and is not seeking it and will do its best to have beat it but at the same time if the other party chooses war then we will respond with all strength and determination and will defend itself and its interests the kingdom hopes others to be wise and the iranian regime and its each instance to stay away from recklessness and stupid acts and spirit the region instability in saudi arabia the international community to take responsibility to stop that regime from destabilizing the world. while the united states has deployed an aircraft carrier and bombers to the gulf over what it says all threats from iran for commercial ships was sabotaged off the coast of the u.a.e. last week although it's not known who was responsible and an oil installation west of the saudi capital was attacked by yemen $33.00 rebels and iraq seems to be caught in the middle of the rising tensions between neighboring iran and the us iraq's oil minister has criticized u.s. energy giant exxon mobil's decision to evacuate all its foreign stuff an oil field

as unacceptable and unjustified to me a god and says the decision is not because of security concerns but for political purposes on saturday the saudis regional ally bahrain ordered all its nationals to leave iraq and iran citing unstable conditions matheson is live for us in baghdad where are we at with these exxon mobile evacuations and what kind of impact if they had. the evacuations themselves have already taken place they were done on friday night and saturday morning an exxon mobil made a statement on saturday morning saying that they had evacuated foreigners are working for x. or mobile apparently that team had been moved to bus or airport and then flown to dubai we don't know how many of them were u.s. citizens but it should be pointed out that we think the number is round about 60 and the the facility that they were working at the west coast that one facility which is near basra as you mentioned is still in operation it's producing about

440000 bottles a day and that's because there are roughly 1700 iraqi personnel who are able to carry on carry on the facility for the siliguri operations one of the interesting things about this was that exxon mobil when it said explained tried to explain why it was doing this it said that it was because of general tension in the region but also potential threats but it didn't give any more information about the threats that it was might be facing and that has the oil minister tom got ban who said as you mentioned this was unacceptable and i'm just a viable now he's also written to exxon mobil to find out the details so why they decided to pull this stuff out and also to try to encourage them to get the stuff back so that everything can return to normal and we should point out of course that in the area of pasta there are shia armed groups which have loyalties and

allegiances to iran but no more details as to say have been given about from exxon mobil about the potential threat that they assessed the oil minister says this is nothing to do with security this is everything to do with politics and what this is about he says is the u.s. trying to put a subtle amount of pressure on other countries other companies who are investing in iraq suggesting that perhaps the security service the security. level in iraq is not everything is it should be let me just remind you that back on may the 8th this us secretary of state makes might prepare you came to iraq and he spoke to senior iraqi politicians looking for assurances that iraq would be able to protect the u.s. citizens who were living and working in iraq and of course that includes the $5200.00 troops who are based here but also the u.s. personnel who are working in oil and gas and construction the iraqi government gave those assurances but now there's

a suggestion that those assurances weren't enough for might pump a 0 and as a result he is trying to to as i say increase pressure in iraq to give greater insurances greater guarantees that the u.s. personnel in iraq are going to be safe rob matheson in the iraqi capital for us thank you for that update rob all cats are has reportedly shipped liquefied natural gas supplies to the u.a.e. after a fault in a major pipeline is the world's biggest producer of energy and the voices news agency says the dolphin energy run pipeline suffered problems for several days last month but castor petroleum helped fill the gap by sending surprised by c. it also helped with repairs dolphin has continued pumping gas to the emirates despite a 2017 economic blockade on cata. well plenty more ahead on this news hour including we get exclusive access in northern became a foster as the government tries to find out who's responsible for

a church attack. and in sports the p.g.a. champion takes a 7 shot lead into the final round of this year's tournament will be here with the action. just a reminder of the breaking news out of egypt where we're getting reports of an explosion on a tourist bus near a new museum at the pyramids in giza at least 16 people have been injured allegedly including tourists we'll be bringing you more details as we get them while sudan's military rulers and protest leaders will resume talks later today they were suspended for 72 hours after protesters were killed earlier this week demonstrators have been continuing their sit in outside the army headquarters demanding the military hand power over to civilians the 2 camps are at all odds over who will run

