chechen president. and orchestrate the war. in the dark anyone who dares to run and run. and internment tale of repression chechnya war without a trace at this time announcing. too early to be optimistic south korea's president acas the sentiment of world leaders about the summit with the north. and sam is a than this is al jazeera live from dollhouse so coming up lucky to live another

day the bombs continue to fall in syria's eastern the border the u.n. repeats calls for an urgent scenes five plus. homes destroyed lives shattered and egypt's sinai are exclusive reports on the military operation against armed groups plus. i'm andrew thomas in the rural heartland of australia i'll be explaining why for farmers here the new c p t p p trade deal one without the united states is beyond even while the strings. south korea's president says it's too early to be optimistic about progress in relations with the north moon jane says he has no plans to ease sanctions against pyongyang ahead of a historic summit with the leader kim jong un next month the north korean athletes

and delegates arrived in the south they're taking part in the winter paralympics the games have been at the center of the easing of tensions on the peninsula north korea has said it's willing to discuss ending its nuclear program. donald trump says he believes north korea's stance is genuine from mcbride and as more from seoul there is widespread optimism here about this agreement with many supporters of the government saying it is indeed historic it is a landmark opposition conservative party's though a far more hostile they still suspect that it is some sort of deception by north korea an effort by north korea to buy time and try to divide the international community also maybe as a way of trying to get around sanctions there's also been a caution from neighboring japan the defense minister questioning the motivation of north korea and wanting to see some concrete measures when it comes to denuclearization from china which is

a very important regional player being one of the few allies of north korea in propping up its economy there this has been a widely welcomed this movement china has been under a lot of pressure to apply economic sanctions and it will welcome any opportunity of trying to relieve this burden the envoys from south korea who have brokered this agreement they will eventually go to china and to japan to explain what this agreement means but of course their first stop will be the united states to try to get them on board everybody here regardless of their political persuasions agrees that if there is going to be denuclearization it cannot be through summits between north and south korea it must involve the united states sitting down at the negotiating table with north korea. japan has said it's important for north korea to show its commitment towards denuclearization in

a concrete way. past discussions with north korea have not resulted in do. so i was sponsored be based on the lessons learnt from the talks for the sake of talks is meaningless if we are to have a meaningful discussion north korea needs to commit to a denuclearization plan that is a verifiable and irreversible they need to take specific action this is of the utmost important. for us is impose further sanctions meanwhile on north korea over the death of kim jong un's hof. after the state department concluded pyongyang used a banned chemical agent to assassinate kim jong nam the north korean leader is a strange half brother was killed in malaysia last year the u.n. secretary general is urging all parties in syria to implement a cease fire demanded by the security council the rebel held district the least of all to come under heavy bombardment in recent weeks despite the resolution activists say at least twenty seven people were killed in russian and syrian air

strikes on tuesday over eight hundred people have died since the offensive began on february eighteenth the un security council is set to hold an urgent meeting on the escalating violence later on wednesday u.s. is putting the blame squarely on russia the strikes on eastern good in recent days have demonstrated the farcical nature of russia's proposed humanitarian corridor russia is clearly attempting to feign implementation of unscarred twenty four a one while showing complete disregard for the ongoing humanitarian disaster that still unfolds there have been no meaningful pause there has been no meaningful pause in the slaughter in eastern get up bombs and artillery are still falling on civilians and medical facilities in the damascus suburbs the long delayed and insufficient aid finally allowed in yesterday was reported to have been looted by regime forces and stripped of emergency medical supplies that are so desperately needed there. well surely we'll get the latest from the holder in beirut first for. the latest

bombing campaign in eastern who is into its third week. with the number of civilians killed is climbing within the hour like. thanks from the law for. civil defense volunteers are overwhelmed now russia is offering a way to stop the war russian military commanders say they will guarantee safe passage out of the besieged enclave for rebel fighters and their families this. immunity for all fighters who choose to leave personal weapons and with their families is government you did by the russian center we call upon the leaders of all the illegal groups to make everything possible to with these the civilians from suffering and secure unobstructed delivery of humanitarian aid to. the hundreds of thousands of people in eastern who are trapped in

