it's impossible for going to people to score link up are people trying to take more of a lead that if profundity stronger man or song woman was getting the growth projection isn't this problem because the model doesn't work europe's forbidden colony episode two at this time on al-jazeera alpha this is the opportunity to understand a very different way where they're before something happens and we don't believe that. syria's war escalates on two fronts turkey shells civilians and afrin town while a russian as strike killed seventy people in an eastern market. hello i'm maryam namazie in london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up south

africa's former president jacob zuma to stand trial for fraud and corruption over an arms deal and we think it overwhelmingly likely that it was his this is. the kremlin denounces britain's claim that russia's president ordered the poisoning of a former spy as shocking and inexcusable. this is bush police launch a murder investigation into the death this week of a russian businessman in london. and the kenyan children on a mission to change their neighborhood by becoming superheroes. as strikes in syria have killed more than one hundred people as civilians continue to stream out of two besieged and claves a russian air raid killed seventy people in a market in the rebel held town of kufa in eastern guta which has suffered

relentless bombardment for almost a month and then further north turkish shelling in as strikes killed at least twenty civilians in the town of afrin where the u.n. says forty eight thousand people have been displaced alan fischer reports now from the turkey syria border. its ability of stark brutal contrasts. with a line between life and death has sharpened our victory this is a fruit in a city that's been shelled by the free syrian army backed by the turks. with a number of dead rises by the day with a pall of smoke from another attack hartings in the year most surrounded by the f.s.e. of the turkish military the final assault take the city is under way civilians on the ground have expressed serious worries to us regarding their safety including as a result of fighters placing rocket launchers in residential areas. we're deeply concerned about the high risk of civilians who are effectively trapped being

injured or killed this each to be used as human shields or displaced as a result of the fighting people being allowed to leave taking a road to the so the humanitarian corridor to skip the fear and the expectation of what's to come. on and our friends in the cause of turkey we fled from a friend because of the heavy turkish bombardment there frightening people yesterday i couldn't sleep we suffer to get here. used to go to different actors but a similar situation cozens left part of the besieged on clip on thursday thousands more have no choice but to put it simple and straightforward children have been and continue living in hellish conditions in places like eastern good but also of rain it is good to see that at last a few thousands of people have been able to leave these hellish conditions in

any single day enough rain. a popular market now was hit boardings piled up in the streets of the syrian civil war noble center. alliances of the battle lines of changed but what is no different is that some people will live until to morrow how many innocent people will die our fish are out to see it up on the turkey syria border. well the foreign ministers of iran russia and turkey have been meeting in kazakhstan to try to resolve the syria conflict the three countries are on opposing sides of the seven year war but have been working together for more than a year now to try to reduce the violence they are harder of course from. syria brings them together stakeholders and power brokers in a country now divided into areas of influence turkey unlike iran and russia doesn't support the syrian government but the three countries have enough common interests

to continue cooperating through the so-called us to now process the capital has hosted many rounds of talks on syria since the beginning of last year the astronaut process is meant to complement talks in geneva but the message from here was clear a disregard for the un led peace process and any western intervention in a final settlement but. a cease fire in the deescalation zones were important steps to end the war in syria the process is the successful international initiative to decrease tension in syria asama is where the political situation to the crisis will be found. for now agreeing on the paramita years of post war syria is being decided on the ground turkey is leading a military operation against the white p.g.d. in the mainly kurdish populated northeastern town of africa and the russian and iranian government are supporting the syrian government's campaign to recapture the rebel held enclave of eastern europe to mask this the foreign ministers' meeting

will be followed by a summit in april that will be attended by the three countries president turkey said it will host the meeting and said it's and will be to revive peace efforts the last time the three leaders met was in november at the time they were discussing post conflict syria and now it's a peace conference that was held in sochi in late january since then there has only been military escalation. this week countries may have their differences but they share animosity towards the united states turkey's against the u.s. this alliance with the syrian kurdish wife e.g. armed groups the russians and iranians believe the american military presence in the critics controlled north east and its threats against the government are about increasing leverage. which will show you that. it's unacceptable in the u.s. threats to strike damascus with false pretext like the use of chemical weapons we have told washington that we reject of such words to use force. rational iranian

