on al-jazeera. you're. back uys who've been quarantined for weeks on board a japanese cruise ship because of the corona virus have now landed in california. and richelle carey this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up syrian government forces have made significant gains in rebel held areas around aleppo. the stork ruling in india women will now be allowed to serve his officers in the military plus. this was an agonizing decision for us one that we didn't make lightly easily automaker general motors announces it will shut down plants and pull out of new zealand australia and thailand.

after several days of declining figures the number of new corona virus infections in china has risen again only 2000 more people were reportedly effect infected on sunday the virus has now claimed 1770 lives on china's mainland forcing some cities to tighten controls even further south than a city with more than 2500 cases of the virus has gone into a complete lockdown it comes as the u.s. is getting back to waiting hundreds of people from the diamond princess cruise ship and japan 14 of those evacuated or put in containment on the flight to the united states after they were confirmed to have the virus and hong kong or spend reports of panic buying and one instance armed robbery stole hundreds of toilet paper rolls starr clark joins us now from hong kong so sara days 14 cases that i mentioned 14

u.s. citizens that reported to have coronavirus what else can you tell us about that. yes an extraordinary and unfortunate situation for those passengers on board that chartered aircraft the u.s. had sent these aircraft to rescue the more than $300.00 of the american citizens on board the diamond princess which is the the ship the cruise liner which was quarantined in york to hama in japan now those passengers who were infected prior to departure they will remain in yokohama in quarantine but as you just mentioned 14 passengers on departure on that aircraft have confirmed now tested positive to the crown of fire so they are infected shortly before boarding but clearly the u.s. state department of those of the medical offices onboard said this that particular passengers who were found to be infected before departure were found to be fit for flying another were put on us in isolation on board that aircraft in a self-contained area on the airplane and now at least one of those flights as you mentioned has now landed at the travis air force base in california and all those

passengers have gone returned on that flight and they will now be put under strict isolation a 14 day quarantine period and those other passages who start show symptoms or develop those symptoms or also can fuck confirmed to be positive with the crown of ours infection or they will seek further isolation but certainly an extraordinary situation the u.s. has already confirmed 15 cases in the u.s. of the crime of virus infection and so clearly with these 14 new passages and with confirmation of what put testing positive that will nearly double the cases in the u.s. so there is a schedule session of the chinese parliament coming soon but we understand that it's already going to be delayed postponed cancel what do we know about this. well this is huge news and this is just developing and reportedly there's meant to be a meeting on february 24th to decide whether or not they will go ahead with that postponement now that this is china's biggest annual political gathering which is held in beijing another 2 sessions which will be held in march 1 was on march 3rd and the

other and much 5th but one source is suggesting that the risk of proceeding is simply too high and that simply until i can time the virus and know this they contain the actual virus although the spread of this virus within china or the risk is too high to go ahead but this and other obviously there are strict district contain rules across china a 14 days in a number of those provinces but the since young county has now confirmed it will extend that quarantine time to 21 days so those 3000 required the delegates the deputies who are needed to be attend that this particular political gathering in beijing a lot of those will be simply too hard for them to get to beijing as a result and it's not just the deputies in the delicates we're talking about a number of stuff they're required to rid of here would minister at this particular session suggestions of up to 8000 people are required to be there now in other news the world health organization has also confirmed it's going to send its delegation of experts to beijing sichuan and the quandong province they've also confirmed that

one drug which they've been trying as now proved effective now as you mentioned earlier the cases in china certainly the number of infections it continues to rise about the number of deaths of fatalities the corona virus infections that has certainly that's for there are less deaths reported on sunday another by province it continues to be in lockdown about 16000000 people who remain in their homes and also in hong kong is a situation here where we're seeing quite extraordinary panic buying it's hard to buy rice it's also hard to buy toilet paper there's been a lot of rumors of a lack of supply and overnight we had 2 burglars who basically stole a number of toss hundreds of toilet rolls from a supermarket as a result that this is this is unfortunate but extraordinary situation that the police have now arrested 2 of those particular cases the panic buying here in hong kong of a key are essential supplies that people think are running ouch ok sorry clark with the latest from hong kong sara thank you. and china's government is working to limit the economic impact of the virus attacks and senators are being rolled out to

