from over $200.00 countries gather for top $25.00 join us for special coverage on al-jazeera. more than 20 killed as the iraqi army tries to quell a new day of ansi government protests. color and how he'd seen this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up welcome back from society prisons dozens of yemenis flown home as part of an exchange deal . saying thank you to america that is rally in hong kong after president trump signs a law supporting protesters and increasing rights after the revolution sudan's government

scraps laws imposed under dictatorship. but 1st iraqi security forces have opened fire on crowds in a southern city as anti-government protests worsen at least $29.00 people are reported said after the protests in nasiriyah and we're also hearing of 3 tatts in nashua off the army earlier to spot commanders to the provinces with instructions to restore order well on wednesday the iranian consulate in there was set on fire from baghdad's mamma junction reports. in iraq a dramatic escalation hundreds of anti-government protesters storming the compound of the iranian consulate late tuesday in the southern city of najaf setting parts of the diplomatic mission on fire replaced. an iranian flag with the intent of how

to go when the consulate was set on file all the broad police in the job and the security forces started firing and as if we were burning a rock as a whole the right police fired tear gas canisters intensively on the security forces rained as heavily with live bullets. protesters say iran is exerting too much power in and off and they want their government to take action to limit it according to analysts it's not just this attack that significant but also the symbolism of where it took place this is the city where the ayatollah khomeini used to live it's considered to be you know the heart of the shia muslim world and iran thought that it had the population the iraqi shia population on its side in terms of its you know regional policies clearly that's not the case the this is the 2nd time this month that an iranian consulate in a shiite majority city has been targeted by the demonstrators 3 weeks ago security

forces killed 4 demonstrators who stormed the consulate in the city of karbala both attacks feed into the wider anti-government protest movement that's engulfed iraq since october. by early wednesday violence in the yet another shia majority southern city dozens killed or wounded in nasiriyah when security forces opened fire with live rounds and tear gas to disperse crowds of protesters hours later and military announced the troops would be dispatched to southern iraq to restore order anti-government demonstrations have been raging in iraq since early october with protesters accusing the government of corruption and demanding a complete overhaul of the country's political system since the unrest began at least 350 people have been killed and thousands wounded. political analysts say the only way for the government to find a solution is by pushing for reform to. go into to issue a new electorial role for the best of the people to hold early elections off to be

rocky paula been dissolved itself and the government resigns but many protesters say much more needs to be done day after day the demonstrators that we speak with be they in baghdad or other cities tell us they don't feel the government is taking their demands seriously they say that no matter the risk they will continue to come out and press for the rights and opportunities they say they deserve my gentleman does it or buy that on the ships where he has the director of the gulf study center university he says public anger in iraq is directed at both the government's hands as a rainy and influence. in the past few weeks there is no doubt the there was a process of rebirth and iraq and that the process basically talking about a new national identity because. you know sects close this it is across tribes all of these things so what's happening now in iraq. is an evidence that people there

are fed up of you know our site or in interventions and i think they also see that how much this outsider and outside intervention has corrupted the political atmosphere more and more and it creates a political elite which is more corrupted more related to the outsiders rather than to the interest of the people and this kind of level of anger increasing increased rapidly in the last few years with the with the expansion of you know corruption and poverty and the need and the lack of infrastructure and the services which the government unfortunately has failed to deliver to its own people the visitors there are against both they are against they recognize or not because there is the assumption that this government is very weak it's actually rely on outsiders and more important they are upset of their arc of the iranian intervention or enter.

business in iraq and they see that this kind of intervention is not helping iraqis it's actually create contribute to see iraq as a failed state. 3 planeloads of yemenis have been welcomed back to their country from prisons in saudi arabia 128 men were flown into sanna's international airports aboard red cross planes to be greeted by he commanders and family members while they were released as part of an exchange deal you know special envoy martin griffiths as welcome the prisoner swaps that come amid a new push to end the 5 year war the saudi u.a.e. late coalition and so on where the state that santa airport would reopen to limited flights alone patients to fly it for medical care but other top was at the airport in santa as the prisoners arrived. this flight is the 1st flight. for the president before this the 1st offer szell swarup all release of for president of war by saudi arabia u.a.e.

