home one of the fastest growing economies in the world she's alternated in power with her main rival leaders zia for most of the past three decades zia heads the bangladesh nationalist party the largest in the opposition coalition but now she's serving a seventeen year prison sentence for corruption charges she says are politically motivated charles stratford has that story from dhaka on the day's events voters cast their ballots alterna lakesha and campaign described by the band with a show position is one of the most violent in this country's forty seven year history. forever do we have a lot of hope in this election because we couldn't vote in the last one but this time we came to vote let's see what happens now the government deployed hundreds of thousands of security forces across the country an effort it said that was to guarantee a peaceful vote weeks of violence and what the opposition described as intimidation by the ruling party in the build up to this election certainly the situation at

this polling station has been calm but that's not to say there haven't been allegations of voter fraud members of an opposition polling station monitoring team say they had their i.d.'s and election papers confiscated they said they were threatened and ordered to leave. all parties were supposed to have election monitors at polling stations to watch the voting process and the vote count election commission members confirm to us they had also seen opposition members turned away so. we fourteen members of the opposition b.n.p. entered the polling station we gave our papers to the presiding officer and he said to go to the booth then the ruling party members beat us and forced us from the building. but the government and the old was asian acknowledge a number of supporters from both sides who were killed on election day. but the ruling party said the election had been free and fair then this from the leader of

the largest opposition coalition including the main opposition party. we urge immediately to cancel this what we reject the so-called result of the election we demand to hold another election under a non politicized government. the election commission says it will investigate allegations of vote rigging but the announcement by the opposition it that it has rejected the vote has huge implications for the political future and security situation across this country. dhaka sumit ganguly is professor of political science at indiana university he says despite the overwhelming victory the government could face protests. i think democracy is clearly at risk in mandan vanished and this election underscores those risks opposition upon intentions when at a significant disadvantage in this election and the principle leader of the

opposition they can calibers he is in prison and there has been allegations that even the chief election commissioner has behaved in a somewhat partisan fashion his two colleagues have expressed reservations so all of this amounts to raising serious questions about bruce about their success of perceive your own democracy invalidation the entire machinery of the state which should be impartial particularly at the time of an election for the most part has become quite partisan and that is evident from the range of allegations that have made being made from across the board about voter fraud misconduct and voter intimidation the really key question is will the opposition in the weeks and months ahead now so seek to sort of resort to extra

parliamentary means and it is entirely possible that despite this seeming overwhelming victory on the part of the no army league there could be. widespread public disorder in the country in the weeks and months ahead. lots more still to come here on the news hour for you including new questions about the israeli military's use of live fire in gaza after a major investigation. here a state of california has taken the lead in tough anti gun laws and will only get tougher in the new year. and in the sports news something like normal service is reserved for defending premier league champions manchester city and d.c. with a story in city minutes. counting has started in parts of the d.l.c.

the democratic republic of congo after presidential elections the voting was extended and some polling stations which opened late the main opposition coalition has complained of irregularities in many polling stations the voting machine due to war. and the least was not the brokers eased and also in the many polling station i walk or lesion move. i warn people our weaknesses or do that we're not allowed to be in depletion. and after. the vote. before counting the ballots. so many of our witnesses were taken out. of the polling station while sunday's vote is two years overdue malcolm webb reports from the capital kinshasa. president joseph kabila

dated early has left the democratic republic of congo for even eighteen years. this election two years a vigil is to choose his successor my only concern is that we have this very heavy rate. and. before the time out of my people. this is the man he wants to take over rama zani shattering he's on the european union sanctions list accused of rights abuses i put the city i think victory is on my side and tonight i will be president. but the heavy rain in the capital kinshasa didn't put people off . and there's no sign of a low turnout one hundred percent of eligible voters have already registered. but no fool have been able to vote there's a polling station inside this primary school it's got voting machines ready to go there's no copy of the electoral register here absolutely packed for the people

