held areas. also amnesty international says nothing has changed in myanmar starvation adoptions and ethnic cleansing of ripping of muslims continues unabated . and israeli media say the police will recommend the prime minister benjamin netanyahu indicted on corruption charges plus. why donald trump is facing a backlash over his desire for a military parade. welcome to the news hour almost two hundred people have been killed in the past three days in rebel held parts of syria 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 on the outskirts of the capital damascus where four hundred thousand people estimated to be besieged by government forces since twenty thirteen four others died in italy a province which has been the target of recent chemical attacks and a government offensive backed by russian air support has been underway there for three weeks now russian bombing in the area has been ramped up since a pilot was shot down and killed on saturday but it lived and. guter are supposed to be part of a so-called deescalation zone where fighting and their strikes were to be scaled back the attacks take the death toll to at least one hundred eighty four after almost ninety people were killed on cheese day and sixty on monday reports now 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 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 helped that sort of a center is now out of service it was hit by the plane and 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 anywhere. ready. to fight. and the north. pole. 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. syrian government forces have taken ground in the southern edges of live in recent weeks recapturing . the immediate goals involved securing the north. and lifting the siege on to loyalist towns. in the pro-government 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. he says. because of the. terrible situation especially those days. you'll see all kinds of my talk that these days that because of. the attack on. the sikh media and people. who can imagine some me size destroy the whole thing which is more than the three or four stories being the only in. four hours forty eight hours more than one hundred fifty. c.d.'s where they were. almost all of the casualties from their homes we hope we can and. those people i think the situation is not easy to imagine that one who receives. casualties. in the engine or has that been general cases. and disappeared or something and need a lot of mitigation of. support that they're like it's not easy. for more. of the more they need to have. not lost my. life. turkish forces and their allies the free sort. say they've captured the town of a ruse on the road to freeing a stronghold of the kurdish group the white p.g. demolish el visited a military camp inside syria where turkey has been training the f.s.a. fighters. prepared for battle five hundred fighters stand to attention listening to their final commands before they head off to the front line these are soldiers from the free syrian army is a brigade young and old they hail from all parts of syria. most have been fighting since the revolution turned into world war i in the early days the enemy was gone the regime of bashar assad whose army had killed innocent protesters forcing many of its own soldiers to defect and form the free syrian army now however the war in syria is a quagmire of different armies groups and factions some fighting for land and power others for survival a lot of well they're all the same the white p.g. and the assad regime it's the same oppression all of them have killed and tortured our people but. this brigade is being supported by the turkish army soldiers fight side by side with the f.s.a. in their ongoing offensive in northern syria. it's an attempt to defeat the kurdish militia group of y.p. jeeves which ankara considers to be a terrorist organization responsible for numerous rocket attacks on sort of killed several of its citizens both the turkish military and the free syrian army are concern for size the background of these fighters they're made up of kurds. and arabs as far as the starkest military is concerned this is a fight against a terrorist organization the y.p. jean far as these fighters are concerned this is a continuation in their long battle for freedom in syria who want to p.g. and its supporters accuse turkey of waging war against the. simply because they are kurdish but this fighter from the f.s.a. a kurd himself dismisses that of the saw the seller saw nothing then and the revolution began kurds demanded freedom but the y.p. g. joined hands with assad's army and started attacking the people as kurds were discriminated against by the government and our lands are occupied by the y p g terrorists but god willing we will be free. it's hard to question the commitment of these fighters in their pursuit for freedom their training and readiness however appears to be amateur the vast majority of them have no formal military training most let simpler more peaceful lives before this war began their commander tells me that while their immediate target is often in defeating the why p.g. there it is said in his regime who are their main enemy from their y.b. she and i said are two sides of the same coin like i said they have killed thousands and expelled the people from their homes from assad's army to has been lost fighters to i saw and now the kurdish militia these men have countless battles in search of freedom that freedom has remained elusive the only reality they've seen is death and destruction who knows maybe one day this war will end. al-jazeera has northern syria. a new amnesty international report says the ethnic cleansing term pain against the rohingya continues unabated in myanmar the group interviewed nineteen of the thousands of refugees who've arrived in bangladesh in december and january fleeing northern rakhine state that all most all of them described hermia man security forces are denying their communities access to fields confiscating their livestock and setting markets on fire it's a campaign to see international describes as full starvation those interviewed