i. don't. mean more as military reiterate the promise to hand over power after elections but did not use carrying out a coup insisting they had no choice but to seize power. you're watching al-jazeera live from a headquarters and. also coming up charged with war crimes and crimes against humanity 2 former politicians from the central african republic on trial at the world's top court. a call for an independent commission to investigate the attack

on the u.s. capitol the house speaker wants to get to the truth of what happened a winter storm sweeps through parts of the u.s. bringing a record subzero temperatures traffic headaches and leaving millions in the dark. hello thanks for joining us military has denied carrying out a coup and pledged once again to hold elections next year a spokesman for the armed forces say they had no choice but to seize power moments later the lawyer of the deposed leader and she said the military has filed additional charges against her vats as protests across the country enter their 11th day scott idlers monitoring events from neighboring thailand he has more on the military's latest statements. bottom line is they're saying that they had to do

what they did and they said that that's why they had to take over the government because the elections were fraudulent back in november they also went a bit further and said that the protesters are inciting violence and actually pressuring civil servants from not have to not go to work so they're taking a little bit further not putting a little bit more of the blame on the protesters for what's been happening during the civil disobedience movement that we've seen really grow steadily over the last 2 weeks plus since the coup and then obviously these mass demonstrations we've seen in about the last 11 days running now so but it's interesting to see that they're actually coming out and kind of pushing back a little bit you know we've you know we haven't really heard or had a press conference like this since the coup we had some announcements come out but this is a full fledged press conference what's also interesting this is in the capital neighborhood or that some of the. local journalists the boycotted this because they don't see the military as the legitimate government there so obviously this is going to be something that you know once the news comes out and was the these lines

come out that they will be reported but bottom line from the military government saying that they did what they had to do they said they still are going to hold elections they said at the very beginning of the coup and that they will continue with the peace talks that they have been they've been engaged in for for years with the ethnic armies inside of myanmar so what they're trying to do is paint the picture that we had to do what what we did because of this fraudulent election but we're going to continue marching forward with what myanmar was was all about and obviously that's going to get quite a big of a pushback from the protesters still out on the streets right now. 2 former militia leaders are on trial at the hague for work crimes committed in the central african republic. petry said. leaders of the mostly christian movement they were accused of targeting muslims in a campaign of torture murder and rape after muslims. overthrew the government and 2013 both men deny the charges or the i.c.c. prosecutors say. were senior leaders within the mostly christian and

movements its fighters targeted muslims in a campaign of violence after muslim seleka rebels seized power in 2013 their alleged crimes include torture murder and rape both men deny the charges they were arrested in the c.a.r. in 2018 yet he was beaten and tortured after his arrest stuff osten is following the trial for a step is joining us from the hague so what do we expect to happen today step. well the trial against these 2 leaders has just started here in the hague it's the 1st time that this wave of violence in the central african republic in 20132014 is now on trial in the i.c.c. so that's why it's seen as a landmark case also looking at the atrocities that happened tom is facing $21.00

counts of war crimes and crimes against humanity is facing even more $32.00 accounts of war crimes and crimes against humanity including also rape and attempted rape also recruiting child soldiers so the trial is opening here in 4 days to come the prosecutor will lay out the case and defense will also give initial statements then in a month from now the evidence will be presented and it's also interesting to know that $1400.00 participating victims will be including in this trial that means that the i.c.c. gives the opportunity for victims of the violence that happened to actually participate in the way that they can also through their lawyers question the suspects but also witnesses here on trial it will be a long trial but a very important trial also interesting to note that they also the i.c.c. has transferred one of the seleka leaders to the hague just a few weeks ago because it's also important to show for the trial that the accountability is balance so both sides that were involved in the conflict will be

put on trial here ok so that will check in with you a little later thank you for the time being that's the update from the hague let's get some perspective on the. group who's a central africa senior analyst of the international crisis group is joining us from nairobi kenya thanks for your time with us on al-jazeera so as are saying there are the highest ranking ante bellum leaders to face trial talk us through how significant you think it is and how significant it is that the i.c.c. is taking this on. well i think the 1st importance of those trying to do is to send a message to different villages around the country and also a piece of real short cut population. to see the international community in general and this government committed to justice for which a crime been committed in 20132014 during the 1st decision war in

that country already but until a month is deducted caught or so dems off the dock watching to try to explain to the look at the polish on the wall time to time the kind of misperception of what i.c.c. wrote east of exactly what the international justice is on what is the process i was told that the process to try was going to be. lively forward by certain population disposition camino codes in burundi but on to the mount. is that. is raising the use of dilemma of justice and. there is a need of justice claim to conflict environment what's going to get our men was just bought a case of sun for the republic but there is also a need of a sort of question is how are we to do those and of initially because we see it on received just distributed we don't be a deterrent factor for them all with

