of natural gas in west africa but what to do with these untapped natural resources is already a source of heated debate nothing much has changed they still spend most of their days looking forward to for dry riverbed like this one five years on the syrians still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their country have been truly unable to escape the you're. a story fourteen hundred years in the making. a story of succession and the leadership. of the story of dispute and division of the heart. the color episode to. jersey.

no final decision as u.s. president donald trump meets his advisors to discuss possible military action in syria. the middle east to the day job war russia warns of a wider conflict with washington and also for the united nations to help. them or col this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up the nominee for the u.s. actually of say trans cafe at his senate confirmation hearing when confronted with several of trump's controversial statements. and a show of strength china carries out a massive naval exercise in the disputed south china sea.

u.s. president donald trump still hasn't made a 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 ministers agreed on the need to take action meanwhile in france president emanuel said he now had proof that the syrian government had used chemical weapons in duma and would decide whether to respond in due course meanwhile russia has called another u.n. security council meeting for friday actually general antonio terrorists will brief the member countries and washington met with his national security council about options of possible military action u.s. defense secretary james mattis says any strike would have to be balanced against the threat of creating a wider conflict we begin our coverage with this report by alan fischer and deny that 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 we're trying to stop the murder of innocent people but on a strategic level it's 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 there they're 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 as the new secretary of state. when president trump launched his last attack in syria almost exactly a year ago he didn't seek authorization for the use of military force from congress . says he won't need it this time either i believe that he has the authority he needs to do that i don't believe we need a new way 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 we'll 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 even greater risk

alan fischer al jazeera washington. mike hanna has more now from the united nations where a meeting on syria has been held. the security council held a closed door session on syria this called 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 can look to exclude any possibilities unfortunately because we saw we saw messages that they're coming from washington they were very because. they know we're hopeful i wish there was the work through proper channels sort of these two virtually any dangerous individual developments 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. syrian flags are now flying into where the town where the suspected chemical attack took place are some adventure that has been following the exodus of people from duma and the international response to the alleged attack reports from gaziantep near the to hysteria 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 jaish in the slum have been contradicting the government lines saying that it is in control of all of the missing they say there are some fighters who are already inside duma and have not completely left the town as yet many of them are waiting for the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons or b.c. deputy u.n.

watchdogs representatives to arrive in duma they are coming to collect evidence regarding 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 liberties 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 president 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 town to part live in me in fulton as well as

the american president you know u.s. president donald trump and he has been saying that the turkish. in all of this is that these tensions that have been mounting between these two rivals 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 u.s. president donald trump's nominee for secretary of state has faced tough questioning from senators at a confirmation hearing mike pompei was grilled on everything from iran to north korea to his views on islam a phobia as well as the investigation into the alleged russian meddling in the two thousand and sixteen election the senate will vote on his nomination later this month as lynn jordan reports. the antiwar demonstrators were there when mike bomb pale a ripe for his confirmation hearing. no. so too was a cascade of tough questions from congressional democrats about the secretary of

state nominee its 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 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 and his willingness to be a truth teller not a yes man to us president donald trump republican rand paul who has already promised to oppose upon pales nomination some here worry that you're going to be too much in agreement a president actually where are you going to be too much in disagreement with the president but pump ale 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. elections 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 rosalyn jordan al-jazeera capitol hill china's held what it's calling his biggest ever naval drills in the disputed south china sea as a space splay of military might has attended by president xi jinping more than ten thousand personnel seventy six fighter jets and forty eight war ships took part in the exercises edge and brown has more from beijing well forty eight hours after president xi jinping had presented china as the guarantor of global free trade he sailed into the contested waters of the south china sea to position china as the guarantor of security in the asia pacific region and i think he also had another message these are our waters now and we have the strength the power and the ability to defend and this was a huge military display involving some forty eight aircraft fighter planes or

nuclear powered submarines and also china's aircraft carrier the leading a refurbished soviet era carrier and of course this happened at the very time the three u.s. aircraft carrier battle groups were also sailing through the same waters and tensions i think are going to rise even further next week because china has announced it's going to be conducting live fire drills in the taiwan straits on the eighteenth of april next wednesday and it's fair to assume the taiwan's military will be on full alert next week. phila has had on out is there a call for justice for the rape and murder of an adult gal in india some politicians try to protect the accused. the looming showdown between washington and tehran over date of iran nuclear deal.

we still haven't said goodbye to winter which we believe across all the parts of the u.s. and also pushing into based in areas of canada warm air coming into southern most part so we'll continue to feed in some some very pleasant conditions for some down towards the southwest we have got far warnings in force actually just around western texas pushing across into the four corners states twenty four celsius therefore a lie plenty of warmth around here at least seven degrees for at denver and then just further north this area snow just on the northern edge of this disturbed weather come further south some lively storms is brewing there across eastern parts of texas into oklahoma and into office so that all my swell further race was really peping up we are likely to see some tornadoes as the system makes its way through quite a sharp temperature contrast look further north new york gets up to twenty two degrees

north of the border also we will struggle to get to around two degrees above freezing this so the snow still very much in evidence coming into the caribbean here it's slushy five and dry a few showers for some peace at they'll be a few showers just around the greater antilles jamaica could catch the odd shower on friday but in between the showers is fine and dry with plenty of pleasant sunshine all the way into central america. and a simple misuse for every game you will find in a climate of fear rhetoric is easily abuse story and will keep your clients investigative new initiatives to combat gangs simply being used to target the young documented and vulnerable we started hearing kids report. had been picked up and these parents didn't even know kids were just literally being disappeared trumps war on gangs on al-jazeera.

