by devon africa i couldn't be more proud to be part of. this is al jazeera. hello everyone i'm come all santa maria and this is the news hour from al-jazeera coronavirus travel restrictions there sparking renewed tensions between japan and south korea and with 7 cases reported in bethlehem the city goes on lockdown israel is restricting people from going in or coming out also in the news it is a tense but mostly calm in syria province after a cease fire agreed by turkey and russia takes effect and will visit the legacy of libya's past exploring the ancient connections to today's conflict.

and in fact karim make the long awaited return to the n.b.a. is going 23 points from the golden state warriors and its 1st game since injury left him out of action for the one line. from asia to the middle east and europe coronavirus is forcing governments to further tighten their restrictions this friday and in some places it is raising tensions between countries going to take you through all those developments this news hour but we are going to start with the global picture covered 19 as the virus is officially known as being tracked by johns hopkins university in the u.s. using figures from the world health organization this is what they say at the moment we're looking at upwards of $98000.00 succumbing out 410-0000 total infections globally and you can see where the concert. of course we know through

europe the most of them are in areas around the middle east you've got that large dot there in iran but don't forget these smaller dots on the other side there we're looking at iraq saudi arabia the u.a.e. oman as well and then the epicenter of everything is in asia obviously the most infections have come out of china itself particularly from where han the number at the moment 3383 deaths but i always like to point out the green number in the corner there which is upwards of 55000 people who have so far recovered from corona virus so out of the nearly 100000 more than half of recovered so far as i said at the center in asia that's what we want to talk about because that is where the tensions that we mentioned are happening japan's prime minister has imposed a mandatory quarantine on all visitors from south korea and china and south korea doesn't like that it's called for it to be revoked while also warning of countermeasures rob mcbride begins our coverage from seoul in the sometimes

strained relations between japan and south korea the corona virus outbreak has exposed the animosity that exists below the surface south korea says it wasn't consulted before japanese prime minister shinzo abyei announced the new measures local car new litters from both china and south korea will be required to be quarantined for 2 weeks up location designated by the quarantine director and asked that they refrain from using public transportation in the country. that brought a swift response from seoul the japanese ambassador was summoned for an official reprimand there was one particular thing about the find the speed of vettel and the japanese government to withdraw such an excessive an unreasonable measure immediately our government will devise a proper counter measure against japan's measures. opponents in south korea accuse the japanese government of trying to deflect criticism of its handling of the coronavirus outbreak in particular the attempted quarantining of

a cruise ship that left hundreds of passengers sick and. while criticizing japan's efforts south korea has been quick to show the scale and transparency of its own response which is one international praise testing on an industrial scale means thousands of people are being checked with the virus every day. on south korea has been touted as an outstanding example of releasing information in a transparent and rapid manner in that sense i believe that japan's move to not fully take into account our central and local governments efforts. the growing dispute between 2 leading countries in the fight against this global health emergency is worrying for the international community the 2 sides have long disagreed over trade and the legacy of the 2nd world war more than 100 countries now have travel restrictions on people arriving from south korea but unlike many of

them japan is a vital trading partner this quarantine measure will cause further economic pain and there's a lingering suspicion here that politics not public health is the motivation behind it robert bright al-jazeera so pleased to welcome robert kelly to the news our professor of international relations and political science at national university he's on skype from there nice to have you with us mr kelly south korea saying that this move by japan is regrettable i can understand why they might say that but you can also say from the japanese perspective why they would take such a mother has south korea perhaps overreacted a bit. i mean i would actually say i think they have a little bit i think a lot of it is really sort of layered over with the sort of general animosity there is in south korea guarding japanese foreign policy and the legacy of the war and so anything that comes in japan that seems to single out south korea or sort of call

it individually gets met sort of with pushback particularly from the south korean left which currently holds the presidency but yeah i part of it also to reflect the fact that the current president of south korea has not actually imposed a travel ban on chinese coming into current south korea which is and he's being sort of blamed for that leading to the sort of big outbreak here that's happening right now looks at the japanese are doing it to south korea and so the south koreans feel sort of compelled to kind of push back to i think under justify the decision not to ban chinese travelers it's kind of a tangle. of the van talking about. its regret as south korea has and what sort of reaction would you expect from them from them further from here well that i think the most obvious thing to do would be to ban japanese travellers in response right and that of course gets tricky right because create all with all 3 of them right korea japan and china trade a great deal right and not just tourism which is obviously a problem now but i mean all of them are high up trade partners from one another so if they start banning each other it actually gets pretty tricky this is been sort

