this is al jazerra. ♪ ♪ hello and well development news hour. i a ini am in al jazerra with your top stories. power struggle in yemen houthi fighters take over the presidential palace in the capital sanaa. meanwhile, the yemeni president holds emergency talks with advisers as houthi rebels break a day-old ceasefire agreement. nine policemen killed in iraq as isil attack the compound of an influential tribal leader.

taking you straight to yemen where the houthi leader is speaking now. let's listen in. >> translator: full of freedom pride, the yemen offer steadfastness, wisdom and pow pow defense. may peace be upon you my fellow countrymen. i extend all gratitude appreciation thanks to the popular committees, the steadfast who are standing steadfast in bravery and fortitude to serve god almighty in the first place and to serve the yemeni people. the same appreciation and gratitude extends to the great yemeni army. the army who once again has

proven to be patriotic aware of and loyal to the homeland. have driven beyond any -- proven beyond any doubt that they are siding with the interest of the people. siding with yemen. siding with the homeland. fully aware of the responsibility to defend the home soil and not to function under any circumstances as a tool in the hands of any party conspiring against our homeland. my fellow countrymen, at the outset, as i address you today in a defining moment, an exceptional his historical moment in our history we strongly condemn the abuses targeting our prophet

and god's messenger mohamed may god's peace and blessings be upon him. the repeated abuses, the last of which was published by certain publication in france, the nature of these abuses of which we come across time and time again, from now and then is a living proof that there exists a kind of indifference and disrespect to the sanctities of the muslim and the muslim nation. the perspective from which the west is looking at the muslim is in totally full of hostility based in animosity targeting

abusing, muslim -- the muslim nation in absolute disrespect. our homeland and the entire muslim nation should be fully aware that we are braving through a stormy circumstance. it has been also noted that in the recent development in france that there exists a kind of conspiracy targeting our homeland yemen and the yemeni people. amid this conspiracy that is manipulated by the super powers targeting the entire region in general and our country in particular, it is very

noticeable that there exists an attempt to link the incidents that took place in france to what is taking place in our country. this is nothing but one threat of the so many threats woven against our country targeting our security, stability and sovereignty. for these reasons, we should be fully aware of the nature of the current state of affairs. we should also be fully aware of our responsibilities towards all this. there is no doubt that our country is suffering at a domestic level. many of the internal forces in terms of the political party and

blocks are not living up to the degree or the level of the current challenges. they are not addressing them responsibly. transcending above personal gains, parties and interests or any side agendas in terms of sectarian, provincial or tribal affiliations. at this defining moment in the history of our homeland, we are going through at critical moment -- a critical moment. exacerbated by the negative perspective and the negative approach by many of the internal forces. especially those holding the reins of power and holding the

reins of decision and decision making. i mean the authorities. i mean the authority led by the president. history has it that our country has always been through many currents. in addition to all of these currents, there are certain genuine opportunities if wisely seized, we can surmount all the challenges, rid our country of corruption and totalitarianism. rid our country of all the negatives of the past. the escalating tide of the ref lines has achieved certain gains, namely the national

dialogue document. and the peace and partnership deal. the outcome of the national dialogue represented represented a new political era for our country on which we could have embarked to create a new reality, to build a new yemen. to rid the country of suffering and to resolve the exacerbating complex problems negatively affecting our people. yet upon the conclusion of the national dialogue conference. we as yemeni have come to know how the outcomes have been dealt with. how the responsibility authority

and the decision-making authority the power of the country have conspired against these outcomes. shelving them, keeping them away from the light preventing these outcomes from being implemented or coming to rise so that the yemeni people would have felt their advancing towards a new reality, a new constructive era. chief amongst the outcomes of the national dialogue were all the elements required for rebuilding the country as inspired by the yemeni people of old, their a fail phil areases what happened was unfortunate. proving that the political forces of yemen and namely the

authority were interested only and only in making more gains and gaining more interest to their own only, not to the people. those limited interests turning a blind eye aye to the yemeni people and their sufferings. why haven't they genuinely and responsibly put their heart and mind towards implementing these outcomes? had they done so, genuinely and truly, then the yemeni people would have covered a long distance since then till now. regret. i they never willed, they never wished to do so. they had expected the national

