>> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ welcome to the news hour, i'm in doha, coming up, in the next 60 minutes, indian prime minister modi makes a surprise visit to pakistan to meet his counterpart. dozens of civilians killed in fighting as the afghan army captures to recap the province from the taliban. a u.n. deal could see i.s.i.l. fighters and syrian rebels given safe passage out of the refugee camp. the pope's message on

consumerism as christians around the world celebrate christmas. ♪ india prime minister modi arrived in the city for a surprise visit and will meet with his counterpart and it's the first visit by an indian prime minister to pakistan since 2004. kamal joins us with more and clearly since it has been since 2004 obviously it's a big deal but this is some sort of perspective for us. >> reporter: yes. before i do that there is a correction with conflicting reports that it already landed but we are now told the aircraft is due to land shortly but going into the background there are significance because when

mr. modi came to power he had the right wing with the india there were also reports of increasing tensions along the border. and relations to an all-time low. however on the outside of the conference modi and they shook hands and talked a while and it broke the ice and the prime minister came to pakistan and now mr. modi and the way back from kabul said he would be landing at the airport where he would wish the prime minister happy birthday and celebrates his 66th birthday today and this will be significant because this is coming at a time when both islamabad want to take d diplomatic issues with everything on the table and

reach an understanding and this happening because of pressure from washington and london. >> all right, kamal on the phone for us, thank you so much. now, earlier modi was in afghanistan's capitol where he held talks with the afghan ashraf and inaugurated the new parliament building and built by india at an estimated cost of $90 million as a gesture of cooperation and joining us is an observer from the new deli based think tank and appreciate your time so much and let's talk about this meeting, what possibly prompted it and why now? >> well, i didn't quite get that. >> not a problem. i said why this surprise visit now? what prompted it do you think, why now? >> well, you know since the

reference was made to the talks they had on the sidelines of paris, if you recall earlier they had met at the summit and at that point in time there was a decision to have direct talks to discuss issues like terrorism, something which is of great concern to india and there were problems between the two sides and so the whole process had to be restarted at the end of november when the two prime ministers met in paris and i think there is essentially a determination in the mind of the two prime ministers that we have to move ahead and we simply cannot neither of us can afford to remain trapped in the cycle of the past, recommendations and border problems. pakistan, india has suffered a great deal from terrorism which emanated from pakistan. pakistan now itself is a victim of terrorism and of course then there is afghanistan and i think

there is a way that the relationship between our countries are inter-linked-in the sense it's quite symbolic that this visit comes when the prime minister had an official visit to kabul and on his way back he stopped at islamabad and you can say there is an understanding in india that the road to kabul goes by islamabad so the intention is not to look at relations in a zero sum sense but look at it in a cooperative sum sense. >> how do you think pakistan feels though about those attack helicopters that india handed over to afghanistan? >> well, pakistan should be happy meaning if pakistan says that they are with the afghan government and if they strengthen the capacity of the afghan government to deal with the rebels and insurgents

pakistan should be happy because those helicopters do not really effect any kind of a balance with pakistan. they are pretty old machines. they are not very effective. in some ways particularly in afghanistan in the past the soviets used them and many of them were shot down and so i think but from the indian point of view the supply of the helicopters was symbolic and the first time we had exported such weapon systems but you must note that we would have done it with the go ahead from the russians. i suspect india will supply more military equipment to afghanistan to enhance the capacity of the afghan national army and the afghan security forces. >> so do you think this modi surprise visit to pakistan do you think it really may by the beginning of something substantive? >> by itself i wouldn't say so but it certainly smoothens the

process meaning it gives all the right signals, it indicates that modi is not the kind of a person who is strapped by the past. whatever may have been his origins as a politicians or what may have been his statements in the past he is not trapped by it and willing to under take out of the box initiatives. so from that point of view i think it's punched all the right buttons. >> all right remains to be seen and thank you so much for joining us from new deli we appreciate it. afghan security officials say 20 people have been killed in overnight clashes with the taliban in the providence. for days the army trying to push the armed group out of the district and fighting spread to other parts and the u.s. is helping afghan troops with air strikes. and we are there in the helman province close to where the sighting is and joins us live

