eating they say is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's been out to distance just posted a story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera. i am doing this on the benefit of saddam people. so they see me important. witness documentaries that open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera. corruption and conflict high on the agenda as african union leaders hold their

annual summit in ethiopia. hello i'm adrian forgive this is al jazeera live from joe also coming up pro-democracy groups call for demonstrations as one of hong kong's most prominent activist says barred from standing for election. donald trump calls for decisive action against the taliban after ninety five people were killed in a suicide attack in kabul suppost secure district. and from fighters to politicians colombia's form of fog rebels begin a new chapter for the public is skeptical. we begin in ethiopia where leaders from fifty five african union nations a meeting for the organizations annual summits corruption conflict and funding for the a you are some of the issues which are high on the agenda palestinian authority

president mahmoud abbas is also attending and is expected to seek the a you support on the palestinian issue al-jazeera as mohammed out of reports now from this of about. they come together from all over the continent in the city that give to the concept of african unity the issue of independent financing for their fricken union and white out informal the organization large and tackling corruption in africa will also dominate discussions here but it's tough to be skeptical lou list time. city analysts say again because where is it going to help those who are in this to it's in this good meeting here taking hours until. the african union will name prison muhammadu buhari of nigeria as its first ever on to corruption champion for the year two thousand and eighteen it's an endorsement seen as article permission

for president bodies efforts in the fight against graft in nigeria all eyes will likely be on this month though for one president paul kagame it will not only tickle last chairman of the a huge general assembly but is also expected to use his year of the home to push through the agenda he developed far more independent a year money has always been a sticking point at the u. it now wants to hobbits activities bungled by its members the self financing scheme requires member states to levy a single point two percent tax on illegitimate imports to finance the union but so far just twenty one of the fifty five member states of implemented it having a predictable financing for our security financing programmes and also development programs is a prerequisite which means that we need to create a mindset kind of spirit that the african union can shoulder its own development programs twenty eighteen promises to be have been more eventful for the african

union eighteen of its member states have elections in fourteen of them eight are in conflict imagine for one or have a history of four five. the a use chronically understaffed and underfunded department for political office cannot effectively morning to all these contests its officials say they will concentrate just on bills requiring more scrutiny still there are problems but africa now is taking its own problems by its own by its own solutions african solutions. there will be multiple absentees from the summit this year zimbabwe's robot mugabe among gloss hall said water till some tools veterans of the struggles of previous both of whom have stepped down after almost four decades in. their departure some say is proof of a continent headed in the right direction. and mamet is with us now live from paris

have corruption always it seems on the agenda at the african union are they merely paying lip service to it or is someone genuinely willing to tackle the issue. well again it's hard to be skeptical of a governing officer to fly leaders majority of them coming from pantries that widespread corruption this causing of lies that might have seen some of them are sent to power many people are skeptical whether they can deal with corruption as it is supposed to be but others see it as progress that they have now come to terms with the idea of even discussing it and using president of nigeria as an icon and as. i can a man who has taken corruption head on in nigeria. is something that many see that

he could act as some sort of. loses a lot of money through corruption on the feeling here is that one dollar lost to corruption is one dollar less for funding education and health care and all other needs of the peoples of the continent and that it's now time to not only talk about it but also go step father and deal with it whether they can do it in the short term still up in there our support for palestinian president. and the palestinian cause there are a huge given israel's extensive interests throughout the continent. israel has been getting closer to the african continent with president and yahoo traveling prime minister netanyahu traveling to africa twice just the last year but these a lot of sympathy to the palestinian cause something that's being led by south

africa which is also a huge influence over the continent so yes palestinian president mahmoud abbas is here he will address the african leaders gathered here and many people. many of the countries here still support the palestinian cause despite israel getting more closely with up a can countries in the past the king mohammed many thanks to the habit of reporting live from the african union summit in at this hour. one of hong kong's most prominent pro-democracy activists has been barred from standing in a byelection the government says that agnes chao cannot be a candidate because her party's political platform violates the territories electra laws the twenty one year old is a member of hong kong the hong kong group that once was ptolemy from china the decision is seen as the latest move in the government's crackdown against opposition hala titian so let's take you live now to hong kong al-jazeera is that