help encourage companies to return to work millions of workers have been off the job for weeks now as the government tries to limit the spread of the virus. 50 percent of our employees have returned to work bringing our production capacity to 50 percent we predict all of our workers will be back on their post by the end of february and a production capacity will return to normal the governments also ruled out some measures to help enterprises and ensure their normal operation so we're encouraged and feel confident. at least 5 people have been killed by a car bomb in a turkish controlled town in syria 5 others were injured when it detonated in the town of tel aviv near the turkish border dozens of civilians have been killed there by a number of car bombs since turkish back forces drove out the kurdish wife e.g. fighters in october turkish state media have blamed the attack on why peachey syrian state media is reporting that government forces have recaptured parts of aleppo province which was once controlled by rebels president bashar al assad's

forces have made significant gains over the past several days seizing strategic empires highway which links aleppo with the with major syrian cities turkey which backs a section of the opposition is trying to stop those advances by rebels who have abandoned areas and aleppo and it live now see turkey's increased involvement is the only way to regain ground or borrow reports on turkey's border with syria. these are fighting for the national liberation front a rebel alliance backed by turkey outgunned and outnumbered the fighters secret behind in you directed at the bank merchant on the other side government troops are stepping up their campaign. thought more about the 100 services we are consolidating our defense lines setting up small flexible command centers where most of the factions are coordinating their operations and are in is to drag government forces into our own areas fighting has surged over the last few days

president bashar al assad's forces have regained control of many areas in and. there it's bands infuriated turkey which accuses of violating the terms of a cease fire agreement turkey signed with russia and iran 2 years ago unka has sent more troops into it and expanded its military outposts despite that damascus in. its campaign won't stop turkey's growing involvement in the syrian conflict is welcomed by the rebels who see it as an opportunity for a cold. we are still fighting to prevent assad's army and the militias backing him from destroying our villages and evicting civilians the morale of our fight is high and we are all determined to defeat assad the rebels have been weakened by

internal fighting and divisions the national liberation front is one among many operating in rebel held territory but hey at the us. is the most powerful it's an alliance of many groups with a strong presence in it live the rebels have no hope of defeating assad's troops who are making more gains and determined to take over the last area held by the opposition now their last chance is that turkey increases its military presence in syria stops the government offensive and imposes a ceasefire but such agreement would be decided by 3 key powers russia turkey and iran. the tie on turkey's border with syria gunshots were heard in tear gas fired during the latest anti-government demonstrations in iraq or testers fought with police use smoke bombs to disperse crowds in baghdad on sunday or testers say their tents were set on fire by security forces i'm fatter

day around 550 iraqis have been killed during months of protests against corruption and employment and lack of government services. and the supreme court has ruled that women and the army must be given the same career opportunities as men and means female officers can now apply for permanent commissions which opens up command roles it's not yet clear the open will be able to take part in active combat and court indian government argued that many male soldiers would not accept female superiors just said it was an insult to question the ability and achievements of women and the army was a problem has more from new delhi. where at the supreme court when a female officers celebrating the judge's decision the courts told the government that female officers should have what's called permanent commission that is they should be allowed to say for the same duration as they may encounter.

in defense forces finally come. ecstatic about the decision it's a wonderful decision it's a decision that's come up and it tells everybody that. everyone there. are no different and the women are no different so it's about equality for the supreme court also said that the government needs to change its mindset and that's because permanent commission was posited by the delhi high court in 2010 but challenge by the government which cited physiological features and societal norms as reasons why women couldn't have equality in the. now the supreme court said that the government's grounds for denying permanent commission and for denying command positions disturbing and need to be changed they cannot be accepted female officers hope that this paves the way for them to come on positions in all

branches of the indian army. and he has rejected an offer by the un chief to mediate the kashmir dispute delhi says it's a bilateral issue. general intending to terrorists made the offer during a visit to pakistan as i'm about as pressure on n.d. after it withdrew kashmir as autonomy last year. and i'm deeply concerned about the increase in tensions that we have witnessed last year i have repeatedly stressed the importance of exercising maximum restraint and taking steps to deescalate bill smily thirdly invertible why rectory thing my offer to exist size my good offices should both sides us diplomacy and dialogue remain the only tools that get into peace and stability. still ahead on al-jazeera feeling forgotten the appeal for help for afghan refugees and pakistan. also we take a look at markets painting

