and once again even if that list might not have but already and on that majority this is legal research talk about just good hardworking people that want to live the american dream like our ancestors these are huge refugees are terrified that they may be forced to return to be a more. former french president nicolas sarkozy faces jail after being convicted of corruption. or that i'm out of my head and this is al jazeera live from doha also coming up here and experts call for an international investigation into the poisoning of the russian opposition leader alexina valmy and say the government is the russian government was likely responsible. for the russians change each demonstrated i

don't expect the time to time on mr marandi spawning he was under can still be asked by russian intelligence war famine and coronavirus yemen is confronting it all the way says call for financial help from the rest of the world. and armenia's prime minister holds a massive rally to shore up support smith continued calls for him to resign. former french president nicolas sarkozy has been convicted on charges of corruption and influence peddling he could serve up to one year in jail his case surrounds an attempt to use his position to you all for a job in exchange for information on an investigation into his campaign finances judges handed sarkozy a 3 year prison sentence 2 of which are suspended his lawyers say he will appeal

against the verdicts as a close up as court proceedings in paris. i think in terms of corruption in politics in france as in many places unfortunately it can be rife and nicolas sarkozy has certainly had his fair share of allegations this is one trial that has now ended but it's worth noting that his legal problems are far from over because nicolas sarkozy actually faces a very likely to corruption trials both linked to alleged illegal campaign funds and i think in france there is a sense that some politicians are indeed crocked they use their position for their own personal gain so i don't think it would be such a huge surprise we've seen all the prominent politicians in the past few years certainly have their time in court for us all feel who rose up one time nicolas sarkozy's prime minister under few years back another former french leader jacques

chirac was also had his time in court he never appeared because he was actually sick but he was also found guilty of corruption even though he was never served a prison sentence so corruption in politics and so to an issue in france the current french leader of iran omar kroll said that he wanted to do more to try and stamp out corruption in politics i think that would be very welcome but i don't think anyone would imagine that it's so easy to do. hear hear rights experts are calling for an international investigation into the poisoning of kremlin critic alexina vul me romney was poisoned with novacek nerve agent last year was later arrested and jailed by russian police for a parole violation which happened while he was recovering in germany u.n. experts and his color and irene cohen believe the russian government's may have been responsible and they say domestic investigation won't uncover the truth eet ees our conclusion that russia ees response to both of the attempted arbitrary

killing of mr lamb and at the time of mr marilee spoiler warning he was under intense you'll be arsed by russian intelligence it just flies in the fact of the in the face of the fact that people are the vandals monitoring is every move could have introduced to themselves in the uk at a hole with a highly dangerous force on and knew where and how to handle it in the old care home so as to poison mr never. was talking as andrey simmons he joins us by skype from staffordshire in the u.k. and you've been monitoring that evidence session from the u.n. what have they presented so far and what else might we expect. well the main issue seems to be that the what's been laid down here according to this report is a clear sinister warning from the kremlin that anybody who opposes it in

a fashion like in the valley will face the ultimate penalty and that is murder because that's what is being discussed in all diplomatic circles has been since august 2020 when the valley was poisoned now the issue had been initially was there proof that novacek the nerve agent was used well in germany they tested their blood tests and other tests on the valley who'd been rescued from russia and flown to germany for treatment and was critically ill when he arrived there not a chalk was found in samples now russia takes germany to task on this and said in a statement that the foreign ministry is saying that it wants clear proof now from germany on data the proves and novacek was used now what the report goes on to say is that this this act was in contravention to all gnash

international guidelines on the use of chemical weapons on the use of nerve agents such as novacek and therefore there should be an international investigation nothing other than that is suitable according to this report it also states that other countries need to join in with this chorus of protest because it's now since august 2020 that it took place only has been charged with violations of parole and jailed on other charges he claims are trumped up and he's now in jail 100 kilometers reportedly from moscow in what's described as a a cold. basically a penal colony now he intends his campaign is intend to carry on regardless and they say it was a very brave move of novell need to return to russia from germany where he was

being treated so effectively we're seeing now a possibility that the european union will institute sanctions against russia and there are reports that within 24 hours there could be an announcement that for officials from the justice ministry of justice services will be sanctioned directly targeted sanctions against those 4 individuals one of them reported to be the director of prisons so what we're seeing now is really a ramping up of pressure on russia over this this whole affair ok and g. 7 is their brain is the latest from staffordshire thank you andrey evillest stay with this issue of course is the executive director of the anti corruption foundation and also a personal friend over lexan of army he joins us now from london by skype it's good to have you with us here on al-jazeera. listening to that evidence session from the

