this is our duty to understand a very different way where there. is and we don't leave. egypt is now trying this third biggest trading partner in africa more than ten thousand chinese are living in cairo and i wanted to see the permits in september one thousand nine hundred five i came with my friends to egypt many started a small traders but are now successful in business i began to do business in two thousand and three or two thousand and four at the time it was small but then it began to expand in al-jazeera world meets the growing chinese community in egypt egypt made in china at this time. was. celebrations as iraqi forces push out of her region its last stronghold in the north of the country. this is the red cross says syria saying its worst violence

since the battle for eastern aleppo. nor in toto says al jazeera live from london also coming up as more national police leave barcelona spain is constitutional court suspends the castle and parliament session planned for monday. police say the las vegas gunman had previously booked rooms overlooking two other music festivals. our traditional harvest festival is providing a brief rest bite from escalating tensions between north and south korea. iraqi forces have captured the town of her wager on the surrounding area last stronghold in northern iraq the iraqi military says some fighting is still going on to the north and. in the town where i saw the surrounded troops were greeted by jubilant

villages in six kilometers northwest of the town where the capture of how we join the only area that remains under control in iraq is a stretch alongside the western border with syria. but the measure operation has come at a cost as charles stratfor reports from a nearby checkpoint at the base in northern iraq. exhausted and scared it took this family five days to reach the peshmerga defensive position as. they walked across these parched hills from their village in iceland controlled territory sometimes struggling to find shelter from coalition airstrikes and iraqi army shelling but the situation is tense there are airstrikes artillery shelling i have escaped with my family as soon as we could i saw were relocated from one place to another and many of them were pushed and squeezed further into how egypt there is no food or water available and i want a village on. condition so it barely managed to

get out we used to devolve to scraps of food our property had led result astroid. the peshmerga are defending this position against potential leisel fighters from this area as the iraqi military and shia militias advance in this direction this area here is still a number of villages there that are controlled by i saw in the last few minutes we've seen two i saw fighters come here and surrender the commander of this position says that in the last two weeks around two hundred fighters have surrendered at this position alone. the peshmerga took control of this area from high school in two thousand and fourteen after the iraqi army fled. it is beyond the official boundary of the semi autonomous kurdish regional government controlled area of northern iraq but the commanders here say the peshmerga won't withdraw or win the fight against the last pockets of i saw. the girl j.

she had actually has all these lanes you see have been taken and defended by the peshmerga and we will not give them back many pacemaker died defending these lands we've opened humanitarian and military corridors of people displaced and military personnel who easier was the last stronghold for eisel in northern iraq iraqi prime minister hydrilla body says the town has been retaken but disagreement between the curves and the iraqi government about who will control areas such as that we have just begun john strafford al jazeera debases in iraq. france's president emmanuel michel has offered to help mediate between iraq's central government and kurdish leaders as tensions rise over last week's secession referendum but who held talks in paris only with iraq's prime minister hyderabadi to discuss kurdish possession efforts and about to has more. he was here just to talk about strategic cooperation they did however talk about the referendum president even offering to mediate to

try and calm the situation in his words he said that it was very important that iraq remained united but recognized the rights of the kurdish people as for the iraqi prime minister he said that this referendum was illegal but he was looking for any cold front with the kurdish forces now the two men also touched on a number of other issues they talked about closer cooperation in areas such as science and education but of course there was also a real focus on working more closely in matters of counterterrorism in the region they both said that they want to look to the future they both talked about reconciliation and rebuilding the country and it was in that way that the french president pledged around five hundred million u.s. dollars for rebuilding and helping to stabilize iraq. turkey says is considering blockading iraq's kurdish region by closing its airspace and borders after the kurdish secession vote last week. to one has also said he'll decide with iran and

