the volunteer firefighters on the front line in australia it's nearly 2 million years old but it's a skull that is helping to to rewrite history.

but first syrian rebels have freed nine lebanese hostagings. hostages. the men were among the group of 11 people taken captive in may of last year. two had already been freed. they say they are on their way home from a trip to iran where they had been visiting rye will i -- religious sites. ai -- qatar's foreign ministry is said too have helped in their release. andrew simmons in beirut. the pilgrims have their freedom in turkey and are expected back in beirut in the next 12 to 24 24 hours and possibly 48. and hinged on that is the

release of two turkish airline pilots they were taken prisoner in retaliation. and then added to all of this is the potential release of a number women opposition prisoners from the syrian regime, dasmascus is expected to be involved in the release as well. there are three aspects of this and seem so many -- so many parties involved. and most importantly qatar playing a key roll in events recently we saw a release of a video of two turkish airline pilots. that was a demand to show that they were in good health and could be released. so events now unfolding fairly quickly after a very long time for these people. not connected with the syrian conflict being held against their will. a syrian opposition monitoring group says at least 16 government troops have been

killed in a car bomb attack south of the capital da mass -- dasmascus. a bomber blew himself up. they have had four airstrikes on the area near the check checkpoint. a group of hackers said it was behind the shutting down of the web sites. the syrian electronic army posted on it's twitter account that it took control of the.qa demain name. you get an error message. they have targeted qatar because of it's support of rebels inside of syria. in the maul maldives. the former president was

favoured to win. he had no choice but to cancel the vote. >> when our officals tried the police percent -- personnel stopped them from taking anything from here. we were not able to take anything from here. so we have not the prints except the election to date. >> now the police in the maldives insist they were up holding the rule of law. >> if something is going not according to the constitution or the supreme court ruling i believe that all of the people, the citizens have the right to say whatever they feel. and we believe that if it's not been followed, we are saying that we are taking the stand that we will be ee not -- we will not be able to help, assist if the gietd -- guidelines are

not followed. lets look up to the lead up. the president last year was ousted in a coup. "thethe supreme court later cancelled the results. the new elections are due to take place on saturday. the other candidates asked for a delay. one of them is abdulla a yeah mean. the a spokesman says several political groups have been trying to to rerestrict -- restrict the democratic process. >> one of the parties went to court after the first round their complaint was their

irregularities in the voter's list. but no irregularity was identified. the supreme court came up with 16 directives and utah out of weather saying the supreme

the chinese government has sacked another official. it's part of a campaign to crack down on corruption. he was the mayor of nanjing. bush fires have destroyed 20200 homes in new south wales. firemen are struggling to contain the flames. regarded as the worst fires in the state in a decade. andrew thomas followed some volunteers and filed this report

neared mt. riverview. that is near sydney. in the blue mountains west of sydney volunteers are fighting fire with fire. byburg big areas of under growth of homes, they hope that once the bush fires reach here there will be nothing left to burn. >> we go ahead and put a burnt line around the back of properties and areas and then we work at burning out the smaller valley here by is an off shoot of a bigger valley on fire coming up. >> the firefighters are working remarkably close to the homes. just 50 meters up the hill are people's houses. i can see from here their windows and doors. the volunteer firefighters are trying to stop these flames from reaching them. and these are all volunteers. practicing firefightersing is normally a weekend hobby. this though the real thing is what that is all about. gena is a mother of two

children. daryl manages a concrete factory and everyone thrown together asy the fire. i run a cough citcoffee shop. >> you all do it is a volunteers. >> yes. >> this is an area often prone to fire. >> we are ten meters from the bush and as you can see you can get burnt out easily we are taking precarbions that we can. we have shutters on the windows and a rain water tank that feeds the system and will cover the whole house and water. >> others have taken similar measures and still lost earring. >> very frightening. very frightening indeed. you watch the flames coming. you personally don't know how you will stop them. >> on a nearby road many homes are now rubble and ash. back at the fire front, the work is 24-hours-a-day. the firefighters taking advantage of cooler temperatures and lighter wind while they last

and grabbing moments to rest only when they can. andrew thomas al jazeera mt. river zrsview near sydney. saudi arabia has surprised e diplomats by turning down a seat on the council. they say the council has failed to preserve peace in the middle east. saudi arabia 176. >> saudi diplomats were all smiles thursday after winning a seat on the u.n. security councilor. months if not years of planning went into the election. the saudi ambassador gave every indication his country was eager to take on the high-profile position. we look forward to work with the rest of the international community to help our syrian brothers achieve their objectives. >> most important is the palestinian issue because we believe that is the core issue of the difficulties in the middle east. >> but the council's inaction on

