for over a century this lucrative resource has divided the people. with the world's largest reserves. charting the impact of industrialization and the legacies of its prominent leaders we shed light on the troubles afflicting venezuela today the big picture the battle for venezuela at this time. asian stock markets plunge just wall street losses spread around the world. also coming up a former president to supreme court justices are arrested hours after the

government declares a state of emergency. israeli forces kill a palestinian man wanted for the shooting death of a. tree. a council that can agree to take action. an escalating war of words between the u.s. and russia over suspected chemical attacks in syria. and our stock markets around the world have been plunging this tuesday asian markets have crumbled as investors took their lead from a huge selloff on wall street the dow jones dropped more than a thousand points on monday or more than four and a half percent that was the biggest fall in percentage terms since august twenty seventh in response japan's benchmark nikkei closed down four point seven three

percent fall into its lowest number since october last year while hong kong's benchmark hang seng index lost almost five percent in its morning session putting it on track for the biggest drop since twenty fifteen or china correspondent adrian brown has more now from beijing. well the markets here in asia really took the lead from wall street the markets in chan zen and shanghai were both down around about two percent in morning trading hong kong did a lot worse though down by more than five percent the reason for that is that in hong kong a lot of international companies trade on that index and a lot of those companies are exposed to the united states whereas companies here the traders on the markets in shanghai and then tend to be domestic companies that don't trade internationally we haven't seen the falls that we saw of course in two thousand and fifteen when the markets here in china plunged by between five and seven percent on that occasion we did see panic we did see anger and we did see

government intervention now chinese people have very few places to invest their money it's either property or shares and neither have been doing particularly well in recent months but overall chinese people seem to feel their economy is doing ok that's what a columnist tell you in state controlled media and there is a sense that perhaps g.d.p. is in fact a little bit higher than the government been hoping for and we'll get confirmation of what china's g.d.p. forecast will be in the year ahead when china's parliament the national people's congress convenes in just a few weeks' time a chinese leaders will be hoping that the market volatility we're seeing right now will be over by then. brown in beijing let's speak now to sit here a tech a sheet who is a professor of c. school of management and information at japan's a university of she's a walker he joins us now via skype thanks for being with us so many things going on

here. well actually in japan what we're seeing is obviously reaction to other markets in us and of course in europe and with the acceleration of the yen obviously there's been a sole off the japanese export who'd been leading the market so there is negativity but at the same time people were expecting this correction to take place so i don't think at this moment there is a crisis feeling that is amongst the japanese investors at this moment well if this gets to my next question which i'm sure a lot of people want to know one of the also too is is this is this likely to continue can we expect further pain or is this as you are suggesting just a one off well i would say it's one off but i don't think it's going to prolong or it's going to be a serious previous crash is the reason for it being is that this is back them very good earnings in the states europe and in japan so from that point of view we can see that it's not as bubbly as it was in the past but that said the problem here is that this prolongs and if we see

a downturn in the united states in europe obviously what will happen is that there will be a lot of money flowing in safe haven money into the yen which basically accelerates the yen and obviously that would result in a very bad earnings forecast for japanese exporters that would be a very big negative scenario for the japanese authorities and how how connected is this to to the larger. economy i mean i'm talking about global economy because the concern in the u.s. . we were told from investors is that it's because of concerns over inflation and a likely. interest rate rise in the government there saying nothing to worry about here the fundamentals of the economy affine is that well what's your take on that. well i think you know to say simply fundamentals are flying so everything is fine is a little bit too optimistic we all know that the synthetic moves can actually come into reality let's face it we know that correction was due but at the same time if

this leads to the negative connotation by the investors if this prolongs and certainly it's going to be negative it's not going to be any plus or anything and at the same time i think the authorities are totally forgetting about the political risk or geopolitical risk totally ignored it in the past six months or so that is emerging not only in the states but also in europe and your political risk in asian region as well we should mark it had not inherited so i think those factors are also the negativity that will be watched very closely from here on words certainly we'll get to speak with us again a taxi to join us there from cheers a walk now opposition leader and two supreme court judges in the mold teams have been arrested for president my moon gayoom who is allied himself with the opposition was detained at his home while the chief justice and a judge were also arrested president has declared a fifteen day state of emergency in the military is in charge of the parliament

