defends a former white house aide the qs of domestic violence angry protests so far as far to suspend its election campaign in colombia. and the space x. rockets ahead fears in russia that their legacy could be under threat. and i'm tatiana doha with all the sports will have more from pyongyang including the court of arbitration for sport for jack to the last minute appeals of forty seven russian athletes and coaches who were waiting to be allowed to compete and more later in the program. a very warm welcome to the news hour the u.s. vice president mike pence turned a call childer to the sister of the north korean leader as the winter olympics got underway in pyongyang chang but as nuclear tensions simmered south korea's leader did break the diplomatic ice shaking hands with kim jong that's a good name reports now from south korea. a step towards reconciliation for the first time since the korean war more than half a century ago a member of north korea's ruling family is welcomed in the south the arrival of leader kim jong sr is fascinating many south koreans kim jong has quickly become a power broker in another historic moment south korean president mungy in greeted her at the opening ceremony before she sat near u.s. vice president mike pence the two didn't appear to exchange greetings then the moment many had been waiting for the. north and south korean athletes marched under a unified flag as a celebration of ethnic nationalism it's the first time they've done that at an international sporting event in eleven years moon said the pyong chang winter olympics offer a meaningful opportunity for a world divided by conflicts to unite critics say the north korean charm offensive is only intended to advance its agenda and norsk any us decided to look nice for a vial of this option if you would use chance chances that president krom be authorizing me to take a ration bot as a program of ease that made fundamentals have not changed most canadians are determined to have and of missed i.c.b.m. into continental body stick missiles capable of delivering a nuclear strike as a continuum for the united states in the run up to the games the north koreans have absorbed much of the spotlight first by agreeing to participate and then by sending a high level delegation to the south this week american diplomat said they would soon unveil the toughest economic sanctions against north korea yet while also saying a diplomatic solution was the focus. for now this is a moment for south koreans to show the world what a dynamic country they live in during the opening ceremony spectators were taken back in time to show the history of the korean people and what we're going to hold their relentless pursuit of peace. i hope that with north korean athletes participation this could be peace lympics and i hope we can achieve reunification between the south and the north. the mood here is good as south korea is hosting the olympics and athletes are coming from around the world good opportunity to promote south korea. and the hope is this will set the stage down only for a sporting spectacular but historic breakthrough with their northern neighbors. i'll just zero south korea. joining me live from washington d.c. is greg scarlatti the executive director of the committee for human rights in north korea greg a very warm welcome to the program good to have your company how significant was it that these two nations walked together under that flag or are they as was said in the piece they're just playing nice. thank you julie this has happened before of the summer olympics in two thousand and two thousand and four and also at the winter olympics in italy in two thousand and six what is different now is that south korea the republic of korea is the host of the swinger olympic games in some and the host the republic of korea is not flying its own national flag it's flying the blue against the white background peninsula flag the republic of korea is not playing its role in a national anthem they played. an old and beautiful korean folk song instead of course it's old done for the sake of friendship olympic spirit in a korean re consultation and these are all good things there is however a silent majority in south korea that is quite disenchanted with the seeming abandonment of distinctive features of the republic of korea as national identity so great that was going to be my next question all this the a time like this there's more and more talk around this idea of you know korean unification but it is that what people want. certainly unification is not a matter of choice it's a matter of destiny for the people of korea koreans from the south and north have been separated for more than seventy years there are of course marked differences between koreans from the two sides of the d.m.z. due to the different ideologies is the different evolution of the two koreas for the past seven decades that said prior to their separation koreans from the south and north shared the same culture the same language the same history and lived under the same political system for one thousand years one millennium that is a very long time that's said especially people in south korea have been learning a lot especially about the german model korean people in south korea of very concerned about the high cost of reunification in particular the younger people in south korea are more concerned about the cost and perhaps less interested in unification over the short term create scarlatina joining me there from washington d.c. greg thanks very much still to come on the al-jazeera news hour egypt launches an operation against what is described as terrorist and criminal groups in the sinai peninsula demands for an investigation into claims of a massacre of range of muslims in the in mockups. on pouring in sweden where five hundred years of history could be on the side of the swedes as they continue that bottle against norway at the winter olympics. president trump has come to the defense of a white house aide who quits after being accused of domestic violence well porter resigned earlier this week after two form the wives made separate allegations the verbal and physical abuse. as you probably know he says he's innocent and i think you have to remember that he said very strongly yesterday that he's innocent so you'll have to talk to him about that but we absolutely