You know im Maryam Namazie in london youre watching aljazeera also coming up tense times in zimbabwe zanu p. F. Accuses the army chief of treason after he threatens to intervene over the president s party pudge. Frankly i had no recollection of this meeting. The u. S. Attorney general changes his story but insists he did not lie to congress about contacts between the russians and trumps campaign. And this information and manipulation of social media caused Global Internet freedom to decline for its seventh year in a row. Our top story thousands of iranians are enduring a second night sleeping outside in freezing temperatures after their homes were destroyed in sundays powerful earthquake on the iran iraq border an earlier report that five hundred thirty people have been killed is now been revised down to more than four hundred thirty almost all of them in iran but many victims have been buried without the knowledge of the authorities so the real figure could be much higher the number of people injured in the seven point three magnitude quake now stands at almost eight thousand the quake destroyed more than Twelve Thousand homes leaving some seventy thousand people homeless was hit was the iranian town of sound where former president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad ordered the construction of many low Income Housing projects theyve barco reports. Terms line the main road into the city of kermanshah hardest hit in sundays earthquake more than one hundred aftershocks followed by the survivors now feel safer living in the open with belongings salvaged from their ruined homes. All of a sudden we started to feel shaking we tried to take shelter next to the wall but then left our building immediately one of our neighbors died and my brother was injured. When we felt the quake my wife and i took cover we managed to rescue our son but my wife fractured her back the seven point three magnitude quake lasted only four minutes but struck with immense force when it was over hundreds were dead thousands injured and vast sections of this city destroyed. Further afield more than two thousand villages and seven more cities were also hit Twelve Thousand homes flattened. Weve lost everything in the earthquake we hope the authorities will live up to their responsibilities and help us. The iranian president Hassan Rouhani arrived in the region promising to support those affected by the earthquake. Rescue operations are over the dead are being buried and now the daunting task of rebuilding homes and lives begins the. Zimbabwes ruling party says it will never succumb to pressure from the army and as one the military chief against meddling in politics on monday general Constantino Chiwenga said the army was prepared to intervene if the purges continue within the zanu p. F. Party since then four tanks have been seen on a road outside the zimbabwean capital harare a witness told the voices news agency that two more tanks were parked beside the main road from harare to chinoy the zanu p. F. Described monday statement by the army general as treasonable conduct. Well last week gabi sacked his Vice President a man who has close ties to the military many believe mugabes wife grace is being primed for the top job and hoekstra boards. Some regard it as a standoff between the old guard and the new on the one side a youth faction law to grace mugabe the wife of the long time president on the other some of those who fought for the countrys independence miniature leaders including general constantine chinwag a scene has been loyal to the ousted Vice President and defense minister. You cannot benefit from these one. With the former minister of defense enough to defend. The current page which is general chiwenga spoke to reporters twenty four hours warning the military will intervene if the targeting of former war fighters continues. On account of what is. In the party must be exposed and fished out. Zimbabwes military leadership is powerful but usually stay silent not this time. The general spoke out a week after his ally. Was sacked as Vice President and expelled from the ruling zanu p. F. Party its understood his ousting followed a route with the president s wife grace mugabe. When a gag was removal its been seen as boosting the first ladys leadership. The faction dispute and the ruling party is nothing new with the ailing president forced to publicly intervene last year when the g forty or generation forty section clashed with the war veterans within the zanu p. F. This fractured fractured. Shattered you. Know mugabe is the worlds oldest leader at ninety three years old having been in power for nearly forty years since securing zimbabwes independence throughout his time in office his counted on low support from the military the army has always maintained it would only support candidates to succeed him who food in the independence war. Crisis fifty two year old wife its not new veteran the latest is pushing roma grabbing a difficult position ahead of the zanu p. F. Conference next month. Now lebanons absent Prime Minister has tweeted that hell return home from saudi arabia in the coming days saad hariri also called for calm and said his family would remain there earlier harry we met the head of lebanons Maronite Church in riyadh patriarch of bashar right is the first lebanese official to visit the kingdom since hariri unexpectedly announced his resignation more than a week ago after the meeting he said he supported harry reids regions for resigning eleven his foreign minister said saad hariri is freedom will only be proven once he returns to beirut and if saudi arabia has an issue with iran it shouldnt punish lebanon if the. Problems they can be resolved if they have problems with iran let