clinging to power and making things worse the former mayor of the car was sentenced to five years in jail for corruption a charge he denies saying it is politically motivated to eliminate him from the election he's appealing to the supreme court. the challenger to the president was sentenced for corruption two he's also barred from running and is in exile in qatar both remain defiant there are hundreds of political parties every one of them believe that their candidate is best suited to stop president like you self from winning another term in office the opposition is not united but divided with each character day saying their struggle to get their voice heard. i am listing international is calling on the government to immediately stop intimidation harassment of opposition leaders and crackdown on dissent supporters of president cell deny any wrongdoing saying all is in place for a smooth election and. we are confident and that institutions the opposition

contest everything all the time and it's now time to convince the sooner people on the ground that i have policies that will make me a lot fitter senegal's economy is booming becoming one of the fastest growing on the continent during makea sells presidents. in the opposition and economic success has come at a cost to political freedom nicolas hawke al-jazeera the car a russian president vladimir putin has compared the poisoning of a double agent in the u.k. to the killing of saudi journalist. briton impose sanctions on russia after accusing it of using a nerve agent to attack in march says while western countries punish russia saudi arabia has faced little penalties over the case. as for the scruple affair there's nothing for me to comment on and to shoji he's been assassinated there is

evidence everyone has recognised that as a scrape all well that's another matter entirely so one thing has led to a whole heap of sanctions and the other to complete silence that is the politicized russophobe because approach that is just another pretext in order to mount another attack on russia if there'd be no scruple incident they would have come up with something else there is only one goal i see behind it and that is to constrain russia to prevent it from developing because we're seen as a rival unemployment's and alcohol is a common problems for men in tajikistan and so is violence against women the poorest country of all the former soviet states relies on remittances from workers abroad mostly in russia china strafford reports now from the capital. things are good between soluble and his wife well but for thirteen years he beat called the rover up a demotion lee abused. the forty seven year old father of four says he became an alcoholic because he got depressed after not being able to find work with them but

no movement i drank because i thought i had no purpose in life i would come home and start fighting with the family now i know i can live without drinking your carmen you talk with the kids it's right it's all very close and. the couple's newfound happiness is thanks to a pilot project by international alert the organization hopes to expand its a program to focus on educating women about their rights as well as offering them job opportunities to ease the financial pressure on families. but he was drinking a lot and beating me a lot and not respecting the children there was no calmness in the family the situation is great now there's no more violence you finally found his path. the organization international says that sixty percent of the women that interviewed in a survey said that they had suffered some form of physical sexual or emotional violence from their husbands in the last twelve years now experts say some of the

reasons include poverty unemployment and alcoholism in a society that is often described as being deeply patriarchal around a million and a half tajik men work in russia because they simply cannot find a job here many abandon their wives and never return this woman who doesn't want to be recognised says her husband went to find work in russia seven years ago. she hasn't seen or heard from him in the last five thousand well how much. our family situation is very bad life is difficult because we need a lot of things we can't have i can buy anything for my children so they have to work when a job was available if they are not we have no choice but to stay at home. few other countries rely on remittances more than to stand around thirty percent of g.d.p. comes from tajiks working abroad and because many men can't find jobs at home alcoholism

among the unemployed is high meaning women are often more vulnerable to violence especially experts say in a society where it's commonly believed they all subservient to men usually men said that women are empowered and off and we don't want them to be more empowered and we said that we are not here just i mean to talk to women to work with payment we are here in order to i mean like with the family and to help the facility i mean if you will that you have south psyllium of works as a handyman in his village. does similar work when she can find it her husband says he now talks to friends and other times you command about dealing with the financial burdens they and their families face and how ashamed he is about the years of pain he caused that al-jazeera tajikistan. all right when we come back. a five.

well it's good old sport now his lia thank you has them and we start in cuba where major league baseball has reached an agreement with the sports cuban federation it allows players from the island to sign contracts without defecting but it's not clear whether the trump administration which tighten sanctions on cuba last year will allow it to work in practice for decades players have been playing pain smugglers to help them reach the united states many ended up owing large debts to

trafficking gangs under the agreement terms a fee would be paid to the cuban federation for players services the trump administration reportedly has concerns that a cuban entity would profit from the deal. this is an agreement a contract between two federations to non-governmental federations major league baseball and the federation of cuban baseball that have obtained permission from the united states government with a license to seal this agreement this is the legal way to secure a way which we have always dreamed of for our children and their families that are athletes can join the league real madrid are through to the world cup club world cup final in abu dhabi after a hat trick from gareth bale the welsh star struck three times in playing and eleven playing minutes as a spanish giants cruise past japanese side. so he malik reports.

