when weather conditions are bad we can't do anything but stay inside and i wrap my father with a lot of blankets like a child to keep me warm and i have no choice but to wait for the storm to end before going outside there are no shelters to accommodate these refugees in times like this the united nations seventy thousand people are at risk because of harsh weather conditions forty thousand of them are children they live in shelters and sites that are prone to flooding and are in danger of collapse because of heavy snow fall. refuses to set up proper camps to prevent the long term resettlement of refugees the u.n. says one hundred seventy thousand of the one million refugees registered in lebanon live like this for them in particular it is proving to be a tough winter so. are still northeastern lebannon harden lang is vice president for programs and policy at refugees international he says there's no political will

to provide suitable housing for syrian refugees in lebanon. if you're in turkey or you're in jordan and you're in staying in some of the camps that have been set up for syrian refugees there they're much more robust facilities because they've been established with the understanding that the syrian refugees were going to be there for years living on for a series of reasons partially political partially because the government has been functioning for a number of years and also just the general approach to this crisis has been to avoid anything that would give a semblance of permanence to the syrian refugee camp refugee population i mean this is a bit of a hangover that goes back to the time of the palestinians the lebanese are very concerned that the syrian refugee population may stay for a long period of time and they indeed have been there for a while now the real question is they refuse to allow the kind of more permanent structures that would provide a baseline of humanitarian protection for these very vulnerable populations plenty

more ahead on the news hour including al shabaab says an attack on a luxury hotel in kenya is in response to donald trump recognizing jerusalem as israel's capital. china helps a foundations in sri lanka for what's being touted as south asia's new financial hub. and roger federer is given a tough a test than expected at the astray and open leo will have that story in schools. afghan peace talks have hit a stumbling block with the taliban threatening to walk away from negotiations the group is accused the u.s. of deflecting from the issue of withdrawing forces from afghanistan amusing between the u.s. special envoy on afghan reconciliation. and taliban leaders last week was canceled and now has postponed a planned trip to his on

a bad for talks with pakistani leaders meanwhile the taliban has accused as on the bad of cracking down on its leaders and members in order to pressure the group to open talks with the afghan government has more. confusion still persisting over the. taliban. over the whole place in abu dhabi and in their state. now the us special representative for peace and reconciliation four of one is done ambassador. was due to come. on the government on how to bring the of one taliban to the negotiating table august on saying that it had to have control over the of on taliban the taliban also issuing a statement saying that any air dam to outmaneuver they would be unacceptable and that the us was now being conditionalities which were unacceptable to the avalon

taleban according to diplomats are still sticking to their guns saying that they will not fall to the puppet regime in kabul and war nothing short of a foreign drawing from of one is done therefore there is a complicated issue at hand and it is going to be difficult to see how the of one taliban will come to the negotiating table of the united states of insincerity. conason adjunct scholar of defense and foreign policy at the cato institute she says pakistan will be able to bring the taliban back to the negotiating table. i think with pakistan plays a vital role in actually moving these talks forward and it is very telling that the special envoy. used to go to some of us and the response back side has been sort of cracking down on taliban safe havens and safe houses in going after certain leaders so i think what can be done to move these talks along there are two things basically one is that oksana can show that it is serious about trying to use the

leverage that it has on the taliban to get them to the negotiating table and to get them to compromise on some of their demands and the second issue would be also arms and being in a more compromising position where he is willing to meet with the taleban and backs on officials together. and even when certain things have not been set in stone jesting. the armed group behind an attack in kenya says it was in retaliation for the u.s. president's decision to recognize jerusalem as the capital of israel at least twenty one people died in the assault by al-shabaab fighters on a nairobi hotel complex on tuesday and the red cross says fifty people are still unaccounted for catherine so it has more from nairobi. outside this morgue in nairobi and she has family members and colleagues week for news some more than that . now this over details of what happened inside the dusit hotel complex are

