play an important role. ringback face. a large crowd gathers in baghdad's capital to mark a year since the u.s. assassinated the iranian general custom samadhi it will get a live update. live adrian from again this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up india approves 2 vaccines for emergency use paving the way for the immunization campaign of 300000000 people. as they share prepares for a presidential runoff vote attackers raid 2 villages killing more than 70 people plus. i'm rob mcbride in south korea at the mountain town famous for its ice

festival that has plenty of ice and go fast to. restart in iraq where crowds have gathered in the capital baghdad to mark a year since the u.s. assassination of iran's top general custom solomonic these are live pictures from tahrir square solomon he was killed by a drone strike baghdad's international airport but just as a demanding that the u.s. forces withdraw from iraq iranian leaders of retaliation and tension between turmoil in washington as escalate as the lead up to the anniversary here's a closer look at saudi's legacy he joined the revolutionary guard in the 1980 s. and force on the frontlines of the iran iraq war in the late 1990 s. he was appointed head of the could force running iran's foreign military and

planned. stine operations off the $911.00 he delegated iranian and american diplomats to meets they briefly works together against the taliban before the relationship to tear erase it in iraq saudi helped iran back faces during the fight against eisel though many people in iraq are also angered by iran's influence and blame teheran for political instability and sectarian divisions during the war in the iraq war the u.s. says that iran through the could force and shia militias killed more than 600 american soldiers in syria some of money lead fighters backing president bashar al assad and was instrumental to that government survival throughout the civil war he survived many attempts on his life inside iran and abroad but it would be in iraq where he was assassinated at the age of 62 and a serious child stratfor joins us now live from iraq's capital what's happening where you are charles. when i joined yeah thousands of people have gathered here in

tahrir square in central baghdad a square that is seen multi-year of protests anti-government protests but today's message very well defined being led by. these groups that are often described as being iran backed demanding a full withdrawal of all remaining u.s. military personnel from iraq. we understand and we know that around 303000 u.s. troops still in iraq we understand the president trump has promised that around 500 of those troops will leave by mid january the people here in the square this morning a sign that that is not enough and it's not fast enough they are demanding a complete and full withdrawal of all remaining u.s. personnel from this country and of course have also been. well cool story of angel

revenge of the assassination of cos in seoul a money spokesperson for one of the leading groups very fiery language saying revenge will come sued now blood is still boiling. an indication yet again of increasing pressure on the prime minister of this country on the government of this country and indeed on the u.s. in the wake of now a year on since the killing of a man who was described as being the 2nd most powerful man in iran and a man who had few g. influence and continues to have huge influence despite his death on iraq some 500 u.s. troops due to withdraw from iraq by the end of january realistically though what are the chances of all u.s. troops leaving the country anytime soon. i mean to be honest with you realistically that it doesn't sound it doesn't sound potentially very feasible does

that we know that the prime minister. to me agrees with most of the people here that there must be a withdrawal of u.s. forces all u.s. will seize from this country we also know that he was in washington in oldest and had beatings with. defense officials u.s. officials in washington and he was told but the plan was for u.s. troops to potentially have gone but within a 3 here period the people here as i was saying are saying that that is nowhere near foss the knob it's going to be very interesting to see what the crowd of impact the new administration the joe biden administration will have. on any kind of decision to accelerate any troop withdrawal we know that he is not unsympathetic to some troops staying in this country the argument being that they are necessary to train iraqi forces in the fight against eisel despite. that victory being

declared a couple of years ago there are still pockets so the americans and the europeans acknowledge that need to be dealt with. in all reality it seems very unlikely that we're going to see a full withdrawal of all u.s. troops from iraq in the near future and that's despite the very angry calls being made in baghdad today al-jazeera shot stratford reporting live from baghdad charles many thanks. to. the world health organization has welcomed an important breakthrough in the fight against covert 19 in india 2 vaccines have been approved for emergency distribution by the country's health regulator one is the vaccine developed by oxford university in astra zeneca and the other is domestically developed and produced but the nationwide drills to prepare for the large scale rollouts the government wants to inoculate 300000000 people in the next 6 to 8 months it'll be one of the biggest

and most ambitious vaccination campaigns in the world from minister narendra modi welcomed the approvals he called it a side of self-reliance praising the fact that both vaccines are manufactured inside the country dr rajiv the scooped up is a professor of public health joel you have never university he says that there will be inevitable hitches in rolling out the vaccines across india. the indian vaccine is is an inactivated vaccine it's co-developed along with the indian council of medical research and about it which is based at had about for the production. its in its face straight trials which is nearing completion the beta has been reviewed for safety and that's why this emergency approval has been given by the ra controller general of in the other it's likely that in the initial stages

