we decided within our political bureau to draw any representation we have in any official post. the crisis started two weeks ago with protests in the city of overbred shortages and rising prices that's quickly spread to other parts of the country and turned into demonstrations calling on president of bashir to end his twenty nine year old amnesty international says at least thirty seven people have been killed as police responded with tear gas and live ammunition the president has promised to cut costs and improve economy but that has not stopped the protests despite the growing calls for his ruling party to step down the president seems determined to continue his term until elections scheduled for twenty twenty elections that he's not eligible to stand in unless a dance constitution is amended. more demonstrations are planned in the coming days but some analysts say that likely won't change the president's position on. the continuation of protests institution including khartoum doesn't mean it's

a people's revolution there are many factors there are needed to make this a popular revolution and the sudanese president knows that this time there are factors missing to make demands that he step down effective so things can change down the road. a memo may not force the president to resign like the opposition wants the truth more protests planned and a defined president to dance or to head may not be easy people morgan al-jazeera. plenty more ahead on this news hour including a new book reveals the planning behind the. plus. i'll have a go paul and hong kong reporting on whether china's new e-commerce laws will be effective and wiping out counterfeit goods from the online marketplace and roger federer answering a williams do battle on the tennis court will have the action from switzerland to help and help win over the u.s. they said this is our.

well the u.s. secretary of state has sought to ease concerns over the withdrawal of u.s. forces from syria the trumpet ministration has come under pressure from allies and senior republicans since the president suddenly announced the pullout last month but mike pompei o says washington remains committed to its goals in the region the decision present made on syria in no way changes anything that this administration is working on alongside israel we can write this campaign continues our efforts to counter rated aggression continue and our commitment to middle east ability in the protection of israel continues in the same way it did before that decision was made and meanwhile the war between syrian president bashar al assad and rebel forces appears to be entering its final phase it province is the last remaining opposition enclave people there are bracing for a government offensive as assad tries to bring all of syria under his control

mohamed today reports from ghazi and tip near the tacky syria border. these are you how ptolemy mosul city a city province it libya's home to three million people who since two thousand and fifteen have been effectively trabant it is serious last remaining opposition enclave controlled by a kill to assault but the rebels. city and president bush at a loss of strength and in recent months by support from powerful allies on the reopening of their embassies in damascus by some arab countries is vowing to launch an invasion. it live within cinder block thompson villages could soon be subject to rockets bottle bombs and even class the pumps. the rebels are putting more debris face while. today we are all gathered here and ready to fight until the last drop of our blood we are the songs of this territory and we know it very well and so do the people displaced from all over syria are now living in this small geographic

area which is just ninety square kilometer nothing will make us lose our resolve to fight on what to me are. in the middle of it leaps of rolling all of groves the displaced live in some of the most desperate conditions possible with no proper housing they are the must see of the elements. i mean. we lack everything there is no food no money we have nothing that winter and floods are making life even more difficult when it gets a little windy our dance just. humanitarian workers want to full assault on it live could spark a refugee crisis of historic proportions driving millions of people into turkey and europe yet this theater of war is never locking in action in another corner of milf in syria fighters loyal to the turkish allied free syrian army are on the march.

they're headed for the kurdish held city of members in support of a planned offensive by turkish forces in recent days tekkie has been massing troops at its border and even sent tanks rolling into territory the city that it holds sway over turkey considers the kurdish why p.d. fighters who control member us terrorists. are turkey's main problem is with groups who considers terrorists finding a foothold in territory to administer inside syria i'm talking of the so-called terror corridor the p y g m p y d kurdish organizations but there also is. the issue of syrian refugees turkey believes there is a great need to end the conflict in syria so the refugees can return the moment of a complete withdrawal of u.s. forces from syria has opened the gates crumble by regional powers such as turkey and iran to aggressively pursue the interest of the city feeling abandoned by the united states congress why preview for items of cotton deal with the syrian regime

