what makes this moment this era we're living from so unique this is really an attack on truth itself is a lot of misunderstanding a distortion even of what free speech is supposed to be about the context it's hugely important level right to publish if you have a duty to be offensive or provoke that's all about it as people do step in this stage for a serious debate up front at this time on al-jazeera. after days of silence facebook c.e.o. addresses privacy concerns of taken tens of billions of dollars off the companies that.

follow him down jordan this is our jazeera live from doha also coming up as strikes in syria's every province kill at least twenty two people most of them children. french authorities open a formal investigation into ties between former president nicolas sarkozy and libya . and three months after barely surviving an impeachment vote peru's president has resigned. the head of facebook says he's committed to stop the use of these social media platform to interfere in elections including the upcoming votes in brazil india and the u.s. midterms c.e.o. mark zuckerberg finally broke his silence five days after a u.k. firm cambridge analytical was accused of improperly accessing information to manipulate u.s. voters zuckerberg has confirmed facebook had been issued warrants and was

cooperating with ongoing investigations but he says no link was found between cambridge analytical and russia's internet research agency the facebook c.e.o. has said he'd be happy to testify in front of the u.s. congress if he was deemed the right person to appear as it was hot issue castro has more. mark zuckerberg doesn't like giving interviews but the pressure on the camera shy founder and c.e.o. of facebook was so great he had to do something he told the american media he was sorry about the security breach that compromised the private data of fifty million facebook users and in a statement he acknowledged there were failures in facebook's protection of data i started facebook your rights and at the end of the day i'm responsible for what happens on our platform i'm serious about doing what it takes to protect our community while this specific issue involving cambers analytical should no longer happen with new apps today that doesn't change what happened in the past we will

learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward those steps include a review of all apps to have similarly broad access to user data further data restrictions and making it easier for users to rescind permissions. carefully choreographed response to the cameras analytic a scandal was not what u.s. lawmakers are asking for they would rather have had testify in person before congress minnesota senator amy klobuchar char has formally asked for a judicial hearing. zuckerberg says he's happy to testify before congress if it's the right thing to do he also says he's sure someone's trying to disrupt this year's midterm elections underlying the uproar the allegation that data harvested from facebook servers was used by cameras and a letter to support the trump campaign in two thousand and sixteen interference in

the electoral process confirmed in this undercover interview with the company's then c.e.o. alexander nix and you met mr trump many times you have to do this. with the data you get the teams you talk to if they. don't think you will be distracted facebook's stocks lost sixty billion dollars in value in the last five days and a delete facebook hash tag has been trending but even if the bad publicity blows over other troubles for the social media giant are just beginning the federal trade commission has opened an investigation into facebook so to have at least three u.s. states. castro al-jazeera washington syria's government has agreed to a deal with a rebel group in eastern to allow the evacuation of the town of harassed nearly two thousand people have died in the besieged enclave since the government intensified

attacks a month ago elsewhere in the country a turkish offensive in the north west continues as drugs had a school in rebel held in the province has more from beirut. one of the rebel factions in eastern a good hour has decided to surrender a sham they control the town of house the eastern huta this besieged enclave of eastern widows now divided into three pockets three pockets that are surrounded by pro-government forces now one of those pockets how to us the pro syria government media reporting that up to one thousand five hundred fighters and six thousand members of their families will be leaving early thursday they will be bussed to the northwestern province of idlib which is under the control of the opposition this will be the first deal of its kind in eastern huta because there are two other rebel factions list them and file at the bottom and they have also been involved in negotiations with the russian military but so far those the negotiations did not

make any progress but undoubtedly the decision by the to sham to lay down its arms will pile more pressure on these two other rebel factions now the pro-government alliances the military campaign has entered its second month really relentless bombardment that put a lot of pressure not just on the rebels but the thousands and thousands of people who are trapped inside according to the united nations hundreds of thousands remain in these rebel controlled besieged pockets of territory and that their situation is catastrophic many of them want to leave but they are requesting safe passage what they mean by safe passage is that these humanitarian corridors should be monitored by international observers they're too scared to cross into government controlled territory in fear of arrest and even some will tell you we could be executed so one rebel faction surrendering the pro-government alliance making this clear in its actions and its in its words really since the start of this campaign that they will not stop until the rebel factions lay down their arms and any agreement short of that will not end the military onslaught. well let's go back to the strike an adlib

