forcibly taken from their families the most terrible thing in syria is to be. this has been the invisible weapon of the syrian dictatorship for modern sometimes a call to be better to die than continue to be sure to control. the disappeared of syria but this time on al-jazeera. oh. at least ten thousand civilians are reported to have left eastern in the past few hours. i'm sam is a damn this is al jazeera live from dollhouse so coming up russia and britain both

send diplomats packing as the controversy grows over the poisoning of a former spy and his daughter. a u.s. attorney general files the f.b.i.'s deputy director of potential witness in the russian investigation just days before he was eligible to retire. the vote was unanimous china's parliament confirmed xi jinping as president for his second term to allies join him in office. the syrian observatory for human rights says more than ten thousand civilians left east in the quarter on saturday these are pictures from the russian department of defense that appear to show the evacuations from eastern hold thousands of left the rebel held enclave as well as the northern region of africa it comes after dozens of people were killed in intense says strikes in both areas of syria more than seven. people were killed in

a market in eastern auto while activists say fifteen died in a turkish strike on a friend's only working hospital. the command of the syrian army urges all civilians to leave the areas under control of the extremist organizations through the safe corridor we affirm that we will continue to fulfill our national and constitutional duty to defend the nation until the return of security and stability throughout the country andrew simmons has the latest from ghazi untap on the turkish syrian border. russian video feeds show a steady stream of civilians leaving although it's not clear on the precise numbers the russians say seven thousand the syrian regime claim much more than that tens of thousands there suggesting how more real checkpoint to the south is the main point of exit the people looking absolutely desolate desperate and wondering really

what's going to happen next no doubt about it whatsoever as far as the syrian regime is concerned they say that yes they are leaving in high numbers and they will be afforded protection in evacuation centers dotted around the wrong area they're moving into but it's unclear as to exactly what is going on and of course there is no supervision by the united nations in any of this it's very much yes russian and syrian regime operation as this goes on reports of air strikes and some alka and call for a back and there were attacks. on friday reportedly using incendiary devices although the russians deny they had anything to do with this attack while this is going on we also have an escalation of the difficulties in a free where the turkish backed f.s.a. is in circling of the city in its attack and also we are getting reports that

there have been attacks on a hospital and the center of the town but these are denied by the turks the united nations responding to all of this says that it is deeply alarmed at the reports of civilian deaths forty three on friday apparently and also this attack reportedly on a hospital in which a number of civilians died including two pregnant women this is firmly denied by the turkish military. russia's foreign ministry is expelling twenty three diplomats in response to a similar action taken by the u.k. over the poisoning of a former spy surrogate script powell and his daughter were found unconscious in the english city of salzburg almost two weeks ago jonah joins us now live from moscow so what is the message coming out of the foreign ministry. sami well it didn't take long for the british ambassador laura bristow to emerge

from the russian foreign ministry having been informed of russia's response wednesday was of course meant to resume a made her announcement of the expulsion of twenty three russian diplomats saturday now the russians have said the same thing for tat twenty three declared. u.k. diplomats and he's declared persona non grata they'll have to leave within a week leave the embassy here just across the river behind me within a week a couple of other measures as well tossed in to as well as that russia apparently revoking well this is something we're not entirely clear about to be honest but revoking permission to open a british consul general in st petersburg we're unclear on that because there's been a consulate in st petersburg since one thousand nine hundred two so we seek clarity on that the british council's activities have been ordered to cease in russia because of its quote and regulated status the british council is the u.k. sort of cultural and educational outreach arm exchange programs that sort of thing it's long been in the sights of the russian government here with some suspicion

after that and litvinenko affair in two thousand and seven the british council was targeted then this part of russia's response curtailing its activities those activities now we're told to cease and britain warned said laurie bristow that russia reserves the right to take further retaliate troop measures in case of further quote unfriendly steps with regard to russia well let's take a quick listen now to what the british ambassador had to say emerging from the foreign ministry earlier. we see from your slate. we also. see. russia today as. well consider the timing of all this. the day before the russian presidential election here may be cynical to suggest but certainly not without precedent on either side

