battle. a battle for the earth's natural resources. shadow war in the sahara at this time on how much is iraq. but in this particular instance the arsonist wishes to investigate he saying fire. britain and russia trade barbs at a u.n. meeting over the nerve agent attack on a former russian spy. hasn't sake of this is al-jazeera live from doha also coming up brazil's former president

is given twenty four hours to turn himself in and start his prison sentence for corruption plus. this journey coming up women are raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before donald trump revives his campaign rhetoric calling mexican immigrants rapists. and a german court rejects an extradition request for collatz put him on and grassley asked the catalan leader bail would soon be freed from jail. you're playing with fire and you'll be sorry the warning to britain by russia's ambassador at the un in a heated security council meeting over the nerve agent attack in southern england at that meeting came only hours after one of the victims a union screen powell spoke publicly for the first time since the poisoning our diplomatic editor james bays reports from the united nations

a greeting between the british and russian ambassadors but it was clear when the meeting started that is where the cold all relations ended russia called for the security council meeting to strongly reject u.k. allegations that russia carried out the nerve agent attack. because monday a dozen news no good to come in theaters ladies and gentlemen i don't even know what to say about this it's some sort of theater of the absurd could you come up with a better fake story we all know what the worth of british intelligence information is based on the experience of tony blair we have told our british colleagues that you're playing with fire and you will be sorry diplomats tell me they see this council meeting as part of a pattern when russia has backed into the corner it goes on the diplomatic offensive we've seen fresh comments in recent hours on the salzburg case from foreign minister sergei lavrov and from russia's ambassador in london on wednesday

russia called a meeting of the international body that oversees chemical weapons the o.p.c. w and brazenly suggested a joint investigation by the u.k. and russia the idea was quickly voted down but the british ambassador at the u.n. again referred to it using a very british literary reference the villain in the sherlock holmes books allowing russian scientists into an investigation when they are the most likely perpetrators of the crime insoles be would be like scotland yard in fighting game professor moriarty so i don't think that's a tenable way forward instead i fear that the russian motive in calling for a security council meeting today is another step in the pattern of obfuscation and contempt for international institutions it was at the beginning of march in the british city has sold spree that the former spy surrogate script and his daughter

were incapacitated by a nerve agent known to have been developed by russia yulia is getting better an hours before the security council met british police released a statement from her it reads i woke up over a week ago now i'm glad to say my strength is growing daily. i'm grateful for the interest in me and for the many messages of goodwill that i've received rusher in the u.k. of painting very different pictures of who was behind the attack or miscreant pala and her father the investigations by the u.k. authorities and by the o.p.c. w a likely to be long and detailed but even when they report their final conclusions i think there's a strong chance russia will reject them james pays al-jazeera at the united nations a law it's called is a former u.s. assistant secretary of defense who's now a senior fellow at the center for american progress i got his reaction earlier to

thursday's u.n. security council meeting russians are claiming sense you know the british are you are not one hundred percent sure that it the russian did it even though it's a russian nerve agent that gave them the idea to say well it was all cooked up by the americans and the british and then at the united nations when the british said well let's let the u.n. investigate this was no we want to you know be be part of it so basically it really doesn't get us and any place and it continues the russian narrative the putin narrative that they're you know coming up with all this stuff to plot against us as long as you don't have the international community or an unbiased organization definitively saying you know where it came from and what it was the russians can claim because of the mistake that you know the british foreign minister johnson made that say this thing was all cooked up. a judge in brazil has issued an arrest

warrant for the former president luis in the silver that follows a ruling by the country's top court that he must start a twelve year prison sentence for corruption the decision could be a fatal blow to his plans to run for a third term in october his presidential election see a new man reports from brasilia. barack obama described lisi nasser lula da silva as the world's most popular president the left wing little worker rose to become a global example for others who dream of lifting tens of millions of people from poverty. to lula's two presidencies were haunted by corruption allegations they never stuck hence his reputation for having a teflon shield but with the supreme court's decision to send him to prison while he appeals a twelve year corruption sentence it's clear the shield has crumbled the message is