a war zone many refusing to cross into government controlled territory because of the lack of security guarantees the pro-government alliance blames the rebels for preventing civilians from leaving and holding them as human shields the rebel factions deny that and accuse russia of insisting on military escalation and force displacement what is known as the revolutionary leadership announced general mobilization to defend the cities and towns of eastern thought. that this unite and forget the differences of the past the world with your steadfastness and perseverance with all your sacrifices during these hard victories near many many requests that joined about so we opened many recruiting centers for . the opposition has lost ground in recent days rebel defenses collapsed in the eastern side of the enclave. the fighting hasn't yet reached heavily

populated areas but pro-government forces seem to want to avoid direct combat the strategy appears to involve surrounding the main towns and cutting rebel supply lines to force a surrender. that is what they did in the battle for aleppo they laid siege to the rebel controlled east of the city for months and then they launched an all out military campaign it was only when the rebels found themselves trapped in a small pocket of territory that they agreed to leave with their families many others left with them particularly those involved in opposition activities. the people of eastern huta fear the same fate doctors civil defense volunteers media activists are all considered terrorists by the government they don't want to be forced from their homes but the likelihood is increasing dozens are killed every day the suffering is only getting worse. so any hope of joins us live from beirut in neighboring lebanon talking about the u.n.

secretary general's call for respect for that cease fire from europe or there doesn't sound like anyone is listening. no the u.n. security council resolution calling for a cease fire has not been implemented even the civil defense volunteers have issued a statement appealing to the united nations to stop this bloodbath now that resolution really had a lot of loopholes first of all there was no time frame on when it should be implemented and second it said that so-called terrorist groups are excluded from the ceasefire and this is where the pro-government alliance is arguing they're considering all rebel factions. terrorists and now one of the main rebel factions. directly responding to the russian military offer for an amnesty saying that the people of the rebel factions in will defend their land and denying that there are any negotiations over a withdrawal so clearly the situation is going to be worse because russia is making it very clear what it will take to end this bombing campaign and that is for rebels

to surrender rebels still very much defiant saying no we are not going to lay down our arms and leave the area so the suffering continuing on the ground the bombing campaign entering its third week already eight hundred civilians among them women and children have been killed was also told from the u.n. spokesperson for. the sign of progress. well on monday an aid convoy entered this is the main town in the besieged. they managed to offload supplies from a number of trucks but i believe fourteen trucks were not offloaded and that they have to leave because of the shelling now what we understand is that the aid convoys going to try to make their way inside on thursday to deliver the rest of the supplies because they have approval from the syrian government to help seventy thousand people now seventy thousand people is clearly one fourth of the people inside there approximately four hundred thousand people and they need aid and they

need medical supplies and we know that the syrian government is preventing trauma kits and surgical supplies from entering because they don't want them to be used on rebel fighters. al-jazeera has obtained exclusive footage from the sinai peninsula showing the aftermath of an egyptian military operation forces moved in on one month ago to root out i saw another armed groups a residence in the area say around the siege their homes have been destroyed shallop ballasts reports. buildings pulverized by egyptian explosives. this exclusive video shows the carnage inside sinai one month after the egyptian ministry of defense began a major operation against eisel and other armed groups. witnesses told al-jazeera the military has demolished schools and dozens of homes displaced

residents say they have nothing to return to their own lives the moment you and i am god will punish those who forced us to leave our homes in our lands we've been here since our great grandfather and we're very sad but we can't do anything we will always hope to come back again to our houses and land. the military hasn't talked about the destruction of homes but in its latest statement it says one hundred forty five hideouts outposts and store houses have been destroyed along with the workshop use for making explosives and twenty one plantations of marijuana and poppies used for r.p.m. they say they've made two hundred forty five arrests. the most recent defense video uploaded on saturday is unapologetic egypt's had five years of failed military campaigns in the sinai president abdul fatah of sisi is doing everything in his power to change that using abrams battle tanks how

woodson's if sixteen fighter jets and apache attack helicopters has very strong symbolic meaning by sending a message to the educators and also the egyptian people maybe you will feel that some sick is being done seriously messages are important for president sisi who's up for reelection in less than three weeks and is reeling from a run of attacks in twenty seventeen in april forty six people were killed in twin suicide bombings at coptic churches and tend to an alexandria during easter a month later i saw a gunman shot days thirty christians south of cairo as they traveled to a monastery. in november the worst attack in egypt's modern history up to thirty islamic say gunmen stormed a soofi mosque and killed more than three hundred people. this is payback but in these rare images the first from

