more anguish in asia. the passenger jets goes missing over the java sea. this is heavy rains lash 21 of slowslow lanka's 21 districts cause ledley mudslides. you are watching al jazerra live from london. also coming up. one man who died and hundreds of passengers remain trapped on board a ferry which caught fire off the greek coast. the u.s. and made owe formally end their war in afghanistan with a hand over

ceremony. and how american researchers are trying to save birds from their biggest killer, windowpanes. ♪ ♪ hello, we begin in asia where a search and rescue operation is due to resume in the next couple of hours for a malaysian passenger jet. it disappeared over the java sea with 162 people on board. air asia flight qz8501 left indonesia at 5:20 a.m. local time. its destination was singapore. but it lost contact with ground control 42 minutes after take off. just before that, the pilot had requested a change of flight path because of bad weather. veronica pedrosa reports from singapore airport. >> reporter: from the air and sea, an ins 10 search for missing flight air asia qz8501.

the air bus was carrying 162 passenger asks crew from the indonesian city to singapore. 42 minutes after take off the aircraft lost communications with air traffic control. >> translator: i hope for a miracle and may god save them all. i should have been with them but canceled two weeks ago because i had something to do. i have two friends on board with five family members. >> reporter: those with relative on his board have been demanding answers. >> the weather conditions were not good, but we don't want to speculate anything more. obviously there was storm clouds and pilot had made a request to change altitude. that's as far as we know. we don't want to speculate as to whether weather was a reason or not. we really don't know. let's find the aircraft and then we'll do the proper investigation. >> reporter: indonesia's disaster management authorities quickly set up a crisis center

at the airport. as offers of help from foreign countries poor in. there is little information the plane lost contact as the flew over the java seam the area was cloudy. air asia says the pie let had requested a change of course because of bad weather. this is where they were supposed to arrive. air transport authorities at singapore's airport say 47 next of kin approached them. they were provided with counselors and officials from various government departments as well as the indonesian an embassy. singapore authorities say they are going to be sending two additional aircraft as well as a c130 they sent on sunday morning as soon as that plane went missing. this is now become a massive international search operation. this is the first major incidents for the low-cost carrier whose parent company in malaysia has significant presence across southeast asia. but it trails two other other

malaysian aviation tragedies both involving malaysia airlines in march mh370 disappeared with 239 people on board. that plane was never found. then in july, mh17 from amsterdam to kuala lumpur was shot down over ukraine killing all 298 people on board. air asia has never lost a plane before. veronica palos dos pedrosa. scott is in the airport where the plane took off from. scott. 2:00 in the morning where irrelevant, so what is actually happening there right now? >> reporter: we know that it's just a lot of anxious waiting quite honestly. some family members are still here. this is where the air asia aircraft left from 21 hours ago. there is a crisis center inside

the terminal but they have put up plastic chairs and a at the present time outside because the people who came here to get more information, they were just -- the numbers were too great to hold them inside that room there. so right now a lot of anxious waiting. again it's been over 21 hours since the aircraft took off here. search and rescue operation on his sunday, they came up with nothing. no physical evidence of what could have possibly happened to the aircraft. couple of factors working against them the weather was one. and that's something that has been looked at very closely because that's something that the pilot requested a deviation from his normal route because of weather that was hampering the search and rescue operation on his sunday. but then also we look at, when you talk about trying to find, what could have happen to this, that search and rescue operation also was only really able to go on for a couple of hours because then nightfall came in. right now a lot of anxious waiting, felicity. >> yeah, lots of waiting. what are we expecting to happen once daylight final arrives.

>> reporter: that's about four to five hours away from right now, and that decision will be made in jakarta about an hour plane ride from where we are. that's where the search and rescue operation is headquartered. they quill will decide how they will continue based on weather and any information that came out overnight. and focus that area and try to filed any physical evidence of what could have happened to this a320 aircraft. the weather is still quite bad. we just landed at this airport a the bit ago. it was bait of a rough lands nothing that bad but when we landed in jakarta about three four hours ago there was what seemed to be crosswinds, still strong weather systems in the area. will that impact the search and rescue operation in a second day on monday morning? that has to be determined. those decisions will be made in the coming hours about four to five hours from right now, fa his at that. >> scott heidler live for us, thanks scott. >> lots of speculation about the weather. we have more on the conditions

