air strikes hit school in syria killing more than a dozen children. ♪ hello you are watching al jazeera live from london, also coming up, ukraine takes a step closer to nato membership in a move likely to antagonize russia. france orders hundreds of soldiers on the streets after a series of attacks using cars as weapons. sony pictures says it will release the controversial comedy

about north korea leader to a small number of cinemas and plus bouncing back, how a resurgence u.s. economy has the strongest performance in more than a decade. ♪ hello, we begin the program in syria where the violence shows no signs of easing after nearly four years of conflict. 20 people have been killed in government attacks on areas controlled by the islamic state of iraq and struck schools in the city of roka, and dum and and some viewers may find some of the images in the report disturbing. >> reporter: this injured girl is afraid of needles as her mother tries to reassure her. another syrian child caught up

in a war fought by grown-ups. >> the aftermath of a strike in duma that hit a school and put the videos on the internet that show staff at a make-shift hospital struggling to cope with wounded children. many pieces of shrapnel distracted from the boy and showed signs of life before he had to be resus -- resuscitated and they waits to be seen by medics. their school wasn't the only one hit on tuesday. reports say children died there as well, aid agencies issued warnings about the number of child casualties in the war in the fourth year. more than 11,000 children have been killed across syria. nearly 3 1/2 thousand schools destroyed or damage, many of the schools have been occupied for military purposes. more than 2.8 million children are out of school. some activists accuse the regime of targeting schools.

entire neighborhoods in rebel-held areas like duma have been levelled and report from roka controlled by i.s.i.l. say government jets conducted several attacks that killed more than a dozen people. many of them children in schools. human rights groups and the u.n. have asked both the rebels and the syrian government to avoid targeting densely populated areas and civilian institutions like schools and hospitals but appeals have not worked and with each school hit children end up paying for a war they cannot avoid, al jazeera. the world health organization says syria government will allow it to deliver medicine to opposition held areas of aleppo and access being granted to eastern outside damascus where infectious diseases are spreading fast. dana has this report from neighboring lebanon and another warning about the graphic content of this report. >> reporter: hygiene-related diseases are on the rise in

syria. this girl was diagnosed with misis, a parasite infection that is spread by flies. according to doctors cases like these show how the crumbling healthcare system and the worsening living conditions especially in rebel-held areas are effecting people. >> translator: we have to pesticides here because we are under siege and why there is many flies and also homes are not sterilized and there is no hygiene. >> reporter: one of the reasons is lack of clean water in many places like eastern guta a district surrounding the capitol under a government-imposed siege. the problem of contaminated water is not confined to rural damascus and across syria the world health organization reported 6500 cases of typhoid this year and hepatitis is also a problem. >> syria problem with access to clean water in areas such as aleppo and also in the rural

damascus area lately and have been damage to the sewage system and often this is followed by diseases. and we have seen infectious diseases in the suburbs of damascus. >> reporter: the w.h.o. has been able to deliver three times more medical supply in 2014 than last year and some deliveries were to hard to reach areas but health workers want the syrian government to grant it access to opposition territories. >> some of this area is security problem. it can be hard to access. we have had some of the convoys through but this has not been on a regular basis because of security issues. >> reporter: and it is vital that supplies continue to reach those in need. more than half of the public hospitals are out of service. syria's healthcare system has been severely damaged by the war. and many syrians have died from treatable illnesses simply

because of the lack of medicine. dana with al jazeera beirut. the conflict in iraq now where kurdish fighters have entered neighborhoods in the town of sinjar breaking the months long siege and rebel fighters supported by u.s. led air strikes and yazidis are there since i.s.i.l. took control in august. >> translator: the peshmerga control more than a quarter of the city. i can't say we control half of the city but for sure more than a quarter and morale is high and fighters of protection units manage to fight. ♪ violence has broken out in libya cities in benghazi 20 troops to the general were

killed, another 60 injured. 3 other rebel fighters also killed and another five wounded. and in the eastern port city five people were killed where war planes bombed a gathering of malitia and further air strikes hit in the eastern port of sert. at least one person has been killed while trying to dismantle a bomb in yemen's capitol and five other bombs exploded in the center which has been mostly controlled by houthi rebels since september. several houses and cars were damaged. and houthi advance has been met by fierce opposition from sunni tribes backed by al-qaeda yemen affiliate. 37 people have been killed by gunmen who opened fire in two villages in northeastern india in the state of asam and local authorities have a red alert which includes a nighttime curfew. al jazeera is in new deli and sent this update.

