africa at this time on al-jazeera. i've. been. egypt's former military chief of staff is arrested days after announcing he's running for president.

hello again i'm c. ters and this is al jazeera live from london also coming up the united nations says turkey's military offensive in northern syria has displaced five thousand people have many more in need of aid the u.s. justice department confirms that president chum's a cheney general has been questioned over alleged collusion with russia plus. they oscar nominations are out to a fantasy drama the shape of water in a way with thirteen nominations. the last challenge seen as a potential threat to the re-election of egypt's president abdel fattah el-sisi has been detained by the military sami and has also called off his campaign the phone with the chief of staff is the latest in a string of candidates who've been forced to withdraw from the upcoming

presidential elections. yours. just days after he announced his candidacy in his country's upcoming presidential elections egypt's military has arrested former egyptian armed forces chief of staff sami ana. in a televised statement the military said i'm committed violations when he announced his presidential bid without obtaining permits from the armed forces he's also accused of committing forgery to be included in the voter database there are two explanations for. this one is that he actually miscalculated the level of support that he has within the military institution and within the security interest so within the pollen institutions the second one is not mistaken a decision he expected to step and this is not the end of the story you probably see something akin to the action on his part of the part of his loyalists so it's still too early to tell i'm an announced his intention to run hours after current

president of the fatah has sisi declared his plan to seek a second term even before sisi made his candidacy official it wasn't just widely assumed that sisi would prevail in the march elections it was also widely expected that real opposition to sisi was likely to be thin on the ground potential candidates have either already withdrawn or seen their candidacy walked some have blamed an atmosphere of fear to other presidential hopefuls were forced to quit the race earlier this month one of them said that the nephew of former leader anwar sadat said last week he wanted to protect his campaign workers from intimidation or arrest another former prime minister and air force general ahmed shafik had also announced his interest in running but he was placed under house arrest before being deported from the united arab emirates where he'd been living in exile according to his lawyers was detained as soon as he landed in cairo. and then there is egyptian

army colonel ahmed consul in december he was sentenced by a military court to six years in prison after he announced his plans to run for president leaving many to wonder just how serious a threat the military men may have posed to sisi a former military chief of staff. and is somebody with he's a serious contender he was the former chief of staff the deputy head of the supreme council of the armed forces did with body after mubarak and he is much senior in terms of the military command and. so he's somebody who is very well connected with the americans very well connected region in the so he's not someone who was a lightweight of any way during cc's rule which has been marked by a crackdown on freedom of expression human rights groups have been placed under severe restrictions and many critics in the media have been silenced the question now how many more presidential candidates will be added to a seemingly growing list of those being suppressed. so what is some man's

background while he was made military chief of staff in egypt in two thousand and five under former leader hosni mubarak at the time of the revolution in twenty eleven he was closely involved in liaison with the u.s. officials including. the u.s. defense secretary he was forced to resign by former president mohamed morsy in twenty twelve and subsequently formed his own party to fight and elections egyptian analyst says arrows arrest was not unexpected. mr sandman then gambled and he very clearly lost he should have taken a quick look at the short term history with mr mcmahon saw somebody also belonging to the military finding his way to military tribunals for which he paid with six years of his life as well as mr much of who was in a rather comfortable house arrest at the marriott but it was such a restrictive environment that reuters journalist was impeded from merely

interviewing him so the signs were all there but i think that mr and then was gambling gambling that mr sisi has shown some vulnerability has hammered some supports and there's also been some strife within military circles particularly within intelligence circles and i think he felt he may be able to capitalize on. the united nations says turkey's military offensive against the kurdish white b.g. in the african region of syria has displaced an estimated five thousand people. the operation which involves shelling and asterix is now in its fourth day it's believed some eight hundred thousand civilians are living there and many of them displaced from other parts of syria some are said to be too vulnerable to flee activists say at least twenty three civilians have been killed as well as thirty eight kurdish fighters and forty three rebels fighting on the turkish side