inside the sunrise waiting to vote a big crowd of people outside as well they sense is running thin people here are lame presidents of the electoral commission for not delivering it demanding their rights of eight. young people we were sleeping in two morning we're looking for which a voice we won't go anywhere. everyone here is showing death support for candidate number four martin for you live here one of the main opposition contenders three of his strongholds have been excluded from the presidential poll the electoral commission says because of conflicts and the butler out. rick and reno that's one here we are we're having problems somebody else everything is going peacefully now if you pull over for you know beneath it people all for you if you feel awful to. sorting this out of congolese you have to force. people in the eastern cities if

any in the tempo demonstrated last week when the electoral commission said they could vote for i when it came to voting activists made their own polling materials and opened their own polling stations in protest thousands came opinion polls indicate that most congolese don't trust the electoral commission. when its president came to check on a polling station in kinshasa was greeted with chants calling him a big liar and saying that she has a recount where. millions of voters across the country counted will be contentious and many congolese say they wanted to accept the result they don't believe. web al-jazeera kinshasa or the democratic republic of congo well catherine sawyer reports now from opposition strongholds also in the capital.

the alcoholic station in one of the city's opposition strongholds agape the still open to political vote. a lot of people standing here many of them very frustrated with moving for the names of the voters. telling i found of them that they can get those names have been here since i you morning i thought to be a very long night for them and several of the polling stations still in this area the story in the same a lot of frustration in some polling stations there know of votes and there's no votes as read to stop people that telling us that they feel that the electoral commission is the leverage to try to lock them out of the election to deny the opposition but we've been told that of several of the polling stations in the city . county. as well as in this is the capital of north. of north people. here in some incidents in other parts of the country at a place called in he stated that yes there was some process today in

a polling station. a policeman was trying to. crowd. hearing live one that he saw a lot of voters who are in the process the sound on him and he seemed to be just as while i must say that it is extremely getting information from different parts of the country because this is a huge country with very poor. connected and this is complicating what is already a very difficult election well mary's county is executive director of full friends of the congo he says the high turnout is an indication the congolese people do change. there are two dominant themes that have come out of the elections today one is the incredible spirit that we see from the congolese people who are there they have deep desire for change in the country and they have turned out throughout the

country in order to vote and bring about change for their future so that's one key thing that we see in the congolese people who have demonstrated to the world tremendous amount of dignity and probably best example of that is that what happened in beni they have been disenfranchised by the electoral commission saying that no vote to be held there however they organize their own vote they turned out in the thousands to demonstrate to the world that the threat that the electoral commission put out about ebola being a problem. was false so we see in that example of the turnout in many of the incredible spirit of the congolese people and their deep desire for change in the country another mass grave containing civilians executed by eisel flights as has been found in northern iraq the site in kirkuk province was used by the group as a military training camp the police are guarding the area in which are until

a team arrives from baghdad to examine the remains is barber and gopal shepherds discovered these remains after a heavy rain in the area a child shirts was found among blankets in the grave it is unclear how many bodies a further underground. as you can see the location allowed them to hide and kill innocent people from the district and outside the district locals from that village say they witness victims being murdered by eisel as they walked him through the forest. fall up a little ahead of me as you are for me and i live on our way we saw what they were killing them with the victims were dressed in red suits we could see them it was clear. it isn't the first mass graves found in her wheelchair in southern cook grays containing at least four hundred bodies were found at an airbase on the outskirts of the city in november last year last month the united nations in iraq and the un's human rights office released

a report it says there verified and documented at least two hundred two graves in northern and western iraq they date back to the time when i still controlled large swathes of iraqi territory between june twenty fourth teen and december twenty seventh teen only twenty eight of those teams have been excavated and ever one thousand bodies have been exceeded and the report says as many as twelve thousand bodies could be buried in the graves they could hold vital evidence to convict those responsible for war crimes and possibly genocide traumatized families may never know what happened to their loved ones they not a nation says greys must be preserved and they seemed with care to give them some comfort barbara and power outages sara. russia is resettling thirty children of are some members jailed or killed in iraq moscow's ambassador to baghdad says the children are russian and more will be resettled at

