new. facing realities the president said that there would be a complete audit a hundred percent ordered that orders hasn't happened getting to the heart of the matter so are you saying then that the future of the g.c.c. will be in doubt. here the story. on talk to al-jazeera at this time. north korea says it will send a team to next month's winter olympics in south korea as the rival neighbors speak for the first formal talks in more than two years. fully back to boil watching al-jazeera live from doha also ahead the race is on to

prevent a potential environmental disaster off china's eastern coast where new brainy an oil tanker is on fire plus we meet the nigerian migrants forced to return home from libya who aren't giving up their dreams to get to europe and under investigation finance launches a probe into u.s. tech giant apple for deception over its i phone. thank you for joining us north and south korea have been holding their first official meeting in more than two years with a few diplomatic breakthrough as pyongyang says it will send a high level delegation to next month's winter olympics in the south senior officials from both sides met at the de-militarized zone in on with john on the border tension has increased since the last round of talks in twenty fifteen with north korea rapidly. accelerating its nuclear and missile programs well here's

what's come out of the meeting as we mentioned athletes and supporters from north korea are going to what's being hailed as the peace takes chon seoul is considering temporarily lifting sanctions against north korea and has proposed military talks and every union of fountains of families that were sprayed after the creation of north and south korea one thousand nine hundred forty five and the war that followed now both sighs expressed optimism ahead of the talks. we came to this meeting today with a serious and sincere attitude and with the thought of giving our brother and who have high hopes for this dialogue valuable result of the first president of the year. and. our talks resume after the north and south korean ties have been severed for a long time but i believe the first step is half the journey and i would like to hold this meeting with tenacity and perseverance kathy novak is our correspondent in

seoul she joins us now live kathy first of all tell us who was in these delegations and how big of a breakthrough is this first meeting in more than two years. well it is a high level delegation the men that we were just hearing from there were the chief ministers who are in charge of in her career relations on both sides of from the south korean side you have the unification minister and then his north korean counterpart along with their deputies leading five member delegations on both sides that include representatives in charge of sports and culture and the olympics and it is significant because these two countries have not had any kind of communication for a long time it's been as you said more than two years since they have sat down for a formal meeting but they haven't even had informal talks in the form of picking up the phone and talking across the hotline that exists at the border for almost two years so it is significant to go straight to this high level sit down the meeting

between these men and to come to an agreement on north korea sending a delegation to the winter olympics this is something that south korean president has been pushing for for some time the winter olympics is a platform for these talks but is there hope kathy they could be expanded to other issues like the north korean missile launches and u.n. sanctions. well as for the winter olympics themselves the president of south korea has been calling them the peace olympics he really wanted this north korean delegation here in south korea to send a message of peace and unity and also practically because it is expected that with its athletes and its supporters here in south korea north korea may be less likely to conduct any missile or nuclear tests but of course there is a bigger picture here and some skeptics are concerned that even though agreement may be reached on the winter olympics the bigger picture of talking about denuclearization on the korean peninsula has not really been brought up south korea

did mention it but it said that it got a little response on that front from north korea and that's the talks that countries such as the united states and japan really want to see happening going forward but for its part south korea is starting small when it comes to be olympics and also talking about the family reunions that you mentioned these are often very emotional it cajuns happen very rarely bringing together family members separated by the korean war in another thing that south korea wants to see happen is military talks just to defuse tensions right at the border between north and south korea so the hope is that after these initial talks more can happen in the future fully kathy novak in seoul thank you kathy and the iranian oil tanker that collided with a freighter off china's east coast on saturday is still on fire a dozen rescue boats have spent three days trying to contain the blaze it's here at the time may explode and sink rescuers are looking for thirty one cu members who

are still missing the body of one of them was found on monday china correspondent adrian brown joins us now live from the shanghai edge and bring us up to speed for us with the latest is the oil slick actually moving. well we don't know how big the slick is or indeed in what direction it's moving if at all i think that will be determined probably by the currents of the moment we're in the yangtze river delta which faces the east china sea behind me and that drama is taking place some one hundred sixty nautical miles away and spare a moment to think about these crews who are fighting this blaze because at the moment these rescue teams are trying to put out a fire on what is effectively a floating bomb because of course this is a rainy and stricken tanker has more than a million barrels of ultra light crude oil known as condensate and this fuel is very very volatile if it's exposed to air or water so this thing if it goes

