a unique portrait of a small gulf nation living under siege what made this different was their targets and their pain to be forced to leave would just be awful and their gains other celebrity has given us the desire to carry on with our lives and be creative. it's normal for business. has become a move. beyond the blockade at this time on al-jazeera. a russian passenger plane crashes shortly after taking off from moscow killing all seventy one people on board. a no i maryanne demasi in london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up israel's

prime minister vows to continue operations in syria a day after one of its fighter jets was downed. iran marks thirty nine years since the islamic revolution president has and ronnie calls for a year of unity. and another display of harmony in seoul but south korea's president strikes a cautious note about his invitation to visit the north. is transport prosecutors confirmed that all seventy one people on board a passenger plane that crashed shortly after takeoff from one of moscow's busiest airports have died investigators at the scene say they are looking at all possible causes a spokesman from saratov alliance says there were no concerns about the technical condition of the aircraft. well the show a whole plane took off from. port on sunday it was just

a few minutes into its journey to the city of or sq when it went missing from the right. now the plane is thought to have crashed near the village of nova which is near the russian capital moscow that while i witnesses and they described seeing a burning at croft forming from the sky where we challenge reports the answer nor their line out with sixty five passengers and six crew on board came down four minutes after it took off in bad weather conditions wreckage was scattered across snowy fields near the village of water going over eighty kilometers southeast of moscow rescue teams were unable to reach the crash site by road and to see little bullet i saw an explosion on the ground and i called emergency services they asked me many questions i told them there was a fire it was very visible in the short hole set a lot of airlines jets took off from moscow's domodedovo airport early sunday afternoon on its way to the city of war sc in the urals most of the sixty five

passengers on board were from the region at the airport their family and friends of those on board the flight began to wait for news with little hope that anyone had survived. if you know to some we have flown degrees from an a n one for a plane and bodies of sewage tim's. transport to authorities soon confirmed everyone in the plane had died. russia has suffered two major air crashes in recent years in december two thousand and sixteen a t u one five four military aircraft crashed into the black sea with the loss of ninety two people it was blamed on pilots' era in october two thousand and fifteen a russian air bus crashed in egypt's sinai peninsula killing all two hundred twenty four people on board i still said it placed a bomb in the aircraft. rather be a person has canceled a trip to sochi which was shuttled for monday he was due to meet the palestinian

leader mahmoud abbas now that meeting will now take place in moscow from where putin will monitor the investigation investigators have found a flight recorder from the plane and this will be crucial in determining why this relatively new aircraft came promising out of the sky various causes are being considered including pilots error bad weather conditions or perhaps something else really chalons al-jazeera moscow. to all of them again aviation specialist howard university in the u.s. who spoke about the process for retrieving the flight recorder planes and do not just fall out of the sky suddenly so the black box by the russian investigators who have have at least one of the flight recorders will be able to reveal just to the rest will some additional information what was happening when this flight was climbing to without too of about eleven thousand feet in the around seven thousand

feet is just dropped out of the sky and so that's what the black box will be able to tell us a little bit further the first thing that people want to know in the first twenty four to seventy eight hours depth it's up to two hours is what happened what happened in this particular case and i think that's the question. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu has vowed to continue military operations inside syria a day after one of the f. sixteen warplanes was shot down by enemy fire israeli warplanes carried out a series of strikes on what it said what iranian targets in syria on saturday i foresee reports from west jerusalem. israeli soldiers collected debris on sunday at the site where an air force f. sixteen fighter crashed a day earlier while the investigation continues the army told al-jazeera it had confirmed the plane was struck by a syrian anti-aircraft missile the first israeli fighter shot down since nine

hundred eighty two. at the border israeli media reported anti missile batteries have been increased after extensive israeli counterstrikes the day before inside syrian territory. shot yesterday we landed hard blows in the forces of iran and syria we made unequivocally clear to everyone that our modus operandi has not changed one jot we will continue to hit back for every attempt to harm us for any blow flicked it on us this is been our policy and this remain our policy. incident began with the downing of what israel says was an iranian drone launched from syria that had crossed into israeli airspace iran continues to deny the charge the secretary of the national security council saying the allegations by zionists that they hit iranian bases in syria is a lie we are in syria as consultants we don't have the kind of military presence for them to make this on occasion the years israel's government has been talking

