gold mines of villages along the nile river be coming for gold in this area for centuries the best time of year to do it is the winter because the river is lower the jury in the summer months these tiny little yellow flakes you can see one don't look much they were around $50.00 the grass. after 5 years in custody position rainy and 1000 eons ago a rat that is one step closer to freedom but it's unclear when she can leave iran. hello there i'm starting a tape this is al jazeera life and also coming up fronts of the support to the

iraqi people in a town where christians were forced to flee from myself isis. the biden administration sends a less us afghan president our afghani outlining its policy for afghanistan going forward we'll have all those details for you. and an island divided the dominican republic announces plans to build a security was along its border to keep haitian migrants out. but we begin with that breaking news out of iran nazneen zakaria ratcliffe an iranian british national is one step closer to freedom after 5 years now in custody however it does remain unclear whether or not she can leave iran her lawyer has told an iranian website her house arrest has officially ended and british filmmaker chip city says iraq has family told her that she's had removed but also that she's been summoned to appear in court on. another charge well we have 2 correspondents

following developments for us rory chalons will have all the reaction from the u.k. but 1st let's speak to us a bag he has all the latest from tehran now as it appears that she may have been freed that this isn't necessarily over what more do we know at the stage. may not necessarily be over now she was released in the home house arrest last year in march this past of the last part of the judiciary's covert measures that sent many prisoners home and electronic tag now that meant she couldn't be more than 30300 meters away from her home now her lawyer says that electronic tag has been removed but she has been summoned to court next sunday and she faces possible charges of propaganda against the establishment for attending a protest outside the ring in embassy in london in 2009 as well as giving an interview to b.b.c. persian now her lawyer says that he's unsure he doesn't know whether she can leave the country or not but she could face those charges but he says he's hopeful that

those charges will go no further now she was initially arrested back in april 2016 she was at the hands main airport getting ready to leave the country and she was detained now the revolutionary guard here said that she had been running an online b.b.c. persian quote course to train people to spread propaganda against iran and for the soft overthrow of the iranian establishment that the time she denied those charges she said that she was here visiting her family for the iranian new year but she was sentenced to 5 years back in 2019 the british the brits raised the political stakes they said that she was eligible for diplomatic protection but iran rejected that because they don't recognize jewel nationals as far as they iran is concerned she's a reigning as a bag there with all the latest from the iranian capital tehran thanks so much i said let's get the view from london now rory chalons is there for us were if we had any reaction yet from british officials. yeah

the foreign secretary dominic rob has put out a statement from the foreign office i can read that statement to you now he basically says that we welcome the removal of 1000 eons ago rectus ankle tag but iran continues to put her and her family through a cruel and intolerable intolerable ordeal she must be released permanently so she can return to her family in the u.k. and we will continue to do all we can to achieve this we have relayed to the iranian authorities in the strongest possible terms that her continued confinement is unacceptable and this is the crucial thing because there is this uncertainty over the court case that seems to be impending her family her husband her sister in law brothers her husband's sister are saying that the family cannot celebrate yet because there is still this uncertainty there are still many

sleepless nights ahead until it know whether that 2nd case has been quashed or you mentioned her husband there he's been very critical of really how the british government has dealt with all of this and at times saying that his wife has been used as a bargaining chip by this tank deal that can you explain that for us. yeah i mean there's been an uneasy relationship i think times between richard ratcliffe and the u.k. government and they haven't always seen eye to eye about the best way to proceed now what brigid believes is that his wife's fate is basically tied to a legal case that's been going on for years the iranians he says of basically claims that that. incarceration is linked to the brits not paying a debts that the iranians say is only to their move from way back in the seventy's