you all are equal all the piece of legislation that you have in brazil you won the law so now we are talking about the former president to morrow we can be talking about the current president paymah or even the future president list legal team said it would request a series of injunctions to block his arrest warrant hoping to buy more time but judge said you would go was quicker on the draw he said that out of respect for lula as a former president he would allow him twenty four hours to present himself voluntarily to federal police in the city of where he is supposed to serve his sentence if he does not go then he says federal police will go out to arrest him given brazil's complex legal system anything could happen in that time remains the most popular would be candidates ahead of october's presidential elections and can manage it will be in use the best president in brazil's recent history it's not fair to end

things like this. with luna apparently out of the race the new frontrunner is an ultra right wing former military officer. and admirer of chile's former dictator pinochet. but the senator from lula's workers' party insists luna remains a political force. this is on this very direct has amended leadership look at snowsill mandela he was twenty seven years in prison. lula did not immediately respond to the supreme court ruling but given his temperament it's safe to say he won't go down without a fight sian human brasilia. a german court has rejected a spanish extradition request for catalonia its former leader carlos put him on is now being released on bail but could still be extradited on the lesser charge of misusing public funds would you want was arrested as he entered germany last month

for the belgian he's been living in self-imposed exile since fleeing spain dominic cain has more from berlin. this decision by the german court means that mr bush tomorrow will soon be able to walk free from the prison in norman to that he's been held in for more than a week now since being picked up by german law enforcement agencies on the twenty fifth of march he has to post a bail of seventy five thousand euros and he can't leave germany while the case is still active the point to make here is that this ruling states that the charge of sedition or rebellion is one that is not recognized in german law and therefore has been thrown out by the german court but the other charge that was proffered against mr push for more naming of embezzle meant of the funds that we used public funds that we used to allow what the spanish government considers an unconstitutional referendum to be held although this court ruling in germany suggests well that is grounds those are grounds for him potentially to be extradited but they say they

need more information the question now will be what mr push them all does next he will emerge can emerge from the prison the earliest on friday but then the question is what will he do next the deadline under the european arrest warrant scheme for his case to reach combination is in late may the question will be what he does next u.s. president donald trump has invoked lines from his presidential campaign as a very off script during an event about tax cuts he referred to a large group of migrants who been traveling through mexico in what's being called a caravan trump suggested that the group is besieged with violence and sexual assault. to what he said in two thousand and fifteen when he claimed that mexican immigrants of rapists john heilemann has more from united latin in mexico's vera cruz state people the caravan of people from central america has been traveling through mexico appears to be winding down at the moment

a lot of people appeared off they're heading to mexico city and from there they going to make their own route even to seek refuge in this country or to try and get to the border with the united states but it's been something that president trump of the united states has been infuriated by he's been tweeting about this along the course of the caravan and he came out with a comment that was unsubstantiated and quite outlandish and remember my opening remarks the trump tower when i opened everybody said all he was so tough and i use the word rape and yesterday it came out were this journey coming up women are raped at levels that nobody has ever seen before the president trumps comment in which he appears to toi rape and levels of rape to the passage of this caravan heading through mexico is as we said unsubstantiated but it's also useful to remember that he's talking about real people here with these migrants but one of the ladies that

we spoke to in this caravan told me that she was fleeing her native from douras because she'd been raped twice but she feared that the same thing was going to happen at the hands of gangs to her five year old daughter there's a lot of women a lot of children in this caravan so it's quite a serious thing to link breakthrough to to what's going on one of the other things the president trump has done it seems to be provoked by the caravan it is ordered the national guard to move them to go to the united states border makes can president enrique pena nieto has responded to that mexico doesn't see the act a fool well and he said if you've got differences. with your internal politics with your laws with your congress then take it up with them not with the mexican people so there's nothing concrete in what mexico might do in his address but he was certainly striking a more combative tone that he has in the past and he addressed the mets united

states president donald trump directly there's a quote as soon as the president if you wish to reach agreement with mexico we stand ready as we have proved until now always willing to engage in a dialogue acted in good faith and in a constructive spirit if your recent statements of the result of frustration due to domestic policy issues to your laws or to your congress it is to then that you should turn not to make seconds we will not only our negative rhetoric to define our actions we will only act in the best interest of mexicans now some of the people that we've been talking to on this caravan the central american migrants still have the hope of getting to the united states either with asylum or passing through undocumented but after all the control the see that the caravan itself has generated with president trump that hope seems a lot further off the maybe it was before a president trump has asked the u.s. trade representative to consider an extra one hundred billion dollars worth of