south of in jeddah it has more. just hours after a state of emergency was declared in the island nation of maldives this board carries a prominent opposition leader to the country's main jail on a remote island the. moment of the un was arrested on charges of bribery which the opposition says it's politically motivated. his family released a video earlier in which he urged his supporters not to lose hope. in this police came to arrest me i'm going with them i don't even know why they are arresting me i've done nothing wrong or unlawful i urge the people of multipath to be strong and stand with us we will win. with arrested but two judges for the deepening the political crisis. it all began on thursday when the supreme court called for the retrial of nine opposition politicians including exiled former president mohamed nasheed just also reinstated twelve m.p.'s who had lost their

seats for supporting the opposition but president of the yemeni refused to comply with the ruling and celebrations turned into protests. yeah i mean also declared a fifteen day state of emergency and ordered the military to secure the parliament building for an indefinite period. by three. and this is. in addition to the two judges police raided the house of the administrative head of the supreme court the court says police didn't have enough evidence to arrest the judicial executive president who happens to be the half brother of the arrested leader to be you came to power in two thousand and thirteen that was a year after moldavian police and overthrew president mohamed nasheed but in the shaky democracy president i mean has also faced similar allegations of becoming

authoritarian and being corrupt that the supreme court was expected to do therapy on a petition to impeach you i mean opposition leaders allege the president's noir lists made it clear that they would not comply with such a verdict and launched a crackdown. for now the country best known for its tranquil beaches is struggling to deal with yet another round of political turmoil some of the job there. israeli army says it's killed a palestinian man who was wanted over the death of a settler last month the army shot that twenty one year old. in jenin in the occupied west bank was accused of killing rabbi. in an illegal israeli outpost on general knife two other palestinians were killed and raised during the manhunt a live now to him and khan who's in our west jerusalem bureau so in rome what more do we know about this. well we know that the raid took place in the very early

hours all the tuesday morning while i witnesses are telling us is that at least seventy jeeps and two bulldozers went in to young moon there was a live shooting life shooting going on this is very confusing situation as to exactly when the man who is wanted for the killing of the settler rabbi was actually shot but we are hearing there are still israeli forces in the area that there are all clashes taking place as these very forces withdrawing now when all of this started to take place in the early hours as i say all tuesday morning we are seeing a lot of take gas being used and also we're hearing about a number of palestinian people being injured in those at least one with a stun grenade and several with take gas are very much the operation is ongoing but this is been operation this not just happening overnight on tuesday morning but it's been going on now since january ninth when the settler rabbi was allegedly

killed by a with zero now on january seventeenth they thought these arrays thought that they'd killed off which are are they announce that they go to turned out to be a case of mistaken identity almost every night villages within the gene area been subject to israeli raids houses have been demolished as they've been searching for this man and i have to say this is a case the killing of the rabbit that recall the imagination all of the israeli people particularly the hard right who wanted revenge they wanted that man killed in revenge for the killing of the secular rabbi also what president promises or even when that yahoo did on monday it was announced that the settlements that the outpost that the rabbi came from was to become illegal under israeli law now clearly all of the settlements all illegal under international law but he said that where they were. and to legalize this outpost turn it into yet another settlement

in the west bank so they could protect the residents that the israeli security forces as i say have confirmed the death squads are all but the palestinians haven't been given the body of him yet and neither the man that was killed on january seventeenth in iran thanks for that remark called life force in western russia now we've got a weather check next and then three hong kong activists heading back to coal to hear the outcome of their final appeals process. well over the day i was women in the u.k. celebrate the suffragettes and they have roic efforts to get the vote one hundred years ago when we come back. the a. hello there we've seen some heavy snow over moscow recently we've seen so much snow