support have changed the balance of power in the syrian government's favor but politically there is no credible prospect of a settlement there is an international power struggle and they go are likely to continue on the battleground. astern of. south africa's former president jacob zuma is set to face prosecution for sixteen charges of corruption is accused of fraud racketeering and money laundering over a two and a half billion dollars government arms deal signed in the one nine hundred ninety s. when he was deputy president zuma denies any wrongdoing and web reports from pretoria . began with a two billion dollars deal between south africa and a french arms company in the one nine hundred ninety s. . these fighter jets were part of it. and

prosecutors say this man jacob zuma was paid bribes to secure the deal he was charged with corruption in two thousand and five but the charges were later dropped shortly before he became president zuma resigned in february and now south africa's prosecutor says the case is back on i am of of the view that a trial court would be the most appropriate forum for these issues to be ventilated and to be decided upon after consideration of the matter. i am of the view that there are reasonable prospects of a successful prosecution of mr zuma and the charges listed in the indictment. charges one of several scandals that hung over as soon as nine presidency here he's seen leading one of his many cool hearings press in opposition accused him of handing control of parts of the state to private interest is always denied charges

and accusations. the prosecutors who work in this office drops the arms deal corruption charges against zuma the that he became president they said they had recordings of conversations that showed that there had been political meddling in the case those recordings were never published the opposition fought hard ever since to get the charges reinstated karen mourns the journalist who first broke the story of the charges being dropped and covered the issue ever since and it's been a very long time in coming almost a decade it was in april two thousand and nine in the very same rematch on abrams has now just made his historic announcement that a former head of state for the first time in south african history is going to be prosecuted for corruption zoomers controversial presidencies over prosecutors and the press billions of dollars of public money was stolen before and during his tenure south africans are still waiting to see if. anyone from his government will

be held to account malcolm webb al-jazeera pretoria south africa. two israeli soldiers have been killed and two more are being treated for serious injuries after being rammed by a car in the occupied west bank israeli military says it considers it considers it a deliberate palestinian attack the driver fled the scene but was detained shortly afterwards and taken to hospital unconfirmed reports say he's a twenty six year old palestinian. now russia is set to expel british diplomats in a tit for tat rao over the poisoning of a form of double agent in the u.k. last week foreign minister sergei lavrov says the expulsions are in retaliation for the u.k. ordering out twenty three russian embassy staff at you to leave on march twentieth the kremlin says there's no clear proof that russia is linked to the chemical attack but lavrov counterpart boris johnson has accused president vladimir putin of ordering it himself all quarrel is with putin's kremlin and with his decision and we think it overwhelmingly likely that it was his decision to direct

the use of a nerve agent on the streets of of the u.k. and the streets of europe for the first time since the second world war that is that is why we are at odds with russia well putin's spokesman denounce that claim calling it shocking and inexcusable meanwhile british police have launched a murder investigation into the death of another russian in the u.k. earlier this week businessman nick. was found dead in a west london suburb on monday police have confirmed the cause of death was compression to the neck sixty eight year old was a close associate of prominent opponent doris berry's off ski he was found dead in the u.k. in two thousand and thirteen an iraqi teenager has been found guilty of attempted murder for planting a bomb on a london train last september eighteen year old ahmed hassan will be sentenced next week thirty people were injured when his homemade bomb partially exploded at

parson's green underground station in west london has claimed asylum after he smuggled himself into england on a truck in two thousand and fifteen now the egyptian foreign ministry is demanding on says over the death of a teenage student who was attacked in the city of nottingham mariam mystified died on wednesday after suffering severe head injuries in the attack last month and the heywood reports from nottingham. well liked and bright stuff i had everything going for her a promising future she come to live in the u.k. from egypt and was studying engineering. last month merriam was attacked by a group of young people in the english city of nottingham marion was taken to hospital placed in an induced coma but never recovered it was about eight o'clock at night by merriam boarded a bus in the center of nottingham it's alleged she was attacked on the pavement by

