in syria citizens are collecting evidence in the field as charges of crimes committed against civilians moved out of syria now about six hundred thousand pages of material so that one day they can bring the assad regime to justice it puts a she will face on the charges it's a dead she will face but the situation tricks syria witnesses for the prosecution at this time on al jazeera. a day after that to be appears in wins another term in office he says russia one thing gage in an arms race. hello again. live from doha also coming up international investigators are in the

u.k. to help police discover who poisoned a russian spy and his daughter. e.u. and british negotiators say they're one step closer to a final deal on bret said we'll have a live report. and there are reports of hundreds of people who are escaping from. being arrested by syrian forces. but first russia's president vladimir putin says his country will not ng gaijin in the arms race this just hours after he easily secured a fourth term with more than seventy six percent of the vote he says russia will do its best to settle all disputes uing using political and diplomatic means when you see going to we don't want to escalate any arms race to speed up any arms race we want to build relations with all the countries in the world so. have

a constructive we will try to reach constructive dialogue with all our partners but of course not everything depends on us as he loves both sides should be interested otherwise it won't be any love. let's go live now to our correspondent laura c. he's there in moscow lawrence a slightly conciliatory tone coming from the new the reelected president is a bit of a surprise. yes i was having a good day isn't he i mean he said he said last night sunday night when he was on stage in front the crowd here he wanted to reach out to his opponents in the presidential race and he wants all of russia to be a big team you know that explains why he was on stage with with his opponents. but it you know on the face of it does look a bit strange since only a few weeks ago he gave a state of the union address in which he announced the russia had a whole new raft of missiles and nuclear weapons and all all kinds of things that were the fear of god into the rest of the world and now he's saying he doesn't want to engage in an arms race but even though it sounds contradictory i'm not entirely

sure it is because on the one hand he can say these things we want to engage we want normalization with the west we want to get on with people constructive dialogue as long as they respect us but of course when those other countries say well look please will you stop bombing cooter like emanuel macron the french president said to him apparent in the phone call today and please you know we think you poison this spy is british spy in england and putin can turn to his people say well you see we're trying to be nice with them but they keep accusing us of these things and they don't want to deal with us and this is and this is what happens all the time he he says that russia wants to engage and be good but he's everybody else that's present of the problems and so in that sense it isn't really a contradiction and and to that degree i think those remarks even though they look as if they're aimed at the outside world actually i think are probably just as much aimed at a domestic audience who can say look our president he's such

a nice guy and he's everybody else who is the problem and lawrence lee that live in thanking. now britain in the european union have agreed to a nearly two year transition period after the u.k. leaves the bloc next march the chief negotiator michel barnier said rules with continue to apply in britain during this transition period and this apparently would give both sides time to put a new trade deal in place they also agreed on what they called an emergency backstop nolen to prevent a hard border if no other solution is found. this makes it possible today to reassure the four and a half million people british and european who are affected and concerned by brags that those are the people who have been our priority from day one the priority of the european parliament and the priority of the member states so i set out a framework for delivering a bridge to each. one sees the u.k.

formally leave the european union on the twenty ninth of march which gives everyone time they need to prepare for the future by ensuring our access to each other's markets continues because. the deal was reached today does just. by let's talk this or a little bit with. our correspondent in london then and song on the face of it sounds like quite a big deal the fact that they've agreed to a two a two year cooling period if you like giving them side time to work out how the future relationship is going to be. i think given all the delays that have been taken place against a ticking clock of breck's that i think any movement towards any any kind of deal is being certainly perceived a lot of goodwill being put forward there between michel barnier and mr davis there as well but it's important to note that what's been agreed is essentially the legal

text and of course any of these things if nothing else in this legal text can be agreed on or if there are delays then of course these all also go out of the window but these two very important points of course. the fact that e.u. citizens who do come in without transition period will have the same rights as e.u. citizens who were living in the u.k. before that are valid is interesting left a note which has had to be given way by the prime minister before the prime minister's reason may have wanted to argue for different residency rights for these e.u. citizens who would be coming in during this transition period and certainly this is something that was picked up upon by opposition politicians saying well if they'd only just agreed to this a few months ago then it would have saved so much time rather than going back to the point which is what the european union was arguing for in the first place to allow the same residency rights of those e.u. citizens living here second point of course on trade that which the u.k.