a different vision of the future. of. how i welcome to look at the international full costs of showers across southeast asia the heaviest of the n.t. malaysia maybe into indonesia as well but we will see some showers just cropping up around the philippines over the next couple days the northeasterly winds driving some showers there into lose on central parts of the country to central and southern parts of vietnam also seeing some rather lively showers from time to time and even down into the southern areas that thailand for a time will see some very wet weather dried day here as we go on through wednesday the wetter weather will be across borneo and indonesia into poppy new guinea a few showers to cross the fall north of australia but the major area of heavy rain

still over towards at least the side of the country to see this little clutch of storms here into new south wales that's all sinking a little further south was away some showers that will sydney as we go on through tuesday 30 celsius in the full costs the heaviest rain will be into the far south of new south wales just pushing into victoria that eastern side of toria in particular and some very windy weather there across tasmania over the next day or 2 the shallowest tend to ease a little further ways with as we go through wednesday the still there nevertheless a slushy fog in try for new zealand. from fossil fuels to modern day renewable as societies develop the energy demands increase requiring innovative solutions to meet such to moms as a global power developing to the basement company nebraska power is uniquely positioned to deliver against these 2 moments we provide business growth promote

social economic benefits and provide innovative safe and environmentally sound energy solutions for future generation the bridgetown pioneering future energy. and watch out to sarah let's recap the top stories now the number of new corona virus infections in china has risen again after several days of decline early 2000 more people were reported to be infected on sunday with the death toll rising to 1770 syrian state media says government forces have seized most of aleppo province russian airstrikes assisted and that push the turkish delegation is set to resume talks in moscow on monday to discuss the escalation and the area. and the

supreme court has all the women in the army must be given the same career opportunities as men and means female officers can now apply for permanent commissions which opens up command roles but it's not yet clear from it will be able to take part in active combat it. a taliban attack on an afghan army as to kill 5 soldiers at happened in the northeast city of can do 3 soldiers were also killed in that attack afghan defense officials say they responded with air strikes on the taliban positions and they killed many of their fighters general motors is pulling out of australia new zealand and thailand as part of its years long global restructuring across all 3 countries the company employs almost 2 and a half 1000 people the company is expected to wind down operations in all 3 countries by next year and there are plans to make similar changes in japan russia and europe general motors says it's focusing on more lucrative markets in north

america and china regrettably despite the tireless work of many good people the business case could not meet jim's investment thresholds. factors working against further investment holden included the highly fragmented domestic markets for the raw and drop product. the economics of supporting the brand. and obviously getting to an appropriate level over to them our investment from armless let's talk to automotive analyst lauren fix who joins me from buffalo new york via skype lauren thank you so much so what are your issues specifically in australia new zealand thailand are they are they are similar issues i mean is it just that they're not making enough money but broader than that why is that. well obviously you're talking about a brand such as holden you've watched their numbers drop from 12 percent over the last 10 years dropped on a 9 percent market share so you're not selling the vehicle it's because consumers don't want that product specifically or not unfortunately it means that they have

to shut down plants in this case they're literally stopping producing the name holden which is a pretty historic name in australia both shutting down plants means jobs but if you've got to save money for a company that just went through 40 days of a shutdown with the u.a.w. among other issues they've got to look at where they're making money and where they're not and cut their losses so as i also said they're looking to do similar things and at other places as well japan russia and europe what what what is g.m. going through right now they're looking at a global restructuring so when they're looking at where we making money were we not making money where we have market share recently they sold off opel to p.s.a. and p.s.a. actually made a very great success out of it but in the case of general motors it just wasn't selling under the name and that styling so they're going to have specialty cars in those markets depending upon what that market needs whether it's trucks cars or worse or performance you know such as the new corvette but i think it's going to be

better for them to cut back and better get a new grip on those countries before trying to you know just spend money if they're not making it back doesn't make any sense at all especially when it comes to tyra and how would you characterize this as this plan assists and aggressive plan to get outta ahead of some some trouble they see coming. i should think it's a little late they should have done this years ago mary barra's to choose going to do it when she became c.e.o. and you know you can't just you know pull the trigger a large company like this is a lot of plans that have to be put into play and a lot of people that need to be communicated with in this case it took this long which is quite a bit longer than expected in order to do this they should have looked at a long time ago where we not make you money and that's where you need to you know start making their product bring in other products and they've been a little slow to market a lot of things as well but you know when we're domestic the u.s. manufacturer we tend to move a little bit slower than some of the other brands so a lot of people are out of jobs are going to be out of jobs what does that mean for

