subzero temperatures to stream altitudes deadly drugs. this is where the hercules the extraordinary journey from ocean to touch the keystone. in ordinary georgia just a little bit with tomorrow there's no oxygen. just to experience life simple pleasures. risking it all in the coexistence of this time on zero. zero. zero i'm fully back to go this is the news hour live from the headquarters in doha coming up in the next sixty minutes kurdish fighters in the syrian town of afraid

say they're bringing in human shields in a bit to stop attacks by turkish and free syrian army forces china makes it official lifting the limit on how long she payne can remain in power also this hour british officials say up to five hundred people may have been exposed to the poison that targeted a former russian spy and his daughter and a key mileposts in the path to peace colombians a electing a new congress and for the first time former fock rebels are on the ballots. thank you for joining us kurdish fighters are reported to be modernizing to form a human shield around the syrian city of a free in turkish troops and free syrian army fighters have surrounded a free in an hour warning they will enter it sued kurdish y.p. g.

forces say civilian volunteers are on their way to protect the area. now sway in syria state media say the army has completely surrounded the town of duma east of the capital damascus that carcer rebel held stronghold of eastern ghouta into weakening what is one of the real last opposition strongholds government forces broke through rebel lines to create a cord or through the enclave meeting up in the town of madeira monitors and activists say more than one thousand one hundred people have been killed since the government stepped up its offensive in eastern go to three weeks ago this is what we're talking about eastern ghouta is a rebels last strongholds near the capital damascus the stripes here show how much of its they held on february eighteenth when the government stepped up its offensive three weeks of heavy bombardment later that area has dramatically shrunk and the surrounding of duma by government forces threatens to exacerbate an already

diet humanitarian situation alan fisher has more from gaza near the turkey syria border. but what has happened in dumas happened elsewhere in syria we've seen it before where first of all the split the area as they did in eastern guta on saturday and there's no surrounded one time in the syrian government forces and backed by the russians then tend to use their military advantage to try and gain a political advantage by saying to the fighters maybe you should leave a move to another part of syria as a see that has happened before in this conflict meanwhile in a free and we are hearing that the wipe e.g. the kurdish militia are calling on civilians to help form a human shield to police themselves between the y. p.g. and the advancing free syrian army which of course are backed up by the turkish military no it's not just cards who have responded to this call and we hear that there are buses heading towards our friend but also groups here in turkey clued in women's groups and socialist groups although how they will get across the border

which is currently closed is another issue entirely in our friend city please see that there is no water no internet and up to three or four families are noshing each iced because families that move from the early stages of this assault on those seeking shelter with friends and relatives seeking shelter essentially where they can the leader of the council in a frame says the situation is dire and has called on the united nations not only to investigate but to intervene why admiralty needs in due nine eastern go to he says the situation there is very dry. i don't see any. reason why i see the russian airplanes and militias of. known. army coming to. yesterday there was really. don't know anything about

them. unfortunately the situation here in eastern very very awful and miserable. russian and syrian government forces jets have been striking the other main rebel stronghold. province that is in the north is a largest chunk of syrian territory that is being held by the opposition. has more from a town in italy province that. the father has a beam off of the cotton was a string of intense airstrikes by the syrian government has targeted beneath. their targets with these troops then chill areas several people have been killed and wounded some children and women have been rescued and taken to makeshift clinics civil defense units are still working hard to get people out from underneath the rubble this is strikes come after months of calm considered

a part of the discussion zone it's home to many internally displaced people and many have fled again to a nearby farm houses at me seriously. a senior year many official has called for protests to demand the return of president abdul rubble months or hadi from saudi arabia the minister of state. made a statement on his facebook page how do you left yemen ahead of the sandy led coalition's campaign against the who the rebels in march of twenty fifteen he has reportedly been in riyadh for more than a year now. in other world news a trumpet ministration says there will be no added conditions for talks with north korea donald trump and kim jong un are set to meet within the next two months in the first ever talks between the two nations leaders the u.s. president has warned he will leave quickly if there is no progress north korea has already promised not to resume nuclear or missile testing during the talks the cia

director michael powell says that's a first for. this first meeting i think is between the president is the leader of north korea the two people who are the decision makers who will ultimately decide what arrangements are acceptable but make no mistake about it while these negotiations are going on there will be no concessions made the activity of this administration to disrupt the north korean economy to put pressure on north korea to galvanize the world in a way that you have countries from the middle east to europe and asia placing sanctions on the north korean regime and those will continue and wolf see how the talks and then go she actions prosy meanwhile to south korean officials who met kim jong only last week or said to brief the leaders of china and japan one of the officials will meet china's xi jinping in the coming hours while the other will see japanese president prime minister shinzo abbay on tuesday they will update the