vehicle polland is this it seems that supporting self determination phone call was enough to get you barred from an election in the territories that why there was so much outrage over the decision. that's right a.j. and in fact thousands or even tens of thousands of people are expected to gather here i mean right in front of the government offices this is called civic square this is where a lot of hong kong's democracy protests were in previous years particularly the umbrella movement one of the largest protests this kind this territory has ever seen people are expected to gather here to express their outrage their disappointment at the government so basically what's happened is a couple of years ago there was an unprecedented number of pro-democracy candidates in the legislative council but rules tightened and many of them were ousted and their seats are now empty so agnes child was running for one of those seats and it

all seemed fine until friday when this decision was made that she wouldn't be allowed to stand for elections because her party says hong kong should have a referendum in twenty forty seven to determine its own future and so people are very angry about that saying that the government is using all kinds of means to give the pro-democracy camp less of a chance and the candidate she's running against is very much probate jing and so it seems like the hong kong government is favoring that candidate or supporter that this child have over her chances of winning in this by election. well the interesting thing is she is from joshua wong's party hong kong's pro-democracy icon and also she's standing in for a seat that one of her former party members had been ousted from he is now currently on bail along with joshua wong for the twenty four thousand pro-democracy

protests so in light of that she had a lot of support from many people on the pro-democracy camp and also the young generation here many of them saw her as a credible opposition against the haunch probe aging camp and so she did have a lot of support and that's part of the reason why there is so much reaction to her being ousted in they're also concerned that this will is now set a precedent where other pro good democracy candidates who may want to contest elections will somehow be barred for reasons due to their personal political stands to be and many thanks indeed to be a part of their reporting live from hong kong. u.s. president all of trump has called for decisive action against the taliban claimed responsibility for saturday's suicide bomb attack in afghanistan at least ninety five people were killed in kabul a bowl of one hundred ninety of those injured by explosives that were hidden inside an ambulance that all managed to get through security in the city's most heavily

protected area i'll just hear as jennifer glass has the latest now from. prison ashraf ghani has declared several days of mourning here in afghanistan you can see the national flag flying at half staff as all the flags will be across the country it is to allow at the afghan people to mourn with those killed and injured in that massive bomb attack here in kabul on saturday afternoon the u.s. president has joined the chorus of condemnations from around afghanistan and around the world saying that the united states remains committed to supporting a stable afghanistan and calling on countries to take decisive action against those who support this how. one really a veiled remark to pakistan which the united states and afghanistan accuses of supporting the taliban a charge that islam abroad denies the united states has already stopped hundreds of millions of dollars of aid to pakistan because it's of alleged support of armed groups also in this put six men on the u.s.

terror list including a number of pakistani citizens because of their alleged support of the taliban and the question here is what more can be done already airstrikes have more than doubled in two thousand and seventeen against the taliban thousands more u.s. troops have come in to support the afghan national security forces president ashraf ghani was meeting with the commander of u.s. forces actually of central command general just a votel he was here in kabul when that attack happened on saturday he reaffirmed the u.s. support for the afghan national security forces and they are out in full force across the afghan capital today checking cars checking people looking for anyone suspicious as the funerals get underway we're going to weather update next when i was there and then building time in china i will tell you why prices for traditional medicine are going through the roof plus. on long sleeve with the

second of all reports from the of rough river where refugees have accused the greek police of using violence and intimidation to illegally push them back over the river into turkey. from the waves of the cells. to the contours of the east. hello and welcome to your international weather forecast as we look at europe's weather many southern areas are actually looking draw and find at the moment system to this area of high pressure further towards the north we've got frontal systems pushing in bringing some rain indeed for the towards east some snows across the baltic states for instance a brace of snow pushing across poland but generally a sort of moderate westerly winds coming in and as we head south well things are looking pretty good returns through into the mediterranean for the most part over this little area of rain here that is quite nice see some storms associated with

that one now as we head on into monday that area of rain disappears and most southern areas are looking to draw in fine pleasant rome fifteen athens looking at highs of sixteen on the other side of the mediterranean that circulation is going to give you some snow over the atlas mountains and generally could be some lifted dust as we get that circulation bringing winds up from the south so as you head into central parts of africa all looking fine here or there's quite a bit of cloud across parts of west africa but sunshine for akron ghana and lagos nigeria with a high of thirty two degrees into southern portions of the continent heavy showers across angola some be in zimbabwe towards mozambique and tanzania further south and showers in the eastern part of south africa but cape town looking warm and sunny. the weather sponsored by cats are at peace. facing realities growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place the so-called secret city getting to the heart of the matter the me

