another day another explosion. from one of the thousands of i.e.d. strewn through the landscape of this lawless tribal region in pakistan with only the most basic equipment a fearless bomb disposal unit are determined to counter the horrors of a relentless taliban on stuart. armed with faith a witness documentary at this time on al-jazeera. you. mean was president a close confident and political ally of banks and suci abruptly steps down. the hall raman this is al jazeera live my headquarters here in doha also coming up

a three way summit south korea's president suggests a joint meeting may be possible with the u.s. and north korea. also saudi arabia's crown prince and donald trump discuss a long delayed arms deal during a meeting at the white house. and the death toll from syria's war rises in both damascus and the nearby rebel held on place of eastern pewter. welcome to the program mia miles defacto leader and son suchi is without her right hand man after the abrupt resignation of the country's president in a statement on facebook president to chow said he wanted to take a rest from his current duty his role is largely ceremonial but he's a close confidant and political ally of suchi the country's vice president is still expected to fill the void until a new president is selected well from slews our correspondent in kuala lumpur has

covered. extensively i mean how significant was the years as a symbolic head of state. well you want to be on mars first civilian head of state first civilian president in over fifty years so his five immediate predecessors were either military officers or former military officers his immediate pris his immediate predecessor former president ten saying had resigned from the military so he could take part in the two thousand and ten elections so you so tin chore for president in georgia. he occupied a significant role in that sense having said that he wasn't as powerful as his predecessors as the former president even though the president's role in myanmar is not supposed to be largely ceremonial but to ensure was really just a figure hate a figurehead and that's because he had been hand picked by aung sun suu kyi to fill

that role now and she couldn't become president even though her party the national league for democracy had won the two thousand and fifteen general election by a landslide she was barred from the she was barred under the military draft constitution from becoming president because she's married to a foreigner and has children with foreign citizenship so shit picked to insure who was a trusted and loyal friend to become president now and there have been rumors circulating since last year even about his ill health and that he was going to step down we have known for some time now that it has that his health hasn't been great that he sought medical treatment abroad for several times now and that he's lost weight in recent months but it has to be said that this resignation comes at a time when myanmar is facing increasing international pressure and a lot of criticism for its handling of the crisis an exodus where we've seen nearly three quarters of a million will hinge or fleeing to bangladesh since august last year amid what the

u.n. calls a textbook example of ethnic cleansing and of course you know we have this process in some shape or form to find a more permanent replacement was a timeline that we're looking at. well according to a statement posted on the president's office facebook page and this is how we found out about the president's resignation as well through a notice posted on wednesday morning now the acting there's already an acting president that is the first vice president he stepped up to the role and the part and parliament is going to choose a successor within seven days now and the let's talk about the acting president in that role is now being filled by the first vice president he's someone who selected by the military his name is min sway it's under the constitution that the first vice president steps up to fulfill that role now and the parliament then now will

have to put forward a name and it's going to be the lower house that will put forward a name because to ensure that the president who's just resigned was someone that was. selected or select well in a sense elected by the lower house and then the entire parliament lower house and upper house voted on his selection so that same process is going to take place and according to the government that's going to happen within the next seven days well and in the meantime men sway who's. who's the vice president selected by the military is going to be the acting president for the moment there for all schools who leave it to follow votes there in myanmar very closely with you thank you to reuters journalists are back in court in mia more for the eleventh time since they were arrested in december. choi su who are accused of having secret government papers no rights group so the journalists are being targeted for their reporting on the rohingya crisis during

a military crackdown in rakhine state they face up to fourteen years in jail. now the president of south korea has hinted at the possibility of a meeting between both koreas and the u.s. and is expected to meet north korean leader kim jong un next month to discuss pyongyang's nuclear missile program separately u.s. president donald trump has said he'll hold talks with kim by the way. on your dime a year or so you are a north korea u.s. summit would be a historic event in itself fallen into korean summit depending on the location it could be even more dramatic and depending on progress it may lead to a three way summit between the self north and the united states well kathy novak has more from seoul. it's been about a two week since the us president donald trump said he would be willing to meet with the leader of north korea kim jong un and for the first time north korean state news media has referred to a sign of change in u.s. north korean relations and the article in the state news agency case c.n.a.