leaders on the progress of the nuclear talks the two envoys returned from the u.s. on sunday after meeting president trump b.j. came is a former south korean diplomat he says the u.s. needs to add stuff to its important diplomatic positions to be better prepared for the talks. the white house national security calls look they have alice cooper who has the professional you know with long experience in discussing having discussed it with north korea before but other than her i mean there are other competent professionals but state department is a problem they don't have ambassador who south korea here or those so they have several layers of the near and working level not yet the point is so you know this is a diplomatic game with talking about therefore no matter how hard from the national security calls that the white house are leaving the games at the state department there is a lot of work to do and they don't have the people so that they'll have to move

really quickly but in the meantime because of the medical manpower that they department probably will continue in the white house and they're. leaving the game for quite some time a vote recount has been ordered in one closely fought district in hong kong after a crucial by election to see sav been won by pro-democracy opposition candidates while one song to a probate candidate the last seat is too close to call it has to be won by the opposition for it to gain veto power in the legislative the vote is being seen as a litmus test on beijing's increase interference in hong kong's confidence. china's ruling communist party has paved the way for xi jinping to remain in office indefinitely as voted to abolish term limits for the president and vice-president edgin brown has more from beijing. an army of chinese legislators came to the great hall of the people knowing what was expected of them

a display of uniform loyalty to the man who could now be china's leader for life for the constitution is in accordance with our country's reality and the wishes of all the people. this is a big event a very memorable moment in our political life. and historic and controversial moment as well the almost three thousand delegates had been told the amendments were needed because the challenges china faces require a strong leader and a united party. in china's version of legislative government new laws and constitutional changes are always passed unanimously and so it proved to be the case again on sunday when delegates approved twenty one constitutional revisions including the scrapping of term limits for the president and vice president but there was perhaps token opposition to votes against and three

abstentions congress officials insist this process transparent. the chinese people have had no say in this historic moment critics accuse president . of building a personality cult indoctrinating the masses with his political philosophy just as chairman mao once did it was done shopping the other towering figure in recent chinese history who'd insisted on two term limits for the president he wanted to avoid a repeat of the cultish devotion that had surrounded mao but analysts say one party rule is once more turning into one man rule the fact of the matter this seeming has hijacked the entire communist party in the country. so we are back to just one person doing the talking one person making the decisions for the entitled party and the entire country we are back to the period of the so-called one wars

echo chamber. the president's influence is now felt in many aspects of life here she jean ping thought is now required reading for all party members study groups of spread to businesses and universities. parliament also voted to expand the president's campaign against corruption during a five year purge more than one and a half million party officials have been punished analysts say the campaign is a guys for getting rid of potential rivals for now at least though she would appear to have none adrian brown al-jazeera beijing. china's plan described presidential term limits prompted donald trump to joke last week that he might give that a shot someday many leaders around the world have already done just that bolivia's evil maraniss is the latest in a number of latin american leaders to extend their rule venezuela and jurists and nicaragua are also scrapped or relaxed term limits within the past decade in africa

polka gummi in one day n.p.r. and in burundi recently extended their terms and joseph kabila in the democratic republic of congo stayed in power by delaying new elections others have failed in the face of popular opposition like looking at fossils long serving president les kampala who was driven out by protests in twenty fourteen and then there is russia's vladimir putin who got around the term limits problem by becoming prime minister while dmitri medvedev kept the seat warm for him put in then returned as president in two thousand to twelve and he's expected to be elected to a fourth term next sunday. tongan is a political analyst who advises the chinese government on economic and development issues he believes she wanted to abolish term limits to ensure his legacy. i think the real concern is what happens in the future or how if and how she unwinds this kind of power coupling that he's created i mean if you go back to deng

xiaoping he centralized power and then at the end he tried to make sure that there was a much more disciplined way of exercising a least for the next two generations and even with jiang zemin you as you'll recall he held on to the military commission chairmanship for fifteen years so what you have here really is paying sending out a very strong domestic message that this policy of rebuilding the party anti-corruption s o e reform economic progress is going to continue because without a strong message at this point there are two or three years down the line he would be in essence a lame duck a lot of people who are looking at who is going to come in next and they might not be so willing to enforce some of the hard decisions especially when it comes to things like anti-corruption and reform hundreds of visitors to a pub and restaurant way former russian spy whereas poisoned have been aged to wash

