how does iraq. some chinese regions scale back their response to the coronavirus but other parts of asia including south korea remain on high alert most of iran's neighbors shut their borders in an effort to keep the virus from spreading. hello and welcome i'm peter told me you're watching al-jazeera live from our headquarters here in doha also coming up officials in togo say the president has won a 4th term but the opposition cries foul. israel's military fires rockets into gaza and syria in response to strikes it blames on the palestinian group islamic jihad.

top story 4 provinces in china have lowered their emergency response level to the corona virus that does not include whole bay but the outbreak began the government has a 4 to response system for public health emergency is that determines what measures it will take so far about 78000 people in china have been infected however south korea is still on high alert it's just announced 161 new cases that brings the total number of infected people to 763 the number of dead from the virus in south korea now stands at 7 after 2 more were announced on monday in a few moments rob mcbride will be live for us in seoul 1st let's get the latest from china and our correspondent in beijing katrina you katrina good morning so we have some positive news from some of the chinese provinces.

that's right we're hearing that 4 chinese provinces you 9 kwaito going dong and sense you have lowered their alert level centrally encouraging people to get back to work as they've had 0 confirmed cases in recent days over a few confirmed cases which is a very positive thing but still we've had 415 of our 460 new confirmed cases it just announced in the past 24 hours and 150 confirmed dead now the new case number it is gradually getting lower but the death rate from there is remaining rather steady we have to also remember we still have about 4000 suspected cases and about 10000 people fighting for their lives in critical condition the president xi jinping has said over the weekend that this is the biggest health crisis that china has faced since the founding of the communist party of the founding of the republic and it's still really in the middle of this battle china still needs to really work hard to curb the outbreak not only of who bay province

but also they're paying attention to beijing with a has been some jumps in numbers in recent days president xi jinping and this morning during a press conference we've heard that they are new economic measures that they're putting in place to try to really contain the impact of this on china's economy at the same time they are balancing that act of containing this outbreak what while encouraging people to go back to work and certainly at the end of today we're expecting to hear an announcement sometime in the next few hours about whether in china's national people's congress which is the key economic event or key political events to take place every year usually in the beginning of march we're going to hear as to whether that will be delayed or that will go ahead that would give us really a clear repitch or as to whether we're going to see the end of this outbreak anytime soon trina thanks very much for joining us live from seoul so rob quite the different picture where you are. absolutely still on

this new red alert level low the level was raised yesterday sunday to the highest level for this disease and the health ministry has been giving regular updates this monday as you mentioned there an increase of $161.00 new cases that is slightly higher than yesterday sunday figure about the same saturday's figure so we have a fluctuating figure but obviously the trend is still upwards and the ministry was also pushed on its policy of containment whether it could carry on with this policy basically containment involves taking every case of corona virus as it as it occurs investigating that case to see where the person may have been infected from who that person has met to have those people tested obviously the more cases you get the invent the caseload the investigative work that you have to do becomes a huge and at a certain point the ministry has admitted that if they are pushed there they have

many more cases and it stresses the system they may have to abandon the policy of containment and simply go to mitigation basically trying to limit the damage except that this is spreading through the community and try to limit the damage but for the moment they say that containment is working they're going to continue with this policy but just to give you an idea of the kind of scale of the problem especially in the daegu area this is the area in the southeast of the country where they have had these outbreaks they are reckoned to be because this is peak flu season around $30000.00 people with flu symptoms now if all of those people present themselves at hospitals at testing centers which are rapidly being set up then all of those have to be investigated for the coronavirus so it's a huge task consequently the ministry is asking for all sorts of volunteers medical personnel in the southeast of the country to come along and help out. these testing

centers and infectious diseases wards just to be clear up when we talk about dig as a potential epicenter are we talking about a city a region or are we talking about this church because we've also been discussing so many people who are members of the congregation there. it is the city of daegu is the 4th largest city in south korea and also neighboring county of chung doe and now there's we've had 2 clusters of cases yes one of them has been in the city itself involving this church but there is a link between that and a 2nd cluster which we're happened in a hospital in chengdu go in the neighboring county so those are between them basically the epicenter of the outbreak and of the figures the 161 new cases being reported today monday the vast majority of those are members of that one congregation there are hundreds of people who are said to be sick who have reported