dialogue to be only a cosmetic measure through which they can implement certain measures, ignore others. this was their approach. a big question mark was while they are the decision makers holding the reins of power backed by the regional and international community through the gulf initiative security council and the united nations all the worlds states backs them. what happened was unfortunate. they sank more in corruption and tyranny. the country plunged in to a tragic situation. total collapse. we have suffered at all levels,

political. economical and and security. gravely and badly until the moment our brave yemeni people took to the streets once again. the yemeni people, the great yemeni people from all walks of life took to the streets representative of all the a affiliations, all the components of the yemeni fabric, all of the spectrum of the yemeni people chanting lawful and legal demands. this led to the great achievement of the 11th of september. once again creating a new opportunity more valuable as it has removed a huge obstacle that

represented a challenge, a barricade, a block towards implementing the national dialogue outcome. the newly created opportunity on september 11th paved the way towards ushering in to implementing the outcomes of the national dialogue. the peace and partnership deal epitomized a significant yemeni era, just and fair, without any injustice or prejudice to any component of the social fabric of the yemeni people or any part -- political party. it laid the foundation for a true partnership it included

very significant elements as stipulated in the document. also at the economic level which is very significant in the face of the poverty and underdevelopment our people are suffering. it also included certain crystal clear, significant measures to combat corruption and to send -- to raise the income. it included measures in favor of and to the interests of all the lives of the yemeni people. it also included other agriculture and social measures as it stipulated in the peace

and partnership deal. in terms of security, the deal also included clear-cut stipulations significant and useful. this deal was signed by the political forces and the top political elite of their own free will. it has become of legally binding political contract, it was recognized by the entire world. the united nations security council, european union and also the gulf corporation council including our brothers in the kingdom saudi arabia. all of those have recognized and blessed the deal. they also demanded the deal to be implemented.

as they said it represented a legally binding political contract. there is no justification to avoid orie i'd or evade from put this is contract in to implementation. to our surprise, these political forces go back to the old habits. political wrangler political argument as the old habits steering away from the interests of the people or the interest of the homeland. they adopted a stray different course of action. it was true, it was important for us to have all our efforts

harnessed to have the deal implemented. and to observe the time limits stipulated in that deal. it was necessary to have the deal implemented and to observe -- to have observed the measures stipulated as per the time line. had this been done, and had the political forces acted in this fashion, and had the president acted responsibly and genuinely, we during the past four months would have felt as yemeni people a grave change in terms of stability security, improvement of social condition conditions standard of living and, above all political

stability. if this had been done, we would have witnessed new positive reality in tangible fashion. unfortunately, the adopted -- they adopted a different course of action and instead of putting all of these outcomes in to implementation and instead of inninginvigorating the principle of partnership at the military and political and social levels, they adopted a different course of action. they move in a different direction, steering away from all these outcomes. what this action -- what was this action? regret. i and unfortunately -- regret. i and unfortunately, we could say that the course of action

adopted by them. was counter to all the outcomes, measures and achievements achievements contained in the peace and partnership deal chief among them was partnership partnership is a national necessity. it is an only game. we cannot rid our country of tyranny in the absence of partnership. as we remain as we were in the past, one particular force still holding the reins of power controlling the decision-making

process, controlling the political manipulation. taking in to consideration their own interests how can we then -- how can we build a true state, the state desired by the yemeni people. the state as invented under the national dialogue document. these forces meant to reinforce the powers to firm the grip on power, to prevent other parties and blocks from taking effective part in the process. then how could we build a true country. how could we build a true state? how can we then rid our country of the passive negative legacy?

how can we provide the necessary requirements for a democratic state? the same problem persists. the same polite persists. the same suffering remains. okay, so if you are just joining us, that's the houthi leader speaking from the yemeni capital sanaa and he's speaking, if you have been following developments with us at al jazerra, he has been talking after his fighters basically took control of the presidential palace in the capital sanaa. that happened a few hours ago. so a little bit of what he has been saying, calling the situation, the developments in yemen, describing them as a historical moment, he did talk about the outside threats as well that are targeting the country.

