it was or you upon which modern day venezuela was established. for over a century this lucrative resorts has divided the people both. with the world's largest reserves. charting the impact of industrialization and the legacies of its leaders we shed light on the troubles afflicting venezuela today the big picture the battle for venezuela at this time on al-jazeera. israel launches its biggest attacks on syria in decades after one of its fighter jets was shot down. below and this is. also coming up coffee table diplomacy north korea's olympic

delegation is welcomed by the south korean prime minister. in the challenge small businesses in nigeria come together to fight rising costs plus. that the party begin brazilians forget the economic and political troubles as the carnival mood grips the country. israel is responding to the downing of one of its warplanes by syrian air defense systems 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 its airspace from syria while israel replied with airstrikes targeting what it says were iranian bases in southern syria near the capital damascus and u.n. secretary general is calling for an immediate and unconditional deescalation and

russia's president vladimir putin is warning israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu against rising tensions. well in a few moments same bus ravi will join us live from the iranian capital tehran but first let's cross to him and khan in west jerusalem imran so what do we expect to see out of israel today. well what we expect to see all two very significant meetings now one of them is actually a scheduled meeting is the meeting of the cabinets but the focus clearly will be on what to do about the situation in syria and likely to try and get of sw very strong message to the russians about the iranian involvement with in syria often that we're likely to see a security cabinet meeting now that's going to be also very crucial because that's will decide the strategy what to do next now all sides are trying to avoid a massive escalation all of this conflict we spoke to the israeli army in the last

hour we also them what was going on with the operation how many targets inside syria but they hit they declined to comment however lots of people on social media form a soldiers form of senior military officials are saying that this is the largest operation to get syrian air defense targets since the lebanon war in one thousand nine hundred eighty two so clearly very significant movement still going on today still hitting targets inside syria those syrian air defenses units that they using now what i'm also hearing which is very interesting is that the is ratings are wondering how one of that jet fighters was actually shot down by those pilots ejected thirty years now they've managed to fly sorties into various arab countries with almost impunity and for the last seven years without any kind of attack it's led to a downing of an airplane from syrian air defenses unit so there's an inquiry likely

to happen i can't confirm that a moment but certainly lots of people asking questions here in israel about how this will happen but clearly one of the big things that's going to be discussed is the message to russia israel is using tool three different fronts to get that message across it's written to the united nations security council also getting them to condemn iran these actions also the moscow. is also speaking saying that it's important that the russians understand that iran cannot have a role to play in syria at all or imran khan there in west jerusalem or thank you let's cross over now to the iranian capital tehran and talk to zain but ravi saying so israel and the u.s. have been quick to blame iran for this incident so what's the view there from tehran. well since the syrian conflict began iran has always maintained that it is in the country to support the government the legitimate government as they see it of president bashar al assad at the behest of

that government and that their forces are there on invitation and for iranian leaders the real narrative of what's been happening is that israel violated syrian sovereignty israel violated syrian airspace and provoking syria's reaction so as far as they're concerned the distortion of the ground reality is what israel is doing by saying that iran encroached with a drone into israeli airspace they called it a ridiculous lie not their serving of a response and just in the last hour the secretary of iran's national security council is shown carney said that yet another lie by israel is that it hit iranian bases inside syria and the iranian leadership here is saying that the reason iran is that israel is distorting this ground reality is to turn a public opinion against iran as it continues to fight opposition forces and hunt down islamic state fighters inside syria indeed that is what the syrian government

said the trone was doing it was a surveillance drone as far as they're concerned and now we have seen iran make a bold and defiant comments in the past with regards to what they see as israeli aggression against iran and iran's allies in the region and they said all along that iran is what the syria has said that they will respond with an appropriate measure at an appropriate time and it seems now that they're backing up that rhetoric with firepower the same thank you well as we've been saying washington has backed is random blamed iran for the escalation my camera has more. well 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. eleven turkish soldiers have been killed in northern syria a german operation against kurdish fighters two of them died when their helicopter was downed in the ass for me this video is said to show the aircraft moments before it was hit kurdish led syrian democratic forces say its fighters shot it down the turkey says the cause is still unclear it's been the deadliest day of fighting