. in the sarah minister of india a vaccine would be available in larger quantities than the bad by the vaccine we are certainly optimistic india's immunization fundamentals are strong there has been a period of preparation particularly for this campaign in terms of logistics training and so on however this is a very big country very diverse conditions multicultural and therefore we do expect that there could be problems whether it's logistics whether it's delivery whether it's communications related and therefore a white set of measures are also being taken to address vaccine concerns concerns around vaccine confidence and safety but we expect that vaccine demand will continue to be high and whatever heating troubles we may face in the initial

rollout stages should hopefully be tackled real time. the u.s. has a possible than 350000 covert 19 deaths since the pandemic began a further 270000 people tested positive for the virus that's a new daily record and takes the total number of cases in the united states to more than 20000000. britain's prime minister boris johnson is promising millions of people will be vaccinated against kovac by 900 over the next few weeks he's also assuring people the schools are safe following a backlash and legal action from teaches over the government's plan to reopen them lawyers for head teachers union of britain to the government demanding proof that it's safe to resume classes during the pandemic they're calling for remote learning to resume as a more contagious corona virus variant spreads across the u.k. all that as the u.k. marks yet another record jump in corona virus infections there were more than 57700 on saturday hospitals have been getting their 1st doses of the vaccine developed by

oxford university of astra zeneca let's go live now to london to sirius andrew sum of simmons's for supporters johnson says that he hopes to have tens of millions of doses distributed over the coming 3 months logistically is that possible andrew. you hit on the main issue the that is the logistics of rolling out these vaccines it is an ambitious promise or a suggestion that could take place but it is feasible by the number of vaccines to hand in the u.k. and we'll see on monday the 1st rollout of the oxford astra zeneca. vaccination of half a 1000000 doses of those going out in a in a fairly tram front way could be described by the u.k. government because the head of the rest in terms of rolling these vaccines out

there is an issue it would appear there are reports that only one in 4 people in the u.k. will be able to access a vaccination center in the coming weeks so there is a lot to do to actually have really reached that figure of tens of millions added to that there's a controversy in the u.k. about trying to deal with this rapid record infection rates and these school holidays are over and teachers are suggesting that they will refuse to go back to the classroom simply because the government is only closing down some schools rather than all schools they've already you turned on a plan for a sort of mixed reopening of primary schools are under eleven's in london and they've now closed all of them for at least the next 2 weeks but the rest of the u.k. it's patchy and that's really quite controversial furthermore there is

a an issue over the vaccine in terms of how the government is is planning to actually only give the 1st dosage of the vaccine certainly in terms of the pfizer the 1st vaccine only giving the 1st dose not giving the 2nd until the full length of time it's allowed so the. as you will get instead of people getting a 2nd vaccination you'll bring new people in to get the 1st oxidation so that is the plan but some g.p.'s say that this is cause more chaos in terms of trying to cancel appointments and they're concerned about the logic in terms of protection on this in terms of the european union and their situation in rolling out vaccines their health commissioner has announced that there is a position that goes like this that it's not the european union that's at fault in problems in distributing vaccines it's a capacity problem and it wants to help out the pfizer by own tech

company in terms of trying to get more manufacturing facilities in place it's already spent 100000000 euro on assisting this and the that this commissioner is saying really it's not the use fault it's really a situation whereby worldwide a shortage of production capacity in terms of the vaccine. that contrasts quite starkly with the u.k. which is which is claiming it's really ahead of the game in this and the e.u. is insisting that it's commissioned enough vaccines for the whole of the european union in a very efficient way it is not the fault of european union others it is under some of the reporting live from up and germany thanks. a weather update next here on al-jazeera then shows that essential goods will be made on affordable in libya by measures that are meant to shore up its economy. where in argentina is the better

weapons to beat those trying to protect its extraordinary wildlife the 1st decades of damage. it's time for the perfect jenny. sponsored plan qatar airways still no letup in the snow across japan at the moment things are looking quiets across china a little bulk of cloud i'll just filter its way out towards southern parts of q shoes or go on through the next day or so i further north as i said we have got some snow the northern parts of honshu into her qaida one is still only quite light so that's not too bad not looking at driving snowfall but it's that nevertheless behind that temperatures tumbling so with around minus 4 celsius in the heat of the day and struggling to get to freezing am beijing it is lousy dry across china but eastern past could just catch one or 2 light showers over the next day also some

heavier showers into southern parts of india into strong lanka and further north we have already said what is in force across was just on pushing up towards punjab wet weather there a westerly disturbance just making its way out of northern pakistan becoming right really quite extensive as we go on into what shoes day it will help see clear the air pollution we do have a new delhi but it's going to be pretty wet could cause some localized flooding further south those showers continue across all the way across into kerala doesn't want to see showers into the arabian peninsula but the too much to speak of you might just see a little bit of wet weather the into northern parts of saudi arabia. sponsored by qatar airways. and a territory that's been under constant siege for 12 years. and in a state of perpetual conflict with its neighbor. women are swimming against the tides and challenging stereotypes in the isolated society. ringback

