shamdasani is a spokeswoman for the u.n. high commissioner for human rights she joins us now via skype from geneva we appreciate your time so what do we know about these crimes that they have been convicted of. well we know that hundred and ninety nine people were. accused of grasses some way to terrorists and the training of terrorists. forces. and other charges that this point of view is that this is a mass trial using a very broad and very counter-terrorism law that many many. many years the government's not central. and not only illegal convicted and sentenced to somewhere between three years and i think. most of all no one and their nationality govt and this is not the first time this has happened in bahrain in

fact since two thousand and twelve so nine hundred eighty people have had their nationalities. ok we'll come back to that in just a moment plus what or what is your concern about mass trials. and said it very very it's very difficult to have full respect for the due process rights and for them to be calling a quality of our air defense and the prosecution have equal resources. to present a case. we have heard that you know many of these people who were there they were represented and only some of them were not that there are genes that. many of them are actually shot in a sense that they were not present in the court mandated regime to they sort of release them what is the impact of having one's nationality revoked. once nationality gives one access to many different human brats the right education

the right to health the right to freedom of movement even cut my throat hospital. and does not just impact the individual concerned by the family members of the individual that's not our again in terms of their right to education their right to . their eating. genital a whole host of human rights international law requires that if degradation of nationality has to take place it has to. be carried out in a way that national human rights law it cannot be arbitrary it cannot be disproportionate in response to the. concerned and very importantly it should not render the individuals to which the understanding has happened in many cases. all right. thank you so much for joining us from geneva we appreciate it very much. turkmenistan is right the most dangerous

country in the world for journalists with norway being the safest reporters without borders has published its annual status of press freedom worldwide turkmenistan has taken north korea spot at the bottom of the table for the first time in three years the most dangerous countries in the middle east are syria and yemen dozens of journalists are detained in bahrain and in egypt and in saudi arabia censorship has increased since the murder of saudi journalist jamal khashoggi ethiopia had the biggest improvement in the league table since the prime minister met introduced reforms the ranking of the united states has fallen and is classified problematic for journalists european union in the balkans have also fallen in the rankings way tops the world rankings as i said is the safest place for journalists are back events and is the u.k. bureau director of reporters without borders she says the level of press freedom in various countries to client in two thousand and sixteen has not recovered. language

plays a really important role and we've seen that not just this year but really starting around two thousand and sixteen when the global scored to terry to chartley and it still hasn't recovered we saw an increase in this use of hostile language this sort of bashing language from people like donald trump but also there are others around the world i mean there's a man in the czech republic we've got to touch in the philippines both in our own now in brazil too many kind of leaders following the strongman model and they do bear responsibility when when they use hateful rhetoric actually they bear some responsibility for climate and that then actually allows for real life violence to ethiopia had a remarkable increase this year up forty places from the year before and not due to a change in government often that's the case in our index when we see remarkable improvements of countries it's due to a change at the very top of government and really a political will to address these problems so ethiopia did that in this in in two thousand and eighteen which is what the two thousand one thousand index looks at by

the end of the year they had no journalists and joe and i want to highlight gambia as well which which had a increase of thirty places also due to political changes at the top. fuel shortages are bringing life to a halt for many syrians living in government controlled areas officials weighing u.s. sanctions for the crisis but that's doing little to stop the growing criticism saying to her has more from. the queues for petrol are kilometers long and often it's not available in areas under the syrian government's control the authorities are rationing subsidized fuel last week it was twenty liters every two days now the cap is twenty liters every five days the government says it's short of oil and fuel because of western sanctions on syria and tighter u.s. sanctions on its ally iran.