and what is happening there now? what is the latest? >> well, what we are hearing from afghan security officials here in helman they are telling us reenforcements by roads just reached the district just less than 24 hours ago afghan security officials and afghan security officials deployed special forces to the district. we are hearing from residents that heavy fighting is still going on in a small bizarre and telling us they now have the control of police at the water building and the district at the water building but we are talking about the fighting is in a very small area. it's about two to three thousand square meters so we are hearing that the face-to-face fighting heavy is going on and still there and we are getting complaints now, we are getting

phone calls from the residents civilians who could not afford to leave the area during this fighting and they are complaining of heavy use of artillery and bombardment is the ones who are suffering and a number offensive yanukovich casualties at least 20 if confirmed by afghan officials and 20 civilians were killed in the past 24 hours. but taliban are very active not only in here but the entire province, it's hardly anyone could say that any district out of the 14 districts of helman district is fully under control of taliban and here we have witnessed some small fighting in the last 24 hours but now it's under control but taliban has been in the capitol of the province. >> all right, live in helman province, thank you. still ahead on al jazeera,

housing the homeless, what is being done to stop people having to camp out in the u.s. capitol. plus a long walk to a new life, the challenges facing refugees on their next step life and one of the most powerful men in futbol faces a court on corruption charges, details on that coming up. ♪ hundreds of families of i.s.i.l. fighters and some interfighters themselves are to be given safe passage out of the refugee camp in the syrian capitol da mass us part of a u.n. backed deal making it possible to deliver aid to thousands of people trapped in the area by the fighting. the families and some fighters expected to be transferred with the approval of the syrian government. the camp has been blockade by government forces since 2012 and

people desperately need aid. about 18,000 people are trapped in the camps south of damascus. most of them palestinian refugees. activists say buses have already started arriving to transport rebels and their families out of the area, many i.s.i.l. fighters expected to head to raqqa six hours away and we have more from the united nations. >> reporter: a u.n. official confirming to al jazeera that the u.n. is involved in this deal in syria but backing away from reports that it's a u.n. brokered deal. u.n. officials told al jazeera quote the u.n. is an observer to the agreement but not part of it is all we are hearing from the u.n. now, this deal, the details of which are still very vague potentially could involve i.s.i.l. fighters given safe passage out of the yarmuk refugee camp and into the i.s.i.l. stronghold of raqqa.

this would be important because the refugee camp is a very dangerous place right now. banki moon said it's in the deepest circle of hell because there is not only i.s.i.l. fighters there that infiltrated the camp in april but there is also al-qaeda link al-nusra fighters and proand anti-government malitias so the thinking is if this deal can be brokered and some armed fighters especially i.s.i.l. fighters are able to leave it will allow the u.n. to get in there and deliver aid to the people that need it the most. now it is important to note that this is not a done deal yet but we are told that if it does get done it could happen as early as saturday. >> earlier this year u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon described the camp as the deepest circle of hell and the camp was set up after the creation of israel in 1948 as

palestinians fled their homeland and before the war began it had more than 150,000 refugees living there. it's divided into areas controlled by i.s.i.l., the al-nusra front and pro and anti-palestinian fighters, i.s.i.l. fighters infiltrated the camp in april and briefly seized large parts of it and we have a syrian academic and writer and associate analyst at the doha institute and joins us now and we appreciate it so what is your reaction to the deal and who benefits from it? >> it's a part of a broader strategy of regime in order to claim damascus and the capitol from fighters including i.s.i.l. i think they are trying to corner them in one place with a passage to the north in order to focus mainly on one front rather than the war efforts of the regime on different fronts, damascus and other places. now by letting them go out i

think they are benefitting from two things and one is securing the mosque and the surrounding area, a top priority for the regime and ahead of that peace talks in geneva next month as the u.n. is planning and second as i said is to focus the war efforts of the regime on one front this is why they are trying to actually let them go out. as i said this is part of a grand strategy of the regime because we have seen the regime having similar things taking place in modalia and west of damascus. we have another one al-nusra group allowing safe passage for al-nusra from the south and letting them go to idlib in the northwest of the country and regime is actually trying to secure all this area in the south, in damascus and south of the country and take all these fighters, allow them to go to the north. >> what does this mean for the

