syrian civilians flee towards turkey in freezing temperatures as government forces advance on the rebel held it in the province. a macleod this is a lie from london also coming up missing after an iranian tank it collides with

a freight train china catching fire and spilling its oil. pakistani political groups blacklisted by the u.s. unite to rally against trump's recognition of jerusalem as israel's capital. say they're ready to bring work in to refugees home but aid agencies have that doubts about the deal. so then syrian government forces and allies are involved in the province for an offensive to try and recapture it from rebels there are already reports of intensive raids on towns in the countryside schools thousands of civilians to flee towards the border with turkey in freezing winter conditions it is the largest remaining rebel held territory in syria and the operation was expected after the defeat of isolate last year is feared a full blown government offensive could cause large scale destruction and further displacement. according to the u.n.

the province is home to more than two point six million syrians more than one point one million of them have already fled fighting elsewhere in the country by from aleppo the main target appears to be the rebel held base of i was a home on the southeastern edge of the problems they also want to secure the damascus aleppo a road that cuts through it live. shareef is a spokesman for i should take issue when a terrorist organization he says there's been a significant impact on civilians. only the second year in what he. meant to started on east and south. south that day but is only a couple numbers now. that both the number of the i.d.p.'s and moved from the cliff . at twenty three thousand seven hundred seventy five families to one hundred eighty thousand six hundred ninety four persons and they now there are distributed

in many count. but three of them they have reached the syrian turkish border up course the international organization they did their job but i did hear me that as you see the number is high you know much and also the crisis is very old for this reason we fought for from food items one to feel they had seen everything but then now there is a big need for ants on milk. cartons the problem is it all to you nightly all these cons are full of the peas and when we receive this a huge number of these i gently we we start standing that then restart to providing that food items for and the clothes for the children for the old

people but as you know we are trying our best to work with the united nations. and lump birds to. provide them that image that the said was says which it is there are the need especially in this winter of very cold weather. thirty two people are missing in the east china sea after an oil tanker collided with a cargo ship and caught fire it happened off shanghai where the yangtze river meets the east china sea search teams are looking for the missing sailors from iran and from bangladesh who work for an iranian shipping company rescuers say the twenty one crew of the other ship involved robert wright has more now from beijing. the cause of the collision is unknown but it led to a devastating fire on board the tanker that has burned for hours the tanker the

sand she carrying one hundred thirty six thousand tons of oil was headed north to a port in south korea the other vessel involved is a bulk carrier that was carrying grain would seem to be heading south to a port on china's southern coast when the collision occurred some three hundred kilometers east of china's coast of shanghai a big international rescue and recovery effort is underway with vessels being sent by china's maritime or thora t's they've also been helped by the coast guard from south korea sending a vessel and an aircraft in what is an international operation but it is being hampered now by the hours of darkness also strongest seas and winds are not making any easier there are specialized vessels taking part in the are designed for dealing with oil slicks and we do know that there is an amount of oil in the in the

seas but it's not known yet just how bad the pollution will be from this but the east china sea is shared by not only china but south korea and some of the islands in the south of japan and all of those countries will be following this closely clearly concerned about whether there is a growing pollution threat and if there is a slick which way it is heading. nigeria is in the process of flying thousands of its citizens home from libya knowledge numbers of nigerians are trapped in libya where they were trying to cross to italy by sea but was stopped by local on factions and libya's coast guard and now facing die conditions and abuse nigerian government says the flights will continue for as long as they need to is estimated about five thousand five hundred migrants will be flown home address has been hearing the migrant stories and he filed this report from libya's capital of tripoli. everyone you see here has a side story to tell they've been through so much story stuff for chas raid at the

imprisonment and all kinds of abuses here in libya in the hands of the authorities in the hands of people smugglers they are talking about being in prison for them the journey to nigeria today the journey back form is a mixed bag a lot of them a high fee that they're free at last they've won but form but disappointed in the fact that a lot of them have lost so much in this country and they poured back to nothing now basically we have seen all the people and people as young children as young as ten or eleven years people who wanted to move to another country to make a living but now we've spoken to some of them who gave us their own side of the story this trauma to have went through over the past few months and of course about b.s. if i may quote you because it's a little softer a lot of software for this issue most that i've left my. if i see