tariffs on chinese goods it's a move that threatens to become a full blown trade war but trump says the current rift between the world's two largest economies should not affect relations in the long run and she's day the u.s. had announced plans to slap duties on fifty billion dollars worth of chinese goods that prompted china to retaliate with similar tariffs on key american imports. in many respects i think we're going to have a fantastic relationship long term with china but we have to get this straight now we have to have some balance and that goes for other countries and it goes for other places if you look at the european union it's very solidly against us in terms of trade it's very unfair look at a young girl shaking her head yes you know about the european union it's like it's almost we can't even do business they send their cars over here they send everything over here we don't want to take our product so we can't let that happen all right still ahead on al-jazeera when we come back the stain on zimbabwe's

tobacco business rights campaigners accuse the industry of abusing its workers. plus why one of bollywood's biggest crowd pulis is now behind bars. from dusky sunsets over this pruning savannah. to sunrise atop an asian metropolis. ally we've had at least two days of heavy rain along the yangtze valley but it's cold in northern china and you might get an idea from the wind forecast that cody is heading sas once more chases the rain out of the way that's heading south and using some pretty nasty thunderstorms in myanmar vietnam quite possibly but it means the skies are clearing elsewhere temperature off a bit it will feel different it will feel rather cold ranch t. in hong kong leave the twenty one degrees in shanghai at fifteen south of the same way you know what's happening in india china we've got some big shows showing up as

true for thailand to get beyond that is rather a poor city there are arrived there around in sort of way seeing born in receipts and wet weather in jakarta recently but there's not much a forecast beyond born here of particularly deep shock sumatra going back into the wet zone and you already know what's happening in thailand that's rather well represented as you see in the forecast as for india it's been hot recently but the heat warnings dying away even in russia stand and there's rather more cloud around this is of course the time of increasing humidity and heat premal so you can get some pretty nasty showers in the northeast and he's just started to do that beyond the town a new partner for peace in northeast india there's been some nasty thunderstorms and more to come. the weather sponsored by cattle and race. i really did bad thing. would i be able to forgive somebody like me a convicted war criminal seeks out the survivors of

a prison camp to apologize for the crimes of his past. even showing. the i'm forgiven a weakness documentary on al-jazeera my old t.v. ask. him out. again you're watching al-jazeera mind of our top stories russia has warned britain it is playing with fire during a heated exchange at the un security council meeting was called to discuss the poisoning of a russian former double agent in england which the u.k. accuses russia of being responsible for. the us president donald trump has

described a large group of migrants from central america as being besieged with violence and sexual assault involving lines from his presidential campaign in two thousand and fifteen trump said some mexican immigrants or rapists. a judge in brazil has issued an arrest warrant for former president. lula da silva hours earlier brazil's top court ruled he must start a twelve year prison sentence for corruption. south korea's former president will be sentenced in the influence peddling case that rocked the country's business and political elite prosecutors want a thirteen year jail term for high for the first time the court session will be broadcast live after it was ruled to be in the public interest kathy novak has more from seoul judgment day for the woman who made history as south korea's first female president and then as the first leader of the country to be impeached and

removed from office she was indicted on eighteen criminal charges relating to bribery and corruption the culmination of months of unprecedented protests in central sort of. public outrage had replaced the hope that many south koreans felt when in twenty thirteen they elected the daughter of a former president parked and he he was a military general who came to power in a coup and who eventually met a violent and. had a traumatic past which affected her politics her mother was shot when park was twenty two and her father was assassinated by his closest aide. around that time in the one nine hundred seventy s. park befriended chasen schill decades later they were at the center of the scandal that sparked the candlelight demonstrations as president park shared sensitive documents with chair and allowed her to dictate policy even though she had no official government role in february chair was sentenced to twenty years in prison