up is going to create a huge explosion because the potential for damage to the environment is very great because this area is very rich should fishing grounds it's a very important to sea route one of the busiest sea routes in east asia right so at the moment what is happening is we have two effective operations going on one to try and and put out the fire and the other to look for these missing crew members but i think you know the chances really of finding anyone alive now really have diminished greatly aid they want to do if they can put out the fire they want to then try and towed this tanker to a safer area but i think you know the longer this fire burns the greater the chance of there being a major explosion edgin as you say this happened in one of the world's busiest shipping lanes apart from me at the tension environmental threat what other impacts could this have. well i think that

obviously this you know shanghai is the world's one of the world's busiest ports for the busiest ports in asia and now at the moment the authorities in shanghai say that this accident is not affecting traffic going into shanghai or traffic leaving but we do know that an exclusion zone is now in force and no vessels are able to enter a sort of ten. nautical mile radius so no vessels can get within ten kilometers of the area where this accident happened now if this rescue operation is still going on in a day or two it is quite possible they will have to enlarge that exclusion area and that could potentially have an impact on shipping adrian thank you very much for that update adrian brown. shanghai thank you very much for that. francis president in money and my call is on the second day of his official visit to china his toward the forbidden city in beijing and address business leaders michael wants china and

the european union to increase trade ties and work on issues such as global warming is expected to sign bilateral agreements with the chinese president xi jinping later this choose iraq on fridays following the day's events in beijing. it is being treated here very favorably some media even calling it a milestone in franco chinese relations macron has met with xi jinping monday evening here in beijing with their respective wives it was a very amicable meeting so amicable it seems that mack brown is now stated that he wants to make visiting china and annual events during his presidency coming here once a year it gives an indication of the importance of china to your of the e.u. is china's biggest trading partner now and macron is arguably the most influential european leader right now and gillum urkel of germany as we know has

a domestic political problems britain is busy breck sitting so it really leaves it to macron to be the standard bearer for the e.u. pro-democracy activists in hong kong are in court again over their role in mass protests in twenty fourteen. legal scholar benny tie and eight others are attending a pretrial hearing they face charges of incitement connected with their own brand of movement demonstrations. i believe all courts weren't given to political pressure and unfair judgments that's why we will calmly face the long lawsuit today and the next few days we are reviewing what will happen in the trial and the procedures we will be ready. now the world news syrian government and russian air strikes have targeted several towns in eastern guta near the capital damascus twenty three people have been killed the rebel stronghold has been under heavy

bombardment on monday government forces retook a military base in the city of herat freeing two hundred troops and the u.k. based syrian observatory for human rights says s trikes in eastern go to have killed one hundred twenty six people since december twenty ninth go to has been a target for president bashar assad and government forces because of its close proximity to the capital damascus the area has been under control by brigades loyal to the free syrian army which are backed by the u.s. and turkey eastern ghouta is among the four so-called deescalation zone set up earlier last year by iran russia and turkey and the area is home to iran four hundred thousand people the four year government siege has led to a major humanitarian crisis with severe shortages of food and medicine. another rebel stronghold has also weakened in recent weeks the u.n. says fighting an ass strikes a force more than sixty thousand people to leave their homes since november first

and that they are in a diet situation all this while sman for u.n. secretary general antonio terrace says civilians are being forced to flee into areas already overcrowded with displaced families the un is deeply concerned for the safety and protection of ten themselves and of people in southern italy in rural hama in northern syria northeastern syria were ongoing hostilities report calls hundreds of deaths and injuries of civilians tens of thousands of civilians already in dire circumstances have been recorded as displaced since the first of december due to the fighting with the onset of winter said shelters among the biggest concerns is many families are fleeing into areas that are already at full capacity into communities with depleted resources. still ahead on al-jazeera the. salvadoran any prince in the usa given a deadline to leave or face deportation and parkinson's patients are dealt