anybody. i would give up as didn't last load of advice for personal to make this kind of mystic of me that i was a good time to be for that he wants to leave but not when the kind of shows us about to make a point and then there for a while and to have. several religious and political groups facing pressure from the government in pakistan have been demonstrates in the northwestern city a push up it is the second in a series of protests initially organized in the wake of the u.s. decision to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel the groups behind the rallies include. the organization led by the two thousand and eight mumbai attacks us quite a few studied. the protests comes days after the u.s. accused the government of allowing the country to become a safe haven for radical groups it's also suspended hundreds of millions of dollars of security aid to pakistan it's not about denies the allegation but has banned

more than seventy groups which are named in the u.n. security council sanctions list among them is. led by saeed the u.s. has offered a ten million dollars bounty for information leading to his arrest the trunk administration also wants action taken against the company network it operates in pakistan and afghanistan and is seen as having close ties to the pakistani military but on the list say it's a difficult balance for the u.s. which doesn't want to alienate islamabad as it relies on its support against a resurgent taliban in neighboring afghanistan come on high to has more now from the protest in push our. and shore from there yet if i gotta get you on different accounts for the people from alice dying and up in front of me i gotta go so an offer to join a few for people like you watch this country show dead and then man i guess that he can raid by u.s. president mr trump i'm going to not only our ameri corps in india but themselves

a terrorist but sadly they apply mean muslims in pakistan to supporting terrorists despite the fact that muslims all over the world a victims of their brutality and with the blessings of the almighty allah we will get rid of them very soon their head of a good son has already sacrificed too much and they didn't do no more do i think the american then they go sorry mephedrone shouldn't have done it on the government all the things that the americans ever bring the banking there from the guy should have done it on a good note blaming projects on saudi failure that have run it on this particular organization right now be holding rallies across the country it was for sure that the people of baghdad gonna be supporting the president in oh so ticker tape read that in and above all hanging all over the united states president mr garner trauma as. the jerusalem decision by the united states president the kashmir issue and of

recent tweet by trump compelled us to launch a movement across pakistan to reunite and activate the people against the cruel decisions against muslims and pakistan on. the days large gatherings did not have our fifth day and that the good i thing i did the government of august on which caving on the pressure for the united states which they don't except by the. yemenis who think say they've shut down the saudi coalition will play saudi media is reporting to pilot survived the crash which happened yemen sada province which is the who who these. forces t.v. channel says the fighter plane was a british made tornado. the party of yemen's former president ali abdullah saleh who was killed last month has named his new leader form a cultural minister sodiq i mean i were us will be the new head of the general people's congress party so it was killed by the rebels three switch sides and back

the senate coalition in its battle against the. german chancellor angela merkel says that she is optimistic of forming a coalition government almost four months after the country's general election told to resume did beilin between her christian democrat party and its former coalition partners the social democrats who had vowed to go into opposition a potential sticking point is the refugee crisis and whether to allow the relatives of immigrants to join them in germany. and i think we can do it we were very quickly very intensively that's what we set out to do and only stayed about what people in germany are expecting all of us you always hope that politics will solve the problem think we the frame let the people to live well in our country and i am optimistic about these talks but i also know that there is a lot of work ahead of us in the coming days we're willing to take on the one. before the talks we can speak to across what they would say to who's in the capital bill and and david this has been going on for months what chances of success over

the next five days. nick it has been extraordinary this is the longest time is taken to form a coalition government in post-war german political history but i think you've got to remember these are still only talks about talks and what they've got to do is find areas where there are no red lines find areas where there's going to be no contention find areas where they can actually all pull together and there's a clear focus for their minds because i'm going merkel's already said she will not stand for a minority government and i think also the social democrats realize even though there's been an electoral penalty by being part of a grand coalition i think they're preferred to go back into one because they fear the instability and insecurity that another general election will bring to germany so i think there's a very clear task facing them but for the social democrats of course martin shultz