flu like symptoms as the medical teams go around and investigate those they are detecting and confirming many more cases of coronavirus the upside is that basically the congregation themselves know that they are at risk they are being told and are taking self quarantine measures and so far at least any new cases that have cropped up because there have been cases reported throughout south korea individuals in various cities across the country they have all been linked back to this area of south east southeast south korea but have not so far created as far as we know any new clusters rob thank you. well iran is being isolated by its neighbors because of growing fears over the coronavirus outbreak for new infections have been recorded in the capital tehran 7 in the holy city of qom to england province and one each in mccaskey province and

to the cabal now in a bid to stop the spread pakistan closed its borders with iran on sunday as have armenia and turkey in the northwest ankara has also halted all incoming flights in afghanistan has suspended all road and air travel to its neighbor 3 afghans are currently being tested for the virus after entering from iran and iraq is scanning arrivals of fears that hundreds of thousands of iranians visiting holy sites could bring the virus across the border dorset baris in tehran with more on how the authorities there are responding. the number is of course significant because they are worried that the containment process is really something that they need to address as quickly as possible the outbreak started in the holy city of which is about 120 kilometers south of the capital tehran officials believe that a chinese worker construction worker was the source of the outbreak in that city you know they have since closed schools and universities not only but in about 2

thirds of the cities across the country in the capital all the major events have been canceled including the government's foreign ministry briefing that was to be held on monday and we also understand the terror on university dormitories have been evacuated as well the health ministry has also said that the masks and this in fact and will no longer be sold in pharmacies because the government will be hanged handing them out in a public metro stations as well as buses across the cities austria has stopped all train traffic to and from italy over fears to do with the coronavirus earlier denied entry to a train from venice after 2 travelers were suspected of having the illness meanwhile its elise prime minister has announced a quarantine on several more than tons of acting 50000 people the last 2 days of the venice comedy have also been cancelled catherine stansell has more. more drastic measures in italy as doctors struggle to contain the spread of the corona

virus the mayor of milan has ordered schools to close for at least a week sporting events in the. regions have been cancelled so have the final days of the world famous tennis carnival disappointment to thousands of revelers. it is useless to stop a carnival because there are hospitals and bars and supermarkets and restaurants and trains and planes and ferries which are all open spaces and so how do you solve this problem stopping a carnival it's all ridiculous panic is more contagious and a virus. at this point has been unnecessary and you think and the lock down in northern italy has gone from urging everyone to stay indoors to a fully fledged quarantine prime minister decepticons has banned people from entering and leaving the regions where the virus is most prevalent and the army is being deployed to ensure the quarantine is observed. a list of we on the health authorities have not been able to locate patient 0 because we haven't identified

this is difficult to make any predictions about how the virus will spread so the only volley to be taken was to close off these territories this is going to support putting the corn chain has led to a rush to buy supplies and with the sudden increase in new cases many italians are worried. we're all afraid but we're crossing our fingers o.b.l. right if someone doesn't feel well they should react early because people can be cured if they come to hospital in a desperate situation it's much more difficult to cure them. with more than $130.00 confirmed cases of the coronavirus italy is the worst hit country in europe every day life for many here looks like it will remain at a standstill until the outbreak can be contained catherine stansell al jazeera. moving on the president of target. has won a 4th term in office according to initial results he took 72 percent of the vote

far ahead of his main rival me called joe now the opposition alleges that fraud took place during the election the president's family has ruled this west african nation for 53 years when it burst is following the story for us from me with a massive win of 72 percent of the vote as declared by the independent national electoral commission president is set to extend his 15 year rule on the state of the west african nation and effectively solidifying the group the family had on power in this country for more than half a century now with this result there will be no need for a 2nd round of voting or an off between the top 2 candidates the results will now have to be forwarded to the constitutional court for it to ratify within the next 60 days however that one opposition figure who had already declared himself elected president is saying that he is not agreeing to the results as announced by the independent national electoral commission we knew he proceeded to change the to change the result is some way. of the former head of state