a source other than the government egyptians living in sinai say this surrounded under siege by their own military shelob eles al-jazeera. still to come on al-jazeera sierra leone votes to choose a new president but the fear of election violence is never far away and the saudi crown prince heads to the u.k. supported by a massive p.r. campaign. hello there it's mild air but still wet for many of us across europe the satellite picture is showing plenty of counsel swerving around but one system after another really a lot of this is rain rather than snow but we are still seeing a few outbreaks of the white stuff over the mountains there in the outs and further eastwards as well but all of this is pushing its way north woods there as we head

through wednesday and into thursday and what is doing is it's chasing away that very very cold and so still cold in the east but not as cold as it has been we're looking at minus five or the maximum on thursday they moscow and elsewhere we've got temperatures much higher eighteen in athens and for the west we're looking at ten degrees there in paris still more rain working its way through parts of the northwestern europe and still more on set of weather across the iberian peninsula as well really has been very wet here over the past few days some of that what weather has also been affecting us in the northwestern part of africa over the late to system is edging its way eastwards there as we head through wednesday so a little bit drier for many of us here just a few bits and clouds around in robot that could just give us one or two showers but i think most of the day should be dry perhaps the odd shower again on thursday but again largely dry weather more cloud there making its way across the northern parts of our area and into parts of china sea a to. in

the foreign country. welcome back you're watching to recap our headlines this hour now south korea's

president says it's too early to be optimistic about progress with the north moon jane says he has no plans to ease sanctions against pyongyang ahead of a stark summit with the leader kim jong un next month. the u.n. security council is due to hold an urgent meeting on the escalating violence in syria is calling on all parties to implement a cease fire resolution agreed last month dozens of civilians have died since the resolution was passed. exclusive al jazeera footage from the sinai peninsula shows the aftermath of an egyptian military operation armed forces moved on the month moved in a month ago rather to root isilon alba groups or residents in the area say their on this siege their homes have been destroyed. people in sierra leone are voting to choose a new president the leaders of sixteen political parties a vying to succeed ernest bai koroma he's stepping down after two five year terms in the third election since the end of the civil war added reeses at

a polling station in the capital freetown he joins us from there so how's turnout shaping up at a myth. well basically there is a lot of enthusiasm for this election us that reason lot of anxiety when we left the residence of the hotel to be here along the way we saw military and police checkpoints along the way and stopping do you can move which was of course not agreed to by at least one of the political parties and right activists but along the way you see hundreds of center unions trekkie before dawn to get to the polling stations we arrived this polling station at five o'clock local time and already there were dozens of people queuing up to vote in an election that was supposed to start a few minutes ago that seven o'clock right now in this polling station we have at least twelve polling stations in this area and there are less than seven hundred people queuing up to cast their ballots in all these filling

stations they expect to look from the next president they expect a lot from the next parliament and they expect a lot from local councillors now the question is after queuing up for long they will come through this particular line for example and then they'll be accredited by agents and then eventually they get to drop their ballots in at least one of the boxes here at this particular box looks like for councillors and this is for the chairman or mayor and then you have over their books all the presidential candidates and then the parliamentary. candidates will should go there so it's a huge task for election officials here but the voters are enthusiastic and also a lot of of the voters are apprehensive they want cases of violence throughout the election period but other electioneering competed and a lot of people were afraid that some may still this violence may spill over during

election day and even after the election day but the police offices all offices of the law in this country say a shortage of. they are up to the task to stop anything from. like in times of violence instead of but basically there are concerns about what follows the election. center leone's civil war ended fifteen years ago. but fears of violence remain. these women are competing for a peaceful vote. was in. two thousand and. eight for them the violent clashes seen during electioneering are a major concern. others nationwide are cautiously optimistic. but come out of trucks five kilometers from home to this newspaper stand every day the businessman scans newspaper classified adverts for work.

