♪ this is al jazeera. ♪ welcome to the news hour, i'm in doha with all the top stories on al jazeera. no contact and an unknown death toll, the u.n. has a major operation for a star caught up in south sudan fighting. the russian president releases a critic from jail and fighting in a central african republic as soldiers tries to calm the situation and a tur kish tree that scores sweet success at the

european union. ♪ a rescue operation is underway in south sudan after the killing of at least two u.n. peace keeping soldiers in the state. violence spread across the country after an alleged coup on sunday. the rescue operation was launched after the" lost contact with its base in the small remote town of ocovo county and it's 4 kilometers long and close to ethopian order and homes on the market and the primary school. the local hospital is nearby. and we are in the capitol juba where many are trying to escape fighting despite the government assurances that the situation is under control. >> reporter: officials checking passpo passports and those who want to leave must be on the evacuation

list and foreigners and locals are flown out of the country and told it's for security reasons. >> they give us also they are driving the people to go back. >> reporter: u.s. soldiers are also in the capitol juba making sure it's safe for planes to take off and land and they have been monitoring the situation together with u.n. troops. but many people can't leave, they find safety in u.n. compounds, during the day they go out to find food but make sure they return before sunset. >> this is the area where most of the fighting took place and it's almost curfew time and coming in the compound for safety asand they do not feel safe sleeping at home at night. >> reporter: civilians are being targeted along ethnic lines and the president supporters are mainly dinka and the main who he blames is from

the new way tribe. >> bouz for them now they are waiting for us outside here. they can kill you. >> reporter: the violence is because of an attempted coup and not ethnic rivalries and he denies he attempted to take over the country, in the capitol the day is ending. people look for cover ahead of what they fear is a night of violence ahead or political tensions in old ethnic rivalries can put the country in another civil war. >> reporter: after ten years behind bars in russia he has been released. the former oil tycoon which is one of russia's richest man was a kremlin critic and he was found on friday after making his sub lick and surprise announcement to free one of his biggest critics on thursday. the decision is aimed at repairing russia's reputation before the winter olympic games in february and let's go straight across to moscow where peter sharp is about to talk to

us. do we have an idea about the release, are there any constraints on his freedom? >> so i just didn't get that question. >> just asking about in terms of his release are there any constraints possibly on his release? >> we have no idea about that. there is a real confusion exactly how this came about and his legal team who represented him for the last decade did not appeal for a pardon from putin because they said it would confirm his gift in the case and he protested his innocence and if he himself actually appealed for the pardon we don't know and won't until he walks free but the fact remains that less than 24 hours after putin stunned the nation by agreeing to release the most credible political opponent that he has, he is a free man. we don't actually know if he is actually out of the prison yet.

he is serving his time and was serving his time in a penal colony about 700 kilometers north of st. petersburg and his legal team is now moving in that direction and it's expected and hoped for them but he will be actually set free in the next few hours. >> reporter: how much do you think this is about he wanted to show a better image of russia in the run up to the winter games and how much is out that he just doesn't see him as being a threat any longer? >> well, i think it's both relevant really but these two words keep resonating charm offensive. that whole press conference which lasted four hours yesterday was really the presidential spin on resent events in such malaysia, the amnesty program that involves luminary like the riot and the arctic 30 and 26,000 other people, an attempt really to divert attention away from

russia's political human rights record in the six-week run up to the games. i think the president putin has been particularly disappointed at some of the more senior world leaders have already decided they are staying away. obama won't be coming and neither the president from france. so it's a definite move to try and brush up the country's image in the run up to the games which are so important to putin. he really hitched his credibility to the success of the winter olympics. >> reporter: we will be looking out to see when pictures come through of his release and peter sharp for now thank you very much. the chief prosecutor at the international criminal court has asked for the trial of kenya's president to be delayed indefinitely. and he is accused of fueling ethnic violence after the 2007 kenya election and due to stand trial in february. more than 1200 people died in the fighting.