a freeness surrounded by turkish and free syrian army forces to the north east and west and syrian government forces to the south spill eve most of those fleeing traveling through government held territory to an enclave inside aleppo city that's controlled by kiddish forces but the syrian observatory for human rights is accusing government forces are blocking them stephanie decker has the latest from taqiyya near they turkey syria border. the village of how man which is now been announced at the f.s.a. have taken a significant why because it lies very close to the turkish border in the area just close to where we are just a further east of a hyundai and it does play into the narrative that we heard from the turkish prime minister just a few days ago that their plan is to establish what he called up to a thirty kilometer security zone pushing the y.p. gee away from its borders it has been a fluid fight however on the ground there are incidents when villages have been taken by the free syrian army and turkish forces and you know

a day or so later retaken by the white b.g. but of course turkey has superiority when it comes to the sky they're flying jets they're bombing from the air and that of course carries with it a huge advantage the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson says russia the ultimate responsibility for the syrian government's use of chemical weapons it comes after at least twenty one people suffered breathing problems after an alleged chemical attack on a rebel held enclave near damascus rebels and the syrian observatory for human rights are accusing the syrian government of being behind the attack a similar attack was reported that ten days ago it has been besieged by government forces since twenty thirty four hundred thousand people are trapped. only yesterday more than twenty civilians most of them children were victims of the per chlorine gas attack. the recent attacks and these are a serious concerns that bashar assad's syrian regime may be continuing its use of

chemical weapons against its own people who were conducted the attacks russia ultimately burbs responsibility for the victims and. and countless other syrian targeted with chemical weapons since russia became involved in syria tillerson was speaking at a conference in paris to launch an international partnership against impunity for the use of chemical weapons that's a small. well the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson really set the tone at this launch of this new anti chemical weapons group here in paris when he said that those who use chemical weapons are carrying out crimes against humanity and that they must not go unpunished well they were ministers here for more than thirty countries and what they said that they would do is work harder to stop the use of chemical weapons to share intelligence on the matter to try and gather evidence of chemical weapons attacks all with the goal of trying to prosecute those who do carry out such

atrocities now of course the focus here was very much on syria the syrian regime has been accused by the united nations of carrying out several attacks over the past few years and we spoke to the u.n. director in new york of human rights watch and what he told us was that while this french initiative is of course very welcome what is really needed is a full investigation by the u.n. security council we shouldn't let the security council get off easy the russians have used their veto eleven times since the war started in syria in two thousand and eleven we cared let them get a pass here they can do things anything that this meeting that the french are setting up can do to put pressure on the russians and others to make sure that the security council gets back in its chairs does its business will be a good thing the u.n.

chief and tony harris said earlier this year that more needs to be done by the u.n. security council to carry out that investigation into what is happening in syria but of course that vetoed by russia eleven times over this investigation means that the u.n. security council has in many ways had its hands tied and the hope is clear that perhaps what will happen in this group will help put more pressure on the security council and russia to try and do more to make sure that that passes broken. and i should nations security council has been meeting to discuss the chemical weapons situation in syria speak to christmas so they were here with the u.n. in russia cold this meeting of the security council so why is that well it was a very last minute decision to hold this meeting called by russia an open meeting it seems to be in direct response to the accusations coming from the united states holding russia accountable for recent chemical weapons attacks united states in

accusing russia of being responsible for these attacks is referring to those eleven vetoes of resolutions that had to do with the conflict in syria three of them specifically russia vetoed to extend the investigative mechanism that the u.n. had established to look into these chemical weapons attacks the investigations up to that point had found that the syrian government and i still forces in the region had been using chemical weapons syria denies those claims and russia claims they're all about accountability but they accuse these investigations of being political and unscientific russia even went so far during the security council meeting to suggest that this new report of a chemical weapons attack in eastern goods that was being manufactured somehow by the west or at the very least exploited to take advantage of the fact that this

meeting was happening in paris and that some talks are coming up on syria listen to the accusations that the a russians and the americans exchanged in the circularity council just a short time ago suddenly going to go to strong's does it not seem strange to anybody that this alleged episode of the prosecutor which is just to be confirmed with but potatoes yet to be identified somehow coincides with the meetings of both pirates on sochi. when russia doesn't like the facts they try and distract the conversation that's because the facts come back over and over again to the truth russia wants to hide that the assad regime continues to use chemical weapons against its own people and groups and is it likely the security council will go along with what the russians are proposing well the russians did say they have a new proposal for an investigative mechanism for chemical weapons attacks in syria