a group who then followed her on to the bus and continued to abuse her. family says she and her sister had been attacked by some of those in the group of poor and a struggling to comprehend what happened do you believe this was a hate crime. because right now i don't have any. question why you haven't. marian story has been well documented in egypt and on social media with speculation running high about whether the attack was racially motivated police here say they're keeping an open mind and say there's nothing to suggest at the moment that this was a hate crime the local m.p. told lady justice. this is a very welcoming and diverse city and we are very proud to have people from all corners of the world here and not saying this is a very very unusual but clearly quite distressing situation and everybody from all

backgrounds whatever their religion wants to see justice done and that is absolutely the feelings of everybody throughout our criminal justice system the egyptian authorities are calling for those involved to be swiftly brought to justice this is an ongoing investigation which has left a city in shock and a family broken and a heywood al-jazeera. still to come for you on the program the man who will not be president he's banned from standing in russia's election but alexina valmy is not sitting in town. and slovakians demand early elections despite the prime minister resigning over the death of a journalist. how we may well be just a week and a half away from the summit type as it's now but the british isles will see some

very wintry weather there speak to one through the next couple of days of the moments not too bad there ear of cloud shooting its way in here but the winds coming in from the atlantic so relatively mild air temperatures into double figures that will change as we go on through the next couple of days even by sas the afternoon the cold i started to dig a base from the east mini base from the east this one seven celsius on saturday is that cold around minus nine in moscow shippy about freezing so we must go on the coats on that coal waste leeway in from siberia that will continue the pot is way through there's a line of cloud rain and snow to see how that makes its way a little further south which as we go on through into sunday the cold air very much on the northern flank of that oneself as the top temperature in london so big drop in conditions here then shouldn't be is the snow is it was last time they further south but some places the snow certainly over the outside of the pyrenees we're

going to see some rain making its way in across spain abhor school some of that wet weather also making its way into the fog north of africa with rain for algeria. in syria thousands have disappeared without a trace. forcibly taken from move from a city right near the most terrible thing to syria used to be. this has been the invisible weapon of the syrian dictatorship through the phone sometimes a call to complete brother to god continue to be sure to go to. the disappeared of syria but this time on al-jazeera.

back a quick recap the top stories this hour at least seventy people have been killed in a russian ass strike on a besieged syrian enclave the strike hit a market in the rebel held town of kfar but not in the east and. south africa's former president jacob zuma is set to face prosecution on sixteen corruption charges prosecutors say they include counts of fraud racketeering and money laundering and russia's foreign minister sergey lavrov has confirmed british diplomats will be expelled from russia it's in response to treason may's decision to order twenty three russian embassy staff out of the u.k. after the fourth after the poisoning of a former double agent. now russia's most high profile opposition figure alexina vali isn't standing in

sunday's election after he was banned by the electoral commission in december but that doesn't mean he's completely sitting it out the valley's fund against corruption group is challenging the legitimacy of a victim of putin victory and they say they've got fifteen thousand people ready to help out or a challenge has been to meet some of them. these muscovites are learning how to be disruptors they volunteered to monitor voting in russia's presidential election and meetings like this from happening all over the country. they're showing videos of what to look out for this one is from parliamentary elections two years ago and shows what looks like ballot stuffing and russia they want to minimize such fraud being repeated which they hope will keep sunday's election turnout from being artificially inflated sippin much taking a little. mean everyone understands that this is not an election and there's no point in voting that's why our only game is the turnout because that's the gremlins

main focus in this election and they fight for high turnout with all their administrative resources if that's true just to get a man driving all this is alexina valmy russia's most high profile opposition politician in december he was barred from the elections for an embezzler conviction that he's always said it was politically motivated. choosing the president's choosing the future says the sign and it's an intriguing idea isn't it one of russians had been able to make that choice between vladimir putin and alexina valmy well polling over the last year suggests to me a period in is consistently on seventy percent whereas now valmy is in single digits the implication of that is clear but it's telling all of the kremlin's approach to things that they weren't prepared to even take that chance. so in the valleys plan b. is to deal it just bloody mere putin's expected reelection his tactics are polling station monitoring and calling for an election boycott he's sure of the result but