prosecutor says she needs more time to collect evidence after a crucial witness withdrew. well fighting is being reported in the capitol of the central african republic despite a peace keeping force trying to keep christians and muslim fighting each other and andrew simmons is travelling with the u.n. delegations and is live from bosangoa and what is the latest in the capitol bongi and is there an out break of fresh violence there? >> yes, the violence broke out on thursday night. initial reports suggest and not confirmed at this stage that there was an attack on a car in which former celica members were patrolling and fully uniformed. celica is the muslim alliance which over through the government this year and these soldiers were injured. we are not sure of their condition. they withdrew and then it's

reported that a large contingent of former celica fighters came in with heavy weaponry and started open fire indiscriminally and i hate to say this but we spoke to a spokesman who confirms there was a heavy fire fight north of the city but they were looking into it with the peace keeping force, the new peace keeping force meska and have not made comment yet and understood they may have engaged considerably with the celica fighters during the night and we certainly heard the gunfire for a long period and on friday morning on the way here with the u.n. delegation, we could see the spill over with the tension among civilians, civilians trying to attack an meska escort for muslims going to the airport. it was quite intense. it was, however, diffused by

more miska troops coming in. with me now is one of the delegates here. chief of staff for the office of the u.n. special relative for sexual violence. you're conducting a report, requested by banki moon and tell me first about the out break of violence which is symptomatic of what is going on here, what is your impression of the central african republic. >> i think what we saw this morning and what we have been seeing in the days since we have been here and what we have been hearing is illustrative how close we are. we really are at the edge of this. if we don't focus on reconciliation bringing communities together, protecting civilians we really could be in for something which would will really devastating consequences. there are rumors in the city and are extraordinary. i give you an example. there was a situation where people heard the water was poisoned in a particular town.

and throughout the country people started to get text messages, you know, with the same message that the water was poisoned. of course it wasn't true. of course it wasn't true. but rumors fly and it brings people to a situation where they actually begin to believe that one group is trying to get rid of the other group and that is extremely, extremely dangerous. >> reporter: let's look at your report now and what you're trying to do here, engaged in assessing sexual violence in the conflicts and what is known about how much sexual violence there has been, what do you know so far? >> well, you know, since january, between january and november we know that there is probably about 5,000 pieces of sexual violence, probably more like 4,000 committed by armed men. so it's very much linked to the conflict. it is a critical situation. we know that there has been forced marriages. we know there has been mutilation. it is quite extreme.

we don't have a sense of what has happened since the 5th of december. >> what about rape, has this been part of it? >> absolutely. when i say sexual violence that is part of the scope. i mean it's rape, it's mutilation, it's forced marriages but certainly the majority of it is that. >> reporter: thank you very much indeed for that. so right now this delegation is really traveling around this divided city with the muslims on one side and the christians this side, 36,000 in the camp, trying to assistant trying to report back to new york about the needs here and there are definitely many of them. back to you. >> reporter: thank you, andrew simmons and france has 1600 troops in the republic and appealing for help from the european union and the president is at the defense summit and decided they cannot agree to fund any operations now but they

have agreed to cooperate on defense issues more closely in the future. . >> translator: if we really want to be responsible together then there needs to be a political legal ground. we cannot finance a military mission where we were never able to have a say. but there are very good reasons for intervening like for example in the central african republic it was necessary. in mali we were engaged in training soldiers there. so i said very clearly today we need to review this mechanism, we need to be fast in deciding but this has to be a truly european decision. >> reporter: still to come on the news hour, tempers flair in india and muslims have anger and too afraid to go back to go anywhere else. we have the latest from madagascar as islanders try to elect a president and stop the political unrest and bad news for the la laker staff kobe bryant and joe will tell you why

in sport a little later. ♪ russia has blocked a u.s. and u.n. security resolution which would have condemn the use of barrel bombs and missiles on civilians. there are reports of barrel bombs being dropped over cities in resent weeks and they refuse to support u.n. resolutions against president assad regime and the last time there was agreement in syria was in september when all 15 nations tried to destroy syria's chemical stockpile. they are hammering out peace talks in january and james is there. james, we heard the leader, one of the groups on the television here yesterday saying he thought the idea of geneva 2 was cynical

