the internet is the tool for democracy. in the echo chamber world of fake news in cyberspace the rules of the game have changed no presidents people out investigates dissent from a party at this time. rescue crews in taiwan search for people trapped in this hotel after a powerful earthquake. hello welcome to al-jazeera live from doha i'm martin dennis also coming up.

more than a hundred and thirty people were killed in forty eight hours as russian and syrian jets hit rebel areas in italy and east and good. for the first time in south africa the state of the nation address is perspire and as pressure grows on president zuma to resign. three. and it's lift off in florida for the world's most powerful rocket it could be a turning point in space exploration. but let's start with that earthquake that has hit taiwan it was a magnitude six point four quake it hit the eastern part of the island we understand at least four people have died more than two hundred people are reported

to have been injured and this is the scene live it's in the port city of and that's where rescue crews say at least five people remain trapped inside this hotel this atoll which as you can see is at such a precarious angle that it's only the brink of collapse but one hundred forty five people are unaccounted for let's have this report now from the silver. working against the clock to search for survivors. rescuers are using cranes to get to those trapped in what's left of qualities marshall hotel when the earthquake struck just before midnight local time the ground floor katie dean leaving the entire building slanting on its site you go because of the politics and . there are two people left inside one is my older brother and another is a colleague who's on the rescue was

a trying to dig further down to look for my brother who's you know that's the situation for now. taiwan's president sign one arriving quali in on wednesday morning earlier on social media she said teams from around the island will be helping with the search for survivors. taiwan's fire agency reports that five more buildings including a hospital were also damaged as were several roads leading to the city this earthquake followed another one over the weekend off the coast of florida in this earthquake today and the sequence for the last few days has been right in one of the hot spots on the northeast coast of taiwan so it's not a surprise oh it's in an area where half the sharks are inevitable you know the question is how many big aftershocks will there be and are usually one in ten or one in twenty chance of a bigger earthquake so they need to be prepared at least for a few days for more action the city lies along the pacific rim of fire known for

regular seismic activity from alaska to southeast asia on the silver to zero all right now we can talk to kenny everett and who is a senior editor at taiwan news he's joining us now from taipei the capital of taiwan and given that you're about one hundred fifty kilometers away from the actual scene of this earthquake tell us what you know about the current situation with regard to fatal it is and those who remain unaccounted for from what we know. it was it was yes. two hundred ninety eight injury and a hundred seven seven missing one hundred forty seven of woods or in millions plate current top marks you also mention the marshall hotel. i know one rescue in the basement and. the rest were say there's two people that they've been

able to communicate with their staff members trouts on the first floor and apparently there's been some communication with them there and we still live right and i'm not sort of place is the end when the sun is in the east of the country it's a pull city what other activities a go on in this city i would say it's mostly a tourist destination. it's not as densely populated as as here in iraq i'm tired a. and. so it's more i would say more it's worse that's made and although it's probably kind of on the off season right now as it's the weather one point zero lately and the hotels were right so from what we're hearing so this is the second quake in almost as many days at does that mean that people in the end would have made preparations if you like for the

shots i think that a star might have been down as many believe that the biggest plague was on sunday which is a by one a and so there was even then some of the officials were saying that that was a major shock there's going to be some minor aftershocks that will gradually get way and so this was a surprise that suddenly it was a matter even bigger quake much more damaging than the previous one was you daryn that. well at this point is that happened thirty years one hundred thirty out of this way while he or that we had also had a lieutenant something. small ways since sunday so it's been continuous well this is what i was that it was the mission that was the pride when actually a reason for this that our deficit is what you're in maybe it's our will we could