say the abduction of girls and young women is commonplace the rights group warns that these abductions raise serious concerns about rape and sexual slavery refugees also describe how security forces set up checkpoints along the scape routes to bunker those where they robbed them of their valuables or subjected women to humiliating body searches amnesty concludes that the continued assault on the dignity of the rating go shows that the international response has been weak and ineffective and that the agreed repatriation of refugees from bangladesh to me amar is premature what 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 in addressing the actions of mia miles 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 women go women and girls and the targeted burning overhang of villages across northern rakhine state. israeli media say the police will recommend prime minister benyamin netanyahu be indicted on corruption charges netanyahu and his wife are suspected of receiving illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors including a major hollywood producer he's also allowed to have been involved in a deal with a leading newspaper which would have weakened to 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 imran khan said this update via skype from west jerusalem. rome is that 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 those facebook page has been very active of late 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 them 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. are you. many of you also 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 little little says the one to determine whether there's evidence against the prime minister is the attorney general and he consults with the state attorney the state prosecutor recently said in the knesset that about half of the police's recommendations and with nothing what's going to happen next is it's likely the prime minister benjamin netanyahu will fight any kind of recommendation that the police make against him both publicly in the close of public opinion and if it 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 well the jacobs's apollo with the truman national security project he says it's unlikely ness and yahoo will end up indicted no one has ever accused benjamin it's now being of lacking confidence he may be a little bit too confident but at this point there have been so many investigations into this particular prime minister over all the years that he does have solid ground to stand on in thinking that it's not going to go further than a car in years israel is no different than any you know first world country and democracy of the revolving door between the public and the private sector is constantly ongoing and to that that israel's a small country and a lot of people know each other or maybe related to each other add to that that with the mandatory military service a lot of people have served in the military together creates a very tight and close relationships ongoing through their lives and the reality is that it's a part of life in almost any country but the election laws in israel and the election donation laws in israel are extraordinarily tight far tighter than they are in the united states or western europe. well plenty more ahead here on the al-jazeera news hour including one man sentenced to death and thirty others jailed for lynching a student in pakistan we speak to the victim's family about their quest for justice also germany's chancellor angela merkel reaches a coalition agreement after months of uncertainty but there's another hurdle before it can be sealed. and in sport just two days out from the winter olympics dozens of russian athletes are still fighting for their right to compete. in pakistan has sent as one man to death and thirty others to prison for the lynching of a student who'd been falsely accused of blasphemy in april hundreds of students dragged mashal khan out of his university dorm in the northern city of more than he was beaten before being shot dead and his body mutilated kemal hyder has the latest from the capitol hill slum of our. and and it catered them called herring's a high profile marshall hahn lynching 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 punishment 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 or send 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 blasphemy laws have come into controversy some people saying that they have been abused and therefore the court setting a precedent and sending a strong signal well samples from his boat to michelle suddenly have been awaiting justice for 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 a muscle khan was studying journalism and abdul ali khan university in march 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 holland 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 ish these last because if we were not if these rules in these last promised. and we were not will make nice so i think there are more and more michels will be killed in this war more and more much as many as i see needed 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 to 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 recognized 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 we're going to be really you know people to lower their head again and the person we're committing any kind of a crime so my answer is no we will not know anyone to ignore their heads and can anyone for committing certain price 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. rescue crews have not given up hope of finding more survivors in the rubble of the magnitude six point four earthquake that hit eastern taiwan on cheese day at least nine people have been killed more than two hundred sixty others injured dozens all still missing firefighters in the port city where and saying that they can hear several people trapped in buildings on the brink of collapse well let's bring in rob mcbride our correspondent who is live for us in the quake zone of course it's quite out of concern where evolved with aftershocks being felt overnight the search and rescue mission continues for