number happens not because the situation is complicated but because no one cares or if you join us on sat there are people choosing between. eating this is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who's an activist and just posted a story join the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera. a new governing coalition is confirmed in germany giving chancellor merkel a fourth. with their life and also coming up. populist and euro skeptic parties are expected

to make gains as voting gets underway in italy's election. the syrian government advances in the people there find new ways to deal with the food shortage. in this year's famous alaskan dog sled race hit by claims of doping. but breaking news is what we start with today the news from germany where it's the end of months of political deadlock in europe's economic powerhouse the results are now in the referendum for germany's political future and they show that members of the center left s.p.d. support joining a government that would be led by chancellor angela merkel let's go live now to berlin and the social democrats party headquarters our correspondent dominic. cain

is there at the minute by what sort of margin did the social democrats agree to join mrs merkel in what's known as a grand coalition. martin in a pretty clear margin two thirds to one third the party members have voted what you might say decisively in favor of another grand coalition with angle americal and the point to make is that there isn't really a sense of jubilation amongst the the rank and file or indeed amongst the the leadership here of the social democrats hearing with the prime minister of the minister president of the state of hamburg so he's not got his hands in the air he's not overjoyed at this result this is because this is basically a decision of the head that the social democrats have made rather than the hearts of the people who in conferences up and down the country over the past few months have been saying they don't want another coalition with angela merkel was saying that they feel that being in government with her party is costing this party votes they feel that they have to try to renew their their mission their party's mission

but at the moment at least given the decisiveness of this result two thirds in favor one third against it's pretty clear there will be this grand coalition and the questions that have been posed about what is the future of social democracy in this country well they will carry on but clearly with this majority government and frankly merkel she'll be the happiest out of today's result she gets what she wanted she gets another three and a half years in parliament in parliament governing in the chancery basically with the chance to put her policies through but even there there is the interesting element here that the social democrats were saying the leadership was saying to the party members look at how many of our policy proposals america is going to have to enact well equally angela merkel she gets what she wants she gets the government but she has to do so knowing that her party lost many votes and that she will have a sit for us opposition inside parliament from those who don't actually support her point of view and you see. say that her party and the social democrats lost many

votes in the election in september so really here no sense of jubilation but perhaps the sense of pragmatism that this country needed to government and that's what the members seem to have voted for or i dominate and what has mrs merkel had to trade in order to win over the social democrats to join her in government whether she had to give away. twelve point there is she's had to trade many key positions in the cabinet we were when we heard the announcement of the results the man who is widely assumed to be the next finance minister of this country was there all our shots from the city state of hamburg basically announcing the old salts and he is now going to be the next finance minister or at least that's what everyone assumes will be the case that's a very key position and traditionally in total actions in germany the leading party decides who will be the finance minister and yet angela merkel in order to get this grand coalition together has had to give that position away so the social democrats

will have the finance ministry they'll have the foreign ministry and a few other key ministries and those ministries that angela merkel did not want to give away and she's have to do that to get the vote result today that she really wanted us all right domenic thanks for that dominic cain live in berlin without more ado let's go live now to rome where we can see the italian prime minister paolo genteel only casting his vote in these elections the voting has been underway now for a couple of hours and as our correspondent will tell us in just a little while or and see this is a very healthy best to describe these elections a very confusing picture for the electorate with no one party expected to win the forty percent that is actually necessary to govern alone so the usual coalition horsetrading is expected to take place after these votes are counted so that the polls close at twenty two hours greenwich mean time and then the count. it will

begin and as i say the horse trading will then begin let's take a closer look at the main players who are contesting this election the democratic party or the p d that is led by the former prime minister material renzi is pretty european pro immigrant but has failed to engage younger voters luigi de my is the prime ministerial pick of the five star movement that's an anti establishment and anti corruption party and looks set to do well in the polls matter leads the lega party which is euro skeptic euro skeptic excuse me and anti immigrant and the former prime minister silvio berlusconi he's back with the center right forza italia party he can't actually hold public office because of a criminal conviction but he could become an important kingmaker lawrence lee is our correspondent he's there monitoring all of these developments so how is it