united nations there was a clear condemnation do you welcome this and also what exactly do you think this will change in terms of alexina vollies current situation. of course we welcome this international recognition of marley's poisoning and alleged link of rushworth oh it is true it is a summation russian of the who just at the same time didn't even open a criminal case a criminal investigation of what happened to natalee 6 months ago that is clearly an outrage and the record of the u.s. human rights commission is another voice internationally in support of the investigation and a clear understanding of what happened. so what are you looking for know because the u.n. is pointing the finger at the russian government the russian government says it's

nothing to do with us and talk there is talk of sanctions but realistically what other sanctions could international. partners bring to bear on russia. it's interesting that this report from us comes just a few days after the report on the murder of jamal. which links this as a summation to. prince mohammed bin so money and started it arabia and the similarity is that this is a summer on our summer a government saudi arabia and we are where a senior official was directing war in assess the nation it which wasn't very forthcoming in this investigation and still international community here are was able to link this isn't it just this nation directly to the saudi prince so

can something like this happen in a case of no army and russian authorities linking his assassination an attempted murder poisoning to mr wharton i would like to see that but if we take the parallel with. there has been criticism from some in the united states that the crown prince mohammed bin solomon was not actually directly punished as a result so even though fingers are being pointed at prince haven't been some he hasn't actually received any direct punishments direct sanctions do you not think that this even if the international community says ok volunteer putin's responsible but still going to be an unwillingness to actually do away to any individual punishment. well i think there's only so much that even the most

powerful country in the world the united states can do about it is 2nd in command in a culture lake so here it is probably a lot worse than in russia but i think the important thing is establishing the truth. directly who was right that was inning of alexei welnick and once that sure is established. you know what you talk about saying actions we can talk about other measures but truth comes 1st ok sure of course we're out of time unfortunately but great to get your thoughts thank you so much for joining us from london thank you. now u.n. secretary general antonio guterres says the humanitarian situation in yemen has never been worse and is asking the world to help starving yemenis caetera says a political solution is necessary to end the war famine has yet to be declared in

the country but the u.n. warns it's close to dairy i mean is bearing down on yemen the race is on if we want to prevent hunger and starvation from taking millions of lives it is impossible to overstate the severity of the suffering in yemen more than 20000000 yemenis leave humanitarian assistance and protection with women and children among the hardest hit 4000000 people across yemen have been forced from their homes in the recent would your parents even marty these places and of the thousands more. well the conference is coing on more than $100.00 governments to make nearly $4000000000.00 in donations u.s. has announced nearly $191000000.00 in additional humanitarian aid making a total of 300 and $50000000.00 for 2021 saudi arabia has pledged $430000000.00 riyadh is backing the yemeni government in its fight against rebels

but donations will likely fall short again this year but 1.9 $1000000000.00 for razan 2020 but that's roughly half of what was required for that funds the u.n. warns more than $16000000.00 people in yemen could go hungry let's get more now from our debt from last cancer james basic joins us live now from the united nations and james just lay out for us what exactly is the u.n. asking for here. the u.n. saying that their warnings are extremely serious they say there is an imminent famine and it's the worst famine that the world will have seen for decades and that's why they need a large amount of money almost $4000000000.00 they are asking countries around the world to give that money but it looks like they're having so far a very underwhelming response certainly some of the countries have offered less

than they have in previous years much of the money in some previous years has come from the countries that are actually militarily involved in yemen the so-called saudi led coalition saudi arabia this time around has pledged 430000000 that compared with 5 $100000000.00 a year ago although the u.n. says not all of that money ever actually arrived in the united arab emirates $230000000.00 the amount pledged by the u.k. is less than last year as is the u.s. contribution was announced by the secretary of state antony blinken. united states is committed to doing our part of to provide aid and to help address the obstacles standing in the way of humanitarian access today i'm pleased to announce nearly $191000000.00 in additional humanitarian assistance from the united states not only in the humanitarian crisis in yemen by ending the war in yemen so the united states

is reinvigorating our diplomatic efforts and war we listen to the concerns of the united nations humanitarian groups and members of congress and we are committed to the well being of the yemeni people at the forefront of our policy so the u.s. giving a $191000000.00 compared with last year 220 $5000000.00 but as the secretary of state said the efforts of expanding in terms of their diplomacy trying to end the conflict they certainly have a new envoy to lend a king who has been going around the region speaking to key players there along with the u.n. special envoy martin griffis they believe that there is the possibility of some new mode movements diplomatically but there is also deep concern about the situation on the ground not just with regard to the famine and the humanitarian situation but

the only going to theophan sit on the city of merope that's a place that used to have 2000000 people in it now as 3000000 because of people already displaced from other parts of yemen that's just one of the reasons the u.n. needs huge amounts of money money it looks like this conference is not going to give them the amounts they want ok james phase there is a live update from the united nations james thank you. so to come here on al-jazeera. harrowing tales from civilians caught up in the conflict in ethiopia is northern tier a region. more charges against opponents men money their own sons and she is protests continue calling for her release.