did refer to the national dialogue and said that it could have been used to build a new yemen at the time. this was a couple of months ago. yet it wasn't used to its full effectiveness. al jazerra's correspondent is with us here in the studio. just talk us through what you have heard? what's the most important interesting thing that he has said so far from what you have heard? it seems like he's really taking direct aim at the authorities. >> absolutely. and essaying that basically he doesn't trust president hadi. that he's confident that hadi is someone that clouds colludes with the west to undermine the shia houthi rebels. that for years the government has been sidelining the houthis not listening to their own demands that, hadi in particular was counter productive. he failed to implement what has been agreed upon in 20112012.

but at the same time he said that september when the houthis took over they signed a landmark deal with the government a peace and partnership deal and that this was not also plentied by the government. the problem here is that the government says at the same time, it was the houthis who backtracked on implementing that deal because one of the clauses of that deal said that once a government is formed, houthis pull out from the capital and disarm. >> which did not happen. >> the government was formed in october 2014, the houthis say we still have to maintain our own fighters in the capital because we are concerned about the security situation. you are talking about two narratives. the houthis say that they are innocent that they are the underdog and that they have been discriminated against by the government. the government, on the other

hand, says we are a legitimate authority which has been undermined by rebels trying to use force and violence to take over power in the -- in the -- in yemen. but a delicate situation. we understand there are negotiations under way as we speak as he is speaking right now. to diffuse tension and come up to some sort of agreement. i don't think he's moving towards a military confrontation, he's leaving it up to hadi to come to a political settlement, otherwise you might see further violence. >> what is it that the president is willing to concede or give up at this point? >> well, for hadi, the bottom line is this, i am the legitimate president of yemen.

i am ready to talk to the houthis and other political parties in yemen about a road map. particularly how to move forward. what kind of state we want in the future. a federation of four, five, six provinces. we can reduce that to three provinces if the houthis are willing to have only two provinces in the north we can do it but i don't think that hadi is willing to give the houthis one province in the north because that was made after the grip of the northern part of country. if you one province in the north with sanaa as it's a capital knowing the houthis control the north you are just concede to go them. that would just backfire. the houthi are saying no way we can troll rate that. and he would also lose allies in the northern part of the country. at the same time, al del houthi understands this is a delicate situation for him. he cannot push forward to out of

the hadi, because that's a red line for the americans it's also a red line for regional powers like the giant oil producer saudi arabia. >> okay, thank you for that. let's cross over now to aden, in fact and bring in ahmed he's joining us from yemen. omar. first of all your take on the houthi leader who is actually currently still speaking right now? and also give us an update on the situation in sanaa. >> reporter: the situation in sanaa is calm. and there is no fighting. i think everybody is listening to what essaying. because it's very important and has to do with the current crisis. and perhaps a way out of it. it's very interesting what the leader of the movement is saying

it's all the list of the grievances that his group feels towards the state in particular against president hadi and what he called also the old forces. and i think he's making direct reference to some of the key political parties in this country, mainly the party which is the political party of the muslim brotherhood. the main points from what he said so far is that the authority and the president failed to implement everything that has been agreed upon by all of the political players including the peace deal, the peace and partnership deal that was signed in september and also before that, the national dialogue. he is also reiterating the fact this country is suffering from corruption and that the state is not doing anything to fight the corruption. so it's -- to sum it up, he's i think giving the reasons to why his popular forces, as they call them are doing what they are

doing. and they are very also important point that he mentioned what happened in september last year, was a revolution by the people. and that i think he is trying to shed some legitimacy or give some legitimacy to what the fighters did back in september and i think rights now as well. >> speaking of legitimacy, omar, gauge for us the support the amount of support that he has as well as the houthis have in yemen. just give us an idea of that. >> reporter: well, the houthis are shia yazidis and that secretary of islam represent somewhere between 25 to 30% of the yemeni society. so this is their percentage if you will. now, with regard to support, i don't think there is a lot of support. what make the houthis very strong and maya law them to achieve all of that so far in terms of the military or

politically is their alliances perhaps with the former president and that's why they are expanding and moving on, achieving military victories. i think there is an anti houthi sentiment that is rising in sanaa and out wards. in the north of the country. the traditional strong hold for the shia yazidis in sanaa and some support within the community therein. >> thank you. omar reporting for us from aden. let's just take closer look at what's led to this crisis in yemen in this points. in march 2011, pro reform rallies gained momentum. they turned violent. police opened fire on protesters and dozens of people were killed. well the riots did continue throughout the year. and then in november 2011.