conflict going forward? >> well, i think as i said this is i mean this is something that the regime will benefit both military and politically, politically i think the regime will be having now a more comfortable situation ahead of the peace talks in geneva next month. on the other front as i said this will allow the regime to focus mainly on one front rather than distributing it on different fronts. >> what does this mean for the coalition, the american-led coalition what does this mean they have to do going into these talks? >> well, i think i mean the russians i mean the russians and americans i don't think they would mind i mean to certain deals because the americans on one hand cannot actually oppose this. as i said the u.n. is somehow involved and for humanitarian reasons and want to give aid to civilians who have been trapped in the camp and other places for

the past couple of years. the russians are i mean they are themselves actually supporting i mean such deals and mainly responsible about the ceasefire, the truce which took place between the regime and rebel fighters in the northwest of damascus and the russians were actually the main force behind this truce. as i said i mean the whole idea is to get these fighters to leave damascus and go and get a place in the northwest where they can deal with them in these places. >> okay, thank you so much for joining us, we appreciate it. >> thank you. foreign minister has been meeting his russian counterpart on syria on top of agenda and no agreement over the bashar al-assad and sergei fedorov was speaking with his counterpart and hopes for increased

collaboration with qatar in the middle east. >> translator: what is necessary to be done to implement the agreements on the syrian settlement reached within the framework of international support of syria and u.s. security council. we agree with russian party that the worsening of this crisis does benefit the interest of neither party. we are aware that the delays in the solution of this crisis is harmful to all the parties and first of all to the syrian people. >> al jazeera's peter sharp joins us live from moscow so peter beyond the over arching goal that everyone has which is the best for the syrian people obviously do these two countries really have the same goals when it comes to syria?

>> i think they have the same goals but they certainly don't share president assad's participation in these talks at all. the qatar foreign minister said that assad has no legitimacy in the talks must be taking place without him. what they did give an idea of is the road ahead and both sides agreed that the political settlement is all important and the qatar foreign minister said without a political settlement you will be locked into a vicious circle. russia gave more indications about the next steps in the process taking place in january. at the moment russia is actively involved in trying to come up with a list of opposition people and parties that would be prepared to sit down with the syrian government not with assad necessarily but with the syrian government and start the process of the talks at the same time

russia's actively involved in weeding out what it regards as terrorist groups and it's hoping that this dialog could come to fruition and start really in the next month. >> all right, peter sharp live for us from moscow peter thank you so much. dozens of people have been killed by an explosion at a gas plant in nigeria. many people are said to have been trapped and burned to death and happened at an inter corp oil and gas site in the state and thought a truck carrying butane gas exploded. the arab league asked turkey to withdraw soldiers from iraq immediately and foreign minister's meeting requested by iraq and turkey sent hundreds of troops to the area earlier this month and ankara says they are protecting their own military personnel training for i.s.i.l.

and last month they attacked the camp wounding a dozen soldiers. iraq prime minister says to recapture mosul after defeating the group in ramadi and it's iraq's second largest city and seized by i.s.i.l. in may of last year and military says it's making progress in ramadi but slowed down by explosives left by the group. fighting in yemen's contested city has killed at least 13 rebels by the internationally recognized government and four civilians reported to have been killed in the shelling of the residential areas and local aids group there say houthi rebels siege on the city has prevented supplies from getting in. gerald tan has the latest. >> reporter: there are no safe havens left here, this mosque now bears the scars of combat. the houthis and fighters loyal to yemen's former president are

locked in a bitter struggle with pro-government forces for control of the city. fierce battles taking place on several fronts, at the eastern and western city gates pro-government forces trying to fend off houthi fighters from entering and there are reports the houthis may be about to receive reenforcements from nearby towns. for now a block means nothing can get in. the strangle hold is meant to force the houthis out but it's also affecting this normally bustling hospital. doctors say they have run out of some essential supplies and can't treat any more patients. a similar scene hundreds of kilometers to the south in the hospital on the port city of aiden and most departments here can no longer function but the ward for kidney patients was spared from the bombs and something he is thankful for. >> translator: when the war started it was impossible to go to the hospital. it would be considered a miracle

