a witness documentary at this time on al-jazeera it looks ugly it sounds ugly in scares people from america's high streets to mexico's on the world's record for just the side and who controls the other side people in power follows the smuggling route and test the ease of acquiring untraceable weapons on american soil the weapon that was designed for war and it took you about five minutes to buy it from if you try america's guns arming mexico's cartels on al jazeera congressman are you interested in stopping crime. 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 asteroid kills twenty two people most of them children as they leave a school in syria's a province facebook shares rally but only slightly with mark zuckerberg yet to break his silence over the misuse of its users data. and the suspect in a series of bombings which terrorized austin texas and blows himself up as police move in to arrest him. come to the program our top story most of the one hundred ten school girls who were abducted a month ago in northeast nigeria have been reunited with their families one hundred one girls were released to their hometown of by a car on fighters but a handful is still missing nigeria's government says it equated temporary pause in fighting with the armed group to secure their release a solid binge of aid has the latest. it's difficult to hold back their tears after would these girls have been through these are some of the hundred and children who

were kidnapped last month. just took them from their school inductee town in northeastern nigeria the girls say five of their fellow students died i let you know when i was when they took us from the school we've been 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 in 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 ate and proceeded through the we continued going we entered one river then we boarded a canoe and crossed the river and. village they took us away from the village in the night we boarded another canoe to another place and remained in a 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 agony to do and. i saw with my own eyes the love and 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 but the kidnappers rather than use military force. one has any words of competition i don't feel that the loss of these children are much more important to us than. you can if there is an isa islands at the girl's 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 girls were released. just nigeria and its allies have been fighting boko haram in the lake chad region for years but brazen kidnapping and drop off of victims indicates that the group is far from being defeated solomon job aid are there. at least twenty two people mostly children have been killed by russian as strike in syria as a live province the white helmet say the children died while leaving a school in kafr by village further south and east and a russian brokered deal has reportedly been reached to evacuate a rebel group there is only two thousand people have died in the besieged enclave since the government intensified its attacks a month ago so holder has more from beirut. yes again civilians children 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 bus 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 a collective punishment further south yet another battleground in syria eastern huzzah where we have seen really one of the if not the firy of fiercest bombing campaigns for over a month the pro-government alliance targeting this rebel controlled enclave to bring about a surrender to what we understand from sources is that one of the rebel factions in eastern who started a sham is ready to lay down their arms and evacuate and leave too glib now there hasn't been any official confirmation but a hideout a sham has been in the goshi ations with the russian military for some time now there is a lot relative lull in the fighting which is an indication 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 the united nations describing the situation as catastrophic. a u.s. resident is suing facebook and the u.k. cambridge analytic of obtaining data without their permission in what could be the first of many lawsuits this comes as pressure continues to grow on facebook over revelations that personal data from the social media site was misused by the u.k. analytics company c.e.o. mark zuckerberg is believed to be ready to make

a statement within the next twenty four hours marianna takes a look now at what we know so far about cambridge analytical operations. cambridge analytic care executive say publicly at least that they helped politicians win elections what the companies accused of 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 iraq and questions and the need is widening with investigations also underway in the us and destroy. well we have correspondents monitoring developments on both sides of the atlantic in

a moment i'll be speaking to nadine barber who is at cambridge and of the six offices in central london first so let's go to mike hanna who's in washington for us and mike as he was seeing there cambridge analytic his reach goes far beyond the u.s. but tell us what questions are being asked today in washington about the role that might have played in the u.s. election. well pressure is mounting on facebook to offer some kind of explanation as to why data harvested from and services servers was used in the twenty sixteen election campaign by cambridge analytical there is a senate intelligence committee hearing going on at present they had hoped that some c.e.o.'s from social media companies would appear this has not yet happened and certainly as well there are other lawmakers asking that mark zuckerberg the founder of facebook be called to appear one senator saying that a judicial committee should be established to investigate facebook's role in that twenty sixteen election so the issue generating a lot of traction here in the u.s.

