a libyan court rules the elected assembly is illegal, previously recognized by the international community. ♪ hello, i'm darren jordan with the world news from al jazeera. international criminal court rules out further action of the storming of an aid flotilla headed for gaza.

illegal trade in ivory, new evidence suggests chinese officials are involved in the smuggling of tanzanian ivory. the u.n. backed elected parliament has been ruled illegal. a different unelected government controls the capitol of tripoli. victoria reports. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: libya has been under the control of two rival government, each supported by armed groups engaged in daily fighting. now the supreme court has ruled on how to move forward. it has declared the u.n.-backed parliament elected in june and now based in tobruk is unconstitutional and should be dissolved. the ruling was welcomed by the

members of the rival parliament in tripoli. >> translator: following today's ruling, we resumed our proceedings this morning. we are now waiting for the committee that promised to present the first draft of the constitution on december 24th. this is what all libyans are waiting for, to see the future, built around a constitution. >> reporter: in august armed groups opposed to the government took over the capitol trip. their own government was put in place, lead by omar al-hassi. the leadership he pushed out was forced to move eastward. rival militias also formed two group. violence and rivalries have deeply split people in libya. the country has fallen into chaos since the 2011 uprising

that deposed leader gadhafi. since the regime was forced out of power, rival brigades have defied the state's authority. consecutive governments have appeared weak, divided and unable to restore law and order. in fighting and attacks among groups have become common. some groups even seized oil plants. so far there has been no sign of reconciliation, and it's unlikely the supreme court's decision will do anything to change that. we are joined by an international relations professor. >> the problem is you have bifurcation. politically the country is divided. so you have contested legitimacy. so the question of contestation will continue. practically you have chaos.

it's a the unknown for libyans and libya. ideally you have some dialogue. maybe tunisian way, if possible so they go back to negotiation. maybe the elders from the different tribes, you have got like the south, the east, and the west, because really prick tickly now libya has been divided. it's almost like a de facto dismember of libya. you have two governments, two parliaments, and two also sets of votes. one through the people and one indirect. the international criminal court says it won't investigate an israeli raid on a turkish flotilla. nine turkish activists died when

israeli forces entered the recess sell. it was carrying humanitarian aid bound for the gaza strip. sarah says her organization will continue seeking justice. >> i saw him after he had been shot dead, he was shot dead whilst he was filming the israeli assault. he was using a video camera to try to record israeli's crimes. israeli will not be ail to get away with these crimes, because it's part and parcel for its policy for expanding its territory and expanding its reach, for subjugating the palestinian people. it's about time the icc did its job. there is a heightened sense of tension between israelis and palestinians a day after a

driver rammed his vehicle into three israeli soldiers in the west bank. all three soldiers are wounded, one of them critically. the driver has since turned himself in. it happened on wednesday. israelis have been protesting another attack where a car rammed pedestrians at a tram stop in jerusalem earlier on wednesday. and the palestinian suspect in that attack was shot dead by israeli police. palestinians see the shooting as increased israeli aggression. at least 30 protesters have been arrested. >> we situation remains tense across jerusalem, of course in the occupied east where it has been extremely tense for the past several month, but also in west jerusalem. this is what israeli police are describing as a hit and run terror attack took place at a rail station in which one person

died from his injuries in that attack carried out by a palestinian man who was later shot dead by police. but all of this underscores the tension right across the city. we have seen israeli authorities put up blocks to prevent further attacks and we have seen security increase around east jerusalem. the security there has been enormous now for the past several weeks, in fact, israeli place from around the country have been brought to the annex east of jerusalem for that very purpose, and now we're seeing even more security, and that is partially why we have seen these continuing protests in several neighborhoods, several palestinian neighborhoods. whatever the case, the news of what again the police are describing as a hit and run terror attack happening in this the occupied west bank in which

three israeli soldiers are were wounded, that also is a serious concern. they are worried that the aggression is spilling over into the west bank. riot police have fired tear gas and water cannon at protesters who are protesting against the government austerity plans. it's the first of demonstrations and strikes against the government's reform plans, including raising the retirement age and cutting social security. at least 14 drone flights have been recorded recently . germany's leading rail operator is seeking a temporary

court injection to end a strike by driver. nick spicer has any latest fr from -- berlin. >> reporter: berlin's central station, almost empty once again. this is the six strike by rail workers in nine weeks, all work stoppages represented by a small union, representing only one in ten workers at the state-owned rail company. passengers are losing sympathy. >> translator: people doing other jobs can't strike like this. you can't walk off of a job if you worked in a hospital. i think this is all a bit excessive. >> reporter: the main demand is for a 5% wage increase and for the workweek to be shortened. here the workers acknowledge the timing is bad. the strike may prevent thousands from attending the 25th anniversary of the fall of the