little qualification people are hoping this would push forward for achieving all realizing the peace in yemen which has been going through difficult and destructive times throughout nearly 5 years many of those wife talk to hope they will find their relatives. to agree to go out of this international both but so far we couldn't know that. the exact number of who though will be ripe but according to the news that i have heard that some of them have been detained and. which is the just 40 kilometers from sun are also those who are being detained in areas and because the law and the coastline of. there are also for sherman the. concerns that the they want their fighters to be released also there are thousands

of people who are being detained who are that's involved in the war especially those who try to travel outside yemen through the areas which are under the control of the saudi us. well he spoke. to. this is the prisoner release is a great 1st step from saudi arabia. i walk speak to him to stop all the war against your men to release all the prisoners to. the sheriff all. in yemen and also to open the sun i of course if you know any justification to close this airport for about 25000000 yemenis living inside and living in all your many governor ridge. citron government scrapped a controversial law that was used to limit women's rights the cabinet passed

a degree notifying the public order law set in place by former president omar al bashir thousands of women were flogs in public for wearing trousers scoring aides without headscarves or wearing indecent crew thing well he remarked on this in khartoum she explains how the new law will make a difference to women the public order act was an act that was introduced in the mid ninety's by the former government now most of the people incidentally that as an act to regulate society it dictated how men should wear how women should wear where women should be seated seated in public transportation basically people feel like it was oppressing the freedom and the movement and the lifestyle of people here in sudan and that's something that local and international rights groups have said repeatedly they say that the laws under the act of the public order law made it very hard for people to be themselves women were not allowed to be out in public very late and very late was open to interpretation depending on the security agents

it had its own moral police or vice police that regulated and went around society to make sure that women did not come back home late that they did not dress in decently according to the invitation of the moral police law that was a around at the time so people viewed it as a law that was basically around to constrain on the use of sadam and to try to dictate how they live their lifestyle and how they want about their daily lives. china has accused our trump of sinister intentions after the president signed a strong kong human rights bill the law means washington can impose sanctions on chinese on who can officially deemed responsible for human rights abuses and sarah clarke reports from hong kong thousands there say they're grateful for the u.s. decision. in central hong kong they gathered to say thank you to the united states president donald trump signed into law the hong kong human rights and democracy act on wednesday the pro-democracy protesters embraced it as a sign of support i think is

a good thing for hong kong biggest given the special are how do say that the economic. situation of faux pas to all mainland china actually yeah. i think it was affecting. the whole situation i'm very organised to be a part of the whole college stay standing here. i'm not saying the word cerebral but to to. to share one delightful moment of being here yes for this reason of course that thank you mr speaker i thank the legislation had rare broad bipartisan support in both the u.s. senate and the house of representatives and with the people of hong kong it allows the u.s. to introduce economic sanctions against hong kong and withdraw the city special trade status if it believes the government is failing to protect democracy and human rights pro-democracy activist joshua wall held the legislation as

a victory for the protest movement which is paralyzed parts of the city since june it just increased. world leaders around the world and politicians aware that it's time for them to it's down to hong kong but the hong kong government rejected the legislation accusing us of interfering in the city's internal affairs and sending the wrong message to violent protesters critics included the city's former chief executive after all these years it has to be on me because the one people in the west look at the habit of opening the most of the countries as if they had done better. but they're all domestic problems china echoed that message describing it unnecessary and more into it and some of the u.s. ambassador in beijing jungle hong kong china's hong kong hong kong if purely china's internal affairs no foreign organization foreign government and

foreign individual has the right to interfere with ongoing the u.s. legislation comes less a little way to promote democracy party secured a landslide victory in the city's district council elections that too has been a morale boost for these protests but so far the government is showing no signs of compromise in meeting these demands for political reform sarah clarke 0 hong kong. still to come here on al-jazeera we're going to mars and beyond europe's multi 1000000000 pound plans to explore new frontiers in space. and it's the worst disaster in british sporting history 30 years on there's a verdict in the hells from manslaughter case. how the weather's looking you could still dry and

