new trade and travel rates jumping up to. february on al-jazeera. facing realities going 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 why ease activists to live in jail just because he expressed himself he had a story on talk to al-jazeera at this time. gasping for breath new video images of the suspected use of chlorine gas on rebel held areas in syria's province.

although i'm not matheson this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. we simply cannot allow and stand idly by to see the total destruction of the democracy in venezuela the u.s. secretary of state calls for argentina's support against nicolas maduro as he tries to rally regional leaders against the venezuelan president and. thousands of greeks protest over the use of the name macedonia by the neighboring former yugoslav republic. sixteen bodies are recovered off the coast of morocco the latest in a number of deadly attacks across in the mediterranean. at least nine people have been injured in a suspected chlorine gas attack in syria's northwestern italy province activists video shows people being treated in the town of socket they report. a foul smell

following a raid by syrian government aircraft it follows another suspected fourteen attack by president assad's forces on duma in rebel held eastern ghouta that was the third reported chlorine attack there in fifteen days and at least eleven people have been killed in russian and syrian government airstrikes in lives southern countryside the strikes targeted a hospital in the village of moderate a new man and also caused extensive damage to several buildings in the novel and. now this all comes just a day after a russian fighter jet was shot down above the town of saddam head three opposition factions in syria say they were behind the attack this is video from the army it's one of the groups that says they took down the fighter jet to russia's defense ministry says the pilot ejected but was killed in a fight on the ground the syrian government backed by russian air power as launched a campaign to push out the rebels from in december. well i spoke about these latest

attacks with syrian affairs on a list under a table from the washington institute for near east policy i began by asking him whether he thought the suspected clothing attack inside a cab was related to saturday's shooting down of a russian fighter jet be hard to say i don't think that details are still still sketchy it is part of the general escalation of that area but it will take some time to try and sort it out the u.s. has said that the world needs to try to find a way of stopping these attacks can that be done. certainly we're getting down to punish the regime for the use of chemical weapons stopping them would require stopping all air strikes or artillery strikes the outside regime and that's it unlikely do you think russia is going to feel pressured to stop these attacks by the acid regime i think they feel some pressure but chlorine is not among the banned substances. syria's not allowed to use chlorine as a weapon of course is

a signatory to the chemical weapons convention. but russia is i think very concerned about u.s. accusations of the use of cera inside syria which is substance they should no longer have israeli planes have been carrying out air strikes in northern sinai with the approval of egyptian president abdel fattah el-sisi that's according to the new york times it says unmarked israeli war planes and helicopters have conducted dozens of raids in egypt over the past two years egyptian forces have been fighting isolating groups which have launched attacks in the region have been reports on the cooperation between egypt and israel before but it's always been denied by both governments imran khan has the latest from west to say them. so his the original reports in sunday's new york times they'll have to say the reporting is all from british and american former security officials who spoke to the new york times none of it's actually come from either israel or egypt and we reached

out to the israeli army for comment they say they weren't going to comment on this case but clearly it's a very big story both in the hebrew language and the english language post now take a look at this this horace they're reporting fairly similar things israel conducted over one hundred s. strikes on isis in egypt using the new york times as a base the jerusalem post here as well just take a look at this israel struck over one hundred targets in sinai with caro's ok now this is going to be controversial for both countries there's a hard right here in israel that says it doesn't want any cooperation with these arab neighbors particularly when it comes to military that the israeli army should be completely independent also in egypt it's going to be controversial as well particular within the t.v. stations are very critical of any cooperation with israel when it comes to military matters now i did speak to a former israeli military official and i asked him why this cooperation might be

taking place he says simply they're very worried about groups like isis and massing on their borders so it makes sense that something like this to take place u.s. secretary of state directs tillerson is in argentina seeking its support for tough action against venezuela's leader the u.s. blames nicolas maduro for economic and political crises that have led to violent protests and shortages of basic necessities the reports from going to set us. washington regards latin america as its backyard that's why secretary of state rex tillerson is here with the u.s. believes it should have an influence but it's a region that often feels neglected by or is in conflict with the superpowers of the north. a few years ago argentina like many of its neighbors was governed by left of center leaders adults with washington and sympathetic to venice whalers then president chavez not anymore who wants an end of the crisis in venezuela the

