no 0. the on the old. china's government's allocates more than $10000000000.00 to fight the coronavirus as the death toll surpasses the sars epidemic. hello there i'm hala my head's in into ohio and this is al jazeera also coming up information emerges about the motive of a toy soldier who went on a shooting rampage in a mall killing 29 people. eagerly awaiting results in arlen's for an election that is so far too close to call plus. silencing the guns in libya and the sun hope the african union summit gets underway in ethiopia.

china is putting more than $10000000000.00 into the fight against corona virus which is no kill more people than a similar epidemic 17 years ago the death toll stands at $813.00 severe acute respiratory syndrome or sars killed 774 people but see 20022003 in both cases most of the deaths were in china well so far the new virus is more infectious with and 37000 people have fallen ill only around 8000 contracted sars bonce sars was deadlier killing one in 10 patients the new viruses fatality rate is around 3 percent meanwhile in hong kong thousands of passengers and crew on board

a cruise ship have been cleared to disembark no they've been quarantined since whedon's say from beijing katrina you has more on the ongoing efforts to contain the outbreak. more than 6000 medical workers are being sent 100 from all over china they'll help overworked and understaffed teams struggling to cope with the coronavirus crisis the number of deaths from the outbreak has now surpassed those killed by saws in 2003 a lack of resources his post some doctors to turn patients away. as a senior doctor i felt terrible when i look into their eyes but i have to control myself to continue this fight against the epidemic chinese factories have in order to boost production of desperately needed medical supplies the government says it's allocating $10000000000.00 to fight be honest but criticism over its handling of the crisis is growing for a group of academics has signed a letter demanding more freedom of speech and condemning the treatment of

whistleblower dr li when leon who died from the virus this week. citizen journalist . was forced into quarantine after posting videos of overcrowded hospitals and behind the world health organization says the number of people with the virus appears to be stabilizing but it's still too early to know whether the outbreak has reached its peak the un agency is sending a team to china to observe its response to the virus as a reminder of global health authorities to ring vigilant experts in hong kong say existing measures on enough to prevent the outbreak spreading in the territory dozens of people that have been infected i think for hong kong definitely it will be the beginning same as other part of the well maybe 4 maina is in the middle of the crisis one of the epidemiologist contacted by. hong kong university medical school he predicted that the disease may go on and the peak in may or a pro sometime in the before the summer so we hope we think that the disease may

still lingering on. but while millions in china remain under lockdown there was good news at least for the passengers of this cruise ship docked in hong kong 15 allowed to leave after spending several days in quarantine. a vigil has been held in the city in thailand where a soldier went on a shooting spree at a military base then seize hostages in a shopping mall the army trained marksman killed 29 people and wounded dozens of others in the city of corrupts but the thai prime minister says the soldiers' motive was a dispute over a property deal when he has more from the capital bangkok. in the final dramatic moments of this 18 hour siege the last remaining people inside the mall for brought to safety they had spent a terrifying night hiding or trapped inside the building where a gunman roamed shooting at people as he went at that stage early sunday morning

the shooter was still inside the building evading capture by security forces but that around 9 o'clock they killed him in the last burst of gunfire captured in this video say that. we have ended the perpetrators criminal acts at the moment we are gathering evidence and witness material to start an investigation to give justice to all sides this was the gunman 32 year old soldier told a trained sharpshooter with years of experience as he went on his killing spree he posted updates on facebook before entering the mall date on saturday afternoon he could be seen spraying bullets towards people and passing cars as the siege dragged on into the night bursts of gunfire could be heard coming from inside the building hour after hour the situation became more tense and more desperate as the wounded were brought out under heavy protection. god is that. i was scared i'd hear