a later date many wives widows and children of ice and numbers remain imprisoned or stuck in camps in iraq and syria foreign governments have been reluctant to repatriate them. the mother of a guatemalan boy who died whilst in u.s. custody says her son was healthy when he left home. alone his from a remote village about four hundred kilometers west of guatemala city he was detained along with his father by u.s. border agents on december the eighteenth. i could never have imagined this he was happy when he left he called me and said he was at the border and he was having chicken for dinner. when he left he said i'm a little young but when i arrived them going to grow up i will study and look for a job and i'm going to send you money and buy a codes for my mom. immigration was a key part of u.s. president donald trump's election campaign and it's expected to feature heavily when he officially heads out on the trail again next year as part of our series

looking ahead to twenty nineteen can really help get reports on what else license store for the u.s. president. in the u.s. election season begins very early i am officially running i'm running for president i am a candidate for president in twenty nineteen the campaign for the white house will officially begin expect a crowded field of candidates on the democratic side as they try to take back the presidency from donald trump in two thousand and twenty. will be helped by some fresh faces and capitol hill in january democrats will take over the house of representatives in the u.s. congress for the first time in eight years it will also be the most diverse group in u.s. history with the highest number of women including the first two muslim american women and the first two native american women with no fillers you know collusion there is absolutely no cover but the new congress will also bring in many people who want more investigations into tribes businesses and financial transactions with

foreign governments particularly russia one of those people is california congressman adam schiff who six. acted to take over the house intelligence committee he's promised to probe trump's business dealings and make them public i have no business whatsoever with saudi arabia couldn't care less any inquiry will look into that claim and u.s. ties with saudi arabia riyadh has come under heavy scrutiny following the murder of john. killed in the saudi embassy in istanbul in october democratic lawmakers in the house of representatives may press to hold the crown prince accountable even though the royal palace has denied it this is the f.b.i. continues its investigation into trump's alleged campaign ties to foreign governments but that investigation has already netted his former campaign manager deputy campaign manager and former national security advisor among others.

another meeting between north korean leader kim jong un and trump is also in the works white house officials have indicated it could happen as early as february last june the two men made history in their first meeting in singapore. but since then pyongyang has reportedly built up its nuclear program contrary to what trumpet hoped the white house is also expected to unveil its peace plan to help resolve the dispute between israel and the palestinians given the israeli elections in twenty nineteen the trumpet ministration is said to be in discussions with israeli officials on the best time to unveil the proposals kimberly health at al-jazeera the white house well also in twenty nineteen the u.s. state of california will toughen up its already strict laws on gun ownership reynolds reports now on how the state has come a long way in bringing down crime. the new year will bring new gun laws in the

biggest us state california will ban anyone under age twenty one from buying rifles shotguns and semiautomatic weapons like the rifle a teenage gunman used to kill seventeen high school students in florida last february we have seen dramatic decreases in the death rates from firearm related causes and we think that those decreases are attributable to some of the strong gun laws that we have in california the strongest in the country in the early one nine hundred ninety s. california began an acting law mandating waiting periods for all gun purchases background checks prohibiting gun sales to people with mental health issues and many other measures in one thousand nine hundred three california had one of the highest gun homicide rates in the u.s. seventeen point three firearm deaths per one hundred thousand residents by two thousand and sixteen the rate had declined to seven point seven per one hundred

thousand by contrast alabama with lax gun laws currently has twenty one point four firearm deaths per one hundred thousand per year the states that have strongest the strongest gun laws have the lowest firearm related death rates and the states that have the weakest gun laws have the highest firearm related death rates the national rifle association for the proposal to raise the age limit at last another log coming into effect in twenty nine teen will impose a lifetime ban on california residents convicted of serious acts of domestic violence previously domestic violence convictions had resulted in only a ten year ban hannah dunn year is the violence prevention education coordinator for the organization peace over violence but we know it that when it got as a present in the home it makes us. a woman five times more likely to be killed but

also we know about one a gun is present user has access to a gun it also increases the likelihood of more it's utilized often as a means of control of coersion the evidence shows a clear link between domestic violence and shootings fifty four percent of mass shootings have a connection to domestic violence yet it's a domestic violence shooting in which the perpetrator kills their partner as well as other innocent victims or family members california is chipping away at american gun culture year after year an approach that's paying off and saving lives rob reynolds al-jazeera los angeles at least sixty people have died after a storm system caused flash flooding and landslides in the philippines five thousand people have been forced to leave their homes dozens are still missing the number of casualties could rise as rescue operations continue thousands of passengers were also stranded at different ports across the country still to come