legislature the demand to from members of congress that facebook offer some kind of explanation but there's been nothing heard from either mark zuckerberg or the facebook chief operating officer sheryl sanders in fact neither person was present at an internal facebook meeting that occurred a tuesday so pressure mounting in the capitol lawmakers saying that if the businesses such as facebook social media businesses cannot control their security property properly then there needs to be some form of legislation to ensure that they do like countering washington thank you very much well here in the u.k. the prime minister to resign may has been forced to deny links between her conservative party in cambridge analytical 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 investigated 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. cambridge analytical minds asians involved to comply fully with the investigation that's taking place. in the team barber is outside the cambridge analytic offices in central london tell us about political reverberations over here. well you were just hearing to resume a say she doesn't believe that there are any current contracts government contracts with the parent company of cambridge analytical whose headquarters are behind me but her office has said in the last couple of hours that their work contracts lasting up until twenty fifteen that was when david cameron was british prime

minister with the parent company and she's been attacked in parliament in the last few hours by the opposition who are pointing out that many figures who were influential in cambridge on latika for example one director. gave money directly to the conservative party one that one director gave around one million u.s. dollars there's been no suggestion though that that has led to any improper influence but still it might be seen as an embarrassment we're waiting to find out when british britain's information commissioner will get a warrant to allow officials to get into the building behind me and start to do an audit start to look at the computers facebook representatives actually started to do that very thing on monday evening the information commissioner then asked them to stop immediately and they did so she suggested that that would hamper the the information commissioner's own investigation but that still hasn't got under way

and meanwhile people have been asking exactly how common this kind of use of people's data was well at a parliamentary committee on wednesday afternoon a former platform operations manager at facebook has said he believes that it was fairly common not just for cambridge analytical but for other companies to do this kind of data mining and he said that he'd warned top executives at facebook that their lax attitude towards data protection could lead to a major breach and that he really didn't see any action so his words will be listened very carefully to by that parliamentary committee which has art asked mark zuckerberg himself to appear in the near future thanks very much and hang on then. still ahead for you african leaders sign a deal to set up a free trade area allowing unrestricted movement of people and goods across the

continent we'll tell you why a key ally to myanmar she has announced his sudden retirement. so again we'll look at the weather across the levant and western parts of asia to begin with conditions here actually a pretty good at the moment of the most part so it looking quite warner tashkent then especially stand up at twenty four degrees it's fine around the caspian sea on the eastern side of the maid also plenty of sunshine beirut looking at highs of twenty six degrees in fact as you start to pick up the winds from the south we get up into the thirty's and head on through into friday so a pretty warm start to spring it has to be said here in the arabian peninsula temperatures too are just way up at thirty three degrees here in doha despite the friday but breeze may just not the temperatures down slightly as we head on through

into friday but on the other side the potential again with a southerly wind we're looking at thirty nine degrees in mecca with the medina not far behind into southern portions of africa where we got some showers on the eastern side of south africa and that's life continue to in the course of thursday suppose durban and johannesburg could be wet at times cape town should be largely fine some showers into the mid be and could be affected when took in the course of the day through into friday and see that line for substation extends towards parts of botswana and then joins up with the area in south africa johannesburg seeing some heavy rain and high seer of only fifteen degrees.

without a recap the top stories. of the one hundred ten schoolgirls who were abducted in northeastern nigeria last month have been reunited with their families the girls were turned to the town of by what appeared to be a convoy of fighters at least twenty two people mostly children have been killed in a russian ass strike in syria province and a u.s.

