bridge and the people were in a hurry and wanted to get out there was no one helping they were suffocating a felony child i commute to film the crowded bridge minutes before the stampede. it was the mom by friday morning rush hour in the world's second most densely populated city this see is typical that. as soon as the bodies had been moved the bridge was open again a few blood spots the only indication of what had happened. to. the injured who had probably been on my way to work when our on their way to hospital. relatives of those who didn't survive waited outside to recover their bodies in the

israel way minister says he's ordered a high level inquiry burnet smith al-jazeera. united nations is going to set up a group to examine all human rights violations committed in the war in yemen the un human rights council said it hopes to identify those responsible for possible crimes the yemeni delegation said it accepted the resolution that was passed in a compromise between western powers and arab countries let's go live to our u.n. correspondent roslyn jordan in new york and they have long been allegations of war crimes taking place in the war in yemen how significant is this. mari and this is quite significant one because this is not an actual commission of inquiry which is the gold standard as it were for the u.n. when it wants to look into allegations of crimes against humanity or of or investigate alleged war crimes this is a hybrid it's going to deal involve

a group called an international eminent group of experts they will be going into the country as soon as possible and they will be expected to gather their evidence presented to the human rights council a year from now and then then they're supposed to engage in some sort of interactive dialogue on the next steps this is a process though that what could not have happened at all without this compromise because the chair of the human rights council zaid rodell hussein wanted a commission of inquiry or c.o.i. whereas the saudi government which has been supporting the government of president months to rob a hadi did not want this is simply said that the yemeni government's own internal investigation into these alleged abuses should be the only investigation taking place so after some last minute compromising they've agreed that this group will

take a look at what's being generally described as all international abuses and violations and then they will report back to the human rights council in september two thousand and eighteen yes so it'll be a while before we hear from them one of the next immediate steps. well beyond constituting this group and trying to get this group into yemen they're going to be several questions how much access will this group have to all parts of the country that have been engaged in the civil war whether there's going to be any cooperation from the former president ali abdullah saleh as well as from the who these who have been fighting the government of president hadi for control of yemen and there are going to be questions about whether this group since it's a hybrid group and i don't know that it really is a legally. viable entity whether its recommendations will hold any legal weight

for the human rights council those questions still need to be worked out but if they hadn't come to this compromise the saudis were prepared to withhold funding from the human rights council and not let this work go forward at all thanks very much reza in jordan with all the latest on this story from the united nations i still says it carried out a suicide bombing that targeted a mosque in the afghan capital at least five people were killed and twenty nine others wounded in attack a struck as worshippers left the shia mosque after friday prayers in central kabul afghanistan has faced a series of large scale attacks in recent months targeting the minority shia population when other developments i sales lead to abu bakr by daddy's its members to increase attacks against the west as well as continuing the fight in iraq and syria the armed group has released an audiotape cording it says contains a message from al baghdadi it's the first time he's been heard from since i saw lost control of the iraqi city of mosul in july. a european union leaders are in

a stonier to discuss the digital future of the block and if you're going to have a digital discussion well then where better than the birthplace of skype roy hallums reports now on how estonia became one of the world's most network nations. coding kids these are stony and children haven't started high school yet but already they're programming robots you can really like. teach people. it's really love to learn. but. the aim is to create a generation with a smarter relationship with technology digital skills for everyone and if all goes well someday one of those kids might be able to build another skype this is easily estonia's biggest tech success story the company has to make video and voice calls over the internet and was bought by microsoft in two thousand and eleven for eight

point five billion dollars startup entrepreneurship is a natural fit for a country that spent the past two decades turning itself into one of the most advanced digital societies in the world we're going to say that that's like a really big influence there because like when they start their function for the boot camp then it just created a bunch of wealthy people who could invest finally i think it's because as soon as paul and people know each other people went like oh i went to high school with this case if they can do it are going to yarn is now an investor in new estonian startups here and i'm trying to learn spanish like a language learning out linguist i asked its chief operating officer whether being a stone even makes young companies here think differently. there is one point three million people. think market doesn't exist. so it means

from with the one you need to. start up culture and overcoming the country's diminutive size also inspired the estonian government's the residency program costing one hundred or so dollars and a residency invites business people from anywhere in the world to remotely create a company here and gain access to the country's streamlined digital infrastructure it doesn't bring in much money but it does foster the network's estonia values you need to have a texas berth on they go explosion to have a virtual office and if you need those kind of services who put you in touch with. companies so it makes a snowball effect and a lot of is some companies benefit from the services they provide to. estonia believes countries will one day compete for the residence based on the quality of their digital services and business environments if that prediction is correct

estonia already has a significant lead chalons talent many are calling on the us president donald trump just stop tweeting for him it seems that twitter has emerged as his preferred method of communication it uses the one hundred forty characters to promote and defend himself and bypass traditional media to speak directly to americans and the world is under has more. ladies and gentlemen the president of the united states when president franklin roosevelt wanted to urgently speak to the american people. and he took to the radio we are going to win. the peace but we welcome change and opens in one thousand nine hundred seven president ronald reagan harness the power of television to give a historic speech at the berlin wall mr gorbachev tear down this wall. and when president barack obama wanted to talk to the american people about climate

