old he went to the local school and worked as a personal trainer in a gym his alleged attack on two mosques in christ church last week has deeply disturbed religious leaders in his home town we got inside to you now he said you know they were all we all sectarian you know how all of these little kids are going to leave the members of the muslim community in christ church the mood here is samba this is a community grappling to come to terms with one of their own baying a suspect in the worst mass killing in new zealand's history it's just a time for the community to gather and just kind of be together get strength from solidarity and hopefully put our roots down deep and side now we're not that's that's not us what happened and what this guy did is not is not crofton's parishioners who know the tyrant family say it's well respected and he's been here for generations like one pipe and farmer was good.

what did you think when you heard that someone from grafton was involved. i wish. others had a message for christ's church people can just reach out and say you know we we don't know what went wrong but obviously that will come in but you know we just some thoughts and prayers are with here and and hope that you can get some sort of closure while the town family has deep roots here community members say it's keeping a low profile following the attack in christchurch we've managed to speak with people who knew brenton tarrant well they say they don't want to appear on camera because they don't want to be associated with the alleged killer of fifty people they say the man accused of the christ church attacks is not the man they once knew . him al-jazeera grafton. well in large cities across the u.s. some students carry guns sometimes to school in chicago nearly twice as many

fourteen to sixteen year old schoolchildren carry guns than in any other city in america john hendren met one of the students to ask why. revolver. glow is sixteen and this is his sixth gun so why do they call you glow. as that or the part. of the weapon year but the weapon is the pike here he says a pipe the gun is easy to find he bought his illegally from a friend he's had one since he was eleven you carry a gun. why. because i lost a lot of her and i want to be to want to go to murder slaughter. anyway as. the last time he fired it two days ago when a rival gang member fired him from a car. so you fire off

a couple of warning shots. glow is hardly alone in carrying a weapon a recent study by northwestern university found that nine percent of high school students in chicago carry guns that's compared with four percent in new york city and six percent in los angeles the studies co-author says that is largely because chicago is more segregated more dysfunctional and more violent they're doing it for protection because you're constantly having to watch your back otherwise you're just a victim that's going to be out there is easy prey so you have stress anxiety stress anxiety unrelenting unrelenting this is glos school marshall high school in chicago's gritty east garfield park neighborhood he says among his friends three out of five carry a gun to school every day they would rather get caught with a gun then get caught without a gun because if people were to attack them they can count to defend themselves that doesn't make it right but the reality is every day life in the ghetto the

victims include the armed students themselves we worry about how their brain is developing and that it doesn't develop fully and it doesn't and it. it's more are with kind of turned on and revved up and so they had this hyper response that. says that times kids become more aggressive yet the opposite to that some kids will become more depressed and socially withdrawn glow says for him it's a matter of daily security what if you weren't any good but you still feel like you need the protection. because a lot is going on here and history's. great. so are most of the day. after school he hopes to move to a place just a few kilometers from here but in terms of safety a whole world away downtown chicago john hendren al jazeera chicago.

the philippines has officially withdrawn from the international criminal court it began the process to leave last year after the hague based court launched an initial examination into president george a go to touch his drug war thousands of suspected drug users and dealers have been killed since the crackdown started in twenty sixteen cadman is an international human rights lawyer he says details he will find it difficult to untangle him self from the i.c.c. process. one of the points of being a member of the international criminal court when when you agree to sign up. to its jurisdiction if you withdraw that that withdrawal is suspended for a period of twelve months afterwards that is in effect to prevent situations just like this where where a state is accused of war crimes crimes and they withdraw to shield themselves from prosecution though the whole point is that you cannot be permitted to do that so the i.c.c. will continue and will have jurisdiction over prosecuting the president and the

senior officials that they consider to be responsible clearly there are a lot within the philippines that want to ensure that the regime is held accountable you know when one looks at the allegations that have been made there and they are stark where in terms of the number of killings the brutality of the killings and the president hasn't sought to distance himself from them quite a country is has taken full credit for it so the evidence against him is overwhelming and of course he should stand trial and this step will not change that and hopefully the supremum court will take a strong stance to uphold the rule of law and ensure that his hometown. in madrid there have also been peaceful protests against the trial of twelve pro independence leaders in the catalonia region supporters say the defendants are political prisoners david schaper reports from the spanish capital. the

voice of support the catalonian independence has never been heard this clearly before on the streets of madrid tens of thousands came to join the rally including the catalan president kim tara showing solidarity with his twelve imprisoned colleagues. the charges rebellion sedition and embezzlement some of them faced twenty five years in prison for organizing the independence referendum in the autumn of twenty seventeen hundreds of police were deployed in the spanish capital to make sure extreme right wing groups were kept well away from the march i think there are political prisoners because they have just made what their political program set when i mean mass once again we are here to give voice to the people who are unjustly imprisoned for letting us vote on the first of october the least we could do is be here for them to show our face. among the many banners being displayed this one said when injustice becomes the law then rebellion becomes

