has already established and as long as this is a track leading directly into geneva and not some kind of like separate effort to sidestep the geneva process ok originality press in sochi will check back in roy thank you. colombia's government has suspended peace talks with the l n rebels after a series of bombings over the weekend seven law enforcement officers were killed during the attacks on police stations and three cities present one law center says blame the armed group for the attacks. reports of. three bombs attacks in less than twenty four hours was interpreted as a clear message from the un about its faith in the peace process in colombia in the aftermath of the country's president juan manuel santos had his own. my patience on the patience of the colombian people has its limits so i have taken the decision to suspend the start of the fifth cycle of negotiations which was shared world for the coming days until we see coherence between the words and its actions. talks between the government then the active rebel group in colombia have been going for more than a year last octo

sponsored geneva talks the kurds who control almost twenty percent of syrian territory are also refusing to go they are currently the focus of a turkish military operation in northern syria where it says that their fight is on terrorists al jazeera stephanie decker reports from the town of killie's on the turkey syria border. there's just been incoming from syria into turkey we were actually preparing for a live when we heard a whiz over our heads. and then we saw the smoke landing around five hundred meters from our position well the police have now come to inspect the crater this is a reminder of course that this is an active conflict and there are consequences for these border towns these border cities kilis has had rockets and shells land here before also they hardly on the other side of the border but people that residents that we've spoken to here will tell you that they are concerned they're used to it because i saw was here just a couple of years ago along the border and there was this kind of tense situation as well but one gentleman we spoke to yesterday said he was worried and

of its belief that this is really kind of moscow pushing a moscow damascus agenda separates to the geneva peace process we don't know at the moment what the un position on all of this is because we know that stuff under mistura has come to sochi but he i think is trying. the resolve the turkey russia dispute at the moment and his participation in this conference is still i think in doubt as well have to see how this all pans out but at the moment it does seem to be hanging in the balance so one of the criticisms obviously is that russia can't really be an honest broker in all of this because they have a clear side at a clear point of view having said that what what can they really accomplish here. well i mean you know it's difficult to see who has an unbiased viewpoint and what's going on in syria maybe apart from from the u.n. although there are various critics of the u.n. as well and yes the the opposition and turkey to some extent always said the sort she has. warring aspects and it is basically set up to try to circumvent the geneva peace process with peace process which is the one th

says he'll whittle down those names to about forty five or fifty well we know from previous talks in geneva that when the opposition was approving when the opposition was choosing its own delegation it was prove very very hard to decide who should be in or not now it's going to be up with his committee up to step around he was story himself to decide who should come to geneva for this committee which will focus simply on drawing up a new constitution in the past the government and stephanie mr himself has said that has not engaged properly on these sort of issues will engage now if it's part of a committee rather than part of overall peace talks which will turn up which we don't have been told will also continue and there's also criticism of the way this whole process is being handled by the russians and now by the u.n. and stefan demas storer he says he's interpreted in the will of the u.n. security council and its resolution twenty two fifty four but that talks about the idea of transition in syria it seems that for now the special envoy working with the russians is putting that to one si

to have reached a dead end little progress has been made in this round or an earlier rounds held in geneva and the government and opposition still have not met face to face. let's go live now to huldah abdel-hamid who's in vienna and what's behind the breakdown this time. well behind the breakdown this time is a. ten point working document that was put forward to the opposition as we understand it from our diplomatic sources last night now that document was drafted by five countries. britain france saudi arabia and jordan described to us as a document that basically is more of a mechanism on how to revive these peace talks because we keep on defining them as peace talks but what's happening at the moment not just this round but even during the geneva eight round early december is that they're actually trying to find ways to start tackling substantiative negotiations well this morning the opposition had a very long meeting about hours with the u.n. envoy to find them is but. at some point it also spoke to the russian delegation that is here in vienna the moment and then the syrian governmen

