sicker in the syrian town of our area telling witnesses say the group conducted a revenge campaign in the town killing more than one hundred people before its capture by government forces. u.s. secretary of state has met afghan leaders on a brief visit to kabul rex tillerson held talks with president ashraf ghani on american involvement in the country. the international community has pledged three hundred thirty five million dollars to help arrange refugees during a conference in geneva nearly six hundred thousand refugees have fled violence in myanmar from bangladesh since august the twenty fifth. in south africa the sentencing of two white farmers who forced a black man into a coffin has been delayed until friday the suspects threatened to burn victim alive were found guilty of attempted murder in august army task reports now from the town of middleburg where the case is being heard. supporters of. the man who was

shoved into a coffin last year by time white farmers are planning for friday when the judge made to hand down the sentencing of his mother broke in fortunately it was an aside the family had been through an ordeal to examine to see the light one person has to be out of. the maximum think about what they must not be listening to news has been going to. some people inside that's who are appalled by the video that appear on social media and the internet. is ultimately about race there are some analysts a little and it's much more complicated. i don't think it's primarily about phrase i think it's primarily about the approach or farmworkers way the farmers and the from my mates to. the middleton seventeen sell through the nose of the wide body farmers to the dealer to the south came to the court if

they feel that their teen mom or brother been found guilty of just being led by they say that they feel they be i've been cheated by this as a white father they're the ones in danger a lot of latin and lots of. funds that have been. promised to be given by. philippine government has declared victory in its five month battle against isolating fighters in the southern city of moore away events have left more than one thousand one hundred people dead and spawn fears of eisel gaining a foothold in southeast asia the country's defense secretary says the final forty two fighters were killed in a gun battle against his troops. this is of the last group or for stragglers. in the world building and so the. there was a five fire fight so there were finished number on the level of thirds inside.

spain's deputy prime minister sariah science to santa maria said that the catalan leader will be out of a job as soon as this weekend or comments come after carlos pushed amount was invited to the national parliament for talks on thursday we want catalonia as regional government has said it will convene a session of its parliament to discuss moves by madrid to take direct rule over the wage in spain senate is set to vote on that later this week tensions have been i ever since catalonia secession referendum on october the first now heads of government religious leaders and child rights organizations are meeting in senegal to discuss ending child marriage in west and central africa in a list of the top ten offending countries six a from the region's nicholas acra ports from the region a fact ik in senegal and there was twelve years old when her mother asked her to marry a man as old as her father. she ran away from school and hid in the village where her mother insisted on the wedding. ceremony was arranged in and they became

pregnant before she ran away after abandoning her child the thirteen year old worked as a prostitute. pregnant again he's now in hiding in a field found in the capital. i'm not angry with my mother i mean she did what she could my dad beat her while she was young to when she married my mother was just doing what's best for me. young girls marrying old men is the norm here twenty thousand underage girls marry every day mostly in south asia and rural west africa says the world bank and save the children under-age weddings are often organized by parents in the village when they grew up boys are seen as contribution to the family by farming or working girls do the same but they are seen as an extra mouth to feed and so few get to finish school instead they marry and become

pregnant early hoping to give birth to a boy year olds. so this is an days home she hasn't been back here for years just a few months ago she called her mother for the first time to tell her that she's sounding well but she didn't tell her her whereabouts so i want to. let now than they were in days mother. so i went there she is. tells me she's ashamed for what her daughter did for coombe but it's better to be married early rather than to deal with the shame of an accidental pregnancy. and i don't regret it i manage safety by marrying her off. but the pain of losing her daughter is evident. of course i miss my daughter she says i want her back. and they misses her too but she's not