at the time that air asia's plane lost contact. >> meteorologist: hello when the air asia flight took off it was about to face a wall of thunderstorms and this is normal this time of the year. but these thunderstorms are huge huge. their tops were over 50,000 feet. of course you can fly try to flyover them. he requested to lift to 38,000 feet to fly around them but that is fraught with danger when they are so tightly packed. the dangers typically are icing where you change the shape of the wing and that makes it very difficult to control. hail, which tends to blind the radar so you can't see what's ahead of you you. lightning and then severe turbulence which shakes the plane about. any two of those combined could really be quite serious. of course, there is more to come in that direction for anybody flying in the area. and the bad weathers never that region has already killed 14 in southern thailand, 10 people in malaysia. after causing the worst flooding

in more than a decade. around 160,000 malaysians have now been displaced. entire towns are under water. torrential rains are forecast for at least another week in some places. malaysia's prime minister has pledged another $143 million to help those affected. and 24 people are dead, eight missing and more than a million affected by bad weathers never sri lanka. most of the country's district were hit by torrential rain, floods and landslides and more rain expected there too. here is the latest. >> reporter: a sea of water everywhere you look. hundreds of thousands of families are struggling to cope with widespread flooding. >> translator: we are afraid of staying inside the house with our children in case the waters rise quickly. and the roads are impossible. >> reporter: that made her and her family spend last night in their three wheeler taxi parked

outside. torrential rains slit shri lanka causing rivers to burst their banks, irrigation tanks to spill over and transforming tiny streams in to ranging torrents. they blocked to this village on christmas day but not for christmas service. >> the waters rose early on christmas morning. the police came around 4:00 a.m. and told us to leave. we only had time to get ahold of our children. >> reporter: almost 400 people are housed in the church. there is a regular supply of food. we even found midwifes responsible for cooking kids' meals. the floods have forced thousands of people to flee their home. and seek shelter in centers set up to house the displaced. but many others, like those behind me, have chosen to stay. not want to go leave their properties. many of those who stayed behind crowded the only dry land available. a sense of community spirit very obvious as they made the best of the situation.

the reluctance of some to leave their homes however doesn't make things easy for local authorities. >> any person, their home is. [ inaudible ] that is the situation. they don't want to give up their properties. >> reporter: the disaster management center says flood levels are rising in certain areas. with further landslides being a possibility. it says more rains are predicted overnight offering little hope to those yearning for home comforts. al jazerra northwest sri lanka. ♪ ♪ search teams are still trying to rescue people stuck on a ferry which caught fire off the greek islands. more than 300 of the 470 passengers and crew are still on board as bad weather hampers the operation. one man has died.

the norman an lan tick car ferry had been heading to italy it's now stranded. >> reporter: in stormy seas seas and bitterly cold conditions the normal atlantic ferry continues to burn. some of the passengers have been lifted to safety. from the top deck in winds of up to 100-kilometers an hour. the italian coast guard has sent four helicopter tos to the scene. greek and italian fire fighting ships are on their way. several large vessels have circled ferry trying to shelter it if the the from the winds. >> translator: the weather conditions are very bad. the passenger ship successfully launched a life boat to transfer passengers away from the burning shim. the passengers are all various nationalities. 234 tkpwraoefpblgt a further 34 make up the crew. >> reporter: the ferry left the

greek port at around 5:30 in the morning local time. it was heading to the italian port. it's not clear what caused the fire but it thought it started in the car deck. in his weekly address at the vatican, pope francis prayed for the victims of the ferry fire. >> translator: i am close to their family members and those living through these difficult situations with apprehension and suffering. as well as those involved in the rescue operations. >> reporter: there are well, children and elderly on board. many have been pleading for help in calls from their mobile phones, the heat of the fire is so intense that some passengers say their shoes start today melt. the ship is in no immediate danger of sinking but it's drifting towards the albanian coastline. rescuing those still on board will be a complicated and dangerous task. al jazerra.

and al jazerra's simon mcgregor wood is in roam for us right now. all of these hours on, most of the passengers are still on board that ferry. so where are we now with the operation to rescue them? >> reporter: well, it's been obviously an extremely difficult day, felicity, 317 passengers remain on board well over 150 have been evacuated but it's been a terrible confluence of conditions that has really made this rescue attempt so, so difficult. we have the fire, below decks. raging through most of the day. and according to most reports still burning. producing an he 2340r78 us enormous amount the heat and black smoke if you can imagine all the people left are board have gathered on the upper deck. they say the temperature on the soles of their feet anywhere below decks is completely intolerable. and so if you put that together with this terrible weather

driving sleet and rain, and extremely high winds, it's not hard to imagine even from a nonexpert like me how difficult it would be to get a large vessel alongside to safety transfer people away from dank. they are safe apparently. it's very unpleasant for them. but there are 300 people still on that ship and it is nightfall. and it must be a very difficult situation for them. >> yeah, pretty terrifying particularly when there has been smoke all around you as well i believe there is a plan to try to t.o. w the boat, what more do you know about that? >> reporter: i didn't, it is shrouded in a certain degree of chaos. it's an inter international effort. but the italian coast guard have told us here in rome that that plan now is to tow the vessel to