>> reporter: police have imposed a state of curfew in a number of areas in the state, this is after gunmen opened fire on villages in sunni poor as well as other districts. these villages were populated by tribal community known as advasi and police believe the gunmen belonged to the national democratic front and it's a separatist organization and active for a number of years and police say these attacks could be in retaliation to a campaign by security forces to flush out members of this organization and they engaged them over the last few weeks killing a number of the group's members so they believe that the group is now retaliating by attacking vulnerable communities. the chief minister of the state has said that his government will not be intimated by these acts of violence, the prime

minister of india modi has also called this an active absolute cowardness but the fear now is that this situation may escalate in the coming days with reprisal attacks from the community and maybe even further attacks by this group. >> reporter: now tensions between russia and ukraine have risen once more after they voted to abandon the country not align status moving a step closer to seeking membership of nato and the president says he wants membership because of russia support for rebels in the east and denied supplying rebels with weapons but faces eu and u.s. sanctions over the crisis. russian foreign minister says ukraine decision is counter productive. the kremlin has long complained about nato expanding east to russia border and would view ukraine membership as a direct

threat to its national security. and nato weighed in the debate warning any accession to the alliance would probably take years. from moscow peter sharp reports on the implications of this vote. >> reporter: the decision by the parliament to denounce the nonaligned status could have serious political implications for an already destabilized region and the vote of 303-8 effectively opens the way to nato membership for ukraine. russia will see as a threat to security and ukraine leaders were determined to scrap its mutual status whatever the reaction from the kremlin. >> translator: today we should all vote for key bill in the current situation. a bill about peace. a bill about reform strategy. a bill about our place in western civilization. this is a bill denouncing ukraine from unaligned status. >> reporter: earlier this year

senior ukrainian military officers met with nato commanders on a training exercise in bulgaria and could take years to complete membership to alliance and not all nato countries are in favor but with the fighting between ukraine and separatist rebels east of the country showing no sign of ending 4700 soldiers and civilians have died since an aborted ceasefire was signed in minsk in september and it won't make it easier when russia and rebels sit down with ukraine to try to reinstate another ceasefire and warning of a far more wide ranging conflict should ukraine join nato giving russia cause forward. >> ukraine moving toward nato or nato moving into ukraine could be something like a cause belly, not for a small conflict that contains somewhere the east of ukraine but to a much, much

larger conflict that may effect western countries. >> reporter: just how russia will react to that eventuality will be occupying the minds of putin and his military planners since the crisis began nearly a year ago. the decision by kiev to scrap its nonaligned neutral status has provoked an anticipated angry reaction from the kremlin. the russian prime minister chose his words carefully when he said an application for nato membership will turn ukraine into a potential military opponent. peter sharp, al jazeera in moscow. joining me from birmingham in the u k is richard and political economy at the university of berming ham and member for east european studies and thanks for coming on to the program. how is ukraine's vision today likely to effect the current crisis in the country east where in theory there is supposed to

be a ceasefire at the moment. >> yes, on one hand i don't think it's going to help matters clearly stating that the ukrainian government has an interest or ukraine or parliament has an interest in joining nato in the future which is what they said and will not help matters but it's unlikely anything will happen on the next few years on that front to be honest and it's unlikely that russia would allow it to happen and there is a range of different tools that could be used to increase pressure on the government in ukraine if it were to make serious moves towards greater integration with western political and security structures. on top of that we also have to remember that it would require nato to agree that ukraine to nato in the future. i don't think you would be able to reach this for the different states to accept the country that is in a de facto state of

war with a power and i don't think they would let them in the near future as your correspondent quite rightly pointed out and if it were to happen it would be many, many years ahead. >> ukraine feels it is making a step in the right direction towards membership, it is interesting that nato has been very cautious about today's decision by those ukrainian mps and definitely nato countries who certainly wouldn't welcome ukraine with open arms. >> that is right, i think we have to say this is a part on kiev and clearly they are playing to different audiences and one hand playing to domestic audience on some of their own supporters within ukraine who clearly have an adversarial stance towards russia and on the other hand i think it will extend their arms towards some people in the west and there are some supporters who would like to see closer relations with ukraine and would like to see

