Official referendum results come in the Kurdish People and their government a feeling the heat. Off International Flights to the semi autonomous region and im demanding the airport be handed down. Also on the grid the long journey for women to get behind the wheel in saudi arabia. Finally ending a ban thats been a symbol of female oppression and the ultra conservative kingdom but what does it mean in a country where god. Gave man power over women in so many other ways well be looking at that and also in the rainforests of south america as the hunt goes on for the killers of up to twenty people in brazil they were members of an amazonian tribe one which had no contact with the outside world. Twitter is planning to double its character limit from one hundred forty two hundred eighty some say it will give more meaning. More to the. By the way everything i just. Streaming online through you tube Facebook Live and. Percent ninety percent of iraqi kurds who took part in that controversial referendum have voted in favor of breaking away and forming their own country just seven percent said the head of the Electoral Commission announced about forty minutes ago and look at the celebrations these pictures coming in from. Though we must point out that the celebrations may be short lived. As the rest of iraq and its neighbors around on the Kurdish Regional government with talk creasing talk of threats and consequences. Results the latest threat is a possible ban on International Flights landing at ports. And those who voted no are two hundred twenty four thousand. Seven point seven percent thank you and the result will be approved by the federal court. So youre looking at these live pictures coming in to us lots and lots of celebrations this announcement made in. The regional capital and weve got. It for us to talk through this one. As we say absolutely resoundingly and under usual circumstances the kind of result that you couldnt ignore but. You will see. The result does not come as a surprise to many. Today for this moment. When were. Going to have. A was. And i was thinking. Maybe. I was. President. More about what might happen here because. I dont think what i can hear is that in my mind i think weve all stuck communication to her unfortunately we will leave her there will go back to the live pictures that weve been looking from and thats what im saying that people have come out by have celebrated they are celebrating this and why wouldnt they with ninety two percent as weve said about voting going in favor of seceding from iraq but as we were just about to discuss with. There is sorry much more to come here the Iraqi Government opposes this all the regional governments oppose this as well and so you have to one. About what sort of pressure will go on now that the vote has actually come through in the meantime though it is time for celebration and its nice to see these because isnt it coming out of iraq signs of celebration like that so many as we say in northern iraq. Now how we got back to home i dont think we have unfortunately weve not go back to what ive done on the new try and reconnect again a little bit later heres a thought can iraqs kurdish region be an independent state simple question with an i suspect complicated answer the inside story team had a look at this in tuesdays edition elizabeth purana was hosting that one you will find inside story in the show ring section at aljazeera dot com and ive just been told. I was going to ask you was about i guess the future here as we say this in certain senses tell me more about what sort of pressure the iraqi Central Government and indeed other regional governments are going to be putting on the kurds now. And they were very happy with the results and then i said whats going to happen next. They said were going to have a lot of problems and i said why. Because of all the threats coming from the Central Government in baghdad and also from regional countries they said that they were following. That. Regard. To international airports. Authority has informed International Carriers that fly. Starting friday fifteen g. M. T. All International Flights. Several carriers have a ready. Their flights come friday we also know the parliament. Has. Take over. Back depending on which way you look at it. So called this. Are now under control of the Kurdish Forces and the referendum happened there and once we get the breakdown of who voted where it would be very interesting to see what was the churn out there and what was the percentage of you know there because that would make president. Kurdish president much stronger you know disputed. Something that according to the constitution had to be by the end of two thousand and seven so were ten years later so and then theres the issue of threats about. Taking International Borders of the kurdish region. Back of the federal government technically they are. Even if the forces there are kids. The. Passport control and customs officers and all of that they do come under the umbrella of the ministry of interior so its its not very clear what the Prime Minister i. Mean but certainly. Theyre in mind that a few days ago it was announced by iran that. It closed space. To and from the kurdish region thank you hala good to talk to you. There in erbil. Details on screen you can get in touch with us with the hashtag a j news good have heard from ahmed already on facebook i wanted our regular viewers hi mamadu whos summed it up pretty nicely actually said could the united demand for freedom as per the referendum is normal but to avoid battlefield and bloodshed it is essential i think we can probably all agree with that that was on facebook newsgroup the whatsapp line is open as well as plus one seven four five i one triple one four nine comments questions contributions send them all in to us lets