that it's actually brought down over two thousand trees and that in turn has brought down some power lines as well and it's also caused a fair amount of disruption now on the ground there around fifty centimeters of snow that's just lying there at the moment now fortunately it looks like the worst is over the system responsible for all that wintry weather it's gradually pulling away towards the northeast but behind it it's going to tell a good deal cooler so the maximum temperature on tuesday we're just looking at minus ten so a very cold day here still the end of the snow over europe though still for the southwestern parts there this circulation here has gradually edging its way across parts of france and across the alps as well still more wintry weather out of that and further south where it's a little bit too mild to see snow we'll be seeing heavy rain there work its way across italy and eventually across the other side of the adriatic as well now some of the unsettled weather over europe has also been spilling into the northern parts of africa and we still got some showers over there as we head through the next few days and we're also seeing some rather sharp outbreaks of rain of of parts of our

area morocco and in morocco over the mountains of course very cold here so we're expecting some of that to turn to snow robots will get to around twelve degrees. the in.

again you're watching al-jazeera mind of our top stories this hour stock markets around the world have been plunging this tuesday asian markets crumbled as investors took their lead from a huge selloff on wall street. political crisis in the maldives is deepening after the arrest of an opposition leader and two supremes court judges that's just hours after state of emergency was declared. the israeli army says it's killed palestinian leader ahmed and just are in the occupied west bank city of jeannine was wanted over the death of a settler last month. so we've been reporting on the current turmoil in the asian markets which is going on twenty years after a much bigger disaster the asian financial crisis that began with the collapse of

thailand's currency the botton spread across east asia and one of the contributing factors was high public debt in the affected countries including allow us now there are similar warnings about governments in the region borrowing too much money when he reports from the capital the antenna. the coffee industry in laos is one of the fastest growing in asia its output is still small compared with regional leaders like vietnam and indonesia but fuelled by increasing demand from neighboring china production grew by more than eight percent last year bro is say laos has a real opportunity to take the industry to the next level through improved infrastructure like better processing facilities he must have financing but despite it being one of the few lao export products is no sign the government is willing to help. on projects on hydropower on mining on tory right no small are not enough

supporters. indeed the government has big plans to shake off the tag of one of asia's poorest countries it wants to graduate from the united nations least developed country status in the next twelve years and it's turned to china to help fund big projects like this economic zone just outside the capital. which is being built in anticipation of the city expanding quickly and a six billion dollar high speed train line that are run from southern china. but the amount of money the lao government is borrowing for the projects is causing concern. public debt is estimated at around sixty eight percent of g.d.p. and almost half of the money is being borrowed from one source china. financial sources. to be risky because. this country

exposed through this business i created. the lao government says big investment is vital if it's to improve the livelihood of its people one priority is health care which like many aspects of laos society has fallen into disrepair through poor governance and neglect the main hospital in the capital was built by the french in one thousand nine hundred three and as head few improvements since but as part of the government's health care reforms work will soon begin on a new hospital to be built on the same size built with chinese money wayne hay al-jazeera. un security council meeting that was supposed to can damage the alleged use of chlorine gas in syria has failed to agree on a statement the u.s. blames russia for blocking it from the u.n. here's our diplomatic editor dame's base the attack was brazen and blatant at least eleven people were treated after an airstrike in syria chlorine

was probably used this the latest in a series of what seemed to have been chemical attacks it led to a war of words in the security council a meeting you were not supposed to see this regular monthly session on the issue is usually held behind closed doors but an angry us ambassador demanded it was made public nikki haley condemned russia for not even agreeing to a press statement on the latest attacks if we can't even take the first step of a stab accountability for chemical weapons use we have to seriously ask ourselves why we are here. russia which has used its veto to avoid action on this issue was strongly criticized by ambassador hayley and by her french and british colleagues it's some bastard of vaseline a benzema hit back for which you didn't statements by these representatives as always contain very little truth mixed with mountains of lies that will do your

prison. where is the presumption of innocence prior to any investigation you are accusing the so-called regime quote unquote. with that point here appeared to ignore clear facts in twenty fifteen the un security council unanimously decided to create a joint investigative mechanism or jim to work out exactly who was guilty of chemical weapons use it concluded that in four cases the assad government was responsible for using chemical weapons though the soon afterwards russia used its veto to stop the renewal of the gym leaving the security council powerless does it just not highlight the importance of the security council i think you are very right with the fact that these the use of chemical weapons continues time and again in syria is a challenge to the very authority of the security council the security council continues

