Seventy one people on board. Iran marks thirty nine years since the Islamic Revolution president has sound rouhani calls for a year of unity. And of a display of harmony in seoul that south koreas president strikes of course this note about his invitation to visit the north. If you know you see the blood the root villages yet you. Modernised burning hundreds of villages as the bush foreign secretary visits right kind states also. A month ago a group the cloud bridge project in costa rica where reforestation efforts could provide an important lesson for the rest of the world. And im far is small in doha our top sports story a seventeen year old takes gold on day two of the competition at the chiang Winter Olympics greg girard is the youngest adverse no board winner. Transport prosecutor has confirmed that all seventy one people on board a passenger plane that crashed shortly after takeoff from one of moscows busiest airports have died investigators at the scene say theyre looking at all possible causes a spokesman from Alliance Says there were no concerns about the technical condition of the aircraft. Well the short haul plane took off from dumb and yet over airport on sunday it was just a few minutes into its journey to the city of or sq when it went missing from the radar. Now a plane is thought to have crashed near the village of our good no vote which is near the russian capital moscow there were eyewitnesses and they said that they saw a burning aircraft falling from the sky aljazeera is chalons as this report. The answer no airliner with sixty five passengers and six crew on board came down four minutes after it took off in bad weather conditions wreckage was scattered across snowy fields near the village of water going over eighty kilometers southeast of moscow rescue teams were unable to reach the crash site by road and want to see the will of i saw an explosion on the ground and i called Emergency Services they asked me many questions i told them there was a fire it was very visible in the short hole set a lot of airlines jets took off from Moscows Domodedovo airport early sunday afternoon on its way to the city of or sc in the urals most of the sixty five passengers on board were from the region at the airport their family and friends of those on board the flight began to wait for news with little hope that anyone who survived. The decision would mean that i would refer to our great sorrow all the people on board dead the Health Care Ministry expresses its deep condolences to the relatives and families of the victims works in progress to put there for the identification of the passengers. Russia has suffered two major air crashes in recent years in december two thousand and sixteen a t u one five four military aircraft crashed into the black sea with the loss of ninety two people it was blamed on pilot error in october two thousand and fifteen a russian air bus crashed in egypts Sinai Peninsula killing all two hundred twenty four people on board i still said it placed a bomb in the aircraft. Right to me putin has canceled a trip to sochi which was shut jeweled for monday he was due to meets the Palestinian LeaderMahmoud Abbas that now that meeting will now take place in moscow from where putin will monitor the investigation investigators have found a flight recorder from the plane and this will be crucial in determining why this relatively new aircraft came promising out of the sky various causes are being considered including pilots era bad weather conditions or perhaps Something Else really chalons zero moscow. Well he is an aviation analyst and joins me via skype from botany jazzy thanks very much for speaking to us now we know that the plane reached an altitude of six thousand four hundred feet before it started dropping very sharply what the but the potential scenarios that would result in the plane crashing so fast and so quickly basically you know if it could be terrorism it could be a mechanical malfunction of the aircraft you know there was no snow on the ground in the vicinity there very well could have been an accumulation of ice on the wings that could cause this or right now everything is of on the table the fact that the airplane was descending at three thousand feet per minute indicates that it probably wasnt a simple engine failure because under any normal circumstance where theres an engine failure or things of that nature a minor mechanical problem the airplane would have a fairly normal controlled descent rate back to the airport thats a very concerning and high descent rate for for their airplane which indicates probably a very serious problem happened quickly can there be a type of engineering problem all engine failure that happens unexpectedly very suddenly in a way that basically doesnt give the pilot enough time to react or is that something that you would rule out. I wouldnt rule it out because anything can happen but typically an engine failure for the most part is a nonevent on takeoff every pilot is trained to handle an engine failure and from a passive passenger perspective engine failure would be considered a nonevent and the pilot would be able to appropriately communicate with air Traffic Control the fact that there was no communication with air Traffic Control when the pilot had a serious problem that happened very quickly and he was probably struggling to get control of the aircraft or had no control of the air craft if it wasnt fact a result of terrorism or a or a serious breakup of the aircraft and so during on your experience as a pilot can you help us to understand what it would have been like for the pilot of this plane what his experience would have been like and how he might have responded in the moments before the crash will in this instance were something happens drastically you first have to you have to keep the airplane flying and try to keep it in the sky and then Everything Else a second communication would come next but the fact that there was no communication is the key here and there are there are right now sir reports of a large debris field and that could very well indicate. A possible breakup or perhaps an explosive generally if an airplane