. >>> venezuela's president nicholas maduro has condemned the removal of portraits of his predecessor landslide victory in december, protestors often the streets call for image of chavez to be put up on every street corner. virginia lopez has the story. >> downtown caracas gre woke uph pictures ever late leader hugo chavez. the message reads the opposition has the assembly, the people have the streets. on wednesday, a day after inaugurating the new administration, the spiriting of these paintings have hit a raw nerve in this deeply polarized country. people have been gathering in the central caracas square to protest what they say is an affront to their larger than life leader and their country's history. although president nicholas maduro suffered a crushing defeat in december's parliamentary election his predecessor and mentor hugo chavez is revered in an almost cult like fashion acknowledge chavesmo, perfectly emblematic of how deep divisions in this country are. and political deadlock that the country seems to be heading to. >>> the bronx section of new york city has a reputation

nicholas maduro, to an opposition assembly, crippling are shortage of basic items like toilet paper. maduro has called for temporary powers to take over private resources and impose currency controls but the opposition sees it as another attempt to retain power. virginia lopez reports from caracas. >> the state of emergency exactly what this means and the reach of what the this state of emergency has is still unclear. president nicholas maduro is addressing the country in his yearly state of the union speech, he has reiterated, a state of emergency, catastrophic, drop in oil price but also primary what he calls the economic warfare that he claims the private sector and his political opponents have been waging on his government in order to destabilize it. we spoke to economists who say that some of the measures that we could be seeing in the next coming days are a strengthening of price controls, but also, it could be that the government raises the price of petrol, but currently has the cheapest pet role in the world and raisinpet. the fact that the government would go as far as takin

decades of socialist a result, hugo chavez and his successor nicholas maduro.but many of the newly elected legislators will not be seated tonight. al jazeera's virginia lopez is in caracas tonight and virginia, what has the supreme court given for its reason. >> the supreme court has said they are following up on complaints by a pro-government candidate who claims that eight of these elections were fraudulent. and by fraudulent they claim that there was a lot of vote-buying. and also, a considerable amount of null votes. however, these eight elections have now been reduced to four that are being currently challenged. three opposition and one for government candidate. but like you said, even if just one of these elections was challenged, the opposition stands to losing the supermajority that it won in december's election. we spoke to one of the legislators whose candidacy could be threatened by this and he said that he was really confused about the whole thing and that he hadn't really been notified formally by the supreme court. and that in fact the very little

while president nicholas maduro delivered his state of the union address venezuelans grapple with the implications of an economy they now know to be collapsing. for the first time in 17 years, since his pre predecessor the le hugo chavez rose to power acknowledge maduro dealt with political pressure. >> the opposition to bolivaran revolution is here today. >> hours before the oil dependent country had declared itself in crisis. >> i declare article 1 an economic state of emergency in trove acknowledge to the bolivarian constitution. >> three tier currency exchange system, the method the country takes could see a radical reform as many see as having failed. yet it was a disclosure for the first time in a year by the central bank that venezuela's inflation rate is 141% which to many here drove just how much the economy is hurting. but just exactly what a state of economic emergency means is still unclear. the government has said it will take measures that help and not hinder people but many living in the country with the world's highest inflation are afraid no measure is going to be eno

. >>> president nicholas maduro's request for more powers in venezuela, meanwhile, the international monetary fund has predicted that in venezuela, inflation will reach up to 700%. >>> centers for disease control today expand he its travel alert to cover most of south and latin america, popular tourist destinations in the caribbean and the cape verde islands. now the governments of el salvador and colombia are urging women to delay pregnancy. alessandro s tsa pieppi has the story. >> causing congenital effects in some babies. >> translator: i saw it on television in the news and people told me about it. i'm very worried and that's why i'm here now. what if my child is malformed. can you imagine bringing him to life like that, it's so scary. >> thousands of babies have been born in brazil with unusually small heads and brain damage, a condition known as microcephaly. their mothers were infected by the zika virus. authorities say it could infect as many as 700,000 more in coming months so they're warning women to avoid getting pregnant. >> they should consider postponing pregnancy for

they are fairly leftist, they are just not chavesta, now that nicholas maduro has taken the country, the economy is doing quite poorly, inflation is the one of the highest if not the highest in the world. the opposition was an whelmin overwhelming opposition to the government. >> the world was in shock when it saw the magnitude of the electoral defeat. now the government doesn't want to seat some of the opposition deputies. that could take the supermajority away from the opposition. so what then could the opposition really do? >> well, the government strategy is to confuse the legislature which is supposed to be seated tomorrow, into a constant state of anxiety, by questioning who's seated and what the results are and keeping constant conflict in the legislature itself. the second tack is to take the authority and the duties of the did youly elected legislature, and challenge that the chavista government controls. just today, president maduro signed a decree to allow the central bank to keep many of its accounts private, to have spending on certain issues that won't have to be approp

current president nicholas maduro countered it by hanging pictures of his predecessor in a capitol plaza of people there were protesting the removal of the portraits. >>> in the next half hour, french president francois hollande is expected to unveil another plaque in paris as france marks one year since 17 people were killed during days of terror attacks. this morning's ceremony is for police officer claricea jean-philippe, killed by a gun before he stormed a supermarket and killed other people. >>> at least three terrorists were killed by men carrying knives at a hotel on the red sea coast. one attacker was killed and the other wounded at the bella vista hotel. >>> back to our top story now. the world's top drug lord is back in custody. the mexican government is under pressure to extradite joaquin guzman to the u.s. where he faces federal indictments and charges in half a dozen states. last year's prison escape spurred criticism about mexico's ability to gun control g-- to control guzman with some saying he should have been held in the u.s. we asked a reporter in mexico city with intim

nicholas maduro, pro-maduro supreme court because of voter fraud allegations. one lawmaker who supports maduro says it's evidence the opposition has no legitimacy. >> there is no conflict from rivalry, there is a violation of conflict, by the leadership of the national assembly to defy decision by the supreme court and that is all this is. we will take the necessary legal action because this should be documented. >> opposition leaders also angered maduro's supporters by ordering all of the late hugo chavez's portraits removed from the national assembly building. >>> pope francis wished eastern christians a merry christmas. follow the example of wise men to search for the meaning of things and not settle for mediocrity. many orthodox christians celebrate the birth of jesus on thursday. >>> dolche and gabanna, long flowing robe like dresses and hijabs, used to cover a woman's head and neck. estimated at nearly $9 billion. >>> conductor and composer pierre boulet has died at the age of 90. ♪ ♪ >> boulet conducted some of the world's greatest orchestras, including

but his successor nicholas maduro lacks his charisma and high oil prices from the program are long goneronic food shortages and the world's highest inflation rate and the community traditionally supported the late chazez and the revolution but december election shows that even in provhavez and strongholds like the government has lost all support and content the government has become so widespread the opposition secured 112 of the 167 seats in december's parliamentary books. its newly elected president has vowed independence. >> translator: we will not be a counter power. we will be an autonomous institution and power and as such we will exercise role of assembly which the past assembly never played. >> reporter: super majority has been threatened by a supreme court to block three legislators. >> translator: they claim no votes but this is speculative because i have not been presented with a formal indictment. what i know is from local media and social networks. >> reporter: both sides have called on supporters to march in tuesday's inauguration and fears are growing that power sharing i