welcome to al jazeera america. i am richelle carey. here are the stories we are following for you: south sudan in crisis, figas fighting escalates. officials try to bring an ends to the conflict. a russian dissident is speaking out about his country and his future. in the peak of the holiday season, many who shopped at target are engulfed in a credit card scam. in the world's newest country, the fight between those loyal to the president and rebels who

control the unity state capital has most of the country's royal. as many as 500 people have already been killed. the united nations is pooling troops from other conflicts and sending them there. al jazeera spoke with the former vice president. >> the ruling party, and i believe those two organizations, the ruling party here has failed the people. inciting ethnic fighting in the country. >> doctor mucharif, if salvakera does go, do you want to take his place? do you want to be president of south sudan? >> yes.

>> pretty blunt right there. more from juba. >> the main thing people are concerned about now is the escalating violence. the information minister said it's in complete control of the rebels, basically empty, those people who fled from gone to the u.n. base or hiding in the bush. he says another concern is soldiers are defecting from the army. one group defected, heading toward joining the rebels. he says we have no way of telling you how many people have died. there are bodies on the streets. we can't go in as the army to collect them because we don't control that area. this violence is escalating. something should be done soon to try to end it. there have been a lot of people, a lot of dissidents in and out of juba trying to get the two sides to meet. the u.s. envoy is trying to. they are meeting with the president here and other politicians. i think people think or hope that political dialogue is the way to resolve this crisis. but then you speak to people on

the ground who say this is nothing new in terms of what's happening in south sudan. look at angola and mozambique, some saying this is a process that the country has to take. the average civilians don't want to see the violence. they want things to go back to normal as quickly as they can and trying to tell each other this is a fight between two leaders. we as the people mustn't' get involved. a lot of people wondering which way the country will go next. >> anti-government protests in ukraine have entered their second month even though the number of provide testers is catching out, the opposition movement may be gaining ground. jennifer glass reports >> reporter: as the demonstrations enter their second month here in kiev, there is still the power to draw tens of thousands of people to independence square in the center of the capital. these demonstrations began as a protest when the government failed to sign a deal with europe and then grew when the

government tried to crash down on the protesters now four weeks later, many of the protesters here wondering what's next. >> artiom joined december 1st after seeing police crack down on demonstrators. he said he will stay here until the government agrees to their demands. >> what next? i haven't really thought of that. the next step has to come from the government. our cards are on the table. >> the demonstrations are entering their second month. the president has called them revolutionary and criticized the leaders for personal ambition. >> reporter: again, ukrainians come here to index square and there are tens of thousands. the organizers say this protest will continue. they have called on people to celebrate new year's eve here and to demonstrate into 2014 >> reporter: but valentina martinshook is impatient. she has been here since november 24th and says something needs to

change. >> we can't just stand here a and wait. we need to act. there must be concrete. >> she says a peaceful outcome is impossible here opposition leaders disagree. >> some of the people have said to me that they are willing to shed blood. they are willing to head toward violence? >> no chance at all. >> that's what the president is willing, shed blood. now, we prevented all kind of violence. we have shown to the entire world that we are really pro-european opposition. >> a pro-parliament government says there will be some movement to appease the protesters. >> the government's mistakes make the obviopposition stronge we need to correct mistake in the next few days so the situation will calm down. president people on index square will not be easily won. after a month here, they want to see concrete changes before they will consider leaving.

opposition leaders have called on the protesters to stay here in the days and weeks ahead. they have offered really no concrete plan to move the situation forward. there is still a stalemate with the government. the people here want the government to enact some european-like reforms to turn more toward europe, the government has shown no inclination of that so far. the people hearsay they will stay as long as it takes. but as long as it takes is unclear. there has been no movement. the only new development we have seen is the opposition leaders have announced a new people's movement, independent people's movement designed to draw in what they say all walks of life to try and get some momentum in this movement. but in this cold, cold winter, this cold, cold ukrainian winter, you had people living in the square for a month now, and it's really uncertain how the situation can move forward, who might make concessions, the government or the demonstrators.