he needs people to come to the polling stations otherwise his spectacle the actors the lighting man and the cloakroom attendant are all in place but the theater is empty the audience didn't turn up and that's what scares him for many of the valley supporters this is a generation. no struggle but a better deal better as when i went to my first rally a year ago my granny called me and said you study in a state funded university and the state pays for your education why are you going to rally you're being so bad but young threw in the university especially in moscow support of ami because everyone sees where the country is going the central election committee has already attempted to block accreditation for thousands of new volleys moments his campaign activists around the country face prosecutions and jail sentences like with all of our only use initiatives this one won't go smoothly reach alan's al-jazeera mosque or. a second demonstrations been held in madrid

after the death of an african street vendor senegalese migrants say the thirty five year old died after being chased through the streets by police his death prompted a night of angry riots as demonstrators burned plastic trash container is and threw stones at riot police but its mayor has promised a thorough investigation thousands tens of thousands of slackens have turned out to demand early elections the demonstrators are angry at the failure of their political leaders to address high level corruption slovakia's prime minister robert feed so resigned on thursday following the killing of an investigative journalist young could siac and his fiance could see it was investigating links between slovak politicians and italian mafia group al jazeera correspondent elena blue shirts has more from bratislava. organizers of this protest say that the resignation of slovak prime minister at all but speed so does not change essentially nothing guys spoke earlier today with one of the main organizers of the protest the journalist peter

nods he said it's not going anywhere he said and clearly that message yesterday to the press and to the president himself so people who gathered here still had to demands they want independent investigation of mother of the on field sect and in the fish meter box also they want government to do a new one a government with no connection with the organized crime and corruption and they want decent contrie and one of the protesters here for example is trying to shoot me close call former candidate for the president most of i can one of the main organizers of the protest the people against violence and i think eight to nine i feel underlined that that is the decent country he's not just about this because government by the balls and the government so according to the organizers they want new election the citizens so slovakia as they say laws that just in their country

and the elections are the only way to change their voters they're organized in thirty cities in the slovakia this place exactly in the brought this low voice symbolic in many ways this is the exact place where protests been eighty nine was held there was still a message here in one of the buildings it says all the men who fight for his freedom has the right to hold it also this is the only place in the broad history of over candles for young. boys still standing three weeks after their murder. protests have been held across brazil following the death of a popular radio city councilor marielle franco was shot along with a drive on wednesday night in what appears to have been a targeted assassination just weeks ago the federal government put brazil's army in charge of policing in rio on a hoax as mall. despite the music and dancing this is not

a happy occasion protest is brian the streets of sao paulo to mourn the murder of a prominent politician and once described as a tireless social warrior the biggest marches were in her hometown of rio de janeiro where tens of thousands of brazilians gathered outside the city's council this is the woman whose killing has provoked such outrage marielle franco the thirty eight year old councilor has become a voice for gay and black rights as well as fighting against police violence in poor areas of the city police officials say she was deliberately targeted frank who were shot four times in the head and her driver was also killed her assistant who is sitting in the back survived brazil's president was quick to speak out to condemn the killing even though the two had disagreed over his recent plans to put the army in charge of security in rio de janeiro. the assassination of councilman r.t.l. and her driver understand his is unacceptable miscible like all the other murders

that happen in rio de janeiro legend's is truly an attack on the rule of law and on our democracy has promised to carry out a full and transparent investigation. the people on the streets are angry and point the finger at the are far too nice to that now because there is a lot of indignation against this cowardice they want to silence a woman who fought for rights for justice for young black women. if that was easy for you we were in two thousand and eighteen in the injustice carries on that's why we gathered here today we're tired of injustice we want this to go not unpunished for our friend our colleague our sister's death not to go unpunished because her blood cries out. one of franco's final posts on twitter criticized the police killing of a young man as he was leaving church. human rights groups. police are

responsible for at least one thousand killings last year. al-jazeera. vietnam is marking the fiftieth anniversary of them eli massacre u.s. soldiers killed more than five hundred civilians most of them women and children in just one raid in the vietnam war they'd been sent on a mission to confront the national liberation front or the viet cong thought to be hiding in a me and i village only one american soldier was prosecuted over the incident the united nations is warning that more than two hundred seventy thousand people in papa new guinea are in need of immediate humanitarian assistance the country is struggling to recover from last month's seven point five magnitude earthquake tense medicine food and water originally needed more than one hundred people died in the quake and in subsequent aftershocks which then triggered landslides cutting off