and again you're watching are just there to remind you of our top stories 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 russia has called another u.n. security council meeting to discuss the situation its u.n. ambassador says he contacts fluid war between the u.s. and russia. like compared to the u.s. president's nominee for secretary of state has faced tough questioning from senators as well as protests at his confirmation hearing senate votes on his

nomination later this month. and china has held what it's calling its biggest ever naval drills in the disputed chapa south china sea display of military might intended by president xi jinping more than ten thousand personnel seventy six vice jets and forty eight war ships took part in the exercises. have been mass protests in new delhi of allegations the ruling big pay is trying to protect the men accused of raping and murdering a child and in kashmir demonstrators say the crime is being used as a political and religious tool. for how small. the protest is angry over the rape and murder of. the eight year old girl was kidnapped and attacked in january police say it was part of a plan to force her muslim the magic community to leave the area. us a phone was abducted and held hostage in the temple for days her tattoos were hindu

. slogan city is in the name of a hindu god j she'd amen in the name of the country india that e.j. being the least for the accused i'm not the victim then i don't know what kind of mind revealed growing up in and what kind of country we are in this country in which direction on social media people also call for justice saying the horrendous crime should not be about religion but about the murder and rape of a young girl. hindu nationalists rushed to the defense of the accused including lawyers and government ministers from prime minister narendra modi's party of the same to egypt is also. the us be the support kills you know the supporting paste and leave out the supports to anything to be actually gets to the prosecutor says threats have been made on her life how to sing people can sing lead to games is not be free i believe i personally feel that this is something which is

really unfortunate. gandhi and leader of the indian national congress held a candlelight vigil for us and for saying the government is not doing enough for victims like her that is an attempt to use politics and use communalisation to protect those who have committed such crimes. in a force that is infuriating and while the religious and political bickering continues to divide the country there's still no justice for the innocent little girl whose life was so brutally taken to her side the food. u.s. government is warning pakistan could lose aid worth tens of millions of dollars this year if it does not do enough to combat human trafficking the cut back or deal a new blow to u.s. to us pakistan relations following president donald trump suspension in january of two billion in u.s. security assistance the cut came after trump said as bad failed to crack down on

terrorist groups allegedly operating out of its territory. has pledged to begin repatriation of range of refugees in bangladesh as soon as possible social welfare minister when met all made the comments as he met with the new to his foreign minister and after visiting refugee camps at cox's bizarre time a child tree sat down with the minister delegation shortly after he visited with henschel refugees. myanmar minister for social welfare relief and resettlement visit the could to prolong refugee camp in bangladesh 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 representatives of the ranger refugees at some point there was heated discussion and exchange of what even there was a demonstration are 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. 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. is more lives of trust building exercise want to make sure that the do trust efforts that have been done by the time this is what he had to say when i are about the delay on the repatriation process i also asked him how does the 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 read. the numbers to ensure that the forms completed to our satisfaction. well the delete is not on our part the dillies they would have to fill the forms and verification as soon as

possible. 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 to have accepted them but the most complex and contentious issues remain the identification on the citizenship papers just decided an example some of the representatives of the refugees rod their parents citizenship papers to show to the minister here 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 backed the u.k.'s findings on what was used to poison a former russian spy and his daughter in southern england last month the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons identified a military grade nerve agent used in the attack which the british government blames

on russia moscow has denied any 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 a script 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. 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 you don't worry about. because they don't get in the way it's 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 there is a i'm not sure if it's we can officially 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. european officials believe they're making progress on the agreement that would address the u.s. president's concerns about the iran nuclear deal earlier this year donald trump told britain france and germany had refused to extend u.s. sanctions relief on iran unless what he called terrible floors in the deal were fixed john hendren reports from washington after months of tough talk on the iranian nuclear agreement donald trump appears headed for a showdown with the current status of relations between the u.s. and iran work. the very acrimonious president has railed against the nuclear agreement since his campaign the iran deal was one of the worst and most one sided transactions the united states has ever entered into in january he doubled

down declining to impose sanctions on tehran only for one last time he says iran is not living up to the spirit of the deal unless iran renegotiate the deal to give the u.s. and its allies greater access to tehran's facilities and to extend the agreement trump says he will decline to waive sanctions that could effectively put an end to the nuclear agreement they've made very clear that if the united states walks away they would not see themselves as continued to be required to get here with their own obligations and so i think we would very likely see iran begin to reconstitute elements of its nuclear program so i think it's almost inconceivable that we won't see an escalation of tensions between the two countries one possible reason for trump's newly hardline domestic u.s. politics. the president is pivoting to a hard line in large part because he's heading into the midterm elections and the