it has been six months since iranian oil tankers last arrived at syria's port officials say they are being prevented from passing through this ways canal the canals controlled by egypt and it denies that accusation but iran like syria is a target of u.s. sanctioned aimed at reducing its influence in the region damascus and tehran say they are facing an economic war the oil industry used to provide twenty five percent of the government's revenues before the war it used to export half of its production this sector has since suffered losses the government lost control of its main oil and gas fields the balkan are in the north east an area under the control of the u.s. backed kurdish led syrian democratic forces the s.d.f. controlled region is bordered to the north by turkey and to the east by iraqi kurds they aren't friendly neighbors that is why unofficial trade with the syrian

government particularly in oil has been vital for the economy but there are reports from damascus that the u.s. is pressuring its allies to. the trade. this year and government gets one third of its all are from areas controlled by the as the f. in the past two months the us pressured the as the to stop allowing oil to reach government areas the as the denies any pressure it even denies having business dealings with the government. before the war syria was able to meet its fuel needs now officials say the amount of oil produced in government areas is short of what it needs by almost one hundred forty thousand barrels a day it's a serious challenge for the government as economic hardships have been feeding into public discontent so. beirut north korean leader kim jong un is to meet russian president vladimir putin later this month announcement comes hours after cam reportedly oversaw the test launch of what young man called

a new weapon system nuclearization talks have been stalled since february summit with u.s. president on trump and north korea is now demanding secretary of state might pompei o s kept out of future talks private ports from seoul this seems to be a timely reminder from north korea of its military strength photos released by state run media show kim jong un visiting going to base on choose day his first military drill inspection since last november. and then wednesday he reportedly attended a weapons test. described as a tactical weapon it's far less provocative than the ballistic missiles north korea tested more than a year ago but seems intended to show its frustration at the failure to win sanctions relief at the hanoi summit there could have been some deal in hanoi and the united states by going going big as they put it made sure there wasn't any deal

and and kim jong un would like president trump to think again about getting some kind of a deal that would be in both countries benefit last week donald trump said he was open to a third summit but kim replied he'd be interested only if the u.s. lifts some of its sanctions by years and the fear is if the talks fail the north could return to the ballistic missile and nuclear testing of the past we still seem to be a long way from that but here in the south diplomatic efforts are underway to make sure it doesn't happen. south korean president is working towards another summit with kim his defense ministry spokes person seem to play down the use of the weapons test so as not to derail that effort. and it's now being confirmed kim is to hold his first summit with russian president vladimir putin and russia can

provide some diplomatic assistance but russia is not going to subsidize moscow on a large scale russia is not going to violate sanctions the key to sanctions relief remains the u.s. and this week show of strength seems aimed in its direction robin bride al-jazeera soul. gunmen and southwest pakistan have ambushed a bus then kidnapped and killed fourteen passengers alliance a bolex separatist group says claiming responsibility for the attack on the main road between crotch and put up with our choir has more from a follow up on. a courting good source says the attack took place on a quarterly highway known as the marker on gloucester lyrae that connects karachi red was the attack taking place at their motor section of that particular road but it was dropped the passenger door to get their identity papers were jagged and had

to peer there they were selective dog getting off but the narrow exposure did with the government or the security forces including personnel from the navy they were digging their way to a secondary location after the rich they were shot at close range their hands tied behind their back however two of those people were able to do a cave from that location and reported the incident by looters don has seen a spate of attacks also recently in the video where the minority shiite community was there dog a day in which other people also will carry twenty in all and all short security forces conroy was there to act in a border town near the of onboard the pakistani security forces have been blaming both of the nest on an iran for providing sanctuary to some of these groups who are operating from those sources and using their border crossing guards in attacking inside buggiest on indeed another senior said die and their claim of responsibility

taken by a blues group known as broad which general going to language means brother and they said dead most of those who are dog are dead wood security forces personnel i'm going to shade is a central asia security analyst he says the unrest in that region has been going on for years. this particular conflict which is a separatist movement by below. separatists who wanted to pendants from pakistan has been going on since two thousand and four two thousand and five and each group is wiped out or taken out by the military another group seems to come and replace it so this has been a very longstanding. see that has been going on and it has led to many atrocities including the disappearance of hundreds of of you know below to you allegedly by the military and the security forces. but on the other side there's also