if you managed to get in. >> reporter: with aiden now back under government control, the race is on to rebuild this hospital and resume much needed services. >> translator: a lot of people come to the hospital. we have all types of military and civilian cases. some injured military fighters from thai also receive treatment here and we work with what we have. >> reporter: it's been more than a year since the houthis took over yemen's capitol sanaa and nearly nine months since the saudi-led coalition launched its military campaign. the chaos is straining basic medical services to the point of collapse. gerald tan, al jazeera. harsh winter conditions in europe have not stopped the flow of refugees despite the bad weather they keep arriving everyday and we are on the border between greece and macedonia where some have been stranded. >> reporter: yes, what we have

now is a situation where people are piling up over a thousand actually between 1,000 to 1500 refugees are waiting here to go to the border point with macedonia. it's about 20 minutes drive. police told us about 15 were allowed in since the early hours of the morning and police also told us they do expect thousands of people heading to cross that border point with macedonia. tired but determined to carry on. heading into the unknown, to start a new life. the border here has been tightnessed with new restrictions and iraqis and syrians and afghans are allowed in and macedonia is next but reaching northern europe is not easy and many escaped wars, rape and islamic state of iraq and levante and this is a town until

recently was under i.s.i.l.'s control in northern iraq. >> translator: cleared from i.s.i.l. but everyone there wants to establish their own authority and decide to live in peace or die together trying. >> reporter: the journey remains long and hard and the next goal is to cross macedonia and serbia and beyond. the flow of refugees crossing the border to macedonia is constant. so far over 2000 people have crossed and on wednesday over 3400 people went through. the u.n. refugee agency says some of them were subjected to ill treatment and patch backs by the macedonia border police. >> reporter: they are doing what they can to help. >> the camp with medical services. we have shelter which is covered and heated. >> reporter: some greek charities are also cooperating, a group of chefs and volunteers

are preparing hot meals. >> if we are not given people for the time they need it we are nothing. >> reporter: about 20 minutes drive from the border this gas station became a waiting point. families rest and wait to be allowed to continue their journey. some of them have arrived the night before. some greek and american groups felt it's time to preach. >> we are giving people some free magazines to help their life. >> reporter: handing arabic and leaflets copies of the bible dozens of people have their stories to tell. he is a pharmacist from syria. he says the treatment he has got here is rough. >> translator: we slept on the bus. no toilets, no food. i want to live in dignity and have a better life for my children. >> reporter: for many here the risk is it despite what is on

the way. >> so omar what is being done to stop the flow of refugees? who is taking the lead? who should be taking the lead? >> well, it's about and kind of a blame game going on here between european countries mainly countries in northern europe where the vast majority of refugees are trying to reach and the criticism is aimed at countries who represent the front lines of the u.n., that is italy and greece and basically they want the authorities in the two countries agree to increase the border patrols and try to stop the flow of migrants. what the greeks will tell you is according to the national and humanitarian laws they need rescue people coming into boats and they need to prevent them from drowning, that is why they take them on to islands where they register them and let them go to the rest of europe. now with the greek minister of

migration told me that they requested from the eu border agency about 1600 officers from that agency to help the greek authorities, only half of them came and also requested fingerprint for security reasons and also have a small portion of that so as far as the greeks are concerned they are doing their best but this is a global problem that greeks only deal with it on its own. >> all right, omar reporting live for us and thank you. rescue teams are searching for missing people after storms and tornados batter parts of the southern united states. at least 14 people have died and many homes have been destroyed and several states flights have also been delayed. parts of the eastern united states are experiencing their warmest winter in years. in new york temperatures sored to 21 degrees celsius beating