gunfire and i was wondering if he was going to come near me because it felt like it was so close to where we were hiding with confirmation that the ordeal was over thailand's prime minister visited some of the injured in hospital and he sought to shed some light on what may have motivated the killer. it was a personal conflict over a house deal he had an issue with money and fought for 3 days nobody expected it to turn violent. that dispute may have been the reason for the initial murders of the commanding army officer and another person but it doesn't explain why he then traveled more than 20 kilometers to the center of town entered a packed shopping mall and elevated his killing to another horrific level when hey al jazeera bangkok. syrian regime forces have taken control of several villages in the northwest the soldiers are advancing in the southern parts overlap or province along 2 major highways the offensive could open up

a direct route see rebel held areas in western aleppo and. going to. back over the past few days. forces have managed to make significant achievements the troops that were coming from eastern little had met with the advance forces from southern aleppo and managed to regain control of the geographical area more than 600 square kilometers. has been monitoring the situation from istanbul. syrian government forces have expanded their influence in western and southern outskirts of aleppo in that for a reason by retaking many villages they want to push all the remaining rebels and their families to move to worse and then they will focus their fight on taken over the city of the last remaining stronghold for the syrian opposition and this explains why are the same time one of the syrian army is making those military gains turkey sending more reinforcements setting up more military outposts around

the hut after does and then must do more to prevent the syrian army from from taking over turkey it is saying that syria has until the end of february to pull out its troops beyond the turkish military outposts but syria insists this is a legitimate fight against what he describes as terrorist organizations a reference to hate the idea of a sham which is the most powerful rebel group operating in the province of it. and as the fighting show no sign of abating civilians are concerned many villages have become. abandoned completely abandoned because people fear revenge attacks by the syrian government or fear to find themselves caught up in the fighting between the rebels and i mean the government and this is something which is creating. problems also of for turkey also because it has more than 4000000 syrian refugees and is concerned that the 4000000 remaining refugees in 4000000 civilians trapped in italy

would have absolutely no way to go except trying to cross into turkey. well we're all counting from saturday's general election in arland is underway with the results expected to cause a major political change exit polls show the left wing nationalist party sinn fein in a tie with the 2 center right parties which have dominated irish politics for decades but the ruling rivals for oil are both willing outside coalition pain let's cross live now to the barker he joins us now from dublin nice of the ruling out a coalition but it is looking like a 3 way tie going by the exit polls and the partial results just how is this likely to play out would you say. you know if the exit polls are indeed accurate then this would be

a major upset for irish politics if you get a feel for have dominated politics here for generations but watership fein have been successful in doing is capsulize ing on disillusionment with the 2 main parties largely perceived by nation fame supporters the finegan a figure for all have failed to deal with grassroots issues housing homelessness health care just to name a few both feet again if you go for so that they would absolutely rule out forming any kind of coalition with shamefaced that was before the election now that these results are starting to trickle out the question is whether they will reconsider those earlier. points of view there are some political experts here who say that that's not part of the beyond the conceivable for sinn fein and for that occupies more the center left side of the equation could be up for negotiations there is also the possibility of shem saying possibly also talking to some of the

smaller parties on the left of the political spectrum as well and. people looking at this from the sidelines or not also ruling out the pos. ability that seen a gallon figure for could team up deliberately to block shin fein from having any foothold in government going forward well the leader of sinn fein mary lou mcdonald's has been trying to people here in ireland to see a future where fein has a very strong role in leading this country going forward. and i actually think. they might. think something very very hard now here we are in the military just yet things. seem to get. chances to every point that. you say something. like. crisis in our house so. it's making these workers break free

thanks for your e. 3. at will me if this is an unprecedented turn of events is it not you know for all have been dominating irish politics for decades now what are the issues that have pushed voters towards sinn fein in such large numbers. with the issues of very the issues are complex the times upon some of them health care homelessness the spiraling cost of child care also what is perceived to be in the crumbling health care system in this country that has failed many in the eyes of people that have now decided this time around to switch their allegiance to. have been pitching support steadily over the last few years from some of the other political parties to gail the party that's been in power for the past few years and

its leader over i care that the prime minister has been accused of perhaps spending too much attention. bricks that negotiations something that put him into i guess the global eyes you know his profile has grown exponentially internationally but he's been accused of missing the mark back home and that's where shin fein as really capsulizes made health care homelessness central to their campaign and if indeed these exit polls are to be believed then that's a message that has landed very successfully not only with their traditional supporters but would also new supporters as well particularly younger people who were hit hard by the economic crisis who carter for their own own own home who are struggling with soaring rents these are the issues that she and feign a promise to solve the fark of our life as for now i thank you. what's more still ahead here on al-jazeera we'll meet the u.s.