a baluchistan has become the kind of be said for islamic extremism and the groups such as isis are now operating there they carried out apparently this terrible attack last week it was some twenty people were killed shias in battle i mean to the community and much of the. theory put the village just down revolves around the chinese who are building a port of a naval base in. testing been reporting we are keeping an eye to the department of justice for any moment we expect the u.s. attorney general william barr to comment address the media ahead of or to act at an edited version of the smaller report russian interference in the in the election so we're going to bring you that when it happens in the meantime of course you have a team of journalists covering this alan fisher is live for us at the white house

and allan three weeks ago when the attorney general first released his summary of the reports the white house donald trump kept saying he was exonerated he was exonerated his tone has changed considerably since then this morning he's been tweeting a lot of things talking about presidential harassment what are we hearing from the white house now. well we'll also know that rudy giuliani who is of course donald trump's personal attorney is going to issue a rebuttal that lawyers for donald trump and for the white house have been speaking to the department of justice over the last twelve twenty four hours to get a sense of what is in that document of course it's interesting to see that over the last three weeks we've heard from republicans who say that the miller report throughly exonerates donald trump no collusion nor attempt to prevent justice in any way and the feel the need that they have to pull up some sort of rebuttal document that would then suggest there's going to be sun uncomfortable reading for

donald trump in this document that are going to be things that robert mueller points to and says that was certainly difficult perhaps we're talking about the sacking of. of the former head of the f.b.i. james komi you'll remember that donald trump famously in an interview said that although he got some sort of feedback from the attorney general he still decided to go ahead and fire call me simply because of the russia thing as he called it and how it was impacting. says that this is presidential harassment he also put out another tweet see the greatest political hoax of all time crimes were committed by crooked dirty cops and d.n.c. democrats and this is going to be something that we're going to see from the republicans this is clearly the talking points are going to push oh one of the democrats water but hillary clinton was the document that was paid for by the d.n.c. that dorsey that they believe started this entire investigation which of course

simply isn't true so it's going to be interesting to see how the white house and particular donald trump tries to spin this over the next couple of hours just interestingly enough donald trump is no acting is a jeweler for his funds for his supporters on twitter he's directing them to watch bill barr the attorney general during his news conference and directing them to fox news and one american news channels which have been very supportive but clearly donald trump believes that what bill bart is going to see be that bad for him if he's actually people to choose in and watch i think it's important to point out it is very unusual perhaps unheard of for a sitting u.s. president to talk about parts of the justice department that way and about his political enemies that way and to tweak the way he does so it's going to be going to an interesting few hours allan thank you very much and again just to remind you as soon as that press conference gets started with the attorney general we will

take you right there to that room at the department of justice let's get a quick check of weather now a spring thaw is reaching into canada but not a good result no plaintive cries of whereas on spring when it never comes in smoothly you're right it's usually flooding like and the temperatures are taking up the arctic circle here these days temperatures plus size plus three here so everywhere is now looking warmer than freezing only just because it's enough for a thaw and unfortunate has results because you tend to get an ice jam when that happens when the brain. the water overflows exactly what's happened in a place called bird's feet which is east of quebec these are all the result a sudden floods not from rain just from the river overflowing i think it's a bit amusing this river is called the show da which french means boy that this is a cold pot accountability here that's what it's called currently of course there's still potential for more snow to fall over into fall so it can only add to the

problem with what's happening in canada in the u.s. the story is one of we would think more tornadoes but not immediately what's developing here in texas is certainly developing storm system that could repeat what happened only a few days ago as it moves slowly eastwards at the moment there is hail folding in texas and oklahoma and heavy rain in kansas the whole lot therefore is moving eastwards will take the same risk of severe thunderstorms was rain hail and if you're really unlucky and it's possible tornadoes. right rob thank you very much still ahead on al-jazeera morning a former president and the room apparently he took his own life to avoid arrest. music to set with to find out why ukrainians rejected president petro poroshenko in the first round of voting and liverpool but their spot in the semifinals of the champions league final have all the details for.