of the pressure on all of them to sort of avoid cutting business links and stuff like that i would imagine the koreans might consider tariffs or something like that or restrictions on cultural imports and then also just the small things south koreans can do to sort of hit back but i mean until the south korean government gets the virus outbreak here under control which i think is beginning to happen i think that things are starting to turn in the last couple days but until they do a lot of countries are going to do it the japanese and i say well he's talking about south korea can i ask you you are self isolating i belief that right. yeah well that the government is telling people basically not to go anywhere actually you know my my yeah i mean we're basically sort of locked in our house i mean my you know my job is spend i'm a college professor i'm not teaching right now they just they just cancel class the next 2 weeks my kids are in kindergarten that's also been canceled so we're basically just stuck in the house yeah how's that going i mean we obviously we all know your kids we've seen them on the right coping they were. great free spirit

when we saw them on that famous interview now how they go in with being up in the house not well you have 3 spirits are not good with you know a couple of rooms in an apartment i mean we live in an apartment and there's just not a lot of place for them to go right to sort of crawling the walls and stuff like that i mean it is actually rather tough and this is something you're hearing all over south korea right that parents have a lot of trouble managing their kids. you know and people having trouble staying home from work right i mean people got to go to work they got to go to the grocery store i'm actually kind of wondering what the government's going to do if they're still telling us in a month that we can't leave our house i mean we're not ordering food over the internet we're not allowed to take our kids the jungle gym they've closed that the gym in the gym in my building i mean it's just there's just like nothing you can do inside the complex anymore in the streets are empty i wonder how much longer the government can sustain this right so this is going beyond the 14 days which we hear about for most people is sort of if you've been to x. country and you come back from there then you should self isolate for 2 weeks because that's the apparent into beijing period but you're just talking about an

open ended pretty much don't go out. well that's what the government has told us right i mean we're sort of you know i mean we're not you know no not many people everyday meola just of course we're sort of following what the government says and right now yet something of a blanket recommendation that you don't go outside that you stand that you avoid large groups of people. they don't really go to any kind of congregation of any kind right i mean don't go to a concert don't go to church don't go to you know don't go to i don't know you know go run or run a race or something i mean just stay away from people almost all together and that's what's so difficult right because it basically means the kids just can't leave the house right and that's just it's just you're just everybody is getting cabin fever right you can see it when i you know i see when i talk to friends of mine too they're all struggling with the same issue right like how do you sort of manage all this time indoors kelly good to talk to you best wishes the family hope it all goes well thank you thank you thanks for having me now about and i think i counted i did this 17 days ago we spoke to gabrielle a deal on who is

a medical student in in china she was under quarantine then and she continues to be under quarantine and she's with us again on skype from gabrielle how are you i know i'm fighting i'm doing ok so when we spoke to you as i said i think it was 17 days ago and you were saying then you were calling on your government to to help and you were getting nowhere has that situation changed at all. just last week they told those they ask you about its own so that it could send money to us but we still haven't received the money it's almost a month now since we have been told it would help us but not being pretty hands up and we're just receiving was not action so how many times have you lift that apartment that you're and how many times have you left that in the last month. i really got caught on but last week i had to go to is we are actually allowed to

leave the gates so you can go do what i like now and endo deliberate so you search you can pick it from your. neck twice right i remember you saying last time we spoke that they were actually locks on the doors of the building is that still the case you are actually locked in yet we still look didn't get is a lot but now that. the online system is on let working we were building it is up in so you can at least reach the group need to get to it wow so tell us about and forgive me prying here too much but your mental state and that of your friends as well who have been under lockdown for so long how do you cope. mentally and emotionally draining includes you have to put a lot to work into getting sane and trying not to get lost in all your thoughts and so it's ok to be ok. and also people keep going telling you it will all be well so

it really keeps on reminding you how critical the situation in you is and how it any moment it could be you it's really not a good place right now we're not really have no good place mentally of course you said that there was talk of money being put into your accounts from the government and that's not actually happened i guess more than that you probably want to be evacuated like other countries have done again is there any talk about that. our government hasn't told us anything about evacuation and they're not going to give us any hope will be. so it's everyone is telling me to give up when the evacuation going because the usa did a long time ago that they're not going to evacuate as however. some people keep on living like recently some are they were evacuated by the middle east countries which should be it can't be done by the ugandans and all the african countries to

unite together and get on to. appreciate what a difficult time it's been and i really thank you for your time and hopefully the next time we speak to you they'll be some better news for you gabriella dillon is joining us from han. coronaviruses also spread to bethlehem in the occupied west bank and now the israeli military isn't allowing anyone in or out the palestinian president mahmoud abbas earlier declared a state of emergency after 7 cases were confirmed tourists and pilgrims are banned from the area for the next 2 weeks because the church of the nativity which is revered among christians is the birthplace of jesus christ is among the sites that have been closed needed abraham with us in ramallah now obviously you can't get into bethlehem but tell us more about the impact that this is happening having. so we can tell you that there is a sense of panic among palestinians in the occupied west bank we've spoken to a store managers here and they tell us that many people are going to buy cleaning

