a man has decided to break his tradition and trying to sail competitively maybe not that we want to present a positive image and change this to your typical expectation of women for them it's about more than just racing yes you can still be a good woman and also a very talented sailor going off around the world showing everybody how strong on money people are al jazeera world meets the first female sailing crew in the gulf sailing stars at this time on al-jazeera. has one of its worst days for casualties as the syrian government's bombardment intensifies and more territory is captured. on tape this is al jazeera live from london also coming up. the u.s.

says canada mexico and other countries may be exempt from its terrorist plan for security reasons. the u.k.'s prime minister meets the saudi crown prince to resume insists it will talk about human rights as well as security and trade. the former spy who suffered a nerve agent attack in the u.k. but they say it was attempted murder. under the syrian government is intensifying its aerial bombardment of eastern ghouta and appears to have captured more territory the number of people killed in the rebel held enclave or wednesday has risen to sixty eight one of the highest day death tolls and warning you may find some images in this report from distressing. civil defense volunteers are appealing to the u.n. security council to make this stop there. calling what is happening in eastern huta

a bloodbath for. the rescuers are responding to cries from underneath the rubble in this case from a child. yet not something that you get me out of here this boy says. he survived and was. well. it was but at least eight hundred syrians many of them women and children have already been killed in almost three weeks of relentless airstrikes and both bartman throughout the besieged and claimed. shot but anyhow we are the free people of eastern little we want to freedom and the downfall of this murderous regimes which has committed crimes against the people there are extremists and terrorists here they are the ones who are killing the children and god willing we will remain steadfast. the pro-government alliance is pushing ahead with its air and ground

assault they have reportedly sent reinforcements hundreds of soldiers to join the battle rebels have lost territory but remain defiant. one of the main factions. says the people and the fighters in eastern will defend their land. the faction is also denying negotiating a withdrawal proposed by the russian military the russian defense ministry says some groups in eastern are ready to accept the amnesty offer and leave with their families the ministry did not name those groups and so far none have expressed readiness to leave even eastern civilians have not taken up the russian offer to evacuate many of them are afraid to cross into government controlled territory and many are afraid of permanent displacement western nations have criticized the attacks on the densely populated opposition held territory but they have done little to stop them the united nations yet again using strong words against the

syrian government and its backers russia this month. which is in the words of the sector general nurse. next month or the month after it will be somewhere else where people face an apocalypse an apocalypse intended planned and executed by individuals within the government apparently with the full backing of some of the foreign supporters it is urgent to reverse this catastrophic course and to refer syria to the international criminal court hundreds of thousands of syrians are trapped in a war zone many are on the move as pro-government units advance further into the enclave the central town of. the next target government forces are approaching the town from the east and the west just a few kilometers of territory is separating those forces capturing mr will cut the enclave in half making it more difficult for rebels to defend their territory.

beirut. the white house says canada mexico and other countries may be exempted from planned u.s. import tariffs for security reasons comes off to president donald trump threaten to impose hefty duties on steel new sparking criticism from china and the european union threaten to respond with measure that of their own from washington can really help at reports. the u.s. stock market did not respond well to news donald trump's top economic advisor is leaving it open rattled over fears of losing gary cohn's moderating influence in the white house cohn was the chief architect of trump's business friendly tax cuts but investors are nervous about the president's protectionist tariffs plan for foreign aluminum and steel at a meeting of the world trade organization america's trade partners expressed displeasure the european union has also announced plans to retaliate with tariffs

on products like american tobacco and orange juice trump follows through with his threat if it does happen we would have to take measures to protect european jobs and workers thank you very much at a white house press conference on tuesday with sweden's prime minister trump was undeterred and lashed back at the e.u. threat but the european union has been particularly tough for the united states. they make it almost impossible for us to do business with them and yet they send their cars and everything else back into the united states and they can do whatever they'd like but if they do that then we put a big tax of twenty five percent in their cars and believe me they won't be doing it very long the position of trumps commerce secretary who clashed with cone trade policies with the e.u. are out of date concessions made to rebuild a post-war europe don't make sense in the context of

