ariana sanchez reports from havana. a mobilization in old havana more than one thousand volunteers are promoting the referendum if. you have to tell people to come down and vote united behind them also you have a way. to encourage people to go to polling stations. from house to house and last call before voting closed and. there's been a lot of negative campaigning against the proposal so we're here to explain the truth of. the draft constitution recognizes limited private property opens the cuban economy to international markets and limits presidential terms and novelty in cuba where the castro brothers held power for sixty years longer countries with the constitution we had was old now it's more futuristic based on the new ideals that have been leading us into a better country although many here say that prostitution will officially recognize

policies that are already in place critics saving and trying meant of socialism as the first day of course will overshadow the modernisation if they bring to the country. the proposed social and economic changes may be modest but they signal an acceptance that change is needed to turn around cuba's stagnant economy but. it all seems to indicate the reality is taking center stage and that the cuban government knows it must fight the economic battle you know he can do that with an inefficient state the private sector drowned by regulations. there are opponents to the draft resolution some say it doesn't go far enough others say it is too socially liberal but they have the opportunity to vote no which in cuba is change indeed. just cuba so the u.s. senator marco rubio whose parents migrated from cuba waded into the debate over the

latest referendum and it tweety tweeted this the so-called referendum and hostile cuba is another maneuver by the cuban dictatorship to hold its grip on power so they publicize is nothing more than a farce and a fraud of the communist party let's speak to for lebron or he is a professor of international relations at american university is joining us from washington d.c. thanks for being with us so where do you stand on this referendum do you support it or are you against it where marco rubio has very little credibility i think this referendum was an effort to increase the legitimacy of a government that isn't headed by castro and that's certainly one of the reasons they held this referendum now this was quite remarkable because there was an open debate in the society about the constitution and then there was open campaigning for the first time in sixty years private organizations many of the church campaigned in some cases against the constitution this is unheard of in cuba and it

was allowed to be done quite openly so this is a new a new opening in in cuba although the constitution is far less than some people had hoped i was there two weeks ago there were a lot of unhappy young people there expected to pass by a large margin the last time the constitution was adopted in one thousand nine hundred six so it was approved by more than ninety seven percent of voters. well this time i think there would have been far fewer people voting in favor of the constitution i think what's contributed to increased probably is the threats from the united states is a kind of rally around the flag when a foreign power threatens a country voting year seem to be the patriotic action and i think the united states actually increased the years by threatening cuba with sanctions so to what extent do you think this is

a referendum not just on the new constitution but also on the government of the president himself. it's very much so i think the younger people in particular are looking to me go to bring about real reforms that will give them some freedom of movement and bring in capital into the country that will give them jobs there are a lot of people who are leaving the country looking for to use their their education in ways that other countries would benefit and cuba needs to keep those people in the country all right philip brenner we thank you for speaking to us on al-jazeera. plenty more ahead on the news hour including where in afghanistan where one radio station is giving a voice to voice. in sport the new york knicks really making the n.b.a. history books for the wrong reason the story's coming up a little later in the program.

but first nigeria's main opposition party is rejecting presidential election results accusing the government of manipulating the vote counting is still underway with only a few regions announcing results so far it's expected to be a tight race between president and his main rival atiku abubakar the election was marred by violence at least thirty five people were killed and i jury as a nation rich in oil wealth but poverty is still forcing many young people to turn to crime and steal crude from pipelines but as heroines also reports from the niger delta locals say it's the only way they can survive. it's about a thirty minute boat ride from the nearest village past a dead or dying man grows of the niger delta oil polluted creeks. hidden inside the mangrove swamps become across this and illegal or refinery. one of many illicit

operations in this part of nigeria some of these men say they have college diplomas and university degrees but they can't find work. as we are living. in the villages. village most of the stolen crude oil is shipped offshore is refined locally is this the mesa thousands of nigerians engaged in a practice locally known as oil bunkering there hacked into pipelines to steal the crude oil and then sell it they say this is not feeling they're just taking what they insist is rightfully this decades or drilling by the big oil companies has poisoned the waters of the delta. solomon says fisherman who use or land the waters for a livelihood had been getting poorer and poorer he feels for many years now the people in the region have been marginalized by the federal government and that's why they are fighting back in the only way they see they can by taking some of the riches