question is how one of the aspects of considering sanctioning all is what effect will it have on of it as well and people. it is is it a step that might bring this to an end to a more rapid and a more rapid close because not doing anything to bring this to an end is also asking the venezuelan people to suffer for a much longer time the venezuelan president nicolas maduro blames the united states and its allies for trying to undermine his socialist government and then another model was they have inherited the arrogance the imperial arrogance of believing that with a button and a plan in english the bolivarian revolution is finished with a declaration from the head of the empire calling me a dictator it's over the dictatorship has already fallen as they call it with a statement by secretary of state to tell us and we are going to surrender they do not know us they do not know our strength. the auction time president. is now one

of those in the region most critical of the venice whale and government mr tillerson wants to work with him all of us in the region to save it as well return to his constitution we just this is heart wrenching to watch what is happening to them as one people this way there is suffering food and medicine shortages inflation is rampant crime is rising and thousands cross the borders every day in search of provisions for a better life mr tillotson visit to lodge in sr is to show that washington cares about latin america but the region's long term interests lie with the united states and not with china or russia he praised the argentine government's austerity driven investor friendly economic model much like that of the current us administration that it's not something you would have a few years ago the secretary of state is emphasizing with the two countries can cooperate trade defense fighting terrorism and drug trafficking not so much on

immigration they'll be similar bridge building when he moves on to peru and colombia that. one of cyrus i'll tell you more as a lot in america analyst and a journalist with the online publication news and news dot com he says tell us and is trying to intimidate him or do it all into changing his behavior. the issue with all those who oppose the but as on the senator said when the human rights abuses and everything that's going on with events on the government is that so it has taken this long to get engaged in the venezuela crisis we had an opportunity last year when the organization of american states tried to deal with the venezuela if you convening a couple of meetings the foreign ministers and tillerson didn't go even though one of them was in washington d.c. so i think now my guess is that what he's trying to do is is put the fear of god in maduro by raising the possibility of a military coup sort of reaching out in this way to the venezuelan military because

the reality is unless the venezuelan military does turn against mother or there is little chance that things are going to change in but as well because people have suffered so much are struggling so much survive on a daily basis that the chance of any kind of real revolution seems very small but latin american countries like argentina certainly favor some change in that as well polls have closed in costa rica's presidential election the campaigns been dominated by the issue of same sex marriage thirteen candidates have running to replace outgoing president and we've got a young solis who's been constitutionally barred from seeking a second consecutive time the presidential race has been overshadowed by an intern american court of human rights ruling calling on costa rica to legalize same sex marriage. tens of thousands of greeks have rallied in the capital athens urging the government not to compromise in a long running name row with neighboring macedonia greece has blocks the former yugoslav republic from joining nato and the e.u.

saying its name implies a claim over a greek province also called macedonia john psaropoulos reports from athens. the message was clear macedonians are greeks and no one other than the greeks should be allowed to use the name macedonia greeks refer to the neighborhood by the name of its capital city skopje their opinion is important because they held a power of veto over its entry to nato and the european union he might give the union to me again as anyone macedonian is greek greek people will not accept the fact of a name we determine to show that we went out to history under the terms that can be no european plus spectroscope yes this was greece's official position until about a decade ago it has since accepted the use of the composites name such as northern also love macedonia and a new government in scope is willing to die you to the countries constitutional name republic of macedonia so the basis for a compromise in theory exists the question is can the two societies accept it the

greeks have been through an eight year economic depression they have lost one hundred over their national finances and budgets vacuum alienation has been compounded by the fact that many european media have denied even that ancient provenance they have now said with one voice that their identity and history are not up for negotiation most greeks agreed that the use of the name by non greeks implies a fictitious ethnicity and to fester as part of their own ancient history their budget like the new poisonous looks of this new message arnie a nation alexander the great was educated doing great by aristotle whenever he won a battle he put up a monument to st this big tree was won by all the greats he didn't differentiate between me. it's a journey and seeing great a generation of kids in skopje has grown up with this myth but that's their problem some observers say inflated expectations are a greek problem as well many people in greece felt that at some point there would

be some kind of ideal solution without the the word macedonia and everything would be solved that way the fact that diplomacy means eventually some painful decisions. the methods that message was not passed through greek society by our elites the government in athens is to send its proposals to scope here in the next two weeks the crowds here warn against diplomacy without the people jump rope los al-jazeera athens cyprus president has won a runoff election with fifty six percent of the vote because honest as the others confidently beat his challenger started a small us the vote could determine the resumption of peace talks in the divided island a un administered demilitarized zone running through the capital nicosia has divided turkish controlled north and greek dominated south cyprus since nine hundred seventy four the bodies of sixteen migrants have been recovered off the coast of