a concept that seems that isis is still in force you know we sure could not combatant and equip ourselves the protests to put the other side of trouble it was but i rest on standing over to the ice is so all and i mean this trial obviously taking place in the hague thousands of miles away from the central african republic do you think that these types of trials bring closure to those who have been affected and they do bring a sense of justice. they do bring a sense of justice even if some of the. citizens before my disgust. to go if you were some of them would have expected those 2 leaders to be treated bunky on sentencing bunky or does it if they were divided sees the tribe is going well in international law that the most important thing is for them to be to be to be courageous out process but the problem is that the trial is also the photo ops

leader right now we have about 15 i. just didn't cooperate so the march on days how it got up their behavior what he did should show when the breakdown by destroying their full cause it's equally transformed their behavior all without we get a sense that she having to be arrested there will refuse for example to go into a city odds on a process or any what it cost at them and in the country yeah because if you look at the current situation of course in the central african republic there. this trial comes against a backdrop of fighting and they say are not fighting a result of post-election violence so does this trial have any impact on the on the rest. well it is difficult to see fota time i can just tell you what i've been receiving from the ground which is that some of the time when we discussed if that there must be to be

a rest at the un to be sent over to the i.c.c. in case they take it to the to genuinely and probably. get into the political mediation of the government you know we started to look if now i desire and i return to the c.b.i. line let's go because i may be only a businessman. prevent isis in front was getting me one day and therefore it could not but behavior of some of them look at the. symbols tree out from deposits if i go that means that is deteriorating there preventing them from committing atrocities on the ground so that if there is. a big push on all it denotes not just this country there are isis terrorists in traffic are probably ok we'll leave it there thank you so much for speaking to us from nairobi prosecutors in russia have asked the court to find kremlin critic alexina all the

$13000.00 for a slandering a world war 2 veteran avani says the charge is politically motivated and an attempt to smear his reputation earlier this month he was sentenced to almost 3 years in prison for parole violations thousands of people have been arrested during protests and support. he was house speaker nancy pelosi has announced plans to form an independent commission to investigate last month's assault on capitol hill she says it will be modeled on the commission established after the $911.00 attacks. that will report on the facts and causes of the violence on january the 6th in which 5 people died several republicans have expressed support for an independent investigation. henry olsen is a senior fellow at the ethics and public policy center in washington d.c. he says the findings will be seen as credible because the commission won't be part of. the important thing of the 911 model that misspeak or flosi is proposing is

that it is 5050 bipartisan controlled by neither party and it has had an extremely important former or current appointed or official has left it officials from both sides so it's something that gives a finding extreme credibility and i think purpose of this would be to go in and find what house managers in the impeachment trial either couldn't or wouldn't produce which is clear in the evidence over how responsible president is for the riots that occurred in the us i think there's arguments on all sides of this for getting to the truth about this republicans are on happy with trump would love to be able to find more evidence as senator bill passes being one of the 7 republicans who voted for can be acting president said the more people find out the likelier republicans will be to be on my side democrats of course would like to find out this but the trump people also would like to find out what the truth is in part because it will also enable them to investigate what this house speaker who was in

charge of capitol security did or did not do to protect them and their stabs from the possibility of a riot so there's a happy political convergence of interest over establishing this sides can find something they want to look at. still ahead on al-jazeera 15000000 people within 2 months mexico targets the elderly in the 2nd phase of its national vaccination drive costs why joe biden has chosen the state of wisconsin for his 1st official trip and what people there are hoping will come out of it. there is something to watch in the philippine sea you can just about see the circulation trying to form itself now and i think in the next day or so they will

be may well be a proper circulation heading in towards the southern philippines that's going to be the wettest area that might get worst and just wet some of that multiple showers across less so in malaysia more so still in job for this part of indonesia in particular and that's true the far north of australia fairly wet in fact is also a hint of the circulation once more in the gulf of carpentaria there's still rain running through western australia always good to perth but not quite 28 degrees now is your forecast it's much warmer in south australia 36 actually adelaide slightly warmer than yesterday in melbourne up to about 32 the armchair breeze been showers and cooler weather for sydney and for brits been we might get some interior showers in queens and but it still looks like there were that many the picture for melbourne is consistently warm both by day and by night but largely sunny skies this is thursday still the onshore breeze more of the way of wet weather i think for sydney or rather bore for the north of australia for new zealand it's largely

sunny but not very warm. to make a change. change your life for the path of a country challenge the accepted truth you want to create something you 1st break and then you remolded up turn the status quo and fight injustice found out all month you didn't run tests and. now the book is filled out to. witness personal documentaries up alter all deception on al-jazeera.

