one is. on the nineteenth of december twenty sixth mahmoud hussein was detained by the egyptian authorities he remains behind bars without a trial al-jazeera world investigates his case and media repression in egypt. journalism is not a crime at this time on al-jazeera. the countdown is on to a five respite from the bombing in syria's eastern commuter but will the people actually leave. the welcome i'm peter w. watching al-jazeera live from our headquarters here in doha also coming up vetoes

a u.n. resolution which aims to put pressure on iran for its role in the war in yemen plus . i know i would like thank you she kept pumping us to the villages and on paper a call from one nobel peace prize winner to another for me in my heart to end the torment over in the refugees also ahead. from russia with love dancers are spreading the message of kindness around the world. the way will be open for people to get out of syria's eastern gets a region in the coming hours now it's happening after at least twenty six people were killed on monday in the latest bombardment of the rebel held enclave the russian president has ordered a five hour ceasefire starting at seven hours g.m.t. . isn't. following the order of the russian president with the aim of eliminating

casualties among the civilian population of eastern ghouta a daily humanitarian pause is being introduced starting february twenty seventh from nine am to two pm and a humanitarian corridor will be created for the exit of civilians its cordon its have been prepared and will be announced soon well osama bin laden has the latest it is not yet clear what the details of this proposed russian ceasefire between nine am to two in the afternoon are going to be so far what we've seen is that this humanitarian ceasefire will mean that a car door will be opened and people will be allowed to exit people inside eastern huta do not want to exit from their homes they have been seeing what has been happening to me in aleppo they have been seeing what have been happening to people in the riot and they do not want to exit their own homes to places there where they don't know what are the conditions going to be like if it is going to be in the south near the border with jordan are they going to be moving with the words the city of damascus the syrian capital or will they be forced to move into it because

continuing to be a front line between government and rebel forces so these are all questions that people who to have been asking they're angry they're frustrated they say that this is not they were expecting what they were expecting from the united nations security council resolution on saturday evening where there was a unanimous agreement that there will be a thirty day cease fire across syria people have been expecting humanitarian aid deliveries to be brought into them this is an area home to nearly four hundred thousand people and a few obvious cease fire they think is not going to help them well u.n. spokesman stephan degenerate she says the truce is better than nothing we stand ready as soon as the conditions are safe for truck drivers humanitarian workers to roll into these areas. which. for that to be effective. the fighting needs to stop we need to ensure that there are no

roadblocks whether physical or administrative. whether or not for five hours is enough not enough it's a difficult question to answer five hours is better than no hours but we would like to see the any sation process be extended thirty days as a security council had said but we will effort to do whatever we can within the time that we're able to work well the case deputy ambassador to the u.n. is criticizing the russian announcement of the humanitarian corridor we've got a clear resolution that's been passed by everybody every member state of the security council is obliged to do everything it can to implement and to see implemented all security council resolutions and of course includes russia i've just seen the announcement you referred to and what i would say to that is that is not compliance that is not implementation of the resolution passed on saturday. but it does show that it can be implemented honestly russia can implement it if it

chooses to if it's able to do a five hour boat is able to do a twenty four hour pause so it's up to russia whether it wants to implement fully the resolution that it signed up to and voted for where it wants to play cynical games. to write cheap is the president of the syrian american medical society he says five hours is just not practical in the last few months when we had medical evacuations the ambulances cars have taken more than ten hours to cross from the masters to the. good luck so even though it's not more than think of all of the distance so that was a nazi practical because you know that the you know forces that in too many blocks roads that in evacuating or delivering medical is those concourses to those areas are not like ours. leave alone the concert people or is leaving good. or dark clear conditions is not practical and it's actually contrary to their

principles will get me to an operation people do not nor do i see two of the. agents they're not sure they get they're going to see a knock at the wrist. now russia has vetoed a u.n. resolution which would have criticized iran for failing to prevent its weapons from falling into the hands of who see rebels in yemen now instead the un security council unanimously adopted a russian proposed resolution which didn't mention iran to get us a james bays reports now from the un headquarters building in new york for the middle east this was an important moment for russia for the first time casting its veto in the security council to protect iran it came in a moment of high drama in the council chamber to rival resolutions on yemen put to back to back votes the one vetoed by russia was a u.k. draft back strongly by the u.s.

