a young so molly refugee thrilled to gain u.s. residency in twenty sixteen. was told i was unlucky to good to you i was a really really high god answered my prayer but with anti immigrant sentiment under the trump presidency al-jazeera world asked sally was whether his american dream is still alive. in america at this time on al-jazeera. a race to rescue the trapped survivors after an earthquake in taiwan leaves buildings tilting on the brink of collapse. and welcome to al-jazeera life from headquarters and with me as a piron i'm also ahead ninety one people killed in just twenty four hour as

a soviet and russian jets head to rebel held areas and led and east and good. speculation bells about the future of south africa's president jacob zuma after an unprecedented delay to his state of the nation address plus. three. left off in florida for the world's most powerful of rockets why it could be a turning point in space exploration. a magnitude six point four earthquake has hit eastern taiwan killing at least four people and injuring more than two hundred others this is a live picture from the port city of haifa say at least five people remain trapped inside this hotel on the brink of collapse one hundred forty five people remain unaccounted for john de silva has the latest. working against the clock to

search for survivors. rescuers are using cranes to get to those trapped in what's left of the marshall hotel when the earthquake struck just before midnight local time the ground floor katie dean leaving the entire building slanting on its side. one of them says. there are two people left and one is my older brother and another is the rescue is a try to dig further down to look for my brother that's the situation for now. taiwan's president time one arrived on wednesday morning. and they're building steel frames the prop up the collapsed building this will ensure rescuers received when they get it we are racing against time and now is the crucial time. i once 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. 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. al-jazeera let's get more on this now we're joined by kenny who's the director of disaster relief at taiwan's red cross and he's joining us on the phone from taipei very good to have you with us on al-jazeera first what is the latest that you're hearing on the

fatalities on the injuries the number of missing and while there and. i do apologize we don't have the connection with kenny from the red cross in taipei . but let's let's try again kenny called are you there yes yes yes we can thank you very much for being with us on al-jazeera what is what what are you hearing from the team and why and then on the latest number of people that have lost their lives on the recovery efforts. not. wanting fifty. didn't even know that from perhaps you would be there now it comes to libya. now live this

morning. but again there are now that your insurance is there for people. oh. oh oh. oh he's trying to change the. mystic oh i do apologize i'm going to have to stop this interview because we don't have a good enough connection phone connection so let's move on well earlier we did speak to became cho who's a member of parliament in taiwan representing the while and constituency she says the region is familiar with earthquakes but one of this magnitude is unheard of.

after the. thirty.

least. with the help of the russian air force on the rainy and back 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 there from the us four hundred a russian and they are controlled by the russian intelligence not the syrian regime so this is russia we need to understand there is an direct confrontation between the u.s. and russia 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 the y.p. g p k k you took them there and you're still telling us not to come to 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 un 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. to south africa now with the ruling a.n.c. party has postponed a mason which had been expected to decide on the potential removal of president zuma from office being pushed back to the seventeenth of february zuma increasing

presence of pressure to resign over corruption allegations and several scandals the postponement of the meeting came after an unprecedented announcement that as soon as state of the nation address being today's. the president. the joint. much more. the u.s. led coalition says it's expanded its bombing campaign in afghanistan that. have been increasing on the trumpet ministration in the last few days positions on the of the afghan border with china and have been targeted. from washington d.c. . those are the secure part of kabul the scene of mass casualties. a luxury hotel targeted and now in the u.s. capital new questions about whether president donald trump strategy in afghanistan

is working the attacks last month were a real shock that's a state department official touting the new policy and hearing these kinds of criticisms maybe it's time we have a frank discussion congress whether or not there is a military solution in afghanistan we're spending fifty billion dollars a year that could be better spent why do the political settlement they now control more territory than they controlled since two thousand and one they're gaining ground. they're creating chaos that was the big question here what is the long term strategy the administration has long said they want to negotiate a settlement with the taliban that is until president trump said the opposite this no talking to the taliban we don't want to talk to the taliban we're going to finish what we have to finish what nobody else has been able to finish we're going to be able to do it the explanation now he was simply upset i think what president president trunk was expressing was