al-jazeera wild follows 5 palestinians making a difference. the new women of gaza on al-jazeera. ringback. well again this is of 0 the main news this hour crowds have gathered in the center of baghdad to mark a year since the assassination of iran's top general custom samani he was killed by a u.s. drone strike there baghdad's international apple's. india's drug regulator has approved 2 coronavirus vaccines for emergency use one is the oxford astra zeneca

jabba the other is produced by an indian drug maker but a biotech the world health organization says that it's an important breakthrough. of the u.k.'s prime minister boris johnson says that over half a 1000000 orcs for the astra zeneca vaccines will be ready to administer by monday it follows another record jump in factions there all the 57700 on saturday. more than 70 people have been killed in 2 attacks on villages in western asia it happened in the tiller betty region that's an unstable area of the papers molly but kena faso and been in fighters from armed groups linked to al qaeda i saw cross in and out via the poorest borders. of zeros i would address is in is as capital may tell us more about this attack on that. well the attack happened on such a day and. it happened exactly less than 20 kilometers from

a huge military base in mongers say the officials are telling us that they suspect these armed groups infiltrating charitra from mali and burkina faso as being responsible but that area has also been an area that is seen by a less into coming of violence that has led to governance of the last year and right now the defense minister is on his way to say to assess the situation we were told that dozens of people dozens of victims have been hospitalized because of their injuries some of the injuries very serious or some officials saying that some of those with serious injuries a few of them may not survive because of the severity of their injuries now these the government here is hoping that this could be contained before it gets worse a lot of people who are really really concerned that they would have seen this violence during the election period during the campaign period but fortunately enough for many citizens here and the government as well there has been

a few incidents of violence in violent incidents but that affected nisha during the last 3 weeks or so right now we are we are hearing that the minister is going to make a public statement very shortly and we're waiting to hear from him exactly what happened in that area so what would have been the motive behind this attack was it to do with intercommunal rivalries or was could it have been related to the election of course the happen on the day that the results were being announced. exactly it could be communal violence but one official told us yesterday that they suspect it's the armed groups that have been infiltrating or crossing the border from the jet was crossing the border from mali and burkina faso that are suspected of carrying these attacks the attacks are actually on 2 villages near the mongers a area and they said they have strengthened or they've deployed more military forces to deal with the situation right now they're not saying exactly what

happened exactly who is responsible but the suspicion falls on the armed groups that have been operating in that area regarding the elections i think the elections had have been done and dusted for now the next round of the election will be the runoff in february and a lot of people don't think that these attacks will impact the outcome of the election in fact the election commission earlier said there was some areas where the elections could not hold because of threats of violence so what people expect in is where but when the runoff next month will take charge of the situation because both have been in government before both of experience with these groups and the violence that has been rocking here for a long time series of address reporting live from now main in the share anything summit. well the 2nd issue is just the latest in a region that's been blighted by violence for almost a decade around $5000.00 french troops are deployed in the west and so hell they're

supporting local forces in the fight against various armed groups that include boko haram one of those links to eisele and al qaida mali and bakita faso have been worst hit but there's been an increase in attacks in the thousands of civilians been killed and the un refugee agency says that 2700000 people have been forced to flee their homes but the armed conflict is just one of many threats facing people of the region is also food insecurity climate change and of course the covert 19 pandemic. is a lecturer at the university of aberdeen in scotland the author of all of it heralds contemporary challenges to african security he says the violence is partly fueled by local ethnic divisions. this region that the attackers happened is where the core did try border region couldn't make enough money there we also have a number of different ethnic groups and different communal groups that have between

themselves shoes to do with identity issues to do with land and all of that so they always many dynamics between this is these groups but most importantly here is the fact that elections are just a peon part taking place in jail and there is some sort of international attention so this kind of what you need to be opportunistic activities get. a time when his don't are around this kind of period so there's so many dynamics going on to justify this particular incident the political insecurity in the whole region is the main one of the key problems in. the states in this a how i just capable of dealing with the problems that the they face for example need is one of the poorest countries on earth about 20 percent of the u.s.

