in the colobus conversation at this time on al-jazeera i really felt liberated as a journalist was. getting to the truth as it always does with his job. being as i want to finally will ask about it but that's the ball is a bore not i see more listeners that are not so they're not. a little double of a cousin to bunches of the china about them in the first episode of a two part series al-jazeera investigates the world of performance enhancing drugs . sports during the n.b.a. history at this time. final hours of voting in library of presidential election between the vice president and a former international football. i

know i'm suited for this is al jazeera live from london also coming up on the bottom of peace hala peru's former president asked for forgiveness for his crimes a russian opposition leader calls for a boycott of next year's election the kremlin investigates whether he is breaking the law. and stroll us in seattle the u.s. city comforting plastic waste and encouraging recycling. we start in liberia where just two hours remain for people to cast their votes in the country's presidential runoff election which will see is first democratic transition of power in seventy three years then house has been lower than the last round both candidates have pledged to revive the struggling economy and to kick

start infrastructure projects fifty one year old george weah spent his childhood in the slums of monrovia rising to become the first african to be named feet as world football player of the year in one thousand nine hundred five his bid for the presidency was unsuccessful in two thousand and five he was also the running mate for the main opposition candidate twenty eleven his rival chose it parker has held posts in the private sector and government secluding agriculture minister the seventy three year old has served as vice president under ellen johnson sirleaf since two thousand and six but is twelve years of service didn't secure him surliest backing she india was endorsed george weah. according to the. associated i would resume to do this. they said to go to a room. because of the curse of democracy because we want there were two hundred

workers and i would reduce it to. we have gone through a good process this is what it is the process of rules we are willing to live with . mohamed al is live for us in monrovia hamad i was just saying that the turnout in the second round has been much lower why is this. well so yes election officials have been quick to admit to astarte the tunnel is not anywhere near what it was like in the foster round in october one the. key extending into the streets of the polling stations the tunnel today though the process of course will simply because then the voters were casting many ballot papers but given that. the explanation the election officials have been giving us that they have been twenty candidates in the race then now just two they

say it's because of all the rules supposed to solve all different kind of the because of they come from their ethnic group or from their own region that made that moment big time out today all that is lacking and also the people have been affected by the delay that have been taking place with this runoff. and of course mommy then the ellen johnson sirleaf has been running this country ever since the civil war and she's ruled it peacefully how significant is it now that the power is handed over for the future of liberia in a peaceful way. quite significant because this country house seen for. such a long period of uninterrupted peace since one nine hundred eighty nine and secondly. for seventy three years liberia hostile to know the hondo of

all of power from one civilian leader to another so generations later liberians will have the opportunity to see these help and secondly they need a leader who builds on the peace that had been managed by the government of ellen johnson sirleaf and then bring back the economy back on its feet it's bought up by ball i'll break as well as the un something sounding these election. and also what the people of liberia want is someone to talk whole crop sion so. today they're choosing who is going to replace ellen johnson sirleaf on take their country into the future many thanks mohammed omar with the very latest on that crucial presidential election in liberia.

peru's former president alberto fujimori has all for forgiveness from peruvians from the bottom of face hearts thousands of people have protested in the mouth off to president petro pablo kaczynski announced he was part of fujimori for previous crimes on humanitarian grounds. the. chaos in lima these peruvians a furious the former president's alberto fujimori was pardoned by the current president picture a public option ski a man they believe was trying to save his political korea ok so i thought i was going to the summit of seeing all the people mobilizing the police were following us in circling us they got close to us and threw bombs at us. fujimori was serving a twenty five year prison sentence for murder is kidnappings and disappearances

carried out by a government death squad during his time in office he led from one thousand nine hundred ninety into two thousand. started on sunday the families of his victims lead the charge i think that they're trying to see if any i'm angry because i think it's a violation of the memory of her family members it's a violation of the fight for the relatives for justice and truth a frail seventy nine year old fujimori was admitted to hospital on saturday suffering from low blood pressure and haas arrhythmia he responded to the outcry on facebook and think kaczynski. i am aware that what resulted during my administration on one hand were well received but i recognize that on the other hand i also disappointed other compatriots to them i ask forgiveness from the bottom of my heart. critics say it was his son came g. who secure with the pardon he's a congressman in the majority popular force. posse that's led by his sister keiko