all feel as. i say throughout the island. and i think that's also what og lot of the damage. it's or it's much much greater than what you'd normally expect from us that's on our way all right candy everington thank you very much indeed fish sharing your insight on the current situation in taiwan as we look at the live shot of that hotel that hotel which seems to be the focus of attention for the rescue workers because they do believe that there are several people who remain in that had tao and as you can see it is a very precarious angle indeed we'll keep you right across developments with regard to the fate of those in that hotel here at al-jazeera. that's been described as the deadliest day in the rebel held syrian region of eastern goose or in over a month at least seventy one people have been killed during airstrikes on the

damascus suburb which has been besieged by the government for four years syrian government and russian forces have increased their attacks there as well as on the rebel held parts of it live province now there are two of the so-called deescalation zones that were agreed to by iran russia and turkey a total of one hundred thirty eight people have been killed in both these areas within the last forty eight hours and activists say many of them were civilians and that includes children some experts say the scene of which involves indiscriminate bombardment and deliberate starvation of the civilian population amounts to war crimes there's also widespread belief that the syrian government has repeatedly use chemical weapons bernard smith reports. this is supposed to be a deescalation part of the russian troops to the territory held by anti-government

forces to syria. but if anything the bombing is escalating here in eastern guta. the un's head of the international commission of inquiry on syria says the government siege of the area involves the international crimes of indiscriminate bombing and deliberate starvation of the civilian population. there are reports that at least three hospitals have been hit with the help of the russian air force on the iranian backed groups syria's president is pursuing the last major pockets of territory held by his opponents in western syria. the offensive intensified after fighters from one rebel group shot down a russian aircraft on saturday. now the syrian army says it's deployed add offenses and anti aircraft missiles to its front lines in aleppo and to cover northern

airspace i had the authority of the us four hundred or russian and they are controlled by the russian intelligence and of the syrian regime so this is russia we need to understand there is an direct confrontation between the u.s. and russia that it's dangerous because at the same time turkey is trying to force its presence in the area northwestern syria is where turkey is carrying out an operation to push kurdish forces out of afrin it's using syrian airspace and has got russia's agreement to do so but at the same time the syrian government has threatened to shoot down turkish jets turkey also wants to wipe e.g. out of another northern syrian town damage but there are u.s. forces there too much to be irritation of the turkish president begin your producer now that you can why are you there go ahead and leave who did you bring there the y.p. g e p k k you took them there and you are still telling us not to come too many we would come to malaysia could deliver the land to its true owners. as ever

across syria it's civilians who are caught in the middle the u.n. wants fighting across the country to flee suspended for a month to allow the sick and wounded to get out and aid to get in. in an unprecedented move south africa's parliament has prospered and president zuma state of the nation address which will steal one third say the president is under increasing pressure to resign over corruption allegations the ruling a.n.c. has also postponed an emergency meeting of its top committee that will stoop to be held later today wednesday for the cancellation of that meeting came after the new party leader cyril ramaphosa held talks with president zuma which were described as fruitful and constructive we decided to approach the president of the have to propose that we postpone the joint c.t.

in order to sleep aid. for establishing much more to see. here in kenya opposition member of parliament me going i'm a good being deported to canada after being charged with treason he was arrested after taking part in a mock swearing in ceremony for the opposition leader. you know who can see here on the left of the picture was next to last week when he declared himself the people's president thereby rejecting all who kenyatta his reelection. is an africa policy analyst he says kenya's political instability is causing concern throughout the region. i am hoping that this who are generally let off some steam i do know that westing capitals are very very worried and behind the scenes they are drying to deescalate the situation. you know is

divided and there are tensions that between mr odinga. and the government support is but beyond kenya is so there is the whole worry some issue also madiao which is rocked by a civil war terror war and then further north across the red sea you have you have . yemen and therefore this is a very dangerous area western and western countries depend on kenya to help deal with that situation apart from kenyans own importance in its own right if it is foreign minister says there's a real risk of i suffices returning to europe on the boats used by migrants to cross the mediterranean angeleno our final was speaking at a conference that hayes hasting in rome to discuss migration and security representatives from several african countries were there as well as from the e.u.