opposition delegation coming here and holding its first round of talks for this for what is called the geneva nine meeting now what is on the table i think you don't really get a direct answer about that what we did hear from the opposition some words along the same along to fund them is to have said that this these were critical talks and quite decisive talks but when you do press them on why it's so critical that answer is quite vague at the moment the opposition says it's here because it still regards do you as the only mediator or the only way to achieve some sort of peace negotiations the opposition says it does still favored the u.n. as the main way to go to reach some sort of solution and not all these other parallel negotiations that are going on the opposition also was very clearly saying yesterday that it still has not decided whether it will attend the talks are. set to happen early next week called upon by russia with turkey and iran as guarantors the opposition says it's going to first figure out what's going to happen here how serious the syrian government is on achieving some s

that's something the russians have denied strenuously here saying this was never meant to compete with geneva and now they say they are handing the baton on to stefan de mistura it's a task the u.n. special envoy has chosen to accept their constitutional committee to be formed comprising the government of this. republic delegation along with the why represented opposition delegation for drafting a constitutional reform and the main tests for the ultimate success of sochi whether the opposition factions who stayed away can be persuaded to endorse its decisions and whether it does as russia says was always the intention reinvigorate talks in geneva rory chalons al-jazeera sochi. so yemen. have taken control of the southern port city of aden that's where the saudi backed government of president. has been basins two thousand and fourteen when i was pushed out of the capital by hoofy rebels well there was this news agency says the forces which are backed by the u.a.e. have confined have these government to the presidential palace suggesting splits and they sell the lead coalition. that has the lat

resolution or negotiations in geneva russia iran and turkey expect clarifications from the u.s. . small from moscow. well since the beginning of the syrian conflict is one thing that is united pretty much all of the countries involved in one way or another in the war is their belief but at least publicly stated that the territorial integrity of syria has to be maintained well what we have heard out of turkey and moscow today suggests that both those countries are losing faith with the united states is being honest so that intention sergey lavrov said that he thought this plan for a border security force was a centrally the united states trying to partition syria in some way lavrov also went on to big up russia's involvement in the various parts of the dialogue process that are going on at the moment particularly asked on which he says is really helps in de conflicts to some extent the syrian war he also said that the. dialogue congress that's supposed to be happening in sochi in russia later on in the month he said that this would bring together groups involved in the syrian crisi

is getting a dialogue moving again can try to restart the whole peace process and eventually go to geneva and rory given all these these troubles how lucky is it that they can actually achieve anything. well i mean as a difficult question i think russia will of course make the most of this make the best of it the effort they're going to try restarts the whole process of geneva is i think. meaningful one from from their perspective we can hear it's a listen now to an analyst a russian foreign policy analyst called alexander aksyonov who we spoke to earlier on who gave us more scope as view of what this is all about. you do various reasons . the new approaches stumble. and now there is a need to give the new impulse to revitalize these procedures so that is the initial. aim a goal of this of this congress and i know that there was a lot of suspicions of terrorists as persians and various circles not only in the west in their up world as well but russia tries to explain needs its position and i think it has the right to do so. while those suspicions that he was talking about they are indeed

as part of its charm offensive here in geneva the u.a.e. is putting on a display of traditional amorality culture and in the session itself the minister of state for foreign affairs strongly defended his country's human rights record to the u.a.e. delegation said they were implementing previous recommendations like better support for foreign workers and tackling domestic violence but there was little of substance on areas such as ending torture or the death penalty for many international rights groups the u.a.e. has a long way to go to the barber al jazeera at the u.n. in geneva a german no so ready serving a life sentence for two murders has been charged over for the ninety seven deaths in two hospitals neons toggle was jailed in twenty fifteen for killing intensive care patients his admitted to injecting patients with drugs that cause heart failure so he could try to revive them. three members of the u.s. top gymnastics board have resigned amid an ongoing sex abuse scandal involving a team doctor and young female athletes a court case in