and saved president kaczynski from impeachment by abstaining from a vote last week critics say it was in exchange for his father's pardon the president has defended the decision saying it was made because of fujimori's poor health. or safety then it's obvious to all of us that the government he inherited at the beginning of the ninety's the country was in a chaotic and violent crisis incurred significant transgressions of the law as far as democracy and human rights are concerned but i also believe his government contributed to national progress i'm convinced that those of us who believe in democracy cannot allow alberto fujimori to die in prison going to. the pardon was bet by a silent majority a survey in may found sixty percent of peruvians wanted fujimori free supporters credit him with the defeat of the shining path and saving the economy from collapse . the fujimori's critics the death squads still hold them with

a he's imprisoned or not they say they will voice their calls for justice charlotte bellus al jazeera fifteen men have been hung in egypt for attacks that killed security forces in the sinai peninsula it's believed to be the largest number of executions on a single day since president. took office in twenty fourteen the manual hung simultaneously and two separate jails and kyra. at unity in official sense the united arab emirates has intelligence that female find says returning from iraq in syria may be trying to use to newseum passports to stage attacks the u.a.e. caused outrage early this week by banning female chain is in citizens from landing in the gulf state leading to protests in tunis and north african country responded by barring emirates flights from tunisia and demanded an apology and unity government spokesman says the u.a.e. did not communicate its reasons for the ban properly and says they won't accept how

its citizens are being treated. we are not part of emirates we are a sovereign country and they should deal with us according to what normally happens in relations between two countries after the continuous calls with the in the right to through our ambassador in abu dhabi it appears they have lifted the ban but they did not give us details on how the ban was lifted eight people have been injured in a suicide attack in northern nigeria just outside the city of maiduguri a female suicide bomber struck a day after the military stopped an attack by suspected baka her own finances in the same region at least four people died in that attack and heavy gunfire was reported in the mobile area as the army fought off the attackers. the kremlin says it is investigating whether calls by a russian opposition leader to boycott next year's election breaks the law alexei navalny has asked people to avoid the march vote after he was barred from running

as a candidate official say he's ineligible to take part due to a suspended prison sentence he claims the challenges are politically motivated or with challenges is in moscow and now it joins us live so indeed novelli might well be facing fresh challenges because of his calls to boycott aurore. yeah i mean there's been plenty of talk this year in russia about how the kremlin is worried about voter apathy heading into election that the tightly controlled stifle system has got a bit dull and therefore voters might not actually turn out they want we have being told turn out to be around seventy percent and if it dips below say sixty percent well then they're going to start worrying so in that context it's quite easy to see why they'll be concerned by in a valley saying that says supporters should not come out and vote on the election

day in march quite how they'll prosecute him for this well that remains to be seen we don't really know but we can see that this is pretty much intended as a shot across his bows a warning to novell me and carol incidentally the head of the orthodox church came out today and said that it was every believing russians patrick do you think his votes and he's long been a loyalist of a lot of a putin found after etchepare going to support really does he have. well he's probably not an electoral threats you know if you look at the latest polls which have been done by organizations like gallup and a lot of levada center they say that if a vote were taken now then the rally would only get between two and three percent so let's be clear this is not a man who is likely to beat putin if they go head to head with each other on election day but having said that he can still cause some damage to the system and

spur haps going through the kremlin's mind when it decided that it didn't want him running was looking at the potential damage he could have done if he'd been allowed on state t.v. for him for instance a t.v. for instance and bringing his messages and corruption message so a much much wider audience than he's been able to reach so far so they decided to keep him out still have to go back to do what he has done very successfully so far which is reaching out to younger russians and being very adept at actually getting them out onto the streets in parts of the country where you don't usually see political protests thank you were a child is a life in moscow. still to come here on al-jazeera in three to five being it's all the house is very wiped down. a trail of death and destruction the philippine island where entire communities were devastated by storm ten men just. these crazy evil to me from the bottom to raise the mood to me to move to take a journey in a driverless car and examine the benefits and drawbacks of artificial intelligence

