for the congolese the journey to work all the more unimaginable hardship i prefer to live because they are going to chance in life and live on a dangerous journey through the jungle. to the rails and nearly die. our children go to school and live because of the trade risking it or the democratic republic of congo at this time on al-jazeera. israel the rock was responsible for today's aggression. is our top story for you this an israeli fighter jets is downed after a raid targeting iranian assets in syria hello and welcome you are watching

al-jazeera live from doha also ahead in northern syria a turkish helicopter shot down as ankara as offensive against kurdish forces continues. talks on the sidelines of the winter olympics south korea's leader is invited to visit the north. and india's prime minister wraps up an historic visit to the palestinian territories. the dining of an israeli fighter jet by syrian forces has raised tensions across the region the israeli f. sixteen was on a mission inside syria targeting what israel says are iranian bases there now the plane's wreckage and pilots in israeli territory it all began when israel says it intercepted an iranian drone flying in its airspace israel says the drone came from syria it responded with a major air raid in syrian territory targeting what it claims are in. iranian bases

on the way back from the mission israeli jets came under syrian anti-aircraft fire and that's when the f. sixteen was hit israeli jets then launched another cross border air raid hitting twelve syrian government and iranian targets it's believed to be israel's most significant attack against syria since one nine hundred eighty two imran khan reports now from west jerusalem. in the early hours of saturday morning syria's war escalated to a new level for the first time in thirty years israel lost a fighter jet to enemy fire as israel confirmed syrian air defense shot at one of its f. sixteen fighter jets the israeli prime minister was blunt israel iran and it's. responsible for today's aggression we will continue to do whatever is necessary to protect our sovereignty and our security the crash followed the shooting down of a drone israeli army video shows what they say is the iranian drone flying towards the northern golan heights before it was downed in retaliation israeli air force at

targets in syria including the suspected drone command center iranian targets and syrian air defense syria alone surface to air missiles during these really raid and says it shot down the f. sixteen which crashed in northern israel at the hands of. the syrian political leadership took a decision at the highest level to face decisively any israeli military aircraft over therion in space today syria did what it promised by down in israeli plane and striking at other planes this is clear for syria it is the decisive decision to confront the israeli air force and its careless behavior. both pilots ejected and parachuted to these race side of the border one is critically injured the israeli army spokesman said it was wrong it was behind the launch of the drawing but didn't say whether it was armed or not the iranians have reacted they've said that they are going to stand with syria against any fullish and. by israel the russians have

also reacted saying that israel needs to respect syrian the slate state sovereignity also what we're hearing is that the israelis want to send a strong message to the russians to get iran out of the region imran khan al-jazeera westra slim mike hanna has more now on washington's response to saturday morning's incident but despite iran's denial that it was responsible for the drone incursion the state department appears to be convinced that iran is to blame for this round of combat that we've seen emerge over the course of this particular day a state department spokesperson has released a statement saying and i quote iran's calculated escalation of threat and its ambition to project power places the entire region at risk from she says yemen to lebanon once again from state department we also heard that israel has

a right to defend itself a similar statement coming out of the pentagon which also stated very clearly that u.s. played no role whatsoever in israel's combat operations at targets within syria so from the u.s. what you are hearing support for israel not surprising but at the same time there appears to be a degree of concern about the further ramifications of the conflict that's emerged in the course of the day when carl was deputy national intelligence officer for trans national threats at the cia a earlier my colleague richelle carey spoke to him but the downing of the israeli jets she began by asking him whether it was just a matter of time before something like this happens again. we all have heard of murphy that the murphy's law if something can go wrong it will and that's not a joke when you have at least twelve different major actors militaries involved in with overlapping alliances and resentments and objectives all of which conflict

the slightest error and there will be many errors everyday by radar readers or pilots or men on the ground as soldiers on the ground or civilian leaders. who will only have instance to respond to what appears to be a threat and sometimes even in good faith you will get things wrong the likelihood of an error like that and therefore a disaster is very high in probably the most dangerous place on the earth the ice is a hideous is a hideous phenomenon and it's good that they are being and have largely been destroyed the larger strategic issue may be even worse because that could involve major war with iran russia saudi arabia united states israel iraq syria turkey and on and on all of whom have overlapping interests in conflicting interests right there that's the real problem so what will it take is the million

