what followed was carnage officials and witnesses say several dozens of people have been killed and most of them it was a very dangerous incident and the sound of the explosion was very loud the windows of our house and other houses close to the area were broken and the wounded ones were taken to different hospitals here and the council. the facility is a brand by an elite intelligence unit in charge of training tribesman to fight the taliban. the attack is another indication of the armed groups growing influence last year taliban fighters launched a series of attacks across the country including a suicide bomb attack in the capital kabul in january at least one hundred people were killed mostly civilians analysts believe the taliban is increasing its attacks to gain more leverage in crucial talks with u.s.

diplomats in qatar what we had today in my down shot was a tit for tat forward the united states in the afghan government is doing to the taliban so the taliban i think they're coming out of that hibernation they're trying to carry on the same policy where do going to inflict damage to the african government and its international counterparts and talks are underway in doha where the taliban has a political office u.s. special representative for afghan peace zalmai is meeting senior taliban members here the talks underway to find and to the war in afghanistan and establish a unity government the u.s. envoy recently toured the region seeking help from allies including pakistan and in many ways the role of pakistan is key the u.s. negotiator ambassador zalmay hollows was just in pakistan for several days before

he went to doha and the pakistani prime minister imran khan is visiting doha as well it's not clear exactly what role pakistan is playing but they may be playing a newly positive role but peace won't be easy the taliban does not recognize the government in kabul and insists beast. talks will only start when foreign troops leave afghanistan. zimbabwe's president is valen to investigate accusations of assault on torture by his security forces. were calling for national inquiry following the violence during protests against increases in fuel prices but rights groups say nothing would change our metasearch reports from harare. says he doesn't want to see me to visit him in hospital he's afraid that could be victimized for associating with someone police suspect participated in anti-government protests short. machine. is.

the business. was in it in civilian clothes. ridge. last week suburbans demonstrated against a fuel price hike which had more than doubled overnight the government responded with force more than six hundred people were arrested in the east zimbabwe's human rights commission says more people died in last week's protest injuring orcus post-election violence the use of excessive force specially the use of life i mean it's not called for when dealing with civilians they should be other methods of controlling crowds and we believe that recorded very well trained police force in the country julius short of his son's death was senseless he was shot outside a police station calvin was twenty two years old and loved playing football in

zimbabwe humanity is a lost. your life he's being saved. it is being wasted. he's listening. in the same government that it's a new dispensation dispensation we're going to do lip licking whatever people are amused it was. thrown in the dustbin. bush tactics president god what took power for robert mugabe just over a year ago he promised to promote democracy and freedom of speech some zimbabweans are disillusioned. he didn't do that. just saying we. need. to see not kill them so we are. revolted the president has cut short a foreign trip and promised to investigate the crackdown by security forces

zimbabweans are watching him after last week's violence some say they think speaking out against the government that could come after them had mythos al-jazeera had. ten thousand children are being represented in a class action lawsuit targeting the trumpet ministration the southern poverty law center follow the action in defense of children separated from their families under a policy introduced an april they say the children were held in detention centers away from their parents lawyers say the separation of families is a deliberate tactic to deter undocumented migrants trying to enter the country brazil's new president has caused alarm among environmentalists at this year's world economic forum in davos jabil tomorrow told campaigners protecting his country's unique ecosystem has to be consistent with economic growth journal reports a chill has settled over down ass and that's not just the weather leaders of some of the world's biggest economies china the united states france and the u.k.

have stayed away to find crises at home crises fueled by nationalism populism and those left behind by globalization it is everything the world economic forum is supposed to stand against and yet this year's big ticket visitor is brazil's new president far right nationalist jr valsin are oh here to launch what he calls a new brazil then there was a big. we intend to reduce the size of the residence state apparatus and carry out reform such as the social security reform also the tax reform we wish to relieve those who produce and undertake business and projects from the weight of a heavy state that's good news for business less so for those who depend on state aid it's an odd look for an annual gathering traditionally built on bridging divides it does say that there's a bit of a shift and that those major leading democracies in the world are exhausted tied in