beginning to march surveillance cameras captured the beginnings of the attack when heavily armed men walked into the up market complex from all over the place employees are running all over the place he was screaming for up on to realize that the best thing to do is to find a service a place to hide. for hours afterwards to hire five workers and clients barricaded themselves in as gunfire and explosions rang out. some people are still missing hundreds of others were taken to safety you know peroration that lasted through tuesday night we go out to say for the iraqis some but they make a big mistake because it was not secure we go and leave the ship to us kenya's president has about to bring those responsible to justice we are a country governed by laws rules and regulations

a country that embraces peaceful coexistence we believe in these principles and values even in the face of adversity and i must also state that we are also a nation that never forgets. who hurt children police have started investigating they want to find out how their town was planned how the gunman got here. are they can they foreigners who are their friends who helped them where was this attack planned all this are questions that many kenyans want to quick answers to. al-shabaab has in the past saved their tax irene response to kenya sending troops to somalia as part of a un backed international force this comes on the third and

a vast area of the killing by al-shabaab of more than one hundred kenyan soldiers on a military base in south and somalia. this must have been. pock. sleep in. in the country and was just activated for two reasons one of course. the. vasari and secondly it was announcing that it is still there it is still a reverend. paul the hotel is now a crime scene and the city is mourning once more. catherine soy oil to zero. the international criminal court on wednesday halted the release of former president there on bag following a new appeal by prosecutors earlier the court in the netherlands said bad guy was free to go a day after his acquittal on charges of crimes against humanity nicholas hock spoke to his wife and. inside the house of

friends family members politicians and supporters celebrate the international criminal court's decision to acquit the former president. it was a poorly organized by his wife's human big book she's wanted by the international criminal court in august she was pardoned freed after being sentenced by an ivorian court to twenty years in prison for her role in the two thousand and eleven civil war. since then she's refused to talk publicly until now breaking her silence to speak to al-jazeera she says. i am behaving in joy because we won remember the whole world was mobilized against ivory coast against the regime of bug bo and today the international criminal court washed him from guilt the court has confirmed. that he is innocent that. during a seven year long legal fight prosecutors presented eighty witnesses and thousands of documents to the court in the hague faced with what the judges described as an

exceptionally weak prosecution argument the case collapsed prosecutors say they will appeal with lawyers worried about the possible repercussions the ruling could have on the surviving victims of the civil war they fear that maybe ten shows could appear in abidjan or in certain areas or abidjan where very resigned and that maybe they could again be targeted as it was the case during the process. in fact two thousand and eleven three thousand died and tens of thousands who were displaced when law refused to hand over power in a contested presidential election in two thousand and ten. promises made by the government for reconciliation have largely been left unfulfilled victims and survivors of the crisis are still waiting for compensation and justice. it is. many ivorians say that as long as bug bo has not returned home there can be no reconciliation he is the one that will bring the reconsolidation. i ask when he

will return to ivory coast since. i don't know when he will return back to the motherland soon but i don't think he knows himself when he will return home. while many may fear return. for his supporters the party has just begun nicholas hawke al-jazeera beach on. there's just a month to go until nigerians go to the polls at least ninety one political parties have registered and more than seventy have put forward presidential candidates elections that have always been big business this whole party spend hundreds of millions of dollars and publicity that just sticks and even vote by bus as ahmed idris reports from sokoto state reduced spending has affected campaigning. nigeria's campaign season is underway and candidates are seizing the ball but the crowd here may be huge but they're not close to numbers seen during the last

general elections in twenty fifteen then the country's banks are open to politicians every day of the week most nigerians including politicians of noted how that has changed. democracy is growing and we're doing over some of this culture that is necessary that that should not be the case in a democracy of comparative process with all of the needed to allow the people to elect their leaders without necessarily being influenced. there through violence or through into the addition of the use of money and their complete materials. today many politicians and public office holders have been taken to court for allegedly diverting government money to fund their campaigns including money meant for the fight against boko haram the scope of theft has shocked many nigerians. and they're finding money me t.b.'s to be an empty money been distributed so to fund activities