any potential survivors. that's right these aftershocks are the main concern rescuers as you said they've been mainly inside this building behind me this is where xander stood most of the people who are unaccounted for i will eventually be found the example that made us so astronomical for they have been working here believe that the shots makes it very precarious very feminine for the aftershocks continued all through wednesday hundreds of aftershocks recorded in fact wednesday evening here some almost twenty four hours after the initial quake we were in our hotel when it started swaying back and forth the full thirty seconds with the impact that it was a magnitude four weight that was felt here in this city. other parts of the world say all that would be counted as a decent earthquake here it was regarded as just an aftershock so it is a concern what the rescue teams have done is they can bring the games more props more steel work to try to hold up this building but it is a concern these continuing aftershocks that while there is hope of finding people alive then obviously they have to keep working and have of course many experts to say it's a race against time because there's a small window of opportunity to find people alive in what is an additional problem of the atrocious weather conditions that you've been experiencing. that's right there's been an awful lot of rainfall here which has been hampering work according to some of the rescuers we've been talking to that actually makes the structure physically more unstable physically heavier trying to keep this thing up right while they go through the floors and we understand that most of the people have been rescued from this particular building from the upper floors the floors the less badly damaged the problem is with some of the lower floors where this building simply fell over largely on one side of itself crushing those those beneath and that's where the work has to be concentrated where you have to look for survivors but obviously it's areas where it's very difficult to get to access is difficult but we are seeing teams here because of the nature of the timeline and the kind of earthquakes just suffer we are seeing a specialist here coming from throughout taiwan to help in this effort and as of now thursday luckily it seems that now at least the aftershocks have abated so that they can get some of that work that's more of those inaccessible areas because you quite rightly may june as each hour goes down hopes to get more findings and i. will continue to follow the situation with you rob in taiwan for the moment thank you. the protests have again broken out in the maltese after the newly appointed police chief and else that two supreme court judges who've been arrested took millions of dollars in bribes he alleges it was in return for ordering the release of jailed opposition leaders president yeah i mean are you more to the arrest of the judges on monday also declared a state of emergency accusing the court of supporting a coup on tuesday the three remaining judges of the supreme court reversed its decision the un human rights chief says what's happening is an assault on democracy now the leader of south africa's governing party says he's in direct discussions with president jacob zuma and every possible transition of leadership role rather pose a scene here on the right has vowed for a speedy resolution and says that talks will be concluded in the coming days ago she a sions prompted the african national congress to perspire own a special executive committee meeting on whether to fall zuma out of office he's been under mounting pressure to resign over corruption allegations for me to miller 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 and cecil rama post and president jacob zuma now run 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 had 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 from a poor so it 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 hill the al-jazeera news and they never to approach to hong kong's housing crisis we look at the new solutions emerging in the real estate market also d.n.a. test revealed the surprising look of a ten thousand year old european ancestor. and bought a birthday to remember for the cyclist at the dubai top tatiana would have been here but the support. from the waves is the same. to the contours of the east. hello rejoicing hong kong is warming up at long last having had all if every so far below average nine hundred spots on average so temperatures slowly rising there is cloud not far away and it covers taiwan you'll notice and yes there have been outbreaks of light rain though 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 boats and we get to friday the big rise in temperature and the feeling of the is 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 from 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 they're in the forecast and if anything they can even be enhanced 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 trailing. the weather sponsored by cattle and place. for the nomadic jock outright survival is about reaching a destination if we don't hurry will never be able to get the top of the story we follow the mongolian herdsmen on a treacherous migration. and trace dangerous to the ices of them as they strive to preserve their traditional way of life a little bit into our sometimes luser cattle in the u.k. there was a cold war because of the storm risking you don't go here at this time on al-jazeera . well i think one of our biggest strengths is that we talk to normal everyday people we get them to tell their stories and doing that really reveals the truth people are still gathered outside these gates waiting for any information most of them don't know whether their loved ones are alive or dead or miami really is a place where two worlds meet we can get to washington d.c. in two hours we can get it on jurists in the rest of central america about the same time but more importantly is where those two cultures north and south america meet us to teach it's a very important place for al-jazeera to be. welcome back to the