and the united nations as well as our correspondent jenna how. so fourteen nations at least forty nations in gauge here the italian foreign ministry in rome in what is an ongoing conversation between the countries in africa that actors countries of origin and transit for the many many thousands of people trying to make their way to europe and the so-called host countries in europe that receive them which of course italy is a prime one the conference heard that the numbers had been decreasing quite encouraging really over the two thousand and sixteen seventeen period in large part of they haven't said it here because of italian methods of dealing with the libyan coast guard encouraging them to turn people back but in fact turning them back to camps that have been described by aid groups and activists as prison camps and detention centers where smuggling networks are rife and exploitation right as well that will have to be dealt with here in terms of protecting the human rights of those involved in this migration and as well as that as outlined by the italian

foreign minister defeating the so-called business model of smugglers but he said finance terrorism and looking out for the return of fighters i still fighters coming back to their countries of origin in europe using these routes it's all about human rights it's all about protecting and saving lives it's all about bringing together many many countries in a common cause common and difficult cause with multiple competing interests. so calmly here at al-jazeera the world urban forum is getting underway in kuala lumpur we look at how the host city is trying to rejuvenating its table. three days ahead of the winter olympics russia begin to arrive and kill trying but others are still fighting for the right to complete.

the nice pink sky and spy the taj mahal. or is the sun sets in the city of angels. and over there the weather is quite quiet for many of us across the middle east at the moment we do have a fair amount of clouds showing up on the satellite picture but generally speaking it's not too thick and it's not giving us too much in the way of heavy rain instead we'll stay with the settled weather as we head through the next few days no woman are today all maximum temperature minus ten middle little bit milder forth a new cobol towards the west it is also milder force in beirut a temperature over at around twenty or twenty one degrees at the moment now but for the south it's feeling quite fresh in doha during the evening and overnight but during the day the temperatures are fairly decent getting to around twenty five maybe even twenty six degrees as we head into thursday for the south also fun enjoy for many of us here with the temperature up to around twenty seven degrees now for the southern parts of africa this far more wet weather here and recently it's been very very heavy particular parts of zimbabwe now this area of rain is still with us

as we head through wednesday and into thursday and you can tell from the very dark colors that we're expecting some more very heavy downpours from it as well particularly around parts of madagascar in the south though of madagascar doesn't like it should be largely dry just a few showers along that east coast elsewhere largely fine and dry for many of us across the south africa just in the east there around joburg they could be the old shower. the weather sponsored by qatar raise. the scene for us whether online what is american sign in yemen that peace is possible but it never happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on sat there are people there are choosing between buying medication eating this is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist and she's close to the story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera.

to look at the top stories here of al-jazeera a man of a fixed point four earthquake has hit the east in taiwan killing at least four people more than two hundred others have been injured and you're looking at the live scene now at a hotel that is in the port city of quality and where several people remain trapped and rescue workers as you can see gathered there attempting to find them one hundred seventy people the overall remain unaccounted for. syria's rebel held region of eastern gudrid has endured its deadliest day in more than a month syrian and russian government raids have killed at least seventy one people

on tuesday an estimated one hundred thirty eight people have now been killed in and in italy within the past forty eight hours. now more than four billion of us around the world now live in cities and that number is set to grow to over six billion by the year twenty fifty making cities more livable therefore is a major priority and the main theme of the night session of the world forum affronts louis report. is exploring ways to rejuvenate its neighborhood the confluence of to reverse this is where kuala lumpur began more than one hundred sixty years ago the name means muddy estuary in the middle a language but as the city expanded what used to be the administrative and commercial hub soon lost its importance to new or shiny a buildings parts of the