berlin wall on sunday. >> translator: i can understand why people are upset, on the other hand people took to the streets to defend their rights 25 years ago, and we're pretty much doing the same thing. >> reporter: the german chancellor said the workers had a right to strike, but also had to show responsibility. >> translator: especially here in the area of services for the public, a high degree of responsibility is necessary because they affect millions of citizens who need to go to work or come home, and who have to transport their families, and they affect the future of our economy. >> reporter: the government is looking at legislation that would limit the role of small unions in labor negotiations, similar action by airline pilots cost an airline hundreds of millions of dollars this the

strike is estimated to cost $125,000 a day. germmy has relatively low wages in many sectors, making the economy more competitive than most of its neighborhoods. nick spicer, al jazeera, berlin. the operator of the underground drug website has been arrested in the united states. he was taken into custody on wednesday in san francisco. the website had 150,000 users, and had been generating incomes of $8 million a month. let's go live to tom akerman in washington, d.c. what more has the fbi been saying about the arrest? >> reporter: well, according to the indictment, the -- the suspect who was brought before a judge today, within five weeks of the shutdown by the authorities here of the original silk road website which was operated through the tour network, which is sort of the

dark net which is not normally accessible to you and me, normal beings, he began the operation and picked up where silk road one left off. among the charges aside from actually trafficking or being a marketplace for the -- for the commerce of illegal drugs, also hacking materials, and money laundering. now this -- this is a serious charge. obviously there are a lot of -- a lot of underlying cas cases -- beneath this, but the government says it is determined to route out this operation, just as it did the previous operation. at the same time -- yes? >> i was going to say the trial of the original silk road website operator began this week. what has happened in that case? >> well, first of all in pretrial decisions, the judge in

that trial rejected the -- the defendant who's name is ris a s alds -- albrect, said he has no servers. and they obtained his email accounts which lead to his original indictment, the judge says that that evidence cannot be suppressed because first of all he denies he had any contact with that server, therefore his explanation that this was illegal search and seizure was invalid. in the meantime, there are reports, again, in the underground networks, the dark net that we're talking about, there have been not only appeals

to contributions to albrect's legal funds, but also to the judge herself. saying people should dig up as much damaging information about here, and also allewding to supposed vigilantlyism. that trial has a long way to go, however. all right. tom akerman in washington, d.c. tom thank you. still to come here on al jazeera, britain's defense minister visits peshmerga forces in iraq. stay with us.

>> it's a chilling and draconian sentence... it simply cannot stand. >> its disgraceful... the only crime they really committed is journalism... >> they are truth seekers... >> all they really wanna do is find out what's happening, so they can tell people... >> governments around the world all united to condemn this... >> as you can see, it's still a very much volatile situation... >> the government is prepared to carry out mass array... >> if you want free press in the new democracy, let the journalists live. >> on the stream, >> dark money gone digital how the tech industry is shelling out record amounts on political causes and being more secretive about it than most industries >> the stream on al jazeera america

♪ vrng welcome back. a reminder of the top stories here on al jazeera. libya's court has ruled the parliament elected in june is illegal. the parliament in the eastern city of tobruk is one of two administrations vying for power >> the international criminal court says it won't investigate the killing of turkish activists on a flotilla. the u.k. is to further boost its military role in iraq. the defense secretary has been visiting troops in iraq who are training kurdish forces known as peshmerga. they say more help is needed. from erbil, her is charles stratford. [ gunfire ] >> reporter: this is the kind of

fire power the kurdish peshmerga say they need to stand a chance against isil. these heavy machine guns have been given to the peshmerga by the british military. the weapon has a range of nearly 2 kilometers and can fire up to 500 rounds a minute. it's a boost for the poorly equipped kurdish soldiers fighting isil. security is tight. the british defense secretary has flown to the kurdish regional capitol, erbil. he has promised more weapons and training. >> air strikes alone will not rescue kobani. these are operations that have to be conducted on the ground with the help of air strikes. but we are stepping up our commitment with the training and supply of weapons and ammunit n ammunition. >> reporter: british soldiers are training the peshmerga at this camp. we're not allowed to show their faces.

there are security fears for them both here and back home. this peshmerga soldier has just completed a week's training on this heavy machine gun. the british government says it has already given 40 of these weapons to the peshmerga. the u.s. and germany among other membersover the international coalition have also supplied the peshmerga with equipment. the peshmerga say that recent gains made against isil in towns on the syrian border would not have been possible without the help of coalition air strikes. but weeks of bombing on the town of kobani on the syrian turkish border have so far failed to dislodge isil there. and there are questions over whether the peshmerga are ready to take on isil in militarily complicated urban environments like the city of mosul where there is a large civilian population. >> translator: isil morale is low. we are ready for urban war fair.