and how optimistic are you at the moment? >> i just watched the russian delegation and the u.s. delegation right here in the building behind me. the u.n. had quarters in geneva and said nothing walking in the building. we know the plan, the plan was that they are supposed to bring the u.n. and arab league special representative brahimi a list of names and russians are supposed to get from the syrian government a list of nine names to be the syrian government for talks on the 22 of january and the americans have to get nine names from the opposition, the problem as you mentioned of course is there are a whole sways of opposition that are not in support of the geneva process. many of those fighting on the battlefield in syria aren't really represented by the political opposition who are likely to come to talks and that are scheduled as i say on the 22nd of january.

this meeting in the coming hours will be important because some are already telling me behind the scenes there is a possibility that date of the 22 of january could slip. they are talking about the peace conference and getting both sides together since may and have not made it happen. >> reporter: pressure to get nine people on either side, what is the bottom line here? what would they agree to meet if they don't have all of the key people coming along? >> well, the bottom line as far as the organizers of this, the arab league and u.n. and brahimi special representative is to come up with a transcript issue golf to run syria, a transitional government both sides could agree on and the sticking point is the sad and those around the sad and what involvement could they have in a new syria and the other sticking point as we mentioned if you have a transitional government in syria and that is a very big if would they be able to deal with those that are now fighting or would you actually see a transitional government then

fighting groups like alnusra. >> thank you james with the latest from geneva. staying in syria and the leader of one of the most powerful rebel groups has spoken exclusively to al jazeera and abood and world powers are attempting to derail the revolution by holding that peace conference in switzerland. and this is a group with around 20,000 fighters and well armed and well financed. founded two years ago it's a sunni group awants to have islamic law and the main financial backing comes from saudi arabia and said he will not attend the geneva two conference. >> translator: we see geneva as an attempt to derail the revolution, the regime already set precondition, there is not going to hand over power and why would we go and who would go and

what do they negotiate over. >> if they agree by anything in the talks would you agree by that? . >> translator: it is binding on the syria national coalition and continue the world revolution to achieve our rights god willing. >> reporter: you can watch the full interview at al jazeera on saturday, that is saturday. and he is a specialist in middle eastern politics and economics and author of a book called the rise and fall of al-qaeda and thank you very much for joining us, your reaction to hearing that he is basically saying the same thing that they said to us also that they won't be looking to attend geneva two and saying what is the point, what is to negotiate. >> well, the most powerful fighting groups inside syria, he is part of the so called islamic front which was established a

few weeks ago and includes six powerful ultra conservative groups and you have the front and the islamic state and iraq who oppose any kind of political talks with the assad regime and this talks about convening geneva is an impossible mission let alone producing results in geneva itself. one of the major developments in the last one year is the weakening and the fragment mentation and the fracturing of the army and also the weakening of the syria national coalition, these two major groups that basically were supposed to go to geneva and engage in negotiations with assad had been marginalized and weakened. what we are seeing is the rise of islamic fores including

harasham who oppose talks with the assad regime and also called for the establishment of a core anic and islamic state which also goes against the early hopes and aspiration of the syria revolution and inclusive open civil and transparent assad regime. >> reporter: is anybody likely to put pressure on the groups and some sort of discussion is the way forward or looking at yet more conflict when you're on the ground in syria civilians are desperate for some light at the end of the tunnel and may be something that could be done to stop the violence? >> i think this is the most important question, the one you have asked me, how do you put an end to the blood bath in syria. almost 150,000 people killed. 40% of the syrian people are either displaced or refugees. it's a human catastrophe, disaster yet we keep talking

about this particular group and that particular group. i think you are absolutely correct. i think at the end of the day what we are witnessing inside syria is blunt and i say it on al jazeera is a fierce strategic struggle and regional powers are battling one another inside syria itself without a regional agreement between the regional giants and being very direct here between iran on the one hand that supports the assad regime and saudi arabia and the islamic front i don't think anything is going to happen, i don't think geneva would take a place if particular groups inside syria keep doing the fighting on behalf of their own agendas and also being supported by regional powers. >> reporter: you touched really on the other side. do you think iran and russia will be putting any pressure on them? >> well, i mean, first of all, if assad were to make any

