Financial markets a down after stock markets in the u. S. Suffered big losses a state of emergency is declared and top judges are arrested as the political crisis in the more deaves deepens. When east met west where in berlin is the german capital celebrates the tearing down of the wall that divided it for almost thirty years. But first russia has blocked a u. N. Security Council Statement condemning the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Government and a meeting of the fifteen member body of the u. S. Ambassador nikki haley said quote there was over this evidence of recent chlorine attacks by the acid regime but russias accuse the u. S. Of waging a Propaganda Campaign all the debate was taking place at the u. N. In new york on the ground in syria at least forty nine people were killed by government and russian strikes in italy province as well as in eastern gaiter thats according to activists and in another Development Aid agencies of all the hundreds of thousands of Syrian Refugees are at risk of being forcibly returned to their homes despite the continuing violence heres our diplomatic editor james space. The attack was brazen and blatant at least eleven people were treated after an airstrike in syria chlorine was probably used this the latest in a series of what seem to have been Chemical Attacks it led to a war of words in the Security Council a meeting you were not supposed to see this regular monthly session on the issue is usually held behind closed doors but an angry Us Ambassador demanded it was made public nikki haley condemned russia for not even agreeing to a press statement on the latest attacks if we cant even take the first step of a stab us in accountability for chemical weapons use we have to seriously ask ourselves why we are here russia which is used its veto to avoid action on this issue was strongly criticized by ambassador hailey and by her french and british colleagues its some bastard of vaseline a benzema hit back the rigid annoying statements by these representatives as always contain very little truth mixed with mountains of lies and will do the. Where is the presumption of innocence prior to any investigation you are accusing the socalled regime quote unquote. With that point here appeared to make nor clear facts in twenty fifteen the un Security Council unanimously decided to create a joint investigative mechanism or jim to work out exactly who was guilty of chemical weapons use it concluded that in four cases the Assad Government was responsible for using chemical weapons soon afterwards russia used its veto to stop the renewal of the gym leaving the Security Council powerless does it just not highlight the importance of the Security Council i think you are very right with the fact that these the use of chemical weapons continues time and again in syria is a challenge to the very authority of the Security Council the Security Council continues to talk but on this issue is unable to act the continuing sporadic Chemical Attacks underlining its weakness and undermining the International Consensus against the use of some of the worlds most hideous weapons james pays out jazeera of the United Nations now asian markets are down in early trading after stocks in new york suffered big losses on monday the dow jones crashed but through the twenty five thousand mark meaning that it wiped off all the gains that it had made over the past month rather than children reports now from washington. If investors werent spooked by the u. S. Stock market selloff on friday theyre almost certainly wishing theyd put in for a three day weekend the Dow Jones Industrial average fell four point six percent on monday and its down eight point five percent since its high point on january twenty sixth that means stocks are now cheaper but the value of retirement and investment accounts has dropped making americans poorer at least on paper some market watchers fear the u. S. Could be on the brink of recession but not everyone agrees in reality it feels that way but its not really to the point where we can say its a repeat of one thousand nine hundred eighty seven now i think investors need to be calm i think they have to look at the the whole picture. And and the economic picture remains quite strong while traders dumped everything from energy to finance and tech stocks the u. S. President donald trump said nothing just last week trump was bragging about the stock market strike but in cincinnati he was celebrating tax cuts and accusing Congressional Democrats of trying to sabotage the economy somebody is a treasonous i mean just why not now we call that treason why not. I mean they certainly didnt seem to love our country very much but you look at that and its its really very very sad Later White House aides released a statement downplaying the market turmoil and praising the president s focus on tax cuts and deregulation still Barack Obamas former press secretary jay carney taunted trump on twitter quote we never boasted about the stock market because we knew two things one the stock market is not the economy and two if you claim the rise you own the fall the stock selloff comes at a time of change at the u. S. The central bank on monday Jerome Powell was sworn in as the Federal Reserve chairman replacing janet yellen she had been criticized for not raising Interest Rates quickly enough to curb inflation but now economists will be watching help out keeps the u. S. Economy humming and investors from panicking a difficult test in his first days on the job changes rosalyn jordan aljazeera washington right now to the military is where the crisis is the finning two Supreme Court judges and an Opposition Leader have now been arrested just hours after president abdullah you mean declared a fifteen day state of emergency last week the court had ordered the release of nine leading opposition figures shelob ellis has the latest. Opposition politicians film outside criminal court waiting to hear the fate of their colleagues are mad and have to listen and they were arrested and charged with bribery upon arriving in the country on sunday a judge dropped the charges and release them they are two of nearly twenty politicians affected by a Supreme Court ruling that has created a political crisis in the island nation. Of ian celebrated on thursday when their top court called for the retrial of nine opposition politicians including exiled former president mohammed machine and the judges reinstated twelve employees who had lost their seats for siding with the opposition but one day of celebration soon turned into four nights