a strong modern european economy concessions that were perfectly reasonable to make to germany in one nine hundred forty five or trying to nineteen forty five. don't worry existence anymore those are now very mature big strong economies on wednesday and social media trump continued to deflect fears of a global trade war arguing the us has lost more than fifty five thousand factories six million manufacturing jobs and accumulated trade deficit of more than twelve trillion dollars the white house says donald trump will make his announcement on steel and aluminum tariffs official by the end of the week just in time for a planned visit this weekend to the u.s. state of pennsylvania it is a key steel manufacturing state trying one in two thousand and sixteen and the republicans need to win again in this year's congressional elections can really help that al-jazeera washington. british prime minister to resign may is defended

the red carpet welcome given to saudi arabia's crown prince is the first day of mohammed bin cylons three day trip to the u.k. which is aimed at developing economic ties between the two countries critics say the british government is turning a blind eye to human rights abuses in saudi arabia tomorrow shout as this report three. hundred and some man started off as you can trip with a visit to the queen will host the crown prince of palace a sign of just how eager the u.k. used to bolster its ties with the saudi kingdom children from the saudi king crab academy work busking to cheer on the palm prince a continuation of the massive p.r. campaign that included huge adverts are possible and then amounting been some months visits human rights groups however chose to focus on children by highlighting the killing of thousands in yemen by the saudi military an army under the direct command of m.p.'s as he's known but eleven million children in yemen who

are dependent on humanitarian aid that's the entire population of belgium this is the world's worst humanitarian disaster so for the trade deals for the niceties we have to remember that saudi arabia is a key player in this conflict the crown prince's visit is a very controversial one in parliament the leader of the main opposition party question the prime minister what message she would become bringing to the hamiltons and later today mr speaker the prime minister is due to meet crown prince mohammed bin solomon as she makes her arm sales pitch will she also call on the crown prince to hold the shocking abuse of human rights in saudi arabia her response the link that we have with saudi arabia is historic it is an important one and it's saved it has saved the lives of potentially hundreds of people. and i will be raising concerns about human rights with the cry. friends when i meet

seem to be able not relationship prime minister left parliament to meet with m.p.'s at downing street prince mohammad when will you stop bombing innocent civilians in yemen when will you stop killing innocent civilians in your members but i met. as you can see this trip is not just a high profile one but it's also a very controlled trip with the both the british governments and the saudis not wanting to have clear access there is no press conference that took place this is the closest we've had to access to the crown prince and the big reason behind that is the widespread opposition and criticism that has been accompanying this trip. parts of the opposition was demonstrated in this protest outside downing street organizers here say the u.k. government should not be turning a blind eye to saudi human rights abuses no matter how much the crown prince pledges to invest they want their politicians to demand real change and reform in

saudi arabia and not to cheer on what they consider to be propaganda aimed at punishing the image of a man who's knocked up many of his political opponents. al jazeera london. british police say that a nerve agent was used to try to imagine a former russian double agent and his daughter so gay and junia scripts remain critically ill in hospital after they were found slumped on a bench on sunday so you can hear the reports from seoul very. well a small city thrust into the global spotlight no one could have guessed that salt spray in southern england would be at the center of the attempted assassination of a former russian spy and his daughter anything unusual is treated with caution as investigators trace all the movements of the victims those probably at least forty people for him and stood outside of cordoned off the the front of the. doors where

the i believe it's come out from on the door to go in not sure they would get out but they were how do these light boxes they will see those four guards is dressed up in hazmat suit going inside retrieving stuff in these boxes and put them outside in the cold area. yeah that's all that they didn't tell us anything these images show the former russian military intelligence colonel just days ago buying sausages and lottery scratchcards from a shop close to his home investigators are also looking into the deaths of scrip owl's family members his wife you passed away in two thousand and twelve of cancer his son alexander died while on the trip instead petersburg last year a stent simply of liver failure the fast moving investigation has indicated that by a set a ski pole and his daughter you were attacked with a nerve agent no detail as to which one but they are highly toxic in summary this is being treated as a major incidents involving attempted murder by administration of