which contained criticism of iran it received eleven votes in favor because of russia's position it failed they moved on to russia's own draft without any mention of iran security council members aware that sanctions in yemen would collapse if there was no new resolution back to unanimously it led to angry exchanges the u.k.'s resolution was a simple common sense when it called out iran for giving the who are these the tools to threaten yemen's neighbors and to threaten freedom of navigation through the red sea. but this common sense attempt to hold iran accountable has failed it's going to become a political move i will be frank the wording in the british draft is liable to have dangerous destabilizing ramifications and this is not only a political to the situation in yemen but also to the region overall this will never to believe escalate regional tensions and lead to conflicts among key regional players the vote had been postponed for several hours as the u.k.

tried but failed to reach a compromise with russia the acting british ambassador had earlier told me he wanted his resolution to reflect the findings of an independent panel on yemen but that report was not only critical of iran russia doesn't like the outcome of certain expert panel reports it just doesn't like the messages doesn't mean it undermine everything they say so we'll be urging our colleagues for the good of the united nations system to vote in favor of areas in which your text doesn't reflect everything in the panel of experts reports as a mention of us torture camps is not the same mention of the bombardment by the saudis in the in the galatea of that in the resolution so our textbooks in are part of what the problem of our text has the support of the council and that's what matters thank you very much in the end he did receive the support of the majority but the key takeaway is the fact that russia was prepared to cast its veto the trumpet ministration constantly says that terror on is the stabilizing the middle

east region and that it's prepared to take action we've now had confirmed what we expected that russia will block the un route to any such action james outages era of the united nations. saudi arabia's king solomon has replaced top military commanders and a shake up of its defense ministry now those fired include the saudi army's chief of staff and the heads of ground and air defense forces and even for the a hole but it does come a saudi arabia faces growing criticism over the war in europe. and so on suchi faces a new warning from three women who like nobel peace prize winners urging me in mars leader to condemn the violence against ranger refugees or possibly face prosecution for genocide this comes as the un human rights council in geneva is set to hear from me in mars' minister of international cooperation in the coming hours. as the story. accounts of violence and bloodshed now victims share their stories with

three nobel peace laureates irish peace activists wire is one of the peace prize winners visiting for him to refugee camps she is urging only on mars leader aung san suu kyi to visit some of the country's most affected areas right on what. i was told that are there fully out in front of the white house thank you i was firing from each chunk. of. my first century chair right all three laureates united for the same cause tawakkol karman from yemen and iranian. also visit a cox bazaar they say myanmar's government and suci also a noble laureate must be held accountable for what's happening to the revenger failing to do so they warn could lead to prosecution for genocide if she couldn't

is still only this girl and she has to resign now that's a very important otherwise she will be followed through with the international criminal court almost seven hundred thousand will hinge on how fled the country since the start of a military crackdown six months ago myanmar's army says it's targeting terrorist these nobel laureates are urging the u.n. security council and the international criminal court to hold the government accountable suchi has not yet publicly condemned the violence. we have not only come to listen to the tragic stories of these refugees we are above all a loudspeaker for their voices to be echoed throughout the world and to make the world aware of their plight we urge the international community and governments to help end this crisis we urge the u.n. security council to take measures to bring me and mas government to book we are the voice of the oppressed range. a call for a cause. debility and hope that the call of these peace laureates will be heard

beyond this community devastated by violence cuts hello possibly gun how does their . ok let's get more on that for you joining us live benjamin's the walkies an independent southeast asian analyst he joins us now on skype from bank called benjamin good to have you here on al-jazeera again why should the sun suchi listen to these three women she's not listened to very much at all going back if we go back to when this question kicked off well she should because it's it's not only a genocide but it's not ongoing genocide and it's one over which she is presiding sadly however the fact of the matter is that three nobel peace prize winning women is no longer seemingly on song suchi preferred peer group but rather she seems more inclined to be included with the likes of china's being war or cambodia soon soon or perhaps most appropriately present to territory of the philippines who like her was democratically elected and has sense presided over in his case actively