remote communities. at least eight ski is being treated for minor injuries after a ski lift malfunctioned in the georgian resort of the diary videos posted on social media shows the lift apparently developing a mind of its reversing direction. and running into a dangerously high speed you can see ski is already surprised to be travelling rapidly downhill backwards was then thrown meters through the air others opted to take their life in their own hands by jumping off early an investigation is now underway. actual dran in kenya's largest some are on a mission to change their neighborhood through a local arts project workshop helps them create superheroes to deal with issues that affect them in the slum algis areas catherine so he has more in this from the capital nairobi. it's saturday

afternoon and a hundred full of kibera children get creative with the spray paint brushes and converse is what they like most about this art project in the heart of the largest slum in the country is they get to be who they want through an initiative called superhero. squid one is undoubtedly the head of the park and samael like to look at that being my superpower is to help out when there is fire in the slum i bring water and help people to get to safety. and he shows us how. wonder woman says she has the power to get the truth out of people. that this could be a or a has lots of lawyers and criminals if i can get people to be honest we could live peacefully the walk shop which has also opened its doors to many practicing artists in kibera was started by two groups

whose founders were born and bred here we have been artists we have guys who do it for three. days would be creative about this so. it's a comedian. the room itself can only take about ten children of the time the project accommodates just forty children every few months and only when there's money to buy the tooltip work this afternoon they get to go outdoors where they make modern church shanty wards they're kind of this this is the street of kibera children here gets to express themselves in whatever way they see best and on any of their little space their mentors tell us it keeps the ground it's. their idea is to have the children deal with everyday problems that affect their neighborhoods. have the skills to delist become really rose in their own community. and superman we want to

show disputes you come to the block mom in the community you can transform the community many children who live in slum areas have few opportunities to make it out but this superheroes of kibera see they're determined to succeed and as long as they're here they want to make their lives and many other people they interact with a little better catherine saw all jazeera nairobi kenya. well there is much more on everything we're covering right here al jazeera dot com for comment analysis and video on demand remember that you can watch us live on the web site as well. look at the top stories now at least seventy people have been killed in a russian air strike on a besieged syrian enclave the strike hit a market in the town of kfar but now within rebel held eastern ghouta combined as

strikes have left more than ninety people dead on friday the syrian government and their russian iranian allies launched an offensive to capture the area months ago civilians on the ground have expressed serious worries to us regarding their safety including as a result of fighters placing rocket launchers in residential areas. we're deeply concerned about the high risk of civilians who are effectively trapped being injured or killed besieged used as human shields or displaced as a result of the fighting in south africa's former president jacob zuma is set to face prosecution for sixteen corruption charges prosecutors say the charges include counts of fraud racketeering and money laundering the case relates to a two and a half billion dollar government arms deal which was signed in the one nine hundred ninety s. zuma denies any wrongdoing. russia is set to expel british diplomats in a tit for tat rao over the poisoning of a former double agent in england last week the farm and sergey lavrov says the

expulsions are in retaliation for the u.k. ordering out twenty three russian embassy staff moscow continues to deny any involvement in the chemical attack but lavrov the u.k. counterpart boris johnson accuses president putin of ordering and self meanwhile a murder investigation is now underway into the death of another russian in the u.k. earlier this week business than it was found dead in a west london suburb on monday police have confirmed the cause of death was compression to the neck is death isn't believed to be linked to last week's attack in seoul spree and tens of thousands of slovakians have turned out to demand early elections the demonstrators are angry at the failure of political leaders to address high level corruption slovakia's prime minister robert feet so resigned on thursday following the killing of investigative journalist young could siac and his fiance could see that was investigating links between slovak politicians and an italian mafia group you're upset with all of our top stories more news coming up in

about twenty five minutes time off the upfront which is next stay with us. forget all the bad news about war poverty disease famine things have never been better that's the view of the harvard professor and bestselling author steven pinker who is considered to be among the world's most influential intellectuals in his latest book he denounces those he says hate progress and calls for us to stop whining and start celebrating how humanity has become richer healthier and safer than ever before thanks to the european age of enlightenment but do the facts support him or has he got it wrong this week's headlines.