activities but negative to the nigerian economy it made until after ten to fifteen we find something. there appears to be a lot of caution this time and the era of big spending for elections is disappearing in previous campaigns traders struggle to meet the demands of politicians will buy food and other goods to share with voters in the hope of securing their support cells why good but this year is different these bags of rice now you're a staple i've been here for days with few buyers. traders say the lack of spending is hurting their business and. their village politician come here in huge numbers to buy rice to give to what is nothing much is happening. some pleasant surprise for us. print to say politicians saying creasing really turning to social media to campaign and that's not good for business for many here at the

market they say this is one campaign season they don't want to see in future but for others this is a good sign of an increasingly democratic nigeria. freeze. so. in libya five people have been killed in fighting between rival armed groups on the outskirts of tripoli the violence fractures a four month old u.n. brokered cease fire on the vehicles could be seen in the south of the city factional conflicts have plagued libya since the twenty eleven uprising that toppled while like a gadhafi the un backed government in tripoli has been working on a new security plan but has achieved little without a national police force or army the united nations security council has voted unanimously to deploy up to seventy five observers to yemen's port city of her data the monitors will be sent for six months to supervise a cease fire and the withdrawal of rival forces forcing

a truce deal signed in sweden last month most of yemen's food and medicine passes through her dead as port james bays reports from the united nations a unanimous vote by the security council to extend and expand its monitoring mission in her data they've now authorized up to seventy five un monitors for a period of six months the big worry on the ground is that the cease fire won't hold for anything like that long it came into force last month but is extremely fragile and shaky with numerous violations reported u.n. secretary general antonio good terrorists says keeping and extending the peace is one of his key priorities for the year ahead last month stockholm agreement on yemen to avoid the catastrophic military confrontation in the data it would have greatly increases the risk of famine. but much more needs to be done to ensure that the parties live up to their commitments and that the true political process

finally leads to peace beyond the date in amman jordan talks about an exchange of prisoners something that was originally supposed to happen before last month's stockholm agreement finally got underway the prisoner exchange is one of the confidence building measures that the special envoy has negotiated so it's a very important part because it shows good faith and it was part of the agreements reached in stock and confidence building is good in its own same areas there's still not enough confidence though to name a date for the next stage of political talks they've now slipped to february kuwait was talked about as a venue but the who things are on easy about going there and now germany is being mentioned james zero at the united nations the presidents of brazil and argentina have stepped up pressure on venezuela's leader nicolas maduro calling him

a dictator as i adelson are and isn't a tendon counterpart merits or mockery made the comments during a meeting in brazil's capital not create accused of prolonging his presidency through fictitious elections it comes a week after maduro began a second term in office which many countries in the region have condemned as in the gist of it. still ahead on al jazeera keeping up with the rapidly changing world of autonomous vehicles this still driving fifteen passenger bus is already on the road you're in the united states you need about twenty other countries and when you're done you don't even have to tip the driver. and in sports and now the russian is done for dating leah will have the details. to triangle to the arabian news. i do not mean.

it's an easy going to. hello there the rain is not clearing away from the southeastern parts of china it was all out of this area of cloud here and now it's running away towards the northeast and behind it it should be dry for the next couple of days as a ship this time of year now it's all that warm in shanghai all maximum temperature will just be nine degrees but i think we'll sneak a little bit higher as we head into friday this time making it to eleven hong kong hovering right around about twenty degrees a bit further towards the south of there's been plenty of sunshine across the philippines recently just a couple of showers in the foss out if you're unlucky elsewhere there has been a little bit wet and particularly if you're in bali here we've had a lot of rain over the past two days and it looks like there's plenty more still to come you can see from the dark blue colors here not shot we are expecting a lot of heavy rain the day but also into friday as well and some of that wet weather will also be stretching for the west singapore is also looking pretty soggy towards the west and for many of us across india even into pakistan this fall and

dry with a little bit more in the way of cloud in the far north that is bringing us a few outbreaks of rain and a lot of snow as well it's moving through pretty quickly though so by thursday it should have moved away from us and most of us should be enjoying some slightly dry weather is also looking dry intra lanka colombo there getting to thirty one. the weather sponsored by cats own and raise. a face can tell a story without uttering a single. knowing. a simple touch inform. the un convention manatee and fly witness through the lens of the human nine. is what inspires us. witness documentaries on al-jazeera and the reported world 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 full dry river beds like this one five years on the syrians still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their country have been truly unable to escape the you're. welcome back. a reminder of our top stories this hour british prime minister to resign may has politicians to put self interest aside and work together on a consensus deal for the u.k.'s withdrawal from the european union made the

