i mean, i've been covering all of latin america for most of my career, but no country is alike. and it's my job to said light on how and why news. ready hillary says russia trees participates in joint military drills, went to leave yet because of rising tension on ukraine's border. france says it's working with russia to try and reach a sci fi in ukraine's rebel controlled eastern region. ah. alarm clock, this is our desert life and are also coming up. britons, queen elizabeth tests, positive for cove at 19 i. q palace has a 95 year old one who is experiencing mild symptoms and held in the backdrop of boy

coats and the drinking pages. winter olympics comes to brooklyn. ah. the french president, a mental macro has made phone calls to the leaders of russia and ukraine on sunday is part of an ongoing diplomatic effort to find a peaceful solution to the escalating crisis in easton ukraine. the tours came on the same day. an estimated 30000 russian troops had their mission in belarus, extended indefinitely. sandra's robbie begins, our coverage. war in ukraine remains an open question. but military posturing on ukraine's borders continues to intensify. russian troops were meant to leave bella ruth, on sunday, when military exercises with their ally ended. but their stay has been extended indefinitely. the bill of russian defense minister cited increased military

activity in the region, as well as unrest inside ukraine. but no mention of what ukrainian leaders and they're western allies described as russian provocation. and so you would puddle, the testing of reaction forces will come to you. they are directed to as a prevention of floor and are presidents who have met repeatedly say, we don't want war, but we are not being hurt. and therefore recreated and appropriate grouping of troops if need be. we'll bring an appropriate response within the presidents of bella. ruth and russia met in moscow 2 days ago. president alexander lucas shackle is a close russian ally. the strategic advantage of having russian troops in billers is just one more reason. analysts say president vladimir putin has the upper head. this invasion force has been matched on the ukrainian border has already achieved some of its objectives because he's already got the conversation going with the

united states about limiting the sovereignty and liberating the security choices of the countries neighboring russia about rolling back the glock. so, nasal protections are taken away from them, and russia can habits weight an estimated 100. $90000.00 russian troops at a heightened state of alert are now to ukraine's north south and east there. extended mission in bella, luce only the latest warning sign that western leaders say points to an imminent full scale russian invasion of ukraine zane basra, b algebra. i. let's go to andrew summons in kiev now. and andrea, it seems that the russian and french presidents were able to make some progress in a phone call. they had today well, there was a chink of light, there isn't there. and there is an agreement for the organization up for us of the order our c, e to actually host at talks between russia,

ukraine ang, the organization for security and cooperation in europe. and they're on the table ah, some proposals to try to calm the tension. apparently this all started. when emmanuel mack, rome had a telephone conversation with president zalinski here and ukraine, that they covered some ground. it said the lensky medic quite clear that he was the one proposing piece of a time, a come for some sort of action. now the with talks then between vladimir putin and micron. they agreed to summon some further talks. and after a while. busy there was this statement and a read out from the lease a palace in paris saying that sir, useful actions to avoid all escalations the possible are taking place at the 2 heads of state. that would make sure that they could try to stop any

escalation. and the foreign minister for france and his counterparts in russia at sic oliver of a would have talks in the coming days. so again, there's nothing concrete hair but some dialogue against a backdrop that's pretty negative because bell roost has announced that it's extending at the exercises in its country with a russian troops. $30000.00 of them and an array of weaponry. hundreds of air craft tanks, s 400 multiple, a missile launches anti aircraft miss our launches, i should say. and furthermore, those troops all around only 200 kilometers from the capitol here. so that's negative, anthony blink in the u. s. secretary of state, i had said that the really is a critical situation now with the threat to world peace as

a result of it. and there was also a number of developments along the contact line in the dumbass region of more conflict, more sharing, not on the the, the scale as the past few days, but nevertheless, still a lot of action going on this month, really big disquiet among citizens because they don't know what's going to happen next. and also in that to break away republics, people are already confused about what's going on. being told that there it could be invaded by ukraine at any moment. and on top of all of this, of the russian ministry of defense claiming that that a shell has landed in the roster of region just over the border and that was from ukrainian forces. now, the foreign minister here has summoned a, his officials to start preparing a calls for an international investigation into this because they, they make

