And again im peter w. Watching al jazeera live from doha also coming up verdict guilty the former Prime MinisterYingluck Shinawatra has been sentenced to five years in prison for corruption. A landmark decision saudi arabia will allow women to drive for the first Time Starting next. Plus well look at how a chance discovery revealed a brand new work by one of the worlds most popular authors more than a century after he died. The Kurdish Regional government transport minister has rejected a demand from iraq to relinquish control of its ports baghdad has threatened to ban International Flights from landing unless a bill agrees to that measure it follows mondays kurdish independence vote unofficial estimates say the referendum has been passed although russia and france upholding kurdish leaders to avoid pursuing actions that me that d. Stabilize the region shall stratford from. The rhetoric and threats continue and from both sides iraq and that there are still is still occupying some parts of kirkuk and some parts of iraq i sill is still a threat to the cities with some of our brothers in Iraqi Kurdistan a living we must not divide iraq according to or through or viral referendum that is completely rejected such language will go down well with the International Community including the u. S. And the e. U. Each sent the timing of the vote could weaken iraqs unity at a time when the fight against terrorism is paramount. Ela bhatt he says the kurdish referendum on independence was unconstitutional and the federal government will ignore the expected yes result only a few minutes after all about his speech the kayleigh g president appeared on kurdish television Masoud Barzani invited l. A body and leaders of neighboring countries for dialogue but he remained defiant he said the wishes of iraqs kurds should be respected but. Yes in the beginning we agreed on the constitution and partnership and the role of the kurdistan region in the establishment of iraq is very clear but you violated every agreement there is no need for anger and threats you have only yourself to blame the results of the referendum on not binding but the kurdish president wants a mandate to push the bank dad government into negotiations towards independence for iraqs kurds. Neighboring countries such as turkey fearful of the effect such a drive towards independence by the iraqi kurds could have on their own large kurdish populations have threatened sanctions and even not ruled out military intervention against the kayleigh gee. That seems unlikely at this stage but the referendum is certainly increased tensions across the region already struggling to deal with so many problems and when the battle against terrorism is far from won. The federal government says all storage is must hand over control of their airports by friday or face a potential International Air embargo the government also says that the k r g must hand over control of their International Land borders by friday or neighboring countries will take control of them too the pressure on president barzani from both baghdad and the wider region continues to mount for aljazeera erbil ok i mean joins us live now from bill i guess the key issue here what is the way that nobody is prepared to back down and weve got this timeline heading towards a partial blockade. Yes. Thats whats happening even though everybody keeps saying we are open to negotiation the publics becoming harsher all the time now we have this deadline on friday and over the. Airports. Federal Border Guards however when you look at. The. Border crossings five of them with iran and turkey they are actually officially under the. Government in baghdad the personnel there where customs. Or the Border Security are kurds. Take their orders and they get their salaries from the ministry of interior in baghdad when it comes to the airports different the border. As you come in and. Civil servants belong to the federal government whereas the security of the airport is actually in the hands of the. Kurdish Security Forces so theres a bit there is a bit more gray because they share however the land crossings theyre. Officially at least. Baghdad so this is going to be very difficult to see how all this will certainly it does. Leave the question really of this is the first step what could happen next and as far as baghdads concerned and indeed as far as anchor is concerned of a slightly annoyed here because they might say surely look we want to concentrate on the fight against both countries might say that the last thing we want is more stability in the area that the kurds would want to be able to call the country of kurdistan. Well thats absolutely right and its very clear from the words of the Prime Minister a baddie he did say we had a really good cooperation during the battle over on mosul we are currently also cooperating when it comes to the how we show offensive why is this happening at this specific time now he also said that he was open for negotiations but you must not use the referendum always is always results as a bargaining chip and i think the kurds are quite realistic in this is that they know they cant just forge ahead and march on to try to declare an independence anytime soon i think what theyre going to try to do with the results of the referendum which more likely than not will be a resoundingly yes that they going to try to shore up their political fortunes in baghdad put more pressure on a body defacto now you have this you have the disputed territories that took part in this referendum and if you look at it it has the factor result the issue of article one forty which which was calling for such a referendum to be held back in two thousand and seven even though there was the