al-jazeera news our arms the whole rob a reminder of our 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 have died in the most recent attack on wednesday in eastern guta near the capital damascus or others died in the province an amnesty international report says the ethnic cleansing campaign against the running gear continues unabated in myanmar refugees who arrived in bangladesh in recent months are describing a systematic campaign of full starvation kidnappings and sexual violence. also israeli media say that police will recommend the prime minister benjamin netanyahu be indicted on corruption charges that and yahoo and his wife are suspected of receiving illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors. with just over twenty four hours left to avoid another government shutdown the u.s. senate has agreed on a funding deal for the next two years the plan seeks to lift caps on military and domestic spending but the house of representatives also needs to sign off on the proposals now the contentious issue of protecting undocumented migrants who came to the u.s. illegally as children is not part of the agreement this dispute had led to a brief government shutdown last month the democratic leader in the house nancy pelosi is insisting on an immigration deal this time she delivered an eight hour speech focusing on the issue but bill schneider is a professor of public policy at george mason university joins me now from washington d.c. good to have you with us on the program so just explain to us i mean what has really been achieved in this apparent budget deal well it will at least keep the government from shutting down once again it looks like a classic washington compromise but these days compromises are not easy to achieve this will probably pass the senate but in the house it's meeting with opposition from a lot of very conservative republicans who are deficit hawks and object to the fact that this deal while they had half a trillion dollars to the federal budget deficit even though they're happy that it increases military spending and democrats are angry led by nancy pelosi because it doesn't do anything to protect the so-called dreamers young illegal immigrants who were brought to the united states as children it doesn't do anything to protect them from deportation so what you're saying is opposition from the two ends of the spectrum how difficult is it to try and get something like this passed at this moment in time in terms of american political you might say history or scenarios that we're seeing at the moment when there is so much you might say divisiveness or polarization within the political spectrum over any proposals that are made in terms of policy. all policy proposals are now divisive anything president trump favors is divisive what the democrats are insisting on is that the house allow a vote on the immigration issue which the republican leader of the senate agreed to but the leader the speaker of the house who is a republican of course has not agreed to that he said he will only allow something to come to a vote if it's supported by president trump that's not acceptable to democrats this really illuminates the deep polarization in american politics you know our system works only through compromise but compromise is becoming more and more difficult and compromise certainly doesn't seem to be part of the sort of the democrats the democrats position when you have someone like nancy pelosi there speaking for eight hours on the floor of the longest speech i think since nineteen oh wait besides immigration was all rather objections was all the other objections of the democrats in terms of the way that policy is being pushed forward while they would like to see more funding for some domestic priorities like research on the opioid crisis that's hitting a lot of americans the drug crisis that is not being well funded by the federal government they would like to see less military spending they think look what this deal increases military spending by more than president trump has requested democrats don't like that and a lot of them are very reluctant to suborder deal like this it will be interesting to see how this progresses is that if the coming days the moment bill schneider in washington d.c. thanks very much for your time sir. u.s. politicians are pushing back against present donald trump's request for a military parade in washington d.c. it's an unusual request in the u.s. and critics say there are far better ways to spend the money can be reports. it's the kind of parade authoritarian leaders have long loved colorful uniforms marching bands and the latest military hardware all on display now u.s. president donald trump wants his own reportedly inspired by the french celebrations he attended last year in paris to mark best steel day. so preparations for a similar grand display in washington are underway we're all aware in this country of the president's affection and respect for the military we've been putting together some option will send them up to the white house for. however such an event is rare in the united states outside of presidential inaugurations the last one was held nearly thirty years ago in washington to mark the end of the first gulf war the president watches one thousand nine hundred sixty one president john f. kennedy held one for his inauguration in washington at the height of the cold war with the soviet union he used it to showcase the u.s. army's first anti-ballistic missiles formal parades may be intermittent but displays of force in the united states have in recent years become more commonplace sporting events and american independence day often reverberate with the sound of a fighter jet flying overhead but parades are cheap the last u.s. military parade cost more than eight million dollars back in one nine hundred ninety one that's a lot of money translated into today's dollars i see it it's a fantastic waste of money to amuse the president many americans will view. lack of support for a military parade as unpatriotic charge trump is used against athletes protesting racism and police brutality who refused to stand