the previous record of 13 degrees set in 1988. now to weather with stef and i have been hearing about it everyday from my friend how warm it is in new york. >> but it's warmer here so it's all good. >> except today where it's raining and the satellite picture shows you all the cloud we've had over the eastern parts of the u.s. recently and it is that system that has given us a bout of severe weather. here is what happened on wednesday when we saw the worst of the weather, the dark blue that is the wind problems that we had and then the green sorry the hail and finally in the south we've got the tornado reports and that is obviously where we got most of the damage. but if we fast forward 24 hours you can see there is barely anything reported on thursday and you will be forgiven thinking the weather is all calming down but it's not. this is what we are expecting during the day today and you can see from the very dark colors on

the charts expecting heavy downpours and some weather could well turn severe and this is where we are expecting the most severe of the weather and in the orange batch over mississippi and into alabama and could see more in the way of tornados. but elsewhere it's very different. in the east where it's mild and also very stormy but in the west well here it's very wintry and for nebraska some places including omaha have seen more snow than ever on this day and saw over 16 centimeters in a single day and that system is going to pick up edging eastward and more stormy weather still to come. >> thank you. still ahead on al jazeera, i'm tone yeah reporting from the central african republic where at christmas not everyone is happy about the pending election. and artisan out of machine made pinyattas and under threat

and find out why the boxing day tech match in melbourne may be losing its appeal. ♪

♪ welcome back and thank you for watching and a quick look at the top stories on al jazeera, india's prime minister modi arrived in pakistan city on a surprise visit. he is to meet with his counterpart and it's the first visit by an indian prime minister to pakistan in more than ten years. a deal with the syrian

government could see some i.s.i.l. fighters and their families given safe passage out of the refugee camp in damascus and u.n. backed deal aimed at making it easier to deliver aid to civilians trapped in the area. afghan security officials say 20 people have been killed in overnight clashes with the taliban in helman province, army trying to push the armed group out of the district, fighting has now spread to other parts of helman and back to our top story and indian prime minister modi's surprise stop in afghanistan and we are live in new deli so this surprise visit is obviously a big deal, how is it being viewed in india? >> well, it depends on who you ask here. the opposition is saying this is purely showmanship that the parliament should have been advised that something should have happened and should have been just a tweak that the casualness of the announcement

of the stop over in pakistan completely talks about the significance of it and 12 years since an indian prime minister visited pakistan and issue is relations since modi took power have gone back and forth between warm and cold. a gesture is made and things seem to warm up and the first one was before modi became prime minister and invited him for the ceremony and was a diplomatic coup and something happened with both armies shooting at each other and relations go back to being frosty and how it's being viewed as it's almost like going to china and modi from the right wing hindu nationalist party and the one who can make the diplomatic gestures to try to get relations back on track. the opposition says there should be some gesture from pakistan as well to try to make more, make

it more balanced but unfortunately really modi and his advisors believe the only way to really push relationships is making these surprise gestures and many feel that it's the only way to put things forward. >> all right remains to be seen what it all really means and sitting and reporting for us in new deli, thank you. the central afghan republic election has been delayed again and the vote scheduled for 27th of december but postponed to the 30th and tonya page joins us live from the capitol bangi for the latest and so why another delay, tonya? what can you tell us? >> well, they simply are not ready. there is still a mountain of election material at the airport here in bongi waiting for the helicopter to take it to the providence and that is not the end stop with 4,000 polling stations around the country and

loaded into 4 x 4 vehicles because the roads are so bad here and in many instances taken smaller packages on motorcycles out to all the polling stations. the second reason we are told is at the polling stations the staff simply have not been trained properly and not exactly sure how to deal with the election on the day and after the election is finished once the ballot boxes have been sealed they have not finalized it and really fundamental issues and aided weight to the concerns we have seen emerge all year that these elections have been rashed and nobody thinks they will be perfect but are going ahead we understand, many people say they are essential and necessary to get this country back on track and out of the transition period to an elected government. boxes of ballot papers destined for the provinces but time has run out for these materials to get to all of central african

republic polling stations so for the fifth time the vote is being delayed and in the hanger it's clear why, tons of material are still sitting here. >> it's a big job. >> very big job and we cannot sleep until we have it done. >> each flight that leaves brings a country devastated by violence a step closer to a chance of a fresh start. supporters of the most prominent muslim candidate circle a market where christmas trees and tinsel are for sale and they have been fighting since the mostly muslim group was driven out in 2014 by the president a few months earlier. these check points are meant to keep the muslim community safe and those who dare to leave the zone risk their lives and some feel the elections have been rashed and risk excluding people like ali. >> translator: this election

