al-jazeera english streaming live on the future channel. plus thousands of our programs will be tweeting documentaries and. subscribe to the woods like al-jazeera english. syrian government shelling hits a hospital in western aleppo killing at least 7 civilians. hello i'm maryam namazie in london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up in the program the republic of congo holds its presidential election with the internet shut down roads are blocked and the main opposition leader in hospital battling coded human rights. another 4 people are killed in me and ma why some protesters

rallied at dawn to avoid confrontations with the security forces and thousands have been evacuated and dams overflowing and homes have been washed away as australia suffers its worst flooding in decades. welcome to the program we begin this hour in northwestern syria where at least 7 civilians were killed one of them a child when shelling by government forces hit a hospital at least 16 others were injured appen in the rebel held town of in the west and aleppo countryside this footage which is yet to be independently verified shows civil defense rescue is carrying injured patients outside and even after the initial strike the shelling continued around the hospital michael moore was on the do much for the. but i had bloody lot of

luck to you as you can see the shelling of the hospital is ongoing until now. medical staff to leave the hospital is out there with 5 injuries the medical staff members including the health director of the little aerated and hopefully he will get better so far they have been 7 ultimate. there is adam sam has more now from outside the hospital. the longest people were killed and wounded here after the syrian government forces targeted a hospital in western aleppo this hospital provides medical services to more than 10000 patients every month the artillery shells fell here early this morning at the main entrance to the hospital patients were sitting just 5 meters away the injury among them were also treated here for their wounds the 2nd shell directly targeted the hospital where a number of people were killed including the director of aleppo's health authority

he had been treating the injured in the hospitals often predict clinic after the shelling the hospital was evacuated and many people were transferred to other regions some were sent to turkey for treatment humanitarian organizations have condemned this attack and urged the international community to put pressure on the syrian regime to stop targeting hospitals in northern syria. well iran is a liar as the international rescue committee is country director for northwest syria she says hospitals are continuing to be attacked even though they're supposed to be protected under international law. it's the 5th at the incident that happened only this year and we are only in the 1st quarter of a year so somehow it's really sad that to see that these how this is how been attacked. so many times despite all these cordon needs the u.n. saying that these what these hospitals should be protected under international humanitarian

law but unfortunately the fear of the lost another as someone like that includes and of the child so for us this has been this incident has been like continuously happening in my west see from the last 3 months unfortunately. the polls have closed in their public of congo's presidential election a vote expected to see dennison extend his 36 years in power the president is a front runner against 6 contenders including the former finance minister some opposition politicians are in prison for criticizing the tiny 16 election the largest opposition party boycotted the vote the main opposition candidate running is priced stuff a color as who came in 2nd place in the previous election he's seriously ill in hospital right now with covert me as cool on his supporters to rise up and vote for

change the day began with an internet blackout from midnight the government has also closed roads so people can only move around the capital on foot. i feel great satisfaction because everywhere in the country i have seen the people mobilized and ready to take part in the electoral process and then before that the american easy vote was badly organized everywhere have you seen whole areas of congo where the not even polling stations how do these people vote if they don't have a place to vote has collide now to malcolm webb in the capital brazzaville how's it the polls have now closed haven't a so when can we start to get an indication of of the of the result. the president's electoral commission said the provisional result wouldn't be announced for 3 or 4 days definitely some people will be wondering what's going to happen between now and then right now they're expected to be counting votes in the

polling stations so the internet shuts off some of the observers who seem to be the only ones that have a chance of being independent that was like the church groups and also the local civil society groups they were blocked from observing the cold so they're not in the polling stations now watching that count and then the question of course is what happens to that data when it leads to polling stations when it's essentially put together before announce is released and results of results is released and if the internet indeed stays off then it's going to be very difficult for anyone to monitor this but democracy activists say the problems began long before even the preparation for this election those candidates mention the disputed the last election results they refused to trying to overthrow the government ended up being sentenced to 20 years forced labor rights activists say that targeted for criticizing the electoral process and today we've seen many different kinds of

problems that people were complaining about all the people dead people on the electoral register other people's names completely missing and even at one point an angry crowd said that they'd found a hole in one part of the polling station it was divided into 6 polling stations and then number 6 from that polling station they said all its contents been taken down the road into a property belonging to somebody from the ruling party they said was paying people to misuse those votes in place and for the ruling party that ended up with dozens of armed police rushing to the scene and ultimately nothing. was done about it but it's with these kinds of incidents a great deal of mistrust particularly among off additions of forces and addition. curfew to supposedly to present the spread of turkey so now people can't even leave their houses it's also it's in those circumstances that the count is going ahead right so clearly just concerned about the credibility of this. how much support