those same issues syria and palestine were cited on sphrie when the kingdom reversed course and announced it would not take the seat. the foreign ministry said in a statement. the mex nis of action and double standard existing in the security council preventing it from per forming it's duties and assuming it's responsiblities in preserving international peace and security. the security council has been long criticized by it's gridlock. street toe wielding members are blamed for blocking action on syria and the u.s. has stood in the way of the palestinian issue. the timing of the announcement has long time u.n. watchers questioning the saudi's true motivation. >> it could be away of signaling to the u.s. look we are here, we have problems with the way issues are developing in the region and pay attention to us. the anuancement took the u.n. by

surprise. secretary gin moon says he was waiting for notification. >> i encourage all members states to fully engage with the princple ordinance of the united nations while advancing their efforts to advance forward. >> ththe new security council ae scheduled to take their seats in january. zplencht thethey are waiting official word from the saudis on whether to call an election. no one is sure how to proceed because this has never happened before. coming up on this program. drowning in debt. we meet zimbabwe people that can't pay their water charges. and how columbian rebels are trying to re-enter society.

[[voiceover]] every day, events sweep across our country. and with them, a storm of views. how can you fully understand the impact unless you've heard angles you hadn't considered? antonio mora brings you smart conversation that challenges the status quo with unexpected opinions and a fresh outlook. including yours. there's more to financial news than the ups and downs of the dow. for instance, can fracking change what you pay for water each month? have you thought about how climate change can affect your grocery bill? can rare minerals in china affect your cell phone bill? or how a hospital in texas could drive up your healthcare premium? i'll make the connections from

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welcome back to top stories on al jazeera. nine lebanese hostages held in syria are being released. qatar said they helped mediate. they are in turkey an will be ae returning. the police have blocked the rerun of the presidential election at the last moment. they say the vote violates a supreme court order. the prime minister had been favored to win. bush fires have desstroitd - destroyed almost 200 hos 200 hon

new south wales. the united states is calling on syria to allowed aid convoys. they continued to condemn the bombing. there are reports of children dying of hunger and people have been without basic necessities for a year. the areas are under control of the rebel fighters. desperate conditions have forced millions of sirians to seek shelter abroad. gergermany has agreed to take in some of them. 5000 soy far. >> after months and months of fear and war and waiting it's back to school for these syrian children in a country where they can at last feel safe. ali learns to say he is 44 years old. because whatever they did before it's back to the basics for the

adults as well the family head to lunch. ham id is 15, tiny because of a degenerative disease. a disability that helped get his family accepted in germany. >> i didn't want to leave. nobody wants to leave their country. we waited too late we could hear the bombs going off the artillery and mortar sthels. shells. the children had nightmares and were screaming all of the time. a activist approached us and showed us scars that were inflicted by the syrian police. germany is giving the 5000 rovef guyrefugees preferential treatm. german language lessons and pocket money and the right to work and lodging once they move out of this camp in a couple of

weeks or so. the situations of other sirians is much more difficult. no right to work and no freedom to work in the country until their asylum is accepted. they want to remain in germany because their children will get what they need most of all. proper medical care. hamid has a disease that makes him age too quickly. a wartime explosion left the boy pushing him and limping and deaf. the sirians may i may be safe nt for some this is no leaving buy behind the scars of war. a dozen of drone strikes carried out by the united states may have violated the international law. they are requesting to declassify the information. since 2004 it's estimated that 450 civilians have been killed

in yemen, pakistan and afghanistan. the taliban has attacked a convoy of a foreign vehicle on the outskirts of kabul. two civilians passing by were killed. it was outside of a compound that is a home to unite the nations staff and the u.n. employees. >> after jalalbad here in kabul down the small street behind me is the complex that was attacked. it's called the green village. it's where the nato contractors stay and it's well known where western civilians stay for their accommodation and their offices at 5:00 local time here in kabul it's believed that a 4 x 4 full of westerners came out of the compound and down the street and it was immediately attacked by a sue sitsuicide bomber in a smalr vehicle. we are hearing from police that the vehicle was destroyed and there are likely high casualty

figures both western and afghan. the concern is these attacks could turn into complex attacks. where the fighting is ongoing. there is a heavy police and military presence on the site to make sure that is not the case. so far it was one isolated suicide bombing. rebels in a democratic republic of congo are heading towards majore major break news. that is according to the news agency. they said they have made what it's called major concessions on their political talks. the talks are taking place in uganda. and police have raised u uganda security to the maximum level after u.s. intelligence warned of an imminent say tack. al shabab have threatened to attack. in zimbabwe people are running out of clean water in the capital.