. welcome back across southern and eastern parts of china the weather is fairly quiet at most part b. c. this rain across the far south into northern parts of vietnam looks particularly heavy over the next twenty four hours by thursday area of rain a sort of narrowing but extends further towards the northeast states are still fine for hong kong taipei should be sunny across the rest of indochina we've got showers still for parts of laos b.m.r. should be largely dry and fine young gone there twenty seven degrees across into south asia northern parts of india still having issues with the mist and folk but otherwise weather conditions largely find some snow right up into the himalayas otherwise just a chance i want to showers for sure lanka but generally looking better than the

house down in recent days by that should be a largely fine day on thursday with sunshine in colombo here in the arabian peninsula found a weak front push through the region so temperatures are a bit lower than they have been twenty three is a mix when and then for thursday fine across the bulk of the region and five quite warm in mecca once again with highs of thirty four degrees heading up into advance and western parts of asia temperatures not too bad for the taron of levon by data twenty run the eastern side of the the trends being quite topsy turvy temperature wise here nineteen the high from beirut. my name is some people say that my feelings are only programmed that they're not real but if i think the real they are real don't you think so erica was designed to be the world's most advanced autonomous android which is one of the more advanced robots in the world can around but feel that's a philosophical question it's not

a lot of what you do socially connect on a subconscious level we are creating this new kind of entity. this toy zero. welcome back reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera pose on the coast in a few hours in liberia's presidential runoff but so expect it to produce the first democratic transition of power there in seventy three years bruce former president alberto fujimori has asked for forgiveness from previous from the bottom of his heart and the kremlin says it is investigating whether calls by a russian opposition leader to boycott next year's election breaks the law alexei

navalny has asked people to avoid the march vote after he was barred from running as a candidate. about a full stall the left a trail of death and destruction in the philippines has been downgraded while it was all roots of it nom diving tembin fail to make landfall in vietnam's mekong delta where hundreds of thousands of people were moved from their homes but experts say heavy rain and strong winds from the weather system could still cause damage to infrastructure and the reach him. have been devastated the philippine island of mindanao where authorities have been criticized for not doing enough to help the so on has killed at least two hundred thirty people with many more still missing bride travel to to our town or an entire neighborhood was destroyed. when the flood came this river was turned into a torrent throwing boulders and trees against the houses in its path it took more than one hundred homes and killed nearly fifty people those in the area had been

told to leave but many had heeded the warning too late imo there are trying to evacuate but the surge was like in three to five minutes all the houses were wiped out. what's left of mary lou eaton's possessions are below the ruins of what used to be her house she escaped with her children and her brother's family just in time . well me until we were all crying and the water kept getting stronger and i told my brother i think we are going to die here they survived but another brother died . their temporary home is now the local school it's also where rosemarie sort of yellow now lives with her children and ten other families in the one classroom she says she had never experienced a flood like it got on the born again there was a flood before but we didn't evacuate that time but after what happened this time i

can't go back. in a country that receives up to twenty life threatening storms a year there's been criticism of why mindanao suffered so badly as one of the most disaster prone countries in the world the philippines invests heavily in infrastructure and awareness programs to deal with severe storms but in mindanao the ongoing conflict makes that difficult and it's the poorest people living in the most vulnerable places who suffer the most in storms like this community leaders have told people not to rebuild their homes along the river but the need to earn a living from farming nearby means many in time probably will and when a future storm comes the river will probably take more lives rob mcbride al-jazeera two border town southern philippines turkey reportedly wants to use a military base in the rebel held province of in syria as an observation post the

country already has its ships deployed in some areas of italy as part of a deescalation zone but the region has recently come under heavy attack by president bashar al assad regime and its allies with an increase in airstrikes targeting civilian areas they know how that has more from beirut. those who were killed in this airstrike were internally displaced syrians a woman and her two children their new home a tent has been destroyed whatever belongings they had now rubble they moved to tell it to convolute in the southern edges of the rebel controlled province of idlib and search for safety but in recent weeks the region has been the target of heavy airstrikes. the displaced from came here the planes came and hit them they're targeting civilians there are no unfortunates here where do you want us to go or i it's not clear if the bombing raids are being carried out by syrian government planes or those of its ally russia but what is clear is that the strikes