a blunt denial about it. and andrew says more conflicts in sharing to say, a lonely convent line. although it had the contest i bit has that she diminished but tell us how that is impacting communities. that will it in a pretty critical way. as our saying, i mean one example, a water plant, our plant was, was hit up from the that forces in it, in one of the republics. and that has knocked out a supplies to a series of villages and towns on top of that. shells have been landing in many, many civilian areas. are there was something like $500.00 or a strikes in the space of less than 12 hours at one point. and the o. s. c e is saying that a so much of it was long range and artillery 122 millimeter shells that can travel in excess of 11 kilometers. and so really the,

the ukrainians are really concerned because they say so many lies are being told by the separatists and indeed russia and there is more evidence. they say they're intelligent services, say of, of the a series of, of, of special forces, sabotaging various areas of infrastructure and causing the false false flag incidents. and so this is quite prevalent. having said that, there has been something of a low in the shelf, or whether that's connected to the diplomatic moves isn't clear. but security here in the capital has been stepped up because this is the anniversary, the 8th anniversary of the might and moscow as it was known, a 104 civilians killed in the, in the demonstrations, along with around 16 security forces. it was an absolutely horrendous day 8 years ago. i was there, and this is my look at the legacy of this day. one man in more than

a 100 dead in one day, their memorials, among the bricks they used to defend themselves. one son with one aim, now, not only to avenge his father's death 8 years ago, but ready to defend his homeland from the might of russia's military. father try help. a lot of me, a bon darechuk points to where snipers were posted. he's an i t engineer and a military reservist and expects to be called up very soon. like so many who died here. valard him, his father survey didn't look like a revolutionary. he was a school teacher. survey was alive when his fellow protest as rushed him to a makeshift clinic in a hotel reception area. he'd been shot in the back and died later. i know are who are guilty of this situation and part of regime a young core rich and foster wall. it's a russian federation, and of course,

putting on the morning of february, the 20th 2014, a truce was broken. as police suddenly retreated, then came a barrage of bricks from the protest, as answered with gunfire. in hindsight, they call it the revolution of dignity on that day, as i witnessed, it was anything but dignified. once again, the square is a battle zone. the truce had seemed tenuous from the outset here. now the frontline has moved everywhere. you look there are casualties. my dan euro, my down freedom square, the angel monument, words name symbols that for many years have made vladimir putin sees. he's fanatical about ukrainians, being part of russia. yet this country now has more than 30 years of independence behind it. it may be a democracy that is imperfect, but the vast majority of ukraine's people turned their back on soviet autocracy and

want to be part of europe with membership of nato for protection. but at what cost, there's conflict in the east of the country with russian back separatists and the annexation of crimea by russia. are you prepared to die for this cause? yes, her andy and her, ah, all asa ukrainian people are ready for this and it's most important. protect our country, our families and, ah, for this, we indeed every see what we, we can, more than 14000 lives already lost in conflict. vladimir and many others know only too well. the human costs so far could be dwarfed by all out war. andrew simmons al jazeera keith, are you, i think you stayed on t blinking has been speaking to media. he says everything they're seeing indicates rusher is on the brink of invading a crane that speak to across one of my kind of who joins us now from washington. d

. c. a might tell us what we heard from blinking. went and he blinked and reiterated what he has been saying for days now. and that is said invasion is imminent. however, at the same time, the secretary of state said that the door to diplomacy remains open until as he puts it, the 1st tang start rolling on the ground. so he's keeping ober opened the possibility of dialogue. he confirmed to that if there is no invasion in coming days, he will be going ahead and meeting the russian foreign minister coming this coming week. that's an important point to have been can making very clear that the only thing that would stop this meeting is a russian invasion of ukraine been can also reiterated the point that sanctions were a deterrent. he was responding to the ukrainians. president's comments that the u. s. should be imposing sanctions look for an invasion, not afterwards,