to want to make maximum use of a crisis of an opportunity like this in the domestic arena the russian media airwaves will be filled for the rest of the day and into the night with the news of russia's strong stern response to what it will claim is unjustified provocation by the british in all of this the man of course who will be shown to stand up for russia to be its chief representative none other than glad to be of putin. all right we'll leave it there for now thanks so much jonah how now russians will head to the polls on sunday for presidential elections authorities in crimea have reportedly been told to make sure there's overwhelming support for president vladimir putin crimea became part of russia four years ago after the territory was and next from ukraine rory chalons reports from crimea. crimea with its dramatic coastline has long held

a romantic place in russian hearts and since it was an extreme ukraine four years ago it's russian once more ready made putin who says he took the decision to reclaim the peninsula held his last big campaign rally in the port of sevastopol on wednesday he thanked the crowd for voting in the two thousand and fourteen referendum which most countries never recognized and which so soured relations with the west. with your decision you showed the entire world the meaning of true democracy not the sham one who took part in the referendum and made a decision you voted for your future and the future of your children or your boo here. crimean za voting again on sunday the first time they've ever done so in a russian presidential election and the peninsula has been made a central symbol in the putin campaign by the way a putin is reminding people that he is the gatherer of russian lands it's very hard

for him to boast of any meaningful economic progress so defense security and national pride are his campaigning aces. in crimea in tar tar towns like historical back she's a right the mood is different. mainly oppose the annexation intend to boycott the election but they say they're being pressured to vote. there were threats at all levels that people could lose their jobs for example in our local school the director says think again of local people don't go to the elections they might fire me therefore i think some of the teachers will go to. the national spotlight is on crimea fresh from an appearance on russia's main t.v. channel we spoke to crime is deputy prime minister and he denied any dirty tricks of being used before but it upset the election is a completely free and democratic process therefore crimean people go to the polling stations and make the choice they want we think turnout will be quite high seumas

what we saw the referendum because crimea and people don't see it as an obligation it's a celebration for us. as the home of russia's black sea fleet crimea has always been strategically important for moscow this year it's elects a really important to reach allan's how does it running. now the u.s. attorney general jeff sessions says five the f.b.i. his deputy director andrew mccabe less than two days before you could retire with full pension mccabe had been a frequent target of criticism from donald trump the u.s. president took to twitter to cheer the sacking saying andrew mccabe fired a great day for the hardworking men and women of the f.b.i. a great day for democracy sanctimonious james komi was these boss and made mckay look like a quiet boy who knew all about the lies and corruption going on at the highest levels of the f.b.i. rules when jordan has more on the controversial tenure of under mccabe andrew

mccabe was an f.b.i. agent for twenty two years rising to deputy director and then acting director after his boss james komi was fired by the trump white house in twenty seventeen but just before he planned to retire on march eighteenth mccabe two was dismissed in a statement released late on friday night the attorney general jeff sessions said that according to an internal agency investigation quote mr mccabe had made in an authorized disclosure to the news media and lacked candor including under oath a multiple occasions i have terminated the employment of andrew mccabe effective immediately. right after this mckay told the news media his firing was payback for doing his job investigating ties between russia and donald trump's two thousand and sixteen presidential campaign as well as overseeing the probe into hillary clinton's use of a private e-mail server while she was secretary of state now president trump has

accused mccabe of partisan bias mccabe's wife a democrat received campaign donations from one of hillary clinton's allies then mccabe added this quote the attack on my credibility is one part of a larger effort not to just slander me personally but to taint the f.b.i. law enforcement and intelligence professionals generally it is part of this administration's ongoing war on the f.b.i. and the efforts of the special counsel analysts say robert muller who is the special counsel will want to talk to mckay but now aides now will be testifying in front of mahler and he knows a lot now what happened. during the campaign and during the investigation mr mccain can talk about the fact that when president drama fired your rector call me that was an attempt to call me when i'm actually going ahead

with the investigation i'm not could be considered a structure of justice being fired means andrew mccabe might lose his retirement and health care benefits but mccabe might also have much more to gain by telling robert muller everything he knows about any russian links to the trump presidential campaign and that could mean the trumpet ministration might now have a much bigger problem on its hands rosalyn jordan al-jazeera washington. richard vice is director of the hudson institute for political military analysis he doesn't think the russian investigation meddling will be to write old by these missiles there are many many people dismissed in this way are suddenly or unexpectedly by the trump ministration so it's it's a bit unclear to what extent this is related to any specific tensions between him