will have to convince his own party his own delegates is a power base at a conference on january twenty first even if he comes to an agreement in five days is going to convince his own party that it's going to be worth it so that's yet another hurdle so we're still long way off but if they can come together in some way then perhaps there is a lot more optimism but it does seem at the moment the politics is politics is causing many problems for the people of germany and they're looking in some dismay what is happening as you say local merkel says that she is optimistic but should she fail how serious would this be for her and indeed for germany and the e.u. as a whole. well that's a very good point i mean as far as angela merkel is concerned because of these huge extended talks because there's been almost four months under a caretaker government her power and her popularity are beginning to erode she's in

a way dipped over the peak of her political powers and the latest polls show that she is beginning to lose support within germany and that has a huge impact not only on germany of course but on the rest of the european union because she is one of the main engines of unity and was supposed to be one of the stronger partners to president macro of france and his desire to reform the european union also we've seen the rise and fall but lately the rise of populism in european politics and if for angela merkel becomes a casualty of that then that will change the whole political scene inside the european union that's what's at stake at the moment the values of the whole of the european union are at stake they have to come to a solution they have to talk about talks and they have to find

a solution which in some way will reunite germany and its place at the center of the european union or a david thanks very much they don't cheat a reporting there from berlin so to cover the program see us east coast and canada struggle through record breaking low temperatures. and fifty years on indigenous victims of chile's military dictatorship to finally be remembered. hello and welcome back now to take a look at weather conditions across the front and the western parts of asia is a little bit of snow over parts of afghanistan but really it's all fairly quiet at the moment fine around the caspian sea we've lost the showers which have been around us twenty four hours fine conditions for baghdad in kuwait city coming at

twenty degrees and it exploits around the eastern side of the mediterranean in the space of the stay that way now during to say we will see some snow pushing down towards the caucasus but otherwise no great changes expected here in the arabian peninsula we have an area of cloud and the the risk of showers moving down through the gulf states so abu dhabi could pick up one or two showers during the course of monday i think for doha maybe just the far north of the country will see some showers but here in doha itself it will probably be dry on the other side the peninsula temperatures not looking too bad there for mecca thirty one degrees but in the southern portion the red sea we've seen the risk of showers over the last couple of days and that will continue as we head through tuesday heading down into southern parts of africa we've still got this tropical cyclone eva moving very very slowly towards the south and still dropping large amounts of rain across the island of madagascar so flooding remains a risk here otherwise they're looking pretty warm across parts of botswana down into south africa with highs of thirty three expected in johannesburg.

ard.

and i got a reminder of the top stories here on al-jazeera and the syrian government has launched an offensive to regain it in a province in the north west of the country has caused thousands of civilians to flee towards a border with turkey in freezing weak winter conditions it was syria's largest remaining rebel held territory. thirty two people have mysie in the east china sea off for an oil tanker collided with a cargo ship and courts search teams are looking for the missing sailors. and conservative religious and political groups of relitigate in pakistan continuing their protest the dates of u.s. decision to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital as well as the trumpet ministrations harsh rhetoric against pakistan since the new year. and under a hinge a group has claimed responsibility for friday's ambush on me and military truck in western iraq kind state which wounded several soldiers the icon are in just salvation army says it has no option but to fight to defend the revenge of minority

the military crackdown in wreck and state was triggered by the group attacking the security forces on august twenty fifth last year but bangladesh say they already to go ahead with a plan to bring rain to refugees back home but aid agencies and the un have called the agreement a foster child strafford has this report. to husband and three children inflate the myanmar military crackdown on the region in late december. she says a boatman demanded seventy dollars for each person before he ferried them across the naff river into bangladesh more than six hundred fifty thousand ranger have fled across the border in recent months rights groups say myanmar's military killed around seven thousand ranger men women and children in the first month off of the crackdown began in late august but the bangladeshi and myanmar government so already preparing to offer what they describe as voluntary repacked creation for refugees who want to return to myanmar plus lima like many refugees says she will