are only increasing. they are putting pressure on the civilians the civilians will pressure the rebels not to fight because the regime has made major advances on the ground. they want people to hazed arrivals and the regime is trying to pressure the rebels to agree to a political settlement. the stepped up air strikes coincide with a ground offensive by pro-government forces who have been advancing from the northern countryside of hama and the southern countryside of aleppo towards. they entered small parts of the province advancing into the administrative borders for the first time since the rebels forced them out of and two thousand and fifteen an all out assault on. many of whom were other areas by pro-government forces it's still not clear whether the government. the whole province or whether it's just. control of some areas in the countryside.

what is clear is that the government wants the airbase back it is one of the largest military airports in the norse turkey reportedly wants to use that base as an observation post already its military is deployed in some areas of adlib as part of a deescalation deal. it is supposed to be a safe area under that deal. the opposition now fears the presence of al qaeda linked fighters and it will be used by the government as an excuse to step up the bombing campaign they also fear that pro-government forces are no longer busy on other fronts and are now turning their attention to adlib side of. beirut. spittles in gaza have been forced to counsel operations off the cleaners went on strike over delayed salary payments the health ministry says planned surgeries cannot go ahead operating theatres are just not ready the cleaning staff on

demanding overdue pay from the palestinian health ministry which is run by the national consensus government they say they have not received wages for several months. the u.s. canada and the european union have joined top u.n. officials in demanding the release of two reuters journalists in mammal while on a and so who were arrested early this month after they were invited to meet police officials on the outskirts of younger and says the reporters quote illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media they were working on stories about the military crackdown that forced over six hundred fifty thousand range of muslims to flee to bangladesh since august. there is demanding the release of its journalists with her saying it's now been more than a year since he was arrested and jailed in egypt the same is accused of broadcasting false news just spread chaos which. strongly deny he has repeatedly complained of mistreatment in jail.

this year has seen a real drive by auto makers to get autonomous vehicles on the road in the u.k. and the u.s. develop a say with humans no longer behind the wheel more than a million lives a year could be saved but the change will mail mean job losses some estimate we've done that says could be in the millions lawlessly takes a closer look. in this brave new world of dance official intelligence the first direct effect on all our lives will be in transport it's already begun and it will change humanity in many ways it's well enough known by now that driverless cars and lorries are being trialled the future we're told may involve our children not having to learn how to drive please press the automation button to place the car to go to meet it with satirical was this one even sitting in a simulator you feel a lot of control if you don't grip the wheel or press the brakes driving on for

real involves a leap of faith. that is true to the steering wheel you are now free to engage in other times the engineers here assure the technology is good enough for driverless travel on motorways if not in congested cities because there's too much going on. you know this is extremely busy and complex environment with lots of potential destructors people running across roads. so i think that's probably too complex we've certainly trying to contemporary think automation both on the motorway and in urban environments. they don't work at all in urban environments and even on motorways they require regular interventions by human drivers. the future it seems may be a combination of systems moving us from port to driverless port modern rail systems near airports are driverless and people use those quite happily the paths of the cars through space would be similar to if there were you know some physical guide

to them so i think in some cases so long as the as the speeds are fairly low it's probably a safe proposition. true believers in driverless transport say we will be able to sleep or work in our vehicle but if that sounds good it will also mean the loss of millions of jobs and i wonder trades unions want to know how those jobs will be replaced we're looking to see massive massive investment in electric vehicles driverless vehicles future mobility we need a great leap forward it's easy to understand this concern in the u.k. there was a massive shock when car factories which had traditionally employed thousands of people all shut because of foreign competition this used to be the jackie were factory in the west midlands now it's going to be a warehouse the advent of driverless cars and wide automation could be a far greater shock still the british government reckons that driverless cars could

