asked furious and sometimes fatal mongolia's child jockeys are risking their young lives riding to win are they being exploited in the name of tradition one of one east investigates on al-jazeera. and seven billion live in the school each one a story that demonstrably. quickmatch documentary. on.

we sent a strong message and our hope is that they listen to it us his latest response over the alleged chemical attack in syria is your number this is new sanctions are being prepared against russia. from london also coming up hundreds of thousands of protesters take to the streets of boston or to demonstrate against the jailing of nine cattle and separatist leaders. outrage in india as a politician is finally charged over the ledge rape of a teenage girl. and trump's turned to rage against james komi president described as the worst f.b.i. director in history.

the united states is preparing new sanctions against russia over its support for the syrian government the u.s. ambassador to the u.n. nikki haley said the sanctions will target companies dealing with equipment related to president assad and chemical weapons use following the ledge to attack in duma the sanctions will be announced on monday. so you will see that russian sanctions will be coming down secretary will be announcing those on monday if he hasn't already and they will go directly to any sort of companies that we're dealing with equipment related to assad and chemical weapons use and so i think everyone is going to feel that at this point i think everyone knows that we sent a strong message and our hope is that they listen to it. haley also said the u.s. won't pull out troops from syria until its goals have been accomplished or engage in direct talks with president assad as pressures from international chemical weapons washed over in damascus to investigate that suspected chemical attack

syrian government forces say they've now retaken one hundred of course. it's being described as the biggest victory for syrian president bashar assad since the start of the conflict eastern huta has returned to state control after almost six years for weeks the enclave on the doorsteps of the capital damascus came under heavy fire hundreds of civilians were killed the pro-government alliance was also accused of using chemical weapons in the main town of duma before the last rebel group surrendered the organization for the prohibition of chemical weapons is sending a team to the site to investigate those claims the u.s. and its allies didn't wait for the organizations findings they said they had their own evidence and launched air strikes targeting syria's chemical weapons facilities the strikes were not about threatening bashar assad's hold on power but since the bombings the message from the government has been one of defiance its army says it

is preparing for more offensives the priority seems to be clearing the remaining territories outside government control near the capital. in southern damascus a number of districts are under a government siege centered on yarmuk some neighborhoods there are controlled by others by opposition fighters. the rebels also control areas of countryside in the central province of homs territory in the western region close to damascus homs highway parts of the southern province of daraa the northwestern province of idlib desert territory close to the iraqi jordan border elsewhere under the control of u.s. backed syrian democratic force rebels is the kurdish area while the region west of the euphrates river is under the control of turkey back to rebels the government's priority now is to clear areas around damascus or what it calls useful syria

because the location is strategically so important russian and syrian military officers have been reaching out to some rebel factions who are already under siege giving them the choice to accept state rule or surrender if they don't want to face an offensive in it live however there has been no offer of reconciliation there are warnings of a humanitarian disaster if there is an offensive there it's the most densely populated rebel held area some two million syrians live there almost house displaced from towns recaptured by the government iran a backer of the syrian government says it could be the next target but so kandahar which is the border with jordan the government has been trying to penetrate rebel defenses for some time now the u.s. led strikes have not changed anything and threats of further action by western powers are confined to the use of chemical weapons the syrian government still has

the upper hand and it's pushing ahead with its military solution to the conflict. beirut. syria also featured high on the agenda at the arab league summit in saudi arabia a twenty two member body is divided over the issue of saturday's u.s. that's asked trikes on syria saudi arabia behind in cata of previously issued statements in support of the action on egypt iraq and lebanon have expressed concern the saudi monarch used his role as host to push for a unified stance against iran which he blamed for instability and meddling in the region tries to discuss the sense of there's senior political analyst now under sharia. is the kind of the viet the overall view on syria from that arab league summit was certainly avoiding. the strikes that's very important the disagreed that seems you know iraq lebanon on algeria against the strikes gulf countries mostly were for the strikes egypt was not clear about the strike so the