did not mention directly the possibility of meetings between kim jong un and either south korean president monday and or donald trump but it did talk about this shift in the atmosphere and credited what it said was north korea's proactive measures the art article said that it was not because of a campaign of sanctions and pressure led by the united states that brought about the possibility of this meeting while here in south korea there is an atmosphere of cautious optimism in the lead up to the planned summit between the president moving in and kim jong un president moon spoke to a meeting of the preparatory committee today and said that there is a possibility of a three way summit between the united states north korea and south korea if the two other meetings go well he also laid out some of his goals for his meeting with kim jong un including of course denuclearization on the korean peninsula as well as

peace but he also brought up the possibility of the normalization of relations between the united states and north korea which is interesting because of course there have been no diplomatic relations between those two countries and president moon also suggested there could be more economic cooperation between not only north and south korea but north korea south korea and the united states. saudi crown prince mohammed bin salon has met the u.s. president at the white house with donald trump using the encounter for an unusual photo opportunity he displayed larger cards to illustrate the benefits of arms being sold to riyadh but rights groups say those sales should be made to saudi arabia which is the leading a campaign in yemen against the who thing rebels alan fischer reports now from washington d.c. . it was a look here rival for such a high profile visit the crown prince from saudi arabia did not go in through the front door but soon found himself in the oval office and the u.s. president donald trump addressing mainly a domestic audience took the opportunity to outline the financial importance of the

so did alicia's ship some of the things that have been approved and are currently under construction and will be delivered. so the review very soon this is mohammed bin soundman second visit to the white house in a year and he was keen to point out this was the continuation of an old alliance the oldest ally for us of america in the middle east right now more than eighty years but there was a warning from the president to saudi arabia and others in the region whether it's on arabia or other countries as we know there will be no funding it is we have a zero tolerance for the funding of terrorists among the things to be covered in the talks the iran nuclear deal security across the middle east. and the war in yemen which was also being discussed across time with some u.s. senators expressing concern about america's continued support of the saudi led operation in the country u.s. forces have been actively engaged in support of the saudi coalition in this war

providing intelligence an aerial refueling of planes whose bombs have killed thousands of people and made this humanitarian crisis far worse crime prince's visit here to the white house marks the start of a three week trip to the united states he'll meet business leaders oil executives academics representatives from silicon valley's high tech companies and the movie industry all in good reshaping his kingdom's image here in the united states but one analyst says there are bigger issues to deal with closer to home for saudi arabia of course saudi arabia has transformed itself as a from a status quo power to it but to an activist party in the region which has put it directly at coalition course with iran and sets the stage for a very dangerous and unpredictable environment there was no mention of the ongoing gulf crisis in the oval office treated bargo against qatar as no been in place for ten months and donald trump has moved away from his offer to host talks for

everyone at camp david mohammed bin salman has a long list of things to be discussed debated and agreed to ring this u.s. trip and he does so believing his relationship. the president is deep strong and mutually beneficial alan fischer al-jazeera at the white house. and shortly after the prince's visit to the white house the u.s. senate blocked a resolution that would have prevented continued american involvement in the saudi led war in the end when the vote was fifty five to forty four said to syria now where more than sixty civilians have been killed in the last remaining rebel held parts of eastern ghouta they were killed in attacks by the syrian military and its allies another thirty five people died when a rocket fired by rebels landed in a market in government controlled damascus now it happened in the cache cool area close to the frontline in the fighting between government and rebel forces. is following the story from beirut in neighboring lebanon. this is not the first time

civilians in damascus in government controlled territory are killed by rocket fire rebels have fired rockets into damascus since the pro-government alliance launched the bombing campaign over a month ago in fact over thirty civilians have been killed this is the way that the rebels have been retaliated it is also one of the reasons why according to the government they have launched this campaign to recapture east and would have to eliminate this threat now the bombing that targeted the busy market in damascus. coinciding with a renewed escalation in eastern huta the rebel pockets the rebel pockets in eastern huta coming under heavy fire over the past twenty four hours dozens of civilians are being killed continue to be killed in this ongoing campaign and the united nations is also warning that the immense human suffering is only going to get worse well still ahead here on al-jazeera police in texas believe they're looking for