knots have problems but it also says this community here of globalists is perfectly willing to flirt with their liberal leaders in the world. compensation came in the heavyweight fight against climate change identified as a major world threat having heard both scenarios call for economic development in the amazon delegates listened to royalty interviewing a british knight of the realm what advice do you have all my generation and what's what can we build on that you have started we have to recognize that every breath of air we take every mouthful of food that we take comes from the natural and that if we damage the natural world we damage ourselves it's what the forum aims to do best global box office in the name of a better world the theme of this year's world economic forum here in davos is the fourth wave of globalization the digital revolution it predicts a world in which technology competes with workers of all stripes blue collar and

white in which the winners of globalization get ever richer but fewer in number it is a world in which inequality deepens and political leaders no longer have all the answers jonah how al-jazeera davus switzerland the talks between russia and japan drizzle the world war two territorial dispute ended with no progress since our day and vladimir putin met in moscow on tuesday to finalize a peace treaty the dispute revolves around the sovereignty of a for the korea lands north of japan was a subject union occupied at the end of the war japan doesn't recognize moscow's right to the islands putin says work still needs to be done before they can reach an acceptable agreement. conflict between farmers in the herd is the worst thing nigeria's rising levels of poverty and let's say in the violence is forcing millions of people mostly poor farmers from their lands and interest reports from sokoto in northwest nigeria. for seven months mohammad ali who

says he walked these narrow dusty streets begging for. he and hundreds of others escaped attackers who laid siege to dozens of villages in nigeria's northwest effectively stopping farming and economic activities. comfortable living off our farms the series of attacks in the attackers took away everything as you can see the conditions here are not so much different you know. nigeria's north is one of the country's poorest regions despite producing its shellfish livestock and grains. years a poor agricultural practices act of climate change people's livelihoods. and estimated forty eight percent of nigeria's one hundred eighty million people live in extreme poverty the highest rates in areas with low levels of skills and education many here fear that lack of investment in the last thirty years means

that millions of people will continue to suffer. nigeria has one of the fastest growing populations in the world and also the largest concentration of the extremely poor. and development partners say successive governments continue to adopt the wrong approach in tackling poverty so it is destructive actions that we have seen. i think there is. an acceptable to believe in the power of market to transform the lives of the people. but this is not correspondent. in the country or in any part of the ward despite nigeria's vast oil wealth half its population lives on less than two dollars a day and with conflict forcing more and more poor people from their homes and lands many doubt if the government will be in a position to improve the lives of millions across the country.

northwest nigeria the death toll from a fuel a pipeline explosion in mexico has climbed to ninety six with dozens injured the president has begun a tour of several towns where field theft has become commonplace and he's promising to bring an end to the problem. reports from mexico. it's the deadliest blast mexico has seen in decades the images of people running away engulfed in flames are haunting. the incident which left more than ninety people dead and dozens injured has elevated an already contentious debate over fuel shortages and combat in gasoline theft. in the wake of the blast mexican president and the us manuel lopez obrador launched a tour of several mexican towns were fuel theft has become a chronic problem. where. the people have been abandoned one is poverty in need and people don't have options or alternatives the practice of fuel theft began

as a way for people to make an income well we don't want this to continue because just like what happened in it dal go this is a great risk to the people yet. despite massive support for the president many still feel it'll take more than a policy change to rein in the widespread looting a few. really everything that happened with the fuel theft was very sad how could so many people die over some gasoline and i think if gas prices were lower people wouldn't steal their gas prices are just too high. in the town of the black market for stolen fuel has grown over the last two years and. says the last time a local pipeline was tapped hundreds of people jumped at the chance to make.

time for a quick check of the headlines here on al-jazeera sudan's president has arrived in qatar what's his first trip abroad since violent antigovernment protests broke out last month a mile bashir was in doha where he's due to meet with the qatari emir just i mean been hammered out than me on wednesday meanwhile back home bashir was facing daily demonstrations calling for an end is thirty year long rule rights groups accuse the government of cracking down on demonstrators at least forty people have died since the protests began peter morgan has more now from khartoum. people say they will continue to protest and till president obama to share actually step down like they want him to now this has been going on for more than four weeks the biggest challenge to his presidency since he came to power and maybe thirty years ago people think very determined and they have been criticism against the sudanese government for using out what some governments called excessive brutal force that