wish him well did a very good job while he was at the white house. in washington hi there alan so just how controversial then is trump's the feds this former aide well it certainly fits in with the pattern of donald trump standing up for people who believe have been loyal to him you'll remember michael flynn who resigned as national security advisor well he went on to say that he was a good man should have been forced out of his job some people would even suggest he went as far as trying to get the f.b.i. to drop an investigation into him then roy moore the alabama senate race remember that he was accused of assaulting a young women some of them under the age of consent and yet donald trump did not condemn not at all in fact he said roy moore says he's innocent and we've got to believe that. he's standing beside rob porter the the issue there of course is that there was no wads of concern for people who claimed that he had abused them both physically and verbally and it really goes against the time here in america when the me too movement is growing in power and influence and in strength with women finding their voice this was an odd position for donald trump to take now there will be supporters who think that he's doing the right thing but there will be many more critics saying that he got the situation wrong and i lead the trump has also said the white house is going to release this letter from the democrats on this alleged f.b.i. bias against russia pull. well we're still waiting for that he said that a couple of hours ago but the fact he's saying we're going to release a letter rather than a document would suggest that we're not going to see this ten page document what is this all about well if you go back to a week ago remember we had the republicans issuing this supposedly bombshell four page memo on the f.b.i. inquiry into donald trump's alleged collusion with russia during the presidential election that turned out to be not very much and the democrats had a ten page rebuttal that they wanted to put out but the first of all the committee in the house voted against doing that and then when they said they would do it it went to the white house for donald trump to declassify and release no that is going to go through a process which could have checked with the f.b.i. and also the justice department it would seem that if we are getting a letter rather than this ten page memo that has been caught up somewhere in the system and we're not going to see that ten page document in the coming days the difficulty for donald trump is that when people were saying should you release the republican memo the white house is very clear or yes or very much for transparency everything that should go out there for people to make their own decision and these things should absolutely be released so if the scene is blocking it or delaying it that is another thing this friday that will play by the way for donald trump allegation that live from washington d.c. alan thank you. the u.s. president has signed off on a spending bill officially ending the government shutdown after just a few hours the stopgap measure will extend government funding to watch the twenty third kimmie how things are from washington. with the stroke of a pen u.s. president donald trump and the government shutdown that lasted more than five hours while most americans were asleep we're going about this stinks to tell you the truth most of the drama occurred in the u.s. senate as members of congress debated lifting strange limits on government spending the vote to keep the government running held up by a single seven republican rand paul who says government spending is out of control everybody's getting more spending. the military the right's getting more military spending the left is getting more well for spending and you're getting stuck with the bill the late night debate played out for hours of revenge only passing in the upper chamber but still needing approval in the house of representatives the deal raises spending caps by roughly three hundred billion dollars over two years one hundred sixty five billion will go to the military one hundred thirty one billion going to domestic spending including does that aster relief programs but this also means the deal will send the deficit soaring to more than a trillion dollars by next year and it doesn't include a key democrat demand protection for illegal immigrants known as dreamers brought to the united states as children still without legal status and potentially facing deportation if congress doesn't act but the leading house republican promised immigration can only be addressed once the government is fully funded i'm confident we can bring a bipartisan solution the floor that can get signed into law and solve this problem the program to protect dreamers was eliminated by president donald trump last year and congress has just reeks left to legalize their status or many could face deportation kimberlee health kit al-jazeera washington. colombia's former rebel group the farkas temporarily suspended its political campaign because of angry protests. presidential and legislative election campaigns were suspended on friday the group became a political party last year when fighters demobilization out of a peace deal with the colombian government and historic move that ended more than fifty two years of war but many colombians are still angry at the group believe its members should be present. when we do we have decided to suspend campaign activities until we have sufficient guarantees we call on all parties and political movements without exception to make a statement rejecting this type of aggression we invite you to meet us to the forum to grieve a game of clean roots the charity also firm has denied allegations that it tried to cover up its aid workers paying for sex during a mission to haiti oxfam was part of a massive international relief effort in haiti after the devastating earthquake in ports of prince back in two thousand and ten the times newspaper here in the u.k. alleges that the charity was tipped off by a whistleblower about some of its senior staff they're using prostitutes some of whom could have been on the rage the charity allowed three men to resign and sacked for for gross misconduct well in a statement also says its primary aim was always to retire and take action against