>> palestine status is upgraded at the international criminal court. opening the way for crimes to be investigated. hello there i'm barbara serra. the u.n. says it needs more than $16 billion to help those affected by combat zones. the kenyan death squads, we have an exclusive al jazeera investigation into how the police are targeting so-called muslim radicals. plus the battle for iraq's

oil, trying to keep i.s.i.l. away from key refineries and pipelines. >> so some break i news now from the international criminal court where there's been a symbolic victory for palestinians. the court has upgraded palestine's status. it comes on the same day that israel launched its own investigations into eight more alleged crimes by its forces in gaza this summer. let's go live now to u.n. headquarters in new york and speak to our diplomatic editor james bays. what does this mean for the palestinians james? >> well it's very important i think symbolically but there may also be legal repercussions from this. symbolically palestine is now as a stataccepted as a state.

palestine has not signed the rome statute that founded the international criminal court so what palestine is now is a nonmember state, the same way as quite a number of other countries including the united states. and it is able to take its seat today when the assembly of state parties, part of their own statute, that's the body that represents all the signatories. important for palestinians symbolically. there's some momentum here. remember those recent parliamentary votes in europe, remember that palestine's status at the u.n. general assembly was changed. bake baim a member of unesco. palestine has long said at some point may have requested to sign the rome statute. those states that are not keen

for that idea are going to find it hard to block that. recognized as a state by the international criminal court, could help palestinians who want to bring cases before the international criminal court. we know in the past there have been some organizations that have tried to bring cases on behalf of the palestinians but the court hasn't accepted those cases. legal experts divided but they do think potentially it gives the palestinians a greater legal standing. >> james do stay with us because we've been getting reaction from the story. we spoke to the palestinian ambassador to the united nations, who gave his reaction to the icc decision. >> i think this is you know sending a signal that we are inching closer and closer to the moment of signing on becoming you know a state party to the te icc. we have consensus among the

political groups inside the plo and outside the plo that we should take that step. what happened today is inching further forward in this direction and let me add that, you know, joining the icc which is a legal step diplomatic, political, peaceful step in order to seek accountability and to seek justice for our people. and to follow israeli leaders who are responsible for committing crimes against the palestinian people including war crime. >> and james you were saying before there last certainly been momentum building for the resolution, but u.n. right now towards that aim? >> well, if you remember when mahmoud abbas was in new york this year, he wanted to change

things by getting a u.n. security council resolution to set an end date on a resolution. we've seen this change of status by the international criminal court. deliberations often that resolution continues and it doesn't seem to be going anywhere very fast. we think the u.s. is very opposed to this whole idea of setting a time line for the end of occupation. we know there have been a number of meetings here at the united nations but still no date for a resolution to actually be brought to the security council. the palestinians have come up with a draft but so have the european unions and we believe the u.s. may have a draft as well. so the negotiations continue and it's just possible that this whole idea of the palestinians signing the rome statute and joining the icc is part of the negotiations behind the scenes. the palestinians may be using

that as the ultimate threat. >> james baste live for us in new york, james thank you. now the united nations says it needs billions of dollars in extra funding to help the rapidly growing number of people affected by combat zones around the world. a u.n. report says it needs at least 16.4 billion in the coming years. the countries most in need are syria, south sudan, iraq and the central african republic. these four countries account for 70% of the total funding that the u.n. has requested. overall syria would be the biggest recipient. the u.n. puts the amount needed to help the victims of the civil war there as $7.2 billion. alerie amos spoke from geneva about the desperate situation of

the people. >> each year we ask for donors for more and more, but as the time goes on, the gap is widening. there must be a determined collective effort through 2015 to close the growing gap between needs and resources. >> russia and syria are demanding an explanation from israel which is accused of launching air strikes near damascus. israel is refusing to deny or confirm the strike. syria's prime minister holding talks in tehran. both say israel has performed a an act of aggression.

staying in syria, dozens of government soldiers are said to be jird by opposition fighters who attacked military soldiers in aleppo. in the tunnel close to aleppo castle. there has also been heavy shelling in an opposition held area near the city. 1500 coalition troops are to be sent to iraq, joining up to 3100 u.s. troops that president obama has authorized to deploy to iraq. the top u.s. expander guiding the coalition effort, declined to say which countries were contributing, but said the troops would represent a broad mix from a coalition that on the military side now included nearly 40 countries. meanwhile, iraq's military is fighting to stay in control of the country's biggest refinery

near the location of bajii. jane arraf reports. >> last week repelled a major attack by the group, southwest of the oil rich city of kirkuk. an i.s.i.l. suicide bomber detonated a u.s. made humvee in a flash point near the fighting. the battle began before dawn. it lasted for more than a day. peshmerga commanders say 25 i.s.i.l. fighters were killed. it's not known how many of the kurdish fighters died. these i.s.i.l. fighters were

believed to be iraqi. the peshmerga say the roach around this -- the rope around this man's ankles was an attempt by his comrades to pull him to safety after he was wounded. >> translator: we have intelligence reports that the enemy was intending to launch an offensive on kirkuk city. they were aiming to find a weak spot in peshmerga units to storm the city through telelwek and storm city just like mosul. >> reporter: for almost a century kirkuk has been disputed territory, claimed by iraqi kurds, airbus and turkmen. in june, after the iraqi army melted away in this region, kurdish forces moved in to secure the city and the oil fields and there they've stayed.

