and this just hours after the u.n. approved a thirty day ceasefire in syria hello i'm barbara starr you're watching al-jazeera live from london also coming up on the program as the winter olympics close in south korea a north korean delegation there says it's ready to open talks with the u.s. over its nuclear program the holiest site in christianity is closed off in protest against so-called discrimination by the israeli government and paying looks set to extend his presidency beyond the twenty twenty three after the communist party in china proposes constitutional changes. at least twenty people have been killed in syrian and russian airstrikes in the rebel held area of eastern huta this video is said to show the aftermath of one of the strikes in the town of duma. rescue workers are taking a child found that trapped in the rubble to hospital. the syrian government troops launched a new ground then the air offensive on huta just hours after the u.n. security council adopted a resolution demanding a cease fire. well eastern who is the eastern suburbs of damascus from here rebel mortar fire can reach the center of the city so control of the area is a government priority to rebel groups hostile to each other control different sections of the enclave along with several smaller groups government forces have tried to enter by using their homes to the masses highway and also at. al-jazeera correspondent mohammed. is inside. the. russian and syrian government warplanes have been stop targeting the residential areas of eastern greeter we can hear they're flying over us to target the different districts and towns people stuck here are very scared the syrian regime forces have attacked eastern due to from several different fronts with the aim of advancing its control of parts of the area the opposition says fighting is ongoing and more than twenty syrian regime forces have been killed while another group of them has been captured the fighting is happening even after the u.n. security council's decision to demand a cease fire that would have led aid and assistance to reach the people of east. well a military spokesman for the giant rebel group says the ceasefire hasn't been upheld by the syrian government or its allies. welcomes the security council's decision regarding a ceasefire because of the burden on our families and he said this suffering must be lifted the decision to stop the bloodshed caused by the regime in eastern guta as usual we didn't find any commitment by the syrian regime and its russian allies eastern ghouta northwestern go to southern with almost every front and go to has been stalled by the regime on sunday in order to achieve some advance but they haven't succeeded. it is the director of the center for conflict and humanitarian studies at the institute he says the u.n. resolution could actually cause fighting to intensify in the short term. it is almost common and that when you have this kind of positions which does not give you a specific start date or time that all parties on the ground will try and gain as much as possible they're trying to gain more ground as they push forward because they anticipate that at some stage the resolution will come into into action but so far i think this phase of the coming few hours will see all parties trying to push forward we should also remember that back in september two thousand and sixteen. some of those fighters were in alibre and before that they were in hams and in homes now all of them have been displaced and they've been evacuated stage after stage where they ended up today i think they do they have no other way out is going to be very very difficult for them to decide to give up or to evacuate to say it live. and the only way. this should work could work is for them to accept a humanitarian cease fire allow for for assistance to come in hopefully the syrians will commit to that and it's really all in the hands of the russians if the russians decide that they want this to work they will make it work they control the skies they have they have usually bridge over the russian the syrian government and it's really up to the russians now to make sure that this humanitarian pose works and from then on words maybe some further negotiations will be required. the winter games have wrapped up in south korea after seventeen days of sporting action and the political breakthroughs at the closing ceremony a north korean general sat just meters from u.s. president donald trump's daughter ivanka the general said his country is willing to open talks with the u.s. at the sugar name reports now from. some protestors at the border and the stadium too uncomfortable questions asked by reporters close enough it was a controversial arrival at the closing ceremony of the winter olympics for the north korean delegation. some south koreans are angry about the delegation leader general kimmitt young chore is thought to be behind attacks against the south including the sinking of a warship in twenty ten that killed forty six sailors know. president of korea is most prone to do a little korea. thrown in protest. no prisoner and the north korean dictator this is the. south korean president moon j. in use the games to reboot intercalary and relations the so-called peace olympics included a joint women's hockey team athlete celebrating korean nationalism by marching under a unified flag as well as a visit by kim yo jiang the sister of the north korean leader she arrived with an invite for