mehdi his son goes head to head with. an al-jazeera. a fire sweeps through buildings housing people and chemicals and at least seventy are killed. i'm richelle carey this is al jazeera life until also coming up. first of all pope francis wasn't there he made it very clear some of us that's not ok spotlight on the pope as a historic summit. of sex abuse in the catholic church. depleted but not defeated the afghan army prepares for an offensive to recapture territory from the taliban. and the tech industries answer to falling sales as

a phone but you can fold but is that worth two thousand dollars. at least seventy people have been killed and a large fire that ripped through several buildings in the bangladeshi capital dhaka a fire broke out in the congested old city and a multi-story residential complex which also house a chemical warehouse reports. firefighters and dhaka struggle to bring the inferno under control battling a wall of flames amid the chaos of crowded alleyway. the blaze broke out night on wednesday evening in the area of the bangladeshi capital and in the crammed old city it quickly spread to surrounding buildings by plastics and chemical warehouses . witnesses told local media that gas cylinders in the buildings exploded one after

another. in vehicles gridlocked and nearby streets were soon caught up in the flames. and i saw with my own eyes that a sudden massive bang with fire and shock waves totally destroyed the roadside i was on a rickshaw when the explosion took place i don't think my rickshaw driver is a log an evil. this mangled wreckage is all that's left now as emergency workers com the rubble for bodies they don't expect to find any more survivors. in the hospital nearby distraught families crowd around lists of the living and the deed it's a saying that's been repeated far too often in bangladesh building five a common because of whom in full screen. hundreds have been killed in recent years this latest fire only adding to that tally and exam brian al-jazeera.

joins us live now from dhaka tom what else have we learned about what happened. while i'm in there still investigating i spoke to the disaster just question is for civil defense of the fire brigade major. he told me he can come from that there is at least seventy people dead so far at least forty one people are in the hospital some are in critical condition we also learned from the local red cross and volunteers that people are coming to them with the names of their missing relatives or friends so far that listed at least twenty five people who are unaccounted for people who are crowding the hospital looking for their family members who possibly got burned because many of the bodies are not recognize ago might need a d.n.a. test eventually the government gave out some fun for burial and for the victims who are in the hospital as far as the clearance operation they're still. marching for what is the area is basically restricted except for the rest of them so are living

there but more the outsiders normally this is a big part of faire with a lot of shops crowded street it's a holiday to the national language memory of a holiday otherwise this place is extremely crowded this is all part of the capital city living quaters shops as in this particular incident their warehouses with chemicals sometimes small cottage industries there for bait and but still goes on this is the way off life in the old city is a comic necessity makes people do this knowing the danger still prevails and i spoke to some of the witnesses what exactly happened last night their neighbors told us that they had a major explosion and that thing it was a wedding procession that was going there was a few cars in front of one of a small pickup truck which was run by a natural gas that exploded would spread across to a restaurant which at cylinder a gas for cooking that exploded and there was

a chain reaction eventually caught fire in the warehouse of the how do you mentioned where there was a lot of chemical fire first film and i just spread all across and the disaster spread from there on so this sort of disaster as you also mentioned in two thousand and just ten minutes walk from the same spot there was another major disaster at least a hundred and twenty three people died a government should enforce these but a lot of the local building mourners were telling us that we had to be blame many of the owners would allow these people to build shops or even have a warehouse here to keep chemicals even though the government said this is strictly forbidden and again out of economic necessity that's a way of life in this congested densely populated and clearly a major disaster could happen if this is not strictly enforced and a social movement started in these day have to say that look this is for your own good this storage needs to be moved or any kind of fact you don't possess threat to

the living quarters i'm less that happens the disaster in down the road clearly could happen again all right time for chantry live for us in dhaka thank you. house hunters been reporting buildings in bangladesh are often used for both residential and commercial purposes and the country as a result has a very poor fire safety record at least twenty seven people died more than one hundred injured after a fire engulfed the high street retailer gap factory just outside dhaka in two thousand and ten two years later one hundred twelve workers were killed when another clothing factory caught fire and two thousand and thirteen a building collapse on the outskirts of dhaka killed more than a thousand people in two thousand and fifteen thirteen people died in a plastics factory fire and a year later twenty four people and dozens more were injured when a fire through a packaging factory. some around the world are meeting at the vatican for a historic summit to address decades of sex abuse by priests it's the first time

