be the hero the world needs. washed. the un human rights chief urges ethiopia to allow monitors into t. grey region to investigate reports of killings and sexual violence that may amount to war crimes. you're watching al jazeera live from doha with me fully back also coming up police and protesters fight for a 2nd day in senegalese capital after the controversial arrest of the opposition leader. the protesters came in and just over around the police had to retreat so they called in reinforcements they're firing tear gas and you can see on the ground

here the stones everywhere. also tight security around the u.s. capitol after intelligence reports of a militia plot to storm the building again. and rio de janeiro is the latest brazilian city to tighten covered 1000 restrictions as the country faces brazil faces its deadliest week of the pandemic. thank you very much for joining us the u.n. human rights chief has government to let monitors into t. gray it wants to investigate reports of abuses that could amount to war crimes michelle says killings and sexual violence are reported to be taking place in the northern region it declared victory after launching an offensive against the great people's liberation front in november there is malcolm webb has the latest from nairobi kenya. well in the weeks and months that have followed the declaration of

victory that came from the open government at the beginning of december more information's been coming out and a growing number of reports of atrocities committed by all of the different forces involved in the conflict just last week the rights group amnesty international published a report it said that based on dozens of testimonies of people that in the town of axum in late november said that eritrea and ethiopia and forces were responsible for indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas of the town and then it said that eritrean troops had entered the town and massacred about $800.00 men civilian men and teenage boys eritrea's previously denies that its troops are integrated but that contradicts numerous reports that have come from there it also refuted the city's report the government of ethiopia has said that it is investigating various

reports of rights abuses across the region humanitarian organizations do have some access to some of the people they say they need to help in some areas but they say that that access is inadequate just a few days ago the un's office for the coordination of humanitarian affairs was saying that the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate they say about a 1000000 people are in need of food support readiness shamdasani is a spokeswoman for the u.n. 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 extra judicial 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 scene 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. to senegal now where supporters of a leading opposition figure. have been fighting with police in the capital to say they're demanding his release after he was arrested for participating in an unauthorized ronnie some go is due in court to face a rape charge which he denies and says he's politically is politically motivated nicolas hock is in the coffers joins us live from those protests quite a tense situation in the senegalese capital this tell us about what's been happening. i mean this is very unusual rarely do you see protests with such magnitude and if you get behind me we're at the university

police are firing tear gas to try to quell the angry crowd in the distance the protesters continue to throw rocks this is one of the major order of the capital and right now it's a battle zone between security forces and supporters of months earlier on the police had to push back a few 100 meters because the protesters came in and they called reinforcement for this fred a special brigade is called the b p r. it's a special brigade deployed when the police are overwhelmed late last night as well the military was called into reinforcement in the area where opposition leader. is being held and of course he is refusing to answer the questions of the police he's being held over the rape charges as you mentioned foley but also over and over now this the protests that have been they say that he is responsible for the violence

that we're seeing here and this protest is an authorized nic thank you for that we'll leave it there for the moment to keep an eye on the situation for us saying to chronicle reporting there from the cynically scamp. to the u.s. now with those days house of representatives session has been canceled because of security concerns u.s. capitol police and other agencies in washington are on high alert after threats that extremist groups were planning a new attack on the capitol building groups like you are non believe march 4th is the day donald trump will return to the presidency as. a who's live for us from capitol hill outside the capitol hill building heidi the security threats as we've said force a consolation of the house session today tell us 1st about the atmosphere there and what the scene is like around the capitol hill building. hopefully the hours are taking by here on this march 4th which is the day that in

the conspiracy theory lore of these far right extremists they believe that that this was the day that president trump the former president would come back to the white house while he is in florida obviously none of that is going to happen and the fear that there was a militia group that would try to breach the capitol once again that has not materialized the streets here are very quiet as you see this capitol complex is of course still surrounded by the high fencing the barbed wires with military vehicles at these checkpoints some 5000 national guard troops who have been stationed here around the capital since that insurrection of january 6th while they remain i can see their force presence and of course the capitol dome itself lawmakers not inside it's a day after that late decision yesterday to finish up all the legislative business for the week in order for everyone to go safely home their staff told the same so