republican hoping to take donald trump seats in the white house plus. time. racing the music the oscars organizes of the academy awards again face complaints about a month off to 1st see. how i once again welcome to the with that the international full cost is still a summer a state in the snow pushing through japan behind that this is actually last dry temperatures not faring too badly in so 9 celsius blazing out around 12 place for the south the central areas of china could see some outbreaks of rain as we go through monday and that rain becoming a little more widespread by the time we come to choose day of that state japan clearing up more the way of sunshine coming through in tokyo getting into double

figures talk temperatures then of around 11 degrees celsius with some sunshine some sunshine but the usual rash of showers through southeast asia they are gathering a little more tools and also the philippines could see some rather brisk showers as we go on through the next say pushing across into vietnam and down towards the peninsula heaviest downpours lucky to be just around indonesia or actually some very heavy rain here and that stretches where it was popular new guinea some pavey rain in the cards to its east in parts of india over the next day also there larry a cloud here that's just driving this well little further south which edition has seen some showers the showers now pushing through on the but dash and the slotting a little further south which you might just catch in to sri lanka to the north of that is dry foci. capturing a moment in time. snapshots of other lives because of the

stories. provided tips into someone else's well out dated was due to or. inspiring documentaries from impassioned filmmakers. like the witness on al-jazeera. from. this is al jazeera a reminder of the headlines this hour china is placing more than $10000000000.00 into the fight against corona virus which has no killed more people than the sars

epidemic 17 years ago the death toll stands at 813 been what fastens of people quarantined on board a cruise ship in hong kong have no been allowed to leave. the vigils been held in the city in thailand for a soldier went on a shooting spree at a military base then seized hostages in a shopping mall it killed 29 people in the city of caracas the thai prime minister says the soldiers motive was a disputes over a property deal. and syrian regime forces have taken control of the several villages in the north west soldiers are advancing in the southern part of aleppo province alone in a major highways defensive could open up a direct routes to rebel held areas in western aleppo and it led. the u.s. ambassador to israel has warned israel against taking any unilateral actions and exports of the occupied west bank ahead of the completion of the trump

administration's middle east peace proposal david friedman added that such a move couldn't danger the plan last month the long awaited middle east plan was unveiled as allies israel to annex all of its west bank settlements which is illegal under international law as well as the jordan valley which accounts for roughly a quarter of the occupied west bank where the palestinian government says rejects its the american proposal meanwhile has been processed across the globe against that so-called peace proposal in turkey demonstrators are also holding a rally in istanbul there condemning the decision and calling on people to see. stand up for jerusalem similar scenes happening in the moroccan capital robots for testers there are also condemning trumps plan. the annual african union summit is underway in ethiopia leaders from $55.00 african

countries is set for 2 days of talks will focus on ways to end regional file and so the continent's can unlock its economic potential the conflict in libya is high on the agenda as well as the growing instability in the sun whole region mohammad fall has more from outside the summits in at a suburb or he says there's been a lot of talk about a global response to help end the conflict in libya it's a series of issues quite a number of issues there are discussing here for today and tomorrow on top of that is libya of course since yesterday since that meeting yesterday afternoon via the by the united by the african union security. council they have been talking given big statements about what should be done in libya about the need for africa to join african leaders to join the global effort to find peace in libya the secretary general of the united nations or so spoke both yesterday and today about this