the country for 3 years before new elections are held well let's go live now to have a morgan in khartoum have i believe the standoff over constructed barricades between the protesters and the military continues. well yes indeed the protesters are saying that they have made concessions to avoid a political impasse they've removed most of the barricades on the main roads that have been set up to escalate the situation when they felt that the military council was not ready to hand over power to civilian rule so they're waiting and anticipating the talks that will be happening in a few hours between the 2 sides the military council and the opposition coalition as a declaration of freedom and change they say that they want to provide the right in the right environment for the 2 sides to be able to reach some kind of solution of course they will be talking about the sovereign council which effectively would be the presidential council throughout the transitional period the military council wants to be the one chairing that body as well as it wants an equal representation or a majority in that sovereign council but the opposition coalition is saying that if

the military council chairs that's council then it will be a sovereign independent civilian government which is what they want so protesters are saying that they are anticipating they're waiting to see what comes out of the talks they want the military council to say that they are ready to hand over power and to actually hand over power by the end of the day but they also say that if that doesn't happen then they're ready to step back they're ready to escalate the situation once again reconstruct those barricades that have been removed over the past few days as well as for more strikes and civil disobedience to make sure that they continue to keep pressure on the military council to hand over power and here we understand that saudi arabia has deposit said some $250000000.00 into sudan central bank how will this be viewed by protesters. well they're not going to like that they're going to saying that the military council is being influenced by foreign powers that this is not the 1st the nation coming from saudi arabia earlier when the military council took power just last month

a $3000000000.00 some of the money was donated to sudan by saudi arabia and the united arab emirates and that face strong backlash from the people in front of the army headquarters now they're saying that they're worried that if any government donate to the military council then they would be able to influence the decisions of that council and they don't want that they want to make sure that if the 2 sides and the opposition coalition and the military council they don't want any foreign interference so at the moment if the protesters do hear about it about this extra money that the money that has been deposited by saudi arabia then it's likely that they will be upset and they would feel like there is some kind of foreign interference is already a lot of tension in front of the army headquarters protesters are saying that if the talks don't go there with they're worried that the military faction are known as their record support forces will attack to try to disperse them because power would not be handed over to billions so they're saying that if the military council is receiving foreign aid then it's likely that they will want to continue to be in power so that foreign and regional governments will be able to influence what's going on in the country have been morgan in the sudanese capital khartoum thank you

and have a. well to begin to fasten our way there are concerns about an increase in the number of attacks against christians there is still no word on who is behind last sunday's church attack in the country's north and which several people die and the government believes in the greatest may be behind it well let's talk to nicholas hutchens live for us in the capital what could you can nick it seems that i selectively in the region is escalating how is the government dealing with this it doesn't have the resources it needs. the government here feels that it doesn't have the necessary support nor does it have the means to address what seems to be an increase in the times especially in northern faso most or at least a lot of the brits you know process forces are in neighboring mali they're the largest u.n. contributing force in the u.n. stabilizing mission in mali so here there is

a lot of concern concern towards the attacks that this war getting the catholic church specifically this morning we attended services where the catholic our bishops the 6 countries in the hell were in attendance with the head of state. in a show of support to the christian minority here in this country but also as an act of defiance because over the course of this week we've seen really an increase in attacks yesterday a spanish priest to death on wednesday a catholic procession was attacked by 20 gunman the cross was desecrated and several were killed and last sunday in the northern part of the country in the town of double the gunman entered service killing worshipers and the priest and no one has claimed responsibility for these attacks but the government says it has the

hallmarks of these in the. well they are on their retreat in iraq and in syria it seems that they're trying to get a foothold in northern burkina faso in mali where the united nations says more than 200000 people are on the move just in the lots of months because of these attacks now we traveled in the opposite direction in this northern territory to try to me to those that have been victims of these attack take a look at this exclusive report. we travel deep into northern brick enough. on the frontline of an expanding war against the group islamic state in the greater sahara. this is diablo a christian town and the muslim region. now living in fear. i think some time ago was running late for last sunday's mass when 20 mouse gunmen

stepped in front of him they shot the priest in the head then they randomly selected 5 worshippers killing them one by one while perishers watched. among those killed was by my whose father a devout christian now buried in the church grounds. they were in military fatigue we thought they were the police but then they told women and children to leave and the carnage started and. while no one has claimed responsibility for the attack the government believes it has the hallmarks of the stomach state in the greater sahara. in april self-styled the ice a leader of. the welcome new affiliates from bric enough aso in mali. since then attacks on the mali bric enough aso border have multiplied 4 western hostages were abducted and then freed after a military operation in this area a spanish priest was damp to death and gunmen shot at

