the world is another matter when you will be in the news and current affairs that matter t u. s a soldier opened fire inside a mall in northern thailand killing at least 20 people ousted situation is under way. on how marketing and this is al jazeera life from doha also coming up. in piers to be no ending to the spirit of the coronavirus as the death toll passes the $700.00 killed in china. why for syrian refugees gets even worse as harsh winter weather moves through account in lebanon's bekaa valley. the war in libya is expected to be

topic number one when african leaders meet in ethiopia. and start with an update on that breaking news out of thailand a soldier has shot and killed at least 20 people into 2nd hostages inside a shopping mall northeast of bangkok yes the video posted on social media shows people running from the mall in the city of korra witnesses say the shooter has an assault rifle police and military units of wachter in the surrounding area let's get the latest now from wade hay he joins us live from bangkok wayne just confirms this is that situation still ongoing and what more can you tell us about events up in that town. yes as far as we know at the moment the situation is still very much evolving

inside that shopping mall in the city of koran to the northeast of the capital bangkok the gunman still believed to be inside that shopping mall police say that he does have some hostages inside the shopping mall with him it's not clear exactly how many we've seen more footage similar to what you've just seen of people in the last hour or so leaving the shopping mall with the assistance of police it's not clear whether those people were among the hostages being held by the gunman inside the shopping mall there are also being more gunshots ringing out appearing to come from inside the mall again within the last hour or so just to give you background to how this evolved has been going on for quite a few hours now mid afternoon on saturdays when it began this serving member of the time military a soldier is believed to have shot a commanding officer a superior on

a military base about 20 kilometers outside the city of koran killing him and at least 2 others on the army base he stole weapons and ammunition from the army base as well as a vehicle an army humvee drove out of the military base towards the city center towards the shopping mall where it's believed he is still located as he drove along those roads it's believed that he shot civilians people on the side of the road as he went and the death toll within the last couple of hours has continued to rise at least 17 now according to the police then late in the afternoon early evening here arrived at the shopping mall went inside and there are many videos appearing on local media as well as social media as well appearing to show gunshots you can hear gunshots ringing out appearing to come from from in. side the shopping mall again hearing more gunshots according to some of those reports within the last

hour and it is being reported as well that military police have now gone inside that shopping mall as you can expect the entire area is now under lockdown by soldiers and police special units are being flown in reinforcements from the capital bangkok as well leading government officials including the military chief the army chief are also heading to the area we've also had a statement i should point out from facebook because the gunman uploaded several videos and photos as he went to facebook his account has now been shut down those images and videos have been taken down facebook it says says that it removed an account of the gunman and will remove any. footage imagery violating content related to this attack so facebook very quick to come out with a statement in response to those images that were uploaded when this is still very much an ongoing developing situation

a very distressing one by all accounts for those caught up in those spent just give us some context these types of mass shootings we usually associate with other countries how common is it to see incidents like this in thailand. or shootings on the scale of a very rare in thailand i have to say gun ownership is very common here the rates of gun ownership a very high there are very strict licensing laws around owning a gun but there is a big black market for guns as well so the rates of gun ownership a very high but mess shootings on the scale are very rare ironically there was a shooting killing 3 people very close to the city of corette just a matter of weeks ago which was in the end confirmed to be a robbery of a gold shop we do see mass shootings in the southern provinces the 3 southernmost provinces bordering malaysia where there is a violent insurgency going on a separatist movement with religious groups islamic groups fighting for

independence or greater autonomy from thailand so there are regular attacks of this nature in southern thailand but nothing like we're seeing unfolding in the city of course. as it's known in terms of a soldier as it seems going into a public place and killing many people that certainly is a rarity in thailand ok wayne hay there live for us in bangkok thank you. well after a brief respite in china the rates of new coronavirus infections is once again on the prize at least $724.00 people have died in china includes an american and japanese man both passed away in one where the break started hong kong has begun a 2 week of confirmed 64 cases on board the train e.u. has more from china's capital beijing. the owners of this luxury cruise ship describe it as