about a mounting iranian threat on its northern borders i don't think we we thought we were not to vulnerable but we certainly didn't expect it to happen this quickly so that's why i'm saying it's a wake up call for the future the army knows how to respond. in a way or want to create an escalation. the only way it will cripple solutions the other side wants in the schoolies and israeli politicians have been praising what they've called a current public reaction to this incident but they're also aware that it highlights increasingly complex and difficult relationship with russia and its role inside syria israel struck targets close to where russian forces are based on saturday. prompting a statement from russia's foreign ministry calling it absolutely unacceptable to endanger the lives of russian soldiers inside syria. this after months of diplomatic efforts to convince russia to help constrain iranian activity there. the one former senior israeli military intelligence officer the loss of the plane and

the extent of the retaliation don't represent a new phase in the conflict rather a reminder of its stakes. in the longer run a long the reign of presence in syria should come to an end and we expect russia and the united states to make sure that this is going to be the end result israel says its military response is now complete but this weekend has put the dangers of a largescale cross border conflict into sharp focus very force at al-jazeera west jerusalem. well in all the developments at least six civilians have been killed in government as strikes near the syrian capital damascus two children are among the dead the attacks targeted several towns in the rebel held suburb of eastern ghouta falls within deescalation zones indorsed by turkey russia and iran. all the united nations is calling for an immediate pause in fighting in syria to address a western humanitarian crisis according to its food agency nine million people need

food assistance kern is the country director for syria for the world food program he says any truce needs to last for at least a month at the moment thought keeps us from going to these places to ease cool to eat live to flee in the fighting the security of our staff of cause is of utmost importance but also there is c.p. and it's dangerous too to come out in and collect for example food if there is fighting going on so we need a pause in the fighting and what we have asked for the months. we already have their houses are full we have a big program developed food program is supporting slee really and people every day we salute assistance in the country and we can easily shift resources around if you have an opening to these areas that you haven't reached for as i say two months now . the egyptian army says it's killed sixteen fighters so far and destroyed several

weapons depos in a major military operation against armed groups in the sinai peninsula a coordinated army navy an eval so operation began on friday for egyptian soldiers have been lost in the fighting president says he told the army to use in his words brute force to restore security after more than three hundred people were killed in an attack on a mosque in november. iran's president has called for a year of unity as his country celebrates had thirty nine years since the islamic revolution in the wake of violent protests last year has called on all political parties to put that differences aside and look to the future with a united front same bus ravi has more from tap ron. in a state of the union style speech iran's president listed the government's successes rouhani focused mostly on domestic issues speaking about things like economic growth what iran is doing to address the impact of climate change and iran's ability to manufacture military hardware like tanks and anti-aircraft

missile defense systems all part of a successful effort he said to have security independence and a larger role in the region that sought to get the sack. in the course of the last year we overcame terrorism we achieved great victories over eisel in the region. help to the people of iraq and syria through had good results and the people of the region got rid of evil terrorists indirectly addressing recent protests by opposition groups rouhani acknowledged shortcomings saying the government must do more to resolve what he described as a backlog of economic issues show ya gotta buy on of all the government needs to be more transparent and we need to resolve banking issues address taxation and budgeting and correct the economic structure of the country. for the hundreds of thousands of iranians who joined a celebratory rallies thirty nine years later the islamic revolution is a continuing way of life honey told the crowd that they were the most important

part of ensuring the success of the islamic form of government in iran about oh yeah and they're not right here. elections are the biggest part of protecting the islamic revolution people voting in their leaders in parliamentary and presidential elections but when someone is elected the opposition and the youth the elite should respect the choice of the people instead of chanting slogans go to the ballot box. as he often does the iranian president extols the virtues of dialogue over conflict he said the lasting solution to region wide problems is political settlement and as far as internal conflict rani said iranians should not hold grudges rouhani said victory in the one nine hundred seventy nine revolution was like a train with many passengers some stayed on some got off now he said was the time to bring everyone back on the train again in basra vo does here at the front.