this was wrong to take children away from their parents and herd them into a school against their will there was no mother no father figures they put is a big player and we sort of looked after so i don't remember the children's names will never forget canada's die. secret. mining six continents across the deep. here is corresponding sleeping during the story. of the. ministers.

were at the. camp for palestinian children syria through didn't world news. it's attorney general william bars to address the media ahead of the release of an edited version of them all over port of course this is the report on russian interference and the two thousand and sixteen elections we too have our eyes and ears and cameras trained to the podium and as soon as the attorney general comes out we will get you there joining me here on set to talk us through a lot of what we're going to see this cloud wilcox professor of government at georgetown university we appreciate your time very much so what we're going what's going to happen first is this press conference with the attorney general about.

report that nobody has actually read yet what do you make of the order of this well this is obviously spin control trying to get ahead of this story they're releasing on a thursday before friday which is a religious day in america to downplay that they want to be able to spend spend. but they can throw stones i understand but the real story is race question yeah that's what i've been on a two year investigation yes right but then they will release we doctored version of the report with a lot of reductions apparently and so there's different categories of reductions and some of those can be challenged in court some of those could be given to particular committees in congress so is there or is there something that that prohibits that precludes or himself from actually giving a press conference and saying what was in his report i think the fact that he's not here probably speaks to one of two possibilities either they don't want him there

answering those questions or he has seen the redacted report and doesn't want to be there. or is it possible he's seen the redacted reporting and has signed off on it is that possible possible but he would normally be there if there were first of all the press conference itself is very strange ok and secondly if you were going to have that you'd have the chief investigate it is it normal d.o.j. department of justice press conference when they're announcing something about an investigation is it normal form to have some of the investigators there to have already given information to the journalists there so that the trouble is can ask informed questions and then they can eliminate the information is not a normal form for them or highlighted so you know honestly he's already done a press conference so he needs to do is now release the report and then congress needs to mull over the redactions there can be court challenges to a couple of guys talk about let's talk about congress actually let's not talk we are going to let the attorney general. or the talking.

good morning everybody and thanks for being here this morning. as you know on march twenty second a special counsel robert muller concluded his investigation into matters related to russian attempts to interfere in our two thousand and sixteen presidential election and he submitted his confidential report to me pursuant to department regulations as i said during my senate confirmation hearing and since i'm committed to ensuring the greatest to gray possible of transparency concerning the special counsel's investigation consistent with the law at eleven this morning i'm going to transmitted copies of the public version of the special counsel's report to the

chairman and ranking members of the senate and house judiciary committee the department of justice will also make the report available to the american people by posting it on the department's website after it has been delivered to congress. i'd like to make a few comments today on the report. before i do that i want to thank deputy attorney general rod rosenstein for joining me here today and for his assistance in counsel throughout this process rod as you know has served at the department for nearly thirty years with dedication and distinction and it's been a great privilege and pleasure for me to work with him since my confirmation. he had well deserved plans to step back from public service that were interrupted by my asking him to help in my transition rod has been an invaluable partner and i

am grateful that he is willing to help me and has been able to see the special counsel's investigation through to its conclusion thanks rod thank you. i'd also like to thank special counsel robert muller for his service and the foreignness of his investigation particularly his work exposing the nature of russia's attempts to interfere in our electoral process as you know one of the primary purposes of the special special counsel's investigation was to determine whether president trump's campaign or any individual associated with it conspired or coordinated with the russian government to interfere in the two thousand and sixteen election volume one of the special counsel's report describes the results of that investigation as you will see the special counsel's report states that his quote investigation did not establish that members of the trump campaign conspired

or coordinated with the russian government in its election interference activities i am sure that all americans share my concern about the efforts of the russian government to interfere in our presidential election as the special counsel report makes clear the russian government sought to interfere in our election process but thanks to the special counsel's thorough investigation we now know that the russian operatives who perpetrated these schemes did not have the cooperation of president trump or the trump campaign or the knowing assistance of any other american for that matter that is something that all americans can and should be frightful to have to confront. the special council report outlines two main efforts by the russian government to influence the two thousand and sixteen election. first the