them have these problems solved with iran iran is not lebanon lebanon is not syria lebanon is not iran we have an independent Foreign Policy where the end terrorist of lebanon comes first. A suicide bomber detonated a car bomb outside a camp used by Security Forces in southern yemen at least six people were killed several others injured in the attack which happened in the port city of aden i sill has claimed responsibility for the attack meanwhile yemeni Officials Say the Saudi Led Coalition has bombed the airport in the capital sanaa which is controlled by the hoofy rebels say the runway and ground navigation tower damaged but the u. N. Says most of the airport is intact and can receive aid shipments when saudi arabia loosens the blockade imposed on the country eight days ago well the conflict in yemen has cost thousands of people to flee the country seeking safety in djibouti but poor conditions at some refugee camps means basic needs are not being met for most people going to do is one camp in the port town of. Motive because it comes in the town of. His home to one thousand two hundred yemeni refugees just last year six thousand refugees lived here most of them have moved out of the come due to what they call harsh conditions here and have rented accommodation in the tunnels or in the capital djibouti now its only the poorest of the poor those who cannot afford to live outside the company have been left to complaining of issues such as shortage of food they say they do not receive enough food russians but us still thankful for the security they have here in the past few days the dilution motional Refugee Agency also reduced that a dozens of refugees who have come from different parts of yemen particularly in the south now we spoke to a family all five of the tunnels which is under the control of both the fighters and they say they were forced to flee due to a most of insecurity and also a shortage of fuel food and medical supplies. U. S. Attorney general has been defending himself against allegations he misled congress of the contacts between the russians and members of Donald TrumpsCampaign TeamJeff Sessions was testifying before a House Judiciary Committee hearing he said he now recalls a meeting in march two thousand and sixteen with a former Campaign Adviser in which they discussed a possible meeting with the russian president Vladimir Putin. Has been listening in to that Committee Hearing and joins us now from washington d. C. So sessions appears to have changed the story. Right but he maintains hes never allowed in previous congressional testimony his argument is look the Truck Campaign was a brilliant Chaotic Campaign in his words he had very long days he met very many people had very many conversations and he forgot about that particular conversation with george. Who has now testified to the special counsel that after meeting with. He proposed arranging some kind of meeting with putin and trump. Says having seen the reports about that his memory has been dropped i would like to address recent news reports regarding meetings during the campaign attended by George Papadopoulos and carter page among others frankly i had no recollection of this meeting until i saw these news reports i do now recall that the march twenty sixth meeting at the drop out tell mr papadopoulos attended but i have no clear recollection the details of what he said at that meeting after reading his account into the best of my recollection i believe that i wanted to make clear to him that he would not. Represent the campaign with the russian government or any other Foreign Government for that matter so whats been the response to reports of a possible clinton investigation by the committee. Reports emerged overnight that the department of justice is considering appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton and it has to be said to have long been allegations associated with Hillary Clinton for example her relationship with the Clinton Foundation and what effect that might have had on her decisions as secretary of state nothings ever been proven but theyre always there questions about this sort of thing as you can imagine republicans on that House Committee were rather cheered by this in fact many would say was about time when this is actually going to happen democrats and many others are actually less enthusiastic about the prospect of Donald Trumps department of justice appointing a special prosecutor to investigate it its best to get his defeated electoral opponents and it led to one question from a democrat that went like this is it proper for a leader in a functional democracy to retaliate with the criminal Justice System the political opponents the implication being that all trump is leaning on the d. O. J. To try and prosecute Hillary Clinton. Rejected any notion like that he said it would be improper for the president to lean on the independence of the d. O. J. And said any any decision on appointing a special prosecutor to investigate Hillary Clinton would be made on the merits of appointing a special prosecutor all right thank you very much in washington d. C. You know watching a much more still to come for you. War crimes being carried out by forces loyal to the renegade general. Im down there in bolivia despite strong efforts to wipe it out child labor is a reality is illegal. How i was there were plenty of storms banging away across central parts of the mediterranean this area a cloud has been swirling here for the last few days at a fair amount of snow over the alps has sunk a little bit further southward since some big and heavy downpours then to come. As we go on through the next couple of days in venice eighty seven millimeters of rain in twenty four hours but the west