people say they're protesting peacefully that they're on armed and that all they want is to try to voice their frustration with the that with the weight the president bashir has been governing the country but instead they've been met with tear gas and live ammunition venezuela's president nicolas maduro says he's all that a revision the diplomatic relations with the united states that's in response to vice president mike pence declaring support for opposition leader one guido is calling on venezuelans to protest on wednesday and on behalf of president antone and more as a latin america amnesty says the plan protests are expected to be the largest the country has at the same. it really seems like we may be seeing a perfect storm in venezuela here with this mini rebellion there was yesterday among the military of which there has been very little so far in the protests that followed were centered in the western side of gattaca us which is the poorest sorry side of the city that part of the city did not really join a mass in the big demonstrations there weren't twenty seventeen if they had maybe

nick or maybe it was a little might not be of that position where he is today the government certainly fears any kind of a military uprising but it also fears a total loss of support of the people from the poorer sections go out onto the streets this could be a very significant problem from a bureau and by all estimations that i'm hearing tomorrow may be the largest protest the country has a rich it's a tough situation the military there because the liberal government has co-opted the generals there are an incredible number of generals and they've been given responsibility for everything from the oil industry to the distribution of food so the higher when. officers have a very strong incentive to continue in power and to be disdain to keep the government where it is the problem is that the economy is so disastrous that the rank and file members are suffering and they're definitely seeing their extended families who do not have any military benefits suffering

a people who are going hungry serve your rank and file officer in the met as on military and you're seeing your cousins and your aunts and your grandparents suffering it becomes a much more serious issue on toxic drive as back on the streets of madrid protesting against services they say rival drivers some ride heading out compete unfairly since they do not face the same regulations and costs. but just as a bloke's main roads in the capital madrid in barcelona with the cause well those are the headlines the news continues here on al-jazeera up inside stories such as watching. the week began with news of a ninety day truce in the to protect us china trade will the world's largest supplier of liquefied natural gas is leaving the biggest oil cartel we bring you the stories that the shaping the economic world we live in counting the cost on ounces iraq. a taliban attack in afghanistan killed dozens of security

personnel on monday at the same time members of the armed through for holding talks with u.s. diplomats in qatar so is the taliban using a strategy of attacks and talks this is inside story. and welcome to the program i'm richelle carey afghanistan has been at war for much of the past forty years and late two thousand and one united states sent troops in response to the nine eleven attacks and the withdrawal of those troops has been one of the sticking points as talks going under way in katara between u.s. and taliban representatives but hours before those talks began in doha taliban fighters launched one of their most daring attacks in recent months a gun and bomb raid on an afghan intelligence and military base southwest of kabul

that killed dozens of security personnel many are now looking to see if the timing of the attack coming on the eve of those talks could have an impact on negotiations there and several efforts to bring the taliban to the negotiating table but the armed group has repeatedly refused to hold direct talks with the afghan government and stead its insistent on the go shaded with the u.s. with the primary goal of force. foreign troops out of the country at the request of the us the taliban opened an office in doha in two thousand and thirteen to facilitate talks the us has shifted its policy last year and said it was ready to hold direct talks with the taliban and discussed the role of international forces around the talks took place in the u.a.e. last month before officially resuming in qatar this week. let's bring in our guests now in kabul omar zakhilwal his a former president's special representative to me and afghan ambassador to pakistan in islamabad and

school head of the center for research and security studies and in washington david said in a former deputy u.s. assistant secretary of defense for afghanistan and pakistan thank you all for joining us i appreciate it very much i'm going to start with you well the timing of this attack what message do you think the taliban is trying to send. if not a very good message because. talks need in an environment. that is more conducive in violence through duction and would be the right response but unfortunately the attack yesterday was to the contrary. but had the same time it's important that this does not agree with the ongoing talks and that we focus forward with this ok same question to you empty as well what message do you think the

taliban will was trying to send doing this and at the time that they did it. i think being a party to the conflict being one of the decoder they just wanted to underline their own strength on the ground they just sent a message to all and sundry that whatever the government government think of them they can still penetrate as far as even the intelligence and security facilities of the government and this is basically going discordia strength on ground right now in david m.t.s. brings up a good point not just not just this attack but specifically the target is all of that together what type of message do you think they're trying to set well i think it is actually quite common when talks are underway for those involved in a conflict to try to gain advantage in particular the weaker side tries to melt attacks in order to maximize its strength and in this case the taliban are are