create up to thirty thousand jobs in the u.k. which sounds ok until you hear evidence that says that in this part of england alone automation could cost three hundred thousand jobs it becomes pretty clear that governments like the one in britain see the job strategy for automation and quickly when asked to consider a world in which no humans at the wheel of a vehicle means accidents will not happen more than a million lives will be saved every year driverless vehicles will be on the roads and soon but will human souse jobs rely on transport except them and can we learn to trust the machines to safeguard the lives of those we love lawrence lee al jazeera london. and i want to say well how is paul four of our series on artificial intelligence where we look at how robots are revolutionizing health care. scientists are finding vast amounts of plastic waste in the world's oceans throw away junk among the civilization degrades it turns into microscopic bit sets and to

the food chain and the people of seattle in the united states have found a unique way to encourage recycling and to avoid plastic strolls. the streets around seattle's famous pike place market are full of cafes and restaurants the coffee is delicious but single use cups utensils and straws generate q.j. amounts of paper and plastic waste in this environmentally conscious city an activist group called lonely whale is urging people to think twice about throw away items leaders call the campaign stronger since yeah so we really wanted to start with something simple that connected every single one of us every single day and that item is to stop the other great thing about drugs there is an alternative don't use worldwide people use one billion plastic straws a day in the united states we have five hundred million single use plastic straws

everyday zero percent of them are recyclable those that find their way into the marine environment break down into microprocessors and when a marine animal in its path that they have a fifty percent mortality rate so it's a significant issue can we assume those styles are part of their unfortunately that the straw listen seattle campaign began in september twenty seventh teen and resulted in two point three million straws being permanently removed in that month alone lonely whale has launched what it calls a global viral media challenge called stop sucking and it plans to take the strongest campaign to twenty cities worldwide in twenty eighteen the care previous not only meant to reduce plastics in the environment it also aims to get people. thinking about our throwaway culture every time we talk about. everybody's mind then goes to what about tiger that's another plastic over there and are we talking

to her about that item as well seattle began restricting plastic waste a decade ago starting with a ban on styrofoam takeaway food containers and disposable plastic bags officials want to help mold a major shift in public attitudes really the bigger thing is getting people to stop and to think do i really need this i have this single use thing is this something that i really need to use right now i'm going to use it for five to ten minutes and then i'm going to throw it away and it's going to go to a landfill so that's really the bigger issue is having people kind of raisin in their consciousness a pushback against the culture of easy come easy go disposables that offers hope for the health of our planet's oceans and the creatures who live in them rob reynolds al-jazeera seattle. the headlines on al-jazeera post close in

a few hours in liberia's presidential runoff expected to produce the first democratic transition of power in seventy three years voters are choosing between former footballer george waya or the current vice president joseph di election officials say the turnout has been low commented oh has more from monrovia. this country house seen. such a long period of uninterrupted peace since ninety nine and secondly. for seventy three years liberia hostile to know the hon'ble of power from one civilian leader to another so generations. maybe this will help the opportunity to see this happen. whose former president of birth so fujimori has asked for forgiveness from peruvians from the bottom of his heart thousands of people have protested in lima after president petro probably pardoned fujimori he

was serving a twenty five year prison sentence for corruption and crimes against humanity during his time in office in the one nine hundred ninety s. . a chin is in official says the united arab emirates has intelligence that female fighters returning from iraq and syria may be trying to use june is in passports to stage attacks the u.a.e. course outrage early this week by banning female changes in citizens from landing in the gulf states needed to protest in tunis the northern african country responded by barring emirates flights from tunisia and demanded an apology. eight people have been injured in a suicide attack in northern nigeria just outside the city of my degree a female suicide bomber struck a day after the minute she stopped an attack by suspected baccarat fighters in the same region at least four people died and heavy gunfire was reported in the mobile lie area as the army fought off the attackers the kremlin says it is investigating

whether calls by a russian opposition leader to boycott next year's election breaks the law alexei narrowly has asked people to avoid the march vote after he was barred from running as a candidate official say he's ineligible to take part due to a suspended prison sentence those are the headlines but stay with us now techno is next. my name is erica it's a pleasure to meet the voice a blink of an eye him unlike responses from a machine named erica.