Im also ahead. People killed in just twenty four hours as russian and Syrian Government jets head to rebel held areas. Speculation builds about the future of south africas president jacob zuma often on the president to delay to his state of the nation address plus. Three. Left off from florida for the worlds most powerful rock and what could be a turning point in space exploration. A magnitude six point four earthquake has hit eastern time on killing at least four people and injuring more than two hundred others it happened in the port city of while then very far far to say at least five people remain trapped inside a hotel on the brink of collapse one hundred and forty five people remain unaccounted for. Has the latest. Working against the clock to search for survivors. Rescuers are using cranes to get to those trapped in whats left of while ins Marshall Hotel when the earthquake struck just before midnight local time the ground floor katie dean leaving the entire building slanting on its site. One of them says. There are two people left inside one is my older brother and another is a colleague who is in the rescue is a tried to dig further down to look for my brother thats the situation for now. Taiwans president trying one arriving fly in on wednesday morning to say when they hit that kind of assume that theyre building steel frames the prop up the collapsed building this will ensure rescuers received when they get in we are racing against time and now is the crucial time. I once fire Agency Reports that five more buildings including a hospital were also damaged as were several roads leading to the city this earthquake followed another one over the weekend off the coast of quali and this earthquake today in the sequence for the last few days has been right in one of the hot spots on the northeast coast of taiwan so its not a surprise oh its in an area where half the sharks are inevitable you know the question is how many big aftershocks will there be in our usual odds are one in ten or one in twenty chance of a bigger earthquake so they need to be prepared at least for a few days for more action the city lies along the pacific rim of fire known for regular seismic activity from alaska to Southeast Asia to on the silver how does iraq. Look a only evan thomas a Senior Editor at taiwan news and he says local authorities may have been caught unprepared for some of recent quakes in the area. I think that as far as might have been down i was many believe that the biggest plague was on sunday which is a five point eight and so there was even then some of the officials were saying that that was the major shock theres going to be some minor aftershocks that will gradually get way and so this was a surprise that right away that was a message even bigger quake much more damaging than the previous one was we are exactly as. Well at this point is that it happened thirty eight hundred thirty aftershocks from this place before that we had also had. One hundred something. Small ways then sunday. And sandy was as was five was that it was diminishing but we were surprised that it actually three but thats our depth of that is was really made it possible we could all feel as. I say browse the aisles of the law and i think thats also what fog a lot of the damage. Has or is was much greater than what you normally expect from us that on our way. Lets move on to other news now at least ninety one people have been killed in just one day in rebel held areas of syrias eastern and edna province it has the highest number of casualties and months. And russian jets are targeting the areas with air strikes despite mounting western and u. N. Pressure for a truce the regions being hit with four socalled deescalation songs agreed by iran russia and turkey shaded here. While the u. The u. N. Says the increasing violence is making a mockery of the zones but its not reports. This is supposed to be a deescalation part of the russian the true story of the territory held by antigovernment forces and syria. But if anything the bombing is escalating here in eastern. The uns head of the International Commission of inquiry on syria says the government siege of the area involves the International Crimes of indiscriminate bombing and deliberate starvation of the civilian population. There are reports that at least three hospitals have been hit with the help of the Russian Air Force on the iranian backed groups syrias president is pursuing the last major pockets of territory held by his opponents in western syria. The offensive intensified after fighters from one rebel group shot down a russian aircraft on saturday. Now the syrian army says its deployed add offenses and anti aircraft missiles to its front lines in aleppo and to cover northern airspace i had there from the us four hundred a russian and they are controlled by the russian intelligence not the Syrian Regime so this is russia we need to understand there is an direct confrontation between the u. S. And russia its dangerous because at the same time turkey is trying to force its presence in the area northwestern syria is where turkey is carrying out an operation to push Kurdish Forces out of afrin its using syrian airspace and has got russias agreement to do so but at the same time the Syrian Government has threatened to shoot down turkish jets turkey also wants to wipe e. G. Out of another northern syrian town bam bitch but there are u. S. Forces there too much to be irritation of the turkish president we can you. Know that you can why are you there go ahead and leave who did you bring the y. P. G p k k you took them there and youre still telling us not to come tomorrow we will come to you could deliver the land to its true owners. As ever across syria its civilians who are caught in the middle the u. N. Wants fighting across the country to be suspended for a month to allow the sick and wounded to get out and aid to get in. We are going to go back to our lead story now a magnitude six point four earthquake has hit taiwan our correspondent rob mcbride is joining us live from the port city of where the earthquake struck whats the latest