the then president handed power to his deputy hadi. and a unity government was formed. in february 2012 hadi was inaugurated as yemen's president after uncontested electses. in january 2014 a document on which the new constitution would be based was agrees upon, this after 10 months of deliberations, president hadi sacked his cabinet in august after weeks of anti--government protests. then in september houthi rebels claimed control of the capital sanaa. and the u.n. brokered peace deal saw the houthis agree to withdraw their fighters once a new unity government is formed but now the houthis have rejected the government's draft constitution and they are fighting with the troops, that's the position that yemen find itself in today as we speak. we were telling you about the u.n. security council moments ago. right now the u.n. security council is holding a meeting and discussion is the crisis in yemen, crossing over to our

diplomatic editor james bay to his tell us what came out of that meeting in york, james. >> reporter: well, doreen the meeting has now broken, they have been listening for the last few hours to reports of the situation in yemen. in many ways the situation moving so fast they were getting the news as it happened in the security council. the news coming do them from jamal who is the special adviser of the united nations. he was here meeting ambassadors and diplomats at the end of last week he's on his way to sanaa he will be there in a few hours right now he's in doha where you are and that's where he was briefing the security council from. now, i have spoken to a number of ambassadors when that meeting broke, and they told me that they were deeply worried about the situation. the situation was during the meeting unfolding, they were told that president hadi was effectively surrounded, his prime minister effectively surrounded they also got news as the meeting went on that the interior minister and the defense minister effectively

surrounded. what we clearly don't know yet from the houthi leadership, although he continues speaking, is what they are going to do next. and what are they going to do about the president and his cabinet. are they going to allow them to continue to rule, are they going to give them one more chance as he has suggested. or are they have seizing power? that is not clear yet. the security council preparing to issue a statement. they have been talk baying statement. i am told we won't see the statement for a couple of hours i think that's because they are doing exactly what we are doing they are watching this speech and trying to determine what is going on in a fast-moving situation. >> so how much is their calculation going change considering what's happened over -- in the past few hours james, in yemen? >> reporter: well, they have all along supported president hadi, but it's really not clear whether he now is properly in

power in yemen. and certainly controls the levels of power in some ways that's been in doubt since the summer. and the change of effective control in the capital. remember the u.n. security council is the main global body for international peace and security. but on this particular file, they really don't have much room for maneuver. they have tried almost everything. they tried mediation, that was jamal the u.n. special adviser's national dialogue which we heard from the houthi leader he believes was not properly followed. that the government didn't follow that and just used it as an excuse to talk, but didn't really talk about the proper means. then there was this peace and partnership agreement came in september after the houthi take over of sanaa again the houthi leader saying he doesn't believe that that was done in good faith. the security council, of course,

always have one last option, which is some sort of military intervention. but i can tell you, there is no appetite of that at all from any of the ambassadors as they left the meet i go spoke to the jordanian ambassador, i said to her, did she believe right now that president hadi was in control of his country? she said i hope so. we believe he's the legitimate president but we are really not sure. so i think like everyone else the security council watching these very fast-moving developments. >> okay, james we'll check in with you a little later. thank you for the time being. james bays our diplomatic editor reporting from united nations. james saying the meeting go on at the u.n. security council has now broken. >> just showing you the live pictures in sanaa the houthi leader there he is, he has been speaking for about 35 minutes or so giving his take on the situation in yemen. what he believes has led up to this point. so we are monitoring what he's

saying and we will keep updating you on any lines that he brings us as well as you here at al jazerra. crossing over to sanaa and speaking a visiting scholar at carnegie middle east center, that's where his research focuses on yemeni and gulf politics. so one of the sings that he was just saying, he was referring to the national dialogue that happened in 2013. and he believes, that it could have been used to build a new yemen, yet upon conclusion, estates, authorities have their own interests in mind and this is what has also let to the situation that sanaa find itself in today. do you agree with that? [ inaudible ] hopefully that the government has. [ inaudible ] political process

but i can't. [ inaudible ] he is addressing that. what you can obvious conclude is that there is -- there was a bad political process happening that's very true. that political process you say. [ inaudible ] however, so many yemenis want to fix it, make it better. however, now the question after the houthis took over is completely redefined. if this political process which. [ inaudible ] is actually done. the question is do we have a republic. do we still have a republic, that's more or less the one he paved the way from inning all the way to sanaa.