iraq central government and whether to cut oil exports from the iraqi kurds and one was in the iranian capital tehran on wednesday when he discussed the kurdish vote with iran's leaders both countries have large ethnic kurdish populations. the red cross says syria is facing some of its worst fighting since last year's battle for aleppo at least one hundred thirty people have been killed in multiple asked rice over the past two days and hours or province there are also reports of at least ten hospitals being damaged cutting off hundreds of thousands of syrians from health care that europe is hardly on reports. death destruction and desperation are the results of our thoughts of the russian air strikes towns destroyed thousands displaced in the syrian province of darrow's or the syrian observatory for human rights as the airstrikes over the last six days killed at least one hundred eighty five people including women and children more than

a mile up we have looked at houses and went to the desert would be like this but by the situation is catastrophic we've seen rockets artilleries of all planes and we don't know who is who and what is what the international committee of the red cross says the number of civilians killed is the highest this year since the fight over aleppo the strikes damage at least ten hospitals leaving the injured helpless humanitarian organizations are struggling to care for syrians to scaping the attacks this includes search and rescuers from the white helmets organization everyone is. in the night. i still controls most of darrow's or and is under attack by the russian air force russia's defense ministry says forty nine members of al qaeda and putting its top seven leaders in syria have been killed recently the russian government says it targets insurgents not civilians but first responders say they see the opposite when we when we are

squad. and we. see women we see men old men entire towns already devastated are now left wondering when the next airstrike will be. al-jazeera. at least eighteen people have been killed in that these twenty five injured after a certain bomber blew himself up outside a shia shrine in pakistan's southwest the attack happened in the. province no one has claimed responsibility to has more from islamabad. an attack on a shrine in the. town of. leave the number of people dead many more. according to security forces a good guide bomber tried to enter the compound. under way however he was dropped at their door.

and five hour drive from the provincial capital city of where. there are reports that the dead may go even higher although no one has yet claimed responsibility for this particular attack this particular. dog and five forty nine people were. the speaker of the parliament has accused spain's constitutional court of harming freedom of expression after it suspended to parliamentary session planned for monday afternoon as parliament was planning to declare independence unilaterally from spain after two million catalans voted in favor of secession. this is an act of extreme seriousness because it cuts the freedom of expression of members of catalonia parliament this shows the total incapacity of the spanish

government to result political problems in a political way we repeat what we've always said that we will not allow the parliament to be sounds that. is the latest from kalpana holders in barcelona colors the constitutional court winning go to stop the parliament session going ahead a monday. that we still don't know because in further comments from the speaker of the capital parliament carmen for she went on to say that legal teams were now studying the implications of that ruling by the constitutional court she also added that the move by the court was unheard of and extremely grave in fact it is the first time that the constitutional court has suspended any parliamentary session in any of the seventeen autonomous regions of spain so that throws into uncharted legal and constitutional territory but it's unclear what after the kaplan parliament studies this measure what exactly they

will do if you take the example of the referendum which as you know the constitutional court and the spanish government had declared illegal well the capital an authority has brushed that off and went ahead with the referendum anyway it is possible that they could also brush this ruling off and try and stage the parliamentary session anyway and possibly as soon as early as monday make some declaration of independence but the constitutional court has warned that that could have consequences and that the speaker of the parliament among others could face criminal charges. if she was afraid of the the side of spanish police showing up outside this building here the capitol and parliament to block that session taking place and she said quite simply she said it is the people who put the politicians in their power it is the people who put the head of the capital in parliament in her position and she effectively was saying she is answerable to the capital and people that could be a hint that they are planning to push ahead with that session as planned on monday

lauren and meantime looks like some of the banks are thinking of moving out of catalonia. well i think that is what you also have to take into account this is not only a political crisis but also a major economic crisis in the offing as well take into account the catalonia were is spain's lalo the region the wealthiest region of spain makes up one fifth of the entire spanish economy and so catalonia breaks away from spain that really dense the spanish economy as a whole and today we've heard from two major cattle banks the banks about day and also the bank and they have said that they are considering actively move outside the catalonian region to areas that will remain within spain they say that their first duty is to protect the interests of their clients their workers and their shareholders it's not only the banks remember that catalonia has been a magnet now for high tech. and innovative companies and also we were talking to