looking now as i was saying earlier talents it's now been voting for a couple of hours how does it look. well i mean in terms it looks like the most likely outcome is probably a hung parliament and in decisiveness some people say that's going to be chaotic for italy it might be is it is it a big problem in any broader sense possibly possibly not see look at germany where you were just reporting from they spent months trying to get a coalition together and it looks like that particular crisis is now solve itself to the great relief of the european union the netherlands took months to get a coalition together after their election last year as well and so it doesn't necessarily create a bigger european problem if it's really is in stacey's for a few months what i think is a much bigger potential headache for the european union more generally is if the hard right coalition does actually get somewhere near forty percent because you have people for example like steve bannon donald trump's old friend who's doing

who's in italy at the moment saying it would be brilliant if matteo salvini became prime minister this guy wants to deport hundreds of thousands potentially of refugees and undocumented migrants and you say to these groups some of which are genuinely fascist others which are the roots in the fascist movement well how are you going to do it and they say well we'll just put them in boats and take them to libya you know and dump them there and i mean that that kind of ideology which is genuinely popular now here to some degree or other is obviously deeply worrying for the whole idea of the european union as a liberal project and it says very much about how the european union has failed to handle the refugee reception crisis that this is a gent a genuine possibility that this might happen here and so in that sense it is a very troublesome election for italy and its allies soul and for the european union more generally and tell us more then about the five star movement which seems in a very good position to do well in the polls but perhaps not get to the forty percent

that's actually required and has already effectively. said that it's no way it's prepared to go into coalition with any of the other political parties. yeah it's always said and the thing is you have to understand the point about five stories it is the politics policy you know instead of being a sort of vertical thing with say berlusconi at the top ruling everything peace is basically a horizontal party where it is like a citizens block that's designed to put pressure on politics here and try to get rid of corruption and things like this they have the mess ship in rome and sharin and they're trying to get get their way into politics in that sense but the thing is if they did go into coalition with anybody it would undermine the entire philosophy because they would be seen by their own base as having been slightly compromised now i mean there are some people who say on the right wing in particular wouldn't be great if the league is anti immigration group got into government with the with five star on

a totally populist ticket i think it's inconceivable to be honest because a lot of the five star movement genuinely hates the far right and it would be seen seen as a betrayal the only way i can see them doing it since they are so far right in the polls is if there was a crisis and they said we're prepared just to sort of get through possibly with the center left or somebody like that just for the time being it has to get out of the crisis but even that i think will be a problem for them all right lawrence lee live thank you for now lawrence we will be keeping us right up to date with that election in italy as the downfall of. now the syrian government says it sees more territory in rebel held off for another night of strikes and shelling well than six hundred forty people are now reported to have been killed in the besieged own crave during the past two weeks the rebels . can reach the center of the capital damascus so this area is a particular priority for the government the syrian observatory for human rights

reports that government forces have now retaken ten percent of the area then the holder has more from beirut in neighboring lebanon. pro-government alliance advancing into eastern huta quite significant gains according to the syrian observatory for human rights they've taken ten percent of the and cleaves territory they've pushed taken towns from the eastern side of eastern. but this area the areas that have been recaptured are mainly farmland not really built up areas which makes it much easier to advance if they're going to push further into eastern they're going to encounter urban and urban setting and neighborhoods where the civilians really live so the battles there will be more difficult and of course the more and more deadly but undoubtedly significant gains on the ground the bombing campaign also continuing despite the five hour daily pause in the fighting undoubtedly the intensity of the bombardment is much less when you compare it to

the first week of the bombing campaign but civilians continue to die on average thirty civilians a day do you and security council's a resolution calling for a ceasefire is not being he the people the situation for civilians inside becoming unbearable according to the united nations one thousand people need to be evacuated for to receive proper medical treatment and eighty five of them require urgent medical assistance they could die if they're not to evacuated but there is no sign that there will be any evacuations or no sign that desperately needed aid is going to reach the people any time soon lisa news has been under siege since twenty fifteen or. siddons there face a shortage of food and medicine and they've been forced to find innovative ways to survive when all supply lines have been blocked more on that now from osama bin generator reports from gaziantep on the turkish side of the border with syria. these are alien mushrooms non-native species to eastern an area just