to talk but on this issue is unable to act the continuing sporadic chemical attacks underlining its weakness and undermining the international consensus against the use of some of the world's most hideous weapons james pays out zira of the united nations. syria's government has deployed new anti aircraft missiles to the front lines in aleppo and italy where it's battling rebel fighters in the area seen an escalation in fighting an aerial bombing in recent weeks with hundreds of civilians killed the new weapons follows the downing of a russian fighter jet by rebels on saturday after a hong kong pro-democracy activists are due back in court where they will hear the outcome of their final appeals joshua wong nathan law and alex channel were convicted in two thousand and sixteen of unlawful assembly as teenagers they

brought hong kong to a standstill back in two thousand and fourteen as leaders of the so-called umbrella protests thousands took to the streets that day calling for greater democracy hong kong is part of china but operates on a different political system to the mainland activists have been warning of growing interference by beijing in the territory sarah clarke is live for us now in hong kong so sara what more do we know at this point about what we can expect from today's hearing. what today's basically that the three student leaders last chance and freedom you mentioned it's a nice to know alex child and of course joshua won't do it became the face of the occupy hong kong movement back in twenty four saying today is the verdict day in the final court of appeal last month had a hearing where they appealed to the judge to to drop the sentence or certainly make the sentence more lenient and today they'll find out a verdict now i should explain at this event although the charges they're appealing

and the general sense that that was made by some charges and they guilt it was an events that triggered it many consider triggered the occupy hong kong move it is when the storming their role in the storming of the government full court of the lives of council which happened in the events leading up to the occupy protests which shut down parts of the city for more than to two and a half months now these student leaders only said part of their jail time a night in law got months child got seven six months they were released on bail to appeal. time for today's decision die for them as you see behind me that they've just arrived in court the next a half an hour or so i find out whether or not they'll be able to walk free from jail was one option or whether they'll go back to jail or to complete the rest of the jail sentence and want what's next for josh wall and the pro-democracy movement in light of next month's by election. won't there will be implications based on today's verdict next month we have the by

election for knight and more who is just now standing behind me is one of the three student leaders this is a by election for his seat when he was disqualified so in these three and once again giles day they'll be removed from the campaigning in the lead up to this election day and also if they get any more than three months in jail they're at best be denied the right to stand for election so it will undermine the do the pro-democracy movement and as you can see behind me there's not only a large group of media there are a lot. number of products to support it and i watching this very very closely and then i came in is that this is yet another attempt by the government and beijing to gag and one even use the word and not like the pro-democracy movement in hong kong . sarah clarke live in hong kong thank you. now the humanitarian crisis from yemen civil war is going more desperate every day the u.n. says forty seven thousand people have now been displaced in the pos month alone and while aid access is improving severe shortages of food and water remain how much on

june reforms with the only available drinking water located miles away the children carry what they can collect on the backs of donkeys but the rough terrain makes an already difficult situation even more arduous violence caused these families to flee their homes in the village of u r u s in southern yemen as of bought governorate another reminder of how the conflict in yemen is deepening what the u.n. calls the worst manmade humanitarian crisis in the world. who said we're not living in caves as a result of the will we are facing harsh living conditions especially that ferocious cold homes have been destroyed hardship has become the norm for these yemenis the adults worry the children will suffer the worst and in this makeshift camp hope is dwindling as temperatures drop that i get a little bit had it on me that i should hate it but this year's winter is the worst in years the temperature is hit minus five degrees the displaced families are

living through harsh conditions that most of them took shelter and it is a humanitarian crisis they need immediate shelter and relief aid in a country where children have been at higher risk of contracting cholera and diptheria this boy is suffering from severe pneumonia and hoping the hospital will have enough medication to help him recover. even the internally displaced who managed to escape to a nearby town are still living in extremely harsh conditions constantly searching for water and always seeking warmth from a disease. of the u.s. house intelligence committee has voted to release a democratic memo on the russia investigation as a rebuttal to a controversial republican document us president donald trump declassified the republican memo on friday it contains allegations of f.b.i. bias and abuse of power in the way one of his advisors was investigated democratic paper highlights flaws in the republican one the president now has five days to