Population Census done until now so if they win in those disputed territories with a yes they will go and say look the people there want us to be in charge of those areas as weve been saying all along and you would have that article result i think Prime Minister baddies the position is no you cant come here i think what go ahead with the referendum that im not the only one who said who is against it but look the International Community is against it and you cannot come here with a position of power thinking that you can use it as a chip to put me in a weak position and get as much as you can out of me thanks very much. The u. S. Defense secretary james mattis in the last half hour has been praising the government in afghanistan for its cooperation in the fight to root out terrorism in the region he made those comments during an unannounced visit to kabul weeks after president from place to send more u. S. Forces to Afghanistan AfghanSecurity Forces are struggling to defeat the taliban this delegation stand united in our desire to advance peace in afghanistan and remove the impulses and manifestations of terrorism that threaten the innocent each nation stands united with their fellows in their support and we will not abandon afghanistan to a merciless enemy trained to kill its way to power under this strategy we are approaching the problem with a more holistic and comprehensive regional framework providing advisors to accompany afghan units to provide nato support to them and in more u. S. Troops alongside Additional Allied contributions and making clear that we are not quit in this fight and recall were not told the strategy of america and nato is now clear and general mattis has decided that they will say new troops to afghanistan other members of nato as has been requested by secretarygeneral start and that will take part in training and supporting all forces thats how the ban and other terrorist groups have used up people as human shields ive been struck that all the Security Forces that join the operations they have to protect the lives of civilians. Thailands former Prime MinisterYingluck Shinawatra has been sentenced to five years in prison for corruption she was found guilty in the last hour or so of negligence over rice subsidy plan her government set up before she was toppled in a coup twenty fourteen the scheme to help farmers lost billions of dollars in lock was not in court to hear the verdict as she fled the country last month her family had been figureheads of a Political Organization which has won every time election since two thousand and one lets talk to our correspondent wayne hay whos covering that story for us in bangkok when there had been speculation it would actually be ten years do you know why the court has just gone for five. Yes the maximum penalty for the offense that she was charged with ultimately convicted of did carry a ten year jail term and a lifetime ban from politics there is no explanation as yet so that we have seen from the court as to why theyve only given her a five year jail term basically she was charged and convicted of negligence in overseeing this rice pledging scheme which was a populist policy really angered the rural poor aimed at farmers trying to boost the income of those farmers and they know theres no doubt that the scheme did go wrong there was massive corruption beneath her but at no stage did they really say that the Prime Minister herself benefited from this scheme but that she was really negligent in not keeping an eye on it close enough and not seeing some of the corruption that was going on beneath her so it took those Nine Supreme Court judges four hours to deliver that verdict of guilty and hand down the sentence of five years of course as you see as you say she was and here she is believed to have left the country a couple of days before the original court date when she was supposed to be in court behind me to hear that verdict in late August August twenty fifth shes believed to be in dubai with her brother another former Prime Minister taxin shinawatra there was a point in their. Little backstory wayne were both. Very well liked particularly in the rural areas has that support disappeared and gone someplace else or would those people still vote for her if she was still there. Well every chena want supporter that i come across around thailand including those who were outside the court to hear the verdict just a couple of hours ago say that they still support the shinawatra family they still support the party the poor thai party which as you say has done very well in elections winning elections for a very long time in this country its very difficult to say though exactly how strong that support is at the moment because any sort of overt political demonstrations or political displays at the moment a band by the military government which staged a coup in two thousand and fourteen to force the government all being like china want out and of course their brother tanks and was also forced out in a coup in two thousand and six so if we had an election tomorrow i think most people would assume would bet that you know wants and their party. He would win again but as i say its very difficult to guess very difficult to say one hundred percent because any dissent or any criticism of the current government has been fairly well stamped out since that coup in two thousand and fourteen good to talk to thanks very much. Human Rights Groups are welcoming a decision in saudi arabia to lower women to dr king solomon is suited to create ending the kingdom status as the only country where it is forbidden his pool to judge him. Activists like dr mcgee how a lot of jews have been lobbying for decades for the kingdom of