when the previous ruler of iran bashar had put in an order to the u.k. for over a 1000 chieftain battle tanks and other armored vehicles and that when the shah was deposed in the revolution in 1990 although the iranians say that they had already paid for these tanks the brits cancel the order and the tanks were never delivered so what richard ratliff says is if the u.k. can settle this debts then that will go a long way in helping to get his wife. released there are also other differences that they have had boris johnson when he was foreign secretary back in 2000 to 2017 made what was widely perceived to be a pretty serious gaffe by saying that now zinni was in iran to teach journalism now as we have already heard the family have said that's not true she's denied in court

and that she was there on her on holiday but that was a mistake that the u.k. government made boris johnson made and the u.k. government has also suggested that perhaps richard ratcliffe tones down some of his messaging on his wife's case and that they be allowed to handle it what through quiet diplomacy and not through a public relations campaign talons there with all the reaction for us from london we'll be following this very closely here on out of there thanks so much for e. now the saudi led coalition fighting in yemen has launched a number of air strikes on the capital sanaa. well the fighter jets are reportedly targeting military compounds belonging to who he rebels bought a residential area has also been hit and they are reports of casualties saudi arabia said the ruthie's had fired a missile on a number of drones targeting an oil facility and civilian areas and their kingdom

they were intercepted and destroyed well now the u.s. secretary of state has sent a letter to the afghan president outlining for the 1st time the biden administration's strategy for the country our diplomatic editor james bases across all of that for us from the united nations james just what more do we know about this whole new u.s. plan. well this is very significant this is the 1st time the new administration has laid out its plans for afghanistan which had been under consideration since joe biden took office as president on the 20th of january the letter was sent from the secretary of state antony blinken to president garny of afghanistan and also to dr abdullah who is the chairperson of the talks process in afghanistan. has confirmed the contents of the letter with both dr garlands office the president's office and dr abdullah's office and what is very clear from this letter is that the u.s.

is now planning to fast track a process in afghanistan as you know there been talks in doha which successfully came up with an agreement between the u.s. and the taliban but the talks between the afghan government and the taliban have not been going so well they've got very bogged down so this is the new u.s. proposal 1st they're going to ask the united nations and so far i have no response here at united nations headquarters from u.n. officials on this but they are not the united nations to urgently set up a meeting of foreign ministers with with influence on the situation in regional and international influence russia china pakistan iran india and the united states want to soon as the u.s. is asking the u.n. to organize that because of the delicacy of iran being one of those at the table and of course u.s. iran relations are very delicate at the moment because of the iran nuclear deal the next phase is that the u.s. is going to produce some plans of how things could work in terms of the new

constitutional arrangements of a ceasefire it does say though in the letter in sharing these documents we do not intend to dictate terms to the parties and then the 3rd stage is for new talks the doha talks as we said got bogged down there asking turkey. now it has to to come up with these talks now the other significant thing in the letter is remember i mentioned at the beginning that deal between the u.s. and the taliban will that have a timeline of the 1st of may only a matter of weeks away for all u.s. forces to leave afghanistan now the u.s. is saying in this letter that it's still considering that withdrawal date and whether it will stick to it on may the 1st now many to urge the u.s. to take that date off the table that it wasn't possible and the fact they're leaving it on the table suggests to me there may be a plan to try and speed all this process up to have all of this done by the 1st of

may i'm wondering what the reaction will be from the political key political players in afghanistan we're going to have to find out in the coming hours very interesting indeed out of america's at james bay is there at the u.n. for us thanks so much to. now pope francis is on the 3rd day of his 1st visit to iraq and has been sending a message of hope healing and unity to the victims of war as you can see he's been celebrating mass with thousands of west of his in the city of irbil and earlier he met members of the christian community in the town of car crash that was overrun by i thought back in 2014 there he also visited iraq's largest church that was partly destroyed but i still fighting you know we think he is human and it's a matter of conversion of the hearts of reconciliation and putting aside our differences we must all work together for the future of perturb all of which recognizes a common humanity and together build a dialogue and forgive it was my fault and has more now from outside that mass in.