and invited its forces to protect them against the planned talk it's often without food told now when curtis held territory more from syria liberal means the missing plug in assad's plan to reclaim the whole of syria is just a mark of time say diplomats before his tonsils are told from the bahamas or the world does it or doesn't. a book released by two turkish reporters is shedding new light on the murder of saudi journalist marcus is includes details about the preparations made by the saudi operatives in the hours before the killing in a stand by in october sin and cos he has the latest. diplomatic up trusty the dark secrets of the shoot to murder the title of the first book to be written on the murder of saudi journalist a mouthful shuji the authors conducted a series of interviews of turkish officials to find out what happened before and after the journalist killing going to stumble nearly three months ago. the book

stays the case is the first of its kind a month secret service assess the nation's worldwide people and we've talked in istanbul said they want to know more about what happened it's really good rather than that we're waiting for a result whoever is responsible for this murder must be brought to justice because it happened in our country. investigative journalist fairhope in new wrote the book with documents and footage gathered by his colleagues from turkey sabbat daily newspaper kushal geo to make it good trying to depict the primary sources told us that the hit squad had discussed the plan one hour before her show she was killed first they'd offered to take him to riyadh and if he doesn't accept they'd kill him they knew he wouldn't except they planned to wrap his body parts in plastic bags then carried out in luggage this new video was released by the team behind the book on monday it shows senior saudi agents named does a tiger team sent to kill to come so late unloading luggage and bags from when and

taking them inside the consul general is residence just a few hundred meters from the crime scene the others have concluded remains are like this still there inside a well saudi arabia had allowed turkish officials to take a sample from the well but consistent that night request to empty it and conduct the search the book reveals more interesting details for instance on saudi foreign sick experts salad how to bake a who is set to have dismembered touchup his body after his killing and how often our using an autopsy saw to british there are credible sources are claiming that begun his family enjoyed a villa and pool in jeddah now far from riyadh i don't think the saudis would punish such committed servants because i don't think they have many our sources also confirm that one of the hit men stanny died in a suspicious car accident in saudi arabia maybe he was leaning toward talking but the author sources say the crime was committed in istanbul because the saudis wanted to show turkey is no longer safe for opponents of governments in order to

finish the investigation and file. possible indictments it is necessary to know the location of remains many people here in turkey strongly believe this diplomatic residence in istanbul that long to saudi consul general is where the journalists remains were broach turkish authorities now how the right to ask for another search of the cum problem and request it is likely to be denied by saudi arabia. al-jazeera istanbul well now a group of british politicians and international lawyers is off to visit detained activists in saudi arabia to investigate allegations they're being tortured and denied legal representation amnesty international says at least ten women were detained in may including some who campaigned for the right to drive the rights group says seven men are also being held in connection with their human rights work the. tragedy it was obviously a total disaster for saudi arabia and it would seem that the responsible people who

are responsible for the operation were also responsible for the detention of these side raven women's rights activists at exactly the same time that saudi arabian women were getting the right to drive a major step for their own personal freedom and freedom from the so-called guardian lords in a way that was a was a huge step. internationally and rightly paraded to such and then in parallel these people being locked up after a voyage lasting more than a decade a nasa probe has performed to the most distant flyby in the history of space exploration the new horizon spacecraft successfully observed to the ultimate truly space rock the oldest cosmic body ever explored by humans these are castor hazell. its name means a place beyond the known world and ultimate tooley shown in this artist's rendering is just that an object most likely a rock more than six and

a half billion kilometers from the sun because it's so far from the sun and the sunlight is so weak out there temperatures are down near absolute zero and as a result of that chemical reactions. are centrally frozen. so the object is in such a deep freeze that it's perfectly preserved from its original formation essentially a dinosaur from the beginning of our solar system frozen in time scientists didn't even know it existed until the hubble space telescope spotted ultimate hooley four and a half years ago it's beyond pluto in the kiper belt at the edge of our solar system until now ultimate truly has been seen as nothing but a speck of light shaped like a long dated potato. it's taken nasa as new horizons spacecraft nearly thirteen years to get this close within thirty five hundred kilometers of the object. and though the fly over happened at exactly

five thirty three g.m.t. the scientific team that celebrated the moment like a second new year at the applied physics lab of johns hopkins university has to wait longer before the big payoff of high resolution photos and data is delivered those signals are now traversing space and will begin arriving in the next few days everything that we're going to learn about ultimate from its composition to its geology to how it was originally a symbol whether has satellites and atmosphere of those kinds of things are going to teach us about the original formation conditions of objects in the solar system tuesday morning brought a promising sign we have how the spacecraft. we've just come close the most distant time by a phone home message from the new horizon to tell scientists to successfully survive the flyby. are ready to leave her to help peace in the wait here's the

