facing realities 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 why is activists to live in jail just because she expressed herself hear their story on talk to al-jazeera at this time. rising from the ruins iraq seeks billions of dollars to rebuild after being devastated by isis. take it this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up russian investigators sweep through snow covered fields to find out why a passenger plane crashed killing all seventy one people on board. president trump

takes aim at israeli settlements warning they are getting in the way of peace plus . a month ago across the quad bridge project in costa rica where repro station efforts could provide an important lesson for the rest of the world. a low they declared victory in the war against i saw in iraq at the end of last year and now comes the battle to win the peace prime minister hey there labadee says iraq will need a hundred billion dollars to restore crumbling infrastructure and cities devastated by the fighting the effort to secure that money begins today at an international donor conference in kuwait surely we'll go live to sammy's a dad who is in kuwait but first here's his report. this is what so-called liberation from ice a look slike to has knowledge in his family it's been six months since iraq's prime

minister declared nineveh province freed alys house is still in ruins so is much of robbie a town. he used to work as a farmer tilling the soil now he plows the rubble of his home and reaps what others have so in his life i say yes and. we've given up hope in returning home we've been displaced over three years look at how our house has been destroyed. allen fled when i saw fighters seized the nearby city of mosul four years ago he's not alone more than two and a half million iraqis remain displaced by the war they have no money to rebuild their lives so they live in tent camps such as hamill south of mosul an i.d. act if the government should look after us money i need bread when i'm supporting six children my parents and a sick family member these are the people the conference in quite this week must help if it's to succeed ejecting i saw from the third of iraq the fighters once controlled has left a wasteland human rights groups such as amnesty international blame both i saw and

the u.s. led coalition for unnecessary destruction and civilian deaths the nineveh reconstruction committee says the conflict destroyed three quarters of muslims roads almost all its bridges and two thirds of the electrical network unicef says three quarters of a million children in mosul region lack access to health services if. the government is not getting. like a. war children will be forced to. be forced to marry early by more young. iraqi officials come to quite looking for investments and over one hundred projects everything from the agricultural sector to the energy industry is on the table and iraq's prime minister well he says he needs one hundred billion dollars to get the job done. it's

a huge amount of money we know our budget can't cover nor can the notion that it's almost impossible and that's why we are resorting to investment iraq is counting on outside help to salvage itself into a united and functioning state but when asked what commitments they're ready to make in the conference our policy past year has changed since previous administrations remember we used to be in the whole nation building in the united states government is not doing that any longer that outside interest may determine whether iraqis thirst for a normal life will never be quenched. or let's go live now to semi or at least we were hoping to until that moment ologies for that we will try and fix that for you and get back to a little bit later in the meantime we'll move on u.s. defense secretary says that kurdish fighters in syria may be moving to the town of afrin to help fellow kurds fight turkish soldiers turkey launched an operation

there last month to push kurdish groups out of its border region with syria mattis believes around half of the fighters from the u.s. backed syrian defense forces may have gone to africa u.s. support for the syria defense forces has strained relations with turkey. at least six civilians including two children have been killed in syrian government airstrikes near the capital damascus those raids targeted the rebel held eastern huta area it falls within the so-called deescalation zone brokered by turkey russia and iran syria syria government and russian air strikes have killed more than two hundred forty people in rebel held areas in the past week jamila share is live in the turkish city of gaziantep near the border with syria so jim our first saw first tell us first of all about the latest developments we're hearing right now on the battlefield there. well as far as operation olive branch as it's called that

is the turkish military intervention inside syria is concerned some more advancements have been made by the military together with their i live free syrian army rebels they've still pushing forward towards free and they've now taken over forty nine different positions in the road over the past twenty four i was we had reported them that they managed to take over one of the towns on the road towards there called theater but now the significance of that has become a bit clearer for. coalition of talking rebel fighters in that it's open to them for the first time a route between west and up or and a western front towards the city of are free and so despite the fact that they had suffered some losses the tuckers soldiers in the past couple of days another wipe e.g. the kurdish militia did manage to down a helicopter and killed some of those soldiers advances still have been made on the ground and they are pushing ever closer to that stronghold of our fee in the hands

of. about as far as the other aspects of this there is a meeting between senior us in turkish officials going on what more do we know about that. and so on twenty four hours ago really do a really gentle mcmaster who's the senior security advisor to the white house match with one of president out of one senior advisor abraham kelly and they met in istanbul officially the readouts of this has a more always usually a bit diplomatic in cagey so to speak in their language so they discuss the fallout over this but what i understand from what's been taking place obviously is that turkey has been infuriated with the supports that the u.s. has been given through the white p.g. they see the white p.g.a. as a terrorist organization i can tie still on that threatens not only the security of turkish citizens but national security of the country in terms of the fact that

