holding the powerful to account as we examine the u.s. its role in the world on al-jazeera. orlando. syria's president celebrates recent gains by his forces in aleppo saying the fight for full control will continue. following barbara starr you're watching al-jazeera live from london also coming up the growing evidence of a client in cases of corona virus in china as health officials say the virus is not as deadly as previous strains. a major breakthrough in efforts to enforce an arms embargo in libya the european union ok's new sea and air patrols in the eastern mediterranean. that russia has big plans for facial recognition we take

a closer look at legal attempts to shut it down. syria's president bashar al assad says he is committed to continuing his government's offensive in the north of the country until the very end his forces have made massive gains in the last rebel held areas in recent days capturing dozens of villages in aleppo province u.n. figures show 875000 syrians mostly women and children have now fled the offensive by syria's government and its russian allies since only december of those 40000 have fled in just the past 4 days said made his comments in a rare appearance on t.v. . we fully understand that this liberation does not mean the end of the war or the end of plots or terrorism either this liberation does not mean the enemy's will

surrender this liberation means that we put our enemies pride and nose in the dirt as a primary step to defeat them completely sooner or later. on the turkey syria border with more on bashar al assad's comments. this is a delicate moment for the syrian opposition but also for the syrian government and this explains why president bashar assad has been celebrating in his speech the new major gains made by the syrian army particularly on the outskirts of. and also the southern parts of live saying basically that this is just about a matter of time before the opposition is defeated this explains why he has been saying that the fight will continue until the terrorists of this is the term that he uses. most of the time to describe the syrian opposition would no longer in 2014 or 13 when the syrian government was on the verge of collapse and

when the syrian opposition was making spectacular gains across the country all those gains were reversed and just confined to it which is their last stronghold but president bashar assad also told his people that they have to wait and that this is not the end of the war and i think he was hinting to the fact that with the growing turkish involvement with turkey sending more voices into into taking over it might take some time now it's no longer up to us to decide what happens next and i think this is something which will boil down to 3 key players russia turkey if you have been. holding talks in moscow to defuse tension iran is also another regional player the 3 iran russia and turkey will decide the future of syria in the near future.

more than 300 americans have been flown home after 2 weeks in quarantine on a cruise ship as the find to contain the coronavirus continues the diamond princess which is docked in yokohama has become the biggest single cluster of infections outside china with more than 450 people unwell in the epicenter of the outbreak more than 70 and a half 1000 people have been confirmed to have the virus in china with nearly 1800 deaths among them the people daily people's daily newspaper reports that the high ranking director over one hospital has died from the virus well the lockdown of chinese cities is continuing in one of the country's most important political gatherings of the year maybe the next casualty officials are considering canceling an annual parliamentary session which draws officials from around the country to beijing sarah clarke has the latest now from hong kong. millions of chinese are returning to work some companies have reopened their factories as they try to get

back to business as usual after being shot for weeks. 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. employees arriving for work a getting additional checks to make sure they're healthy and the government's offering companies tax incentives to limit the economic damage of the outbreak or the government's also rolled out some measures to help enterprises and ensure their normal operation so we're encouraged and feel confident government statistics on monday showed a continuing rise in the infection right in china but the fatality rate has fallen the national health commission says the situation is improving outside who by the province at the center of the crisis to. the places outside of who by a total of 115 new cases were reported on sunday including 5 new did the number of

newly confirmed cases outside of who bay has kept declining for 13 days in a row the number of new confirmed cases remained at a relatively low level. of the injured by the situation is grim inside this makeshift hospital and will hand patients queue for food and treatment as medical staff care for the rising number of infected china's military is sending hundreds of doctors and nurses to where hanne the world health organization is sending experts to beijing as well as to guangdong and sichuan province it's. with the virus yet to be contained china's largest annual political meeting is expected to be postponed the national people's congress to start on march the 5th a meeting next monday is due to decide if the meeting will be shelved the 1st time in china's recent history here in hong kong another infection was reported on monday the spread of the virus is feeling more consumer panic with price toilet