in northern syria at least twenty two people most of them children died in the attack the one helmet's rescue group says they were fleeing a school after the raid began. lib and sent this report. deaths and injuries mainly among children because of airstrikes launched by what the opposition says were russian jets they targeted residential areas in the village of kaffir about in a glimpse of the countryside they hit civilian homes the first airstrike targeted a house near an elementary school children at the school were terrified they fled the school in a chaotic way so residents tried to shelter them inside an underground cave in the neighborhood however the jets turned back and targeted the location with several missiles hitting the cave that was sheltering more than twenty children and women the cave fully collapsed on top of the children civil defense units did all that they could to rescue them what they could not rescue them and after several errors

of throwing all those inside the cave are found dead francis former president nicolas sarkozy has been placed under formal investigation accused of receiving illegal campaign funds from the late libyan leader moammar gadhafi sarkozy allegedly accepted millions of dollars from gadhafi while running for office in two thousand and seven the investigation into his election campaign has been underway now for the past five years sarkozy denies any wrongdoing but has more from the interior and if paris. this is the first time that a former french president has been placed under formal investigation for illegal foreign campaign funding foreign funds planned during presidential campaigns here in france well nicolas sarkozy was questioned by french police for just over twenty four hours that non-tariff police station just behind me it's just outside of paris and then he was released earlier on thursday afternoon around five thirty local

time and placed on a conditional release we don't know whether that means bail whether there will be restrictions on his travel but what we do know is three judges then decided to place him under formal investigation for corruption for the misuse of libyan funds and for illegal campaign foreign funding now that of course is the worst case scenario for nicolas sarkozy has always said that he is innocent and he was of course hoping for his release what he can do now though is he has six months to try and appeal those charges during that time they magistrates will try and put together a case they will do more investigating see if they can possibly bring nicolas sarkozy to trial at some date in the future peru's congress or shuttle to meet on thursday to formally accept the president's resignation but the republican was facing an impeachment vote of a corruption allegations tied to the brazilian construction john mara sanchez reports from. i know he's been in office for less than twenty months now

preceded bill because quote. in the face of this difficult situation that has developed and has unjustly made me appear guilty of acts i have not participated in i think the best thing for the country is that i resign. he left the presidential palace flying by administrative personnel politicians were going to impeach him on thursday they say kaczynski lied about receiving consulting fees from brazilian construction jobs. on all the bridge when he was a finance minister more than a decade ago in a message to the nation he said he was innocent. that they were government i categorically reject these unproved accusations and i reaffirm my commitment to an honest moral and just poor rule for all. but then secret recordings were released by his opponents led by the daughter of former strongman and we have to fire him

already of political allies allegedly negotiating votes to protect from being ousted according to the constitution the first vice president. should take over the presidency for three more years to finish mandate. on friday vickery can be sworn in with a new cabinet and i hope everything's changed completely here ruffians are skeptical more than shock to many peruvian say they are angry at britain's political class because they say it's corrupt opinion poll say seventy nine percent of peruvians thought he had to go only fourteen percent approve of the congress performance. yes he lied everyone lies i hope all the congressmen leave. all congressmen should resign because they're involved in corruption and there should be a restructuring of the state because money has been stolen by suppress it in a hassid in the past that if he was forced out he'd go to that's now looking less

likely but if he takes over the presidency it won't be easy he'll have to work with the same politicians who impeached him less than one year ago when he was a transport minister. just sita. him as a latin america analyst he says kaczynski had no other option well bru. had after the revelations about petro pablo kaczynski being involved with the company that was involved with the autograph company it was clear that he had become virtually a lame duck and many of his supporters were disappearing his initial response was not as frank and open transparent as it might have been and it was a slow period but day by day he began to lose support and by that

time he pardoned president x. president fujimori and allowed him to return to his house. leaving him out of jail his criticism of him was growing louder and louder approval was going lower and lower and there was really nowhere to turn and he had very little support in congress his own cabinet was questionable support i think he finally took the advice that this was not going to work. all right time for a short break here and al-jazeera when we come back a plea deal for the palestinian teenager who became a national icon when she was sent to prison for striking israeli soldiers and zimbabwe's farmers look to tobacco reforms to help people comes economy going up in smoke more and that stay with us.

