great the cat's on the international list of threatened species. stories of life. and inspiration. a series of short documentaries from around the world. that celebrate the human spirit against the odds some of them come before a focal. al-jazeera selects change makers at this time. boko haram releases one hundred one of the girls they kidnapped last month from their school in nigeria. hello i'm maryam namazie in london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up

a russian as strike kills twenty two people most of them children as they leave a school in syria's italy a province. facebook shares slide for a third day with mark zuckerberg yet to break his silence over the misuse of its users data. the suspect in a series of bombings that terrorized austin texas blows himself up as police move into a rest him and african leaders sign a deal to set up a free trade area allowing unrestricted movement of people and goods across fifty five countries. most of one hundred ten schoolgirls who were abducted a month ago in northeast nigeria and reunited with their families on one goals were released to their hometown of datu by book around fighters a handful are still missing nigerian government says it agreed a temporary pause in fighting with the armed group to secure their release some

avenge of aid has the latest. it's difficult to hold back after would be good to have been through these are some of the hundred children who were kidnapped last month. just took them from their school and dumped she town in northeastern nigeria the girls say five of their from mr stein. you know when i was when they took us from the school would be sitting thinking about what we might eat them we heard a gunshot everybody was confused they asked us to come to the school gate we were in the area they picked us into the vehicle and asked who were the people fasting that they gave us a drink soup in a cake this was on the way after then they took us food there under a tree and gave us food to cook we cooked and i. ation proceeded further we continued going we entered one river then we boarded a canoe and crossed the river into a village they took us away from the village in the night we boarded another canoe to another place and remained in that place until today when they brought us back

we didn't go to any other places they didn't mistreat us the dust in the distance are the boko haram vehicles which dropped off the children parents and relatives have been anxiously waiting for weeks to find out what happened to their children nina good need to do and. i so with my own eyes love a book of her own vehicles they were with the children they drop the children at one corner they told us to give space for people to recognize our children and i got my child. to government really clear that it would negotiate with the kidnappers rather than use military force. one has any words of competition i don't feel that the last of the children are much more important to us than. you can if there is an isa islands at the girls' school and men dressed in military fatigues entered the school and took the girls away in their truck. this isn't the first time school girls have been abducted there was an international outcry in two

thousand and fourteen when more than two hundred seventy girls were kidnapped from two broke many have still not been found. nigerian forces have not declared the details of the deal under which these latest goods were released. the jury and its allies have been fighting in the region for years but brazen kidnapping in drop off of victims indicates that the group is far from being defeated. and job leads to zero. at least twenty two people mostly children have been killed by russian air strike in syria as a province the white helmet say the children died while leaving a school in village further south in eastern guta a russian brokered deal has reportedly been reached to evacuate a rebel group there really two thousand people have died in the besieged and claim since the government intensified its attacks a month ago so in a holder has more from beirut yet again civilians children and so are the victims and in this war according to the united nations in two thousand and seventeen one

thousand children were killed it was fifty percent higher than the previous year the latest victims killed in a harbor here in the province of idlib province which is under the control of the opposition rebel controlled areas really are battlegrounds there are no front lines residential areas have been targeted the united nations calls that collective punishment further south yet another battleground in syria eastern huta where we have seen really one of the if not the ferias fiercest bombing campaigns for over a month the pro-government alliance are targeting this rebel controlled enclave to bring about a surrender what we understand from sources is that one of the rebel factions in eastern who. is ready to lay down their arms and evacuate and leave. now there hasn't been any official confirmation but one hundred

a sham and has been in negotiations with the russian military for some time now there is a relative lull in the fighting which is an. cation that negotiations are taking place behind the scenes now this is definitely going to put more pressure on the other two rebel factions in eastern huta who have publicly said that they're not ready to surrender but it is clear from the pro-government alliance that this military assault will not end until the rebels agree to lay them down their arms hundreds of thousands of people according to the united nations are trapped inside this besieged enclave which is now divided into three different pockets do united nations describing the situation as catastrophic. now facebook shares have fallen for a third straight day comes as pressure continues to grow on the farm over revelations that personal data from the social media site was misused by a u.k. analytics company facebook executives have reportedly been meeting with the u.s.