put that aside in general in general terms they spoke about regional and global intervention with mostly regional interventions in syria and i think most of the speeches as well as in the final communique there is they alluded to iranian influence in iran but i think this time around the also meant to talk about turkish influence in iran that's in syria that's new because there's always been about iranian influence in arab region and now i think there's a special about the saudis gyptian that they're also targeting turkish. interferes and just to go back to the issue of syria more broadly in conjunction with strikes where do you what do you see the position of the maimed in terms of the assume a civil war that is going on for so long as and we reach an end game well certainly now the syria is divided into four defacto four different areas under for various regional and international influence so you have the turkey in the

north east and you have the united states in the sort of northwest and you have the nonsense in the east and you have russia and the assad regime in the middle and then you have israel jordan overseeing the opposition the south there on that there are reasons i think now it's could become it's going to become more and more difficult for any which region to basically encroach on the other i think the expansion of the syrian influence under the russian iranian support i think has come to its end because now any further expansion would have to come into confrontation with regional or international players and what do you make of the m s the halley's an allusion to these new sanctions that is due to come out on monday against russia for its assistance on the chemical weapons program look i mean in general terms that was one of the most important instruments that neither the obama administration nor that their own admission used in order to put pressures on

iranians and and russians and so on so what of those who support the syrian regime sanctions but they never did know they are saying that they are imposing sanctions but only as far as those russians who deal with the serious chemical. development as well as the assad regime i think a lot of a lot of this talk while. let's just put it this way it's too little too late and it's pushing the syrians and the russians to basically focus all their repression all their violence in conventional means non conventional means on the sheriff thank you very much. around three hundred fifty thousand protesters have flooded the streets of barcelona demonstrating against the jailing of nine cattle and separatist leaders for their role in last year's secession referendum special thirty's intend to try them on charges of rebellion including the former catalan president callus praised the man who fled to germany so negotiate

a report from barcelona. nearly six months since catalonia has been governed under direct rule from madrid and there was little in the way of a political resolution to the crisis i. thought no side is prepared to climb down from that position the spanish government maintains its line the illegal referendum last october was an act of rebellion and it's taking all measures it says on necessary to contain it measures that protesters here say have gone too far or you can be against the ban guns or you can be brought in the bandits but. it's impossible to think that that's a normal thing and i don't project boundaries our political prisoners and our politicians cannot do their job because they're not allowed to do them. so we are taking charge of the situation i think is the thinking behind the decision to jail catalan leaders would be that it would quell some of the fervor here but it could have been more of

a mistaken one because that has only served to really galvanize people here pro independent test but also beyond that as well you say that their fundamental democratic rights are being threatened meanwhile be arrested catalan politicians await trial on charges of rebellion a crime that carries a maximum sentence of thirty years in prison according to the lawyer representing the leaders is little hope that spain's justice system would deliver a just verdict but the conduct of the moment to the spanish authorities believe the start to fall for democracy you do not look people are for the peaceful expression of better view of. the castle and parliament has called for legal charges to be brought against a spanish supreme court judge for refusing to release one of the leaders jordy sanchez he was nominated to become the next catalan president now catalan politicians have only until the end of may to nominate another leader before new regional elections a cold if it comes to that may shift the crisis but not necessarily in favor of

those who put so much faith in the session its movement. barcelona. still to come here and is there one is our is white elephant a controversial plan to clear slums in argentina's capital. and hong kong's battle to save its traditional opera. alice springs fairly obvious from the satellite if you look at the amount of clouds over iran over afghanistan to pakistan that she has done anything that ends in stone frankly you can expect rain at the moment less so in iran and less so still in iraq but there are still discreet showers around the euphrates and tigris for example about tails down towards cuba it tempted to run any twelve degrees and in

fact is still to remind you it's only april cold different just now in the mountains just to the north southern caspian want us fine with the west for that bit of a breeze every day out again from the wrong direction to right make things really warm but it's pleasant enough twenty six in battery twenty nine in baghdad and by the time we get to choose a it's shot on the rainy and side of the border less a further south or further west but the resupplied around the arabian peninsula and the breeze in science would suggest dusty weather again possibly occasional suns to sandstorms kicked up by developing thunderstorms they look possible on choose a rock cutoff for example but a little less likely may be moving sas through the tropical rains to southern africa we've seen some decent rain recently for a long through namibia and to angola those showers are still going that also every now and again sprouting up in the western cape.