those involved it says we publicly announced the greeting to the media both the investigation and the action which took as a result the organization said four members of staff were dismissed as a result of the investigation and three including the country director resigned before the end of the investigation it says allegations that underage girls may have been involved were not proven. it's a question of poverty it's a question of differences in power i mean basically foreigners can come into a country like haiti and do essentially whatever they want without any kind of accountability and sometimes that involves running it projects badly and sometimes that involves actual predatory behavior i mean for you know individual haitians who are just trying to do everything they can to survive it's not surprising that some people would find themselves women in some cases possibly obviously we don't know specifically in this case but in other cases underage women in a position where they have to they feel like they have to do these kinds of things to survive i mean the thing that's most important in haiti is to help people build their own lives to help people get money and build their own incomes and then help create a state that's capable of holding people accountable when they commit crimes like this one person's been killed and one hundred twenty two injured after two bombs when they detonated during friday prayers at a mosque in the libyan city of benghazi officials say both devices were planted in separate rooms inside two weeks ago around thirty five people were killed by a twin bombing at a mosque in the very same city egyptian army's launched what it's calling a comprehensive operation against terrorist and criminal groups in the sinai peninsula making the announcement in a televised statement an army spokesman says it will see an air forces covering central sinai and the areas in egypt's nile delta and western desert hospitals have been put on high alert and ordered to prepare extra beds and staff to deal with emergencies and medical about evacuations led a response to omar sure who is a professor of security studies at doha institute he says there's a political dimension to the new offensive. if you saw the pattern from twenty thirteen on words you'll find the scale ations happening with one major political events are coming up so when the coup happened in july twenty third dean you had an escalation following in september and the whole idea part of the coup and that is all that of the new regime coming is that security and counterterrorism needs to be implemented partly in sinai but also elsewhere the interesting part about the communique of the armed forces is that they're not talking just about sinai they saying that there's an escalation in central delta and there is in this creation in the western deserts which are the two other areas that you saw some kind of political violence happening in the i think it has to do a lot with the forthcoming presidential elections i think these escalations and the level of. men and you know the ship the sinai is not new cutting the you know suspending the internet communications blocking roads this is all not new to has been happening since twenty fifteen and probably before twenty fifteen as well so i'm not sure if there's something new or there's a measured saying that you know the strongman is back he's trying to secure the region and therefore mobilize for him in the next presidential elections which is happening next month. your state department is demanding that an investigation be launched after the reuters news agency published a story about the slaughtering of range of muslims in me in march. the events leading up to the killing of ten will hinge a man and his witness testimonies from buddhist villages as well as security personnel and a warning judge a silver us report contains images some viewers may find distressing. it's a chilling and detailed account of what can only be described as a premeditated massacre the photographs provided to reuters by a buddhist village elder don't lie the first the news agency says was taken on september first and shows the ten ruhi captives lined up in a row the second taken the day after shows their slain bodies in a mass grave their ages range from seventeen to forty five among them were students fishermen farmers shop owners fathers they were all part of the same community from the village of indian in myanmar's northern rakhine state but a little bit about the building when they were taken them away they said do not worry we will send your sons back soon we have taken them for me till i die hard on all that you know of indian six thousand rocking chair remained in the village as of october and surprisingly their relatives are reluctant to move back. i would not go back there how can i go and they killed our husbands we have all listened babies how will they survive myanmar's military says the ten men belong to a group of two hundred terrorists that had attacked them earlier but accounts given to the news agency by both ranger and buddhist witnesses deny such large scale attack ever happens in the village the writer story draws for the first time on interviews with buddhist villagers who confessed to torching rohingya homes bury bodies and killing muslims it also marks the first time soldiers and paramilitary police have been implicated by testimony from security personnel themselves the two reporters behind the story wallow in your story who are both myanmar nationals and were detained on december twelfth for allegedly obtaining confidential documents a statement released by the military on january tenth confirms what they were preparing to report ten write in demand had been massacred in that village their release coincided. judicial request by prosecutors to charge the two journalists under the official secrets act we've been denied bail and be convicted police up to fourteen years in prison for the silver zero who will pay two hundred forty five million dollars of its own shares to the self driving car technology company way mo to settle a legal dispute over trade secrets were able sought at the legal action last year and had originally suggested a settlement claim of five hundred million dollars saving one of its former engineers who became chief of over self driving car project took thousands