i don't and in south america the recent rise of the right has eroded support for mondo in brazil argentina chile and colombia among others several european nations including the united kingdom spain germany and france are also backing the us president donald trump senior adviser is traveling to the middle east to promote a future peace plan for israel and palestine question will accompany middle east envoy jason green black on a week long tour of israel and several arab states the u.s. delegation expected to focus on economic issues the leaders from european union and arab league countries have gathered in egypt for their first ever joint summit the two day meeting in sharm a shift whole focus on migration and security at least twenty four european leaders are attending egyptian president under fire to his sisi is co-chairing the summit with european council president donald tusk. a gunman who tried to hijack

a plane in bangladesh was killed when security forces stormed the aircraft he tried to take over a boeing triple seven that was going to fly to dubai in the united arab emirates it's not yet clear what the suspects motive was the reportedly warned that he had a pistol all the passengers got off safely when it landed in the coastal city of chittagong the votes are being counted in nigeria where president mohammed who will hardy is hoping for a second term there were some reports of irregularities during saturday's election just before voting began a town in the northeast was attacked by suspected boko haram fighters john howard has more from a bhutto. overall indications are that this election isn't in fact entirely over what we have are statements from and i know commissioner that's the independent electoral commission backed up by reports from independent observers indicating that some polling stations possibly only a few but some weren't able to complete the vote on saturday and therefore have

gone into additional voting time on sunday in addition to that there are some polling stations we believe that may not have been able to open at all because of incidents of violence of intimidation sabotage the burning of ballot papers and so on these reports that we've heard again we don't know how big of a problem this is in terms of affecting the overall process nor do we know quite how the counting process is going on i'm standing outside the international conference center here where the final collation will take place where the final results will be made known and all we understand here is that this evening possibly a few results might be announced but nothing like enough to provide an indicative picture of what's going on and all the while as this goes on i think concerns will rise about the possibility of a disputed result because president bihari for instance said before this vote that he would accept the results if it was credible and that issue of credibility i

think is central here because what the week long delay to this process did what all the issues that took place on voting day delays intimidation violence and so on have done is lay the ground for a multitude of possible challenges to the final result all of which will in turn inflame opinion on the ground particularly if as is expected these results turn out to be very close and many drifts has more now from my duty in northern nigeria. northern nigeria is relatively calm after the early morning scare on election day there were also a few years of possible outbreak of violence after the two leading political parties accuse each other of planning to disrupt the correlation of results in various states across the country over nothing much has happened in most parts of northern nigeria since the end of voting on saturday now election

observers and the rest of the country is watching closely to see what will happen after the declaration of results which will start in a matter of hours by independent national electoral commission and how the leading political parties are able to calm their supporters after the results have been announced the polls have just closed in senegal's presidential elections macky sall is banking on a booming economy to stay in office for another term opposition candidates have been promoting a platform that focuses on poverty and unemployment which they say are driving people to leave the country nicolas sarkozy in that car so that nicolas said how are things been a going near in any any indications of which way the results are going. well the polls have just closed just four minutes ago and we're inside one of the polling rooms in downtown des car where the counting has started and so they've

lost the room this is a classroom that's use a voting booth and you can see here observers from each candidate's that are checking that the counting is done transparently that we're here is the president presiding officer of this these say that they will be counting for the next three hours to ensure that they've got the count right once that's done they'll publish what their results are just outside their room and this will happen through fifteen thousand polling centers across the country it's a big election for senate all because at stake is is a country that is that wealthier than ever because just recently you discovered fifty billion dollars worth of oil and gas and whoever becomes the next president will be in charge of that new well so a lot of people have a lot of expectation from the new president that will come in to power especially

young people who are calling for change and what are one of the main issues the young people are dealing with. as they went to the polls. today nicolas. what's interesting with the young people that we've seen voting here and there's many that came in they came in large numbers especially in the evening time is that they really want more jobs they want more freedom and that's one issue that was really in it that was really pointed out by a few voters that we spoke to is that despite this economic growth that has brought seven percent growth big infrastructure projects new airports train stations. there is seems to be a lack of freedom for at least the political opposition or freedom in general for young people it came into effect just recently just before this election. was voted