allen the simply story well in the central mediterranean the moment that usually means is taking the energy of the atmosphere so that we have to kids through the caucasus is dropping no more than a little bit of rain or snow and south of it all the sun is at twenty seven in beirut twenty six in jerusalem about thirty in baghdad now with fine with a like this the wind direction of the term where the temperatures rise rapidly i'm given but i set about central mad we're drawing warms up from the south thirty one in beirut and this is come friday looks fairly winded i think it probably will be trucked choppy in the eastern med but the same influence exists further east cities freeze a full cross by god twenty three in terre expect him to slowly rise or actually could say rapidly rising star of the year in the arabian peninsula got thirty three is a forecast in doha it's fairly consistent the next couple of days near forty in mecca there's bit of a breeze here so far in a cli moment it can be trusted dusty with

a change of any five degrees direction really wet weather again in south africa nothing in cape town where you might want to coast but look at this big massive debris such acts and been up to was botswana and even north and the maybe that's funny persistence the next day or so drifting only slowly eastwards. i am doing this on the benefit of saddam people. so bad they see the importance of the our guys. who witness documentaries that open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera.

welcome back a quick recap of the top stories here this hour the head of facebook has admitted his company made mistakes in its data protection after revelations when you pay for misuse information from fifty million of its users senior mark zuckerberg has promised tougher steps to restrict developers access to information. at least twenty two people most of them children have been killed by a strikes in syria's rebel held in the province activists say civilians for their school turn the bike after the first whiff of bombs was dropped by russian jets that kate was hit in a second series of strikes. on peru's congress the shuttle to meet on thursday formally accept the president's resignation petro pablo kaczynski was facing an

appeasement vote of a corruption allegations tied to the brazilian construction giant. pope francis has reportedly telephoned the mother of a murdered brazilian councilwoman mario franco was shot dead last week and thousands of brazilians have been protesting since demanding police find her killers a nonprofit organization for alameda tweeted on wednesday saying franco's mother spoke to the pope hunger was known for her activism against police brutality. police in the u.s. state of texas say they found concrete evidence that suspect mark condit was behind the recent bombing spree in the capital austin the twenty three year old steered his car into a ditch and blew himself up on wednesday john hendren has more on the bombers home town of pflugerville in texas. after a three week manhunt the austin package bombers latest victim was himself his motive still a mystery the suspect is deceased in a final confrontation with officers who had tracked him down to

a suburban hotel police say twenty three year old mark anthony condit detonated an explosive leaving him dead his parents at a loss to explain and his series of questions unanswered we don't know where this suspect has spent his last twenty four hours we also have not fully been able to rule out whether or not there were any other accomplices may be a part of this is still pose a danger police did reveal one surprising discovery on the bomber cell phone was a twenty five minute recorded confession detailing each of six explosives he made leaving police confident none are still waiting to detonate we can account for each and every one of them police say he paired batteries ordered online from asia with everyday products he bought at a home depot store he turned them into deadly explosives that blew up on doorsteps on a sidewalk and most recently in a fed ex shipping center the blasts left two dead several injured and a city shaken. condit's family said in

a statement we are devastated and broken at the news that our family member could be involved in such an awful way our prayers are for those families who have lost loved ones and for the soul of our mark the picture of the bomber that emerges from friends neighbors and police is of a bookish young man schooled at home from a religious family politically conservative and opinionated but so far nobody can answer the most vexing question why did he do it police tracked him down using receipts cell phone records surveillance video of a disguised man dropping off a package and witness reports that in the past twenty four to thirty six hours we started getting information on one person of interest that we continue to work on and continue to develop police questioned condit's two roommates and discovered a telltale bomb assembly room in his suburban austin home and one called a bomb making factory but there's definitely components consistent what we've seen

in all these other devices the search found explosive components now what they're looking for is a motive john hendren al-jazeera austin texas. most of the one hundred ten schoolgirls were abducted a month ago in northeast nigeria have been reunited with their families the girls were released in their hometown of done by boko haram fighters but it's reported that six are still missing nigeria's government says it agreed a temporary pause in fighting with the group to secure their release richard martin reports. of the more than a month in captivity the schoolgirls were brought to my degree to meet government ministers who'd helped negotiate their release many of them are suffering from the effects of their experience earlier parents who spent weeks anxiously waiting for news celebrated their daughter's return journey or that somehow that their son that was sixteen year old i should bury was among those kidnapped from school by boko haram fighters last month not access to those who may not even know that we could