for themselves but it has risks. so. large. there have been some arrests and the situation in the region remains unstable vive illegal refined products are soon at the international waters in exchange. that's why did. and the security forces police that seriously complicit in all that is taking place the ad the ones that give this people protection security forces often patrol and pipelines they deny being involved in the illegal activities are minded to protect the firefly and that is our job you know

very steadfast. meant in protecting the five we don't compromise and i don't see any of the second. talk to be made here with the highest punishment of the. losses by the lust for a region rich in oil and gas they will be people who feel they are not benefiting on and that will only raise tensions further. in the niger delta back to our top story and sudan's emergency decree banning public gatherings. morgan is joining us from when this is just one of a series of emergency decrees that have been announced by the government what more do we. well there in let's remember that under the state of emergency the president has the right to add any other decrees that he feels is appropriate to deal with the situation now the emergency law itself as precedents constitution allows the

military to raid any buildings they feel is or they deem as a threat to the to sudan's national security it also allows them to arrest whoever they feel it is destabilize incident economic and political stability now the president went a few notches further and he added decrees banning the gathering of people banning public gathering in situations such as universities in public places and basically in exile weddings so this makes it very hard for people to continue protesting as they've been doing for the past ten weeks he also regulated the number the amount of ball that can be carried out outside the country and the number of all that people can possess it comes down to one hundred fifty grams per person and that is with license he's also regulated the amount of hard currency that people can carry with them to only three thousand three thousand dollars per person so it's very clear that they are trying as much as they can to stop their will and to go in protest has been happening over the past ten weeks and little be interesting to see her about whether these decrees are actually abided to by the people who have come

out for many weeks on end protesting. well here is the state of emergency was announced on friday and part of it was already known in the constitution because it was already in the constitution but people are saying that they do not recognize that state of emergency which has been declared they say they will continue to protest and can tell you to demonstrate and say that they want the president to step down did not recognize the government therefore any rule any decreed that has been issued is not recognized as well it's not clear if they will continue now let's remember like i said the security has the right to raid any institution they have the right to arrest anybody they deem is a threat dissidents to security and political and economic stability so it's not sure it's not clear if people will come out after the list of decrees that have been issued by the president today it makes it much more clear people now know what is actress if they come out so it's going to be very interesting to see what happens in the next few days there have a morgan with an update from khartoum thank you britain has been told it should quickly give up control of the chain goes archipelago that's

a chain of islands in the indian ocean which are also claimed by malicious in an advisory opinion judges of the international court of justice ruled that britain had illegally split the islands from riches before independence in the one nine hundred sixty s. thousands of islanders were then deported to make way for a huge us airbase all the court's view is non-binding it carries a heavy symbolic importance as it goes to the heart of issues that persist from britain's colonial past. but u.s. special envoy. has started talks in qatar with the afghan taliban co-founder political chief ghani baradar is among several senior taliban members who are attending the four day meeting aimed at ending the seventeen year war by the us presence is seen as a significant boost for the discussions in the tweeds. tweeted this arrives in doha to meet with a more. taliban delegation this could be a significant moment appreciate qatar for hosting and pakistan and facilitating

travel now the work begins in earnest stephanie tucker has more. the u.s. envoy tweeting that he had met with mullah baradar over lunch the first time the two men met in that the real work woods now begin now this is a senior delegation here in boulevard are of course one of the founding members of the taliban difficult issues will be discussed one is a nationwide cease fire to a timetable for the withdrawal of those u.s. troops around fourteen thousand remain in afghanistan another thing trying to get the taliban to talk to the afghan government something they've refused to do so far and last but not least the u.s. wants a taleban to ensure that afghanistan will not be used by groups like isis or al qaida to launch. attacks or any kind of attack on the west now even recently the u.s. envoy saying that you cannot solve a forty year conflict with one meeting even if that meeting last so as much as a week but we do expect there's been messages coming out from the taliban and from