particular subject saying the united nations is here to express a message of solidarity and support to whatever the africans want to bring to the table he says it's time for africa to join and he praised the peacekeeping efforts already deployed by africans in the sahara saying that the international community should give full support to those efforts and advocating some of those missions to be conducted under chapter 7 so that they can have more efficiency with regards to the task at hand including combating terrorism and also for cement and keeping of peace. incidence of purity forces have to spare a sense of government protesters and corsi and a sense of the capital khartoum they're angry about it's a grade and fuel shortage cost of fuels the sensitive issue for the season is people who've suffered years of economic turmoil and high inflation after the serve long time leader omar al bashir last year the transitional government has been

trying to push through reforms to rebuild the economy. pakistan's prime minister has declared a national emergency after billions of locusts devastated farming communities in the east the coffee saying insects have ravaged constant tweets and maize crops raising fears of foot shortages the government says this is the worst locust infestation in more than 2 decades swarms of locals locusts are also destroying crops in east africa. has more from dera ismail khan an emergency had been declared the district administration the agricultural department the plant production department are all busy at work to try to gun day in the warm we have the deputy commissioner of the icon who leading the campaign against the warm and read dr m.

about what steps are being taken to try to do is the situation. we have encountered the situation a couple of weeks back but luckily we've got the dry cleaner load and. just go off today and you have got the project or do we consider ourselves as the french like the french liner before the locusts and i must acknowledge by the culture team the security culture and security league has given us a great sport we have gone for the manual operations then we go for the motorized operations then we feel that they should be out of the box solution for this emergency situation so we go for the drone solution as well. a republican is making a longshot bid for seats in the white house says the u.s. state's all new hampshire payors so will the country's 1st presidential primary election while much of the focus is on the democratic contenders bill weld hopes

republican supporters will back him over donald trump kristen salumi has the reports. bill weld is no stranger to the campaign trail the former republican governor of massachusetts ran for vice president in 2016 as a 3rd party candidate there are a lot of things emanating from the white house these days that are not reality this time he's in the neighboring state of new hampshire challenging president trump for the republican nomination head on in the primary to stakes couldn't be higher and i think the continuation of our form of government depends on mr trump not winning this election in november of 2020 and i'm going to do everything i can to make sure that that doesn't happen he's hoping to appeal to disgruntled republicans like claire manye considered voting democrat republicans who have always believed in fiscal responsibility right now it is not right to have

a trillion dollars of debt and i listen to the democrats and i'm saying they are democrats they're promising free education that promising free health care this is not with the repub what i stand for is a republican but well has no support from the party establishment to say bill weld is a long shot candidate is putting it mildly but this is new hampshire a state where past presidential hopefuls campaigning at small town events like this one have defied expectations and changed the trajectory of the election. this northeastern state historically leans republican and because of its relatively small size political scientist chris carter says candidates can meet a lot of voters face to face without having to spend much money at bill clinton was able to make his case you know one handshake at a time face to face with one voter at a time and place a really strong 2nd at a time when people are basically written him off as a candidate. clinton of course went on to become president as for bill weld he

seems to make a good impression with middle of the road voters i just always admired his policies and you know he always got reelected in a otherwise democratic state because he was so good but i don't think he's going to get the support that we need to take to get rid of the draft well this promising to stick it out past new hampshire but he needs to do very well here to have any chance of unseating the president christian salumi al jazeera new boston new hampshire. the 92nd academy award ceremony will take place later on sunday this year a lack of racial and gender diversity in the nominations as coast and i cry it's a reminder over 20152016 when the hash tag oscars so point was trending on twitter reports from the sunshine this. i don't know if you know extraordinary this is were it not for cynthia heir of those nomination for best actress in harriet the

oscar acting nominations this year would have been all white it's an embarrassing outcome for the academy of motion picture arts and sciences which has tried for several years to expand and diversify its overwhelmingly white older male membership you know hollywood is trying to diversify but it's slower than it should be and that's part of the nature of the film business film the film is very cautious because in television they take a lot more chances with things and so and so you see a lot more diversity in television and the emmy awards and the the oscars are still on diverse actors of color who were left out this year include uplift ina in the farewell jennifer lopez in hostler's lupita in young go. eddie murphy in dolomite is my name. and some conch hole in parasite