into place that gave more room for the government to control what people are seeing on facebook on whatsapp there's been a few people that been arrested for publishing pictures of multicelled in ways that the government seen. said that was indecent it is all these these issues of this political space that seems to be shrinking while the economy is growing that is a real concern for many young senegalese but of course there's also the issue of jobs because despite these big infrastructure projects and the promise of four hundred thousand new jobs during his time out during his time in office between two thousand and twelve and two thousand and eighteen we've seen droves of young senegalese crossing the mediterranean trying to make it to europe and they're not fleeing at war or conflict they're fleeing poverty and that's one of the issues at heart of this election hossam. nicolas hard life for us there in dakar senegal

thanks nicholas a plenty more ahead on news out disturbing figures from the united nations number of civilians killed in afghanistan last year. religious groups in cuba are often noms as voters consider changes to the constitution to what has them so upset . their role in the chinese city i mean they race and in sport qatar pushes to become the front runners in the sport of kings. so all that still ahead but first the head of the roman catholic church has. for an all out battle against abuse by priests pope francis spoke on the last day of a conference on sex abuse within the church he called it an abominable crime which must be erased rory chalons has more from vatican city. in his speech at the end of

this historic four day meeting of the vatican on sexual abuse in the catholic church pope francis said that abusers were tools of satan they were ravenous wolves and that we find ourselves before a brazen manifestation of the spirit of evil he said the abuse will be addressed with the utmost seriousness we can listen to a bit more of what he had to say right now in contrast. it is utterly incompatible with the moral authority and ethical credibility of those persons chosen by god to guide souls to salvation to let themselves be dominated by their human frailty or sickness and thus they become tools of satan well although these were undeniably strong words they certainly didn't satisfy the survivors of sexual abuse who have been here in rome to see what's been going on they were very angry after listening to pope francis they said that it amounts to a paedophiles charter that what they wanted to hear zero tolerance for abusive

priests and zero tolerance for those who've covered up that abuse wasn't mentioned by the pope when it didn't come up in this four day meeting and they think that this amounts to a paedophiles charter that because these priests and bishops and and clergy are not being threatened with being thrown out of the priesthood that gives them carte blanche to go back to their countries and carry on abusing carry on covering it up. this meeting though it was never about a definitive concrete action. to be decided here now it was always going to have follow up meetings and follow up consultation and the pope is hoping that it's in that process coming next that a practical handbook can be drawn up for dealing with this issue across the continent world. well let's bring in an age he has now in chicago he served as a u.s. ambassador to the holy see that is the vatican's governing body as now professor

loyola university thanks very much for being with us not just a point to pick up on the point that our correspondent rory made there that this conference wasn't about you know setting concrete action right now it was it was a first step but did they did they go far enough in addressing this issue and in satisfying many of the abuse victims. well you know the conference throughout the last four days the message has been on accountability transparency and responsibility and we've just heard recently within the last few hours or so i guess for united states time that among the things that are going to be recommended concretely is first proper which is an edict by the pope on sexual abuse number two the conference is calling for the congregation for the doctrine of faith which is basically the police agency of the vatican to set in

place some manuals concrete directives for bishops worldwide to follow and number three the pope is calling for the kind of buys three groups our task force is comprised of professionals to really advise various dioceses throughout the world as we always say the you know the devil's always in the details and. actions speak louder than words and i think what catholics are going to be looking at in why you're seeing so many victims want to see more is that they want to see the concrete implementation of policies that will not only respond to the abuses that have occurred but will create a sea of change when it comes to a culture of secrecy of the closet any of those issues that keep transparency and openness from from from from those of us that would like the church to to really

address in a more healthy and wholesome way the subject of gender and human sexuality what do you say to those who have been watching this and say the whole thing that has been has been just one big talk talking shop and kind of a p.r. exercise for the catholic church if you will and they don't have any confidence that anything will really change. well and this is this is where you know in your last reporting you know the it was mentioned that the meeting itself was not intended per se to bring up or to come up with these concrete guidelines the question is going to be that of course the patient has run out pretty much across the world when it comes to talking about doing something and i think that this pope you know this pope is you know has from the start the proclaim the preferential option for the poor and i i believe that the