on the way down the top stories on. main mars military has denied carrying out a coup and pledged once again to hold elections next year moments later the lawyer of the deposed leader aung san suu kyi said the military had filed additional charges against her. to form a militia leaders are on trial at the hague for war crimes committed in the central african republic. said warren guy so we are accused of targeting muslims in a campaign of torture murder and rape from 2013 to 2014 both men deny the charges. prosecutors in russia have asked the court to find kremlin critic of the $13000.00 for slandering a world war 2 veteran of all he says the charges politically motivated and an attempt to smear his reputation. to democracy activists in hong kong have pleaded

guilty to organizing an illegal assembly and $2197.00 others denied the charges including media tycoon jimmy lie who is known as hong kong's father of democracy the trials are related to a demonstration in august 29th games beijing's influence the rally drew nearly 2000000 people critics say the charges are proof the government is ruling through fear that way way back. right problem or primary growth for credit. growth from. the rule of law. the world health organization has approved the astra zeneca covert 1000 vaccine for emergency use the decision allows the global rollout of the vaccine and increases access for less wealthy nations through a program known as kovacs it comes as the number of cases worldwide dropped for the 5th consecutive we. heads university college london is

a global citizenship program on outbreaks of infectious diseases she says the approval is an important step for making the vaccine accessible to everyone the division of emergency authorization essentially allows for low and middle income countries to be able to authorize within their own nation relying on the show process around quality safety checks also looking at analysis of the supply chain really pulls that trigger on allowing those vaccines to be shipped to those countries because so far we know that 75 percent of all vaccines have been administered in just 10 countries in the world and kovacs is the arm of the show that is working specifically on vaccine equity financing the astra zeneca vaccine to reach the majority of low in the income countries which through

donations alone at an individual level would have been extremely difficult without the job you show emergency authorization so because that process is so much lengthier when it's done just through the national regulatory body that often in low and middle income countries has less regulatory capacity this sort of launches that words next that the next step allowing for the 1st shipments and processes to really get rolling because again they're bare very far behind when it comes to vaccinating their populations. the palestinian authority says that israel has stopped 2000 coronavirus vaccines being delivered to the gaza strip the 1st doses of the sputnik vaccine were supposed to be given out on tuesday more than 2000000 palestinians living in the gaza strip are yet to receive any inoculations human rights groups have criticized israel for not providing vaccines to palestinians living under israeli occupation in the west bank and the besieged gaza strip an

investigation has been launched and peruse to find out why nearly 500 people including many government officials were secretly vaccinated ahead of health workers the former president has apologized after it was revealed that he and his wife received injections in october on sunday the foreign minister resigned after it emerged she had also been given a secret. a 2nd round of vaccinations is being administered in mexico's capital health officials aim to inoculate 15000000 elderly people within 2 months many reports from mexico city. queues are long outside vaccination centers in the outskirts of the mexican capital on monday health officials rolled out the 2nd phase of mexico's national inoculation program. i feel happy after receiving the vaccine i'm glad they brought us the vaccine. they say that with the vaccine

hopefully we can control the pandemic because too many of our poor brothers and sisters have left us. after weeks of delays some 870000 doses astra zeneca covert 900 vaccine arrived in the mexican capital over the weekend restarting the country stalled next nation efforts you look at all you thought was . what we're witnessing today is the arrival of the 1st test resentment of vaccines developed with oxford's that were produced in india from mexico this should mean is very important because it will let us excel right of vaccination drive as was ordered by the president. mexico's military has been mobilized to deliver new doses of the vaccine to all 32 mexican states. that of mexico is nearing 2000000 confirmed cases and ranks 3rd in the world in cope with 19 deaths the latest shipments of vaccines or arriving at a critical time jack. 60 ending health officials have got the vaccine they arrived

in the morning and they will continue arriving on tuesday and they won't stop arriving the national immunization plan won't stop as we have said there's preference for the elderly. while the 2nd phase of the vaccination program will focus on the elderly and frontline health workers the government has also placed top priority on rural areas where rates of transmission are relatively low many health policy experts say this is the wrong. strategy adding that the government should be focused on inoculation efforts in densely populated cities were authorities continue to struggle to curb contagion. mexico's vaccination program began in december of last year since then mexico's president has said the government intends to vaccinate the entire population that's more than 126000000 people by march of 2022 minute upolu al-jazeera mexico city the world health organization says much needed a bowl of vaccines are on route to getting the stockpile is being flown in from