during the national anthem. more recently he had this to say about lawmakers who refused to clap for him at his recent state of the union address un-american somebody is a treasonous i mean yeah i guess why not the idea of a military parade is yet another example of the political divide that exists in the united states well million see it as nothing more than a flag waving display of patriotism millions more see it as yet another troubling sign of president trump's authoritarian tendencies kimberly healthy at al-jazeera washington as well as election board will hold a presidential election on april twenty second after talks between the government and the opposition collapsed mediation efforts hosted by the president of the dominican republic ended on tuesday they were aimed at resolving months of unrest in venezuela the opposition has warned the government against attempting to rig the election in order to keep nicholas murderer in power germany's two main parties have finally struck a deal to form a coalition more than four months after the election the social democrats originally said they wouldn't prop up another government and the chancellor angela merkel but they've no great they will go into another coalition with the conservatives if party members approve paul brennan reports from berlin. the negotiating teams emerged blinking into the bright beilin sunlight clearly relieved it was all over three days after the suppose a deadline for agreement it would take an american twenty four hour session to finally seal the deal it was mid afternoon by the time the party leaders felt ready to speak. if i says new york i know that millions of germans have been watching us very closely i've a recent wakes they had to justify demands of us first place form a government at long last a stable one and second think of people's real needs and interests i'm convinced that the coalition agreement we've come up with together can do precisely that. with us that's what we're doing because of i think what we've managed to achieve really does bear the stamp of the social democrats the agreements been heavily influenced by us and we're grateful we've been able to achieve some concessions that were difficult for the conservatives. for the past five weeks germany's center right c.d.u. and center left s.p.d. have been locked in negotiations over a common position on issues including health care labor reform immigration and housing policy allocating ministerial positions involved more compromise but with a deal now done those compromises have been bitterly criticized by the right wing a.f.d. party. the use of the soft and only time in vs assignment of the ministry shows that the c.d.u. has totally surrendered out of fear of the s.p.d. members the c.d.u. has given up its ideology and now it's giving up in practical terms too because it has none of the main ministries anymore the cd use just an empty shell there is one last hurdle to clear though before the new grand coalition government can be confirmed s.p.d. members now get their votes on the deal and their sentiments appears evenly split. kevin tonight the leader of the s.p.d. young socialist group use oss has been organizing a strong use campaign against another so called grow current the question mind me though whether his appeal and especially his morning straining is representing carry enough weight to convincing all remember which are probably more inclined to be persuaded by the older board which is going to rally in favor of joining the coalition the s.p.d. postal vote will take about two weeks to produce a result the coalition is not a done deal yet paul brennan al-jazeera berlin scientists have concluded britain's oldest known resident looked rather different than originally thought research is extracted d.n.a. from chatham and the u.k.'s oldest complete skeleton which was discovered in cheddar gorge in southwest england in one thousand nine hundred three he lived ten thousand years ago and is now known to have had dark blue eyes dark curly hair dark to black skin now scientists say the evidence suggests that europeans pale skin tones develop much later than previously thought. of course it's very striking for a ten thousand role human expectations a few years ago would have been this individual would have had a maybe dark hair but fairly proud skin possibly blue eyes and what we've got is a corner unusual combination of this. curly hair really quite dark skin and quite striking blue eyes the whole hers wall of the most expensive real estate markets in the world property prices have been soaring nearly and salaries all struggling to keep up and that means that many people are forced to leave homes but as does your poll that explains new solutions are emerging to help tackle the housing crisis. in the summer and in the winter and i spots that's how this mother describes the home she shares with her teenage daughters the sixteen square meter shack is perched on top of a twenty two story building there are. ten is for the ceiling while it rings one of the windows cracked during the typhoon and we could only cover it with tape and paper log. she moved into this illegal structure ten years ago after her husband died they live under the constant threat of eviction and now the landlord wants to raise the rent from the current five hundred dollars a month we don't have any rent control recitation or any potential for that tendency so that's why for the poor people it's very human rights advocacy groups say more than a quarter of a million people in hong kong live in illegal structures or squalid conditions and every year that number rises by twenty percent. private housing prices have gone up four hundred thirty percent since two thousand and thirteen while the average household income has only increased forty five percent in the past decade which means fewer people can afford property in the city and with the average wage for public housing at around five years there has been a call for a more innovative approach to the crisis. this is one suggestion the zero point two housing is made from readily available concrete pipes its creators say