just has a malfunction in crashes the debris field is usually confined to a relatively small area so it is a little bit alarming that there is a large the debris field but we pretty much have to take that we dont know if thats coming from an official or just from an eyewitness you know large debris field from just a regular eyewitness might be different from that of. An aviation inspector. Yes so the debris spread is something to consider here that it went over quite a wide geographical area but also youve been speaking about these eyewitness reports in which people who are in the region at the time describe a burning aircraft falling from the sky what does that suggest to you yeah just a word of caution you know for your viewers often when i would see a catastrophe are happen in front of them the eyewitness reports are often a hundred percent accurate. So if there are certain scenarios such as a bird strike you know mention that another to a flame could be witnessed coming out the exhaust of the engine so whether they were seeing some thing else it doesnt necessarily mean that they actually saw a poll of fire or the the fuselage of the aircraft on fire they could have just seen the the exhaust from the engine which emitted something to appear like a a a flash or a burst of fire. Thanks very much for sharing your thoughts with us on this story appreciate it kyle bailey aviation analyst and pilot joining us there from new jersey. Thank you well moving to our other top stories at least six civilians have been killed in government as strikes near the syrian capital damascus two children are among the dead the attacks targeted several towns in the rebel held suburb of easton guta it falls within deescalation zones indorsed by Turkey Russia and iran meanwhile the United Nations is calling for an immediate pause in fighting in syria to address a western humanitarian crisis according to his food agency nine Million People need Food Assistance yakob cohen is the syria country director for the wild food program he says any truce needs to last for at least a month. At the moment thought keeps us from going to these places too east called out to eat live to a flea in a stiff fighting the security of our staff of cause is of utmost importance but also all the ends its dangerous to to come out in and collect for example food if days fighting going on so we need a pause in the fighting and what we have asked for months. We already their houses are full we have a big org im develop food for grammy supporting sleeve Million People every day we salute assistance in the country and we can easily shift resources around if you have an opening to these areas that you havent reached for as i said two months now well israels Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu has vowed to continue military operations inside syria a day after one of its f. Sixteen fighter jets was shot down by enemy fire israeli warplanes carried out a series of strikes on what it said were iranian targets in syria on saturday how a force that reports from western resulin Israeli Soldiers collected debris on sunday at the site where an air force f. Sixteen fighter crashed a day earlier while the Investigation Continues the army told aljazeera it had confirmed the plane was struck by a syrian antiaircraft missile the first israeli fighter shot down since one thousand nine hundred two. At the border israeli media reported anti missile batteries have been increased after extensive israeli counterstrikes the day before inside syrian territory. Yesterday we landed hard blows in the forces of iran and syria we made unequivocally clear to everyone that our modus operandi has not changed one jot we will continue to hit back for every attempt to harm us for any blown flick to dont us this is been our policy and this remain our policy. The incident began with the downing of what israel says was an iranian drone launched from syria that had crossed into israeli air space iran continues to deny the charge the secretary of the National Security council saying the allegations by zionists that they hit iranian bases in syria is a lie we are in syria as consultants we dont have the kind of military presence for them to make this allegation the years israels government has been talking about a mounting iranian threat on its Northern Borders i dont think we we that we were not to vulnerable but we certainly didnt expect it to happen this quickly so thats why im saying its a wake up call for the future the army knows how to respond. In a way or want to create in a school a certain. The only way it will create installations the other side wants in the schoolies and israeli politicians have been praising what theyve called a calm public reaction to this incident but theyre also aware that it highlights increasingly complex and difficult relationship with russia and its role inside syria israel struck targets close to where Russian Forces are based on saturday. Prompting a statement from Russias Foreign Ministry calling it absolutely unacceptable to endanger the lives of russian soldiers inside syria. This after months of diplomatic efforts to convince russia to help constrain iranian activity there. But one former senior Israeli MilitaryIntelligence Officer the loss of the plane and the extent of the retaliation dont represent a new phase in the conflict rather a reminder of its stakes. In the longer run but look the long the arena presence in syria should come to an end and we expect russia and the United States to make sure that this is going to be the the end result israel says its military response is now complete but this weekend has put the dangers of a largescale cross border conflict into sharp focus or a force that aljazeera west or islam. Irans president has called for a year of unity as his country celebrated thirty nine years since the Islamic Revolution in the wake of violent protests last year a son rouhani called on old Political Parties to put that differences aside and look to the future with a united front same bus ravi has more from tapper on. In a state of the union style speech irans president listed the governments successes rouhani focused