a lot of my headquarters here in doha coming up in the next thirty minutes amnesty international says nothing has changed in me a bar for starvation abductions and ethnic cleansing of rohingya muslims continues unabated. also israeli police chief say that they will recommend benjamin netanyahu be indicted on corruption charges the prime minister says it will never happen plus and the president's chief of staff have had full confidence and trust in his abilities and his performance. yes another key donald trump aide is forced to leave the white house this one accused of abusing two ex-wives. welcome to the program we begin in syria where all those two hundred people have been killed in the past three days in rebel held parts of the country this after some of the most intense airstrikes fighting and shelling in months thirty four people died on wednesday in eastern guta a rebel on klav in the outskirts of the capital damascus where four hundred thousand people are estimated to be besieged by government forces since twenty thirty. four others died that province which has been the target of recent chemical attacks a government offensive backed by russia has called has been underway there for weeks russian bombing in the area has been ramped up since the pilot was shot down and killed saturday. supposed to be part of so-called the escalation zones where fighting it as strikes or to be scaled back the attacks take the death toll to at least one hundred eighty four after almost ninety people were killed on choose day sixty of monday they were called to report from beirut in neighboring lebanon. civil defense volunteers look for survivors but instead they're pulling out the dead from the rubble of what was once homes children women and men dozens of them have been killed in air strikes that are leveling residential buildings. this man just lost his son. god bless you he says clearly still in a state of shock. it's day three of an intensified military campaign. multiple areas of the rebel held damascus suburb of eastern who are coming under fire people there are saying russian and syrian government aircraft have been carry out one strike after another. people here believe russia is taking revenge after his plane was shot down by the rebels and its pilot was killed it is intense bombardment at least eight hundred people are wounded some of them very seriously and they can't be treated here. there is a lack of medical supplies and doctors eastern huta has been besieged by pro-government forces for years it is both home and the traffic for some four hundred thousand people doctors have put up makeshift health centers but they too are being hit the top of a center is now out of service it was hit by the planes it was the only medical center in this town and fifteen thousand people the united nations is calling for the fighting throughout syria to stop for a month to allow aid deliveries and evacuations of the sick and wounded at least five hundred are in. the enclave just outside the capital has been heavily bombarded since mid december but the past few days have been the worst many believe pro-government forces are pushing for a decisive outcome. they want. not fight them everywhere it's ready now. to fight. and the north. hold the northwestern province of idlib which is also under the control of the opposition has been hit by dozens of strikes in recent days there are two residential neighborhoods and hospitals are being targeted pro syrian government forces have taken ground in the southern edges of it live in recent weeks recapturing the whole province will not be easy but many believe the immediate goals involve the securing the north to south highway and lifting the siege on to loyalist towns. in the program the forces have been struggling to bring eastern huta under their control for years and now that russia appears to be honing in on rebel areas syria is once again in the midst of a major escalation especially with no progress on the diplomatic site this will only bring more suffering senekal their neighbors. the u.s. led coalition in syria says it's carried out airstrikes against what it calls pro regime forces it says the bombing was in response to an unprovoked attack on its ally the s.d.f. the mainly kurdish s.t.'s controls an area in north eastern syria which borders one held by forces loyal to syrian president bashar assad a new amnesty international report says that the ethnic cleansing campaign against the rohingya continues unabated in the unmarked group interview nineteen of the thousands of refugees who arrived in bangladesh in december and january fleeing northern rakhine state almost all of them describe the security forces are denying their communities access to fields confiscating their livestock and setting markets on fire it's a campaign amnesty international describes as for starvation those interviewed say the abduction of girls and young women is commonplace the rights group warn disease abductions raise serious concerns about rape and sexual slavery refugees also described how security forces set up checkpoints along the scape routes to bangladesh where they robbed them of their valuables and subjected women to humiliating body searches and misty concludes that the continued assault on the dignity of the ring go shows that the international response has been weak and ineffective and that the agreed repatriation of refugees from bangladesh to me in mar is premature about twelve's is a senior crisis advisor at amnesty international and the author of the report he says the international community's unwillingness to go beyond words is addressing the actions of the air bars military is partly to blame. you know what we've seen is condemnation after condemnation from the international community but there has been a real failure to act to impose real consequences on the me and our military