the americans that they are hopeful that this could achieve something when i have to wait and see what they manage to talk about it chief and implement over the next couple of days but that's the real question what is achieved here if anything can be implemented on the ground the afghan people want security they want safety they are of course skeptical what capacity the taliban will return the talks are about getting them into a political unit. government it is difficult it is complicated but certainly there seems to be a glimmer of hope that they are perhaps coming the closest that they ever have to achieving some form of a deal while two thousand kilometers away in cabo afghans are watching the negotiations closely after suffering through seventeen years of war they wonder what is being debated or agreed upon on their behalf charlotte palace reports. masood is the host of the most popular national talkback program in afghanistan now

forty years old he was born as the russians rolled in the school teaches with the taliban and he has become famous since the u.s. invasion hosting radio armand's morning show if the sixteen years. afghans call in from a free province they discuss it a cation trent's all the corruption and security they had callers concerns they ask local officials to respond and then call back a week later to check that the issue is resolved today though the problem is not so easy to fix radio armaan is discussing the prospect of peace in a country that's known war for four decades. younger who were. schooled in a political commentator he's optimistic but thinks pakistan is helping get the taliban to the table simply to build its own relationship with the us. who must know very little about what's being proposed for the future the talks

a behind closed doors between the taliban and the us in qatar some two thousand kilometers from kabul. we have come a long way. ten year old kid is twenty seven now he has been growing up with t.v. with freedom of media with social media with instagram expressing their minds where whatever they want to look what however they want to kind of we keep this. we don't know as guns a weary of war and hopeful for peace but they wonder at what cost will peace come if the taliban get political give them a seat will it turn back the clock on nearly two decades of what many consider social progress. the taliban now says it supports women's rights and has evolved some afghans question if that's true across all taliban ranks but the people who you see in the are or stylish bash and not

a nice turn versions are called birds on their faces you see them like they have been in very very good life so they're i think two different faces of the taliban but what you see here in afghanistan under the control of the taliban is that two thousand and eleven we don't see any change. in. radio or in english translates to brady or hope the listeners have plenty of offers . willing it has a positive effect with blood but volved in the peace process we are hopeful we want peace as soon as possible. the red ribbon hangs from abdul's revision mirror it's made to ward off evil spirits the hope now of tell about new ways talks are successful is that peace may replace superstition dallas couple. britain's government is moving to ban all waynes of the lebanese group hezbollah

for being what it describes as a terrorist organization the u.k.'s home secretary has accused it of trying to destabilize the middle east britain's already blacklisted hezbollah's external security unit and its military wing but now wants to outlaw its political arm to the new ban will come into force on friday if approved by parliament. still ahead on the al-jazeera news hour a new report sheds light on a massacre that took place away from the eyes of the world and i could launch their latest political ad this time focusing on women in sports far will have all the details of the leader. and i the air in the middle east we've got a lot of wet weather that's working its way towards us it's already brought some very strong winds over parts of the mediterranean and now it's making its way

across parts of turkey so heavy downpours here very strong winds and that system gradually edging its way eastwards as we head through choose day and into wednesday wednesday them for many of us had expanded messy lots of clouds most of rain and a few outbreaks of snow around to where they stay should be largely fine and dry out five degrees of a couple will be up at around six now before the show with the soudan here in doha fine forest on choose day a top temperature of twenty five degrees but we do have some platter of rain that is galloping its way towards us it's pulling itself together on wednesday and then that will slip its way southward so later on wednesday and overnight that's when we'll see some heavy rain here in doha and the winds will be fairly ferocious as we head through thursday and friday there were further towards the south and look at all the showers we've got here in the northern parts of our map still with us as we head through the next few days expect some of those to be rather lively for the south a low actually fine and dry wooden first in devon we're up at thirty six degrees not that wild for cape town though are temperature only twenty and here they'll be

more cloud around and the chance of the old shower i think wednesday should be no dry there atop temperature again of twenty. rewind returns i can bring your people back to life with brand new updates on the best of al-jazeera documentaries. i was little before looks. like any other student. with kosovo but year of fear and this was my return to kosovo and the little village of book one decade on i've come back to find out what happened to those hopes and dreams we want on al-jazeera.