change and everybody he chose to do it on his first ever facebook video post this has been my backyard for the last seven years over the years the ways presidents communicate to people has evolved but when the history books are written about donald trump's presidency there will certainly be a chapter dedicated to a little bluebird specifically his political use of twitter the most important role for a president of communication is not necessarily in swaying opinion but in setting the agenda and dictating what it is that americans in the media are talking about but trump's tweets are a window into his thoughts and were the subject of a recent satirical donald trump presidential twitter library exhibit in new york. the most famous tweets were framed in gold a jab at the president's love of bling even this puzzling tweet where he typed a word nobody knew how to pronounce let alone what it meant they are being read by

so many people across the world they're in fluent in policy they're affecting how we see him in other countries years trumps advisors have urged him to slow down with the tweets warning he could be held legally accountable for any that prove to be misleading or false but trump's love of twitter not going away unable to tame trump's twitter finger a top white house official recently said anything trump tweets should now be considered an official statement from the leader of the free world gabriel's and oh i'll just washington. now private companies are leading the way with plans to put humans on mars or a space giant lockheed martin wants to set up a base camp that while space x. found last kaz the much more ambitious plan to colonize the red planet in the next few decades malham has more from an international space conference in adelaide industry heavyweights and space lovers converged on adelaide for this year's

international astronautical congress the highlight of the event was without doubt space royalty entrepreneur and billionaire ilan musk has long made it known he wants to make humans and interplanetary species to make sure we don't go the way of the dinosaurs now he says he'll start a colony on the red planet with the first human flights in twenty twenty four. or that the base soaring one one ship than most horse eps and circling off the city than most of the bigger. yeah and at that time tom foreman was. making it so really a nice place to be. lockheed martin to has plans to get humans to the red planet it revealed more about its blueprints for a mars base camp that will orbit the moon and act as a launching pad for human missions to mars it believes it can have it operational

in a decade in about five billion years give or take the sun will eventually be going to a red giant it will expand and devour the earth so at least in five billion years we need to have somewhere else now how much do you need to worry about it in twenty seventeen fair question but that eventually you've got to get off the planet if we're going to continue as a as a as a human race at the moment all we have on mars two rovers like this replica of the curiosity and while there are many companies here that believe humans will journey to mars within this generation and possibly even colonize it there are doubts about whether mass should be considered a backup plan to. all missions to mars need the hope of one of three nasa deep space command centers this one is new strains capital camera it operates like air traffic control but the space sending commands and receiving signals from

spacecraft and all the vital communications that any human missions to must also go through here i think one of things that a journey to mars will tell us most especially is that really in reality earth has always got we have to look after this planet first and foremost going off to mars is going to have to create a whole range of new technologies to survive in an environment that's trying to kill you every second of the day and there's no shortage of companies working on those technologies to keep humans alive in deep space technologies that if nothing else could perhaps be useful to humans on earth to yarber malham out zero adelaide . there's much more in everything we're covering right here al-jazeera dot com is where i need to go. quick recap of the top stories now the night it states government has ordered sixty

percent of its staff in cuba to leave its embassy in havana it's said to be because of quote specific attacks on u.s. diplomats some of which have taken place in cuban hotels also used by american tourists. a u.s. state department correspondent patty call has more on this from washington d.c. talking to senior state department officials they say the investigation is ongoing they still have absolutely no idea what harmed their diplomats they say they are taking this step reduce all basically everyone but non emergency personnel and their families they're off the island because they want to reduce the risk to american diplomats they say this isn't meant to punish cuba they simply it while they don't know they want to take these precautions and all the top stories international flights to the kurdish region of iraq of been halted protesters outside erbil international airport when he's balloons carrying messages of peace. being pressured to cancel the results of monday secession referendum which won ninety two percent of the vote farmers have converged in barcelona on their

tractors to show support for catalonia as independence referendum protests have been taking place in the region to oppose measures adopted by a spanish government to stop sunday's vote says it is unconstitutional. as many as sixty refugees a feared dead after their boat capsized in waters off bangladesh on thursday but hundreds more continue to make the perilous journey for me because they've been warned of an imminent crackdown in central and state. i still says it carried out a suicide bombing that targeted a mosque in the afghan capital kabul at least five people were killed and twenty nine others wounded in attack a struck as worshippers left the shia mosque after friday prayers. on the russian opposition. has been detained again in moscow ahead of a pre-election rally his supporters to assemble anyway and suggested his detention is linked to

a larger rally. in october. i'll have more on all of that in about twenty five minutes time be back with a news for you off to techno which now looks at the science of water sustainability bit later stay with al-jazeera i for now. water everywhere with less and less. space the f. is a big blue planet covered seventy percent in the water. reveals the two and a half percent that is freshwater with only one percent be easy.