a pope has brought together the catholic faith top leaders to discuss the issue of francis has been under pressure to address the problem as more scandals come to light or to challenge joins us live now from vatican so how is this meeting being presented what is it that way i think are what we understand the pope is trying to accomplish. while it's going to go on for four days the first three of these days each have a theme the opening day today is going to be responsibility then a friday is going to be transparency and saturday is going to be accountability sunday is a day of prayer and also closing comments from the pope gathered here are going to be the most senior people from across the catholic world and the pope knows exactly what's at stake and essentially what this is is an attempt to restore the credibility of the catholic church and what he wants to impress on the clergy that

are gathering here is the scale of the tragedy and the suffering of abuse victims and then he wants them to understand what they have to do about it but as you can hear now in my reports many of the survivors of sexual abuse still do not think that the pope is properly listening to them. each of these people have stories to tell their own stories or other people's stories of years of suffering of the hands of catholic priests bishops and cardinals. on the eve of an unprecedented meeting on sexual abuse of the vatican they brought their stories to tell francis. speaking to journalists earlier in the day survivors explained what they wanted but zero tolerance if you've abused a child you're not going to be a priest anymore and if you've covered up for that abuse or. you two are not going to be a priest anymore. starting from when he was seven peter saunders was abused by three

different men it was it was sexual assault i don't i don't i didn't have any need to go into graphic detail but i was sexually assaulted by all these characters and whilst i have recovered in a physical sense it didn't have any long lasting effect on the what these creatures did to me i still actually have a weekly therapy session because it messes your mind up it's abuse like this that the vatican says it's determined to put a stop to and that the four day meeting is vital in impressing on senior clarity who've come from around the world that it's their shared responsibility to do so but although cardinals and bishops will hear video testimony from victims of sexual abuse no survivors of being given the chance to speak their own person so they were putting great importance on their expected separate meeting with the pope but it didn't go as planned first of all pope francis wasn't there but made it very clear

some of us that's not ok we're going to see victims see it as a sign of disrespect that the leader of the catholic church sent bishops instead. we don't expecting any sort of final statement or documents after this meeting is over then an organizing committee is going to have a follow up meeting with other senior members of the catholic church and that's where they will try to put recommendations and tasks into actual practical application if nothing happens then then that's when i think the victims that we've been speaking to here in rome will perhaps feel justified in their fears that this is nothing more than a talking shop ok all right allan sayah for us in vatican city thank you mary. a u.s. foreign woman who joined eisel has been barred from returning to the u.s. with on a says that she made a mistake by traveling to syria four years ago and wants to return with her

eighteen month old son a secretary of state might pompei o says the twenty four year old has no legal basis to claim citizenship did not explain why i'm with ana is not considered a u.s. citizen or lawyer says she was born in new jersey and has a valid passport. she's absolutely an american national she's absolutely an american citizen she was born in the united states in new jersey and she did not do anything to renounce her citizenship and all she's asking right now is for due process the president of the united states does not have the authority to strip citizenship from those born on u.s. soil and she's willing to pay whatever debts she has to society she's not asking for a free pass we were you know on behalf of her family we were the ones who contacted the f.b.i. when we first learned that would have went to syria this is something that we absolutely condemn in the strongest of terms and the families always wanted her to come back and to face the legal system that we all believe in and now she's willing

to do that and the government and i think it's missing out on a tremendous opportunity to one gain intelligence from her and to really be able to utilize her as a strong voice against a monstrous groups like isis that have brainwashed many individuals and manipulated them to do horrible things that i think somebody like could. sing isis speaking out against them at great risk to her personal life as a sign a victory for the u.s. so ahead on al jazeera. i. think that if politicians but better than senegal had the last laugh when they elect a new leader. twenty five years since a mass shooting at a west bank mosque a report on how the consequences are still unfolding.