move on now its high court has sentenced for Prime MinisterYingluck Shinawatra to five years in. Problem is at least from the court of the prosecutors point of view is that shes not even in the country and her lawyers say they have no idea where she is on and military government has been chasing him in the courts since the government was ousted in a coup back in twenty fourteen when hey with our report now from bangkok. Under thailands military government gatherings like this are banned but there was no stopping some supporters of young election of what who gathered outside the Supreme Court in bangkok. I came here to give support knowing that i may not show up because im a supporter of the shadow us because of them at one stage as able to forge a better life the judges took four hours to read the decision before the former Prime Ministers legal team emerged to confirm a guilty verdict and a five year jail term. I dont know how to feel we have. A quarter stand its judy to deliver the verdicts at legal time with allies have verdicts again how we have fought this case and see if we can appeal in. The case centered on the rice pledging scheme it was a populist policy that helped party win the two thousand and eleven election and sort removed in a military coup three years later after widespread protests the scheme so far has paid above market prices for the harvest the court ruled that you knew there was corruption going on but didnt act to stop it she failed to show for the initial Court Session to hear the verdict last month after leaving the country two days earlier its believed shes either in london or dubai where her brother also a former Prime MinisterThaksin Shinawatra lives he too was removed in a coup in two thousand and six and sentenced to two years jail for abusing his power he was also out of the country at the time and hasnt the prison term. Theres no doubt the shinawatra and their party still enjoy a lot of support around thailand but theres unlikely to be any significant mobilization of those supporters following this verdict since the military coup in two thousand and fourteen that saw the young like government removed from office the military has clamped down on dissent and opposition voices. The shinawatra believe they are victims of a campaign by the establishment and military to remove them from politics for good. They support his may have been largely silenced but they refused to give up. I dont know whats the political future is but the people always support the shit of what the party will always vote for the poor thai party with a without a shadow whats the verdict means that depending on the political situation you know what is unlikely to be back in thailand for a long time if at all wayne hay al jazeera bangkok now were going to talk about the. Story we cover a lot here the exodus continuing in some pretty staggering numbers which is what we want to focus on im going to level with you i was going to do a video on this but weve had a little technical problem so im going to go pretty old school here and im going to rush out the number for you so what we have at the moment is the United Nations estimates and we have a look at my screen here that there are close to half a million ranger who have fled in the past month escaping what they call a brutal me and me offensive now. Let me see if i can maybe go a race that now the estimates of written back in two thousand and sixteen is that they were between one point one million and one point three million living in Rakhine State ok so thats the total number and they have suffered generations of discrimination in last october if you stay with me again we have eighty seven thousands who fled to bangladesh and that was in october so really were talking about some very very big numbers you know i know im making an absolute mess of this but what were basically saying is that in the past months. If we add those past month numbers to what happened last year million miles total numbers of i have hearts in just a year the video weve explained it a lot better i know but basically were talking about a lot of people here in the biggest estimate right now is that were talking about about half a Million People whove had to flee anyway they head of the u. N. Refugee agency of labor grandy he spoke today having just returned from bangladesh where he saw from self how bad things are the combination of. Limited Health Facilities who are sanitary and hygiene the conditions and the overcrowded sites you can well imagine he is a recipe for disaster in terms of possible epidemics unicef and probably a char working with the government to the ministry of health in stepping up. Immunization campaigns but the risks remain very high the other. The other striking feature of this particular refugee flow is. The trauma that these people carry with them ive spoken to several women who had been raped or that had been wounded because they had resisted rape and most likely those are those who are survivors because other had been killed or many of those survivors are accusing me of raping women and girls the government is denying it but its also refusing to allow International Observers in to investigate john howell has more from the pile on in bangladesh. Two sisters twenty five year old me and twenty two year old aziza share their story of escape from me and my both say they were raped by soldiers. The military tortured us they murdered our parents even our sisters they took us to the jungle they pushed us down on the ground there were two of them they raped me and then i became unconscious. Some people came and rescued us and took us to a group of people who were going to cross the river to bangladesh but they wouldnt take us in the boat as we had no money we told them either you kill us or take us with you. Its estimated that more