but they have discussed this before and as the united kingdom pointed out in its remarks during the meeting. in the past russia has removed the ability to investigate the syrian government from these investigative. in these investigations the united kingdom accused russia of basically. phrasing them in such a way that there was no way to hold the government of syria accountable it shifted the focus completely to non-state actors in the investigation and this was something that was not acceptable to western countries in the past and is something that they clearly would have to overcome in any new proposals put forth by the russians that said the members of the security council been calling for a way to get back to discussing this issue and a way to hold the perpetrators of these accounts of these attacks accountable so i'm sure they will be looking at this and see if there's any way to go forward but

it will have to overcome these issues that have tied them up in the past in order to go forward many things christus in a way that bringing us the latest from the u.n. security council still to come why u.s. vice president mike pence has become a very popular man in israel. and a deadline for election is in crisis torn venezuela but who will oppose president maduro. welcome back we'll take a look at a straight is weather first of all this time and you can see things looking pretty wet across the top end with some really heavy rain doing through the gulf of carpentaria region so there could be some localized flooding here daryn certainly looks could be wetter time tensile picking up some heavy showers pretty warm for sydney that at thirty one degrees so hot one for alice springs and across western australia so looking pretty warm for perth temperatures dropping fractionally

through thursday but the showers across the north continue through the course of the day and temperatures still in the high twenty's across much of southeastern australia they head across into new zealand here we've got better weather on wednesday for the north on losing the showers still some showers affecting the south island and then through into thursday is geragos much better across much of the country and certainly oakland very pleasant there twenty seven degrees in blue skies up into northeastern parts of asia we've had some really snowy weather affects in this region and tokyo is seen some snow i think for the most part the flows little bit from the southwest so it's going to be a case of just very small accumulations here if at all but for western parts of honshu and the cairo still some very heavy snowfall and still some desperately cold air pushing down from the north behind it with a mix of minus twelve expected in pyongyang.

this is held most dangerous force vicious where the slightest error means a one way tickets over the. realities that men are coming back to more of all those men not to meet other children braving tough conditions facing death at every turn it into a very serious here. though gamble with their lives just took on an if risking it all on al-jazeera. welcome back remind of the top stories here on al-jazeera egyptian presidential candidate has been detained by the military and called off his campaign he was seen

as the only potential threat to be reelected abdel fattah el-sisi thousands of people are fleeing fighting in the northern syrian region of a free normally fourth day of turkish shelling and a ground offensive on the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson says russia bears the ultimate responsibility for the syrian government's use of chemical weapons after the latest suspected gas attack. officials say two car bombs have killed at least twenty two people in the eastern libyan city of benghazi according to officials with eighteen more injured the attack happened in the mali district as worshipers were leaving a local mosque after prayers the victims were security officers affiliated with libya's renegade general khalifa haftar so far there's been no claim of responsibility. the u.s. justice department has confirmed that turney general jeff sessions was questioned last week over alleged collusion between donald trump's presidential campaign and

russia sessions was interviewed for an inquiry led by former f.b.i. director robert mueller it's believed to be the first time a member of president chum's cabinet has been questioned in the choir chum powers described the accusations of collusion as fake news and a witch hunt. from the white house. it certainly is sickness to get of team that's because when it comes to the investigation looking into whether there were ties with the donald trump presidential campaign in russia and whether or not the president tried to obstruct that investigation jeff sessions has unique insights given the fact that on the presidential campaign team he oversaw foreign policy given the fact that he too was very much involved with the firing of the former f.b.i. director james cole me and as well recused himself from that russia investigation something the president has complained bitterly about that sessions in fact should

have done more to protect him but when asked in the oval office whether or not he was concerned about the answers that jeff sessions may have given to investigators donald trump brushed off those suggestions thank you over a much more ground do you think you're going to be relieved a little with you know i'm not a christian and i do hope you know i didn't but i'm not at all concerned you know you didn't get all you did not even a little bit know that he's going to do a good job what isn't clear is whether or not the president will allow himself to be interviewed by robert muller's team he has said yes he will no he won't maybe as of january tenth he said we'll see what happens it certainly would be risky for the president and what isn't clear is the terms of any interview he grounds whether the questions he answers might be written whether this would be a verbal or oral interview but certainly what is clear despite the fact that the president's lawyer has said repeatedly he thought this investigation would be done