resident is suing facebook and the u.k. phone cambridge analytic obtaining data without their permission it comes as pressure grows continues to grow on facebook over revelations of personal data from the social media site was misused by the u.k. analytics company. now in all the stories we're following a suicide bomb attack by the group i sill has killed at least thirty three people in afghanistan's capital kabul most of the dead were reportedly young people celebrating the new year and reports. chaos and confusion on the streets of kabul as a bird see crews rushed to the scene of the latest bomb blast the apparent target afghan celebrating no ruse the persian new year. even a suicide bomb went off just stood behind me so nothing but terror. you know if i 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 who were taking part in street celebrations the blast is the deadliest to hit the capital after weeks of repeated attacks. unfortunately once again our enemies are spilled the blood of our innocent countrymen the young men were holding celebrations for their ruse but attack 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 musharraf he offered peace talks to the taliban last month as part of efforts to end this 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 old 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. al-jazeera. has reportedly accepted a plea deal of eight months in prison seventeen year old accused of assault off to

his in an israeli soldier in the face last year in the occupied west bank a confrontation took place after what israel says was a stone throwing assault on its troops. from the palestinian struggle and has drawn international attention. police in the u.s. state of texas say the suspect in a series of possible bombings has killed himself has been named by u.s. media is twenty four year old mark anthony condit offices a residence in austin term maine on alert warning that could still be 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 it 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 people dying for no reason i'd be scared to you on tuesday another package exploded at a courier distribution center in the city of shirts near san antonio f.b.i. agents say a sixth 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 and sixty other employers of the courier company were evacuated after an unexploded bomb was found here giving police potentially valuable clues. in sort of set it down and explode then i go in sort of the truck goes and then that. gas and diesel and the whole ferric facilities are destroyed and everybody strapped in there you scared now they're not scared not since the attacks by the so-called unabomber ted kaczynski in one nine hundred ninety five have police faced a spree like it now police will continue to search for any other devices he may have left behind and try to find out what his motive was john hendren al-jazeera austin texas. compadre russia hosting the wild cup later this year to nazi germany hosting the olympics in one thousand nine hundred eighty six johnson made the comment while responding to questions from lawmakers some of whom want the u.k.

to take tough action against russia burson blames moscow for the recent poisoning of a former russian agent yes i think the comparison with one hundred thirty six is is certainly right and i think it's a. prospect rightly. think. putin glorying in this this is sporting event. the russian government has been repeating its position that it played no part in the poison. as reports from moscow. what a rather interesting event has been going on in moscow this afternoon a roomful of ambassadors or dorell representatives invited to the foreign ministry to basically hear the russian perspective on this case now as outlined by. the head of the russian foreign ministries departments of arms nonproliferation and control essentially russia is being accused hysterically of something none of the

versions that have been heard from the u.k. he says would stand criticism there are two options as he put it either u.k. or thirty's or on able to protect against terrorist acts on their own territory or they've directed this attack themselves against a russian citizen they said there's no third option we see he said that the u.k. authorities are becoming more and more nervous and it's easy to see why the clock is ticking and they've driven themselves into a corner this is a blatant the framed illegal adventure russia has nothing to do with this it's interesting to compare this sort of events with similar things that happened in the aftermath of the mh seventeen disaster where a passenger jet was shot out of the sky over eastern ukraine ams of course what happens just after the can shake whom gas attack is in syria now in both of those

situations there were similar briefings given in this kind of panel format. where people were invited to hear russia's version of what had happened and that it was nothing to do with russia. as president he's been a key ally to defacto leader has announced his sudden retirement present to ensure his role is largely ceremonial says he needs a west is reportedly suffering ill health louis has mall. precedents in myanmar are meant to be both the head of state and the government but not to he knew the role would be largely ceremonial when he was appointed two years ago the rail is wielded by all. who led her party the national league for democracy or an audi to victory at the general election in two thousand and fifteen lines but the constitution which was written when the military was in charge barred from becoming president so she created a more powerful role for herself state council and made the president

