swimming in a bay near tokyo on christmas eve. thought to be about 3.7 meters long. pretty young, but still big. fully grown they can be five times that large. it was taken back to sea, politely. aljazeera.com for more. gone confirming that ten ice sit leaders are dead after u.s. led air strikes. not guilty plea, a chicago police officer making his appearance in court over murder charges in connection with the shooting death of a and a challenging community. now dumping snow and ice across parts of the u.s.

we begin with the breaking news. officials now say that ten isil leaders were killed in the air strikes including one they say was linked to the paris attacks. those attacks on november 13th killed 130 people and dozens others were wounded. al jazeera joins us live now from the pent upon, and jamie, ten killed but all eyes are on the one that wasn't why was he significant? is. >> you know, dell, the pentagon and the military is under pressure to show that they are making real progress in the fight against isil, and today the spokesman in baghdad read a long list of isil leaders killed in the month of desks and headlines he said, as he put it, was this isil leader shower of al mew dan.

he is -- he was killed in an air strike in syria, he was said to have a direct link with abdul the paris cell attack leader, killed in a u.s. air strike in the u.s. says it's intelligence indicates that he was planning additional strikes be evens the west. when asked when you say the west does that mean the united states, colonel steve warren said he wasn't going to provide additional details on the u.s. intelligence. but again, really an impressive list of isil leaders that the u.s. claimed to have killed in the month of december. two more on the 9th, 1 more on the 10th, the 12th, the 26th, and 27th, if you look at the calendar for desks it looks like every couple of days they were killing a reported isil leader. the u.s. military says in addition to the gains on the

ground, that are being made, they are also continuing to atranscript the isil leadership in both iraq and syria james my, how pig of a plow is this. >> every time we have these reports they have killed a senior isil leader, you have to wonder how much does it effect the operations and i put that question directly to colonel steve warren, the spokesman in baghdad. >> this organization is losing it's leadership. so we are striking at the head of the snake i guess. we haven't severed the head of the snake, and it still has fangs we have to be clear about that. there's much more fighting to do. these are individuals who are specifically working to strike the west. they want to strike in europe, in our own homeland, and it is important that people understand that as long as those external attack

planners are operating, the united states military will hunt them, and we will kill them. these strikes indicate they have high level of intelligence, about the location on the drowned, and what the u.s. hopes is that it will effect them psychologically, that they will have to wonder every day when they get up is this their day when they may be killed and if they are worried about their own safety, it gives them less time to plan. >> said that he thinks the obama strategy in iraq is starting to show signs of progress. >> any victory, is significant. this is a significant one, because first of all, it shows that the united states is capability of changing its

strategy. which was basically very similar to going after the al quaida people. earlier. secondly we can mobilize, and thirdly, that government forces can do the job without the involvement of the much hated and feared shia militias that we have seen, so these three areas, these are all successes, whether we can apply this to the much bigger pattles we will have to wait and see. >> still maintains there needs to be a grouped presence. turning now to the case against a former police officer, implicated in the shooting death of la kwan mcdonald, jason van dyke was arrange add short time ago, he pleaded not if the to treeing murder mcdonald was armed with a knife when he was shot and killed andy,

take us back, what happened today? >> welt, dell, jason vandyke didn't say a word in court today. it was a very brief court appearance, and then afterwards we ask them about the two shootings. the brand mother, the he told us that those shootings shouldn't make a defense in the case of officer vandyke. he wants cameras in the courtroom as well. >> the great uncle said that he thinks what happened over

the weekend. he want as federal investigator, a overseer of some kind to come in and oversee this trial, and on the other side of the coin, the attorney for jason vandyke, says he is still thinking about asking for a change of venue, because he doesn't think he can get a fair trial either. >> this case is one of several as you mentioned has put the police department under the microscope, even leading for cause for the mayor there to step down, what has he had to say.