certainly the threat being taken very seriously but none of it has materialized this is a reaction of course to the security that was not present hardly on january 6th and of course. leading up to that a riot that injured 140 police officers and led to 5 deaths there are now barry is around the capitol building is there a sense heidi you know these various good don't go down any time soon or is this just going to be the new norm now. right well the capitol be on lockdown this enhanced security presence that is not going away anytime soon foley however these. fencing and the barbed wire that is a band-aid for now as though a wider and more permanent security plan is being worked up and we know drafts of that plan have already been circulated they include

a recommendation of hiring some 2000 more capitol police officers to guard not only this complex in washington but also lawmakers offices throughout the country it would also call for a rapid response team made up of local national guard troops who could very quickly descend on the capitol not see that 3 plus hour delay that we learned of yesterday which of course contributed to the violence in january and finally the strap report would see a further physical barrier surrounding the capitol likely it will be open to the public again of course this is known as the people's house but invisible were visible there will be more physical barriers and of course more people a higher security frozen from here until the foreseeable future fully heidi thank you very much for that heidi for us safe from capitol hill in washington. in

myanmar protesters were back on the streets across the country on thursday a day after 30 people were killed in the west bank town since last month school the u.n. says the actual death toll since the military took power over a month ago maybe much higher than reported witnesses say they saw soldiers firing into the crowds with little warning scott highbury it's. like thousands of others justin 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 $38.00 protesters who died at the hands of myanmar security forces the most killed in a single day since the coup in 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 giant up 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 on high high rise buildings around tall buildings the right they meet 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 as she. and 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 order to secure peace in order. and the security council has have really not done its job. she went on to say that china and russia's veto power in the un security council is obstructing action that needs to be taken in myanmar so far the council has voiced concerns but has not condemned what's happened since the coup but there will be a further test of that on friday as another security council meeting has been called to discuss the crackdown on protesters this week scott hyder al-jazeera. a strong earthquake has hit new zealand's north island the epicenter was around 100 kilometers from. a tsunami alert is out officials say anyone living on the coasts who felt the quake should move to higher ground there's been no immediate reports of serious damage or casualties. as still ahead on the program dozens of activists

are denied bail in hong kong after an appeal by the government not to let them go. russia. has made history. excitement turns to despair for a 3rd time test of an unmanned rocket and in flames. it's time for the perfect gentleman. sponsored point qatar airways rain has arrived in central and southern japan it's curving out as you can see by satellites or at least 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 with temperatures dropping 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 depths of it in both malaysia and indonesia but the breeze is 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 java this is correct even there were tail end of the rainy season the mob isn't just in the sky in other words or westerly stabbers is co-producing showers or 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. cuts. what should

americans be thinking and doing right now be a bad idea they don't care about their worth is all they care about is making money china is not going to be left out of the calling for the bloated defense budget to be cut the bottom law and on us politics and policies america the world. what's most important to me is talking to people understanding what they're going through and cure the disease we believe everyone has a story worth hearing. they're watching al-jazeera live from doha a reminder of our main stories this hour the un human rights chief has ethiopia's

government and that monitors into tiebreaks to investigate reports of abuses that could amount to walk crimes michelle maces killings and sexual violence are reported to be ongoing anti-government protests in senegal have turned violent for a 2nd day after opposition leader mansong cole was arrested for protesting in an unauthorized body in that car was due to appear in court to face a rape charge he says the case against him is politically motivated and in the u.s. capitol police and other agencies in washington are on high alert after intelligence warnings that far right groups are planning a new attack on the capitol building followers of the defunct conspiracy theory believe march 4th is a day donald trump will return to the presidency. in hong kong $47.00 pro-democracy activists who are facing charges of conspiracy to commit subversion are going to remain in prison the 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 when i speak to nathan law about this he's a pro-democracy activist who fled hong kong because of that security bill and he's joining us via skype from london nathan very good to have you with us so after days of bail hearings effectively nothing's changed in the fate of the majority of defendants so 15 of them will be allowed to take their case to hong kong's high court in the next 48 hours or so 1st of all what do you make of what happened in court these past few days and are you hopeful that the defendants will be granted bail at all. well as we all know this is a political persecution 1st we actually didn't have high hopes on the court giving