a christian procession killing worshippers. you know. has to stand up against these terrorists and we will fight them into violent extremism and intolerance leaves our country. became a faso is a muslim majority country but all of its presidents so far have been christians whilst these 2 face have co-existed and live together peacefully so far the latest attack seek to stoke religious divisions especially in the north of the country. northern birkenau faso is rich in gold and minerals yet the muslims of the north who are mostly full on the herders live in poverty newly formed rebel groups are exploiting old grievances inequality and absence state and religious differences luring young men into what has become a new battleground. now in an

unprecedented move the foreign minister of. dress the u.n. security council on thursday asking for an international coalition the likes of the ones that we have seen in afghanistan in iraq not a u.n. peacekeeping mission like we've seen but really an international effort to help so in other countries in this hell with these increasing attacks in this region just in itself has quadrupled in the last year now the long time president brooke you know. who was overthrown in 2015 addressed a letter to the president. saying that she would like to come back to the country to try to address the exact issue of security because this is having drastic consequences for the people so let me just give you one number 1200000 children are

in need of emergency aid and are suffering of acute malnutrition because of these ongoing attacks in the bourke enough area and in this a hell as a whole now 5 years after the french intervention in mali in 2012 which was supposed to be a swift operation and looks more and more like an unending conflict needing more troops and more boots on the ground and this is what faso is now asking for. with that exclusive report from the kana fast thank you very much nick. well let's remind you of our breaking news out of egypt where at least 17 people have been injured in an explosion these are the latest pictures from the scene of the blast which is a tourist bus in gaza near the great pyramids we understand 10 gyptian zz and 7 tourists from south africa sustained light injuries the blast happened near the newly built grand egyptian museum and we'll be bringing you more details as we get

them well now it's time for the weather years to thank the stars they were looking at the u.s. where there's been some really severe weather in the last couple of days if we take a look at the video well it is quite a video that i've got to show you today look at this tornado churning across the ground actually a beautiful sight but very very destructive and there are a lot of people without power at the moment thanks to the outbreak we've had of severe weather it's not only been tornadoes the tornadoes a ridge here but we've also seen a lot of very strong winds causing wind damage and a lot of very large hail as well the black dots where they hit the worst the biggest hail or the strongest winds and the winds we've seen in some places have been 138 kilometers per hour that wasn't even in a tornado and we've also seen hail that's been 6.3 centimeters in diameter at the very least that would have given us a lot of didn't steal

a lot of vehicles so that severe weather outbreak is going to continue over the next few days but actually today isn't looking quite as bad you can see that feed though of moisture working its way north woods that's giving us some very heavy rain causing us a bit of a problem with flooding as well but if that system moves out the way to breathe a sigh of relief because this is the next one and this if anything is going to be even worse for some of us in texas oklahoma and just about into kansas it's looking pretty bad and i think we're going to see quite a bit of damage over the following few days as well in the stars here. well still ahead on al jazeera 2 years after somalia was pushed to the brink of famine and now the severe drought needs millions hungry. and on the final stretch of the war is blitz the blazes to close in on a place and the scenes n.b.a. . the.

stories generate found some at large with different angles from different perspectives julie others on just a long standoff with international borders is finally separate the spin from the facts. and misinformation from the journalism protesters complain about the under-reported of police violence the sensational the demonstrations with the listening post on al-jazeera. running 6 continents across the. aisle to series corresponding sleeping the story state. of the. letters. were at the mercy of the russian camp for palestinian refugees under serious slew did world news.

hello again i'm just. a reminder of the news this hour. in egypt at least 17 people have been injured in an explosion which hit a tourist bus is. the latest pictures from the scene of that blast and near the great pyramids we understand 10 egyptians and 7 tourists from south africa sustained light injuries the blast happened near the newly built to ground egyptian museum and we'll bring you more details as we get them. india's marathon 6 week long election is our polls close just a short time ago sunday was the final day of voting where 100000000 people across 7 states were eligible to cost. iran and saudi arabia say they don't want