has been badly prepared and has not been enough time the international community has pushed us towards these elections. we have said they should happen but they must be good elections. so we don't have people contesting the result afterwards. >> reporter: one of the leading candidates has won the backing of ousted president party and said the exiled leader should be allowed to come back and now is as good of tile as any for the election. >> the republic whether never be ready and we have put in a lesser authority to organize this election for the next government recreated the states. >> reporter: it's the fourth time for central africans have more coups than election and no one thinks the vote will be pur -- perfect but the best to be hoped for now and let's talk about the security and

humanitarian situations on the ground ahead of the election, where do things stand there? >> well, the situation here remains volume -- volitile and fighting between the seleka and an antibelika and a lull in fighting until about september where a muslim man was killed in the capitol that sparked resu e resurging and hundreds were killed in the proceeding weeks around the time pope francis was here there was improved security put down to a new commander leading the u.n. peace keeping force who said peace keepers have been more responsive to trouble outside the bases and we have seen a return on to the

streets of central african army and people have really responded positively to them. that has made a slightly calmer situation on the humanitarian side and 460,000 refugees in neighboring countries and about 470,000 people living in idp camps internally displaced so that tells you exactly how unsafe hundreds of thousands of people still feel. not going to see real change in numbers until quite a way after the election once we end the people living in the camps see how those armed groups respond to the election result. >> tonya page live and tonya thank you. a group of americans taken hostage in iran during the 1979 revolution have been awarded more than $4 million in compensation and have been seeking restitution for more than 30 years. victims were held for more than 400 days after a group of iranian students stormed the u.s. embassy in tehran, incident

led to washington breaking off ties with tehran and 37 of the 53 hostages are still alive. some of the biggest cities in the united states say it's no longer acceptable to have people sleeping on the streets. washington d.c. is one of the cities that has decided it needs to offer permanent housing backed up by health services and help with jobs. tom ackerman reports. >> reporter: a campsite for the homeless in the heart of america's capitol, shortly before washington authorities tore it down, calling it unsafe and a health hazard as well as against the law. but some who lived out in the open didn't want to leave. >> well the tent allows you shelter, temporary shelter and allows you safety. >> reporter: washington is one of a few u.s. cities where local laws require housing for all the homeless who are in need. for douglas this is now home after years of living in emergency shelters and

short-term housing. >> i've done everything. the cabinets were already here but i fixed the kitchen and stuff up. >> reporter: she and her eight-year-old daughter share the apartment. the rent subsidized by the city and private charities but she has a full time job is glad she is required to pay at least one-third. >> it's a place i can call my own. it's something that i'm paying for so it's given me you know the opportunity to be responsible. >> reporter: within the next five years washington's local government has vowed to make homelessness in its words rare, brief and non-reoccurring, most serious challenge is a shortage of affordable housing providing permanent housing early on is seen as the most cost effective strategy for the city and local care agencies. >> if they wind up in hospitals, in mental health facilities, substance use treatment centers, jail, prison, all those costs tend to go down once people are

housed. >> reporter: community of hope is one of the city's nonprofit groups that backup their housing programs with healthcare, legal services and help to prevent homelessness in the first place. >> sometimes just having resources and people there to help you and pull you along the way and you knowing that something is there to help you it really does push people to want to do better. >> reporter: she says her hope is to move on in a couple of years and own a home of her own. tom ackerman, al jazeera, washington. in mexico the pinata as has been a party stable for again rayes opens generations especially at cress -- christmas but it's dying out. >> reporter: if you are a pinata artisan it's a season of aching hands and ripped nails and it's routinely copied and

kept him designing and gluing and wrapping for 40 years. >> translator: i like the colors of the pinatas but don't need a lot of money to make them and this has given jobs to me and my family. >> reporter: he is also a dentist. he admits the pinata trade is not as lucrative as it used to be because now there is more competition. christmas is the busy time of year and he and family makers will make 4-5 in a month and charge about $2 for the stars and represent the christmas star, in the bible the star revealed the birth of jesus to the three wise men and led them to bethlehem. this stretch of road in mexico city is called the kilometer of the pinatas and artisans say machines are changing what was once a strictly handmade craft and machines are now cutting the paper and making the bodies of