and maher government calls you a gringo lead terrorist hear their story on talk to al-jazeera at this time. i get the top stories this hour on al-jazeera corruption and conflict a set top the agenda at a meeting of the african union leaders from the fifty five member nations are gathering for annual summit in ethiopia's capital at this hour about. hong kong's most prominent pro-democracy activists has been barred from standing for election

the government says that actress child cannot be a candidate in the byelection because her party's political platform violates the territories electoral laws charles party wants war torn away from china. and us president obama trump is calling for decisive action against the taliban after the group claimed responsibility for saturday's suicide attack in kabul at least ninety five people were killed and more than one hundred ninety others injured when the bomber detonated explosives that were inside an ambulance which is white sister rector of the center for political and military analysis at the hudson institute he says the afghan taliban cannot be defeated without cooperation from neighboring pakistan. i imagine that this may lead to more pressure on pakistan and perhaps russia china and other countries that are close to pakistan to tighten up supplies and support for the taliban there's no clear easy answer to know what you would do next prevent these kind of attacks the government of pakistan for the

past decade and a half has worked closely with the u.s. and other countries to try and crack down on terrorism that could affect pakistan and large the at various times in afghanistan but there are appeared to be groups within pakistan fictive the security forces that see added advantage in having the taliban there is an instrumental and or as a hedge against the the what we mentioned before a u.s. withdrawal there are others who want to use terrorism against india more directly and therefore but but the effect of that is to encourage other terrorist groups so the problem is they can't we can't just deal with the afghan question isolation we have to deal with it as a south asia question and now more broadly now that russia and china are more involved turkey's military says that it's killed nearly five hundred kurdish y p g faces in the past week in northern syria it says the fighters who it cools terrorists but been neutralized with

a campaign to take out free the figures haven't been independently verified and don't include civilian deaths the syrian observatory for human rights says that thirty eight civilians have been killed so the keys to the trees trying to push could as faces from the border area. syrian activists are accusing the government of violating a ceasefire in eastern guta activists say that five people have been killed since the deal came into effect on saturday on friday syria's opposition confirmed that it received an offer from russia for a cease fire deal the area is the last remaining rebel stronghold near the capital damascus. police and russia raided the moscow office of opposition leader alexey developed the head of the. nationwide anti-government protests the valet says the police shut down the live feed of his opposition t.v. station police say that they were looking for a bomb that only called for demonstrations after he was barred from running in march his presidential election his candidacy was rejected last month over his

conviction for a financial crime which he says is politically motivated spain's top court has ruled that castle odious former leader colace push to mount must attend parliament if he wants to get permission to form a new government the judges said that tuesday's session of the catalan parliament will be suspended if pushed him out is reelected without being in the chamber he's been living in exile in brussels since october he's wanted on charges of sedition and rebellion for spearheading the secession referendum in october. the czech republic's populist president we lost a man has been re-elected for a second term of the vote highlighting deep social divisions as a man's campaign was based on anti immigration he nearly narrowly defeated his pro european rival draft horse the pro russian incumbent has strong support among rural voters his opponent was largely backed by wealthier people in towns and cities. refugees trying to enter greece through its northern land border with turkey have

told al-jazeera that they've been threatened and forced to go back in breach of international humanitarian law or they claim it happened near the everest river which flows from more than one hundred fifty kilometers from bulgaria to the mediterranean sea the greek police of the night the allegations al-jazeera as long as they report stuff from northern greece. from the hills of northern greece the places in turkey where refugees hideouts before trying to cross easy to see the crossing countries means crossing the intimidating river it's ease the greece turkey border more and more refugees are attempting this route even though they know how dangerous it is. even outside the risk of drowning or dying of cold in these huge empty spaces any number of refugees have told us that confessions and forcibly turned around by greek police acting in coordination with frontex the european union's border agency these eighteen year old syrian was in a smugglers boat with his younger sister. the police came up to us in the boat they