dollar question for this this what has happened now in particular not to spiral out of control is a distant matter of will is that a matter of choices it is i think the most important actors in this moment i would say our intel of even in tehran and tehran was saying very self-serving things with that we just heard of course because they are the ones who are changing have changed the strategic equation by placing the missiles there that is a qualitatively different circumstance for israel and in the region that extends iran's influence in iran is as netanyahu said and i'm no defender particularly of netanyahu but as he said iran has not changed its position of hostility to israel. and so the response to avoid conflict is not to have a conflict but that takes tremendous forbearance and politically is quite difficult in particular i think for netanyahu given his own pressures domestically from the right wing of his coalition who will not take kindly to gentle response to

a rainy in extension of its power and it's a military helicopter has been shot down in northern syria during an operation against kurdish fighters this video is said to show the helicopter the moments before it was hit for and killing two soldiers on board the kurdish led syrian democratic forces say its fight says shut down the aircraft but he says the cause is still unclear a total of eleven soldiers were killed in the fighting on saturday making it the deadliest day for the country's forces as they began the campaign in a fire in last month jamal sheil is in gas and he had close to the border with turkey and syria. the downing of this turkish manufactured attack helicopter that was killed through this is a significant development in this three week long military operation that brings the number of talkers soldiers killed by the wire p.g. kurdish militia group through over twenty years far as the clerics are concerned

they've killed at least one hundred fifty kurdish fighters now some advances have been made on the ground in the past twenty four forty eight hours the free syrian army which is fighting alongside turkish military in order to advance towards the y.p. g. produce from hold of our free and i have managed to capture some villages on the road towards there as far as the turkish army is concerned and listening to president they will respond the thing to go through well behind that attack what's important to note here is that although the. kurdish sources in the white p.g. can. in that the turkish military has killed civilians in its operation ankara denies that basically the reason why this operation is ongoing it's possible they wanted to is precisely because they have been trying to of rights and the death of innocent civilians them there have been reports that the y.p. g.

and the p y b that's the political wing of the kurdish militia have actually been cards from other towns and cities to use them as human shields the kurdish officials there would say actually this is just the natural response of the kurdish population in order to protect their town against what they see as a foreign aggression. three weeks now in through operation olive branch and it does seem as i say to be steady advances made by the target and the free syrian army towards our freedom but this downing over helicopter will be sure to incur the wrath of the targets military the north korean leader kim jong un has extended a rare invitation to the south korean president to go to pyongyang hosted kim system for talks in seoul on the sidelines of the winter olympics especially good m. has more from cold. in the presidential blue house in the capital seoul relations between the two koreas continued to thaw the meeting had two firsts

jiang is the first member of the ruling family to cross into the south since the korean war the sister of the north korean leader came with the first ever invitation kim jong un is asking south korean president mungy in to come to pyongyang at a convenient time soon little know its key president moon said early talks between north korea and the united states are essential to improve relations here just north korea to be more proactive to move forward to have a dialogue with the united states. it's unclear when that might happen the u.s. and north korea have rebuffed lose attempts so far if an interesting meeting transpires it will be the first time kim jong un has met with the south korean president since assuming power in twenty eleven the last time leaders from the north and south met was eleven years ago during a summit in p.r.

. because of all the global attention i believe reunification will be brought forth the government is making efforts and i think people are rooting for it organizers of the olympics say they've been moved by the diplomatic breakthrough it was quite on the story a moment. and something that as you know the i.o.c. has been generally working for since probably two thousand and fourteen. and you know i think it shows it opens opens the door maybe just a little bit critics say they doubt that door will ultimately open much more for now the there is hope that the chang winter olympics is the catalyst for a reboot in intercourse and relations natasha going to aim el jazeera south korea thousands of empty fascist demonstrators have rallied in the italian city of much of the six africans were injured in a drive by shooting

a week ago schools and shops in the city were closed on public transport suspended over fears the march could trigger violence a far right sympathizer being held by the police suspected of carrying out the attack and the racism rallies also took place in rome milan and. it comes less than a month before national elections with far right parties expected to make a strong showing any of us here out of his research analyst at the think tank open europe he says many parties or political movements it's only of being wrongly labeled as far right. the far right and in general deeds entire idea of fascist revival in italy shouldn't be exaggerated the far right is definitely quite strong now a days in in italy but i believe especially abroad there is a tendency to generalize and put a lot of parties into the same box which is not necessarily the case for it on what is definitely a far right and to some extent