supplies and food they don't know how long this state of emergency is going to last the palestinian prime minister has announced least on thursday the state of a mention emergency by a presidential decree and he said it's going to be lasting for a month but as you can imagine people here think that if new cases emerge than this situation might last for longer so they are stocking up on food and cleaning supplies mainly sanitizers now in bethlehem the situation remains the same the city is sealed from old areas by the israeli army and those 7 patients that were proven to have been affected by the coronavirus are still in the hotel where they got infected in the 1st place so there is a sense of fear among many palestinians there has been protests in jericho trying to ban those patients in beslan from being moved in a center that was prepared by the health ministry to treat those patients so many

people here think that this virus might rather get spread quickly to small country palestinians do not have control over their borders in the cities but according to the state of emergency palestinians should reduce their movements between cities to the minimum or even just during emergencies all education facilities were closed gatherings were banned for the state of emergency and the proscenium prime minister told people to be awaiting for more results for more. really like regulations on how they're going to move forward with the situation needed to bring him in the occupied west bank bringing us up to date with the lockdown in bethlehem thank you major. now you know as many as 300000000 students 300000000 students are missing their classes worldwide because governments are temporarily closing schools and universities in response to the outbreak suspensions are in place in 22 countries across asia europe and the middle east

ranging from a few days to a few weeks united nations says the disruption to education is unprecedented. but look at what else is coming up for you on this news hour syrians who fled tell us they feel like political pawns stuck unwanted on the borders of the european also we will meet the specialist iraqi police force hunting down the remnants of myself and in sport a lucky escape from serious injury just like this collision in north america's top hockey league. so syria people they're in it they province are describing a tense calm in the largely rebel held area after a cease fire took effect turkey which backs the opposition forces brokered that deal with russia which is of course allied with the syrian government it was the 2 presidents reject. from turkey and vladimir putin from russia who agreed the deal

during hours of talks in moscow on thursday they said they will establish a 12 kilometer wide security corridor all along and for highway which connects the government stronghold of it's with syria's largest city of aleppo the syrian army's offensive to retake it is pushed nearly a 1000000 civilians towards turkey's border and threatened direct confrontation between turkey and russia. well rival forces have been fighting for control of the m 4 and the m 5 highways for months the town of saddam has been at the center of this because well whoever controls that you can see it's right in the middle has access to both motorways they get crucial military and economic advantages go south through the red areas on the map government control areas and further north the green areas which are in opposition territory and then you have this which is the joint corrido security cardle that turkey and russia are now talking about

establishing going right through that opposition area ok here we are in the time now in the at the border and simcoe correspondents there sitting tell us about this the ceasefire i mean obviously good news that it has been struck and that it's holding for now but how long term could it be. well come on as it is a good news for the civilians who have been suffering from the air raids and fighter jets and since the few cease fire has been in place there are there is there is nothing that would bother the civilians for now but let's not forget this there have been several cease fires struck by moscow and on korea and the last one the previous one lasted only less than 24 hours and the immediacy violations so everyone is. everyone has a suspicion that this is fire will also not last long and because of the

differences between 2 sides both the opposition and the syrian government plus there are some conflicts between moscow and uncorrupt in terms of their understanding over it it is apparent that lead them are put in and tell you don want to psych the ceasefire but when you look at the. protocols that was it to the sochi agreement there is nothing much about the humanitarian about bettering the humanitarian conditions but however from the e.u. top diplomats we have been hearing that ceasefire was a precondition to increase the humanitarian efforts for the civilians inside and today they unicef executive director mrs 4 was here she came with a delegation she went to the buffer zone as the u.s. and boy to syria james jeffrey did and she had the and she had somebody from the turkish and local officials here but as i said no one knows how long it's going to

last then it is difficult for turkey to control as some of the rebel groups who are more eager compared to moderates once and for the syrian government size it is difficult for them to continue to have control over the iran backed shia a fighter groups that's why there is not much hope whether that this cease fire lasting for a long. so don't call so early on that turkey syria border thank you c.n.n. the other story involving turkey is how it has deployed a 1000 police officers to its border with greece to try to halt the pushback of refugees and migrants tens of thousands of people have been trying to cross into europe ever since turkey opened its borders last week the thing is greece doesn't want them live to name in the rain on the border between turkey and greece natasha desperation commingling with security forces on 2 sides of a border have created havoc yet again today on one of the official checkpoint

