facing realities growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place the so-called secret city getting to the heart of the matter why ease activists to live in jail just because he expressed himself he had a story on talk to al-jazeera at this time. more raids as israel responds to the downing of its fighter jet inside syria. following down this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up a coffee table diplomacy north korea's in the big delegation is welcomed by the

south korean prime minister. the philippines president's push to change the constitution raises concerns of a threat to democracy plus. let the party begin brazilians forget the economic and political troubles the carnival mood grips the country. israel says its responded to the downing of one of its warplanes by syrian government forces with its most significant attack on syria in decades the israeli fighter jet was shot down near the occupied golan heights on saturday it all began when israel said it intercepted an iranian drone that flew into it says space from syria israel replied with airstrikes targeting what it says were iranian bases in southern syria and near the capital damascus meanwhile the u.n. secretary general is told him for an immediate and unconditional deescalation and

russia's president vladimir putin is warning israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu against raising tensions well in a few moments same bus driver will join us live from the iranian capital tehran but let's first cross to west jerusalem and talk to him and. so what do you expect to see out of israel today. well let me just bring you up to date with the latest fuss i've spoken to the israeli army in the last five minutes i also very bluntly whether the operation was still continuing and what targets they hit in syria overnight they declined to comment on both of those questions but what we're hearing from retired israeli generals or briefing local media is that this is the biggest operation launched against syrian air defenses units since one thousand nine hundred eighty two so clearly a very significant operation that's going on that the israeli army declined to comment on what we're expecting to see out all the west them in the next few hours two very crucial meetings the first one will be a cabinet meeting and this is

a regular schedule cabinet meeting but clearly the focus will be on vents in syria and what to do next now we also heard from media sources close to prime minister benjamin netanyahu who told his cabinet not to talk about this publicly so it's unlikely that we're going to see any kind of announcement but perhaps more crucially we might see an announcement from the security cabinet meeting that also takes place a little bit later. in the afternoon now what they will decide will shape what happens next now as you say a lot of if putin has warned against any kind of escalation is told the israelis to respect syrian serenity you ronnie's have reacted as well saying that these israelis can no longer operate with immunity over syrian skies and there have been some one hundred s. strikes at least from the israeli side since the war started seven years ago so

let's see what happens out of those two meetings where the will hate anything or not but right now all eyes are on whether israel decides it wants to escalate it's already going off to these targets in syria these defense systems in syria whether it goes off to more targets gets closer to his ball the targets within syria that will remain the same but right now. we are hearing that a big operation is on the way all right to him and in a western that's cross over now to the iranian capital tehran i'm told designed by a saying so the israelis and the u.s. have been quick to blame iran for this incident so what's the view from tehran well since the syrian conflict began iran's position has always been that its forces are in syria at the behest of who they see as the legitimate government of the country president bashar al assad and they are there to support that government and they're saying runyan leaders are saying that the real narrative is that israel in fact encroached on syrian airspace has had it has done several times in the past

and this time the syrian government response was something that iranian leaders said was long time coming and they certainly celebrated it we've heard bold rhetoric in the past bold and defiant rhetoric from both the iranian leadership as well as the syrians and they've said that they will respond at an appropriate time with an appropriate measure and it seems now that that bold rhetoric has been backed up by fire firepower one of the officials who spoke told a zero after the incident said that the downing of one fighter plane is only the beginning and if israel's aggressive activity continues that iran and its allies in the region are prepared to deal with that aggression so certainly a lot of tough talk on both sides but there is also an effort to deescalate the situation and iranian president hassan rouhani speaking on the day of this incident said that israel's tactics of bombardment these hidden run tactics that they've adopted in syria cannot continue that they are

a mistake and he said that the best way for neighbors to get along is to cooperate so even as he says that he may not believe that it is in the near future iran and israel have been on opposing sides for a very long time but certainly an effort to deescalate a situation in the tinderbox that is syria so certainly a recognition of that here in the capital zain thank you. well as we were saying there washington has backed israel and blamed iran for the escalation like hemet has moved 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 i mean around eleven turkish soldiers have been killed in northern syria german operation against kurdish fighters two of them died when their helicopter was downed in the freen this video said to show the aircraft moments before it was hit kurdish led syrian democratic forces say it's fine to shut it down but turkey says the cause is still unclear it's been the deadliest day of fighting since turkish soldiers began their campaign in a free last month let's get more from jamal is live for us from near the turkey syria border tomato just bring us up to date with any progress that turkish troops

