river be panning for gold in this area for centuries the best time of year to do it is the winter because the river is lower than your in the summer months these tiny little yellow flags you can see but don't look much they were around $50.00 grand. protesters in myanmar mourning their dead after the west violence so far and vow to continue marching against the military. there on the table says out of their life and also coming on the un human rights chief urges ethiopia to allow monitors into the tikrit region to investigate reports of killings and sexual violence that may amount to walk ride. fears of

a new threat security is wrapped up in washington d.c. and u.s. politicians cancel a session and reports of a plot to breach congregants. venezuela's president is accused of using the country's gold reserves to evade international sanctions. the protesters are back on the streets across me on a day after $38.00 people were killed in the west crackdown since the coup the u.n. says the actual death toll since the military took power over a month ago may actually be much higher than reported witnesses say they saw soldiers firing into crowds with little warning scott hyder reports. like thousands of others just in nicknamed angel went out to protest on the streets of mandalay on wednesday less than 24 hours later people gathered for her funeral she had been shot. in the head. according to the un angel was one of 38 protesters who died at

the hands of myanmar security forces the most killed in a single day since the coup on february 1st aid agency save the children says 4 of the dead were children. in yangon bodies were identified and collected by family members this neighborhood of the country's largest city saw the heaviest death toll on wednesday there are reports that security forces opened up with live ammunition on the unarmed protesters without warning. but the protesters continued to put pressure on the on thursday again building barricades to block the security forces as they prepare for another day of protests young dealy is the former u.n. special repertory for myanmar she and 2 other experts have started a council to track the situation after the coup the behaviors the actions of this so called military. aren't. terrorists like behaviors they

have. and high high rise buildings around tall buildings the right amy and shooting at. civilian populations is a question and she said that the international community needs to acknowledge the military's actions as being comparable to terrorism un. they should really ashamed of what they've done we not done you know they haven't been hearing to the un charter to protect and to restore it to maintain to secure peace in order. and the security council has has really not done its job . she went on to say that china and russia has veto power in the un security council is obstructing action that needs to be taken in me and mar so far the council has voiced concern but has not condemned what's happened since the coup but there will be a fair. the test of that on friday as another security council meeting has been

called to discuss the crackdown on protesters this week got harder algeciras. now $47.00 hong kong pro-democracy activists who are facing charges of conspiracy to commit subversion are going to remain in prison that decision came after 4 days of marathon bail hearings which led to some defendants falling ill the court granted bail to a 3rd of the defendants but it sent the entire group back to prison after the government appealed the decision hong kong police have arrested exactly 100 people under the controversial national security law which beijing imposed on the city 8 months ago and the un human rights chief has urged the ethiopian government to let monitors into t. gray to investigate reports of abuses that could amount to war crimes michelle bachelet says killings and sexual violence are reported to be ongoing in the region ethiopia declared victory there after launching an offensive against the 2 great people's liberation front back in november but since then they have been reports

that eritrean soldiers and other forces have been fighting in that region well according to an amnesty international report eritrean troops killed hundreds of people over 2 days there in late november the report says unarmed men and boys were targeted in the city of axum a priest says at least 800 people were buried the number of deaths can be verified though as communications have been blacked out and access to the region restricted but an estimated 60000 people have escaped to neighboring sudan well earlier i spoke to review the shamdasani she's a spokesperson at the un human rights office she says there needs to be accountability from the ethiopian government. we as well as several other organizations have managed to establish you know through corroborating information that eritrean troops have indeed been involved in many of the most severe violations of human rights that have taken place on the ground including arm extrajudicial killings on the ground right now unfortunately there are no

independent human rights monitors the high commissioner for human rights has been pushing for independent access for us for the un human rights office to the to gray region so that we're able to carry out an objective assessment of the facts on the ground failing that all we are seeing is very serious allegations and reports and blanket denials and finger pointing on all sides seen reports of quite a strong case is quite a lot of cases of sexual and gender based violence we have all we've received reports of some 136 cases of rape that have been reported but of course you as you may be aware in cases of sexual violence the number of figures that are actually reported tend to be the tip of the iceberg because many of these cases do not go reported we're also seeing door to door searches of individuals we are seeing continued killings and continued fighting is in many parts of to agree what we are

seeing so far is that there is limited access humanitarian organizations need to be able to establish that the aid is actually reaching those who need it most human rights organizations need to be able to establish the facts on the ground to be able to help towards accountability for these violations. at least 20 migrants have died in the gulf of aden after being thrown overboard by smugglers the international organization of migration says dozens were forced off an overcrowded vessel while traveling from djibouti in east africa to yemen 5 bodies have since been recovered survivors are being treated in djibouti. our u.s. house of representatives session that was set to thursday weren't going ahead reportedly because affairs of a possible attack just before that decision was made the house passed a comprehensive election reform bill and aims to make virtual registration and access to polling sites easier but that bill still faces tough odds at the senate