a serial bomber after another package explodes addicts building. until a tissue to the woman working to save an ancient but do you know due to his use capital. hello that siberian cold air hasn't completely disappeared but i think we've seen the last real push of it it's actually come all the way through western europe and down into northern spain it's now tucked into this curl of cloud here that is going to make some difference because as he winds up it was quite an activist system bringing a lot of rain to spain some starts as the apple nines and then quite a lot of snow as it goes again across croatia and probably hungary unplayed not stretch out towards the rumania this is still the very steady part of europe the

cold bit well still france and germany across to austria still attacking the siberian stuff a is down to single figures you'll notice but it is improving in spain twelve in madrid in the sun should be out making it feel better paris up to about nine zero to five miss this passing snow isn't really siberia now she's a bit of proper late winter stuff running through northern germany does still cause feel cold in many many places as yet now a result of what's happening the western med means we will see some pretty miserable weather on the shores of algeria into museum look at the maximum temperature now g.'s eleven degrees that we can improve on that of course as the sun comes out but not very much and if your analogy is just expect to miserable days.

like. welcome back you're watching officer i'm so ho robin a reminder of our top stories we are mars president shall corps has announced he's stepping down in a statement on facebook chore said he wanted to take a rest from his work rumors of his poor health have been circling for months now

took office in twenty sixteen hours a close friend of the leader and son soon. the president of south korea has hinted at the possibility of a meeting between both koreas and the u.s. is expected to meet north korean leader kim jong il next month to discuss pyongyang's nuclear missile program separately u.s. president donald trump has said he will meet kim by day. and the u.s. senate has killed a resolution that would have prevented continued american involvement in the saudi led war in yemen the vote was fifty five to forty four now the vote took place after the saudi crown prince mohammed bin samantha visited the white house on monday. facebook will brief the u.s. congress on wednesday over a scandal involving the data breach of millions of its users cambridge analytical political consultancy based in london is accused of gaining an authorized access to the details of fifty million facebook users the firm worked on doldrums

presidential campaign and bricks it in the u.k. its chief executive alexander nix has been suspended he's been secretly recorded boasting about the company's ability to sway elections the scandal has hurt facebook share price with stocks falling nine percent over the past two days wiping sixty billion dollars on. the company's value. reports. a virtual world with a very real money making data trail uses of social media platforms unaware how profitable the information they have is for those willing to access it the scandal involving facebook may make many of us reconsider that. cambridge analytical is accused of misusing the data of millions of facebook users we've had quite a few with a whistleblower who works at the british based data mining firm says the information was used to build a system which may have influenced voters in the us presidential election as well

as all the votes and how a company even had dealings with russian interests we made it pretty damn clear through a lot of people in russia that we had this giant the decider and that it was all sort of prepackaged with you know predictions about what's going to influence people and their political you know orientation. and that that can like plug right into you know like online display networks and advertising networks. and and that that data was being modeled by somebody who was also working in russia on russian projects that were very similar to some politicians the advantage of using information harvested from social media be used as a try and get into the minds of potential voters but there's been little questioning of the consequences which is now why the information commissioner wants that search warrant to get into the opera. and to get an audit of.

the details of millions of facebook users were reportedly gathered by a university professor using a personality testing out he created called this is your digital life well uses gave that information to be used by him it's alleged the data was. then sold to a third party cambridge analytic are in violation of facebook's own policies but cambridge analytic denies doing anything wrong and says it deleted all records when it discovered how the data had been attained from facebook not only is britain's data protection watchdog after proof that data was wiped facebook says it wants that proof to the social media giant has since hired a digital forensics to find out how the data was leaked and assurances that it was destroyed but its response may have come too late facebook share price fell almost seven percent wiping nearly forty billion dollars of its value the company's chief

of security alex thomas is reportedly to leave because of internal disagreements of how facebook should deal with its role in spreading disinformation politicians in britain and the us are now pushing for facebook's chief executive mark zuckerberg to appear before them to answer questions over the massive data breach meanwhile the accusations against cambridge analytic are rapidly growing since. an undercover investigation by britain's channel four secretly taped a cambridge analytical executive appearing to boast about the firm's ability to sway elections by entrapping politicians in compromising situations. and conducting fake news campaigns something facebook's accused of enabling and failing to tackle effectively sunny day ago london. now a bomb contained in the package exploded at a fed ex building near the u.s.

