s&p 500 off 18. nasdaq dropped 77. up next, the panel on the tillerson firing in the big moves by president trump. first beyond our borders. a congressional investigation into problems with puerto rico s power company. reports of bribery and corruption at the utility which continues to struggle to restore electricity after hurricane maria. one of the allegations that officials took money to restore power to exotic dance clubs ahead of other customers. turkish troops and allied opposition fighters are beginning a siege of the syrian kurdish held town of afran. people are fleeing. turkey launched a military offensive in january. a roadside bomb struck the convoy of the palestinian minister. the incident throws an already troubled reconciliation process between rival factions into deeper turmoil.
response. john. john: rich edson at the state department. thanks. up next, washington archbishop donald worrall on the fifth anniversary of the election of pope francis. first beyond our borders tonight. at least 50 people are dead in a plane crash in the pawl. officials say that when propeller aircraft flying from bangladesh swerved erratically and flew low before slamming into the ground. authorities say 16 survivors were taken to the hospital. syrian tv says a small group of civilians has left ghouta through a corridor. the area has been under bombardment by syrian troops trying to defeat opposition fighters. the military claims it has effectively divided ghouta into three parts. chinese president xi jinping has more job security tonight than any other recent leader in beijing. any sense mao. lawmakers have changed the constitution eliminating
beginning of the year when they shut down their operations room. and therefore they don t have much influence over those groups either. so the russians may simply be doing this as a tactic to buy time whereby some sort of evacuation agreement will be worked out whereby the rebel fielgters, the opposition fighters amend their families will be evacuated probably to the northwest province where we re seeing a really concentration of opposition members and their families but at this point it s not at all clear where the vote will go. we know that the french president and angela merkel has communicated, written a letter
what s called so in that order is you have the one side you have so in the forces fighting there is you. this is experience. with you re on so they are facing a double from the from the seat in the team and the it off and the iranian backed militia forces is trying to achieve population transfers i think not dissimilar to what you have seen in europe some time ago and cleansing the sun a population that is opposed to assad better but is that actually in damascus you use them with all that it is other than administratively it is the mosque it s a kind of a suburb of damascus eastern ghouta you know the area well you ve served as a correspondent yourself in damascus and the syrian regime says there are thousands of opposition fighters in eastern go to some of them affiliated to al qaida and to
forces fighting. this is experion i don t we. with you at all and so they are facing a double from the from the seat in the genome and the the iranian backed militia forces is trying to achieve population transfers i think not dissimilar to what you have seen in europe some time ago and cleansing the sunni population that is opposed to assad and that i ve been is that actually in damascus you call it use them with of what it is other than administrative leave it is the mosque is kind of a suburb of damascus eastern ghouta you know the area well you ve served as a correspondent yourself in damascus now the syrian regime says there are thousands of opposition fighters in eastern go to some of them affiliated to al qaida and to islamic state what can you tell us about that well there has been. i don t think that as many islamic state if there are those that are but is themselves