a reaction to. the terrorist activities of the horrible terrorist activities last month in kabul significant elements of the taliban are not prepared to negotiate and it may take a long time before they are willing to negotiate. to get them there the administration says they need to turn the tide on the battlefield the coalition just announced that they've expanded the bombing campaign to the north in just over the last four days dropping twenty four bombs on what they say were taliban targets the most ever from a b. fifty two bomber the air campaign has dramatically increased under president trump according to data from the u.s. military they dropped more than forty three hundred bombs in two thousand and seventeen that's up from around thirteen hundred the year before secretary of defense james mattis was also asked to defend the strategy on capitol hill in fact what we're doing to earn the trust of the american people are doing sure another nine eleven hatched out of there does not happen during our watch. making it

clear recent events will not change the strategy after more than sixteen years more troops more bombing with the hope it eventually leads to peace party calling al-jazeera washington. a weather update is next then the world and forum is underway in kuala lumpur we look at how the host city is trying to rejuvenate its own neighborhoods and a scathing report on a strain his treatment of presidents will disability. hello there we've got a lot of snow over a year at the moment even poor old paris of course we've had a lot of flooding here around the center and now we're also seeing outbreaks of snow there's more snow elsewhere it's heavier over parts of spain and that's working its way now across the southern parts of france heavy snow falls here in

those are gradually edging their way eastwards as we head through the next couple of days so heavy snow is expecting of a past of austria that pushing its way east with as we head through wednesday and into thursday to the south of that where it's a little bit too mild to see from snow we see some heavy outbreaks of rain in stead towards the west it's also turning cooler still so paris is a maximum only getting to two but at least here it should be dry for the other side of the mediterranean it's been pretty unsettled in the northwestern parts of africa over the past few days and we have had a fair amount of snow in parts of morocco and algeria looks like the worst of the snow is over there as we head through wednesday but there's still going to be some rain around the coast not surround morocco is looking fairly heavy so also keeping the temperatures down so you are about won't see any higher than around twelve degrees elsewhere you can see this little area of travis pushing its way east with that's mostly been high cloud not doing too much to hamper the temperature.

good to have you with us on al jazeera these are our top stories a magnitude six point four earthquake has hit east of taiwan killing at least four people and injuring more than two hundred others firefighters in the port city of fallen says several people remain trapped in buildings that on the brink of collapse at least ninety one people have been killed in just one day investment how areas of syria's eastern ghouta and the province government and russian jets have increased their attacks despite mounting west of and you when pressure for troops and south africa's ruling a.n.c. party has postponed a meeting which had been expected to decide on the potential of removal of president jacob zuma from office zuma is on the increasing pressure to resign over corruption allegations. a palestinian man has been shot and killed by a security guard in the settlement of the occupied west bank the palestinian stabbed and injured an israeli settler on wednesday morning or tensions have been creased in the occupied west bank since u.s.

president donald trump decided to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital. and another palestinian man was killed during raids by the israeli army in the occupied west bank city of nablus thirteen people were wounded as israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets during protests on tuesday five of those remain in a critical condition on monday an israeli settler was stabbed and killed in the illegal settlement of. well as various security forces have also killed a palestinian man who is wanted of the death of a settler last month twenty one year old. was shot dead he was accused of killing a rabbi in an illegal israeli outpost last month amman collin has more from the occupied west bank the israeli army says this is a mature as body they've been looking for him since general you know he was accused of killing a settler rabbi from an illegal settlement outpost in. in the early hours of tuesday morning around seventy jeeps and two bulldozers and this village. and

focused their attention on this about building. at exactly four thirty am i heard an explosion and we heard an exchange of gunfire and then it quieted down for about five minutes and then they started shouting surrender but there was more shooting and then they brought in a robot that searched the room for about two hours. the killing has taken on a heightening significance because the settler was a religious leader. after the killing of the rabbi from a nearby settlement the israeli army mounted almost nightly raids in a village of bush again and they eventually found him they say him in the yemen a massive reacted saying the palestinian resistance continues. this courageous martyrdom asserts that resistance in the west bank is still going in all its forms led by our military armaments and the resistant and fighting palestinian all the