meanwhile a prominent iranian canadian professor has died in prison in tehran sixty three year old environmental activists say and mommy was arrested last month of allegations he was part of aspiring police say he committed suicide in custody but his family say they don't believe that human rights groups say detainees in iran are routinely tortured and killed. without is there much more still ahead for you hundreds of troops are deployed to indian controlled kashmir as armed fighters attack an army base. i'm jake ward on the berkeley campus the military has funded a new program that could insert information into the mine i'll have that story in a moment. hello there maybe to be large areas of interest weather wise in europe one is down

here a swirl of clouds across the north in the aegean greece and beyond in the other one is that swirl in the north sea this just swept different air across the british isles and northwest you know they both active and they both change in the air tight so stow runs to the outs through germany then through austria rain and snow move that out of greece and beyond turkey in fact to the northern caucasus irving's moving in that churn direction we're left behind still revise the warm weather in athens and ankara book resit single figures but still seven and the real cold the water around else has been sort of moved out of the way by the breeze still cold enough to snow as you can see that's the story in maybe slovenia all straight answer out the other behind it things warmed up a bit eight degrees in london six in paris the sun is coming up the snow on the ground is going to start to melt at that sort of temperature now we have as you well know various outbreaks of rain or snow in the out as my old girl night the

actions gone further east with quite a breeze running across libya now temps live levelled at about fifteen degrees it's cooling down in kabul this cloud has been around for a couple days is finally bringing rain through egypt then the levant. well if we cannot hope my government will certainly not allow britain to control. we need to find another solution before we come to blows more than a century ago britain and france made a secret deal that would influence the shape of the middle east for more than a century to come and so. now we can draw a. psych speak lines in the sand at this time on al jazeera.

welcome back a quick look at the stories making headlines now a russian passenger plane has crashed shortly after taking off from one of moscow's busiest airports transport prosecutors confirmed that all seventy one people on board a dead. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu says his military has dealt a serious blow to iran and syria a day after it carried out a series of as strikes there. and iran's president has called for a year of unity as his country celebrated thirty nine years since the islamic revolution. one of the stories we're following north korea's olympic delegation has left south korea for a world when three days which ended in a diplomatic offer that aims to end seventy years of hostility the group which included the powerful sister of north korea's leader kim jong un left on

a private f. line on sunday they wrapped up their visit by joining south korea's president lungi in a concert given by a north korean troops on saturday extended a rare invitation to president lungi and to visit pyongyang and you're going to him has more from seoul. even as athletes competed on the snow and ice diplomatic developments continue to steal at least some of the spotlight during what's being called the peace olympics the last three days have been historic and a high point in interest in relations north korean leader kim jong il sister kim jong became the first member of the ruling family to cross into the south since the korean war she came with an invitation kim jong un is asking the south korean president in to visit pyongyang at a convenient time soon if this meeting transpires it would be the first time that

kim jong il has met with the south korean president since taking office in twenty eleven president moon says he'll begin arranging the conditions to make that visit happen but he stresses that any rebuilding of interest and relations must involve dialogue between the united states and north korea u.s. vice president mike pence sat very close to the north korean delegation during the opening ceremony he emma north koreans rebuffed president moon's attempts to facilitate a midi skeptics say that this north korean charm offensive is heavy on the symbolism but they doubt that it will result in anything substantive they say this is an attempt by the north koreans to drive a wedge between the united states and the south koreans into an advance their own agenda but for now president moon and many south koreans are encouraged by the prospect that what we've been seeing could be the beginning of a reboot of injury and relations. when you some south africa now where the head of

the ruling african national congress says party leaders are preparing to finalize a deal that will result in president jacob zuma quitting office zuma is on the increasing pressure to leave over a number of corruption allegations a.n.c. leaders cyril ramaphosa says officials meeting on monday will decide on a swift transition of power hundreds of indian troops are battling armed fighters inside an army base in indian administered kashmir for a second straight day it hackers breached the military compound early on saturday at least nine people including three of the fighters have been killed in the assault in the city of jam charlotte ballasts reports. soldiers prepare for battle inside the base in indian administered kashmir they were ambushed by an unknown number of fine jews in a pre-dawn raid on saturday commanders say they from jersey mohamad which wants pakistan to control kashmir. or. professionally of