morocco and it's the latest in a number of deadly attempts to reach europe so far this year according to the international organization for migration more than two hundred forty people have died or gone missing in the mediterranean since the new year began catherine stansell has more. this is becoming the new routes to europe for would be migrants more than a dozen bodies were pulled out of these waters near malea spanish enclave bordering morocco most of them were from north africa trying to get year up via the so-called western mediterranean route as opposed to arriving in greece or italy twenty eighteen may have only just begun but it's already proving to be a deadly year for those trying to seek a better life in europe. on wednesday more than one hundred migrants were rescued from rubber boats off the coast of tripoli. and on friday it's believed ninety people were on a boat that sank off the coast of libya the sole survivor told authorities that

many were from pakistan he along with thirty two other pakistanis were brought to the world that will be in the deep sea off the course off the bottle. these people were being illegally transported to shore up in the ridge was in a bad shape this was being done by the human smugglers. the international organization for migration has issued another warning about the dangers of trying to reach europe we think is about two hundred sixty have died so far this year alone so here you're adding another ninety to that so it's a really significant episode at a time when people continue to try to get to europe they're lured there by social media they get onto a phone they promised earlier rado they think life is going to be great and before they know what they're getting into the hands of awful criminal extorting people the migrants that do survive usually end up in detention centers many of which are

already filled to capacity protests were held last week by hundreds of north african migrants at this facility in libya many of them saying they've been held for months in living conditions which are quickly deteriorating catherine stansell al jazeera still ahead on al-jazeera more than four months after the election germany's political parties are still struggling to form a government and the army sealed off parliament in the mold leaves as the government cracks down on the opposition. by the skyline of asian harbor or off the coast of the italian riviera. there's no real let up in that such chilly weather that we have across a good part of central and southern china go normally when coming in five celsius

in shanghai thirteen celsius there for hong kong but we want to see showers into the philippines over the next few days but at least for many it will be dry temperatures edge up to around fourteen celsius in hong kong well let's follow that northeasterly wind there as you can see it makes its way across the philippines a few showers here as i said and it drifts all the way down towards malaysia some lively showers i think across the taiwan and western side of borneo looks a little west over the next day i would say but for many it's not looking bad thailand potential logical i wanted to show was there towards some much wetter weather will be across central areas of malaysia and down into internation you can see the effect of that northeasterly wind pushing pushing those showers further south which as we go on through the next day or two could change it around twenty five degrees celsius and big downpours coming in here but so many big downpours meanwhile across south asia here it's looking lousy five and drive a little on the cloudy side for at times that a bit of wet weather just making its way towards flanker thirty degrees celsius and

because i was here a little more cloud as you can see further north karate we find twenty seven. the weather sponsored by qatar and release. the palestine national locust was first founded in the one nine hundred thirty s. but has had to be revived in twenty ten always very important thing in palestine now musicians from all over the world come together to perform in the occupied territories for the theme it's like every palestinian living in the aspirant felt it was the first time they performed using their identity al-jazeera world hears music as a force for unity the diaspora orchestra this. time. you're

watching al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories at least nine people have been injured in a suspected fourteen gas attack in syria's northwestern province activist video shows people being treated in the town of samarra peb reported a foul smell following a raid by syrian government aircraft. u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson has been meeting his argentinean counterpart and want to say he's jealous and is seeking argentina's support against venezuela and they don't nicolas maduro in the form of increased economic sanctions and further export restrictions. hundreds of thousands of people have been demonstrating in athens against the use of the name of macedonia by the small balkan states that borders greece two countries agreed to step up negotiations this year. a key republican congressman is pushing back against u.s. president donald trump's claim that he's been cleared of any accusation his twenty