not go back. out of what i had you know we want to go back not under these circumstances we've been persecuted and brutalized that they took all our possessions our crops and cattle he would rather die here that go back under these circumstances. the repatriation agreement is based on a similar initiative by bangladesh in myanmar after a previous crackdown on the region in one thousand nine hundred two it involves the myanmar government verifying the identity of refugees who want to return but sounds of ranger have never had sufficient identification documents proving their residency. then burma's government stripped them of their citizenship in one thousand nine hundred to. me has destroyed hundreds of range of villages in recent months so the repatriation plan involves putting those returning into temporary

camps. dealing kluges a role for the u.n. but what capacity remains unclear. at the present the situation might mark is not good for the battery issue hundreds of thousands of refugees here are traumatised i mean psychosocial support. the third coming to baghdad is on daily basis even. the bangladeshi government is estimated to be spending around four million dollars a day to help house and feed the refugees and it's signed off on a separate plan to move around one hundred thousand refugees from the camps to temporary shelters on a coastal island that critics say is highly vulnerable to typhoons western governments including the u.s. say myanmar's government is guilty of ethnic cleansing of the predominately muslim ranger they ask who can guarantee the security of the refugees like to sleep family if they return to myanmar. and how can they go back with their lack of citizenship

which has made them so vulnerable to violence and persecution for decades has not changed chance transferred. steve benen a main source for the bombshell book foreign fury written by the journalist michael wolff is trying to make amends with donald trump issued a statement saying his support for the u.s. president is agenda and wavering meanwhile trump himself continues to criticize the book on sunday he tweeted i had to put up with this fake news from the first day that i would be running for president now i have to put up with a fake book written by a totally discredited author ronald reagan he said had the same problem and handled it well so will i welcome or and this is john hendren our correspondent is standing by in washington d.c. and so john president trump has responded again he can't seem to let alone. no we can't indeed i think the president feels that the criticism isn't in his book

have left a mark that people are really taking them seriously and adam schiff is a member of congress from california democrat who's been critical of trump he was on television this morning saying that there's not a member of congress of either party who doesn't share some of these concerns about donald trump's fitness for office that the white house would say and has said that when the president is hit he hits back hard and that's why he's tweeting about this for the past two days and has been talking about it but it certainly raises the subject over and over and he hasn't let it go and of course the author of the book has been out there as well but the president may be done hitting for now he has arrived at the white house after a weekend at camp david and he did not take questions from reporters but the author of the book michael wolf has been on television this morning and this is part of what he had to say i don't know when when the train is going to is going to finally hit the wall i think i think the the entire narrative of this presidency. and this

this can of the see and then presidency has been it's going to hit a wall and the thing that keeps everybody's attention absolutely riveted this global attention. is that it took the train keeps going but the wall is still there and no i understand john that steve allen has piped up. that's right bannon was quoted in this book calling donald trump jr and others treasonous for a meeting with russians representatives who said they were. coordinating with the russian government said that that was they were unpatriotic as well well now he's come back and he says he regrets that that was the way that was reported he said in fact he was talking about paul mann afford another aide of trump's who was under investigation he says he was not intending for those comments to be associated with

donald trump jr he said i regret that my delay in responding to the inaccurate reporting regarding don jr has diverted attention from the president's historical accomplishments and maybe one of the reasons is that he has been he has lost donors he has lost political support a number of people from the administration and elsewhere have been criticizing him in that includes cory lewandowsky the former campaign manager for trump this is what he had to say that's what steve said that he knows he owes donald trump e.o.'s don't trump jr he knows jerry cushing the entire family an apology if that's what he said and that's what he said then shame on steve bannon because that is so out of bounds to accuse somebody of treason is so out of line so out of character for a guy like steve bannon that i have a hard time believing well wolf but if that's what steve said then shame on steve. now he was just one of the officials the white house drummed out for the sunday