a fascist movement but for someone used to be a separatist and originalist party now under the leadership of mark there salvini as was rebranded the party moved much more towards the far right positions but the five star movement that many times abroad disputing the same box as these other parties is therefore not a far right movement still ahead here on al-jazeera after forty years leading the irish nationalist party shouldn't think the controversial figure gerry adams was the reins of power to the new generation. and desperate to get out of it as well as neighbors a tightening border control. by the springtime flowering of a mountain lake. to the first snowfall on a winter's day. and there is still quite cold for many of us in the southeastern

parts of china the temperatures in shanghai during the day all too bad they're getting to around seven or nine degrees but at night they're still dropping below freezing so certainly feeling very cool for us for the south and for hong kong will be around nineteen generally there's not a great deal of cloud around the coast there but head down towards the philippines a formal cloud here on monday thanks to an approaching storm so we keeping a close eye on not over the next few days that's not going to reach us until tuesday though so for the time being it's actually being quite quiet of course. philippines is the far more clout further south borneo and across job wrong all the way here and plenty more rain still to come as we head through the next couple of days towards the west while it's largely quite quiet weather wise here stretching from thailand all the way down through k.l. and singapore there's a good chance of seeing plenty of dry weather over the next few days as we head across towards india you can see the cloud is snaking its way across bangladesh and into nepal that's not really giving us

a very active weather is just been high cloud mostly we're seeing some more active weather work its way across the northern parts now this across the northern parts of india it is giving us some heavy snow more still to come as we head into monday there with sponsored by qatar and he's. what makes this movement this era we're living through so unique this is really an attack on its itself is a lot of misunderstanding a distortion even of what free speech is supposed to be about the context it's hugely important to have a right to publish if you have a duty to be offensive or provoke it's all about it as people did setting the stage for a serious debate. up front at this time on al-jazeera. welcome

back let's just update your top story so far this russia and the us say they are concerned after israel launched a second series of it strikes in syria when one of its f. sixteen fighter jets were shot down by president assad's forces the strikes targeted government and alleged iranian assets inside syria. north korea's kim jong moon has invited the south. korean president to pyongyang for talks to kim sr so on the sidelines of the winter olympics. and thousands of demonstrators have rallied against racism in the italian city of much of a week after six africans were shot by a far right sympathizer protesters warned of a revival of neo fascist sentiments during the campaign for next month's national elections. the irish republican party shin fein has elected

a new leader to replace gerry adams who announced he was stepping down in november mary lou mcdonald says she's committed to pushing for a united ireland but has not been reports now from dublin she has more immediate challenges mean taking over from a man she calls a political giant mary lou mcdonald paid tribute to gerry adams who became shin fein president when she was a teenager and he was instrumental in northern ireland's peace process that led to the good friday agreement two decades ago he has defined politics on the science for a generation or more and when others said it was impossible gerry and martin mcguinness along with john hume and others bravely walked the path to peace macdonald and out of his have been involved in talks on reconvening northern islands devolved government which broke down a year ago shin fein which shared power with the unionist do you once movement on issues such as irish language rights of the removed i mean really facing us.

the war is not over there is no matter your anger and anguish and again we don't have to agree on the past the reason you're seeing other historical hires . we will see how we can really. is never again he says i think we can agree to disagree like mcdonald the party's new deputy leader michel o'neill represents a younger generation of activists hoping to get shin fein into government on both sides of the border. this conference represents not just the handover of power but a move towards a more modern ois policy by sinn fein it comes at a time when there are real challenges for it's both in northern ireland and here in the irish republic how do we become the party that is seen by those people who are in full time employment and average wages those people are part time a point of poor wages and also going to provide how do we present ourselves as the

champion of their needs and their interests the party's also been hit by resignations over alleged bullying and mcdonald says she's listening to complaints here in the south she's also backing a change in the law to allow abortion ahead of an irish referendum later this year but she in feigns long held aim of a referendum on uniting the island of ireland remains some way off the al-jazeera dublin an explosion on a boat off the coast of the spanish canary islands has injured five tourists the holiday makers were rushed to hospital after flames engulfed the speedboat tenor east coast they were pulled from the water by a nearby yacht the spanish coast guard later extinguished the fire the cause of the incident is now under investigation. there under modi has wrapped up the first official visit by an indian prime minister of the palestinian territories the palestinian president mahmoud abbas told mr modi that he needs new delhi support during future talks with israel his government is seeking new allies after the us