for using her friendship with park to extort millions of dollars from major companies including samsung samsung error and group leader j. widely was tried separately and convicted of bribing park by making payments to foundations chick controlled he was sentenced in august to five years in prison then released on appeal park has continued to deny the charges against her saying she wasn't aware of cho's activities this is the country's biggest political scandal but it's far from the only one every former south korean president since the one nine hundred eighty s. has faced corruption allegations either personally or because of accusations against their family members parks pre-disaster leme young buck is in jail awaiting a formal indictment on corruption allegations linked to his time in office and had to south korea lacks a system to keep presidents in check go we are seeing a lot of discussion iraq constitutional reform to manage the so-called imperio

presidents and your presidency president came to office on a liberal agenda promising to stamp out corruption he has proposed changes to the constitution including revised presidential term limits which need parliamentary approval before being put to a popular vote kathy novak al-jazeera soul. the philippine president has ordered the tourist island of boracay to be close for six months he says it's beaches have become a cesspool boracay is home to hundreds of businesses in the shutdown could put seventeen thousand people out of work in recent years the island's become overcrowded with raw sewage dumped into the sea because the government says current visits the numbers are unsustainable and the environment must be cleaned up to the gun has more from manila. well it just may be a small island but boruc revenues make up twenty percent of the total tourism

industry of the country at least fifteen thousand workers are affected by this decision there is still no clarity whether they will receive financial assistance in the six months that the island will be closed there is also no assurance that there will still be a job or a business to return to six months from now though several environmentalists though praise the character's actions they say with the one right now is to make sure that the issue of sustainability is at the forefront of the discussion when it comes to environmental concerns of course tourism to it puts into question just how other islands are fairing other islands that are dependent on tourism for the people's livelihood islands like allowance to for example all across the country now still the president and his government is the widely criticized not just for the closure of the island but for the position to open a multimillion dollar casino on the island according to several experts they say

that would actually not mean sustainability first a multimillion dollar gambling casino has no place in a small island like boruc i so are many question though that in the intention of the president whether they his government is acting drastically and they would like to know what is really the long term plan of the government will not just when it comes to rehabilitation of these islands but also when it comes to the economic situation especially of a tourism industry that supports millions of filipinos. evacuations from the last opposition area of syria's eastern hooter stalled reportedly over internal divisions in the main rebel group there about four thousand fighters and their families have been evacuated from duma since monday as part of a russia brokered deal a convoy of twenty buses retreated to the outskirts of the town on thursday with reports a hardline faction of the fighters refused to leave. turkey has condemned the deployment of french troops just across the border in northern syria on monday the

kurds revealed a party of sixteen french soldiers had arrived in maine beach to begin patrols francis criticized turkey's military operation in athens turkey's e.u. minister says any french plan to train kurdish armed groups in man b. would be seen by turkey as helping terrorists. a little more the what's important here is that the french don't repeat the same mistakes the americans have made him on beijing with the same rhetoric and approach it from says looking for a partner or an ally very should be turkey the p.y.t. and why people can't be friends and partners otherwise what's the point of being nato allies libya has been without a stable government since the fall of moammar gadhafi in two thousand and eleven but a new public dialogue conference backed by the un is hoping to reconcile the factions divisions and eventually bring about democratic elections what at their web has more. this is

a libyan national and conference was first suggested by the united nations alongside other river mation as steps including amending the libyan political agreement endorsing the newly drafted constitution and conducting parliamentary and presidential elections in libya at this conference which is cancelled by the center for humanitarian dialogue is a kind of wide range talks and consultations among all categories of libyan society including former rebels are those who supported in the gauge a little teddy bear have to have there's opponents islamists liberals minorities and even those who supported the former regime of a man will get their feet and by the end of these consultations and meetings which are supposed to be held in civil or libyan cities from april until july by the end of the meetings there. the dialogue is supposed to gather all these consultations

and talks and come out with a new project to be submitted to the united nations by the united nations special envoy to libya. are tobacco is big business in zimbabwe makes up a third of its total exports but in your report says it is coming at a terrible human cost tassel report from harare. tobacco is the second biggest export earner last year the country produced and sold almost two hundred million kilograms worth nearly six hundred million dollars that's a third of zimbabwe's g.d.p. most of it ends up in china south africa and belgium but human rights watch says child labor and other human rights abuses on farms is tarnishing the country's tobacco industry many of the children all of the children and many of the adults that we interviewed reported symptoms consistent with acute nicotine poisoning. headaches dizziness. children shouldn't be doing work handling tobacco because it's