security measures of the israeli occupation the security organizations or israeli military cannot break the will of resistance and the palestinian youths resisting this intifada will continue the jerusalem intifada will continue the palestinian people go on to freedom or martyrdom huge crowds are gathered outside of the mother's house and put him. to be even. but it's not just my son he's the sum of all of palestine he died his dignity fighting the occupation he has made his people proud. on the seventeenth of january they thought they killed but that turned out to be a case of mistaken identity and an innocent man was killed the killing of the settler led prime minister benjamin netanyahu to declare the settlement outposts legal under israeli law and bring it under official protection the bodies of the two palestinians killed in the israeli raids still haven't been handed over to the families imran khan al jazeera you moon village occupied west. the un high

commission on human rights says why it about what he sees as growing intolerance of indonesia say that al hussein says he's heard reports about unprovoked violence by security forces and for his minority communities are being excluded is highlighted blasphemy and moves to criminalize sex before marriage. the extremist views playing out in the political arena are deeply warring accompanied as they are by rising numbers of incitement to discrimination hatred or violence and various parts of the country including option. as a time when it is consolidating its democratic gains we urge indonesians to move forward not backwards on human rights and resist attempts to introduce new forms of discrimination in law because

these proposed amendments will in effect criminalize knowledge sections of the foreign marginalized they are inherently discriminatory. now more than full body and can get around the world now level settings and that number set to go up to six billion by two thousand and fifty making cities more livable as the main theme of the night session of the world than fog has fallen so we the poles the host city kuala lumpur as exploring ways to rejuvenate it's our neighborhoods. 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 shiny of 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 into cities there's a growing demand for species in cities and the challenges it is then is regenerate existing urban areas as opposed to expanding and eventually result. in. negative outcomes like the illusion extracted 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 othis permanent then we'll think of it there are 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 bright. that'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 world open forum 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 last record housing model 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 a step. in. in the bedroom. and it becomes part of. the house lacks a dining room because that's meant to be a shared 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. let's go live to florence clearly many issues facing

planets but one of the most most urgent problems. that's right now that story we just watch was mostly about urban regeneration but there are other issues that are really much more pressing particularly sustainable development that's one of the more pressing issues that local councils and urban planners have to address this is because already more than half the world's population live in cities and that percentage is set to grow particularly in parts of asia and africa now how do you make sure that our cities expand that the environment is also taken care of you have to balance these two competing interests between human beings and taking care of the environment and then you also have to ensure how do you make sure that as people use natural resources they're not also depleting them that there's a way to replenish these natural resources that are being used and there's another very pressing issue as well the issue of climate change how do you help cities

adapt to climate change which can bring about severe weather patterns these are the issues these are just some of the issues that the global conference here the world the forum the ninth was taking place in kuala lumpur over the next few days will attempt to answer it brings together academics urban planners local council officials from cities around the world to discuss these issues and this is the ninth open forum the first one was established by un habitat in two thousand and one to address the issue of rapid urbanization this pressing issues and date and we look forward to your coverage of it law and florence lowy joining us live from quantum the thank you. now human rights watch has delivered a scathing assessment of a story of streetman to present us with disabilities the advocacy group interview two hundred seventy five individuals at estimates half of the people behind bars have a physical mental or cognitive. disability at the regional australians are overrepresented in the prison population the report found that in the state of queensland more than

seventy percent of them have a diagnosis disability it also documents allegations of physical and sexual violence carried out by staff and fellow inmates. is from human rights watch and she says the results were not surprising we found that prisoners with disabilities are overrepresented in solitary confinement spending weeks months and sometimes even yours in these units locked up for up to twenty two hours a day isolation is harmful for any prisoner but it's particularly damaging for prisoners with disabilities we have raised issues in our report with state governments and even at the federal level what is challenging for prison authorities and which has been the most contentious issue is the issue of solitary confinement at this point do not acknowledge that prisoners with disabilities are overrepresented in these units and that would be the first step we are calling for