senate has behind closed doors to explain themselves well c.e.o. mark zuckerberg is believed to be ready to make a statement within the next twenty four hours takes a look at what we know so far about cambridge and others because operations. cambridge and a litter care executive say publicly at least that they helped politicians win elections what the company's accused of is secretly and improperly manipulation votes is the famous perhaps best known for its work in the u.s. on donald trump's presidential campaign two years ago it began operating there in two thousand and thirteen when it was formed from its parent company is c.l. and with the involvement of conservative steve benen but its operations extend well beyond america cambridge analytic has executives have reportedly boasted of targeting will than two hundred elections around the world including in kenya nigeria india the czech republic and tina the firm was in kenya just after it

opened its job there was to help her opinion at the time facing charges of crimes against humanity he went on to be elected president cambridge analytical is accused of stoking its nick tensions and demonizing kenya his opponent. its parent company a c.e.o. worked in the caribbean from at least two thousand and ten and one of the accusations is that it targeted lindsay grant an opposition leader on the island of st kitts and nevis by sitting him up and filming him in a shady deal and why do you distributing the video online and the gulf crisis cambridge generalistic a has been linked to a social media campaign to discredit qatar and in the u.k. it worked for the levy you campaign during the brics it reframed i'm british police questions and the need is widening with investigations also underway in the us and

destroyed here. well we have correspondents monitoring developments on both sides of the atlantic mike hanna is following developments in washington and mike as we saw from the report we just heard cambridge analytic his reach went far beyond the u.s. but what questions are being asked over there about the way this firm impacted the twenty sixteen election. well that's precisely the topic of conversation on the hill in the course of the day there is a senate intelligence committee meeting which is discussing the issue of election security and how to avoid any problems in elections in the future now at that meeting though they were supposed to be speaking to some various tech executives including the founder of facebook mark zuckerberg but as yet no such meeting taking place also members of congress have demanded that facebook executives appear before

them to discuss the issue of the data that was provided to cambridge analytical certainly it's a major political issue within the u.s. at present and that's also a multi-layered series of reactions the financial trade commission the f.t.c. is also reported to be investigating facebook and whether it broke in assurance it gave a few years back that it would keep data secure on its servers we also have the new york attorney general as well as in new jersey contemplating civil action against facebook for the misuse of its data so the issue of cambridge analytical within the u.s. at present is focusing on the data that that body and from facebook itself and demanding from facebook to know how secure its servers are still and wasn't aware of the fact that data was taken from its servers and put to the use of influencing election results thank you very much for now mike hanna following the story from

washington d.c. well the u.k. prime minister to resign may has been forced to deny links between her conservative party and cambridge analytic and its parent company s e l as far as i'm aware the government has no current contracts with cambridge analysts go with the with the s.c.l. group what we have seen in cambridge analytical of the allegations are clearly very concerning as is absolutely right that they should be properly invest. it's right that the information commissioner is doing exactly that because people need to have confidence in how their personal data is being used and i would expect facebook cambridge analytic and. is involved to comply fully with the investigation that's taking place. barbour is outside the cambridge analytic offices in central london and as we can see this the firm in its role in influencing voters is very much making waves here in the u.k.

as well tell us more about the political reaction we've had today. well you know much of much of the earth the latest has been about facebook where a former operations manager has been talking to a committee in parliament who've been looking into the whole issue of tech companies and so-called fake news that committee has already told facebook that it's misled them in the past it's ordered or rather it summoned mark zuckerberg himself to come and talk to them and now they've heard from a former official from facebook who says that virtually none of those tens of millions of u.s. citizens whose data was accessed by cambridge analytic it would have known that they were giving their data that they were that that their data was open to direct cambridge analytical whose headquarters are behind me or even to this cambridge academic alexander kogan who's been defending himself in the last few hours saying

that he has been scapegoated by cambridge analytical and by facebook because he says he was approached by them to come up with this app a personal survey on facebook which then led the respondents friends day turn to be passed over he says he's entirely innocent now the information commissioner in britain has applied for a warrant to get into the building behind me to start looking at their computers it's been a long time we believe it was late monday early tuesday when she tried to do that still no movement so no clearer when they'll get in some people suspect that facebook on monday night attempted to do their own search they were in the building then they were told to get out and they did so but as you were just hearing also questions being asked of the conservative party to resume a says she doesn't believe the government has any contracts with the parent company or cambridge analytic of their checking right now she's also faced accusations that

one big tory party conservative party donor was the director of. she says that the party was in discussions with the with. when david cameron was prime minister but it didn't go anywhere so nothing to see here is the the message and also backing an investigation into those latest allegations thank you very much indeed it cambridge analytical offices in central london. all now in another story we're covering the european union has set out plans to increase the tax paid by digital companies finance commissioner. says he wants firms with large digital revenues in europe to pay a tax of three percent of that turnover plans won't come into force unless they're backed by the european parliament and the twenty eight e.u. countries says he's not specifically targeting the group of companies sometimes called google apple facebook and amazon this is neither

a get fact that's north and u.s. tax proposal doesn't target any company or any country we still meet that between one hundred and twenty and one hundred fifty companies will actually fall into the scoop of our proposals they are you piece americans asians others still to come for you on the program a suicide bomber kills at least twenty nine people in afghanistan as they celebrate the persian new year. and preserving their heritage we need the tunisians trying to stop their rich history being lost.