here on al-jazeera explore the growing phenomenon of far right groups in germany as foreigners and refugees come increasingly under attack. and bridging the pay gap between workers and policies will examine what's being done in the u.k. try to make salaries fairer. than the sports teams will hear from the woman just made history in the ultimate fighting championship. from the neon lights of asia. to the city that never sleeps. with had some rather wintry weather into central parts of china recently things squatting down now this area of class in the process of pulling away somewhat bryce's skies coming back in behind fifteen celsius for hong kong fourteen therefore and all but some places of shabby rain for

a time but the main area showers that's going to be across central parts of vietnam northern parts of the philippines continue to see some rather wet weather despite the fact that our a tropical system is now in the process of facing out and moving away that's the legacy of cloud that comes with that and that will bring a fair bit of wet weather into central and southern parts of vietnam actually another system actually crops up as we go on through the coming days southern parts of vietnam could see some nasty weather because they have a system continues to dive its way through the south china seas heading towards them and then just as i watch out southern parts of thailand and also into malaysia some showers also fading across a good part of indonesia sumatra will see some wet weather over the next day no sign of any weather across south asia barely a cloud in the sky actually we got some mist and fault cold nights continue across northern parts of india and northern pakistan but the fine dry and sunny.

there with sponsored by qatar and nice. short films of hope and inspiration. a series of short stories that highlight the human triumph against the odds. al-jazeera selects. discover a wealth of winning programming from around the globe. fearless journal. the governments will still have us cultural the balance of power in favor of this. debate and discussion you get why there's a lot of disillusionment with the un across the globe our documentary. the world from a different perspective. only on al-jazeera. welcome

back welcome if just joining us you're watching the al-jazeera news hour mining's peter davi al jazeera has obtained pictures showing the saudi team the kill the journalist jamal khashoggi carrying large bags shortly after he was last seen alive suspected of carrying his remains which have never been found. bangladesh prime minister sheikh hasina has won a landslide election victory securing a third consecutive term in office but the opposition has rejected the results and has called for a new vote violence on polling day left least eighteen people to. vote counting is underway in the democratic republic of congo after

a presidential election the opposition has raised concerns over irregularities provisional results are expected in the coming days. israel's military has killed more than two hundred palestinians during months of protest of the gaza border fence thousands more have been injured in the weekly demonstrations now the new york times as well least a damning investigation into israel's use of life fire on protesters its report focuses on the death of a twenty year old medic was killed by gunfire during a protest in june after analyzed. more than one thousand photographs and videos the times concludes that ross and i'll not just killing was intentional as she did not pose any security threats and was standing more than one hundred meters away from the border fence when she was killed by a sniper the israeli military says it's investigating the death david helping or is the new york times jerusalem bureau chief he's one of the journalists behind the investigation and explains why the team investigated russ and al not just deaf. it

was important especially in the case of a medic you know obviously it's that the death of any civilian is is pitted by international law you know when when it's certainly intentionally that the medics are specially protected status and here's a young a young medical woman who's volunteered and she's gotten really well known and she gets killed it seems like we really needed to know what happened in that case nobody really knew each side you know made very forceful declarations one way or the other the palestinians said she was gunned down you know with their hands in the air and this wasn't quite true the the israelis tried to portray you know they that the person is portrayed as an innocent martyr a few days later the israelis put out a tweet suggesting that you know a video suggesting that she was part of the violence the truth you know was out there still and we wanted to set out to find it it seemed as though almost everybody at the scene had a smartphone and a lot of them if they weren't thrown

a rock they had their cell phones out on they were recording things all day long now you know there are journalists with their with their still cameras and video cameras there's just a lot of video and still imagery that we were able to harvest once you can get that and get the made metadata and you could put it into a very careful meticulously constructed chronology and then you can actually you know with the help of partners that forensic architecture you're able to put some of this into a three d. rendering of the reconstruction of the whole thing where you can place people exactly where they were when this thing happened now it's amazing that you know i personally reporting this out to the one eighty a couple of times you know based on some of the footage that we're getting in from certain angles it looked like you know one set of facts but once we were able to triangulate and not just triangulate with three sources but i think we had six or something you know vantage points on the final moment you're really able to like see everything you're able to place everything in in it's