the heads of one biotech company they say they've already made the decision to move out of catalonia into madrid to give their shareholders greatest ability lauren. hall thank you very much. still ahead on the program united in trying to help syria . russian president vladimir putin in moscow. a huge database being set up by australia to help track down so-called terrorist suspects. hello the show of the song caspian must have been quite dramatic over the last ten days or so using a shower to shower usually sundry mostly of the iranian coast and that's still the case the heaviest downpours recently recorded

a bit further west in the last one from yesterday hundred forty eight millimeters in twenty four hours huge figures really considering now the full cost wise that should all cease come friday the line is still there in the form of a shaggers fast tashkent or beyond to get rain out of these systems it's gone back to drive around in the sunshine anyway twenty degrees in baghdad stand about thirty three though it is warm again come saturday there is a breeze here the breeze has been a northerly but it's going back to a southerly which will pick up the dust somewhat it's turning quite reason the eastern side of the net as well by route twenty seven reason the south here to the arabian peninsula we still got nearly forty in mecca and nothing much happening at thing from the point of view of clouds building one hundred may well briefly richard said i was bit of a bulge in the monsoon has it retreats thirty seven doha might see the wind died down has recently seen a drop in humidity and as a breeze to. bring dust to the gulf nations as well still with the same temperature

. if. a mining company is heading to australia to build one of the world's biggest mines will it be an economic. or an ecological disaster. at this time i doubt is it.

from i know the top stories here on al-jazeera iraqi forces say they've recaptured the town of how we last stronghold in the north of the country the troops are greeted by juba in villages nearby. the red cross a serious suffering its worst fighting since last year's battle for east in aleppo and one hundred thirty people have been killed in as strikes and bears or over the past two days. and the tension continues in catalonia more spanish national police have been withdrawn but spain's constitutional court has suspended a session of the catalan parliament to prevent it declaring independence. russia and saudi arabia who back rival sides in syria's war have agreed to work together to unite syria's opposition saudi arabia's king solomon has been meeting russian president vladimir putin in moscow is the first sounded more like in history to visit russia and the delegation accompanying him as agreed joint investment deals worth billions of dollars to countries also agreed that syria's territorial

integrity and state institutions must be preserved. really mattered less what o.c.s. and as far as syria is concerned we are certainly cooperation closely with russia in terms of the opposition and the scheduled rounds of talks in geneva and of course we fully support the talks in the stand and the need to make sure we preserve territorial integrity and sovereignty usually yes but. it's obvious that the fight against terrorism means that we have to fight extremist ideologies which are well known to our saudi friends we hope very much they are contributing to these efforts will lead to peace and stability in the islamic world and good work on the islamic council there is training government is building a huge photo database to help identify so-called terrorist suspects driver's license photos will be added to the database and facial recognition software will be used in public spaces to identify people classified as a threat and

a thomas report. sydney like most australian cities is watched continuously australia's prime minister wants to know in real time who the cameras are watching in canberra on thursday he persuaded leaders of australia states to sign up for what he calls a very important twenty first century tool necessary for keeping people safe a database of photographs to allow real time facial recognition i mean imagine the power of being able to identify a person suspected of being involved in terrorist activities walking into an airport walking in. most australian adults have driving licenses and it's eight states and territories hold copies and details of who's in their photographs the prime minister wants all those handed over to add to the federal government's own list of photos submitted

a passport the idea is to know who is where when that could stop future attacks like the twenty fourteen siege by a gunman in a central city. smartphones have the technology to recognize faces what's significant about australia's plan is its scale but centrally hundreds of thousands of cameras streaming live video to a computer holding a huge database of images it's controversial raising concerns about privacy and mass surveillance we need to be clear at the outset there where measures are enacted in the terrorism context that's not necessarily where they're going to stay they can have implications much broader much more broadly than that to the criminal regime which generally agreed in canberra include allowing police to hold suspects for two weeks without charge making the possession of what it calls instructional terrorism material illegal and holding people in prison after their sentences have ended if it's believed they've been radicalized in jail. if