will be able to negotiate and third country deals but will not be able to implement anything until after that transition period is over that would be really the end of the twenty twenty new years eve twenty twenty before brics it begins on january first twenty twenty one on either all of this of course it is important to notice that there is there is this spirit that needs to be implemented of course may not play so well with the more your skeptic elements of trees a maze parliament of. tourism is government but it certainly is a step to having some kind of deal in place martin and very quickly i'm interested in this emergency backstop of northern ireland because of course this is often cited as being the deal breaker in the brics it arrangement indeed and that still is basically very much as if there is no agreement on how to

treat this issue with ireland northern ireland would essentially remain part of a customs union and a single market. those differences are being wrangled out if britain were to be crushing out of a of a no deal situation of course that being especially sensitive no one wants to see no one in either side wants to see any of that good work that went in there into the good friday deal and no one wants to see that being jeopardized in any way at all so this is one way that both sides are giving in to the saying that nothing would change there no matter what happens on the other aspects of that deal so you're going to live in london thank you investigators from the world chemical weapons world shock arrived a watchdog of arrived in the u.k. they're testing the nerve agent that was used to poison a former russian spy the foreign ministers of offered britain unqualified solidarity in this case in a joint statement they said they take the claim that the kremlin ordered the attack extremely seriously and britain's foreign secretary boris johnson said russia is trying to conceal the needle of truth in

a haystack of lies. this is absolutely clear is our full sort it out if you will united kingdom and our extreme concern about what has happened that is really acceptable i've been very hot and already by the strength of the support that the u.k. is getting in respect of the incident in salzburg today the technical experts from the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons are arriving in the u.k. to take the song pains from songs brief and meantime the russian noise is growing increasingly absurd. saudi arabia's crown prince has accused iran of being a destabilizing force in the region just ahead of his visit to the u.s. iran has called mohammed bin salmen delusional and naive following his interview on u.s. television saying this ravi ripples from terror. the heir to saudi arabia's throne began his tour of the united states by pointing a finger at his country's arch rivals even though saudi arabia has played

a major role in regional conflicts both past and present. blamed iran for instability in the middle east iran and. unfortunately iran is playing a harmful role in the iranian regime is based on pure ideology. many of the al qaeda operatives are protected in iran and it refuses to surrender them to justice and continue to refuse to extradite them to the united states and this includes the son of some of the new leader of al qaeda he lives in iran and works out of iran and he's supported by iran. and despite the fact that saudi air strikes have killed thousands of people in yemen been solomon said iran is responsible for the ongoing conflict that led to the jihad on the if. the iranian ideology penetrated some parts of yemen during that time this militia was conducting military maneuvers right next to our borders and positioning missiles at our borders do you know.

observers say the crown prince is exaggerating iran's role to justify the saudi actions which. we do. not private lot and also in order to have freedom of action to rise to. in order to have. yeah he. does. influence. in yemen her me this before it was a career diplomat he said comparing iran's supreme leader to adolf hitler and minimizing the military strength of iran's armed forces are signs of been so months in experience with. newcomers. to sure. here's a song on sunday iran's foreign minister signaled that been sold comments were part

of an ongoing campaign to keep iran from reestablishing itself in the international community we have made extensive efforts for normalizing relations and creating a suitable climate for talks with saudi arabia but unfortunately continuation of saudi arabia's illusions in the wake of the twenty fifteen iran nuclear deal shows that the country lacks adequate preparedness for talks with iran to reach an understanding iran and saudi arabia are on opposite sides of every major conflict in the middle east and recent comments by leaders from both countries would seem to show that a meeting of minds is unlikely to happen anytime soon the same bus ravi old as he wrote to her on. live to the u.n. security council in new york where there you see mark lowcock the emergency chief of the united nation briefing the security council fifteen members about the current situation in the democratic republic of congo let's listen and much of it against children i'm delighted that janine van do behati has joined us as