in the past few days the peshmerga have reinforced fighters, sending more to the shifting front line. as long as they live and breathe, i.s.i.l. won't seize kirkuk and its oil. coalition forces have taken back a lot of territory seized by i.s.i.l. in june. but i.s.i.l. is picking its battles, it needs infrastructure, the group is expected to continue suicide attacks to try to retake key oil installations across northern and central iraq. jane arraf, al jazeera, baghdad. >> there's been an explosion in the lebanese town of afsan near the border with syria. at least one person has been wounded in the blast. meantime, qatar says it won't continue mediation efforts.

jean ferguson has more from beirut. >> reporter: now the lebanese government have held security meetings emergency meetings over the weekend to try find out how they can move forward with these mediation efforts. sunni religious leaders have volunteered a proposal that they could go ahead with mediation efforts but the government in lebanon have not made public how they plan to continue with efforts to secure the release of these hostages. now that governmental comes under increasing pressure with such incidences. it is a very frank i'll coalition of a broad spectrum of political stances in lebanon's fractured political landscape. two groups, one hezbollah and their supporters, who fight for and stand firmly with the assad regime, and other who are sunni against the assad regime. when you consider those are together in a government it is

clear that that fragile government will come under increasing pressure as the war in syria continues the affect politics inside lebanon. >> the lebanese capital sana sa- the yemeni capital sanaa houthi vebles. >> sheltering from the storm. we meet some of the filipino families waiting for deadly weather to pass. plus: >> i'm phil lavelle in paris where $60 million is about to be paid to victims of the nazi holocaust. but it may not happen straight away. find out shortly.

owe an explanation to the egyptian people? >> no...no.. >> al jazeera investigates egypt's lost power on al jazeera america

teach for america is supposed to educate poor children. >> schools where kids need grade teaching the most. >> can unprepared teachers make a difference? >> why are we sending them teachers with 5 weeks of

training? >> now a reminder of the top stories on al jazeera. the international criminal court has upgraded the status of palestine, a symbolic victory for palestinians. the move strengthens palestine's legal standing. the u.n. says it needs 16.4 billion for aid around the world in the coming year. it says the money is needed by the growing number of people affected by combat zones around the world. russia and syria are demanding a explanation from israel, israel is refusing to confirm or deny air strikes.

in kenya, police have admitted that they do target so-called muslim radicals with one of the officers saying western countries including britain know about the death squads. simon bozeman reports. >> reporter: this is the body of macuburi, one of 21 suspected radical muslims allegedly gunned down by kenya's police since 2012. macubury predicted his death when i met with him last year. >> i'm the one being terrorized, in danger. there hit men involved in the extra-judicial killings. we agreed to conceal their identities.

>> since i was employed i've killed over 50. day in day out you hear of eliminating suspects. nothing to could be seal almost 500. >> britain and america have provided millions of dollars of counterterrorism training and equipment to kenya's police. and the officers claim western security agencies know about the killings because they provide some of the intelligence and police reports like these on taped by al jazeera. >> do you think the british know that you guys are eliminating terrorist targets? >> they do. once they give us the information, they know, we have worked it. the report you give us has pen worked on. >> reporter: the head of the international bar association says the interviews provide

prima facie evidence that individuals from western governments are explicit in the killings and -- are come explicit icome live itin the ki. >> found to be directing targeting individuals that in turn would be targeted in a killing then there is a criminal responsibility. >> the british foreign office says it was aware of the allegation he of extra-judicial killings in kenya but rejected any involvement while the kenyan police rejected running an elimination program. simon bozeman, al jazeera, nairobi. >> you can watch the entire show on air monday december 8th at 2000 gmt. germany will suspend its

diplomatic services in egypt on tuesday, after canada and the u.k. temporarily closed their missions there. former u.s. state department nanl graham bannerman says he doesn't think germ m germany's n to close their embassy was due to an ex replies its threat. >> radical extreme is are more active in the areas. embassies have to be more cautious about the well-being of their citizens and people visiting their embassies. this is clear the embassies haven't been closed, but their cons legislator activities have been suspended, not stopped. >> greece has been given a two month extension to its bailout program.