shows to defend donald trump there was also the cia director mike pompei out nikki haley the u.s. ambassador to the united nations and white house aide steven miller all of them were very strong in defending the president miller in particular saying this was a grotesque work of fiction the book that allegations in the book are in his words a pile of trash and we should note that while many in the white house are saying the book is fiction steve bannan has not said that he was in accurately quoted in there except for these comments that he associated he said not with donald trump jr but with others so there are a number of people in the white house who simply have not denied that they said what is in the book all right john thanks very much they join hundred reporting there from washington d.c. on to chile which will open its first memorial to the members of the indigenous minority killed by the military dictatorship under gusted pinochet many activists

vanished during the one hundred seven season their remains were never found zero as latin america it's the season you've been reports now from to mco in central chile . yes here we have a native up which a historian had none good he need want the world to know to news they got to. the center of the plaza goes through here to the quake it's a sacred space where only one day a year the sun rays pass directly from one side to the other. it's here surrounded by seven hundred year old trees that the first ever memorial to one hundred seventy one my puja victims of chile's former military dictatorship will soon be formally opened up here. shortly after the one nine hundred seventy three military coup could he needs twenty three year old brother nelson a left wing university student was detained by soldiers and never seen again but he made of this boy didn't and that's when i understood for the first time the meaning

of state terrorism the fact that i could escape and go into exile explains why i'm alive to tell the story. it took twenty warrants for nelson quoting old family google scholar that soldiers had shot him dead and thrown his body impulse river to this day only one of the supporters who disappeared during that period with her mains were ever found. thousands of chileans were executed or disappeared during the pinochet dictatorship but the fate of the indigenous my putsch victims has until now received little attention in a country where they have long been discriminated. remembers how secret police referred to her father a teacher and a poet as the indian she says they were all vilified for being mup which is everything about me. my father was vomiting blood and urinating blood from the beatings he received on they brought him back from prison hours later they took him

away again and he disappeared forever we've never been able to accept his death mary-ellen and the other survivors welcome the opening of the soon to be finished memorial park in the hope that it will help chile see that the map which is we're not just victims of a dictatorship but of a society that never acknowledged their suffering. you see in human i just didn't feel. the winter deep freeze continues to grip much of the northeastern united states and canada with record breaking cold temperatures in baltimore boston and hartford connecticut it's down to a storm dubbed the bottom cycling that can be seen in the satellite image is being blamed for nineteen deaths in the united states. so just time for a recap of the top stories her knowledge is there and syrian government forces and the allies are advancing on it in the province for an offensive to try to recapture

it from rebels has caused thousands of civilians to flee towards the border with turkey in freezing winter conditions it limits the largest remaining rebel held territory in syria since arsenal would driven out late last year thirty two people are missing in the east china sea after an oil tanker collided with a cargo ship and caught fire it happened off the coast of shanghai and search teams are looking for the missing sailors from iran and from bangladesh who work for an iranian shipping company rescuers say the twenty one crew of the other ship involved. nigeria is in the process of flying thousands of its citizens home from libya large numbers of nigerians are trapped in libya where they were trying to cross to italy by sea but was stopped by local armed factions and by libya's coast guard they're now facing di conditions and abuse the nigerian government says the flights will continue for as long as they need to it's estimated about five thousand five hundred migrants will be flown in. several religious and

political groups facing pressure from the government in pakistan have been holding a demonstration in the northwestern city of it is the second in a series of protests initially organized in the wake of the united states decision to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel the groups behind the rallies include. the organization led by the two thousand and eight moon by attack suspect fees saeed. the jerusalem decision by the united states president the kashmir issue and of recent tweet by trauma compelled us to launch a movement across pakistan to reunite and activate the people against their cruel decisions against muslims and pakistan. german chancellor angela merkel says she's optimistic of forming a coalition government almost four months after the country's general election talks have resumed in berlin between her christian democrat party and the social democrats form a coalition partners a potential sticking point is the refugee crisis right up to date with the

headlines good news are coming up in half an hour for that it is inside story. does egypt support donald trump's decision. links suggest leaders in cairo don't subject to u.s. recognition of the city as israel. and saudi arabia stands accused of secret support what does the apparent shift mean for the future of jerusalem this is inside story.