a nerve agents. as you know these three people remain critically ill in hospital. sadly in addition i police officer he was one of the first to attend the scene to respond to the incident he's now with us. really serious condition the whole thing investigators have an open mind as to who was behind this attack in seoul sprit but already there have been murmuring accusations pointed towards more scope and if indeed it is proven that this was a state sponsored attack and that would have deep diplomatic consequences the russian government has denied any involvement but the incident bears striking similarities to the two thousand and six death of russian dissident alexander litvinenko who was poisoned by radioactive material police are refusing to reveal further details in this case but suspicions persist as to who's to blame sony vaio . still to come on the program destruction and violence in sri lanka as

buddhist mobs burn muslim homes and businesses. a busy day of eighty unfairly and sixteen candidates to replace the outgoing president christine. hello once again we've been talking about very heavy showers across queens and for several days still a risk of some showers but they stand also into the northern territory and really all around the top end towards the gulf of carpentaria some really heavy downpours are likely showers extending towards alice springs through thursday with that tough flow coming in from the east the showers like to spread further towards the west with time so there's a forecast through friday and quite brisk winds here so i would like to see some significant surf activity along the east coast there for the as a towards western

australia is looking fine with highs of twenty six degrees expected in perth now for new zealand the weather is not looking too bad a toll for the south island fine conditions here through the course of thursday from the north on i'm still got some heavy showers now here we've got a tropical cyclone holo which is moving south which will eventually impacts you see the embers a much weaken feature but certainly across this region some to wrench around to come and this is got equivalent of category four hurricane winds so really severe conditions developing but largely out over open water as we head up into northeastern parts of asia it's looking pretty unsettled here is some heavy rain across southern parts of japan some snow across eastern parts of russia moving across a kind o. in japan and heavy rain is likely in tokyo. it's suspected money laundering operation but this time it's. an accidental discovery the war initial suspicion. unprecedented scale of systemic

international corruption people in power investigates a racket of such magnitude that it's government redefined the rules of impunity. the power war. at this time. or none of the top stories. syrian government forces are intensifying their bombardment of rebel held. sixty eight people have been killed in the latest strikes. the u.s. says canada mexico and other countries may be exempt from planned terrorist for

security reasons president donald trump's plan fears of a global trade war. and saudi arabia's crown prince has begun a state visit to the u.k. critics accuse prime minister to resign may attending a blind eye to the kingdom's human rights abuses. balance is continuing in sri lanka despite the declaration of a state of emergency buddhist mobs have been sweeping through towns and villages burning muslim homes and businesses the government has ordered a curfew across much of candy district and block popular social media sites and it's on little to quell the bottom's now fernandez reports from sri lanka. violence against the muslim community spread to other parts of candy district on wednesday fanning the flames of hatred suspicion and fear. i don't know what happened my shop was attacked and my stock of tobacco was burnt this businessman was in shock when i found him trying to salvage whatever's left of his stores in.

it was attacked and set on fire in broad daylight arson attacks two not far away the town of. witnesses this crowd broke into shops soon after the curfew started looted goods and set fire to them when they were done more than four days after the violence started hundreds of military personnel in place and repeated curfews to control the situation the flames are still burning this shop around like many other muslim and establishment being attacked just over an hour before we got here. heavily armed members of the military and police have been crisscrossing hotspots in the district but they haven't been able to stop attacks the riots started after a single east truck driver died of his injuries he was reportedly beaten up by a group of drunken muslim youths angered that he didn't allow them to overtake his vehicle while most of the violence is directed at muslims are targets to this

buddhist temple was vandalized and a single is you'd living nearby is reported to have died when an explosive device was thrown at his house police told al-jazeera they are still counting the number of dead and injured the spread of violence from to police to declare twenty four hour curfew in kandy district an appeal to everyone to stay in their homes many scrambled to get back after the surprise announcement others stocked up on food and fuel. to the rush of the twenty four hour curfew was announced police have warned that the seven day state of emergency declared by president. on tuesday allows police and the military to arrest anyone causing communal tension which can mean a twenty year prison sentence if convicted. the telecom regulatory commission has blocked access to social media and messaging platforms in a bid to control what it calls the spread of misinformation. local and