necessary but under the spanish constitution the referendum was illegal. what is word free will you do see that it was very bad at all to the nation only begins with not is no crime it's all right then. they should have only done this a few. times of madrid carious here. in the studio was a. was in the city reboot and the. bain is holding a snap election next month the catalan question is set to overshadow the political debate polarizing opinion here it's a wound that will not heal david j. al-jazeera madrid. since nicaragua defied a protest band of march to the capital demanding the release of hundreds of political prisoners arrested last year during a violent crackdown. as more. and take government demonstrators openly

defied president then you know ortega's ban and protesting and saturday it was the first time people had taken to the streets since october when they suffered a violent backlash and once again they were met with heavy handed police tactics protesters are calling on the government to end the repression and are demanding the release of all political prisoners. with fighting for the freedom of prisoners they're not criminals just people who want to shatter corrupt leaders that you know take action. journalists covering the demonstrations were also attacked as protesters sought shelter in malls and houses dozens of demonstrators the members of the press were arrested but the unrest began a year ago with students demonstrating against a national pension reform plan the government's response left at least three hundred sixty people dead scores injured and more than seven hundred imprisoned.

two weeks ago president daniel ortega renewed calls for a national dialogue facing increasing international pressure and then economic crisis on friday he released fifty prisoners as a show of goodwill joining one hundred others led out in late february but they will remain under house arrest. people cheered as their team knees were driven away from their last high security prison but the mothers of those still behind bars couldn't control their desperation we want and free and healthy this mother cried at least five hundred seventy people remain behind bards some analysts believe the releases are necessary for real talks to happen. it's clear that those released keep having a sword over the heed the trials continue and the charges remain in effect but it's a first step in any case this process will be long and difficult. but with this

center remaining criminalized and heavily repressed on the streets from an hour it will be difficult for any real negotiations to start this and that i'm. the first of the political prisoners pardoned by the democratic republic of congo's new president have been released from jail and it's just a kiddie promised about seven hundred prisoners most of whom were jailed under the previous regime will be free to join his first one hundred days in office at lopez although young reports was frank dion go spent two and a half years in kinshasa essential things that was he is one of three prominent opposition leaders released from jail after being pardoned by democratic republic of congo's president says she katie who was elected in december was that was i'm very happy to see my brother released from jail i don't know how to express all the emotions finally my brother is free human rights lawyer firming young combi was

also released he'd been sentenced to twenty years in prison in two thousand and nine on charges of being a threat to national security. an additional seven hundred political prisoners have also been pardoned by dishy candy most were arrested for speaking out against former president joseph kabila during his eighteen hears in office but that was a part of the but it's a joy for all of us we want to think the president and ask him not to imitate the behavior of the former regime. tisha kenny's decision to pardon political prisoners is widely seen as a move to break away from the politics of his predecessor but these attempts are proving to fickle i know that there were violent protests by the president supporters in kinshasa after his union for democracy and social progress party suffered a crushing loss on friday's elections for the national assembly joseph kabila is

common front for congo coalition took more than two thirds of the seats in the senate or upper chamber and it already holds a majority in the lower chamber now many are questioning the president's ability to govern independently on the streets it's feared there could be more violence. is still good the. supporters of the president claim they did not have enough senators but it's not our issue they shouldn't come and carry out these acts of vandalism and our neighborhood. but the least mission. despite the setbacks she can he says he will continue to push his agenda forward in addition to the prisoner's pardon he has pledged to bring back political opponents who fled the republican can bill it was president this even though kabila still has considerable influence in the country caught c.l.o. first so the young al-jazeera. still ahead on al-jazeera we're going to go live to karachi as pakistan takes another big step in its rebirth as a cricketing nation that's coming up in the sport.

the government you support are believed to have detained maybe a million people in reeducation camps certainly not grabbing headlines in china only in a while kings of the people's republic that's probably not best just to dismiss everything as propaganda to use propaganda because your abrasive aggressive way of addressing a man to his son challenges chinese finance yet child you wrote something critical of president chiluba i said this would not be regarded well by the western press up head to head on al-jazeera. in the next episode of thrice nick to ensure greenpeace crew on a voyage through the winter will seek to highlight the importance of protecting this fragile antarctic ecosystem against an expanding list of manmade threats believe the surface of this magnificent desolation is just t.v.

with life releases so the remotest. unsought take century on al-jazeera. in almost thirty years but the missing remains of soldiers killed in georgia have finally been given to their families the soldiers died in the war to stop the russian backed regions of south the sexier and up cars from breaking away we're going to see a walk or reports from tbilisi. at this ceremony in tbilisi's holy trinity cathedral the remains of some of those who went missing in george's postponed

flaked have finally been returned to their families. rivers bitch has waited for twenty seven years to bury his mother. it's just great that now i will know where she is and i can go to her grave thank god it's been resolved. and the remains of tires sister and brother in law have also been found. at least i will bury them next to their son's grave and they will be together their son wanted to bring them home but he died last august. am backed by russia the regions of and south of setia four to ghent in the one nine hundred ninety s. and again in two thousand and eight hundreds of thousands of ethnic georgians would display.