over are the only people who write their name on a pool so we know and there are some of them in the know and my we. do have a power we do it broods we do it problem so as we know they exist. dora's paid quote these people and to leave and to give up the power now a lot of people were watching closely to see the reaction of people on the streets and what will be the response of the security forces the israeli military has launched air strikes into guards or the army says it's in response to palestinian armed group islamic jihad firing 21 rockets into southern israel 13 of them were intercepted. the israeli military has also carried out air strikes against islamic jihad targets in damascus syrian state media is reporting that the country's air

defenses have intercepted what they call hostile targets over the city islamic jihad denies it's been hit the group says it carried out the rocket attack on israel after the army opened fire on a group of palestinians killing one person 4 others were shot and injured while trying to recover the body before it was taken away by an israeli bulldozer harry forces in west jerusalem he says the israeli airstrikes came as no surprise. well certainly the strikes inside gaza are relatively standard for this kind of escalation the kind of which we've seen many times in the last couple of years certainly of rocket fire such as this is typically met with an israeli round of airstrikes inside gaza the israeli military saying dozens of targets belonging to palestinian islamic jihad have been hit also saying that they struck what they said was a rocket team in preparation potentially for a launch of the palace in health ministry inside gaza saying that

a group of 4 people were injured by a drone strike and that among the injured were among the group were a man and his wife less typical though is the strikes that these women trees also rarely admitting to having carried out inside syria it did however in november at a time when it assassinated a a rocket team commander inside gaza as well as trying to carry out a strike against a senior islamic jihad figure in damascus it said at that point there would be further strikes against islamic jihad leadership in in the syrian capital if rocket fire continued so the immediate thought for many was is was this a sign that they were doing just that in response to this latest round of rocket fire so far the israeli military is just saying that it struck a site which it's calling a hub for islamic jihad activity south of the syrian capital one used for weapons

research still to come here on al-jazeera a scandal in paris where former french presidential candidate is facing trial also . a little a lot of the communist and then everybody in the state of angela laid out son against his 1st visit to india and you left and. hello the snow stopped falling in turkey now but the residual rain is spreading across the levant a little head slowly south of that satellite shot of circulation the strongest winds are region that's where the showers are going to go down on monday you'll notice something developing in northern saudi and also of course the eastern edge of the higher ground as we enter into iran that's going to keep going and enhance the showers i think in saudi arabia even as far south as mecca i mean as you kuwait

to the south there that is remarkably warm a light suddenly breeze binns 30 degrees in doha it's but average and 33 in riyadh that's really quite a big climb and as the rate is slowly coming north by you know by surprise to see big white top plant there in d.r. congo and there in angola forecast wise they'll tend to stay in that and that area got to gabble as well and if you go further south you see not only northern but southern parts of malawi see some fairly heavy rain in fact that streak runs all the way down through zimbabwe towards botswana on the eastern side of south africa so forecast wise pretty widespread right and it still includes maybe you're not discussing coast but inland including when took $24.00 degrees and thunderstorms pretty good for february. join the listening post as we turn the cameras on the media india has more than

424 hour television news channel. blockers and focus on how they report on the stories that matter the most the states misleads the public this they've been here reflects the same. climate change uphold their record all the shows they came time to leave they have anything to apologize for listening post on al-jazeera. looking back here with al-jazeera mining's piece adobe these are your headlining stories several provinces in china have reduced their emergency response to the coronavirus but south korea is still on high alert as announced 161 new cases that

brings the number of people infected to 763 the israeli military has launched airstrikes on gaza and the syrian capital damascus after the palestinian group islamic jihad fired 21 rockets into southern israel the group said it carried out the attack after israeli soldiers fired on some palestinians killing one of its members. initial results in target presidential election sure the incumbent president for a nothing big winning by a landslide the electoral commission says he's taken 72 percent of the vote the opposition says the election was marred by fraud. u.s. president trump is on his way to his 1st state visit in india his trip is designed not only to boost ties and trade but also his reelection chances 4 and a half 1000000 indian american voters when he arrives he'll be welcomed 510-0000 people at a rally in state from there are india correspondent elizabeth as the story.

rehearsing for the 1st visit to the by u.s. president as donald trump is driven from the airport he'll be welcomed by these dancers then 100000 people inside the. stadium we are very. proud of one of the leader of the world. is coming to india. spent around $10000000.00 half of that on the blanket security operation for donald trump's visit to last just 4 hours. billboards every few meters around the city the friendship between they say the oldest democracy in the world's largest. and this wall has been built along the road that president takes from the airport to hide the slum behind it. but away from the newly manicured city center is another.