up belts because our or to the precedence actually the burden of proof is on the defendants to show that they are not going to involve the national security law in the future so that they could be granted well so be it is a cli defacto the presumption of innocence is not applicable or not that's our security law cases and for the national security law it is basically a speech crime so the court has. great discretion to denying bella's to these people so in a nutshell getting barrow's under the national security court is extremely difficult and we don't have an example of such so i think people actually acts. well because mistake the late expecting that it is very unlikely that they can get anywhere else by beijing has said hong kong's judiciary is independent is it not.

well i think. it is only into penton from justice it is the longer a legal system that serves its people but the interests of the communist party expression and the as a create all cases the courts the judges of the court are appointed 'd by the government and they have a set of screening on them so i guess it really shows that that the court executes the winners of the chinese who is party instead of the rule of law looking at the big picture now it's not just a security law they have been a number of issues in in recent months in hong kong related to china and some major changes expected on on hong kong's election laws they're supposed to be introduced sometimes this week as top officials i gather in beijing for the annual meeting of china's parliament where do you think this will leave hong kong's politicians

those from the pro-democracy movement where the elections that are due to come up very soon. so beijing has been acting very insecure and these prosecution. cross of the sea this not allow any room for civic society and deficient of power including the pro-democracy camp getting involved in public affairs into these parliaments so there are rumors saying that n.b.c.'s see the standing committee of member of the congress is going to impose a much more strict hong kong and making it less democratic and occupied by most of the probating people and that really shows a continuous sea of beijing's approach which is a very heavy handed and very autocratic in hong kong it's just becoming more and more likely to to be ordinary chinese city nathan thank you very much for talking

to us about this a thank you for your time nathan not pro-democracy activists joining us now from london. the coronavirus pandemic now in brazil is seeing record deaths from covert 19 and it's causing a political standoff rio de janeiro has brought in new restrictions following solve needs a starting on friday restaurants will close at 5 pm and the city's near 7000000 people will be under a nice curfew sao paolo has close non-essential businesses for 2 weeks the measures are in defiance of president who warned he will stop federal aid to states if they put lock downs in place let's bring in more in rio for so monica tell us about the situation in rio when it relates to call they'd just how bad is it. going to. be today to own. money can you hear me. we seem to have lost our audio

connection there to monica and we will try to bring her up again in just a few minutes as soon as we reestablish it moving on to germany which has agreed to a plan to gradually relax coronavirus rest rections chancellor angela merkel and state leaders held talks for 9 hours on wednesday on a step by step plan to ease measures from monday people will be allowed to gather in groups of up to 5 and some shops can reopen support for restrictions as fallen but curbs will be re-imposed if infections increase the european union's drug watchdog has started reviewing russia's sputnik coronavirus vaccine it's part of the process for approving its use in the block a study in the scientific journal the lancet has shown that sputnik v. is 91 percent effective against symptomatic cases hungary is the only e.u. country using it so far and has criticised the block for being slow to approve the job the czech republic austria and slovakia have all its expressed interests.

now space a 3rd space x. has managed to land one of its star ship prototypes off to 2 previous that attempts failed but the billionaire behind the project seen on mosque might not be celebrating too hard given the rocket caught fire after coming back down on earth all this comes one day after opic ations open for the 1st commercial flight to the moon and an issue has a story ladies and gentlemen i am very vocal person. pays made history it looks like a successful test flight for space x.'s next generation rocket that was until this . point. it's not clear what went wrong but. the private american space firm launched a giant rocket a few minutes earlier. after a high altitude test flight the 10 starship prototype or s.