sixteen campaign colluded with russia tweeted that remark on saturday after the release of a controversial memo claiming the f.b.i. abused its power by spying on a trump aide but speaking on us television on sunday one of the republicans who helped write the memo said trump's claim of vindication goes too far. you still have a russia investigation even without it so. i don't know how many of the republican field. am on record as saying i support bob muller one hundred percent i think you would have a russia and russia trying to interfere with our election in twenty sixteen with or without a dossier ok let's go live now to gallacher in washington d.c. who's following this for us and a there's a vote on monday which will start the process that may allow the democrats to release their own version of the memo what's the feeling about whether or not that memo is going to be released and if parts of it may be taken out. well those are the big questions of the moment the democrats want to release

a ten page memo of course the republicans was released on friday that was four pages long their big concern is that if it is released and does pass all the security clearances that it may be censored by president trump a may essentially not be as powerful or have as powerful no argument as they were hoping that is all up in the air at the moment we don't know if present trump will do that they vote on monday evening whether to release it he then has five days but key to all this is that people like paul ryan the speaker of the house is saying look we keep talking about transparency i'm all for this let's go ahead but ultimately it sits on the president's desk and of course on friday when the four page controversial memo was released he tweeted out that this cleared his name that it prove there was no collusion between him and the russian government and that once again this whole thing is a hoax and a witch hunt of course the investigation will go on those are the facts in this

particular case but i think a lot of people are waiting to see what the democrats will do and ultimately whether president trump will allow the release of this memo without any censorship and it's interesting isn't it that despite the fact that president trump is determined that this memo has cleared him as you've been mentioning we're hearing from both sides of the house particularly the quote we just heard from the member of the public a member of the intelligence committee saying that hold on a second that doesn't mean that this investigation is going to go away this investigation is going to continue. well that's trey gowdy the clip that we just saw remember this is a man that is a darling of the conservative movement he was the person that grilled hillary clinton for eleven hours during the benghazi hearing for someone like that to say look we're looking at the bigger picture here despite the fact republicans have concerns about this dossier that was paid for by the democrats there is still the overarching question of whether there was collusion between the russians and the

trunk campaign that is a feeling i think that is echoed among some key republicans but not many a lot of them are running to president trump's defense they want this whole thing to go away remember that trump wanted to fire robert mueller the special counsel back in the summer and only didn't do that because a couple of his key advisers threatened to resign and he's now being told to not do that and let the investigation run its natural course of course he can't help himself but tweet out that he thinks his name is being cleared and this is all a hoax nonetheless the investigation goes on but i think people will be watching very closely as to a whether this democratic member comes out and b. what president trump may or may not do next of course and we've got to the midterm elections now they're not until november that is some time away is there a sense in washington the moment that this incident may well have some sort of impact on those elections in november or is it likely that it's going to have petered out by then. i mean it's so hard to say with this administration they say

twenty four hours is a long time in politics half a day can be a long time with a trumpet ministration who knows what will happen between february and november that may or may not decide which way voters want to go but i can tell you this the fact that the intelligence committee has become bipartisan like this the fact that they are politicizing what should be a national security issues is precisely why the american public are so deeply unhappy with the way politics in this country is working when president tom tweets out things like he's he's name is cleared and this is a hoax he's talking to his base but that doesn't appeal to the wider american audience who may have concerns about whether he colluded with the russians or not and he's essentially into interfering with the investigation by putting these tweets out so it is a good question rob to talk about how this will affect the midterm elections but we have between now and november to go and we really don't know what will happen in that gap to affect and influence how people will vote and they thanks very much

indeed talks about forming a government in germany are expected to continue into monday chancellor angela merkel's conservatives are in negotiations with the opposition social democrats merkel has been unable to form a coalition since an election in september when both the main parties lost seats to the far right but the two sides remain optimistic about a deal. i talked as a consequence constructive talks today we have reached a lot of agreements we managed to reach consensus on the important issues of habitation and renting we managed to finish the issue of digitalisation and we could reach an agreement on art and culture but we've just joined the protest in the high level meeting that there are issues ahead of us with a party still definite about which we still have to talk which we want to debate thoroughly and with focus obviously as paul brennan has more from berlin. given the differences between these two sides censor writes i'm glad michael c.d.u.