since turkish soldiers began their campaign in a free in last month. has the latest now from near the turkish syrian border. together with their allies in the 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. in tarkus military from the kurdish militia is one called the other balut to the west of our freedom so there has been some steady progress however they say it's not been as swift as they would like because of the use of human shields according

to the turks by the wipe e.g. the kurdish militia which has made it difficult for the turks 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 advance which often also in syria the u.n. says two hundred thirty civilians have been killed by syrian and russian airstrikes in the past week the u.n. commissioner for human rights described it as some of the worst violence during the almost seven year long conflict said rodell hussein says the strikes may also constitute a war crime he confirmed his office had received reports of the possible use of toxic agency early this month in the rebel held town of sad i can't. the egyptian army says it's killed sixteen fighters german operation in sinai it says it destroyed several weapons depos and hideouts as part of an offensive against armed groups in the peninsula egyptian president abdel fattah el-sisi told the army to use brute force to restore security following an attack on

a mosque in november which killed more than three hundred people their own is marking the thirty ninth anniversary of its islamic revolution thousands of people are taking part in mass rallies and president hassan rouhani has been speaking in ten rounds freedom square these live pictures coming to us nine hundred seventy nine revolution saw the overthrow of the shah monarchy and the creation of the islamic republic. and i to this too was arrested during last month's anti-government protests in iran has committed suicide in jail sixty three year old qusay and mommy is an iranian canadian professor it's the third suicide of a detainee in the past month. north korea's olympic delegation has met the south korean prime minister lead not yawning so the group includes the sister of north korea's leader kim jong roun on saturday she extended a rare invitation to south korean president moon janan to visit pyongyang delegation

has been holding talks with the south korean government on the sidelines of the winter olympics. now votes are being counted in sri lanka where a record number of women vying for seats and thirty three hundred forty local governments and you know requires women to fill a quarter of the positions the president and prime minister rule nationally on a coalition but they have campaigned separately for their own party's male fernandez has 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 a results come in here on sunday in colombo now the headquarters where i am out. of activity party leaders 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 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 wave 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 b. move towards national elections in two years time for a short break here al jazeera when we come back. against racism in the italian city where african migrants was shot. and life and death psychological impact of mexico's spite against drug violence stay with us. from a fresh coastal breeze. to watching the sunset on the australian outback. hello there we've had plenty of snow across europe recently and all the snow on the ground is giving us the opportunity to try out new forms of transport but i'm going to put an end to his little game because things are turning a lot milder now so all of that snow is melting quickly you can see this weather

system here that's the leading edge of the mild air so for london today we're looking at a top temperature of ten degrees and for paris will be up at six but snow on the leading edge of that gradually edges its way eastwards and you can see it here as we head into monday stretching down through austria giving heavy snow here and then eventually turning to rain as it makes its way back across the mediterranean so for the northwestern part then generally milder than it has been but still very cold for the northeast moscow minus six is our marksman temperature across the other side of the mediterranean you can see this whole area of town to snake yes way up towards the northeast it hasn't given us a great deal of what weather yet but it is thickening up and we're going to see some outbreaks of rain during the day on monday and some of those could turn out to be rather heavy under that cloud it won't be feeling that warming kyra will have a top temperature of around nineteen degrees meanwhile towards the west a few showers could just drop the coasts that time but for about we should be dry

atop temperatures sixty. there with sponsored by qatar and he's. facing the realities of growing up when to do you realize that you were living in a special place the so-called secret city getting to the heart of the matter while using activists to live in jail just because she expressed herself hear their story on the top down to zero at this time. time for a quick recap of the top stories here this hour israel is continuing to target what

it says are iranian positions and what it's calling its biggest attack inside syria in decades the raids follow allegations of an iranian drone and that it says place on saturday on the downing of an israeli fighter jet by syrian government forces. 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. south today was the deadliest day of fighting since turkish soldiers began their campaign last month. and north korea's olympic delegation has met the south korean prime minister and the knock you don't insult the group includes a sister north korea's leader kim jong il on saturday she extended a rare invitation to the south korean president to visit. now the u.n. says a surge in violence in yemen has displaced more than eighty five thousand people in the past ten weeks the worst hit areas are in north yemen explain some of the fighting groups that are funded trained and but by different regional powers making