mission's own theme music written by astrophysicist and new horizons team member brian may also the lead guitarist of the band queen. is ultimately one long rock or two that are touching doesn't have ice or craters the answers will be clues to understanding the origins of our solar system. castro al-jazeera washington. well meghan bottles as a senior writer for a space dot com an online publication she says it will take more than a war if all the probe stays had to return to nasa basically right now we have an early image from the approach and we have confirmation that the spacecraft was operating properly during the five and all of that but the problem is the spacecraft is now so far away that it takes us six hours to get information back and it's working on the transmitter that uses a quarter of the power of

a standard light bulb so it sends back data really really slowly and that it has to cross a really hard to students to get back to scientists so we're actually not going to have all of the information from this fly by until about twenty months from now almost two years from now because it takes so long to get all that information back so it's really going to be an ongoing process they're expecting to have much clearer images of the object itself tomorrow and then sort of what comes when will be all up to the scientists and how they get set out the data. still ahead on al-jazeera as sixteen years since the start of its revolution we look at how it's adapted to a changing wild process and why it's the final kassam for one of new york's most famous jazz bangs. and tends to top level tennis after many months of injury problems later will be heads tell you have

a fad in school. from the waves in the south. to the contours of the east. hello fog has been a bit of a problem recently in the middle of china i think it will disappear from grondahl and for jan as the clouds for the sas is drifting north give me a few spots of rain that have been some inland anyway hong kong is in life that he's thirteen degrees but a disappointment the breeze is gently taking the rain down towards the coast of vietnam once again unfortunately but it does allow the shaft to come further in even towards you know on the south west of china hong kong up to fifteen slow improvement you'll notice the majority of the rain of course is going to be set aside and this is a secular nation in shock or depression but a strong so much more straight vietnam in cambodia i think got

a flood potential there the model was just about two hundred fifty millimeters over wet ground that is enough the secular nation remains out of the water the biggest that we've seen recently causing landslide in java they're still around the threat is probably going to be a bit further east bali or east and java could guarantee that but this is going to be the west is where the mostly over the sea for india apart for passing charlotte far north korea but a snow to the hydrant it's quiet with even the breezes coming down here to bring much to survive but persistent fog is a problem. the weather sponsored by cats and peace. 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 that the european commission would be very very glad to pose was valid as asian on

anybody's stanley fields. goals people who see everything as something to invest a profit of a one dollar up to the last drop on al-jazeera. welcome

back. a reminder of our top stories this hour brazil's new far right president. has been sworn in during a ceremony in the capital brasilia in his fast speech as president he promised to free brazil of corruption and crime and improve the economy. u.s. border agents have tried to gas to stop people crossing the mexican border. women and children were among those trying to breach the border fence the border agency says it was responding to being friend of. twenty two opposition parties and have called for parliament to be dissolved and president omar al bashir to step down following weeks of protest over the cost of living the party say a transitional government should be set up to pave the way for elections. chinese president xi jinping is due to make his first major speech addressing taiwan since he came to power the event marks the fortieth anniversary of

a policy statement that led to a thaw in relations between china and taiwan on tuesday in taiwan president sighing when called on china to seek a peaceful solution to their differences insisting the islands twenty three million people want to maintain self rule beijing continue beijing considers taiwan a breakaway province. well we don't will be here to this is a way i want to appeal to china that it must admit to the reality of taiwan's existence and must respect our twenty three million people's insistence on freedom and democracy it must deal with our differences in a peaceful way as equals and it must be the government or public agencies that happen authorized by the government to sit down and talk with us to worship it china is said to introduce a new law to regulate its vast e-commerce industry the legislation aims to protect online consumers and intellectual property and clean up the country's reputation as a major source of fake goods companies or individuals who break the law could be