partly. they're going or model top stories here on our syria united states says it won't pull out troops from syria or engage in direct talks with president bashar al assad

speaking on us media ambassador nikki haley also admitted relations with russia were very strained but new sanctions to be introduced on monday. becomes a second inspectors proprietor investigate a suspected attack near syria's capital damascus a joint fact finding mission will not attribute blame for the chemical attack in which more than forty people died. three hundred fifty thousand protesters have rallied in the spanish city of boston lona to demand the release of nine cattle and separatist leaders. protest against sexual violence sweeping across northern india a politician from india is rooting party has been arrested and charged with raping a teenage go far as the arrest of eight hindu men for the kidnap rape and murder of an eight year old muslim go in indian administered kashmir many of the protesters angry at the ruling party which they say signed to do with the accused in the kashmir case shot by the us has more. the arc the family has started

a movement in india muslim nomads from indian administered kashmir they are the poster family for an epidemic of sexual abuse against girls and women michael data but the hub suited but she was a very beautiful and clever girl she was pretty why was she killed for what reason refreeze is the mother of eight year old a c for police charges released this week saying see phil was abducted in january by eight hindu men including police officers and rape for six days before she was killed on. everyone knows the details about the case now and even god knows these perpetrators must be asked why they killed such an innocent soul and it must be investigated. india's ruling b j p has defended the investigation into a seafoods death after the officer in charge took bribes to protect her killer. but activists saying the government is apathetic towards sexual abuse and that has

created a culture of impunity in india. the protests which northern india after a sci fi story was shared and they grew on saturday when b j p lawmaker called it saying singa was a receipt for the rights of a teenage girl the alleged assault happened nine months ago but he was only charged after the victim set or self on fire. go back just a few years to twenty twelve and mass demonstrations gripped india when twenty three year old jyoti singh was gang raped and tortured on a bus in delhi who did with secure violence in india out of the shadows this week prime minister in a ranger modi trying to get ahead of a fresh wave of fury if. it is still as a society as a country we are all ashamed of it in any part of the country or in any region incidents like these shake human sensitivities i want to assure the country that no

corporate will be spared on the hills of indian administered kashmir modi's words mean little to eight year old saima she has lost a playmate. she misses a sea for a lot she tells us she misses her every day yet impunity apathy exploitation would simon doesn't understand that little girls in india pay the price for them all the same. one day she took out horses to graze and someone killed her her body was found a week later they didn't allow us to bury her there she was buried in another place with the sea for gone now she takes the horses to grace charlotte dallas al-jazeera . u.s. president donald trump has unleashed another torrent of abuse on twitter against the former f.b.i. director james komi in a series of tweets trump challenges accusations coming makes in a new tell all book due to be published next week he says i never asked komi for

personal loyalty i hardly knew this guy just another of his many lies is memos are self-serving and fake in another tree trunk calls komi slippery out of whack the worst f.b.i. director in history sacked me last year for his handling of the f.b.i. investigation into clinton's e-mail practices for their service go to she have a tansey who's in washington so she had should we be surprised by the nature of if these scathing comments against me. no because kirby himself is pretty scathing pretty personal against trump in this book comparing trump to a mole boss saying that trump is untethered to the truth the piano blitz the official p.r. blitz for the book begins two nights in the u.s. with an interview on u.s. network television the network says even though excerpts have already been released there's even more explosive stuff that the public house and you have seen although probably you know i would say that with but this p.r.

tour is just beginning for comi more interviews to come and there's a real effort on the part of the trope of ministration not to discredit me as someone who's untrustworthy his what sarah soundless for example trumps press secretary had to say on the sunday morning on a sunday morning news talk show i mean give me a break the guy knew exactly what he was doing he thought hillary clinton would win and he thought that this would give him some cover he thought that he made these decisions based on the political landscape and not on the facts of the case and when the person that is supposed to lead the highest law enforcement agency in our country starts making decisions based on political environments and stead of on what is right and what is wrong that's a really dangerous position and i think that's one of the reasons there is such a huge bipartisan consensus that james comey doesn't have credibility and shouldn't have been leading the f.b.i. any longer. the president not just tweeting about komi there he also tweeted about the raid on his personal lawyers office in new york documents and recordings