however we've got the seasonal showers just edging their way further north now across southeast asia you see some of the live shot was there into borneo eight millimeters fright in twenty four hours that's really the main focus for the west the weather the malaysia pushing over towards smog. southern parts of the late peninsula over the next few days little dry there you notice into indonesia but we still can't rule out the possibility of some of those afternoon showers bringing up thirty two celsius there for jakarta further north that's fine dry and settled across the philippines getting into the low to mid thirty's if not to try to across much of australia the main weather action remains off sure. looks like it to stay offshore but we are keeping a close eye on this one it may just edge its way towards the coast of queensland over the next day or two to set me something to watch out for we will see the big waves increasing the large swell and we are looking at some pretty big winds could

the waves could reach up to around four meters in places such great surfing conditions but also pretty dangerous as well say something to watch out for beach erosion is certainly a possibility over the next few days is that wet weather around the east coast for the next few days. weather sponsored by catalona is. zero explores prominent figures of the twentieth century and influence the course of history. that did not get enough credit for it in the book if you want to be a big historical figure but he was mondello the biggest called in the world the prisoner and the prisoner who came together to end apartheid in south africa no sumanda and f.w. de klerk face to face.

and watching out to syria let's recap the top stories right now at least seventy people have been killed in a large fire that refers several buildings in the bangladeshi capital dhaka a fire broke out in a residential complex which also housed a chemical warehouse bishops from around the world are meeting at the vatican for a historic summit to address decades of sex abuse by priests it's the first time a pope has brought together the catholic based top leaders to discuss this subject . us foreign woman who joined eisel has been barred from returning to the us with ana says she made a mistake by traveling to syria four years ago and wants to return with her eighteen month old son. army commanders in afghanistan say they're confident a spring offensive will help in taking back large areas of territory from the

taliban twenty one districts up fall into the armed groups and recent months by having us resulted in the army's highest ever lost says while its strength has fallen to its lowest level and years tony brooklier reports from kabul. this remote . outpost is one of thousands nationwide often isolated and in inhospitable areas they are the first line of defense against taliban and i saw fighters as well as the most wonderful. the greys of foreign soldiers since the u.s. pulled out its ground forces three years ago the afghan army has borne the brunt of the fighting with the taliban and the casualties inflicting ever greater casualties and force. the number of casualties or dozens every day people have lost the meaning of body counting they have become indifferent officially the government says forty five thousand members of the security services have been killed since

two thousand and fifteen and officially afghan analysts say that number could easily be doubled the overall army strength has dropped to its lowest level in years as the military confronts its biggest ever crisis but army chiefs maintain that morale remains good. we have a volunteer army it's their own choice to serve there is no doubt that we suffer a lot. of disabled but our morale is high because the goal is freedom and to serve the people of afghanistan and. in the past few months the military has lost control of more than twenty areas to taliban fighters who seem able to strike anywhere. in total we have lost twenty one districts in all of afghanistan it is because of the change in tactics on the ground so we are planning a spring offensive it will take two to three months to retake all these districts from the taliban but real reimposed the rule of law. eight thousand recruits every

year passed out of this training center in the capital kabul most of them are trained by afghan instructors taught by western military experts. despite the high casualty rate young men are still volunteering to fight it's partly out of a sense of packed duty but it's also because of the dire economic situation here they face the stark choice either stay at home and enjoy your poverty or face the taliban and risk death or injury and that from that yes i mean it's my duty to fight for my country to win our freedom i'm not afraid of the taliban but a magazine other system if i hadn't gone to the army i had nothing else planned professional soldiers say ideally training should last a minimum of a year in afghanistan it's three months. we would like more time but we make the most of what time we do have and when they leave here they are able to fight the taliban. but the question is how able are they to fight effectively pay is low the

conditions poor and since the american ground forces left backup is limited recruits are taught to shoot but equally importantly they are taught emergency battlefront first aid increasingly important because of the shortage of medivac helicopters now there. was a bomb disposal experts for seven years until an explosion blew off both his legs he's one of a growing number of disabled war veterans discharged from the military and when this most. i have no regret i am proud that i have contributed to the fans of michael three and my second five was in pursuit of peace my people and my country. but there is little help for heroes in afghanistan the father of four receives a meager disability pension of two hundred seventy dollars a year but he hasn't received any money for eight months and he can't afford further medical treatment. the afghan military has come a long way in the last eighteen years but is it far enough and if and when the u.s.

