news as it breaks this was a great election about it was going to win but it was about how much with detailed coverage the syrian civil war moment said to state what is different is that each day some people will live until to morrow many innocent people from around the world the bats and balls are several years old the really good players could end up trading cricket at headingley and maybe one day play for the national team. water an essential resource for all humankind across europe pressure to recognise water as a human right and put its management back into public hands is increasing i think the european commission would be very very good that was probably on anybody's stanley fields. people who see every two years something to invest a profit of the one dollar. to the last drop on zero zero.

zero. zero. zero zero zero zero zero zero no final decision as us present donald trump me to the visor to discuss possible military action in syria. the middle east the day jewel. russia warns of a wider conflict with washington and also the united nations to help. al jazeera live from doha also coming up outrage in india over the rape and murder of an eight year old girl activist say the ruling b j p is trying to shield the accused. and the show of power of china's president said naval exercises 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 and france president said he now had proof that the syrian government had used chemical weapons in duma and would decide whether to respond and to course meanwhile russia has called another u.n. security council meeting for friday where session general antonio terrace will brief the member countries and in washington trump met his national security council about options of possible military action u.s. defense actually 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 power see the department of defense regarding 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 aleph 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. 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 that 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 a 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 and 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 benz 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 exclude any possibilities unfortunately because we saw with messages that they're coming from washington they were very because. they know we're hopeful i wish there was a work through proper channels of these two virtually any dangerous individuals

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. have been reporting the pentagon has been assessing for days potential action or about manly has more on the weapons capability of the u.s. and russia inside syria. now the u.s. hasn't made clear where it may strike in syria or how but the american ship the u.s.s. donald cook recently arrived in the eastern mediterranean sea now that's joint a guided missile destroyer the u.s.s. puerto it's capable of firing missiles from hundreds of miles off shore well off of range of syrian air defenses the last week aircraft carrier the u.s.s. harry truman loaded with strike paint set sail from the u.s. also to the mediterranean and the u.s.

has the l r date epis in kata there it has stealth f. twenty two fighter jets which could be used to evade the syrian regime's russian made at defense systems now if the attack takes place it may be more aggressive and have more international support than the unilateral strike by the u.s. one year ago that's what us navy launched fifty nine cruise missiles from the mediterranean towards syria's remote shire at air base it was in response to another apparent chemical attack on hunch a coon and up a syrian town held by rebel forces but let's take a look at russia's weapons all small fronts latakia based in the west of syria it has weapons including the s four hundred sufis to air missiles now these have just over three hundred kilometer range radius and the capability of shooting down missiles launched by the u.s. navy so what could be the new u.s.

targets unless the pointing to areas including do math march were high of under meza air bases around syria's capital of damascus which had been instrumental to the syrian regime's offensive in eastern kuta. syrian flags are now flying in do with the town where a suspected chemical attack took place as a binge of ed has been following the exodus of people from duma and the international response to the alleged attack reports from near the turkish syrian 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 and islam have been contradicting the government lines saying that it is in control of all of them are saying 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 w the un 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 lebanese capital beirut and they are on their way to syria on saturday they will begin their work trying to collect evidence with 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 out of the van has had of it his counterpart lived in me in fulton as well as at 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 are rivals and 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 mass protests in new delhi over allegations the ruling b.j. pay is trying to protect the men accused of raping and murdering a child in java and kashmir them astray says saying the crime is being used as a political and religious tool for has. protesters angry over the rape and murder of ossified barno that was where 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 attackers were hindu. slogan cities in the name of the hindu god j she'd amen in the name of the country india being the least for the accused i'm not the victim then i don't know what kind of country be a 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 mud and rape of a young girl. hindu nationalists rushed to the defense of the queues including lawyers and government ministers from prime minister narendra modi's party party of the same to egypt is also a party here in the us be they support generals you know they supported based and i

believe the supports to anything to be action against 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 is something which is really unfortunate. rahul gandhi leader of the indian national congress held a candlelight vigil for us of her saying the government is not doing enough for victims like her there is an attempt to use politics and use communalisation to protect those who have committed such crimes and a force that is infuriating and while the religious and political bickering continues to divide the country this still no justice for the innocent little girl whose life was so brutally taken to her side before al-jazeera china has held what it's calling as biggest ever naval drills in the disputed south china same as play 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 adrian 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 them this was a huge military display involving some forty eight aircraft fighter planes a nuclear powered submarines and also china's aircraft carrier the looming 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 these 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 so has hair on al-jazeera a nominee for us actually have statements catlett his senate confirmation hearing and confronted with several of trump's controversial statements. and in the line of fire palestinian journalists covering protesting gaza say they're being targeted by israeli forces. from dusky sunsets over the springs event. to sunrise the top an asian metropolis. the weather has been rather disturbed for central parts of the middle east recently some rather disturbed weather making its way out of a rock into iraq area a cloud here sweeping in across the region it's kind of stuck actually we're going