by the end of the year not only is it ongoing but it appears to be intensifying. united states vice president light pens visited the western wall in occupied east jerusalem on the second and final day of his visit to israel the wall in the old city is one of the holiest sites in judaism hence was shown around the sun by a rabbi earlier in the day he met israeli president ruben rivlin and toured the holocaust memorial and palestinians have held a general strike over the vice president's visit the u.s. decision to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel shops transport and public services were closed across the occupied west bank and east jerusalem in protest the ruling party fatah called for the strike saying it was the beginning of a peaceful struggle against the move forces more from occupied east jerusalem. well after his speech to the israeli parliament the knesset on monday tuesday saw mike pence and his host really doing something of

a victory lap given just how much support there has been for the tenor of that speech which was seen as incredibly supportive of israel without really any other side of that coin and there was very very little in terms of any kind of appeal to the israelis to change any course of action in terms of their relationship with the palestinians or anything else it was seen as a speech almost unqualified in its support of israel so when meeting the israeli president reagan rivlin mr rivlin called mr pence a mench a man of integrity and honor mike pence in his comments during that meeting talking about jerusalem once again being the capital of israel as far as united states is concerned very much the watchwords of his visit so far has been repeating that phrase many times saying that he still saw a possibility of progress in the peace process with the palestinians based on that fact of course for the palestinian perspective that is no longer a prospect the u.s.

being a mediator or a broker in the peace process there was a statement to that effect from saberi cad the long time negotiator and now chair of the executive committee of the palestine liberation organization mr pence then went on to visit the holocaust memorial vashem with the israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu and then came to occupied east jerusalem to visit the western wall the holiest site which jews can pray at in jerusalem and he said that that visit was inspiring he now returns united states with the fulsome praise of his israeli hosts here but also the even more certain condemnation of the palestinians who now say it with even more certainty that the united states cannot be part of the process going forward. israel has again accused the un human rights council of unfair treatment during a meeting in geneva at a review of the country's rights record many states to end arbitrary detentions and the torture of palestinian prisoners as well as to war to fight racism inside

israel there has been following events and past more from geneva. well the last time israel's human rights record was under review here that was five years ago these rallies actually boycotted the session well on tuesday there was an israeli delegation here and they pointed out several areas in which they said there had been improvements in the human rights situation in israel for example increasing access to legal aid for the country's bedouin arab population setting up an action plan to combat racism against people of ethiopian origin and fighting human trafficking but what many countries talked about was the country's obligations to protect the human rights of palestinians living in the occupied palestinian territories so east jerusalem the west bank and gaza israel is the only state in the world that can be called an apartheid state we remain deeply concerned at the

denial of the right of self-determination to the palestinian people in the absence of which no other human rights can be exercised or enjoyed in this regard south africa's of the view that the issue of east jerusalem and the two state solution are fundamental to the right to self-determination of the palestinian people or that brought a protest from israel about inappropriate language and after the session israel's ambassador here suggested the delegation hadn't got a fair hearing we came to see if you are with the hope of having a constructive exchange the many recommendations and comments that have been made the member states will be carefully reviewed. unfortunately. as i have mentioned in my concluding remarks some representatives have decided once again to raise this opportunity to wage a political campaign against israel and its try today exerted discussion to make terrorists they do not belong to different human rights agenda with the un report

on israel's human rights situation is due to be adopted here later this week but in the past israel has not allowed you. and reporters to carry out their own investigations so the mistrust between israel and some of the member states of the human rights council is likely to continue for some time pakistani police have arrested a man suspected of raping and killing a seven year old girl they never his body was found in a rubbish dump earlier this month the suspect was arrested near the city of casts where the girl was found and there sparked outrage on social media and led to protests across pakistan. that's been a regional condemnation of the decision in venezuela to help presidential elections at some point before the end of april a group of north and south american nations has rejected the move by the pro-government constituent assembly president nicolas maduro is expected to seek reelection but it's unclear who from the divided opposition will stand against him