forces finally withdrawal completely will the afghans be able to stand alone tony berkley al-jazeera. suppliers in nigeria and how drop their prices to try to encourage people to travel to vote and presidential elections on saturday the vote has been delayed by a week and the main parties are concerned that were to use voter turnout to airlines have also offer discounts to people who show their voting cards letters and senegal are turning to satire to find out more about the candidates for the presidency they should go to the polls on sunday and other african nations comedians making fun of politicians i find themselves in jail that is not the case though in senegal reports in the capital dakar. there may be no televised presidential debate but there is a special election coverage. this is a comedian is impersonating all five candidates including president mikey sol on

the campaign trail. follows cells every move poking fun at the president who for now seems to be the favorite in the race. but the problem is he got so fat that it's not easy to run a race when you put on so much weight if he wants another five years he's going to explode and so for his own well being he needs to pull out of the race. laughing at a sitting president is no joke in many african countries and beyond it could land a comedian in jail but not in senegal political satire has a longer tradition than democracy itself none of the five candidates have complained about the skits because humor is part of the campaign. to get along with the daily news in iraq the political satire show on the election the aim is to hold to account each promise made by candidates

a reminder that people not politicians are in charge ahead of the polls you can live people just the chief your goal in this then what do you. or what are we not. we not running for governor we're not running for mayor will run for for the people . as each candidate tries to stand out comedians to bring them down to an even footing where they're powerful president or a candidate running for office in the end seems to say out loud what many politicians perhaps think but wouldn't say in public nicholas hawke al-jazeera the car or cattle on independence protesters have blocked a motorway and northwestern spain a place burning tires on the road connecting the city of our salon or as part of a general strike against the ongoing trial of cattle on separatists and as a former local government leaders are facing up to twenty five years in prison for the role in a failed two thousand and seventeen and dependants. france's president has

announced new measures to fight anti-semitism after a series of incidents speaking at an event organized by the jewish community said legislation to fight hate speech on the internet will be introduced in may it comes a day after thousands of people rallied across france to denounce hostility towards jews. palestinians are preparing to mark the twenty fifth anniversary of a massacre and have brought demonstrations on friday twenty nine palestinians were killed when an american israeli settler opened fire inside a mosque on the twenty fifth of february one thousand nine hundred four and it's very possible reports on the occupied west bank the consequences of that mass shooting are still being felt even from a hillside overlooking her bronze old city it's clear that this is an ancient place rich in human heritage but also a visible fault lines of human conflict hooting to the traditions of the abrahamic faiths judaism christianity and islam abraham himself along with his wife his sons and their wives are buried in the caves above which the bahraini mosque now stands

since israel occupied the west bank in one thousand nine hundred sixty seven jews and muslims have prayed here separately divided over the past twenty five years the division has deepened on the muslim side the call to prayer requires an israeli soldier to unlock a door israeli army cameras survey the interior of the mosques in mom says more than half of what he describes as an exclusively muslim site has been cut off. totally reject the division which isn't meant for protection the real protection comes from the fact that this is an old islamic mosque and the settlers to live. on the twenty fifth of february one thousand nine hundred four an american israeli foreign settler barry goldstein entered the mosque during prayers and started shooting he killed twenty nine worshipers and wounded nearly two hundred he himself was chased down and beaten to death the violence that stain on least here may have been over in a matter of minutes but its consequences a still deeply felt this was

a seismic event in the history of this town and from the epicenter here the fissures of that politically psychologically physically have spread out throughout . the immediate military lockdown forcing the palestinian market to close amid other restrictions was followed by the hebron agreement of one thousand nine hundred seventy eighty percent of the city is known as h one mostly the urban sprawl of the west bank's main economic center and of the palestinian authority the remaining twenty percent home to several hundred israeli settlers and forty thousand palestinians became h. two and the israeli military control the illegal settlements of swollen attracting some of the most right wing settlers in the occupied west bank some eight hundred and are registered as living here the crisscross intimate nature of the division heightens the friction hebron is often a flashpoint of violence jews here remember an early a massacre in one thousand twenty nine when sixty seven people were killed the small jewish community forced from the city. i mean what's happening now is

a religious and historical homecoming under the protection of the israeli army they're just doing their job to try to keep the tension. down because without them it would probably be much more terms so that we see that we see them as the positive presence a few meters away a very different perspective run that gave has seen her home and have freedoms ever more constricted for the last two years by reinforced fence and a gate that soldiers can look at any time we used to come and go now they have to say to some can. we say prisoners are in prison but we did a larger one twenty five years on from one of the deadliest days in the israeli palestinian conflict its legacy is undimmed in the daily reality of hostility disposition and division are a force it had grown in the occupied west bank. says the u.s. could tax european car imports if it fails to broker a fair trade deal with the e.u.