from a time when that in their body was chief minister of the state and bad from travelling to the united states in february 2002 killed at least a 1000 people most of the muslims and riots the u.s. government banned because of allegations he tacitly supported the mob violence 97 people were killed in the muslim neighborhood of one day including shakes cousin and her 2 young children. by writing what do you want to hide the atrocities taking place against muslims in india he wants to clean his image and protect that everything is peaceful in india. was. there. on likely to put any pressure on marty over the treatment of indian muslims the.

idea about. this. where. despite their differences on trade issues the leaders have met 4 times in the past year and clothing in the u.s. city of houston where donald trump welcomed along with 50000 indian americans in turn pledged his support for trump's reelection people born in india the 2nd largest immigrant group in the united states the job might not be the most populous states but nearly a 3rd of all indian americans have connections here and 9 months out from the u.s. election president trump coming to. his popularity among the 4 and a half 1000000 indian american voters elizabeth al-jazeera and. will stay with us story. the consultancies strategy she says trade is off the

table but trump will be able to find common ground. they are drawn to one another primarily because their own feel the way they see their roles as leaders of their these 2 big democracies and world's 2 largest democracies india being the new us in america being the oldest and so the reality is this is you know you've got india and that is so complex it's many nations and want to see sometimes i actually just returned from there and the sense that about china is that you know maybe he is a bit like prime minister both he and i really feel that that is exactly right from plans to go there he knows he's he knows he's going to get a fair number hero's welcome and with india being the largest democracy in this this is these are people of every type you know you would think that they would be as diverse as the united states but alas they are primarily in the nation and so trying with all his issues with muslim americans he hasn't got to worry about those

those of course the muslim issue complex applies though these reign as prime minister and so let's just pull back and say these 2 men quite like each other and i think we'll be comparing notes quite a bit there fischel is here in washington d.c. just on friday knowledge to trumpet ministration officials that really nothing is going to get done regarding trade not something small this visit was truly supposed to be about bilateral lesions but we've learned since it's been. fishel now that the visit between the 2 leaders will again incorporate regional and global issues and i think that's where they will really spend most of their time talking about the president from says he'd be willing to quote put his name to a peace deal with the taliban depending on how a partial cease fire works out u.s. and afghan forces of all agree to a weeklong reduction in violence that began on friday the president's national

security adviser says they're watching outcome very closely. we've got to get out of the war in afghanistan but we're going to do it in a way that protects american interests so if the taliban does not live up to their agreement on the reduction of violence plan then we'll take a very careful look at it i think of me unlikely that we would sign a peace treaty but we're not going to reduce troops to a level below what is necessary to protect american interests and our partners in afghanistan i can assure you of that iran has seen its lowest turn in a parliamentary election in 40 years just under 43 percent of eligible voters cast their ballots on friday conservative candidates to set to win a majority taking all 30 parliamentary seats in the capital tehran voters options were limited with more than $7000.00 potential candidates disqualified iran's interior minister says other circumstances were to blame for the low turnout in mother shadow. we held these elections when there were several incidents in the country where you had bad weather there was this coronavirus disease there was the

plane crash also the events of january and november in such a situation the turnout right seems perfectly acceptable for us. off duty police officers in haiti have exchanged gunfire with members of the armed forces in the capital port au prince the confrontation started during a demonstration demanding better wages for law enforcement officers it's not clear who started shooting 1st but at least 3 policemen were wounded and taken to hospital the u.k. prime minister boris johnson has ordered his bricks team in westminster to come up with plans to avoid checks on goods passing from britain to northern ireland according to the sunday times newspaper officials are seeking to evade scrutiny of goods crossing the irish sea to come into effect next year following brooks's as northern ireland will still be inside the u.k. customs area imports will have to be checked on the european union rules after december 31st. a sandstorm blowing off the sahara has disrupted flights in and out