and center left martin shields this p.d.s. perhaps not surprising that they're finding it quite difficult to tie down the final details of this coalition treaty it looks like they've agreed things like energy and agriculture policy in the matter of labor reform health policy and housing policy there's still some distance apart from each other and we heard it when the two leaders went in that they sounded sort of they were making the right noises but preparing people for a long night ahead no surprises realistically there and the reason really is because the s.p.d. the center left needs to have a deal on the table that they can actually sell to their membership because it's the membership of the s.p.d. who will have effectively a veto on this if they come out with an agreement that can't be sold to the center left voters and frankly it's dead in the water i've got audience are voting in a referendum that could see presidential term limits reinstated a constitutional amendment passed under former leader rafael correa and twenty

fifteen lifted all restrictions and how many times presidents could serve but current leader lenin moreno wants that to change he wants to limit presidents to only two four year terms china's accusing the us of having a cold war mentality in response to washington's plans to diversify its nuclear weapons policy the pentagon says its current nuclear bombs are too big and they want to develop smaller nuclear weapons china russia and iran have condemned this us says the nuclear weapons is largely in response to russian actions in recent years. troops in the maldives have surrounded parliament following days of unrest opposition m.p.'s have filed a motion to impeach four senior government figures including the defense minister and the attorney general this is connected to a supreme court ruling over the release and retrial of political prisoners salability explains. the. opposition politicians use their phones to record

troops messing around parliamentary grounds in the moldavian capital mali. the opposition met at parliament and decided to file impeachment motions against the defense minister home minister attorney general and secretary general they blame the government officials for failing to recognize a supreme court ruling that called for the retrial of nine opposition politicians including exiled former president mohammed machines. by hundreds of military and police officers in riot gear but some of you managed to warn you some of the sweet load. of those two supreme court judges also reinstated twelve pace who were expelled for siding with the opposition opposition politicians say once parliament returns they will have the majority and can legally impeach president you mean abdul gayoom police raided the house of the administrative head of the supreme court on sunday they say they want him for corruption if that is an

indication of how things will proceed if for example the phone president returns i think that means that he will be arrested and taken back to prison as well. what was a celebration for the release of political prisoners has morphed into protests the chief of police said he would implement this tax court decision the government fired him on saturday his replacement was also fired the opposition says it will continue protests as long as politicians remain in prison. an excess no i feel that i'm going to be the. leaders of all of those who feel that. we. really want a spokesman for the president has told al-jazeera they have nothing to fear and the president has every intention of releasing and retrying the nine political

prisoners as mandated but it cannot happen immediately because of what the government calls procedural issues. to come protest as president in maine says he is willing to hold early elections his rival former president as she called it ludicrous tweeting from excel president you mean you must release and leave now the politics in the tourism hot spot is it a standstill parliament is in recess and was scheduled to reconvene on monday that has been postponed indefinitely shallop ballasts. and doha with the headlines on al-jazeera at least nine people have been injured in a suspected chlorine gas attack in syria's northwestern adlib problems activists video shows people being treated in the town of sarka reported a foul smell following a raid by syrian government aircraft. and at least eleven people have been killed

in russian and syrian government airstrikes and it led southern countryside the strikes targeted a hospital in the village of moderate on the line they also caused extensive damage to several buildings in kafka novel. u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson has been meeting his argentinean counterpart and donna said is the lesson is seeking argentina's support against venezuelan leader nicolas maduro in the form of increased economic sanctions and further export restrictions. argentina has reemerged is a strong advocate for democracy and the rule of law and we in particular welcome argentina's leadership to promote democracy including in particular in venezuela we must continue to work to fulfill the requirements of the it or american democratic charter we simply cannot allow in stand idly by to see

a total destruction of democracy in venezuela the villa's one of the people deserve better polls have closed in costa rica's presidential election the campaign's been dominated by the issue of same sex marriage thirteen candidates said running to replace outgoing president the skinny on so this is constitutionally barred from seeking a second consecutive town tens of thousands of greeks have rallied in the capital athens urging the government to not to compromise and a long running name row with neighboring macedonia greece has blocked the former yugoslav republic from joining nato and the e.u. saying its name implies a claim over the greek province also called macedonia talks about forming a government in germany are expected to continue into monday chancellor angela merkel's conservatives i don't negotiations with the opposition social democrats knuckles being unable to form a coalition since an election in september when both the main parties lost seats to

the far right the two sides remain optimistic about a deal. that was the headlines the news continues in about twenty five minutes here on al-jazeera after inside story by phone. seven turkish soldiers all killed in the northern syrian district of off screen test he says the operation is crucial to defeat what it calls terrorists and establish a buffer zone but how much of a challenge is that and could this lead to a quagmire for this is inside still.