hear lots of gunshots in the air we were totally confused some buckle her around people into a school gate and we started to run they asked us to stop running or they would shoot us we got into some trucks and they took us away. boko haram fighters dropped the girls in the center of early on wednesday morning the nigerian government says it chose to negotiate with the armed group rather than use military force we have been in negotiation. with this faction of. the subjects for quite awhile because most what. else no money peter. this isn't the first time schoolgirls have been abducted in nigeria there was international outrage in twenty fourteen when more than two hundred seventy girls were kidnapped from chibok many of them still missing i should derry's father is just grateful his daughter is safe and his family when they have to leave you at first when i heard the news i was waiting for confirmation then i found out the

children were coming home after ten minutes the town was crowded with people celebrating and praying people were really happy. much needed time with their families will have to wait the next step for these girls is the capital abuja at a meeting with president mohammed dooper hari rashid martin al jazeera two yemeni government ministers have resigned after calling for their president's return from saudi arabia they accuse riyadh of holding president hadi under house arrest he fled to the saudi capital along with many of his ministers at the start of the yemen conflict saudi arabia which backs the president's internationally recognized government has been waging war against two of the rebels since twenty fifteen and yemen central bank has ceased all activities due to a shortage of cash it comes after a large shipment of yemeni reels equal to six hundred eighty million u.s. dollars was seized by u.s. forces in february a letter obtained by al-jazeera shows the central bank requested the funds be

released by the saudi to the coalition but it's yet to receive a response the money was needed to pay public employees salaries. well a palestinian teenage girl on trial for slapping on israeli soldier has been sentenced to eight months in prison the case was made i had to mimi a symbol of palestinian struggle and drawn international attention but your attention by reports. i had to maybe arrived in qut to hear her sentence in a defiant mean five is no yes we are not satisfied with anything we especially don't accept the existence of the occupation on our lands it's illegal the seventeen year old agreed to a plea deal with israeli prosecutors to avoid most serious charges that could have imprisoned her the years under the deal she's due to be released in the summer she was fined fourteen hundred dollars her lawyer says the case against her was possible after we understood that the military prosecution wanted to keep hiding the tension for several years because this case is

a case of detail that they're trying to detail are other palestinian youth from resisting occupation as i did that. to me was arrested in december after a video of her slapping and hitting israeli soldiers went viral the confrontation in the occupied west bank took place after what israel says was a stone throwing assault on its troops the judge agreed to a similar plea deal for to mimi's mother who was charged with incitement. to me respond the visited his wife and daughter for the first time in prison on cheese day he says his daughter spends her time doing school work she isn't doing where you see her reading studying the first border patrol. is about the high end she continually got into the people that want to do all the fighting for our rights to maybe's case was heard behind closed doors in a military court it's drawn international criticism and one point seven million

people across the world have signed a petition calling for her release and she's not alone the pressure group defense for children international says that last november three hundred thirteen palestinian children were imprisoned and victoria gay to be out there. egypt's president abdel fattah el-sisi said in a televised interview that egyptian should not fear speaking freely c.c. also denied he was sponsible for a lack of competition in upcoming elections the leader made the comments in response to criticism that people in egypt are afraid of imprisonment and are struggling economically. and who can i have noticed on t.v. that there are phrases like oh stop talking or no you can't say that this is not good and i am not saying this for the sake of saying it i mean it and people are comprehensively free to talk and act only one thing is not allowed for example to violently hurt the country some people ask about the democratic process in practice when they say that sisi may win the elections but still we wish to see some other

competitors yes they are right why not more candidates but you talk to me about something i have nothing to do with well i'm sure it's only doha institute for graduate studies he says the statement is not truthful the practice is on the ground completely different from what he says. most of the serious contenders for the presidential elections are either marginalized or life in prison including the former chief of staff of education army general sami on and you have all those who have been harassed you have human rights watch is talking about fifteen saudis and civilians who were court martialed in his reign between october twenty fourth dean and september twenty seventh dean this is unprecedented number even on the mubarak's time. we have hundreds of cases of forced disappearances extrajudicial killings are well documented and that made the human rights commission or is it been rather speaks frankly about the. era of intimidation and terror in ruling the