a blow in this age to find a cure for their disease. welcome to international weather forecast now we've been seeing some pretty unsettled weather around the western side of the mediterranean and indeed is still looking pretty changeable at the moment now we've got another area of low pressure pushing in across parts there would be a in political way of how significant snowfall is still remains pretty cold temperatures of five in madrid on choose day house where temperatures are actually not too bad for this time of the year as we head through into wednesday temperatures recovering in madrid and the rain eventually dying away central as lot of cloud but temperatures not too bad in eastern areas maybe rather chilly temperatures subzero in moscow throughout the day as we head into north africa there's a lot of cloud around quite

a strong southerly wind in fact the be some dust lifted up off the sahara and carried into parts of europe so some of that rain is going to contain quite a bit of dust but for north africa itself the most part dry and fine though we have got some showers just threatening the coast of morocco at times and that continues it head on through into wednesday algeria too could see some rain this coastal region now as we head into central parts of africa it looks pretty fine some showers a good bond but otherwise across much of central and west africa is looking drawing fine sunshine in lycra in ghana from both days on them for southern parts of africa tropical cycle continues to move away from other.

welcome back you're watching al-jazeera live from doha our top stories north korea says it will send a delegation of athletes supporters and officials to next month's winter olympic games in south korea pyongyang has been holding its first high level discussions with seoul since twenty fifteen france's president emanuel macaw is on the second day of his official visit to china he wants china and the european union to

increase trade ties and work on issues such as global warming mccoy is expected to sign bilateral agreements when he meets with his chinese counterpart xi jinping later this tuesday. and any rainy and oil tanker that collided with a freighter off china's east coast on saturday is still on fire a dozen rescue boats have spent three days trying to control the blaze rescue is still looking for thirty one crewmembers who are unaccounted for. more now on our top story and the talks between north and south korea joining us now from seoul is b.j. came who's an adjunct professor at hancock university of for his studies thank you very much for being with us so a little over a week ago north korea was threatening nuclear war today it says it will send a delegation to the winter games in the south how much of a positive step is today's meeting could we be in your opinion about to see a significant shift in north korea's position. indeed there seems to be

a shift from the opening statement by the head of the negotiation from north korea in the morning. looks like they're very much for of course. in tromso expressing their desire to send a large size of delegations south korea has been a little bit conservative in terms of like inviting their sports team and some of the minimal size of delegation to join the live but they said north korea said during the talks that they are going to send the cheerleaders and the press teams and a large size of people during the olympic games this is something that we did not exactly expect so they are very forthcoming even in the statement by the chief at the beginning of the talks he said you know we have to deal with all this big scope of you know wide scope of issues right in response south korean head of the delegation said let's focus on olympic games how forthcoming do you think they will

be will this go beyond talk about the alleged picks and you know when you say we are witnessing a significant change perhaps in north korea's position why do you think this is happening now could it be perhaps that kim jong un is increasingly more fearful about what the u.s. might actually do that he's willing to engage. perhaps so that could be one reason but this action has been kind of anticipated by some of the analysts here this is their time for peace of fairness they are finalizing their nuclear weapons and right now they want to buy time perhaps and at the opening statement by the head of the delegation from the north this morning he said we have to find ways out of overall situation because people want it and i thought that statement was quite interesting because he's talking about people and in north

in the north korea they don't have democracy so they don't care about people's will and what they mean is they want to play the south korean public opinion here and they said people wanted so we need the results here and this and the head of delegation even offered to make the talk open to the public but they all mean they want to say things to the korean public you know the things that they want to have korean people in public heard from them in the community in public directly so it's a propaganda strategy clearly but surely also they they must want some sort of concessions i mean in the past talks like these have been the opportunity for north korea to extract concessions from the south and then refused to give up anything in return what do they want this time around do you think. no question about that concessions will be a what they will be asking for for sure they could offer ok we'll free what we're