pinatas. >> translator: i feel melancholy because this tradition is coming to an end, our parents taught us this for two or three generations. >> reporter: but with the council for culture and arts says the tradition of pinatas will endure. she says they are not only firmly routed in catholic they are expression of spirit of mexico and extension of the person who made them. >> translator: at this time of the year people are always looking for the traditional pinatas and it's difficult to find when it's made by a machine. although this business is changing the artisan are adopting and know how to satisfy their customers, that is the boundary we are promoting. >> reporter: for kids pinatas remain a game that comes with a prize. >> translator: i like the pinatas because i can hit them and eat the candy. >> reporter: not so for

christmas. it's peanuts, oranges and guavas that come tumbling out of these pinatas, al jazeera, mexico city. the head of the roman catholic church has delivered his christmas address and pope francis told christians do not be intoxicated by consumerism and extravagance and led 1.2 million catholics in midnight mass and passed through security and metal detectors to hear the address at st. peters bacilica and kilometers away from the front line where rebels and syrian army are fighting hundreds of christians let a christmas tree in damascus hoping the new year will end the conflict and activists have been delivering presents to children who have been orphaned by the war. australia the first to ring in

christmas and being summer it's sandy as opposed to a snowy christmas down under and santa has a different mode of transport. securities have been stepped up in china capitol after u.n. and other governments warned of possible threats against their citizens and beijing has a yellow alert in shopping and entertainment areas where police are checking rubbish bins. telegraph talks about how the world communicates and obsolete in most countries but not yet in china and rob mcbride reports from shanghai. >> reporter: about to do something very few of her generation will ever do, send a telegram to her parents, one of china's last remaining telegraph counters is in this telecom office in shanghai, one of the first linked to the telegraph system and likely among the last to hold on to it.

>> translator: it's nestalgic for my parents and they are from a time where they used to write letters and this will be like a souvenir for them to keep. >> reporter: the telegram begins its journey first by fax sent to another office where it will then be transmitted. this is low tech in a high-tech world, the telegrams are sent over a network using machinery that is about as sophisticated as it ever will become and a museum charts the service from the even more primitive beginnings including the code books that gave the thousands of chinese characters individual numbers so they could be transmitted. a service that peeked at 44 million telegrams per year in 1988 has been in steep decline ever since. >> translator: traditionally people would still use telegrams for congratulations or for

condolence but even those uses are now dropping off. >> reporter: hardly surprising in a country that now has hundreds of millions of users signed up to one of the many messaging apps available on their smartphones she and her parents included, the message to say the telegram is on its way is gone in a couple moments and the telegram itself will take a week. with such a relatively long wait in the age of a smartphone it will probably take more than nostalgia to save the chinese telegram, rob mcbride in shanghai. teams prepare for severe weather conditions in the sidney yacht race and we will have all the details shortly. ♪

time for your sport now with rual. >> former president jailed by a judge in his native uraguay and the former head seen her with blatter was one arrested back in may and faces 2-15 years in prison if convicted. the u.s. also wants to extradite him on charges of accepting bribes worth millions of dollars from sports marketing companies and having been extradited from switzerland to uraguay on thursday taken to the capitol and charged with money

laundering and placed under house arrest and taken into custody to await his trial. >> translator: defense asks their client be put under house arrest and the judge understands this is not the right time for it occur and for that reason he will be deprived of liberty assigned by the ministry of interior. >> long-term forecast has the teams on edge as they prepare for the sidney yacht race on sat and 628 nautical miles and they will brace for what is ahead and will make all the boats more evenly matched. >> it's going to be all about doing a good job the first time and make sure we are in the race the next morning and by the next morning and it's all about that first 24 hours and doing a good job but just normal pressure and