a figurehead well i don't think this is going to have a huge impact on the country in the way that it is a primarily ceremonial position of power in the country is very. moderate she senior general and those of us you measure a sense of the power and the president is just that sounds and show did not play an active role in policy discussions tin charo who's had heart problems in the past has been suffering from l. health for several months but his resignation which takes effect immediately comes months after he called for constitutional reform a sensitive topic for myanmar military leaders the constitution reserves powerful positions in government for offices teen choice resignation coincides with increasing international criticism of the russian jet crisis nearly seven hundred thousand russian jeff fled last year's military crackdown described by the un as

a textbook example of ethnic cleansing the government denies persecuting the muslim minority. the constitution says a new leader should be elected within seven working days much of this has been decided and choreographed in advance we we anticipate that the. close ally. in be nominated as the new. president that should happen within the next couple of days. first vice president mindy sway who is appointed by the military leadership is acting president until a successor is named florence al-jazeera. forty four african countries assigned a free trade deal of biggest since the world trade organization was established like the e.u. it will allow the unrestricted movement of people goods and capital but among the countries who haven't signed up to south africa and nigeria the continent's biggest economy algiers one hundred dollar ports from their want and capital kigali

one by one they signed up to an agreement decades in the making it's estimated the african continent toll free trade area could see business between african nations increased by more than fifty percent within four years the idea is to bring together countries with a combined population of one point two billion people and gross domestic product or g.d.p. of more than two trillion dollars into one market africa. are together now we are creating. so we are realizing that we are going to have a larger market. so far four to four of the african union's fifty five member states have signed the protocol but these one multiple absentee nigeria africa's biggest economy prison muhammadu buhari did not attend the signing ceremony to

allow time for more consultations nigeria's led by unions had cautioned him against signing what they called an extremely dangerous initiative african union officials admit everyone is such a fighter that individual countries would be better off under the deal look at the opening from the treaty of rome. the must see. the sheet of elizabeth if we projects of integration of any level is that all is a work in progress the argument commits countries to moving targets on ninety percent of goods and lifting all body has to trade with in the continent eventually the free movement of people and even a single currency could become part of the free trade area but before the tuppence banks are looking to fill the void what we have. to make sure that the chorus probably. will work for the little ones for the. stuff and to. settle with.

that that for most of the. food fight it out of the loop for instance when africa's most advanced economies often frontages with them they develop an affection capabilities some of them remain opposed to the agreements that trade unions are already raising that flux arguing unfettered access by foreign workers to their labor markets could cause problems as people move to the continent stronger economies is such a jobs mohamed atta was has either got. but look at the top stories now most of the one hundred ten schoolgirls who were abducted in northeast nigeria last month have been reunited with their families the girls returned to their hometown of duchy by what appeared to be a convoy of book around fighters nigeria's information minister says one hundred

one girls in all were freed at least five girls reportedly died in custody and also a handful remain missing a russian as strike in syria's italy province has killed at least twenty two people rescue workers say most of the victims are children who died while leaving a school in kafr but village meanwhile further south and eastern ghouta russian brokered deal is reportedly been reached to evacuate rubble for rebel fighters from the area in whole or has more on the 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 booked 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

a collective punishment a suicide bomb attack by the armed group i still has killed at least thirty three people in afghanistan's capital kabul witnesses say most of the dead were young people celebrating the no rules holiday the iranian new year and the start of spring at least sixty five others were injured. a u.s. resident is suing facebook and the u.k. for cambridge analytical for obtaining data without their permission cambridge analytic illegibly exploited data from fifty million users to help donald trump's presidential campaign facebook is coming under increasing pressure over the revelations its c.e.o. mark zuckerberg is believed to be ready to make a statement within the next twenty four hours. and a palestinian teenager on trial for slapping an israeli soldier has reportedly except eight months in prison seventeen year old i mean he is accused of assault after hitting an israeli soldier in the face last year in the occupied west bank

cases may tell me a symbol for the palestinian struggle that has drawn international attention inside story is coming up next i'll see you afterwards. millions of facebook profiles allegedly used for political purposes information that could have helped global trump and influence the bricks that vote candidates a swing elections and this privacy really possible in this age of social media this is inside story.