however they. [ inaudible ] on the way that he is addressing -- addressing it. clearly right now i watched the first part of his talk, clearly. [ inaudible ] which is a very smart tactic the houthis want to deal with the international. take over whatever you want and then speak softly and present yourself as a chance for peace and you know, expansion. which is i think is more than to yemenis, this is specifically addressing the international state inning fringe new york city. it's still a because so far at least he talks about the problems everyone is talking about. but clearly different goals than everyone else is talking for

which is. [ inaudible ] the political process and taking over the capital by force. >> being on, thank you very much for speaking to us from sanaa giving us your take on the situation there. let's cross over to a pro-houthi activist joining us via describe and also from the yemeni capital sanaa. i gotta ask you because a lot of people just wondering what the houthis ultimate aim really is here. why would they at this particular point go and take over the presidential palace? what is the aim? >> first of all they didn't take the presidential palace itself. they took control of the presidential palace battalion in the compound of the presidential palace because there was looting and they found a car full of

shoulder-loaded rockets and they tracked that down coming from the presidential palace so they had to go in to the army base in there, and control it, to protect all of the weapons in there. >> our understanding and people that we have spoken to on the ground is that they are fully in control of the presidential palace. but my question is, why would this be happening right now? and what is the -- what is the ultimate aim? >> the ultimate aim as he said and, as he said in his speech before there must be a full implementation of the national dialogue and the peace and partnership agreement. but what is happening now with the government and with press hadi the article that he should do and asked him to do it and they avoid implementing anything by their side. so it's the full implementation side by side by all. [speaking at the same time] >> how is it that implementation can be achieved by using force? >> i mean, if you see about the

weapons when they said there wasn't in the agreement to withdraw from sanaa and give up the weapons, it wasn't mentioned about the weapons it said for the establish of the state of the control of all of the territory in line with the outcome of the national dialogue conference. the outcome of the national dialogue conference say all parties and groups in yemen and movement must give their weapons islam must give their weapons hadi houthi must give his weapons that the government must protect and fight al qaeda. it hasn't happened by the state so houthi have to take the fight. so how can they do all that if they give the weapon to his the state with while the gbc and al qaeda or freely moving in yep glen we'll have to leave there tug for join us from san all.

>> okay, you are welcome. thank you. meanwhile, in the u.s., in fact, two them eny national this isyemeni nationals havebeen a reffed and charged with pry free throws describing. [ inaudible ] to al qaeda we'll talk about the situation on the ground in a moment and the u.s. response but first tell us about these two yemeni nationals. >> reporter: right, these charges being announce ed by the u.s. department of justice in the last few hours, they are charging a 36-year-old and a 30-year-old, now the u.s. alleges in its complaint that these two individuals yemeni nationals, in fact carried out attacks on u.s. military personnel in afghanistan. they further go on to say that they allowed the recruitment of another individual in to pakistan where that individual was trained and also participated in attacks on u.s. military personnel in he have began stan. it's for this reason that these two individuals were recently arrested in saudi arabia,

brought to the united states where they have appeared in court today as well as on january 18th. now, the complaint also says these attacks took place between 2003 and 2008. i should point out that the u.s. department of justice also in the last hour or so has announced that another man who had involvement with al qaeda in yemen has been sentenced to 15 years. so it goes to show you just how important it is to the counter terrorism program that takes place in yemen not only are we seeing individuals who are being sentenced but also seeing new charges coming out of a lot of coordinated work not only in afghanistan and yemen. yemen of course, of key ask to the united states and its counter terrorism effort. exactly that, kimber i the united states has focused on yemen and what it calls counter terrorism, often conducting drone strikes controversial as they may be, in yemen. what is it saying about the