of confidential documents with him the settlement is also said to include an agreement which ensures none of the confidential information is incorporated into birds hardware and software. senate also physician policies have been demonstrating in a call for free and fair elections ahead of the twenty nine thousand presidential vote comes a week before the end of the trial of the mayor of dakar and all physicians challenger to president nicolas sarkozy and his following the story for us. for. one day when i gather. their election ahead of the presidential election that will take place in two thousand and nine. elections are year and a half away so why is this happening right now well they say here it's because the government is imprisoning their political leaders in the last few years we've seen the former president of. being in prison. and then there is. the mayor of the car and we supposedly also be seeing corruption charges he says this is politically motivated now we spoke to this person of the government and the representative of the ruling party and this is what he had to say. the president sound is a real democrat he's results of the election was simple can you did he's ambition is not to be the only can you that democracy has gone through to a successful and peaceful transitions currently we are heading to the polls with a party with a great record and the weak a position in difficulty. this is the first time that the government has allowed a protest since the parliamentary elections and there's been demonstrations for the past few weeks across various west african countries then show the news here when togo even in tunisia some are protesting against the rising cost of living others are calling for political change and so this protest all those that ago is able and economically sound has to be taken in the light of what's happening throughout the region young africans are tired of being ignored taking to the streets in order to get their voices heard that russians are proud of their long history of space exploration yuri gagarin was the first person to travel into space back in one thousand nine hundred sixty one and the soviet space agency was also behind the first woman in space the first space walk itself well the russian are seven rockets that launched the first act like a still servicing the international space station but with this week's space x. launch russia fears losing its commercial edge in the modern space race or a shallow reports not from a school. the pitches and the achievements amazed millions of people around the world but space x. is falcon heavy rocket launch with its gracefully landing boosters didn't seem to impress russia's state space agency roscoe's most they dismissed it as little more than a p.r. stunt for either on musk's tesla electric cars if you have noticed ross cosmo said on a russian radio station this launch went up not with some empty dummy or a load which he wouldn't regret losing in a failure but with one specific. there's some truth in what ross cosmo says ilan musk is among other things a master of promoting his various products but thrust kos-mos also seems to be covering its eyes to the main point space x. is a space technology game changer and it's a game some russians fear they're likely to lose because he will. reveal his successes in fact that he made the process less expensive he's workers are to be used multiple times therefore he doesn't have to build a new rocket every time and the price is lot he can take a satellite into orbit cheaper and we'll lose it in this competition because our kids can be used only once igor corage and go is one of a number of deeply concerned russian defense and space analysts he's concerned for russia's share of the space market and concerned space x. will benefit the u.s. military the workhorses of russia's state space program like this or use here suddenly feel like aging remnants from a different era which they are really so used first launched in one thousand nine hundred sixty six a new cosmodrome called rostock germany and russia's far east has brought some modernization but millions of dollars have gone missing from the accounts because my dreams corruption scandals highlight the country's problem with self sabotage even on projects of national priority russia's illustrious history of space exploration is still a few thoughts of national prize but as the dawn breaks on a new era one of commercial space travel russia will have to match innovative nimble relatively cheap operators like space x. if it's to stay competitive. that's a huge political technological challenge and one the country is only just waking up to rory chalons how does iraq moscow still to come on the al-jazeera news hour mexico deploys thousands of extra police to combat a believing mind every where on patrol with some of them on the beaches of cancun i reckon the more of women candidates campaign for seats in true long elections in sport the climate specialist take center stage on day four of the divine two i find out what happened the titanic. however got some really wet weather moving across the mediterranean that the moment that there were a cloud which has been developing brewing up and bring some big down poles towards the fos out basically integration it'll just notice where little further east was and north was as we go through the next few days some of the weather too up towards the northwest or sense of snow on the leading edge of this weather system here that's now making its way through for saturday should be dry across much of france the low countries western parts of germany but the really heavy rain that's going to make its way in across holland pushing into weil's western part of it and also into scotland the nine celsius in london temperatures started to pick up nine degrees to four matric we got that weather down into the southeastern corner which will make its way further northeast was pushing up towards the black sea so bulgaria roumania easing up towards crying seeing some disturbed weather right sleet and some snow the way some snow say into scandinavia sliding down into a chimney for sunday myself this in london by sunday afternoon not just some wintry weather still in the mix as we go on through the latter part of the weekend some heavy rain though a moderate pushing up into the northwest of spain by