at this time. from the bamboo stands navigating dangerous rapids from the time we depart through the time we finish are scared to the fish and dicing with death. i'm afraid of falling i'm afraid of dying but if i don't go by coughing my family need the men who go to the extreme just to make a living i'm not you have to be a strong swimmer otherwise and certainly risking it all vietnam at this time on al-jazeera. residents of eastern ghouta in syria say the as strikes have continued to spy a five hour pause ordered by russia.

hello i'm am. watching al-jazeera also coming up south africa's parliament passes a motion to take private land without giving any compensation. jerusalem's mayor suspends a plan to tax church property which has led to the closure of one of christianity's holiest sites. and why the killing of russian opposition leader parson themselves three years ago is fueling diplomatic tension with the u.s. . the russian president's call for a five hour ceasefire for the besieged syrian neighborhood of eastern ghouta has failed to stop the bombing the pause was designed to allow civilians to leave the rebel held suburb of damascus the u.n. says a thousand sick or wounded people need to be evacuated but after a brief lull which allowed people to venture outside residents say the government planes resume their strikes so in

a hunter reports from beirut. some emerged from underground shelters to buy food and water others returned home to collect whatever is left of their belongings the relative calm gave the people of eastern some respect a five hour pause in the assault by the pro syrian government alliance on the besieged enclave ordered by the russian government the temporary truce from nine am until two pm is due to be repeated daily it's not enough for the syrians trapped in the war zone. what ceasefire we have been under bombardment all night planes flying above our heads death is everywhere there's no ceasefire. going well the number of . the bombing campaign resumed soon after the limited ceasefire expired the last rebel stronghold near the capital damascus has been under attack for more than ten days civilian deaths are already close to six hundred the stated aim of the truce

is to allow civilians to leave but the opposition says the true goal is to displace the population. so how do they expect the people of ghouta to leave their homes this could never happen we call on the countries who voted for a ceasefire at the u.n. to pressure russia and syria to implement it no one can kick the people out of guta eastern who are surrounded by government controlled territory the russian center for reconciliation says a corridor has been open for civilians to leave by a there was fifteen crossing point the center accuses rebels of shelling the evacuation route and preventing people from leaving the opposition denies that. but the people do not want to leave they don't not want to be displaced and never be able to return to their homes it has already happened to thousands of syrians after government forces recapture rebel held territories it's not just that many are afraid to cross into government controlled territory without international observers or security guarantees they fear arrest or conscription. up to

four hundred thousand people are believed to be trapped in eastern hooter hundreds need urgent medical assistance and evacuation it's not clear if aid will be allowed during the pause in the fighting medics say they are able to cope with the loss doctors and nurses there are women and children dying we want these massacres to stalk please end this. the procedure in government alliance has taken the decision to recapture eastern huta at any cost for now the people of eastern will have two choices death or displacement. beirut. correspondent gary has the latest from inside eastern ghouta. yes shelling is still ongoing in eastern guta through many villages and towns and even the city of duma you can hear the intensive bombardment of several areas battles are also taking place the host go ahead and fronts as the regime forces are trying to advance and storm east and

grew to russia yesterday announced a truce between nine am and two pm in addition to humanitarian corridors for civilians to leave the area but the civilians don't want to leave the areas controlled by the regime by these corridors or crossings because of the continued shelling the syrian regime forces are only a few hundred meters from where i am civilians have been killed today and people stuck here scared administrative and medical authorities here say that there is no contact or coordination between them on one hand and the russian side all the syrian red crescent on the other hand the administrative and medical authorities say this is aimed at circumventing the security council's decision on the truce. the u.n. regional humanitarian coordinator. he says the truce has done nothing to change the reality on the ground. the situation really is highly straight because we haven't been able to bring in any aid convoys for more than ten days now that has been

really high intensity hostilities in a civilian area in areas where there's more than one hundred thousand people that have been there living in. this acute a council resolution has not translated into action in the field it's really ridiculous the security council decision is made it is not interpret it's in action on the ground and on the humanitarian side we are within that ten minutes distance ten miles distance from his that would. enable really roll out food medical supplies that are desperately needed to bring to people in the area so this iteration is really highlighted satisfactory to say the least and we continue to worry about protection of civilians the number it's become almost like your routine daily statistics of how many people are killed or how many people are injured and yet we don't see any action to really implement the security council resolution enjoy allow us to bring to go in and bring humanitarian assistance also to look out