seized there are reports that trump advised the more concerned actually about what's happening to his personal lawyer in new york than the special counsel investigation into russian meddling or allegations of russian meddling and also one tweet about syria donald trump said tweeted mission accomplished on saturday in regards to the syrian asked strikes he was ridiculed people suggesting he didn't realize that in popular culture a mission accomplished now stands for military failure after it was used in connection to a drawer w. bush announcement about the iraq war in two thousand and three when the mission clearly had not been accomplished in iraq the old trunk tweeting the syrian raid was so perfectly carried out with such precision that the only way the fake news media could demean was my by my use of the term mission accomplished i knew they would seize on this but felt it's such a great military term it should be brought back use often exclamation mark she have a chance to thank you very much indeed. thousands of people have been protesting in the yemeni city of ties and the surrounding provinces the demonstrators are unhappy

with the appointment of the former president's nephew tariq salai as a military commander they accuse him of being a murderer and say that he should be tried for violations committed while in alliance with the who he rebels has been appointed to lead fighting on yemen's west coast with the backing of the saudi led coalition tensions between somalia and the united arab emirates a rising some money officials are refusing to let the military equipment out of the country last week somalia seized millions of dollars of cash from a pop private flight to the u.a.e. wanted out o. has more on how the disagreement started. on the runway in both parties somalia pst security stuff stop these united arab emirates from living to the contrary of the military instructors on board refused to have their luggage such that. airport officials insisted all heavy bags be checked resulting in

a tunnel it was not clear what their baggage contained but. in a lot of my balls this is a clear indication that relations between the two countries are going from bad to worse politically speaking the situation is headed for further escalation somali government has filed complaints against the u.s. regionally and internationally. last week the somali government seized almost ten million dollars in sealed bags from the u.a.e. royal jets at mogadishu international airport and the government was. confiscating cash reserves and for. sure quarterly payments of troops. has been training and sustained. relations between mogadishu and up with debbie have been frosty since june last year when we're going to should resist the pressure from the u.a.e. and so did have to cut ties with qatar and join the blockade the impost on qatar

the disagreement between somalia and the u.a.e. centers around two deals abu dhabi is building a must have military base in the strategic paul tunnel but a better in some of them which wants to break away for the u.a.e. perper is conveniently close to yemen where it's part of the pseudo led coalition fighting iranian backed rebels the divide based company d.p. world is also taking over the port in butter better some relatively small pool to exports livestock to the middle east and imports of food and other terms all that set to change now as d.p. world says it's prepared to spend up to four hundred forty two million dollars to develop the port for somaliland the dubai ports deal is not only a financial windfall but also a vote of confidence that is a major problem for somalia which view somaliland as its sovereign territory one hundred zero zero zero zero as we closing soon in montenegro presidential election

longtime leader mean larger kind of rich has never lost an election and his favorite to win he and his ruling democratic party of socialists dominate in politics for more than twenty five years he favors closer ties with europe rather than with traditional ally russia last year the country provoked anger in moscow by joining nato. where i raise here is one of south america's largest capitals and just like many other big cities thousands of people are living in slums now the government is trying to integrate the slums into the rest of the city providing residents with access to the basic services they never had before is not going down well with everyone there is a phone records. it's known as the white elephant an abandoned building in when a site is that for decades was home to hundreds of people that had nowhere else to live. but these days heavy equipment is working nonstop to bring it down

about you know. we started to think in twenty eleven when the national government gave the city the building what we should do with it there were too many things happening here we decided to demolish it and start from scratch to transform the area. it was meant to be the largest hospital in that now america during the government. but when he was overthrown in one nine hundred fifty five the project was abandoned and since then it has been a symbol of neglect. hoping to build a park schools and are currently building the new ministry of social development here the idea of this project is to increase the presence of the state in an area that has been historically abandoned around ninety families used to live in this building in this conditions with no water electricity or access to basic services there were also one hundred forty families who lived outside the city has been offering all those occupying the cash incentives to buy