situation unfolding on the ground right now? >> so far we haven't had any new statements with regard to what has been happening in the last 24, 48 hours, i can tell you from our source this is watching it closely carefully high-level security discussions taking place. right now i can tell you that there are no plans to evacuate the u.s. december bassi but again -- embassy but again thurman touring very careful limb here is why yep sen a very key ally for the united states in the count or terrorism effort we were taking about here. they are very concerned about the future and who will be in control of yemen. that's because right now these dream strikes you mentioned that have been taking place since 2002 there huh been more than 100 of them. very controversial. the u.s. says they are very precise we know there are a high number also. civilian casualties. up until this point president hadi has approved of the u.s. effort and supported the united states worked in conjunction to support. but we know that the houthis in fact, do not feel the same way. and so the u.s. very much concerned about this unrest.

who will be leading yemen moving forward because there is concern about that u.s. counter terrorism program being put in to jeopardy. >> okay, kimberly, thank you very much for update. kim bergkimberly law death reporting for us from washington washington, d.c. in update from washington. we'll show you the live pictures from the capital sanaa and that is the houthi leader, he has been speaking for about 45 minutes or so. giving his take on the unfolding crisis in the country. and some of what he said is he has been referring to the past, in fact, he's been referring to the national dialogue that took place in 2013. saying that it could have been used to build a new yemen but upon conclusion, he blames the authorities and says that they

had their own interests in mind. we'll just recap for you the developments that have happened over the past couple of hours before the speech. the presidential palace in the capital sanaa is now under the complete control of the shia houthi fighters. and we understand that two presidential guards were killed in fighting with the rebels earlier. the leader is making a television address as we just showed you. and he's accused the president president hadi of basically ineffectiveness. it's still unclear exactly what the houthis' demands are at this point. but houthi rebel fighters have also ran sacked the headquarters of the presidential guard south of the capital they did that a couple of hours ago. ♪ ♪ other news fighters from the islamic state of iraq and the

saint have ceased the compound of a tribal leader. the attack began on sunday night in anbar province, nine policemen were killed as gunmen blew up buildings. led the sewn a wake inning, that's when tribes fruit tpa*ut with the u.s. military against al qaeda. jaynajane a rav has the latest from baghdad. >> reporter: it's one of the very tribal leaders now in washington. the attack, according to police sources lasted for hours late sunday night isil gunmen attacked a compound. the guest house basically a sprawling compound on the edge of ramadi, the provincial capital. belong to go a sheik who is head of one of the chance of one of the largest tribes in that

western province. after killing nine policemen most of them members of the tribes, they moved in to the compound laid explosives and blew up the buildings. now, this also marks an incursion by vice ill further never territory around ramadi the capital. it's largely under the control of iraqi police, mostly tribal members and mostly iraqi security forces. the province goes all the way to the syrian board and even government officials say they have lost 70% of it. that's when this delegation in the u.s. is trying to address. they say unless they let direct arms from the united states and other allies, they don't stand a chance. they have been saying that while iran is arming the shia militias that have helped beat back isil in other areas no one is helping the tribes. they will train limb mid numbers of members and recreate the group that it had that fought

successfully against al qaeda. this time around with the sunnis divided and the tribes under attack it's a much tougher practice spectprospect. japan prime minister abe says his top priority is the hostages. al jazerra is choosing not to show the video of isil demanding $200 million for the lease of the japanese men the armed group is threaten to go kill them within 72 hours if its demand isn't met. japan has decline today say whether it would pay that random. speaking in west jerusalem the prime minister said that he would do all he could to save their lives but won't give in to terrorism. >> translator: it is an unacceptable act to threaten us in exchange for human lives. and i feel angry about it. i strongly urge them to immediately release the hostages without harming them. soldiers in the democratic republic of congo have been deployed across the capital to block 10 at this anti-government deposit

straighters from entering the capital. two police officers were killed on monday. thousands have been protesting against a bill they it feel will delay elections next year and allow the president to extend his rule. a mali man has been given french citizenship for his role in protecting shoppers during the attack on a jewish supermarket in paris earlier this month. he was honored by france's interior minister at a ceremony just a few moments ago. during that hostage crisis, he hid several people in the freezer of that grocery store after a gunman attacked it. four shoppers were killed and the gunman as shot dead by security forces. at least five people have been killed and dozens injured during artillery fire in ukraine's east. for the second day in a row early morning shelling hit shops and homes in donetsk. the don flick has intensified in the past week as the battle over