so hazardous and this applies both to hired work and to work in family farming. the report from human rights watch says some farm workers are also overworked and underpaid a label for survey done in twenty fourteen by zimbabwe statistical agency said about three hundred thousand children were engaged in some form of child labor the main driver is poverty when you look at. having more poor people in the rural areas and. parents and children are forced to work to. cover basics like health and education. the labor ministry like other government sectors doesn't have enough resources and people to inspect each and every farm to other cases we are. the is the study that is dedicated. to what is currently happening. by those who cases

that report in these things don't and in. return monies to take them to school after decades of government mismanagement and alleged corruption zimbabwe has one of the highest unemployment rates in the world the continuing cash crisis crippled zimbabwe's economy jobs are hard to come by and those in world worry if they complain about health and working conditions they'll be fired. most farmers here are beneficiaries of the government's a land redistribution program where land was seized from white commercial farmers and given to blacks nearly twenty years ago growing even more tobacco is a priority for zimbabwe's government one way it plans to get out of debt and improve the economy human rights workers doubt conditions on tobacco farms are going to change. al-jazeera had. one of bollywood's biggest stars has been sentenced to five years in prison for killing an endangered animal was found guilty of shooting the protected indian antelope in

a nature reserve almost twenty years ago the barker has more. was surrounded by heavily armed police as he arrived at court in the city of job not the kind of entrance the bollywood stars used to the fifty two year old actor had denied shooting dead the da over the northwestern state of rogers stand while filming a movie in the region in one nine hundred ninety eight but the judge disagreed. tradition magistrate dave three hundred someone can guilty under section one five one of the wildlife protection act and sentenced him to five years in prison and fined him ten thousand rupees several other stars also accused in the case were acquitted this is the type of endangered black bacteria comes being found guilty of killing juror in the hunt this isn't comes first brush with the law in two thousand and fifteen he was acquitted in a drink driving hit and run case in the city of mumbai in which a homeless man was killed four others injured the regional governments challenge the acquittal the court of india have given many times in the past people.

would be so marked if you saw the statement that his lawyer said we were not expecting such a harsh sentence the award winning actor has appeared in more than one hundred films and has a huge fan base around the world. will now appeal the verdict and could still walk free but the career of the so-called bad boy of bollywood might struggle to recover . al-jazeera. this is al-jazeera it's got a roundup of the top stories russia has warned britain it is playing with fire and heated exchange at the u.n. security council meeting was called to discuss the poisoning of a russian former double agent in england which the u.k. accuses russia being responsible for. u.s.

president donald trump has described a large group of migrants from central america as being besieged with violence and sexual assault invoking language from his presidential campaign and twenty fifteen trump said some mexican immigrants are rapists. the judge in brazil has issued an arrest warrant for former president luis in the silver follows a ruling by the country's top court he must start a twelve year prison sentence for corruption so you newman has more from brasilia. this arrest warrant because lula and his workers party completely off guard at this hour we know that lula has moved from his home in sao paolo to the headquarters of the metal workers union people are moving in and out of there they're trying we suppose to figure out what his next move will be we also know that the federal police has promised to give what they call a dignified place for him to serve out his sentence the the judge said gillmor who

issued the arrest warrant has said that he will not take him away in handcuffs a german court has rejected a spanish extradition request for catalonia his former leader carlos put him on he's now being released on bail but could still be extradited on the lesser charge of misusing public funds who was arrested as he entered germany last month from belgium where he's been living in self-imposed exile since fleeing spain south korea's former president will be sentenced in a corruption case the rock the country's business and political elite prosecutors want a thirty year jail term for park high the sentencing will be broadcast live for the first time after it was ruled a park's case is in the public's interest the philippine president will deter take has ordered the tourist island of boracay to be close for six months he says it's beaches have become a cesspool the shutdown could put seventeen thousand people out of work. those are the headlines we're back with more on hoffa now right now it's inside story.

this week the world's been on the ring the memory and legacy of martin luther king jr but fifty years after his death how much progress have black americans made in the struggle to achieve racial and economic equality this isn't.