the operation army is taking all precautions. and we don't want anything. attackers shot at guards on the perimeter before moving toward soldiers' homes inside the camp indian security forces evacuated families while helicopters search for the intrudes hundreds of reinforcements were called in india's army chief lowin to monitor the operation. jerusha mohammed has a history of stoking teaches between india and pakistan the group was founded by mehsud seen here in two thousand after release from prison in exchange for passengers a hijacked indian airlines plane sixteen years later he launched the did least assault on indian security forces into decay it too was a pre-dawn ambush on a military base in indian administered kashmir nine hundred soldiers were killed

and. india accuses pakistan of supporting such attacks pakistan denies the allegations kashmir has been disputed since independence ninety seven pakistan and india claim isn't full ruelas in part. and both continue to defend the territories bellus. and human rights activists known as the iron lady of pakistan has died at the age of sixty six. suffered a heart attack in the eastern city of lahore late on saturday and died a few hours later she was a fierce defender of women and minorities and openly criticized the pakistani military intelligence and right wing religious parties. trying because opposition says the coalition government must resign following a heavy defeat in local government elections both the party of the president and prime minister perform badly when alpha man has reports from colombo. the giant

opposition is back in the limelight the sri lanka people's front which contested the local government elections won the largest share of the vote known locally as the p.p. the party says the ruling government has lost its mandate the result is unequivocal this is a very intense very clear egyptian army. for certain. in the clearest possible terms that this don't move does mark have a man who continue governing this company the p.p. is a breakaway faction of the party of president by two policy cena and the man he defeated by in the rajapaksa the former president who is his popularity which remains high after he defeated the tamil tigers and dig a twenty five year long conflict to campaign for the new coalition front even though he remains a member of his successors party as confirmation of a significant win filtered through on saturday night rajapaksa urged to be

magnanimous a welcome change from the past where political rivalry resulted in violence. and singing. i appeal to all those who want to enjoy their victories without harassing the losers. despite her party's weak performance rosie said and i had something to celebrate becoming the first woman mayor of the country's oldest and largest business but council colombo she acknowledged that her united national party would have to do some soul searching we need to take stock of you know where we are and what we need to do and i think you know the sentiment that i hear from people is we haven't really delivered the promises we made in two thousand and fifteen and maybe it is time that for us to in a speed up. and do what we came to do members of president seriously in his party who met the president on sunday said he had promised to meet key changes that the country would feel response to the results of the polls the election results are

a wake up call for all political parties by the joint opposition savors its victory in more than two thirds of the three hundred forty local government institutions up for grabs the ruling coalition must look closely at why voters who helped them disprove mahinda rajapaksa just three years ago are returning to him and al-jazeera colombo. at least eight people were killed and forty others injured by a gas explosion at a con of a parade in bolivia police say three children were among the casualties in saturday's explosion in the city of a rural authorities believe hot oil spilled and burned a hose connected to a gas canister causing the explosion. forests across the world are under threat according to the wild wild life on the equivalent of twenty seven football fields a minute of being lost to logging agriculture and development in costa rica far being we planted and wheat grain as any gallacher reports. few places in the

world can boast the kind of biodiversity found in costa rica's forests you'll find unique species and unique climates but deforestation is taking its toll over the last seventy years about eighty percent of costa rica's forest has been lost. to clough bridge nature reserve researches and volunteers of fighting back we've got to remember that in just a few short years they've replanted and we grow large parts of this rain forest and the results a promising when we finally captured a jaguar on the camera trap he was very big cat that was a huge step for us when we walked through the areas that we've planted in and you see the tree is large enough to make it on its own in the forest is changing. that's a huge step easy. to get there like biologists from around the world now come here to study what this kind of regeneration can achieve the return of species once lost

to agriculture and logging is for many i don't forget a bill experience i'm sure there is you know success stories in other countries and other places but having you know what i experience it firsthand here for so long for sure it's going to be something that i look back on tell people about you know it works i the tower bridge reserve is now an example of what simple techniques patience and preservation can achieve a country wide shoot progress is being made it's astounding to see what fifteen years of we growth can look like and according to the united nations reforestation is the best way to combine climate change and it's something costa rica's done very effectively through various incentives and government programs they've managed to reclaim almost a port. of what was lost. costa rica's rich natural heritage has long been a draw for students and tourists alike but this nation's reforestation if it's stand is a testament to what can be achieved at