mostly on domestic issues speaking about things like Economic Growth what iran is doing to address the impact of Climate Change and irans ability to manufacture military hardware like tanks and antiaircraft Missile Defense systems all part of a successful effort he said to have security independence and a larger role in the region saudi give those out. In the course of the last year we became terrorism we achieved great victories ive i saw in the region help to the people of iraq and syria through had good results and the people of the region got rid of evil terrorists indirectly addressing recent protests by opposition groups rouhani acknowledged shortcomings saying the government must do more to resolve what he described as a backlog of Economic Issues show you have got a buy on of all the government needs to be more transparent and we need to result banking issues address taxation and budgeting and and correct the economic structure of the country. For the hundreds of thousands of iranians who joined a celebratory rallies thirty nine years later the Islamic Revolution is a continuing way of life rouhani told the crowd that they were the most important part of ensuring the success of the islamic form of government in iran about all you can do theyre not all here. Elections are the biggest part of protecting the Islamic Revolution people voting in their leaders in parliamentary and president ial elections that when someone is elected the opposition and the youth the leech should respect the choice of the people instead of chanting slogans go to the ballot box. As he often does the iranian president extolled the virtues of dialogue over conflict he said the lasting solution to region wide problems is political settlement and as far as internal conflict rani said iranian. Should not hold grudges. Victory in the one nine hundred seventy nine revolution was like a train with many passengers some stayed on some god awful now he said was the time to bring everyone back on the trade you. When youre watching the news out from london much more still a tell you about hundreds of troops are deployed to indian controlled kashmir is on fighters attack an army base. A shock result for sri lankas Ruling Coalition often millions vote in local elections. And barcelona aim to stay unbeaten in the Spanish League far away that story and more in the sport. North koreas olympic delegation has left south korea after a world win three days which ended in a diplomatic offer that aims to end seventy years of hostility the group which included the powerful sister of north koreas leader kim jong un left on a private plane on sunday they wrapped up their first visit by joining south koreas president in a concert given by a north korean troops on saturday kim jong extended a rare invitation to president moon to visit pyongyang is actually going to him has more from seoul. Even as our fleets competed on the snow and ice diplomatic developments continue to steal at least some of the spotlight during whats being called the peace olympics the last three days have been historic and a high point in interest in relations north Korean Leader kim jong il sister kim jong became the first member of the ruling family to cross into the south since the korean war she came with an invitation kim jong un is asking the south korean president in to visit pyongyang at a convenient time soon if this meeting transpires it would be the first time that kim. Jungly has met with the south korean president since taking office in twenty eleven president moon says hell begin arranging the conditions to make that visit happen but he stresses that any rebuilding of interest korean relations must involve dialogue between the United States and north korea u. S. Vice president mike pence sat very close to the north korean delegation during the Opening Ceremony he emma North Koreans rebuffed president moons attempts to facilitate a midi skeptics say that this north korean Charm Offensive is heavy on the symbolism but they doubt that it will result in anything substantive they say this is an attempt by the North Koreans to drive a wedge between the United States and the South Koreans into an advance their own agenda but for now president moon and Many South Koreans are encouraged by the prospect that what weve been seeing could be the beginning of a reboot of injury and relations. Hundreds of indian troops are battling fighters inside an army base in indian administered kashmir for a second straight day the attackers breached the military compound early on saturday at least nine people including three of the fighters have been killed in the assault in the city of jama Charlotte Ellis reports. Soldiers prepare for battle inside the base an indian administered kashmir they were ambushed by an unknown number of find is in a predawn raid on saturday commanders say the from Jesse Mohamad which wants pakistan to control kashmir. And that. Professionally of. Operation army is taking all precautions. And we dont want to. Attack a shot at guards on the perimeter before moving toward soldiers homes inside the camp Indian Security forces evacuated families while helicopters search for the intruders hundreds of reinforcements were called in indias army chief lowin to monitor the operation. Mohammed has a history of stoking teaches between india and pakistan the group was founded by message seen here in two thousand after release from prison in exchange for passengers a hijacked Indian Airlines plane sixteen years later he launched the did list assaults on Indian Security forces into decay it too was a predawn ambush on a military base in indian administered kashmir nine hundred soldiers were killed and. India accuses pakistan of supporting such attacks pakistan denies the allegations kashmir has been disputed since independence nine hundred forty seven pakistan and india claim is in full ruelas in part. And both continue to defend the territory. Bellus shes a. Human rights activist known as the iron lady of pakistan has died at the age of sixty six john kerry suffered a heart attack in the eastern city of lahore late on saturday and died a few hours later she was a fierce