population of up to twenty snow leopards as the technology improves we're finding all these ways in which our guesses are are getting corrected and the latest evidence suggests there are more cats than previously acknowledged but the snow leopard trust believes it's premature to downgrade the cats on the international list of threatened species. a society's progress is dependent on the quality of its experts we need more of finest professionals a top priority is to why do you wait in your generation to study find new teaching methods are infusing thai students to become the agents of change taking them out of the classroom to solve problems in their local communities level education inspiring science timeline at this time on all disease.

no final decision president trump meet his advisors over the alleged use of chemical weapons in syria. russia calls for security council meeting of a possible military action in syria by the u.s. and its allies. learn again i'm martin dennis here with al-jazeera live from doha also coming up. president obama's nominee for secretary of state mike palm pale faces sharp questioning during his senate confirmation hearing. a man once tipped to join the upper echelons of china's leadership becomes the latest casualty of a corruption crackdown.

now president obama says he has not yet made a final decision on how to respond to a suspected chemical weapons attack in syria earlier on thursday an emergency u.k. cabinet meeting was held where the missus agreed on the need to take action meanwhile in france president said he now had proof that the syrian government had used chemical weapons in duma and that he would decide whether to respond in due course meanwhile russia has called another u.n. security council meeting for friday where the u.n. secretary general antonio guterres is due to brief all fifteen members say and in washington president trump met his national security council about options of a possible minute reaction the defense secretary james mattis saying any strike would have to be balanced with the threat of creating a wider conflict we begin our coverage with this report from alan fischer and deny

them james mattis was already settled to meet lawmakers to talk about the budget but with the growing threat of military action against syria this gave the house armed services committee the chance to drill for more information but what is the policy the department of defense regarding in strategy regarding the assad regime its future in the syrian civil war is there a strategy. with the president warning russia in a tweet that nice new and smart missiles were heading to syria is defense secretary insisted there was concern any strike could lead to a bigger battle and we're trying to stop the murder of innocent people but on a strategic level how do we keep this from escalating out of control the idea of deescalating the tension is also a theme coming out of moscow with a warning russia will protect. its people on the ground this is all this which is this this is the task for each and every country in the world to protect its citizens on the ground so our people our age soldiers they're there not for

conquering i don't know conquering syrian people they are for protecting syrian people across capitol hill cia director mike pompeo was meeting senators seeking confirmation is the new secretary of state. and president trump launched his last attack on syria almost a year ago he didn't seek authorization for the use of military force from congress . says need at this time either i believe that he has the authority he needs to do that i don't believe we need a new math for the president to engage in the activity you describe but uncertainty of what's to come still lingers not least because the president says the decision still hasn't been made and we're looking in very very seriously very closely at that whole situation and. we'll see what happens folks will see what happens what makes we have final decision is washington's uncertainty has allowed syria and the russian allies to move men in machinery and protect important weapon systems and

whether any military action would put american troops in syria an even greater risk . right we can talk to allan live and get the very latest in washington and allan this distinct slowing down of of the pace of this entire project is is a sign that they are thinking of a much more comprehensive type of attack rather than the the in and out of fifty nine cruise best missiles as we saw last year. exactly i think it's been explained to donald trump this isn't just simply striking syria and walking away there are much more complex issues to consider not least the russian military is much more embedded with syrian forces than they were almost exactly a year ago or the fact that there are russian planes in the eastern mediterranean which over the past few days have been flying very close to america more ships all of these up to the calculations that are being made we know the national security

council met in the last few hours they went over the various options at the end of that we had a statement which said that no decision had been made that's the refrain we've heard over the last twenty four hours or so all options remain on the table it was said at that point that donald trump would be speaking with president markhor of france and also prime minister to resign me that phone call to london has taken place we have a readout of what was said in the call from london not from washington where both leaders agreed that the use of chemical weapons could not go unchallenged and that they would have to do something about the situation to make sure that chemical weapons were not used again quite what that something is at the moment seems to fall short of military action but is the white house keep seeing new options have been ruled out and from what you can tell allen how much emphasis is being placed upon the team from the a.p.c. w. that we understand is now in syria we suspect that they will be given access to the