a little more settled across the middle east we've had some patchy rayman drizzle for a time and some wetter weather the next the carrier cloud just spilling out of syria towards iraq easing across iran but not too much right on this for the time being so we're getting up to around 50 degrees celsius in tehran mid twenty's there for baghdad and for kuwait city it's a low twenty's in look a little further north and you can see there's more in the way of clouds there into that cloud will thicken up enough for some rain or snow over the high ground elsewhere across the region in this case be lousy try with plenty of sunshine and we're going to see across the raeburn peninsula charles and wanted to show i was there just around the northern sections of the gulf and maybe with a little more cloud in play just around the south you must see a few spots of fright but nothing less the speak of temperatures here picking up around 28 degrees and light winds and very pleasant for the coming days pleasant enough to you across the southern africa it is lousy try because some live. more

than parts of madagascar northern areas of mozambique pushing up into tanzania more heavy downpours there across a good part of the democratic republic of congo and also. the well it's not just blowing the producer has failed to trade on a foreign stock exchange was a transparency valuation over ambition we want to happen here the world's largest oil producer and you don't list in the world's largest stock exchange that definitely says something out to syria investigates the politics of point the middle east's most potent economic when the saudi aramco company and the state. on al-jazeera.

this is al jazeera a reminder of our top stories this hour a curfew has been imposed in the iraqi city of nasiriya after 29 people were killed during anti-government protests security forces opened fire on a demonstration the army is sending its commanders to several provinces to restore order. the un has welcomed the transfer of a yemeni prisoners from saudi arabia a group of 128 people landed in sinai airports which has been cool since 2016 they were released as part of an exchange deal. and sudan's government to scrap the controversial law that was used to limits women's rights the cabinet passed a decree nullifying the public order law set in place by former president omar al bashir. a former u.k.

police chief has been cleared of the man slaughter of 95 level fans some 30 years ago david i can feel commanded the 1989 f.a. cup semifinal at hillsborough stadium in sheffield where the fans were crushed to death it remains the worst disaster in british sporting history the fokker has this report such as i was there for the f.a. cup match between liverpool and not even forrest at sheffield wednesday skills her ground had started on time but outside the stadium the 1st signs of disaster a boy lifted clear from the crowd still waiting to get. inside the ground behind one of the goals horrific events were unfolding thousands of liverpool fans were being crushed behind high anti-riot fences commons at the time. police and players struggle to comprehend what was happening. years of investigations have given a detailed picture of the day a major inquiry blamed

a breakdown in policing including a failure to delay the game and a decision to open gates that allowed fans to surge into the stadium and then into the already packed standing areas the much commander was former chief superintendent david duncan field he stood trial for gross negligence manslaughter he didn't give evidence because he suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder duncan field had initially claimed that liverpool fans had forced a gate open and rushed into the stadium he later admitted it was a lie. police have been accused of trying to shift the blame on to the fans. relatives of those killed fear they will never know the full story of what happened at hillsborough most accept that a catalogue of courses led to the disaster. hillsborough is see it into the country's consciousness. altering safety standards of sports venues around the world and changing british football for ever leave barca al-jazeera.

a key witness in the us impeachment inquiry against president donald trump has been accused of sexual misconduct 3 women have made allegations against gordon sundin's the u.s. envoy to the european union they claim he retaliated against him professionally after they rejected his sexual advances sundance has denied all of the geishas calling them can coax it his testimony linked president trump's decision to withhold aid from ukraine where the investigations n.c. his political rivals and another man at the center of the impeachment inquiry is also in trouble president trump's personal lawyer has been accused of pursuing lucrative business deals with ukrainian officials u.s. media is reporting that really giuliani explore deals worth hundreds of thousands of dollars and that's while he pressured ukraine to take up damaging information on democratic presidential contender joe biden giuliani says he's never accepted

a penny white house correspondents kempley harkat looks at how damaging the allegations might be. gordon silent just to remind viewers is really the star witness for the democratic party's case against president donald trump and and really the basis in many ways for why they believe that he should be impeached his testimony particularly damning he behind closed doors said there was no quid pro quo but then changed his testimony and said very publicly that in fact that the president was leveraging his office in order to try and get an investigation into his political rival joe biden so now the fact that the has had his credibility challenged with these allegations from these 3 women certainly is problematic for the democrats in all of this the 3 women have accused gordon someone of sexual misconduct one of them says that it haunted her that she saw that. he had been confirmed as an ambassador and essentially gordon somebody is denying all of this