a nine terrorist has finished their sentence but he's still danger to beget threat to society that will either be detained or supervised in terms of high sentence game it is though the facial recognition database that is getting the most attention and the concern that what could start as a rarely used to spot so-called terrorists could mark a big step forward in massive agents andrew thomas al jazeera sydney human rights watch says armed groups in central african republic are using rape and sexual slavery to terrorize women and girls investigators documented more than three hundred cases of rape torture and sexual violence in the past four years some women and girls were held a sexual slaves for up to eighteen months they tim say they've been targeted by both muslim seleka rebels and christian fighters but not a single person has faced charges says there with her president. in twenty thirteen

fighting has killed thousands of people and more than a million have fled their homes thirteen thousand united nations peacekeepers are struggling to contain the violence imran khan has more than a warning you may find some of his reports upsetting. hidden beyond the tall grass and veiled behind curtains survivors in the central african republic talk of barbaric acts cruel and brutal crimes that are still unpunished. one of them took a grenade and they put it in my vagina then they removed the grenade and they raped me. this thirty five year old is among hundreds of women and girls who have told human rights watch about sexual violence and torture. they have been there. when i think about it my heart beat so fast and really hard when i remember my heart beat so hard so hard so hard even right now when i'm thinking about it it's beating hard and so fast fast fast. three of the victims are children when they were raped and

became pregnant. they raped me over and over again they never stopped not for even one day when i was eight in the months pregnant. when i had the baby i didn't want to hold him i felt like killing him the survivors say they were raped by a dozen men fighters beat the women and left them with broken bones smashed teeth and head when. the fighters kidnapped women beat them up rape them and tortured them young girls older women they just didn't have. the rights watch says the abuses are not only crimes under central african law but also constitute war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity a new task force is trying to address the plight of survivors. those that we know responsible for these grave crimes of rape in violation of human rights if you are not arrested right now and taken into custody no victims will have the will to seek

justice and that makes justice inaccessible you have to talk about zero impunity then you need the women to have the courage to come forward and report the fact human rights watch says only eleven of the two hundred ninety six survivors interviewed try to initiate a criminal investigation so far no member of any armed group has been arrested or tried to committing sexual violence. is there aid agencies are warning that amir is facing a humanitarian crisis the country is dealing with twenty seven thousand refugees across the border from democratic republic of congo at least three thousand vented and the last month the u.n. says elaborate one hundred asylum seekers enter each day conley's government forces are fighting a local militia and the. one point four million people have been displaced by the violence there since august last year. u.s. authorities say the gunman who killed at least fifty eight people at a concert in las vegas on sunday had booked rooms overlooking two other music

festivals but it's not clear if stephen paddick actually went to those events one was in chicago the other in less vegas meanwhile officers investigating sunday's attack us still trying to work out what led him to open fire on the country music festival they believe it's unlikely he collected his huge arsenal of weapons on his own paddocks girlfriend mary lou dannelly says she has no idea what her partner was planning describing him as kind caring and quiet let's go live now to hide your castro in this vegas so how do you is there a possibility of movement in congress on gun control. lauren because there is a reason that this event has been labeled the deadliest mass shooting in modern u.s. history there was something about this event that was different than all others previous and that was the use of a fully automatic weapon in layman's terms a machine gun that rained down death on those crowds of unprotected concert goers

below now previous mass shootings have happened with semi automatic weapons which is which means the governor had to squeeze the trigger in between each shot but what we saw on sunday night that. usually of those videos is that there was gunfire discharging bullets at nine per second that is only capable of a fully automatic weapon police say that the gunman did this by converting legally purchased weapons with a simple do it yourself kick that is legally purchased in the united states called a stock that turned. into a fully automatic and now that may be the line that democrats have said need to be crossed they've been asking after each mass shooting what will it take for republicans who currently control congress to join them in the effort to restrict some gun legislation and this morning speaker of the house republican paul ryan

indicated that republicans will consider restricting the sale and use of stocks in the united states and other for movement toward perhaps more gun restrictions republicans also said they have at least temporarily shelved a bill that would have allowed silencers to be more easily purchased in the united states the reason for that they said it was not a good time after this massacre to talk about that legislation or and. heard about the possibility that he might have been looking at all the venues to attack or about what he did to prepare before this attack. that's right investigators say stephen paddick meticulously planned this going back more than a year in october of two thousand and sixteen is when he went on a buying spree amassing the majority of the forty seven guns that were confiscated inside the hotel room and inside the chew homes that he purchased those bomb stocks