the complex war even more complicated. the war in yemen has seen a power struggle between different political and sectarian factions so let's take a closer look at the main groups fighting in the country for us this yemen's national army its spots but the salty led coalition and loyal to the internationally recognized government of president up there above months are hardy it operates mostly in these areas marked in red there it is to launch an operation to try and increase its presence in other parts of yemen as well its main adversity is the who the rebel group who these are backed by iran and control large parts of yemen region including the national capital sanaa and then there are the forces loyal to the deposed and now deceased president ali abdullah saleh they fought alongside the who these until last year when sally announced he was switching his allegiance to the saudi led coalition the who these then kill solich and its

fighters split some sided with the pro hardly forces and some went to back the who these separately to all that is all qaeda it's yemeni branch operates in these pockets of the country most notably the hundred with province that's where it's fight you group called the hub dromi elite forces trained and funded by the united arab emirates the m.e. realities are also baccy a group in shop or province called forces it's a mix of southern secessionists and hardline groups also control the so-called security belt forces in the southern port city of aden the prisons they run there are notorious and they're happy reports of widespread torture the fact that every realities have been backing secession is has put them at all it's with its close allies saudi arabia which doesn't want a splintered yemen. thousands of people have running against racism in the italian city of much a week after six african immigrants were injured in

a drive by shooting protesters warned against the use of xenophobia and fascism ahead of next month's national election reports. shouting color is not a crime thousands rallied in italy against racism and fascism rallies took place in rome milan palermo and here the town of moss raja where a gunman targeted black men and women during a two hour shooting spree last week. we cannot accept that a person goes onto the streets to kill these are children people in the streets watching this man went to the streets to kill as many black people as possible i don't know what to call it other than a racist and fascist act. when the police arrested a twenty eight year old white italian man they say was the suspected gunman. a video posted on local media shows the suspect wearing in italian flag around his

neck at the time of the arrest. i think it's extremely important to be here today because the situation in italy seems very complicated so i don't think that politicians take enough notice of the phenomenon of the resurgence of fascism and. many are warning that anti immigration rhetoric has become part of the national dialogue they fear this sentiment will influence the upcoming national elections on march fourth others warned that racism is nothing new. for me i have been faced with the problems of racism here since my primary school days they were children who called me a negro it is far from bring a phenomenon that dates from yesterday or the day before with the shooting that took place there has always been racism here. the shooting in must follow the arrest of a nigerian man in connection with them. murder of an eighteen year old italian woman. while many say politicians need to do something about the resurgence of the

far right others believe it's inaccurate to lump all far right parties and politicians with the same label i believe d. far right and in general does entire idea of fascist revival we need to shouldn't be exaggerated the far right is definitely quite strong now adays in any city but i believe especially abroad the reason a tendency to generalize and put a lot of parties into the same box which is not necessary the case. far right candidates call the influx of refugees out of control immigration. but italy's prime minister has told us people hatred and violence will not be able to divide them cold shoulder john al jazeera. the charity oxfam has apologized to some of that stuff members in haiti were accused of sexual misconduct three of them resigned and four sucked the u.k.

based group has had a presence in haiti since a major earthquake in twenty ten the british government has criticized for lack of transparency. 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 staff to make decisions which are now seen as being by some margin or inappropriate our job is to promote the positive values his 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 mexico's decade long war on drug gangs is leaving many in the community with deep

psychological problems doctors say that fear depression and feelings of revenge could lead to even more violence al-jazeera as john holmes reports now from acapulco where mental health workers are trying to heal the wounds that are often hidden. in the shadow of death has lain across a couple of years the former tourist hot spot was one of the highest murder rates in the world and behind the military patrols police sirens and daily crime scenes liver townspeople struggling with fear and grief. in the middle of last year francisco's wife was caught in the midst of a gang shoot and killed now he's raising their four children alone we hid his identity speaking out here is dangerous. when you look. for. a decade or more than

one hundred twenty thousand victims into the drug war there's still no federal program dedicated to psychological support for the families left behind. in acapulco and n.g.o.s doctors without borders is filling that gap they team of community workers and psychologists go to churches community centers basketball courts anywhere people gather to train them to support each other and. the violence gets to such a level that the social fabric is destroyed people don't trust their neighbors and little by little things deteriorate so we see. those suffering particularly painful experiences like francisco to meet one on one with psychologists. doctors without borders are also training teaches to recognise children traumatized by violence or sexual abuse the aim is to convince the government that programs