a few kilometers from syria's capital damascus when the siege tightened in two thousand and thirteen food supplies were exhausted quickly one of the answers for growing protein needs was mushrooms after testing they weren't poisonous biologists grew spores in the labs they taught people how to up cycle dam bed of kitchen waste and shot from green so everyone with a small dark room could become a farmer by last year charity workers say they were producing close to two tons of mushrooms every day. you need the right environment in tools after we succeeded in production it became an independent project to provide the spores for good it was difficult for people to go from the staple red rice and meat to mushrooms but when a kilo of salt costs thirty three dollars a kilo of flour costs six dollars and a kilo rice is that eleven dollars a kilo hungry people don't have much choice another problem with fuel because who hasn't had electricity for nearly five years they really used all glass to make

solar panels a source of heat and to generate electricity those with a little advance scientific knowledge built a bio gas plant which became a continuous cost effective source for clean energy. well there is an agricultural region east of damascus so people also grew some food but at the risk of ongoing airstrikes and shelling from the syrian government side however these were small projects which couldn't get into the needs of almost four hundred thousand residents of east good for most of the supplies came through a lucrative war trade via tunnels and government checkpoints this war economy and extortion like tax pushed prices multiple times to what they are on the other side of damascus. we have seen misses his home in the hooter after escaping the siege he runs a charity which helped to fund training and set up new projects he feels abandoned by the un and others who he says should be doing more than just advocacy they are calling there are begging they are wishing but they don't do any serious things.

happening in this area. which is maybe the worst the worst season in the last one hundred thirty of us since the one nine hundred february onslaught many of the projects have been destroyed in the relentless bombardment people say it's been a tough life under siege but they will not give up their lands to what they see is an army of iranian militias and russian soldiers and if given the chance they want to rebuild what's been destroyed with or without any outside help some of a job made out of iraq. where the turkey syria border that's all to come here including south korea says it will send a special envoy to the north for the first time in more than ten years. consitutional change is high on the agenda as china's leaders meet for the annual national people's congress.

hello there we're seeing a lot of wet weather over parts of the marks or recently you can see the bright white area of cloud on the satellite picture that gradually disintegrates and there's not really a great deal of rain being seen at the moment i think we'll see a fair few more showers though as we head through the next few days but not quite the widespread wet weather that we've seen over the last twenty four hours or so instead borneo is looking fairly wet in that weather extends further east but force in the philippines just a good deal of cloud here and a few showers but it's out of that cloud for the north it should stay dry throughout the day manila there but around thirty four degrees a bit further towards the south and force in australia there's been plenty of wet weather here recently to searching from darwin all the way down towards parts of new south wales now for some of us here in the western parts of queensland this rain is very very welcome because we've had a drag to over the past few years and we've seen plenty of what weather just in the

last twenty four hours hundred sixty meters of rain that's an awful lot of wet weather but it is really needed now a few more outbreaks of heavy rain likely over the next few days as well the system only slowly beginning to retreat its way towards the east there's still plenty more welcome rain here towards the west well for the same person getting very hot now thirty seven degrees will be our maximum temperature on tuesday. from satellite technology to three d. printing and recycled waste to solar powered classrooms africa is transforming young innovators are propelling change building communities creating employment and solving problems they're challenging systems and shaping you what it's about creative thinkers shaping their continent's future innovate africa at this time on

al-jazeera. take a look at the top story of the results around in a referendum for germany political future with members of the center left s.p.d. that's essential democrats voting to join a government led by chancellor angela merkel clears the way for the third such grand coalition since two thousand and five. italians in an election but it could be some time before the country's leadership is decided single party appears to be on track to gain the required forty percent to form

a government. the syrian government's reportedly ten percent of rebel territory after another night of air strikes and shelling more than six hundred forty people have been killed in the past two weeks the sixth day of a russian led humanitarian polls is currently underway. that the investigation into russian interference in the election of donald trump has reportedly been widened to include the united arab emirates the new york times says an advisor to the crown prince of the u.s. has been questioned special counsel robert mueller wants to know whether george nader who's a regular visitor to the white house attempted to buy political influence the us president contradicted years of policy when he initially that the u.a.e. and saudi led blockade against. an al qaeda linked group says it was behind friday's attack capital the french embassy and army h.q.