on his personal website he has said that these are untrue claims of unwanted touching and kissing and they're concocted i believe coordinated for political purposes and that's the problem in all of this the star witness and his testimony now accusations will be pointing fingers coming from both sides and it really is problematic for the strength of the testimony given again this is the star witness for the democratic case. ference high commissioner for refugees says he's seen disturbing conditions in greece is credited refugee camps for the foreground he spent 2 days visiting camps on the island last boss so far and 2019 well and 65000 people have arrived in greece an 80 percent increase year before grant is urging other european countries to accept more asylum seekers and says the camps must improve. i found the conditions in which people live.

extremely disturbing. very inadequate access to basic services a situation of generalized tension often resulting in violence expression violence against minors violence within the communities themselves but because of the situation the most penalized are certainly women and children and especially the high number of unaccompanied i'm accompanied children and a very big sense of despair and lack of prospects that makes the situation even more. worrying and difficult well the livia simberg is a policy analyst at the european policy center and joins us now by skype from brussels good to have you with us here on all just syria this isn't the 1st time

we've heard people call for more countries to take more refugees those calls have gone unheeded so given this do you think conditions are likely to improve in the council iceballs anytime soon. so what we've seen in greece indeed a significantly worsening conditions for asylum seekers in the greek islands as people grandy noted earlier today there's no sleeping in unacceptable conditions there is a lack of doctors a lack of bathrooms and showers partly this is due to higher arrivals but also notably due to a lack of preparation so the conditions are significantly bad and are they likely to improve well what we have seen is the greek government recently announced a new set of laws and measures aimed at addressing the challenge that are posed by the asylum seekers currently increased however i don't think that this is likely to be effective because what these laws are likely to do 1st they're going to be undermining safeguards in the asylum procedure which increases the risk that people are wrongly denied asylum and either returned to persecution in turkey or simply fall outside of the system exaggerating the humanitarian emergency and 2nd what

these laws proposed by the greek government seek to do is to introduce a systematic detention silencers which is extremely costly it's something that has been tried before and it's likely to both be counterproductive in terms of helping the government address the structural challenges in the same procedures but it's also likely to make it worse on a humanitarian level. absolutely and certainly the the greek government were probably defend itself by saying that they're overwhelmed which is true as with the italian government said time and time again we're seeing the same countries taking the entire birds and other countries turning their back this is not a new situation we've had this for years so so again i ask is there a solution to this or the time to accept this reality that nobody cares enough and countries are not willing to provide safe haven. it is a sad reality and to strew that it's a well known fact that you doesn't have a sustainable system for fair responsibility sharing between you member states

there have been calls now by the greek government and by the european commission for other you states to step forward and in particular relocate unaccompanied minors who are among the most vulnerable people in greece right now asylum seekers and however only one member state has answered those calls so there is an urgent need for states to step up what we very much hope to see is a reform of the dublin regulation which is the source of the unfair distribution of responsibility sharing between member states which means that states on the front line or at the use external border if you will like greece italy multan or cyprus do often face a disproportionate burden that reform has been stuck at the european council for years however i would say there is a small glimmer of hope because some smaller measures of adhoc responsibility sharing have started to gain a little bit more traction in the past few months so there is room for hope but certainly it's an urgent situation and member states really do need to step up and alleviate the pressures on greece and an asylum seeker some reason particular ok

livia so joining us there from brussels thanks very much indeed thank you for having me. 41 people are confirmed dead following jesus powerful earthquake in albania rescue workers are trying to find survivors in several countries have sent teams to help and this was the most powerful earthquake to hit the country in decades john psaropoulos is at one of the worst hit cities of duress he says most people there have fled for fear of aftershocks. i'm standing among a group of apartment buildings and hotel buildings along the beach front of the resort town of buddhists and as you can see these apartments above me are completely uninhabited. and renters have fled them they are staying elsewhere they're afraid to come back because there are constant aftershocks and these people don't want to be caught in a situation where a building collapses on top of them because of an aftershock this is the situation all along the beach front of good is about 2 kilometers worth of buildings large