the medical cases. as a range of a joins us now from gaza tap on that turkey southern border with syria and says he hearing that the u.n. security council resolution hasn't translated into any concrete action and no aid convoys have been allowed and how desperate is the situation in east and go to right now. i'm very i'm depressed fission that was shared with you by the united nations cordon it is shared by people on the ground in eastern huta who have been living under siege effectively since two thousand and thirteen and the situation made worse ten days ago when this campaign of them bodman began we've been hearing from people on the ground who are hoping that some sort of movement could actually take place now that russia's announced this five hour pause but nothing happened and even during this cease fire there were accusations from both sides rebels kept saying that they're still being the. and the syrian government kept saying that this proposed corridor of the suggested was being

bombarded by the rebels people on the ground in eastern who do not want to leave they want to come in they have seen and they are afraid of what has been happening to other people in other places who have left their homes to go for safety but they haven't found safety or shelter so the situation is very grim video was just shared with me a couple of minutes ago about absolute pitch darkness in a basement where people were just lit trying to figure out with one flashlight how to spend the evening it is very cold they don't have much to eat they don't want to light up anything because they are afraid that if the government see the light they would target them so it is a desperate situation on the ground in eastern hooter which is not being helped by any of the united nations security council recommendation or the pause that was announced by russia and what do we know about the situation elsewhere in syria because of course this is a ceasefire that didn't just apply to one area and the idea was to get a and supplies to other parts of syria in need as well has there been any law in

the fighting anywhere. or not not effectively has been the flashpoint in their. lives and the flashpoints further north in our free are all active there have been reports of fighting in it live between various factions of the armed groups that operated there. have been clashes between the kurdish militias who are operating there and the remnants and other fighters and in a freeman a turkish offensive continues so effectively there is multiple fronts which are active in syria where this fighting continues and because the united nations security council explicitly said that the fight against what it has recognized as terrorist groups will continue so that is the caviar that is being used by all of the forces which are operating in various parts of syria to target what each one of them calls terrorists thank you very much osama bin. taki syrian border.

now to south africa where the parliament has passed a motion allowing the government to take private land without compensation a motion was brought forward by the left wing economic freedom fighters party it was passed by an overwhelming majority of chill hundred forty one votes in favor says eighty three votes against south africa's new president several run a post has said that land reform needs to happen immediately now com web has moved from johannesburg. ever since the n.c. came to power in one thousand nine hundred four its politicians have promised land reform and redistribution they've had policies and programs to do so but progress has been slow and it still remains that in south africa about three quarters of the land belongs to the white minority a lot of people say that the reason progress has been so slow is because

a lack of political will from the top of the a.n.c. and also allegations of corruption and landry redistribution julius malema the leader of the breakaway opposition economic freedom fighters party has been saying that the problem needs to be tackled by changing the constitution to allow the government to expropriate land without compensation so he made the case to parliament to make to pass a motion to make that constitutional change we must ensure that we do store the dignity of our people without compensation. who stole our lent those who can do to protect these crimes themselves are to stop crime because those who protect the crime are not as themselves the motion was passed in the significant majority about two hundred forty in favor and about eighty voted against this is because the ruling a.n.c. party voted with the economic freedom fighters in recent years as the a.n.c.

its popularity has declined their rhetoric has got even tougher on land reform they used to object to expropriation without compensation but this time they joined in the effort in a move that will begin the process of constitutional change so by the time that's made it will take months and we don't know who will be in power there's an election next year and we don't know to what extent they will use this policy to bring about radical and change but it's something generally that may be popular with voters but on popular with investors. a controversial plan to tax the question chechen jerusalem which led to the closure of one of its holiest sites has been suspended by the city's mayor the church allow the sepik are considered to be the site of the crucifixion and burial of jesus has been shot in protest since sunday christian leaders say the tax plan was a deliberate israeli policy and weakening their presence in the holy city eiffel's as well from outside the chechen occupied east jerusalem. this is the third day