decide whether to declassify that memo i think it's going to be very hard for the white house like it was hard for the republicans on the committee to block release of this i am more concerned that they make political redactions not with actions to protect sources and methods and that's why we're going to insist that the department of justice and the f.b.i. report to us on what reactions they think are necessary so that we can segregate the political interference from the white house a former u.s. gymnastics team doctor allowing assad has been sentenced to additional terms of forty and one hundred twenty five years in prison for sexually assaulting young female athletes the verdict comes after weeks of testimony from nearly two hundred victims it or even sentenced to more than two hundred years of abusing girls while working at the national gymnasts as the national gymnastics team doctor he's also been convicted of child pornography charges. five or six marks on hundred years

since women won the right to vote in the united kingdom activists at the forefront of the campaign at the time were known as suffragettes bonamy phillips has their story. the day i. was. was an epic victory celebrated in the museum of london one hundred years since the first british women got the vote all thanks to the suffragettes who took on the establishment and won. it wasn't easy they chained themselves to fences outside parliament many were arrested beaten went on hunger strike one even threw herself at the king's horse in the famous dobby race. she died but the cause did not the suffragette struggles but they ultimately won for what they make the british society today one hundred years on with they believe

that women have achieved true equality it wasn't until nine hundred twenty eight that younger and poorer women were also given the vote and says this very in character actor the suffragettes always hoped to inspire future generations when we went off i that's not going to be the end of all the fights you know we're going to have to keep fighting i'm sure and i just hope that we can set the precedent for that and they know keep fighting just as hard as we. she no doubt would agree emily pankhurst leader of the suffragettes and great grandmother of helen who wonders if the glass is only half full it every single measure of political equality we still have so far to go in every single parliament and in particular i need you k. we only have thirty two percent representation if you look at all other aspects of democracy so the legal system the the media reporting of parliament and of politics we still have a lot to go so i think that. comedy throws light on the women

struggles today this is humiliating but it also made the families because the first week in our relationship that i earned him. with british institutions from parliament to the b.b.c. hit by revelations of gender discrimination. it feels like we're just failing over and over but we have to remember the suffragettes failed for over fifty years they only succeeded once and we only need to succeed once they are impossible is our normal life we are the hopes of the suffragettes was. that the heroic deeds of the past maligned in their day as misguided radicals we remember them as being on the right side of history bobby philips al jazeera london .

it says al jazeera is going to round up on the top story stock markets around the world have been plunging this tuesday asian markets crumbling as investors took their lead from a huge selloff on wall street. a political crisis in the mold deaves is deepening after the arrest of an opposition leader and two supremes court judges that's just hours after a state of emergency was declared former president. who's allied himself with the opposition was detained at his home the charges against him including bribery and attempting to overthrow the government he denies the allegations. of abuse and the police came to arrest me i'm going with them i don't even know why the arresting me i've done nothing wrong i urge the people to be strong and stand with us we will win. the israeli army says it's killed a palestinian man who was wanted over the death of a settler last month the army shot their twenty one year old. engineer in the

occupied west bank where i was accused of killing a rabbi in an illegal israeli outpost on january ninth two other palestinians were killed in raids during that manhunt. syria's government has deployed new anti aircraft missiles to the front lines in aleppo and italy where it is battling rebel fighters the area's been here is seen an escalation in fighting an aerial bombing in recent weeks with hundreds of civilians killed in new weapons follow the downing of a russian jet by rebels on saturday. three hong kong pro-democracy activists are due back in court where they hope to hear the outcome of their final appeals joshua wang nathan law and alex channel were convicted in two thousand and sixteen of unlawful assembly three teens for hong kong to a standstill in twenty fourteen as leaders of these so-called umbrella protests they accuse china of taking too much control of hong kong's affairs those are the

headlines we're back with more in half an hour right now it's inside story. we understand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take it al-jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you al-jazeera. deportation or indefinite detention that's the choice facing nearly forty thousand african refugees in israel prime minister benjamin netanyahu calls them infiltrators is this action even legal this is inside story.