he also ask that the police department look into ways that officers can do a better job of handling crisis intervention issues like the one that apparently went on yesterday. andy, thank you very much. meanwhile an internal police investigation is next in the fatal shooting of rice. last year police opened fire on rice when he was playing with a pellet gun. the justice and the fbe are still reviewing that case. the investigation includes the claims of a pharmacist, who previously interned at an anty aging clinic in indiana. he tells a reporter that rah human growth hormone, one of the main points of contention remains the date that he

worked at that clinic in indianapolis. earlier in your world this morning we talked to robert guarder, and traumatic brain injury, we asked him if he was surprised by any of the information features in the al jazeera documentary. >> our reports that we hear about of certain kinds of healthcare professionals behind the lines that are supplying athletes with number of substances many of which are banned, there is a black market, and the public needs to be aware of this, and i think the expose say does shine a light on this. >> in fact, you maintain one reason we have not heard so much about hbh, is because of what? is. >> well, i mean, for many years it was never agreed to be tested for. until -- >> this is the player's league. >> correct. and then why wouldn't you agree to test for something. >> hgh is testing for, that

it certainly sets the tone, and sets the same for how -- what is accepted and what is not accepted. >> and the banned human growth hormone back in 1991, but didn't begin testing for it until 2014, no player has ever tested positive for that drug. severe weather causing chaos for travelers across the northeast, packing ice, rain, and dusty winds from new hampshire. and air travel, is a nightmare. inesse has more. >> drivers are hearing warnings of a dangerous commute in parts of the country, from illinois to new england. where the first snow of the season was falling this morning. >> first storm of the year, a lot of accidents hopefully they will be very minor. >> it's been anything but minor this week. high winds and icy roads created dangerous conditions in wisconsin. in missouri, deadly plaid waters swept through homes,

washed away r.v.s and shut down major highways. and new mexico declare add state of emergency after heavy snow left behind snow drifts measured by the foot, one couple was trapped from their car for 20 hours until rescuers broke the windshield. >> my wife was just shivering and shaking, so i got into the passenger seat, the driver seat was full of snow from us trying to dig out. so we huddled together. >> tens of thousands of air travelers have been delayed or stranded. >> i have been stranded for 50 hours. >> there were almost 3,000 flights canceled on monday, and already nearly 1,000 more today. the dangerous weather system also spawned more tornadoes around northern florida and arkansas. >> drive. >> get on the gas and go. >> clean sup underwafer dallas texas where a string of tornadoes left miles of homes and debris, rushed to reach his sister's car but couldn't save her.

>> we tried. we had tons of ice. i watched my sister lay upside down. for hours. >> the severe weather is blamed for at least 11 deaths over the weekend, inesse, al jazeera. >> new details emerging about the escape and capture of the young man known as the affluenza teen. arrested in port da viier that after a week long search, he is accused of violating his probation, stemming from a case two years ago, where he killed four pedestrians driving drunk. a short time ago, the lead sheriff on the investigation, talked about who aarresting ethan was so personal. >> we were the agency that had to work the initial accident scene. had a tremendously vested interest in making sure that ethan is proud to justice. felt like at the time that the court system did not adequately assess any punishment, or adequate punishment at least.

people took it very personally. >> meaning that he was so wealthy and spoiled he couldn't tell the difference between right and wrong. he is expected to be turned over from the u.s. marshal service. >> iran taking a significant step to fulfill it's commitment, and a lot can change in the year we take a look back at the new and developing relations between the u.s., and cuba.

8,025,000 pounds of uranium is now on the we to russia. as part of the deal, iran to ship out all but 650 pounds of it's low end rich uranium. secretary of state john kerry calling the shipment one of the most significant steps that iran has taken so far to fulfill it's commitments the nuclear agreement is scheduled to take effect in a matter of weeks. meanwhile in iraq, the south and southeast western ramadi are now under the control of government forces. to celebrate the army retaking of isil, it is the major success for the u.s. led force. while in ramadi they are

expect to meet with iraqi commanders and forces. and former israeli prime minister, has now been ordered to spend 18 months in jail, omar has been sentenced to six years by a court back in 2014, but it was reduced by the supreme court. he is 70 years old now. he was convicted of prescribery following a real estate deal. while he was major of jerusalem. one of the year's biggest was the renewed relationship between u.s. and cube pa. we talked about the significance of that historic move. >> i think when you look at the past year, this will go down as one of the most historic years in turns of change in relations between these two countries.

