saudi arabia rejects the figures in a u.n. report blaming it for the deaths of hundreds of children.

and this is al jazeera line from london also coming out apologizes for a violent police crackdown on catalonia secessionists it still takes the region's head of police to court on charges of sedition celebrating nuclear disarmament the nobel peace prize is awarded to a campaign group calling for a global ban. and a fitting sendoff for iraq's first leader of the post saddam hussein era but the lack of. telling its own story. saudi arabia's ambassador to the u.n. has rejected the figures in a u.n. report on the number of children its military campaign in yemen has killed according to the u.n. the saudi led coalition was responsible for six hundred ninety three child casualties in twenty sixteen and four thirty eight verify the tax on schools and

hospitals the saudi ambassador describes the figures as misleading mike hanna reports from the united nations. the report lists four thousand recorded violations against children by government forces in some twenty zones of conflict along with over eleven thousand violations by non-state groups but in a carrot and stick approach the format of the report has been altered those states or non-state perpetrators that have been gauged with the un and committed to improving protection for children are placed in a separate blacklist from those parties that have shown no remorse or concern about their actions the saudi led military coalition in yemen is placed in this category what became of vanda and lee clear he said there were some listed parties even through many years to three years that had generally been attempting to put in place may shows that i mean they had acknowledged the problem the creation of

the category may be an attempt to persuade perpetrators said there is political value in engaging with the u.n. but critics contend it could also be a patent attempt to diminish the saudi anger that followed the military coalition's inclusion in last year's blacklist frankly. the facts speak for themselves the numbers except in response the saudi ambassador said the coalition was committed to working with the u.n. but rejected what he called inaccurate figures quoted in the report we exercise the maximum degree of care and precaution to avoid civilian harm that regrettable effects of this conflict are a direct result of the haughty and forces loyal to former president signing. the use of immoral and illegal actions that put this in billion population at risk of knowledge ing that the saudi coalition had committed to measures protecting

children in yemen virginia gumbo insisted the saudi coalition still has charges to answer in her report virginia gumbel said that dangers to children in yemen show little sign of diminishing i urge the coalition to improve these measures she said the dangers to children in yemen remain an acceptable a high in two thousand and sixteen the question is a threat to children in conflict zones like yemen less today than it was during the reporting period last year amidst yet another round of claim and counter-claim the answer would appear to be no mike hanna al-jazeera united nations or caroline adding is a senior conflict and humanitarian avice or at save the children she says even though the sound of a coalition was credited for taking some measures to protect children and not doing enough the saudi arabia led coalition with one of a number of parties that was listed in this new category which is basically fist

party to put in place some measures to improve i mean we have campaigned for the last six months for this to be a robust report that does listen alongside all the parties in yemen as far as we're concerned they've been listed they should be ashamed as should everybody who is on this devastating list. you could argue that there have been some improvements made we have seen some improvements in the number of hospitals targeted for example but the reality is what all staff see on the ground every day is a continuation of attacks on civilians attacks on civilian areas reports of folks children killed in an airstrike just yesterday and very very difficult for humanitarian agencies to operate of the children to live their lives so you know as far as we're concerned there hasn't been nearly enough of an improvement afghanistan more than three thousand child casualties last year to put that into context yemen had about one thousand three hundred the highest we've ever seen in afghanistan ever recorded which is really a depressing statistic and there's a number of reasons why that's the case an increase in ground fighting roadside

bombs that are very dangerous for children as well as as strikes and it just shows you know we have the report shows some progress on issues like child soldiers but it also paints a very depressing picture for children in conflicts around the world in afghanistan and iraq in yemen in syria around the world children of victims of conflict and all of that making the u.s. state department has approved the possible say a different system to saudi arabia the sound system would cost saudi arabia fifteen billion dollars the system intercepts and destroys ballistic missiles before they can reach the target the development said in a statement that the sale would help protect the gulf region from iranian threats. the spanish government official representative in catalonia has apologized for the violent response by police during the bounce