for what is now been more than five months of a campaign of ethnic cleansing and so we think that there needs to be an arms embargo targeted financial sanctions against senior officials in the military who are who have committed this this these horrific human rights violations over the last five months in the last couple months to me and more government has said that it's ready to start repatriation their returns and what our report today shows is that the military hasn't even stopped committing horrific human rights violations against the rango who remain in northern rakhine state consistently from people who arrived in bangladesh and the last month or two you know we had reports of starvation of people who've been denied access going out to the rice fields who've seen their markets burned hers or blocks from from access to have watched as humanitarian aid has been severely restricted throughout northern rakhine state all of this is led to a situation in which people are struggling to find food which is forcing these new arrivals to bangladesh and this represents really you know the final blow after months of a horrific ethnic cleansing campaign in which we and others have consistently documented widespread killings sexual violence against rango women and girls and the targeted burning of ragged villages across northern rakhine state. israeli media say the police will recommend that prime minister benjamin netanyahu be indicted on corruption charges that and yahoo and his wife are suspected of receiving illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors including a major hollywood producer who's also alleged to have been involved in a deal with a leading newspaper which would have weakened a rival daily in return for favorable coverage the prime minister denies the allegations and says he's confident the attorney general won't pursue the case in one car and said this update via skype from west jerusalem prime minister benjamin netanyahu has long been defiant of all of these accusations he said they are political in nature and he's used various different platforms to talk about how this is a political witch hunt against him now what he's normally done is take to his facebook page there is a facebook page has been very active of let's talking about the operations going on in the west bank but what he's done is say to the israeli public that what is going on with him is a witch hunt against him but more importantly that the attorney general will rule on the rule will rule on the state of the law itself is confident that he can beat anything that's thrown against it let's take a listen to what he had to say a riveting story are you. many of you ask what will happen so i want to reassure you they'll be nothing because i know the truth the state of israel is a state of law the law says that the one to determine whether there is evidence against the prime minister is the attorney general and he consults with the state attorney and the state prosecutor recently said in the knesset that about half of the police's recommendations end with nothing was going to happen next is likely the prime minister benjamin netanyahu will fight any kind of recommendation that the police make against him both publicly in the court of public opinion and if he gets legal in any kind of legal case let's see what happens if the attorney general decides to take place against the prime minister. now the leader of south africa's governing party says he's in direct discussions with president jacob zuma over a possible transition of leadership cyril ramaphosa seen here on the right has found for a speedy resolution and says the talks will be concluded in the coming days negotiations prompted the african national congress to perspire on a special executive committee meeting on whether to force zuma out of office he's been a mounting pressure to resign over corruption allegations for me to milan has more from johannesburg. there's certainly is a lot of confusion and uncertainty especially after the national executive meeting which was to discuss jacob zuma future was cancelled late on tuesday now this is after talks between the president of the a.n.c. so rama post and president jacob zuma now of course as office has described this discussion as fruitful and constructive and it would appear that the a.n.c. is closer than ever to removing jacob zuma as president we know zuma met with the top six leadership of the party on sunday and reports indicate that at that time he refused to resign but this latest indication from the a.n.c. is a progress has been made since then opposition parties say though i have criticized the a.n.c. leadership saying that rome of course the is not strong enough to push jacob zuma out there demanding decisive action from the a.n.c. this is a party split between support for jacob zuma and demands for him to step down now so the africans are looking for clarity from a party that throughout these difficulties president zuma has constantly insisted that a solution will come from within the party and nowhere else well still ahead here on al-jazeera why british retail giant tesco respecting able to billion dollars they claim. d.n.a. tests show be surprisingly low copy ten thousand year old european ancestry. from the lights of asia. to the city never sleeps. hello rejoicing hong kong is warming up at long last having had all if every so far below average nineteen spots on average so the tension is slowly rising there is cloud not far away and it covers taiwan you'll notice and yes there have been outbreaks of light rain will continue shanghai in the sunshine is a little less cold as well plus seven degrees so the whole of central and southern china is warming up slowly and then quite a big feed of subtly comes in but some get to friday so the big rise in temperature and the feeling of the a lot more humid that