and 10 touchdown in the u.s. state of texas the company called it a beautiful soft landing with its billionaire founder evo musk praising the fact it landed in one piece 2 previous prototypes crashed into the ground. but space x. remains confident that starship will eventually replace its existing felt can rockets and become the world's 1st reuse a ball space vehicle. any type of engineering feat what you are not only developing news happy potions system but a new type of fusion. that so many testing boundaries that have to occur and say it's not on surprising that we have seen that he cut a play out in real time but it is a good thing having set nasa astronauts into orbit last year space x. also has ambitious plans for commercial flights the 1st civilian lunar mission dear mom it's promised a lunar excursion for japanese billionaire yes. on

a starship and 2023. began accepting applications for 8 others to join him a day before the failed flight test on thursday. a lot of the name of the key to basic i want to reach out to a wider more diverse audience to give more people across the world the opportunity to join this journey. if space x. is successful private spaceflight will be the world's 1st and despite the latest failure musk says he's optimistic you'll be able to send passengers to the moon mars and beyond. to 0. venezuela's opposition has accused president nicolas maduro government of illegally selling gold reserves to evade american sanctions a representative of opposition leader who made the allegations before a u.s. congressional committee he says the gold was refined in mali then sold mainly in the united arab emirates the opposition says a scheme generated more than

a $1000000000.00 in cash last year for my duals government. pope francis is going to run for a 3 day visit it's his 1st trip outside italy since he coronavirus pandemic began the pope will be welcomed by the prime minister when he arrives in baghdad on friday he'll then meet president as well as religious leaders and representatives of civil society at the presidential palace the next day the pope will fly to the city of najaf and nice grand ayatollah ali al sistani later he'll feller a holy mass in baghdad on sunday pope francis will travel to erbil the capital of iraqi kurdistan in meet with religious sensibilities of the autonomy region osama bin job it reports from baghdad on the security preparations ahead of the pope's visit. baghdad is on high alert for the 1st ever visit to iraq by the leader of the roman catholic church still faces security threats and attacks from isis and militia groups which means iraqi security forces have their work cut out for them or francis will be in 6 cities in 3 days including all requirements have been

secured through a plan drawn up by the joint operations command to secure logical and security matters for all the places. the pope will visit whether they are in baghdad not just. all places pope francis has frequently traveled to muslim majority countries and in iraq he will meet one of the world's most influential shiite clerics grand ayatollah ali al sistani the pope's visit is meant to expand on his message of interfaith dialogue and bring hope to iraq's christian community but it also comes during a pandemic to a country which has not started vaccinating its people and is important. to try and stop the spread of covert 19. the vatican the master to iraq who would have escorted the pope to all his appointments has already tested positive pope francis and his entourage have been vaccinated and organizers say they will strictly enforce crowd limits at public events but with a sharp rise in iraq school with 1000 cases in

a week health care system critics have questioned the effectiveness of social distancing as it's expected crowds will gather to see the pope can add. some people close to the pope believe that the visit should be perspiring treat the pandemic and security situation but the pope insisted on his visit iraq needs his visit and he feels the pain of the people who are suffering. iraqi authorities say all necessary steps to ensure the safety and security of all involved are being taken. out of the civil defense plan has 2 components 1st part is protection firefighters and rescuers will be more places to be visited by his holiness and the 2nd part is sterilization of all places without exception it will be in court a nation with those in charge of churches and holy sites that will be included in the visit of his holiness iraq and christians can trace their lineage to the earliest days of the religion they are a diverse group with syriac the syrian armenian and communities since the 2003

us invasion and later the persecution suffered and rice in the visit is a rare opportunity to lift broken spirits among the dwindling christian population but iraqis of all faiths. excited about welcoming pope francis baba as he is affectionate be militant nervous on the job with al-jazeera look. at her again i'm fully back to go with the headlines on al-jazeera the un human rights chief has a government to let monitors into tikrit to investigate reports of abuses that could amount to war crimes michelle says killings and sexual violence are reported to be ongoing in the northern region in senegal anti-government protests have turned violent for a 2nd day after.