a session referendum on sunday council on health authorities say around numbing hundred people were injured as a result of the action but to scope and home reports the apology didn't stop the spanish authorities from bringing the region's head of police before a court. as apologies go it was a little lukewarm the spanish government spokesman said he was sorry for the hundreds of catalan voters injured by national police and civil guard riot units but he said they were just following orders those orders to stop sunday's referendum from happening at all direct from madrid on this. i said this very clearly before they were following an order they weren't in order to avoid in a legal vote they were ordered to see the ballot boxes if there were incidents and there were you know people were injured evidently we're all sorry other than those words there was no hint of madrid softening its stance on friday catalonia as

police chief only weeks ago hailed a hero became the villain appearing in court in the dritte major just stepped up arrow commander of the regional muscles disquieted a force was lauded for his swift response in august to the attacks in barcelona in madrid prosecutors accused him of sedition or inciting a rebellion for failing to quash support for catalan secession the process asian leaders of two of catalonia civic and grassroots organizations face the same charges prosecutors say the leaders revved up crowds around cattle and government offices on september the twentieth. and the human blockade hampered raids by national and civil guard police under orders from government leaders in madrid. by invokes the right not to make a statement because i don't recognise this court's competence in relation to the crime we are accused of sedition because we are convinced we have not committed any

kind of crime as the crisis lurches on there's a with of disarray among cattle and procession politicians some want to call a potentially historic parliamentary meeting for monday that debate could lead to a full blown declaration of independence others favor rescheduling it until tuesday and yet more sensing they may have overplayed their hand suggest catalonia may not yet be ready for independence at all call pennell al-jazeera barcelona spain. and to nuclear weapons organization has been awarded the nobel peace prize international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons or i can is based in geneva the u.n. secretary general welcome be unexpected decision tweeting that now more than ever we need a world without nuclear weapons reports the announcement from norway's capital. the no we know committee has decided

to award the nobel peace prize for twenty seventeen to the international compay in to abolish new player weapons i can i can the geneva based coalition of campaigning groups for more than one hundred countries has promoted a treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons. this is a time of great global tension. well fear could all easily lead us to unspeakable horror the specter of nuclear conflict looms large once more if there's ever a time for states to declare their opposition to nuclear weapons that moment is now . with north korea's repeated nuclear weapons tests and its trading of insults with the united states you clear war seems a more real possibility now than at any time since the cold war the united states

has great strength and patience but if it is forced to defend itself. we will have no choice but to turn only destroy north korea donald trump is also threatening to take the united states out of the iran nuclear agreement the negotiations for the nuclear treaty were boycotted by the americans but the other nuclear weapons states britain france china russia israel india and pakistan also say they won't sign the message we are sending is to remind them of the commitments that they have already made that say also are obliged to work for nuclear free. these weapons of fire and fury have not been used in anger since one thousand nine hundred forty five but the haunting images of hiroshima and nagasaki still testament to their horror phillips al-jazeera london well earlier

this week i can think executive director tweeted that donald trump was speaking after being. more diplomatic language the election of president trump has made a lot of people feel very uncomfortable with the fact that he alone can authorize the use of nuclear weapons and there's nothing people can do to stop him. so you can be with a tweet. who seems to be taking bastion of decisions very quickly. and it's sort of not listening to expertise is it just puts a spotlight on a spotlight on what this is what nuclear weapons really mean. there are no right hands whether it's for the wrong weapons. and chamas plan to decertify the iranian nuclear deal is being greeted with international criticism the european commission says the dail is working that all sides should stick to their commitments russia's

foreign minister is also backing that they are tom outcome and has more from washington d.c. . in typical style the u.s. president heightened suspense over the fate of the landmark nuclear deal with iran when he posed with senior military officials cryptically he said maybe it's the calm before the storm donald trump wouldn't explain whether he was referring to iran but again he made clear his distaste for what he's condemned as an embarrassing deal made by his predecessor barack obama we must put an end to iran's continued aggression and nuclear ambitions they have not lived up to the spirit of their agreement as to the letter of the deal his administration has twice certified to the u.s. congress that iran is fundamentally complying with the terms earlier this week defense secretary james mattis said holding iran to it was in america's security interest i believe at this point in time absent indications to the contrary it is