old downtown area fell into disuse but there are plans to revive this part of the city as more people move in cities there's a growing demand for species in cities and the challenges he's been in. existing urban areas as opposed to expanding and eventually result. in sprawl. and negative it's expected we think city and urban regeneration body owned by malaysia's sovereign wealth fund believes one way to revitalize the city is by making existing spaces more inclusive that includes turning parking spots into small gardens some temporary others permanent they are thought of but there aren't many places around here where one can stop to reste so this is great when you're tired you can sit down here for a break. there's also a plan to introduce the concept of micro housing and communal living this house is

a prototype built as part of a showcase for the ninth and farm taking place in. actually a lack of housing choice in the city for young people who want to be here by using this sort of. communal living loss record housing and hopefully the young people want to come back built on the space measuring five by five need to the footprint of each house is just the size of two parking spots clear the designs and just space is not wasted these shelves and steps. and once you're up in the bedroom. and it becomes part of. the house lacks a dining room because that's meant to be a shed area over the next few weeks those behind this project will gauge public reaction to this type of housing model but what's clear is the drive to inject new

life into the city has begun. all right let's go live now to florence in kuala lumpur find out more about this intriguing conferences underway florence. that's right martino we're here at the world urban forum this is the ninth world urban forum it takes place once every two years and quality is the host city you know it was set up by the u.n. in two thousand and one and the main purpose is to explore the issues of rapid urbanization and that story that you just saw was talking was focused more on regeneration and that's just one of the issues that planets around the world face but the more pressing problem is about sustainable development and this is important because the wall is becoming increasingly have but at a very rapid rate this is also the first walled of an forum but it's focused on implementation of the new agenda and this new of an agenda is

a it's the outcome document agreed upon two years ago in ecuador that the habitat conference but what exactly is it about now to talk more about the new agenda that we have with the c.e.o. of. the best the government think tank for regeneration and development by set up by the malaysian government it's also the local secretariat. for going now what really is that if you can see what you're currently it's what exactly is the new agenda and what are the priorities that this document when you have an agenda is for me is an action document because i think over the years people always talk about policy views always talk about the. destroy the actually the visions but then human agenda is about actions is about how you actually achieve sustainable development so i think globally now read need to understand that the

rest once will it be a sustainable. not only relying on the. government. local government and to the local community so the whole document you spoke on how you make it happen and the importance of governance been planning and design. environmentalists to its sustainable solutions and more what they leave for me it talks about the nation collaboration integration because a lot of countries we have good policies but how do you integrate the policies to achieve these sustainable agenda right thank you so there you have it this is a place where global plans from around the world are gathered here to share ideas and to exchange knowledge about planning about making it sustainable making cities more livable and more sustainable for everyone. actually martin. lawrence louis

called in the effect you very much. now let's meet the woman who is being suggested that to me most serious opposition rival she's been in washington d.c. to send me a sub jack is her name and she is due to run a presidential elections she's been a figure in russia's pop culture since the early two thousands she had returns he's been to meet. from a right wing think tank to the national press club but the message to send us on track brought to washington d.c. was exactly what many u.s. opponents of nightmare putin would want to him from a russian presidential candidate to embrace nato this is the right a goal for russia often called russia's paris hilton for well documented social life and reality t.v. shows her father was one of lattimer putin's mentors. but in twenty eleven she joined opposition protests and this since emerged as a government critic with millions of followers on social media however she's only

polling around one percent since leaving office alexina valmy was barred from running questions have been raised as to whether she is a kremlin plans or the very least a useful distraction to give legitimacy to forthcoming polls that president putin is expected to win by a landslide she rejects that when alex enough ball me my colleague on opposition movement went also to take part on the elections would it legitimated putin why no one said that it will legitimate putin so that's in kind of absurd to think it's either we all legit to meet putin or not of us does she says not only putin presides over a corrupt regime and her economic prescription is based on privatization loosening state control do you just represent another bunch of all agog snoozer reach people who've done very well out of a corrupt system i mean there's nothing to be different here for the average poor