the iraqi government should take advantage of this, and get ready to take mosul back. >> reporter: the iraqi government has put aside fears that whe mons it supplies to the kurds could be used against it in a bid for kurdish independence. >> translator: is this is an international fight for humanity. we need as much help as we can get. >> reporter: this peshmerga soldier at least says he is ready. >> translator: we learned a lot from our british instructors. we are prepared for the battle. >> reporter: but it's a battle that is far from won. syrian government forces have dropped more barrel bombs here aleppo, killing at least 20 people. a second bomb was dropped when residents gathers at the scene of the first attack. the u.s.-lead coalition in

syria has also targeted the al-qaeda linked group in air strikes. >> reporter: these areas belong to the al-qaeda affiliated groups fighting in syria. the coalition says it targeted them from air strikes. it is only the second time that groups other than isil have been hit by the coalition. al-nusra front has been making headway in the last week, pushing out u.s.-supported rubble groups. >> al-nusra potentially could end up controlling one if not both of the border crosses left open to turkey. through which they receive weapons ammunition, assistance, everything that liberated areas rely on now that is based in

turkey, works through these two border crossings. >> reporter: further south an important fight for the control of gas fields is underway in eastern homs. isil managed to take over a couple, but the syrian regime took back control again, but they are by no means secure. >> what it is doing at the moment is probably in the way of denial of these facilities and resources to the regime. that's significant because the gas fields were still in use. the gas plants -- not all of them, but some of them were still producing gas and ultimately power for the regime, and therefore, losing this is putting a real dent in the ability of the regime to maintain electricity supply. >> reporter: isil recently up loaded these pictures from the area. power supply has been a problem throughout the conflict, but it is now getting worse. >> as winter approaches, both the regime and the opposition

areas, the so-called moderate opposition, are going to face a real shortage of fuel, which means a shortage of electricity, which means a shortage of heating, of -- you know, energy for hospitals and clinics, operating rooms, for everything you can think of. and that is likely to have a really negative impact on people's lives. >> reporter: it's clear whatever side you are on, there is no winner, just a country and a people ultimately being destroyed. al jazeera continues to demand the immediate release of its journalists who have now been detained in egypt for 313 days. peter greste, mohammed fahmy, and baher mohamed are falselying a kuszed of helping the outlawed muslim brotherhood. they are appealing against their prison terms. now the latest forecast from opec is predicting prices will rise to around $110 a barrel.

prices have fallen to the lowest in four years. it's good news for consumers, but bad news for producers. the united nations says hundreds of thousands of people are in urgent need of food aid in somalia following wide-spread flooding. >> reporter: this is one of thousands of somalis who were sourced to leave their home because of flooding. >> translator: we together with 50 families left our homes because of the flooding. since we arrived here, we haven't received any help. we left behind all of our possessions, we need water, food, and plastic covers. >> reporter: these tents are temporary homes to more than 8,000 people. people living here say they are

in desperate need of help. >> translator: there are no toilets, medical centers or food supplies. if it rains there is nothing to protect us but these shacks. we have not received any aid. >> reporter: large tracks of farm land are submerged after heavy rains caused two rivers to break their banks. according to the u.n. crops have been destroyed and hundreds of thousands of people are in urgent need of food. the recent floods were preceded by months when there wasn't enough rain and there wasn't enough food as a result. >> translator: the situation here is nothing short of a catastrophe. we send a distress call to the arab and muslim worlds. needless to say we were earlier affected by the severe drought. >> reporter: the local authorities have declared a state of emergency, admitting they cannot cope with the scale of the flooding, but many victims expect help to be slow in coming, so for now they are

surviving on their own with what little they have. chinese gangs are being accused of smuggling huge amounts of ivory from tanzania, with the help of tanzania officials. our environment editor, nick clark has been investigating. >> the results of undercover investigations covering more than a decade. the report reveals how tanzania's elephant population has crashed, and it makes for crewsome viewing. the numbers are down two thirds since 2006. 10,000 elephants were slaughtered in 2013 alone. that's equivalent to 30 elephants every single day. all to feed a resurgent ivory trade primarily to markets in china. an undercover investigator

visits an illegal trader, selling ivory carvings. and indeed the game reserve in tanzania has been worst hit. one of the largest and oldest protected areas in africa. there were 70,000 elephants there in 2006 and by 2013 that number had dwingd led to 13 noushgs. in any next clip we move on to a shipping agent who describes how he stakes illegal consignment en route to asia.

the eia poses buyers in china too and learned of the insatiable appetite for ivory there, even for every day items like chopsticks. >> it seems the ways of getting ivory to china are many and various. last year the chinese president made an official visit to tanzania, hear traders talk how ivory sales boomed around that time. investigators were told by

tanzania suppliers as far back as 2006 that chinese officials are major buyers of their ivory. and there were bags sent to china on the presidential plane. when the president assumed office back in 2005, the country had 142,000 elephants. now by 2015, the end of 2015 they reckon that is going to drop to 55,000. the report highlights a toxic blend of governance failures corruption and criminality. crimin criminal cindy indicates are plungedering the natural heritage. as living animals, elephants form part of the tourism market in africa, but it appears

killing them for their tusks created inrecystable appetite for ivory. a quick reminder, you can keep up to date with all of the news on our website, there it is on our screen. the address, of course, aljazeera.com. that's aljazeera.com. hi, i am lisa 9/11er and you are in the stream. did elay controversial decisions until after the election. muse, dark money gone digital. how the shell company is shelling out record amounts on causes and all the while being one of the most secretive industries on where the money goes.