winning the club world cup could be the bright spot lift what's been a disappointing season for real madrid so far. around who are struggling down in full of the league looked shaky early on the destiny final against. gareth bale settled the nerves however after some clever work by myself. it was just the start of what was to be a destructive spell. the was back in a quick fire eleven men. tree was he was helped on his way by some comical defending was it all seemed a bit too much because she was manager to handle was there was no luck however about bale's third was marcello again with the assist to end any serious hopes of a combat was because she did get gold though with thirteen minutes left. but it was all too little too late rally winning it thirty one we are all expecting

this kind of performances of for him from him. every sunday or every wednesday every time we play of course it's easy to score three goals three goals every game but but i mean not just because the commitment and he he has had this commitment in the last games and today everything everything was perfect for him but here he can achieve these because he was committed before the spaniards now turned their attention to him rocky side elaine with will face in saturday's trial so while malik al-jazeera. to the n.h.l. where the pittsburgh penguins have ended the washington capitals five game win streak wednesday's game was peppered by several fates as the old rivals met for the first time this season it was heated from early on that punches thrown in the first minute in the second period the capitals took the lead but were tied soon afterwards by a goal from linden crosby late in the period brian ross broke the deadlock making

it to one with the penguins when his six goal in five games. the milwaukee bucks impressive season continued on wednesday the east conference is second best team beat the new orleans pelicans younus and four in an impressive display the greek internationals getting twenty five points as the down the pelicans one twenty three one fifteen that's three wins on the bounce now for the. now the city council in the south korean capital seoul has approved the initial funding for a plan to co-host anna lympics with pyongyang in north korea the leaders of both countries agreed on the joint north south bit at their last summit but politics aside the price tag may be the biggest hurdle the current built since around three and a half billion dollars with many expecting it to continue to climb right mcbride has more from seoul all decked out for the season of giving the city of seoul is learning just how much she will have to give to co-host the olympic games in twenty

thirty two seoul metropolitan council met to help formulate its bid. as well as the initial cost billions more will have to be spent on infrastructure in both careers in spite of the hefty price tag many here believe it's worth it. if we can co-host i think it will provide a good opportunity to move towards peace the only captain and then of course cost is a concern but there's iran thirteen years to go and north korea could develop its economy to a considerable extent by then given its relative wealth compared to its much poorer northern neighbor south korea would probably have to bear much of the cost at least in the beginning offering an insight into how reunification might work one beat it will pass on in the long term if there is reunification there will be synergy with the north providing natural resources and affordable labor and the south providing

cutting edge technology and know how the olympics have played an important role in into korean relations south korea hosted the summer games in one thousand nine hundred eighty eight judged a major success after the two previous games in los angeles and moscow were marred by cold war boycotts between the east and west. north korea stayed away from competing in seoul thirty years ago leading to acrimonious protests around the event. it was a very different story at the start of this year when improving relations meant the north sent a team to the south korean winter olympics simpy on chang. in little more than a year the two careers have gone from uclear bomb and ballistic missile tests and threats of war to preparing to present a joint bid to the international olympic committee with the highly volatile nature

of into korean relations the question is whether the momentum of cooperation can be maintained a decision on hosting the twenty thirty two games won't be taken until twenty twenty five and who knows what relations between the north and the south will look like seven years from now rob mcbride al-jazeera sole. five time olympic champion missy franklin has announced her retirement from swimming and she's just twenty three years old the american lit up the two thousand and twelve olympic games winning four golds as a seventeen year old the following year she became the first woman to win six events at a single world championships but chronic shoulder pain and issues including depression have pushed her out of the water now in an interview with e.s.p.n. and she said quote when my now fiance looked at me and said the following my answer finally became clear i will support you fully no matter what you choose he said but what matters to me the most more than anything is that you can hold our children and your arms one day without been excruciating pain. now that's all your sport

now but we'll have more later. but i'll be back. in the democratic republic of congo.

when the shots came from the holiday inn the real birds cracks we heard some noise . this was no no sniper alley is one of the most dangerous intersections in the saudi able to. he didn't come in through the front entrance was what happened to the people who were shot they came into the wrong entrance the nightly part of took pics of the front to try to come should it's good there are a lot of sarajevo holiday and war hotels on our jazeera. and hundred forty twelve on. u.s. and british companies have announced the biggest discovery 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 the dry river beds like this one five years on the syrians still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their country haven't truly been able to escape the war. radicalism is on the rise

across the globe and we're told it's everywhere we're told was supposed to be highly suspicious of everybody and everything but our government policies aimed at tackling radicalization in fact pushing youngsters to the fringes of society the impact is huge typing on the net there's only so much of a complaint before you say ok that's me rethinking radicalization part of the radicalized youth syrians announces the era. donald trump defends his decision to pull american troops from syria saying it's time for others to fight in the middle east. obviously good this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up the candidates in

sunday's and democratic republic of congo presidential election are meeting to decide if the vote will be postponed. two cities under a state of emergency in sudan as protests spread we'll tell you why people are so angry plus. the reality that the labor process is such. a great to sweet end to a legal battle that prevented a yemeni woman from seeing her dying son in the u.s. . hello again with the fallout from president trump's decision to pull u.s. troops out of syria a move that a surprise just about everyone including some of his own aides over the last two hours he has been defending that decision he tweeted does the us a want to be the policeman of the middle east getting nothing but spending precious lives and trillions of dollars protecting others who in almost all cases do not appreciate

what we are doing do we want to be there forever time for others to finally fight their initial announcement to withdraw troops came as a shock to allies some members of his own republican party the u.s. backed syrian democratic forces is warning that the pullout will allow i saw to regroup yes d.f. says that will leave syrians stuck between hostile parties despite transplant to get out of syria france says its air force and troops will stay for now germany has also weighed in saying it's concerned a u.s. withdrawal could hurt the fight against isis syria was a topic of discussion at a meeting between the leaders of turkey and iran who said the.