it's time for the perfect gentlemen. sponsored point qatar airways hi there the weather maze pretty warm across the tokyo at the moment but we have got a change on the way over the next couple of days big area of cloud rain sleet add yes some snow coming in through the sea of japan canary of low pressure here some cooler air tucked in behind and that's going to not just way further east which is we go through the next day or so southerly winds in tokyo lifting temperatures to around 90 degrees celsius but you hop across mt fuji to the other side of the country you can see a fair bit of snow rolling in his we go on through the next couple days that wet snow disruptive snow will come through so the thing that could bring down power lines or tree branches that extend south into northern parts of japan but dry weather does come back in behind and that's something to look forward to see move into the middle part of the way because that a lot from the little father reese was it will freshen up in japan 13 celsius there for tokyo but by this stage it should be largely fine and dry expect

a rapid thaw that will be some showers there across southern parts of china will be some showers too into parts of india particular up was the final thing is just around will tell where we have a little bit of cloud and rain here but for the most part south asia looks fine and dry over the next couple of days and on the warm side temperatures quite readily into the low thirty's. qatar airways. i'm counting the cost norway got very rich of oil and gas now it has controversial plans to mine the seabed bridges pandemic data will they be moved taxes and unnecessary austerity debate all of us how social media hit cherry exports to china . counting the cost on al-jazeera. i've been covering all of latin america for most of my career but no country is alike and it's my job to shed light on how and why.

this is al-jazeera a quick reminder of our top stories this hour of course in france has found former presidents nicolas sarkozy guilty of corruption the judges handed him a 3 year prison sentence 2 of which suspended he's appealing the conviction. here and human rights experts are calling for an international investigation into the poisoning of kremlin critic alexina foamy and his car and i really believe the russian government may have been responsible. the u.s. is just that i said actual $191000000.00 in additional humanitarian aid for water in yemen that brings its total financial support to 350000000 dollars this year the

u.n. is asking for nearly $4000000000.00 that halts a donor conference. in armenia the embattled prime minister in the corpus union says he's ready to hold a snap election he's been under growing pressure to resign let's cross live robin foresee a walker who joins us from yerevan robin what more can you tell us about this. they held the law gathering in the center of the city at republic square and this was his response to the opposition that have been protesting quite frequently over the last few weeks calling for his resignation those schools have been given out of momentum when the head of the army also cool to mystify she answered resignation but tonight the prime minister was really very defiant and i think she was able to show that he still has

a very large following amongst the armenian people and that was his way of demonstrating that this evening and i think the big take is that he acknowledges that there are problems in the country and that there have been doubts raised about his ability to govern and so he's laid down the chinese that he will cold parliaments to go snap elections and that would take place in the coming months it's not clear when but it would be a process by which parliament would support that move and he would be able to stand down and then those elections would go ahead the opposition has not. let me just also be clear that the opposition is not in the. resignation they say they don't want snap elections that they want an interim government probably because they know they wouldn't be able to win snap elections i think that question

yet knows that even if elections were to go ahead and despite its drop in popularity since the war over as if with azerbaijan he would still be able 'd. and i think that's what this is all about quelling all those doubts about his oath or it's he and he it's legitimacy to govern this country and so that's why how this rally to see where i'm standing now is where he will be gathering off to his march all the people to mark the anniversary back in 2008 when the army and the police. supposedly opened fire killing more than 8 people whose depression yet is using its own diversity to say that this will never happen not because government and that's what this rally has been about the c. ok robin for say walker bring as the leases from caravan robin thank you. and the e.u. is set to unveil plans for a digital vaccine passports later this month the commission presents herself on the line says draft legislation will soon be ready at their system to confirm