ready to return home if she gives birth to a girl she'll call her after her mother she promises to guide her and help her choose the right husband if it's a boy he'll be free to choose whoever he wants to marry. for and day life for girls is harder and unforgiving. nicholas hawk al jazeera good to i cynical. since march of this year iranian police have seized more than four hundred tons of illegal drugs according to the u.n. most of the while seizures of i.p.m. and of course made in iran but the reports people there are still able to feed their addiction in the foothills outside to her son there is a rehabilitation camp for drug addicts that's where we met his son he's been using crystal meth on and off for six years one of two point eight million illegal drug users in iran easy access is a problem if you know where to look you can find anything in teheran and in all

cities especially in terms of easily you can just walk in the road on the street and find some sellers and take your arterial whatever. from the other or whether you want to tell me what is really very easy. has been helping addicts for over a decade he says drug and alcohol abuse or global phenomena. drug smuggling and addiction are dynamic problems and cannot be solved just by fighting production and distribution of drugs we should face addicted users realistically to find solutions for this global problem. a government plan to legalize and hand out weaker drugs like methadone could help wean harder substances but the focus has been on law enforcement more than five thousand people convicted under drug laws are awaiting execution. new rules could allow courts to spare the lives of people forced to work as drug mules but dealers will still face the death penalty. iran is also

a major hub for drugs being smuggled into europe the middle east and east asia the iranian government spends millions of dollars every year patrolling off an ungoverned and rough terrain police estimate four thousand officers have been killed in counternarcotics operations in the last forty years according to the latest report from the un office on drugs and crime most of which sold in iran comes from of gonna stand and pakistan across the land border that stretches the entire length of the country now that's nearly two thousand kilometers of often untamed territory the wild west of south and central asia traffickers even use catapults to launch drugs over the border and into iran it gives you a sense of the enormity of the challenge for law enforcement meanwhile rehabilitation has become a business clinics are popping up all over the country has some says iranians need more education about the dangers of drug use we don't have any discourse we don't have any bars we don't have any such

a discard nothing and those people the young generation they think that this is illegal so it is good right there where the government said that it's in a god within that it's good that they are just you know making it illegal like drinking like anything like girls you know like boyfriend and girlfriend it's illegal here whether it's illegal it's given you know that act that we are interesting to use that to see that some lawmakers acknowledge that strict rules aren't enough to stop people from using drugs but in safe havens like this perhaps addicts can learn they don't need drugs to get high zain bus ravi al-jazeera to her on. but your prime minister to reason may says she's expecting a vote in parliament on the final breck's it deal to take place before the european parliament gets to vote on it she made the comments in the house of commons on monday may also says she's making it her mission to negotiate a good deal for the u.k. but i believe that by approaching these negotiations in a constructive way in

a spirit of friendship and cooperation we can and will deliver the best possible outcome that works for all our people and that belief was shared by other european leaders mr speaker we are going to leave the european union in march two thousand and nineteen. delivering on the democratic will of the british people. of course we are preparing for every eventuality to ensure we leave in a smooth and orderly way but i am confident that we will be able to negotiate a new deep and special partnership between a sovereign united kingdom and our friends in the european union that is my mission that is this government's mission and i commend this statement to the house. well you know the developments in u.k. is making it mandatory for doctors to check patients' immigration status before offering them free health care the new rules mean some migrants and visitors to england will be charged up front for treatment the government says it's to recover vital funds but critics say it may prevent vulnerable people from getting the

treatment they need on a b. phillips explains. right they say they trade to cure diseases but check immigration documents retour is a doctor who thinks the new rules requiring every chest workers to make sure patients are eligible for free care are workable even if. she's based in a part of london with a high immigration although most europeans and people needing emergency care or with infectious diseases don't have to pay she worries the new rules may prevent the sick from coming forward when people don't seek health care when they need it then their conditions become worse and then they'll be eligible for and or meeting the sorry treatment which will encourage the n.h.s. and the charges will be much more than the charges would have initially been for more standard secondary care. in theory the n.h.s. has already been charging naam eligible foreigners the difference now it's asking