they believe it is connected to the other kurdish militia inside turkey the p.k. k. who want to socially tearaway parts of turkey and set up their own state so there would have been no mincing of words in that meeting between the two obviously the u.s. is also eyeing it because the u.s. is in a race against time to try and have some sort of imports or some sort of positioning inside syria after all the different regional powers of kind of cut out the wrong door carved out their own piece rather there you've got the russians obviously with the biggest lion's share of that country but obviously also iran as well in israel bordering on the other side so the u.s. does want to have a position inside syria and the idea was that it would be doing that through its proxies the kurdish militia but turkey which is its ally in the second largest religion it's always having nothing of it so tense conversations indeed between the two what's going to be more revealing because in the coming days you are such a six x. ten us and will be in turkey meeting his counterparts and those press conferences

will be interesting to say the least all right jim had a shall lie for stan in gaziantep thank you plan to take you back now to kuwait city our top story the dona. first that is taking place there right now to secure funds for the rebuilding of iraq after the devastation from the war against eisel sami's he then hopefully is there live for now serves any big task ahead in the rebuilding of a country torn apart by war. indeed there is a big task ahead and just a moment ago jamal was talking about the u.s. secretary of state to listen to soon will be coming here to kuwait so you can see the sort of the pieces of the puzzle as it were coming together and give you an idea of the sort of flux that's going on across this region what's happening here of course is they're trying to put money together to try and rebuild iraq which has

been as we all know devastated by years of conflict so u.s. secretary of state to listen visit will be in that context here perhaps a little differently from the context which jamal was talking about and so far what they're focused on is trying to get interest trying to rally people to come and put their money into investing into iraq why i spoke with the governor of the central bank of iran just a short while ago and asked him you know how's it going are you getting those sorts of commitments they say it's still early what they're happy about what the hosts at least when i spoke with the host the kuwaiti foreign minister what they are saying is we see this is a success in just getting people together and coming here more than one hundred and seventy five countries are represented they say representatives from the private sector more than two thousand companies will be here of course the big question is can that be translated into actual money that as i pointed out in my report will go

to help the people who are suffering in iraq you might recall back in two thousand and three we had a reconstruction and donors conference that was in madrid spain so. thirty three billion dollars was pledged to help the country stand on its feet but a year later in two thousand and four they had to have another donors meeting in tokyo because they said only a fraction of the money that was committed actually came in. indeed so i mean that is that is the big challenge isn't it is the difference between pledges of aid and money to try to rebuild those parts of the country and actually getting the money. into the country and spent on the right programs as well. that's right and there are lots of challenges that iraqi officials will have to get over there's some hurdles that they need to cross in order to demonstrate to the world the sort of narrative that iraq is a safe place for investment is

a better place for investment the picture has changed now on the plus side they'll say you know they've just ended the recently this war with my soul has been removed they've declared victory on ice on the in terms of major population centers at least the right i souls been removed its presence has been removed from iraq there was that conflict between forces loyal to the central government in baghdad and the kurdish regional autonomy forces which has now died down but there still are challenges that doesn't mean everything is ok i've spoken to some of the humanitarian workers who say iraq is still simply not a safe place if you look at some of the u.n. figures for the month of january in two thousand and eighteen the number of civilian deaths according to the u.n. was almost double than what it was recorded by the u.n. for the month of december two thousand and seventeen there's also the issue of as

you mentioned transparency and corruption and making sure the money goes to the right place and haven't we been through this all before an observer might say with stories of money not going to the right place or not being spent on where it should iraq ranked in a hundred and sixty six place out of one hundred seventy six countries on the transparency international's two thousand and sixteen corruption index a lot of work to be done there has indeed sammy thanks for that series of dan lifers kuwait. now investigators in russia are hunting for clues as to how a passenger plane crashed so soon after takeoff and killing or seventy one people on board they say they're looking at all possible causes including human error a technical failure and bad weather rory chalons reports from moscow. the answer no 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 going over eighty kilometers southeast of moscow rescue teams were unable to reach the crash site by road and walked to the scene. 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 and the debris of the plane is spread over radios of at least one kilometer investigators are using modern equipment taking into consideration the large territory there using quite a couple years to get a view from the air the short haul set a lot of airlines jets took off from moscow's domodedovo airport early sunday afternoon on its way to the city of or 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. we have found a breeze from an a n one for

a plane and bodies of stupid hymns somewhere else the most important thing now is the organized collection of debris and remains of the big it was by ministry of emergency situations workers. 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 pilot error 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. right to me putin has canceled a trip to sochi which was show jeweled 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 plummeting out of the sky various causes are being considered including pilots error bad weather conditions or perhaps something else really challenge zero mosque or. well stay with us we've got much more ahead here on edge as you know when we come back and to be honest i'm not sure she really understands the full horror of what is happening up here ukase top diplomat pushes me and maz leader to ensure the safe return of ranger refugees. and training games for books how child soldiers in south sudan are getting a chance to lead a normal life. hello there may be 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 stowe runs to the outs through germany and 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 wall 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 austria answer out the other behind it things are 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 atlas mountains ogle 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 cairo this cloud has been around for a couple days is finally bringing rain through egypt then the levant.