doing right now even though they're just about to achieve full capacity of delivering nuclear warheads to the united states they'll say well we'll stop here and in return reduce at least reduce the size of joint military exercise or even if we get rid of joint military exercises between south korea and united states that means for south koreans we've been doing this joint military exercise you know to protect ourselves for the last several decades five six decades and they they've got nuclear weapons are new in their hands and they're asking us to stop what we've been doing for the last several decades to protect ourselves so this is a clearly winning the ill for. losing the four sole became very getting thoughts on this thank you very much for joining us now from cell. head of nigeria's immigration service is aging more international cooperation in the fight against people trafficking the government ordered the media's evacuation of about five and a half thousand of its citizens from libya after reports of abuse slavery and

torture but many of the migrants returning home still hope to one dave reach here al-jazeera as our main interest has exclusive report. well these first time nigerian migrants heading home from the schooling facility in tripoli i worried that the plane will leave without them. the only thing on their mind now is to get to know that when you people leave here they're taking us back to that prison and i don't want to continue we should help us by only. but many others here have been through this routine before for that person or sheraton vincent says his destiny allies in europe and he will make another attempt to get there so almost everything i have to about going to join. all like like you like a month month not limited just this attitude has surprised even the experts who say as many as forty five percent of deported migrants from libya attempt to go back. as a human being you are assuming that. i would do my most important goal in life is

to preserve my life and knowing that i come so close. to to do what i've seen i wouldn't go but you know survival is also important to a person. if you are in a place you don't see a future in that pushes you government officials in west africa admit that there are vast porous borders makes it difficult to stop what they call irregular migration i most times border police feel powerless to make arrests because of an existing pact that government cheese freedom of movement of goods and people and it's that same agreement traffickers and illegal migrants exploit but the challenges go beyond that is frustrated that we us country when working together. including europe it takes more than. it takes more than public city to do this we

need to walk together was force. the special going to do with the criminal groups. for now african countries continue to evacuate citizens from libya preventing those citizens from attempting to reach europe again is proving difficult regardless of what happens to them in transit. reese al-jazeera. a man has died during an anti-government protest in tunisia the interior ministry denies a protester was run over by a police car saying he suffered a medical condition demonstrators have been fighting with security forces in the town of table to buy near the capital tunis protests spread to as many as ten towns people are angry at austerity measures that have led to tax hikes and higher prices for basic goods. the u.s. government has decided to end the temporary protected status of more than two hundred sixty thousand immigrants from el salvador protesters rallied against the move outside the white house people from el salvador were allowed to live and work

in the u.s. after two large earthquakes hit the country in two thousand two thousand and one rob reynolds reports. ricardo escobar makes his living improving the houses of people much wealthier than he now the migrant from el salvador may be expelled from the country where he's lived worked and raised a family for nearly two decades by this is a country of immigrants. all the world has immigrated here he. was in washington demonstrators gathered in front of the white house monday protesting a decision by the trumpet ministration to take away temporary protected status or t.p.s. for more than two hundred thousand salvadorans they had been permitted to live in the u.s. following disastrous earthquakes that struck their homeland in two thousand and one this decision you know where he wasn't completely unexpected but he's real and he

makes me sad i have had members of the union call me. crying because of this decision i mean what are we going to do the trumpet ministration says t.p.s. was never meant to be permanent and that social disruptions caused by the earthquakes no longer exists. last year the trumpet ministrations stripped temporary protective status from tens of thousands of people from eighty to nicaragua living in the u.s. . el salvador is one of the world's most dangerous places it had the highest murder rate of any country in two thousand and fifteen powerful gangs operate with near impunity and poverty and unemployment are dire escobar does not want to bring his family there but they you know i worry a lot about my children if my son goes there they'll force him to join

a gang and if you refuses the killing activists say political pressure is needed to reverse the decision and that many children of salvadoran parents were born in the us and thus are american citizens boarded two hundred dollars for us citizen children then you're been voting your age so today i'm asking are to be as rogue or families and both undergrads gooseberry don't are us citizens and then a vote you're not searching cannot go into anything yet ministration has given the salvadoran residents eighteen months to find a way to obtain legal status or leave the us forever in el salvador the foreign minister urged salvadorans in the us not to become agitated nobody made up to get. the first thing i want to tell people is they need to remain calm we have another eighteen months between march this year and september twenty ninth tain but it's