the states of fourteen celsius the snow will be gone some outerwear making its way into the northwest of africa to rip out the sixteen. it was oriol upon which modern day venezuela was a stop. for over a century this lucrative resorts has divided the people. cursed with the world's largest reserves. charting the impact of industrialization and the legacies of its common with leaders we shed light on the troubles afflicting venezuela today the big picture the battle for venezuela at this time on the. news is happening faster than ever before from different places from different people and you need to be part of that you need to be able to reach people wherever they are and that means being across all social media platforms this is where our audience lives as well as in front of a t.v. they're on the smartphone they're on the tablet they're on the confusion. and that's the way out of all the true media network. they remind our top stories they were south korea's president has used the opening of the winter olympics to reach out to pyongyang shaking hands with the north koreans. the u.s. vice president mike pence avoided any contact us president all champus come to the defense of the white house save his quit after being accused of domestic violence well portia resigned earlier this week after two former wives made separate allegations of verbal and physical abuse colombia's former rebels but the fox has temporarily suspended its election campaign for security reasons protest is angry over past violence have targeted the. became a political party in the last two years. the mexican marines have arrested on a tourist drug cartel leader with a five million dollar bounty on his head or similar. is the leader of the last six us cartel stop chaos across much of mexico this drug trafficking operations it's a coup for the government which is also deploying thousands of federal police officers to combat a huge surge in violence in the country more than twenty five thousand people were murdered in mexico last year that is the highest number in decades when january five thousand additional police officers were sent to several tourist cities where violence linked to drug cartels and organized crime has been high most of them have been deployed to tijuana which borders san diego in california the rest are in baja california soar along the tourist areas of the pass those cowboys can could show punching go and the state of journalist school as well as the state of. the largest there is manuel reports from cancun. police and military forces or holding a routine checkpoint in cancun it responds to a homicide rate that has risen three hundred percent in the last fourteen months this driver was detained after officers found a half dozen mobile phones and a handgun in his vehicle but even with the cooperation military state and local police law enforcement agencies are struggling to fight crime by your presence there could also related to organized crime they are committed by criminal groups competing for control over all other criminal groups all of it is related to the sale of drugs. we rode along with the division of federal police officers patrolling a popular beach mexico's peak tourism season is fast approaching and the government is dispatching some five thousand federal agents across the country for tourists looking for a white sand in turquoise waters however the. violence seems far away the so i feel very safe i walked around late yesterday and it was very calm and i haven't noticed a lot of bad things happening or anything. can cool draws in billions of dollars from tourism every year once the sun sets bars and nightclubs are packed with party goers but just a short drive away there is another more dangerous side to the city. we're in a residential neighborhood near the center of town and police have blocked off this road behind me after the shooting took place only about one hour ago police tell us that two people were shot and the gunmen fled sadly this is a scene that plays out on a near daily basis here in cannes koon the district attorney says there are one to two murders on average every day civil society groups or youth that the recent increase in police hasn't served everyone equally. for their government to protect . hotel industry but what about the ones that work in that industry and then return to the areas where crime. prevails walking along the hotel district the two sides of the city become apparent a nightly patrol by federal police makes porn to risk you'll save but it also keeps the nearby beilenson out of sight and out of mind and ended up on the i just see to cancun mexico. journalists and all sort of gangster war struck dollars killing fields on the new politics of latin america and he joins me now from mexico city so a very warm welcome to the program good to have your company can we just flex for a second on this major arrest that's been made how significant is the. it's significant you know it was one of the outstanding major drug lords left of the set is that the set is cartel have been weakened a lot in recent years and also there's been so many big arrests over the last five or six years they these felt that a big impact law before one interesting thing is that correct actually happened in the neighborhood where i am now rome or mexico city this is a fairly safe middle class neighborhood in mexico but this was where the drug lord was hiding out and where the marines went in and now. what about. this wave of said will place in it do you think it is the answer even part of the answer to the so-called war on drugs. well it's problematic when you send out the federal police because the federal police themselves can commit human rights abuses including murder and so forth of suspects or civilians and sometimes they can have shipped out with gangsters and other people get killed sometimes it can and reduce in the short term by as by having the presence of federal police there in these areas can stop murders but you have to look at the fact that president pena nieto of mexico i'm only has this year left in office until the end of november elections in july he's dealing with an enormous record number of murders and he has to do something in a way and the very few options and this is one of the few options there are you in the lady in the piece that we just saw there he made an