a time when the environment faces its greatest challenges and a gallica al-jazeera at the cloud bridge reserve in costa rica the u.s. military has announced more than sixty million dollars in grants to build hardware that would read and write thoughts in the brain and they're hoping to do it with a device as small as a sugar cube check award visited the team in california at the light of a lighter concrete or thumb something ten years ago dean lord a lawyer in palo alto california received the world's first artificial retina it allowed him to see it was a low quality video image but it was something. so i'm getting from like afraid about thirty. words from the dirt or grass or whatever is in there i'm going to foliage and you're going to know the difference between one surface and other that that's correct contrasts point yet really think about that to make it useful but that technology is ancient compared to what's coming next a new military grant program is funding projects that seek to not just read the

information that's in your brain but actually write information into it basically would be putting synthetic versions of things like sight into the brain the university of california at berkeley is home to one of the six teams hoping to create within four years a device that can read and control one million neurons right now we can only watch one hundred at a time our goal is to be able to see that many neurons every one of them individually and not only to be able to watch what they do as you do an m.r.i. but to be able to play back to them the patterns of activity in space and in time so that you could actually reconstitute and synthesize the experience of the real world and thereby replace something that is missing because of an injury this military funded program could replace lost senses in wounded soldiers but could also put entirely new senses into healthy soldiers if it works the project will be

a world changing leap for example while we were developing this proposal we had a few meetings sort of saying we can't do this this is physically impossible will never get there our goal is to take like a microscope something like this and squash it down really tiny so it can fit on the head of a mouse while it's running around that this is one of our first prototype cohen working on math that can turn a low grade two d. picture of the brain into useful three d. images. think it's like this. process. into a life you are then we can create custom patterns and should light exactly where we want at the right moment for and postdoctoral researcher nicolette the guy is building the system that will convert the real world experiences into man with the directs lasers to light up individual neurons so here is a movie casablanca. this is what you have to turn that into for it to then be shown

on to the brain and that i think wow you decide on a pattern you tell me which neurons you want to activate and we will at the exact time give the exact amount of light that's required to activate in your the project could rebuild soldiers or eventually give them enhanced abilities on the battlefield either way if it works we will have crossed into a new ethical and medical world a world where we can read humans thoughts and implant new ones jake aboard al-jazeera berkeley california. has more on everything right here al jazeera dot com. a look at stories making headlines now russia's transport prosecutor has confirmed that all seventy one people on board a passenger plane that crashed shortly after takeoff from one of moscow's busiest

airports have now died investigators at the scene say they're looking at all possible causes or a chance has not because of the heavy snow fall in moscow and the and the regions over the last week or so it makes the operation on the ground very very difficult difficult to find things that are buried in a you know up to a meter of snow and also i think this shows that we can see this from the from the footage of the of the wreckage this plane pretty much completely disintegrated as it was coming down and then when it hit the ground as well. israel's prime minister benjamin netanyahu says his military has dealt a serious blow to iran in syria he said israel is determined not to allow to iran to entrench itself militarily in syria israel launched air raids after intercepting a rainy and drone in its as space on saturday meanwhile at least six civilians have been killed in government as strikes near the syrian capital damascus two children are among the dead the attacks targeted several towns in the rebel health suburb of

eastern ghouta the egyptian army says it's killed sixteen fighters so far and destroyed several weapons depos in a major military operation against armed groups in the sinai peninsula the coordinated army navy and air force operation began on friday four egyptian soldiers have been lost in the fighting iran's president has called for a year of unity is his country celebrated thirty nine years since the islamic revolution hundreds of thousands of people have been rallying in iran to mark the anniversary of the creation of a modern iranian state the north korea's olympic delegation has left south korea after a three day trip that included high level talks the group which included kim joe young the sister of north korea's leader kim jong il and left on a private plane on saturday she extended a rare invitation to the south korean president lungi in to visit kyung and coming up next talk to al-jazeera is has

a firsthand story of conditions inside an australian immigration camp i'll see you after that about twenty five minutes. and. you. will. see. for more than four and a half years iranian refugee perused has been living in limbo on a remote specific island he was sent there by australia after he tried to reach its shores by bucks for off it can the prison it was a prison.