moon to visit pyongyang. it's a two hour test it was a good olympics we were so concerned about it last year but when so well many north koreans came in i wish this could lead to unification i thought it was interesting it was an honor for us to host it i really enjoyed it. even the choice of olympic venues was symbolic gang one province is divided between the north and south. of there but if the tension continues that tourists don't come so peace is very important to our economy north korea participated in the olympics and this has become a basis for establishing a base here and that means a lot to us for the russians the games and did as they began marching without their flag two of their athletes were disqualified after testing positive for banned drugs for years on from the sochi doping scandal russians were only allowed to compete under an olympic flag as all athletes return home the question here is what happens after the olympics. the u.s. announced its toughest package of sanctions against north korea on friday with the hope it will pressure the country to denuclearize whether that will work when other sanctions have failed remains to be seen and there's no word yet on when president moon might travel to the north if he does he'll become the first south korean president to meet kim jong un since he became leader seven years ago natasha going to. south korea. church leaders in occupied east jerusalem have closed the whole east the site in christianity in protest against new tax plans the church of the holy several curry is said to be the crucifixion and burial site of jesus christ christian leaders to say a proposed tax on church property is part of a systematic campaign by the israeli government against their religion harry force it has more now from outside the church of the holy said. well it's sunday and perhaps the most important christian site in the entire world and the man who holds the key to the church of the holy circle has been here in front of what is a locked door and the reason for that closure which the patriarchates involved the catholic greek and armenian patriarchate to run this church they say this is an unprecedented measure to try to combat what they say is just systemic discrimination against christians in the learned both through tax demands which have been made by jewish names municipality and by a proposed piece of legislation which they say would allow the israeli government to appropriate their property this is the back the and unprecedented that back against christians in the holy land. by only the most basic. and serve the right. of that they only get. off relations to be doing that. for decades so in the square outside we have large groups of disappointed tourists many of whom travel a long way to visit the church of the early several the reason that we've got to this point will essentially there are two of them the first is the jerusalem's minister paluxy is trying to redefine church property saying that that which is used specifically by the churches for prayer for other church activities should be tax exempt property which they own and on which they earn income that should not be tax exempt and indeed they have moved to seize some funds from the greek orthodox patriarchate in response to that the other issue. about this bill which is being promoted which seeks to potentially according to the patriarchates anyway appropriate church land the israeli government's perspective on this is the church has been selling some of that property in that the people who own apartments and houses on that on my land now don't know who owns it and that is an unsustainable situation the church as far as it is concerned says that this is discriminatory racist even evokes the appropriation of jewish land in europe during the dark days of the last century they say that this is an attack on christians here in iowa. an egyptian court has frozen the assets of a prominent opposition figure accused of having contact with the outlawed muslim brotherhood the former presidential candidate to add that my name to was arrested ten days ago he appeared on al jazeera earlier this month a poll for tool is a staunch critic of president that the c.c. in call for a boycott of next month's presidential election still to come here on al-jazeera. they killed my father killed my mother i feel scared i don't want to go back to me in my we live in the horrors of the me i'm our military crackdown against the war he just six months old al-jazeera revisits is those who survived plus. we will look at the strike posed by traditional medicine to the future of africa is in danger of. hello this late winter rain has been falling in the middle east despite his largess far and wide now a funnel to turkmenistan as far south as miller saudi arabia a typical figure from iran is that forty six millimeters say typical it tails off they go further sas it's more like to be concentrated further north of the hamas moving eastwards so the full cost of monday's rain in afghanistan may be a bit in pakistan rain stretching have to administer as well the temps are above freezing by a long way night al-mahdi in baku got posse levon and the next systems already lined up to bring rain through iraq on a fairly windy day on the coastal event eighteen in beirut breeze and bright i would suggest is the two words to use if anything the rain is still there on tuesday in iraq in syria but the sun has replaced the bright weather in beirut still a bit of a