a home away from home and for those on board there's now no choice about 3700 people on the diamond princess i've been quarantined for at least 2 weeks off of japan's yokohama ports that's after more than 60 tested positive for corona virus. we are all instructed to stay in our own cabin. you know that people from the insurer haven't been allowed up there on yak and they may have had a chance to interact although they've been instructed they have meter apart from each other so it's hard to read. the mood of the other passengers without a contact with them i see you know some people are very worried on the internet and social media japan is already dealing with cases of the virus and has imposed new border controls to stop it spreading it turned away another cruise ship but it's still from china. the world health organization says there's no need for a law and there's over 3700 people in crew and this is after extensive searching

for cases and testing and testing of many many people so if i don't get my month's wrong that's that's less than 2 percent of people so. it's still a bad it's not a great number it does show the virus has spread in this ship but again let's be careful here enough to overreact the outbreak that began in china has spread to at least 25 countries in kazakhstan there were reports of violence between cossacks and the ethnic quake moving over he is of coronavirus chinese restaurants and businesses have reportedly been burnt down to get poor has increased its a lot level after new cases of corona virus not going to previous infections or travel to china post it. people are rushing to supermarkets to stock up on food and essential goods and around the world more people are buying mosques and what's called personal protective equipment or people pushing up prices increasing shortages the world is facing the severe disruption in the market for person and

for person and for take to keep them and the mondays at 200 times higher than normal and prizes then up to 20 times higher. the un agency says more than 80 percent of corona virus cases globally reported can be considered mild and is calling for nations to work together to fight the outbreak in ruhani a 2nd emergency hospital with beds for 1600 coronavirus patients has been opened china's president xi jinping has declared what he calls a people's war on the virus saying no effort is being spared in fighting the epidemic but there is growing criticism of the chinese government's handling of the crisis social media is flooded with complaints of attempts by police and other government officials to nischelle the cover up the outbreak then silencing the doctors who 1st sounded the alarm for china's leaders this is increasingly a battle on 2 fronts against the virus itself and the discontent it's thought

katrin e.u. al-jazeera dating russian and turkish delegates are meeting to discuss fighting in syria turkey's military is warning of retaliation against further attacks in the rebel province 8 turks were killed by syrian army shelling on monday. joins us now live from istanbul and this is a crucial meeting a very precarious time for both russia and turkey. indeed. the very delicate moment the meeting is underway where top russian and turkish diplomats military officers are trying to negotiate the terms of a way to deescalate the tension in the turkish government is concerned it says that the demilitarized zone agreement there was reached in 2018 the stand about it

has been constantly violated by the syrian army backed by russia and the russians have failed so far to rein in syrian troops now we are trying to do is to ask the russians to convince president bashar to pull out his troops from areas. near the turkish military outposts and this is a very crucial meeting because if that does not happen it is definitely going to lead to further skeleton of the potential for a military confrontation between the russians and the syrian army between the syrian army and the turkish military is going to further increase we're talking about fast moving situation where the syrian army is moving from south africa all the way to work. and tough today as they were talking about an area where you have almost $4000000.00 civilians trapped there this time they have nowhere to go the border with turkey is sealed and they're just concerned if the army continues of

its offensive it is going to lead to a serious humanitarian situation in syria ok. live in assemble thank you very much winter weather has worsened conditions for syrians living in a refugee camp in lebanon's bekaa valley it comes as the ongoing economic crisis in lebanon is having a serious impact on humanitarian programs a shortage of funding means fewer families are receiving supports this year said ahead at has more from back a family. they're all about probably 300 people living in this refugee camp it's one of many in back of ali. so a few of them they said that the conditions are so hawse they would prefer to die now these are people who have left the war in syria some of them in have been here for years and the conditions are getting harder and harder each year funding has been cut for the u.n. h.c.r. . an economic crisis has made life so much harder and they've also received a lot of hostility from the lebanese government as well as some lebanese people who