population depend on food aid so we're not talking about poverty we're talking about beyond poverty here so that the main challenges facing these deeds is simply incapable of dealing with the devaluation of libya's karen says take in effect of that it's hope 12 help there cultivate the exchange rates are varied across the country because of conflicts the black market and bank that's being printed abroad but try to report stuff from misrata that has economic help. a new unified exchange rate comes into effect in libya on sunday the central bank has agreed to a devalued exchange rate of $4.00 enormous $2.00 while the official rate with $1.00 do you know ours a lack of availability of u.s. dollars in banks created a black market on which it currently trades at $5.00 dinars the bank's board members held a full meeting for the 1st time in 5 years on wednesday since libya split between

warring factions in the west and east the central bank of libya is based in the libyan capital of tripoli also the seat of the internationally recognized government of national of court the eastern branch is based in benghazi stronghold of warlords leaf i have tears libyan national army who had printed alternative banknotes in moscow the us government called them counterfeit libyan currency printed by a russian state owned company and ordered by an illegitimate parallel entity analysts say the alternative bank notes increased inflation in an already struggling economy here in this market people tell us prices for goods are going up . there are long lines at the banks they give you $500.00 that's not enough to feed a family for one week. at the moment business is a cave but i think it will slow down salaries of 1000 dinars that's not enough for

people to provide for their families. the political divisions in the gap between the official and black market rates has distorted libya's oil dependent economy the move to unify the central bank and the exchange rate has been welcomed by some business leaders or residents here hear that the price of every day goods may increase as a result. abdulhamid as a professor of the economy he says prices may increase in the short term the devaluation was the right choice to make in the long term and. the central bank didn't have any other choice but to take this decision otherwise we would have seen a devastating rate of inflation the closure of oil fields by have tar in january 2020 meant libya wasn't getting dollars from exports i believe we will see the rate stabilize after the 1st quarter for libyans the next few months will likely get harder before they get better traina 0 misrata. if you're in

sydney you could face a $150.00 fine for failing to comply with new compulsory ma schools come into effect from midnight tonight sunday face coverings will be mandatory in shopping centers places of worship worship on public transport and other public venues new south wales police say the fines will be a last resort for enforcing the rule the measures come as the state reported 8 new corona virus infections 5 of them linked to a cluster in western sydney if you don't have a good excuse well you'd be fine. we understand that there are people who for example may have been ill at home and have not been yet to buy. and they're on their way to for example a pharmacy or shop to buy those are issues which are very good wells police members will take into account in the next few days. but at the end of the day it is no time for avoiding masks is it it is now a time for wearing masks please ensure you do. a rising number of corona virus

cases in south korea is forcing many communities there to cancel economically vital tourist events mcbride is travel to county in the mountains near the border with north korea to see how it's stealing with the loss of its annual ice festival. it's a special event to promote a particular type of river trout known as the sunshine know how to package it how to prepare it in every way imaginable and staged in a town that finds it has a lot of it $77.00 tons to be exact question county's annual ice festival is its biggest event and ice fishing on the frozen river the biggest draw for which it starts breeding fish a year in advance but this year there is to be no festival and the town is left to figure out what to do with its fish. we have been putting our heads together to

research and develop ways that we can sell our fish and deceased a result we're taking a crisis situation and turning it into an opportunity. realizing months ago the festival was unlikely to go ahead the county did cancel more than half the fish it had ordered from farms across the country. if we had a regular festival they would have made money on all that fish so i expect they took a considerable hit this year. the town itself is hurting to the harsh winter in these mountains normally produces ice that is solid enough to support crowds of visitors beneath it pristine waters that can 5th day in a massive of fish but this year no sign of any festival close to the border with north korea the town was already suffering from a ban on military personnel leaving nearby bases during the pandemic and restaurant owners like lee jones soon were counting on the influx of ice festival visitors who

won't now becoming. packing the double pushing and it's been difficult for everyone small businesses and employees no one has been spared it's also hurting the other towns around here who supplies with produce everyone here is hoping that by the time the ice breaks up and melts away their loss so be seeing an end to the pandemic rob mcbride al-jazeera watch on county south korea. china's space agency says that it expects the mosque probe chan when one to enter the red planet's orbit next month the probe has been in space for 163 days this travel 400000000 kilometers so far after entering mars orbit it will spend around 3 months checking out potential landing sites before touching down in may since its launch last july the mosse proved as captured an image showing both earth and the moon as well as taking several selfies are essential to say the probe is flying at

a speed of about 23 kilometers per 2nd which is 2000000 kilometers per day its relative speed to the earth now is about 21 kilometers per 2nd bettors 1800000 kilometers per day it is flying about 200000 kilometers per day towards mars the probe is flying faster and faster as it gets away from the sun's gravity. it's good to have you with us hello adrian finnegan here in doha the headlines on al jazeera crowds have gathered in the center of baghdad to mark a year since the assassination of iran's top general custom solemn oddie he was killed by a u.s. drone strike near baghdad's international airport protesters are demanding that u.s. forces withdraw from iraq stretford reports from baghdad but are demanding a complete and full withdrawal of all the.