defender of women and minorities and openly criticize the Pakistani Military intelligence and right wing religious parties. Sri lankas opposition says the Coalition Government needs to resign after a heavy defeat in local government elections both the party of the president and Prime Minister perform badly and often and as reports from colombo. The giant opposition is back in the limelight the sri lanka peoples front which contested the local government elections for the largest share of the vote locally is the p. P. The party says the ruling government has lost its mandate the result is unequivocal this is a. Clear egyptian lives. Those who are serving. In the clearest possible terms that this dont move does mark have a man who continue governing the stumping the p. P. Is a breakaway faction of the party of president by two policy cena and the man he defeated by in the rajapaksa the former president who is his popularity which remains high after he defeated the tamil tigers and dig a twenty five year long conflict to campaign for the new Coalition Front even though he remains a member of his successors party as confirmation of a significant wind filtered through on saturday night rajapaksa urged to be magnanimous a Welcome Change from the past where political rivalry resulted in violence. And singing. I appeal to all those who want to enjoy their victories without harassing the losers. Despite her partys weak performance rosie said and i had something to celebrate becoming the first woman mayor of the countrys oldest and largest business but council colombo she acknowledged that her United National party would have to do some soul searching we need to take stock of you know where we are and what we need to do and i think you know the sentiment that i hear from people is we havent really delivered the promises we made in two thousand and fifteen and maybe it is time that for us to in a speed up hurry and do what we came to do members of president seriously and his party the president on sunday said he had promised to make key changes that the country would feel disposed to the results of the polls the Election Results are a wake up call for all Political Parties by the joint opposition savors its victory in more than two thirds of the three hundred forty local government institutions up for grabs the Ruling Coalition must look closely at why voters who helped them disprove one hundred rajapaksa just three years ago are returning to him. Aljazeera colombo. Turkeys proca dish Peoples Democratic party has elected new coleaders at its Party Conference in ankara one of the former joint leaders. Announced he was stepping down last month after more than a year in prison the left wing always has a male and female cochair so you is at the event in the capital ankara. The new leaders of the peoples the most whats a party or a cheapie entered the hall to an end to see a sick welcome from supporters perrin bulled on and says i are the new cochairs of the Party Following their rest of their predecessors so locked in demo touch. We will fight together we will win together a little reach our destination. Similar to us isnt jail awaiting trial on multiple charges including allegedly links with the Kurdistan Workers Party or p. K. K. Turkey the e. U. And us list the p. K. K. As a terrorist organization they g. P. Ses its role is purely political but it regards the be kicking as Freedom Fighters for the kurdish pows. These tens of thousands who turned out here are the signal for Freedom Democracy and pace the turkish government and the p. K. K. Agreed on a ceasefire years ago guns were laid down but the Peace Process collapse in two thousand and fifteen. D. P. Had gained support in successive elections and became the second Largest Opposition Party in the Turkish Parliament the turkish government said the h. D. Peace policies had become more poke orders and started to accuse it of being aligned with the p k k. We lean on the y p g a y p j a n p y d were comfortable with saying these. One of the parties me cochairs is a key figure in. In kurdish politics pavin bill done has been well received by the porch a grassroots her husband was murdered by unknown assailants a ninety ninety four during the most hated times of the conflict between the p. K. K. And the turkish state a conflict that has cost thirty thousand lives and both sides why am i the supporters of the front runners. Cause thats a critical time the new core chair will have to deal with the selling fact out against. The toughest challenge whether it is other response to the right. Balance or not i was on my list of christians on holiday. Turkey has been targeting what it says are white egypt fighters in africa for three weeks the government stays the y. P. G. s the Syrian Branch of the p. K. K. And the modern day enemy from a conflict thats been going for forty years. Aljazeera. Still ahead for us hour an epidemic of loneliness now the u. K. Is trying to fight a phenomenon that affects thousands of honorable people. Are many willing vamp young john and i were talking to the people here this book site says they volunteered about how theyre fighting often called the mike they went right to take a big success. Hello there may be to be large areas of interest weather wise in europe one is down here a swirl of clouds across the north in the greece and beyond in the other one is that swirl in the north sea this just swip different aircrafts the British Isles and northwest you know they both active and they both change in the air tight so stow runs to the outs through germany and through austria rain and snow move that out of greece and beyond turkey in fact to the northern caucasus irvings moving in that churn direction were left behind still revise the warm weather in athens and ankara book resit single figures but still seven and the real cold the wall around else has been sort of moved out of the way by the breeze still cold enough to snow as you can see thats the story in maybe slovenia austria answer out the other behind it things are warmed up a bit eight degrees in london six in paris the sun is coming up the snow on the ground is going to start to melt at that