extremely valid point that you know they feel lots of residents of these areas that have to return to work from hotels that are being protected potentially by this policy still have to go to these areas a deep and divisive crime so they're asking the question you know how are we protected and i just wonder which are the worst areas that are affected so it's on the most violent areas in mexico are colima the state of killing which you made in the last day that the murder rate there is about one hundred fourteen a hundred thousand so that makes it one of the most dangerous place in the world a massive place with a lot of cocaine and war ingredients to crystal meth coming in and these major cartels fighting it but the lady made a good point i mean you have these mobilizations parties for public perception the government is more interested in the image of mexico and protecting truest areas which are worth billions of dollars to mexico rather than trying to solve the problem in these poor neighborhoods which are very very deep rooted problems you know in korea there joining me from mexico city one thank you. now in part to al-jazeera is investigation into violence on the streets of mexico we travel to acapulco on the country's pacific coast were dealt as a seeing an epidemic of mental illness caused by constant gangland killings that's on saturday night right here on al-jazeera syrian government warplanes are continuing to bomb the rebel held area of eastern ghouta it's what's been the deadliest week since twenty fifteen more than two hundred thirty people have been killed in the last forty eight agencies say there are unable to help the estimated four hundred thousand people who live in the besieged on the area just outside of the capital damascus is running desperately low on food medicine and also medical equipment. well the syrian government is also carrying out a major offensive in the province in the northwest of the country the white helmet say one of their senses sim concha could was targeted by air strikes the u.n. has renewed its appeal for a month long humanitarian truce to allow aid to be delivered to go to and also to. iraqi forces say they're making advances in their operation to secure northern areas near the border with iran they're fighting him in the kurdish group called the white flags are believed to have ties well i still the area is a proposed truck quit for oil deliveries between iran and iraq osama bin reports. just before sunrise iraqi soldiers prepare for their latest offensive after pushing out isis from northern iraq they're securing the border from other armed groups and smugglers. this drive is aimed at defeating the remnants of isis and the kurdish who called themselves the white banners or white flags all sections of iraq's security forces are involved and. we are here in co on camp in the fifth brigade of the federal police operations have started by the army popular mobilization forces and federal police to clean up all of the region and clean up all of as well as the participation of the rapid response forces and then the soldiers say they made steady gains despite booby traps left for them to see them and we found so many improvised explosive devices or i.e.d. on the main roads planted by the enemy before their withdrawal to hinder our advance. the hungry mountains and how huge a region was the smuggling route even before i said captured the area iraqi forces have talked since last year about controlling the border town of two score a month to after seizing areas in problems from goodish mirka fighters discord is in a strategic position because it straddles the oil rich border between iran and iraq as well as the iraqi province of dean. the area is a proposed transit route for trucks carrying oil iraq's government agreed in december to transport crude oil from group who to call refinery in iran in return up to sixty thousand barrels per day over in oil will be trucked to sit in iraq government leaders in baghdad have been reluctant to use the oil infrastructure of northern iraq is kurdish regional government. in the last few days the iraqi troops say their operation help secure some villages despite losing control of the area the kurdish regional government supports the offensive and says iranian not iraqi kurds and members of the white flags want to know what i can safely say that is now safe and we will continue helping the displaced to return to their areas there is good coordination with the peshmerga that's why thank god the operations have got a very smooth. shia militias who are now part of the iraqi security force have been accused of causing demographic shifts and of stopping people from returning home into the rary is iraqi army commanders say to scream out who is being secured to allow displaced people to return critics however say the well being of the people of iraq seems to be a lower priority than the focus on oil and its profits some of the. others there. a french singer who became an internet sensation following her performance on france's the voice has quit the talent show after being criticized for comments she made on social media mennella bits and faces a public backlash over tweets she posted and twenty sixteen following the attacks in normandy she will face but the real terrorists are our government to send was or has been widely condemned for her comments some say she's being targeted because she's a muslim the same as apologize and says her messages have been taken out of context . that's a colombo where more women than ever are hoping to get elected in sri lanka voters are choosing representatives and more than three hundred local government elections on saturday a change in the law requires women to fill a quarter of all seats they're not finding it easy as men elfin on this reports now from. entering the latest political race with a bang rosy sennight former mrs world diplomat and parliamentarian is giving to become the builder of colombo she's the first woman to even try i strongly believe that you re cannot have democracy if you do not address the needs of the maids majority of the population the majority of the population sri lanka i have him in she's one of more than seventy thousand women contesting local government elections a record number of women are standing for positions in three hundred forty institutions a recent change