happens ashton's health officials believe there is a chance they may have been contaminated by the nerve agent that left sank a scrape and his daughter critically ill poll brannon reports from london families enjoying a pizza drink socializing in the pub hundreds of people may have been unknowingly contaminated as a consequence of the u.k. spy poisoning the revelation the traces of toxic nerve agents have been found with both disease and the mill pub in seoul very brutal startling message from the u.k. top health drawing. i am confident that this is not honed the health of anyone who was in the mill pub or this is restaurant however some people are concerned that prolonged long term exposure to these substances may over weeks and particularly months give rise to health problems the advice is to machine wash clothes use baby wipes to clean any personal items such as phones and items which can't be washed

should be securely bagged and sealed the authorities insist the risk is minimal but caution is essential the trail of nerve agent contamination is being followed backward from the park bench where sergei script l. and his daughter were found collapsed the former spy's house is also sealed off for forensic examination and specialist officers have even been examining the cemetery where mr script was wife is buried among several priorities for police or the questions of how and where scripts and his daughter came into contact with the nerve agent had they already been contaminated by the time they visited z.z.z. in the mill or where the traces of toxin found at those locations left by whoever was trying to kill them. in two thousand and six when former k.g.b. dissident alexander litvinenko was murdered by russian agents using radioactive polonium the killers left a trail of radioactivity at several locations in london and fortunately it's

happened again it means something was not done and a lesson what is saved after the murder of my husband was not learned. and his daughter remains critically ill in hospital twenty one other people have also been treated for possible exposure but the instruction for hundreds of people to cleanse themselves of possible contamination is a worrying a school ation. brennan al jazeera. has frente more ahead on this al-jazeera news hour including sebastian pinera returns to chile's presidential palace but does his second term offer of continuity or change plus. hundred watt reporting from out all that we don't fall for the wealthy who are above that from the remotest poor. and in sports a win for tottenham in the english premier league despite an injury setback for the star striker santa will have the details facing.

colombia's civil registry says it was run out of ballots for the country's congressional elections prompting an outcry from voters as a first time for my father bowles are able to run for office their political debut comes after the signing of a twenty six thousand peace deal ending fifty two years of fighting with the colombian government guaranteed to win a minimum of ten seats under the terms of the peace agreement let's go live to our correspondent allison ramp in bogota alexander tell us more for us about how the voting has gone. well folly so far we have results for the two primaries in which colombians were called to vote on apart from the congressional elections today and these were primaries of

right wing parties and left wing parties on the left the former mayor of bogota gustava pedro a very popular but also controversial police titian's as easily won and will now become a strong candidate for presidency he's probably going to need some help though if he's hoping to pass to a second round in presidential elections in may on the right instead the candidate of the democratic center the party of former president alvaro de vere the strongest opposer of the peace deal with far has easily won that primary he got more than three and a half million votes that definitely puts him at the top of the presidential candidates and if you add all the votes on the right he'll

most likely be able. if we if we look at the results from today the possibility of passing. the second round of the next presidential elections it's too early so far to know what's happening in congress but definitely there will be some growth on the right spectrum column in politics alexander tell us about the issues that were involved his mind as they cast their ballots and also what impact could this vote today have on the upcoming presidential election in main. corruption was definitely one of the big issues on both sides of the political spectrum both people on the left and on the right poor and rich are all very worried about the many corruption scandals that. surface in the country in the last month and even more than that in that there has been

more attention to the issue of corruption since the signing of the peace deal with park rebels then there is of course the presence of the feyerick in legal politics in colombia the fact that they will enter congress the peace deal give them ten congressional seats toward the next two legislature regardless of its showing in the elections and not a lot of people of definitely voted for them so far only a few hundred which of course brings to mind the question of who exactly they will be representing or part themselves in in congress and then i think we need to see the new congress what it will look like which parties of grown to understand which political candidate will come out stronger for the presidential elections in me thank you for that. forests in bogota staying in the region sebastian pinera has

been sworn in as chile's president for the second time the year i billionaire entrepreneur valid to revive an economy that has slumped under article in center national bash need is a second time bash that has turned over the presidency to thing year let's go live to our latin america it's a lucy and human who's in chile is capital santiago this year how difficult will it be for piñera to live up to the promises he made on the campaign trail what will be his priorities this time around. hello foley we're standing in constitution square where in a few in about ten more minutes president peña will come out from the balcony you see behind me and address the chilean people for the first time since he has been since wearing rather the presidential sash at least the second time around his priorities are very clear he has to boost to the economy but he has to do it in a way where it doesn't seem that he's doing it only for the rich for the wealthy