actual site of this alleged chemical attack on saturday how much do you think how much emphasis is being placed upon that and waiting for their results by the administration. they've been really mentioned by the administration clearly president of france has said that he believes that syria was responsible for the attack but he wants to have proof which would suggest that he is willing to wait to the o.p.c. w. comes out with some sort of reading on what they have discovered there and we know that the world health organization has already said that people in the area have shown all the signs of chemical poisoning so it may well be that during these conversations at the donald trump is holding with other world leaders they are clear that they want to do something to confront what they see is the threat that syria is posing to its own people but that the moment people like president is not

quite ready to authorize strikes and if he holds off it may well be that the americans will follow suit all right for now and thank you very much right let's go to the u.n. now in new york where our correspondent mike hanna has been finding out about the latest security council meeting there. the security council held a closed door session on syria the scald by bolivia to discuss what it called the rising rhetoric however the russian ambassador vasoline the bends here came and spoke to the media after the meeting he said the immediate priority was to avert war when asked whether he meant war between russia and the us this is what he had to say we cannot exclude any possibilities unfortunately because we saw with messages that the government for washington they were very big because. they know we're a hawk. i wish there was a girl work through proper channels of these two virtually any dangerous individual

development. and yet another security council meeting on syria will be taking place friday this has been called by russia which is also asked the secretary general to brief the council. where syria flags are now flying in duma that's the town at the center of this suspected chemical attack and salah binge of aid has been following the exodus of people from duma and the international response to the edge to attack he reports now from gaza on tap near the turkey syria border. hundreds of people have left the besieged town of duma on thursday these evacuations continue under the deal reached between rebel fighters inside the town and the russian forces who are now patrolling the streets as well as controlling entry points in and out of duma rebel fighters from jewish and islam have been contradicting the government lines saying that it is in control of all of them are they say there are some

fighters who are already inside duma and have not completely left the town is yet many of them are waiting for the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons or b c w the u.n. watchdogs representatives to arrive in duma they're coming to collect evidence regard. this alleged chemical attack which happened saturday killing dozens of people and has been the cause of that shooting up tensions between the united states and russia the syrian government has confirmed that these representatives from the o p c w have landed in the lebanese capital beirut and they are on their way to syria on saturday they will begin their work trying to collect evidence that it's yet to be seen what will they be able to find in terms of evidence on the ground munitions that were used clothes and a blood sample from people who were affected because it's been a few days since this incident took place on the turkish side of the border there have been a more diplomatic activity between the presidents of turkey and the president of

russia vladimir putin they have continued to talk to each other and vowed to keep the lines of communication open this is the second phone conversation that president of the gun has had with his counterpart vladimir putin as well as the american president you know u.s. president donald trump and he has been saying that the turkish position in all of this is that these tensions that have been mounting between these two arrivals russia and the u.s. need to be brought down and a diplomatic solution has to be in place to try and figure out what happened in duma and how can chemical attacks be avoided in the future the president trumps nominee for secretary of state has faced tough questioning from senators at a confirmation hearing mike calm pale was grilled on everything from iran and north korea to his views on islamophobia as receive education into alleged russian meddling in the twenty sixteen election the senate will vote on his nomination later this month in jordan reports. the antiwar demonstrators were there when mike

bomb pale arrived for his confirmation hearing. you know. so too was a cascade of tough questions from congressional democrats about the secretary of state nominees views on north korea we have a responsibility to achieve a condition where kim jong il is unable to threaten the united states of america with a nuclear weapon the iran nuclear deal which pompei o has opposed in the past and if there's no chance that we can fix it i will recommend to the president that we do our level best to work with our allies to achieve a better outcome and a better deal and his willingness to be a truth teller not a yes man to u.s. president donald trump republican rand paul who has already promised to oppose upon pales nomination but some here worry that you're going to be too much in agreement president actually where you're going to be too much in disagreement with the president but pump pale also faced tough questions about what some call his anti