clearly the weaker side and this attack is part of their effort to strengthen their position as they go into talks with the other message this texans is that the real target of the taliban is the afghan government and afghan security forces while the taliban rhetoric has been that this is about foreign troops and u.s. presence in fact those who have been killed by the taliban are overwhelmingly afghan and over the last four years since the u.s. basically drew down most of its troops in afghanistan the taliban have increasingly been targeting afghan security forces so this is actually a two pronged message by the taliban first they want to get stronger in case talks go forward but second they're sending a message to afghans that you are the target and we're going after afghans so what's what has been seen as one of the sticking points one of two major sticking points is what should be the release of the taliban prisoners and their insistence that u.s. troops leave you're saying you think that's a bit of a pretense for what they're really after. yes clearly the taliban have not yet made

a decision over whether they want victory or whether they want peace through to go she ations so far their stance in the negotiations has been that they want victory in the negotiations by marginalizing eradicating the existing afghan government and power structure they would be happy to do that by violence which is what their primary tactic is if they can achieve the same result through negotiations they're happy to do that once feet and decide that their goals are better served by peace talks they will sit down and talk to the other afghans but right now they're saying they're basically afraid to do that because they know if they sit down with other afghans they would have to have real discussions about the real future of their country which i don't think the taliban is prepared to do yet ok m.p.'s do you agree with that that this is what the taliban is after is really much more targeted towards afghans an afghan government and much less about a u.s. presence there. what i think it's a political struggle or

a political fight that the taliban have launched and for them their primary interlocutor is the united states which is footing the bill of the entire government and the security forces and i think just because the american troops are saw in saluted to the security color that the afghans provide. very logically the first victim in the first we basically are the of on security forces that's why increasingly we have seen much bigger casualties among the afghan forces rather than those of the united states the u.s. marines so promote only i think they are going about their mission and the mission is to force the american troops out of afghanistan and this is this has been their stated demand as well and in fact the yesterday the message from the taliban spokesperson was also that the talks are specifically aimed at extracting

a deadline for the american pullout from of ghana's than omar i'm going to get to you in a minute but i want to circle back to david if your despair with me for a moment is david i could see that i think you took a little bit of exception to some of what empty asset. yes i always appreciate being on a panel with just him to as go he and i have spoken on panels before i respect his views but i think in this case the statement that the primary target are security forces is not borne out by the facts the primary target of the taliban over the last four years has been afghan civilians the people that the afghan taliban have killed the most are afghan civilians by far the afghan security forces are sometimes the target and this attack yesterday was clearly an attack at on afghan security forces but the people who have borne the brunt of this are the afghan civilians many more of them have been killed and wounded and the fact the taliban are killing so many afghan civilians has led most of the afghan people to reject

the taleban which puts the taliban in a difficult position when they want to seize power over a nation where over eighty percent of the people oppose them. mark which it would you like to weigh in on this. well one. this attack may not have the full approval of the. entire leadership or the entire relevant cadre of the taliban. whenever there are peace talks there will be groups within taliban who oppose such talks in they believe in their military victory and it's not the first time that when there are hopes for talks and then there are some initial steps violence has mounted and therefore yesterday's attack goes into maligns and therefore is not an exception that's one second.

targets of opportunity than targets soft targets and all that if they come their way they have taken advantage of those before in certainly yesterday was again not an exception this was to them. in opportunistic move may be may be timed with peace talks maybe it wasn't we don't really know but they did take advantage of the opportunity in their death sector deadly. attack in on that and i do agree with. david that over the past many years because the u.s. forces. the number has significantly reduced and and therefore the casualties but. no doubt. also at the end there's a pressure on the u.s. forces in the u.s. government as well. but for them to prove that their military strength and all that

that's already been recognized we're talking peace with the taliban not because they're the most love groups but because they're a fighting force that force has been recognizing that precisely we had negotiated with the peace. david what. what of patience as the taliban have to actually negotiate i mean so far they control roughly about half of the country what what reason do they have to negotiate and compromise. well first of all let me clarify that you say they control almost half the country the taliban control a lot of the rural areas they control certain amount of land but while the taliban have maybe increased the amount of land that they control they actually control less people whenever the taliban move in their plan to leave and at the same time afghanistan is becoming a more urbanized society so the taliban control less of the people in the end a war is about people so the taliban control less people now than they did four years ago but you asked what