told us you can't cross and they made us turn around these two traffickers claim they witnessed a boat load of passengers being shot at from the greek side and i can with part of it that again they saw the greek military they threw themselves back into the dinghy and started going back but the greeks shot three bullets into the dinghy and it started to sink one of them didn't know how to swim if his friend hadn't helped him he would have drowned. this syrian actually got a cross walk miles to a village before being stopped at a row checkpoint kid in therapy they said you're arab and you look like you're going to go to europe they looked around our whole group of nine and took us all off the bus they didn't beat us up but they took us back to the river and pushed us in a boat back to the turkish military police on the hill. all of those things are illegal under international law increasingly though it looks like europe has given up worrying about such things. the european commission more grief and pushback were legal as long ago in two thousand and thirteen but since then greece itself hungary

bulgaria slovenia all built fences to keep refugees out and many other countries simply closed their borders and the european commission did absolutely nothing about its growth of the thoughts of everybody else is there and yes they want to wait. the police who previously given us access to their fence and border patrols gave us a statement denying that they turn any refugees around and claim their priority is human dignity but human rights advocates say they know pushbacks happen all the time and accuse the greek governments of breaking international law is only one choice to follow the law if you start by passing a law means that your rule of law system is collapsing in these the problem with goes together with refugee crisis we call it goes into refugees garcia was in the reception crises in the rule of law crisis for you know the river itself is

regarded as a military zone on both sides it's also so remote there is no scrutiny of law enforcement what is undeniable is the refugees have died in large unreported numbers trying to get across this intimidating stretch of the water and there is no safe route whatsoever to europe on the land border for people seeking asylum and safety from. grossly al-jazeera for the ever also. join us again on monday to see the next of lawrence's special reports on the refugee crisis he'll be in the city if that's a lot to keep in greece where the local government is struggling to cope with a surge in the number of refugees. seven survivors from a missing ferry have been found drifting at sea for days after the boat sank near the pacific island nation of killer bass they were found by a lifeboat in by the in a lifeboat rather by the new zealand air force among them was an unconscious baby around fifty people were on the ferry the been no signs yet of any other survivors

there could be more floods in paris this weekend as the same rivers level continues to rise but the french capital's mess has conditions won't be as bad as in twenty sixteen when two people died weeks of rainfall flooded riverside walkways and restaurants the louvre museum it's basement has been closed and tourist boats of been stopped have stopped operating until the water subsides likely in my example the flood is less significant in terms of the volume of rising water compared to that or twenty sixteen because currently we are at five point seven one meters and we should peak between five point eight and six meters maximum in the water levels in twenty sixteen great six point ten meters so a little less considerable but nevertheless very impacting particularly for economic activity is linked to the river thousands of people have marched through the streets of havana to mark the anniversary of the birth of cuban independence

hero was a marty students and senior communist party members including president raul castro took part in the procession not is considered a key planner of the nineteen the eighteen ninety five war of independence against spanish rule marchers carrying torches and flags filled the streets at the entrance to the university of havana president castro is expected to step down in a pool. former fark rebels in colombia have launched their campaign for upcoming elections with a promise to fight poverty the parliamentary and presidential votes will mark their party's election debut thousands of foreign fighters handed in their weapons hundred twenty sixteen peace deal. got as of today i am a candidate for president of the republic representing my party the far and i'm committed to head the government of transition to generate the conditions for the dearth of the new colombia a government that will for the first time finally represent the needs of the poor

in colombia ecuador says it's working with neighboring colombia to investigate two separate explosions on saturday a bomb went off near a police station in the north of ecuador close to its border with colombia and a second attack outside a police station in the colombian city of baron keeler killed at least five policemen and wounded forty two others it's not known if the two incidents are linked the finance chairman of the us republican national committee has resigned over allegations of harassment and sexual assault servile women told the wall street journal that steve wynn had made unwanted advances and pressured them to perform sex acts when denies the allegations calling them posterous the casino tycoon led fundraising efforts during donald trump's first year in office diane esterbrook reports from washington. well steve wynn said that he was stepping down as finance chairman of the republican national committee because he didn't want to be a distraction to president trump or the party when is

