as he spoke that so-called poison was being distributed by opponents to members of the armed forces it's an amnesty law offered to soldiers and high ranking officers guaranteeing that they'll be no reprisals if they defect and cooperate with an interim government salameh nematt we only need forces we are inviting them to join to join the people not to come from there. the military is key to president mother's duration empower. soldiers of venezuela to give you an ordered not to shoot the people of venezuela. one way dog the interim president designated by the opposition controlled national assembly says that the government has escalated a campaign of repression and is calling on the un high commissioner for human rights to rush to venezuela to witness unfolding events according to penal forum and in jail the tracks arrests the number has jumped from five hundred to seven hundred ninety one over the weekend but so far why the all is not one of them

president maduro is treading with caution in part because why dogs arrest could trigger a domestic powder keg but also because of the threat of international reprisals u.s. national security adviser john bolton tweeted that if anything should happen to why dog or the national assembly the u.s. would issue a quote significant response you see in yemen al jazeera columbia plenty more still ahead on the news hour including. the huge devastation in this region a swathe of destruction that swept through this area destroying homes killing possibly hundreds of people anger and despair in brazil as people wait for news of their loved ones missing after a dam collapse running out of options a palestinian family home for over half a century now faces the threat of being evicted. small novak djokovic refuses to

take it easy after winning the title with another career milestone already insights . the french president says egypt's human rights record is perceived as worse now than under hosni mubarak's leadership emanuel micro made the comments during a three day trip to the arab nation is currently holding talks with the egyptian president of the fatah has sisi at the presidential palace in cairo is under pressure to take a strong stance towards the country's human rights record. and trash about lloyd joins us now live from the french capital paris so it seems like work on is trying to avoid the criticisms the face during his previous visit to the country is that what's going on. yes

well this is. basically making a very clear criticism of egypt's human rights record under present sisi saying that it's worse today than it was under former egyptian leader hosni mubarak who was deposed in twenty eleven and what a man in my home also said is that you can always always use a national security as an excuse if you like for human rights abuses that's a reference again to the fact that president sisi also talks about the fact the national security is a real priority for egypt now him out on that course position or at least the same certainly seems to have shifted from twenty seventeen that was when president sisi visited paris and during that trip emmanuel markhor said that it wasn't france's position to lecture egypt on civil liberties what he's up to taking a much stronger line now at the time in twenty seventeen he was severely criticized

by many human rights activist groups here in france saying look france is often a country that says it's the purveyor of human rights the french president needs to make a much tougher statements when much tougher statement when he goes to egypt and that's what we've seen from matt brown good stuff thanks so much in touch about lho are going to continue to talk about this though because we've got in the studio more ashore he joins us on he's a professor of security studies for the doha institute for graduate studies good to have you with us. to what extent do you think this visit will focus on human rights and this is what mcchrystal said in a quote here saying it's own this area of what is happening in egypt and i will continue to focus things think it will focus i think we were seeing a change in rhetoric compared to the october twenty seven thousand visit where he said you won't lecture egypt on human rights and now the rhetoric has changed significantly change of policy too on there is a question mark he needs the. more the billions basically almost five

to five billion euros that egypt gives for in terms of arms sales. which has not been moving they have been very slow the twelve fighter jets that were supposed to be delivered two years ago has not been delivered so far so that is going called a bit on the other end he's raising the human rights rhetoric is there going to be turned into policies he said he has a list of activists that he's going to present he did that in october twenty seventh when he presented the list of activist and the of the she dismissed them as linked to the muslim brothers and terrorist groups therefore he won't release them so this may happen again there's no sustained leverage or a sustained coordinated european policy to advance human rights. policies in egypt . so far we've seen rhetoric and the policies has to do more with arms sales business as usual basically more or less more so i mean to what extent is it

realistic for human rights groups to expect the issue of of suspending arms sales might actually come up in these talks already dismissed that he said he won't he won't do that he said the these are like two separate tracks the arms sales and the human rights record but he's now changing that as i mentioned and what the human rights organizations have done actually the campaign. it was quite successful the campaign that done you know we were we have to sell values as opposed to weapons. egypt's suppression is french maid and the details the details of the laborers who are. military. who face them but if the trials work in a french company and alexandria the details of some of the prison imprisoned activists and so on it's been a good campaign in general but with these pressures but in the end they're lobbying it's just pressure with these turn into