paper rolls and face masks still in short supply the government is calling for calm sarah clarke al-jazeera hong kong. well the head of the world health organization says new data from china is giving a clearer picture about the impact of the virus the data also appeared to show a decline in new cases this trend must be interpreted very cautiously turned this going to change as a new populations are affected it's too early to tell if this report to decline will continue every scenario is still on the table it also appears that quoted 9 june is not as deadly as a record and i viruses including scientists and murders more than 80 per cent of patients have mild disease and will recover. japan meanwhile has confirmed that 99 further infections on board

a quarantine cruise ship docked in yokohama but 300 americans who were on board the ship have arrived home on evacuation flights allow spend another 2 weeks in medical seclusion in the u.s. can really help it has more from washington. well the u.s. government set up a task force a number of weeks ago and so those efforts put in place are now being implemented those passengers are going to 2 different locations either military base in texas or another in california and there are more military bases around the country that are on standby if they're needed later on now the concern is for the from the standpoint of health officials in the united states is the asymptomatic spread of this virus in other words those that don't have any exhibited symptoms can still pass the virus on to another person and as a result draconian containment measures have been taken are taking place and that is that there will be an unforced quarantine of 14 days for these passengers that have just arrived in the u.s.

so you have to remember they've already been in isolation for 2 weeks now the clock starts ticking for another 2 weeks bring it to a total of one month that these passengers will be separated from the rest of society chinese authorities have detained a prominent rights activist who criticized president zeeshan ping's handling of the corona virus outbreak. who was arrested on saturday night in the southern city of one says he's a legal scholar and long time activist for judicial reform earlier this month sue published an essay which called on china's president to resign citing the coronavirus crisis and the mishandling of the whole call pro-democracy protests. the european union will launch a new sea and air patrols in the eastern mediterranean to try to stop more weapons reaching libya's warring factions that decision marks a major breakthrough after weeks of negotiations between the member states the e.u.'s current operation will be scrapped after it was criticized for bringing more

migrants into europe a un arms embargo was 1st imposed 9 years ago but it has barely been upheld a senior u.n. official warned on sunday that any weapons ban was meaningless because there is no one to enforce it but more talks on libya are shojo to resume on tuesday in geneva focusing on trying to obtain a durable cease fire or diplomatic editor james frey's has more on that and the e.u. operation. well clearly we now have a decision from the e.u. to set up a new monitoring mission but it came with a great deal of political wrangling and what they've done is they've dishpan did their existing mediterranean mission operation sophia now that was unable force with ships in the mediterranean but the ships actually haven't been there for some time because of political pressure from italy that mission was for migrants they've now wrapped up that mission and now have to completely start again and build a new mission one of the question marks is whether the new mission like operation

severe is going to need all 3 eyes ation from the u.n. security council what is certain is this is going to take very many months but i think what the you are hoping is lurks in the meantime the fact they've set up this mission will be added terence to those that are still poor your arms into the country of course the arms embargo isn't the only problem facing libya the other bageant problem is the lack of a ceasefire and here at the un's european headquarters in geneva in the coming hours talks to try and get a ceasefire are going to start again the so-called military commission 5 plus $55.00 representatives from the internationally recognized government in tripoli and 5 representing general have and these forces in benghazi the u.n. has a vicious plans if they can get the guns to fall silent they won't just no real weeks' time all the political parties in libya to come to further talks here in geneva

still to come on al-jazeera in the next half hour a massacre in an already tense english speaking part of can the separatists blame the army but it denies responsibility. not that before the race has even begun to speak clear radiant politicians blocked from seeking reelection. hello again or welcome back to your international weather forecast well we have been talking about storm dennis for many days now and we're still going to be dealing with here across parts of northern europe about this front where you see here this line of clouds that is where we're seeing the gusty as winds continuing as we go towards tuesday still cross parts of the baltics we will experiencing some gusty winds there is ferry service could be disrupted as well as we go towards

tuesday in terms of the rain here across the u.k. swiss still dealing with a lot of flood watches and warnings in effect in terms of the rain though it is going to be lighter but that's not the end of it as we go towards the middle of the week we're going to be seeing another storm coming in out of the atlantic and this one is going to bring some more rain some more winds with it as well really we're going to be seeing the force of this as we go towards wednesday night and then the system pushes an even closer as we go towards thursday heavy rain expected across much of the area also gusty winds could be a problem there's that front pushing through london later in the day we do expect to see rain with a temperature of 11 degrees there well here for the northern coast of africa a lot of clouds over the next few days in parts of libya as well as into egypt we don't expect to see too much in terms of rain mostly along the coastal areas but for alexandria and maybe into cairo it could be a few showers the you attempt the 20 and the gazi at 16 degrees.