the airport there continues. ukraine's army and pro-russia separatists are saying they are in control of the site. as the fighting regains momentum ukraine's economy weakens further. paul brennan met people in kiev to find out how they are coping. >> reporter: from central kiev's high-end retail these to street market in the suburbs is less than 10-kilometers. but it mayas well be 10,000. a woman samples a bottle top of milk to test for freshness every spending decision here is carefully pondered. as inflation erodes their already meager income, every last bit of cash is precious. >> translator: definitely, yes. everything has become more expensive. you till at thises, food, everything. the wages are the same. but everything else is more expensive. >> reporter: 12-month inflation was 29% ukraine's gdp dropped by 7% in 2014 and the currency

is worth 15 to the u.s. dollar. just half of what it was a year ago. before being ousted air year ago president yanukovych enjoyed op you lens, his estate here epitomizes the worst excesses of former regime, economic recovery here in ukraine depends not just on ousting a president and removing a few corrupt officials is needs cultural and systemic reform. >> reporter: his staff tried to destroyed documents. helping to retrieve the paper work and 12 months on he works to the anti-corruption group. >> we have legislation waiting for implementation. the problem is how it's too slow. >> reporter: economic and political reform is underway driven by young dynamic people brought in from the business

world. one of them, an entrepreneur and former microsoft executive. among his task to his balance the spending cuts demanded by the imf with the need to recruit and retain good people. >> if we expect the civil servants to know foreign language to work with the laws, to be able to draw up them, to work the contemporary technology communicate with temporary techology, believing able to run negotiations, et cetera and that person is going to earn 50 bucks well, that's not going to fly. >> reporter: back in the market, discussion of the economy has provoked a heated row. >> translator: we are in a war thoughts this woman. thousands are being killed and you worry about the economy. the economy is fine. it's not fine says the milk seller. not fine at all. paul brennan, al jazerra kiev. we are getting reports that there has been heavy fighting

between cameroonian troops and boko haram fighters. boko haram fighters reportedly attacked a border village in northern cameroon. and the country shares a porous boarder with neighboring nigeria. boko haram fighters have been carrying out attacks in the border towns government officials say more than 10,000 cameroonians are fleeing regions along the border with nigeria's borno state. and this at a time when the. d d

and wave visa charges for

tourists notably from china to stimulate the economy and attract foreign tourists. >> yeah, it's quite the hard time. >> reporter: the store manager has noticed it in his sales he says his local customers feel there is uncertainty in the market. >> the regulation, a lot of people are concerned. so from that they are staying home and not buying more. they iced to buy it you no, they don't. >> reporter: malaysia is the oil producer funds support its policies and future plans few sid is have slowly been reduced meaning malaysians will pay more for petrol and less to spend on essential items. this analyst thinks the government is making the right decisions but needs to be careful. >> the mime minister has come across to show that the government is not panicking. the government has a plan to deal with the sliding oil prices and instilling it's spending

economy. but i think there is a sentiment that it's not -- the cuts are not going deep enough. >> reporter: the prime minister has had to rethink government spends. the devastating floods that hit malaysia last december displaced as many as 200,000 caused millions of dollars of damage. the rebuilding and rehabilitation of the region may government the government an estimated quarter of a billion dollars. >> the malaysian government needs to counter the falling oil price and rebuilding it's looks if it's to see its policies implemented, then this won't be the last that we hear about budget cuts or tax rises. a new general service tax of 6% is due to be implemented in early april and everyone will be effected. it's the public's long-term reaction to these changes that the government has to be sensitive too. al jazerra kuala lumpur. >> 24 thanks for watching the

news hour on al jazerra that's it for myself. joining you from london in just a moment. stay with us.

considering yemen crucial yemen's leadership on the edge. houthi fighters take over the presidential palace in the capital sanaa. in the past hour their leader has addressed the country. >> at this defining moment in the history of our homeland. we are going through at critical moment. ♪ ♪ hello there, i am barbara you are watching al jazerra live in london. also coming up on the program. nine policemen are killed in iraq as isil fighters attack the compound of