of the spanish canary islands thousands of tourists were stranded after all flights were suspended to and from gran canaria because of bad visibility aircraft leaving tendering for also stopped the regional government has declared a state of alert and people have been advised to stay inside and keep their windows closed. the trial of the former french presidential candidate françois field is set to begin paris feel is accused of paying his wife more than a 1000000 euros in public funds for a fake job the scandal which came to be known as penelope gate emerged during the 27000 election campaign and destroyed feels political career the touch of butler has that story from paris. only 2017 and fossil fuel was riding high the strongest contender in france's presidential race he was the candidate for france's conservative party the republicans after winning its primary with

a landslide a former prime minister he was politically experienced well connected and confident he would win during the rush i do not want to change my beliefs or my goals according to people's waves or the i like them it of the planets. thing seemed to be going fiona's way until the scandal broke a french newspaper allege that fear had misused taxpayers' money when he was an m.p. to pay his wife penelope as a parliamentary system for years for no work the couple was placed under formal investigation or denied the accusations and said he was effective of the political smear campaign on seize on to the pretty 36 years of political life 36 years without any judy show problems today i am the target of a ruthless one sided attack 7 days a week 24 hours a day for all the legal facts is this fair it's. decision for all of us has

a history of corruption and nepotism in politics some so feel as a symbol of both and public pressure mounted on him to step down he refused and forged ahead with his campaign but the damage was done feel fail to make it past the 1st round of the presidential election losing out to the far right smearing the pen and emanuel mark all who went on to win 3 years after the so-called scoundrel broke for also for your his wife's role in paris if found guilty of misusing public forums could face up to 10 years in prison his wife could face up to 5 years for complicity the high profile case prompted president mccall to post an anti corruption law targeted to cleaning up politics a few months after he was elected feels kept a low profile in recent years in a t.v. interview in october he ruled out a return to politics for one of france's best known politicians it's been

a spectacular fall from grace natasha buchla al jazeera paris. welcome if you just joining us recapping our top story so far the 4 provinces in china are lowering their emergency response level to the coronavirus in her bay province where the outbreak began healthy non residents of the capital are also being allowed to leave the south korea is still on high alert is just announced 161 new cases that brings the number of people infected to 763 the number of deaths from the virus in south korea now stands at 7 after 2 more were announced on monday brought macbride has been listening to the latest briefing from south korea's health ministry in the capital seoul. obviously the more cases you get the invent the case load the investigative work that you have to do becomes the huge and at a certain point the ministry has admitted that if they are pushed to have many more

cases and it's over stresses the system they may have to abandon the policy of containment and simply go to mitigation basically trying to limit the damage except that this is spreading through the community and try to limit the damage but for the moment they say that containment is working they're going to continue with this policy the israeli military has carried out air strikes on gaza and the syrian capital damascus after the palestinian group islamic jihad fired $21.00 rockets into southern israel the group said it launched the attack after israeli soldiers fired on a group of palestinians killing one of its members. president ford. has won a 4th term in office according to preliminary results he took 72 percent of the vote far ahead of his main rival the opposition says there were acts of fraud during the election an earthquake has killed at least 9 people in turkey the 5.7

magnitude tremor struck just across the border in the northwest of iran dozens of people were injured in both countries. off duty police officers in haiti have exchanged gunfire with members of the armed forces in the capital port au prince a confrontation started during a demonstration by law enforcement officers demanding better wages at least 3 policeman will mean that. iran has seen its lowest turnout in a parliamentary election in 40 years just under 43 percent of voters cast their ballots on friday conservative candidates assert to win a majority taking all 30 parliamentary seats in the capital tehran. those are your top stories so far up next here on al-jazeera is the listening post i'll have more news in 30 minutes so you know that tool to al-jazeera let me talk about 2 of the biggest problems facing and they all the endemic corruption and we listen so if you replace china's enemy to the within that's really that we meet with global news

makers and talk about the stories that matter to those 0. effect you can find. words 300 spring as a story. right. after the actual. start. triggering. hello i'm richard gilbert and you're at the listening post among the stories we're covering this week it's an election year in america and the battle for the democratic nomination has bernie sanders and the corporate news media at odds freedom of speech has returned to angola and the satirists have the knives out for the political establishment a tit for tat diplomatic spat between beijing and washington has american and chinese news outlets caught in the middle east plus australia the wildfires the climate crisis.