our white house correspondent can be how it joins me now can be as we've been saying security is looking pretty tight in d.c. today do you get the sense that people there are really feeling under threat. the lawmakers certainly have that in the back of their minds it hasn't been very much time only weeks since that. action on the u.s. capitol on january 6th and so even though there is now a heavily fortified militarized zone around the u.s. capitol with not only a heavy police presence but also soldiers are soldiers and. very extensive barricade there's a feeling of nervousness why because the f.b.i. and the department of homeland security say that there is still online talk of a potential attack on the u.s. capitol though they admit this is mostly chatter so this is something that the u.s. park police the capitol police even the secret service all say that in coordination they're going to keep those printers up not just around the u.s.

capitol but also the white house here because still on the radar is the fact that there is still going to be that joint session of congress that annual sort of addressed by a u.s. president to the congress that still has to take place for joe biden they want to make sure that joe biden does have proper security when he finally makes that address no date for that but certainly there are still feelings of nervousness in the u.s. capitol of course and can be as we were also saying a couple of significant bills made it through the house before this was canceled can you talk us through the reason and what they're all desire of making it through the senate. yeah there's a landmark piece of legislation that is really geared towards trying to reform the voting system in the united states and it's no secret there been problems with voting long before the 2020 u.s. election so what this bill seeks to do this passed in the house is it would reform voting it would allow for mail in ballots online voting it would allow for 15 days

of early voting and really try to streamline what is otherwise a patchwork system in the united states in fact u.s. president joe biden releasing a statement a short time ago calling this a necessary to protect american voting rights to repair and strengthen us democracy and amplify the voices of the people not the powerful and he looks forward to signing it into law but as you mentioned there's still a tough road ahead in the u.s. senate where the democrats have just a narrow majority and we know that republicans don't like this legislation because they are really feeling this is a violation of the u.s. constitution that's because voting is in control of the states not a federal piece of legislation so they're feel that this is a power grab on the part of democrats that control congress right now so that's why this legislation is receiving some pushback white house correspondent can be how could they with all the latest for us from washington d.c. thanks so much company and speaking of elections facebook is now lifting

a self-imposed ban on political and social issue ads which it put in place during the u.s. election austria those restrictions were meant to stop the spread of misinformation but it's groups and organizations will now be able to use the platform to advertise their campaigns. to other has banned political ads permanently. well the chief of the un's nuclear watchdog says iran has now agreed to hold a meeting in april that's after european nations said plans to condemn terror on over its suspension of some a spec sions would be dropped now efforts are clearly underway to revive the 2015 u.k. deal between iran and global powers joe biden for his part has said he is willing to bring the u.s. back into that agreement after former president donald trump withdrew in 2018 starting this process. of of focused i'm not leases of this huge lesion we have technical meeting which will take place in iran

the beginning of april. which i hope will be followed by other technical or political meetings as agreed by both site we have to start the process and see how far we can go. across from the us a bag now has this update for us from tehran. well it will be welcomed by the government her president has and ronnie early in the week spoke with the his french counterpart president emmanuel macron and he warned that any and constructive moves at the i.a.e.a. against iran would result in new challenges and further complicate the matter now we've had the foreign ministry spokesman come out just now saying that this is a result of diplomatic efforts so the government will very much use this as a diplomatic victory because they are under a lot of pressure inside here in iran the parliament which is led by conservatives have heavily criticized president has not ronnie and his government in fact the

deal that was struck with the i.a.e.a. last month for that 3 month window that suspension of those additional protocols which restricted some of the i.a.e.a. actions inside iran the parliament has said that the president hasn't rouhani had acted illegally and wanted to refer the matter to the judiciary and that situation is only calmed down when it emerged that from the highest levels inside iran meaning the supreme leader ayatollah khamenei had actually given a green light for that so the reformists led by president hassan rouhani will use this as a victory a diplomatic victory but the conservatives will say the deal only reason the europeans back down was because of fear of retaliatory action by iran because if that motion had been passed president hasn't rouhani feared that the parliament may say that that 3 month deal with the i.a.e.a. would no longer be on the table which would make any further diplomatic talks very

very difficult to moving away from each other but iran is still adamant that any talks can take place unless the united states lifts those sanctions or sanctions that were imposed by previous u.s. president donald trump. well still ahead here on al-jazeera germany's chancellor lays out a course. down after months of restrictions. russia 10 page made history excitement turns to despair for at that time there are mosques test of an unmanned rocket and its. rain has arrived in central and southern japan skirting out as you can see by satellite through the south korea but it's going to spend most its time on friday