from on the face hell it is on the engine raise the missing. Thats right a little bit slower is a major rescue operation now underway here on the east coast to pile wind in the city of our quality and i dont phrase that has to be deadly that is not being held by torrential rains that are suddenly started the last hour or so with the main focus of the of this operation is now in a number of buildings behind me which have either collapsed or at least toppled over one of the buildings i dont know if you can see this is like being held up by the poles it wasnt for those metal poles it would be about on this side and the concern is for all the people who are still missing after this earthquake it has nothing confirmed that five people have died but polls of other people on this ng around fifty are those all thought to be one of the building behind me and the search is on now to try to find them and its now getting on for well over twelve hours since this earthquake happened and obviously as time goes by the risks concern about the conditions that the people are in this is a resort town and a couple of the buildings that were affected here elizabeth were radzivill hotel and there have been various stories of a number of the guests being in the upper floors of those hotels actually using their hang phones the smoke i talked to flashlight on my hand phones to signal that they were there and to be calm and i rescued but the concern now is for the last fifty or so other people who are thought to be trapped unaccounted for in these buildings hundreds of other people as we said all right shelters around here there have been a number of oster shocks and people a lot of people simply dont trust being back in their buildings a number of other buildings have been damaged and so as they have to be surveyed they have to be reviewed to see if they are safe to to go back in but people here have been saying that ahead of this earthquake they felt a number of. Because in the hours leading up to this earthquake and the concern is of course that were going to have more aftershocks after this one yeah absolutely extraordinary sight behind you from that building that as tilting at the angle that its at we know that when then. Its a not uncommon but what about the magnitude of this one six point four. People here do tell you that they havent had an earthquake like this in living memory it happened out at sea some twenty miles we understand out at sea as you mentioned taiwan is is is used to earthquakes this is an area of high seismic activity the point at which a couple of geological faults and the so people are used to these earthquakes and it has to be said that on the upside if you like all of the Emergency Services they are very much geared to dealing with these quakes what often happens is that teams from around the surrounding area will be rushed here they are very experienced in going into rubble looking for survivors and i think its also worth mentioning. This sadly sadly reminiscent of another earthquake that happened almost exactly two years ago in the run up to Lunar New Year which is a very important most important holiday for chinese communities around the world here in taiwan to there was another earthquake on the other side of the island again which resulted in buildings similar to this question at least schools of critical lost their lives the hope is here that with the amount of rescuers theyre going to rescue teams that are in place they will find in the coming hours scores of people that can be rescued from these buildings all right rob thank you very much for that for now that is our correspondent from the bride with the very latest from quantum thank you. All right to south africa now with the ruling a. N. C. Party has postponed a meeting which had been expected to decide on the potential removal of president jacob zuma from office the meeting is being delayed to the seventeenth of february as the end of creasing pressure to resign over corruption allegations and several scandals the postponement of the meeting came after zuma state of the nation address was also delayed lets go live to our correspondent farm in a minute now shes joining us from johannesburg this is of course the latest farm in the latest step in a very familiar story but is the government in crisis. Well elizabeth its not so much about a government crisis as it is about a party grappling with what to do with a president of a country that is not a popular one that has come under a lot of criticism and as you say it is under fire and theres increasing calls for him to step down now that top that meeting of the stop Decision Making body of the a. N. C. Has been postponed which is very confusing for South Africans given that that meeting was supposed to decide jacob zuma future but while that has happened they are reports that the president of the party so remote course of his Deputy President of south africa has been in talks with jacob zuma and it appears that they could have reached some sort of decision or some sort of solution about the way forward but the sentiment really is that jacob zuma is indeed on his way out its just about where so this really is about how the African National congress is dealing with the quite says its facing given that there is a split there are factions within the party some supporting jacob zuma but very many also wanting the president to leave office so that they can bring some stability to the party and also look for a way forward ahead of elections in twenty one thousand given that the a. N. C. Has lost a significant amount of support in the last couple of years around the controversies of jacob zuma and what is the feeling on the ground from either about the crisis that the a. N. C. Is feeling and how they are dealing with it the confusion over if and when zuma goes. Out of mclean this is that this is all about confusion South Africans really dont know whats going on a given that there were these plans for meetings there was an indication that the a. N. C. Would be making decisive steps around jacob zuma future and then the meetings are called off but