and the president as opposed to just a general pattern or something that would have occurred under another ministration the same way clearly whatever the reason it could it's going to be read by some as an attempt to rupture or affect the investigation however as far as we can towel this investigation isn't proceeding full speed in despite what happens in congress or and in the white house and it's not very visible and it's probably good and it's been we hear periodic plea announcements about somebody being indicted or arrested are under review so i don't think this is going to really just drop what appears to be a slow but steady progress in trying to define precisely what happened which is still unclear to most of us during the elections. was to the head on al-jazeera afghanistan's battle to save the thousands of men and women struggling with drug addiction. we turn to china as president xi jinping is confirmed for

a second term in office. hello there there's plenty of dry weather to be found across the southeast in parts of asia at the moment we do still have this cluster of thunderstorms though that's been affecting us in the southern parts of borneo and across java recently but this is going to break up as well as we head through the next few days so still some showers around yes as we head through sunday but not quite as many of them and then as we head through into monday even those should begin to break up say plenty more in the way of dry weather just a handful of showers around most of us seeing some fine weather at times for the south though we do have some more destructive weather here this so i claim marcus has worked its way past da wind now and while it was with us certainly gave a sim very wet and wild conditions this is what it looked like in darwin as that storm hit to see made trees fall down roll down the streets pretty quite

destructive weather he but that storm is now working its way towards the west there so sunday and monday will see a few outbreaks of heavy rain along this north coast the actual center of the storm should move away from land so it looks like we've seen the worst of it now for per fifty one degrees will be on my somewhere on monday said the temperatures here are rising but they're dropping for us for the towards the southeast where there's been quite an extreme fire danger but thirty degrees will be the max in sydney. on counting the cost are russians getting all they bargained for economically as lemay putin heads for reelection plus saudi aramco keeps the financial world guessing but the globe's largest i.p.o. on ice will be asking what's behind the delay counting the cost and i just hear.

you're watching out to zero time to recap our headlines now about ten thousand civilians have left east in the altar on the northern syrian city of a free in the past few hours these are pictures from russia's defense ministry that appeared to show the evacuations from the east of all talk thousands are leaving the rebel held on klav as well as the are three in the region. russia's foreign ministry is expelling twenty three british diplomats in response to a similar action by the u.k. over the poisoning of a former russian spy the british ambassador to moscow was summoned for talks are

head of the decision to expel the diplomats surrogates for paul and his daughter were found unconscious in the english city of souls pretty almost two weeks ago. the u.s. attorney general has fired the f.b.i. his deputy director less than two days before he was eligible to retire and ok but being a frequent target of criticism from president donald trump the cables involved in the investigation into possible russian ference in the two thousand and sixteen presidential election. houthi rebels in yemen say they would like to hold talks with saudi arabia to end the three year war there are been reports the been meeting in secret but both sides of the night this the war has led to the world's worst humanitarian crisis more than twenty two million people are in need of food medicine and other aid and we're going to. there was no direct meeting between us and saudi arabia in misc us but when there was a chance for honorable peace there is no problem in having

a direct dialogue between us and the saudi government that we are in a war with saudi arabia and the u.a.e. and they are using all their military capabilities on yemen we need such dialogue between parties to stop the war and the chinese president's close political ally chang has been voted in as vice president xi jinping and self has been confirmed for a second term in office with the unanimous support scott hyla has more from beijing . for the first time in history the president of china took an oath of office president xi jinping raising his fist pledging loyalty to country and constitution as he begins his second five year term and that's a constitution that was changed last week during the national people's congress here in beijing. one of the biggest differences lifting term limits on the offices of presidents and vice president meaning this is almost certainly not the last time we will see she take the oath. also took his oath on saturday

his first five year term as vice president only one vote was cast against him out of the nearly three thousand carefully selected delegates known as a firefighter taking on tough tasks one front at the president's anti-corruption crackdown it punished more than one and a half million officials. the election of one was no surprise he's a close ally of season ping and term limits have been lifted on the vice president's role but what will be different is that his power and influence will elevate the position that's traditionally been ceremonial get things done so see his loyalty and how he can follow he order to discipline chinese officials and he has been very successful in that and looking forward to seeing you would want to make sure that his power i would be stabilized to for next decade or beyond that even before the curtains close on this year's