a person's vaccination status can't be essential when it comes to lifting travel restrictions within the region member states like greece and cyprus have already created a travel bubble of recognizing each other's vaccines that if it gets the mccain has more from berlin what sort of funded line is talking about today is the result of what was talked about by e.u. heads of government heads of state last week in the virtual conference digital summit that took place in brussels this idea of what sort of underline are calls a digital green pass effectively a vaccine certificate or passport that would allow the person with the certificate to travel from one place to another and not necessarily have to go into quarantine or some form of lockdown thereafter effectively the person would have to be able to prove one of 3 things either that they had had a vaccination both vaccinations and therefore han't could prove that they had the

jap or that they could prove the result of a very recent p.c.r. test for covert or in the 3rd instance that they had recovered from covert in the recent past and therefore would have some degree of immunity now are sort of underlying says that all of this will be done with data protection in mind so that no individual's sensitive medical private personal data. could be mis used. in the u.s. deliveries of the johnson and johnson vaccine are on the way they're being loaded off a distribution center in kentucky and from there they'll be flown around the country johnson and johnson is the 3rd vaccine to be given the green light in the u.s. and the only one that's delivered in a single dose this is the culmination of more than a year of day and night efforts on the part of our physicians our scientists or engineers to have

a safe effective single shot common refrigeration vaccine available for for patients here but for people around the world. if europeans in the northern region of tigra i have told on just hear about her civilians were tortured and killed by eritrean soldiers last year evidence suggests eritrea did send troops when the government's fence began last november despite its denials charlotte ballasts reports. 18 year old mona lisa is traumatized by one day the 4th of december it was then she says eritrean soldiers into her village in the ethiopian region of tinkering should stay. but they tried to rape me and i was thrown to the ground and then one of the soldiers fired bullets to scare me but they hit my hand and then fired another

bullet that went through my arm. i was bleeding for hours then i had my arm amputated. al-jazeera has gained rare access to tigray and heard from witnesses who say they suffered a pierces that could amount to war crimes but at the hands of every train not ethiopian soldiers. some girls and i managed to leave the village but on the road we were caught by eritrean soldiers more than 10 soldiers took turns raping us in november ethiopian prime minister and launched into strikes and seen bitterroot troops into 2 great saying he was responding to attacks by the to grain people's liberation front witnesses say eritrean forces cross the border to support the ethiopian military and while here committed egregious crimes committed nagen i do i just don't wish that al-jazeera convey our message and my cowboys who we demand the

exit of the era trying forces from our country. here are trained soldiers denying even being integrated yet al-jazeera obtained these images showing trucks with eritrean license plates integrate carrying soldiers amnesty international also released a report stating hundreds of civilians were massacred by era trained soldiers in the town of axum in november the. ethiopia's government has questions the accuracy of amnesty sources but says an investigation will be launched. as information slowly seep sounds survivors live with their truth every day. my husband was killed in our village along with a lot please go tell the world we are dying. by their accounts at the hands of

soldiers who deny every entering this land shall a ballasts. chad's main opposition candidate seleka sabo is withdrawing from the upcoming presidential election on sunday and other opposition candidates former rebel leader yeah general bet she said the presidential guards killed his family members in a raids on his home. listen 24 hours after violent days since its military coup prosecutors have filed 2 new criminal charges against supposed leader aung san suu kyi she appears as a hearing and code through video link across major cities security forces are increasing their crackdown on protesters but people remain defiant scott honda reports. messages for general men on lang the morning after his security forces gunned down protesters on the streets of yangon sunday was the bloodiest day since the february 1st coup in myanmar and the weeks of protests that have followed. but

that did not keep them inside on monday. the police and military forces quickly advancing in yangon firing tear gas at the gathering protesters sending them running. in the early hours of the coup last month civilian leader aung sang suu kyi was detained in naperville along with most of the elected leadership of her governing and the party. for the 1st time since then she appeared in a video link in this courthouse during a hearing for the charges against her according to her lawyer she appeared to be in good health 2 additional criminal charges against on song suchi were added on monday on top of the 2 existing ones the next hearing is in 2 weeks. as international pressure builds against the gentle and its increasingly violent crackdown against protesters some feel it might prompt the military to dig in deeper the worse case scenario is when you try to put a very very hot place on this group of military persons you know sometimes the

outcome is not what you expect day may you know get matt and instead south followed away that international community stand out once they do the opposite thing. he went on to say the best approach with the military is a regional war with nations myanmar is familiar with and views as allies that process is to start on tuesday when the regional block of southeast asian nations known as r.c. one is due to start talks on me and maher scotland al-jazeera. this is al jazeera and these are the headlines a court in france has found former president nicolas sarkozy guilty over corruption he was also convicted on charges of influence peddling the judges handed him a.