muslim views do you have any views that the muslim faith or people believe in worshipping other gods is that just something negative in our country hey you can look at my record you don't have to take my word for it here today my record is exquisite with respect to treating people of each and every faith with the dignity they deserve and pompei o even faced questions about the president's alleged efforts to undermine the special counsel's investigation into russian meddling in the two thousand and sixteen u.s. a lot and if the president were to fire the special counsel or to interfere with his investigation that it would put the rule of law genuinely at risk if that were the case and if that happened would you resign your post as secretary of state in order to demonstrate that we are a nation of laws not of men my instincts tell me no. my instincts tell me that my obligation to continue to serve as america's senior diplomat will be more important

at increased times of political domestic turmoil for nearly five hours on thursday mike pompei o tried to be as diplomatic as possible about his views before skeptical senators his future now rests in their hands as they debate whether to forward his nomination to be secretary of state to the entire senate roslyn jordan al-jazeera capitol hill still to come here in town desirably speak to them in montana geisha in trying to convince range of refugees it's safe to return home. plus the story behind this picture which has been named the world press photo of the here. from the neon lights of asia. to the city that never sleeps. it was shaping up into

a lovely couple of days across southern parts of china while sunshine coming in hong kong thirty degrees celsius central areas not really fairing quite as well a lot of heavy rain and that rain will sink its way further south which as we go through saturday should stay fine in hong kong at least for saturday but for many parts we're going to see some very lively downpours making their way through it to try to find a dry will see largely fine weather to into the philippines a rash of showers just coming into malaysia as per usual leslye their way over towards march are making their way further west was on those east leeway and so whether they're into western borneo nettle or make its way a little further west with as we go on through saturday thailand stay settled and sunny bangkok with thirty five celsius looking at to settle in sunny weather too of course a good part of india but some areas seeing a little more cloud still some lively showers and flooding rain still a possibility into store lanka further north we have got a few showers now making their way away from bangladesh easing a little further northwards and east was brighter skies do come back in behind me

up to forty celsius in the pool so the heat starting to return to thirty seven there for new delhi in the sunshine but still cloudy and damp for southern parts. the weather sponsored by cats on bass. one day fidel castro arrived to the country club and they decided to play god. and suddenly if you didn't castro said she give i imagine the shade if we could. all move very selfless cubans so far in this magnificent landscape a chronicle of the revolution and its aspirations through the prism of its architecture of cuba's unfinished spaces on al-jazeera i am. a man.

take a look at the top stories here and out there the white house says president trump has yet to make a final decision on how to respond to the suspected chemical attack in syria a short time ago mr trump space to the british prime minister to reason may with the two leaders pledging an international response to deter the future use of chemical weapons. meanwhile syrian flags are now flying in the town at the center of the suspected chemical attack the loss of thousands of jaish al islam and their families have left the former rebel stronghold as part of the russian sponsored evacuation. oh my pompei of the u.s. president's nominee to section of state has faced tough questioning from senators as well as protests protests as outside his confirmation hearing the senate votes

on his nomination later this month. all know the war in syria now and president has spoken to prime minister to resume a of the u.k. by phone both as them agreed to an international response to deter the use of chemical weapons mrs may held an emergency cabinet meeting where ministers agreed on the need to take action reports from london after the government ministers assembled at downing street for emergency talks on whether to approve taking part in an attack on syria the prime minister said she believed the syrian regime was to blame for the poisoning of its people the international community she said must respond over the u.k. that means joining a u.s. led coalition against president assad theresa may suggest that she's willing to make that move without a vote in parliament. the government's allowed to take military action without

parliamentary backing but in the past fifteen years successive governments of run major military plans passed the house of commons first in two thousand and thirteen to resign may's prita sesar then prime minister david cameron put his case for intervening in syria in front of parliament where it was defeated a huge blow for him and his government this time to resume a risk losing control of her defense and foreign policy plans but opposition politicians say parliament must be consulted the has to be a proper process of consultation we elect palmer and we elect members of parliament they should have a voice in this the cabinet should not be making this decision. to resume a means to get this right tony blair's decision to invade iraq in two thousand and three casts a long shadow over british politics the invasion was later found to be based on flawed intelligence stability and its members have to resume a zone policy