sort of temperature. Now we have as you well know various breaks of rain or snow and that was my goal nye the actions gone further east with quite a breeze running across libya no attempts to live leveled out about Fifteen Degrees its cooling down in colorado this cloud has been around for a couple days is finally bringing rain through egypt then. On vehicles harvesting every pic you take every click. Click to everything all the waves most of. Its time to watch the one. With the deep sea the first civilian. Creator. Of the engineers at this time. Was. Our. Entry. Welcome back in with the news outlets update on the top stories a russian passenger plane has crashed shortly after takeoff from one of moscows busiest airports russias transport prosecutor has confirmed that all seventy one people on board the dead. Israels Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu says his military has dealt a serious blow to iran in syria the day after it carried out a series of air strikes there. And irans president has called for a year of unity as his country celebrates its thirty nine years since the Islamic Revolution. Iran today is exerting increasing influence in the region that relations with its neighbors in the wider world since the nine hundred seventy nine revolution havent been easy the one nine hundred seventy nine hostage crisis when fifty two americans were whole for more than a year by revolutionary guards set the tone for four decades of tension with the United States which still maintained sanctions over Irans Nuclear program iran and iraq were at war in the one nine hundred eighty s. But more recently iran has become a significant power broker in iraq as well as a major backer of syrias president bashar assad this axis of shia led states has further strained relations with its sunni muslim rival saudi arabia which is also accused iran of being behind the hoofy rebels in yemen and irans direct and in direct involvement in the war in syria is increasingly bringing it into direct conflict with israel as we saw with saturdays shooting down of an israeli jet targeting what was said to be iranian assets. Well i met my g. D. R. Is director of the iran project at the middle east institute he joins me now from washington d. C. And so weve been listening to president has said rouhani today making a speech to mark the thirty ninth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution and we have since then seen a sort of western Foreign Policy of isolation and containment what is your assessment of the way in which that has impacted irans Foreign Policy through the is what we have seen today that marks the thirty ninth anniversary of the Islamic Revolution the Islamic Republic is facing a crisis of legitimacy at home and also increasing tension with the outside world we saw a very short thaw in relations between the united between iran and the United States after deciding off the Nuclear Agreement but in the posts one here especially after president took office and took a very tougher line on iran relations between that on and the United States have been deteriorating very fast and in the future well see more confrontation rather than cooperation between the two on in washington i mean do you think this is a structural thing that is driven mainly by. Vested interests and a kind of establishment in teheran in washington or is it about the people in the personalities involved because as we saw with president obama and president rouhani you know there was a shift. It is a structural problem it is about irans Foreign Policy it is start that thirty nine years ago when did it lucian happen we saw that. The trend in regime took american hostages for four hundred forty four days so the since that time the iran have not had any normal relations and also. From the very inception of that evolution that iran has been trying to export its revolution up abroad which has a strained its ties not just with the United States but also its its neighboring countries as well when you say exporting its revolution abroad we have to be slightly careful with the language that we use here because that suggests i mean youre talking about iranian attempts to forcibly overthrow a government or a particular you know social order in favor of a new system i suppose they would argue that i mean yes they are supporting figures like bashar asad in syria but you know that someone already thats a system thats already been in place for a while. Well after that it will you dont want to expand this revolution in the region. I knew who was the fat found out of the revolution very famously said that that evolution does not recognize any borders but the iran iraq war and also defacto that most of the shiite communities across the region they remained loyal to their countries that did not side with iran that of course gave you run a bit kind of like media on a look at how. But over the past year or so weve seen that the regional proxies iran has been trying to expand its ideological and political. Influence across the region through a combination of soft power and hard Power Strategies but unfortunately that effort to expand its influence across the region has come at the expense of regional stability you did mention about syria weve seen that in iran and as she has been propping up the. Assad regime which has caused a lot of destruction and similarly iran has been supporting hezbollah and lebanon and also have been supporting sam she had militia groups in iraq which has been the source of a lot of stability and sectarianism in the region well im and my g. D. I thank you very much for joining us that from washington thank you for having me. Rianne mars denied burning down hundreds of range of villages as part of a crackdown that has forced nearly six hundred ninety thousand people to flee to bangladesh as well feminists a made the statement during a visit by the British Foreign secretary to rack and state you know easy to burn their abilities yet you. The minister insisted to Boris Johnson that the ranjit torched their homes themselves and later gave him a tour of the fund villages launched a brutal military crackdown in the region last August