will generate cloud and some rain or snow depending your height above sea level south this kind of big out most of southeast asia is now fine and sunny as it should be the wet zone is very obvious that in the southern philippines through bourne is still a ways in and down towards java has been flooding in jakarta flooding in western java there's no reason why that should let up the showers are still there you saw them that are in the forecast and if anything they could have been housed in this whole area possibly reaching bali in the next day or so but leaving actually good part of borneo turning dry and it is not surprisingly a dry picture throughout india this cloud is just streaky tell you'll see it in the sky but it won't do anything so on the ground still sort of weather. is sri lanka. the weather sponsored by qatar airways. well if we cannot have palestina my government was suddenly not allowed britain to join french palestine would be an outrage but then we need to find another solution before we come to blows as more than a century ago britain and france made a secret deal that would influence the shape of the middle east for more than a century to come and so. now we can draw raima. cyc speak out lines in the sand at this time on al-jazeera. welcome back to arms as their arms a whole round a reminder of our top stories almost two hundred people have been killed in the past three days in rebel held parts of syria following an intense air and ground offensive by government forces and their russian allies thirty four people died in the most recent attack on wednesday in eastern cuter near the capital damascus four others died in. an amnesty international report says that the ethnic cleansing campaign against the rohingya continues unabated in myanmar refugees who arrived in bangladesh in recent months are describing a systematic campaign of force starvation kidnappings and sexual violence. also israeli media says police will recommend the prime minister benjamin netanyahu be indicted on corruption charges and yahoo and his wife are suspected of receiving illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors. let's head to asian where a pakistani court has sentenced woman to death and thirty others to prison for the lynching of a student falsely accused of blasphemy in april last year hundreds of students dragged mashal car out of his university dorm in the northern city of medan he was beaten before being shot dead and his body mutilated kamar hyder has more from islamabad. and then to carry them called herring's a high profile martial conlin chain case has sentenced the shooter to a dead while five others were sentenced to twenty five years in prison another twenty five to forty years in prison each and twenty six were acquitted redoubt punishments this was indeed a high profile case and raised by charles holland was wrongfully accused of committing blasphemy the people who perpetrated the attack against him on the university campus included political workers killed or injured and even employees of that university across pakistan are sent shock waves and there of course would be a sigh of relief when people find out that this was indeed a strong word take unnecessary because in the past the country's blasphemy laws have come into controversy some people are saying that they have been abused and therefore the court setting a precedent and sending a strong signal the same distro we spoke to michelle stanley has been there waiting justice to the son. his family has kept his room the same as it was the day he left home for the last time a reminder of the kind of man he was muscle khan was studying journalism and abdul ali khan university and more done in april last year he was lynched by two hundred fellow students the mob was spurred by rumors that khan had somehow insulted islam but earlier this year a police investigation found that there was no evidence he ever violated any blasphemy laws. police did find that university officials from han had publicly criticized for corruption and incompetence conspired to make false allegations against him and rallied the mob that killed him he was just only going to sidle the system and you and me and him so i intend to go to diminish when it's these last because if we not if these rules and these last promised groups and we were not will make these so i think there are more and more michels will be killed in this war more and more much as many as they see naked because this is a very easy blame on someone. for his mother losing one child has been so traumatic that she won't let her other children go back to school too afraid of what might happen to them she says when her son's body was brought home he had been so badly beaten she only recognised him from the tips of his fingers and when she kissed him on his toes in the aftermath police were accused of not responding quickly enough to stop the attack and in some cases even facilitating police say they're reassessing their approach to blasphemy cases come i think that's for me or not is a separate issue the man thing is whether we will in all people to lower their head again any person or come in things any kind of a crime so my answer is no they will not know any one particular on their heads and can anyone for committing certain type of crime even in death mush is not safe a police unit guards his grave because of threats from religious hardliners of digging up and burning his body. the final resting place of this young man has become a kind of symbol in this community people with a little more liberal a point of view come here to pay their respects to someone who was beaten to death for thinking a little bit differently. despite the fact that china is innocent of allegations against him in pakistan facts are often ignored in the court of public opinion. many people here still believe that what