checkpoints at the turkey greece border a journalist says that greek police fired a water cannon to disperse hundreds of people who have been pressed up against a fence attempting to make their way into greece the journalist says that in response they also saw on the turkish side tear gas being hurled at greek police now a greek government official has said that turkey is cordon aiding these quote attacks via drone in an attempt to sneak people across the border turkey says it's only firing tear gas in response to greek firing tear gas sandwiched in between our men women and children who are simply looking for a new life in europe. the wind sliced through copes the cold left fingers numb it the syrian refugees from it lived along with other

migrants have been camped out on this riverbank in a dern a turkey for days they're stuck here trying to figure out how best to cross into greece and continue on to western europe to find the good life i'm still young but i have to of course i must live on my life here or in city of course in this situation this is sort of another i mean i think to go out from syria because it was a pretty good country before late in the day as the wind picked up police officers walked through the tents and clusters of people telling them they could take buses to a warm place suspicions spread as fast as the wind gusts only them just think it was a lot of work to do we weren't be taking buses because they take us to the revenue they will give us to the creeks they take all our belongings and money and be tests and they will send us back we human beings not animals the turkish minister of interior has announced 1000 members of turkey special police forces are deploying

to the merge river border with greece this is an effort to prevent greek troops from pushing back migrants who reached the country by boat the interior minister says greece tried to send 4900 people back to turkey and injured 164 give it military anger limit. we will not provide an opportunity for the maltreatment of people there i would like to express that we have taken the necessary measures to protect our borders from a push back and to prevent several attempts by greece which were in violation of the international law and the greek government has not responded to the accusations but it's deployed additional troops along its side of the border refugees say greece is just a transit point for them many like ibrahim have crossed. into the country and been deported back to turkey with awful memories ibrahim says a few days ago greek police shot him in the needy with

a rubber bullet and beat him. mean that the women attired men a target we're all tired of the police open the gate as news or bull as these refugees are there more anguished about their loved ones back in it live at least in turkey they have found a refuge from a 9 year war in syria. police tell us overnight sorry people tell us overnight police came to the riverbank you just saw in our story they tell us that the police used tear gas and beat them to forcibly remove them they told tell us that the police gave them one of 2 options go to the border or back to istanbul. great reporting from natasha going to and they knew that turkey greece sport thank you and more refugees and migrants are arriving on greece's islands as well the government has suspended all new asylum applications

for a month john psaropoulos tells us now what it's like for families left out in the cold on the island of last boss. now this boatload of asylum seekers arrived just before sunday there are 42 of them 36 afghans 4 from african countries and 2 syrians they are going to spend the night here in this courtyard of a small chapel by the sea. but they've been given a tarpaulin to bed down on they've been given some blankets and an evening meal and passes it there is nowhere else for them to go and that is a problem because when they arrived it was raining and their clothes a soaked among them 12 very small children and infants who could easily get very sick here tonight where the air is damp there's no fire going there's no source of heat other than body heat they could have spent the night in a tent or in

a local death posed by the unit unfortunately that was burned 3 days ago by a group of angry locals who don't want to have any sort of reception center here on the north shore of the island for more asylum seekers because the fact that turkey has opened its borders to europe and is actively sending asylum seekers to greece has angered many people and one particular faction has decided to also try and sabotage the normal procedures that are undertaken by charities by the police and by the coast good the worst of all of course is that these people whom we've been speaking to earlier are not aware that greece is no longer accepting asylum applications as a result of turkey's border opening and that they will be picked up in the morning by buses they will be held in detention taken to athens on board a military transport ship and then the great plan is that they will be deported

back to their home countries. time for a look at your world weather with richard and europe very separate at the moment is that where weather wise yeah the strike i mean we've been concentrating quite rightly on all these storm systems coming in from the west but at the same time if not remarkable weather conditions across eastern europe and it still looks remarkable in many ways it has been just so warm and use the shots coming from moscow moscow's winter has just been amazing it's been the warmest winter in russia for 140 years but for moscow the average temperature was 7 and a half degrees celsius above average no point one above average 1.27.5 whole degrees above average is quite remarkable and fine weather's been repeated elsewhere people are enjoying the right words the sunshine a brighter warmer weather in places like here in ukraine meanwhile of course we're still dealing with a wet and windy weather across more western areas and that's the case in spain

we've had some pretty strong winds across the northern coast and 8 more weather systems pushing in from direction so as we look at the forecast says of familiar picture we've got temperatures forecast today kiev 13 when it should be about $85.00 degrees and moscow a temperature of 8 when it should be a plus one degree meanwhile we've got areas of unsettled weather across germany in particular as we quite heavy rain at times and then another weather system beginning to push into wards the u.k. surprise surprise as we get on through into saturday come up thank you for that richard still ahead for you on this news on. pensioners hoping the government will soon start dancing to their cheering in the republic of congo and so. i will not be running for president in 2020 but i guarantee you i will staying in the fight that's another presidential hopeful dropping out leaving just 2 major players in the race for the u.s.