are making on the ground. well daryn together with their allies in their free syrian army those are the syrian rebels who've been fighting bashar al assad for years now they have made some steady progress over the three weeks this operation has begun according to the statements coming out from the military you're talking about thirty seven zones that have been what the as they claim liberated from the kurdish fighters the militia the y.p. gee that's twenty three villages and several strategic hilltops it is a mountainous region in the past twenty four hours or so with the latest town to be captured by the f.s.a. entire military from the kurdish militia is one called the a bundle to the west of our freedom so there has been some steady progress over they say it's not been as swift as they would like because of the use of human shields according to the talks by the white peachy the kurdish militia which has made it difficult for the text to progress because they don't want to kill

civilians as they claim the why p.g. would say that's not true and claim that the turks have killed civilians over the past few weeks but there has been on the ground some steady progress in the advanced word softies and as we've been reporting jamal eleven more turkish soldiers were killed yesterday i mean this is this is making their free nupur ration extremely costly to turkey. costly it is yes it's what that brings the number of military personnel who have been killed since this began to around thirty one president vegetate are to one when he was addressing the crowds yesterday in on the on saturday rather and in istanbul he said that this was war and it was expected that losses were going to be made but he promised his people that more losses would be inflicted on the opposition the white p.g.a. as he calls them the terrorist organization inside syria and indeed although around thirty tucker soldiers have been killed you're talking about at least one hundred fifty by p.g. fighters who have lost their lives in these this this latest confrontation between

looks like a shipment of trees and the kurds. fighters there what's more important for the turks is obviously the domestic support they have for this and there is great domestic support for this inside turkey because they view the y.p. g. is just another branch of the p.k. k. that's the kurdistan workers' party a group that's been bombing turkish cities for decades now in many view it's also as a terrorist organization so with that popular support amongst turks as well as the collaboration of on the ground intelligence through the f.s.a. and other syrian rebels the turks although this there has been losses they are confident that they will be able to succeed in operation olive branch of this military operation to push the kurds out of the white p.g. the coach militia rather out of our free and jamal thank you also in syria the u.n. says two hundred thirty civilians have been killed by syrian and russian air strikes in the past week the u.n.

commission for human rights described as some of the worst violence during the almost seven year long conflict is a drawdown hussein says the strikes may also constitute war crimes he confirmed his office had received reports of the possible use of toxic agents earlier this month in the rebel held town of salah can't. iran is marking the thirty ninth anniversary of its islamic revolution mass rallies are expected across the country and president rouhani has been speaking in tehran freedom square one thousand nine hundred nine revolution so the overthrow of the shah monarchy and the creation of the islamic republic. north korea's olympic delegation has met the south korean prime minister lee nucky on in seoul the group includes the sister of north korea's leader kim jong il on saturday she extended a rare invitation to the south korean president moon jane to visit pyongyang the delegation has been holding talks with a south korean government on the sidelines of the winter olympics. and right wing

protesters are continuing with protests against the north's participation in the winter olympics these are live pictures from chang the north's presence at the games however has been generally welcome. now the president of the philippines rodriguez detective wants to change the constitution and switch to a new form of government he says the move would see regions get more power and help alleviate poverty but critics say it's a smokescreen to prolong his tenure to melun dogan as more. former philippines president for didn't marcus ruled with an iron fist for decades his martial rule was seen by many filipinos as oppressive in one thousand nine hundred eighty six the people power revolution removed him from office ushering in a new era of democracy the one nine hundred eighty seven philippine constitution was drafted with an emphasis on bringing about social justice past presidents have tried to change that constitution in the hope of prolonging their stay in power

president a very good authority is making another attempt this time to change to a federal form of government he wants to decentralize power from what he describes as an imperialistic mandela and improve life for those living in rural areas no person should be deprived of life liberty or edgar's c.-a who helped draft the present constitution says it is not the form of government that is problematic but the quality of those people in government more than eighty percent of those elected officials come from political dynasties a federal form of government could help the remain in power charter change for me. is a trojan horse because behind the effort to change the constitution or believe our transitory provisions were in fact there will be no elections or there can be a continued stay in office but most of those in congress say the election of the territory is proof that people want

a decisive leader that can bring about radical change. or there is no assurance in any form of government because we are in a democracy this is a democratic society so how can we. the people who do innit. teratomas political party p.d.p. law bond has already drafted a proposed constitution but critics say the charter it is proposing is dictatorial in nature giving the president legislative powers and even allowing him to rule indefinitely a local survey shows the majority of filipinos have little or no knowledge of the constitution many are also unaware of the plans to amend the constitution this is what critics say is dangerous those who lead the transitional ensured that the nine

hundred eighty seven philippine constitution they drafted would serve as event guard restoring checks and balances within institutions so that power will never rests with one man alone jim duggan al-jazeera manila to official brokered al-jazeera when we come back a push for a united ireland as the irish republican party begins a new era. boss competitors working together we look at how entrepreneurs and nigeria are getting the upper hand on a challenging business environment more on that stay with us. hello there for some of us in europe the weather is going to turn a bit milder over the next few days you can see more in the way of cloud working its way into the northwest at the moment it as that sweeps its way eastwards is going to bring a change in the wind direction and the air coming in is going to be