feel that they have put an extra strain on the economic crisis where the lebanese themselves are suffering from so there's about a quite close to a 1000000 syrian refugees here is a large number and 3 quarters of those syrian refugees live. below the poverty line the shortage of dollars as well has affected some of the money that they've received through cash aid from you know you see also the conditions have been very tough here and the lebanese government just a couple of days ago and their policy statement have made it clear that a lot of them have to return back home they believe safe for them now. still to come on al-jazeera exacting revenge don't want trump foreigners to witnesses that testified against him during the impeachment inquiry plus. the stories of beit lahia we are told are the most delicious in the world i'm stephanie decker in the

gaza strip and we'll have this story coming up. hello again it's good to have you back we're all watching more snow here across parts of japan over the next few days and some of the snow could be quite heavy across that western parts of the country we call this. the effect snow as that colder air pushes across the relatively warmer water of the sea picking up a lot of moisture and then dumping it here on that west coast mostly in the higher elevations and we could be seeing anywhere between 40 and possibly $67.00 reads know possibly by the time we do get towards monday down toward shanghai better conditions for you a little bit warmer to where the temps are there of about 14 degrees or we are watching some storms here pushing across the south china sea we will be seeing some

those storms affecting parts of vietnam but we will also be seeing those storms making their way even further towards the west and for kuala lumpur you could be seeing some very heavy thunderstorms by the time we get towards monday night we do expect to see attempts are there of $31.00 degrees singapore it is going to be 33 and your forecast high there and then here across parts of india the rain is on the decrease of the next few days we're going to see still rain showers here on sunday but by the deion we do get towards monday it is going to be getting a little bit less rain across much of the area still clouds in the forecast and tonight it is going to be a cloud today with a temperature of $32.00. the island of sardinia a famously a delhi college a spot. less well known as a proving ground full. investigation claims that he's of

military training and ons testing trickett cancer and birth defects and made the no cool population. secret sania people in palau on al-jazeera. this is al jazeera quick reminder of our top story this hour a soldier as been holding people hostage in a shopping mall in thailand after shooting dead at least 20 others the victims in the north the city of caracas includes the soldiers commanding officer wayne he joins us now from bangkok wayne we're as respect were showing our viewers we were

showing our fears live pictures there from the scene we understand there has been a development in that shopping mall situation and it appears to be people streaming over that shopping mall just bring us up to speed with the latest information that you have. yes well within the last hour or so it was confirmed from the scene that there were many more gunshots heard after a period of silence leading up to that more gunshots heard coming from within the shopping mall and now we are seeing as you mentioned images of many people leaving the mall we know as a very recently that the gunman according to the police was still inside the shopping mall and they say that he has been holding people hostage inside a section of the shopping mall believed to be on the 4th floor of that moral in the center of the city of course now the police didn't confirm exactly how many people

he was holding inside the mall but we do know that at the time that he arrived at the mall late afternoon early evening on a saturday it would have been very busy inside this are hundreds of people potentially inside the mall at the time so it seems that some people who may or may not have been part of the hostage situation could have been simply trapped in another part of the mall have been able to leave the building itself safely with the assistance of the police and military we have a comment also from the spokesman of the thai defense ministry saying that police officers and soldiers are joining forces and of helped evacuate hundreds of people from inside the mall it is not known he said how many are still inside so this is still very much an active situation inside that shop at shopping mall in koran and when we it's it isn't clear at this stage what happens who the suspect is

and why he decided to unleash this attack only very little actually is known at this stage we know that he's a 32 year old soldier. opes we appear to have lost wayne a there we will try and bring him back but just for viewers just joining us developing situation in thailand we're getting images from a local media and have had a statement there to suggest that the authorities and silence have no storms in the shopping mall where a gunman had been holding people hostage at least 20 people have been killed in that shooting in the northeastern tired of co-writes unclear the number of people wounded at this stage that operation is ongoing to end the siege shopping more in correlates we'll bring you all the very latest on this developing story when we