they can be stacked up and squeezed into vacant spaces in urban areas to provide starter homes another idea being discussed is container homes shipping containers are already used as offices or shops in some areas but these architects say there is another solution one that addresses the fact that only seven percent of the city's land is used for residential purposes industrial uses it is changing on home you don't need so many factory buildings it's a big stock of them and if you convert that to residential that's going to bring on stream a lot of floor area for residential very quickly experts say the problem is not a lack of space but government policy unlike other cities here the government owns all the land and leases a limited amount to developers and so if property prices drop so does the government's revenue which means there's little incentive to bring down the sky high prices to go pollen al-jazeera hong kong british supermarket group tesco is facing a five point six billion dollars claim for equal pay lawyers men working in tesco as warehouses are paid considerably more than female store workers. it works hard to make sure its staff are paid fairly and equally for the jobs that they do now the lawyer representing the claimant says it's time for tesco to tackle the issue of equal pay. so if the law has been there since one thousand nine hundred that you can compose a different job that's thirty four years to get your house in order so that's thirty four years of having the advantage of paying on the cleanup and thirty four years of you making pay decisions. decisions and thirty four years where you have chosen to walk around. in open sight. brazil's supreme court has authorized the privatization of giant state owned and company elect to rock the move comes as the government sends out mixed signals about the future of hydroelectric dam projects particularly on the amazon river. in america at the turn to see a new moon reports from sun to rome activists fear the plans would have a devastating ecological impact on the entire basin. this is the river it's crystal clear waters and where it joins the murkier amazon river in sand that him. and this port city tons of brazilian soybeans are shipped out each day but on this day it's not the increasing deforestation of the amazon for soiling cattle grazing that's brought environmental activists here. in the mining and energy ministry has posted plans for several large hydroelectric dams in the amazon . river. hydro energy is brazil's main source of electricity and before year's end the government is set to privatized electoral brass latin america's largest power company inviting foreign investors to play a major role in expansion efforts. local priest that takes us to an indigenous community along the top i just river. and his wife maria live from what nature gives them nothing goes to waste not even the feathers from tropical birds to their head dresses nor snakes backbones used for making this necklace. or heard . the dams will destroy the river it will destroy nature what will happen to the trees that produce fruit for the fish to eat we will suffer the consequences and if you expect see the top as not only as the next frontier in hydroelectric production but also as an example of so-called multiple water usage local communities and conservationists believe that the end game is to turn this the top five also river into an aquatic superhighway this would significantly reduce the time and the cost of shipping brazil's number one cash crop soil to this country's number one market china but to do that downs would have to be built up river in order to raise the water levels enough to allow large ships the sail through this is in fact the c.e.o. of brazil's energy research office applauds the idea and dismisses recent reports that the era of large hydroelectric power plants is over. but he says future projects can no longer ignore social and environmental concerns those projects should be done following an inclusive way soledad everybody can be on the benefits can be properly share but in the amazon what critics say there's no such thing as a harmless stem communities like this one are already preparing to resist as best they can see in human scent that im brazil. well still ahead here on al-jazeera and sport will meet australia's first indigenous winter olympics all the more unlikely competitors. to stay with us. welcome back it's time for sports his tatyana. thank you very much two days out from the start of the winter olympics forty seven russians and still fighting for the right to compete herring started on wednesday at the court of arbitration for sport. an additional fifteen athlete has joined the list of thirty two who appealed the day alyea off to being barred by the international olympic committee due to doping plans last week the court had overturned the lifetime and then pick bands of twenty eight russians but the i.o.c. still wouldn't allow them to take. the privilege to be invited requires more than just the absence of a section. so we have not been right. in this way. we want to do justice to last night's regardless of their past. the rights of the russian house needs to be ambassadors of a new generation they can be the new remove those for a change of culture in russians. the winter olympics is an event that pits countries with a warm climate at a distinct a disadvantage including australia but one unlikely pair are getting ready to make their debut in pyongyang as a home reports. it's one of the boys picture rest sports at a winter olympics yet this is a rare sight and a strongly in figure skating job getting ready for the game. the catarina alexandrescu and holly windsor make an unlikely pairing russian born alexandra was granted a strongly in citizenship just four months ago while winds off from western sydney is set to become the country's first indigenous winter olympian that has really completely sank in yet i feel like i'm sinking a bit more want to being at the games and actually represented but you know i can i can wear like a badge of honor you know and i hope that i can sort of aero model for other