but the secretary of state saying something that he's had said before and that is that once you trigger sanctions, then you remove that particular the terran. so the u. s. wants to keep these sanctions as a threat. it does not want to impose them before a invasion takes place, arguing that that would remove the last deterrent that they have the set odds of clearly with the ukrainian precedent given his comments. but at the same time, the secretary of state are holding a balancing act. they're saying that the invasion is imminent. once again at the same time saying he wants to talk. and hopefully we'll talk with the russian foreign minister in coming days. or i might, thanks, wrote my canada in washington dc as to let her in out 0, the hub to, to graduate and her. and to get job. now we don't even have that kind of thinking with, thus gathering in nigerian lecture halls will tell you why tens of thousands of students might not be able to finish their courses. i did a few peer begins,

generate electricity from his grad, renee, so it's damn the trick. a dispute with egypt and saddam ah, ah, look forward to brighter skies. the weather sponsored my cattle airways. the rainy season in indonesia is starting to fall apart. now. there are areas which going to see intense showers of the next day or so. this is probably the main risks from the southern philippines answers sort of ways he to barley in all points east was to west papua that the west of that with us. yeah, those layer is intense down pause, maybe in sudden, sumatra possibly lauser or cambodia where we see in wet weather recently. but a good potter, malaysia is now rather more dry than that he is wet. last push of wind to maybe i dunno. and still pretty wintry in japan with more snow falling. actually,

a warning for blizzard in her cargo. the temperature still low in eastern severe and hobbin northeast and charles minus 12 and the winds are still blowing north the beijing they've been hampering. the olympians recently had that look down here, 10 degrees in hong kong. yeah. shouldn't be 10 degrees or 11 degrees. run it in like at this time the, the average by days, something like 90. anyway, hong kong is going to come up to about 16 degrees ball time yet to thursday, but until tuesday it's horrible. okay, let's go further west quite weather clarence route. indeed, there are few showers in the north and the northern plains looking rather caught a moment. but the winds about pick up in new jelly again on tuesday. oh, the weather sponsored by katara, always a selling vietnamese children into slavery in europe, one to one east investigate. had the traffic is leading justice on al jazeera,

on counting the cost to red hot oil market is wearing consumers will prices keep going up. looking east to russia, finds a new gas and oil deal with china. what fun food teams mind and a stock split in silicon valley, all google shares becoming more affordable. counting the cost on al jazeera. ah ah. again, you're watching out 0 reminder. what top stories are in french, president, man, or micron, has had a phone conversation with his russian counterpart vladimir putin. and the 2 countries are to work on a high level summit between russia, ukraine, and european allies. russia has extended its military deployment in bella, rue city, an escalation of tend to nib ukrainian border around $30000.00 and russian soldiers

have been carried out exercises. inborn errors, britons, queen elizabeth, has tested positive for cove. 19 back in palo says she is experiencing mild symptoms and will continue her duties. 95 year old monica recently met with her son prince charles days before he tested positive for k, with 19 rory challenges in london. and has more the brother brief statement from buckingham palace suggests that she is not seriously ill. the moments at least that she has got something akin to cold like symptoms and she is suddenly wet enough to keep on doing miles. dcs light duties. i think they put it in the, in the press statement for the rest of this week. she of course, has very good medical care as you would expect, a woman of her health and stature to have. so professor a hugh thomas, he is the head of the medical household and physician to the queen and noticed him,

you've got a group of other people away with him as well. he's expected to be in charge looking after her. so she is in good hands, but let's not forget, this is a 95 year old woman that we're talking about. and a 95 year old woman who also hasn't been in particularly good health recently since october of last year. she's been taking a quite easy because of various health concerns from from that time. how does she get it? well, we don't know for sure. there is certainly contact that she had with her eldest son, the to the throne prince charles, 2 days before he tested positive as well. but that was 12 days ago now. so it is likely that she got it from somewhere else. the ground if he had been renee, sometimes begun generating electricity for the 1st time. yep. he says $5000000000.00 developments will power its economy. neighbors,