get it now the united nations is working towards a cease fire in libya the u.n. secretary general and when you get terrorist made the announcement ahead of the summits of african union leaders in ethiopia your god will be brought example with regards to libya it's evident the crisis has been seriously aggravated by the presence of forces and equipment from many other countries in clear violation of the mandate of the security council i think we have to reestablish the sovereignty of international law and the conditions in which the decisions of the security council could be implemented and that countries should understand that their engagement to promote certain conflicts only increases the potential for action by terrorist groups or how and far more from outer suburb where the african union summit will be held. antonio guterres the secretary general of the united nations also mentioned sudan and he at the beginning a big it began with south sudan praising the efforts to bring about some resolution

about the constellation there and then he talked about the republic of sudan saying that it's high time to remove it from the list of sanctions of the list of 6 states possible sponsors of terrorism listen to his words on that respect jr feel i reaffirm that it is time for sudan to be removed from the list of state sponsors of terrorism and i call on the international community to help sudan in its efforts to meet its current challenges. there is also talked about cooperation and solidarity with africa he said he's coming here. in oh he's bringing a central message of solidarity and support to the african union he's aware of the complaints here within africa with regards to what's been perceived marginalisation of the united nations or the international community in terms of what's going on in libya the african union believing that they should be given a greater role in that respect he mentioned the will of the united nations to

exactly do that and he said that from now on the african union will be invited to have a permanent representation within the united nations representation in libya he also asked the african union to join efforts with the united nations in terms of peacekeeping in terms of combating terrorism i voting has finished for regional election in the indian state of delhi it's being seen as a test for the national government after weeks of often violent protests against the new citizenship while some of the largest protests were in new delhi from here lizbeth purana reports. determined to have this say millions in india's capital region headed to polling stations after a big campaign. from the very 1st time they told al jazeera what matters to them i think. from.

an. issue. of youth are to be promised in that in their modi and has bought at the. campaign to end weeks of widespread protests against the citizenship including and the shocking bad neighborhood to be j.p. politicians were banned from campaigning after comparing protest as to rapists and murderers saying the demonstrators were determined to make india a muslim country. another politician said protestors should be shot they were 2 shooting incidents against protesters in one week after those comments were made a b j p election candidate said protest is a disrupting every day life yet every year. we want peace you want to harmony because. if there is entirely peace in your city and your country.

the teuton chief minister. from the common man party focused its campaign on development education and health care. i'm hopeful that the delhi public will vote on the work that we've done about the common man party can form the government here for the 3rd time analysts say the alternative could lead to more protests but the fear is that if the b.b. comes to power in delhi the protest and the protests in different parts of the country would be approved so what we are stating at this. is some more tension in the coming days so let's see how it plays out. the election result is due to be announced on tuesday hasn't been and how and delhi $22.00 the result will indicate whether its nationalist campaign has paid off or if voters are giving the activists to. a 3rd term in office elizabeth for on al-jazeera.

irish voters frustrated with economic. and shortage or choosing their next prime minister polls suggest a shift away from the override chris governing for the opposition funa follow which have dominated politics since independence barker has more from dublin. if the polls are to be built if there could be a major upset in this year's election largely because for as long as many people can remember one of 2 parties in the field a gale off in a fall has dominated irish politics but this year things could be very different indeed shining fane there's a party on the political left of the spectrum has been making significant gains largely because in a gale has been accused of failing to live up to expectations when it comes to solving importantly critical issues here the housing crisis homelessness and also the soaring costs of child care to name

a few the reality is that nobody can really cool the selection at this stage undoubtedly coalitions will be need to be formed but the question is who will partner up with who well for more on this i'm joined by a donica who's written extensively about irish politics he's director of research at dublin city university school of law thank you very much for joining us. looks very much as if the country could be heading towards something of a political shake up mean for ireland for shin fein to potentially have a foothold in government it will be transformational really because since the beginning of the state really for the last century irish politics has been a 2 horse race between fiona fall and phoenix gale so there's never been any combination of parties other than those 2 leading a government and they've never call us even though there are share of the vote has dwindled from 80 percent collectively in the 1980 s. to about 40 percent likely today so since fein are are the big winners in this