in geneva for the sort of come here on al-jazeera. if. it's a song that says families of one hundred forty three mentally ill patients who died under a bush government policy speak of their anger. and the nine thousand year old woman greek scientists reconstruct the face from age history. hello there for some of us in australia we've seen an awful lot of heavy rain recently so we are now out of this area of cloud here under that we seem to wrench the heavy downpours almost everywhere some places reporting on hundred forty seven millimeters of rain and then further towards the east here we've seen one hundred sixteen so clearly lots of what weather there are more still to come in fact we've got this little developing feature which will gradually push eastward fare towards queensland as we head through wednesday further south of course has been incredibly hot here but the heat has now east diffraction for sydney looks like thirty one degrees will be our maximum course it will be slightly hotter than that if you head out towards the west and

in geneva. in yemen at least seven people have been killed after an airstrike hit a building which doubles as a home and a medical center five others were injured in the attack in the northern province of sada it's believed the airstrikes were carried out by the saudi led coalition. bangladesh has delayed plans to repatriate hundreds of thousands of ranger refugees who fled violence in me and mine the process was due to begin on tuesday but a list of verifying the details of people to be sent back is still incomplete or than six hundred eighty thousand have crossed the border to bangladesh since the crackdown began last august charles stratford has more. foreigners and his wife should jeter it doesn't matter whether the stance of the myanmar bangladeshi government's repatriation plan has been delayed they say they would not have agreed to return to myanmar anyway and. if we do here at least we get a feel if we are killed a member there is no federal data just burnt. we must be recognised as a hi

view this and view this process as anything other than a russian orchestrated way to circumvent the geneva process that's why many of them refused to come here that's why the syria negotiating committee didn't want to come there were other groups who pulled away from this whole process on monday saying that while there were still attacks going on in the countryside massacres as they put it they were prepared to come here to sochi and there was that the airport overnights where a turkish backed group of opposition didn't like the fact that the airport was draped in syrian government flags and turned around and went home again deferring all of their author of teas to the the turkish government representatives here it's basically paints a picture all of first of all an opposition that is not very unified and that's been the problem throughout the whole syria negotiation process is and also it paints a picture of a conference here that is basically now essentially a fairly unbalanced one in that it doesn't it doesn't portray doesn't represent the views of a large group of syrian opposition fig

ahead with dialogue agreeing in the ends to embrace twelve principles developed in the un the stalled geneva process and to form a constitutional committee comprising syrian government and opposition figures but there was no disguising the absence of the main rebel organizations among them the syrian negotiations committee the key concern that many in the opposition have had about sochi and what's kept plenty of figures away is that this would turn into a way for russia to sidestep the official un track to peace well that's something the russians have denied strenuously here saying this was never meant to compete with geneva and now they said. they are handing the baton on to stefan de mistura it's a task the u.n. special envoy has chosen to accept their constitutional committee eve to be formed comprising the government of the syrian republic delegation along with the why represented opposition delegation for drafting a constitutional reform and the main tests for the ultimate success of sochi whether the opposition factions who stayed away can be persuaded to endorse its decisions and whet

that's something the russians have denied strenuously here saying this was never meant to compete with geneva and now they say they are handing the baton on to stefan de mistura it's a task the u.n. special envoy has chosen to accept their constitutional committee to reform due comprising the government of this. republic delegation along with the why represented opposition delegation for drafting a constitutional reform and the main tests for the ultimate success of sochi whether the opposition factions who stayed away can be persuaded to endorse its decisions and whether it does as russia says was always the intention reinvigorate talks in geneva rory chalons al-jazeera sochi. still ahead on al-jazeera kenya's governmental clare's the opposition an organized criminal group after while loading a declares himself the people's president. and look at what's in store for britain's prime minister theresa may as she tries to trauma business in china. by the sky nine if you're asian. or off the coast of the italian riviera. hello and welcome to international weather forecast never seen changes afoot