egypt and sudan have long complained of water shortages flooding, caused by the blue nile river being a polar coma space. when full africa was for peace, he says there's really no going back. now. the 3 countries will just have to find a way for if you look at this on the flip side and you look at what are the consequences that is that this is likely to have on our colleagues who are down the streaming boards who done on the egypt then they don't know where that, whether the really need to, whether there is a need to do, to go with that the really, to begin seeing this as a long drugged out process that is going to have serious consequences on their own lives and their own their livelihoods, and we, we have unfortunately, and i want to say we had talking about the african union. we have been given on several years to try and have a dialogue of these. but unfortunately, we haven't, we have been unable to resolve a very fundamental issue of existence in regard to the downstream countries and

development in regards to at european. now, we should have come to a compromise about these were or by now because both of these are the consequences on the citizens. and i think the tendency for, as right now is to, is to try and say, let us, let us, let us lea a lead a middle ground. but no, we cannot. how was to le monique solution of these? of saying, let us split the baby down in the middle, it is going to kill both of us. is there still a way out? i still think that we don't have an option. i still think that we still need to sit at said the table, but i think the more that we see events like crazy, the one that happened today begin to where to emerge them more. it becomes dimmer and dimmer, that we can actually sit as friends and as fil africans. and resolve this as a purely african problem. a strike by university lecturers and nigeria is

threatening graduation plans for final year students. academics warning they will continue the disruption till the government implement an agreement reached 13 years ago. only dresses always once bustling with student activity and are quiet. it's only days since public university teachers in nigeria walked off their jobs. but lecture halls are already covered with dust. the government has expressed surprise, but the lecturers are unmoved. they consider yourself crazy qual, yeah, no serious. i'm sure i'm as your as our nose of rice because we did into a club or by night and said that well, when australia, 13 years ago, educators and the government signed an agreement to end on the potomac of strikes at nigerian universities. but teachers say, this was never implemented. in the past 20 years, there been nearly as many strikes by could have mixed off in nigeria and universities. then destro dispute has to disrupted academic calendars. as a result,

student sometimes take 6 to 7 years to complete a 4 year degree program. these students come to the university nearly every day hoping for positive news, the hub to, to graduate and her and to get job. now we don't even have that kind of thinking, but his peers and private universities have no such worries. federal government has almost are 100 university and they have so many challenges head of them in our, on when you leave for anybody. nobody did naturally. you up walk us more to be on de, with the institution. years of neglect have left public universities over crowded and with poor funding for research and salaries. union leaders say most professors and less than a $1000.00 a month. lecture a say they are tired of meetings and agreements, but the government feels to implement their warning one month. they will make this strike indefinite if there is no breakthrough. how many degrees al jazeera kernel

nigeria was not just academics that are on strike in nigeria, doctors and other health care workers stays the walk out in september, the demanding better wages and working conditions, especially well treating current of our patients and staff in nigeria is parliament have been protesting to they say they haven't been paid wages due to due to them for 8 months or this is the cost of living continues right in the area. it is africa, the largest oil producer, but petrol prices and food prices have lately sword. let's take this home, we can speak to you, but well, who's president of niger is labor congress, also president of the international trade union and confederation and joins us live here on such as. so, mr. well, 1st of all, it's not all down to inflation. this is why do we have these walk outs and pay demands in an oil rich country like nigeria? well, thank you very much for having me this evening. there had been

a lot of challenges actually managing the economy and also making sure that there is some level of shared prosperity, possibly policy, incoherent, and legend. you can see this by the front that we have that richer resources, but even to try to refine the petroleum product, had become very challenging and we keep important this very input on commodity. so this part of the challenge said the brochure i'm sexual cause very, very, very important for nigeria. and we have this paternity ministry law which has been signed in by the president. what would it be? implications of this on petrol subsidies. and so for the petroleum industry actually been signed into know what it's implication. implementation is also problematic because of the fact that part of the provision of the law is actually to use also the only policy more than of

