al jazeera where ever you are. facing realities growing up when did you realize that you were living in a special place the so-called secret city getting to the heart of the matter why is activists to live in jail just because she expressed herself hear their story on talk to al-jazeera at this time. of last trips through new year celebrations in the afghan capital kabul at least twenty six people have been killed. as the robin you're watching al-jazeera live from our headquarters here in doha

also coming up in the next thirty minutes some of the one hundred ten schoolgirls abducted in nigeria have been returned home. also near mars president a close confidant and political ally of allison suchi abruptly steps down. and we have live pictures coming out of austin texas where the suspect in the spate of bombings is dead. welcome to the program we begin with breaking news coming out of the afghan capital kabul twenty six people have been killed in a suicide bombing in the capital now the attack a blew himself up close to a shrine in the west of kabul near the university some afghans are marking the no rules holiday or celebration of the start of spring the blast wounded as many as eight. people let's join have wadekar he's

a national security analyst joins me on the telephone line from kabul this was supposed to be a time of celebration so the timing of this attack is certainly no coincidence. absolutely. it's no coincidence it's the new year celebration for us here in the persian new year where kids are probably quality a lot of people are gathering. across various points in this weekend this is certainly one of them where people are strongly agreed to combine and all together we have had a good marriage of hope about any any confusion for us since god doesn't mind people but again you can see is not a good sign this is not a good sign this is the start of the new year party on the sun and this is not going to like him why would this location have been targeted specifically.

tune to the merge two two two monsoons like i said a lot of people gathered. and the proximity of about three to four hundred meters the shrine where people are going to. start of the year. and then to do to introduce more damage as they can but the real question is can ministry of. intelligence. department. the security department overall how the press conference yesterday were distant and the security measures across our longer sun to allow people to do some of the. but this is the heart of the heart of coughlin it's not just about it's just about a hundred to two hundred meters from couple university central university it is despite the measures how could you have people. to various check points and make it

all due to the heart of city and inflict damage to two. dozen days of flow of people who are getting citizens who are going out to celebrate new year's mr want to have calls while the investigation continues no one has yet taken responsibility for that attack but the fingers will point to two specific groups will they know the taliban or isolate afghanistan. my my assumption is. because when i talked about their sharing that is located in this area a lot of our hands are our brothers and sisters go to celebrate new year's over there yes we do have other people. here but we have had similar can. and it was claimed by higher salaries my assumption is. inflicting damage to the people one does raise questions. that will leave it there for now and

of course come back to you for the moment thanks so much for joining us from the capital kabul there are reports that some of the one hundred ten schoolgirls abducted in northeastern nigeria last month have been returned people from the town of the party say that they were brought back by men who they thought were members of the armed group boko haram but it's not known at this stage how many girls were brought back home now the kidnapping last month was the largest mass abduction since back of her took more than two hundred seventy schoolgirls from the town of chibok in twenty fourteen our correspondent address is live for us now from nigeria joins me from jala what more do we know about the conversations between the girls and the the security forces and their parents to say that they have been released. well basically. he's not except that they expect to see

him to come to the big old to receive them however when jesus spoke to our father somebody we met when because the taken immediately he can fall into us that he spoke to his daughter out this morning and that he spoke to people people who actually called him from kept saying that they can see the gold it's not sudden for that at the moment it's whether or not these. brought in by a book on how much some people's faith really because we didn't see much on this however what we understand is that some form of negotiations may have taken place and of course i meant we also have to be very clear about what we know about the numbers released we're not saying here that all of the girls have released we're just being told some have been saying they are released. exactly exactly

and one on one. actually spent look i cannot stay and explain this is what we teach is what we we we can say each but i can only confirm to you when i tidy up everything i have my exposed on the ground and let's see how it goes from here however there is much expectation that it will take long before these goals are released what is more p.a.'s how much in terms of grants remember the chicos when some of them were used as a deuce that's become a money problem for the release of these goals and a lot of people also suspect. that this particular group and if you use of course the kuwaitis the concerns of many nigerians that these money runs from money being paid to. the opportunity to however at the moment what we don't know is the exact number of goals read but we are hearing sources different social standing as the