Johnsons trip to iraq on state comes just hours after the fact or leader unsung suchi it told her that the refugees must be allowed to return home on the un supervision but im afraid i have to say that talking to. Politicians in night the door in the capital today listening to door sue i dont think it has come through to her the full extent of the horror of what has happened the sheer devastation i dont know whether youve ever seen anything like it done by man kind against of us of our fellow man ive no ive seen nothing like it in my life the hundreds hundreds of villages torched its absolutely devastating and i think that what is needed now is is some leadership some calm but some leadership working with the u. N. Agencies to get these people back home. Forests across the world are under threat according to wild wild life on the equivalent of twenty seven football fields a minute of being lost to logging agriculture and development but in costa rica farce of being replanted and we groan and gallacher reports from each repo National Park in southern costa rica. Few places in the world can boast the kind of biodiversity found in costa ricas forests youll find unique species and unique climates but deforestation is taking its toll over the last seventy years about eighty percent of costa ricas forest has been lost. To clough bridge nature reserve researches and volunteers of fighting back weve got to remember that in just a few short years theyve replanted and re grown large parts of this rain forest and the result a promising when we finally captured a jaguar on the camera trap he was very big cat that was a huge step for us when we walked through the areas that weve planted in and you see the tree is large enough to make it on its own in the forest is changing. Thats a huge step easy. Thing theyre like biologists from around the world now come here to study what this kind of regeneration can achieve the return of species once lost to agriculture and logging is for many i dont forget a bill experience im sure there is you know Success Stories in other countries and other places but having you know what i experience it firsthand here for so long for sure its going to be something that i look back on tell people about you know it works i the tower bridge reserve is now an example of what simple techniques patience and preservation can achieve a country wide shoot to progress is being be its astounding to see what fifteen years of regrowth can look like and according to the United Nations reforestation is the best way to combine Climate Change and something costa ricas done very effectively through various incentives and. Programs theyve managed to reclaim almost a quarter of what was lost. Costa ricas rich Natural Heritage has long been a draw for students and tourists alike this nations reforestation if its stand as a testament to what can be achieved at a time when the environment faces its greatest challenges and to go look at aljazeera at the clown bridge reserve in costa rica. Colombias military has blamed rebels for a double bomb attack on saturday the group was holding a three day national blockade to protest against the governments decision to suspend peace negotiations the bombs went off at the amarillo bridge which connects the countrys Atlantic Coast with its inland have been no reported deaths or injuries present one miles out or suspended negotiations with the earlier this year after rebel attacks killed seven police officers. Well at least eight people have been killed and forty others injured by gas explosion at the carnival parade in the libya Police Say Three children were among those killed in saturdays blast in the city of or rural. The British Government has appointed its first ever minister for loneliness in a bid to help Vulnerable People who feel isolated charities estimate that around two hundred thousand older people in person havent had a conversation with a friend or relative in more than a month more than half of all people over seventy five years old have alone i u. K. Correspondent Barnaby Phillips has the story. My wife died about two and a half years ago and i. Read. The history of almost love john who is ninety had felt increasingly isolated the death of his wife left a void wed been married for sixty five years so obviously companionship and friendship and important to me. The solution arranged by a charity was for john to give a room to poppy a twenty one year old student she helps with shopping cooking going for walks its mutually beneficial most importantly they like each other in simplest terms i probably wont be able to afford to live where i am if i wasnt working and living with john as a young person all the conversations we have i come out learning something new hes had such an interesting life. Loneliness is subjective individuals and societies feel it in different ways but says this expert its impact on health can be measured having predisposes Health Conditions so theres been a matter that looked at showed that it was bad for your health. Today people that are more likely to get Heart Disease and stroke. Their early onset of dementia. Mental Health Issues amateur depression suicide. Cocktails in care homes an unlikely mixture but another simple idea bringing young people into care homes for the elderly in britain three quarters of older people say they feel lonely almost half say t. V. Is their main companion but on these evenings everyone reaches out to everyone else. And. Make. Light of loneliness itself the benefits of a scheme like this are very hard to quantify but engaging in conversation between generations makes almost all of us feel good it creates understanding it strengthens the ties which holds society together. Often comes with feelings of shame but it is part of the human condition and on evenings like these some people discover that they have more in common than the thought of the phillips aljazeera london. Youre watching out there still ahead. Im jake ward on the Berkeley Campus the military has funded a new program that could insert information into the mine ill have that story in a moment. And well tell you how this went from fighting for