pope gets that this is something where the poor the poor who have suffered from all kinds of sexual oppression that is either sex based or gender based are crying out loud and are crying for justice and it is not enough and no one should pretend that it is enough to just speak about doing something i think the time has is long overdue for the church to act to praise him policies you know concrete to place in place you know to basically put in place policies that will prevent and address this very difficult subject but i think this is what victims of sexual abuse have been calling for they want to zero tolerance and they want the church to to act locally and globally when it comes to addressing this this issue or i could speak with you miguel diaz thanks for your time more civilians were killed in afghanistan last year then during any of the previous nine years figures from the united

nations show most four thousand civilians were killed in twenty eight thousand alone including nearly a thousand children it blames the spike in deaths on an increase in attacks by iso and airstrikes by the u.s. led coalition their report comes as talks between the u.s. and talabani to end the country's seventeen year war appear to be gaining momentum . the worry in afghanistan has taken a terrible toll on civilians and twenty eight witnesses deplorable levels of harm inflicted upon. the us so the highest number of civilians killed in the conflict since the united nations began systematic documentation of the impact of the war on noncombatants are thousands of palestinian protesters in gaza have been calling for president mahmoud abbas to resign they're angry he suspended the salaries of more than five thousand workers last month the cuts are seen as action against

hamas is refusal to hand over power in the gaza strip as a counter-demonstration in the occupied west bank in support of a bass are still ahead on when we come back and date with donald trump north korea's leader begins his trip to a second summit with the u.s. president. and later a sport a costly mistake that turned out ok in the end for the king of skate. allies generally find now in afghanistan and iran there is a storm system developing in the central mediterranean but it's not going to be in immediately so we've got a day of fine looking weather low twenty's beirut little bit less in aleppo same sort of story across iraq i was surprised to see

a shower but if you watch the development between monday and tuesday that storm winds up it comes from libya comes across to cyprus sudden turkey northern syria as you can see but it's snow for turkey itself and it looks stormy so i think on shore winds will be quite nasty from lebanon lebanese coast northwards was in juices is suddenly ahead of it that usually means it's going to be dusty as long as the ground is drawn is very dry now that before we get to that we've got a northerly and the southerly is here out in western society but as you know that wind just slowly east was a temperature rise in riyadh to twenty nine degrees but i think we're looking at dry weather if it little dusty we still potential big showers in the eastern side of south africa there's the last one went through into southern mozambique but you know it's the exception that proves the rule for most places far in cape town's twenty three will take a bit of a dip as the wind strengthens from the west but most places assan also zambia it's dry.

out is here a explores prominent figures of the twentieth century and how and why buildings influence the course of history books are sold that he did not get enough credit for ending the budget he wants to be the biggest star go figure but he was not the biggest icon in the world the prisoner and the president who came together to end up apartheid in south africa nelson mandela and f.w. de klerk face to face on al-jazeera. examining the headlines setting the discussions a warning from the air boss over the risks of a no deal breaks in sharing class no stories with a global audience you have your own intelligence network on the ground to tell you where to go and we'll go explore an abundance of world class programming designed to inform motivate and inspire brazilian people are truly afraid the world

is watching on al-jazeera. and again you're watching edges in a reminder of our top stories this hour venezuela's opposition leader is calling on the international community to keep all options open after running battles on saturday to get aid into the country to venezuelan soldiers crossed the border to brazil are seeking asylum more than a hundred have deserted. polls have closed in senegal as elections and vote counting has begun president macky sall is banking on a booming economy to stay in office for another term opposition candidates say

poverty and unemployment are rampant. the head of the roman catholic church has called for an all out battle against abuse by priests pope francis was speaking during the final day of a conference on sex abuse within the church. cubans are getting a chance to vote on a new constitution for the first time in decades sunday's poll will mark a historic day for the communist country and unprecedented two million people are expected to voice their opposition to the government body on a sanchez reports from havana. protestant cuba pray for divine guidance. and for cubans to vote no on sunday's constitutional referendum. don't stay home don't leave your vote blank you know what you have to put on the ballot. religious groups say the new constitution may eventually allow same sex marriage he says he