a fair amount milder so we're looking at around nine there in london and six in paris on sunday the leading edge of that malta air though will be turning to snow still as it hits the cold air and then eventually as it works its way across us we will see it turn from snow to rain and then the temperatures will begin to rise a little bit so staying mild there as we head through the next few days and there is still working its way down through parts of italy still giving a fair amount of wintry weather on its leading edge the other system that was in the mediterranean that's working its way towards the northeast and working its way away from us on monday so things for turkey will be coming down quiet down there for the other side of the mediterranean sea lots of cloud to it was the showers actually have been in the northwest impalas they gradually easing now so for many of us in morocco it should be drawing fine the temperatures have recovered in robots we're back up at sixteen by monday a few showers may just clip the north coast about jerry about jews will still make quite a decent fifteen degrees as a maximum temperature. orgon

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part of a quick recap of the top stories here on al-jazeera israel is continuing to target what it says are iranian positions inside syria the raids followed allegations that an iranian drone entered its airspace on saturday and the downing of an israeli fighter jet by syrian air defense systems eleven turkish soldiers have been killed in northern syria during operation against kurdish fighters two of them died when the helicopter was downed at mia three south of it was the deadliest day of fighting since turkish soldiers began their campaign in a free last month. and the president of the philippines wants of change the constitution and switch to a new form of government to get a tattoo says regions will get more power and help alleviate poverty but critics argue the changes are smokescreen to prolong his rule. at seventy is since the start of mass protests in yemen that led to the end of president ali abdullah saleh is thirty three year rule the uprising created instability leading to a civil war in twenty fifteen that shows no sign of ending reports.

anti u.s. slogans are oberst everywhere in yemen's capital sana'a healthy fight is tense gaunt next to a banner that tweets death to the u.s. death to israel. security's tines because of fighting on the outskirts of the capital forces backed by saudi led coalition are on the offensive the whole thing is are taking no chances the shia rebels capture the capital in two thousand and fourteen if they lose it their control over northern yemen will come to an and how. the war waged against us by the saudi led coalition is absurd it's a barbaric aggression on the people of yemen they talk about human rights and they bombed children and women. but in other parts of the country yemenis blame the whole thing is for committing atrocities against civilians in the city of thais has become the focal point of the fighting between troops loyal to present

a bunch so hardy and the whole thing after three years of intense fighting no one has the upper hand and then i didn't know. the reason why we couldn't defeat them with the. i don't have mortars have you trained soldiers we cannot afford because the whole area is mine and we don't have the mining devices our war has weakened the government and created a power vacuum secessionist in the southern part of the country has stepped in they say they want to have a state of own. over the last few weeks the separatists most a series of attacks an occupied government buildings in the city of aden valley mainly backed by the united arab emirates the new view we thought in one thousand nine hundred union would be a great thing by security forces in the north. clamp down on our people killing

activists in this warring southern provinces unity for us is that we're getting closer to establishing our independence day the crisis is deepening the united nations' top envoy to german stepped down after failing to convince the feuding factions to set aside that differences and to go sheet a deal to and fighting. votes are being counted in sri lanka where record number of women are vying for seats in three hundred forty local governments a new law requires females to fill a quarter of the positions president my three palace or a center and prime minister run over to run a single room nationally in a coalition but they've come thanks separately for their own party's you know fernandez as more from colombo. the newest political front the sri lanka put the john apparel which is basically led from the front by the former president mahinda rajapaksa celebrating as the results come in here on sunday in colombo and now the headquarters where i am out. of activity party leader of the sort of coalition that

came together to take on essentially the current government and its constituent parties that of the president might a policy center and prime minister run a vehicle missing her essentially the party leaders through at the showing they had said that they were coming together to set right the fact that they had been sort of displaying three years ago when the former president was defeated but they say that the new government which promised to root out corruption to right the wrongs that had happened during the previous government has not done anything they say to be smoke and mirrors and that the new government has not delivered their campaign has been about kind of righting the wrongs the fact that my own that rajapakse as they say save the country from the terrorists and of the war they're saying he now will take on saving the village and restoring development to the village because this is very much a grassroots election results pointing to words

a very good showing for this new political ground and also implications in terms of the political we've the momentum that starts now so it's almost that the government has been put on notice the voters are not very happy with them in terms of their performance over the last three years and they're going to have to do some scrambling and some soul searching if they want to make sure that the voters stay with them as be moved towards national elections in two years time. thousands of people are running against racism in the italian city of misurata week after six african immigrants were injured in a drive by shooting racism rallies were also held in rome milan and palermo a right wing sympathizer suspected of carrying out last week's attack it's intensified the debate over its migration policy less than a month before national elections. the new leader says she is committed to pushing for a united ireland mary mcdonald is challenging the catholic church by campaigning to

legalize abortion she's taking over from the veteran leader gerry adams who's retired after thirty four years but in barber reports from dublin. 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 this side and for a generation or more and one other 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 wants movement on issues such as irish language rights. i mean really fighting about.