that pilgrims tourists and others have been gathering in front of the closed door of the church of the holy circle k. but right now they're gathering with increased intensity because they are aware of the news that has broken this afternoon that came from the prime minister's office saying that israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu had brokered some kind of an agreement between the leaders of the various churches the three churches the run this holy site together and the jewish and you know supplier to the issue at hand is taxation it usually musicality had been trying to collect what it says with one hundred eighty six million dollars worth of back taxes owed on commercial properties rented out by the greek orthodox church the prime minister's office saying that they will now be a professional team composed of ministers to this policy and others which will assess those claims are not situation and that the collection activities will be suspended as a result the church leaders have also one negotiations on a separate issue the proposal of

a law which would allow the israeli government to seize land which the church had sold to private investors the government and the proposals of that law saying that it leaves people who live on that land in an uncertain situation and that's why the government needed that power the church says all of this is discriminatory against christians in the holy land so for now the church daws remain shut for there does seem to be an agreement which may have been able to bring this standoff to an end. it without as they are still to come fully on the program why searching online fell when. the pooh is banned as china cracks down on criticism of its move to scrap term limits for president xi. only report from the mobile world congress on the gadgets of the future.

welcome back cross much of the advance and western parts of asia the weather is looking pretty unsettled moment we have two weather systems pushing through now at this particular one is or fragmenting as it moves so we still have a few showers around parts of iran but otherwise weather conditions not too bad and see that system across the east is clearing away we have got an area of low pressure moving through the eastern side of the mediterranean across turkey and as we head into thursday it's going to develop into quite an active snow situation so some very heavy snow across central and eastern parts of to hugh see the contrast in temperature in ankara one degree and aleppo in syria sixteen degrees further south it should stay dry for the time being for beirut there with temperatures reaching nineteen degrees that interregnum clincher on the western side of things looking fine thirty four degrees and sunny in mecca on the eastern side slightly different picture coming down through the gulf states lot of cloud around and the risk of some showers certainly during that wednesday i think by thursday here in doha it should be dry and brighter so the chose the old show elsewhere but

certainly improved picture by then so we head across into southern portions of africa the satellite imagery shows a lot of cloud across parts of mozambique zambia and zimbabwe heavy showers likely here but fine for much of south africa twenty two in cape town.

back a quick look at the top stories for you now the russian president's call for a five hour cease fire for the besieged syrian a bit of eastern ghouta has failed to stop the fighting in. south africa's parliament has overwhelmingly passed a motion allowing the government to take private land without compensation. and a controversial plan to tax the christian church in jerusalem which led to the closure of one of its holiest sites it's now been suspended by the city's mayor. stories we're following the u.n. special envoy to yemen has been briefing the security council on the crisis in the country for the last time before he leaves the job is my old shake ahmed criticized international players involved in the conflict saying that politics haven't helped

the situation on the ground that dramatic editor james bass has more. he said that there was a destructive pattern a zero sum politics which has not been broken which has led to poverty and destruction he also revealed for the first time that peace talks that he led in switzerland and then in kuwait in twenty sixteen nearly resulted in a deal. well now or you know your today i would like to announce for the first time that we did reach agreement on a peace proposal developed in consultation with the parties but they refused to sign at the last minute at the end of the consultations it became clear that the who these were not prepared to make concessions on proposed security agreements or even get into details about a comprehensive security plan this has been a major stumbling block towards reaching a negotiated solution well this all follows in the last twenty four hours some

drama in the security council over a yemeni the renewal of the sanctions program for yemen keeping those sanctions in place which resulted in a veto by russia in one draft resolution that came that the u.k. and the u.s. came up with which actually specifically had a criticism of iran in its they ended up voting on another russian draft that didn't include that and some of that criticism of iran has come up again in the security council meeting the u.k. and u.s. quoting a panel of experts reports saying that iran has been interfering in yemen and helping the who things with their missile program it's worth telling you that there are other parts of that panel of experts report that they've not been mentioning those are the parts that say that the saudi led coalition has been causing a great deal of civilian casualties with its wide square scale bombing in yemen and

one member of that coalition the u.n. he has been involved in southern yemen yemen backing separatist forces and has also been running torture camps in the country. it is there many in washington d.c. iran now applause there outside the russian embassy is being renamed in honor of the assassinated russian opposition leader self in moscow people laid flowers at a memorial on the third anniversary of his death themself was shot dead on a bridge near the kremlin in two thousand and fifteen. it was a vocal critic of president vladimir putin in the u.s. move has caused friction with the kremlin well it's not the first time street names have been used as a weapon of diplomacy back in the one nine hundred eighty s. the street housing the then soviet embassy in washington was renamed after the dissidents scientist under a sucker of republican senator ted cruz has been pushing for the chinese embassy's current address to be changed to. after the jailed human rights activist who died last year and it's not just in the u.s.