that we've been talking about modified at least some of those weapons which he used sunday night and he took the measure of putting security cameras inside his hotel room and outside the door to monitor the approach of law enforcement and then that chilling detail we also learned that may have been scoping out were preparing at other concerts in the united states one the life is beautiful music festival happened just a week before the sunday massacre here in las vegas he is known to have rented out a condo overlooking that crowd of fifty thousand as well laurin. thank you very much indeed. people in south korea are enjoying sock a traditional holiday celebration years good harvest the holidays also celebrated in north korea giving residents a brief respite from escalating tensions from a bride has been to

a ceremony on the border between the two countries. traditionally a time for family reunions for these aging koreans this is as close as they will get to one it's a ceremony near the d.m.z. border between the two koreas. people like one young hope who attends every year and who is separated from his family in the north during the korean war more than sixty years ago he's on a waiting list for an official reunion but the current tensions have put the program on hold. if both sides can compromise hopefully my chance will calm. the two koreas may share the same holiday but seem as far apart as ever while north koreans celebrate to suck in a similar way to people in the south it's only a one day holiday in north korea and while millions of south koreans are traveling to see family and friends travel restrictions and

a lack of transport in the north means that most people there have to stay put. translated as harvest festival to self is a time of thanksgiving with special cakes made from the rice just harvested. one of the many festivals an art group of north korean defectors perform in front of their south korean audience. some of the most popular songs date back to before the war when there was only one korea. by celebrating our culture through art we can show how south korea and north korea are one nation but as the families waiting for reunion can attest their political divisions remain as wide as ever. urge north korea once again to join us on the path of reconciliation to help reunite families who don't have much time left. not knowing how many more to suck festivals they will see without seeing long lost families rob mcbride al-jazeera

and jim jim gak on the north south korean border. and british author. has been awarded the nobel prize for literature ishiguro was born in japan and is best known for his books remains of the day and never let me go if you will receive a prize money of just over a million dollars when he collects the ward in december. this is amazing and to be only expected to. become such a time when the world is uncertain that us is the tissue and safety. i just hope that my receiving this huge bomb. will even in a small way encourage the forces of good. thank you. the top stories are not just here iraqi forces say they recaptured the town of how we isis last stronghold in the north of the country

iraqi military says some fighting is still continuing to the north and east of the town where i saw this surrounded but more and more the groups fight as a surrendering as charles tractor explains the nearby davis district in kirkuk. form this area as the iraqi military and shia militias advance in this direction this area here the still a number of villages there that are controlled by i saw in the last few minutes we've seen through i saw fighters come here and surrender the commander of this position says that in the last two weeks around two hundred i saw fighters have surrendered at this position alone turkey says it's considering blockading iraq's autonomous kurdish region by closing its airspace and borders president richard one says his government along with the central governments of iraq and iran are also deciding whether to cut oil exports from the area the measures followed the region overwhelmingly voted for secession from baghdad last month the red cross says the

worst fighting since last year's battle for eastern aleppo is raging in several parts of syria the organization says at least one hundred thirty people have been killed in as strikes in daraa zoar over the past two days sources on the ground accused russia of being responsible for the strikes. at least eighteen people have been killed and twenty five injured after a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a shia shrine in pakistan's southwest the attack happened in the village in belushi's ston province no one has claimed responsibility for a speaker of the catalan parliament has accused spain's constitutional court of harming freedom of expression after it suspended a parliamentary session planned for monday afternoon as parliament had planned to declare independence you know naturally from spain after two million catalans voted for secession meanwhile more spanish national police have pulled out of

a catalan hotel what the government is calling a departure that approach and triggered a standoff between rival protestors. stories inside story is up next and i'll have the news after you straight after that if you can buy for now. the suffering of children in the yemen saudi led coalition and healthy rebels who are out war with each other both placed on the u.n. blacklist all that protect children right there used to violate this is inside.