the war is not over there is no matter your anger and again and again. we don't have to agree on the past there is no single historical narrative. we haven't always agreed that the past is never again. either thinks we can have everything just like mcdonald the party's new deputy leader michelle 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 polity 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 of the point of poor wages and also you know plight 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 and feigns long held aim of a referendum on uniting the island of ireland remained some way off the. dublin. now high production costs in nigeria are making it tough to do business one solution is for small businesses to pool their resources. and interests has been to see how that works and in northeastern nigeria. sherry's one of twenty technicians helping to keep the wheels of the machinery turning this industry and so on the outskirts of the city he moved to small workshop here three years ago running is only independent business was just too expensive. business was tough my former business case i had to pay for electricity rent or security. but here i am saving

a little bit. his business repairs used machine pots and fabricates new ones. as businesses cluster they pooled their money to pay for the tricity security and other services at rates lower than stand alone factories there are more than four hundred small oil mill plants in this industrial cluster at the peak of their operations they produce one hundred thousand liters of cooking oil a day they're coming together as east operational costs for their owners as a nigerian business environment gets tough on other businesses i'm raising this idea that is helping to keep many small businesses afloat. i saw results many have recalled workers they laid off. we absorbed three thousand workers because most of us are making a profit although not as much as you would like in fact we can expand and get more raw materials every unemployed youth in town can get

a job here and many folks who are still struggle to pay bills as cost of production remain higher than the hopeful as nigeria suffers from inflation and a recession. but they said despite the tough conditions they'll keep their operations open if an if it means their products will cost more to produce our media grease al-jazeera one b. . carnival season hits the streets struggles with the economy corruption and politics are being forgotten as i have a party to remember his on latin america it's a new. 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. we had for carnival all year but

something spectacular that's in all of our hearts here. where we hear on the rhythm of our region. above all the city. where brass band music is accompanied by an acrobatic dance in a massive street party with brazilians can forget their economic and political woes . its culture roots joy for all people who have 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 not really a ball since it first began here in india eighteen hundreds back then there was. a much bigger and it was. crowded more people out of the way to break away from the brass bar on mansions and to the office of the upper class. 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. i'm looking real well lavish temba schools and millions of dollars often from questionable sources here it's all grass roots every neighborhood in household comes out to parade. go with this to gun or to over celebrate brazil's most traditional carnival. you see in human i just see that they see fit brazil. a good reminder of the headlines here on al-jazeera israel is continuing to target what it says about iranian positions inside syria the raids followed allegations that an iranian drone entered its airspace on saturday in the downing of an israeli

fighter jet by syrian government forces in one column is more from westerners and a. spokesman said the israeli all being the last five minutes i also am very blunt they whether the operation was still considering and what targets they hit in syria overnight they declined to comment on both of those questions but what we're hearing from retired israeli generals are briefing local media here is that this is the biggest operation launched against syrian edison's units since one thousand nine hundred eighty two six. clearly a very significant operation is going on that the israeli army declined to comment on eleven turkish soldiers have been killed in northern syria german operation against kurdish fighters two of them died when their helicopter was down there are three main south it was the deadliest day of fighting since turkish soldiers began their campaign last month. the president of the philippines wants to change the constitution and switch to a new form of government to tear to says regions will get more power and help alleviate poverty critics argue the change is a smokescreen to prolong his roof. both koreas in

a big delegation has met the south korean prime minister that lee nucky on in the capital seoul the group includes the sister of north korea's leader kim jong un on saturday she extended a rare invitation to the south korean president moon jay and to visit pyongyang and votes are being counted in sri lanka where a record number of women are vying for seats in three hundred forty local governments a new law requires females to fill a quarter of the positions the president to the prime minister room nationally in a coalition with a campaign separately for their own parties. and thousands of people are running against racism in the italian city of misurata that's a week after a six african immigrants were injured in a drive by shooting on two races and run is also held in rome milan on. a far right sympathizer suspected of carrying out last week's attack it's intensified the debate of its abuse migration policy less than a month before national elections well those were the headlines the news continues

here on al-jazeera of the inside story station thanks so much profit. al-jazeera. and for your. flashpoint between israel syria and iran suspected iranian drone is shot down then an israeli warplane. it's a major escalation of the conflict in syria so what's next in an already volatile region this is inside story.