them what are their options well in the case of thailand i know the great wall which is the chinese car manufacturer is buying their plant that's in thailand and so they'll be hiring people to build those vehicles are very aggressive company and they've been growing like crazy when you're looking at other countries it depends on their economy here in the us our economy is very strong our employment rate is low so those people if it were the us they would find jobs in other countries it depends on the country that they're in and who's hiring and b. it may after you know be retrained for computers or other types of technologies ok lauren fix your insight always thank you. thank you u.s. secretary of state. for the 2nd part of his 3 country tour of africa is meeting the president and foreign minister to discuss anti-corruption efforts it follows a visit to senegal where he discussed trade and security with president macky sall . then it got leaders and i also talked about islamist terrorism which endangers

350000000 people right here in west africa. it threatens americans too. and we are counting on setting on it is an important ally in this fight and i shared our friends that the u.s. will keep up this fight as well. in addition we discussed how the united states can continue training and supporting senator lees peacekeepers in the region one of the top representatives on libya says the back fence embargo is a joke our ministers discussed fighting in libya on the sidelines of sunday security summit and munich they agreed on the importance of ending foreign interference in the civil war and stopping the flow of weapons and gauche ations between the un recognized government and more likely the hof star who launched a military and said to capture tripoli. on tuesday that it's been 9 years since the revolution that toppled longtime libyan leader moammar gadhafi a power vacuum since then that's what's for the current crisis residents say they have nothing to celebrate after coming under constant attacks from forces trafford

met some who were forced to leave their homes aren't sure if they can ever return. bill to neglected for almost a decade these tiles on feet for habitation more than a 100 families who have fled fighting on the outskirts of libya's capital shelter here now this tiny room is with a hoodie and her 2 children have lived for the last 3 months there's no electricity or running water samir a says his son used to be top of his class at school but the school was closed because of the fighting she described what happened when she tried to return to her home with her daughter to collect more of their belongings. i swear the horror that this little girl has seen no other child has witnessed in all of libya that the whole building in front of us collapsed the bombs were coming from all sides our home was completely destroyed we could have been killed. nation

says that more than 150000 people have been forced to flee their homes since general haftar started its offensive on tripoli in april more than 600 people have been killed or injured now many libyans will be celebrating the anniversary of a revolution that overthrew. at the same time as the country is ensuring what many describe a civil war. international efforts to full just cease by the failed renegade general hurley for half the city's offensive against the un backed government based in tripoli will continue. families attend an event organized by government forces to honor their son's killed defending the capital how much of conses he still dreams of peace and a unified libya well i don't know when i heard my son had been killed i was shocked but i hope god willing that he just like so many others who died for this country

will be deemed a martyr and in next year's revolution anniversary will be better and all libyans can celebrate one unified libya where we and generations to come come across. back in their tiny cold room in the town samir a says thousands of families like us have nothing to celebrate. the children that there are so many tragedies huge problems and there's people suffering even more than us i don't have any hope left there is no security to why and what all the celebrated. another generation to young to understand can only wait for the peace and prosperity that was promised to their parents almost a decade ago. 0 tripoli pakistan and the un refugee agency are holding a conference to highlight the challenges facing afghan refugees as estimated more than 2000000 are sheltering and pakistan some have been displaced since the 1979

soviet invasion ongoing violence makes returning home dangerous to repatriation program is set to resume next month the un refugee agency says millions remain displaced from the time of the soviet invasion and most are either in pakistan or iran but since 2002 more than 4000000 afghans have chosen to return home under a voluntary repatriation program the largest the un refugee agency has carried out pakistan is hosting a conference to share the lessons learned and to encourage other countries to share the cost of hosting afghan refugees call hiders at a refugee camp and city official our he says pakistan and the un are putting pressure on the international community to do more to help. the main emphasis will be to drive back to try to bring back into focus the plight of millions of brown refugees who are still in bulger's don they of course have been problem from international donors and very little helpers been coming in but the secretary

general of the united nations and tonio good care is who i am says was secretary the secretary of the refugees said that pakistan has been a wonderful host it said that this is an issue which ain't been going on for almost 4 decades he also mentioned the fact that pakistan is still hosting the 2nd largest refugee population in the world and he appears to the international community to come out with more generous help to try to solve the problems of these of one refugee however everybody knows that because of the situation in afghanistan many people are reluctant to go home so he would also hope that the peace talks that are underway perhaps would provide an opportunity for a wall and 3 every pad 3 asian one which is based on dignity and also on human compassion he of course has gone out of their way to attack both iran and pakistan