which were to two main points that were supposed to be discussed not only this round but even during geneva eight last december now the government says that it was unhappy with the report that was given by stiff to or to the u.n. security council it felt that it was biased against the syrian regime and it wanted to hear from stiffen the mist what was the thinking behind that report but it sort of indicated at least that was earlier in the day that it wasn't ready to talk about anything else at this stage is it worth a look or talk about the constitution not going to talk about elections what else is there that needs to be discussed. well that is the big question i think when you when you listen to the opposition it is very important for them. as you have this new essence see it is showing a united front you know one of the main complaints by not only the syrian government but also for example russia is that it's seen that this opposition was fragmented with the various platforms the chiropractor from the moscow platform the truck for now they say that they have come together that they are s

well when russia first touted these talks and they positioned it as basically a way of giving the geneva process a kick to get it restarted again and water was decided in sochi would feed into geneva now that was never believed really by the opposition the opposition that a state away from sochi they have said that this is a way for russia and damascus to steer the peace settlement arounds to neve or to something that much more closely favors the bashar asad. and maybe that's what's the of the the u.n. representative who's come here stefan to mr a is trying to us. this is. the opposition. dishonest process to represent russia's interests and that's the decision that he's going to have to come up with at the end of this congress to see what the final communique looks like when it happens as well really for the moment thank you. african. opposition leader has taken an unofficial. protest over last year's election but he's calling himself the people's president and says victory in the twenty seventh. from him of his supporters who park in the capital nairobi the attorney general had warned

and whether stefan de mistura will approve of these measures and not allow this to filter in to the geneva process the russians believe that he is on board the left is wait to see whether the u.s. that suggest that is confirmed or not. to the us where the deputy director of the f.b.i. has resigned weeks before his official retirement date the us president has repeatedly criticized andrew mccabe for political bias donald trump accuses him of favoring his rival hillary clinton during the twenty sixteen presidential race the cable's resignation comes a week after u.s. media reported that the president wanted him gone the white house has denied having any involvement with mccabe stepping down we've seen numerous ports as all of you have and any specifics i can tell you none of this issue is made by out of the white house any specifics i would refer you to the f.b.i. president wasn't part of this is you making process and we would refer you to the f.b.i. where christopher ray serves as the director which as i said last week and i'll repeat again today the president has full confidence in him an

whether stephan demist stora will approve of these measures and then allow this to filter into the geneva process the russians believe that he is on board rafters wait to see whether the u.s. that suggest that is confirmed. to other news now that these thirty six people have been killed in aden during two days of fighting after southern secessionists try to stage a coup and get an international committee of the red cross posted a video online of the agency's head of mission to aid in explaining the current situation on the ground and we are going through it quite a bit. see. it a little but. tell me where we have our own neighborhood in the wee hours of the occasion maybe you can. back out some shit in the soap is what we are living in the last two days here they would we are here to get in touch with the parties that are conducting one to the other and maybe focusing on. kids we help with the way i see it is this insane we are managing this it. gets to the other must. be done as well unfortunately. the same post. the f.b.i. as deputy director has resigned weeks before his official retire

israel has again accused the un human rights council of unfair treatment during a meeting in geneva at a review of the country's rights record many states to end arbitrary detentions and the torture of palestinian prisoners as well as to war to fight racism inside israel there has been following events and past more from geneva. well the last time israel's human rights record was under review here that was five years ago these rallies actually boycotted the session well on tuesday there was an israeli delegation here and they pointed out several areas in which they said there had been improvements in the human rights situation in israel for example increasing access to legal aid for the country's bedouin arab population setting up an action plan to combat racism against people of ethiopian origin and fighting human trafficking but what many countries talked about was the country's obligations to protect the human rights of palestinians living in the occupied palestinian territories so east jerusalem the west bank and gaza israel is the only state in the world that can be called an apar