country which is also unprecedented for a human rights commissioner to say that never been said before under any of the regimes so when this is said that nobody no one should fear and these are the realities documented realities on the ground and there is a big gap. the european union has set out plans to increase the tax paid by digital companies the finance commissioner here moscovici says he wants firms with large digital revenues in europe to pay a tax of three percent of their turnover the plans won't come into force unless they're backed by the european parliament and the twenty eight e.u. countries moscovici says he's not specifically targeting the group of companies sometimes called gaffa google apple facebook and amazon. farmers have kicked off the annual selling season with high hopes but there are complaints that former president robert mugabe's policies have left a lasting negative impact on the industry critics say some of the scenes during

land reforms are hampering production. as more from harare. zimbabwe produced and sold nearly two hundred million kilograms of tobacco last year with nearly six hundred million dollars farmers hope they can earn more this year tobacco is the country's second biggest export most farmers here are beneficiaries of the government's land reform program where land was seized from white commercial farmers and given to blacks nearly twenty years ago it was a bit. of a potatoes beans. it's. more than ninety percent of zimbabwe's tobacco is exported most ins up in china south africa and belgium it's a battle industry and markets board says more than one hundred thousand growers have registered to sell their produce this season last year the number was just over eighty thousand pharmacy their priority is improving the quality of the

tobacco they produce the country's new leader. took over after robert mugabe was forced to resign in november he's promising consistent and more investor friendly policies to revive the economy and the agricultural sector impression is that many farms are have been derelict for a long period of time the sixteen is not just a physical infrastructure such as buildings but it extends to things like dams which in this last rainy season we've heard of several dams of actually collapsed because there hasn't been proper management and care for those assets mugabe's land reform policy was sometimes chaotic and violent it's alleged some zimbabweans grabbed several farms but there are no official records of who has what and how many government ministers say they will be a comprehensive land audit when money is available. that.

to establish exactly. which individual is linked to which piece of land. and of course. the. land utilization. both are very. white farmers who. have been told they will be compensated but the government is broke it is a shortage of foreign currency before land reform or the land of milk and honey political analysts say reviving the agricultural sector needs the right policies and political will and rampant corruption has to be urgently addressed how to al-jazeera. or when news of course on our website there it is on your screen the address al-jazeera dot com. time for a quick check of the headlines here the head of facebook has admitted his company

made mistakes in its data protection after revelations a u.k. phone cambridge analytical missed use information from fifty million of its users c.e.o. mark zuckerberg has promised tougher steps to restrict developers access to information at least twenty two people most of them children have been killed by air strikes in syria province activists say the civilians were hit after they fled their school to seek shelter in a nearby cave france's former president nicolas sarkozy has been placed under formal investigation he's accused of receiving illegal campaign donations for the late libyan leader moammar gadhafi. allegedly accepted millions of dollars from gadhafi while running for office in two thousand and seven peru's congress has accepted the resignation of president. who stepped down amid corruption allegations kaczynski denied any wrongdoing but said he did not want to be an obstacle in the country's development. pope francis has reportedly telephoned the mother of

a murdered brazilian councilwoman mario franco known for activism against police brutality was shot dead last week and thousands of brazilians have been protesting since demanding police find the killers a palestinian teenage girl on trial for slapping an israeli soldier has been sentenced to eight months in prison for accepting a plea deal seventeen year old had to mean he was accused of assault after hitting that soldier in the face last year in the occupied west bank to me agreed to plead guilty to four of the twelve charges against a should be fined fourteen hundred dollars most of the one hundred ten nigerian schoolgirls were abducted by boko haram last month of been reunited with their families the girls are returned to their hometown of duchy by would appear to be a convoy of boko haram fighters nigeria's information minister says one hundred four girls are freed at least five are rip reportedly died in captivity yemen central bankers seized all activities due to shortage of cash comes after

a large shipment of yemeni reelz was seized by u.s. forces in february a letter obtained by al jazeera shows the central bank request of the funds be released but it's yet to receive a response well those were the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera after witness statement that so much of my fellow. we are witnessing around the word this whole remind me which is only looking at how to make the next profit. economies devastating ecosystems putting a price on the protection of nature green economy is sound good it was all about privatized sation of nature should our environment be for sale what we're trying to do this destroyed people to stabilize the country giving them a financial incentive to do that pricing the planet at this time on al-jazeera.