democratic nomination and wayne rooney tries to recapture some of his old magic as he faces off against his old club football action with our other like to. play. frank assessments the one thing about these bush fires is really working out the politics of climate change informed opinions economy i think is actually what's keeping donald trump afloat right now critical debate sequel on those 2 school board lawyers on a bogus argument is astonishingly patronize an in-depth analysis of the day's headlines this is the beginning of a new iraq of the new conscious and aware youth about struggle against an ethnic sectarian kota inside story on al-jazeera a good women in programming from international film made plans. last night al-jazeera sets the stage for egypt of utopia will be the life of the lives the

life of the nines dead everybody is there global ex-pats you get it we're going to let the planet go to ruin because we're not doing these obvious things open your eyes to an alternative view of the world today on al-jazeera. on the news on here at al-jazeera these are the top stories south korea is protesting against a coronavirus travel restriction on its citizens visiting japan tokyo announce they will now face a 2 week mandatory quarantine south korea has more than 6000 coronavirus cases

israeli military is now locked down bethlehem with no one allowed in or out such stuff to the palestinian president declared a state of emergency after the confirmation of 7 cases of coronavirus when there was a tense calm largely holding in syria's province after a cease fire came into effect it was brokered by russia and turkey after days of fighting that almost pushed the country's towards a direct confrontation. political ceremony in afghanistan's capital kabul has come under attack even $25.00 people dead the head of the peace council was giving a speech was being broadcast live when the shots were fired afghanistan's chief executive abella dollar was also there witnesses say he was not hurt. and kabul for us on the news hour what more can you tell us on this particular attack. well 4 hours in and this standoff is still ongoing from the latest reports we've seen that foreign forces have actually so need 2 forces actually i arrived at the scene and

from what we understand there are some of the attackers who are holed up in a nearby construct a building under construction that's actually from where the attack was 1st launched it wasn't around at 1120 nautical time so now we're in the mid afternoon so just you can see how long it has been now that was there was there was a ceremony ongoing of a morial for hazara was a shia minority here in this country that has died about 25 years ago that my warrior wasn't going as you said chief executive of the of the low was there but also former president how many carries a day managed to leave and i was safe in the latest numbers we heard actually from our sources is that maybe that 25 figure that we gave of people killed might be increasing because they still don't have control of the entire situation to see we had a deal signed between the and that was the u.s.

and the taliban i should point out obviously that a peace deal was signed between last week but how the events like this play into the the why the future of quote unquote peace in afghanistan. well the taliban were very quick to deny any responsibility in this attack now remains to be seen who is behind the attack that it could be any other of the armed groups that are operating in this country many being very much against the deal that the taliban has signed with the u.s. could be. some people after taliban some splinter groups from the taliban themselves they had within their ranks fighters and commanders who were against also. with the u.s. but as it stands now the taliban is not responsible for that so it should not have an impact on the agreement itself but certainly it does have an impact on the afghan people you know in the days leading to the degree imminent just after many

would have many people told me you know the interim afghan war is going to violence that kills us is only going even though maybe the front. at the front with the foreign forces with major forces is now come this is ongoing and i think the more you head towards these intra afghan talks the more you will have these negotiations between the taliban and the afghan government do more you will see high profile attacks now it just remains to be seen who is behind that attack that will tell a lot ok we'll talk again later thank you what i believe made in kabul more than 50 people have been killed in mob violence in zambia these killings were in response to attacks in which gangs used poisonous gas to immobilize their victims the attacks began in december and spread across the country president goods blamed church leaders and traditional leaders for some of the reprisals from him in a reporting from johannesburg now tell us more about this i mean that is quite

a range of things happening since december culminating in the deaths of 50 people. it really is a strange event that has really caused the police to be concerned in that it seems as if they are gangs as you mentioned going around parts of zambia and these attacks have spread using a poisonous gas or some sort of chemical gas which police haven't identified but using that gas in public places gould's and the homes to cause people to lose consciousness become dizzy and while police haven't established a clear motive speculation in zambia is that these attacks appear to be connected to what people are saying a ritual killings where the reason these gangs are attacking these public spaces and attacking people is because they want to mobilize them perhaps to attack them