to the puddle not too much. to go it's a sharp contrast to 2019 when out of the 4 acting awards only one went to a white person ollywood also has a serious gender gap the nominees for best director are all male female directors passed over include gretta gerwig for little women and lulu way for the farewell in 90 plus years of oscars just one woman has ever won best director i think by women directors being high. for each your films was about 6 percent 10 years ago and i think it's about 6.5 percent now so it's like i mean it's injured up but not much it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy because there haven't been any in the past there aren't many being hired today and you know again it's because i think the studios are very conservative and cautious financially cautious while the academy struggles with

diversity the companies that make films in the way people watch them are changing rapidly streaming services are steadily taking the lead in hollywood's most prestigious event netflix has garnered $24.00 oscar nominations including 2 for best picture with marriage story and the irishman the stage is set for hollywood's biggest night but there will be fewer awards for an industry slow to embrace diversity robert oulds al-jazeera los angeles couldn't they only one day is a film critic and his story and he says some progress is still being made i think we have to be careful in terms of just. i suppose adopting a position that films just simply get awards because that diverse i don't think that is the case been some. films of great quality that have missed out i think us

for example look peter some fortunate that didn't go through with the nomination also the performance of jennifer lopez which has been remarked upon in terms of hustlers i think what is was worthy of a nomination but. in general i think that quality will come to the surface at the end of the day but there is genuine quality now being made and when i want to situation where even the. big kind of data is suggesting that the more mixed the film is the more diverse elements of it has actually the more money it's going to make and that's something that gives me optimism well al-jazeera is also on for an oscar nominated for the best documentary short subject is st louis superman is the story of bruce franks jr a ferguson activist and battle rapper he runs for state office here it is.

you know if i don't have to work like that it's not you don't learn about using something else happened on august 9th. it's kind of like point 36000 plus of me i saw my signing 50. things that i may. not feel like you know at this my time to stand. and you can catch that oscar nominated documentary a stately supermodel info on witness that's airing at 2230 g.m.t. this sunday february 9th and we wish them all the very best at the oscars. this is al-jazeera and these are the headlines china is facing more than $10000000000.00 into the fight against corona virus which is no kill to more people

than the sars epidemic 17 years ago the death toll stands at 813 meanwhile thousands of people quarantined on board a cruise ship in hong kong have been allowed to leave it in brighton has more from hong kong this has been basically a floating quarantine center for the past few days they've been stuck on board this vessel because it emerged that 8 passengers from the mainland on a previous forward on this same vessel tested positive for the virus so for that reason the health officials here in hong kong had to screen all the 1800 crewmembers just to be sure before they could let people go ashore and on sunday it was confirmed that none of them had tested positive so those people have now left what is effectively been a prison for them albeit a 5 star prison a vigil has been held in the city in thailand where a soldier went on

a shooting spree at a military base then seized hostages in a busy shopping mall he killed 29 people in the city of korans all the time prime minister says the soldiers motive was a disputes over a property deal syrian regime forces have taken control of several villages in the northwest the soldiers are advancing in the southern part of aleppo province along 2 major highways. and vote counts in from saturday's general election arlen's a zones away with the result expected to cause a major political change exit polls show the left wing nationalist party shin fein and that's why the team censor right oxys. as it from a just want to one ace is up next.

every year thousands of japanese men and women that age without a trace. sorting through that they've got us as a sort of guns kinks in the can we make that up at all got them on what. they are known as the joe hockey or evaporated people. and they engineer their own disappeared since you did it look you need to join a few days such gets more. confident there. why do they choose to disappear. to what are the must. do good in most. and what do they leave behind all. this is. going on we don't know what's in the nickel.