reason why this venue may have been chosen for such a large gathering is perhaps 1st of all because bill is hold quite a large community of displaced christians who fled eisel back in 2014 and who still live here because they don't either feel safe to go back to their villages or because those areas are still destroyed with no services or no infrastructure and other reason maybe because it is to send miles of them a skirmish region and to be in the capital are relatively safe compared to the rest of iraq we see relatively few security incidents here and of course security has been one of the major concerns you're in district so so that it may have enabled this this larger gathering here but throughout all the meetings that the pope has held over the past 3 days that the message has been very consistent and that message has been one of reconciliation of unity of coexistence of diversity has

been repeating those words many times earlier today when he visited the old city in mosul and also when he gave his speech in the village or the town of caution. now myanmar a prominent muslim politician has reportedly died after being arrested overnight by security forces can man lots cause of death isn't on but as tony chang reports the police and army has been carrying out increasingly brutal raids throughout the country. they come in the night firing stun grenades and live around. soldiers and police roaming residential neighborhoods shooting into buildings smashing property as they pass the some these are detention squads seizing protest leaders politicians and civil servants dragged away to an uncertain fate elsewhere that cleaning up peeling stickers of the coup leader general min

onli off the road but for those watching from behind twitching curtains it's clear they have one main goal to intimidate. the yangon resident who filmed this told al-jazeera that soldiers and police had been searching houses for members of the national league for democracy or n l d. the whole of our neighborhood in shock today is frightened we can't sleep at night in case they come back but the protesters have some mind games to play too in many areas clothes lines of women's skirts so long jesus then known an underwear and now hanging overhead playing on the superstitions of the soldiers and police and the men. and the reason why we hang with lunges across the street is that we have the traditional belief that if we pass underneath a laundry we might lose our luck the younger generation nowadays doesn't believe it anymore but the soldiers still do and it's their weakness so we might gain more time to run if they come towards us. against the security services these obstacles

are more effective than barricades or barbed wire. was just the sun sets another sad ritual in modern myanmar vigils for those who have died on the streets in the cities of yangon mandalay dar way and elsewhere the candles burned to commemorate a growing list of names until the darkness and the security services claim the streets once more toni ching al-jazeera. well still ahead a hit on al-jazeera will have an update on the parliamentary elections in ivory coast where there's now allegations of fraud. and striving for stability campbell livea recover from is a political turmoil all made while by the pandemic people going to the polls to decide.

how their welcomes over look at the international forecasts we have improving weather coming into japan over the next couple of days little band of clouds in the process of pulling out of the way little area claps a little further south just around taiwan into the fosse out of china but not too much rain on that will see this gradually getting stretched out and moving out into the open waters although it does link back to that eastern side of honshu for a time on monday temperatures in take a page back to read 11 degrees celsius it will warm up nicely will get up to around 15 as we go on into choose day into the mid teens too for northern parts of china beijing at 16 celsius we'll see what it says showers down towards the southwest of china but elsewhere it is looking lousy dryness and looking dry across the korean peninsula well as you try to we're cross much of south asia where we do have a westerly disturbance moving cost more than parts of pakistan the far north of india just rolling towards in the pool as we go through the next day i would say

chance of want to showers into the far south of india as well maybe into southern parts of the melodic the far south of carroll georgia those showers are going to roll across the line career over the next couple of days perhaps coming in a little more widespread but too heavy warm and dry for the most part in the thirty's. from every one of us. even those working quietly behind the scenes. so you can relax joins with breaking news. and when you leave with a smile we know our day's work is done. welcome to our home. why.