perpetrated grave international crimes crimes against humanity sadly three nobel peace prize winning women aren't your peer group but rather a group of dictatorial now around which she is surrounded here in southeast asia precisely doing over and orchestrating clearly two different things are we really saying that this might get to the stage at some point say eighteen months down the line where the members of the government to the i.c.c. . well it would depend on how you define government first of all she's a civilian leader as opposed to a military leader she is by way of myanmar's constitution she would have a fairly formidable defense against being legally complicit in these crimes not to mention that the international system as it exists right now because of the i.c.c. with me even bringing a military official difficult before the international criminal court so as of

right now the statements of the three the three women in bangladesh are more symbolic than substantive in terms of the legal hurdles that would need to be cleared but the fact is certainly in the court of western public opinion and noting of course that two of the three nobel laureates who spoke up who have spoken out are not from the west and the court of public opinion she is increasingly guilty of these crimes ok the court of public opinion is one thing the i.c.c. is another but she realistically could never claim at some point in the future again that she was she was doing what she was doing inside a vacuum because she has the symbiotic relationship with the military inside the country right she would have to be established is a fact of command and control of the military in rakhine state that is that has perpetrated this genocide again on account of the constitution of myanmar she would have a formidable defense to be able to say look i don't have commanding control of the military and therefore regardless of what i knew and when i knew it what i said or did not say i can't be held liable or guilty of these crimes there would be counter

arguments to that as well unfortunately we are many steps away removed from from that and that process benjamin's working thank you very much. still to come here on al-jazeera sports bridging the waters off to the winter games south korea lays the ground for the north take part in the paralympics. plus more trouble for the company founded by the disgraced film producer harvey weinstein. halla has finally stopped raining of the ohio valley after five days of it and flooding to boot and this is the cloud that waved around is finally moving east was doesn't mean that will be the final cold but at least for maybe twenty four hours possibly more than not it's now dry in this area as well from the drama off in the

sky the wintry weather has disappeared from the high ground further west as well in fact looks like a quiet spell in that temperatures a quite high chicago's at fourteen new york's a twelve toronto's at about ten degrees it shouldn't really be this warm in february but it's a wooden assembly last more rain is feeding into the ohio valley and the studies showing some some parts of ontario but it's not that cold plus eight in toronto there's been a star left in maybe arizona maybe southern california but it's not a lot to it but of late wintry stuff maybe in the me can be into it's not as wet as it was just a bit of a breeze but if anything is weakened when it gets the coast of nicaragua and costa rica i don't expect to see much in the way of showers there and occasional wind down in panama as well the concentration of showers for the south is increasing i think some for northern bolivia more especially in northern argentina and increasingly heavy showers in power acquiring.

i am doing this for the benefit of saddam people. so mad they see the importance of the arab guys. who witness documentaries that open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera.

recapping the top stories for you so far this hour russia's president has ordered a five hour cease fire in eastern guta in syria it starts seven hours g.m.t. a humanitarian corridor will be opened allowing people to leave hundreds inside the rebel enclave of died and more than a week of bombardment by syrian and russian forces. russia has vetoed a u.n. resolution which would have criticized iran for failing to prevent its weapons from falling into the hands of who's the rebels in yemen now instead the u.n. security council unanimously adopted a russian proposed resolution which didn't mention iraq. three nobel peace prize winners are calling on their fellow laureates aung san suu kyi to condemn violence against the right engine minority warning me and most leaders she risks prosecution for genocide the group is visiting with interest in camps across the border in bangladesh. the north korean delegation to the winter games the winter olympics in south korea is now returning home representatives wrapped up a three day visit that took in the closing ceremony in pyongyang meanwhile talks

are being held to discuss north korea's taking part in the paralympics which will start on march the eighth in a meeting last month it was agreed that pyongyang will send one hundred fifty participants were mcbride joins us live now from seoul i guess rob this is about lowering the threshold so they can kick start meaningful talks how do they do it. that's right i mean the talks have been continuing keeping up the momentum that's been built up with these limpy and goodwill as you mentioned there has been a meeting taking place at panmunjom the peace village on the d.m.z. between north and south korea this is between two delegations one from the north one from the south preparing the way for the paralympians team to come down to take part in the paralympics as you mentioned there are a team of one hundred fifty it's been agreed will be coming down these include athletes coaches cheerleaders again and also reporters this is about half the size