a sustained policy upheld by mcchrystal and this policy will be successful in terms of leveraging in pressuring egypt that there's a bit of a question mark good to what extent does that depend on the why the broader international approach to egypt. the americans out because of the current administration there to be in parliament has been a bit vocal in terms of criticism of the french change in rhetoric in that approach but will it lead to a change in policy i'm not sure about that so overall it's a give and take it's mostly rhetoric and the rest is business as usual i think the priorities are number one the arms sales to basically the french economy in one sense and number two how much the policies will be coordinated in libya because before the french were more towards the u.n. peace plan and more towards a deal now it's leaning more and more towards. militias which basically support the

military authority energy in the so now it's that actions i think we will see more more coordination that that file good to get your thoughts always thanks so much sure. now they've been more anti-government protests in sudan's capital khartoum they coincided with a visit by president bashir to egypt where he accused the media of exaggerating the extent of the unrest morgan reports from car to. it's his second visit outside his country in less than a week as to dance president armorel bashir faces continuing calls back home to end his thirty year rule and step down calls that started six weeks ago and to which he has remained defiant to heat on. there is a problem in sudan we cannot claim that we don't have a problem but some media take it out of size and dimension it is an attempt to clone what is being called the arab spring in sudan it has the same slogans programmes and requests it also has the same use of social media however the

sudanese people have learned the lesson that they have seen what happened in some of the states that went through the so-called arab spring and its negative implications wedding the sudanese people are very alert and will not fall into anyone's trap to destabilize sudan. the demonstrations started in mid december and the city of over rising bread prices it quickly spread to other parts of the country with thousands taking to the streets demanding that and bashir who's been in power since one thousand eight hundred nine and his rule security forces are accused of using excessive force with bullets and tear gas used to disperse peaceful unarmed protesters. the government says twenty nine have been killed since protests began rights groups say that number is at least fifty with dozens more injured. opposition to a bush years rule is not only in the streets some political parties have lend support to those protesting and on sunday the federal party one of the parties in

the national government announced that it's withdrawing its participation in the government becoming the third party to do so since the demonstrations began in the for the your ear to well there at g.m. has lost legitimacy and the ability to deal with the political crisis and trust in the regime has been lost we hope that the president steps down and paves the way for an interim government that is agreed on by all sides the protests are seem to be the biggest challenge to be here since he came to power and some analysts say the ruling party is running out of time to find ways to overcome and to harbor harbor. hope the withdrawal of the federal party today is a sign that the ruling party is weakening so it has to take a step back and find a solution to the wave of protest of was more political parties will withdraw from the government and join the opposition movements. a movement triggered by an economic crisis which has become a nationwide call for change and to which there seems to be no end in the horizon

morgan to al-jazeera a prominent chinese human rights lawyer. has been sentenced to four a half years in prison for subversion wang has defended political activists victims of lionel sieges members of the band religious group falun gong who went missing in two thousand and fifteen during a crackdown by chinese authorities and was tried in a closed hearing in december human rights watch says the sentencing makes a mockery of the chinese leadership's claims to champion the rule of law. adrian brown has more from beijing and. for the past three and a half years wang has really been in a legal black hole and until he appeared in court for his one day trial on december the twenty six his family didn't even know if he was dead or alive he was unable to see his wife during his long time incarcerated before his trial and he also wasn't able to select his own legal team now wang had been part of a a grassroots movement here in china which was trying to improve civil society he

gave advice to people who were involved in disputes over land seizures or people who were complaining about religious persecution now in the middle of july two thousand and fifteen president xi jinping ordered a crackdown on this group and some two hundred fifty lawyers and human rights activists were detained and one is the last of these people to have gone on trial he's been found guilty of subversion sentenced to four and a half years in jail his wife though has said that she believes her husband will appeal an amnesty international on monday said that this trial was a sham and they called the sentence a gross injustice but i think there is another message coming out and that is china's government is essential is saying that it's not overly concerned about international sentiment towards human rights in china. a politician in bahrain has