the top stories on the al-jazeera news hour a sudan's government has issued an emergency decree banning public gatherings and protests it's also imposed restrictions on transporting foreign currency on gold out of the country this follows an emergency declaration last friday after weeks of protests against president omar and by sheer. nigeria's main opposition party is

rejecting presidential election results accusing the government of manipulating the vote counting is still underway with only a few regions announcing results so far and the u.s. is calling a u.n. security council meeting to discuss the venezuela crisis on true's day. washington has just imposed sanctions on four venezuelan state governors who have been blocking aid from entering the country u.s. vice president mike pence has been holding talks with the opposition leader one by del in colombia alongside other regional leaders let's speak to he's the managing director of the latin american caribbean center at the london school of economics joining us from london thanks for speaking to us again on al-jazeera so these new sanctions that have now been announced by the united states against some of president maduro as loyalists well they actually make a difference in the opposition's goal of wanting to topple the dural. i don't think these new sanctions are particularly significant there are already a lot of sanctions on individuals like this but really the u.s.

has played its biggest card in terms of sanctions by putting sanctions on the oil industry which is the driver really of venezuela's economy and on top of that there are already sanctions on financial transactions which kind of link with that so those are really the big ones so i think this is more of a kind of holding position trying to give the appearance of doing something when really it's a slight loss of momentum so what does the u.s. do next what other options does it consider. well i mean this can be spun there's a new story in the sense of it's losing momentum but it depends what you're losing momentum towards and it seemed like the recent statements were towards military intervention which given the instability of the region particularly on the colombian border you know you've got lots of violent actors in venezuela and in colombia where you could have a potential in a spiral out of control and then something along the lines of a syria or libya where you can't really get control the situation again so if

there's a move away from that i think that's good news and then there is a possibility and there's already the international contact group of the u.n. various latin american countries that's proposing a negotiated transition rather than military intervention you know on that note on the international contact group they're hoping to travel to qatar gets to open some sort of dialogue with the president will they succeed. i think for them to succeed needs to be various things in place that needs to be a clear kind of exit for murderer in the tiriel terms in the sense that he needs to be able to go somewhere in exile and be potentially free from the threat of prosecution and you know that might be kind of hard to swallow in a sense but as one commentator put it rather negotiate and be in spain or chile than go to war and be in syria or libya so it's

a price you have to pay on top of that i think something that's been overlooked to some extent is the fact that i think slightly irrational and his action and he needs to be convinced that he's doing something right doing something that fits with the legacy he inherited from chavez in a sense you kind of have to go into the myth to rescue him from his own myth about himself and to do that you need to get involved with somebody like a movie or the former president of and he has deliberately kind of left himself out of the situation so that he could play that kind of role and i think that aspect's been overlooked how secure do you think maduro feels that this point. well the key thing has always been what the military would do and so far the plan has tried twice really kind of rolling the dice to some extent about what the military would do and there have been some defections but they're really lower ranked people and the upper echelons haven't shown much interest in defecting but

there are a lot of reasons why they will feel that us too dangerous for them potentially prosecution and at the lower ranks people are relying on the benefits they get from their employment with the military and so it's a very difficult decision for them to you know go ahead and say i'm going to defect and they might also be worried about richard retribution from the state so all right so we thank you very much for joining us from london it's being described as a massacre that took place away from the eyes of the world and went largely unnoticed even inside the democratic republic of congo so days passed before details began to emerge about what had happened in u. maybe that's a remote territory in the southwest of the country a u.n. investigation found an attack happened on december sixteenth and seventeenth a dispute between two local tribes so far five hundred thirty five bodies have been identified the acting in the administrator says between three thousand and four thousand men were involved in the bloodshed only

a handful have been arrested so far as their soldier bar reports. this is what's left of the remote town of you in charles western democratic republic of congo much of it was destroyed last december in violence between the potential and the new tribes. this village has been home to both tribes but ethnic tensions had been rising over the months leading up to the tack. not many knew about it until the un recently discovered a number of mass graves like this one in the town. this woman says she was attacked while attending a church service. and we were in the church when the attackers from the big ten day tribe came in and they started questioning us about our identity and organization whether or not we were from the new new try i said i was just visiting but they said they were no longer picking any tribes now they're killing everybody from now on they started shooting inside the church killing my husband my four kids they cut