gave the warning after a meeting with austrian chancellor sebastian curse at the white house the commerce department has been investigating whether imported cars and parts are a threat to u.s. national security as trump has claimed or cars could go up to twenty five percent. tech giant google says it's made an error after failing to inform years of users of a hidden microphone inside its own security device and was only found out about the nest it's built in microphone and google announced it was updating a product with the voice command assistant the company says it was never intended to be a secret and should have been listed as a feature it will also set the microphones must be activated to work. there is now a smartphone that you can bend and half samsung is now unveiled its next generation of devices including the galaxy fold will it be enough or of the industry leader to overcome a shrinking market or a sense eliminate reports from new york. the next generation samsung smartphone will also serve as a tablet with its folded as

a four point six inch display it's compact and perfectly portable. but when the device opens up your world does too not surprisingly samsung's newest device is called before and it was unveiled with all of the fanfare you've come to expect from the world's leading smartphone maker. but shares with things we call it goes on sale in april but it and samsung's new as tannen as ten plus are being released amid faltering worldwide sales people have a little bit of phone fatigue all the phones look the same they feel the same this new galaxy s ten is not really going to break the mold but we've seen some hints of things that are coming in the future that might get people really excited the issue whether buying samsung or an apple device is increasingly price with the fold costing about two thousand dollars samsung will have to convince consumers that they just have to have it pretty much all of the price to perform the performance

to date on looking for. a replacement phone every three or four years i'm not within the eighteen to twenty four month update cycle i'm not rich enough or that the global smartphone market is shrinking after years of rapid growth with consumers waiting for the next game changing feature and major markets like here in the united states that saturation still smartphone sales are a vital part of the global economy. in two thousand and seventeen smartphone sales reached nearly four hundred sixty billion dollars but the rising price tag for the better known smartphones is not just an issue in the developed world and there is heavy headwind against the high and smartphones we saw that i phone in the sales but not that great some macro issues as well china is slowing down. but europe is slowing down with the release of the full industry leaders seem convinced that continuing innovation and the ability to access five g.

data networks in the near future will be enough to keep smartphone. murs coming back for more christian salumi al-jazeera new york. and richelle carey let's recap the headlines for you on al-jazeera at least seventy people have been killed in a large fire that ripped through several buildings in the bangladeshi capital dhaka fire broke out in a residential complex which also housed a chemical warehouse has more from. what happened yesterday we have some conflicting reports from the witnesses in the neighborhood this said that there was an explosion in a pickup truck most possibly the cylinder with a lot of the cars and trucks run on natural gas that exploded and spread the fire into a nearby restaurant which also had a natural gas cylinder and that explosion caused this. which boards

a lot of chemicals for parts. spread all across the head of the roman catholic church says the religious body needs to heal the wounds after decades of sexual abuse by priests pope francis has been speaking at a meeting of bishops to address the scandal many of those abused by priests around the world are also attending that event batek in sydney. a u.s. form woman who joined eisel has been barred from returning to america home with danny says she made a mistake by traveling to syria four years ago and wants to return with her eighteen month old son a secular state might pump a twenty four year old has no legal basis to claim citizenship or a lawyer though says she was born in new jersey and did hold a ballot passport cattle on independence protesters have blocked a motorway and north western spain they've put burning tires on the road connecting the city barcelona it's part of a general strike against the ongoing trial of cattle on separatists for their role

in a failed two thousand and seventeen and dependents bit. suppliers in nigeria have dropped their prices to try to encourage people to travel to vote in the presidential election on saturday the vote has been delayed by a week and the main parties are concerned that will reduce voter turnout to their alliance of even offer discounts to people who show their voting cards tech giant google says it made an error after failing to inform users of a hidden microphone inside its home security device that servers only found out about the nest cards built a microphone when google announced it was updating the product what they voice command assistant the company says it was never intended to be a secret so the headlines keep it here on al-jazeera for news throughout the day and the main time stream this up next i mean every week brings a series of breaking stories joined them listening post as we turn the cameras on the media and focus on how they were caught on the stories that matter. on

al-jazeera. and i really could be here in the stream today catalonia separate since leaders on trial well examine the case and its impact on politics in spain what should happen to the people who lead apollonius failed bid for independence let us know what you think in our live chat or on twitter. twelve cats on separate incident is could see up to twenty five years in prison if convicted of rebellion and of those offenses related to a failed independence brigade in the late twenty.