of protests when president abdullah you mean refused to comply with the rule. Aliment was scheduled to reconvene after a recess on monday but the president said it would be closed indefinitely and imposed a state of emergency for fifteen days the mall devean parliament is now under military control opposition politicians want to get inside parliament to file impeachment motions against four top officials in the president S Administration for not freeing the colleagues. I dont know what function and the simple function that the more police targeted the administrative head of the Supreme Court on sunday writing his house the court issued a statement ruling police didnt have enough evidence to arrest a judicial executive president in maine has asked the court to reconsider the arist warrant ruling he said hes told reporters prosecuting attorney needs more legal direction before he can release any Political Prisoners the president says his people need to be patient critics heavily say i dont need. To be an event. That has been directly. That even not really any of. The office ition things they can turn a Domestic Support into International Pressure they want foreign intervention but the president and the Supreme Court are unified against this challenge ballasts. Abraham Hussein Shihab is a spokesman for the moment devean president. Karzai we are in a state of emergency but there are no less. Will go on as usual schools will remain open businesses will. Travel within the country actually from the country will be unimpeded and. Life will go on as usual but. Because of the Supreme Court ruling also on february. And then the constitutional implications that that was lifted we are now in the state of. Unrest in terms of how local politics is interacting with the separation of powers. Fred to the United States now of the House Intelligence Committee that the house of representatives has voted to make public a memo that was prepared by the committees democrats as a rebuttal to the controversial republican document that was released on friday and now the republican memo was declassified by President Trump and it contained allegations of f. B. I. Bias and a piece of power in the way that its a veiled a trump the f. B. I. Questioned the accuracy of the republican demo saying it contained emissions of fact the committees top democrat adam schiff says the president will need to approve the rival papers really. I think its going to be very hard for the white house like it was hard for the republicans on the committee to block release of this i am more concerned that they make political redactions not with actions to protect sources and methods and thats why were going to insist that the department of justice and the f. B. I. Report to us on what reactions they think are necessary so that we can segregate any political interference from the white house were going to come here and there including new doubts about the future of south africas president as he calls an emergency meeting to discuss his fate. And well have more on why one of asias chorus countries too much from its neighbors. Hello there heavy rain is now clearing away from north america but weve got another system thats beginning to pull itself together so heres that first system thats moving away from the east coast it is dry and now for many of us here and thats the way it will stay as we head through tuesday night warm though look at that new york maximum temperature just three degrees and force in ottawa minus six the next system is waiting in the wings its this here its all beginning to pull itself together so some snow thats making its way across the plains there joins forces with whats going on over texas by wednesday weve got this streak of rain and snow thats galloping its way east once more and that will give us some more very heavy downpours but fortunately its moving quite fast so it shouldnt cause too many problems with flooding there for the towards the south and generally theres a lot of fine a settled weather to be found here and thats what were going to see over the next few days as well i do think for some of us in nicaragua and costa rica there will be some showers but elsewhere looks more or less dry for the south though and it certainly hasnt been dry for some of us here having said that the show is over bolivia have eased that certainly good news weve had a lot of flooding here the wet weather well whats going to be a bit further towards the east this is where were seeing the heaviest rains on choose day and its likely to see state very wet for wednesday to. The end. The benefit. Of. Documentaries that open your eyes. At this time on aljazeera. A look at the top stories here at aljazeera russia has brought to us here to Council Statement which would have condemned the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Government the Us Ambassador in the nikki haley said there was quite obvious evidence that president assads forces had recently used chlorine in rebel held areas syria is has always denied using chemical weapons. The crisis in the mood. To Supreme Court judges and an Opposition Leader of now been arrested hours after president jimmy declared a fifteen day state of emergency last week the Supreme Court had ordered the release of nine leading opposition figure. Global stock markets have suffered serious losses after the u. S. The dow jones index crashed through the twenty five thousand mark wiping out all the gains it made over the past month a possible Interest Rate rise seen as the main cause for the decline. That has been just a. Twenty years since the Asian Financial crisis and it all started with the collapse of thailands currency the bot and it spread across east asia one of the contributing factors was high public debt in the affected countries and they included laos now there are similar warnings about governments in the region borrowing too much money when hey reports now from the laotian capital then. The coffee industry in laos is one of the Fastest Growing in asia its output is still small compared with regional leaders like vietnam and indonesia but fuelled by increasing demand from neighboring china production grew by more than eight percent last year bro is say laos has a real opportunity to take the industry to the next level through improved infrastructure like better processing facilities he must have financing but despite it being one of the few lao export products is no sign the government is willing to help. For their role. On regard projects on hydropower on mining on tory right no small are not enough supporters. Indeed the