in one nine hundred eighty one the british found the embassy in iran was no longer on churchill street but bobby sands street after an irish republican prisoner who died on hunger strike on the moscow city authorities are considering responding to this latest u.s. move by naming the blind alley alongside the u.s. embassy north american dead end. of our party call hain joins us now from the plaza in washington d.c. patty explain to us what is supposed to be happening there today. well let me show you rather than just explain it here we have they've just started there speaking about. we have some of his family we believe we're going to talk there's a couple of u.s. senators congressman they're going to speak mostly cameras a very small crowd of people here to witness just pan back over here they have yet to unveil it but the plaza will be right up there what's not clear is that it's really going to be their mally an address trying to check into that now but this is really to send a message to russia you know one of the questions i had for some of the senators

that are here is if you think about what the u.s. government is accused the russians out and they said that they believe that the russians did try to interfere in these last u.s. presidential election and they believe that they are still using social media to sort of discord among americans and just today we had the national security one of the excuse me admiral mike rogers who is basically the head cyber guy in the united states government say that president trump and secretary of defense jim mattis have not directed him to stop the cyber attacks from russia at its source on top of that you have to look at the fact that the u.s. congress overwhelmingly pushed for new sanctions on russia that the trump administration is simply refused to put in place all of this happening while the special prosecutor is looking at the potential for collusion between the trump campaign and the russian government in the election so the question of course is what does this really mean this is just a a streetside a placid being renamed the lawmakers that i spoke to said it sends

a message that the u.s. cares about human rights that they would like to see russia take a different stance in places like ukraine and human rights and sends a message to people in this country and when i asked one senator senator johnson from wisconsin why has the president put forth the sanctions that the congress demanded be put in place as the answer was you have to ask the president. from what you described it just seems as though washington's in a really strange place right now where there is a president who is. to not he was just not being tough enough on russia but at the same time there is a great deal of suspicion and mistrust around russia's activity activities how would you describe the overall kind of temperature of the relationship are tensions rising or just is it just neutral. you know ever present the last two presidents have come for coming into office and said we want to reset relations with russia only to have them deteriorate trumps at the same thing that

wouldn't be great if the u.s. could could coordinate with the russians the relationship continues to deteriorate but at the same time it's important to point out the president travels done really nothing to engler the russians during his time in office and he still speaks glowingly of lot of or putin's comments that of course would not be welcome here. thank you very much patty call hane with the latest from washington d.c. . now china's propaganda machine has gone into overdrive to defend a move to scrap time limits for president xi jinping the plan to change the constitution sparked protests in hong kong in a rash of public dissent within china two prominent figures wrote open letter is urging lawmakers to reject it with a move to extend things rule as presidents have come in for criticism and mockery on social media which senses are trying hard to block users of the micro-blogging site weibo have been prevented from posting all searching for words and phrases including two time limit disagree shameless and named emperor and senses have also

been trying hard to crack down on any mention of winnie the pooh a chinese social media users often compare to but they've been so when sharing images like this one showing the cartoon bear hugging a jar of honey with the slogan find the thing you love and stick with it china correspondent adrian brown has more on the significance of this constitutional change. certainly for the next twenty years shooting paying is going to be around at least for the next two decades and i think you know the leaders of the world are slowly waking up to the fact that cheating paying is going to be around actually a lot longer than they are politically he is a leader who has really grown in confidence during the last few years this is a man who in many ways has come from from nowhere i mean he was a leader who was barely known outside of china six years ago today he's arguably the most powerful world leader he is you know general secretary of the communist party he is president he is chairman of the central military commission and also

the core leader now nobody since chairman mao has been that powerful but of course there's unease i mean intellectuals academics say that this is taking china back to you know a darker era to to to the mao period the reason why they have fixed terms is because dung sharping wanted to avoid china going back to the madness of the cultural revolution and it was done shopping the paramount leader of china who basically said we should have no more than two terms as president that has now been reversed that has now been jettisoned large parts of europe have been hit by a freak winter storm bringing rest now and plummeting temperatures to much of the continent some parts of the u.k. are expected to feel colder than the arctic circle throughout the week scientists say manmade global warming is a likely cause as new barker reports this is what many people across the u.k. woke up to roads blocked public transport come sort of schools closed