president donald trump course an uproar by recognizing jerusalem as the israeli capital has been and smith. this first visit to the occupied west bank for an indian prime minister was also very short just three hours it ended with a media briefing no questions allowed when i had remotely offered the traditional indian support for the palestinians. i assured president abbas that india is committed to the palestinian national interest india hopes that palestine will become an independent and sovereign state in the future the building of the state comes through peaceful means and through dialogue and understanding. but there was no mention of the. jerusalem is the capital of a palestinian state something previous indian leaders always refer to from the palestinian president came the hope that india might help in mediating future talks with the israelis. we exchanged views about the current element of the peace process that resulted from the continuity of the occupation and from the blocking

of the political horizon following the decision on jerusalem and the refugees. there was no comment from modi on that. how different the relationship was when yasser arafat was alive modi paid his respects at the former palestinian leader's mors a limb in one thousand nine hundred eight india became the first non arab country to recognize the state of palestine india suffered under colonialism and fellow palestinians were in the same boat thirty years on india vice forty one percent of israel's arms exports israel's prime minister was in india for a weeklong visit in january making new trade deals and the like and with certain in light of israel indian relations palestinians wanted to reintroduce balance to the relationship and bring back india as an important ally but modi invaded talking directly about with india was voted to take up such a role after his visit modi flew back to jordan and on to the gulf mode it was in

israel last july but he didn't out on a visit to ramallah which is what most leaders usually do india wants to dealing gets relations with the israelis and the palestinians which is why there was a separate visit here now the palestinians hope this means they can still rely on indian support even though strong relations with israel are now a new delhi's priority. burnitz me al-jazeera ramallah. votes are being counted in sri lanka rafters most peaceful election for decades the first vote since electoral laws changed allowing a record number of women to campaign for a seat in local government the president and the prime minister run away with promising rule jointly through a coalition but have campaigned for their respective parties separately. indonesian navy has seized more than a tonne of crystal meth and arrested for suspected drug smugglers the seas substances were paraded after being found on a boat in indonesian waters near singapore on weapons day they'd been hidden under

sacks of rice for taiwanese men have been arrested there are reports that drugs were bound for stray. oxfam's chief executive has apologized after allegations of sexual misconduct emerged against nine of the aid agency staff members in haiti three of them resigned four employees were sacked the u.k. based charity has had a presence in haiti ever since the massive earthquake hit there in twenty ten the british government has criticized oxfam for a lack of transparency into investigating the allegations. what i'm apologizing for is that nine oxfam staff behaved in a way that was totally unacceptable in country to our values and that then led much more responsible stuff to make decisions which are now seen as being by some margin or inappropriate our job is to promote the positive value says staff don't even go there but also to be absolutely intolerant of anybody who does what we've committed

in the last few months is to increase the work that we do on that behavior on that culture and to do all that we possibly can to drive out any exploitation or tolerance of it that's what we're committed to alongside making this amazing difference to literally tens of millions of people around the world every year. brazil and colombia are tightening border controls as concerns months of the growing number of people escaping the crisis in venezuela hundreds of thousands have already fled the country because a food shortage is rampant inflation and political uncertainty is dying all. officially more than half a million venezuelans crossed into colombia in the last six months of last year but no one knows the true figures only that tens of thousands of venezuelans now try to scrape a living across south america the largest numbers in neighboring brazil and colombia . game which i hear there are many mechanics doctors college graduates and look at

us cleaning windows selling chargers and air conditioners so and so to then as well as future is over but hey you have to before i feel really sad really sad because we have to migrate to look for what we used to have in our country because before in venezuela we had what colombia has abundant and a growing economy there are scaping in the economic crisis is lead to severe food and medicine shortages the international monetary fund predicts. this year will reach thirteen thousand percent the president of venice wayland because mcdougall blames the u.s. backed international conspiracy for his country's troubles the colombian president juan manuel santos says nicolas maduro has mismanaged the economy and that can no longer live with those consequences or you saw me decide on our starting today only venezuelans who have passports or have in their hands the migration card will enter