we will be calling for an emergency session both here in new york and at the human rights council in geneva we must not be silent the people of iran are crying out for freedom all freedom loving people must stand with their cause the international community made the mistake of failing to do that in two thousand and nine we must not make that mistake again. well mike hanna is live for us now at the u.n. and so a very dramatic comments there from u.s. ambassador nikki haley how will the members of the united nations respond to this school well it's very much the question essential what the ambassador was doing was outlining the u.s. focus of interest throughout this year of twenty thousand and eighteen she went through a list of priorities that the u.s. is going to be looking at top of that list as we heard the was iran now she said she would be pressing for an emergency security council meeting in the days ahead also possibly a meeting of the human rights council in geneva but to that question that you are as does absolutely critical what kind of support are she going to get from other counc

nations the work of this new institution called the syrian constitutional committee will be organized in geneva according to the resolution twenty two fifty four of the constitutional committee if to be formed comprising the government of the syrian republic delegation along with the wide represented opposition delegation for drafting constitutional reform are still to come on al-jazeera drumming up business we look at what's in store for britain's prime minister is a may on my way to china. from flowing island winds to an enchanting desert breeze. welcome back well after a few days of snow we are seeing dry conditions affecting tehran in iran we've got little bit of snow further towards the east of afghanistan and moving up towards the hindu kush otherwise weather conditions across the region not too bad you see some snow across northern parts of turkey and into the caucuses but around the eastern side of the marriage very not looking too bad with temperatures there into the upper teens for beirut as we head through to thursday here in the arabian peninsula the weather is also looking fairly q

say soon how i intend to proceed that's what you want i will take this and try and work it into the geneva constitutional process it will be a delicate exercise and i will proceed with care because of course as stefan de mistura is very well aware there are a large number of people who should be involved in this process who have decided for whatever reason to stay away opposition groups like the the syrian negotiations committee like the group of turkish backed opposition members who came to sorties airport and then went home again and they have stayed out of this process and stephan de mistura will be well aware of that and no. that this is a is is a system which is going to feel on balance unless it tries to work those people back into it. our thanks very much roy chalons bring us all the latest from the russian black sea resort of sochi. right so we want to move to yemen now a succession is forces say they have taken control of the southern port city of aden that's where the saudi backed government of president. hadi has been basin's twenty fourteen when it was pushed out of the capital

complicated battlefield ok stephanie decker thank you was on market rickly is a global risk analyst at the geneva center for security policy he says the objectives of major geo political players in the region are diverging. we are witnessing now if you on the second part. in syria the first one was the defeat of isis and this is almost done except for a few pockets and there were some kind of agreements between the different actors in the region about for school which was defeating isis now the second objectives are popping up and obviously here this is where you have problems because the u.s. has relied on surrogates to conduct forces that have that are completely opposed to the objectives of or turkey turkish interests are to secure its southern border and to. avoid the kurds to establish a presence along the border but for the americans what is very important is that what we've witnessed with the full of isis is the rule of russia as well as iran so keeping iran in check is very important for the americans and having surrogates proxies on the ground is part of this of this equation israeli for

we will be calling for an emergency session both here in new york and at the human rights council in geneva we must not be silent the people of iran are crying out for freedom all freedom loving people must stand with their cause this echoing sentiments expressed by president trump earlier who said in a tweet the people of iran are finally acting against the brutal and corrupt or a new regime all of the money that president obama so foolishly gave them went into terrorism and into their pockets the people have little food big inflation and no human rights the u.s. is watching. this little evidence in the streets of tehran of the turmoil evident in some other parts of the country but there are deep concerns expressed about the rise in food prices and drop in employment. impinge on the card i'm working but in this society i'm always stressed about the possibility of getting fired the next day always being worried about my job my family the security of my family the main problems people are grappling with are their security the economy and their livelihood ammonia das and there are some who ar