lost his appeal against a life sentence for spying the leader of the opposition party to a far shetterly cell man and two of his aides were convicted of spying for qatar in november sandman rejected the charges as has the human rights groups have condemned the verdict cut all ties with culture as part of the saudi lock aid that began in june two thousand and seventeen. search teams in southeast brazil say there is little hope of finding survivors from friday's dam collapse a torrent of sludge from an iron ore mine killed fifty eight people around three hundred are missing this daniel reports from the disaster zone the search was called off briefly because of fears a second dam was about to burst. this is the result of the dam burst which you don't millions of liters of waste from an iron ore mine in minutes it destroyed everything in its path education and infrastructure homes and lives. didn't come of

this so three. events i'm just looking for a survivor or any sign of life in the wreckage of this house maybe a leg or a hand of the person i don't know the way the house was built and fell it's hard to see anything you'll throw to say there's little chance of finding survivors but families of the estimated two hundred fifty people unaccounted for continue to. move. we found for the nunda looking for his brother pitocin a subcontractor at the mine i think obviously want to have come to the river to see if i can find some information someone who could tell me something maybe they'll find a body and it might be my brother. the mine owners have been fined sixty six million dollars the company said the recent inspection past the safe. this is just one tiny part of the huge devastation in this region a swathe of destruction that swept through this area destroying homes killing

possibly hundreds of people many questions being asked about why lessons were not learned from the last such disaster in the nearby town of marianna in november two thousand and fifteen. the town the dean your remains tense these precautions taken with news of a possible second dam about to rupture your thought is evacuated families in vulnerable areas and continue to distribute food water and medicine and to search. for you has got this is still a possibility it will find survivors until we find every single body the fire department works with the understanding that there are still people alive i mean. some say they will not cannot give up this well there is still some hope. my mom cannot. she's on medication and the only one who can go out and look for information.

on their al-jazeera from an genial brazil. now taxi drivers are back on the streets of madrid protesting against the services of apps like they say rival drivers from ride hailing apps compete unfairly since they don't face the same regulations and costs look at the live pictures they're parked taxis block section of one of madrid's main avenues part of the open ended strike. you know in a few moments we'll have all the weather we've ever seen but still ahead here now to syria hooked on heroin in iraq we see how some addicts are getting help it's not nearly enough for all. and a sense of freedom on the blockade gaza's youth find purpose through the urban sprawl of park or andy will be here with more later this hour. from the clear blue sky of the doha moon. to the fresh fruits and breeze in the

city of iraq. however the loss of proper winter weather beginning now across much of europe see some heavy snow just around it in the balkans clear skies coming back in a little area of low pressure here some rather nasty weather now making its way into western parts of here say this flow of. this where we got there the winds digging in from the north cold are rolling in as we go on through the next couple of days and this is situation at the moment some snow fall in place just around that eastern side of france or germany a good part of germany down across the low countries and then further a scattering of snow showers just around the balkans this rain on the other side of the adriatic southern parts of the balkans this mother windy weather that's all making its way towards greece keep your eye on the united kingdom the british isles a loss of winter weather coming in as we go on through the next forty eight hours or so nasty system starting to show its hand on shoes day just across that western

side of france of low pressure this one's been named storm gable we can see how the possibility of snow coming across all parts of the british isles as we go on into where to stay that snow digging its way down across france into germany over towards the northeast just warming up in moscow with a high of one celsius. the weather sponsored by cats are in place. in september twenty seventh team the people of the kurdish region of northern iraq voted in favor of independence from baghdad. but joy was short lived as the iraqi government reacted forcefully against any idea of separation. al-jazeera world travels to the kurdish regional capital of overbuild to investigate independence and the iraqi kurds on al-jazeera.