a state level and a national level inquiry into the practice with a view to end it because it is dehumanizing it's inhumane what is going on people with disabilities are locked up in conditions where the lightest switched on for twenty four hours a day they are only let out of their cell for two hours their food is slipped through a slot in the door that's how isolated they are there's no real mental health. care it's limited to the distribution of medication and that's it and prison is damaging people with disabilities going in in a certain state but coming out much worse. well u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson has been speaking with the colombian president and both with us to this and praised juan manuel samples as efforts to tackle colombia's drugs trade and a short time that the u.s. would continue to offer support the president trying to pass rushing to withdraw assistance on meth colombia dramatically cuts cocaine production. we did discuss

our concerns about the the surge in coca cultivation and cocaine production and colombia but the president also gave me a very good report of the steps that are being taken the progress is being made and he just spoke to much of that and we are quite encouraged by what we hear and we will continue to work with colombia to support these efforts were we can be of assistance as well this is a shared challenge for both of our nations as well that as well as the government is blaming sabotage for a power outage which has left large parts of caucus and the dog commuters were among the worst affected by tuesday's blackout which forced at least ten train stations to call this and shut down traffic lives but government critics say the alphabet is another five on the infrastructure. the billionaire entrepreneur in mosques ambitious plans to colonize mars have taken another step forward as company space x. has successfully launched its most powerful rocket to get the twenty three story

falcon heavy blasted off from the kennedy space center in florida with a tesla sports car on board rob reynolds reports three. with its twenty seven rocket engines roaring the space x. falcon heavy sword into the florida sky it's the most powerful rocket on earth with a thrust equal to eighteen seven forty seven jumbo jets working simultaneously at full power the successful launch gives a powerful boost to billionaire entrepreneur elon musk's company which once lucrative contracts with nasa the u.s. military and satellite companies. onboard the unmanned ship musk's own cherry red tesla roadster from his electric car company with the space suit a dummy in the seat and a stereo playing the late david bowie's space oddity on repeat the rockets side boosters separated from the main body and flew back to earth touching down in

a perfectly choreographed double landing the boosters will eventually be reused on another mission another booster was designed to lend of war to the ship at sea musk says falcon to have these payload will go into an elliptical orbit of the sun that extends as far out as the orbit of mars and will continue circling for hundreds of millions of years robert oulds al-jazeera. you know again i'm elizabeth problem in the headlines on al-jazeera a magnitude six point four earthquake has hit eastern taiwan killing at least four people and injuring more than two hundred others rescuers of the port city of holland say several people remain trapped in buildings that are on the brink of collapse at least line to one people have been killed in just one day in rebel held

areas of syria's eastern. province government and russian jets have increased their attacks despite mounting western and u.n. pressure for a truce syrian state media is reporting that israel has attacked a site on the outskirts of damascus early on wednesday the missiles were reportedly aimed at research center in the town of which has been the target of previous israeli strikes israel usually targets the group hezbollah in syria. south africa's ruling a.n.c. party has postponed amazing which had been expected to decide on the potential removal of president jacob zuma from office zuma as under increasing pressure to resign over corruption allegations. we decided to approach the. droids. much.

the palestinian man has been shot and killed by a security guard in the. occupied west bank the palestinians stabbed and injured an israeli settler on wednesday morning tensions have risen in the occupied west bank since u.s. president donald trump decided to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital and another palestinian man was killed during raids by the israeli army in the occupied west bank city of nablus thirty people were wounded as israeli forces fired tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets during protests on tuesday on monday an israeli settler was stabbed and killed in the illegal settlement of. now billionaire entrepreneur on mosques company space x. has successfully launched its most powerful rocket yet three. g. twenty three story falcon heavy last it off from the kennedy space center in florida minutes after takeoff the two out of boosters landed at the nearby cape canaveral

station. those are the headlines on al-jazeera and side story as coming up next. the marshall islands holds a toxic legacy from years of u.s. military nuclear testing. as the sea levels rise one one east investigates the threats this fall opposers at this time on al-jazeera. will corsica turn into france's catalonia president has begun a two day visit to the mediterranean island where there is growing demand for greater autonomy from france as separatist movements rise across europe how will it affect this region this is inside story. though.