were targeted leaving sixteen people including eight gunman dead nicholas hark reports. when a taxi packed with explosives drove past him i was fetching water rahman was sorting out his stall and quander was clearing his shop none of them noticed the attackers nor did members of rick enough so armed forces who let the taxi in the attackers enter their headquarters the subsequent explosion sent them and the country into panic at the same time another attack was underway targeting the french embassy and its cultural center french special forces were deployed after hours of fighting all the attackers were shot dead to montanus about islam was leamy has claimed responsibility for the attack they say it's in retaliation for the bombing by french forces that killed one of the group's leaders in february. sorry sitting in this video on the right was killed in that attack them broken afonso is home to a french military base and has increasingly been targeted by fighters in the sale

of the market people are returning to work with mixed feelings there's no servant in there i'm not scared i'm not going to let the attacker put me in a state of fear these are some but it feels uneasy because the reality is brooke you know fastow is in the middle of a security crisis government officials visit the army headquarters the intensity of the explosion shattered the windows of neighboring buildings deborah flew hundreds of meters into the air bullet holes pockmark the building. this is supposed to be one of the safest and most secure place in this country and yet it's inside this building that most people lost their lives on the prime minister is talking to the troops outside police have cordoned off this area and there are hundreds of people standing there in shock and they have one question how could this attack take place in such secured in safe areas visiting the scene the prime minister described what he called outlook elliptic scenes in sign but he tried to reassure the public

something that we have to stay united against this war that has been imposed on us i am convinced we will win we weren't allowed in the hospital where the injured mostly soldiers are being treated their friends and relatives are worried we're hearing if they will survive there is a sense of despair that bricky to foster has become another front line to an expanding conflict affecting millions of people across the sahara nicholas hawk al jazeera. police in bahrain ever arrested one hundred sixty members of what's described as a terrorist network funded by the revolutionary guard in iran t.v. pictures are said to show weapons and explosives to be used in attacks on the security forces the sunni led government on the shia majority island regularly accuse iran of supporting armed groups but iran denies knowing just sent south

korea has announced plans for a special envoy to visit the north the delegation will leave on monday and it's in response to an invitation by leader kim jong un sr during her visit to the pier on china lympics rough mcbride has more from seoul. the delegation is being led by two ministry level intelligence officials one of them an expert in u.s. korean relations the other an expert in into korean relations so it seems this delegation has a jewel purpose first of all of exploring the possibility of dialogue between pyongyang and washington but also looking at what is the next step in into korean relations with the anticipated visit perhaps by a south korean president moon j into north korea following on from the invitation there was extended by kim jong un sr attending the opening of the winter olympics the team will be in pyongyang for two days of talks will then return to seoul to

brief officials here and then go straight on to washington to brief american officials the process does point up the differences in approach between south korea and the united states to north korea the u.s. position is still the north korea should commit itself to denuclearize ation before negotiations or dialogue starts increasingly it seems the south korean position is one of pragmatism that dialogue itself should be entered into and see where it goes there are concerns among more hawkish conservative elements here and also in the united states that north korea might be using this whole process of trying to get around the sanctions which many people believe are beginning to bite and trying to undermine the whole process of maximum pressure monday's annual session of china's parliament could be its may significant in decades the national people's congress

is being asked to amend the constitution says president xi jinping conserve more than two terms in office officials are defending the decision that could pave the way for him to remain. in china's leader for life in the jungle according to the constitution of the chinese communist party there's no such provision as to nor more than two successive terms for the general secretary and the chairman of the central military commission of the party also there is no such cause of no more that two terms for the chairman of the central military commission for the country and the constitution of china so if we post the similar clause in the constitution for the terms of the presidency it's can juicer to upholding the authority of the central committee of the party with comrade xi jinping at the core and also to unify leadership also will help strengthen and improve the country's governance

more now from our china correspondent adrian brown. in the ceremonial heart of beijing china's political season is about to start but it will be different this year delegates to the national people's congress are being asked to do something they've never had to before approve a change to the constitution that restricts presidents to two terms dissenting voices are rare in today's china yet in the run up to this n.p.c. there's been token criticism over the proposed amendment. most of the modern countries in the world adopt this two term presidency that's why people find it unbelievable that if she is going to stay in power more than two terms president she is likely to get his way the n.p.c. is viewed as a largely rubber stamp body controlled by the ruling communist party and has never voted down a proposal from party leaders. the change will further consolidate she's power