i'm a saucy attender that's remind you of our top stories this hour the lawyer for iranian british citizen thousands of our broadcast says she's been freed in iran that's according to iranian website into that the charity work was arrested in 2016 for plotting against iran's government which she's denying. a saudi led coalition fighting in yemen has launched a number of as strikes on the capital sanaa fighter jets are reportedly targeting military compounds longing to hear rebels. and pope francis is on the 3rd day of his 1st visit to iraq and has been sending a message of hope healing and unity to victims of war right now he's celebrating

mass with thousands of wash of us in erbil. well early results from ivory coast's parliamentary elections are due to be released in the coming hours voters went to the polls on saturday launched the fray of the violence that rocked the presidential election back in october i'm an address has more now from. election officials count the ballots cast while the party representatives watch closely it's a process that's going on across the country with i have already ins and cheerfully waiting for the results. as they voted there were concerns about the outcome. for their purposes are going to say this does not become like the past elections that were followed by violence this time we wanted to be a peaceful election say they were in a victim is among the population after casting his ballot president alassane ouattara reassure us awardee page. here just younger i see that there is no tension in the year i've just spoken to the minister of the interior he tells me that

things are going well everywhere and i hope that the day as well as well as the count good luck to all the candidates. the election commission says it hopes to announce when is in print for hours election officials say voting went well across much of the country although they said voting started late in some areas because of voting machines multifunction there are also some skirmishes in a few places but officials say not enough to motivate. opposition leaders who boycotted last december's presidential polls are warning against irregularities have brought people to a loss they are not but i would like to take this opportunity to appeal to the independent electoral commission to ensure that this whole process takes place peacefully and that there is no cheating observers say the turnout was low and that could work against some candidate the governing party aims to win $148.00 seats in parliament enough for a working majority but the opposition want to stop that from happening. having

stayed away from the presidential election in december and early c.s.a. the opposition me struggle to reassert itself but for ivorians the primary concern is an election that doesn't get moved in bloodless let's now speak to a manager is he joins us from the largest city in ivory coast amid so we're still waiting for early results but already claims of fraud. exactly in fact some results talk to trickling in since last night before the announcements were suspended until 14 g.m.t. that's about 20 minutes ago when voting or counting and the announcement of results will continue election commission says it's hopes to end the count and announce winners today however i was before that the opposition p.c.i. . where we are now the headquarters of the party and to that there were some irregularities it cited 3 divisions in fact you're. done.

and 2 of the places where they said must've voter fraud took place in fact 11 boxes ballot boxes what destroyed according to a senior official of the p.c.i. robot coffee and apart from that they said they claim to have won $126.00 seeds of the $255.00 member parliament given them a majority plus one so basically that's the situation right now but before coming to that call just for the press briefing by the p.c.i. we met some of the overs in town and we all saw them exactly what happened they said yes there was some incidents of violence in fact but they are not enough to the result of this election right now we're waiting to see or hear from the election commission about who wins like we said before but the ruling party or governing party is a. to not only we are comfortable

a majority of seats in parliament but a comfortable majority they project to within. $148.00 seats while the opposition is clearly already has $128.00 seats out of the $255.00 member parliament to me very interesting few hours there i met idris for us and an ivory coast thanks so much of it on our polls have closed in switzerland and a controversial vote there on whether to ban face coverings and public and that law doesn't specifically mention islam but it is known locally as the burka ban it's backed by the right wing swiss peoples party that says deals are a symbol of quote extreme islam opponents say the ban that includes exceptions for health and cold weather islamic phobic and also an attack on personal freedoms roman catholic worshippers in sri lanka are demanding justice for the victims of the 21900 s. to sunday bombings they're wearing black to church on

a day that religious leaders have declared back sunday the catholic church is criticizing a government report for not revealing just who was behind the attacks more than 260 people died in those coordinated attacks. all polls in bolivia are open for regional and you know spoil elections they're being seen as a test of support for the socialist government many hope they will signal an end to 2 years of instability including allegations of electoral fraud and a right wing coup that reports from neighboring argentina. it's always been difficult for xander and her family to eke out a living but the pandemic has made their lives harder still for her not working is not an option i mean i mean. it's for my family my mom and dad have been sick and the medicines are very expensive all we can do is go out and keep working. voting in bolivia as obligatory on the would go to the ballot box with

a little optimism is that. even though the elections bring new authorities the politics are always the same they campaign they talk a lot but when they're in power they forget i believe it will always be like that. libya is striving for stability after years of political turmoil with saw former president evo morales flee the country in 2019 to be replaced by a right wing interim government socialists are now back in charge nationally but it's your thirty's handling of the pandemic that now underlines every campaign promise every political decision. all the candidates all over the country have said they'll fight against the disease but there are still particular problems in each region in relation to infrastructure. the pandemic has starkly highlighted the issues that most concern bolivian voters.