concessions, if assad is to entertain any kind of transitional government both iran and russia must apply considerable pressure. we keep saying what saudi arabia must do and we need to remember that basically iran maintains the assad regime in power, political and financial and even fighters coming from various parts of syria's neighbors. the reality is without major pressure by moscow i don't think the assad regime is in any position or desire or will to make conditions. in fact, the assad regime was clear, regardless of the opposition, if opposition goes to geneva to basically get power on a silver platter they should not purchase the airline tickets because they would be waste of time and resources. this tells you about the mindset of the assad regime and your

question is very critical. moscow and iran must apply considerable pressure on assad and saudi arabia and turkey must have pressure on the islamic groups in order for any kind of political or peaceful discussion to take place in the first place. >> reporter: it's very good to get your thoughts and very grateful for you talking to us there from london. on to the weather starting with a mixed bag in northern asia. >> we have a very active area of low pressure in the northern parts of asia and you see it on the satellite rotating here and heavy rain for some of us in japan and some places on the northern coast seeing nearly 70 millimeters of rain from the system. but towards the west it's brought different problem because as the low pressure has been situated just to the west of japan it's dragged down the winds from the north to the west of it. and what that has done is really dragged down the temperatures. so here is what we are expecting

as we head through saturday, and looks like they won't get higher than minus through in the day and seoul minus two and compared to average you see we are quite a long way below that, probably the most being seoul where the average is above 0 and plus 4 degrees and only going to get to minus 2. so clearly for many of us and it's going to be bitterly cold, the slightly mild weather is out to the east and only milder here because there is more cloud and therefore more rain and some snow around as well. so for japan it looks like things here are going to stay unsettled over the next 24 hours and more clouds and rain and out to the west it's going to stay very cold for saturday. >> reporter: let's go back to our top stories, the rescue operation underway this south sudan after the killing of at least two u.n. peace keeping soldiers. violence spread across the country after an alleged coup on

sunday. and mohamed is the director and in the capitol and thank you very much for joining us. do you get the impression with the news that is coming out that the country is spiralling out of control and violence is out of control? >> yeah, i think to some extent yes. the violence is from the capitol duba and moved to other areas and that is serious. i think we need to, you know, do maximum strain and also wisdom, two problems and not displayed because then the elements of the tribalism will get into it and then it becomes very difficult. and i think the best thing is, you know, it can be controlled at this stage. >> reporter: mediation, do you

think it would help? >> to allow to -- yes, i think it's important. mediation would help but i think it would have to be there is a will from the parties from the groups and the president silva and have to have the will to deal with problems and organize one thing which is this is political and needs to be looked at political means. there is no way of any one of them resorting to the army to fight it. i think that is just going to destroy the country which has not been actually built and as a nation stated. >> reporter: and we are from the sunni capitol and thank you very much for joining us. gunmen in the philippines shot dead four people including a municipality mayor and wife and baby were also gunned down at manila international airport. and he was the mayor in the region of the southern philippines. and our correspondent has the

latest from manila. can you give us detail as to what happened at the airport? this looks like quite an extreme security lapse. >> well, yes indeed. several hours ago the mayor was together with his wife have just basically landed here at the airport when it's not known exactly if it was a lone gunman or several gunman on motor bikes passed by and 17 shots killed the mayor, his wife and 18-month-old baby and a relative. and injured five other people who now have been air lifts to a hospital across town. now here at the airport our normal operations are resumed and 15 meters from the crime scene and looks leak nothing happened. security unfortunately is lax and when we came in we were not even checked. one of the major issues here at the arrival area is airport officials admitted they do not

have ccpd cameras and no way really of finding out who these gunman were. >> reporter: on that question do we think it was politically motivated? >> well, yes indeed. think about local officials have been saying they believe this might be politically motivated. i mean the mayor has already said previously he has had three, at least three assassination attempts and he worked at an era long battled by electoral violence and the philippines are among the towns considered to be violent during elections and he has been sworn in as mayor just has been a problem in the philippines and when he was president of 2010 he tried to find solution and end the killings and contracted killings in the country and no condition since.