breeze there more rain a bit of snow for the higher ground in turkey but it's dried out through most iran except for that western border area to the sas more rain is coming yes there's already been some it looks like monday will probably be dry was always a hint with cloud around you might see something out of the sky but it seems far more like the right time to get to tuesday that once more rain will be felt in kuwait bahrain qatar and eventually beyond that in the u.a.e. . i remind her of the top stories on al-jazeera the syrian government forces have launched a new ground and their offensive against rebel held eastern kuta despite the un security council calling for a cease fire as the winter olympics and think young china and a voice from north korea has set his country is ready to hold talks with the u.s. about its nuclear program. and christian leaders in east jerusalem have ordered the closure of the church of the holy settle pro-war christians believe that jesus was crucified and buried they say it's in protest at new israeli tax and land on the seas which they're calling an unprecedented attack on christians in the holding. hundreds of continue to pour over the myanmar border into bangladesh six months after a military crackdown sparked the refugee crisis about seven hundred thousand people have fled since august half of them children there are now living in makeshift camps where their lives are at the risk or at risk from child trafficking and disease al-jazeera has revisited these camps in bangladesh and spoken to some of the people that we first met when the exodus began shelob ellis tells their stories . six months ago as you said big will my identified as a nine year old. you're refugee one of six hundred eighty eight thousand who streamed across to me m r bangladesh border fleeing what they call a targeted campaign to wipe them out we first met her in december she'd been shot three times in the leg and. ampas by a soldier at close range. she says she's still in pain and has decided she won't go back there. they kill my father killed my mother i feel scared i don't want to go back to me in ma they were bombing houses sitting them on fire pulling people out from their homes and shooting them torturing me and i'm scared to see all their long one in one and i still feel like dying a fireman that those days. when they raped our women and you can see what they did to this child there are thousands of his here recovering from different weapons of war these two sisters say myanmar soldiers tied them to trees and raped them their mother father and three siblings were locked inside their home which was the incision lines not much has changed since we first met the teenage girls in january they care and crucible long camp got them you know cubs although bright and colorful the girls say they remain kloet in darkness of the day is an image and we can't go back to burma if we are asked to we don't have parents brothers and sisters no house to live there where should we live their wounds have healed but their nerves are frayed they fidget constantly they say they need help but they are too proud to big. pride motivates many to carry on muhammad or haasan is eighteen years old he's in studio on his feet he says he was shot three times by soldiers twice in the back once in the chest he lived by playing date. when i came here i became paralyzed couldn't walk move couldn't even move my hands after taking medicine i can now move and walk but still very much in pain. his wounds have healed well since we met him in october at this point he knew two of his brothers had been shot and killed he has since learned eighteen family members died in the correct. muhammad rule and others are considering their future in november abdul fi showed us his house right across the border the bangladesh government's agreed to repatriate the revenger but six months on they refused to return abdulle says they want a guarantee of safety compensation for the destroyed villages and citizenship something they've been denied for thirty five years. we want to tell the world of we want to live like human beings we want to educate our children and we want to live a peaceful life with our family we asked the world to provide justice for all. myanmar's government continues to deflect accusations of ethnic cleansing and even genocide justice for the revenger is hard to come by. i have no father no mother and so much pain if i have to go out to collect firewood it's so painful. those who survived the crackdown in the camps live with scars on their bodies and in their minds charlotte ballasts al-jazeera three days of air strikes have pounded a rebel held port in western displacing thousands of people who are already in need of aid many who the fighters have reportedly been killed by the saudi led coalition attacks on a hot day that m.p.'s tired reports. one of the saudi led air strikes spared little here who data is the strategically important port city in western yemen saudi warplanes have repeatedly targeted surrounding neighborhood since thursday reportedly killing dozens of who the fighters and civilians before the start of the civil war nearly three years ago today the port handled around seventy percent of yemen's imports including critically needed food and humanitarian supplies since then it's become one of the most complex front lines controlled by who the rebels it is either being bombed or blockaded by the saudi coalition but in recent months