farm for some misery for others in croatia the army were drafted in to rescue people trapped in their houses but as fast as the snow was cleared all quickly well. and in the italian capital romans experienced the first snow in six years to the vatican and to a battleground. cold weather in winter is hardly surprising but what's unsettling scientists is that europe is currently colder than the arctic a freak warming around the north pole is sending a blast of arctic cold across the continent weather experts say manmade global warming is to blame what we normally see is the winds coming in from the west the jet stream winds but with this massive womanish takes place high up in the atmosphere about fifty degrees in the space of a couple of days it breaks down that pattern allows this big area of high pressure to form sitting across much of europe and of course with that sort of wind

direction coming in from the east and northeast it pulls the cold air in all the way from siberia course you know what that means desperately cold air strong winds with it cold air will penetrate across europe for some days yet in the nineteen seventies climate scientists came up with a theory for the war with the arctic the colder the european continent they even gave him an anagram w a warmer arctic sea sea called a continent or as the scientists prefer to call it wacky people here in southeast england baby surprised by this unusual or wacky weather but it could in the future be the shape of things to come on the norwegian archipelago of speil barden the high arctic scientists have recorded temperatures thirteen degrees centigrade above average sea ice is for treating exposing warmer water below and releasing more heat into the atmosphere and while arctic temperatures increase the wacky weather

continues to leave europe out in the cold eve barca al-jazeera london. the future for the internet of things and connected devices is one of the main technology talking points at this year's mobile world congress the conference is europe's biggest annual technology industry gathering charlie angela is there. the world will see the most edge technology this year we're seeing a focus on smart devices use in health and social these are a couple of being developed by the telecoms company eighteen t. this is a portable diagnostic tuberculosis these are smart glasses for the blind which can be worn by a visually impaired person and if they get into a tricky situation they press this button this camera then comes up in the control center and someone guides them through where they need to get to it's known as the internet of things these smart devices gather information analyze it and act on it and they're also transforming our cities everything from the waste management to

emergency situations they can control traffic flow and even lighting and energy efficiency by twenty twenty five it's estimated that twenty five billion devices will be connected to the internet every industry is now looking at how connected technologies can improve production and this according at the fourth industrial revolution one of the most complex inclusive and automated revolutions our society has ever seen but some of the analysts i've spoken to here say there is a danger that this technology is out pacing cyber security in some areas and the country being hacked and exploited is a very real one. quick look at the top stories this hour the russian president's call for a five hour ceasefire for the besieged syrian neighborhood of eastern fail to stop the bombing pause was designed to allow civilians to leave the rebel held suburb of

damascus but after a brief lull residents say government planes resumed their strikes. inside east and . yes shelling is still ongoing in eastern guta through many villages and towns and even the city of duma you can hear the intensive bombardment of several areas fierce battles are also taking place the host go ahead and says the regime forces are trying to advance and. south africa's parliament has overwhelmingly passed a motion allowing the government to take private land without compensation motion was brought forward by the left wing economic freedom fighters party south africa's new president so around the post says that that long form needs to happen immediately. a controversial plan to tax the christian church in jerusalem which has led to the closure of one of its holiest sites has been suspended by the city's mayor the church of the holy sefl considered to be the site of the crucifixion and burial of jesus has been shot in protests since sunday applause or outside the

russian embassy in washington will be renamed in honor of the assassinated russian opposition in the arson themselves themselves was shot dead on a bridge near the kremlin in two thousand and fifteen it was a vocal critic of president let him akutan john his propaganda machine has gone into overdrive to defend a move to scrap term limits for president xi jinping the plan to change the constitution sparked protests in hong kong chinese users of the micro-blogging site where bo have been prevented from posting or searching for words and phrases including two term limit disagree shameless and named emperor and the turkish president raj of type two on has been criticized for telling a six year old girl that she would be honored if she were martyred for turkey ameena was brought on stage while want to live in a speech at his ruling party's congress. i'll be

back with the news hour in just over twenty five minutes from now so do join me then coming up though a daily look behind the day's headlines in inside story which starts now. the taksim question in israel for the holiest church in christianity of the church of the holy city. has close installs is a tax dispute of the reason for the own most precedents of protest or is it because the christian presence in the hottest city is watts and this is inside story.