government has big plans to shake off the tag of one of asias poorest countries it wants to graduate from the United Nations least developed country status in the next twelve years and its turned to china to help fund big projects like this Economic Zone just outside the capital vienna which is being built in anticipation of the city expanding quickly and a six billion dollar high speed train line that are run from southern china. But the amount of money the lao government is borrowing for the projects is causing concern. Public debt is estimated at around sixty eight percent of g. D. P. And almost half of the money is being borrowed from one source china. Financial sources. To be risky because. This country really be exposed to this business i created. The lao government says big investment is vital if its to improve the livelihood of its people one priority is health care which like many aspects of laos society has fallen into disrepair through poor governance and neglect the main hospital in the capital was built by the french in one thousand nine hundred three and has had few improvements since but as part of the Governments Health care reforms work will soon begin on a new hospital to be built on the same size built with chinese money wayne hay aljazeera. South korea says north korean hackers were behind the theft of more than five hundred Million Dollars worth of digital coins from Japanese Firm coin check south korean spy chief told politicians the virtual coin market remains a target for possible theft coin check one of asias leading Crypto Currency Exchange companies was hacked last month that the European Unions chief brecks it negotiator has warned the u. K. That it needs to clarify the kind of relationship that it wants to have with europe when it leaves the bloc Michel Barnier is making his First Official visit to the United Kingdom since negotiations began missier bonnie has been speaking to the u. K. Brets except country david davis as well as the Prime Minister to resign may he is warned the time has come for the u. K. To make a choice of the nature of its future trade. Choice law now from. Barca were entering the critical next stage of bricks and negotiations focusing on the to be a transition period when britain formally leaves the European Union on the twenty ninth of march two thousand and nineteen it is a two year period of adjustment as proposed by the british Prime Minister reason by in her government to allow Companies Businesses and investors to get used to the new reality of life outside the e. U. But the truth is nobody really knows what that reality looks like there are some key sticking points regarding how this two year period will play out hardline breaks it is within to reason may own party and government are worried that it will simply just mean a continuation of the status quo Michel Barnier the east chief negotiator has hinted that the e. U. Will indeed continue to run the show jury that two year period. Also demanded that any e. U. Nationals arriving in the u. K. During that two year period be given the same rights as e. U. Citizens or that of arrived in the u. K. Before breaks it something to reason may refuse to let happen one of a number of sticking points that need to be hammered out before theres any chance of moving on to the next key stage talks about trade crucial to britains future economy outside the e. U. The only surviving suspect from the twenty fifteen paris attacks has faced a belgian caught a lot of the slum is charged with trying to kill police during a shootout in brussels almost a year ago at a butler reports from brussels. Flanked by massed Police Officers refused to stand up at his trial in brussels and told the judge that he would not answer questions the only surviving suspect in the november twenty fifth dean parris attacks which killed one hundred thirty people to slums in court over a Police Shootout in the belgian capital the following year which eventually led to his arrest up to slum told the judge i do not wish to respond to any questions i defend myself by keeping silent muslims are judged and treated without pity there is no presumption of innocence outside the courtroom his lawyer refused to comment on his clients decision and the will to just going to give them a call up to say that we talked about procedural problems the fact that there are new civil parties and what is really is we are all about this. Four Police Officers were wounded by gunfire in the brussels shootout abt islam and another man so if you and i are also were trial escaped but were later arrested in the city after slums appearance in court was the first in public since his arrest his long hair and beard a contrast to photos of him released by police when he was on the run going into this trial one of the Big Questions had been whether or not sylar to slum would break his silence since his arrest he has been in jail in france where he faces another trial over the paris attacks and each time he has been questioned by french investigators he has refused to talk. The head of the french Victims Association said up to slums refusal to cooperate with the Justice System was a lack of respect for me this will absolve the evil he confirmed his disrespectful attitude towards the judicial authorities disrespectful and provocative he says he cant stand up because he is tired we see his cynicism but then we expected little else. The prosecutor has requested a prison sentence of up to twenty years for attempted murder if i remain silent on the questioning it could speed up proceedings and the trial could close before to show jewel to end on friday Natasha Butler aljazeera brussels belgium. South africas ruling party has called an urgent meeting to discuss president zuma as future as pressure grows on him to step down supporters and opponents of the president within the African National congress faced off during demonstrations outside Party Headquarters in johannesburg president zuma has become increasingly unpopular over a series of corruption scandals for major miller has more from johannesburg. The African National congress is continuing to grapple with what it calls a transitional period after still remark was i was named president of the party while jacob zuma remains president of south africa and thats amid intensifying calls for zuma to step down this of course relates back to allegations of corruption and his relationship with a prominent family in south africa who are accused of influencing president zuma as well as a government policy and appointments now that still remark was a is president