the us government which backs the saudi led bombing campaign against the iranian backed who these has sent cranes to the data to replace those destroyed in airstrikes all part of efforts to increase the amount of aid into yemen but help is only trickling in while yemenis suffer what the united nations described as the world's worst humanitarian crisis at this camp for the internally displaced on the outskirts of who data few have received any kind of help. and i have four kids and i don't know what to do to feed them i have nothing and can do nothing we don't have furniture we don't have beds wouldn't have blankets we have nothing the u.n. says nearly all of yemen's twenty five million people need some form of humanitarian assistance with close to half of the population in acute need of support. the numbers of displaced people are increasing day by day here and who dated there are more than twenty one thousand displaced we urge the government and politicians and aid organizations to do more to help displaced people who are living in misery their numbers are increasing and the aid doesn't reach them quickly enough there is a severe shortage of food and the prices of goods here are very high since the war began more than ten thousand people have been killed and yemen's economy crippled with the fighting showing little sign of slowing. terry crisis is only getting worse if you start. nigeria's government says one hundred ten girls remain unaccounted for after an attack by the armed group boko haram in the country's northeast gunman overran a school in the town of last monday nigeria's information minister says additional police and security officers have been deployed schools president mohammed called monday's abduction by boko haram a national disaster. security forces in the democratic republic of congo have shot dead in anti-government protests there in the capital kinshasa two other protesters were injured churchgoers had planned to take part in marches against the president joseph kabila following sunday services but security forces surrounded the churches and blocked roads to stop them from going ahead. this is former prime minister silvio berlusconi has been speaking at a rally in milan for his fourth sekali a party ahead of elections next weekend but this county is in the middle of a major political comeback and the center right coalition he now leads is on track to win the most votes and even though he is banned from holding political office public office for was corny will play a pivotal role in the make up of the next government his son a day ago explains. scorning is back and once again. it's a political stage after a seven year hiatus despite all the political scandals and tax fraud conviction that was down to him in twenty thirteen. is once again presenting himself as the face or. because of that fiction he is an able to occupy the prime ministerial office instead he will nominate someone of his own choice that in turn makes him a kingmaker in this election now what is interesting though to note is. how his reputation among these current politicians is that amidst all the populist a personalities that are occupying the political environment and towards the election mr bathurst going is actually being seen as a safe and stable option white attorney from his previous appearances as the prime minister of the country but amidst all the other. parties for example. the five star movement which has been vocal and quite populist and been attracting quite a lot of the youth vote mr bittman almost being seen as a spiritual guide for a more stable less populist way of doing politics and what's interesting also is the fact that he's also been seen as a staple only by brussels because he is not as anti you are not as anti euro zone as some of the other candidates in this election has been so while he is eighty one years of age it seems that mr bed has yet still enough fight to be able to see him move through into the election and to have a prominent role and then certainly after the results. several thousand people have rallied in central moscow in honor of slain opposition leader boris nemtsov of them stray sions are being held all over the country ahead of the third anniversary of his death then so it was a vocal critic of president vladimir putin and was shot on a moscow bridge overlooking the kremlin in two thousand and fifteen many of themselves supporters accuse the russian government of ordering his killing. president being could be reelected as china's leader in two thousand and twenty three under a proposal that the ruling party has just put forward the communist party wants to change the constitution to remove term limits for chinese leaders the vice president would also be allowed to serve for longer than the current two term limit palin is in home call with more on what it could mean for president and the chinese people. there was much speculation he would be angling to stay beyond the next five years back in october when he was addressing the chinese people's congress he laid out a vision of thirty years and a very ambitious vision of china's development both socially infrastructure advice and financially now this has still has to go through a parliament but it's inconceivable that this will be blocked in any way as parliament distractive politicians that are loyal to the ruling establishment ping well now if this goes ahead be china's most powerful modern day leader as he's also the leader of the military