in southern japan and back in china now following that having seen a rise in temperatures are going to see a cold come back down again but a blast i think affecting all of japan the korean peninsula the top half of china as temperatures drop in court significantly and then we're less stopping hong kong however doesn't see much for temperature change a bit of a dip maybe but it picks up some of that rain since the bottom edge a few showers and fairly she read weather i think with the breeze pip again come monday is still rainy season those no longer the deps over it in both malaysia and indonesia but the breezes stopping big showers being formed in the philippines we've got showers back in sumatra and they could become quite big ones by the end of any day and asked true still to java this is correct even there were tail end of the rainy season. the mob isn't just durban's in the sky the weather westerly steppers is co-producing chazal thunderstorms in northern pakistan afghanistan 1st

and maybe the far north of india which took should do some good to new delhi improving the air quality. welcome to doha from every one of us. even those working quietly behind the scenes. so you can relax and enjoy the perfect break a new journey past. and when you leave with a smile we know law day's work is done cats are always welcome to our home.

you know again i'm a saucy attainder let's remind you of our top stories here this hour a funeral has been held in myanmar for one of 38 demonstrations killed on wednesday and protests as a back on the streets across the country after the most violent day yet of the judges crackdown. the un human rights chief has urged ethiopia's government to lead more to let monitors into tikrit to investigate reports of abuses that could amount to war crimes michelle bachelet says killings and sexual violence are reported to be on. the u.s. house of representatives session said the 1st day has been cancelled because of the because of fears of a possible attack on the house and election reform bill addressing issues such as easier voting accents. now medical experts in canada recommending for months between coronavirus vaccination shots or more people will

actually be able to receive a fast jab their advice apprised inoculations using vaccines made by pfizer madonna and astra zeneca but critics say extending those periods between doses is an experiment with unproven consequences come about as one of the countries with the largest number of vaccines ordered per capita that is currently experiencing shortages for its rollout and meanwhile germany has agreed to a plan to gradually relax coronavirus restrictions chancellor angela merkel and state leaders held talks for 9 hours on wednesday on a step by step plan from monday groups of people of 5 will be allowed to gather some shops can also reopen public support for all the restrictions has fallen but curbs will be reimposed if infections rise the mccain has more now for us from berlin. after marathon talks with minister presidents anger america presented a plan which points a way out of the pandemic for millions of people around this country many people

who've been hoping for an easing of the lock downs that are in place for been in place for many months but in agreeing that it should be a way out when numbers fall to the requisite level angle america was very clear that although there is going to be an easing there will also be the need potentially for an emergency brake to be brought in in places where the incidence reaches a particular number this is how she presented this plan when you think the off go deputy going down out task now as politicians and this is what we discussed over many allies is to take the next steps wisely these steps should be reopening without facing ourselves back during this pandemic there are many examples in europe of a dramatic they had wave and we shouldn't delude ourselves this danger also exists for us we must always keep this in mind yes i can say that the spring of 2021 will be different from the spring of a year ago some elements in german industry have reacted with dismay to parts of

the plan particularly as it refers to the emergency brake that may be imposed in areas where the infection rates reach a particular threshold there's also questioning going on in germany about the vaccine program about the speed with which it's being administered people pointing to the astra zeneca vaccine i asked angela merkel has said that she believes that maybe it would be safe to administer it to those over the age of $65.00 remembering of course that she herself is over the age of $65.00 these are all issues which are definitely being debated in this country and indeed in parliament on thursday the parliament is hearing from all sides about vaccination strategies and how the government intends to go forward combating the pandemic. well the european union's drug watchdog has now started reviewing russia's sputnik the coronavirus vaccine

it's part of the process for approving its use within the block a study by the scientific journal the lancet has shown that sputnik the is 91.6 percent effective against symptomatic cases hungary is currently the only e.u. country using it so far and has criticized the blog for being slow to approve the job the czech republic austria and stockier have all expressed interest venezuela's opposition has accused president nicolas maduro as government of illegally selling gold reserves to evade american sanctions a representative of opposition leader who made those allegations before a u.s. congressional committee he says the gold was refined in mali and then sold mainly in the united arab emirates the opposition says that scheme generated more than a $1000000000.00 in cash last year former duras government our last in america as a lucy and human has more now from santiago in chile. venezuela's opposition foreign commissioner a whole new board has held a news conference in which he revealed what he calls are the details of

a cash for gold scheme being carried out by president. in venezuela in order to circumvent u.s. economic and banking sanctions it deals with sending tons of gold to countries like the united arab emirates on russian planes sometimes countries like mali or other countries in africa this is not the 1st time that these allegations have been made but this is the 1st time that so many details have been spilt out board just did not make any of the documents public but he does say that he gave them to the u.s. congress to the u.s. office of foreign asset control or as well as to the u.s. state department interestingly this coincides with the 1st face to face we presume meeting between opposition leader and the new u.s. secretary of state and this was followed by an announcement by the white house that it would continue to regard venezuela as a threat to u.s.