welcome back across central southern china and taiwan the weather conditions are looking dry and fine at the moment and the same goes for much of indo china definitely should be fine maybe they'll share into parts of laos but otherwise it's all looking good here and it stays that way as we move through into friday so let's not do well here let's instead move across into south asia or again is largely fine clear of cloud in sri lanka he says spite of cloud up across northern parts of pakistan india but that's clearing away taking that rain and snow with it so fine conditions for both delhi and crunchy temperatures there into the low thirty's elsewhere looking pretty hot no night poor hundred all in the upper thirty's so moving the forecast through into friday fine conditions prevail kathmandu should be dry then the paul temperatures into the mid twenty's here in the arabian peninsula temperatures just continue to rise around the gulf states thirty three in doha despite a fairly brisk beginning to pick up in the course of the day temperatures still

thirty two degrees or jihad through into friday you notice mecca pushing the forty degree mark now as we head up into the region we've got fine conditions around the caspian sea twenty three in tehran and should be a woman and bite out in iraq with highs here of thirty. hold the benefit of people. so bad they see all the. witness documentaries that open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera.

welcome back to a recap of the top stories this hour most of the hundred ten schoolgirls who were abducted in northeastern nigeria last month have been reunited with their family the girls were turned to the hometown of by what appeared to be a convoy fight it's. twenty two people mostly children have been killed in a russian ass strike in syria. and facebook and now bounce back after a few days with. dollars in market value. was a result of the fallout over revelations from the social media site was misused by a u.k. and six company. suicide bomb attack. has killed at least

twenty nine people in afghanistan this happened just a day after the head of the the u.s. military visited the capital kabul most of the dead were reportedly young people celebrating the new year and. chaos and confusion on the streets of kabul as a burden see crews rushed to the scene of the latest bomb blast the apparent target afghans celebrating the persian new year. behind the so nothing but. it was a group of thirty young men celebrating and dancing when suddenly this suicide bomber detonated the explosive there is security here how was the suicide bomber able to get access to this area but this suicide attacker detonated his device around two hundred meters from the car to the shrine where many afghans gather to mark the start of the new year holiday kabul university is nearby and most of the

dead are understood to be teenagers were taking part in street celebrations a black. just as the deadliest to hit the capital after weeks of repeated attacks. here unfortunately once again our enemies are spilled the blood of our innocent countrymen the young men were holding celebrations for nauru's to talk to them here far away from their chosen targets which is an important trying on saturday a car bomb explosion claimed by the taliban killed at least two civilians several others were wounded in the morning rush hour suicide blast in an industrial area of the city government said a private british security company was the target it was the four suicide attack in the afghan capital in the past three weeks a u.s. general in afghanistan has said protecting the capital is the americans main effort but the attacks continue increasing pressure on president. he offered peace talks to the taliban last month as part of efforts to end the sixteen year war but any

sort of negotiated settlement appears a long way off but all of on has continued to grow in strength since the withdrawal of the u.s. led nato combat troops four years ago and most security analysts predicted a new world so-called spring offensive will be more intense this year as taliban fighters respond to repeated u.s. and afghan airstrikes as well as ground assault of wednesday's attack is any indication of what's to come many more lives will likely be lost as time al-jazeera . and the state of texas say the suspect in a series of possible bombings kills himself has been named by u.s. media as twenty three year old lock and condit offices a texas residents to remain on alert. possible bombs still out there john hendren reports from austin. the confrontation with the main suspect ended as dramatically as it began police cornering then firing on him in

a hotel car park as he tried to drive away then a deadly detonation police say the twenty four year old man set off killing himself as members of the austin police department swat team approached the vehicle the suspect detonated a bomb inside the vehicle knocking one of our swat officers back and one of our swat officers fired at the suspect as well he had been a person of interest seen on video and mention by witnesses police knew his car the bombs had no set patterns some were random some were targeted five hundred federal state and local police are still scrambling to unravel three mysteries are there other bombers other other bombs waiting to explode and why he did it for weeks austin has been a city on edge the mysterious bombs in the state capital city killed two people and injured four others people are scared. you will be too. you know random packages

explosives. from the reason i'd be scared to on tuesday another package exploded at a courier distribution center in the city of shirts near san antonio f.b.i. agents say a six package was sent to a separate fed ex depot police say the eventual destination of that package was an address in austin brian jaime's in sixty other employers of the courier company were evacuated after an unexploded bomb was found here giving police potentially valuable clues it gives me things that package it in soon as i set it down and explode then i go in sort of the truck goes and then that truck is full of the other trucks full of as and diesel and the whole fedex the senate is all destroyed and everybody strapped in their you scared now not scared not since the attacks by the so-called unabomber ted kaczynski in one nine hundred ninety five have been. lease face to spree like it now police will continue to search for any other devices email left behind and try to find out what his motive was john hendren