ukraine brought under western security umbrella but a number of countries is rather small and number of proponents of closer security relations with ukraine is rather small and they are rather weak at the moment. >> reporter: it's interesting you did say russia simply would not allow ukraine to join nato, what could russia actually physically do to stop that happening though? >> there is a whole range of options of russian policy makers at the moment and first and most obvious tools available are economic tools and could place embargoes on additional ukrainian goods and some embargoes on food products for example in place at the moment and could extent to other areas and it's the single largest trade partner and impose some financial pressure and most importantly and obviously they could cut energy supplies and particular gas supplies to ukraine and over the course of the winter in the short term and not good for ukrainian economy. also in the near course could move beyond economic sanctions

and they could move towards supplying military pressure and could either intensify activity with the rebels in southeast ukraine and perhaps extending military support for other areas on ukraine's southern borders and as your previous analyst said it could extend to a wider conventional war and more outright invasion by russia on certain parts of ukraine. >> good for your views and thanks for joining us. >> thank you. still to come on the program, trying to blast away a week of bad news, russia putin oversees a successful rocket launch. first, a fashioning festive cheer from scrap and we will meet the artist cashing in on christmas. ♪

>> i'm ali velshi, the news has become

this thing where you talk to experts about people, and al jazeera has really tried to talk to people, about their stories. we are not meant to be your first choice for entertainment. we are ment to be your first choice for the news. ♪ hello and reminder of the top stories on al jazeera, more than a dozen children have been killed in a series of government air strikes in syria. activists say the jet struck schools and north rebel-held areas outside damascus. 37 people have been killed by gunmen who opened fire in two villages in india's northeastern state. and tensions between russia and ukraine have risen once more after politicians voted to abandon the country's nonaligned status, that effectively leaves the country a step closer to seeking nato membership.

now, the film at the center of a diplomatic roe with north korea and the united states will be released. >> and they will believe anything he tells them. >> reporter: and the interview the movie depicts a plot to as nate the leader kim jong-un and cancelled by sony pictures after unline threats made to cinemas and the film will open to a limited number of cinemas on christmas day, a decision that has been welcomed by u.s. president barack obama and why this change of heart roxanna? >> sony has not said why it changed its mind but confirmed to al jazeera it will be showing the interview, releasing it on christmas day in approximately 300-500 theatres and originally

releasing in 3,000 locations so sony has been facing a lot of criticism for announcing last week it would pull its christmas day release of the movie including by president obama who called it a mistake and as you said today he is applauding the decision to actually go ahead and show that movie even though sony has not said why it's going to show the movie ceo of entertainment michael lion said we never have given up on releasing the interview and working on finding more ways to release it so it reaches the largest possible audience and also said we are proud to make the interview valuable to the public and stood up to those who attempted to suppress free speech and seems part of the decision is because of the criticism that it faced over sacrificing freedom of speak because of online threats of terrorism. >> reporter: the interesting thing now is just how many people are going to turn out and see it given all this publicity surrounding it. >> i think it's going to be very

likely that the audiences are going to be large and atlanta theatre is one of the theatre screening the movie in atlanta and have five screenings on christmas in two theatres and alamo house with a number of theatres in texas announced it would open the website about two hours ago to reservation and logged on several times and very slow, a lot of people trying to log on making reservations. also on social media people have been very excited about the news, one person tweeted excellent news and congratulations on the win against terrorism and a lot of hype of the movie especially surrounding the release, this very dramatic and bizarre plot following the release and people are curious to see what the movie is about. >> reporter: very interesting to hear their thoughtss of what they think when it's released and we are joined from new york and thanks very much. when the financial bubble burst in 2008 it did so with devastating consequences around the world, in the u.s. millions

of people lost their jobs and their homes. now the u.s. economy appears to be on the up, growing at the fastest pace in 11 years, in the third quarter of this year between july and september it grew by an annual rate of 5% and most comes from consumer spending and investment in business and jobs created is also going up. in november employers added more than 320,000 people on to their books, that is the biggest one month increase in three years. let's get more from our correspondent in washington d.c., that is tom ackerman and tom is there much cheer in the u.s. over the release of these figures? >> well, it certainly is welcome news for the end of the year for christmastime. it was not unexpected given economic indicators you just mentioned. i think one other factor that really should not be dismissed is the fact that the steep drop