national security and this is the mechanism that used to justify all these wide economic sanctions that were 1st imposed during the barack obama administration well we can actually speak to. one quite as international envoy who made those allegations he joins us now from miami mr barr has thank you for making the time to be with us and you've made some very specific allegations there just for clarity can you explain to us how you know what you shared with the u.s. congress. sure well listen we received this information from the army of course within venezuela like a year and a half ago and we devoted all this time to to try to fix these possible in order to have a big picture about the mechanism and there are one here of mr gage and we are presenting the proof that we have we have a lot of. videos photos and everything that could show

that there is some like like. in which but you said base russia in the united states and the reds and mali but mainly the. in the united emirates because there is a company which is called north got to go. into a position to provide cash in exchange for venezuelan goal. patient approaches that they provide here a plane that goes from broacha been this way take the gold goes then to make an exchange in mali and the emirates take people to different countries mainly to meet every rats and then big it 'd provides them a lot of this is really important issue for us because it's green you know that they're using our gold reserves for but as well of people in order to have cash

without any kind of control and you said this network of organized crime in order to make all the machine of corruption in the case of who was it help of the emirates with the help of the russian people mr barr has i recall there was also that shipment of oil that was coming from iran bound for that has had it was also allegedly paid for with gold so just how widespread has this practice and then what happens when the gold runs out i say there is ads are running relatively low now. well we have a regard to get the year 2028 different trucks a good friend cool about these old make and it's really there is more or in now we're busy geisha and we have the track of the airplanes truck of the a exchange we have it detailed bill sierra about everything that has happened during the $22.00

a year the last trip was on december of last year and we believe that we should try to cut these kind of organized crime in order to make more pressure on us regain but everything is a network of corruption different pretty games for example of. this game is only cash and. use of these guys in order to maintain the machinery of corruption so let me ask you then because i think a lot of people would say that there is an argument that if the sanctions regardless of their intent have potentially also damaging the lives of ordinary citizens and then as a manager finding a form of income to try to support them could be and they just need objectives so you are saying here that what's happening with the goal of this turning into cash for the government and it isn't actually reaching the people at all. absolutely absolutely and in this case these cash is not for venezuelan people to have back

soon for example that made itself good in this case is like it did more informal little to use it with all the corruption and all the liberty in order to keep the machinery of repression and by alone some corruption against venezuelan people so i think it's very very often in this case to be aware that we are able to cut the sky not organized crime network we're not the better civil. that would be a good bet if you look at what the people when you traveled to washington d.c. in order to share this with the u.s. congress and the u.s. has already taken a fairly tough stance on the door on and his government so what do you hope to get out of this now well i think that what is important is we have the complete network and he's like. a girl in operation you know there's not a general measure or a general sanction that we can sanction to go against the contrarian's or against

the companies or against the person who are helping a little to keep and undemocratic power in venezuela so this is a huge difference for the 1st time we're showing a very detailed proof the u.s. government already have the information that you provided and the senate as well was and senator mccain and some gruyere and also we are going to to provide this information to europe because there are some french people who are managing the whole operation and they could have some consequence for guarding european loose leisure mr blair has i mean it's now been more than 2 years and obviously it's going to are remains and palace so let me ask you then what is the fear to feel opposition movement are you considering a new strategy after all this time. well we have the support from the international community. the free world. people we have

a strong movement within venezuela from the civil society and political parties and now we have to keep strongly and fighting against the creator sheep and we have nor their way that to keep fighting in order to have liberty been stolen so our strategy is to to organize more pressure but it's only gain more legitimacy abroad venezuela and we feel that even though my little still in power we really believe that he's weak is. very weak but seizure and we have to proceed you know we're seizure you know. out of the case so but it's really pretty about has there one quite as international envoy speaking to us from miami thank you so much half your time here with us on out of there thank you a strong earthquake has hit new zealand's north island the epicenter was around 100 kilometers from terre r.r. a tsunami alert is currently out and officials are saying that anyone living on the

coast who felt that quake should immediately move to higher ground it's now been 3rd time unlucky for a billionaire iran must get his attempts at a test flight of an unmanned rocket. only. russian 10 has made history but as you can see everything seemed on target until the space x. rocket landed and then this happened it's not clear what went wrong 2 previous flights crash landed in fireballs. i know that this is al jazeera these are the headlines a funeral has been held in myanmar one of 38 demonstrations killed on wednesday and to protest as a back on the streets across the country for the most violent day yet of the gentles crackdown.