a war as riyadh's ally the united states builds up its military presence in the gulf the leader of iran's revolutionary guard says terrorism is not pursuing a conflict the saudi foreign ministry said the kingdom doesn't want to escalate tensions either but stands ready to defend itself. well let's return to our top story on that blast near the pyramids in egypt timothy kaldis who is a nonresident fellow at the institute for middle east policy joins us now on the phone from cairo tim do we have any idea who could be potentially behind us. it's still too early. for you last night and we. have been reading that there are in december no one in that claimed responsibility to this day there's a debate about who might have been involved. because we tried to. i mean you might

feel the same they generally have a history of targeting civilian security forces so the targets seemed out of. line with their. focus. there were tourists who appeared to be the target here is that assuming change of tactic. well it depends on who was engaged. if there was i know they've targeted tourists in the past the most notorious attack of theirs on tourists with the metro jets on the ink in which they downed a russian civilian passenger aircraft. and killing everyone on board. if it is i that this is very likely then this would this would be consistent with their past however if it's the different groups then yes then that would mean people are changing tactics and expanding their targets to what kind of a response we like he's received from egyptian security forces here well historically these sorts of attacks have been followed by announcements of raids on

different militant groups. and reporting has called into question the accuracy of the government claims with respect to those raids another not there actually capturing and killing terrorists or if. there's some doubt to be cast on. on those on those kind of the party government in an effort basically to convince the public that they have but they have the situation under control. but that's usually what we see there will definitely be an announcement of an investigation. and an intensified crackdown some sort 10 we've seen raids conducted in the sinai region onscreen stance very recently could this be potential retaliation for those deaths and those arrests. possibly however what we've had happening for the last several years is a pretty constant. back and forth where there are attacks being conducted and

counterterrorism raids being conducted. so it's hard to know to what extent you have what it what sparking what at this point it's been. a kind of an ongoing fight between different militant groups and the security forces for quite some time. it may not be the case that this is a response to any specific attack but the more general fight that's been going on between those groups can can you give us a little bit of background as to the various different onscreen who could potentially be responsible there are various different claims to operating in and around. in and around egypt and have targeted different clips before yeah i would say that the most likely culprit again just because of the target would be would be nice if they had the what they're the ones with a history of targeting civilians. not only tourists but also religious minorities

such as christians. and people that they see as collaborators with the government in sinai and elsewhere. in all likelihood it would be them still of course going to wait to see if they claimed responsibility past attacks to. come without a claim of responsibility like everyone is pretty certain that they were responsible for the attack on the mosque in sinai that killed over $300.00 people however they never claimed responsibility in this sense and they did as a discriminant turnley over whether or not everyone agrees that was the right move . as i mentioned. is another militant group that has been mostly focusing its energy on targeting security apparatus uses. its attacks and. and. he has also operated within cairo quite a bit and he's a great greater than either and they have a history of operations in this area however generally speaking we don't see them

focusing on civilian targets neither foreign or domestic and can this took place near the parent mid and giza that's a very high profile target does this suggest a very bold attack will or a particular level of sophistication given the type of talk at that they've chosen . to learn more about the attack before we can expect assess the certification of it however it's certainly of concern to the government given their efforts to revamp its image and secure place to visit and to encourage more tourists in egypt and as i mentioned there was another attack on a tourist bus leaving the term it 6 months ago in december and so the fact that this tourist coming in 5 this area have been targeted twice is going to give a lot of people pause about the safety of visiting the most popular site in the country. and the thing that basically draws most tourists to egypt which is its government. so it's definitely a concern to the country

a deadly concern about the ability of syria to secure an area that really is the top priority for the government. in its efforts to comfort for visitors to see called us nonresident fellow at the to reinstitute the middle east policy speaking to us now on the phone from cairo in the wake of that seeming attack and he's a thank you for being with us 10 well the united nations is warning of a major humanitarian crisis in somalia which is again in the grip of drought 2000000 somalis are at risk of starvation unless they get emergency aid into a geisha and be reformed. hungry somalis arrive daily at this makeshift camp on the outskirts of the capital mogadishu the farms have failed and the animals have died sheltering here is now their best chance of surviving the drought the house the house subcommittee i was