because. he says he's made up his mind of the particular candidate who he believes can turn things around but not everyone shares his confidence. when economists will call out. different things they do different things each of. us she says she's going to vote anyway you unemployment instead of your own is more than seventy percent many voters here expect the next president to find a way to critically create jobs something that's not going to be easy at a time when the prices of the country's key exports. while some feel that leaders have lost touch with the people are those who were ever becomes president would be a change for the better. no basically

a lot of surly owners have been queuing up in other polling stations from what we hear and the process is go in a smooth place but we're not sure about what's happening in the rural areas right now the voters will be here until five o'clock those who are able to make it before five o'clock will be allowed to cast their ballots and from then voting will close and then the correlation of results will start in earnest with observers from the political parties and of course local and international observers to look looking at what exactly is happening. i will leave it there thanks so much and history's. sri lanka's president is ordering police to stop those responsible for causing religious tension across the country he's declared a weeklong state of emergency to try and stop violence against the muslim minority the military's been deployed to the city of candy and the curfew is in place most of owned homes and businesses have been set on fire damaged in riots

saudi arabia's crown prince mohammed bin salamander arrives in the u.k. on wednesday ways expected to meet the queen and prime minister to resume a saudi arabia is a major trade partner as britain prepares to leave the e.u. there's opposition to closer ties between the two countries jamal shared explains. mohamed bin some man is visiting london and he wants everyone to know about it adverts like these have been placed across the capital portraying the crown prince as a friend of britain a reformist whose changing his kingdom for the better. the british government is rolling out the red carpet for m.b.a.'s as he's known in what's the thirty two year old's first official visit to the u.k. since being appointed heir apparent. britain is sol the second most important partner for arm sales and security with british companies selling billions of dollars worth of military equipment to the saudis the u.k.

government which is preparing for post breaks its economy means to boost the amount of trade in other centers to. its why prime minister to raise a may in foreign secretary boris johnson have both visited the saudi capital recently may's government sees it's in the u.k. has interests to do more business with the saudis and to have an even closer relationship with riyadh critics all opposed to gotten this major opposition job in some months visits as well as how britain has posy the up to the saudis opponents accuse the saudis of killing thousands of civilians in yemen as well as committing widespread human rights abuses at home the leader of the opposition labor party germy corbin has called for a halt to all weapon sales with several other members of parliament also against m.b.'s his visit i think most people in this country and many follow in terry's probably majority of voluntary and do not welcome this this despeaux in this country and to give him a state visit to get an audience with our head of state i think sent all the wrong

signals it's legitimizing an illegitimate regime a despotic regime and we need to do better britain needs to do better. at a media conference by the stop the war coalition organizers announced a protest outside the prime minister's home in downing street they want to send the message to been said man and his hosts that despite the p.r. campaign patrolling him as a reformist they believe the saudi regime is an oppressive one the argument about reform management being sound and he's a reformer is a spin in the most superficial spin at that i mean it is one of the most backward one of the most undemocratic one of the most brutal regimes in the whole world and at that level there's a very strong argument for saying that he shouldn't leak he shouldn't be coming anywhere near britain aside from meeting britain's queen elizabeth and political leaders the crown prince and his delegation which includes several government ministers is due to meet the head of the bank of england and business leaders as well current saudi trade with the u.k.

has estimated that's around eight billion dollars a year the british government is expecting the saudis to increase that took ten billion dollars annually mohamed bin so man will receive a warm welcome at downing street by a british prime minister in need of money as she struggles with briggs it negotiations but across the road protesters will gather among them several members of parliament to the mts the visit they believe ideals and principles of freedom and human rights should not be forsaken no matter how much the saudis are willing to invest in the u.k.'s economy. and i just you know one of them. the u.k. says it will respond robustly fresh air is behind the suspected poisoning of a former double agent former russian intelligence officer surrogate script and his daughter were found unconscious in southern england on sunday moscow has denied any involvement counter-terrorism police have taken over the investigation. the revised trans-pacific partnership trade deal will be signed in chile on thursday the