school could have seen some of these goals at the moment that you spoke. with i think we have to put this in context about how much pressure and criticism the whole forty's and the government have been on for not being able to rescue those girls from two balkan twenty fourteen and then seeing you might say a repeat of history only last month has been a great deal of pressure hasn't. the loopy absolute a lot of people were concerned a lot of people were angered by the fact that there are many people mention missions and we couldn't stop these things from happening what happened. was because. and security forces to secure schools gave the government in the region the the the. boarding schools goes back to them now we. greet that the government and business you're in state. from. which by the way you

saw only a few weeks a week from now the court under question because. there was a lot of pressure on three on the government the government to pull a lot of responses from what governor bush is asking. more soldiers. heavy equipment on the ground to try. to stop these guys but what people are saying was why did you take the government long to respond when there was evidence is like amnesty international there was reports that some of these fighters one kid i was before we walked into got away with little or no resistance so. intense pressure to get back this goes and potential use expected. to get. back to quite a few people you will truly good solutions or the. operations by the nigerian army to take the will for the moment will leave it and thanks very much for the update

and interest in yala in northeastern nigeria let's also bring you another breaking news story these are live pictures coming out of austin the red flashing lights obviously of the security services we believe outside the location where they think they may have called it the suspect the serial bomber who's been terrorizing texas may have been in fact found dead will try guessable clavicle. they should hear now from john hendren our correspondent who's on the phone the details are quite sketchy at the moment john was he killed by security forces or did he take his own life we don't know yet but this is certainly a significant development in the hunt for anyone who might have been behind these. package bombs are being described. as right colleagues have confirmed challenges here that the bomber is dead we are told that he detonated a device and that is how he died the circumstances get murkier after that there are

reports in local media pursued by police so it's not clear whether he set off that device on purpose whether the device went off while he was doing whatever he was doing perhaps planting a bomb but what we know is that according to police after a spate of bombings six explosives around five of them exploded killing two people and injuring four that bomber is no longer alive that is about all we know at this stage and of course the police are making a direct appeal to him what less than twenty four hours ago because the motive for these these packages was still very unclear so many questions still have to be asked about who this person is and what his motivation might have been. yes and we may never know that. police will of course search through all of his things but the closest analogy to this case is the case of the unabomber ted kaczynski

a monkey named five that dragged out for quite some time then she captured him alive with the help of his brother and. was able to explain what it is he did of course he had presented a. screed in the new york times explaining exactly why he did that more police are going to have to assemble some kind of motive an explanation from the killer in this case who had held a silly really. tensely captive people who would stop going out largely and the people tonight you said that it first it seemed like the. event that didn't necessarily have bearings on their lives it happened in neighborhoods in the city were perhaps they didn't live the tonight. seen police

respond to one of the incidents it turned out to be a false alarm. showed them the importance of this event and really moved in fear for their lives in a way they never had before this is really shaken the city but it is there an accelerated police closed it down within two weeks and now we just await the forensics in the search for a motive to tell people why this happened they so they will leave it there john viewers watching those shots that live pictures coming out of austin texas as the police around the location where the bubble seems to have died will bring the story later on in the program thank you. in syria at least sixty civilians have been killed in the last remaining rebel held parts of eastern ghouta they died in attacks by the syrian military and its allies another thirty five were killed when a rocket fired by rebels landed in the market in government controlled damascus now

it happened in the school area close to the front line of the feinstein train government and rebel forces let's bring in our correspondent zain who's reporting from beirut in neighboring lebanon i mean to say that. it's pretty quiet at the moment in syria is not a word we often really used during this conflict in the have not used during eight years but there is quite a specific reason today. yes a low in the fighting it has happened a number of times since this bombing campaign began over a month ago and every time there is a relative lull in the fighting it means that their negotiations taking place and what we understand from sources is that the. group which is in control of the town of stuff that's in the west of eastern because eastern with and now is divided into three pockets. reaching a deal with the russian military each of these pockets of course controlled by

a different rebel groups and these rebel factions holding separate negotiations with the russian military so the possibility of a deal a deal that would involve i heard a sham laying down their arms and agreeing to move to other rebel controlled areas in the north of the country of course they can take their families with them and any other civilians who do not want to cross into government controlled territories and there are quite a few who do not want to cross because they are wanted by the government there hasn't been any movement now the russian center for reconciliation is saying that three hundred fifteen people left and fifteen fighters surrendered we're not sure if this is really part of this agreement that is reportedly reached between a kurdish and the russian military but undoubtedly this is going to put more pressure on the two other rebel factions who are engaged in talks those talks collapsed yesterday. and of course many would be wondering what sort of scape routes are available for those who want to try and find a way out while there is as you say a possible a potential low in the fighting. yes humanitarian corridors