and again you're watching al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour iraq is looking for billions of dollars at a donor conference in kuwait to fund the reconstruction of the country after its war with isis the government says it needs one hundred billion dollars to rebuild cities destroyed in this three year conflict. the u.s. admits that some syrian kurdish fighters are moving towards afferent to help fellow kurds fighting turkish soldiers u.s. support for the syrian kurds in the fight against isis strained relations with. investigators in russia are looking at why a plane crashed just four minutes after takeoff killing all seventy one people on board sabotage airlines flight was heading to or when it plunged into a field on the outskirts of moscow on sunday. u.s.

president donald trump has questioned israel's commitment to making peace with the palestinians he made the comments in an interview with an israeli newspaper owned by an american billionaire and back at sheldon adelson in a rare rebuke of the israeli leadership the u.s. president says he isn't necessarily sure they're looking to make peace he warns israeli settlements are quote something the very much complicates and has always complicated making peace he urges israel to be in his words very careful with the settlements but also repeats what he's been saying about the palestinian leadership he says they're not looking to make peace and threatens to withhold aid unless they agree to talks. phyllis bennis is the also of understanding the palestinian israeli conflict she doubts trumps comments represent a policy shift by the us what president trump spoke of was the idea of a quote peace deal that's very different than peace peace requires at least

a modicum of justice that was not on the agenda here a deal implies ending resistance essentially to israeli power that is not on the palestinians agenda that's been the position recently of the palestinian leadership bringing it closer to matching the position of a wide majority of palestinian. civil society so i think what we're seeing here is certainly not the end of the u.s. role as a as an honest broker because it never was an honest broker this is simply a clear acknowledgement of that reality the u.s. president says the u.s. and south korea have agreed on terms for further diplomatic talks with north korea mike pence told the washington post that could possibly lead to direct talks without preconditions between the u.s. and north korean pence made in remarks as he returned from south korea. and the

north korean delegation has also returned from its historic visit to south korea the group led by the sister of north korean leader kim jong un held talks on the sidelines of the winter games and invited him to visit pyongyang. britain's foreign secretary has urged me and mas leader aung sang suu kyi to allow the un to supervise the return of refugees forced johnson made the playoff to visiting displaced muslim villages in one hind state and refugee camps in bangladesh he says see cine is not fully aware of what is happening but she can still play an important role in ending the crisis jan reports. the u.k. foreign secretary came to see the situation with his own eyes boris johnson two door hinge of refugee camps and bangladesh and met with villagers who remain and were kind statement he thinks myanmar leader aung san suu kyi does not fully understand the crisis i don't think she's been in a helicopter to see what we have seen today i don't think it has come through to

how the full extent of the horror of what has happened the horror johnson is talking about is what the u.s. calls ethnic cleansing and the u.n. says it may be genocide seven hundred thousand muslim or hinge on have fled to bangladesh and a mass exodus since august that's when the military of the buddhist majority country began its latest crackdown there will hinge accuse the myanmar army of mass killings rape and the torching of their villages. you know each city but there are advantages yes. and then. there is a deck or most of the village west of. me and maher says its military operations were a counter offensive to attacks by. it's not known how many people have died in these operations since august but doctors without borders us to mates at least six thousand seven hundred were murdered in the first month of violence i've seen

nothing like it in my life the hundreds hundreds of villages torched it's absolutely devastating and i think that what is needed now is is some leadership some calm but some leadership working with the u.n. agencies for johnson is calling on me in march to work with the u.n. and repatriate the refugees dr rakhine state but under u.n. supervision me and more has so far blocked un investigators from the region and a high ranking u.s. diplomat recently quit an advisory board saying he feared the panel would whitewash the crisis new reports and photos of mass graves are increasing international pressure on sochi under a government i believe she can still make a change and make a difference but to do that she needs to show get the agencies in get the refugees back home in a way that is safe and voluntary and and dignified. what remains to be