a change what's changed apparently is the role of pakistan the talks that are going on in doha right now are accompanied by a visit by pakistani premier imran khan to doha at the same time the u.s. special negotiator left pakistan the other day saying he expected more steps from pakistan david actually u.s. central command meeting with general bhagwat today actually i have a depends on pakistan i actually have a quote i was i was going to mention that i'm glad she referenced it and mr hill actually said and after he left pakistan we're heading in the right direction with more steps by pakistan coming that will lead to concrete results i think it is kind of pick up on that point in a minute bring you in on this is well and he has in a moment david how key is pakistan to this i think pakistan is vital. prime minister imran khan has made discussions in the peace negotiations an important part of his platform from well before he was elected he is committed to this that

there's been a lot of resistance to negotiations in the past from pakistani security forces whether prime minister kahn can rein those security forces in and get the taliban to the table is a challenge for him and i think we'll be seeing today in the next week or so whether he is able to successfully work with his security forces and get the problem on to the table and have and start real talks and he has i like your insight on that as well how important how key is pakistan to this. order the ready for. began his shuttle diplomacy from pakistan has been here several times and now the prime minister has all to flown to go ha is very much indicates the importance of pakistan for the entire process and this is what bugs than has been saying all along that the side pakistan even iran is the second biggest strategic. stakeholder in the entire process and that bucket stan what i was to deliver it's pakistan has it has used and now i think the ultimate objective is to

convince the taliban to give up while ns and also go on to talk to the kabul government because everybody recognizes the national unity government as the legitimate representative of afghanistan and i think this is desirable by everybody there if the entire talks basically culminate in direct or indirect negotiations between the taliban and the national unity government however i should also clarify what david said earlier the most of the winds in the last for two years has been largely carried out by diet or isis yes taliban have targeted the security establishment of understand this with this i think they're just wanted to underscore that they do not want to inflict any pain on the common people however the casualties yes happen to be the of plans which is condemning bill which is very

sad and i think everybody is extremely keen including the pakistani leadership for a while insurrection as it is out of the talks which should be approached it seems with with more greater degree of trust between pakistan and the united states as well as pakistan and the national unity government i think mr mistrust right now remains basically the biggest enemy of any potential success in this round of talks think that's a great point and what your thoughts on that that there has to be trust between these base parties involved to even move an extra. well. the lack of trust is probably the biggest obstacle in moving forward. no doubt. was david and for certain still within their goal that pakistan it's really important that the recent steps are encouraging but at the same

time because of the lack of trust there are enormous doubts whether these efforts are sincere will have to be seen as to how things unfold but at the same time i think we need to realize that to what extent pakistan can push things forward it can certainly prevent taliban from making peace but whether it can deliver taliban or deliver peace. that is debate among. the rest and relax and even. suppose the pressure that the taliban came under from pakistan to produce to to bring them to talks in islam about india refused or. encouraging them to meet in saudi in taliban defused certainly questions the extent of. pakistan's full ability as we thought it was but no doubt it has significant influence and

has no doubt is the most important country perhaps regionally for peace and stability in afghanistan it has the afghan government and marginalized it all in this process. there is certainly the risk of that the afghan government i think has made clear that that peace is not possible without the participation by the afghan government that's really been the case i think president and bessemer hala saad has also been clear that real talks real peace has to be between afghans and that is the goal of his talks with a common bond to get the taliban to sit down with the afghan government right now the taliban are talking to all kinds of people in afghanistan and various so-called warlords various political leaders in afghanistan have had direct or indirect talks with a columbine the only people that really remain to be brought into this overall process are the afghan government but at the same time afghanistan is going through

a very vigorous political process this past week over ten candidates and their slates were registered for presidential elections later this year none of those slates actually supports the taleban so i think it's possible the taliban may fifth be feeling a little bit worried about being left out in the cold as this electoral process moves forward and into as you wrote an open letter to donald trump about all of this and one of the things that you wrote as if the taliban well as i've said this i mean let me rephrase he said if the taliban choose to fight over peace talks the united states would support the afghan government that somehow is i what does that say to you. what i think that was not a smart move on the part of. particularly when he made that statement shortly before leaving kabul after having talks with the national unity government leaders does because here been presenting himself as a peace broker but the last thing the peace broker could do is to deploy

intimidation on one of the interlocutors and this is i think it went down very badly with the with the taliban also with the pakistani facilitators just because pakistan and put in a lot of effort in convincing the taliban just to give up the part of wine and then continue talking to the united states but then this intimidation sort of what this was seen as an intimidation by. and it evoked also very hard.