we will be calling for an emergency session both here in new york and at the human rights council in geneva we must not be silent the people of iran are crying out for freedom all freedom loving people must stand with their cause. in berlin in front of the brandenburg gate to rein in exiles gathered to show they've not forgotten those committed to the protests back home. in london another gathering calling on the european public to stand up for political freedom and the release of prisoners and in rome that same message delivered from outside the iranian embassy peter shop al jazeera. earlier on i spoke to eric randolph a.f.p. media's deputy bureau chief who's in teheran he says that while the protests may be using revolutionary slogans they are rooted in economic grievances. well for now it seems relatively calm but i have to say that it's very difficult for us to report from aaron i mean there are very tight restrictions on what the media can do and so ron we know there's a heavy police presence but around is actually not in the focus of much of the oppressed unlike the last major demonst

sponsored peace talks in geneva to try and get a cease. syria is a seesaw so that those seriously injured children are treated. twenty five percent of children are dying malnutrition there are people starving all over syria and we need to get in and we need to allow the peace process to the point to diplomatic solution i think the only way it's going to work actually is we have a u.n. peacekeepers on the ground and lisa that seems our way at the moment but things are as desperate as they were this time last year know that when seventy people were killed by these are destroyed. well begin to speak to you again when you have more news on your efforts but for now thank you very much hamish depressing gordon. watching which is there still to come. after the my smiling year in mexico is history of six politicians lead to fears for upcoming elections. and from florida to new england much of the u.s. east coast wakes up to dangerously low temperatures. welcome back we have some heavy rain developing across southern parts of china at the moment ce

there's a final push through the us position we sit out thursday started thursday would start forming in geneva behind temps has risen because when a storm system goes through wednesday night. winds in excess of a hundred twenty kilometers per hour by this time on the coast of holland most starkly the dutch coastal the noland countries could seize on the roof of the surge we've got high tides the same time not a good position to be that the storm will blow itself out but it does mean it would be a pretty poor start to the day and it takes all the energy away from further south or we've got going on south mill train is quiet weather until you get to cyprus and eastwards and look at turkey even covered in massive rain and then snows that city back to system on its way through and then the breeze comes back out of the still warm sallah so tripoli's up to nineteen by the time we get to friday and tunis as a team wears rather cloudy of about still maintained seventy. the truth. you're watching al-jazeera and these are the top stories this hour. rex tillerson says his country has no plans to build a

iran and syria let's just dip into here what he's saying we would like to facilitate negotiations in geneva. we mention this to leave u.n. leadership and countries the taking part in the syrian. peace process you're losing. you. everything good is connected to middle east and africa which. we can say that syria is only part of this middle eastern problem. which i can mention libya yemen police. are listed in israeli. peace process. and now. released i'm convinced that this then in the israeli palestinian. resolution because. it impacts on radicalizing streets. and. ukraine. i think this is the situation around ukraine is artificially inflated. but it will stay. with us and for trade as. he confrontation a moment between russia and the west i think it was a stupid politicized thusly. but at the. i think you. should be discarded. pretty last year. because of the. talk considering confrontation over ukraine. and we'll start focusing on delivering minsky agreements which you. then it would be much easier to implement a detailed plan of means in greenland and i'm sure in this case because this c

price of bread one of the dead was a high school student who was killed during protests in the city of geneva police have arrested a prominent opposition leader and confiscated newspapers in an effort to clamp down on the unrest. iran is warning it may reconsider its cooperation with the united nations nuclear watchdog unless the us almost the agreement it signed with tehran and international powers in twenty fifteen president trump has refused to certify the iran nuclear deal it lifted sanctions in return for the scaling back of tehran's nuclear program the syrian government forces backed by russia are advancing on the largest remaining rebel held territory in the north forcing thousands of civilians to flee towards the border with turkey in freezing winter conditions at least twenty four people have been killed in a strikes and it lib new footage shows the aftermath of the strikes over the muddier area in eastern. according to the syrian observatory for human rights three people including one child were killed on monday. the us government has decided to end the temporary protected status of