put down the proposed constitution has not respected the people's opinion on the issue of marriage and family for me. this sort of dissent is unprecedented in cuba and it's not restricted to moral values the draft constitution brings in more freedoms to trade buy property and attract foreign investment it even sets presidential term limits but communism remains an try and as cuba's guiding force many here say that changes are the most significant since the cold war era but critics say ratifying the proposal will only serve to perpetuate the communist one party system for those pushing for a no vote the shadow of fetal castro remains in these pages islamist my things by qualifying it as the stage in society's guiding force it puts the party above the rest of the institutions recognized by the constitution and that's a threat against any democratic process. that no campaign complains it hasn't been

given enough time compared to its government financed opponents. i am voting yes cuba is voting yes we are voting yes for their own labor this would be the best constitution cubans ever had. in the foundations for socialism have to be there we fought for that many years and now there are new things like private property it's the best in every way. but it's not close to twenty five percent of cubans are likely to vote against the draft but win or lose sunday will be a historic day it will be the first time cubans can say no to a government proposal out in the open and a scientist and just either have than a cuba or let's bring in carlos. van and now he is a professor at the university of havana and a former cuban ambassador to the european union thanks very much for being with us so what do you make of these proposed reforms then is this

a step in the right direction for cuba. certainly the. progress with you when you compare it to your cause you two should of course when you have two hundred twenty eight out of tinkles and you have. eight billion people voting is it possible that there will be unanimity so you're going to expect a certain amount of. i don't think it will reach very high maybe emily on maybe a little bit more but bear in mind that not all the nose would be opposition to the government some of the nose a significant amount of the nose by be open who want to express that they don't agree with this certain part of the court inclusion and not necessarily. a vote of oppositional against the government they simply want to room to go on the line that they don't agree with bodily of the constitution done is for example the question

over of gay marriage or a court of rights marriage many people are opposing it begins with their principles but result that the rest of the constitution which is followed by far much more important than the be deja marriage that they oppose that and there are many good things in the constitution there's the possibility of advancing it makes that call me which is one of the main fundamental directions are they going to be staking their east an expansion of rights and inspection of human rights protection that is very good is that it has been welcomed by and large why most of the lawyers and specialists and their ease and you're a very sage of the government which is probably the part of the constitution that is more let us say more more stand in a direction that we don't know where it's going to go we will have a new figure a president and you'll feel

a lot of bright president and prime. minister governor so pro and says i like i like the system. how it has been organized and many people like it but some people don't like it but that's normal does does that doesn't mean people oppose the government necessarily what about the aspects like bringing more more freedom to trade to buy property and attract more foreign investment what he what do you make of those elements is that is that an abandonment of socially socialist principles in cuba or is that an admission that socialism hasn't worked you know various. well i think it's some let's say some orthodox marxist will look at that and saying this is these are conversations to capitalism i don't think i think that if you look at the reality of the world most of the world most of the countries in the

world have makes the economies how big zour large the socialist party how large the capital is part is a question for every country to the side. seems to go for as socially cysteine with a substantial private sector and these prostitution gives that opportunity to remember because it is a loss and so are all the problems it simply points the way and facilitates the new good legislation that is going to come may march of that legislation allowing for a private business of private property are already in force what they got to do to do those basically is go see to share our lives those things. for example in terms of creating new enterprises we will leave we will need a new law for the prices but because we do to facilitate that step is not is going to be a lot going to thwart what what what he's done on that side so it does sense. it is

a good course they do. good to speak with you carlos in. now it is the biggest night of the year in the world of entertainment the ninety first academy awards get underway in los angeles lights on sunday let's cross over to los angeles where rob reynolds is live for us on the red carpet so rob why has the run up to this year's oscars ceremony been so unusually full of controversies. well you can see a lot of hustle and bustle here on the red carpet as the camera crews are getting set up and everything is being prepared for the ceremony that will begin several hours from now to your question the series of controversies began when the academy of motion picture arts and sciences that's the people who vote for the oscars and the awards and decide who will win decided first of all that they wanted