for their body parts for ritual killings now the police have said they are investigating the army is also being deployed to certain areas in zambia to ensure that they're kept safe and there aren't any further attacks but what's happened is that people they have taken matters into their own hands and have been a number of violent mob justice attacks against people suspected to be responsible for these chemical gas attacks on people in zambia so far people 50 people have been killed in what's been called mob justice and this is as the president go along who has said this is unacceptable that police are dealing with the situation and that his call for people to come forward with information on both sides of these instances both the gas attacks as well as these instances of mob justice now the president has also said that he blames church groups for taking matters into their own hands and trying to deal with the the gas attacks by being violent people to

stop doing that but it is a continuing situation in zambia where they are fewer attacks now that the army is on the ground but it certainly is of concern strawman chain of events isn't it in being one we will keep an eye on with the meeting and i thank you. india now where the care in the capital thousands of been made homeless after the recent rising over that controversial citizenship law homes were torched more than 50 people died in the fighting between muslim groups riposte of the law and hindus as but purana has spoken to some of them have been displaced the last 10 days after fleeing their home with their 6 children robina and early her son have returned to see what's left of it robina says they fled when they saw groups of men setting houses on fire and the most awful bad neighborhood called to me a lot of nothing of ours is saved we just took our children and ran for our lives.

there were. the family is one of at least 1700 that have been displaced in northeast delhi. about their motto i don't know how my children will continue these studies everything we have worked for is destroyed i just want all of this to be are over and to start a new life. rubina and her family have been staying with relatives others are taking shelter at this nearby relief camp that's been set up by student and civil society groups around 500 people are staying here everyone has a story including these cousins alfie and upset or oh my when we were running away they were throwing stones and that's when i got hurt. the brink many shops we were watching from the roof of the house. even burn to a mosque. the only a muster the neighborhood of shivah heart is one of at least 4 mosques that were

destroyed. the violence began on february 23rd when fighting started between hindus and muslims protesting against the citizenship law that critics say discriminates against muslims saw. that led to violence from both communities a fact finding team says muslim suffered disproportionately all of them how. the building. houses. houses delhi police have arrested 1600 people but the families of those killed or injured said they want politicians to be held to account. for a few hours before the violence started on february 23rd cup in mishra a member of the ruling baath party said his supporters would take matters into their own hands unless those protesting against the citizenship you all cleared the

streets mishra didn't respond to al-jazeera request for an interview. the delhi government has given compensation to those affected by the violence but many have lost their loved ones their homes or their livelihoods because of their religion say it will take more than money for them to feel safe again elizabeth pran an al-jazeera. foreign powers once competed for control of vast areas of libya and southern mediterranean shores were huge strategic importance to their empires and armies throughout history sounds familiar doesn't it. reports now from one of the most historic sites how much has changed. many say there were ghosts among the ruins of leptis magna from around 190812 the roman emperors septimius severus it became the wealthiest city in north africa only alexandria rivaled it in splendid power. repeatedly attacks by other invading armies and

indigenous tribes by the time of the arab conquest around 650 the city had been virtually abandoned foreign policy continue to compete for control in libya it was done in a car that the couple this place represents so much of our heritage of the war continues there will be more destruction and fighting could go to all cities will further affect tourism areas residential areas and more people will be displaced it's a very complicated situation like. many empires and their armies have fought for control of leptis magna and what became libya over the millennia foreign powers have long been aware of the strategic importance of the mediterranean sea southern shuls there are many people in libya that say ending this need a decade long conflict is being complicated because of the sheer number of countries involved. support for wolf khalifa haftar comes from countries including

the u.a.e. egypt and russia. hundreds of civilians have been killed since hough to launch the military offensive against the un bank government in tripoli in april. after his allies say their fight is against terrorism but few foreign governments analysts or military commanders believe them and many blame the u.a.e. and say russia wants greater influence in the southern mediterranean and africa and also wants to use it to weaken the nato alliance by the u.a.e. is behind all the wars in the region if libya stands on its feet the u.a.e. will lose its status in the region they are worried about the dominance of their ports like. that's why they are trying to sabotage all the plans to make libya prosper the u.n. says that more than 150000 people have been forced to flee the fighting turkey signed a maritime agreement with the un backed government in november critics say could give ankara an unfair advantage over rights to mediterranean oil and gas drilling

turkey says it has the right to send military advisers and pro turkey syrian fighters to help defend tripoli because of a security agreement it signed with the government earlier this week pro have to media announced the opening of what it describes as an embassy in damascus fueling speculation that fighters loyal to bashar al assad's regime are coming to libya to fight on behalf of off the conflict has kept foreign tourists away from the spectacular ancient ruins of leptis magna for years these ancient marble pillars a perhaps a symbol of the foreign armies that throughout history have fought for control of this resource rich country on the mediterranean coast. a battle that continues today john strafford al jazeera leptis magna libya. in may and dozens of rain gear including children have been charged with not possessing identity documents