election because they've come from being a minor party to now a party that is now potentially i think cost of getting perhaps even the largest share of the vote and i think that's reflected in the weather here to take a very blustery where i think we're feeling the winds of change here in our times. now it's strawberry harvest time for farmers and dancer with most of the berries heading to consumers in the occupied west bank but it's israel's blockade means getting them there is a challenge stephanie decker reports from beit lahia in the northern gaza strip. it's warmer in here than outside on this crisp february morning the sweet smell of ripe stew a breeze fills the greenhouse abu sami's family has been farming this land for generations this is because they're here. said 82 years old abu sami doesn't only have a lifetime of farming knowledge seeds but is also witness the constant change of this political landscape couldn't wesa work when. we used to sell our product in

israel when we were under israeli occupation but says 2006 what harm us took over and israeli imposed the blockade we can't sell in the israeli market so farmers income has decreased a lot now the main market for gaza store breezes the occupied west bank around an hour's drive from here before the guillotine for the meo issue in filmy year israeli products compete with us even in the west bank because my product takes days to get there as it has to follow certain look to procedures while israeli produce takes just a few hours to reach the market the client prefers freshly picked rather than mine it's loses 20 percent of quality along the steering this umbrella. certain fertilizes a ban by israel citing security reasons and that too we're told is affecting the quality of the strawberries but despite that things are moving forward now this is a relatively new way of growing stories they started having them around 3 years ago

and farmers are telling us that they get around 3 times more strawberries using this technique rather than just keeping them in the ground and there's less grist of disease because they're protected by the greenhouse and also for from the ground this hanging method also maximizes the use of space and it's also pretty while we're filming a group of visitors arrive but i have not heard that silvio either so what do we do are i think sufism vigilance and i will upload them to social media i did not know that we have these forms they're fantastic and i don't think many people know about it i think we should publicize base and increase awareness of the good things we have. but the restrictions of the blockade are felt in every layer of this farming process and there is the never ending cycle of escalation between israel and the various armed groups here. the darkest period in our lives after 2006 the siege is really tough and it's meant all our movements it affects

every part of our lives and off fortunately things are getting worse you simply cannot predict today what will happen tomorrow but perhaps a small response is the reliable cycle of nature the changing seasons and the harvest they bring and if you managed to drown out the constant buzzing of the israeli drone in the sky you could just about imagine a very different reality stephanie decker al-jazeera and distribute fields of beit lahia northern gaza. this is al jazeera and these are the headlines security forces in thailand. have stormed the shopping mall after a soldier shot and killed at least 20 people and held others hostage for bernie you live pictures here from with sign of correlates which is northeast of bangkok and as you can see many people are still being

a scorsese all of that shopping mall where the hostage taking to the police witnesses say the government has an assault rifle police and military units have of course sealed off the surrounding area. after a brief respite in china the rates of new coronavirus cases is again on the rise at least $724.00 people in china have died of the virus the world health organization the team is traveling there on monday to investigate the outbreak trini you has more from beijing president xi jinping is really scrambling to reassure people saying that the party has declared a war a people's war on this virus they're announcing all these new initiatives for example this hospital the 2nd emergency hospital with 1600 new beds for coronavirus patients has been opened today they're also trying to reassure people that these testing kits that are going out are valid and they're affected because there are pins been some concerns about whether they're offering some false negative results

so they're really trying to reassure people because we've had as you've mentioned this fear and panic 1st about the spread but now there's this frustration that the government is doing too much to really try to control the narrative and trying to cover up i guess how serious this is. and the russian and turkish delegates are meeting to discuss fighting in syria for turkish armored vehicles and tanks and for the last rebel held area there but set today its people in paris up next keep it here on al-jazeera.

best known to tourists for its beautiful beaches and dramatic coastline italian island of sardinia is also a major company that makes the rest of the locals long to lead these tests of how toxic effects. for years the authorities have refuted those playing reporter emma alberici went to investigate.