last month three journalists have been killed, 22 under the president's administration since 2010. >> reporter: thank you, speaking to us there from manila. north korea is threatening to strike south korea without notice and follows protests in seoul where people burned the leader king jong-unand it's the second anniversary of the death of his father kim jong-il and they say it insulted the leadership. istambul and at a huge anticorruption in turkey and led to the arrest of people linked to turkey's prime minister. we are about to go digging for copper in chilly and seeing a connection with china. >> on the global copper trail,

i'm rob mcbride in china and reporting on the country's appetite for this special metal. ♪

and the top stories on al jazeera, a rescue operation is underway in south sudan after the killing of two u.n. peace keeping soldiers and a state-run uganda newspaper say soldiers are being deployed in south sudan capitol juba. after ten years of being behind bars he has been released. the former oil tycoon and critic

was freed after the president vladimir putin signed him out. there are reports of fighting in the capitol despite a new peace-keeping force being deployed to help stop the violence and christians and muslims turn on each other. people in madagascar are voting for the next leader in the runoff election and two presidential hopefuls are promising to ease years of political and economic turmoil and sanctions were imposed in 2009 after the last government was over thrown in a coup. and john is a former health minister and promising to increase investment, collect more taxes and launch an agricultural revolution and the challenger is harry, he served as former finance minister and is going to improve security and roads and education and tonya page has more from the capitol.

>> reporter: these are some of madagascar's 8 million voters and have one overriding message, they just want the political and economic crisis that gripped their country for nearly five years now to be over. today they will be voting for 151 parliament and a new president and two candidates that have come to the final round. he is being supported by the outgoing president and on the other side john robinson and supported by the president in 2009. robinson voted a short while ago and had this to say afterwards. >> translator: the people must vote. this is a turning point for our country and for the development of our nation. i want to confirm to madagascar people this election must unite us. >> reporter: there are hundreds of election observers here. if the vote is declared free and

clear we should see return of foreign investors and donor money that was cutoff after the coup in 2009 but it all depends if the military and the loser accept results which should be by the 9th of january. >> reporter: arrival of winter in northern india cost the lives of children in a relief camp, thousands of muslims are there after escaping fighting the hindus and we have more and emotions are running high in the battle to keep out the cold. as night falls over lloyd camp residents try desperately to keep warm and left their homes in september after violence erupted in the state. mohamed lost his nine-month-old son to pneumonia. ten other children in the camp have also died. >> translator: useds to wake up in the morning and say papa and

he would call me papa and just started teething. >> reporter: in the morning officials arrive with track suits and socks for the children, but mohamed is furious and says his house has been looted and burned. what he really needs is compensation and land. most muslim families in this camp have no homes to return to. the government says it's doing all it can for them including allocating more than $40 million to help. >> translator: blankets are provided and other relief measures like clothes we provided and the nutrients and trying our best to free these people. >> reporter: authorities have arrested 300 people including political leaders accused of

inflaming the unrest ahead of the 2014 general elections. but they have also been criticized for abandoning these families. earlier this month the supreme court intervened and directed the government to provide relief within 24 hours. >> translator: in september when the camp began the facilities were regular but then it stopped. there were orders from the top and now the facilities have begun again. but life here continues to be a struggle for survival. families in this camp are now bracing themselves for a long and bitterly cold winter and too afraid to return home and too poor to go anywhere else. but what they fear the most is being abandoned by the government. al jazeera. >> reporter: a group of doctors has reportedly revealed the shocking medical care of asylum seekers going to australia and the letter obtained by the