does the president is likely to win this vote how much support does he is he really have what are we likely to see in the in the aftermath of that final result. i mean it's very hard to gauge it in such an environment if you speak to people on the street specially with a camera they don't want to talk about politics or the election people are quite scared of talking about that there's a great deal of skepticism for all the all the reasons you just been talking about about the election but still very many people don't expect there to be any outcome other than 22 and queso being announced the winner. i mean the opposition of various criticisms about the process a great deal of skepticism about the counting but many of them as you mentioned before boycotting they said that just isn't the space to have a democratic process in this in this context thank you very much from brazzaville

welcome. now tens of thousands of tanzanians are paying tribute to the former president john mica foody who died last wednesday massive crowds travel to a sports stadium in the nation's largest city dar es salaam when mcafee's body was lying in state it will be taken to several venues across tanzania before a funeral in his home village on friday my graffiti was a prominent covert 1960 s. dick and his supporters followed his example showing few signs of social distancing as well as dismissing opposition claims that he died from the virus. or bottom of the now so i want to know he did not dolly from coronavirus we accept the statement made by our government officials that he has died of heart disease they have to make sure they take official information and get rid of the street rumors there was a great. little is about him dying from cope it cannot be true because his sickness was so sudden whatever the cause of death he was always encouraging us to protect

ourselves and be careful. mourners also lined the streets of dar es salaam as michael for his coffin made its way to in the airport to be flown to the capital to dharma once that even more people turned out to pay their respects another service is expected to be held there on monday. now mass demonstrations against last month's military coup in myanmar about to enter their 8 week with neither the protesters nor the military showing any sign of backing down. at least for more protesters were killed by security forces and live ammunition was again used to crack down on demonstrations in mandalay and yet another day of violence on the streets but as tony chang reports now from bangkok some of the nation's police appear to have broken ranks. the protesters the money and central men shelter as the security services advance but there's little they can do in the

face of the onslaught so prove these protesters were shot in the head. in mandalay doctors came out to protest their express intention to avoid a confrontation with security forces as they marched and chanted for a return to democracy. but a crank down came later in the day the rider on this motorbike or give me an early avoids being shot as the police moved into our own in late district in east mandalay this protest a shelter behind sandbags it's clear they are prepared. to sling shots fireworks and petrol bombs they're trying to fight back to give themselves time to escape. but resistance is almost futile against me i'm miles forces some cracks have appeared however several groups of police fled across the border into india rather than open fire on their own people is why. we feel safe

but we heard from some sources that the indian army was searching for us and wanted to send us back to me and we are not 100 percent safe here now the must live in hiding scared they could be sent home and they offer a chilling insight into the orders of those enforcing the crackdown. that would be ordered to arrest tortured a protester so we have no choice but to leave our country outside myanmar nationals living overseas a keen to show their support more than a 1000 students and workers gathered in taiwan to commemorate those who have died but at this stage they can do little more than watch as their homeland is to implode tony ching al jazeera. u.s. defense secretary has met the president of afghanistan during an unannounced visit to kabul lloyd austin ashraf ghani discussed the peace process and the rising violence in the country austin said the main reason for his visit was to present danny's concerns out of

a deadline the trump administration equate with the taliban to withdraw american troops by may the best. watching al-jazeera life from london more still ahead on the program bloody sunday in the philippines the families of line activists killed by the security forces call for justice and head of israel's 4th election in 2 years and you netanyahu tries a new strategy courting the palestinian israeli. killer. now it must feel like it is putting start to spring after we've had the vernal equinox that was where the twenty's but the close to coming down from the north that's a cold direction is already single figures temperature wise another cold front even though briefly ahead of it things warm up your mind thing doesn't look good well 1st of all you've got still snow for you in ukraine across the baltic states but

then the wind tends to die down and where the cold air has come down before sitting over the southern balkans of a bug area and rumania is could be persistent snow his affair has got if the next 3 days around about 0 degrees and it's other snowing or is about to start or unfortunately but that is not true everywhere and that cold weather would have to cross into turkey and then the sun gets to work its spring sunshine now it is stronger than it has been it gets stronger every day so if you take away the wind even she things will warm up and that's true in berkeley and we get up to about 13 by thursday 15 by friday and it hangs around the low teens so that feels quite spring like not so necessarily in north africa the cloud over morocco is bringing more rain or even snow to the office mountains and the wind is picking up over northern tunisia and where it's dry wood is bringing a sandstorm into northern egypt.