importation price mechanism to then determine the price of p a miss. and basically is to end the gym of subsidy. but also it has a lot of implication if you are notified in and then the value of the currency continue to divide, which by the time you input this input on commodity demons, it will be out of reach, right? many nigerians ok, that's just gonna say what impact does that have on the man and the women in certainly don't have a very negative impact because the purchasing power of many nigerians have been dwindling and therefore it will be out of reach. and therefore, it will actually add to inflation. and importantly, because of so good on this, this would go. so this had been part of the problem and challenge. yeah, it's a balancing act, isn't it? because we hear from the finance ministers at the petro subsidies, we're costing nigeria. somebody like $7000000000.00. yes. so you have 2 sides of the equation, the trying to balance. yeah. that's why i get is about how to now have refining

capacity that we can be able to save for x. but input on the also address the challenge that will our eyes, if we suddenly depend on importation. fidelity will subsidy. so he's about striking the balance between the people, the welfare of the people, and also the dynamics of local management is very important as sources for the past 3 tickets. all right, well we run out of time with you, but whether we appreciate your time, thanks very much dee. thank you. thank you. but please, in the pool, if i take asked to dispose protest is against a new government project, funded by us agency is providing 500000000 dollars in grounds to help pay for power transmission lines and road improvements. critic say that undermines the pulse laws in sovereignty, voters in punjab and northern india, the latest to go to the polls in state assembly elections seen as a test for the prime minister and remote these policy, the b j. p. miss make up the stage the biggest voting block. they were heavily

involved in successfully protesting against agricultural forms. last year. elizabeth cronum has more now from the city of a particular where the polling station in the city of seattle with people have been coming to cost a ballot all day. there are more than 21000000 eligible voters in punjab said is known as india red basket. and so farming is always a big issue here, but people have been telling us about other serious issues with facing rising unemployment, rising cost of living inflation while the wages remain low. so there are some other issues in punjab which a very unique to this place was depletion due to farming, organized crime in the form of mafia which control the legal sand mining, liquor, distribution and drugs. one of the biggest drug abuse problems in the country with the proliferation of heroine and opium and also a brain drain punjab has one of the biggest numbers of young people, educated skilled workers leaving the country because of the lack of opportunities

here. now the electro bash and pun, job is between and the main opposition party the cong with the regional outfit for sure money. and also the meal common man party. the b j. p is not a significant player here and pun job. but if the congress does lose power here, one of the other parties, it would be a sure to defeat for india's oldest party, which is only in power and 3 of $28.00 states in the country. the baby in winter olympics has closed with the head of the international olympic committee saying the games were truly exceptional. had the best performance for the winter olympics and a total of 15 metals. but the games are likely to be remembered for the positive deepening results of the teen, russian figure skater, camilla flavor, katrina, you has more now from venturing. there are a lot of headlines made and not all of it was about the sporting competition. unfortunately, this was a deliberately charged event from the beginning with the u. s. and many of its

allies announcing diplomatic boy courts before he even started due to concerns about china's human rights record. now we had in that 1st week the appearance of tiny's and his play a puncture. why would i see had tom this boss know, she had made sexual assault allegations against the politician late last year and then reappeared after being incommunicado for some weeks and then denied those allegations. so there were her appearance raised some eyebrows, and that was quite controversial. and then of course, we had this big challenge of the organizes of controlling core of the 19 they created an entire closed loop system in order to keep these thousands of foreign participants completely separate from the chinese public. and they said that they were successful at preventing any cases snowballing inside the bubble. there about $450.00 cases identified in beijing and limping bubbled in the end. and many olympians either struggle with the strict quarantine or installation conditions and

others were quite sad to have to withdraw completely from the competition because they tested positive for corporate 19. but undoubtedly a big part of this and then take events which will not make organizes happy will be the doping scandal that made headlines this past week with russian figure skater, camilla valley ava testing positive for a band substance and still being allowed to go ahead and compete, ah, so this is down to 0, these are the top stories and the french president to men will macro and i had a phone conversation with his russian count led me to the 2 countries ought to work on a high level summit between russia, ukraine, and european allies or russia has extended its military deployment in bella reciting an escalation of tension of ukraine.