guardian australia talks about faili failings at the christian center and they are examined while exhausted, dehydrated and filthy and being paid to compromise their medical ethics and andrew thomas has more from sidney. >> it paints a damaging picture of the christmas center and more than 2000 people are held and christmas island is where most refugees head to australia aim fore and detention center is where they are held before they go to other countries in line with the tough policy of not allowing any refugees who come by boat to australia to stay here. 15 doctors who wrote this and worked on christmas island and say there are numerous and unsafe practices and gross departures from general medical standards going on there, examinations are too quick and often five minutes for people

straight off the boats when they are dehydrated and soiled in urine and feces and going for hours without medication and the care is unsafe and basic medical stocks are low and overall they say the health service falls well below acceptable standards and dangerous. the immigration minister said that for two weeks and once it was public on friday he said the claims are taken seriously and the assessment is underway. once that has been done he says there will be recommendations and they will be acted upon. ♪ now to our special coverage of how economies rounds the world are becoming increasingly interconnected and china helped chile become the wealthy country and the key to the relationship is copper and we have two

correspondents and we are standing by in central chile and rob is in chile in eastern china and first here is rob's report. >> reporter: copper dugout of the ground in south america arriving at the final destination at the other side of the world in china. with high quality meeting high demand it's a natural trade. >> translator: chile is the top exposure of high-quality copper and china has a rapidly growing demand giving the pace of industrialization. >> reporter: founded in 1990 far east cable has grown up as china opened up and is now facilitating its further growth providing copper cable for power distribution. one of the company's most resent investments, this automated plant uses some of the world's latest technology able to produce around 20 kilometers of

high-voltage cable everyday and most to supply china's growing demand for copper. the super condatabasing tif qualities that make it the metal of chose for power distribution and half of the copper imported goes in the power industry which still has a long way to grow with china using about a 5th as much electricity per capita as the u.s. . >> translator: our annual growth rate is 22 percent and demand for copper has been growing by the same amount. >> reporter: there may be price fluctuations along the way but chinese demand combine with expectations and copper mining, will keep the prices high for the long-term. >> reporter: so rob is this demand expected to boom even further, to demand from china? >> well, that is right and we

are in the evening shift in the plant and no let up in production. this plant like so many others in the city is seen to be working on a 24 hour shift system at the moment to keep up with demand. as far as national demand for copper goes in china we know china is consuming over 40% of the world's copper in line with the consumption of other metals that are coming out of the ground at the moment. china is consumingly about two fifths as the economy grows. when it comes to copper it is still behind consumption levels in the developed world. if you compare it with, say, consumption per capita in america, the united states still consumes twice as much per capita as china. so there is still room for growth there. given the demand here in china about 90% of copper cabling coming out of the plant and others like it are consumed by the domestic market, about 10% is sold internationally, a very small percentage of that but

significantly will probably grow in the future is going to africa. now china has been forging relationships with a number of african nations helping those economies develop and as they do so helping to finance and construct infrastructure and rail ways and electricity grids and all things that require copper. we are likely to see in years to come copper not only staying in china and processed and moved on and copper come out of the ground and started its life from chile on the other side of the world, sue. >> reporter: let's swing around the globe and let's go to rancowa in central chile, how important is copper where you are? >> it's absolutely vital for the growth and development of chile and called the salary of chile,

in fact. over the last 20 years copper, the export of copper have gone from $4 billion to $40 billion a year and a lot comes from where i am now. the mind behind me is the world's largest underground copper mine. and from here chile is, the growth of this country depends a lot on the export especially to countries like china. there has been some concern over the last six months that that appetite could be reduced. so what rob is saying is music to the ears of chile and that is that china will continue to want chile copper and the exports will continue to grow. there are a lot of challenges that have to do with the production of copper but at least from what we are hearing the copper in chile and particularly from this mine will continue to grow, those reserves, in fact, are expected to last at least another half a

century. this is a mine like no other. an under ground city with 3,000 kilometers of tunnels and a mine that produces more copper than any in the world. here it's strictly high tech and most machines are controlled far above ground. >> translator: this is mainly to guaranty the safety and quality of life of the workers. >> reporter: when it comes to quality of life, the copper company have become the nation eastern vi earning among the highest salaries in the country. copper has long been chile's main export and the economic engine but over the last decade the price of metal has quadrupled thanks to china's appetite for copper and it sparked the economy and also a major transformation in mining, now. down the mountain the once dusty