for hosting these refugees despite the fact that there is very little international help and for taking that book in place in costa rica had made a record seizure of almost 6 tons of cocaine the drug was found hidden in briefcases on a container ship about to sail to rotterdam in the netherlands placed arrested a container truck driver. storm dennis has caused a record number of almost 600 flood warnings to be issued in england pilots struggle to land and high winds at london's heathrow airport record high river levels of forced hundreds from their homes across the u.k. and wales more than a month's worth of rain has fallen and 48 hours people in france are feeling the full force of dennis whipped by the sea and invaded the town on the coast of brittany and warnings are in place elsewhere and 60000 homeowners are without power and northwest france. artificial intelligence and gene editing and

laboratories they're all being developed now but what else can we imagine will happen in the future that's the big question being asked of visitors at an exhibition in the u.s. designs for a different future as at the philadelphia is the i'm of arts and carvell is on the to the luck it's an art exhibition not about the past not about the present but about imagining the future of everything like this 25 collaged passports proposing a system to allow people to temporarily exchange citizenship a critique of a world where goods and services freely cross borders where humans often can't it's one of more than 75 exhibits by designers tackling issues of the future and the human condition at the philadelphia museum of art it is a vast show that tries to ask a lot of questions without necessarily giving answers. when you come to an

exhibition about the future you might expect to see things like this robots and there is one this is corey that looks at the interaction between robots and humans and artificial intelligence but this exhibition is also about a lot more. these faces were created from d.n.a. extracted from discarded cigarette ends and gum on the streets the designer using the genetic information to render the portraits there are several pieces related to food like these 2 salmon a larger genetically modified one next to a smaller organic one and a replica of stakes grown out of human cells from hospital waste both provocative ideas reflecting a future where food resources are strained the idea is to make people think about food as a cornerstone of human civilization and think about what will happen to food and the future of human diet as we start thinking about the big challenges that are

lying ahead like climate change diversity loss and environmental pollution einstein once said he never thinks of the future because it will come fast enough in this exhibit designers are the ones bringing bare ideas for the future and not telling people what to think rather what to think about gabriel's on to. the delphia. pick up the headlines right now on al-jazeera the number of new corona virus infections in china has risen again after several days of the klein in late 2000 more people were reported to be infected on sunday but the death toll rising to $1778.00 and japan says another $99.00 people on board a cruise ship have tested positive for corona virus comes as the u.s. has evacuated its citizens from the vessel which was koren chain because of the outbreak 14 of those evacuated were put in containment on the flight to the united states after they were confirmed to have coronavirus star clark has more from hong

kong. extraordinary unfortunate situation for those passengers on board that chartered aircraft the u.s. had sent the sick craft a risk to the more than $300.00 of the american citizens on board the diamond princess which is the the ship the cruise line which was quarantined in yokohama in japan those passengers who were infected prior to departed they were mine in yokohama in quarantine but as you just mentioned 14 passengers on departure on that aircraft have confirmed do not tested positive to the. syrian state media says government forces have seized most of aleppo province russian airstrikes assisted in their push a turkish delegation is set to resume talks in moscow on monday to discuss the escalation in the area and u.s. supreme court has ruled that women in the army must be given the same career opportunities as men and means female officers can now apply for permanent commissions which opens up command roles it's not yet clear though if women will be

allowed to take part in active combat a taliban attack on an afghan army post has killed 5 soldiers happened in the north the city of code use afghan defense officials say they responded with air strikes on the taliban positions and they killed many fighters general motors is pulling out of australia new zealand and thailand as part of its years long global restructuring across all 3 countries a company employs almost 2 and a half 1000 people a company is expected to wind down operations in all 3 countries by next year general motors says it's focusing on more lucrative markets and north america and china as are the headlines keep it here on al-jazeera more news to come in the meantime witness is that next. talk to elders there are we are square we talk about 2 of the biggest problems facing and they are the endemic corruption and the gang we listen so if you really put place china as an enemy of

the world and that's really daniel's we meet with global news makers and talk about the stories that matter on the edges there are a. joke mario as the judge you know i read that. allege the question did.