a briefer this morning and also to see you saying a strong and courageous defender of women's rights and an activist against sexual violence in this chamber among the guests and almost seven hundred forty six thousand congolese have fled to neighboring countries while the d.-r. c itself has smaller than five hundred forty thousand refugees without a halt to the violence mr president and a successful political transition these numbers will all increase what ministers secret kark of the kingdom of the netherlands with whom i traveled last week and i saw requires our interaction. but there is also. the people of the resilient and resourceful i'm very impressed by the. family they have so little they welcome their brothers and sisters from within and outside the country into their homes people are displaced by violence and without

humanitarian assistance things would be much worse. in the united nations and. reach more than four point two million people with. the response we've. continued to deliver despite persistent. in recent weeks. i had constructive discussions with. the and on how the government can fulfill its responsibility for the provision of. population and what they can do to facilitate. visas.

customs clearance plans. between the. provincial governor. the government. similar agreement in other. i also. of the work of the united nations organization. the congo. they are creating a humanitarian delivery and protecting civilians things would. be much worse without them. mr president underfunding is the largest single impediment to the humanitarian response in the. requires one point seven billion dollars.

the netherlands the united. nations will. enjoy. the first ever. conference on the. the. contributions and. campaign in support of the. i asked council members today to ensure that the humanitarian situation in the. governments and. participation and. we also need solutions to address the root causes of the worsening crisis including making progress on the political front and fair elections we need. to behave responsibly as well. to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure in. under international humanitarian law and international

human rights for the. progress in the possible over the last fifteen years since i first visited infrastructure in many cities is improved. increased. and immunization rates have increased we need to strengthen our support to the congolese people from. the local government and humanitarian agencies provide. help with food for the children when they can i ask about her hopes for the future she wants to be resettled given a small plot of land to farm and to get her children back into. it's not so much to ask for reason thank you very much mr president. so that's mark lowcock there giving

a pretty grim assessment of his recent visit to the d.l.c. he was a bit concentrating particularly on. a province where the alarm has been raised as to the declining situation there the number of i.d.p.'s or internally displaced people is now astronomical about a fifth of the entire country's population is now classified as internally displaced we can talk to our correspondent mike hanna who is there at the u.n. in new york so a really really grim picture there painted by marlo called but he said there is some call for all to miss him and he said basically they need an awful lot of money . here is they do indeed this meeting to raise attention on the situation in the d.r. see looking forward to that fundraising conference on the thirteenth of april that he mentioned and some one point five billion dollars is needed for me to un intervention to prop up

a society that we heard the figures there about internal displacement we also know that some thirteen million people in the d.r. see need some form of humanitarian assistance what is happening there is a myriad of factors not least a security situation which is powerless a number of people fleeing activities by militant groups in the d.r. see of course you've got layered over that the political situation where the term of the sitting president joseph kabila expired at the end of last year his second term there's been pressure for him to step down as the constitution demands now you have election a shit job for the end of this year and just to add as well a recent report issued today in fact by the money school which is the u.n. body within the d r c and the un human rights are states very clearly that over the last year there were repeated incidents of political suppression sometimes violent some forty people it says with killed in the course of the year in violence related

to demonstrations so there's layer upon layer of issues within the d.r. see resulting in a massive impact on the millions of people who live within the country mike hanna live at the u.n. in new york thanking activists say syrian government forces have been arresting hundreds of people as they leave eastern ghouta over the past few days tens of thousands of civilians have been getting out of the rebel held area which has come under heavy bombardment by the government for the past month they're hard to report . estimates vary on the number of civilians who have crossed into government controlled territory because of military operations in eastern huta but it's believed to be in the tens of thousands many people found themselves back under government rule as frontlines quickly changed the pro syrian government camp is calling this a victory a liberation but human rights organizations are expressing concern following as of

yet unverified reports of people going missing or arrested no one it's fair minded about the violations that we have seen in places of detention by government forces from the torture ill treatment sexual violence and even executions in order to ensure the security of these people that are fleeing from the center. we do need to have independent monitors on the ground thousands remain trapped inside an ever shrinking rebel enclave many of them are wanted by the state because they were involved in opposition activities medics civil defense volunteers are particularly vulnerable so are media activists who the government accuses of being terrorists a reporter working for the syrian opposition orient t.v. is missing the organization says he is being held along with members of his family by the government it is demanding his release. activists and journalists are demanding. the. international.