difficult for people to stay calm when their families futures are on the line rob reynolds al-jazeera los angeles millions of people suffering from alzheimer's and parkinson's have been dealt a blow with drug make a fine so deciding to end its research into the debilitating diseases john hendren has a story. the decision by drug maker finds or to end its expensive high risk research into all timers and parkinson's disease marks a devastating blow for tens of millions of people around the world in a statement pfizer says this was an exercise to reallocate spending across our portfolio to focus on those areas where our pipeline and our scientific expertise is strongest the alzheimers association says it's disappointed that pfizer is ending its investment in neuroscience research pharmaceutical companies have long argued that the more money they have available for research the more patients would benefit it was a sales pitch pfizer c.e.o.

made in washington last march our responsibility is to produce the best and greatest medicines we can they make the biggest impact on human life this industry needs to have a return that allows it to continue to do its research although president trump answered that call in part with the largest corporate tax cut in u.s. history pfizer like many other companies is not plowing the benefits back into research it's just announced a plan to use the tax break to benefit its investors by buying back ten billion dollars of its own stock pfizer which makes the lucrative pill does say it plans to detail its plans to create a neuro science fund later this year but that's likely to come as cold comfort to the more than seven million people across the globe living with parkinson's in the forty four million living with alzheimer's john hendren al-jazeera. french prosecutors are investigating tech giant apple after

a dead mit it last month fat it deliberately slowed down older phone models inquiry focuses on a commercial practice forcing consumers to periodic leave replace products this is illegal in france apple says a slowdown is intended to extend the lifespan of phones by putting less pressure on aging batteries technology on this larry magid says it will be hard for the course to prove criminally liable. i think apple has given an explanation which is likely to make it very difficult to get any punitive damages from apple unless it turns out apple with completely lying but frankly in the tech world that i live in if they were lying i think i would know about it not because i'm so smart but because a lot of smart people have looked into this and so far i think most people are thinking that apple with actually correct in how would finally got around to explaining why they did what they did a little late but they finally did give an explanation most experts i've talked to think it's probably accurate if they really cooperate with authorities and try to

be forthcoming in accurate and provide detailed information as to why they did what they did and i think that any fair court would probably rule that apple certainly had no criminal intent maybe there they certainly did the right in my opinion the right thing in the wrong way so there's no question that apple deserved to have its risks lapped because they did it so stupidly they should have disclosed it in advance they should have given customers an opportunity to opt in or out and say you know what i want my phone operated full speed and yes i'm willing to take the risk of it crashing unexpectedly if that's indeed what the risk was but to simply slip this in and not tell customers that's what apple did wrong. hello again i'm fully back to bill with the headlines on al-jazeera north korea says it will send a delegation of athletes supporters and officials. next month's winter olympic games in south korea pyongyang has been holding its first high level discussions

with so since twenty fifteen south korea is considering temporarily lifting sanctions against north korea and has proposed military talks. we came to this meeting today with the serious and sincere attitude and with the thought of giving our brother and who have high hopes for this dialogue invaluable results of the first president of the year. and this is our talks resume after the north and south korean ties have been severed for a long time but i believe the first step is half the journey and i would like to hold this meeting with the tenacity and perseverance. france's president emmanuel mccoy is on the second day of his official visit to china he wants china and the european union to increase trade ties in work on issues such as global warming is expected to sign bilateral agreements with chinese president xi jinping later this tuesday and iranian oil tanker that collided with a freight to tax hikes and higher prices for basic goods and the us government has

decided to end the temporary protective status of more than two hundred sixty thousand immigrants from el salvador protesters rallied against the move outside the white house people from el salvador were allowed to live and work in the u.s. after two large earthquakes in two thousand and one and side stories next. zero. interest rates. building bridges between china and france and backing the new silk road between continents the french president is on a three day visit with trade talking his chinese agenda what do the potential deals mean for both asia and the world this is inside story.

hello i welcome to.