than a third of nearly half a million refugees who arrived in bangladesh in the past month of women and young girls ive met survivors myself whove told me their harrowing stories about how one sister was gang raped and killed in front of her how one was raped and then a baby was killed in front of her they have experienced its extreme amount of pain trauma being fled some have walked for days not even if you say trauma its an understatement they are severely traumatized. It is of course impossible to verify the stories weve been told but those n. G. O. S are hearing this sort of testimony every day now as this vast population of refugees slowly gains access to health and Counseling Services but despite the best efforts of aid agencies the task of reaching all those in need is nowhere near complete the sisters have had no direct help. We are young girls where can we go we dont have anything left they killed everyone only my sister and i are alive. Whether or not Sexual Violence is being used as a weapon against a fleeing really injure you something that may be proven in time when dissident and sang suchi was fighting for democracy in myanmar shes on record as saying that rape was used systematically by the army against minorities now as the countrys leader shes had nothing to say about the latest allegations nor has her government granted access to International Agencies to investigate jonah how aljazeera bangladesh ok right well john as report was on ive had another run at these numbers to make more sense so in the past month five hundred thousand have fled in october of twenty sixteen when there was another operation going on eighty seven thousand feet but thats from a total population of one point one to one point three million so we are talking over half of that population leaving the country leaving Rakhine State since october twenty sixth they are just extraordinary numbers right hopefully that makes a little bit more sense you ok now life on tuesday came the surprise announcement that women in saudi arabia would finally be allowed to drive yes it probably sounds unbelievable to you that they werent allowed in the first place but saudi arabia has remained the only country on earth which forbids women from getting behind the wheel today still lots of chatter about it leo want you to take us through some of it because this is a lot of them if youre a drug it has been huge and its continuing to grow theres a lot of excitement but theres also a lot of people that say its about time analysts use of air he tweeted saying breaking in saudi arabia to join the Twentieth Century in june of next year others though believe its far too soon for jokes like refuse she says as long as the rights of millions of muslim women remain subject to the whims of male monarchs driving around is at best fake freedom we spoke to a man who works in saudi arabia and he agrees another big tract. About women driving entirely based just that they acted you dont mean towards women i think kind of rude and obnoxious too with women so that is to change a big mindset is to change a cultural shift in saudi. This means more independence for women which is really really a good thing so i think will benefit the whole society so lets hope it will be works out for the better many activists of course supported the decision and welcomed the new order while others opposed it they were using the hash tag in arabic translated into english it says people reject women driving but perhaps most importantly of all women inside saudi saudi arabia seem quite excited about this move especially online theyre sharing videos of their current mood they say mainly of women stunt drivers and female music video personalities and this has been a long time in the making it wasnt always like that our colleagues at a. J. Plus looked into. Yeah you know. Go in at them look at a lot of them. And. In this one of them are. This unity and world of communal logic where you know mother used to live on the holding of. One point yeah im a bias. Let alone one of the sort with no other than my own to suffer the most of the you know what our policy has. Im all for the fun of my meal and i love the suffering a Little Something out of the midst of the hand i must get up. And now. They just. Go away and i tell you who are not over. There you have it all you want to know what you think of all this you can write me directly or as always you can use the hash tag. Yes thankfully and do sentencing questions if you want just in a moment were going to be speaking to Human Rights Watch about this if youve got any questions quickly send them in right now on Facebook Twitter or whatsapp so yes the rule is being changed we know that but it is just one small step saudi arabia in the words of such human rights organizations remains one of the most repressive societies in the world Human Rights Watch explains that women must get permission from a male guardian before they can travel abroad get married or even Access Government ServicesLike Health Care and punishments for breaking the law via the palestinian power who was sentenced to eight hundred lashes and eight Years Imprisonment for allegedly blasphemous writings he was initially going to be executed amnesty also says that just in january of this year there were forty seven executions most of them beheadings and those put to death including juvenile offenders so that just gives you a bit more about what else is going on in saudi arabia here is a big im now womens rights researcher on middle east and north africa for Human Rights Watch joining us from london thank you for your time today. And how much of a step forward is this because this is i think what leader was making the point before the step forward be its about time and the really something more needs to be done here where do you think i