of the a. N. C. Would appear that zuma as position has weakened to some extent and they are calls from within the party and also from outside for the president to step down now unconfirmed reports indicate that zuma has said he wont resign that hes done nothing wrong and that he will indeed make the state of the nation address later this week opposition parties have requested the speaker of parliament to perspire own the address and if they dont have an answer any time soon they say they will approach the courts to have this address possible until after a motion of no confidence on them and scheduled for the twenty second of february zuma appears to be facing increased pressure to step down to leave office but he appears to be Standing Firm thats despite what appears to be an increasing rift within the within the ruling party. Two of the three Kenyan Television stations that had been shut down by the government six days ago and now back on air they had been taken off air because they were broadcasting a mock inauguration of the Opposition Leader. Police in nairobi fired tear gas during protests against the government decision to forcibly halt live coverage of the mock swearing in and t. V. And katie and news of both resumed broadcasting but citizen t. V. That still of the air a conservative evangelical singer and leftwing fiction writer are set to face off in costa ricas president ial election runoff in april this year same sex marriage dominated the Campaign Leading up to sundays first round vote Fabricio Alvarado who got the most votes is fiercely opposed to the idea but his rival alvarado conserver says halt giving civil marriage rights to same sex couples the berlin wall the barrier that divided the german city during the cold war has now been down for as long as it was up it was built by communist east germany and completely encircled west berlin from one of the walls historic crossing points who brennen our ports. These days the famous checkpoint charlie is a magnet for tourists the colville of going hot stuff for vividly remembers the cold war yes he was just seventeen when the war was built and he devoted the next twenty eight years of his life to campaigning and demonstrating against it when. I was seventeen years old and i just cried i couldnt believe it when they told us after the war in one thousand nine hundred five that injustice was meant to be over that people would never again be violently imprisoned and be the victim of political powers and then they put a wall into a world city in my hometown. From the thirteenth of august one thousand nine hundred sixty one berlin was a city divided russian and american troops faced each other in a militarized standoff desperate civilians who tried to cross the socalled death strip and risked being shot as traitors by east german border guards. When the war finally fell on nov ninth one thousand nine hundred nine it stood for ten thousand three hundred sixteen days monday marks the point that it has now been down for ten thousand three hundred sixteen days. For twenty eight years two months and twenty seven days the berlin wall stood for division now twenty eight years two months and twenty seven days after it fell the remaining parts of it stand for something altogether more positive. The new exhibition to mark the date is a collection of private photographs previously unseen glimpses of life in the divided city there are snapshots taken in the east where such photographs released this one taken by a teenager plotting his escape route he succeeded a few weeks later the curator of the collection says the wall is as relevant today as it was then but what we can learn from nineteen eighty nine the. Urge for freedom by people in the end so strong that it made them wall fell and this is something you cannot solve problems was was today the roots of the berlin wall is still visible in a line of couples marking its former location in the modern day tarmac and tourists come from all over the world to see the stretch of wall Still Standing as a reminder of those twenty eight years of division it has now been down for as long as it was up but the ultimate futility of the berlin wall will never be forgotten. Brennan aljazeera. Television take a look at the top stories here at aljazeera russia has blocked the u. N. Security Council Statement which can see the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian Government the ambassador of the u. S. To the u. N. Nikki haley says there is quote obvious evidence that president assad forces recently used chlorine in rebel held areas syria has always denied using chemical weapons. Its a true tragedy that russia has sent us back to square one in the effort to end chemical weapons use in syria but we will not cease and our efforts to know the truth of the assad regime and ensure that the truth is known and acted on by the International Community the political crisis in the movies is deepening with two Supreme Court judges and an Opposition Leader having been arrested just hours after president declared a fifteen day state of emergency last week the court had ordered the release of nine leading opposition figures Global Stock Markets have suffered serious losses after the dow jones index in the u. S. Crashed back through the twenty five thousand mark wiping out all the gains it had made over the past month a possible Interest Rate rise is being seen as the being coals for the drop in the u. S. House Intelligence Committee has voted to go public with a memo prepared by the committees democrats its in rebuttal to a controversial republican document which was released on friday the democrats say the memo undermines allegations by President Trump that the f. B. I. Abused its powers in investigating his campaign. Only surviving suspect from the twenty fifteen paris attacks has faced a Belgian Court hes charged with attempted murder for trying to kill a Police Officer during a shootout in brussels nearly two years ago he refused to stand up at his trial and told the judge he wouldnt answer questions. South africas ruling party has called an urgent meeting to discuss the president s future as pressure grows on jacob zuma to step down supporters and opponents of the president within the African National congress faced off during demonstrations outside Party Headquarters in johannesburg all right up to date those are the latest headlines coming up next its witness. We understand the differences. And the similarities of cultures across the world so no matter how you take it aljazeera will bring you the news and Current Affairs that matter to you