al-jazeera. where ever you are. welcome back you're watching out here and time to recap the headlines turkey's president is looking into establishing safes that would allow for refugees to

return to syria president obama the one says setting up safe zones along northern syria would allow for millions of people to go back. i saw is claiming responsibility for sunday's bomb attacks on a roman catholic cathedral in the southern philippines but philippine army commanders think fighters were linked to the two explosions which killed twenty seven people. the u.n. human rights investigator mas been in ankara meeting with turkey's foreign minister over the murder. it's almost four months since saudi journalist the saudi journalist walked into his consulate in istanbul never to be seen again. let's bring you more now and visit we can talk to simon maven who is a senior lecturer at lancaster university the author of the book saudi arabia and iran power and rivalry in the middle east good to have you with us let's start off

with the investigation and then how much power will have. well and she's been invited into turkey by the turkish authorities but she's not there under the auspices of a formal official u.n. investigation and i think goes some way to a limiting the scope of her powers but what it does do is mean that she can she can obviously have a great deal of influence in shaping the narrative shaping international perceptions about the hotshot g. case about the fall out and put pressure on the on the international community on saudi arabia and on the u.n. to actually launch a full official investigation of findings are going to be presented to the at the human rights council meeting in june so there will be a forum for her findings to be aired internationally so although she's not got the full weight of the u.n. behind she's got quite a good platform to share her findings so given that platform can this then lead to

a more formal international u.n. investigation what are the chances of that do you think. this there's every opportunity i guess it just depends on the extent to which which saudi arabia pushes back the extent to which the u.s. has a say in this and the extent to which are there are such as the u.n. secretary general pushed back on this because let's not forget there is a complex set of factors that are shaping the middle east and shaping the geo political dynamics of the middle east and involves conflict in syria conflict in yemen and efforts to try and facilitate peace saudi arabia are central to the latter and if it turns out that the u.n. is marginalized and more or seem to be targeting saudi arabia then that will have a potentially serious impact on on the u.n. efforts to bring peace to yemen so i think there's a there's a real chess game going on here but that of course doesn't in any way impact on the

need for a full formal investigation into what happened to me it just demonstrates the complexity of of middle eastern politics and the regional situation right now or good analysis there thanks so much i mean movement west african leaders are meeting in the nigerian capital to resolve issues around the lake chad bass and the second regional protection dialogue and discuss protection of the area the lake region borders four nations including chad nigeria and cameroon the area witnessed a series of attacks from now by the linked group al-shabaab. joins us now live from a booth. attending the conference and that's. when the summit basically this is the start of a two day conference in the nigerian capital to discuss like you said the issues

surrounding consulate in the region and emerging threats of course in the region so we have representatives from the governments of the four countries involved or threatened by this violence the governments of nigeria cameroon chad the chair and also the united nations high commissioner for refugees and the office of the coordinator for humanitarian affairs also involved governmental organizations involved in humanitarian work in these four countries as a result of what part of crisis remember this crisis has taken a toll not only on nigeria where you more than two million people internally displaced with two hundred thousand more seeking refuge in neighboring countries of come through in charge and these are probably despite the fact that these countries as well have hundreds of thousands of internally displaced persons in those countries so the meeting is preparatory to the one coming up to more aware than i did and president is expected to launch a document on the protection of refugees and of course towards improving the

humanitarian situation in the north east of nigeria as well as contiguous countries or neighboring countries of the temporal and chart republic how does addressing the issue of security and refugees. well basically the security situation has sort of escalated the meeting started more than an hour ago and what's coming up of that meeting is not very very good to the ears of the international community and of course people impacted by this violence i mean the book or on crisis the representative regional representative of the u.n. it's the out of the united nations high commissioner for refugees is saying that in the last three months alone there are three hundred and twenty thousand new refugees who have been forced from their homes because of the escalation of fighting between military forces in the region and book i just especially the

fraction of book or on that you are late to the islamic state in west africa or i swap as we call it here so very soon be basically this is the it's a green report and this is what the leaders are trying to going to be discussing and finds trying to use always to try to tackle these emerging new threats and they're not talking about the book or on crisis of course they're also talking about emergent threats in the region from afar so other parts of central africa camera and as well as the internal strife in the in various parts of nigeria remember the central part of nigeria where you have issues of clashes between farmers and. graziers or pasta released as they call them yeah so these are all escalating the refugee or internally displaced persons situation in these countries in west and central africa so i mean all right thanks so much i'm address there. now the afro jazz legend known as son of africa has been laid to rest of the state