a worried it might be too late to get involved moments past because five years ago assad was in a weak position and was vulnerable to western bombing the russians weren't there and there were moderates in the syrian opposition there aren't any more the situation has changed. the us president is waging a war on twitter threatening assad and his ally russia the british government will need to calibrate its response in more measured tones neve parker al-jazeera london . that the mass protests in new delhi over claims that the ruling b j p was trying to shield the suspects accused in the rape or murder of a child in german kashmir police say the attack in january was planned to force a muslim nomadic community to leave the area the eight year old victim was abducted and kept hostage in a temple to government ministers from prime minister narendra modi's hardy the b j p have been rallying in support of the accused and seeking their release. me amar

has pledged to begin the repatriation of range of refugees in bangladesh as soon as possible social welfare minister when me at i made the comments as he met bangladesh's foreign minister in dhaka after visiting refugee camps of his bizarre time the child trees had sat down with the minister's delegation shortly after he visited the refugees. myanmar minister for social welfare relief and resettlement visit the could to prolong refugee camp in. this is the first time ever a minister visited the growing refugee camp since the influx began now he met with a lot of the representative of their own refugees at some point that was heated discussion and exchange of what even there was a demonstration out outside which was quickly dispersed by the police now we caught up with him at the hotel and requested for an interview which he politely declined and refereed us to talk to one off is sending our delegate member to respond to our

question i asked him what was his response to the visit what he saw on the ground in the camps this is what he had to say what we have come to hear from them what are their concerns and we were able to hear what has been done because what we want to a deal. is more or less a trust building exercise i want to make sure that the do trust efforts that have been done by the guy this is what he had to say want to x.m. about the delay on the repatriation process i also asked him how does that me and my government intend to resettle the refugees when most of their village homes are destroyed and now occupied by the army so what we have done is really really informed the numbers to ensure that. completed to our satisfaction. till the dillies not on top on the dailies they would have to fill the forms and

verification assume this was. to respond to international criticism and the fact that it's been termed as ethnic cleansing in myanmar this is how you responded to my question there's no added clinton if there were any and the clinton rule not have accepted them but the most complex and contentious issues remain the identification and the citizenship papers just decided an example some of the representatives of the refugees brought their parents citizenship papers to show to the minister he responded by saying that your parents might be a citizen but you are not this is how complex and difficult whole process is we have to see how the whole thing works out down the road the global chemical weapons watchdog has bought the u.k.'s findings on what used to poison the former russian spy and his daughter in southern england last month the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons identified and military grade nerve agent used in

the attack which the british government blames on russia russia denies involvement catherine stansell reports it was the first nerve agent deployed in europe since the second world war the o.p.c. w. was ordered to carry out an independent investigation into the poisoning of. last month when they were found slumped in a park in salisbury yulia was released from hospital this week her father is still receiving treatment while the o.p.c. w. isn't responsible for finding out the source of the chemical it didn't stop the british foreign secretary boris johnson from pointing the finger only russia has the means motive and records the kremlin has to give answers. the chemical identified is said to be of high purity suggesting that only a sophisticated laboratory could make it very high purity is very important it's

very difficult to make a highly toxic chemicals to this high level of purity without a lot of effort don't worry about purity because they don't get in the way is the nature tossed that you're using the chemical for which is to poison so you only release the impurities if you try to make it difficult for people to point the finger back at you russia has consistently denied its involvement and the incident such off a diplomatic tit for tat with britain it refuses to accept the findings of the o.p.c. w. unless moscow has access to the test samples itself but today i'm not sure if it's saying no we confirm position that russia will not blindly accept any conclusions in this case until russian experts are given access to the material of the. investigation and to the full range of real information on this incident which london is in possession of the foreign secretary has said there is no other alternative about who is responsible for the nerve agent except moscow the british

government has requested a special meeting with the o.p.c. w to discuss its findings and the un security council where russia as a permanent member will also hold a meeting next week stansell al-jazeera london. the united nations is described as civilian protests using dead bodies in the central african republic has propaganda demonstrators placed seventeen dead bodies outside the u.n. building in the capital bungalow wednesday they say they were innocent civilians killed during clashes between the un and armed groups but the u.n. insists the dead were criminals it opened fire on peacekeepers killing one of them the u.n. mission is working to restore state also as he looked like a five area of hongi. is a u.n. undersecretary general for peacekeeping operations he's currently in benghazi and he told us the un's actions were justified and its presence in the p.k. five neighborhood is welcomed by the people there. the population ask us to do