something the president should consider staying with but if he does refuse to sort of donald trump could force congress to make the next move it has sixty days to review its options and those include sanctions the u.s. president's allies in congress say their aim is to force iran back to the bargaining table i'm saying that we need a new. broader approach that looks at fixing the problems with the deal and confronting iran to campaign for a purely aggression in the region that may involved were imposed sanctions but there's no reason we shouldn't give some time for diplomacy to work iran's foreign minister told al jazeera that by withdrawing trump would be damaging u.s. credibility so i believe the united states would be much better off if the united states agreed to abide by that be because if it did and. international community would never trust any commitment by the united states even

those who say the deal is bad acknowledge that renewing sanctions would have an economic impact on the united states boeing one of america's biggest employers has signed twenty billion dollars in orders from iranian airlines it's warned that one hundred thousand american jobs are in jeopardy if sanctions are re-imposed trump is also at odds with his allies including the british those embassy here pointedly tweeted the nuclear deal it's working we'll all be listening closely when the president makes his announcement next week a few days before the resort of occasion deadline tom ackerman al-jazeera washington. so it's a calm we report from a refugee camp in the democratic republic of congo where thousands of burned dns have sought refuge and a hundred sixty art galleries all under the same roof showcasing the best of london's free.

hello the weather is improving again from melbourne having had a cold day fronts going through the sun's come out now you can see sort of a string of frontal it's way to new zealand it's when it gets new zealand things start to pick up so for australia bit of a breeze bit of rain maybe for adelaide but the reason northerly so temperatures are rising again twenty in melbourne supposed to thirteen twenty three in adelaide yes admittedly the skies will not be blue they will be wet and that rains generally speaking moving eastwards through camber towards sydney probably not into brisbane but there's to temperatures still say around the twenty mark which tends to be perth with a southerly been at sixteen or seventeen for a couple days largely sunny days admitted but as i say things pep up when they cross the tasman sea towards new zealand that's a definite development still a lot of cloud heading towards both islands not a good prospect for the weekend so they've got seventeen degrees in oakland's only

twelve in christchurch and of course that's where the circulation is over south holland but the green covers all of new zealand a wet looking day for saturday the whole thing should wind up and go through but it's taking its time so bad timing it to the sunday i think you'll see the sunshine in auckland but down in christ church i think not so maybe a disappointing weekend. on counting the cost us billionaire president donald trump wants to cut taxes but how will his plan impact ordinary americans plain versus catalonia the economic implications plus comic given what's behind the collapse of australia's auto industry counting the cost at this time on a. new yorkers are very receptive to it because it is such an international city they are very interested in that global perspective that provides.

a comeback reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera saudi arabia's ambassador to the united nations rejects the figures in a u.n. report on the deaths of children and its military campaign in yemen. courts following sunday's unofficial independence referendum. weapons organization has been awarded this year's nobel peace prize. the american civil liberties union is suing the trump administration after it rolled back measures on birth control guide in the issued by the attorney general just sessions

will allow employers to exempt themselves from providing health insurance to their employees that covers contraceptives the document is aimed at protecting religious freedom the a.c.l.u. lawsuit has been filed in a san francisco federal court it claims the change would be unconstitutional dynasty from washington. well the a.c.l.u. says that this is a real setback for women's reproductive rights keep in mind before obamacare most insurance plans didn't cover contraception for most women and if they did have contraception coverage many women had to pay a huge co-pay so the obamacare eliminated all that providing free birth control for many women many or some non-profits religious organizations contested that and so the white house says that this would actually this new rule would appeal to them it would only affect about one hundred twenty thousand women but keep in mind this