imogen foulkes, bbc news, geneva. more than 170,000 people are expected to visit this year's consumer electronics show in las vegas. the tech companies' latest developments include driverless taxis and new advances in artificial intelligence, including some uncannily human robots. our technology correspondent rory cellan—jones is there. a powerful and largely invisible technology is on the march. it's learning how to drive. it can recognise individualfaces, and it knows an awful lot about our personal preferences. that technology is artificial intelligence and, in las vegas this week, tech firms are showing off how far it's come. hey, sophia, can we shake hands? in a las vegas university lab, i'm meeting sophia, a humanoid robot. how sophisticated do you think you are as a robot? i want people to perceive me as the robot i am. however, i wouldn't want to trick people into thinking i'm a human. i just want to communicate with humans in the best possible ways, which includes looking like one. sophia, who's had advance

from the united nations in geneva came the stiffest of rebukes. these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the united states. i'm sorry but there's no other word one can use but racist. you cannot dismiss entire countries and continents. the allegation has gone unanswered by the president. he had an opportunity at this ceremony in celebration of martin luther king. but it was awkward. after signing a proclamation in honour of the civil rights leader, mr trump dodged the most uncomfortable of questions. mr president, are you a racist? the president left without responding. he earlier tweeted that he'd used tough language in a meeting with senators but not the derogatory language attributed to him. peter bowes, bbc news. hawaii's emergency management agency has been forced to send out a tweet reassuring citizens there is no missile threat to hawaii. it comes after residents allegedly received emergency alert warning of an incoming ballistic missile. it was later revealed to be a false alarm. david willis is in washington. this mu

from the united nations in geneva came the stiffest of rebukes. these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the united states. i'm sorry but there's no other word one can use but racist. you cannot dismiss entire countries and continents. the allegation has gone unanswered by the president. he had an opportunity at this ceremony in celebration of martin luther king. but it was awkward. after signing a proclamation in honour of the civil rights leader, mr trump dodged the most uncomfortable of questions. mr president, are you a racist? the president left without responding. he earlier tweeted that he'd used tough language in a meeting with senators but not the derogatory language attributed to him. peter bowes, bbc news. dentists have accused the government of not doing enough to tackle tooth decay in england. new figures indicate there were nearly 43,000 operations to remove children's teeth last year — a i7% increase on four years ago. the british dental association says england now provides a second—class service compared

from the united nation, in geneva, came the stiffest of rebukes. these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the united states. i am sorry but there is no other word one can use but racist. you can not dismiss entire countries and continents as "shitholes". across africa there has been a furious response. the botswana government called donald trump's comments "reprehensible and racist". it may be just words, maybe in another part of the world, but on this continent, that word is an insult. chant: build the wall, build the wall. "build the wall" was the cry of voters who loved donald trump's hardline stance on immigration during the election. we are going to build the wall, folks, don't worry about it. and he was said to be doing a victory lap at the white house last night, believing this row will rev up his base. donald trump launched his campaign for the white house with an attack on mexican immigrants and rose to political prominence by claiming, falsely, that barack obama was not an american. this latest racial controversy wil

from the united nations in geneva came the stiffest of rebukes. these are shocking and shameful comments from the president of the united states. i'm sorry but there's no other word one can use but racist. you cannot dismiss entire countries and continents. the allegation has gone unanswered by the president. he had an opportunity at this ceremony in celebration of martin luther king. but it was awkward. after signing a proclamation in honour of the civil rights leader, mr trump dodged the most uncomfortable of questions. mr president, are you a racist? the president left without responding. he earlier tweeted that he'd used tough language in a meeting with senators but not the derogatory language attributed to him. peter bowes, bbc news. meanwhile, a speech this morning by the mayor of london, sadiq khan, has been disrupted by protesters shouting support for brexit and president trump. mr khan's address to the fabian society in london was suspended for several minutes while the demonstrators were taken out of the building by police. yesterday, mr