ineffective that's the verdict on the world's response to the ethnic cleansing of million miles range of people plus. many of you asked what will happen so i want to reassure you there will be nothing. amid growing allegations of corruption the israeli prime minister is confident that he won't be charged. and north korea nothing of a arrived in pyongyang shying to join with the south to compete in the winter olympics. but first the syrian government backed by russia is continuing to bomb and shell the two areas of the country that remain in rebel hands in a three day period almost two hundred people have been killed in a single which is close to the capital. masculist and in the northeastern province of italy had thirty four people were killed on wednesday in eastern that's where four hundred thousand people are trapped without food or medicine the government has laid siege to this area since twenty thirteen and it's a similar story for italy where least four people have died in the ongoing government offensive which is backed by russia russian bombing of it live in fact has increased ever since one of its planes was shot down and the pilot killed by rebels on saturday and the irony is the both. a supposed to be so-called deescalation zones where violence was supposed to be much reduced then the harder reports now from beirut. 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 are coming under fire people there are saying russian and syrian government aircraft have been carried 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 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 hutto the enclave just outside the capital has been heavily bombarded since mid december but the past few days have been the worst many believed pro-government forces are pushing for a decisive outcome. they want thanks that iran are me not fight them everywhere. 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 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 securing the north to south highway and lifting the siege on to loyalist towns. in the forces have been struggling to bring eastern 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. a new report by amnesty international says the ethnic cleansing campaign against the rahane in all of me amal continues unabated the group interviewed nineteen of the thousands of refugees who've arrived in bangladesh in december and january fleeing from northern rock states almost all of them describe how minimal security forces are denying their communities access to fields confiscating their livestock and setting markets it's a campaign amnesty international describes as forced starvation there is interviewed say the abduction of young girls and women is commonplace the rights group warns these abductions raise serious concerns about rape and sexual slavery refugees also describe how security forces set up checkpoints along escape routes to bangladesh where they robbed them of their valuables and subjected women to humiliating body searches. i'm misty concludes that the continue to solicit on the dignity of the ranges shows that the international response has been weak and ineffective and that the agreed repatriation of refugees from bangor this to me i'm a private chill well met wells is a see the a crisis advisor in the city and the author is the ripple. 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 for 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 blocked 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 ring of villages across northern rakhine state. israeli media is saying that the police a jew to recommend prime minister benjamin netanyahu be indicted on charges of corruption mr netanyahu and his wife are suspected of receiving illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors including a major hollywood producer he's also alleged to have been involved in a deal with a leading newspaper which would have weakened a rival day in return for favorable coverage the prime minister denies the allegations and says he's confident the attorney general will not pursue the case more now from our correspondent in iran come prime minister benjamin netanyahu has long been defined 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 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 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 will end with nothing was going to happen next is it likely that 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 it gets legal in any kind of legal case let's see what happens if the attorney general decides to take case against the prime minister. rescue crews continue to search in hope of finding more survivors in the rubble of the magnitude six point four earthquake that hit the eastern part of taiwan on tuesday at least nine people were killed more than two hundred sixty others were injured dozens of people are still missing firefighters in the port city of say they can hear several people trapped in buildings that are on the brink of collapse rush mcbride has more from. teetering on its side this one building is now the focus of this search and rescue operation as rescue teams are back inside now looking for any survivors but as each hour goes by inevitably hopes begin to dim of finding more survivors the problem the rescue teams are facing is not only the weather here but also there have been continuing aftershocks since the initial quake they continued through wednesday now thankfully here thursday in taiwan the aftershocks do seem to have abated and rescue teams are back in there a small city has grown up around this building of media rescue teams that have been brought in from all different parts of taiwan to help in this rescue operation and the teams are also being assisted by putting up more metal trucks to try to support this building that have been fears at times of the building collapsing completely now it seems that they have put in place the props to allow the rescue operation to continue. nine pro-democracy supporters in bangkok to report to police after they were charged by thailand's military john following a protest last month thirty two other demonstrates is a jew to appear as well they've been calling for elections and then and to military rule let's go live now to wayne hay our correspondent who's in bangkok who may not believe that you're actually at the police station where these pro-democracy protesters are due to appear what are the charges what have they been charged with . yes well this stems from a small but it's quite a symbolic protest that they held in the hearts of the capital city bangkok late last month that was only around forty or so people so out of that nine leaders the people who organized that protest have been charged with sedition obviously quite a