hundreds clashed with police in riot gear sunday. forcing to go take custody of more than 100 union leaders. more than 6,000 workers walked off of the job two weeks ago to protest a possible government plan to privatize the south korea ian rail system. political protests and mounting tensions continued in thailand today. tens of thousands of people marched through ban cock causing for the res resignation of the e minister. the rally comes a day after the opposition democratic party announced it would boycott the february general elections. demonstrations germany turned violent on saturday. over 7,000 people gathered to protest the eviction of a left-wing cultural center when some began throwing bottles, rocks and fireworks at blurts.

german police used water canons stoquell the protesters. they say 22 officers were injured in the clash and an unknown number of demonstrators were 30.

whole life thinking about themes and thinking about how to structure movies so this is highly unusual. >> the director of "the sixth sense" says there are five things we can do fix education in america. >> the united states has education apartheid. that's the facts. >> talk to al jazeera with m. night shyamalan.

against their assimilation. >> if you go to the mixed elementaries, you'll see the roma at their desks, no one it complaining about them, but the government wants to place 500 roma students there. that would have went one nonroma to three roma. >> reporter: the elementary school is key to change. only a handful currently make it to middle school because their grades are poor and because by 12 some rom roma girls are alrey

being married off. authorities and the media wrongly assumed in october that a blond child living in a roma camp must have been an abducted westerner, she turned out to be roma. all the same, the local mayor says, he can't sacrifice the nonroma half of his constituency. >> the roma's didn't begin to attend school in large numbers until the 1990s. and as soon as that happened the ghetto schools were set up. now finally, the roma realized that education is important to find work and get away this lifestyle. >> reporter: he still hopes the court decision will lead to gradual closure of the roma school. but given such poverty the fight to enter the social main supreme is unlikely to end there. john, al jazerra, central greece. still ahead on al jazerra america, a break through in france that could give a heart to patients around the world.

for instance, could striking workers in greece delay your retirement? i'm here to make the connections to your money real. real money with ali velshi next on al jazeera america

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welcome back to al jazerra america, i am richelle carey, here are today's headlines, 10s of thousands of refugees are fleeing their homes in south sudan. the state department says u.s. citizens have been safely evac indicated. the u.s. special an say to south sudan, donald booth is meeting with government official to his help bring an end to the conflict. thousands of people are back in the streets of kiev protesting ukraine government's rejection of the path of the european june union. in favor of closer ties with russia. for russian oil tycoon spoke out in berlin earlierful he promised to help free political prisoners in russia, and also said that he will not be entering politics. it is one of the riskiest operation to his perform, but surgeons in france have designed a new artificial heart that

could one day replace the real thing, barbara reports. >> reporter: this is the world's first an artificial heart designed to sustain the body for five years. surgeons at a paris hospital implanted another one in a male patient wednesday. so far they say he's doing fine. >> the patient is doing very well. he's getting better every day. i saw him just before coming to see you. we are talking to him, he's recovering, he's resting. we are correcting things little by little and slowly we'll be able to take away the drips and drains which are necessary in this type of situation. >> reporter: doctors designed the heart to reduce side effects by using could you tisch to you connect the high-tech device to the patient. >> as you will have understood the great advantage was the biological material which was used to try to minimize clotting. that's the first aspect. and another aspect which is very important is all the

computerized assistance in this heart because it adapts in real time. >> reporter: thousands of people die every year while waiting for a heart donor. the artificial heart aim to his change that. it weighs almost a kilo, that's three times as much as an average healthy human heart. it runs on lithium batteries that are worn around the waist but at a cost of $240,000, it's almost out of reach for most people. the implant fits almost 90% of men, and only 20% of women. the company connor is working on a smaller one for women. human trials must finish, three more terminal patients will receive the heart in coming months. barbara, al jazerra. and thank you for watching al jazerra, i am richelle carey, the weekend is next. check out our website throughout the day. al jazerra daljazerra.com, thanh for your time. sheet♪ notes

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