mixing the traditional with the mountain nobody knew what to expect ignoring cause divides the only thing which united their voice the music greek music blaring through the speakers wielding the power of music to turn up the volume on india's social injustices when i saw the performance or result walk and shake things out we went on stage or something we brought us to do something else witness causeless collective on al-jazeera. told. welcome back the main stories now syrian government forces have shelled

a hospital in west in aleppo killing 7 civilians including a child the world health organization says that been more than 300 attacks on syrian health care sites in the past 5 years polls of close in the republic of congo's presidential election which is expected to see. extend is 36 years and our 7 people are running but all the opposition candidates either in jail or boycotting the vote. and and at least 4 more protests have been killed in anti crew demonstrations in me and maher on sunday security forces of again use live ammunition to crackdown on demonstrations in the city of mandalay. our families of 9 people killed in a single day by security forces in the philippines a calling for justice they say their loved ones were peaceful activists targeted this month for criticizing the government but police say they were communists rebels who resisted arrest jim allen dogan has more now from manila. it was the worst day for activists in the philippines in recent years on march 7th

a series of operations conducted by state forces resulted in the deaths of 9 activists in several parts of the southern loose on region rosalee in the saloon that says she was asleep with her husband melvin the sick go and their children when police force their way into their home melvin sands she says was behind his head it was an act of surrender she says but melvin was still shot several times. they say you have weapons we don't even have money for food we are dependent aide after our house was there was stated by 8 a fool unless the same or they stripped us of our humanity and our dignity have you no heart no conscience you kill us like animals because we join your elise markley because no was a friend and colleague of melvin was also killed he lived across the street people

here tell us it was a wrong 4 30 in the morning when they heard a group of armed men forced their way inside mark lease house they say they heard his family pushed out of the house before markley was shot several times right here their home is abandoned now and in the other parts of result province poor oil and pulling below crews were cousins who advocated for the rights of indigenous peoples they were killed the same way among those killed 2 were the couple child to me that if on the lease and their you live on the least are from but on this province both were killed by police just meters away from their son and on sunday an entire good munity grieved the death of my lesson sean was a known labor rights organizer for many years. the police say all of the victims were killed because they resisted arrest and that led to what they call an armed encounter but rights. obscure say this narrative has long been used by police since

its so-called drug war began in 26 d. the government has ordered an investigation into the killings of the president. the order the president was going to kill kill kill if you're only has a gun to be shot and killed it is not the way elation under international humanitarian law if a soldier fires. but this is there a distinction between both of course there is human rights activist see those who died had one thing in common they were free the fighters were outspoken critics of the government. al-jazeera manila. a natural disaster has been declared in parts of the australian state of new south wales after the worst flooding seen in decades thousands of people have been forced to leave their homes and more heavy rain is expected in the days to come so hierarch reports. from the air an assessment is made of the damage caused by french rain in new south

wales as capital sydney the largest has overflowed flooding neighborhoods in the city's western suburbs further north from what was meant to be their wedding day their home as it floated down manning river off to bursting its banks emergency services have responded to thousands of calls from people who've been less stranded many more have been forced from their homes. and there are warnings of more flash floods in the coming days with water levels not expected to subside until thursday 1st and foremost priority is to save lives save as many properties as possible but also to give people enough warning of what's occurring and i appreciate in parts of the mid and north coast regions which are experiencing one in 100 year event there's been sustained damage to infrastructure there's been sustained damage to how people communicate and move around and i just want to say that everybody in new south wales is experiencing that fear and that anxiety that you. as soon as we can . about curation orders are now in place along large stretches of australia's east

coast and hundreds of people especially in low lying areas have been heading to emergency evacuation centers a severe weather warning is also in place just west of camera. just over a year ago these areas of australia and many others were ablaze in devastating bushfires scientists say natural disasters of becoming more frequent and more severe due to climate change and people here are being urged not to drive through flooded areas because of strong currents. iran's supreme leader is describe u.s. sanctions as criminal act saying washington's promise to lift them can't be believed addressing the nation for the persian new year i tell ali hominine spoke about the unraveling nuclear deal and i tacked the tactics of the former us president donald trump but there are. the maximum pressure of the united states has failed the previous idiot hope to put iran in

a weak position so that iran could be brought to the negotiating table and he could impose his will on a weak iran but he lost very disgracefully his departure came with a lot of descriptors he disgraced not only himself but also the united states with the dignity given to us by god this nation is going to move on and they should know that the maximum pressure has been failing so far even in the future if the new administration in the us continues to carry on the maximum pressure this will be their future as well they will also those and they will also fail and day by day iran is becoming stronger and stronger. israel has confiscated the palestinian foreign minister v.i.p. order past which enables him to move freely through crossings into the palestinian territories is ready officials revoke the pass in riyadh and return to the west bank from a meeting of the international criminal court earlier this month the court's lead prosecutor announced plans for a formal investigation into war crimes in the palestinian territories meanwhile