like this a needed on a national scale makes chris but huge amounts of money and manpower into combat in organized crime in comparison very little has been dedicated to treating traumatized victims and according to psychologist that shows a real lack of foresight because those affected by violence if not attended to a much more likely to repeat the cycle. that's the worst nightmare of parents like francisco trying to protect the next generation. in. new york. experts say it could take decades for the wounds of a society grown used to violence to heal the worry is that without intervention that process and struggle to even begin john homan how does it or i could cope.

south africa's ruling party the african national congress is due to hold a special meeting on monday as pressure mounts on president jacob zuma to resign before his second term ends next year many are calling for a swift transition of power after he was replaced by cyril ramaphosa as leader of the a.n.c. . high production costs in nigeria making it tough to do business there and one solution is for small businesses to pool their resources as it was a what address has been to see how that works and in northeastern nigeria. i may be sure is one of twenty technicians helping to keep the wheels of the machinery turning of this industrial zone on the outskirts of the city he moved to small workshop here three years ago running his only independent business was just too expensive. business stuff my former business case i had to pay for electricity water security all along but here i am saving

a lot in overheads. his business repairs used machine and public each 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 tougher other businesses i'm raising this idea that is helping to keep many small businesses afloat. as a result many have recalled workers they laid off. reabsorbed 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. 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 even if it means their products will cost more to produce are made reese al-jazeera one b. now brazilians are letting off steam as they hit the streets for carnival season their struggles with the economy corruption and politics are being forgotten as they have a party to remember there's a latin america editor let's see anybody. and the 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 in pine a burka where we hear and dance the rhythm of our region. and. above all the city of a jungle where brass band music is accompanied by an acrobatic dance in a massive street party or brazilians can forget their economic and political woes. its culture roots joy for all 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 eighteenth hundreds back then there was. a lot bigger and it was. crowded more people out of the way to prepare the way for the rest of iraq. 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 people that just want to have fun. and look in rio where lovers send the schools and millions of dollars often from questionable sources here it's all grass roots every neighborhood in household comes out to parade. no one is too young or too old to celebrate brazil's most traditional carnival. you see inulin i just see the. they see fit brazil. time for a quick recap of the headlines here this hour israel says it's targeting iranian positions in what it's calling its biggest attack inside syria in decades the raids followed allegations that an iranian drone ended its airspace on saturday and the

downing of an israeli fighter jet by syrian government forces remain calm has the latest from western. but we expect to see all two very significant meetings now one of them is actually a scheduled meeting is the meeting of the cabinet but the focus clearly will be on what to do about the situation in syria and likely to try and get of very strong message to the russians about the iranian involvement with in syria often that we're likely to see a security cabinet meeting that's going to be also very crucial because that's will decide the strategy what to do next eleven turkish soldiers have been killed in northern syria john operation against kurdish fighters two of them died when their helicopter was downed me a free in the south a day was the deadliest day of fighting since turkish soldiers began nick campaign last month. iran is marking the thirty ninth anniversary of its islamic revolution thousands of people are taking part in mass rallies and president hassan rouhani

has been speaking in tehran freedom square the nine hundred seventy nine revolution saw 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 knock young in seoul the group includes the sister of north korea's leader kim jong un saturday she extended a rare in the taishan to south korean president mungy and to visit pyongyang. 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 those positions the president on the prime minister rule nationally in a coalition but they have campaigned separately for their own party. and south africa's ruling party the african national congress is due to hold a special meeting on monday pressure is mounting on president jacob zuma to resign before his second term ends next year many are calling for a swift transition of power after he was replaced by soon as leader of the n.c.

those were the headlines the news continues on al-jazeera after talked about a serious statement that's what about. this is really an attack on a food itself is a lot of a sudden the standing of what free speech is supposed to be about the context of hugely important setting the stage for a serious debate after front at this time on al-jazeera. you mean the world will be able. to see. the movie who are in a half years iranian refugee to roost but charlie has been living in limbo on a remote specific neulander he was sent there by australia after he tried to reach its shores by boat for our. it is a prison it was a prison. in.