fined up to thirteen million dollars to reports from hong kong as part of our series looking into new laws the twenty nine team. this hong kong jewelry brands expansion into mainland china was a tough lesson for its founder and designer her short foray into that market ended when one of her signature pieces was copied and sold under different brands she has since expanded her collection half the sales are online but you won't find her jewelry on any of china's main internet retail sites a vehicle where high call is risky i don't sell any product on online shopping performs in china because if you like i'm just giving away my designs and not getting anything back and this is the problem those behind china's new e-commerce law are hoping to tackle the legislation is looking to close some of the loopholes in the world's largest retail market which is worth more than one trillion dollars in twenty seven. the individual platform will be liable as well as the past and

some of the goods so the shift the onus is suddenly the platform has to be responsible for making sure that it polices itself doesn't allow for the counterfeits to be sold according to the organization for economic cooperation and development china is the world's largest manufacturer of counterfeit goods and many of the knockoffs ends up on the streets as well as in cyberspace the new legislation applies to operators of online shopping platforms the company selling products and services on them and independent merchants with their own websites all of whom must register with the government. there are still many questions over how the law will be implemented and their concern to put give the government yet another form of control over the internet where it could wane an activity that was once outside its influence my view is still if a business is legitimate and they're not infringing counterfeit they will be ok but we don't know how it's going to be policed we don't know how it will be enforced it

may be that if complaints are responded to quickly enough where a business has been improperly accused of an ip by lation maybe they face sanctions mini jones says the law is good news for designers and small business owners like her she plans to relaunch her brand and some of china's top online shopping platforms and expects to have a profitable twenty nineteen if you go palin of his era hong kong japan's emperor akihito has addressed well wishes at his final new year appearance before he advocates in april thousands of people were on hand for the annual greeting at the imperial palace in tokyo and bracket so is handing power to his son the feste succession of unending japanese lock in two hundred he is. the united nations is calling for restraint in bangladesh after an election that was marred by violence there have been allegations of attacks on journalists one reporter says he was beaten by several men while attempting to cover sunday's vote. has spoken to him in

the capital dhaka. is a senior political reporter who works for a big mali language newspaper. says he was attacked while trying to fill near a polling station on election day had to be hospitalized and almost lost his eyesight. the group of millions rushed towards me while i was filming started beating me and snatched my mobile phone away there were seven or eight of them it was impossible for me to resist him i started bleeding and at some stage i became senseless. the threat of violence was not the only thing that made it difficult for journalists to cover voting on sunday restrictive election commission rules created a sense of fear and anxiety about reporting in general according to come on. one or two measures were relaxed later like travelling by motorbikes and entering

the polling centers but the original rules and guidelines issued by the election commission made journalists anxious about their safety. is concerned about his safety but determined to continue his work as a journalist despite the attack. this is the first time in my media career despite identifying myself as a journalist and also having my press card on me that i was still attacked i have to carry on my work with a degree of fear this is the fact there is no denying it. all political parties have denied any involvement in attacks on the press. dhaka. south africa's government is introducing a minimum wage ahead of this year's general elections presidents will run a promising millions of workers better pay as he seeks to increase his voters a base in rural areas the bill has been criticized by opposition parties who say it was rushed through parliament critics say it could lead to increased unemployment

as some business owners won't be able to afford to pay the minimum wage of one dollar forty cents an hour. internet services in the democratic republic of congo are expected to remain cutoffs until election results are announced on sunday an advisor to president joseph kabila says access was shut down to stop people speculating about the outcome of the voters several candidates had claimed to be in the lead in the election to choose can be successor the poll was hampered by violence complaints of vote rigging and delay this has been so it has more some contrast. we've not seen any government statement about this internet shutdown but we're being told a part of the reason why it happening is because of all this. being shared online by people we have spoken to an official of amnesty international who say that this is an abuse of the rights of the people now we are expecting preliminary results to be announced and it's been quite quiet particularly in the capital kinshasa where i

am people waiting for those results but several presidential candidates at least the main ones are saying that they're confident that he's election is going to remain. the ruling party. saying well. i held a press conference on monday and. i did speak with presidential candidate and he said that you know fair election there is no way the ruling party. should diary and we now. use declared when i want to you will be what are you going to structure your supporters to do and he said that this will be a provocation to the people in this is a big concern to many that have been talking to they say that the election is contested then potentially there could be violence and they're worried about that.