playoffs to have government survived a no confidence motion called by opposition leader jeremy corbett. two u.s. soldiers are among at least nineteen people killed by a bomb in northern syria a department of defense civilian and a supporting contractor were also killed i saw has claimed responsibility. for the blast and then bitch. says choose days attack on a luxury hotel and shopping complex in kenya was in retaliation for the u.s. president's decision to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital at least twenty one people were killed in the assault to nairobi and the red cross says fifty people are still unaccounted for. federal workers who haven't been paid for weeks in the u.s. getting increasingly desperate president signed legislation to ensure they receive back pay but only once a partial government shutdown ends as on the reports from washington d.c. . in downtown washington d.c.

the sounds of a rhythm and blues classic but in a sign of the times in america the lyrics take on a new twist. and for some people who work for the u.s. government this is what it's come down to standing in line waiting for a free meal four hundred twenty thousand federal employees deemed essential are working but without pay another three hundred eighty thousand have been sent home also without pay like drawing a home in a cashier at the smithsonian museum struggling to make ends meet financially having not worked in weeks how about trying to go to a gas station and if you have a spot dollars tell us the paychecks stopped but the bills did not she had to make choices car payment or groceries and i didn't think this would happen i don't think it was going to go throughout when all we up until the first woman said ok

budget is over your you're late all until this is all we're saying that this is not going to happen this is not happening there the accountants bookkeepers security officers you name it they do it the civil servants who quietly behind the scenes do the job. of keeping government running or used to before it all ended with the government shutdown just here in washington d.c. there are about two hundred thousand people that are federal employees of those tens of thousands are now not receiving a paycheck and they have no idea what their future holds don white has worked for the government for thirty seven years and now this campaign money or gets my car note i've got two daughters in college. when the. inside volunteers from world central kitchen hunger and poverty organization hand out food this is the first day they've done this after most journalists had gotten

their stories and left those in need had not the line still extended around the block while nearby the man with the guitar still played now all too familiar lyrics and she. says. gabriel is on both al-jazeera washington don't join us as a national legislative coordinates at the american federation of government employees he joins us now live from washington d.c. don it's setting pretty daya for a number of civil servants can you share with us some of your members stories how are they coping. they're trying to survive at this point in time it's now become critical folks haven't received a paycheck since the last week in december and all tense purposes for what we hear this week there won't be a paycheck for the whole entire month of january so people are now scrambling

they're looking at whatever they might have a savings and for folks that i work with that are federal law enforcement officers they're still mandated to go to work on a day to day basis their water too so they have to put gas in their car to and from work they have to put food on the table and they have to make some serious difficult decisions that impact their family as well as themselves and on what's been the reaction to president obama's promise of back pay i mean it only come off to the shutdown ends how is your members reacted to that it's kind of like putting the cart for the horse as far as we're concerned without a funding bill it's just another hollow attempt to not address the real issue here which is we have a government that shutdown and we have we're starting to see the effects of a contraction at some of these agencies that are purported to be a national security and public safety component in the in the mid term so it's

it's a difficult process where we see this but we don't understand the logic so it's a it's a nice gesture but it's a political one at best so and on the longer the shutdown goes on is do you feel that opinion is shifting about president trying to amongst federal employees i know at the beginning there were some who did support his stance has that changed is that changing. i think there's a narrative in place right now that's moving in a different direction based on folks that looked at initially maybe fairly rable of the president while he was campaigning and they supported him i think what we're seeing right now is people in earnest saying i don't care about wall you can build or you don't have to build it or not i want to get paid i want to survive i want to basically meet my obligations as an adult and the impression of people not acting