for the entrepreneur ial class but he represents being one of china's richest men so that is certainly one of his major major tasks as one chilean said you know this is the second time around there are very few people here in this plaza compared to how many were there for president by chile's an operation or for his inauguration the previous time too and that's because as someone had mentioned a second i'm at this is like a second marriage and it doesn't have the same passion he's also going to have to manage to get through his legislation in a congress that he does not control which means having to make deals with the more moderate sector of the center left coalition which is now the opposition all of those are going to be major challenges for service stamping it out this year. days from be the last chance for latin american leaders to exchange views before the upcoming americas summit with the u.s. president donald trump what are they going to be the same to each other. well i don't know what they're going to be saying to each other but i can tell you that i

was very surprised to hear from mexico's president and we get pena nieto as he was rushing off to the luncheon with president peña that he made or that it is not sure that he will even attend the summit of the americas and we're hearing the same thing from the president of brazil these are two major latin american countries will for the first time in this is an unprecedented thing are suggesting that they may not necessarily attend the only venue where they also sit at the same table with the u.s. president in this case donald trump and one of the reasons may be fall is that there are many people many. leaders in this region that are very angry at the increase trade barriers and of course over immigration one last question for you before we let you go what about michelle daschle and how is her presidency going to be remembered not to seem chilly but in the in the region in the region she has a far higher rating approval rating curiously enough and she doesn't hold when he

was president the first time she left the highest approval rating of any president in history in the region in fact eighty percent now she's leaving whether around thirty percent but part of this may be due to the fact that a lot of her very important structural reforms have not really kicked in yet then and the feeling is that with time people will really begin to appreciate them and remember michelle bachelet as one of their best presidents ever thank you so much for that lucy in human a latin america is a life force in santiago chile now the antarctic has been described as one of the most remote and treacherous places on earth but much of its reach biodiversity has yet to be fully documented in the second part of our antarctic series we look at the european union's campaign to protect the desolate region nick clark joined a greenpeace scientific expedition through the weddell sea. the captain's eye view of our voyage south as the icebreaker optic sunrise pushes through into the remote waters of the weddell sea vost unknown territory few ships

venture this fall. has already made an attempt this antarctic summer but was foiled by ice caps right away or way through. to get it down into the wealthiest try and reach the think before the beginning of what would be protected looks like opening at least for. yes probably just making sure somebody. finally we break through into the isolated area of the proposed site tree at the moment i checked on the. satellite charts this morning and there's some one other ship in this entire space as us that another ship about there and that's it and the whole whole area that's a slightly scary terrifying. exciting exciting kind of just makes the case that this is pristine this area is not developed his not call

industry has never had industry. we take a chance and it's rare window of weather to take to the air and look down on the mesmerizing scene below. the western edge of the would be protected zone breath taking the role power of land and sea and ice constantly reshaping on the move this is nature on a planetary scale so what we're looking at here is melting yes sea ice and great ice bugs and the glass is sweeping up james ross island at the weddell sea extends way to a distance over that proposed area pretty much on talks by human activity almost no scientific research is taking place back to base the arctic sunrise standing by for a return alongside a giant type ila ice pack perhaps a kilometer along the next helicopter sortie is to the very top of it the

expedition team making a dramatic landing to spread the sanctuary message around the world this iceberg thousands of years in the making now adrift in a process that has been going on for hundreds of thousands of years appraises it seems may be changing because of global warming and a day of scenic wonder the antarctic day ends with a spectacular show above this apparently a reverse sunset phenomenon while simultaneously the clouds more in shape and color into fantastic on worldly painting across the evening sky at the ends of the. al-jazeera until ticket. still ahead on al-jazeera ten months after a sweeping election law sponsors national front hopes you name will convince voters that the party has changed. cuba takes a big step toward life after the castro brothers and serina williams continues her

tennis comeback a familiar face awaits her at indian wells santa will be here with that exact words just it would say. hello there another snow maker is developing across north america we can see in the satellite picture plenty of cloud in the southern part of our map and it's this area here that's really developing pushing its way towards the northeast and on its northern flank is where we're going to see the wintery weather that's in the eastern parts of the states there as we head through monday and then it works its way northward choose day giving some heavy snowfall for the northeastern part of the u.s. and the eastern parts of canada including for us in auto and meanwhile towards the west generally quite quiet for many of us until later in the day when we see some rain gradually work its way into that west coast and some of that is likely to be rather heavy a bit further towards the south and the wet weather here is affecting us as well