gunmen have killed at least thirty seven herders in central mali the attack on villages in the muck to a region was carried out by men believed to be hunters according to a government statement it's the latest in a space of violent incidents between hunters and farmers mainly over access to land and water the un special envoy to somalia has been ordered to leave accused of interfering in the country's internal affairs the government issued a statement saying nicholas hastened would no longer be allowed to work in somalia on monday his amid the government to safeguard human rights he had written a letter demanding a civilian deaths during a protest last month. the united nations has accused yemen's warring parties of failing to honor a ceasefire agreement in the port city of had data on the deal struck in sweden the rebels and pro-government forces are to withdraw from the city and out agencies to distribute much needed aid from matheson takes a look at the fragile truce. rare smiles in the yemeni port city of fighting

on the streets cautious optimism about the un brokered cease fire which appeared to be holding in the closing days of december. during the almost four year conflict in yemen hud ada and the people who live here have been bombed and shot out. as opposing sides of the battle to control the city the port of her data is yemen's lifeline where most food imports equipment to medical supplies arrive desperately needed by hospitals like this one in the city of toys in the west of yemen which patients including fired one hundred rely on to survive. i'm from a marker and there's no renal dialysis the most important thing is my treatment without it die. much of tel use has been destroyed as have many other parts of yemen at least sixty thousand yemenis are reported killed in fighting nationwide

between warring factions including who the rebels and pro-government forces backed by a coalition led by saudi arabia and the united arab and its. aid agencies say millions are close to starvation it's estimated eighty five thousand children have died from malnutrition some hope the worst is over. god willing we will see a better future the end of the crisis and peace in the region in particular intelligence i don't. expect that in twenty nineteen for yemen the war will stop and peace or political reconciliation i read. in the sun are to the north of to ease more devastation but here too among the destroyed buildings some optimism. and we hope the aggression will stop and the economy and life will improve we are so tired. back in the data not everyone is convinced the ceasefire will hold.

decision is just income paper we haven't seen any results yet reality and data is contrary to what we expected. at the dawn of a new year there are glimmers of hope for the people of yemen but no one can be sure how long that hope might last rob patterson odyssey. returning to china now president xi jinping is making his first major speech and. he came to power. well j. michael cole is a senior fellow at the china policy institute of nottingham university and the chief editor of the taiwan sentinel he joins me now on skype from taipei michael president xi speech today marks forty is since china issued its message to compatriots in taiwan what's changed since then. well a lot of change in the past forty years. key events is the one nine hundred eighty

s. so a lot of great kate after that first and also the jewel so-called taiwanese the patriots is the fact that i was became a democracy and i said this is has a major impact on the identification so i went in and the same time has caused tremendous difficulties for the chinese i mean just simply does not want to deal with a legal motorist and michel i'd like to read you a part of that message from from forty years ago and it said reunification of china today is consonant with popular sentiment and the general trends of developments now that's clearly beijing's way of reiterating its one china policy what's changed in that regard if anything. well what we're seeing a is i mean over or over the past two years we've seen you know levels of cooperation between the two sides the economies are. big depended on each other was seen holding of tourism. between sites. the greatest

impediment is a chance she's impingement so far back in twenty minutes well is a hardening deepening authority on the part of the of the chinese communist party which has exactly the most of the twenty three million people. so again. the greatest development is that for a while the chinese communist party seemed to be liberalizing in a way that could have some of the eggs now and there are others she has moved in a completely different are all in the appeal or taiwanese is next to nil say michael cole speaking to us that from taipei thanks feel for a forty one year old new york city institution is about to close its doors for good but not by choice the corneas street cafe is the nicest victim of rising rents and

the one spot heaney a neighborhood of greenwich village custom setting has a story. this night out at the legendary cornelia street cafe is bittersweet for patrons and performers alike. but at the same. to moving forward the artists han voted one of the ten best places to hear jazz in the world is closing its doors after forty one years eliminating a venue that has fostered countless poets and performers as well as musicians. this will be irreplaceable. both for the people who have performed here of this day the been given to us and for the community it's it's a catastrophe owner robin hirsch says even with an award winning restaurant and multiple nightly performances he can no longer afford the rent three of us who are

all artists opened a little one room cafe.