international observers are urging police to bring the crisis under control take immediate action against anyone causing violence victims are hoping that happens as soon as possible when a finance is. accurate central she lanka. israel has passed a law that gives the interior ministry the right to revoke the residency rights of any palestinian in jerusalem on the grounds of a breach of loyalty bill will also apply to cases where residency status was obtained on the grounds of false information almost three hundred thousand palestinians in east jerusalem hold permanent resident permits issued by the israeli authorities israeli supreme court will now be unable to rule against any decision made by the interior ministry a prominent american businessman connected to the u.a.e. is reportedly cooperating with the investigation into alleged meddling in the us presidential election from washington patty cohen explains. george nader has ties

with the trump campaign and leaders of the united arab emirates and now robert mueller the special counsel investigating potential russian collusion with the trump campaign according to the new york times f.b.i. agents picked him up in january at dulles airport and since then he's been cooperating giving important details about a meeting at a fancy hotel in the seychelles where he allegedly met with this man karylle dimitri of who just after the election told the american media he was excited about trump's when they're very impressed with president elect problems position and said he wants to have good cooperation with russia also at the meeting erik prince the founder of blackwater and big backer of the trim campaign prince dismissed the meeting in testimony to a congressional committee saying under oath that he was summoned to the seychelles to meet with amorality leader mohammed bin zayed and they just happened to mention there was an interesting russian he should meet he testified that he met demitra at

a bar after he googled his picture testifying he didn't realize the fund he ran was under u.s. sanctions or that he was close to the russian president because he said that would have used a lot of data on his phone and that would have been expensive prince testified that quote there were no other u.s. officials there he said he and dmitri have just talked about general business things over beer and prince complained to congress saying quote if there's all this rightful concern if there was actual collusion between the campaign and the russian government this meeting didn't happen until almost two months more than two months after the election so if there was all this collusion why would there even need to be any other follow up meetings so i don't get that timeline wise attorney melanie sloan believes pence lied to congress a crime in the u.s. and she disputes his claim that the whole reason russians wanted trump to win because they wanted to get things it wasn't just to see trump installed so they could walk away and go on their merry way it was because they were

a looking to. of russia's relationship with the united states and probably probably have very ambitious goals out of that and so they would continue to make efforts to work with the trump folks to get what they want muller is also looking into a meeting after the election been ziad apparently broke protocol by not informing the obama administration before heading to a meeting at trump tower the new york times says muller has been asking witnesses about the possibility that through nader the u.a.e. funneled money from the audience to the president's campaign that would be a serious crime for those who give or receive it all involved have denied wrongdoing political al-jazeera washington nato has signed an agreement with cutouts or cooperate on military and security issues it came as the emir of qatar was in brussels for talks with officials from both nato and the e.u. shake to mean funny was welcomed by the foreign affairs chief fit it he can look at any of his it came amid continuing tensions in the gulf last june saudi arabia the

united arab emirates bahrain and egypt cut ties with qatar they accuse doha of supporting terrorism a charge which it strenuously denies because us foreign minister was also in brussels and demanded to know the reasons behind decided blockade. actually i thought that has supported the kuwaiti mediation from the beginning and we were calling for the escalation and inviting all the parties for a dialogue and we never went and use the same methods they have using a scale ation against our country right now that we have achieved nothing within the last nine months unfortunately the efforts of the emir of course being undermined by those countries mainly the blockading states and now there is an air force also from the us president and we hope that if it will result something that they come to the table at least and come and face us with whatever they have in terms of accusations they've been accusing qatar for more than not nine months and they provide nothing until now for for anyone and we have the right now to

understand what justified their block it. has more from brussels. qatar officials say they are expanding their partnership with key international institutions like nato to and the you with the e.u. chief the qatari emir shift to me but how much of that he has been talking about the latest developments of the g.c.c. crisis but also about regional issues as you know qatar and the key players in the conflict of syria for example on the share similar views about how to move forward and what kind of world should the opposite syrian opposition play in the future with nature the qataris have signed an agreement paving the way for nato to pass they'll to. get into qatar used a qatari military base of date will for nato is operations enough god is said but also in their. push against i self in the region and that's quite significant

because as you remember back in june when sandy arabia these are lies start of the embargo on. the accused qatar for sponsoring extremism accusations strongly denied by qatar had now this partnership with no don't have a qatari perspective is clear indication they are able not only to break the embargo but also to break any attempt by the saudis to put more isolation. or qatar now this comes against the backdrop warning crees tension in the region and the rising rhetoric particular from saudi arabia with which suggest that we might not see any political way out of the crisis in the g.c.c. and it's i'm sure although president trump has been putting more pressure recently on all the g.c.c. leaders to try to meet him in in washington d.c. and find a way out of this crisis but i don't think the environment as we speak is