city is unrecognizable. there are two malls and a cinema complex. imports from sports wear to jewelry sell quickly because of the increased buying power of the 15,000 employees from the mine. and they have just got off work. they are both electricians at the mines and are planning to soon buy their first home. >> translator: at any other job it would have taken us 20 years to save up for a house, instead we are going to be able to pay up front in cash. >> reporter: not every one benefits, the cash from copper over valued the currency and making exports like fruit and wine less competitive and there are other challenges. >> high cost of energy is making production more expensive and large mines like this we have to invest more and dig deeper to keep finding copper.

>> reporter: still, as long as china's appetite for copper remains reasonably high, chile will keep digging and producing and crossing its fingers that the bubble doesn't burst. and kobe bryant is out of action once again and joe will have details and the driver at the sent of this terrifying crash speaks about for the first time why he had to call it quits. don't go away. ♪

♪ welcome back, in argentina thousands of union workers and

activists have marched the high wages and urnling to rise the wage to cope with inflation and earlier this month thousands were killed and businesses looted in strikes by officers demanding high wages. in southern mexico tear gas is used against parents battling teachers on strike and reportedly trying to force their way in classrooms in san pedro and thousands striking over education reforms approved by congress in september. u.s. target says 40 million customers may have been stolen and involves customers who made store purchases over the past three weeks and hackers may have taken measures to hide their trail. another u.s. state legalized gay marriage and nm joins 16 other states and the district of columbia in allowing same sex couples to tie the knot and

denying the marriages to the couples is unconstitutional. and the history of the first director to win best foreign picture at academy awards and that is no small feet for a person working in a country with intense censorship and there is talk of another oscar for his latest release and we went to meet him. >> reporter: iran's best known director farhadi has been circling the globe to promote his latest film. >> i can't stay out of the country for a long time. >> reporter: it is set in paris but like everything that farhadi the past is a product of his home land, an iran man played by an iran actor returned to france to divorce his estranged wife and it's not political and the relationship serves as a metaphor for east/west

relations. >> translator: there is a world of misunderstanding between them and perhaps we cannot call it differences. in the opening scene they are placed on two sides of a glass pane and see each other and talk to each other but seems they do not hear each other. >> reporter: when he released his last film the separation the strain in the relations of u.s. was making headlines and the movie made more than $7 million at american box offices and earned him the first oscar in the best foreign feature category and the win was celebrated on iran state television despite the government's efforts to shut down the film's production. according to iran film expert john krami making an award-winning film under iran sensor codes is nothing short of a miracle. >> and farhadi is adept in

navigating through the treacherous waters of iran censorship codes and he makes socially critical films without sounding critical at all. >> reporter: has censorship eased under the new president in iran? . >> translator: it is still too soon to judge. this government has only been in office for a few months and before things were so bad that anything that happens now is good. >> reporter: with the past he avoided iran sensors shooting abroad and the film has been shown and well received in iran and in the united states there is talk of another oscar if the success of farhadi's films are a guide the countries have more in common than the governments have led us to believe, al jazeera, new york. >> reporter: let's get all the sport, here is joe. >> thank you. we start with some bad news for

the la lakers kobe bryant who will miss six weeks with a knee injury and he fractured it during the tuesday game against memphis and he returned in december after eight months out with a torn achille's. and he is out with long-term injuries and the lakers have one starting point guard henry. >> the fourth guardian i told x he better be careful because we are running out of players, that is too bad and kobe worked hard getting back and he will be back in six weeks and he will, we have to weather the storm and take us back. >> reporter: on the court the district down with the chicago bills and led through the match up and kevin had 32 points and oklahoma city 107, chicago 95. the thunder has 8 wins this a row as they lead the league. and malencia through 16 in spain