person you don't know bernie sanders oh you're welcome. i have first of all. i'm a really self-made businesswoman but i never. could have any corruption from the state because i never had any business with the state and she may soon be able to make her case directly to the white house members of congress have invited her to washington's annual national prayer breakfast on per day donald trump will also attend. washington there are just three days to go until the winter olympics begin impure on chang and a number of russians banned because of doping all giving up their fight to compete thirty two of them have appealed to the court of arbitration for sport including champions speed skater victoria on hearing will likely be held on wednesday follows a decision last week to overturn the lifetime dating bans of twenty eight russians

one hundred sixty nine of being cleared to compete in china's neutrals also known as a limb pick athletes from russia the issue was central at a meeting of the international olympic committee on tuesday your huge amount of work has gone into making sure that we can ensure that will be a clean path a pass a clean athletes from russia to compete in these games here so i think we await the decision as everyone else does but with the most important we are very confident of opposition was some of those already cleared to take part of touched down in south korea including the men's ice hockey players they were greeted by fans at the airport but no russian flags will be allowed to be displayed when they compete as a neutral teen next week. the billionaire entrepreneur mosques plans to colonize mars have taken another step forward.

his company space x. has successfully launched its most powerful rocket yet the twenty three story fall can heavy loss it off from the kennedy space center in florida on tuesday with a tesla sports car inside the spacecraft shot musk's roadster convertible into miles or bit minutes after takeoff the two out abuses landed at the nearby cape canaveral air force station n.b.c.'s sarah del office at the kennedy space center in cape canaveral. well with just fifteen minutes to go before the end of the launch window space x. lifted off the platform making history and possibly revolutionizing the private and commercial space industries now the day had been plagued with wind and weather related delays but in the end the lift was in six says they have recovered two of

the rockets the third the central rocket we're still waiting to hear from space x. as to its status now spirit this falcon heavy was designed to carry up to seventy tons of cargo inside though today was just one car a tesla roadster with a dummy strapped into it and a david bowie song plane on repeat live images now being sent back from that tesla showing an out of this world view earth in the background as well as the moon this is going to have a lasting impact falcon heavy is expected to carry large satellites into orbit more cheaply and it will also be used as a building block for future projects that are planned to take people to the moon and possibly even mars. time visit a look at the top stories here it out zira

a magnitude six point four earthquake has hit eastern taiwan at least four people have died and more than two hundred others have been injured firefighters in the port city of quali n say several people remain trapped inside buildings including inside this hotel that you're looking at now which is on the brink of collapse around one hundred seventy people unaccounted for kidney everington is a senior editor of taiwan news. i think that if god might have been there all right. many believe that the biggest quake was on sunday which is a lie. and there was even then the officials were saying that that was the major shark there's going to be some minor aftershocks that will gradually get way and so this was a surprise and leave it as an even bigger quake much more damage. than the previous

while a syria's rebel held region of eastern goose have risen jewett its deadliest day in more than a month russian and syrian government have raids killed at least seventy one people there on tuesday an estimated one hundred thirty eight people have now been killed in east and and in italy a province within the last forty eight hours. in an unprecedented move south africa's parliament to suppress spend president zuma state of the nation address which was due to take place on thursday the president is under increasing pressure to resign over corruption allegations the ruling a.n.c. has also postponed an emergency meeting of its top committee that was due to be held later on wednesday the cancellation of the meeting came after the new party leader cyril ramaphosa held talks with president zuma which was described as fruitful and constructive in kenya a leading member of the opposition me guna mcgoohan who has been deported to canada after being charged with treason right up to date those are the latest headlines

from us here at al-jazeera coming up next in the stream. facing realities growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place a so-called secret city getting to the heart of the matter while activists to live in jail just because she expressed herself hear their story on the talk to al-jazeera at this time. ok and your history today should u.s. president dollar be actively resisted i guess today has been a vocal part of that movement for more than a year now you may not know his name but it's likely that you know it's work today michael skolnik and i'm really going to be bringing the questions from our community to my god keep them coming well.