you can see it just getting its way down through parts of cuba and across the bahamas as well that systems are still with us during the day on monday and just sinking a little bit further towards the south it stretches further westwards too so for belize and down through guatemala we're likely to see a fair amount of cloud and a few outbreaks of rain to the south america when it's fine unsettled in the south what is always there up at twenty four degrees about seventy five in fahrenheit fine weather continues with us as we head through chews day before tuesday the northern parts of argentina will see more showers and then we stretching up into parts of power whitey. to train and equip the opposition in syria so they can help push back these turks just people in power investigates how the us supplies soviet style weapons to its allies through private companies be u.s. government could wash their hands and say well we didn't know where it was coming

from so weapon that was supplied by the us government may well end up being pointed at us soldiers so true that we pick it up listening to the it's often the professional america's gun secret pipeline to syria and this time on al-jazeera. perceptions powerful documentary. from around the globe it was a big sound but the wrinkle me don't. feel it's journalism. debates and discussion this is a lot of misunderstanding a distortion isn't the only argument i find against that is all over the corded history. see the wound from a different perspective on al-jazeera. they're

watching the news hour on al-jazeera a reminder of our top stories now kurdish fighters are reported to be modernizing civilians to form a human shield around the syrian city of a frame as to his forces a van stark a show of self surrounded a frame and warn they will enter soon turkey launch an offensive enough rain in january to clear the area of kurdish wide beach and fight it's china's ruling communist party has paved the way for xi jinping to remain in office indefinitely as voted to abolish term limits for the president and vice president until now were restricted. the maximum of two five year terms and colombia's civil registry says it's run out of ballots for the country's congressional elections prompting and outcry from voters it's a first time for a fox rebels are able to run for office their political debut comes after signing

a twenty six thousand peace deal which ended fifty two years of fighting with colombia's government. now to france where the main far right party the national front is being rebranded in a bid to revive its image. ben says it should now be called the national gathering but will a new name attracts new voters david change of reports from. the pander up to the root branding of the party with a classic speech touching all the points we'll get to choose from who grow tall for the european union a tough most of all of the effects of immigration. leave us your leg it is legal and illegal immigration are no longer tenable. last year on this the french people's money must go back to the french people first . we no

longer have the means to welcome to house to careful or to feed the whole world. but the high point came at the end when she announced her suggestion to rename the party it was here in existence up soon. you know it must signal an absolute demand to unite the country in the defense of its identity its prosperity and its security and freedom i therefore propose that the national front become the national gathering live for national now on the agenda of are some limit on the show not. so the national front is dead but not quite varied yet the members will have a chance to vote on the name change in the next few weeks for what is the most important thing for me was to keep the war national in a thing that the world got going its goal here and now the idea is no longer to be a france but to get a people together to. see the. demonstrators

took to the streets of lille to show what they called their contempt for the rebranding of the national front they said it was just another attempt to disguise fascism but back in paris a warning from an expert who knows the party at first and an opposition councillor it one of the hotlines. let's not forget the national front got the highest score in its history last year the fact she made a fool of herself at the debate doesn't mean the party is finished but. the party's found pen has now been stripped of his position as on ri president of the national front but he can't be written out of history he's just published the for. volume of his autobiography and it's turned into a bestseller he said j.g. live name was committing political suicide david zero. when i speak to cynthia miller about this she's an associate professor of sociology at the american university and author of extreme gone mainstream she's live from

washington thank you very much for being with us so what's your view on this name change will rebranding the national front really help revive the party in your view will it help shed its reputation of a racist and anti-semitic party thank you for having me i do not think this is really a rebranding at all i think it's just a renaming i think especially coming on the heels of having steve benen speak to the congress and say you know it's ok to be racist it's ok to let them call you as you know for i don't see how this distinguishes you know distinguishes the party at all from from its past does it actually even matter that these far right parties whether in france or elsewhere in europe does it matter that they change or extremist image among the wider public in italy today you have the far right being closer to being in government than any other far right party in recent elections in europe and as you said yourself steve bannon said yesterday when he was at that

national front congress in the let them call you a racist do you think xenophobia and racism are becoming acceptable in europe now. well i don't know if i would go so far as to say they're becoming acceptable in general but certainly we're seeing you know a much greater acceptability of xenophobic rhetoric of anti immigrant rhetoric of forward rhetoric in political parties across across the continent and we're seeing some of that language show up even in more mainstream parties as you know as an attempt to move and draw some of those voters and so i do think that. we're going to continue to see that happening i don't think that that you know is it distinguishes what's what's happening now from what the party has been in the past just coming back to the national front you know renaming the parties also i guess away from marine le pen to signal a key a break from her father payne who founded the party do you see this helping open