in the price of gas at the pump which was about a 45% drop in crude prices and not quite the same for the actual consumer but the equivalent for them for american households of $75 billion of a tax cut so that is money that people now see that they can easily or more easily be willing to part with at the malls and that is definitely a factor. whether this trend can continue into the fourth quarter we don't know. a couple of factors we don't know how much longer this oil price benefit will be sustained. we also don't know what the effect of the downturn in the growth of military spending which is a big budget item which trickles down to a lot of communities around the country and that according to the sequestered budget scheme will require downturns for example a lot of people being dismissed from the military at an early

age and so those are just a couple of factors which are pondering but right now things are turning up for 2015 in the u.s. >> reporter: tom ackerman live in washington and thanks tom. russia's economy may be troubled but it has gone ahead with a successful and very expensive rocket launch and called the a 5 and designed to replace the soviet rocket and revive the space industry and we have that story. >> reporter: a little christmas cheer for the people of russia ending a difficult year. with the test launch of the country's monster a 5 rocket, a next generation space craft that has been ten years in the making and when it reaches 36,000 kilometers it will place a two ton dummy pay load in orbit and putin watched by video link for his plan for the industry took

off, giving a thumbs up on his way out. the rocket launched from russian soil, not at the usual launch pad in kazistan and no longer completely reliable partners in new space ventures. >> translator: this was a project of the minister of defense. it is strategically very important to be able to send satellites from russian territory and keep russia as a country and this should be our priority. >> reporter: ever since he was the first man to orbit the earth back in 1961, success in the space race and achievements in space technology have been part of the old soviet cold war competitive mindset. now in this new era of confrontation with the west, the kremlin is anxious to stay in the race. russia hopes to eventually launch its own space platform to rival the international space station and grand plans for a country entering a full-blown economic crisis, but still

necessary aspirations according to some. >> obviously when you spend more money for improving economy in the country, not to have ambitions plans but from another point of view ambitions plan can help to improve economy. >> reporter: but the falling rubble has shaken russia and the launch represents a new era, plans to reach the stars may have to be grounded until the economic storm clouds clear. charlie with al jazeera. soldiers are out in force in the french capitol following a series of attacks which left one person dead and 30 injured. during an emergency cabinet meeting in paris the prime minister said france is facing one of the biggest security challenges of resent times after three separate incidents. and we report. >> reporter: patrolling france

most famous street in paris, after three apparently unrelated attacks in various parts of the country the government said no cause for panic but tightening the security operation for the christmas holidays, after tuesday's emergency cabinet meeting the prime minister announced between 200-300 extra soldiers being deployed. >> translator: this series of incidents is shocking and legitimately gives rise to concern from our people and want to protect and reassure the french and say them the services of the state are mobilized. >> reporter: the most resent incident came monday night in the western city where a driver plowed into a christmas market injuring ten people before reportedly stabbing himself in the chest. store holders wore arm bands to honor the victim and one declared clinically dead on tuesday and the interior minister said the attacker was psychologically unstable and he

shouted god is great in aerobic. >> no, no, he didn't say that. i said that to myself like god help us so there is no massacre. >> reporter: a similar incident happened the day before in eastern france and a male driver arrested and had a long history of mental illness and the incident not linked to terrorism but antiterrorism investigators are looking into events last saturday in a central city of tool where a convert to islam stabbed three police officers before being shot dead. i'm barber with al jazeera. protesters in madrid voiced anger about proposed new laws aimed to toughen spain immigration. and activists marched to the senate building where politicians are set to vote on the so called citizen security law and it would allow instant deportation for migrants trying to enter spain by the north african enclave souter and

malia. you can find much more on the website and the address is al jazeera.com and al jazeera.com the place to get the latest news and sport from across the world and do check it out. ♪ stoping the slaughter and putting the country back together, paul kagame is also accused of brutally suppressing dissent. so is kagame a savior or a dictator? we sent journalist sorious samura to find out. >> for centuries the tribes of this country lived together without tribal atrocities, and nothing like the rwandan genocide ever took place.