as he is also party chief and head of the military and in october his name was in shrines in the constitution elevating him to the status of chairman mao like president xi jinping wants to make his country great again and he often talks about the rejuvenation of the chinese nation he now believes he's the only leader that can make that happen there are no opinion polls in china so it's not possible to gauge what the public thinks about all of this a few people in beijing though were willing to share their views and surprisingly they weren't all positive is that what they wanted of my old honest. this hasn't happened in china or other countries before if you change the constitution itis that it's back to the old days when i living back when. he should be president for more than two terms even he serves seeks i would support him. china today is

a one party state dominated now by one man adrian brown al-jazeera beijing an indian navy sailboat with an all female crew is approaching the end of its journey round the world the seventy me to vessel set out from india in september and sailed into cape town on friday with its six crew members on board the team will finish their epic journey at the indian quarter. just the fact russian olympic athletes dogs running in the world's most famous sled race have tested positive for a banned painkiller the iditarod race started in the anchorage in alaska shelob ellis has more on the controversy. the. sled dogs and their drivers are off on the i destroyed the sixteen hundred kilometers ahead of them and came to distance themselves from dog door ping and

defense. this is the world's most famous dog sled race and for the first time in its history dogs failed drug tests for animals belonging to last year's runner up bella c.v. to suppose for a bad painkiller tramadol cv who has won the race four times denied doping his dogs he wasn't on the start line and protest i'm one who believes we've got another forty three years before the next don't bring scandal and this will be remembered as the year that. anomaly happened. organizers have their own obstacles to navigate beyond the last a major sponsor and are under pressure from animal rights advocates following the death of five dogs last year there's always going to be and i did arrive. we have i consider this more of. a growing process than anything else this year's race starts alaska's biggest city

encourage and will take the southern route thanks to heavy snow passing through twenty three checkpoints including the races namesake i did her old to in the remarks bering sea community of norm it's expected to take the winner nine days. sixty seven mushes will drive about one thousand dogs to the finish line going through all with are determined to leave this year's sky. behind them charlotte dallas al-jazeera. believe al jazeera stories the results are out in a referendum for germany's political future the vendors of the center left. democrats voting to join a government led by chancellor angela merkel this clears the way for the third such grand coalition his two thousand and five dignity to. the s.p.d.

members follow the suggestion of the party leadership with a big majority we now have clarity the s.p.d. will join the next government the social democratic party did not make this decision lightly it spent the last weeks in depth transparent and open discussions over the coalition deal they were. at a great many members of the party we grew closer together during these discussions of this will now give us the strength we need to move ourselves forward as a party in government and to put our country on the right path. italians are started voting in an election but it could be some time before the country's leadership is decided no single party appears to be on track to gain the required forty percent to form a government the syrian government has reportedly seized ten percent of rebel territory in eastern goose or after another night of airstrikes and shelling russian led five humanitarian poles is underway for a six day. the investigation into russian interference in the election of donald

trump has reportedly been widened to include the united arab emirates the new york times says an advisor to the crown prince of the u.a.e. has been questioned special counsel robert know whether george notter who's a regular visit to the white house attempted to buy political influence the us president contradicted years of policy when he initially backed the u.a.e. and saudi led blockade against qatar. south korea has announced plans for a special envoy to visit the north the five person delegation will leave for two days of talks on monday it's in response to an invitation presented by kim jong un sr during her visit to the china lympics an al qaeda affiliate says it was behind the attack that killed sixteen people in bikini faso on friday the french embassy and army headquarters were targeted in the capital walk of duty. roger today those

are the very latest headlines from us here at al-jazeera the news continues after innovate africa. here is a very important source of information for many people around the world when all the cameras are gone i'm still here go into areas that nobody else is going talk to people that nobody else is talking to and bring that story to the forefront. this is innovate africa a series highlighting innovation and creativity across a call to my bet is on the rise. today on the innovate. we can scientists using satellite technology to build up the future. is on the chronic sector no one who has information to control the future of african physicist invents the world's first digital laser so what we want to do is come up with diagnostic tools for each i.v. .