opinion polls suggest that yet again they'll be no clear winner of israel's parliamentary elections come tuesday it's the 4th in just 2 years that's why prime minister benjamin netanyahu has surprised many with a new strategy publicly courting palestinian israeli voters are false reports now from haifa. is not the 1st time benjamin netanyahu is focused on israel's palestinian citizens during an election campaign in 2015 he tried to boost right wing turnout by warning of quote arabs coming to the polls in droves in 2019 facebook suspended a chat bot on his account which should our politicians wanted to quote annihilators all this time the message is very differently that the want to develop. a campaign video presents palestinian israelis supporting a prime minister who among other things is pledging to address the number one issue . a surge in violent crime sparking protests against the israeli police the failing

to tackle it. really me i'm committed to bringing in into the violence and the crime in your communities this is a national assignment that touches each and every one of you and your children that no one in the northern city of haifa is reopening his restaurant after months of coded 19 enforced closure for him netanyahu speech is missing the mark he's a hypocrite if we say this 20 times it's not enough they don't want any alliance with arabs they never have they'll never give us our rights. the same goes for the customers we spoke to even those who become frustrated by the palestinian israeli parliamentary block so see on and dad i'm not entirely happy with the air parties because they haven't been working properly socially speaking things have been deteriorating especially the violence if you expect benjamin netanyahu to experience a sudden warm embrace from a group of voters that he spent previous elections casting is

a threat to the prospects of a right wing government what he's looking for is just the tiniest slice enough voters to help him going that extra one or 2 seats that could prove crucial to his chances of forming a coalition for activists an armless just for far that means improving on the 10000 palestinian israeli votes netanyahu likud got last time of 660000 votes cast more and more voters actually. support the forces and listen listen. so i don't expect a really big. supporter of a no or the likud but still he can get them surely one of the. he may also benefit from a split in the joint list palestinian israeli grouping the breakaway united arab list says it may work with netanyahu after the election however that plays out one broader change is emerging in recent polling

a growing acceptance of the political legitimacy of a sector of society for so long kept at arm's length harry forsett. haifa israel. while israel forges ahead with one of the world's fastest vaccine campaigns palestine is only just begun its roll out of the general public palestinian authority president mahmoud abbas was the 1st to receive a jab next up on medical staff people over the age of 75 and those suffering from serious illnesses health authority has received more than 60000 vaccine doses through the international kovacs facility. now brazilian police have been patrolling sao paolo breaking up illegal gatherings that threaten to fuel a recent surge of covert infections armed officers raided bars and clubs operating under the radar a nighttime curfew has been in place in the city since march 6th but in the last week brazil has registered a new piece of the number of daily deaths attributed to the virus within 292000 people have died there since the pandemic began.

and the miami beach is imposing 8 pm curfew in its entertainment district an effort to control of spring break vacationers party goers gathered in the streets without masks while flouting social distancing rules under the new order police blocked off popular areas in south beach forcing all businesses there to close. was covert $1000.00 continues to wreak havoc on the global economy many countries have plunged into their worst recession in decades but right now reports not only has taiwan managed to buck that trend it's actually expecting even more growth this year. restaurants and stores are full shopping districts busy with people out spending it all points to an economy enjoying its own mini boom while much of the world is still mired in a pandemic flu just a year ago as countries were quickly closing borders because of the spreading

coronavirus prospects for this small island so close to the pandemic source in laboring mainland china looks grim. to be a bit tired one where we experience a certain downturn where or under software like a minus 4 percent g.d.p. of course. instead taiwan grew its economy by more than 3 percent last year growing faster than mainland china for the 1st time in decades with 5 percent growth predicted for this year success is due in part to the economy's reliance on semiconductor chip production which has boomed during the pandemic but it's underpinned by early and decisive public health measures that have created a safe haven that's encourage companies to relocate from the mainland in line with government policy that clearly a lot of job opportunities especially high tech industries because the government

policy is trying to encourage it also high tech america back to taiwan then there were the taiwanese living overseas returning to avoid the effects of the pandemic elsewhere by a lot of friends that came back from new york from california or out of part of the world so our decision to come back was for safety or for the freedom because we can you know still have a normal life here while young chief how is a real estate agent from chicago now doing business remotely online from taiwan it means dealing with a 12 hour time difference but it keeps him earning money that he spends in taiwan u.k. you know be with your family you can take the public transportation and live your normal what he like so many people here largely enjoying the kind of normal but for much of the rest of the world is still a memory problem bride al-jazeera. and after a stressful week unless u.s.

president joe biden called him a killer the russian leader vladimir putin has been getting away from it all he he spent the weekend on a male bonding trip with his defense minister sergei scheuer now mountains of siberia in the wild and accessible we jenny to menus and military off road vehicle to get around with the precision force taking a wheel and to show you is able to show the president his wood work shop in the hearts of the wilds largest farthest. i. just want to recap the main stories now 7 civilians have been killed including one child when shelling by government forces hit a hospital in a rebel held town in western aleppo another 16 people have been injured the world health organization says have been more than 300 attacks on syrian health care sites in the past 5 years and even after the initial strike a shell.