city of san antonio on choose day the latest in a series of five attacks in the state of texas now police say they have identified several people of interest but no suspects one hundred house the story. police in texas say they are hunting for a serial bomber we are working under the belief that this is related to the other bombing incidents that have occurred in our community over the past week and a half package bombs in the state capital austin killed two people injured four others on tuesday a fifth package exploded at a courier distribution center in the city of shirts near san antonio a package had been traveling along the automated conveyor when it had to have exploded. one employee that was standing near the explosion later complained complained of ringing in the ears. she was treated and released we were very fortunate that there were no injuries police say the eventual destination of that

package was an address in austin and would have come here next brian himes in sixty other employees of a courier company were evacuated after another suspicious package was found here. in santa down in explode then i go in sort of the truck goes and then the truck is full of the other trucks and diesel and the whole senate is all destroyed and everybody strapped in there you scared now. the fed ex explosion was the fifth in a series apparently detonating early the first three packages were left on doorsteps like deliveries then the pattern went from specific to random a fourth bomb on sunday injured two pedestrians who stepped on a roadside tripwire you can hear the blast in this surveillance video. not since the attacks by so-called unabomber ted kaczynski in one nine hundred ninety five police faced a bombing spree like it the bombers progressing he's feeling extremely powerful he's got the city. and he's reveling in the fear that he's producing five hundred

federal state and local law enforcement officers are trying to find the bomber the triggers on the bombs are sophisticated but police say there is no set pattern to them now they're asking everyone in this city of one million to consider every package suspicious until they find the bomber and stop the explosions police addressed the bomber directly we want to understand what brought you to this point and we want to listen to you a plea for the start to talks in an end to the bombings john hendren al-jazeera austin texas. while staying in the country a police officer in the u.s. state of minnesota has been charged with the murder of shoot of shooting an unarmed australian woman in july mohammad knew shot forty year old justin and while responding to a nine one one call about a possible sexual assault near a house prosecutors say he abused his authority to use deadly force in the

short time between when ms damon approached the squad car and the time that officer noor fired the fatal shot there is no evidence there are certain nur encountered a threat appreciated a threat investigated a threat or confirmed a threat that justified his decision to use deadly force instead officer nor recklessly and intentionally fired a stand gun from the passenger seat in disregard for human life venezuela's president has accused the united states of persecuting his country nicholas madeira criticized president donald trump's decision to ban americans from using venezuela's new crypto currency called the petro the cash strapped country is the first in the world to launch its own version of bitcoin. but if

i denounced the persecution illegitimate illegal and absurd of the imperialist government of mr donald trump against the people of venezuela the financial monetary criminal persecution but besides that i denounce it to the world and i ask for the solidarity of the people of the world i also tell the venezuelan people man and women of my country petro won't be stopped by anyone venezuela won't be stopped by anyone and we are going forward with the petro long live the petro of venezuela . the african leaders are meeting in rwanda to sign a new free trade deal it will be the largest since the formation of the world trade organization now the continent wide trade agreement is a flagship goal of the agenda twenty sixty three that's the african union's long term vision for the wealthy and conflict free africa shallop ballasts has the latest. the a.u. is calling it the african continent to free trade area and africa wide trade block mean to allow unrest strict to movement of people goods and capital across fifty

five countries it's unprecedented and has been food in years in the making trade on the continent is just sixteen percent the reason africa has dozens of currencies and transport costs twice the world average the continent is also split between seventeen often competing trade blocs the biggest being the common market for eastern and southern africa komisar and twenty fifteen a landmark deal was done between komisar and two other blocs the southern african development community and the east african community it covers an area nearly twice the size of china stretching from cairo to cape town that was the building block for a continent wide agreement one that covers africa's one point two billion people at the combined g.d.p. more than three point five trillion dollars it's predicted that a trade grouping this large should give africa a g.d.p. equal to that of the u.s. and europe combined by twenty fifty that is what the african union wants but it