through status quo goes on. international green it is what is. the pro-government alliance has recaptured approximately eighty percent of the enclave eastern huta is now divided into three pockets in the north the largest town duma is surrounded it's the same case in nearby harasta and both are split off from the rest of the area the rebels still control some towns in the southern edge . each rebel faction controls different pockets are a sham controls harassed or specialist controls the north and fire local rush man controls the southern towns there's three rebel factions are involved in separate negotiations with the russian military they are insisting that the negotiations do not involve an evacuation of civilians and rebels but it is clear that anything short of a surrender will be

a nonstarter for the pro-government alliance the situation on the ground is an indication that talks are not going well the pro-government alliance resumed its offensive from the air and on the ground after a brief lull piling more pressure on the opposition since the military campaign began just over a month ago the russian military and the syrian government have made clear that agreeing to leave to go to other rebel held areas is the only option the opposition has if the military assault is to end senator beirut turkey says it will withdraw its troops from afrin in northern syria turkish forces backed by syrian rebels took control of the city on sunday turkey launched its offensive on afrin in january to drive out kurdish y p g fighters who it says terrorists turkish soldiers have been clearing the towns of weapons president added one has said that turkey will expand syria the syria operation to other kurdish child

towns. we're not permanently there and we're certainly not invaders the goal of our operation is to clear the region from terrorists and to reinstate a stronger environment of peace trust and stability and two hundred region by which real owners after clearing it's of terrorists but we've been speaking to abraham colleen who is the turkish president's spokesman and he told us our freend will be safe to return for kurdish civilians. our actions speak very clearly about this until we reach the center of the city of often over the last two months we have cleared the surrounding areas towns and villages etc and those places have been very safe and we're sending humanitarian aid through the turkish red crescent through disaster agency and we have in fact we have had international journalists visiting those places the station is very conscious similar thing will happen there by the way in regards to the looting issue if you take those reports seriously and

we're looking into the incidents there might be some groups here and there that may have involved in that kind of action but we take that very seriously and necessary measures will be taken to address that issue but we want to assure everyone in all three and as well as those who had to flee to turkey or aleppo or other places that often it will be a safe place for them to to return. the iraqi city of fallujah has a decades long history of war and violence it was a major battle during the u.s. invasion fifteen years ago and in recent years has experienced the trauma of eisel the armed group was pushed out two years ago and locals are now trying to turn the page with a new campaign to move on from the path and run calm reports. this is a side if alou jet rarely seen the gateway city to provinces busting into rights of color and painting the fine arts college has been rebuilt and students and teachers are producing more work than ever before felicia has

a violent history fifteen years ago it was the center of some of the toughest battles in iraq's recent past al qaeda in iraq than ten fallujah and much of a province into its base and the occupying american army was almost powerless to stop the group it was local ambar tribes of american backing that eventually defeated al qaida in iraq but i need peace in the region wasn't a lost the neighboring war in syria spilled over into the province and i saw a march into anbar in two thousand and thirteen. the fine arts college faculty members remember that time of dread this mural commemorate students who were killed because i said painting was a center. it's not like i don't just do we as fine art teachers have took the initiative to keep the memory of the massacre in order to become a message of awareness for the world that the city removed all its violent and bloody images is now wearing another colorful dress and adopting a new no peaceful culture and a constructive awareness for spreading through