of the olympics team that has just left and has gone back north across the border probably the more important meeting though has been the visit by general kim young child who is a very important figure in north korea his delegation was here for the closing ceremony and also over the past two days has been taking part in a series of different meetings this morning tuesday he had a breakfast meeting with his opposite numbers in the unification ministry before departing under heavy security back across the border his visit is very controversial here in south korea wherever he goes there have been protests there have been more protests today choose day he is thought to be a figure that has been the mastermind behind a number of operations and attacks directed at the south and so his presence here is very controversial but the fact of his presence it does show the measure to which into korean relations have advanced peter and i guess what they've got to do

as well surely is to get donald trump and the north korean leaders to stop hurling insults at each other do you get the sense across the region that they realize this that the language between these two key players in this debate if they're heading towards nuclear denuclearization i should say you know that they've got to moderate the language. that is the all important question is getting the united states on board now and there does seem to be pressure from the south as well to try to achieve that the both sides have made statements after the past couple of days of talks that they want to see the north-south dialogue continuing with regular meetings and at a very high level and it seems as though there is a willingness not to do rail things at least in the very short term you've got the paralympics coming up you've got the prospect of a significant visit by jay in the president of south korea to the north that would be an historic visit no one wants to disrupt that so you get

a sense that north korea is put on hold its missile testing its nuclear testing and even with the militaries of south korea and the united states there is speculation that they may push back further expected planned military drills just as a way of giving the dialogue a chance but the united states has always said as a precondition of getting involved in any kind of dialogue it wants a commitment from north korea that it is aiming to awards denuclearization and that is a precondition that the north koreans of always avoided have always fought against but jay and of south korea has now joined the debate added to the pressure saying that maybe america should reduce its threshold presumably meaning that it shouldn't be so hard on its stance on its demands for this deep commitment to denuclearization but as you said there with the current the current feeling in washington that may well be a concession too far peter many thanks to you later. many students in the northeast

of nigeria say they are too scared to go back to the school armed men abducted one hundred ten girls last week the nigerian government admitted for the first time on monday that the girls have been kidnapped classes of since resumed at the school and that which is believed bookout on fighters took pupils. south africa's new president has reappointed a number of ministers sacked by the former leader jacob zuma cyril ramaphosa are known as thirty changes in the reshuffle they include two former finance ministers including praveen gordon who takes over as public enterprises minister zuma ex-wife was also given the position malcolm where passed the latest now from johannesburg it's not the overhaul that many ram opposed the supporters or many south africans who were hoping for a clear change of direction and an anti corruption drive would have hoped for many ministers from the previous cabinet who appointed by former president jacob zuma and implicated in many of the corruption scandals that afflicted his government

have been reappointed but in different positions the most controversial of those reappointment is muesli got a foreigner from former finance minister he's been reinstated in another powerful position the ministry of home affairs. one position that will point and that will reassure people who are hoping for a change of direction is the appointment of pravin gordhan the former finance minister he's been appointed in the ministry of enterprise he has a reputation for cleaning up any ministry that he's been in charge of so that will reassure people who are hoping for some change poses stuck with iraq and a hard place on the one hand trying to please the supporters and those who wanted a complete change of house and a new direction on the other hand he still has to pick a date yancey's national executive committee that put him in position as the leader of the a.n.c. and can recall him at any time to keep his job he has to keep different factions within the a.n.c. placated as well as trying to push through what he says is his agenda of cleaning

out corruption and fixing the economy. the police into by sea the bollywood superstar drowned after passing out in her hotel bathtub the fifty four year old actress died on saturday the post mortem contradicts initial reports that she died of cardiac arrest should every starred in almost three hundred films during a career that spanned fifty years the company co-founded by the disgraced film producer harvey weinstein is filing for bankruptcy after sales talks collapsed the announcement is creating uncertainty of a compensation for dozens of women who've accused him of sexual assault rob reynolds now from los angeles. more than seventy women have accused disgraced former hollywood mogul harvey weinstein of sexually abusing them now with the weinstein company planning to file for bankruptcy it's possible those women may receive little or no financial compensation in their lawsuits against the company that's because bankruptcy law essentially puts plaintiffs of the sort that the