it's exciting so we are looking forward to it. >> reporter: cricket on saturday sees australia take on one of the traditional biggest days of the sporting calendar and crowds of over 70,000 expected to pack the place and this year organizers say they are expecting the lowest boxing day crowd in 16 years. mark graham reports. >> reporter: on boxing day most years there are crowds between 100,000 people filling the seats at the melbourne cricket ground but organizers fear they will be lucky to reach 50,000 on the opening day, the 8th ranked team are determined to show they are worthy of playing in cricket's most famous fixtures. >> i think we need one good performance to turn things around. >> and everybody knows what we are up against and working here when they got to melbourne and it was a nice feeling. >> reporter: looking to ramp up

the best of three series and despite the resent retirement of johnson they still believe they have the star power to make it tough. >> they have something different and not all the same. >> reporter: this is the west indies first since 2000 and many are taking a repeat of that result when they lost by 352 runs inside four days on the way to a series white wash. mark graham, al jazeera also on saturday the world's number one test team south africa hosts england in the first match in durma and tourists trying to win the first series in south africa since 2004 but they will start it without their opening james anderson and taken more than 400 test wickets without being injured and south africa beaten 3-0 by india in the first series and the first overseas loss in nine years and no doubt pleased

to be back playing in more familiar surroundings. >> i think both teams have had some challenges in the previous series. but you know being at home is always great for us and a good record of being at home and obviously having del back in o.t. and i would think that we are in a good space and starting the first day or the first game would be extremely important for us to set the tone for the rest of us. >> i think it's a place to watch cricket and makes it a great place to play and know the dangers in their team, any team with this clearly are going to be dangerous and we have huge respect for them as a team and also like the lessons we learned we are not playing the men, we are not playing the name, we are playing the bats and the balls. >> pakistan's one-day captain have boycotted a training camp and protests of the inclusion of

mohamed and you may remember the 23-year-old spent three months in prison and was ban for five years after he was implicated in a spot fixing case also involving teammates mohamed and his ban ended earlier this year and eligible to play for pakistan again and will name the final touring squad shortly for next month's one-day series in new zealand but ali says he is the one-day international captain and talking about the refusal to play and said i will not attend the camp as long as amir is there and this is my decision and open to discuss it with the pakistan cricket board and don't want to comment on the decision but we both have the same stance. nba fans preparing for a repeat of last year's final series with a clash later on friday between the two players and teams as the golden state warriors play the

cleveland cavaliers and james says he is the best player in the world and leading the warriors to the nba title last season and being named mvp and this season carrying 31 points and james averaging 26. formula one world champion hamilton said there is friction between him and rossburg and not effecting success and hamilton picked up the third world title last month spoke out after a threat from the boss and said he considered changing the team's line up if the rivalry started to affect results. in 2014 tensions belong to the track with rossburg admitting he hit hamilton's car in a race in belgium and were first and second in the last two seasons and tennis number four retired from the game because of a long running struggle with a fever and 31-year-old is best known

for being the first player to beat nadal in the french open in 2009 and have not played in world tour event since 2011 because of illness and sent ten years on the men tour winning over $10 million in prize money and the biggest win was the paris masters in 2010. famous for beating nedal at the french open and reached back to back finals in 2009 and 2010. in total he won ten titles on the atp tour and very successful year was 2010 when he reached five finals and winning two and rising to number four in the world ranks. that is all your sport for now and i'll have more but for now that is it. >> thank you very much and do keep it here on al jazeera, another full pull tin of news is straight ahead so don't go any where. ♪

>> no one's prepared for this journey. >> experience al jazeera america's critically acclaimed, original series from the beginning. >> experiencing it has changed me completely. >> follow the journey as six americans face the immigration debate up close and personal. >> it's heartbreaking. >> i'm the enemy. >> i'm really pissed off. >> all of these people shouldn't be dead. >> it's insane.

♪ indian prime minister modi makes a surprise visit to pakistan to meet his counterpart sharif. ♪ and i'm with the world news on al jazeera, also coming up, russia and qatar admits there are differences on the future of the bashar al-assad regime in syria. dozens of civilians killed in fighting as the afghan army pushes to recapture helman providence from the taliban. a long walk to a new life and challenges facing refugees