doors to alliances with other parties in france like the republicans for instance who on many of these things seem to have the same vision on many issues like immigration seem to have the same vision as a national front. i think only time will really tell whether there will be any alliances but i find it hard to imagine the parties that are toward the center would would be willing to engage in an alliance as long as the rhetoric hasn't changed for the party and as long as the political platform hasn't changed i think just a renaming is just that it's a renaming if you're going to continue to have the rhetoric like we saw yesterday at the congress that is continuing to espouse racism so what do you see the challenges marine le pen is facing going forward what is it do you think that went wrong with the party that she needs to fix how does it remain visible in the french political landscape. well i mean i think as the previous commentator

also said i think it's important to remember this is. a party that has done better in the last election than it had ever done so you know it it is not that something has gone wrong but maybe that it hasn't moved into the ruling party in the way that she had hoped it still remains and as an opposition or a you know on the fringe but it has gotten large larger percentages in the last year than it than it had before and so i think you know she is continuing to rise i think we do have to. continue to expect that and if anything the events of this weekend i brought a lot of publicity and a lot of attention to the party which could draw new voters out thank you very much for speaking to us cynthia mean it is from the american university in washington here on al-jazeera with us thank you for your time. in spain nearly fifty thousand independent supporters have marched in bras alone are calling for the formation of a new castle on government they're demanding the release of politicians jailed in

the aftermath of last year's independence referendum the election of a new regional president has been postponed indefinitely because a sole candidate jodi sanchez remains in jail the region has been under direct rule from madrid since across land parliament was dissolved following last october's referendum campaign hole is in boston with more. several thousand catalans of taken to the streets of basra alone calling on the politicians to show great to unity and press ahead with their plans to set up a breakaway republic separate from the rest of spain now this is certainly the largest produce a session demonstration of the year so far but it's a far cry from the days in the lead up to the october referendum last year when the independence movement was able to put tens and thousands of protesters on the streets now the demonstration sunday evening comes just ahead of the day when the

cattle and parliament had been due to swear in a new first minister of the catalonia region that will not happen however because the man that was due to be elected jordi sanchez remains in prison on charges of rebellion for his part in organizing last year's independence referendum the other candidate carlos pushed him on the former first minister of qatar lonia remains in self-imposed exile in brussels he can't take up the sport i've done right now madrid in the central government has bettered on trying to head off the secession movement through legal measures and that so far is succeeding in many ways you look around here and it seems that the procession politicians may be running out of ideas and frustration is grow. in on the streets. three separate boats of migrants and refugees with hundreds of people on board have been rescued in the

mediterranean the people were attempting to make the dangerous journey from libya to italy on saturday rescuers say one of the boasts was on the verge of sinking when they approached it off the coast of tripoli more than half a million people have crossed the central mediterranean any to me over the past four years and thousands of others have died at sea. more than a thousand people have taken part in a march in tunisia demanding equal inheritance rights for women women and men rallied in the streets of the capital tunis on saturday they were demanding an end to the islamic inheritance laws where men receive double the amount given to women despite being seen as a pioneer of women's rights in the arab world why school say women in tunisia still at a disadvantage. is it a magazine i'm not a game and i woman is that her husband's side her entire life and at the end she gets inheritance which is not a tool that comes a day when you discriminate amongst your children she gets a quarter of the inheritance and that's not fair and i'm not ok with that. eight

months after us back forces i saw from iraq's second largest city mosul unexploded bombs mortars and other explosives still later the streets the u.n. says most of them a buried under an estimated eleven metric tons of destroyed buildings in test ports . it's one of the most dangerous jobs for new iraqi soldier identifying in disusing unexploded mortars homemade bombs and other explosives on the streets of mosul's old city or littered with such weapons most of which are buried under houses and buildings destroyed by border artillery and air strikes back. sound of explosions regularly brings out as teams detonate the bombs so. we are working hard to dismantle leigh's an exploded bombs yet many of the displaced trying to return home have found

explosives in their houses all of their houses were rigged with explosives or the neighbors' houses rigged instead so when they report this to us we have to take action. on the outskirts of mosul which is in iraq's predominantly sunni nineveh province some of the unexploded devices are brought here to be destroyed iraqi officials estimate more than five thousand civilians were killed in the battle for the city most of them in u.s. and iraqi airstrikes are tillery and mortar attacks targeting eisel fighters. with no escape route out of mosul several hundred thousand civilians were trapped as security forces seize control of the city. at a recent meeting iraqi military leaders promised nineveh provincial council officials they would remove be unexploded ordinance as quickly as possible so that those displaced in the fighting could return home tell. me how i did to implement.