happened to him on the day he died was the right thing. seen bus ravi al-jazeera down. well risky crews have not given up hope of finding more survivors in the rubble of the magnitude six point four earthquake that hit taiwan on choose day killing at least eight people injuring more than two hundred others are firefighters in the port city of whalen say that they can hear several people trapped in the buildings on the brink of collapse around the bride has more the port city of four leon is now the scene of an intensive search and rescue operation after the magnitude six earthquake. rescue teams trained in dealing with earthquakes have been brought in from across taiwan. a resort area some of the hotels were first to feel the effects of the shock waves the lower floors of the marshall hotel caved in leaving the entire building slanting on its side rescuers moved in with ropes and cranes to get those trapped in what was left of the hotel back to safety. in that hotel room. at the moment there are still people trapped inside but there's no way for us to confirm their position or number because the people living there aren't long term president. taiwan's fire agency reports three more buildings were damaged as were several roads leading to the city this earthquake followed another one over the weekend off the coast of folly and in what is an area of high seismic activity today and the sequence for the last few days has been right in one of the hot spots on the northeast coast of taiwan so it's not a surprise oh it's 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 turn 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 rescue effort is now concentrated on this residential and commercial building partly collapsed on its side and held up by metal props it's here that most of the fifty plus people who are unaccounted for are believed to be this part of folly and has now become the center of this rescue operation as teams work through a second night contending not only with the weather but also with the ever present danger of more aftershocks as they do so this building becomes ever more precarious as is the fate of those feared to be still inside rob mcbride al-jazeera while the end taiwan. well north korean athletes have arrived in the south ahead of the winter olympics in pill chang and leading the delegation is expected to be kim jong un sr in one of the largest peace time crossings of the korean border a group of two hundred eighty north koreans traveled to the south of wednesday kim jong il and sister kim jong il is expected to arrive in peel chang soon but the real concern is over a north korean official listed in a u.n. travel ban james payne's has more from the united nations headquarters in new york . there's been a great deal of attention on the fact that kim jong un's sister is leading north korea's delegation to the winter olympics but the u.n. security council is actually more concerned about another name on the delegation list and that's choi who is a senior north korean party official and chair of the national sports guidance committee but the security council is concerned about him because he appears in one of their resolutions from june last year and he is under sanctions in that resolution for his role as the voice director of the propaganda and agitation department of north korea he's in charge of censorship in effect north korea's censor in chief in fact the resolution says he controls all media in the country and is used by the government to control the public members of the security council will now discuss this issue they've been given twenty four hours if in twenty four hours any of them wishes to object then the sanctions will remain in place otherwise he will be given an exemption and allowed to travel to the winter olympics now the u.k.'s largest retailer tesco is facing the country's largest ever claim over equal pay thousands of employees want compensation from the company the british law firm representing and says the legal challenge could cost up to five point six billion dollars and if barker has more it's a retail supergiant and with more than three hundred thousand staff it's one of the largest employers of the country but is tesco failing to pay people fairly. kim element is one of dozens of female employees taking legal action against the company it is to do with pay and it's to do with being paid the same for work that we perceive to be of equal value to to our employer i think that it's been the case for a long time where they have page different grades without explanation and i feel it is time now for tesco to step up and to explain why they perceive certain scales as more valuable with another scales the law firm representing the claimants says that staff working in warehouse style distribution centers most of the men get paid significantly more as much as four dollars an hour or more the workers in these tesco stores most of the star here women. over a year it could mean to pay disparity of around seventy thousand dollars for work that may be different but lawyers argue has equal merit this is what equal value work is all about is looking at the demands for a mate on the individual and the values that are wrong to the employer is precisely to widen the scope for equal work means so when you hear that mantra equal pay for equal work that the scope of equal work is quite enormous the underpayment might apply to more than two hundred thousand tesco staff meeting the final compensation bill for the company could be in the billions of dollars tesco says it's yet to receive details of the claimant cannot comment but the company added that tesco has always been a place for people to get on in their career the goddess of their gender background or education and we work hard to make sure all our colleagues are paid equally and fairly for the jobs they do. the case