announcing the decision while meeting in brussels. the bailout program was set to end on december 31st. grease has received huge rescue loans since 2010 and it has been forced to stick to very harsh and very hated austerity measures. five years ago, greece was on its last legs and needed loans to keep from going bankrupt. it predicts the economy will grow by nearly 3% along with tax cuts to encourage growth, the budget includes pension reform as the government tries to reduce spending even further. household incomes have been reduced by a third. unemployment have soared from 8.8% in 29 to 26% this year. that's more than a quarter of the workforce out of work. the bail-out program which has kept the greek economy afloat

was due to end on december 31st. the greek economy was confident it only needed a small extension before coming self sustaining once again. tight are controls over the way that greece spends its money. john siropolous has more from athens. >> the economy is still essentially under supervision and the europeans will be relying on the imf supervision to focus on the terms and conditions of their loan. the greeks say they have, the europeans are not so sure, they think a couple of billion dollars of money the greeks say will be owned from tax revenue they don't believe will be there.

but the european central bank which will cover greece's needs in the event of any such contingency. >> joining us now is megan green, chief economist, formerly the euro zone expert on the crisis group. what do you make on this extension? >> i think an extension was inevitable. government is trying to spin it as a big victory. that's probably why they've pulled their election forward for about two months from february to late december. the troika wanted. >> for the economy to be solid i mean whether it's two months or six months, are you confident that the greek economy could be a solid member of the euro zone not to risk the stability of the crurnz. >> a lot of terms need to be

implemented. i think greece will have to get a precautionary credit line even after its bailout time is over so the two-month extension and i think it will probably have to use it. >> just explain to us what that would mean. >> it means that greece could get a line of credit, it could tap whenever it needed, if borrowing costs were too high and i think that would end up happening after the bailout was over. >> greece and to the a lesser extent italy more of a worry for euro zone, do you think that the issue at the core of the euro has actually been solved, or is it any nearer to being installed? >> no absolutely not. to solve the issue at the core of the euro we need fiscal and political union certainly. but we also need the transfer from the stronger cungs to the o the weaker countries.

so far it's just the weaker countries adjusting and that means there's no demand coming out of europe. >> certainly keep an eye on these countries for the months to come. thank you so much for joining us. >> the online taxi service uber has been banned in india. liddy dutt has more from new delhi. >> the latest report of a customer being raped by a uber cab driver, brings up women's rights and safety and sexual violence in the country. to claiferl we should say that you're uber is the global transportation service that operates in india via a mobile

app service, facilitating transportation between drivers in their cars and passengers who require their services. as we see now the idea is an issue that millions of working women across india have been struggling to deal with. getting to and from home every day, getting to and from the world's busiest city, they are feeling stress and the challenges of these very simple tasks. >> we don't need to depend on the cab if we are alone. be careful about going out in a cab, the stwaition i situation s not a good one. >> to ensure good measures, security measures. >> reporter: what is necessary is a great deal of disappointment in new delhi and across the country, this comes a week or a little more ahead of

the second anniversary of the gang rape of a medical student again here in the capitol. that generated global headlines. it put the spotlight back on our very crucial issues of gender equality and safety that india has been struggling to deal with. those issues are back in the spotlight and the questions coming the light now is how much has changed two years on and what really needs to be done to turn all of the talk and all of the policy initiatives into reality for many millions of people across the country. >> thousands of holocaust victims transported to nat i.s.i concentration camps, will be agreeable to a $60 million settlement. phil laf lavelle has the story.

>> 70,000 deported by the nat ns as they tightened their hold. fncs used to transport them. and on monday after all these years, an acknowledgment that all those who survived or at least their relatives should be compensated in the same way those living in france were a long time ago. this the symbolic moment a $60 million fund which officially and legally agreed. it is our duty to remember, to pass on these memories to future generations. for us, our president reaffirm it is not the history of the jewish people, it is our history. >> asensia itself had little to say. in fact it refused to comment

when approached by al jazeera and asked us to talk to the foreign ministery. those who survived deportation stand to get at least $100,000 each. spouses of those who were deported will also be able to apply, amounts will vary but they will get tens of thousands of dollars and there will be money for the estates of those survivors of the hole scawft or theiholocaust ortheir spouses we died. what this cash represents for those survivors for their loved ones is at the very least some form of justice, however small it might be in comparison for their loss. having waited so long for this, the wait is still not over. yes, the money has been agreed but now it has to be formally signed off in there. the french parliament.

and that process in itself could take many more months. phil lavelle, al jazeera, paris. >> and you can find much more on that story and everything else that we have been covering on our website, the address aljazeera.com. explore. i'm phil torres. tonight sharks. both people avoid sharks. we're out to meet them. tag them. learn all about this pep. >> sharks don't eat people. >> five days and nights at sea on our especially rigged shark laboratory. exhort research is next. lindsay moran is an ex-c.i.a.