designated by the russian military according to the united nations forty five thousand people left easter and there was a mass exodus as front lines were quickly changing because pro-government forces now control seventy percent of our approximately seventy percent of eastern now these people are not really wanted by the state they're not really afraid there are reports that some have been arrested but there are people who are still trapped inside media activists civil defense volunteers these people are really afraid because they are wanted by the state and they have been appealing to the united nations to the i.c.r.c. to create safe passages for them internationally monitored safe passages for them to leave that has still not happened before the bible leave it to come back to as a situation develops in a sort of a in beirut. saudi crown prince mohammed bin salaam has met the u.s. president the white house with donald trump using the encounter for

a rather unusual photo opportunity one displayed large card to illustrate the benefits of arms being sold to riyadh but rights groups say those sales shouldn't be made to saudi arabia which is leading a campaign in yemen against hooty rebels al official has more 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 find 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 sided relationship some of the things that have been approved and are currently under construction and will be delivered to syria very soon this is mohammed been summoned second visit to the white house in a year and he was keen to point out this was the continuation of an old alliance we have all this ally first 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

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 is also being discussed across town 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 growth 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 a coalition course with iran and that sets the stage for a very dangerous and unpredictable environment there was no mention of the ongoing gulf crisis in the oval office a saudi led treated bargo against qatar has 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 agree during this u.s. trip and he does so believe in his relationship with 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 yemen the vote was fifty five to forty four staying in america now and

a police officer in the u.s. state of minnesota has been charged with murder for shooting an unarmed australian woman last july mohammed knew who was shot forty year old justin de-boned while responding to a nine one one call about a possible sexual assault in iraq 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. sure noor recklessly and intentionally fired a sand gun from the passenger seat in districts thousand and seven election

campaign was illegally financed police are looking into claims that the libyan leader at the time moammar gadhafi gave some cosey as much as sixty million dollars when he was running for office sarkozy to nice any wrongdoing venezuela's president has accused the united states of persecuting his country because 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 it's 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 men 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 will stay on the subject finance ministers and central bankers at the g twenty summit in argentina are also discussing cryptocurrency this week they set a july deadline for ideas on how to regulate digital currencies life which it coined. by china's president has to close the annual session of parliament with a warning that anyone who tries to divide china will fail and be punished by history she didn't mention the us president donald trump by name but he recently angered chinese leaders by encouraging direct meetings between the taiwanese and u.s. governments scott has more from beijing it's been called china's annual political theater the national people's congress and this year it produced a big changes and a number of firsts. but the changes were heavily directed and controlled by the chinese communist party term limits on the presidency were lifted leading the way

for president xi jinping to continue as leader indefinitely he's also the head of the party for the first time leaders swore an oath of loyalty to country and constitution when they took up their position another first president xi addressed the delegates at the closing ceremony firing his strongest mourning yet to taiwan seen by beijing as a separatist problems. chinese people and china share one faith every inch of land of our great country cannot and will not speak taken from us we have firm in the resolve to up hold china's sovereignty and territorial integrity the government is getting its a biggest overhaul in years restructuring of ministries and departments including the creation of a super anti-corruption agency with expanded toward what president she's moved to further consolidate his in the party's power something that he is the most powerful

chinese president in decades but that position comes with risks by centralizing power to himself there are a lot of potential reforms he can push forward then the risk is a whether he can make the right decision forever as at some point people will only tell him what he wants to hear some media covering the congress i know for the sake of fantic questions the journalist here in blue reacting to another report is less than probing questions it immediately went viral in china prompting quick reaction from censors also controlled the annual invitation only news conference held by premier league on questions were prescreened he touched on trade friction with the u.s. . we don't know why i think a trade war one do anyone any good using the word war to describe trade is against the principle we hold both parties use of the sensibilities to avoid a trade war. with china's challenges outlined on closing day one message