me with a machete and left me to die i woke up in hospital the congolese authorities initially said this was a spontaneous act as a result of a long simmering dispute between the two tribes that suddenly flared up over the burial of a big new tribal chief but sources tell al-jazeera the violence was a carefully planned massacre with elements of the army involved and the prosecutor's office in the capital kinshasa has announced twelve people have been arrested and are waiting to go on trial in a military court military officials say the investigation will be conducted by the army because the attack was carried out with military precision using weapons of war. but for the survivors there is little hope in what's left of their homes. everything is destroyed in this village and no one is coming back here again we have lost many of our friends and neighbors people need to come back so we can live

like before it's too sad. we don't understand the reasons for all this violence from our button the brothers against us the government needs to take responsibility to restore peace and stability as we don't have anything left we can't even vote now because everything has been destroyed by fire in our house. four hundred sixty five houses and buildings were burnt down or pillaged including primary schools a health care center and the office of the independent electoral commission. nearly sixteen thousand people have fled across the congo river into the neighboring republic of congo since the massacre. while the survivors wait in line to receive tents from doctors without borders the task of slowly rebuilding begins in this remote corner of the democratic republic of congo. zero. a group of un human rights experts have condemned egypt's execution of nine men

they say the evidence used against them was obtained using torture or were found guilty of taking part in a bombing that killed a top prosecutor and twenty fifteen the government blamed the attack on the muslim brotherhood and gaza based hamas but both have denied any involvement u.s. forces have carried out air strikes against targets in the somalia there where the u.s. military says a group of thirty five fighters were killed as they move between locations in a rural area the strikes are part of a larger effort to support the somali national army as it faces increasing threats from the armed groups. this is from president bashar assad has met with iran's supreme leader ayatollah ali khamenei into iran said congratulations commenting on the recent fortieth anniversary of the iranian revolution the syrian president's also praised their wrong for standing up against foreign interference iran has been a major backer to assad's government and helped turn the tide to his favor in

syria's eight year war. people living on the japanese island of okinawa have voted against the relocation of a controversial u.s. military base but the government announced a few hours later it was to press ahead with its plans anyway ok now and say the base threatens a coral reef and the habitat for marine mammals. is home to more than fifty thousand troops on the laura just u.s. air base in the asia pacific region. now a film about a road trip during america's segregation era has emerged as the surprise best picture winner at the oscars there were also the story queens for diversity is rob reynolds reports from the red carpets in los angeles. preened. green book took the best picture award on oscar night that was a demonstration of diversity in film. the movie tells the story of a black classical pianist and his white driver and bodyguard traveling through the

segregated american deep south of the one nine hundred sixty s. the whole story is about love it's about loving each other and despite our differences and finding out the truth about who we are we're the same people. but here she leaves one best supporting actor for his role in the film as the classical musician don shirley i want to dedicate this to to my grandmother who has been in my my ear my entire life telling me that if i first i don't succeed try try again that i could do anything i put my mind to. always always pushing me to to think positively and i know that i would not be here without her that she has got me over the hump every step of the way in a major upset a livia coleman won the best actress award for her portrayal of the bad queen and in the favorite many hollywood observers had expected the award to go to glenn close who has now been nominated seven times without a win and. it's been my idol to say long and this is not how i wanted it to be and

i think you are amazing and maybe very much. the best male actor award went as many had predicted to rami maalik for his passion for trail of the torture rock star freddie mercury in bohemian rhapsody. we made a film about a gay man an immigrant who. lived his life just unapologetically himself and the fact that i'm celebrating him and this story with you tonight is is proof that we're longing for. for stories like this it was a big night for director all fonso quar rhone his film won best foreign film amid stiff competition horror own one also for best director and best cinematography he shot the film himself. better and director spike lee won best adapted screenplay

for black klansmen make the moral choice between love birds hate. the right day the prize for best supporting actress went to regina king in its deal st to talk based on the novel by african american author james baldwin i'm an example of what it looks like when support and love is poured into someone following a controversy involving would be host comedian kevin hart's past homophobic tweets the show had no host at all. instead of the usual opening comedy monologue the surviving members of queen rocked out on stage. robert oulds al-jazeera colleague. a man impersonating kim jong un has been ordered to me just days before the real north korean leader is due in the country

the australian then known as howard. been serve the deportation notice the fake chems been causing a stir and had no idea how long with a dog.