funeral in zimbabwe all of them were too good to see died on wednesday at the age of sixty six ports from hometown. saying goodbye to zimbabwe's and one of africa's iconic musicians the base way they know how to solve and dance. all of them with who could see officially known as to who died on wednesday after a four decades long korea doing what he loved one of my favorite things that he said was that he wants to tell stories and and he's a poet he's telling those stories and the music is just an accompaniment to telling those stories. he started performing in one thousand nine hundred ninety seven singing protest music joining the war to end white minority rule more than forty years and sixty

seven albums later his knees it inspired generations around the world. in as much as it's a sad time that he's gone what he leaves us is the legacy of his music so in wellington than in the message of the music there's a lot of process there's a lot of in. looking at african cultural beats here really new many many different beats within zimbabwe and further afield and those he tapped into so his music is authentic and substantive. was. was was. there. with the songs largely stayed clear of politics he chose to mainly sing about people's struggles and hopes in some way with its huge economic and political

challenges he was seen as an entertainer teacher and unifying issued certainly rest in peace and that is about winston with los angeles really a unifying spirit but i think that we should take advantage of having had such a person. we took as he was given a state funeral by zimbabwe's government which has declared him and national hero as a u.n. goodwill ambassador he said he wanted to spread hope through his music his fans say they'll remember him for his inspirational songs that try to make africa and beyond a better place al-jazeera zimbabwe. an avalanche of modern rock has crashed into a hotel in peru killing at least fifteen people and in the southern city of. the mudslide broke through the walls of the hotel thirty four people were injured dozens of palestinians fear they're about to be forcibly evicted from their homes

they've lived in since the line nine hundred fifty s. campaigners say their plight is part of a systematic process by jewish settlers to take over the city are a force of reports. it's been the backdrop to their lives for more than ten years but now there's little else to think of or talk about the suboxone family face eviction within weeks from the place they've called home for decades and it's now that all extended family is under the threat of eviction we don't sleep anymore we're always crying this is my house how come they tell me to leave it i've been living here for forty years the sebas were awarded the property as refugees and then jordanian controlled east jerusalem in the one nine hundred fifty s. as such they've long rejected any israeli claim of ownership as the family has grown so they've added more buildings in two thousand and three however a settler activist group bought the plot from the registered israeli owners and since two thousand and eight has been trying to force the family out through the

courts after years of fighting this about a family now appears to be running out of options in november last year the israeli supreme court dismissed their appeal based on newly discovered documents in which they tried to challenge the claim of jewish ownership and earlier this month the court ruled again saying it would not be hearing any more appeals in this case is about family fled the home town of just as part of the mass displacement of palestinians during the creation of the israeli state for them and their neighbors the law that could displace them again is discriminatory as it denies them any claim on their former homes. it's unfair unfair unfair i had a house in west jerusalem in one nine hundred forty eight it's my house but this land here isn't there so the campaign is on the issue these are not isolated legal battles but part of a systematic process settler organizations aiming to increase the jewish presence in east jerusalem have long targeted the shaikh gerar neighborhood we are talking about groups of settlers who has no connection to their original owners from the

four forty eight that are claiming and buying systematically those properties in order to clear the area from the palestinian residents and to. a settlement instead of going to just about doesn't just worry about the practicalities of how and where to start again she also fears the effect on her children of having to go through the same experience as their grandparents are a force it out zero occupied east jerusalem but amber of illegal drugs factories being discovered in iraq is growing and so is the number of addicts particularly in poverty stricken parts in the south robertson has more this is one of the front lines in iraq's latest battle the fight against illegal drugs such as heroin and crystal meth. it's a makeshift treatment center run by police in the southern city of basra trying to help addicts such as has done. i have been an addict for more than seventeen months

then i got arrested by police while i was buying large quantities of drugs to use every day my entire family has disowned me the. drug smugglers have been crossing parts of the border with iran which were left with little protection during a four year war against isis importing mainly cannabis and methamphetamines drugs factories have also been discovered on the iraqi side of the border in plantations and orchards in brass or province. where tightening security to prevent the smuggling of drugs and narcotics doing as much as we can to stop it but there are ways smugglers are getting past the treatment center in basra run by the police is one of two unofficial facilities that the city has but they can handle only a few patients at a time so some of them come here this is the last hospital in baghdad and it's a rags only official addiction treatment center.