a ray and space it out exactly as it was relative to the israeli side you really begin to see who was where who was doing what how far were they away was anybody doing anything they should have been doing or or that pose any kind of legitimate threat and then you're able to see you know what the facts were. israel's prime minister says he's received a personal pledge from brazil's president elect to move his country's embassy to jerusalem benjamin netanyahu. told him it was a question of when not if the move will go ahead the incoming brazilian president is hosting that's on yahoo and other leaders for his inauguration on tuesday he is under growing pressure to keep the embassy in tel aviv to avoid hurting lucrative exports to arab countries. brazil's biggest social organization the landless workers' movements as attacks on his members have increased significantly since the election of the far right he describes the group as terrorists latin america as you see in human reports now from the state of mato grosso disorder in the west of

brazil. scores of families who belong to the m.s.t. landless people's movement live in makeshift homes along this room road in southwestern brazil they now that castillo says that two months ago she was taking a shower when she heard her neighbor's screams. this shack was up in flames torched by unknown assailants luckily no one was injured animals didn't think none of them had much i'm not going to tell you we're not afraid we are that's why we leave the lights on now i'm afraid but what can i do against these people nothing. she's referring to increasingly emboldened opponents of the m.s.t. who expect brazil's far right wing president elect bush were not all to make good on his promise to get rid of so-called dangerous extremists brazil's landless movement is the largest organization of its kind in all of latin america and it's also the one that suffered the most attacks of the seventy social activists who

were murdered in brazil last year the vast majority belong to the landless movement and the fear is that under the new government they will be targeted even further. an antiterrorism law being debated in the senate could make that easier for decades the m.s.t. has been fighting for land redistribution and at times members have resorted to land occupations and violence but legal experts argue the current penal code is sufficient to punish those who break the law. to give the government now and in the future the power to declare any type of demonstration by political opponents as terrorism is very dangerous. yeah back at the roadside. shows are some vegetables they've grown. heavy. on the zebra we go hungry a lot we trade things with our neighbors and that's how we survive by using the patches of land by the side of the road imagine if we had our own. way. but instead

of land here expecting a confrontation with a new president who's declared the estimated one point five million members of the movement threat to brazil you see in human al-jazeera mato grosso brazil. afghanistan's presidential vote has been pushed back by three months after parliamentary elections in october were disrupted by violence and technical this year's election commission has research will devote from april to july it's resolved the issues that arose in the parliamentary election two months ago polling stations in some areas failed to open biometric machines didn't work and some voter lists were incorrect. attacks by the extreme rights in germany have been on the rise in recent years often targeting homes of refugees and foreign owned businesses experts say a core of around twenty five thousand far right activists spread throughout the country dominic cain has that story from eastern germany. massood hashemi prepares

his restaurant for the lunchtime rush on a busy week day he'd expect to have lots of clients it is a rainy and restaurant but recently things have changed he and his restaurant have been attacked for how this has. three men dressed all in black and wearing motorbike helmets came into the restaurant they made nazi salutes and shouted heil hitler then they threw one of some of ours at me and hit me in the face then they threw me against one of the radiators i spent eight days in hospital because of it you. are the police asked the investigating this attack to establish whether it was a case of right wing extremist violence but on the face of it it appears to be part of a string of such incidents that have happened in this city in this state in recent times one question we are for it is will be asking is what's the deeper motivation for such violence mike scheffler can provide a clear idea he spent seventeen years in the extremist far right movement in saxony

has been the front of the to be idea where i grew up there were only left wing groups and right wing groups you could join but i felt drawn to the right and it felt as though my friends did too then one day a recruiter arrived and he gave us a structure something to believe in he admits having targeted left wingers and foreigners in violent attacks at the time he felt no remorse until relatively recently he was an elected representative of the neo nazi n.p.a. day party now he rejects the movement he told me why it's often for and the reason it was a gigantic disappointment for me when the people i had followed into the movement suddenly quit it made me question everything at believed then i was full of doubt and i slowly began to realise i needed to be part of wider society and it was in doing that that i became a different person scheffler was help.