serious charge that carries a maximum jail term of seven years and at least thirty others have been charged with illegal assembly which face which could result in jail terms of up to six months and a fine so what will happen today is that the group will report to the police behind me some of those people have already gone inside they will hear the charges against them formally and then they will find out particularly the nine who have been charged with sedition whether or not the police will try to detain them pending further investigation and pending of course a trial down the line and if this is representative of how the military authorities are going to treat people who simply want to return to democracy in thailand. well i think over the past four years since the military staged a coup they have been quite effective the government at stamping out any overt political dissent there is a lore in place that bans political gatherings of five people or more so many arrests have been made many people have been charged and jailed for quite some time and this was just another example of that but there has been a notion noticeable shift so far this year we're only one month into the year of course but there is a noticeable change in thailand so far we've seen several small protests popping up in the capital and in other parts of thailand again they're small but they are symbolic because of what we've seen over the past four years that protest organizers really haven't had a chance to get anything going because of those very strict laws every time they try to stage a protest in bangkok or other parts of the country the police and the military are there very very quickly. bring that protest to so there are signs things are changing but there are also signs that this military government is becoming very jittery because they keep postponing the return to democracy several times since the coup in two thousand and fourteen they have said and the election will be happening only four postponements to be announced the latest is the government is saying that there will be an election in november this year but already there are indications that they could be yet another delay all right wayne thank you very much indeed correspondent live in bangkok still to come here at al-jazeera one man sentenced to death thirty others jailed for lynching a student in pakistan. and the president's chief of staff has had full confidence and trust in his abilities and his performance another key donald trump aide is forced to leave the white house this one accused of abusing to ex-wife. they'll be more trouble on the roads i fear in the us while sister got cold air up here and another was being fed up from the science is obviously a lie where it joins we usually put a front in there because it's the front of car and this case is doing just that is bringing the cold and snow to the northeast corner and rain to the south all gone through is an overnight feature because you wake up with all the gras and contempt is just single figures from new york time towards well probably northern georgia lands about thirteen then the next streak of snow is already coming through british columbia and montana and stretching down towards the western plains it misses california altogether but that of course will follow the same sort of pass through northern nebraska to illinois chicago minus two knots a sniper tension here not in the appalachians still looking fine here as like cloud gathering on the gulf shores the showers possible here i think shows of right even possibly thunderstorms but south of that is still fairly quiet you don't pick up much from the satellite picture a very shallow shower clouds just hitting the coast of nicaragua honduras and possibly costa rica that's true for the next two days that's the right sort of thing for this time year was temp is steadily in the breeze in the middle twenty's for the smaller islands maybe thirty one in kingston jamaica. for the nomadic jock a tribe survival is about reaching their destination if we don't hurry will never be able to get a top up in the storm we follow the mongolian herdsmen on a treacherous migration. and dangerous to the ices of them as they strive to preserve their traditional way of life a little bit longer are sometimes luser cattle in the they will die of cold or because of the storm risking you don't know mongolia at this time on al-jazeera. part traverses think of the top stories here it out there almost two hundred people have been killed in just three days in two specific parts of syria which are continued to be held by rebels intense air and ground offensive by government forces and their russian allies are responsible thirty four people died in the most recent attack that was on wednesday at least in pewter that's near damascus and four others died in the blue province and imus international report says ethnic cleansing against the ranger continues unabated in me and mob refugees who've arrived in bangladesh in recent months described a systemic campaign of false starvation kidnappings and such an. israeli media says police will recommend the prime minister benjamin netanyahu be indicted on corruption charges the prime minister and his wife are suspected of receiving illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors. the north korean athletes have arrived in the south ahead of the winter olympics in chang leading the delegation is expected to be kim jong un sr and one of the largest peace time crossings of the korean border a group of two hundred eighty north koreans traveled to the south on wednesday kim jong un sister came. as expected to arrive in china saying she's not there just yet but the real concern is over in north korean official listed in the u.n. travel ban genspace has more from the u.n. in new york there's been a great deal of attention on the fact that kim jong un sr 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 through 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. we're going go live now to our correspondent natasha going to aim she's in one of the elim pick since south korea so you know simpy china. tasho you're in another one of the locations where the games is due to take place but first before we talk about the games it's talk about what we understand to be a display of haulage power on the part of the north koreans putting aside the diplomacy in the in the soft power because there's been a big military parade we understand. martina it's expected that the north koreans will hold a massive military parade as they do every year this is called north korea army building day and today is actually the seventh seventieth anniversary of the establishment of the north korean army called the korean people's army and it's expected