an italian port, to a large port or possibly further south also a large port. but, again during the course of the day the prevailing winds have been blowing the norman atlantic closer to the albanian coast. so there is some debate that might be the smarter idea. it's only about 20, 30 miles away whereas the italian coast is nearer 40, 45-kilometer as way. however, the italian coast guard still insists here on sunday evening to us that the plan is to tow the vessel which apparently is? no danger of sinking to an italian port. but it will be many hours before it reaches a safe harbor, many hours in which those people, over 300 at least will have to endure another night on this governing ferry. >> all right you'll keep us up-to-date with the latest on that ferry for the movement, simon, thanks very much indeed. two people have died after a turkish car owe slip slided.

it sanction close to the port. four turkish crew members missing another five rescued. all aboard the other vessel which was caring carrying a belize flag are safe and well. still to come shia militia menzel brought after helping the iraqi army make important gains against isil. and stranded in the snow. thousands caught up in transport chaos as a deep freeze hits for instance. >> we were talking to a young lady saying she just wanted her voice to get out there. >> by the thousands, they're sending their government a message. >> ahead of 'em is a humanitarian crisis where tens of thousands of people are without food, water, shelter.

>> a special one hour look at global attacks on free press. tomorrow 9:00 eastern. on al

hello again, welcome back. a reminder of the top stories here on al jazerra. the search and rescue operation for a missing air asia plane is due to resume in the next few hours. flight qz8501 disappeared over the java sea with 162 people on board. the bad weathers air cross asia has led to flooding that's killed 24 in sri lanka, 14 in southern thailand and 10 people in malaysia. a rescue operation is under underway in waters between greece and italy where a terry caught fire with northern people on board. the u.s. and nato have ended their 13-year war in afghanistan with a handover ceremony any kabul. they will be replaced by i a nato training and support mission which will assist afghanistan's 350,000 strong army. 2014 though, is is set to be the deadliest of the war according to the u.n. which expects civilian casualty to his

pass 10,000 by the end of the year. it's also been a deadly year for afghanistan's security forces with more than 4,600 tkegtsdz 4,600 deaths recorded so far. now a report from kabul. >> reporter: an end of an era and the beginning of a new one in afghanistan. nato's force completes its 13-year mission a much smaller force will take its place on january 1st. the commander says nato and afghanistan work together to protect the afghan people and i want national community from extremism. since 2001 he says, they have created an atmosphere that fostered progress. >> a number of cell phones, people in school, women. [ inaudible ] on and on. >> reporter: he also cautioned there are significant challenges ahead. afghanistan has been the longest war for both the united states and nato. and even though this ceremony marks the end of nato's bad

minutes here the fighting isn't over. it is in the hands of the afghan security forces and for them it's been the worst year ever. more than 4,600 soldiers and police have been killed and thousands woundss. casualties are so high, because the afghan troops don't have the nato support they used to. >> we are limited. we have a lot of challenges. and the biggest challenge is the air force indulgence, but we have enough to work on it. >> reporter: the nato withdraw has allowed al qaeda to reestablish training bases and taking large parts of the country side. >> insurgency is not beaten on the battlefield. an insurgency can only be overcome by reconciliation, and that's the process that the president has clearly laid out as the path of the future. but any reconciliation seems a long way off. in addition to the security

concerns, the currently relies heavily on foreign aid and there is still no cabinet three months after the new president took office. nato says its mission is a success, but africans are concerned the gains of the past 13 years could be reversed. jennifer glasse, al jazerra kabul. but battle against isil is intensifying, u.s. coalition jets have launched more air strikes in syria and eye rook. with the important gains by iraq's army where the forces have regained several villages and town. >> reporter: these shia militia fighters are celebrating after taking over the iraqi towns. they are supporting the iraqi military's advance against fighters belong to this islamic state of iraq and the levant. dozens were reportedly killed and injured on both sides. and the pro-government militia say they are now in control of both towns. >> translator: this is the town

it used to be infested with snipers who hurt many civilians. we have now managed to retake it for the iraqi people. all iraqis hear us, we are ready to fight back. >> translator: this is in front of us, all praise to god we have managed to liberate it. and d by the help of god, we are the victors, we are the. [ inaudible ] brigade. >> reporter: but battles are continued around the towns, they are important because they are less than 100-kilometers from the northern isil strong hold the city of tikrit. these towns were controlled by isil and the group launched attacks. and by pushing isil out from the outskirts, security forces consider it a military gain in the battle to retake other parts of the province province. >> reporter: the u.s. led coalition fighting iraq in syria has carried out more than a ducks en air strikes in recent days a rack's military