new rule says it would not only apply to not for profits but it would also apply to for profit so companies publicly publicly held companies could say that they have a religious reason or a moral reason could deny potentially health care or contraception coverage to their female employees and this is what the a.c.l.u. is so upset about at the same time they say those insurance plan would also cover a reptile dysfunction medications for men so they say sort of a double standard so that's why the a.c.l.u. is filing suit it's it's unknown at this time how successful they will be in challenging it it is going to be in san francisco which is it's been filed in san francisco which is a more liberal city and a law professor said that even though these new rules might let these not for profits with these companies not paid for contraception that women

might still be able to get coverage under a government plan and that might be something that the a.c.l.u. may be looking at in this lawsuit that they're filing. the u.n. is concerned that growing violence in the democratic republic of congo is worsening the region's refugee crisis it is house to more than four hundred seventy thousand refugees including hundreds of thousands who fled fighting in burundi in the past two years but even more people more than four hundred ninety thousand have fled they all see themselves welcome webb has more from the city of vera in east india r.c. close to the border with burundi. the people in this transit camp have been stuck here for months it's crammed it's dirty and there's not enough food it's designed for refugees to stay for a few days before they're resettled here in the democratic republic of congo

francine says she fled her home in neighboring rwanda when men came to her house tied her up and abducted her husband she's heavily pregnant. i saw them carrying him away i was left with our five children then i decided to come here i arrived in february and camped outside the fence for two months before they allowed us to come in. many others here also told us they camped outside for months before they were allowed to come in and register. the un and the government who run the comes to the nearby long term refugee settlement now full and the transit comes filled up because of a new influx of refugees fleeing violence in the run the earlier this year the camp is within the town of era which is close to burundi the borders just a couple of hundred meters down this road and this is where most of the refugees came from just over a week ago a congolese militia came down from these hills and attacked the town they fought

with the army and at that point all of the refugees who were camped outside were allowed in with the insecurity has caused many more problems since the government troops seem to be in control of the town for now they fought off the attackers with help from u.n. peacekeepers but humanitarian workers pulled out and food supplies were cut off. so the people in the camp went from eating two males a day to just one they say the corn flour paste tastes terrible and gives the children diarrhea and everyone says they're hungry the u.n. says it's in the process of opening a new long term settlement since the first one called lucinda became full week. really. but even without you know. we are now developing a new camp and that is the reason why actually. and the transit center. actually camps most of these refugees fled to tanzania some through one of

those that came here it was the closest border they could reach. and they're the least fortunate struggling to survive in a country suffers from poverty. as much as their own. al-jazeera here in the democratic republic of congo. a funeral with full military honors has been held in northern iraq for the veteran kurdish leader. who died in a german hospital on tuesday and the three taliban he was a champion of the kurdish independence struggle and served as president of iraq for nine years until two thousand and fourteen. and. it was an iraqi aircraft that carried. president but it was the kurdish flag

his body was wrapped in a message clearly. he was a kurdish leader. it was his successor iraq's current president and childhood friend who lay defers followed by kurdish president. his political and at other times. then it was iran's foreign minister followed by iraqi officials but the big absence was iraq's prime minister hyderabadi perhaps a reflection of the current tensions between the central government and the kurds following to vote for secession. but this was a day for his people the generations of kurds who grew up during his. i'm very sad after he was sick kurdistan had many sorrows we lost many soldiers in the war now we're all friends he created a women's battalion in the. i'm very proud to be part of it. this grievance of the

many people lined the streets as his body was carried through the city kurdish authorities had declared a seven day warning period certainly the mood is somebody here and people have been lining up throughout the city to say their last good bye to my this is how they refer to him ma'am uncle in kurdish. an affectionate term that was given to tell about me by his friends one that he carried throughout his career. has been waiting from early morning near de burgh place like many here he regrets the demise of tell about any just as iraq's kurds are facing turbulent times come out of the mire if he was still alive the kurds would get independence now the turks iran and the west are all against the fight we don't want to close the borders the situation will be different if he was still here in two thousand and twelve taliban he said this was not to call for