of the law has made it mandatory to have twenty five percent of women in local government more than twelve times the number but now some only goodness in the marxist people's liberation front says the changes will give more deserving women a chance in our country it was a minister's daughter or siblings or those from political families and politics. but we think honest women should come into politics where laws are made this election can do that. it's a view that this vote in colombo endorsed you this hype time that this you learn comes the politicians at least there are so many women there should give a list of the women. it's the first time in decades that elections to all local bodies around the country are being held on a single day the stakes are high for all political parties going into this local government election where the president was listed as a man prime minister become a singer whose parties are contesting separately it's a battle to keep it and even three years ago which is the reason why local issues such as roads street lights and garbage disposal are taking on the intensity of a national fight the coalition government of the president and prime minister is struggling to maintain its popularity following a series of scandals and failure to deliver on its campaign promise to root out corruption both leaders have travelled around the country to support their candidates their main threat is former president but the rajapaksa despite being voted out of his bid for a third presidential term rajapaksa still commands the loyalty of a larger voter base a base he's trying to mobilize for a new political front despite the fact that he's not a member of it and remains a member of his successors party the problem or the way forward for the upcoming national elections will be starting from this particular point it is for the president for the prime minister was coming from the poor people and political parties and in the other hand the former president's campaign will have a. short whatever the larger political stakes local election voters will be hoping for competent candidates male and female to ensure the smooth running of their institutions finance al-jazeera colombo. sports. business updates. business. to our. world. thank you very much julie as you've seen earlier the twenty third winter olympic games in pyongyang has been declared officially open the opening ceremony took place. at lympics stadium on friday setting the scene for the three thousand athletes to compete in fifteen sports over the next seventeen days russian athletes took part in the ceremony with out team uniforms all the russian flag one hundred sixty eight second painting as a specially named olympic athlete from russia team as a result of doping functions just hours before they walked into the olympic stadium the court of arbitration for sport dismissed the appeal of a further forty seven the wanted to compete at the games lee wellings has now the russian doping scandal is arguably the most murky sad story in the history of sport and yes i spent years covering the fee for a scandal but this involves the public being completely cheated metals being involved. seem to be boys and from the top down how did we get to this position well four years ago putin's grand plan for sports to succeed in russia around their home olympics the very expensive saatchi winter olympics i love the allegations it was shown by investigation but there'd been systematic doping in wash so the international olympic committee found forty three russian competitors for life fast forward a couple of years of politics and then we get into a situation where the. court of arbitration for sport overturned those lost on bonds but not clearing the dopers completely but there's not enough evidence for loft on bonds so the russians want to compare it to twenty loads of them supposedly allowed to compete in the international olympic committee so you know we're still not inviting them so the russians appeal again and it goes back to the court of arbitration for sport by staring long trial and it goes to the guy who the goings actually begin. today the addict division of the court of arbitration for sport this missed the application filed by thirty two russian athletes against the international olympic committee it does also dismissed the application filed yesterday by fifteen actually it's and coaches against the i.o.c. so the cast this isn't is very good news for the international olympic committee who have been fighting the legal and political battles for months even years over the russian doping scandal. afterwards he said we welcome this decision which supports the fight against doping and brings clarity for all athletes like all of us i just want to get on with the sport now. and that sport is in full flow throughout saturday with the first medals of the guns being decided in five events one of the events is plenty of korean interest in not but most interest of course in the unified women's hockey team from korea by mike has to be their first guy against switzerland another athlete who won't be taking part in the the olympic there's twenty fourteen snowboard halfpipe champion ilo report logic of the russian born swiss suffered a bad fall and broke his nose while competing at the x. games last month the twenty nine year old whose nickname is i pod to travel to pyong chan and trained on friday after announcing he wasn't fit enough to defend his title. when the first medal event start on saturday you can expect to see plenty of golds around the necks of sweden's athletes the country is traditionally one of the best performers in the winter olympics the more than half of their medals have come in cross country skiing pool race reports on the culture behind their success. go down to the woods today in sweden's dollar not county and you may well meet a cross-country skier. for thousands of years skis were how you traveled traded and survived in this part of the world now cross country is a national pursuit that is also responsible for most of sweden success at the winter games it's introduced in sweden cross-country skiing is very good for the body itself for me for back so like the symbol to syria but we are only into country sweden's twenty nine cross-country olympic gold medals by the second in the world only to there we just because of this next