to see further showers or longer spells of fray as we go through friday price guys behind him is fine dry and sunny some gorgeous sunshine coming through over the next couple of days but you notice the right nest of in place in say that eastern side of iraq cupped wools the northeast pushing up towards azerbaijan georgia and armenia little bit of wet weather too just into northern areas on iran at this stage an easing of towards afghanistan south of that it's bright and sunny and it will become increasingly bright and sunny across the reagan peninsula over the next few days friday here in doha temperatures getting up to thirty five celsius the full back a little as we go on into saturday but essentially a lot of dry and sunny weather channels of wanted to show is that it's a saudi arabia still it's also some showers into central parts of south africa as you go on through friday we have got the clear skies a little further north this little area of showery rain heavy storms there the prices of filtering out as you make a way into saturday more showers a familiar the mozambique

a more rain potentially. the with sponsored boycotts on. their online what is apparent that peace is possible but. not because the situation is. or if you join us on sat there. is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone who. joined the global conversation at this time on al-jazeera.

has a reminder of 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. u.n. ambassador says he can't exclude war between the u.s. and russia. have been mass protests in india over allegations the ruling party is trying to protect the men accused of raping and murdering a child in kashmir an eight year old girl was abducted held hostage and january police say the attack was planned to force a community to leave a hindu majority area. and china has held what it's calling its biggest ever naval drills in the south china sea it. was attended by president xi jinping more than ten thousand personnel seventy six fighter jets and forty eight warships took part in the exercises. his present donald trump's nominee for secretary of state has

faced tough questioning from senators at a confirmation hearing my pompei was grilled on everything from iran and north korea to his views on islamophobia as well as the investigation into alleged russian meddling in the twenty sixteen election the senate will vote on his nomination later this month roslyn 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 some here worry that you're going to be too much in agreeing with the 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 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 now. my instincts tell me that my obligation to continue to serve as america's senior diplomat will be more important at increased times a 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 ruffling jordan al-jazeera capitol hill tell ruben as the president of the washington's trash think way pays also a former deputy assistant secretary of state for less than offense he told us what makes a good secretary of state ultimately to secretary of state is responsible for being america's face to the world and being responsible for negotiating with all

countries in the world with almost a lot or a little organizations in the world on our behalf and so the secretary needs to be clear have the confidence of the president manage a bureaucracy of seventy thousand people in over two hundred seventy countries and also understand that diplomacy is his job or her job not to advocate for military action as mr pompei o as done often in the past but it's really advocate for diplomacy and that's a key role it is ultimately made in the white house now with john bolton the new national security advisor just in place this week we're likely to see more of it coming directly from the white house but again if it's calm peo is in because he's seen as an ally of the president someone who is close to the president it's quite likely that there will be a lot of synchronicity there and that's not always a good thing though it's always important to have a clear independent voice at the state's department articulating the importance of

america's role in the world diplomatically why shouldn't have a war hawk or a yes man in that role that really undermines america's overall objectives a globally. japan has welcomed decision by the u.s. to explore the possibility of rejoining the transpacific trade partnership donald trump has asked advisers to see if a better deal could be negotiated it would be a major policy reversal for the u.s. president who withdrew from the pack soon after taking office citing concerns about jobs for t p p includes eleven other pacific rim countries at least five people have been killed in somalia following a bomb blast at a packed football stadium at least fifteen others were wounded when the explosion hit a stadium in the coastal town of. the armed group claimed responsibility for the attack trying to presenters temporarily suspended the country's parliament until may the move came after the government promised

a cabinet reshuffle following an unsuccessful no confidence motion against the prime minister a spokesman for the president gave no explanation after the announcement at least fourteen people have been killed in the attack carried out by the taliban in afghanistan gunmen stormed a district government compound in the south eastern province of gaza any local governor policeman and intelligence officers are among the victims the district is now under the control of afghan security forces. thousands of palestinians are preparing for a third friday of protest along the gaza israel border fence gaza's health ministry says more than one thousand six hundred demonstrators have been shot by israeli forces so far thirty of them killed amongst the dead or taj or a freelance photographer local journalist getting ready to cover the latest demonstrations say they fear being deliberately targeted high forceps reports. and so we get ready to film at one of the protest camps along garza's eastern edge