indigenous people move towards winter sports. while many countries hold basically competitive olympic trials to select the biggest skating teams just having an aussie pair on the ice is an achievement of the twelve winter olympic medals ever won by australia only two of them have come on ice and boy team speed skating there are only two dozen established rinks nationwide making for a difficult path to success i didn't figure skating purely by accident my mom and i were driving. and on saturday but i years old and we took a wrong turn and i saw back to an ice rink so i asked if i could go in and just i went in a scout around the public session and i really liked it so i expect her back the next week and the next week and everything kind of took off from there. windsor had little luck finding the right pairing in australia so unlike twenty fifteen travel to moscow in search of a partner that's where he found ben fifteen year old cat carly come to practice and there was this tall guy. and they were sort of happy he stole his or slice. the russian skating federation officially released her and that's been a peasant's twenty six day though crown junior world champions last season securing their place in pyongyang chang and with russian athletes banned from the games county has even more reason to embrace her new nation i think she was a result of stoli because my partner from australia. to pyong chang via moscow and sydney a pair proving that there's many ways to the top elites homan al-jazeera. meanwhile a north korean delegation has crossed the land border with the south ahead of the start of the pealing chang games the group included two hundred twenty nine members of a state trained sharing group as well as officials journalists and a taekwondo demonstration team north and south korean a place called walk together under the unification flag at friday's opening ceremony a joint team will also compete in women's hockey. a group of united states senators of called for an investigation into the u.s. olympic committee and u.s. age of nothing in the wake of the sentencing of former team doctor laurie nasa nasa is set to spend the rest of his life in prison for abusing young female gym nothingness care over two decades. the reprehensible actions of the so-called doctor have been exposed yet there are still so many questions that remain why was this disgusting man allowed near our young female athletes when there are reports that the usaca leadership knew about the sexual abuse allegations legally does botha learn to travel to valencia on thursday bidding to pick a place in the final of the spanish cup the defending champions have a one mil advantage heading into the second leg of the semifinal unbeaten in the last five outings off a lengthier have suffered five straight defeats boss a boss that nest of better there isn't taking anything for granted by a useful should know. difficult to sort of they are difficult team to beat and they are quick on the counter-attack but as we are leading them after the first leg they will try to be more aggressive now they are told and they will use defense approach to their advantage cricket now and india have become only the second team after australia to win three consecutive one day internationals against south africa in south africa the hosts that won the toss and elected to bowl in cape town but were left to ring that decision off to iraq early made one hundred sixty not out as india set a target for three hundred three south africa ended one hundred twenty four runs short of india now have a three no lead in the six match series we're really proud of ourselves as a team but the job is not even half done yet that's the kind of thinking they've all always had and even if you're winning we want to keep about intensity even more than the last game and i think that's been the biggest plus part of the city. we've not been good enough in understanding of yes we have game plans but unfortunately they've bowled well enough not to give us the balls to play you know game plan and we've got to come up with different ways of of counting how good they've been you know you've got to be jammed up and say they've just been they've been too good for us they've outplayed us in all departments and finally there were doubles celebrations for italian cyclists any of of yani on wednesday as they won stage two off the divide on his twenty ninth birthday stage one when adele and get out of a can carried a four second overall lead into the second stage which the riders travel one hundred eighty kilometers outside of device but despite a late surge from the dutchman that the power went to the front inside the final off a kilometer to the oval when you now moves into second place in the standings just two seconds behind granted i can. feel this ball for now. thanks to you've been watching the al jazeera news hour with me a whole robin the team denis is up next for the for hard news after the break so to stay with us that's watching all just. doing this for the benefit of saddam. so maybe they see the importance of guys. who witnessed documentaries that open your eyes. at this time on al-jazeera. and monday put it well on. u.s. and british companies have announced the biggest discovery of natural gas in west africa but what to do with these untapped natural resources is already a source of heated debate nothing much has changed they still spend most of their days looking forward to form a dry riverbed like this one five years on the syrians still feel battered or even those who managed to escape their country haven't truly been able to escape the york. when the news breaks when people need to be heard in the stalls and lucky to good to me. there are new to guard us and my brain and this story needs to be turned asia's largest catholic country is witnessing a dramatic rise in teenage pregnancy al-jazeera has teams on the ground to bring the mood winning documentaries. and live news on air and online. the human cost of wall nearly two hundred syrians are killed in just three days as the government and its russian battle has increased their attacks from the. hello i'm.