his life to winning a medal in less than a year. For the congolese the journey to work all aboard that means unimaginable hardship i prefer to live though because the only way to get the captain to chancing life and live in a dangerous journey through the jungle i fell into the rails with a nearly died. For our children eat go to school and live because of the trade risking it all the democratic republic of congo at this time on aljazeera. This is a really fabulous news from one of the best ive ever worked in there is a unique sense of bonding where everybody teams in but something i feel every time i get on the chair every time i interview someone were often working around the clock to make sure that we bring events as i currently as possible to the viewer thats what people expect of us and thats what i think we really do well. Back the u. S. Military has announced more than sixty Million Dollars in grants to build hardware that would read and write thoughts in the brain have been to do it all with a device as small as a sugar cube jake avoid visits at the teen and california at the light of a lighter concrete or thumb something ten years ago dean lloyd a lawyer in Palo Alto California received the worlds first artificial retina it allowed him to see it was a low quality video image but it was something that im getting looks like right about thirty or. Words from the dirt or grass or whatever isnt there some kind foliage and youre going to the only difference between one surface and other though thats correct if a contrast point yet really think about that to make it useful but that technology is ancient compared to whats coming next a new military Grant Program is funding projects that seek to not just read the information thats in your brain but actually write information into it basically wed be putting synthetic versions of things like sight into the brain the university of california at berkeley is home to one of the six teams hoping to create within four years a device that can read and control one million neurons right now we can only watch one hundred at a time our goal is to be able to see that many neurons every one of them individually and not only to be able to watch what they do as you do an m. R. I. But to be able to play back to them the patterns of activity in space and in time so that you could actually reconstitute and synthesize the experience of the real world and thereby replace something that is missing because of an injury this military funded program could replace lost senses in Wounded Soldiers but could also put entirely new senses into healthy soldiers if it works the project will be a world changing leap for example while we were developing this proposal we had a few meetings sort of saying we cant do this this is physically impossible will never get there our goal is to take like a microscope Something Like this and squash it down really tiny so it can fit on the head of a mouse while its running around so this is one of our first prototype cohen working on math that can turn a low grade two d. Picture of the brain useful three d. Images so they can take ruffords like this. And process it into a life even though we can create cars. Some patterns and should light exactly where we want and the right moment for that and postdoctoral researcher nicol up the guy is building the system that will convert real world experiences into math the directs lasers to light up individual neurons so here is a movie casablanca and this is what you have to turn that into for it to then be shown on to the brain and i think wow unified on a pattern you tell me which neurons you want to activate and we will at the exact time give the exact amount of light thats required to activate in your own the project could rebuild soldiers or eventually give them enhanced abilities on the battlefield by the way if it works we will have crossed into a new ethical and medical world a world where we can read humans thoughts and implant new ones jake aboard aljazeera berkeley california. Thats right its Winter Olympics time. Marion thank you so much a seventeen year old has become the youngest american Gold Medalist out of Winter Olympics since one thousand nine hundred twenty eight right gerard claimed an unexpected victory in the mens slopestyle snowboarding elise homan reports. Few would have nor the name bred to run before these Olympic Games but the teenager produced the run of his life in the mens slopestyle snowboarding event and at seventeen he became the youngest olympic snowboarding champion ever was it was crazy it was really wild that first place those. Jogger upping canadas Mark Mcmorris won the bronze medal less than a year after he almost died during a training accident the twenty four year old fractured his jaw pelvis and left ruptured his spleen and suffered a collapsed lung their motions are definitely positive today just being here at the olympics is a huge feat for me and being healthy is feel so good once again. Dutch speedskating great Sven Cromwell became the first man to win three golds in the same speed skating event at an olympics the thirty one year old climbing the mens five thousand aces yet again. Fans of biathlon was stunned when french dumb martin for cut the world number one missed three of these opening five shots and would finish eighth in the mens ten kilometer sprint no one more stunned than germanys pesah who took home the gold. France didnt finish day two entirely empty handed purina phone won gold in the womens moguls those are just crazy i mean i really realized that just one day youre lame pigs and when you. When you lame to james and there was a pretty great beating. Drummer of the day came in the. Thirty kilometer ski at one seaman heads down to go with the last in the early stages have to think floored in a collision. But the norwegian recovered to take the lead on the penultimate lap and weve gone home and just euro. Germany are top of the medal table after two days of competition with three golds the netherlands are in fact and Australia Join the list of all medal winning countries after victory and them and. Eleven gold medals are up for grabs in the biafra on at