the most important is health not just physical but mental health too and we were going through right now with this virus we also need to be economically stable. 7 medical. they're on strike over government emergency measures to fight the disease while the number of daily new infections continue to rise 19 has killed more than 3000 people in bolivia. we sort of see a former minister in a very well as his government one presidential elections last october organized at the height of the pandemic. his 1st few months in office dominated by corporate 90 the vaccines are arriving but not as many and not as often as people would like is believe he complained about coolness it is very difficult to buy vaccines in the world today is very difficult to get them all countries are trying to buy a back seat. that's not what rick santorum millions of believe in is like a want to hear the degree of patience and understanding they have in their

politicians handling of the pandemic will be reflected in the ballot box. that there are 201 osiris. russian and syrian government forces have carried out strikes on oil refineries in aleppo province according to the syrian observatory for human rights at least 4 people have died and more than 20 were injured as fires spread to almost $200.00 tankers on friday night oil installations and turkish controlled zones in aleppo have come under attack in recent months neither moscow nor the syrian government have came for sponsibility for their own strengths while the u.s. senate has narrowly passed a $1.00 trillion dollar coronavirus relief package the belling to it's a one off payments of a round $1400.00 to most americans emergency unemployment benefits and billions of dollars for increased vaccine distribution. well in the caribbean island of hispaniola relations between hazy and that's welfare neighbor the dominican

republic have been historically difficult and now the dominican government has announced plans to build a wall between the 2 to end illegal migration anderson has the story. this neighborhood is known as little haiti it lies in santo domingo the capital of the dominican republic on the eastern half of the island of hispaniola about half a 1000000 people from haiti on the western side live here but since the pandemic they have fewer jobs especially in construction and farming many like residency permits or access to employment services and health care and now the dominican government says it will build a border wall to keep migrants from haiti out eagle blackall they will sign us in just 2 years we want to put an end to the serious problems of illegal immigration drug trafficking and the movement of stolen vehicles and achieve the protection of our territorial integrity while some people from haiti who've lost their jobs now sell whatever they can on the street tens of thousands have returned home the dominican republic is one of the fastest growing economies in latin america while

its neighbor is the poorest nation in the western hemisphere much of the dominican public supports the move to increase security along the border but obviously important time to put your feet i think it should be important because it would control migration from one country to another that there wouldn't be as many problems as they could be if the wall is built and if it's cricket dimmock ated it's been official for both countries. when border gates opened and the have gone this past friday hundreds of people from haiti were able to cross and sell an exchange goods at a border market it's one of 4 official crossings were many people's livelihoods depend on informal market trade but there are dozens of unofficial crossings along the 380 kilometer border critics say the wall won't solve the underlying problems media eskimo waste that measures such as increased border control should ideally be complemented by measures to promote regular and orderly migration. yes the international organization for migration or i.o.m.

and other rights groups are calling for a humanitarian corridor for those from haiti who are in need during economic and political crises. simple simple money that there is a human and persecution we really regret that a government that claims to be a government of change is not respecting the dignity and rights of immigrants in the dominican republic many in haiti say that despite the shared ancestry and history on the island they've long suffered persecution and they are concerned the wall will only create further division. al-jazeera. this is out there these are the headlines the lawyer of iranian british citizen nazneen zakaria about to says she's been freed in iran that's according to iranian state media the charity worker was arrested and 2016 for against the iranian government charges she has always deny and as a bank has more now from the iranian capital she was released on the home house

arrest last year in march this past of the us part of the judiciary's covert measures.