saudi arabia to allow women to drive and instead again. Im ready my daughter is ready and who says society is ready how much longer can we live in an Oppressive Society that prevents us from our full rights. By next summer dr mcgee how will be allowed to drive without risking arrest fines and punishment the new policy will allow women to obtain a drivers license without having to ask permission of the husband father or male guardian the kingdoms representative to the United Nations talk about the policy during a meeting at the u. N. This is a historic day for Saudi Society for men and women and we can now say at last so you arabia is hoping the policy will help the economy and increased role of women in the workforce as part of the economic reform agenda and the efforts to streamline the amount of money that the state spends on its citizens with diminished oil revenue the idea of including more women into the labor force would definitely help and so driving this is one mechanism to increase womens economic participation it was anybody could be something that other activists reacted on social media mundo a shot of as a saudi womens rights advocate who was arrested for posting a video of herself driving in two thousand and eleven to protest the law in a tweet celebrating the decree she used the hashtag women to drive and daring to drive she also said the fight for equality in saudi arabia is far from over i grew up in ultra conservative society the United States also welcomed the move by the kingdom well they were happy were happy were certainly happy to hear that if saudi women are now able to drive certainly here in the United States we would certainly welcome that and so i think its a great step in the right direction for that country. Another step thats been lauded by rights activists. Over the weekend for the first time women were allowed to enter the king fahd stadium to celebrate the eighty seventh anniversary of the kingdoms foundation. The. Saudi women are able to do anything they are respected and have proven themselves in every field theyre not so weak as to be contained to one place. The right for women to drive may be a welcome step but some human rights organizations say the kingdom has a long way to go in guaranteeing equal rights for not only women but for minorities like those who are subjected to hate speech and Violent Attacks culture under john al jazeera. Still to come here on aljazeera its a Welcome Break from the fear of a Nuclear Attack south korea holds a Film Festival to call for peace. Plus thousands move to safety in indonesia as a volcano threatens to erupt for the first time in more than fifty years. Hello the wet season is showing itself now in indonesia the satellite reveals all the white top class a long way south into jobber in sumatra decent figures there produces one hundred something millimeters in the middle of sumatra and thats slightly the same in singapore as well possibly kuala lumpur but the thrust is to take that rain fed assassin ready. Consolidate the wet season which is no surprise right time of year but we still got right as far north as thailand jeanettes bangkoks not far out of it and Southern Vietnam comes into the wet weather as well the next day or so to the science of that was the change of season weve had some really hot weather just recently this spending white cloud is a low pressure is going down towards tasmania now thats straight back there is a cold front the head of it has been particularly halt so we had just point one degree shy of a record birdsville at forty two degrees this is in fact queens and now of course the cold front means the is going to get a bit chilly not immediately but in the next twenty four hours ahead of it is not quite so extreme thirty six in brisbane and twenty five in sydney and this will be knocked back a little bit but the real heat in the outback probably will dissipate if youre lucky if youre lucky they screen represents a bit of useful rain. Water scarcity is a serious problem when used more than probably you need to why if youre with that impact if there are plans to morning as much water you dont need to hear again as much. Collecting more tough talk why just came out of there and well compare that to some tap water which could provide a solution to the problem global water for the tag no at this time on aljazeera. Aljazeera live from doha your headlines the Kurdish Regional governments transport minister has rejected a demand from iraq to relinquish control but say ports baghdad is threatening to ban International Flights from landing unless in the great us all that follows mondays kurdish secession referendum. The u. S. Defense secretary james mattis says the u. S. And its allies wont abandon afghanistan to the taliban and other groups mr mattis is in kabul where hes meeting the afghan president ashraf ghani and the nato secretary general again stoltenberg. Thailands highest court has sentenced the former Prime MinisterYingluck Shinawatra five years in prison for corruption she was found guilty of negligence over a loss making rice scheme but was not in court having escaped last month. To south africa where tens of thousands of people are taking part in a nationwide strike against government corruption and unemployment its being led by the countrys biggest Workers Union and a local branch of the governing African National congress which says the party is suffering from leadership failures the trade union has threatened to shut down. In the country as it marches on city holmes banks and the chamber of mines is demanding that the president jacob zuma step down and open an investigation into state corruption tanya pages our correspondent there at one of the demonstrations