initial accord was signed two years ago by twelve countries bordering the pacific ocean together they represent around forty percent of the world's economic output t.v. the aim to lower or get rid of tariffs on most goods and services would have created a single market similar to the european union but after seven years of negotiations it can be ratified because president trump withdrew the u.s. from the deal last year for farmers in australia the absence of the us provides an opportunity under thomas reports from tremor these cows are pregnant when they have their calves most of the male ones will be fat and then slaughtered for beef this week signing of the comprehensive and progressive agreement the trans-pacific partnership or c p t p p trade deal means import tariffs on australian beef will fall that will impact where different cuts of those cobs go the kidneys and the livers and the hearts and things like that could end up in some

way into a pen for sure all the hard not end up somewhere else there's a possibility for that animal could end after him. it could be world travel could turn into a pretty good thing simpsons wife lobbies for the agriculture industry years of work seem to have paid off in twenty sixteen after twelve countries agreed in principle to an initial t p p agreement then the huge emotional rollercoaster happened donald trump comes in suddenly you know expectations squashed but then c.p.t. p.p. between all the initial signatories except the united states rose out of the t.p. he's ashes and for australian agriculture it may be better than the initial deal for australian farmers the new trans-pacific partnership without the united states is the best of both worlds increase the mom for their exports through tariff reduction without a big competitor on the supply side representatives of agricultural industries can

hardly hide that lights are you feeling sorry for your american counterparts relying on them now we're never laugh when we face a number of common challenges. they that harmonize ation of trade into other markets so we're more closely aligned and people might think however in the case of tape a lever and we certainly were disappointed not to have them at the table from a grand perspective for australia's economy as a whole it's more complicated the new deal is projected to raise australia's g.d.p. by north point five percent by twenty thirty the initial one including the united states would have risen it by no point six percent and having the us in the deal might have led to other big benefits the whole point of the pay was always to attract more members within the asia pacific region into their grouping as your truck more members the market access benefits of course start to grow us again still the largest the world's largest economy having it in the t.v.

they would make the tape as a free trade agreement a much more attractive proposition in other words these cows female cars cabs could have ended up in countries not yet part of any deal that now looks less likely andrew thomas al-jazeera prima. on thursday wayne hay reports from viet nam a country expected to be one of the big winners from the new trade deal will also have full coverage of the signing ceremony in chile that's on thursday here and i'll just. if you can find much more on all those stories we've been telling you about if you head over to our website w w w dot al-jazeera dot com. and let's take you through some of those stories then south korea's president says it's too early to be optimistic about progress with the north jane says he has no plans to ease sanctions against pyongyang before historic summit with leader kim

jong un next month japan says it's important for north korea to show its commitment towards do nuclearize asian in a concrete way human old. past discussions with north korea have not resulted in do nuclear ization so our response should be based on the lessons learned from that talks for the sake of talks is meaningless if we are to have a meaningful discussion north korea needs to commit to a denuclearization plan that is a verifiable and irreversible they need to take specific action this is of the most important. un security council is due to hold an urgent meeting on the escalating violence in syria is calling on all parties to implement a cease fire resolution agreed last month dozens of civilians have died since the resolution was passed. exclusive al-jazeera footage from the sinai peninsula shows the aftermath of egyptian military operation armed forces moved in a month ago to root out ice on other armed groups or residents in the area say

they're on the sea and their homes have been destroyed. people in sierra leone are heading to the polls to choose a new president the leaders of sixteen political parties are vying to succeed ernest bai koroma stepping down after two five year terms in the third election since the end of the civil war or three million point one voters are registered sri lanka's president is ordering police to stop those responsible for causing religious tension across the country has declared a week long state of emergency to try and stop violence against the muslim minority the military has been deployed to the city of candy a curfew is in place two muslim owned homes and businesses have been set on fire and damaged in riots he says it will respond robustly if russia is suspected is behind this rather this is spector poisoning of a former double agent script pollen his daughter were found unconscious in southern england on sunday moscow denies any involvement its inside story

stay with us here on al-jazeera the continent of antarctica is facing multiple threats from climate change to overfishing tourism but now a campaign is underway to create the largest protected area on the remote borders on the i don't see stay with al-jazeera for a series of special reports from the three piece expedition to antarctica. he's been in office for one hundred days in new president. is under pressure to improve the economy and corruption but is there any change from the robert mugabe and his men up to the challenge this is inside story.