conducive to any settlement and it's time soon. after i was a reporter a very large loss for this financial year according to the company's chief executive baca told reporters at a travel fair in berlin the blockade imposed by cutter's neighbors is putting financial strain on the airline as railways lost access to eighteen cities in saudi arabia the united arab emirates egypt and bahrain as a result of the embargo. you're suggesting rex tillerson has arrived in the ethiopian capital addis ababa it's the first stop on his five nation tour of africa tourism is seeking to bolster security with a continent which has increasingly looked to china for trade and aid is the first u.s. official to visit africa since trump took office more than a year ago his visit to the region comes just a few weeks after president on trial was accused of making derogatory comments about some african countries polls have closed in sierra leone where voters have

been choosing a new president the sixteen candidates need to win fifty five percent of the vote if none achieves that they'll be a second round militarist reports from pretoria. the president announced by arrives a polling station to the after ten years in power is quitting the political stage like three million other city leo names is true that his successor i am having a health. problem that's. not huge numbers the process is this. and the best. supporting the new president this been much enthusiasm for this election voters started clearing accent just before dawn to choose a new president legislators and municipal officials. my region is

ninety four years old and i was among the early voters. many of my contemporaries aren't alive i voted for everything to be as they used to paste in people to afford the basic things of life. vote organizers say the election was largely peaceful except for a few hitches in some constituents as the ballot. mill. elections are did not come with a hug and we did not notice that on the run all the rather. the election results are expected within the next week. the election day to center is ready for the outcome results of the presidential election will be correlated and announced here there will be a runoff if no candidates win fifty five percent of the vote something many saloon say is looking increasingly likely if that happens it's not clear if voters will

again come out in large numbers as a first time round armitage greece al-jazeera freetown. a volcano in southern japan has spewed ash thousands of meters into the air aerial footage showed the power for eruptions at mount sion murdoch authorities have issued a warning telling people not to approach the mountainous area of ok no famously featured in the nine hundred sixty seven james bond film you only live twice. a month in other top stories here on jazeera the syrian government is intensifying its attack on eastern ghouta and appears to be making more gains on the ground that means it's a step closer to dividing the rebel held enclave into eighty eight people are being

killed in the latest strikes or the largest daily death tolls since the offensive began. this month it is easter which is in the words of the secretary general hell on earth next month or the month after it will be someone else we're people face an apocalypse an apocalypse intended planned and executed by individuals within the government apparently with the full backing of some of the foreign support is the us says canada mexico and other countries may be exempt from planned import tariffs for quote security reasons president donald trump's plan to impose duties on the import of aluminum and steel a spot fears of a global trade war the european union is threatening to impose its own counter tariffs on u.s. products ranging from whiskey to harley davidson motorbikes british farmers to terrorism a has defended the red carpet welcome given to saudi arabia's

crown prince mohammed bin so man is on a three day trip to the u.k. before meeting the prime minister in downing street he had lunch with the queen and also meet business leaders critics accuse the government of ignoring saudi arabia's human rights abuses. british police say a russian double agent was the victim of attempted murder and they believe sergei scrip r. and his daughter yulia were poisoned by a nerve agent before being found slumped unconscious on a bench in salzburg on sunday they remain critically ill a police officer who was one of the first on the scene is also being treated in hospital religious violence has continued in central sri lanka despite a state of emergency buddhist mobs have been sweeping through towns and villages burning muslim homes and businesses and vote counting is underway in sierra leone's presidential election sixteen candidates are vying to replace ernest bai koroma who stepping down after ten years unemployment

a lack of infrastructure and corruption work eat campaign issues that's all for now people in power is up next see you soon. 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 earth the remote waters of the web that sea stay with al-jazeera for a series of special reports from the greenpeace expedition in antarctica. provoking one of the largest corruption investigations in south american history the cold war scandal has left its mark on countries from brazil peru. business leaders multinational corporations and politicians have been caught up in allegations ranging from bribery and money to going to distorting the democratic.