the aging infrastructure and increasing population are causing severe shortages and the city council is disconnecting supplies to those that can't pay their bills. >> this is neither a lab or a recycling factory. it's an average kitchen in zimbabwe's capital. and it looks like this because water is in short supply. for peter and his family huge water bills have made matters worse. tactackling the water crisis was one of the campaign promises of the government. the city council did wipe out ducdues but also decided to disconnect residents that were not paying bills after july. many cannot make the full payment. >> yeah it was 50. they disconnected my water after i paid 5 $50 from $80. it's a chronic crisis. a cash starved city council faces many challenges. creeping infrastructure and lack of capacity means it can barely

meet half of the city's required water needs. but officals say lack of revenue is a key problem. >> people who do not want to settle their bills on time or settle them at all. so, it's just one of those characteristic policies, it's a stick we are using if we can have them pay up now so we are sure service delivery. >> no funds means they can't keep running old treatment plants like this one. and solutions like a 144 million-dollar loan from a chinese bank are not working as planned. residents will endure three more years of shortages as the city continues to rehabilitate the facility. >> we go for days without water supply. when it comes back it's dirty and people fall sick. they must improve on treatment. >> water here in warren park is

an issue. not being affected by cool rar s by goa god's grace. >> it's impossible for many to pay for water. a necessar necessity that is pay transformed into a luxury. co-how many bco-almostcolomg to reintegrate. >> she is just hours away from the opening of her clothing store. but getting here wasn't easy. she u us used to be a farc rebe. trained at 11 she was given a weapon and sent into combat. >> the first time it was very hard. i started to cry. i started to panic when i heard

gunshots everywhere. you then understand you need to fight or die, it's your life or theirs. >> she escaped five years later after being injured and left for dead. she is one of 50,000 leftist rebels and right wing paramilitaries who are trying to re-enter society. they are given training and extensive psychological support and financial aid. if the peace talks are successful the government expects it will have a thousand more rebels to rehabilitate. they have opened offices across the country with over 800 workers. >> many who arrive are il illiterate. we need to teach them the basic aspects of living in society. how to cross the street, how the street light works or how to stay in line at the bank. most have some sort of psychological trauma. >> ex-combatants spend seven years in the program and sometimes move.

more. it's a long and complicated process but eight out of ten participants get through. finding a job after the process is a different story. every day members mobilize and get back into society. the government says they are ready to receive all of them. that is the biggest challenge to convince the wider co almos coln society to accept them. >> we can train them and get them back into the work force. it's society that must accept them to reintegrate. >> so >> so the government has launched a a natio nationwide campaign. the out east asia is a globl hot spot for trading illegal. now the government is responding

with what it calls a new elite force. [gunshots] >> thailand is losing ground in it's battle against illegal wildlife trafficking and poaching. their enemy has changed tactics and their national park rangers are in the cross hairs. >> it's getting much more dangerous as the com come commot more and more valuable. so this is there is a lot morey involved. the criminals want to protect their profits and not wanting to get caught. and they are bringing in weapons and instead of running they are standing their ground and shooting. >> out gunned an average of 12 rangers are killed each year. the ti government decided they needed an elite force to fight back. this new forces is a new breed. there is no other force like them in the world. the eigh eight-week training foe

exposed them to hostile enemy and how to engage them on land and sea. many of the trainees were in the thailand army. >> i like being a forest ranger because i like wild animals. no one told me it would be risky. when i started working i experienced it myself. i don't worry about it too much because i believe my past experience and strength can carry me. the new unit will have better tools and the ability to share information in real-time from the remote reaches in the jung ill. jungle. illegal wildlife trafficking is controlled by international criminal gangs. the job will be patrolling and investigating and doing hunting of their own. going after the head of these gangs. >> you can't look at one avenue of it. it's like working drugs and going at the street level. you have to go for the king pins as well. >> the new unit is eager to take

their fresh skills to the jungle. the two dozen elite rangers are well numbered. the goal is to steadily grow their ranks. building the force and to break up the networks and stripping thailand's force and slaughtering their endangered species. and now to a story 2 million years in the making. georgian scientists have presented a skull discovered. they say it could force a big rethinking about how ho humans e involved. >> this is 1.8 million years od and may help to unlock the key how a very distant an assess ans lived. excavated from a site in georgia this is the most complete skull ever found. with his big teeth and large face his brain case was smaller than that of a modern day human

being. skull five could rewrite evolutionary history. many believe that humans evolve from several species. but new information suggests this could be fewer than previously thought. >> what we found is in early homo1.8 million years ago. wield one lyn linage of homoand which was spread over continents where you have local populations. this shows there was much less quantity of the said species than we thought. it means that now we can say there were less branches of early homothan previously thought. >> if the scientists in georgia are right, it may mean the early species of our human an assess s in africa made their way across

the world sooner than previous thought. this distant ancestor is thought to have met his end after a battle with a hungry carnivore. that is our website i as you can see, the top story is the election being called off by the police in maldives. ♪ popular than real ones, and google stocks go gang busters. at $1,000 a pop is it a bargain or tech problem all over again? i'm ali velshi, this is "real money." >> this is "real money." you are the most important part of the show so join our live conversation in the next half