venezuela is suffering from an ongoing economic crisis for lack of basic food stuffs staple goods and medicines. they are going to nations have been and i don't see how they would it's so wide open to fail for best picture there were signs that the industry has been influenced by several high profile sexual misconduct scandals reports from the sanctions and congratulations to all the nominees the academy award nominations inch toward greater racial and gender diversity reflecting the error of the meat to black lives manner movements they can probably be fairly happy that they've come up with a respectable set of nominees i don't think that's going to be too much shock and horror i think it's been such an incredible year for women in film both female director reddick gerwig was nominated for lady bird the fifth woman ever nominated in that category which has been won by a woman only once in two thousand and nine my daughter was murdered seven months

ago nominated for best female actor in three billboards outside and being missouri frances mcdormand character epitomizes indomitable and unstoppable woman demanding the truth and justice i don't think those billboards is very fair to the film focuses on timely issues of violence against women and corrupt abusive policing i have. my own side of this story notably absent from a best actor nomination was the disaster artist star james franco who was recently accused of sexual harassment and i think that my son has cost him a nomination. to do you know in black. nominated for best picture get out is a horror film satirizing race relations its director jordan peele became the fifth black best director nominee in history get out star daniel called louis is now in

the running for best male actor. as is denzel washington for roman j. izrael esquire just come the two african-americans mary j. blige and octavia spencer received best supporting female actor nominations. in other nonce to diversity the gay romance called me by your name was nominated for best picture and mexican director guillermo del toro's the shape of water one of the most nominations with thirteen including best picture and best director i would say now that these nominations are coming through the set of what's known as for any problem if the show from russia but it's not way ahead of the pack could the story of a tender love affair between a mute cleaning woman end in amphibian humanoid creature really wins the film wins

top prize winners territory stranger things have happened. hollywood's elite will have an opportunity to make more comments on issues of social and cultural importance during the award ceremony itself which this year will take place on march fourth robert oulds al jazeera los angeles and we're not going to take you to life pictures coming out from the philippines where they may own volcano. active volcano is continuing to rumble spewing lava and ash there are three major clausen choose day authorities one divine interruption in our own to. time for another quick look at the main story is the last challenger seen as a potential threat to the reelection of a gyptian president of the federal c.c.

has been detained by the military and has called off his campaign former military chief of staff formally declared his intention to run as a presidential candidate on saturday the military says and then hasn't obtained the correct permits and committed forgery to be included in the voter database. thousands of people are fleeing fighting in the northern syrian region of africa in amid turkish shelling and the ground operation turkey's offensive which also involves airstrikes is now in its fourth day it's believed some eight hundred thousand civilians are living there many of them displaced from other parts of syria. the u.s. secretary of state says russia bears the ultimate responsibility for the syrian government's use of chemical weapons rex tillerson says twenty one people who suffered breathing problems in a rebel held and place near damascus on monday were victims of

a suspected chlorine gas attack only yesterday thought it was the civilians most of them children were victims of the chlorine gas that recent attacks and. concerns that bashar assad's syrian regime may be continuing its use of chemical weapons against its own people. whoever conducted the attacks russia ultimately bears responsibility for the victims in the us and countless other syrians targeted with chemical weapons since russia became involved in syria the u.s. justice department has confirmed attorney general jeff sessions was questioned last week over alleged collusion between its presidential campaign and russia is believed to be the first time a member of president tom's cabin that has been questioned in the required it by former f.b.i. director robert mueller you know if it stays a vice president like pence's visited the western wall in occupied east jerusalem

during the second and final day of his visit to israel the wall in the city is one of the holiest sites in judaism. that was the news from a coming next risking a toll with the pakistani truck drivers travelling along one of the world's most dangerous for the nature news as it breaks the u.s. cut the funding has cemented the feeling here that the u.s. is now part of the problem and it's picked the israeli side detailed coverage the nigerian government insists negotiations are ongoing to secure the release of the girls and hundreds of others held by paul bora from around the world three decades on chileans are still thinking about abuses but this time those committed by the church.