in a very adult manner. really are at stake here where folks are saying enough is enough. you know this is a game of chicken and now we are you know being held hostage in a situation with no real end in sight don is that anger so you won't see more of a despondency developing. i think there's a level of anger but also fear at the same time i think it's palpable where folks are just in despair they just really don't know on a day to day basis what they're going to have to do and some people are dealing with some really rough tough life decisions that people. have dealt to them whether it be terrible illness or challenges in their health and here we are now where we're dealing with out as well as the fact that we're expected to go to work without pay and if we don't there's the veiled implication like when

president reagan was in place and the air traffic controllers strike went on strike those employees were fired and so there's a veiled the implication that it could be far worse than it is right now so we better get along with it. and it it really is a combination of people coming to grips with something that doesn't make a lot of sense to enjoy it speaking to us there from washington d.c. from the american federation of government employees thank you don. greek prime minister alexis tsipras has survived and no confidence motion by just one vote tsipras called the voters off to his government who lost its parliamentary majority on sunday when his main coalition partner walked out it's all the result of a controversial deal to rename greece's neighbors macedonia northern macedonia and an attempt to resolve the twenty seven year dispute between the two nations the narrow victory should pave the way for greece to ratify the name change john

seraphina's has more from athens. the government has survived this those of confidence by rebuilding its majority in parliament by attracting six and p's that it needed to get fifty percent plus one vote so it's a razor thin majority but it is a constitutional majority the opposition accuses it of creating a majority of convenience in order to remain in power rather than one based on conviction the government says that it wants to remain in power for the last few months in office until october in order to post a series of legislative reforms but of course the main reason it wants to remain in power is to pass its signature legislation the ratification of a name change agreements with the neighboring former yugoslav macedonia which through this agreement would be called north macedonia and if the government gets this passed it will be a binding agreement between the two countries that will open the door for nato and

the european union for greece's neighbor the opposition conservative say if you vote for the government you're also voting in effect for this agreement and that hub is dangerous for greece because a country next to greece is region of macedonia which also contains the term macedonia may one day harbor territorial designs on northern greece but the ruling cities opposing says that's all been taken care of there are safeguards that separate the identities and cultures and histories and traditions of the greeks. versus the slow of macedonians of the former yugoslavia and the histories are no longer being fictionalized intertwines the way they have been in the last ten years of conservative rule in the former yugoslav of macedonia this new socialist government. was elected last year and that country and which has negotiated the deal with greece is much more compromising much more reasonable the greek side has

and we are confident that this agreement will hold in mutual respect however it is by no means certain that sousa will even though it will remain in power finally passed this agreement because some of the six opposition m.p.'s that defected to join it and support it tonight have expressed reservations they've said that they won't vote for the agreement they are simply voting for the government to remain in office so a new round of coalition building remains in the next few days construction will soon begin on china's biggest investment project in sri lanka the government says the controversial one point four billion dollars port city project will be a technological marvel but critics say it's part of a debt trap nelson and has reports. this bad expensive landreth claim from the season around colombo is where she lanky is building a port city that each hopes to become the financial hub of south asia. china is helping people and build this new project its ambassador was on hand to check on

progress was the colombo port city project is an important project of the one belt one road initiative in sri lanka which is one of the key countries along the maritime silk route it is also an important project to implement the consensus of china and sri lanka and is an important project for the benefit of true lankan society and its people for its part china will own a little less than half the land for ninety nine year. as yet the government is confident that the new development will help sri lanka's economic prospects we are going to be the center of change in the next few years and will be the catalyst in getting us. china's dominance in sri lanka cannot be ignored base its latest project sri lanka's largest single foreign direct investment a project to build

a two hundred sixty nine hector financial city on land reclaimed from the sea and now china is back again offering sri lanka more million dollar loans the government will likely use that money to pay some of its staggering debt which stands at around thirty billion dollars and chinese loans account for some of that four in dead this port in the southern region of humber was built with loans from china but the government couldn't make its payments and had to give up control of the facility to be using for ninety nine years china has been criticised for pulling sri lanka into what some have called a death trap but others see it differently any investor lend to china will go where it seems it's opportunity. and you know if you long has been not as stellar as we would like in our whole work and our preparedness we may pay the price so as it builds this new.