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to continuing his government's offensive in the north of the country until the very end bashar al assad made his comments in a rare appearance on television the european union will launch a new air n.c.r. inspired troll in a bid to prevent weapons from reaching libya the decision aiming to uphold the barely recognized you and arms embargo comes after months of negotiations. just under 100 new cases of coronavirus have been diagnosed on board a cruise ship in japan as 300 americans quarantined on board return home more than 70 and a half 1000 people 7000 right now have the virus in china. at least 7 people including 2 police officers have been killed and dozens wounded in a suicide bombing in pakistan police say a teenager detonated the bomb in whether that's the provincial capital. it happened when he was stopped by police near the city's press club were religious rally was

taking place so far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. at least 22 people have been killed during an attack on a farming village in kemah room's northwest english speaking region the u.n. says armed men shot at women and children in both and burned others in their homes english speaking separatists have blamed the army for the violence but it's the night any wrongdoing and says its soldiers were attacked during a workout reconnaissance mission as we understand it from local witnesses between 40 and 50 or were in military fatigues attacked the village in the morning and we have verified is that we have 22 civilian casualties there could be more at the moment we've confirmed 22 this is in the context of and with the process which has been going on for almost 4 years between independent seeking. and there's only you

know they call themselves fighters and the current government al jazeera is nicholas hawke has been speaking to witnesses from dakar in senegal. graphic images that's being distributed on social media too graphic to broadcast on television these are children babies that were burnt before that they were shot in the head now we spoke to some eyewitnesses that were there when the attack took place that then buried the bodies of these children children ranging from the age of 6 months to 14 years of age there was a woman that was pregnant a disabled man this for the government is just collateral damage they acknowledge that this took place but they call it collateral damage in their fight against the separatists that want their independence from the french speaking majority of cameroon this is one of many attacks that have that is taking place in the northwest and southwest region of cameroon it's very difficult to go there we

weren't allowed to go there it's a restricted area so it's very difficult to get some clear reporting of what's happening joining me now is temp food from the open society in west africa he said himself in english speaking cameroonian when you hear the reports that we're seeing now would you make of this i mean it's a it's a terrible situation that has been allowed to get out of hun the incident in gumbo i'm i saluted the incident seen the i'll settle down with crises this incident have no quarrel with the regularity each time there is no accountability for the people of these he knew them through from the open society initiative in west africa thank you very much there are a 1000000 people displaced from this conflict that started off just a few years ago people english english speaking people that wanted that wanted the government to recognize their identity as an english speaking and despite this the attacks have intensified in that region. at least $24.00 people have been killed

after unidentified gunmen attacked a church in northern kenya faso the attack took place on sunday during a weekly service in the village of pansie it's the 3rd religious attack in the area in the past week. the speaker of iran's parliament the ali larijani has become the 1st foreign official to visit lebanon's new government he told president michel aoun that iran stood ready to help lead lebanon's struggling economy the prime minister has sunday has promised to come up with a plan to ease the financial crisis but protesters are good now in seeing his new cabinet and continue to say that they want a complete overhaul of the political system in a hole there is in beirut for us she explains why iranian support is not welcomed by all lebanese officials. iran is a major player in lebanese politics it has allies in this country in fact its allies control parliament and control the government its main ally of course the