requires the agreement of its fifty five members heads of state from angola to kenya nigeria to south africa cheerleading the launch one leader that is missing the president of nigeria mohammad harry was scheduled to speak but pulled out at the last minute arguing more consultations on made it seem as a setback because nigeria has the biggest economy in africa and without it the free trade agreement may not amount to much. is in danger of losing much of its rich cultural heritage and ancient buildings of folded into disrepair while traditions and crafts disappearing fast but what. to say. to meter into this. for layla there is no place more in chanted when she discovered this house several years ago it was a transformative event the fourth time i walked there. and i know it sounds

funny but it felt like the building was talking to me layla who is passionate about preservation worried that not enough was being done to protect tunisia's cultural heritage so she bought the property which was built in the seventeenth century and decided to turn it into a hotel the data been gusen is located in the medina of tunis a unesco world heritage site every corner has a story of. gypsum carving the world's carving. everything is how. the entrepreneur says the restoration process was extremely difficult but she was determined now she puts money back into her community so that other spaces can also be restored and more jobs can be created. there are thousands. of products. especially with. purchasing power increasing.

in the. decreasing a lot. a growing number of tunisians say the medina which is considered the historic heart of the country's capital is falling into disrepair while its narrow streets still contain a rich sampling of tunisian artistry and craftsmanship vendors are growing concerned. down one of the alleys plies a trade he inherited from his father and grandfather making traditional tunisian hats his family has owned and operated this business for close to one hundred years to keep the national when you see it somewhat in the ward it's like you are seeing the tunisian flat because of how it exists only in tunisia like many other merchants here struggles to get by he also worries an important piece of tunisia's

cultural past may be slipping away from. there used to be lots of other shops around here now as you see they are all closed not that many people are active anymore in this field. but not all hope is lost and not all traditions are being forgotten in another part of the medina tunisians come together in a colorful celebration of the past this is an example of our heritage is important to tunisians today is the national day after this terrible dresses well it's a day when men and women young and old gather in the medina they marched through the old city's alleyways and wearing their country's traditional attire. here generations of tunisians are attempting to build a better future on the foundations of their shared heritage mohammed. tunis.

you're watching all just their arms the whole robin these are our top story mere miles president inshore has announced he's stepping down in a statement on facebook i'm sure said he wanted to take a rest from his work rumors of his poor health have been circulating for months shaw took office in twenty sixteen and is a close friend of the leader unsung suchi. the president of south korea has hinted at the possibility of a meeting between both careers and the u.s. . is expected to meet north korean leader kim jong un next month to discuss pyongyang's nuclear missile program separately the us president donald trump has said he'll meet kim by may number on your dime or your so you're a north korea u.s. summit would be historic event in itself fallen into korean summit depending on the location it could be even more dramatic and depending on progress it may lead to

a three way summit between the self north and the united states now the u.s. senators killed a resolution that would have prevented continued american involvement in the saudi led war in yemen the vote was fifty five to forty four now the vote took place after the saudi crown prince mohammed bin son man visited the white house on monday in syria more than sixty civilians have been killed in the last remaining rebel held parts of eastern guta they were killed in attacks by the syrian military and its allies another thirty five people died when a rocket fired by rebels landed in the market in government controlled damascus it happened in the kurdish cool area close to the frontline of the fighting between government and rebel forces. also police in texas believe they're looking for a serial after a package exploded at a fed ex building a ball contained in a package exploded near the u.s. city of san antonio on choose day it's the latest in

a series of five attacks those are the headlines of the news in thirty minutes next on al-jazeera it's inside story. just. seeing. some journalists decided to sacrifice their integrity for. the listening at this time on al-jazeera. making his debut in the united states the saudi crown prince promotes a vision of look forward for his country and his foreign policies have left the gulf divided and on the brink of what impression is mohamed been making on the international stage this is inside story.