a house somewhere else. and the few say it was difficult to ask people to leave people didn't trust in our goodwill to help them leave this place slowly we started showing them that we want to help them improve their lives some families want to other places some of them are better off but there are ten families who do not want to leave. school works as a driver here says he's not ready to move. we don't want to go because this is where we work from people know they can find us here i don't trust the government's intentions they leave and they don't finish what they started over seven hundred thousand people live in slums in suburban when a site is the current administration says it's working to improve the living conditions of everyone in the city but you know. what happens in the city happens all over the country across latin america and in areas like of education and health facilities force people. the president is working on

a plan to improve slums around the country build roads and generate. this is part of the biggest urban development project one a site is has seen in decades but it is reducing poverty in the country what will guarantee that those who left the white elephant won't end up living in another slum once again. a centuries old art form that was once one of hong kong's most popular entertainments is struggling to engage the next generation cantonese opera is considered a unique part of hong kong's identity and industry diehards determined to keep it alive sarah clarke reports. after sixty years designing and creating traditional head dresses chan caulk yarn is considered a grandmaster in cantonese opera these days he spends less time creating and more time teaching to educate the next generation to appreciate this traditional us.

the audience is mostly in their fifty's or sixty's i hope that we have more younger audiences over time that's the crucial point it's a concern shared by some in the industry who say younger people are now more engaged with other types of digital and time and. so they have come up with a plan as well as subjects like math and science primary and secondary students can now study cantonese opera the hong kong government hopes that by making it part of the curriculum it will preserve this unique part of hong kong's cultural heritage i'm going through this kind of activity we hope to spark kids interest in this culture and they can experience the value of it the performance showcases stories of chinese history gestures and singing styles haven't changed nor have the demanding retains but the storyline has been given a modern make over everything to be like cantonese opera the only difference is the

story itself we try to write stories on the life of the children that's me stopper is considered a unique part of hong kong's identity and being recognised by unesco as an intangible part of the city's cultural heritage and this year the government is opening this new theater dedicated to the arts but with a fan base of many adults and the elderly it industry knows the key to its survival is reinventing its tradition the decadent costumes are drawcard as well as the mike up but students are learning to appreciate the performance celebrating it on stage her whole journey i love the cantonese opera because i now know more chinese words and culture from it. i like it because my grandpa sings cantonese opera to it so i'm used to listening to him a lot with more than twenty schools now signed up to the program industry groups hope this do landscape of cantonese opera will stand the test of time sarah clarke al-jazeera hong kong. and

a quick one you can always catch up with all the stories we're reporting on watching out a website that just that is out there dot com and you can watch us by clicking on the live button. and one of the top stories on our zero united states says it won't pull out troops from syria until its goals have been accomplished is also promising not to engage in direct talks with president bashar assad speaking on us media ambassador nikki haley also admitted relations with russia were very strained over its support for the syrian government and new sanctions are being prepared so you will think that russian sanctions will be coming down secretary will be announcing those on monday if he hasn't already and they will go directly to any sort of companies that were dealing with equipment related to assad and chemical weapons use and so i think everyone is going to feel that at this point i think everyone knows that we send

a strong message and our hope is that they listen to it comes as weapons inspectors profession best gate a suspected attack near syria's capital damascus wouldn't forty people died in the alleged chemical incident in duma eight days ago syrian government forces say they've now retaken the area the last rebel fighters leave. syria also featured high on the agenda at the arab league summit in saudi arabia the twenty two member body is divided over the issue of saturday's u.s. led air strikes on syria saudi arabia bahrain and qatar have previously issued statements in support of the action on egypt iraq and lebanon have expressed concern the saudi monarch used his role as host the bush were unified stance against iran which he blamed for instability and meddling in the region. at least three hundred fifty thousand protesters of rallied in the spanish city of boston or to demand the release of high profile secessionist leaders the protesters took over

many of the city's main streets and wore yellow in support of the catalan leaders. police in india have arrested a second person in connection with a ledge rape of a teenage girl last year it follows the arrest of politicians. from the ruling b j p party to sault happened nine months ago but was any charge after the victim tried to fire the case along with the rape and murder of an eight year old mission ago in kashmir has sparked mass protests across india. if you stay with us inside stories up next i'll have more news for you after that by phone afghans.

can arabs solve their problems their leaders meet for yet another son.