a billionaire casino owner who is the latest person to get swept up in the sexual harassment scandal that has been sweeping the u.s. women and actually president trump have been rivals at one point in the casino business when the president trump only can see you know in atlantic city but they were friendly and he was tapped by the president to come on as the finance chairman when the president took office last year but he said that he could not stay on again because he didn't want to be a distraction going into these highly contentious midterm elections coming up in the fall he most recently held fund raising events at the president's mar a lago retreat in florida and had also had a recent fund raising event in new york city but because the republican party had been so critical of the democrats for their close relationship with harvey weinstein when staying on

a spine announced chairman just really wasn't possible and so that had a lot to do with him stepping down hackers have stolen five hundred thirty million dollars from clean check one of asia's leading crypto currency exchange companies it's the largest ever digital currency hack of its kind a japanese firm since restrictive trading all of the drools of the digital currency known as and. some scientists in the west of long disputed the therapeutic value of traditional chinese medicine but it seems that it's growing in popularity both at home and abroad bride reports now from the country's biggest traditional medicine markets in the city of bojo where business is never been better. it's early in the trading hole is packed. wholesale buyers pick over the samples of the plants animal parts and minerals that are the basis for traditional chinese medicine. orders placed here set prices across china. so you've been

a trader for twenty years has only seen those prices go up ya gotta be a while and i've seen tremendous changes over time you see green used to sell at sixteen dollars behalf now it's thirty times that at four hundred seventy five dollars janet on the side hanoi treated as a pseudo science by many for its followers and that includes most older chinese it guarantees good health and increasing popularity abroad is not lost on china's leaders looking for soft power cultural exports to support china's growing international status traditional chinese medicine has been given the best type of tonic with support from president xi jinping who's describe it as the gem of traditional chinese science and the communist party has been pushing for tiny's medicine to be given equal status with western medicine but while many doctors

agree that traditional medical principles and beliefs have a value they warn against using ancient remedies that could do more harm than good when we send that if you're taking the medicines used by the ancient chinese they may contain things that are harmful to your health that's different from traditional medical theories. back in the trading halls in bojo such concerns are largely dismissed ancient remedies they say can exist happily alongside modern medicine still do to our complimentary you can go to a hospital to get modern treatment but traditional medicine works well in prevention this has become a belief for people. with that belief comes increasing spending power to ensure the market for those. keeps on booming the pride al-jazeera bojo city china .

gets everywhere that's a very unforgiving here in doha the top stories this hour from al-jazeera leaders of the fifty five member nations of the african union a gathering for their annual summit in ethiopia's capital addison from where mohamed atta reports. what of all the woodcutting option the biggest problems afflicting and continent but key in the discussions that will happen here today on moral issues all institutional and financial hold all that up the union how can the organization representing with the five african countries be more robust and also how can it be bankrolled by its own members one of hong kong's most prominent pro-democracy activists has been barred from standing for election the government says that agnes chao cannot be a candidate in a byelection because her party's political platform violates the territories electoral rules china's pass he wants more autonomy from china u.s.

president donald trump is calling for decisive action against the taliban after the group claimed responsibility for saturday's suicide attack in kabul at least ninety five people were killed more than one hundred ninety others injured when the bomber detonated explosives that were inside an ambulance. turkey's military says that it's killed nearly five hundred kurdish fighters in the past week in northern syria it says the fighters who it calls terrorists had been neutralized in the campaign to take our freedom the figures have been independently verified and don't include civilian deaths. police in russia have raided the moscow office of the opposition leader alexina valley ahead of nationwide anti-government protests around he says the police shut down the live feed of his opposition t.v. for station police say they were looking for a bomb of only cool for demonstrations after he was barred from running in march his presidential election. seven survivors from

a missing ferry have been found drifting at sea for days after the boat sank near the pacific island nation of killer bass they were found by the lifeboats by the usual of the air force around fifty people were on the ferry but in those signs yet of any other survivors. there's the headlines i'll be back with more news for you here on al-jazeera right after talk to al-jazeera next to this is really an attack on it for itself is a lot of a sudden the standing of what free speech is supposed to be about the context of hugely important setting the stage for a serious debate up front at this time on al-jazeera international and. you will. see. the my act plant in the southern europeans birthplace of the soviet union's nuclear weapons program. today it reprocess the spent nuclear fuel but fifty years ago

my ex offered what's thought to be the world's third worst nuclear accident that was covered up until the one nine hundred eighty s. vast areas of land were contaminated including.