shia armed group hezbollah now iran also has enemies and 11 on there are local lebanese groups which believes that iran is implementing its agenda in lebanon its hijacking. through its local allies so iran really is a very divisive issue so when they make any offer of support there is the opposition there are some in lebanon who say that the very fact that iran is the 1st foreign country to send their officials since the new government has been has received a vote of confidence in parliament last week risks isolating lebanon even further lebanon is facing an unprecedented economic and financial crisis this state is close to bankruptcy so yes levanon needs billions of dollars but is that something that iran will be able to help a country which is under sanctions a country which is also suffering from an economic crisis is finding itself really

caught in the cross fire of the u.s. that ukrainian standoff in the region and the international community really there has been no expressed expressions of support to. the government as of yet and many believe the very fact that hezbollah an ally of iran has so much influence over this cabinet is going to hurt levanon chances to get funds from the west and the arab world of course the united states and arab countries consider has to be a terrorist organization iran's parliamentary elections will be held on friday but much of the attention has been on candidates disqualified from standing more than $7000.00 applicants were told that they couldn't run including current members of parliament said bike reports from tehran. coming to terms with life outside of politics after 4 years as a parliamentarian he has now been told he can't stand for reelection he says he was told by the guardian council the body that oversees iran's elections it's because he does not

a baby stomach establishment he rejects that and says he was not surprised by the council's decision if you don't want to it wasn't very unexpected for me considering how the guardian council make decisions they didn't provide me with complete evidence and they made notes of comments on the media and my tweets due to some of my speeches and tweets over recent incidents it seems like they paid attention to them others say being a committed parliamentarian doesn't guarantee candidacy. wildhorse the issue about the law says for example a candidate should have a good reputation and be committed to the constitution these are not issues one can prove in court the guardian council should see if one is committed to the constitution or not. out of the $81.00 members of parliament barred from responding it's mainly politicians from the reformist movement who have been singled out they say they want the public's political system to be more open and democratic but that's opposed by conservatives who change isn't needed this level of disqualifications has not been seen since the 2004 parliamentary elections when

conservatives won the majority of the seats that's led to increased criticism of the council the vetting process and calls for reform and more the hello the guardian council's interference has hurt its position and damage his reputation and unlike what they say it's because of the interests of the establishment in parliament should reflect people's voices people's voices have variety they should let different opinions be present in the parliament it would lead to a dynamic parliament where people's hope one of the reasons that there's a predicted low turnout is because people feel disappointed the guardian council has rejected criticism that its decisions are politically motivated and some predict conservatives are set to make gains in this election president rouhani has put forward a motion for a referendum on the vetting power of the guardian council but if conservatives win the majority of seats in these elections that motion is unlikely to pass and the status quo will continue setting the stage for next year's presidential elections and a possible change and political direction. al-jazeera the her own. india supreme court

has ruled that women in the military must be given the same career opportunities as men female officers will be able to receive the same rank promotions and pensions as men getting the chance to serve as on will commanders the court rejected the government's argument that male soldiers were not ready to receive orders from female superiors but the court held off on the siding whether women can take part in active. all female officers said that they were ecstatic about the victory. in the reports now from new delhi. where at the supreme court when female officers are celebrating the judge's decision the court told the government that female officers should have what's called permanent commission that is they should be allowed to serve for the same duration as their male counterparts. for this day for so long and. in defense forces so this day has finally come.

ecstatic about the decision it's a wonderful decision it's a decision that's come up it tells everybody that women are equal to everyone else the men are no different and the women are no different it's about equality for the supreme court also said that the government needs to change its mind set and that's because permanent commission was passed 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 are disturbing and need to be changed they cannot be accepted female officers hope that this paves the way for them to command positions in all branches of the indian army it's been revealed that members of

a german far right group arrested last week were planning large scale attacks on mosques similar to those carried out in new zealand last year government spokesmen have described the details as shocking local media say the group aim to launch several civil teeniest mass casualty assaults on muslims during prayers the 12 men were detained in police raids across germany on friday. activists in russia are taking legal action against the government's plan for one of the world's largest facial recognition systems they fear their surveillance is being used to pinpoint critics of president vladimir putin but police say lower biting russians have nothing to fear our correspondents that vasant has been given exclusive access to police headquarters in moscow. mosco fights are being watched closely $200000.00 cameras will be installed not only on public streets but also at the entrances of private living quarters not many people are aware that their biometric data images body measurements and other characteristics are being captured real