follows similar action against two more u.k. supermarkets and sainsbury's both are fighting legal battles involving thousands of employees. in recent months several major companies including the b.b.c. have had to address concerns over unequal pay and gender bias more and more firms are now being forced to review their own practices or run the risk of forking out record payments barca al-jazeera london now the us senators struck a bipartisan budget deal to fund the government for the next two years though the deal will lift the camps of military and domestic spending in a bid to avoid a feared government shutdown now the issues surrounding immigration and the protection of migrants who came to the us illegally as children was not included in the deal it was a hurdle that led to a brief government shutdown last month but debate on the budget bill included an eight hour speech by democratic house minority leader nancy pelosi on dream immigrants now a white house official who works closely with president trump has resigned after his two ex-wives claimed they had been physically abused the white house refuses to say if it knew about the allegations against rob porter before he was appointed and if it impacted his security clearance alan fischer reports. a staff secretary reporter essentially monitors the paperwork that goes across the president's desk he often travels with the president and had a hand in writing the state of the union address he's not a well known name but he plays a key role in the west wing but in the past few days the daily mail dot com has published stories quoting his two ex-wives who say they were physically abused by him one to the extent she obtained a restraining order after dismissing the claims as regis and force he is no decided to quit from the podium of the white house briefing room there was a defense from the highest level rob has been ineffective in his role as staff secretary and the president's chief of staff have had full confidence and trust in his abilities and his performance in a more of an update on that front rob this played out a statement which i can read to you now and i think your dress some of those other questions these outrageous allegations are simply false i took the photos given to the media nearly fifteen years ago and the reality behind them is nowhere close to what has been described it's reported the f.b.i. knew of the assault allegations and that could have impacted on porter security clearance he'll leave the white house after a transition period but the date of his final day at the president's site has not been decided alan fischer washington well scientists have concluded that britain's oldest known resident looked rather different than originally thought research has extracted d.n.a. from chatham and the u.k. as old as complete skeleton which was discovered in cheddar gorge in southwest england in nineteen zero three nine he lived ten thousand years ago and is not a name to have had blue eyes dark curly have and dark to black skin scientists say the evidence suggests that europeans pale skin tones develop much later than previously thought. because it's very striking for a ten thousand year old human error expectations a few years ago would have been this individual would have had a maybe dark hair but fairly power skin possibly blue eyes and what we've got is a quite unusual combination of this dark slightly curly hair really quite dark skin and quite striking blue eyes. you're watching out as their arms are whole romney's right top stories almost two hundred people are being killed in the past three days in rebel held parts of syria following an intense air and ground offensive by government forces and their russian allies thirty four people died in the most recent attack on wednesday in eastern guta near the capital damascus four others died and province the u.s. led coalition in syria says that it's carried out airstrikes against what it calls pro regime forces it says the bombing was in response to unprovoked attacks on its ally the s.t.'s the mainly kurdish controlled area in north eastern syria which borders while held by forces loyal to syrian president bashar assad. and i'm the city international report says the ethnic cleansing campaign against the regime go continues unabated alien while refugees who arrived in bangladesh in recent months are describing a systematic campaign of force starvation kidnappings and sexual violence israeli media is reporting police will recommend benyamin netanyahu to be indicted on corruption charges the prime minister and his wife are suspected of receiving illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors including a major hollywood producer he denies the allegations and says he's confident the attorney general won't pursue the case religion sure you are you know many of you asked what will happen so i want to reassure you there will be nothing because i know the truth the state of israel is a state of law the law says that the one to determine whether there is evidence against the prime minister is the attorney general and he consults with the state attorney the state prosecutor said recently in method that about half of the police recommendations and when the thing the leader of south africa's governing party says he's in direct discussions with president jacob zuma over a possible transition of leadership cyril ramaphosa seen here on the right has filed for a speedy resolution and says the talks will be concluded in the coming days those were the headlines and back with more in thirty minutes next it's inside story do stay with us. more than one hundred people killed in just one day in syria's rebel held areas of eastern ghouta and they were supposed to be part of the so-called deescalation zones but the bombing has intensified so what triggered this and who can stop it this is inside story.