launched. but isil fighters have continued their attacks and say their antiaircraft capabilities have forced coalition jets to leave. the mission in sinjar is tense at peshmerga forces advance near to the mountains fighting has also inning tess identified southwest of kirkuk. iraqi forces have managed to cut isil supply lines to the farms on the outskirts of the town. they want to retake more areas north of the city. as the fighting continues more iraqi civilians become victims and moorehouses become vacant. al jazerra. one of iran's senior commanders happen been killed in iraq. they say the general was killed north of baghdad. where he was advising iraqi troops and shia volunteers. we are approaching a grim anniversary, in just a few hours, three al jazerra journalists will have been in

prison in egypt for a fuel her our colleagues were arrested on december 29th, 2013, they were falsely accused of aiding the outlawed muslim brotherhood and damaging egypt's reputation abroad, they say they were just doing their jobs as journalist a presidential election as taken place in a midst a deep economic slump. the role is mostly ceremonial. and the incumbent is expected to earn a second term. but if not there will be a run-off election. heavy snowfall has left about 15,000 people stranded in the french alps a storm dumped massive snow on mountain roads just as holdiday makers were heading to and from popular ski resorts after crisman, a man died when his car slid in to a ravine emma hayward reports. >> reporter: just over a week

ago there were worry about his a lack of snowed of the ski season. but now france has been hit by a deluge. making the journey for those heading to the country's many ski resorts in the alps treacherous. these are just some of the thousands of cars stranded in the snow. >> translator: we have had a jam of people in both directions since about 10:00 this morning. and around here, we have steep slopes of six or seven degrees. >> reporter: many people decided to abandon their cars and continue on foot. others came better prepared with snow chains for their tires. >> translator: it was expected but i wish it had come a day later. i can't wait to get home and jump onto my couch. >> translator: less than an hour and we have 15-kilometers to go, we have 10 left now. we are trying to put on our snow chains and get back home. this is too much snow. >> reporter: in france local authorities have been setting up emergency shelters in at least

12 towns. >> translator: we just need to be patient now. it's pointless to get angry what can we do? >> reporter: in other parts of the country it's winds, not snow that is causing problems. gusts of 160-kilometers an hour blew down parts of a multi million dollars fence built to keep migrants out of the port. there are more than 2,000 migrants living in the area trying to get to britain. the winds also destroyed some of their shelters, so many have been given help for the night by eye local charity. france is preparing itself for more bad weather. that means more snow and freezing slippery roads. drivers are being told to delay their journeys if possible. emma hayward, al jazerra. now, a new report says climate change is going to wipeout more than half of north america's bird species by the middle of the century. but flying in to wind doughs is another major cause of bird deaths and as tom ackerman

reports, u.s. researchers are trying work out how to response stop it. >> reporter: just after dawn naturalist luke is out catching birds. trapping them in mesh nets dozens at a time. they are identified, banded and soon they thereafter released. here in pennsylvania the birds need not fear one of their worst killers, glass pains every year 300 million to a billion die in north america by crashing in to windows. the. >> the majority of the birds that hit windows are night migrating song birds that once they have migrated and come out of the sky have to find food. frequently near glass windows. >> so the birds come to us from the banding lab. >> reporter: using this flight tunnel the american bird conservancy is work to go lessen the threat, testing out new methods of treating windows so the birds can did he detective them in time. >> we fly birds down this way

towards this end of the tunnel and record which way they go. do they tend to go towards our clear pain or do they tending to towards the pain with the treatment on it. some are ultra try lent. so they reflect ultra violet light and have a pattern on it. >> reporter: the bigger the new building the pro reflective paynes they constan in stadium liza long one of the biggest migration fly ways on the continent. local activists are fight to go change the window design and reduce the threat. and the city of san francisco has adopted bird-safe san cords for its new built but modest adjustments to existing homes can protect birds too. these are some of the simplest ways of minimizing this, windrow strips or hanging cords. >> there is no need to have totally transparent glass. you could have a very narrow horizontal stripe which is a very effective way of stopping

birds. >> reporter: giving them better prospects for survival than by just relying on a wing and a prayer. tom ackerman, al jazerra rector pennsylvania. much more, over on our website. the usual address is aljazerra.com. shorts and $100 bucks of the tahoe. >> this past january licensed shops in colorado began selling recreational marijuana to anyone 21 years of age or older. >> whoo that smells nice >> prices range from $14 to $25 a gram. >> what's the difference between the ultimate.