national people's congress on tuesday wang will have his work cut out one of his responsibilities is to deal with u.s. trade friction so i think president trump has intensified over the past few days it's got to al-jazeera beijing and i'm not going is a china i'm a list and political commentator he says president xi is consolidating his grip on power by surrounding himself with trusted supporters. he's put in place throughout the entire organization people who share his vision so you can look at it as he's vamping up his personal power or he is pushing his agenda remember with china it's like looking at a glacier going it's not like the donald trump where you look at a wildfire there's two ways of looking at it one you can assume that this is a president for life but this is not in character with a lot of things that he's done also the problem comes when you transition that that

number of powers to another generation how do you pick them and how do you make sure that you don't try to undo what you have done the other way of looking at it is he simply consolidating a lot of these things so that he can move very quickly there are a lot of issues with the united states china feels that it needs to get over the middle income trap it has a very ambitious belt and road initiative it's pushing so with all of these things i think he was trying to send a signal to everybody there will be no lame duck session and do not think that in three years from now you should be looking around to see who is next he wants everybody in the government with their nose to the grindstone pushing along with the agenda that he's trying to create for china a group of lawyers in australia has filed a private prosecution against me and miles they don't sign suchi of a country's treatment of ringle muslims so she is in sydney a spot of a summits of southeast asian leaders but their attendance hasn't be welcome by old as andrew thomas reports. it's not an image of aung sang suu kyi that

anyone would have created a few years ago but now refugees in australia blame her for the persecution of the hinge in myanmar they are disgusted that australia's government has welcomed at the sydney australia. a list and she indicated the problems that it was not a problem in her own country while aung sang suu kyi is in australia with all the latest for the association of southeast asian nations or as he and summit five lawyers are trying to get her prosecuted we have lodged a private prosecution application in the magistrates court of victoria accusing unsung suchi of crimes against humanity specifically the crime of deportation and forcible transfer of people australis attorney general says but international convention heads of government and ministers of foreign affairs have immunity from prosecution but human rights lawyers say that immunity shouldn't apply on song

suchi is not officially the head of the in-laws government and lawyers say it was very accusing her of has nothing to do with foreign affairs portfolio so isn't covered by the immunity protocol others in sydney protested the presence of viet nam's prime minister neutron folk and cambodia's leader one saying who's been accused of crushing the opposition and violating human rights there's not a strong and ambiguous message from the struggling government about consensus crackdown in cambodia i think it's you know a big mistake for the government just so completely gloss over those issues or just deal with them quietly on the fringes they should be front and center of a summit like this police are not allowing protests right outside the convention center where the asean talks are happening but these protesters did get close yes young ladies will be out of here these protests where they're meeting but it's unlikely they'll be talking about them too much but then the focus is on trade and security. australia's prime minister malcolm turnbull says he'll raise the range of

prices with aung sang suu kyi but his main focus on saturday was combating terrorism and how to pursue free trade opportunities in the face of protectionism together we can seize those opportunities but to do so governments and businesses must remain committed to the rules by store to be fierce advocates and persuasive advocates above all for free and open troy the as he and summit runs on both saturday and sunday the protests are expected to as well andrew thomas al-jazeera sydney. north korea's foreign minister is met sweden's prime minister during a visit to stockholm rehung is there to discuss security on the korean peninsula but his visit has fueled speculation sweden may host a meeting between the u.s. and north korean leaders and trump accepted kim jong un's invitation and plans to meet him by may swedish foreign minister says she hopes the country's relationship

with the north korean government can be put to good use. we valued this opportunity to arrange a meeting and we believe in dialogue and in the political process but we are not in a need to but we are hoping that if we can use our role and also our contacts then we will put it to the best use and then it's for the parties to decide what is the way forward and the process from now on. there's been mounting anger in brazil over the death of a popular politician and activist has been a second night of protests in rio de janeiro city councilor mariella franco was shot dead on wednesday along with her driver and what's being called an assassination brazil's top prosecutor says federal authorities will investigate a death of city police don't pursue the case aggressively thirty eight year old franco people really criticize police violence i at least eight skiers are being