for money up front but how does that work in practice this indian woman told me she's been repeatedly asked for identification documents in n.h.s. hospitals in recent months it's actually not about immigration status it's just about what the british monarchy. has a serious impact on i mean whether or not i decide to go in for treatment sometimes so you're being racially profiled yeah definitely. but they're not only people i think pressure on the british. undergoing a funding crisis as it struggles to cope with a growing aging population and the government is sensitive to the perception that some foreign aid not paying their fair share the government did not grant us an interview but provided this statement it says that overseas visitors are welcome to

use the n.h.s. which is paid for by british taxpayers and that visitors must also make a fair contribution if we decide to spend the money on providing a national health service there's actually an international health service for the whole world then that's going to mean british citizens are going to have less to deal with cancer to deal with long term conditions to deal with elderly care so there's always going to be a cost. but how much money will the new regulations raise the protesters and even the government projections say they'll be worth a very small percentage of the overall and it just might it be phillips al-jazeera . plenty of analysis to be found right here. on top stories more on that in just a few seconds. also we begin now with syria i sill has been accused of carrying out

a massacre in the syrian town of all korea tain witnesses say the on group conducted a revenge campaign in the town killing more than one hundred people before it's captured by government forces the syrian observatory for human rights says the killings in central homs took place over a three week period icily queues the civilians of collaborating with syria and with the syrian regime the troops recapture the town from my sil on saturday. the attack just like animals became to kill and they killed children and women they broke the arms of the women and burned them before killing them they killed more than one hundred innocent people from the families of both civilians and military. or in other headlines we're following the u.s. secretary of state has landed in baghdad after a brief visit to afghanistan rex tillerson will meet iraq's prime minister and president but he has provoked a potential rift with the leaders after calling for iranian backed militias in iraq to end their operations baghdad has rebuffed the suggestion.

international donors engine aver of pledged two hundred thirty four million dollars to help the ranger refugee crisis it brings the total amount of money committed to three hundred thirty five million still short of a u.n. target the u.n. says the money is needed to provide lifesaving aid to ranger refugees who have fled the violence in myanmar for bangladesh as well as the people the refugees are already living across the border. moving to south africa the sentencing of two white farmers who forced a black man into a coffin has been delayed until friday the suspects threatened to burn victim not alive and were found guilty of attempted murder in august. the philippine government has declared victory in its five month battle against iceland fighters in a solvent city of moral we the offensive against the mounting armed groups left more than a thousand one hundred people dead and spot fears of i still gaining

a foothold in the region the defense secretary says the final forty two fighters were killed in a gun battle with his troops. well you're up to date with all of our top stories now but much more coming up and twenty five minutes time i'll be back with the news out and coming up next on al-jazeera inside story i'll see you a bit later on do you stay with us by for now. a political gamble that paid off as coalition to election victory in japan and the prime minister's now eyeing a revision of the country's pacifist constitution but what would that mean for

japan and this volatile region this is inside story. but i welcome to the program i'm jane dowton japan's prime minister took a gamble when he called early elections this year but that gamble paid off on sunday when. party and coalition partner won more than two thirds of the seats in parliament he says it's a vote of confidence from the public one he sees as a green light to change japan's pacifist constitution is particularly keen on the move given the threat posed by nearby north korea but what would a stronger japanese military mean for the region we get i guess in just a moment but first so our talk has this report from tokyo it was the election result she had hoped for his liberal democratic party and coalition partner won

three hundred twelve of the four hundred sixty five seats delivering the mattoo thirds majority in parliament. north korea played a central role in his campaign and wants to strengthen diplomatic channels pledging greater international cooperation conflict sort of we will conduct strong diplomacy as tensions over north korea are increasing on the fifth of next month president trump is scheduled to visit japan he kindly called me by phone already today and when he visits we will spend time discussing the issues of north korea and aim to confirm our close alliance voters weren't just focused on north korea in this election but some felt opposition parties failed to provide them with an alternative agenda to advertise that was worth voting for. position parties need to become stronger and the result reflected many people's wish to see that happen i mean. instead of supporting the liberal democratic party actively i think voters didn't have any choice. the newly formed party of hope which many considered with