geneva and the u.s. countries trying to track down anyone who had contact with those infected 5 people have died in 10 others have symptoms reports from to car and. is back near the virus is spreading to the capital. so they. continue to feel really surprised given the current situation guinea we give names are struggling with the 19 pandemic and now with the polar it will be a real disaster the country's learned borders are sealed an emergency team made up of the world health organization doctors without borders and government health workers were dispatched to the region of corey after a nurse died of the virus in late january. disaster in fact and we need our. approach to take into account. the cultural sensitivities. of the several people

attending the infected nurses funeral contracted the virus some have since died with more than $200.00 close contacts health authorities fear many more could be a knowingly carrying a bulla the virus spreads easily through bodily fluids and triggers fever vomiting and diarrhea and eventually causing organ failure and death. people are nervous the governor of korea is calling for calm in 2013 an outbreak detected in the same region spread to neighboring countries infecting over 20000 people half of them died from the virus samples of infected patients have been set for testing at the institute in neighboring senegal inside this building are researchers sequencing of the virus the idea here is to try to understand which strain of a bull we're dealing with in the current outbreak in guinea and whether the newly developed vaccine will successfully contain this new epidemic there are currently

$7000.00 doses of the vaccine available globally none of them are in west africa the vaccines need to be stored at minus 80 degrees celsius and transported to guinea's remote and tropical region where power is in short supply for health authorities it is for now a race against time to trace and isolate contact cases before it's too late nicholas hawk al-jazeera the car. a major winter storm has pummeled much of the u.s. and brought rare snow to some southern states causing chaos in a region on years the freezing conditions. for much of the southern united states it was a once in a generation winter storm. heavy snow fall and icy roads conjured up disastrous driving conditions across at least 20 states several of them declaring states of

emergency in texas record low temperatures way below freezing brought the electricity grid to its knees at one point more than 2000000 customers there lost power many caught up in intentional outages designed to ease the strain on the system we have experienced probably 5 or 6 rolling blackouts at about 45 minutes and i know that there's some neighborhoods around here that have them up without power since about 4 am even southern texas more accustomed to hurricanes got a rare sight of snow this was the scene in bel-air a suburb of houston and in san antonio home to the alamo a famous historical site here's what it looked like there. too far but you never think you see the day and so you got snow coming down like this according to the national weather service at least 150000000 americans are in the storm's path and unusually wide band of frigid air creeping slowly across the

country other states bearing the brunt of it happen oklahoma where it's caused near white out conditions on the roads. and more carolina where freezing rain felled trees along highways further north in chicago there are more used to this kind of weather at this time of the year but even here they're bracing for more than 30 centimeters of. no by the time the storm passes through the new york city region has already seen its highest snowfall totals in years but the storm that's sweeping through the rest of the country is now barely north and about to hit here leaving tens of millions of other americans in the northeast of the country bracing for the next one that also could include sleet and hail gabriels on doe. we hawk in new jersey joe biden heads to wisconsin later on tuesday on

his 1st official trip as u.s. presidents it was one of the key states and his presidential victory and has been hit hard by the pandemic people are hoping his administration will help them recover from the economic fallout john hendren reports from milwaukee 33 cases when the phillips brothers construction company became the general contractors for the democratic national convention it was a corporate coup when the pandemic forced the convention to go virtual the democrats cancelled the contract and that's about how 2021 here in wisconsin last year was a rough year so we're looking forward to any kind of wanted out we have the vaccine and everything else i would hope it s. and jobs open up and some opportunities definitely open to other way for a small company like ourselves they're hoping for a better economic climate with a new president who campaigned in wisconsin promising to help minority businesses now joe biden is making his 1st official visit and outside of the washington area

here in part to make good on that promise wisconsin lies near the center of the midwest a train ride away from american marketplaces from coast to coast. it exports manufactured goods agriculture and like many rest belt cities across the united states has lost factories in jobs to the ravages of the pandemic with the pen demick like any other state you know things went downhill so as a result what we saw it. 2020 specially and the 2nd quarter and 3rd quarter of 2020 is that the economy was doing pretty bad he says the state's ability to reopen shuttered shops and recover depends in part on biden's 1.9 trillion dollars covert 19 rescue plan which includes money for businesses and workers trump won wisconsin narrowly which helped him get to the white house biden won it back for the democrats but not by a huge margin and wisconsin has shown it could swing right back to the republicans

if it doesn't see results from the democratic president. for minority businesses like the phelps brothers expectations are especially high for black business you know hopefully that he can. do what he needs to put the right legislation or the borders or work with congress so that we won't be at the bottom of the list all the time. for wisconsin businesses biden's visit is a start they appreciate the high profile attention of the president at the dawn of his term but they'll judge him by his success in turning around the state's flagging economy john hendren al jazeera milwaukee. hello again the headlines on al-jazeera the sour manned mars military has denied carrying out a coup and pledges once again to hold elections next year moments later.