seen is if she can live up to her nine hundred ninety one nobel peace prize and put a stop to the humanitarian and human rights crisis that continue. on al-jazeera. how monday marks international day against the use of child soldiers now former young soldiers in south sudan are getting a chance to lead a normal life but some are struggling to reintegrate into their communities to morgan reports from yemen you. these moves are not need to john he's been taught how to carry them out for the past two years since he was fifteen he didn't learn the drills willingly johns' one of at least seven hundred children forcibly recruited by the south sudan's national liberation movement that is moving in the right and they are going to they. did it got in place they want to go alone or if you take using that you want to work in the day except if you are defying the

will do that day cool again by force. the civil war in south sudan now into its fifth year has killed thousands and displaced millions many vulnerable kids were recruited by armed groups to fight both boys and girls such as thirteen year old sarah. i was wounded in two angles to this one and only started to don't think i would do anything wrong and mine and mr penrose said to me this is hold on to the tune of today and said to. mr raymond. right groups they nearly all armed groups to critic children to fight the south sudan's national liberation movement has recently released more than three hundred children but that they were not really forced by their condition abandoned first today and now all of us to get out to state so in fact we did not dent over the years that they may be

a needed me to fight does well you see we have decided also as we are now in tones of that the best sort of we decided to release them so that they can go to school. communities. nearly two thousand children have been demobilized in the past five years but they are being replaced according to unicef the number of tell soldiers in armed groups and on forces has been on the rise since the war in december to fifteen that despite all were inside agreeing to stop recruiting tough soldiers and releasing those already enlisted but even for those who have been demobilized life is a challenge. many children who've been released have no idea where their families are for others fighting has become a way of life that the biggest challenge is reintegration it's a process that takes time to two three years for that child to go back home and resettle we still have more kids to be released so access pick thing that we need more kids to be released all real concern is the reintegration of these children so

that they don't get recruited again. john and sara say they don't want to return to the battlefield but they also feel what lies ahead after their past experiences and wonder if they may be forced to fight again he will mourn al-jazeera yes south sudan. now forests across the world are under growing threat of destruction that's according to the world wildlife fund which says an area equivalent to twenty seven football fields is lost every minute to logging agriculture and farming but in costa rica environmental activists are fighting back andy gallacher has their story . 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. the clough bridge nature reserve researches and volunteers of

fighting back we've got the river that in just a few short years they've replanted and we grown large parts of this rain forest and the result a promising when we finally captured a jaguar on the camera trap he was hired by big cat that was a huge step for us when we walk 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 and that's a huge step easy. thing then there are 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. the tower bridge reserve is now an example of what simple techniques

patience and preservation can achieve a country wide shoot to progress is being made it's astounding to see what fifteen years of we growth can look like and according to the united nations report station is the best way to combine climate change and something costa rica's done very effectively through various incentives and government programs they've managed to reclaim almost a quarter 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 its stand is a testament to what can be achieved at a time when the environment faces it's great. challenges and a gallacher al-jazeera at the clown bridge reserve in costa rica. this is al-jazeera to get around to put a top stories iraq is seeking billions of dollars at a donor conference in kuwait to fund reconstruction after its war with i saw the

government says it needs one hundred billion to rebuild cities destroyed in the three year conflict the u.n. says about forty thousand homes in the worst hit city of mosul need to be rebuilt or restored the your who are the armada of. everyone here is rebuilding their shop with their own money no one has received any money from the government or anybody else no one has given us any compensation and they won't be any either with one of the us admits that some syrian kurdish fighters are moving towards afrin to help fellow kurds fighting turkish soldiers there american support of the syrian kurds in the fight against i saw a strained relations with turkey it launched an operation in africa last month to push kurdish groups out of its border region with syria. investigators in russia are looking at why a plane crash just four minutes after takeoff killing all seventy one people on board the sabotage airlines flight was heading to or square plunged into

a field on the outskirts of moscow on sunday in a rare criticism of israel u.s. president donald trump has questioned the country's commitment to peace with the palestinians an interview with israeli newspaper he says israeli settlements in the occupied west bank are in his words complicating the peace process the u.s. vice president says washington and seoul have agreed on terms for more talks with north korea mike pence told the washington post that could possibly lead to direct talks without preconditions between the u.s. and north korea. the british foreign secretary has. to allow the u.n. to supervise the return of ranger refugees boris johnson made the playoff to visiting displaced muslim villages in real high and state and refugee camps in bangladesh johnson says suchi appears to be out of touch with the reality on the ground those are the headlines you are today we're back with more after inside

story. we understand the differences. and the similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take it al-jazeera will bring you the news and current affairs that matter to you al-jazeera. a military crackdown or election campaigning egypt's president orders a massive army operation in northern sinai weeks before his reelection bid but is the cleanup of what he calls terrorist hotbeds the answer this is inside story.