colombia. he's ordered three thousand more soldiers and police to patrol the border but colombia and brazil say the influx of migrants is straining their social services to breaking points if they my law regarding immigration what the government wants and what the country once is to achieve orderly secure and legal migration that means foreigners are legal in our country in that way we can plan for the future. but with the situation in venice waiter and he predicted to get was the migrants who keep coming even now now face a more formidable challenge to cross the border. tangle trying now to see if. the world's biggest and most raucous street party is in full swing in brazil people are using the carnival to let off steam after a difficult year a struggling economy spiralling corruption investigations and deepening political divisions have all taken a toll as a latin america as the sea and human reporting from the northeastern city of

received. and early morning bugle call summons revelers on to the streets of the seething. it's called the rooster of the dawn the highlight of carnival in northeastern brazil's capital where least a million people parade past the giant bird and i didn't spend money to buy because we we're for carnival all year but something spectacular that's in all of our hearts here in burnham bercow where we hear and dance the rhythm of our region. above all this. a jungle where brass band music is accompanied by an acrobatic dance in a massive street party of resilience can forget their economic and political wolves . and how easy its culture roots joy for people who've been suffering so much lately. carnival lasts for five days a period of unbridled revelry ending just before lent which on the christian

calendar marks a forty day period of fasting and prayer carnival has really evolved since it first began here in the eighteen hundreds then there was. a lot bigger and it was. more of the way to prepare the way for the rest of iraq. and. after the emancipation of slavery and until this day it's become a massive outdoor affair and. it's a kind of all made up of so many diverse people that just want to have fun. and look in rio where lavish some of the schools millions of dollars often from questionable sources here it's all grass roots every neighborhood in household comes out to parade. with young or too old to celebrate brazil's most traditional carnival. you see in human i just see that they see fit brazil. and

colorful costumes and musicians filled the streets of the bolivian city as the annual carnival there also kicked off the four day festival leads up to the start of the christian season of lent the two hundred year old celebration is one of south america's most famous trunks nearly four hundred thousand people every. welcome if you're just joining us you're watching al-jazeera live from doha my name's piece of double your headlines russia and the u.s. say they are concerned after israel launched a second series of air strikes in syria after one of its f. sixteen fighter jets was shot down by president assad's forces the strikes targeted government and alleged iranian sites in syria mike hanna now with the reaction out of washington. the state department appears to be convinced that iran is to blame for this round of combat that we've seen emerge over the course of this particular

day a state department spokesperson has released a statement saying and i quote iran's calculated escalation of threat and its ambition to project power places the entire region at risk from she says yemen to lebanon but turkish military helicopter has been shot down in northern syria during an operation against kurdish fighters this video is said to show the helicopter moments before it was hit me and for him killing two soldiers on board kurdish led syrian democratic forces say it's fights a shot down the aircraft but he says the cause is still unclear a total of eleven turkish soldiers were killed in fighting on saturday that makes it the deadliest day for the country's forces since they began the campaign after in last month north korea's kim jong un has invited the south korean president to pyongyang for talks monday in hosted kim sr in seoul on the sidelines of the winter

olympics it's the latest sign of warming relations between the two governments after a tense period over the north's nuclear weapons program votes are being counted in sri lanka after its most peaceful elections for decades it's the first vote since electoral laws changed allowing a record number of women to campaign for a seat in local government. thousands of demonstrators are rallied against racism in the italian city of much about a week after six africans were injured in a drive by shooting protesters warned of a revival of neo fascist sentiment during the campaign for next month's national election and he racism rallies also took place in roma land and. the irish republican party shin fein has elected a new leader to replace gerry adams who announced he was stepping down in november mary lou mcdonald says she's committed to pushing for a united ireland. those are your headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera the up front also user but. al-jazeera is

a very important source of information for many people around the world when all the cameras are gone i'm still here go into areas that nobody else is going to talk to people that nobody else is talking to and bringing that story to the forefront. he's been called one of the most wanted political fugitives of twenty nine team and former georgian president mikheil saakashvili faces possible extradition to his home country from his new country ukraine i'll ask him if he's prepared for life behind bars and later i'll talk to the somali refugee turned u.s. politician about life in trump's america.