something about this criminal groups that are oppressing the population there may have been legal taxes there. you see blackmail sometime over there are some ready and this has been going on for months and months and months and that. the un has been trying to get on with those who are solved this problem in the recent me but for many months trying. to intervene and the and as we did it then we were wrong. it is arms. who are. arm and. this confrontation the result that the. on court in that we have a one. year old then the very high number. to the best of our

knowledge and of course we will investigate for the what happened there has been no women and children there has been unfortunate to see many armed civilians were killed you know i think it's important not to be. manipulated by those who really want to work undermine the action of all those want to melt the central african republic. you know we are here to protect the population we did this at the request of the population of four missing it official in china and this month a contender for a top leadership position has pleaded guilty to corruption. and is shy as one of the most prominent figures to be charging president xi jinping has and cracked down at china correspondent adrian brown reports from beijing. like his trial the political downfall of syndrome time was swift state television showed a remorseful son confessing his guilt just a year ago he was talked of as

a future chinese leader on thursday the former politburo member pleaded guilty to a range of bribery charges amounting to more than twenty seven million dollars he told the court he seriously violated the law but it received a fair trial. i deserve the punishment i am guilty i'll accept whatever sentence i receive. soon was dismissed from public office and expelled from the communist party in september that was just a month before the party congress where president xi jinping was reappointed leader for a second term without indicating a successor soon had been party chief of chongqing one of china's fastest growing cities replacing an even more flamboyant figure bocce ly also once tipped as a future chinese leader songs demise comes as president xi jinping intensifies his

anticorruption campaign since it began more than five years ago more than a million party officials have been disciplined but sun is one of the most senior figures to have so far been brought down analysts say she's campaign is really about eliminating political rivals since soon had also been accused of plotting against the leadership a conspiracy said to involve the country's former security chief joe young kang who was jailed for life three years ago now soon is facing a lengthy imprisonment adrian brown al jazeera beijing. a venezuelan photographer has won the world press photo of the year award for his image of a burning man during last year's anti-government protests ronaldo schmidt of the france press news agency captured the moment a man was set ablaze during a violent protests in caracas she met says a motorcycle exploded in front of him as police and opposition supporters clashed

setting the protests on fire. traverses take a look at the top stories here at al-jazeera the white house says u.s. president donald trump has yet to make a final decision on how to respond to a suspected chemical attack in syria a short while ago mr trump spoke to the british prime minister to reason may the two leaders pledged an international response to deter the future use of chemical weapons meanwhile syrian flags are now flying in duma the town where the suspected chemical attack took place the loss of thousands of jaish al islam fighters and their families have left the former rebel stronghold as part of a russian sponsored evacuation deal the u.s. senate will vote on president trump's nomination for secretary of state mike pompei or on april the twenty third. hold the cia

director was greeted by protesters before facing tough questions from senators at his confirmation hearing seen as a hard liner on many u.s. foreign policy is compared struck a conciliatory tone old as the saying you never advocated for regime change in north change in north korea and that he wants to fix the iran nuclear deal. in the event that it we conclude that we can't fix this deal that the serious shortcomings that you send a card yourself have identified then the president is going to be given best advice including by me and if there is no chance that we can fix it i will recommend to the president that we do our level best to work with our allies to achieve a better outcome and a better deal every mass protests in new delhi ever allegations that the ruling the j.p. was trying to shield the suspects involved in the rape and murder of a child in jammu and kashmir police say the attack in january was trying to force

a muslim nomadic community to leave the area the victim was abducted and kept hostage in a temple to government ministers from prime minister and the ranger made his party the b.j. he had been rallying in support of the accused and seeking never leaves me i'm on his pledge to begin repatriation of range of refugees invalidation soon as possible social welfare minister when my aunt i made the comments as he met bangladeshi his foreign minister in dhaka after visiting refugee camps at cox's bazaar. today there is and they says headlines from us here at al-jazeera coming up next is inside story.

a first since the military crackdown in myanmar and government minister tours.