the major threat didn't get as many seats as expected the other new party on the block the constitutional democratic party has become the main opposition tripling the number of seats in the lower house chains i will say this election victory as a strong mandate to deliver on his reform agenda and act on his lifelong mission to revise japan's pacifist constitution and give the country's self defense forces a more active role but the issue is controversial and voters are divided over constitutional change with the escalating nuclear threat from north korea will be hoping it's enough to convince voters to back each campaign to allow japan's military to respond to direct threats but any change to the constitution requires approval first by two thirds of both the upper and lower house and then a public referendum sarah clarke al-jazeera tokyo.

let's get the thoughts of our guests now joining us in singapore qatar tamora he is an asia fellow for the motion it's a church and former japanese senator in washington d.c. richard vice director of the center for political military analysis at the hudson institute and in nice alessio but the llano he's a senior lecturer in department of war studies a king's college london he is also the author of post-war japan as a sea power very warm welcome to all of you could turn to tomorrow why do you think of a one so are moments. like to change of course. japan so he would like to play a big a lot. is visionary in asia you know the. stuff. which. in a sense commentary. last. because of the korean peninsula and the lies of china

and productivity happening in the us politics alysia the law now what is you your view of about what happened did typhoon land people people away or did north korea drive them to the polls. but these early delights are. charlotte presented itself is an ideal call for dr used robin long to call the snap election but also to provide the platforms of these message to just kind of course stronger as two cities are devoted to so that saying. the security lenses in the progressive to tell you ration well nusi station context. ideal conditions of. to object to sell an estimate would probably be the ideal person to do the current situation which advice is he

seen from there as they ideal person to do with a concentration. yes in the sense that he at least from the white house is probably president trumps one of his closest foreign allies i think i couple other factors that helped contribute to the victory independent of relations with the us or korea i think of the structural factors the the the japanese like the british and the americans have are a first past the post system so in this case have on the part of opposition parties who are divided and weak it amplifies the electoral victory since you just need a majority in each electoral district to win i think that true test his popularity will come out he plan if he goes ahead with this proposal to try and change the constitution because i think that will test the strength of his coalition and he'll need a popular mentor to to prove it. you touched on a key word the constitution changing it and i'm just wondering how big

a thing the title it is for people there as it is for the rest of the world to the constitution changing this pacifist constitution what role did it play do you think in these elections. so germany's constitution it's very hard to amend through. super majority is needed in both houses and the simple majority needed for the league for land so. there is many super politicians try to make it happen in the last seventy years but nobody made it. interesting they clearly gained a super majority again their lower house and although he had. incoming a house election two years so far. he had. a super majority in both houses but as somebody mentioned general public sentiment to what amendment is not a lady yet i think so it's still

a long shot he needs more work needs to come because general public but you know due to north korea no issues. general public sentiment is. gradually and this time the bar has to do more poised on defense. not japan's pacifist constitution was drafted by the us after world war two but what exactly does it mean the relevant court clause here is known as article nine it calls for complete renunciation of war literally that means japan shouldn't have any armed forces but it does successive governments have interpreted the constitution to allow a self defense ministry has pushed for an even broader interpretation he passed a law two years ago that authorizes overseas military missions for quote collective self defense alongside japan's allies he's also pushed to change the constitution

to further legitimize the military but that can only happen after a referendum and the people aren't necessarily on board recent polls show they are split on changing the charter richard it's going to be a complicated matter i mean with the aging population we're not going to suddenly see old woman on the front line in afghanistan in the next couple of weeks for example what sort of conversation would the u.s. like to see happening before we see any changes. as your package pointed out there have been a series of changes that have taken place within the sistine constitution through interpretation and changes in executive paul sleepless laws passed by the parliament that have already enhance the japanese role in self defense in partnership with the u.s. and contributing international security but the thinking is there are still a few more steps would like to see at least in u.s. national security community not only are we difficult dealing with difficult