these games heres peters to take you through the events history and technicalities skiing and shooting seems like an unlikely combination for the Winter Olympics the roots of biathlon or in hunting techniques used by scandinavian countries and was contested between swedish and norwegian militaries in the eighteenth century in one nine hundred sixty it debuted as an official Olympic Event so how does it work what with a rifle strapped to their back the competitor will do leps around a Cross Country ski course these laps will vary from two and a half to four kilometers and at the end of each loop they stop take that rifle off their back and shoot a targets that are fifty meters away there are two types of required shooting one is standing with targets that are four and a half metres wide all lying on their stomachs shooting at targets that are not as big now if you miss a single target you are paralyzed in some even so that means you have to do a one hundred fifty metre penalty loop before continuing on the race in other events its a one minute punishment overall race distances in individual events vary from ten to twenty kilometers in duration and depending on the distance that means racing from twenty minutes to over an hour there are five separate mens and womens events in pyongyang and naturally the first across the line takes gold. Extreme cold weather at the olympics has been a talking point of the games for athletes but spectators and thousands of volunteers are also affected lee wellings reports on what goes into making the games run smoothly. If a good a lympics is based on the infusion of the hosts then the Winter Olympics in p. R. You know where to be judged a success the tone is set by the fifteen thousand volunteers relentlessly cheerful in extreme conditions approaching minus twenty degrees working long hours eight out of ten of them are in their twentys and simply wanted to be parts of changs big fortnight are you enjoying being a volunteer yeah sure because you know if the weather is a little bit colder it is a really Good Opportunity to participate in this special sports event hours of standing in the cold means the uniform logistics need to be perfect theyre not and many have politely registered their complaints to the games organizers the hours that we wait a little bit longer its nine hours per cent and. There were a lot of problems with transportation another issue to hit the games is an outbreak of the norovirus there were over one hundred cases around the olympic site mainly affecting security guards but now sport is finally starting to take the spotlight after the extraordinary Political Developments between south and north korea to define the opening of these twenty third winter games and career can dream of a gold rush a major Sports Events host nation success is a vital ingredient gold medals and. Means a wide range of public support and on the first proper diet of competition here in p. R. The gangnam on ice arena. In the mens fifteen hundred meters short track speed skating struck gold and calm south korean. A nation is already gripped by television footage for those in the Olympic Parks its a memory for life i mean. Im very proud that south korea managed to hold the olympics again after thirty years i came here to make good memories for my daughter. Im very happy to see the pics in the flesh which i usually see only on t. V. Despite the omnipresent a limp marketing flavor the games have retained in the mistakenly korean charm amazing people yeah they are the games makers these guys are hoping some. Of the local people can remove the bits a chill at the climate lee wellings zero zero pm china barcelona house stumbled for a second straight week in spain they were held to a draw by taffy a late effort by luis suarez failed to get through the tough a gold keeper while barsa star player lean on messi was below was bass it was only the fifth time this season the Legal Leaders failed to score they remain unbeaten though with that result barcelona as leader of the top sits at seven points with Athletico Madrid in second defending champions around madrid are seventeen points behind Manchester United suffered a surprise to fade away at newcastle in the English Premier League matt richie scoring the only goal in the game to lift newcastle out of the relegation zone United States second in the table sixteen points behind leaders man city. Were the lucky yes they were yes they were but sometimes you were tricked. We just state of mind and after the only players they fought for their lives and i think thats a beautiful thing in football liverpool are third in the standings after to know when over southampton roberta from a new and most sell out where the scores both in the first half. And thats all your support for now its now back to mary and london. Thanks very much well that wraps up the news hour but i will be back in a few moments time with much more of the days news including of course around up of all of our top stories do stay with us see the bed. Already. Jeannette morale is was just ten years old when a devastating earthquake struck mexico city in one thousand nine hundred five the quake damaged her familys apartment and the government moved them to distant shack around seventy families who lost their homes in that earthquake still live in this camp going to be up at the gala the government raised our hopes and then abandon us politicians have promised that they wont allow a repeat of what happened after the earthquake in one thousand and five but the cost and complexity of housing hundreds of People Living in camps is a major task and one that many people here think the government failed. A young so mali refugee thrilled to gain u. S. Residency in twenty sixteen. I was told i was lucky too good to. Was a really really hard good. But with anti immigrant sentiment under the Trump Presidency aljazeera world asks ali was whether his American Dream is still alive. In america at this time on aljazeera. A russian passenger plane crashes shortly after taking off from moscow killing all seventy one people on board. Hello im Maryam Namazie in london youre watching aljazeera also coming up