if you look at some of the major papers in south. Outer mentally the idea is that jacob zuma is on his way out and he the stars going with zuma as endgame saying that the meeting will still run of course of quoting the a. N. C. That they were fruitful and constructive discussions and the deal could have been reached but also progress in seumas talks a says the a. N. C. Still so the africans are looking for clarity theyre looking for the a. N. C. To make a clear statement they want to know if theyre going to have the same president in a weeks time over the weekend when the perspire own state of the nation address will happen that would of course was scheduled for this week thursday a given the Political ClimateParliament Presiding Officers had said it would be best to perspire own the state of the nation address that jacob zuma was meant to give and this is of course after. Hes so there has been some progress of course still a lot of speculation a lot of rumors a little uncertainty about what exactly might happen but of course some indication that the agency is closer to some sort of resolution than ever before or at famu the thank you very much for that its fun at the minute with all the very latest joining us from johannesburg thank you. And ahead on the bulletin dozens of schools shut down as tensions between india and pakistan continue to rise to the disputed kashmir region and why that impressions main rival of this years russia election introducing herself to the u. S. From brisk. To the trunk of southeast diction. How i will find less cold actually we say coming in across western parts of europe over the next couple days behind this next bad of cloud of the rain which will polish way in across all of this we go through the next twenty four hours or so the moment plenty of rain across the western side of the mediterranean with this deep area of low pressure so violent storms rumbling away here and west the weather will gradually push its way across italy and eventually feet across into the bowl consider thirty celsius in rome thirty eight celsius two for ankara athens gets up to around sixty the southerly push here further north first still pretty cold in moscow to around minus celsius and currently still pretty cold in paris where temperatures are struggling to get to freezing five celsius with clear skies for london a little bit of cloud there drifting in off the north sea so you go on through the next couple days to see that western weather just sliding its way across the far northwest of the British Isles of feeding down temps getting up to eight celsius in london that stage is the model which is in still a chance of wanted to twenty four hours across northern parts of spain and wintry weather still in place there over towards ukraine and feeding of over across both garia had some wintry weather recently into the northwest of africa should be quite that bad over the next couple of days but still rather chilly and wet in rebounds. There with sponsored by. The scene for us there on line which is a very new sign in yemen the. Number not because the situation is. Or if you join us on sat. This is a dialogue i want to get in one more comment because this is someone. Close to the story join the global conversation at this time on aljazeera. Good to have you with us on aljazeera top stories a magnitude six point four earthquake has hit eastern todd long killing at least four people and injuring more than two hundred others in the port city of ali and say several people remain trapped in buildings that are on the brink of collapse. At least one people have been killed in just one day in the rebel held areas of syrias east and good province government and russian jets have increased their attacks despite mounting western and u. N. Pressure for troops and south africas morning a. N. C. Party has postponed which had been expected to decide on the potential removal of president jacob zuma from office zuma is under increasing pressure to resign over corruption allegations. A palestinian man has been shot and killed by a Security Guard in the settlement of the occupied west bank the palestinian stabbed and injured an israeli settler on wednesday morning while tensions have risen in the occupied west bank since u. S. President donald trump decided to recognize jerusalem as. Israels capital and another palestinian man was killed during raids by the israeli army in the occupied west bank city of nablus thirty people were wounded as this as Israeli Forces fired tear gas and rubber coated steel bullets during protests on tuesday five of them remain in a Critical Condition on monday an israeli settler stabbed and killed in the illegal settlement of our real. At least eighty four schools have been forced to close off the border shelling by the Pakistani Army in the disputed himalayan region of kashmir india says for that soldiers were killed in the strikes in the district on monday which injured another soldier and a number of civilians violence last month also saw several schools closed lets get more on this now were joined by happy man jacob associate professor of diplomacy and disarmament at the university and hes joining us via skype from new delhi mr jacob always good to have you with us on aljazeera i understand you have recently come back from the line of control what did you see on both sides of the border and are we seeing more cross border firing along the. Thank you those of a pull that person in fact i just came back from the pakistani side of the lake not going door to visit leaders out of the wonderful girls who i have struggled along the line or put on all the internet buckets on the site and i guess it with their good amount of certainty that i have seen the destruction of course two billion happy dance on board science in fact in the recent past the us would actually like these and the destruction officer to be a topic thats not been on the increase in fact in twenty seventeen last year our deep pockets on his initial are killed by the infighting and surely even gives were killed by the pakistani by and saw what it what is happening on the line