and beat third division in an unconvincing 1-0 win at home and with the only goal and he will now meet madrid. in the other games through with a 4-0 win and that has a 4-1 exit win and he overcame lower league opposition in the second leg match and he led 3-1 on aggregate to reach the next round. english liverer pool were hoping to get the long-term future at the club and they will speak to the international agent. and he was ban for the first six games of the season after biting an opponent but now the top storer with 17 goals and he was made captain for the resent win. >> he is a man that plays

because of the love of the game. i think you see that in him every week and every day i'm fortunate to see it. i just think he is mature and he is accepting the role and responsibility that he has given as one of the senior players. he is not only a top player but one of the pillars of the group. >> reporter: one person came up with a solution to the problem and asked lewis to sign an autograph only to reveal he scrolled a hidden contract and said he will be there for the next five years. and he is disappointed the club world cup is not taken seriously by european clubs and fans and he will play casablanca in the final and most of europe won't be paying attention. >> you know the big leagues in europe, they have questions of the calendar. they have to play, if they don't

play in their league they play in the league cup or in the fa cup and then everyday practically or every second day there is so much football. >> reporter: and they have a leader for the top ranked test side in africa in johanesburg and had the 100th test wick ettest and he reaches the milestone and 31 for one at lunch. and he moved up to 6th in the all-time scorer list and the record 17 unbeaten test entry against new zeeland and team in a good position to square the series and out for 367 and new zeeland had 156 for 3 by the close. former indy car driver frankiti

spoken for the first time since his career-ending crash in october. the three-time indy 500 driver had a broken spine and ankle and concussion after the crash in houston and decided to retire when doctors said the head injury made it too dangerous for him to return to the track. >> i spent days thinking how i can get around this here. i have done it before. i drove 2003 i drove with a broken back in one race. until the doctor found out and got really upset at me and i have quite a few broken body parts over the years but i thought there is a way, there is some kind of negotiation here and there wasn't. >> reporter: and the federation said it cleared olympic 1500 meter champion out of doping and found no violations by last year's gold medallist and request from the iws to

investigate this. and there is plenty more on our website, check out al jazeera.com/sport. and that is all the sport for now. >> reporter: thank you, joe. so it takes place everyday and not the sort in school canteens but those that play out in courtrooms. formers, manufacturers and countries have to resort to legal means to protect their products and turkey is celebrating a small victory with the eu. >> where does your food come from? how is it made? these questions at the core of a multi-billion dollar industry and for instance cheese must come from south central france, italy holds rights to the name parma and some of the 1200 products that have an eu protected status based on geography or traditional recipes and have logos as the trademark

of quality helping to protect consumers from imitation products and three new items joined the list and first is the greek tomato known for concentrated flavor and from the islands and organic soil and next is the cheese and produced since the 12th century when monks settled in the area. but the third is not even from the eu. the european commission has awarded the status to turkey's baklova, a sweet pastry and korean and pastacio and it's one of the foods to hold the trademark and follows a lengthy battle with greece for the distinction. food and politics are never far from each other. in this case it was the turkey delight that triumphed. >> reporter: it's delicious and stay with us on al jazeera, a full bulletin of news is straight ahead.

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to shell out half a billion dollars next year on tv advertising alone. >> insurance companies see opportunity in the potentially millions of new customers, and if you are an insurance company in this country, this is your growth opportunity. >> reporter: insurers, state exchanges, and the feds collectively purchased $194 million wort of ads just consider this: the news of the day plus so much more. >> we begin with the government shutdown. >> answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> it seems like they can't agree to anything in washington no matter what. >> antonio mora, award winning and hard hitting. >> we've heard you talk about the history of suicide in your family. >> there's no status quo, just the bottom line. >> but, what about buying shares in a professional athlete?

♪ a sweeping 650 billion defense bill is headed to the president's desk and includes long-awaited reforms on how the pentagon handles sexual assaults in the military and they are going to war-torn south sudan to secure american citizens. reprieve for millions of americans facing cancelled health insurance policies under obamacare and the white house saying they will not be penalized and allowed to buy catastrophic coverage. heading home for the holidays and another winter storm could make traveling treacherous. ♪