a roof i left our home and farms because of drug related conditions and conflict off farms were hit badly by the drought thankfully now we live here somalis are leaving rural areas in the 10s of thousands to get food aid in the capital the failure of so-called long rains which usually sweep east africa between march and may has caused crop failures across the region aid agencies have scaled up efforts but say more support is needed the situation in somalia is very worrying we are just 2 years on from the 27000 drought which had a famine warning to it we were able to avoid famine through working with partners governments civil society the diaspora private sector it really was a collective effort. the new arrivals join 200000000 others already displaced by conflict and passed droughts in somalia with their livelihoods destroyed many of the displaced will continue to stay in camps long after the drought is over big

turia gates and be al-jazeera well let's speak to justin brady who just saw in that report he's the head of the united nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in mogadishu and he joins us live via skype from there just and this isn't the 1st time we've seen this happen 20122017 now again how bad is it likely to get this time round. well it has the potential to get very bad because these rains are the major agricultural productive season for somali farmers and they are just not materializing we are seeing some recent rains that will recharge pasture and help the livestock sector but for farmers agricultural sector it's basically a very bleak season what we do see compared 220112012 when there was an actual famine and the experience we had in 2017 averting a famine is that we're in a better position not just the aid agencies but the government itself in combating this problem what's changed since then just as it we're talking in terms of

resources or was it expertise or is it a potentially shifting conflict. i think we are seeing that in 2017 we created structures that can respond very quickly including the use of cash programming on the government side we're seeing more coherent governance and the relationship with the world bank which has sent a team into the region this week has improved and the bank has to work through the government and with the government to help stabilize the situation as well so while we need resources in a timely manner we have the structures in place that can absorb those resources and as we proved in 2017 and use them read very effectively to avert the worst well just in somalia is an unfamiliar with as you say that many have argued that the suffering and the famines that have happened in the past and the famine that if it comes to that now is manmade especially given the ongoing conflicts that what's your take. drought happens everywhere famine does not and it is about exactly that

systems being in place as i said in 2017 we showed that we have these systems now they are effective there is a footprint we had which was not there in 2011 if you needed assistance in 2011 you needed to walk 300 kilometers to either the border with kenya in ethiopia or into mogadishu and it was that walk that killed people in 2017 we were able to get aid much closer to people. where the walk was 30 kilometers as your report says a lot of those people didn't then go home and there is a protracted displacement problem but we have proved that we have those systems haven't made the the risk of famine a part of history of somalia but we're well on our way to getting there well just when you say the systems i'm case but do you have the resources to deal with this this time around and is it early enough to to to try to prevent the situation from the terrorizing feather. it's certainly early enough we have the opportunity here but it's a matter of weeks not months to do so we don't have the resources sufficient at the

moment we will be launching a drought response plan which we've consulted with the government likely tomorrow that calls for some $700000000.00 over the next 7 months to scale up to levels we had in 2017 which we believe will be sufficient to meet the needs of those who are most directly hit by the situation justin brady speaking to us there from mogadishu the head of the united nations office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs in somalia thanks for being with us on al-jazeera just thank you. well sri lanka's government is paying tribute to the soldiers who died during the decades long civil war there it's been 10 years since the conflict with tamil separatist fighters ended the tamil community had a ceremony on saturday and now the government is honoring its soldiers at the war museum in colombo one 100000 people were killed in the fighting around 30000 of them soldiers from an elephant and as has more from the capital. this event the

sort of national monument to the fallen soldiers to the military personnel a very march recognizing the contribution made to the war effort there are more than 28000 police and military personnel who are believed to have died during the 26 there's more than 6000 people still listed as missing in terms of the force and thousands of others have been rendered disables due to injuries sustained during the war so this event very much sort of a recognition of that contribution just behind me you see the more real you see all the soldiers in the other end you have families all of these people that have been invited just on the other side just out of shot there are basically sort of memorial walls or plucks where you see hundreds and hundreds of names listed i was just going through one of those was and you just referred to one particular attack

in 1903 and there were over 120 listed as those killed at that particular place now this is very much for the military and the police and all those gathered here. sort of a very somber event remembering what it took to bring an end to this brutal conflict . the u.s. president has spelled out his position on abortion saying he's against terminating pregnancy except in cases resulting from rape incest or when the mother's life is in danger donald trump made the comments days after the state of alabama passed an almost total ban on abortion hundreds of protesters are expected to march against the measure in several towns across the state in the coming hours activists have condemned the law and hope it can be overturned in the supremes course former argentinean president cristina kirchner is hoping to make it come.