mission to remove explosive devices as soon as possible from the city was awfully moving these explosive used to comply with the orders of the prime minister. has lifted that and off the displaced people and bring back stability at also a bit of a that's. according to the united nations most of the explosives are buried under an estimated eleven metric tons of rubble u.n. experts say removing the devices will likely take many years the u.s. government has promised to provide loans and loan guarantees to american companies to help reconstruct mosul but won't provide any direct funding for the eighty eight billion dollars iraq says it needs to rebuild the city and others like it meaning it a likely take a long time for any form of normalcy to return here in the us diab al-jazeera it's seven years since an earthquake and tsunami kills more than eight hundred thousand people and caused a major nuclear disaster in japan prime minister shinzo lobby told every member in

service in tokyo reconstruction is making steady progress but tens of thousands of people assail not return to their homes and cleaning up the still radioactive fukushima nuclear plant site may take up to forty is. a huge tsunami struck right off to my husband and my uncle decided to evacuate up bodies were lifted for me to swim to the way and although i managed to hang on to a nearby pine tree my hands let go of my uncles and my husband also true further and further away. more than fifty thousand farmers have reached india's financial capital mon by after a five day march they're demanding financial support from the government better crop prices and more access to land the marsh set out from one hundred seventy kilometers from mumbai many other farmers have fallen into debt due to drought and

increasingly erratic weather patterns. eighteen tons of supplies including water shelter and hygiene kits have been delivered from new zealand to papa new guinea is part of the response to last month's earthquake more than one hundred people were killed when the magnitude seven point five earthquake hit on february twenty sixth three hundred thousand people are still in urgent need of assistance locals say the quake was the worst in living memory business owners in poland fear they may be jobless softer a new law banning almost all sunday trading came into effect initially trading will be banned on two sundays a month extending to all sundays by twenty twenty some poll said they felt exploited under previous regulations others sealed a new ban infringes on consumer freedom to. cuba now and the man expected to be cuba's next president is promising the new government will be more responsive to

its people cubans have been voting to ratify their national assembly which will choose a successor to president raul castro julia galliano reports from havana. no campaigning just one party and really any surprises elections in cuba are carefully managed in this vote the last step before huber's national assembly chooses a replacement for old castro was no different. with their ballots cubans essentially confirmed the names of six hundred five assembly delegates in the electoral process that began months ago and will end on april nineteenth. that's when the new assembly forms the council of state which in turn chooses the next president. it's widely expected this man vice president. will replace castro is the government that we are electing today will owe itself to the people the people will take part in the decisions that the government takes that government will work based on its relationships to the people and the people can

also remove those who don't meet their responsibilities. to generational transition that the cuban government says will guarantee the continuity of the revolution and in a country where the political power is largely in the hands of the communist party castro won't be stepping down entirely he's expected to remain as first party secretary and continue to be a major power behind the scenes there's a palpable sense of resignation in cuba about who the next president will be in fact with only weeks to go cubans know very little about because the us or any of the other potential candidates one thing there's no uncertainty about though is what the next president's biggest challenge will be upon taking office and that is tackling the country's stagnant economy. over the last decade cuba has made efforts to modernize its economy most notably allowing some private businesses to operate but many here feel they have fallen short of what's needed to improve the quality

of life on the island the next president's job has also been made much harder by the worsening relationship with the united states and you can on the collapse of venezuela cuba's main ally in the region. there will be positive changes both to our economy and our politics because some of the decisions made in the past have become obsolete but. we have some big economic challenges ahead in particular the unification of our two currencies which creates a lot of problems but we trust those people in this new government will be able to find the best way forward without ever compromising our peace and freedom. whoever is the next leader will find it tough to replace these historically recognized figures but despite the challenges ahead many cubans are hoping this is a moment their government can capitalize on for lasting economic reform julia galliano al-jazeera have honor still ahead on al-jazeera and scored some surprising results on day one of the well a star in australia santa has the details to. refute

your problem is something which is a geopolitical issue that's for governments international institutions to manage under one thousand refugees don't have the right to move freely on the other boards can move freely as far and as much as they want it's a multinational colonialism this is a moment over the democratic process these companies they just want the money europe's forbidden colony episode one at this time on al-jazeera. on counting the cost in what's been a big week for global trade we'll look at how the u.s. is up bending the rules of commerce and free trade is really worth fighting for plus the latest mind bending concept cars from the geneva auto show counting the cost at this time and.