independence stating that neighboring countries will close the borders five years later iraqi kurds have never been so close to secession the predictions of taliban either pragmatist now a very real threat hanging over the kurdish region but at the. tropical storm nate is expected to strengthen into a hurricane as it heads towards the u.s. gulf coast the storm killed twenty five people as it passed through central america ninety set to make landfall in the u.s. on saturday night or sunday thank you the third eric cantor hit the u.s. in six weeks several states have declared a state of emergency the small pacific island of new way has created a massive marine sanctuary in its waters in an attempt to stop overfishing the remote islands north of new zealand is only two hundred sixty square kilometers but

the new protected marine zone is five hundred times that size roughly the area of greece the premier tokay to larvae says it will stop the depletion of fish stocks and help preserve the oceanic and vironment for future generations but one of the world's biggest contemporary art fairs has opened in london with one hundred sixty galleries all vying for the attention of collectors across the world it's a chance for art lovers to see a massive range of top named artists all under one roof but emerging artists say they're being excluded charlie angelo takes a look at this new type of gallery viewing and what it means for the art world. big brand names they dominate markets and the market is no exception jeff koons picasso goga this is the blue chip stock on show that frees london in the last ten years the number of international affairs has leapt from ten to over two hundred

disrupting traditional gallery sales the three days freeze hosts one hundred sixty galleries under one roof it's a chance to see the maximum number of works in the minimum time we're talking tens of thousands of visitors to come and see and see any any one standard not fair as opposed to a couple of thousand they might visit a gallery show during during its entire two months duration freeze can feel a little bit like a shopping mall exclusive but impersonal these stands can cost anywhere from sixty thousand dollars put on a figure that can cripple small galleries but others just need to make one sale to cover their costs like this one i keep airing for one point two million dollars. as buyers migrate affaires commercial galleries are closing. but without a physical space the gallery isn't allowed to exhibit it freeze as a result emerging artists a missing out on vital exposure it's very difficult for the smaller more bespoke

organizations to survive because it's usually a handful of people. there are models being promoted whereby you know single spaces where lots of galleries can share facilities but that loses your identity for artist michael piper's identity is key his work place with pop culture yes. he's built his own brand but with no help from the gallery talent comes in useful to people who don't stock successful ones you know it's sort of like you've got to have a real belief in your voice and what you've got to say so. actually being ignored worked out well for me because it forced me to look at other avenues the big thing for me was actually going on instagram so as some doors closed the internet opens others transforming the art world into a global marketing operation charlie rangel al-jazeera london.

before we go let's take another look at the main stories making news saudi arabia's ambassador to the u.n. has rejected the figures in a u.n. report a member of children is military campaign in yemen has killed according to the u.n. figures the coalition was responsible for six hundred ninety three child casualties in twenty sixteen and for thirty eight verify attacks on schools and hospitals we reject the united misleading information and figures contained in the report and we express our stronger as a relation with respect to this information. at the same time we have with the kingdom of saudi arabia's and the members of the coalition and respect for commitment to and compliance with all our obligations under the rules and principles of international law international humanitarian law and international human rights law. the spanish government's official representative in catalonia has

apologized for police violence during the balancer session referendum on sunday it comes as catalonia as head of police appearing course in madrid facing accusations of sedition castle on health authorities say around nine hundred people were injured the geneva based and to nuclear weapons organization i can has been awarded this year's nobel peace prize the u.n. secretary general welcomed the unexpected decision tweeting that know more than ever we need a world without nuclear weapons. u.s. president donald trump's plan to decertify the iranian nuclear deal is being greeted with international criticism the european commission says the deal is working as foreign minister says it's important to preserve the agreement the american civil liberties union is suing the u.s. trump administration rollback measures on birth control gardasil by the attorney general will allow employers to exempt themselves from providing health insurance to their employees that come covers contraceptives if you know will full military

honors has been held in northern iraq for the veteran kurdish leader. we don't three days ago taliban he said as president of iraq for. coming next counting the cost go away. documentaries that open your eyes at this time on al-jazeera. this is counting the cost of your weekly look at the world of business and finance this week. to economics u.s. president donald trump puts forward his plan to cut taxes for america's wealthy and big business.