in johannesburg tanya this union is huge but give us a sense of how powerful this. Show one of those one point eight million members and up to it sound i think right here on the streets of johannesburg they just started to move in you can see a lot of the signs theyre holding up for a range of issues that. Theyre protesting against one of the most important ones being the. President jacob zuma they are and of course into organization but they arent his influence influential as they once were which they would like to be they are in an alliance with the governing African NationalCongress Presidency of his posse and the South African communist posses well and both is a c. P. And cosatu marching here today a cooling for the president to step down and the fact remains that that hasnt happened that hes refused to that most of the a. N. C. At least appears to be sticking by him tells you that the influence of cosatu is getting to white house with many many get my head out on the street tonight although any of the big issues that theyre trying to highlight. Corruption being the biggest one they say cost the economy two billion dollars every year and at the pinnacle of that corruption i say underneath the seeds and to make problems do something because economy in the last couple of months has seen some pretty grim statistics come out of here unemployment is at a thirty year fry. Also increasing and those are things that organizations like to say shouldnt be happening simply move. On to the end of apartheid and under this. The meaning of National Congress so theyre trying to address some really wide rough conditions and not just that of the workers who are out on the streets today the most important to me state that these issues affect the summit next time you. Will and forty thousand range fled the military campaign and me and to bangladesh just in the past two days the continuing exodus raises the total to four hundred eighty thousand in the past months they include six thousand children who cross the border without their parents and need shelter in bangladesh the u. N. Says two hundred fifty Million Dollars is required for the crisis. Well that crisis is affecting the economy of me and ma as our correspondent scott high the reports now from the biggest city on commercial sense a young Gone International companies are reconsidering potential investment. Like this abandon fun park in central yang gone much of the country is still waiting for the development and Foreign Investment many hoped would come hopes were high when sanctions were lifted and the country was reconnected to the world after nearly five decades of military control the west has started to invest here but remains limited the main trading partners are still myanmars neighbors. Hoping to change that trade groups are working to encourage more businesses and investment from europe and the United States. But they have run into a problem political fallout from the russians a refugee crisis in Myanmars Rakhine state. After a recent six country tour in europe to drum up investment a member of one group said the treatment of revenge it was brought up everywhere they went and that was before the recent violence in rakhine that sent hundreds of thousands fleeing into bangladesh the crisis is having a knock on effect with Small Business managers some clients at this tour company have canceled or postponed their trips not only for. Industry because we within over twenty one yes. We. You know the prizes and challenge. Laws and regulations of Foreign Investment are changing after years of being closed off continued International Condemnation and concern over the right hinge or crisis could have an impact on foreign help on big Infrastructure Projects like the much needed upgrades on yangon energy railways. China has been a long time main trading partner with myanmar going back to the days of military rule myanmar is leaders are working to diversify and move away from heavy reliance on trade with china want to kind of us feels that if western nations start to slow investment because of the range of prices it could force me and mark to remain reliant on china. Still in the. Agreement with euro even this is in the process. Going to go. Have some impact. So even in the best of conditions more time is needed to attract Foreign Investment myanmar hopes to land but right now with the world watching events in rakhine it might be pushed farther down the track its got harder aljazeera yangon. Twenty seven refugees have left an on shore australian tension cents a pound for the United States they left the tiny island of naru which is east of Papua New Guinea it is part of a refugee swap deal between australia and the former us president barack obama but the refugees are being charged two and a half thousand dollars each for their flight to america australia sends Asylum Seekers who arrived by boat to nauru and manus island in papa guinea with their claims but the process. Of ok new is expected to erupt any day now only interviews in island of bali that have been hundreds of tremors around the area of mt gold and more than seventy thousand People Living in villages on the slopes of the volcano have been evacuated to temperature shelters the last time months ago erupted was fifty four years ago when more than eleven hundred people died start branson is about ten kilometers from the base of the volcano well i first want to give you a good look mt. Looking very peaceful but inside theres a lot of stuff going on occasionally we can actually see some white looms coming out of the volcano which means that this is. Just coming from the pressure and he thats building up inside and not also push now to the surface and that of course has