a number of art and cultural activities. the memories of war run deep here people look back at the last fifteen years as a dark age and are trying to revive felicia's reputation as a city of culture that i can about like that the ideology of i soon lift negative impressions on the younger generation in the student. through images of her and that's why we're working to erase all of these effects and now says she is considered a city of peace and stability and even. the peace and stability are difficult things to maintain without government support palooza like other parts iraq faces electricity blackouts that can last up to eight hours a day there are food shortages and the constant threat the remnants of isis fighters could attack in a day for the mayor of fallujah employment is key. we are hoping the government will provide job opportunities for the people including including the young everyone knows that when people return to pollute your unemployment spiked on

a city saluja fifteen years is a long time to be at war and despite the fact that iraq now enjoys a relative peace there's still a very long way to go before permanent security can be established now there are success stories in places like fallujah but in order to be able to build on them all of iraqi society needs to come together with elections scheduled for may iraqis will be hoping that the memories of the american occupation you know sectarian violence al qaida and eisel are a thing of the past and the new government will build a better iraq. to people in the u.s. city of austin have been injured in a bomb explosion there this is the fourth such attack there this month and now police are investigating whether it's connected to a series of bombings earlier this month in which two people were killed well and a honda has more. for explosions two people killed and in less than three weeks this is the scene of the latest blast

a residential area southwest of austin the capital of texas two men in their twenty's were hit investigators say they working on the assumption that it is connected to three package bombs left on people's doorsteps earlier this month but unlike those explosions this happened in a different part of the city and police say the bomb may have used a triggering device it is very possible that this device was a device that was activated by someone either handling kicking or coming in contact with a trip wire that activated the device. the first three explosions all happened in the eastern part of boston package bombs delivered by hand and lift on people's doorsteps the first exploded on much the second killing a thirty nine year old black man and then ten days later two more bombs the first just before seven that sunday morning killing a seventeen year old black man and injuring his mother and another at around midday

injuring a seventy five year old hispanic woman police say they're still looking into where the she was the intended target that the victims from the first three explosions were black or hispanic has led many to speak with the a takes a racially motivated the city's mayor says the two victims in sunday's a tech are white investigators say they still looking into motives but have not ruled out the possibility of hate crime. just hours before sunday's a tech officials raised a reward to one hundred fifteen thousand dollars for information leading to the arrest of whoever is responsible police say they believe the explosions are part of a larger plane and are meant to send a message quite what that message is and why it will be an important part of the investigation maidana honed al jazeera.

traverses take a look at the top stories here it out to sara russia's president vladimir putin says his country will not engage in an arms race just hours after he easily secured a fourth term with more than seventy six percent of the vote he says russia will do its best to settle all disputes you're using political and diplomatic means when you see going to we don't want to escalate any arms race to speed up any arms race we want to build relations with all the countries in the world sort of a constructive we will try to reach constructive dialogue with all our partners but of course not everything depends on us. as in love both sides should be interested otherwise it won't be any love britain in the european union have agreed to an almost two year transition period after the u.k. leaves the bloc next march that is chief negotiator michel barnier says e.u. rules would continue to apply in britain and both sides would still have access to each other's market this allows time for

a new trade deal the un humanitarian affairs chief has been describing the increasingly desperate situation in the democratic republic of congo mark local calls addressing the security council the un says four and a half million displaced people are struggling to survive trying to get away from multiple conflicts involving dozens of armed groups humanitarian needs caused by internal conflicts have doubled over the last year thirteen million people need humanitarian assistance more than four point six million children are acutely malnourished including two point two million suffering severe acute malnutrition we're seeing mushroom in epidemics including the worst outbreak of cholera in fifteen years there's also an epidemic of sexual violence most of it unreported and unaddressed. a spokesman for the turkish president says ankara will expand its military operation in syria to other. better ones warning comes

a day after turkish forces by syrian rebels took control of a friend. on counting the cost our russian is getting all they bargain for economically. for reelection 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. will. see. cyprus has long had an important geopolitical position in the mediterranean but it's been at the center of the dispute nine hundred seventy which is. the republic of cyprus is controlled by greek cypriots and is recognized by the international community.