door now for sweden at the olympics cross-country skiing is all about my rivalry with norway but it means a lot more than that back home where they have skiing partially. funk for swedish independence that revolutionary king. probable this region on school days in the sixteenth century drumming up support for his rebellion it led to victory against the day in fallen and four hundred years later it led to. you know told begun in one thousand nine hundred twenty two vasa law puts all the vasa race is the biggest in the world ninety kilometers long and with sixteen thousand competitors the route is based on one supposedly taken by go star. but the race name for the king has become more a part of swedish d.n.a. than their royal history even if norwegians sometimes when it i did seven hours and twenty minutes and i think that's a really good time for the first first try i think credible i can't really imagine that there's ten thousand people lining up to to do this crazy thing and it's just really i mean i get really psyched up and i want to do it so great and it's just really amazing the pull of the race for swedes leads many to high official of ocelot but coaches be glorious for this very swedish rite of passage the olympics sort of like fifty k. the longest distance in the olympics and it's i think also pretty so raids by their own and it's really good in germany for the cross-country skiing sweden or also in the world twelve years have gone by since sweden last topped the olympic cross-country table now hope the time until the next coronation isn't measured in centuries paul race al-jazeera followed sweden for more information on everything to do with the winter games if you go to our website you can find a dedicated section on the p.r. lympics head to al-jazeera dot com for slash twenty eighteen. football now in chelsea manager antonio conti has insisted he is committed to the club despite speculation surrounding his future it's off to chelsea last for one to watch fit in the english premier league on monday they've won just two of the last ten games in all competitions. and the commitment only place is totally for describe and we are trying to do our best but as you know very well because we are talking about football you know that. there is a lot of time i don't agree but a lot of the time. the manager the coach the best of all of the side a nice case you get a poorer result and for these that result. we have to pay great attention. conti's side next play against west brom on monday but there are six games to look forwards to in the english premier league on saturday tottenham and off we'll kick things off in the london dobby while league leaders munches to fifty are at home. finally it is italy's ele of yani will take the lead into the final day of the de by tour as friday's penultimate stage was won by another italian that was sunny called but early on after three stages favoring sprint final it specialists it was the climbers who took center stage on day four bronze in mcnulty made it for home with twelve of the one hundred seventy two kilometer course remaining but the american was eventually caught in sight of the line and it was called belly who got the win that beyond the retains a two second lead at the top of the overall. for the sport now it's back to julie in london thanks hannah now it's that time of year again carnival is getting fully underway in brazil and for most people that means the summer but parades of we did janeiro but the most traditional carnival of all is in the northeastern state of purdum bulkeley al-jazeera is lucy and human is there. i'm in a sea for the capital of states where carnival is a multicultural. affair that lasts for five days behind me on the ball nickels these are the giant dolls for which this state is famous they began in the early one nine hundred step pay homage to different personalities past and as you can see present more than eighty will be parading next week and the longtime coordinator of the event was kind enough to give us a sneak preview. here to see if it has stephen he's got under way over night. this is called monica to approach caution based music with strong african roots brought here to the seafront by slaves eighteenth century. and there was also the foot able and nineteenth century rhythm that pin number is famous for it's a fusion of martial music a kind of brazilian tango and some african rhythms. carnival is a time for celebration but also for excesses especially of alcohol which is increasingly leading to sex abuses out here on the streets for the second year in a row activist. is taking part in a campaign for women to speak out and to monitor places where abuses are most likely to happen. during carnival there's a culture of permissiveness people think it's normal to grope you to force you to kiss them to have sex with women specially. but even with millions of brazilians and foreigners have come here to celebrate the preparations are underway for what will be the main event on saturday called the rooster of the dog and that's when this gigantic rooster will lead the world's largest street parade more than a million people taking part and it begins at the early hours of the morning when it ends no one knows. and since it makes the sneeze hour i'll be back in just a second though with much more of the day's maze thanks as always for your company see in a bit. of the frustration. of business. the way we communicate is what defines us. you don't always has been. as innovation in technology continues to shape our lives. pioneering content creation and distribution utilizing cloud technology and artificial intelligence. the future that's never seemed closer than it does today. and what lies beyond the horizon. to take this to a new frontier gives the future of media leaders summit. limitless possibilities. from satellite technology to three d. printing and recycled waste to solar powered classrooms africa is transforming young innovators are propelling change building communities creating employment and solving. their challenging systems and shaping. creative thinkers shaping their continent's future innovate africa at this time on their. hands shakes and smiles from north korea from the south at the winter olympics but it's a cold shoulder from the u.s. vice president. there this is al jazeera live from london also coming.