challenges from north korea but there's also challenges from china and russia and transnational challenges such as migration or terrorism and so on so we'd still like to see a little more cooperation perhaps and missile defense perhaps and joint operations and third countries and so on. and that though is a challenge and so we have both governments i think are prepared if this is not possible to continue to expand their cooperation even short of an amendment and they see japan i mean you've written about it as a sea power pretty full medieval does it need to beef up its defenses does it need to get with the times is this an apprentice stick and therefore time to change. no anything is an accuracy i like to make believe there are pointed out the constitution does not say that a ban to not possess the sources the constitution rejects the use of force as

a means of states to solve international disputes and to that extent it's of months a military barracks awaiting war these are two very different things within with this with this preliminary consideration done well in japan already possesses a considerable amount of military power but this one is very much design around the importance of those. components of the us japan alliance atlantic contribution to. japanese national defense and security so within this context i think that the initiatives that have been taking plays all the last few years and that i haven't celebrated were the security legislations as they were passed in two thousand and fifteen they are about empowering japanese governments to have a more relevant use of their capital but it is at their disposal in order to meet

the security challenges that surround to japan not just in very difficult crisis time which was the set up during the cold war but the dream of the ministry of defense corps as the graves synoptics that is peacetime relatively complex security scenarios as it would be a situation of the missile crisis and north korea all as it's been in recent times although the greater military assertiveness conducted by china in the sea of japan in the east china sea so we're talking about an hour in the states rather then fundamentally changing a military posture qatar you want to say something. so don't forget you know we aging and shrinking population so we are spending only one percent of what the fans we have spent one percent of the g.d.p.

on the in the events twenty five percent of our g.d.p. invested into social security not the national security so we lost three million people in the last war but if this things continue shrinking and aging population we're losing fifteen million population in this in this century so you know japan can appear with we are not a lot i mean you would end in a way that's almost a greater rate isn't it i mean that's a real internal threat to the country the economy. yeah so our biggest challenges are population so what i mean is the obvious at the earliest is not the middle east he's not the light when he's a realist i used to be you going to get them an advisor to him so you know. choruses and i mean that means nothing about a two zero process to play a big zero so he will choose to not only building a more the best but also colaba lesson with china more engagement with ozzy and

putting india as a counterbalance so i think that's a boyar thing going to happen in this region now was prime minister for just one year in two thousand and six but since being reelected in two thousand and twelve he's had a lot of political success and that's largely attributed to his economic policy known as a nomics it's helped japan turn its stagnant economy around after two decades of deflation the policy consists of three so-called arrows the first is printing more money to trigger a little bit of much needed inflation and make japanese exports more attractive to foreign markets the second arrow is new government spending programs to encourage consumers to buy and the third is reforming corporate regulations to make japanese businesses more competitive that included making it easier for companies to hire and fire workers two years ago the prime minister announced economics two point zero aimed at reversing the country's demographic decline by boosting the birth

rate and expanding social security do you think that'll work alessio. i think it will however we need to be careful and i think it. was very important in this respect even if you have of the worst of the current situation in terms of birth rates instead of the lies in the decline of the population that does not automatically translate into people joining after magically more the military but in this way what about a few years we're seeing a number of crisis coming japan's way and that has not changed the recruitment dangers for the self-defense forces which means that the japanese society wasn't that in the standings much better the borders of the self-defense of all the forces of the rule dead society that doesn't necessarily mean that they're going to rush to join their runs in order to only be just and security in the point of the ad the normal and the broader forms are about combining greater economic diplomatic and

also military means is tools a spade in order to increase the stability of the japanese the security surrounding and the world japan's idiots so we having a look at the military the constitution richard this agent population the us withdrawing from the transpacific partnership is that going to aid or hinder japan in succeeding in conquering those goals getting to those goals. well right the japanese government is still committed to the t p p where as the trumpet ministration at most would be considered a bilateral trade partnership and i think this could be a design a divisive issue when they meet next month as you know president trump is going to visit several asian countries in a van for including japan and i think that the japanese still would like the u.s. to return to the t p p but it would have to be after