it's a quiet midweek day featuring families with young children and they're well back from the area where israeli troops have used live fire on the past two fridays but they wear their protective equipment molests this. after the journalists were shot last friday the family told us don't go we as journalists we send a message no matter what my wife or mother says we love our work because of that will keep coming here. last friday freelance photographer yasser tiger was shot in the upper body as he covered the protests the bullet entered his armpit where his flak jacket clearly labelled press could provide no protection he died in hospital but it's not just the death of yasser more times or that has his colleagues worried the palestinian journalist syndicate says there's a deliberate policy by the israeli army of targeting journalists in order to intimidate them certainly nine other journalists were injured by gunfire during

last week's protests. israel has denied targeting members of the media at the same time it's accused of being on the hamas payroll without providing evidence. in garza's sheaffer hospital we meet. a freelance photographer he was shot in the left leg and needed three surgeries the latest transferring muscle from one leg to the other. upstairs is beginning what could be a twelve month recovery like a freelancer he's worried about the impact of being without work for so long minutes after capturing these images of injured protesters being rushed away for treatment he found himself making the same journey. i was wearing a flak jacket and helmet suddenly while i was working about four hundred meters from the fence the israelis shot me with a live bullet in the leg it broke the bind because it was an explosive bullet. but he says the job of documenting these protests and the israeli response to them was worth the risk a sentiment shared by t.v.

cameraman man who despite his family's concerns will be back on shift at the border on friday ari forsett al-jazeera gaza 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 and son and last month it was a sin 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 in afghanistan still 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 your young sergei screwball 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 record 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 wenches of high purity is very important it's very difficult to make a highly toxic chemicals to this highly level of purity without a lot of effort normally don't worry about the impurities because they don't get in the way is the nature tossed that you're using the chemical for which is to poison something so you only release the impurities if you tried 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 today i'm not sure if it's saying no we confirm all official 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. his vice president mike pence says he will meet venezuelan opposition leaders in peru during friday's summit of the americas the meeting as part of efforts five u.s. to increase regional pressure on the government of venezuela president nicolas maduro pence is leading the u.s. delegation after president donald trump canceled his visit after a suspected chemical attack in syria. well as well as were among several groups of

protesters rallying improves capsule lima ahead of the summit town hall and reports . the summit of the americas the biggest gathering of heads of state in the western hemisphere has yet to begin but already people are protesting here in lima peru the people here a finnish whalen's and they're protesting against the venezuelan government which is currently presiding over a humanitarian and financial crisis among them is the exiled ex mayor of caracas who told us what he hopes the heads of state will do in the summit of the americas because then we're muslims jani they should declare the sanctions against those guilty of corruption and crimes against humanity and those who are linked to drug trafficking and terrorism. the issue of venezuela is going to feature on the agenda but the host country peru has already sent a message but an inviting venezuelan president nicolas maduro is going to be another leader who isn't going to be attending the summit and that's the united

states president donald trump he's decided to stay at home to deal with the syria crisis and a lot of people here feeling the message that sends is that latin america priority for him without president trump the rest of the leaders who are left to deal with the summit central theme and that's corruption especially in latin america have probably very scandal has unfolded that's already sick the returning some countries have prosecuted politicians other countries have failed to do so the question is if these two things are true they'll be able to come up with concrete solutions to what is an age old problem here. venezuelan photographer has won the world press photo of the year award for his image of a burning man join last year's antigovernment protests a mild ocean that is off the asian falls press news agency captured the moment a man was set ablaze during a violent protests in caracas she says

a motorcycle explosion in front of him as police in opposition supporters clashed setting the nearby protester on fire. without is there are these are 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. they have been mass protests in india over allegations the ruling party is trying to shield suspects in a rape and murder case an eight year old girl was abducted held hostage in a temple raped and then killed in jammu and kashmir back in january police say the attack was planned to force a muslim nomadic community to leave the hindu majority area to government ministers from the b j p party which is the policy of the prime minister in around ramadi

have been rallying support for the accused claiming it's a conspiracy against hindus. china has held what it's calling its biggest ever naval drills in the disputed south china sea and 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. my pompei or the u.s. president's nominee for secretary of state is based tough questioning from senators as well as protests at his confirmation hearing senate votes on his nomination later this month at least five people have been killed in somalia following a bomb blast of the packed football stadium the explosion hit a stadium in the coastal town of borrower the armed group claimed responsibility for the attack franken presence of my sil's service center has temporarily suspended the country's parliament until may the move came after the government

promised a cabinet reshuffle following an unsuccessful no confidence motion against the prime minister run ill with a singer. thousands of palestinians are preparing for a third day of protests along the gaza israel border friends. health ministry says more than one thousand six hundred demonstrators have been shot by israeli forces so far thirty of them killed local journalists getting ready to cover the latest demonstrations say they fear they're being deliberately targeted there's i had lines heard back with more news here on al-jazeera after the street. we understand the difference. and the similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take it. will bring you the news and current of the.