time and transmitted to police monitor's within moments a person's identity can be determined and his place of residence. if the person is on the wanted list it means he is a criminal if you have not committed a crime you don't have to be awarded the 1000000000 to fight if he is a caught on camera russia is taking the phrase big brother is watching you so a new level with biometric data collection seemingly available at nearly every street corner. easily catch criminals but critics say they'll keep a close eye on activist opposing the put in 3 dream at the same time. police have been accused of using face recognition technology to crack down on peaceful protesters during a wave of anti-government demonstrations last summer up over sash she was arrested after taking part in the protests in 2018 she filed a case against the police at

a moscow court dismissed it she will mount a not a legal challenge against a technology next month is. by using facial recognition technology the state violates people's privacy and i'm saying they're doing it illegally i'm convinced that they collect and use or biometric data and they don't have a right to do so they must stop. but the company that designed it acknowledges sas it system is being used legally in russia an activist should be more worried about their mobile phones when you're talking about. all the. speech recognition is always on so. whatever so basically. when you when you do from the from the government perspective this is the number one thing become pany claims it can identify people even if only their eyes are visible and

we do find a loophole the company admits that mismatches can happen and aims to improve the system. not only to systems and basic needs and accuracy is being questioned but also its security recently russian media discovered that captured images are being hacked and sold on the black market which instead of compared to crime would make it criminal to work on lot easier step fasten al-jazeera moscow for the 1st time since the 16th century tapestries by renascence are to stuff i o. have returned to the walls of the vatican's sistine chapel the top masterpieces are on the plate to mark 500 years since the artist's death the silk wall and gold spreads have been restored by conservationists over the past that their cade rafael's artworks have been placed where they used to hang for more than 20 years after michelangelo finished painting the chapel ceiling in 1512. you can find out

much more on that story and everything else that we have been covering on our website there it is the address al-jazeera dot com. now the top stories on al-jazeera syria's president says he is committed to continuing his government's offensive in the north of the country until the very end but shuttle assad made his comments in a rare appearance on t.v. his forces have made gains in the last rebel held areas including regaining full control of towns in aleppo province on monday assad said advances including retaking a key strategic highway are the beginning of the end of the 9 year conflict but he said the war was not yet over. we fully understand that this liberation does not mean the end of the war or the end of plots or terrorism either this liberation

does not mean the enemy's will surrender this liberation means that we put our pride. as a primary step to defeat them completely sooner or later a new era and see arms patrol will be launched in a bid to prevent weapons from reaching libya the situation on the new european union mission to uphold a barely recognized u.n. arms embargo comes after months of negotiations but row boats will stop vessels in the eastern mediterranean in a bid to halt to the flow of smuggled weapons the e.u. patrols come after a summit in germany last month failed to agree a ceasefire. and just under 100 new cases of corona virus have been diagnosed on board a cruise ship docked at a japanese port it comes as 300 american tourists who were quarantined on the boat were flown home more than 70 and a half 1000 people have now been confirmed to have the virus in china officials in beijing are now considering canceling one of the country's main political gatherings of the year to stop people traveling. at least 7 people have been killed

in a suicide bombing in pakistan 2 police officers were among the dead in the blast in the southwestern city of quite the oil spill hospital officials say that more than 30 people were injured when the bomber detonated their device when they were stopped by security forces police say the attacker was intending to target a religious rally so far no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. those are the top stories stay with us the stream is coming up next the going to be talking in more detail on the effects of the coronavirus and i'm going to have more news for you right here in half an hour i hope you'll join me then thanks for watching if i.

am josh rushing filling in for the irreplaceable phemie ok china is fighting what its government calls up people's war against the deadly coronavirus but it's also battling to diffuse public anger over its handling of the crisis is china putting party before the people so your thoughts through twitter and you tube and you too could be in the story of. the corona virus spreading across china has now taken 1800 lives but it's cases mount chinese authorities are scrambling to address criticism that they should have been more open about the crisis on saturday the chinese government took the rarest .