and fled a recent upsurge in violence in rakhine state. reports. in the 1st 2 months of this year alone more than $200.00 have been arrested for not having identification documents and for travelling illegally around 70 of those cases will be heard in they grew on the outskirts of yang gone 12 were brought to court on friday the myanmar government does not consider the remaining citizens even though many of them have lived in this country for generations and they face increasing government restrictions so keep claiming like ok they can trouble freely there's no restriction are all but in reality in the government. the real movement is extremely restricted rights advocates say it's on likely any of the rango will be acquitted and they could face the sentence of up to 2 years in prison for the. force of so why we escaped they were hanged mainly muslim

minority who live in rakhine and it was in the northern part of the state where the myanmar military launched a brutal crackdown in 2017 driving nearly 3 quarters of a 1000000 into bangladesh the un has accused it of carrying out the campaign with genocidal intent the myanmar government denies and says it was a deal the judgment response to attacks carried out by working right. now the situation that is even worse off to fighting between the myanmar military and the our economy intensified starting with january last year they are not on the very top you say they're fighting for more autonomy on behalf of the rakhine and not the ethnic minority mainly buddhists who make up the majority in rakhine state the rohingya who already live under apartheid like conditions without access to. public health care education being caught in the crossfire and many are desperate to escape rights workers fear that many will turn to human traffickers now over the

years there have been many attempts by groups in bringing it to leave by boat on dangerous journey to crime vessels boats have capsized people have drowned some are taken on overland routes through thailand and into malaysia they have been instances where they were kept in jungle camps along the border until their friends or relatives could pay a ransom many died of disease and starvation now even when they managed to escape myanmar rights they say many are at risk of. some sold into the sex trade or as indentured neighborhoods for the working god there is no easy choice they can choose to stay and face persecution or threats of more violence or they can try to escape but risking their lives. retired people in the republic of congo say they're struggling because the government hasn't paid their pensions for years the country's nearly gone bankrupt 3 times in the last 2 decades and has been repeatedly but that of i.m.f.

in spite of it being africa's 3rd largest oil producer. has our report now from brazzaville. these people say they've been cheated by their government they worked for the telecoms and postal service for decades here in the republic of congo now they're retired they haven't been paid their pensions or unleavened yeah thank you for this is that protest held every day outside the central post office they call it a concert feel they may think that it's really difficult we're living in misery we're suffering since we began the parties about 450 of our members have died already because they were able to pay for the health care they need. more than a 1000 people contributed money every month to a pension fund but the money disappeared thanks and so they keep playing it's

happening even down to here across the street like i'm fairly here myself but they say that message deal isn't being heard in the window that told that they hate that friendship. that everything from oil that. the country produces more than 300000 barrels of crude oil a day but that hasn't stopped it from nearly going bankrupt 3 times in the last 2 decades. and it hasn't helped many congolese. live in poverty many people in the capital brazzaville live in slums but there has been money for grander projects like this 100000000 dollar bridge built before the last election 2 months ago leading to a collapse. that's nearly happened to congo's economy international monetary fund has stepped in with multi-million dollar bailout the opposition says the government

. reserves but doesn't repay its debts. we are constantly in financial debt because we have a problem with the leadership parliament does not prosecute people who are corrupt we don't hold people in government to account for stealing money investing in personal property that's why this keeps happening. company didn't respond to our request for an interview neither did the minister of hydrocarbons to oil companies and new discoveries last year. hasn't helped the pensioners before they wonder if they'll ever be paid. goes on. al-jazeera republic of congo. getting pictures in from the capital tunis right now. the u.s. embassy in tunis local media radio. is

reporting that it was a suicide attack and i've not given any more information than that and that is literally all we have at the moment but there has been a blast in the tunisian capital happened outside the u.s. embassy so we're going to keep a close pictures coming in to us find out any new information as we can on what appears to be he was reported to be a suicide attack outside the u.s. embassy in tunisia. used from the new us now and u.s. senator elizabeth warren has ended her bid for the white house she was once considered the front runner for the democratic nomination but she failed to win a single state in the primaries even losing her home state of massachusetts to rival joe biden who withdrawal leaves officially 3 hopefuls in the race. i will not be running for president in 2020 but i guarantee i will stay in the fight for hard working folks across this country have got the short end of the