high rise buildings like these the municipality tells us that some 500 of these people are being kept in temporary shelters in the indoor gymnasium of the school building until their buildings are checked by engineers and they're told that they can return to them or they're told the buildings are going to be demolished and another 1000 we're told have been put into medium shelters in hotel rooms because their buildings most likely won't survive but there must be more than that there must be more people who have shelter at the moment because we're seeing people sleeping in there in tehran on wednesday night thousands of people sleeping in 3 or 4 kilometers of quadruple parked along one of the main avenues of the city they simply do not want to go to bed for the last time and be caught in a quake in which they are building collapses and there are people who whom we've

seen walking the streets here at night in do this with blankets wrapped around them . and they said they say to us that they're going to sleep on cafeteria chairs or that they've spent the night on the beach this entire coastal section of the us the heart of its economy where all the tourism trade is done this is now because china . french president's amount of micro has rejected an offer by russia suspend missile deployments and made the comments during a meeting with nato chief and stoltenberg in paris russia proposed a moratorium after a ban on the mains was lifted in august so often berky's the meeting to address michael's criticism of make suffering brain death while questions are being asked about the strength or the transatlantic bomb north america and europe are doing more together than we had done for decades and i can hardly think about and as strong a demonstration of their commitment to our reliance dollar collective defense to article 5 the fact that we are actually doing more together increasing evidence of

forces investing more in our security than we have done for many many years and finally the future of europe's role in space has been decided in spain after 2 days of meetings in seville the 20 members of the european space agency have signed off on a record budget of nearly $16000000000.00 over the next 5 years the blockbuster proposals include voyages to the moon and other planets as well as sending the 1st ever rock sample back from mars well the agency is also looking into a space based 5 g. network to deliver a faster phone connections and a way to get early warnings of solar storms at rocky's that any investment in space science helps the economy here on earth do your job and technology. it looks almost so simple after such 2 days something tense of discussions there is a program we have missions everything everything looks trivial but. each and every

one who looks a little bit more into detail knows that these are really complicated procedures and i'm there from very happy i mean nasa has one government we have 22 so this is already something which is different and i'm very grateful for all the member states plus lavinia plus canada to subdue for the support of what we're doing. this is al jazeera these are the headlines this hour a curfew has been imposed in the iraqi city of nasiriya after 29 people were killed during anti-government protests security forces opened fire on a demonstration the army is sending its commanders to several provinces in a bid to restore order in many prisoners had been detained by saudi arabia have arrived back home the group of around 130 prisoners landed in santa airports which is being called says 2016 released as part of

a prisoner exchange deal mohamed atta brings you the atmosphere from santa. this flight is the 1st flight. for the president or for this purpose to offer official. swap or release of for president of war by saudi arabia quality people are hoping this would push forward for achieving all realizing the peace in yemen which has been going through difficult and destructive times throughout nearly 5 years. china has the keys donald trump of sinister intentions threaten to respond to a new u.s. law that could help protect protestors and law means washington can impose sanctions on chinese and hong kong officials teams responsible for human rights abuses sudan's government's a scrap the controversial law that was used to limits women's rights the cabinet passed a decree nullifying the public order law set in place by former president omar al

bashir. a key witness in the u.s. impeachment inquiry against president donald trump has been accused of sexual misconduct 3 women have made allegations against the u.s. envoy to the european union they claim here retaliated against him professionally after they rejected his sexual advances so mint has denied all allegations calling them cox it's the as i commissioner for refugees says he's seen disturbing conditions in greece's crowded refugee camps for the programme they spent 2 days visiting the camps on the island of les boss he's urging european countries to accept more asylum seekers and says the camps must improve while i show up to date stay stay here with us here on al-jazeera the news continues after inside story by tonight.

iran out stats what angry iraqi protestors were shouting as they set fire to the iranian consulate in the city of najaf a significant and run escalation but how much influence does iran wield in iraq is it a force for good or is it holding back the country and its people this is inside story . hello and welcome to the program i'm adrian finnigan after months of violent antigovernment protests in iraq anger has turned towards neighboring iran demonstrators stormed the iranian consulate in the holy city of najaf before

setting fire to it on wednesday a number of people were killed in the crackdown which followed adding to the hundreds who died in the last.