was clear president she was the person to lead the nation through them or a state media put it he's the helmsmen the last leader to get that title was mao zedong it's got harder al-jazeera beijing now african leaders are meeting in rwanda to sign a new free trade deal and it will be the largest since the formation of the world trade organization the continent wide trade agreement is a flagship goal of agenda twenty sixty three now that's the african union's long term vision for a wealthy and conflict free africa charlotte dallas reports. 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 fuji is 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. and twenty fifteen alleged 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 hades of state from angola to kenya to south africa cheerleading the launch one leader though 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 agreements may not amount to much. a species of rhinoceros is on the brink of extinction after the last male died in kenya ended the life of the northern white rhino called sudan when his health worsened katherine saw it as more. there to remarry and that the old pager conservancy in central kenya put sudan to sleep because he was in too much pain and could not walk. he had been struggling for years with age complications that got worse in the last few months but he leave to reach and the last his life managing to stay clean off poachers most wiped out the entire population of north and white rhinos in the one nine hundred seventy s. named after his country of now south sudan he ended up in kenya from

a zoo in the czech republic with a few others to help them breed in an environment which was more like the natural habitat but the program proved difficult as sudan got older he became weak and his sperm count was low so now researchers are watching on ways to use in vitro fertilization to save the species from extinction this will be the fast of its kind a delegate expensive and risky process we want to do everything possible we even tried to keep them next to the southern white rhinos to see whether you know we could get down to be a little interested so we brought in your girls and we said please you know can you talk to them and quite please stand and eyes but he just didn't respond while the north and white rhinos are the most endangered of this species the black rhino is also in grave danger all poached for the horn now more expensive than gold but

measures a nine place to protect them in kenya in the last four five years you'll notice that for the case of kenya putting on rhinos in particular has reduced by up to eighty percent and that is the effort to try and make sure that we protect them it's a pity that we get to this point for not a white rhino as humanity we should have done better sudan was forty five years old they've lent all of about ninety human ears he leaves behind his dough tonight gin and grand to there now the world's only north and white rhinos the survival of the subspecies depends on them and the technology that has never been tried before cathy zoi al-jazeera nairobi kenya. well with just two females left conservationists face a difficult task reviving the northern white rhino but efforts with other african rhinos have been more successful when sudan was born in one thousand nine hundred seventy three there were seven hundred northern white rhinos left in existence by two thousand and eight poaching rendered them extinct in the wild the black rhino

also saw a dramatic drop in numbers down to two thousand four hundred ten in one nine hundred ninety five but conservation measures have shot those numbers straight back up to five thousand and the southern white rhino has been rescued from the brink of extinction as well in the course of a century the early one thousand eight hundred say were only fifty two hundred left them and the around twenty thousand and more of those stories of course on our website are just a dot com. you're watching i was there i'm still wrong and these are our top news stories at least twenty six people have been killed in a suicide bombing in the afghan capital kabul the attacker blooms out up close to a shrine in the west of the city close to the university afghans are marking that no ruse new year holiday the blast wounded at least eighteen other people. there

are reports that some of the one hundred ten schoolgirls abducted in northeastern nigeria last month have been returned people from the town of dab cheese say they were brought back by men they thought were members of the armed baka her arm but it's not known at this stage how many girls are back home. and texas police have confirmed to al-jazeera that the suspect in a series of parcel bombings is dead there are conflicting reports if he was shot or blew himself up after being cornered by police. liam asked president to ensure has also resigned in a statement on facebook he said that he wanted to take a rest from his work rumors of his poor health have been circulating for months jaw took office in twenty sixteen is a close friend and leader of unsung suchi the president of south korea has hinted at the possibility of a meeting between both careers and the u.s. mungy and is expected to meet north korean leader kim jong un next month to discuss

chinese nuclear missile program separately u.s. president dog trump has said that he'll meet kim later in the year. on your dime a year or so you and 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 in syria sixty civilians have been killed by government forces and that allies in the last remaining rebel held parts of eastern ghouta in a separate attack thirty five people died when a rocket fired by rebels landed in the market in the government controlled damascus the israeli military is going to firm for the first time that it bombed a suspected nuclear reactor in syria eleven years ago its release previously classified cockpit video of the attack the deer as who in two thousand and seven those were the headlines here on al-jazeera we have more news in half an hour to stay with us a.j. selects its next. lost and

a man. found and saved. when he's reveals how one charity is giving pakistan's lost children a new chance at life. for . you on the feet thank i. mean.