a post trumpet ministration so may decide just postpone this issue in terms of how it helps the economy it's going to help obviously some sectors and the japanese economy and hurt others and what that's a very delicate political issue that we also facing united states and other countries. how much does he have to deal i mean obviously the economy it's always an important factor regardless of where you are but to push the constitutional change in the constitution through how important is it in dealing with the economy at the same time because not everybody's on board we've seen protests in the past many people feel that i mean that the psychological impact of changing the constitution is big. you made a point so in order to get a majority into the plan that we have to. make them make general public happy so happy means and they're going to happy so not lie now amazingly japan is the

fastest growing economy among g seven so as time student of it all makes their time so that stuck by. you know going up fifteen days in the lot that's never happened in the japanese stock market history so what that pushed me to start as a landslide win this time so. you know in order to count the aging of the shrinking population we have to deal with that and in order to secure the national security we have to deal with china so china japan more economic club election listen to the prime minister of iraq share the pursed time mentioned he would like to call polite to the wombles lampin lot and all that he saw many japanese manufacturing companies are telling how this into that one both want a lot lot initiated by the chinese so and then let me stop here for the past that legalizing because you know building a curious little exult. implemented it as you know also that is for chinese wealthy people visiting it's just one of the biggest achievements are you things i can just

jump in here you know just like your father's been very good at staying nationalistic pride and that's obviously very important. so yes so for you. it is a lightweight mentioned you know but he tried to make it happen but line now he's now a listening to art to the earliest realistic you know where we're thinking so china is much bigger than us china is seemingly unstoppable but china also needs our help our cooperation so obviously it is gradually you know trying to be more cold the body with china and the china has a pain in the neck north korea and we share the same program so we start talking after trump is it i mean it sounds planning to have a summit meeting with chinese leader for the past i mean several years not in the national lead not one by one face to face so that it's you know it's

a real face it's not the country pride not anymore it's not convincing general public we have to deal with china in different way the olympic way although we compete in that sense but we have to collaborate so that's the way it would do from now richard how three do you see japan at the moment i mean how secure or insecurity is it in light of regional developments when it comes to its relationship with china and south korea and the ripple effects of possibly changing the constitution how that will play into it. right that's so it's an interesting dynamic and so the main threat that japan is facing is the near term north korea long term china and the russia threat is a legacy of the cold war and how that ended it still persists but it's declining and the thinking is that abbay was going to try and reach

a deal with russia in order to reduce the number of potential challenges him it brings in maybe some kind of deal over the stupid islands and that would allow both countries to focus a bit more on the rise of china the constitutional reform though it's tricky it's something the u.s. wants but it's certainly going to alarm the chinese and you mention the south koreans they're not enthusiastic about this and then the north koreans and either but in a way it's i mean it's these countries already have their their views of abbaye and not sure they would he would lose much by pushing for the reform but i think that the key question is what's going to happen on the russia front is the trumpet ministration might be a bomb instructions not opposes reconciliation so be interesting to see how that evolves what do you make of that how do you think that relationship is going to vote and do you see japan looking for new allies in the region. so the nativity the

question in reverse is japan looking smaller partners of course seeds invade i would say that the great this revolution has been brought about by the t.v. the the second album and it is pretty about what could stretch back and see the seeds of this already being planted in the first administration is the ability for japan as a security provider to start looking at other partners in addition to the united states we can look out there. and even credible sort of a man to drop us there at india even south korea which is not forget that there has been some reports and improvements particularly on the security side notwithstanding some of the shock bumps on the road between the two country but well beyond it also reaching out to international organizations like nato they do developing working very closely in combat. operations in the indian ocean in the

gulf bay and and.