poll numbers don't look good and publicans in general in the white house in particular are sweating bullets and trumps going back to his game plan as a candidate and that is to go to the hard right and to rally the base personnel changes at the white house could make all the difference trump recently replaced advisers who want to keep the deal intact with hardliners who want to scrap and secretary of state rex tillerson a national security advisor age or mcmaster or out might pump a zero in john bolton or in bolton has gone so far is to call for regime change in iran and military strikes on its nuclear program leaving trump in something of an echo chamber with few dissenting voices remaining john hendren al-jazeera washington japan has welcomed decision by donald trump to explore the possibility of rejoining the transpacific trade partnership as president is also advised to see if a better deal could be negotiated be

a major policy u.-turn for trump who withdrew from the party soon after taking office citing concerns about jobs the t.p. pay includes eleven other pacific rim countries a teachers' strike in the us state of oklahoma has ended after nearly two weeks the state's largest teachers' union says it has secured historic gains in education funding after a decade of cuts to school education budgets united nations is described as civilian protest using dead bodies in the central african republic as propaganda demonstrates his place seventeen dead bodies outside the u.n. building in the capsule bunky on wednesday they say they were innocent civilians killed joined clashes between the un and armed groups but u.n. says the dead were criminals who opened file peacekeepers killing one u.n. mission is working to restore state authority in the p.k. five area of. a highly anticipated meeting between the leaders of north and

south korea is only two weeks away people who live near the border are hoping the summit can further improve ties after months of diplomacy heavy nowak met some of them in the city of khost song. on the east coast is south korea's northernmost county it's home to a community of north koreans who arrived during the korean war seeking temporary shelter then found they could not return across the border when the county was split into a park killing so it was a baby with her family fled now she runs this restaurant which specializes in food from her homeland. there are only a few hundred north korean refugees left they often say that they hope into korean summit goes well so they can return to the fields and the creeks of their homeland before they die a dream of reunification shared by others in this region further north not far from the border about three hundred people live in the village of. their mostly elderly

because there are no longer the opportunities there once were for young people it used to be a transit point for south koreans travelling on special tours to mount kumgang in the north but the program was shut down after a north korean guard shot a south korean tourist in two thousand and eight. it used to be very busy here there are no tourist the residents who relied on commercial businesses had to leave . mere chung so hopes the leaders of the two koreas will agree to restart the program so his village can once again welcome to our wrists passing through many people in this border village may want to see the resumption of tours into north korea for south korean visitors but others argue there are ethical concerns about being a tourist in north korea because at least some of the money spent ends up in the hands of the government which is continuing to develop nuclear weapons and accused of human rights abuses against its own citizens. those issues are unlikely to be

solved with one summit in the past it's been easier to agree on gestures bringing koreans together such as tourism and reunions for members of separated families punky on su wishes to see his brother who lives in the north but he's not getting his hopes up for that or any real breakthrough. after many years of being fooled and i have no trust i just think oh i guess they're having a summit but i don't trust anything will come of it i worry north korea is just trying to buy time that they're deceiving south korea but of kung does get his reunion he may just find himself on a bus one day crossing into the north korean side of this divided county kathy novak al-jazeera course on the south korea and finally a popular video game for knight is back online after suffering may just server fail is following its latest update the last man alive battle royale game which pits one hundred players against each other has more than forty five million users worldwide

fortnights designer claim the problem on a face to face era. this is out there these are our top stories the white house says u.s. president donald trump is yet to make a final decision on how to respond to a suspected chemical attack in syria russia has called another u.n. security council meeting to discuss the situation. you know not compare the u.s. president's nominee for secretary of state has faced tough questioning from senators as well as protests at his confirmation hearing the senate votes on his nomination later this month. china has held what it's calling its biggest ever naval drills in the disputed south china sea the display of military might was attended by president xi jinping more than ten thousand personnel seventy six fighter jets and forty eight warships took part in the exercises have been mass

protests in new delhi over allegations the looting party is trying to shield suspects in a rape and murder case an eight year old girl was abducted and held hostage in a temple raped and then killed in jammu and kashmir in january police say the attack was planned to force a muslim in magic community to leave the hindu majority area to government ministers from the b j p party which is the party of the prime minister and render modi have been rallying support for the accused claiming it's a conspiracy against hindus the u.s. government is warning pakistan could lose aid worth tens of millions of dollars this year if it does not do enough to combat human trafficking the cut back would deal a new blow to u.s. pakistan relations following president or suspension in january of two billion in u.s. security assistance the cuts came after trump said islamabad failed to crack down on terrorist groups allegedly operating out of its territory. meanwhile has pledged

to begin repatriation of rango refugees in bangladesh as soon as possible a social welfare minister made the comments as he met with bangladeshis foreign minister in dhaka after visiting refugee camps in cox's bazaar at least five people have been killed in somalia following a bomb blast in a packed football stadium explosion had a stadium in the coastal town of daraa the armed group has claimed responsibility for the attack as i had lines of it back with more news here on al-jazeera after fault lines in australia more indigenous children are being taken from their families. to gates where their history is repeating. on al-jazeera. ok. because if you don't you don't run bozo i don't.