al-jazeera austin texas the u.k.'s foreign secretary says the recent poisoning of a former russian double agent was an attempt by the kremlin to send a message to people tempted to defect from russia russia says person is hiding evidence about a tax on circus cripple in the u.k. says was targeted by another agent the two countries have expelled twenty three of each other's diplomats over the round i think good person rule it was snowing that . president putin to the russian state wanted to give to potential defectors in the room agencies that this is what happens to you if you decide that you support a country with a different set of values such as our you can expect to be assassinated the opposition in kosovo is he's take gas to disrupt a vote in parliament on a border deal with montenegro no makers from the self-determination movement don't want parliament to ratify two thousand and fifteen deal that was pretty

a precondition for cost of its being able to travel in the e.u. without visas they say it will mean kosovo losing eight thousand hectares of land the government denies that claim though parliament had been expected to ratify the equipment with the necessary two thirds majority. history has been made in africa after forty four leaders signed the african continental free trade agreement and golly the largest back to its kind since the oil trade organization was created with this new agreement one point two billion people will be brought together with total gross domestic product worth more than two trillion dollars but the president of africa's biggest economy nigeria's muhammadu buhari was absent. well the african continental free trade area has been forty years in the making it's an africa y. trade bloc similar to the which would allow the unrestricted movement of people goods and capital across fifty five countries the current combined g.d.p. is around two and a half trillion dollars as you are saying the u.n.

estimates that the free trade area agreement could expand africa's economy to twenty nine trillion dollars by the year two thousand and fifteen there is mohammad i don't has more now from cake ali this is a huge deal for africa african leaders hope for the past forty years been talking about more trade between african countries and today with the argument the process has begun with the free trade. being published it's a very long process riddled with challenges it will begin with to for kitchen of the agreement in individual countries thoughts climate this will involve negotiations with trade unions and the private sector in every country to ensure that all sectors that are very crucial to the success of these agreements are on board the absence of nigerian president hadi of the signing ceremony is on everyone's lips the saying that there are some come through the first deal i'm

convinced that they will do well with the agreement so that also needs to be taken care of you secretary it's in the coming months and years it's going to take a long time before this comes into being but the idea is to bring africa's one point two billion people with a combined u.d.p. or two point five two billion dollars on the one market them but is where africa seems to be headed for mine. there are fears tunisia's cultural heritage is in danger of being lost because of a lack of investment but some in the country are trying to stop that happening by taking matters into their own hands and the capital tunis mohamed explains. for layla there is no place more in chanted when she discovered this house several years ago it was a transformative event the first 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 daughter been gusen is located in the medina of tunis a unesco world heritage site every corner has a story of an artist. 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 when. purchasing power is 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 nashashibi when you see it somewhat in the ward it's like you are seeing the tunisian flag 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 us well 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 about how impossible heritage is working to tunisians today is the national day of traditional dresses where it's a day when men and women young and old gather in the medina they march through the old city's alleyways and wearing their country's traditional the tired. here generations of tunisians are attempting to build a better future on the foundations of their shared heritage mohammed. tunis.

welcome back a quick look at the top stories now most of the one hundred ten schoolgirls who were abducted in nigeria last month of been reunited with their families the girls returned to their hometown by what appeared to be a convoy of books around fighters. information minister says one hundred one girls were freed least five girls reportedly died in custody. at least twenty two people mostly children have been killed in a russian air strike in syria as province rescue workers say the children died while leaving a school in kufa village meanwhile further south in eastern russian brokered deal is reportedly been reached to evacuate rebel fighters from the area santa holder has more on the edge of attack yet again civilians children and so are the victims and in this war according to the united nations in two thousand and seventeen one thousand children were killed it was fifty percent higher than the previous year the latest victims killed in

a town far but in the province of idlib province which is under the control of the opposition rebel controlled areas really are battlegrounds there are no front lines residential areas have been targeted the united nations calls that a collective punishment. i sill has claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing in afghanistan's capital that killed at least twenty nine people the attack a blew himself up close to a shrine in the west of kabul witnesses say most of the dead were young people celebrating the holiday iranian new year and the start of spring attack happened just a day after the head of the u.s. military joseph dunford visited kabul. and facebook shares have bounced back after a volatile few days which wiped off fifty billion dollars in market value. as a result of the fallout of the revelations the personal data from the social media site was misused by a u.k. analytics company c.e.o. mark zuckerberg is reportedly preparing to deliver

a statement within the next twenty four hours so we'll bring you more on all those stories at the top of the next hour in about twenty five minutes time i'll have a full bulletin for you coming up next.