to add a category best popular film well a lot of people thought that was both condescending and and during so they dropped that idea then they wanted to take out two categories from the live broadcast excuse me four categories from the live broadcast editing. cinematography hair and makeup and give those awards during the commercial breaks well a lot of people pointed out that the cinematography hair makeup and editing are kind of what make movies movies so they had to retreat from that and finally there's no host this year why because kevin hart the actor and comedian who was scheduled to be a host well a lot of blatantly homophobic tweets and jokes from his past emerged and he dropped out and apparently nobody else wanted the job so who's going to win tonight well standby here's here's some news for you we don't know but here's

a preview. the red carpet has been rolled out on hollywood boulevard and the on globes with the names of the winners are ready to open this year. academy awards feature a diverse slate of best picture nominees including the exploits of a half are can supercharge your own in black and. the life of an indigenous mexican housekeeper in the one nine hundred seventy s. in roma the scene he's working for black in the deep south blue problems a story of overcoming bigotry and creating interracial friendships in green book and the light was a brilliant but troubled gay rock star in bohemian rhapsody. films and performances selected you know the nominated this year for the certainly

reflects that hollywood has a greater understanding and is putting forth a greater commitment towards diversity and inclusion i think that's a good thing but the four other best picture nominees are vice a bio pic of former vice president dick cheney a star is born a remake of a venerable tale of fame fortune in fate with a helping of popular songs black klansmen director spike lee's comedy drama about a black policeman infiltrating the k.k.k. and the favorite a lavish dive into the intrigues b. trails and lesbian love affairs in the eighteenth century british royal court the best female actor nominees include yes you know in roma lady gaga in a star is born and melissa mccarthy can you ever forgive me but there's a clear favorite i mean glenn close it's like finally i mean glenn has been the

bride for. and it's like i am so i think everybody is like like the best male actor award contest looks like a dead heat between christian bale startling in person a she. of cheney and vice and romney malek's passionate portrayal of the talents of the orbited freddie mercury is bohemian rhapsody. and i should mention also the reason why the cademy kept tinkering with the broadcast is because of ratings and money no surprise there the ratings have been declining for the oscar broadcast for years they dipped below thirty thousand to thirty million last year so that it was thought that by streamlining the broadcast they could bring some people back in but that whole strategy obviously backfired on them and rob a few years ago there was this outcry over the lack of diversity in film and

particularly in the acting nominations to want to what extent has that been addressed this year how is that involved. yeah you know there was that hash tag oscar so white that was all over twitter well. when when in two thousand and fifteen for the second year in a row all of the major acting categories and all the films directors were were white so what a difference this year you've got black panther which is was a worldwide hit obviously a superhero movie with a black pr tag and if you have a black klansman which not only is about racial themes but also is directed by spike lee the black director you have roma which is clearly a film which is in spanish and in the indigenous mixtec language show all latino you have gay characters being played by rami malek in. me in rhapsody in by melissa mccarthy in will you ever forgive me the only. gap that i see here

is this persistent lack of female directors no female only one female director has won the oscar for best director and that was karen bigelow and that was back. ten years ago so there are no fees there are no female directors up this year and this is something that people are still quite concerned about in the academy and they're trying and in the world of film in general certainly female lead directors and other film professionals would like to see more of that awesome all right rob thanks very much for that rob reynolds live for us in los angeles. sudan's newly appointed a vice presidents prime minister and fifteen governors have been sworn in amid a string of protests in the country demonstrators lined the streets to oppose president ahmed bashir is declaration of a state of emergency and his decision to dissolve the government. has the details.

this is what's the new government of sudan looks like and president omar al bashir wants it to work on fixing the economy and a country that will now be in a state of emergency for an entire year basheer is to two presidential decrees appointing army and security officers to govern the country's eighteen provinces after dissolving both sensual and state governments a move seen by many as bush's attempts to consolidate his absolute power in the country the only people who still have a job five members of the outgoing cabinet including the foreign and defense and justice ministers the newly appointed vice president who already serves as the defense minister says security needs to be established user. there is a crisis bot of it was economic and part of it was due to what the previous government did in trying to find solutions the security aspect of the country must be consolidated and we must prepare the general atmosphere for the political

process and this is all part of our view and. protesters meanwhile continue to take to the streets to demand that the president step down bashir has called for dialogue but opposition parties say that's not reflected in his actions and activists say protests will continue. these anti-government protests started last december that anger ignited by necking on the crisis on.