he will become a cult of personality many fear much like mao tse-tung was during his thirty tenure thirty year tenure which ended in one thousand nine hundred seventy six now there's also concern that under his rule china will see many of their human rights or many of their rights squeezed even more under his tenure so far we have seen china turn into more of a surveillance state dissent very quickly crushed it's also of great concern to the people of hong kong as unders easing things through all we've seen the biggest blows to hong kong's democracy movement people here are now concerned about how he will or whether he will continue to treat hong kong as a special and ministry to a region separate from the rest of china traditional medicine plays an important role in many african cultures but in south africa conservationists say it's threatening endangered species like leopards trade in these species is strictly regulated but there are animals used by traditional healers are still sold openly in local markets twenty page reports from johannesburg. these traders are suspicious of strangers but not so afraid that they'll stop what they're doing any day of the week they were threatened and endangered species on display that's gross we showed our video to conservationists here. and we didn't that looks like i wish that was the trade in. is supposed to be highly regulated the convention on the international trade in endangered species have lifted near the top of their list trade in big cat parts is permitted but only in exceptional circumstances it's because it's a cultural issue that they won't touch the trade is sell to healers who use it for muti or traditional medicine which plays an important role in many african cultures and is widely practiced conservationists have been warning for years about the illegal trade in animal pots yet two of johannesburg's big muti markets we found evidence of threatened species at both and there are several other markets like that around the country the government says it's trying to strike a balance between education and enforcement the challenge is what we saw. in the department itself we have plus minus. i would say fifty inspire us. to so many. in total we have for the country we have two thousand eight hundred and something inspect us traditional healers communicate with and sisters to diagnose and treat patients many africans use it in conjunction with western medicine. for an example and if you hit it in order for me to hear that hated of course the kids . the nose over to me it's very powerful in the money and it's it has a very very. traditional healers say if and sisters demand a certain animal endangered or not they must obey but in helping their patients some species are being hurt for now it seems that in a country with so many challenges stopping the illegal trade is not a priority for the south african government tinier page al-jazeera johannesburg. now the top stories on al-jazeera at least twenty people have been killed in syria and russian airstrikes in the rebel held area of eastern huta this video is said to show the aftermath of one of the strikes in the town of duma syrian government troops launched a new ground then the air offensive on who just hours after the u.n. security council adopted a resolution demanding a cease fire the region near damascus has been on the assault for weeks at least five hundred people have been killed there over the past seven days al-jazeera correspondent. has the latest from inside eastern who. had the russian and syrian government warplanes have been stopped targeting the residential areas of eastern we can hear they're flying over us to target the different districts and towns people stuck here are very scared the syrian regime forces have attacked east and routed from several different fronts with the aim of advancing its control of parts of the area the opposition says fighting is ongoing and more than twenty syrian regime forces have been killed while another group of them has been captured the fighting is happening even after the u.n. security council's decision to demand a cease fire. the winter olympic games have wrapped up in south korea after seventeen days of sporting action and the political breakthroughs at the closing ceremony china and north korean general sat just meters from u.s. president donald trump's daughter ivanka the general came a young child told south korea that his country is willing to open talks with the u.s. about its nuclear program christian leaders in east jerusalem avoided the closure of the church of the holy several current where christians believe that jesus was crucified and buried they say it's in protest that new israeli attacks and land policies which they're calling an unprecedented attack on christians in the holy land. and security forces in the democratic republic of congo have shot dead a man government protester in the capital kinshasa two other protesters were injured churchgoers had planned to take part in marches against the president joseph kabila following sunday services but security forces surround the churches and blocked roads to stop them from going ahead news hour in less than half an hour inside story next by. donald trump and the gulf crisis the u.s. president to meet leaders who imposed the blockade on eight months ago but what does he have to offer the saudis and their allies and would he force a settlement on u.s. allies in this volatile region this is inside story.