report details efforts by the internet research agency a russian company with close ties to the russian government to so social discord among american voters through decision from asian and social media operations following a thorough investigation of this this information campaign the special counsel brought charges in federal court against several russian nationals and entities for their respective roles in this scheme those charges remain pending and the individual defendants remain at large but the special counsel found no evidence that any american including anyone associated with the trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government or the ira in this illegal scheme indeed as the report states quote the investigation did not identify evidence that any us

person knowingly or intentionally coordinated with the ira's interference operation unquote put another way the special counsel found no collusion by any americans in ira's illegal activities. a second the report details efforts by the russian military officials associated with the g.r.u. the russian military intelligence organization to hack into computers and steal documents and e-mails from individuals associated with the democratic party and hillary clinton's campaign for the purpose of eventual eventually publicizing these documents obtaining such an authorized. following a thorough investigation of these hacking operations the special counsel brought sharp report the overall russian military officers for their respective roles in these illegal hacking operations those charges are still pending and the defendants

remain at large but again the special counsel's report did not find any evidence that members of the trump campaign or anyone associated with the campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government in these hacking operations in other words there was no evidence of the trump campaign collusion with the russian government's hacking the special counsel's investigation also examined russian efforts to publish stolen e-mails and documents on the internet the special counsel found. that after the g.r.u. disseminated some of the stolen documents to entities that it controlled d.c. leaks and goose refer to the g.r.u. transferred some of the stolen materials to wiki leaks for publication wiki leaks then made a series of document dumps the special counsel also investigated whether any member

or affiliate of the trunk campaign in courage or otherwise played a role in these dissemination efforts under applicable law publication of these types of material would not be criminal unless the publisher also participated in the underlying hacking conspiracy here to the special counsel's report did not find that any person associated with a trunk campaign illegally participated in the dissemination of the materials. finally the special counsel investigated a number of links or contacts between the trump campaign officials and individuals connected with the russian government during the two thousand and sixteen presidential campaign after reviewing these contacts the special counsel did not find any conspiracy to violate u.s. law involving russian linked persons and any persons associated with the trump

campaign so that's the bottom line after nearly two years of investigation thousands of subpoenas hundreds of warrants and witness interviews the special counsel confirmed that the russian government sponsored efforts to illegally interfere with the two thousand and sixteen presidential election but did not find that the trump campaign or other americans colluded in those efforts after finding no underlying collusion with russia the special counsel's report goes on to consider whether certain actions of the president could amount to obstruction of the special counsel's investigation. as i addressed in my march twenty fourth letter the special counsel did not make a traditional prosecutorial judgment regarding this allegation instead the report recounts ten episodes involving the president and discusses potential legal

theories for connecting those activities to the elements of an obstruction offense after carefully reviewing the facts and legal theories outlined in the report and in consultation with the office of legal counsel and other department lawyers the deputy attorney general and i concluded that the evidence developed by the special counsel is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense well though the deputy attorney general and i disagreed with some of the special counsel's legal theories and felt that some of the episodes examined did not amount to obstruction as a matter of law we did not rely solely on that in making our decision instead we accepted the special counsel's legal framework for purposes of our analysis and evaluated the evidence as presented by the special counsel and reaching our conclusions in assessing the president's actions discussed in the report it is

important to bear in mind the context president trump faced an unprecedented situation as he entered into office and sought to perform his responsibilities as president federal agents and prosecutors were scrutinizing his conduct before and after taking office and the conduct of some of his associates at the same time there was relentless speculation in the news media about the president's personal culpability yet as he said from the beginning there was in fact no collusion and as the special counsel's report acknowledges there is substantial evidence to show that the president was frustrated and angered by his sincere belief that the investigation was. mining his presidency propelled by his political opponents and fueled by illegal leaks nonetheless the white house fully cooperated with the special counsel's investigation providing unfettered access to campaign and white

house documents directing senior aides to testify freely and asserting no privilege claims.