to go through this layer of crust on the top and that will be the beginning of an eruption nobody. Actually worth saying. Quakes you have to say because. Its from a means that its already about to erupt but folk are not allowed to call it. Great they are. Here a very large one was happening. There on tuesday it was like a point. Which is really significant so a lot of people of course are very worried about whats going to happen. A Film Festival is perhaps the last thing you would expect to find on the most heavily defended borders in the world but movie fans have been attracted to the Demilitarized Zone between north and south korea to explain why its kathy novak to access this Film Festival you need more than just a ticket civilians must get military permission to enter this area near the border with north korea high security reminding visitors of the tense situation in this part of the world with overseas guests see more worried about this location and they think were hosting this amid heightened tensions but our festival transcends political ideology. Even with the ever increasing nuclear and missile tests from north korea the show must go on organizers trying to add a touch of glamour to Opening Night screened in the gym of an old u. S. Base the feature film old marine boy tells the story of a former north korean soldier who defected across the sea border to south korea and his struggles to support his family. Risking his life every day as a compression diver because he feels discrimination against people from north korea prevents him from finding other work some of the movies give viewers a look inside the country that is just a few kilometers away from here but out of reach for the south korean audience filmmakers have gone into north korea to tell people stories and even follow a foreign rock band thank you liberation day is the somewhat bizarre tale of the slovenian band live bach the first rock band to ever perform in north korea its one of more than one hundred documentaries being screened with the theme of peace and reconciliation. Bringing the kind of i hope there we saw more open access to north korea information and that we can do more to foster more exchanges and bring peace to the Korean Peninsula in old marine boy the central character of the host says hell never forget the night when he crossed the border and wonders if hell live to see the day when the koreas become one country and he can return to his hometown kathy novak aljazeera camp grieves near the d. M. Z. No i cannot see any of the t. V. In the coming hours to check out the website al jazeera dot com you can see the top story the iraqi Prime Minister reaction to that kurdish referendum. Updating the top stories for you so far today the Kurdish Regional governments transport minister has rejected a demand from iraq to relinquish control of its have ports baghdad has threatened to ban International Flights from landing in last ep it likely is to the measure that follows mondays kurdish secession vote unofficial estimates say the referendum has passed the u. S. Defense secretary james mattis says the u. S. And its allies wont abandon afghanistan to the taliban and all the groups with the masses is in kabul where hes meeting with the afghan president ashraf ghani and the nato secretary general again stoltenberg. Killens this delegation stand united in our desire to advance peace in afghanistan and remove the impulses and manifestations of terrorism that threaten the innocent each nation stands united with their fellows in their support and we will not abandon afghanistan to a merciless enemy trying to kill its way to power under this strategy we are approaching the problem with a more holistic and comprehensive regional framework providing advisors to accompany afghan units to provide nato support to them adding more u. S. Troops alongside Additional Allied contributions and making clear that we are not quitting this fight. Thailands highest court has sentenced the former Prime MinisterYingluck Shinawatra five years in prison for corruption she was found guilty of negligence in a rice subsidy case her government set up before she was ousted from power in twenty fourteen she escaped the country last month. Live pictures out of johannesburg because in south africa tens of thousands of people are taking part in a nationwide strike against government corruption and unemployment is being led by the countrys biggest Workers Union and a local branch of the governing African National congress which says the party is suffering from leadership failures the trade union is demanding that the president jacob zuma step aside. Human Rights Groups are welcoming a decision by saudi arabia to allow women to drive king solomon is suited to create ending the kingdom status as the only country where its forbidden it goes into effect in june of next year of all kaino is expected to erupt on the indonesian island of bali any day now they have been hundreds of tremors around the area a moment ago and more than seventy thousand People Living in villages on the slopes of been relocated. Jane see with the news in half an hour i will see you soon up next technique. Here is a very important fourth of information for many people around the world when all the camera has gone im still here go into areas that nobody else is going to talk to people that nobody else is talking to and bringing that story to the forefront. Everywhere with less and less to during. This case the us is a big blue planet covered seventy percent in water their case in the fields there and two and a half percent of that is fresh water with any one percent being easily accessible to the past six point eight million inhabitants alive and well you