time for sports now has santa. thank you very much after the disappointment of their champions league exit three days ago tottenham returned to their winning ways in the english premier league on sunday. you know the side they came from behind to be born with and move up to third place in the e.p.l. standings but it wasn't all good news for spurs a striker harry kane that was substituted after colliding with bournemouth keeper asked me to go over it and injuring his right ankle this time last year kayne missed ten games with an injury to the same ankle despite that setback spurs went on to secure a four one win in the reaction was important for the for the team i think.

you know we are difficult game because they put a lot of. energy the temple from the beginning. was difficult. but if you know we concede a goal. and start to play. we don't listen to sounds as if. we are so happy because he's must have three points for us to arsenal and of the three game losing streak in the league scored run most if i appear in merrick and henrik at arianne all finding the back of the net in a three nil win over what for that attack also saved the penalty to secure his two hundredth premier league clean sheet we did stick together you know. to take advantage of the weak moments we had. defensively and much in the end it was a convincing win we. highlight as well what peter

chekist on two hundred games two hundred thousand sheets in their career remarkable . well despite the much needed when arsenal are still twelve points adrift of the top four in the qualification spot for next season's champions league tottenham are now a point ahead of liverpool and said while a leader is that man just the city can increase their lead at the top but when they play stoke on a monday over in spain that logical madrid beat celta vigo to stay within eight points of league leaders barcelona on two on the grossman got athletico off to the market just before half time and gave cora and total were also those in the score sheet in the three nil win it means that led to go also stay seven points ahead of city rivals real madrid in the table. jantina have played their first match since the sudden death of their captain a story just a week ago fans at paid touching tribute to our story ahead of the syria game with

a bin of into which was stopped on thirteen minutes to honor the former italy international players from both clubs also wore a stories number thirteen shirt on tina went on to win the match one nil a story died of a cardiac arrest just hours before his side were due to play within easy last sunday he was thirty one of age tell us now and serena williams continues her comeback following the birth of her first child she set to face a militia opponent in the third round of the indian wells on monday she'll take on the her older sister venus for the twenty ninth time in a competitive match three that is playing in her first tour event since her daughter was born just six months ago the six year old it beats kiki burton seven six seven five that's the longest one saturday chill out of laziness for the first time says the twenty seventeen australian open final would she want to claim her

twenty third grandstand singles. who she was you know as one of the best players in the world last year so for me to have to go up against so passes would be good to see where i am on my level or see i'm not putting too much on mars . phoenix beats around assisted to fast the third round against arena will be the earliest the sisters have played at a tournament since the first to a meeting at the moment in ninety eight off screen opens. a new season of the world's surf league championships got on the way on the gold coast in australia on sunday and it was a shock defeat for the world's top ranked a surfer john john florence while he was beaten by fellow american griffin pinto the nineteen year old competing in his first ever w s l a heat meanwhile it was business as usual for three time w s l champion carries them all the american scored the highest combined of the day with a sixteen point sixteen out of

a possible twenty. from surf to the snow now we're cross-country skiing star i'm married to a bjork in wrote another chapter in the history books in front of home crowds in all slow on sunday a month after the norwegian became the most decorated winter olympians of all time on tank that seven year old has now become the first athlete to win seven women's thirty kilometers in the fall. we end with one of the more extreme winter sports downhill i saw a cross similar to ski cross about on skates the events his competitors a race on track of steep turns and fretful drops world championships i have been taking place in canada a home favorite spot the crux of secured the world title thus the spite of him finishing last in the spinal heat off the crushing with his brother in this event was one up by amanda trousseau of the united states she has dominated the circuit

this season. and that says bolt from we'll have more later on. sanna thank you very much for that that's it for this news hour on al-jazeera but do stay with us we've got plenty more world news coming up after this very short break.

conservation is helping kids to recover its snow leopard population to see the results i traveled up to the remote nature reserve of saudi chat at a touch camera traps have identified a healthy population of up to twenty snow leopards as the technology improves we're finding all these ways in which our guesses are are getting corrected the latest evidence suggests they're more cats than previously acknowledged but the snow leopard trust believes it's premature to downgrade the cats on the international

least of threatened species natural capital the capital which makes for creative. when nature is transformed into a commodity big business takes in new interests buying landscapes protecting landscapes it's a phenomenal opportunity to be able to use a business model to achieve sustainability of nature but at what risk banks of course don't do that because they have at the heart protection of nature they do that because they see a businessman pricing the planet at this time on al-jazeera. civilians in syria app or pairing to form human shields to stop a turkish assault in the kurdish house a free.