women constitute in the back of the line behind the other creditors for the company and the weinstein company owes about three hundred seventy five million dollars reportedly in debt now there was a previous deal to sell the company but that the and that deal did include a victims' compensation fund of about ninety million dollars but then the new york state attorney general eric schneiderman intervened he filed a civil rights lawsuit against the weinstein company and that essentially complicated things so much that the deal fell apart now according to a statement from the weinstein company the board of directors says it is an extremely unfortunate outcome both for the employees the plaintiffs and everyone else as for harvey weinstein himself authorities here in los angeles new york and london are all pursuing separate criminal investigations into his alleged

activities and weinstein himself has denied any consensual sexual wrongdoing you say in bold has been speaking about taking up acting but it seems he's first focusing on a sporting switch the eight time olympic sprinting champion is poised to reveal a football move in the coming out has been trained with a south african cup pretoria last month the club has hinted at a possible deal built for time from athletics in august. just signed for was to find out who it is going to sit down to some member. the curtain has been raised on the castle russia a year of culture with one of the world's most popular dance companies taking to the stage the more you see bally is performing in doha for the first time as part of a cultural exchange laura burton many reports now from opera house. oh . it's just one hour before the performance and artistic director ellen the show

the copa what's this dance is hard to ensure section before they take opera house stage they can't put a foot wrong as a ballet company has to maintain a reputation as one of the best in the gold our mission to bring to bear the so over russian people all the people with. equal morsi have founded the company in one thousand nine hundred seventy. the first three traditional folk dance into its repertoire with an aim to reflect the world's diverse cultures customs and costumes. it's important to share this kind of art because the builds bridges between nations . we want to share with people the kindness in a-g. sincerity and openness of the russian people. shared the covert says the value lies

in engaging a while why don't he and the sharing and exchanging ideas through culture. the art is higher than even the political is clever but the culture for them means something you know we are not pollute persons we are all the people. during the year of cultural russia showcasing more than one hundred exhibitions and shows and kata and all starting with the more we sat down for company hair and qatar as the opera house now the artistic director of the company says she hopes this cultural exchange will help to build bridges and showcase the rich history of russian. both cars and russia believe these offenses are important to make stronger ties between the two nations. says. this year of culture reflects the wealth of

creativity in both countries and the desire of intellectuals and innovators to build bridges and revive common values to see the culture of. the service culture of you to see this wonderful city and to stay here at least for a couple of weeks. i would like to have more people. come to russia. have been his company drew on the fire tradition softly and took the world by storm a legacy seven determined to continue. the war a thousand families out of there are dead. this is al jazeera these are the top stories the russian president has ordered a five hour cease fire in syria's eastern ghouta it should start at seven hours

g.m.t. a humanitarian order will be opened corridor or rather be opened alone people to leave hundreds inside the rebel enclave have died in more than a week of bombardment by syrian and russian forces. following the order of the russian president with the aim of eliminating casualties among the civilian population of eastern guta a daily humanitarian pars is being introduced starting february twenty seventh from nine am to two pm and a humanitarian corridor will be created for the exit of civilians its cordon its have been prepared and will be announced soon. russia has vetoed a u.n. resolution which would have criticized iran for failing to prevent its weapons from falling into the hands of who's the rebels in yemen now instead the un security council unanimously adopted a russian proposed resolution which didn't mention iran three nobel peace prize winners are calling on their fellow laureate aung san suu kyi to condemn violence against the right engine minority warning myanmar's leader she risks prosecution

for genocide the group is visiting ranger refugees in camps in bangladesh and the seven hundred thousand often fled since the start of the military crackdown six months ago. a north korean delegation to the winter olympics in south korea is not returning home representatives wrapped up a three day visit that took in the closing ceremony in pyongyang meanwhile talks are being held to discuss north korea's taking part in the paralympics start on march the eighth many students in northeastern nigeria say they're too frightened to go back to the school where armed men abducted one hundred ten girls last week the nigerian government admitted for the first time on monday that the girls had been kidnapped it's believed because fighters took the people's south africa's new president has reappointed several ministers sacked by the former leader jacob zuma . announce thirty changes in the government reshuffle the new additions include two former finance ministers those are your headlines so far today the news continues

here on al-jazeera after witness i will see you very soon. counting the cost how corrupt is your country transparency international has the latest global rankings venezuela makes history by launching a crypto currency can south africa plug a hole in its finances as cape town faces a water shortage counting the cost at this time. round.