stick over and over that's been the fight of my life and it will continue to be so . germany's interior minister says the threat of right wing extremism isn't being taken seriously or c. or for is pushing for gun owners to undergo psychological tests germany said a spate of attacks linked to the far right in the most recent a gunman killed 9 people near frankfurters. sports coming up for you on the news hour in the defending n.b.a. champions the toronto raptors of spoiled steph carries return to the game far we'll have that and the rest of the sport in a moment. looking

at sport now with tara wall thank you so much one of the biggest stars in basketball made his long awaited return to the game on thursday golden state warriors star staff hurries back in action after missing for months with a broken hand so how malik reports. it's the moment golden state sounds have been dreaming of steph curry is 50 again and back to producing magic on the cold i think the 2 time m.v.p. left town which was broken and kept him out of action for 4 months look to be fully he knows they're biased as the warriors face n.b.a. champions tour on top of his comeback match. the warriors have been lost without curry and play tennis and who's also missed much of the campaign through injury to which was without quality shooting like this last season's finalists have seen it

to having the worst record in the n.b.a. deceived. curry did with 9 of his 123 point attempts but when he delivered a were be delivered to speak the 31 year old marking his or turn with 23 points it was kind of a cool moment. with you again just the excitement in the building and all this they were good they were military expert curry's efforts weren't enough to get his team a rare win but his attorneys golden state at least have good reason to be optimistic so helmet al-jazeera. in the playoffs one team on course to join them there is a denver nuggets they secured a narrow 2 point victory over the charlotte hornets on thursday denver sealing it with seconds left jamal murray getting the vital buckets but not get set 3rd in the west's. wayne rooney has been back playing against manchester united united's

record goalscorer is now a player coach at 2nd tear aside darby county met in the 5th round of the f.a. cup on thursday rooney's team had 7 had a home advantage but couldn't pull off a shock result losing 3 know united will play norge in the quarter finals. very pleased with the performance very pleased to go through you never know away from home being the favorites having city home. the mind set but it was professional assistance. italy's top flight football league resumes on saturday in full starting with the matches that were postponed last we do the core of the virus outbreak in the country 6 matches were postponed last week including the potential title decider between current leaders event isn't in on the land as per government orders all matches will be played without fans present until april the 3rd in an effort to stem the spread of the virus women's world cup champions team

u.s.a.'s preparations for the olympics appear to be on track they beat arch rivals england in the she believes cup in florida this was the 1st time the 2 sides were meeting since last year's world cup semifinals christian press and carli lloyd scored in the 2nd half to give the us a 2 no victory against the defending champions the victory sends their on beaten streak to 29 games. i mean to go is everything this years of preparation for the olympics so. i mean for me personally obviously it's another opportunity to keep building this year i'm on a little bit slower bill than everybody else being much older than everybody else and have come a long way off last year but i felt like. i had a good performance all the way through qualifiers oh world number one warren malcolm roy had a slow start in the opening round of the arnold palmer invitational but the 20000 champion bounced back with 5 birdies and a needle in northern irishman ending the day with

a 666 at bay hill in florida he had sent to the 2nd round just one shot behind american matt every. and hockey player required 90 stitches to a facial injury after an accidental collision york islanders in france and johnson johnny was rushed off the ice after the blade of an opponent's skate went into his face white shark has maintained his sense of humor is out later tweeting luckily for me the skate only cut my eyelid so worry for the late response facial recognition wasn't working on my phone. what a sense of humor come on back for a thank you coming up top of the hour on al-jazeera munder of the breaking news that there has been an explosion outside the u.s. embassy in the capital. going to be with you just a couple of minutes time with the very latest on that.

the consequence of war. ventures into russia shows he served in the marine corps for 95 that just doesn't go away. but living out of his truck for the last couple years he's home was 0 follows a group of u.s. army veterans traumatized by war. as they struggle to get their lives back shelter on al-jazeera. full of struggles full of pleasure. of the evil done with. this is you done with the

donkey she blew in with. a question i get a hour. an intimate look at life in cuba. me when i hear people i may hang in my cuba this time on al-jazeera. trouble began at the end of the country's civil war when most people started returning home from refugee camps. more who are strapped and killed during a demonstration in 2017 is buried right here in the middle of the street as a sign of resistance to the mining companies and government just setting your. accusations of abuse and displacement between the community the mining companies and the government has now escalated to west africa. the community has taken its case before west african regional court because they say the people have little for

use in the justice system. coronavirus travel restrictions sparked renewed tensions between japan and south korea. with 7 cases reported in bethlehem the city goes on lock to israel with strict people from going inside coming out. of my idiom and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up. it's 10 spot mostly common syria said with coldness satirise ceasefire agreed by turkey and russia takes effect syrians who fled at low bar among refugees who say they feel like political.