of weather is sinking of the southwest and you make your way down into work or food where we had ninety millimeters of rain in between that the rain has been even heaviest still with some snow theyll be some snow there over the couch as we go on through wednesday carissa could see a little bit of wintry weather quite stiff winds still very much in place you see the heavy right still there and some of that wet weather even a latching on to the fallen off the coast of africa for the north it is generally clear and drive a single figures getting up to around thirty degrees celsius in london and paris as we go on through the next table for central areas the cool weather clear weather will continue down towards the south im afraid we are going to see further heavy showers and longer spells of rain as some of that weather will affect the north coast of africa so pushing down into some heavy rain along with libya. Sun blessed beaches breathtaking scenery but theres another reason that draws people to cyprus its not always easy for mixed faith couples to marry in the middle east and thats why the mediterranean island has become an ideal destination for couples and love to have a civil marriage aljazeera world looks at what happens when the romance cuts across religious lines Cyprus Island of forbidding love at this time on aljazeera. Come back youre watching out as they are lets update you on the stories making headlines thousands of iranians face another night of freezing temperatures off to sundays powerful of quake on the iran iraq border more than four hundred thirty people are now known to have been killed almost all of them in iran. Political tensions are rising in zimbabwe tanks have been spotted outside harare as p. F. Is accuse the army chief of treason threaten to intervene over the president s party pudge and lebanons absent Prime Minister says hell return home from saudi arabia in the coming days that follows a meeting between saad hariri and the head of lebanons Maronite Church in riyadh. And other stories were following the syrian observatory for human rights says its unclear whether the strikes on a rebel held town in the north of the country were carried out by russian or syrian warplanes more than sixty people were killed in the attack at a market in the countryside aleppo but people on the ground say there were no fighters a weapons in the neighborhood osama bin job aid has more from gaza on the turkey syria border. In the hands of dust and debris rescuers trying to make sense of what happened. Here strikes leveled almost an entire block of homes. A young boy is safe from the remains of his apartment. But not that i know how good this rescuer says there were three airstrikes by russian warplanes on the crowded market of a tarp city white helmet rescuer strike to help. The majority of the casualties were children as is the case in many attacks. The warplanes hit all or homes our children died our houses destroyed we lost everything so many are dead and injured there so much damage in the area come and see ive lost many relatives. I dont know the source of the rescue workers and activists say dozens were killed and more than one hundred injured they continued late into the night to try and hear voices and dig out people who were buried alive the countryside of aleppo province is not part of the deescalation zones agreed by turkey and russia the airstrikes happened almost simultaneously as president of the gun and putin met and as the daughter borders of their satisfaction with the way things are going in syria were in the foolishness of the level of violence has definitely been reduced favorable conditions are being created to push forward the syrian talks under the un. But the dialogue may seem strange to syrians continuing to pull bodies from the rubble after it strikes. People from a tyrant say there were no fighters no weapons or even check post in the market that was destroyed by war planes all this as human rights advocates are reminding all warring sides the targeting civilians amounts to crimes against humanity is on the job aljazeera. The Russian Defense ministry has been accused of lying after releasing what it called evidence that the u. S. Is working alongside i sell it turns out the footage which showed u. S. Forces covering for an eyesore convoy was in fact screenshots taken from a mobile phone bank or a challenge is in moscow with more. When russias ministry of defense accused the United States on tuesday of effectively collaborating with i still in syria it wasnt the first time that it had made such accusations but this time it said it had irrefutable proof photos which were put out on the ministry of defense as facebook and twitter accounts grainy drone images apparently of a convoy being left alone by u. S. Forces but it didnt take too long for eagle eyed observers on social media organizations like the citizen journalists belling katz and Conflicts Intelligence Team to see that they had noticed these images before and actually they werent what they were training they had come from what he was one of them from a mobile phone computer game called the a c one thirty gunship simulator others from this collection of images had come from a two thousand and sixteen video put out by iraq e forces showing them attacking a convoy leaving for lucia it didnt take long after that for the ministry of defense to delete them although they stood by their original accusations they have since subsequently admitted that this was a mistake and theyre blaming it on a civilian employee at the ministry of defense and say theyre launching an investigation. The u. S. Based Advocacy GroupFreedom House says this information campaigns and manipulation of social media resulted i