as it does every year that it will roll out thousands of troops and showcase its weaponry it did so last year it showcased some missiles and the thinking is that perhaps this year it will also try to out some long range missiles this is an opportunity for the north koreans to show its military might it's to independence also to be a sort of defiant country because the south koreans have not been happy about the prospect of this parade being held one day before the opening of the chuang winter olympics they view it as a provocation especially at a time when overtures are being made for the two koreas to come together and rican sile are reconcile rather in any event in the last several days there has been imagery intelligence showing the mobilization of about thirteen thousand troops armored personnel carriers and tanks in preparation for this parade but what else what else is different this year is that no international media is allowed last year the international media was allowed to attend this year perhaps martine in an attempt to turn down the dial on some of the heat north korea has been taking for staging this military parade it is close to the international media north korea will be releasing images some analysts say it also allows them the opportunity to release doctored imagery apparently the north koreans have done that in the past but in any event this parade does come at a time when south koreans in general some are saying why they are happy about engagement with north korea they wonder if perhaps the north koreans are hijacking the pyongyang winter olympics at a time when the international spotlight should be on south korea all right thank you natasha good name there live in gang. and as i say that's in south korea where the u.s. vice president is due to go quite soon but right now he is in japan he's talking to u.s. troops that. base just outside take here he's then going to get on to air force two and go to pyongyang for those winter olympic games is just listen see what he's saying and do that commander in chief you saw here you go to three months ago. we're going to continue to rebuild our military we're going to restore the arsenal of democracy and we will once again give our soldiers sailors airmen marines and coast guard the resources and training you need to accomplish your mission and come home safe that's our solemn promise. so my best. addressing u.s. soldiers just before he heads off to south korea for those winter olympics now a pakistan court and sentence one man to death thirty others to prison for the lynching of a student he was falsely accused of blasphemy in april hundreds of students drugged to muscle kong out of his university dorm in the northern city of ma done he was beaten before being shot dead and his body needs related come off as. and then did cater jim called haring the high profile marshalls on 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 redoubts 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 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 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 saying that's ravi is a correspondent another of a crisis in pakistan he's been speaking to the family. 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 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 my toe or diminish when ish these last because if we were not if these rules in these last promised. and we were not will make peace so i think there are more and more michels will be killed in this war more and more mashal 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 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 even allow people to lower their head again and the person we're coming things any kind of a cry so my answer is no we will not know any one particular one of 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. man despite the fact that shawn was 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. same bus ravi al-jazeera more than. a white house official who works closely with president trump has resigned after his two ex-wives claim that being physically abused the white house has refused to say if it knew about the allegations against rob porter before he was appointed and if it impacted on 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 is that regis and false 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 chief of staff and 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 is being 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 of the president's sight has not been decided alan fischer al-jazeera washington. let's have a look at the top stories here it out as there are only two hundred people have been killed in the path three days in rebel held parts of syria after an intense air and ground offensive by government forces and the russian allies thirty four people died in the most recent attack on wednesday in these and that's near damascus four others died in live province. and then the c. international report says the ethnic cleansing campaign against the rangers continues unabated in me m r refugees who have recently arrived in bangladesh are describing a systemic campaign of force starvation kidnapping and sexual violence israeli media has reported that police will recommend benjamin netanyahu be indicted on corruption charges the prime minister and his wife a suspected of receiving illicit gifts from billionaire benefactors including a major hollywood producer mr netanyahu denies the allegations and says he's confident the attorney general won't pursue the case. 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 of 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 knesset that about half of the police's recommendations and with nothing. rescue crews continue to search for survivors in the rubble of the magnitude six point four earthquake that hit east in taiwan on tuesday at least nine people have died and more than two hundred sixty others have been injured but dozens of people are still missing firefighters in quali n. say they can hear people trapped in buildings that are on the brink of collapse the leader of south africa's governing party says he's in direct discussions with president zuma over a possible transition of leadership cyril ramaphosa has vowed for a speedy resolution and says the talks will be concluded in the coming days. and those are the headlines as the world's best athletes prepare for the winter olympics the north and south koreans will march under unified flag and compete on a joint women's hockey team we'll bring you the results at the end the excitement of the seventeen day games the beyond chang's twenty eighteen which are olympics on elm two zero. zero. zero. zero zero zero. lol lol. lol. lol. lol. lol lol. lol lol lol. lol.