treated for injuries after a ski chair lift malfunctioned in georgia videos posted on social media show the lift at the resort of god darby reversing and running at high speed skiers being transported backwards were holed out of this seats and a suicide car bombing is hit afghanistan's capital kabul killing at least four people it happened morning time when many were going to work is no immediate claim of responsibility the attack comes as pressure increases on the taliban to take up the afghan government's offer of peace talks to end the sixteen year old conflict. opium production in afghanistan has been on the rise since the u.s. invasion in two thousand and one last year nine thousand tons were produced an increase of eighty seven percent tourney berthier falls from kabul where record numbers of people are turning to drugs and desperation. in afghanistan there is

a level below rock bottom it's where these lifeless expressionist drug addicts exist men who lost dignity a long time ago they've been rounded up and herded into one of the country's biggest drug rehabilitation units in kabul. these are the other victims of this never ending war collateral damage if you like people who have lost loved ones lost jobs lost hope and then numbers are growing in afghanistan every day the forty five day program of this former military warehouse complex is basic and caters for nine hundred patients the treatment consists mainly of keeping the addicts away from drugs but it can't keep them away from the desire most relapse when they leave not they're not that we need international hill we are struggling drug addiction is everywhere in the world but unfortunately it's affecting us more we have double impact one is the war and the other is that people are jobless. no rules turn to

drugs eight years ago when he lost his job he abandoned all hope and his wife and six children and their politics are going to my from a lot of water with no job or income you have no choice but to steal and rob to get drugs addicts you have money eventually spend it all on drugs and when the money is gone they join us poor under the bridge we are no use to family society or country the bridges police doctor in kabul where the addicts live in a desolate world the afghan government estimates that three million people ten percent of the population is addicted to heroin forty percent of those are women. opium cultivation is a major source of funding for the taliban and a major target for the u.s. an air campaign to destroy crops and production has been intensified the international community's sixteen year battle against drugs in afghanistan has cost billions of dollars but poppy growing is flourishing like never before last year there was a sixty three percent growth in land use for cultivation and an eighty seven

percent increase in opium production the most in afghan history farmers of turn to poppies because there's more money in them the conventional crops but the threats from the air always there. we are worried that foreigners are the afghan government are going to destroy our fields the farmers are the ones who face the entire hardship of cultivation but the smugglers and others are the ones who benefit the most that is beyond the concern of the addicks under the poly sakta bridge their only concern is how to get the next fix they are in direct victims of this war but their image will haunt afghanistan for many years to come tony berkeley al jazeera kabul. and let's take you through some of the headlines here now to syria now the syrian observatory for human rights says more than ten thousand civilians left east in the

halter on saturday thousands have left the rebel held as well as the northern region of africa when it comes after dozens of people were killed in intense airstrikes in both areas of syria more than seventy people were killed at a market in the eastern of alter activists say fifteen others died in a turkish airstrike on the three and only working hospital. and russia's foreign ministry is expelling twenty three british diplomats in response to a similar action taken by the u.k. over the poisoning of a former russian spy surrogate school pollan his daughter were found on conscious in the english city of souls for almost two weeks ago the u.k. blames russia for the attack has demanded moscow admit its involvement the deputy director of the f.b.i. has been fired just over twenty four hours before he was eligible to retire under mccabe it been the subject of an internal investigation into leaks to the news media he says is dismissal is part of the trumpet ministrations of war on the

f.b.i. president jordan has more from washington d.c. the attorney general jeff sessions put out a statement saying that this is because he released information that should not have been released inside the f.b.i. to a reporter and that when he was questioned about it by investigators within the f.b.i. sessions said that mccabe miss led those investigators those are two big offenses inside the f.b.i. and so said that he has made the decision to dismiss him immediately well obviously this is something that andrew mccabe strongly disagrees with a suicide car bombing as had afghanistan's capital kabul killing at least four people it happened the morning time when many were going to work it was no immediate claim of responsibility. it's counting the cost now stay with us here

on al-jazeera. we understand the differences and the similarities of cultures across the world. so no matter where you call home al-jazeera international bring in the news and current affairs that matter to. al-jazeera. alarm hasn't seeker this is counting the cost on al-jazeera your weekly look at the world of business and economics this week are ordinary russians getting all way bargained for as the mayor putin heads for reelection. also this week saudi aramco puts its i.p.o. on ice and keeps the financial world guessing about the fate of the world's biggest stock market listing. plus out.