americans can go there know without interference. as a business person you can look at potentially hire cuban employees which was never possible before. you look at telecommunications you have a verizon phone, or a sprint phone, you can use it in cuba. i was based in cuba for two years that was something you couldn't do before. just days to day interaction with the business community, this is starting to grow in a way that we really haven't seen in half a century not all change is good, and there's concern that somebody is left behind, is all this change is good? >> it depends on who you ask. cuba was the third rail american politics. you don't touch that, part of the reason was so that edging cuban exile community in miami and elsewhere that have made florida this key critical swing state. recent polls indicate that

group is not as potent of a voting force as any more. the united states has had an interesting immigration policy, they have allowed refugees from cuba to seek asylum, to be guaranteed citizenship if they get to the united states. the so called wet foot dry foot. there is concern now that this relation is starting to warm that policy may end, so all the cubans that had plans to come to the quite, are starting to uptick their plans in trying to get here, so it has create add new dynamic in how the policy plays out. >> also food is a major factor, a big chunk of that coming from imports from the united states, how will that change. >> a lot of people don't know this, but cuba since the early 90's, about the mid 90's, under the clinton administration, became -- well, they looks to the united states as the number one food importer. so you had this symbiotic relationship in terns of

american alary culture that was tied to the cuban state. they are still heavily reliant on that. when you look at what is going on coming forward, but the idea of bringing some micro finance that is starting to come into the country, the idea that cuban agricultural farmers may be able to open into a show room that john deere opens up, this might start to change the equation, and will start to change the nature of the economy. >> what about the areas are the united states is given a green light, but it has not been signed off yet? >> there's a lot of these, there's been a lot of talk, and things that have come out of this, the embassy, of course, cuba being moved, but there's other aspects that are a bit intractable. there's questions about the exchange of fugitives, how cuba will actually in practice go back and forth to the united states when it comes to those deals, but also -- american companies

now have the ability to at least start to approach some of these changes. of course the embargo is still in place. but they still have to guest past the cuban approval here. you still have to go through the cuban government. you want to open up a small shop in cuba, or do business with a cuban entrepreneur, a lot of that has to go through the government, so when we look at these changes it is important to keep that in context, because the accuse ban economy is run by the army, and so the political hot potato, that represents in terms of getting businesses to do business with the cuban army, vis-a-vis the company they try to set up, that's going to be a difficult one to square. personal thought, you said you lived in cuba for two years did you ever think you would see the american flag flying? >> when i first moved to cuba, it was right after the election of barack obama, and during that time there was all this ground swell of hope and point of change, so

caught up in that rhetoric. at that time, allen gross, the u.s. contractor was detained and that went away. now that he has been released and now that this relation is starting to take hold, you can see a cuba that i have never seen before. people on the street, who have very cautious about talking to reporters and journalists are now being much more open. so it seems like anything is on the table at this point. but the politics always play into it. >> our report who spent two years as you heard living in cuba. when we come back, protecting animal rights. the move to crack down on animal cruelty is one way to keep humans safe.

his band mates are announcing on their facebook page that they learned from the disease on december 6th. he was the only constant in the band. animal is abused every ten seconds in the united states. according to two fbi, decreasing animal abuse can help lower overall crime rates. and that's the idea behind tennessee's new law getting information about convicted animal abusers public. >> if the information came from there were several times that we had been p received reports of someone literally going into a store or to a shelter, adopting numerous puppies and actually either torturing or killing those animals. state senator sponsored the bill that goes into effect on new year's day. >> you look at the documented link between animal cruelty,

and cruelty to humans, that what happens with domestic abuse, what happens with just violence in our communities and neighborhoods that this is something that we want to put an end to. when we can the registry is expected to help the fbi and other agencies identify trends and patterns. added animal cruelty to a top tier crime list, along with arson, burglary, kidnapping and murder. among the information to be released the name, and photo of the convicted user. >> there's no telling how many abused animals are out on the streets or in homes, but we do know this, when they are picked up many of them are brought here, so the largest shelter in nashville. >> this shelter, holds up to 400 animals at a time. some of them picked up roaming the streets others neglected and abused by their owners. >> off times that can

escalate to violence against humans as well, so this will help to make sure we are keeping these people off the streets. >> the reg industry will also allow shelters to identify abusers looking to adopt animals for activities like dog fighting. >> for us we see neglect, we see dogs not given appropriate care and attention they need. we see people that shoot dogs. >> convicted animal abusers information will remain in the registry for two years following the offense. following the second one. >> several states have tried unsuccessfully to pass bills creating a registry for animal abusers, while a database has been established on the local level, such as the one that new york suburbs back in 2010, there are none on the state level, until now. >> the most admires persons

of 2015, and for the 8th time, president obama topping the list. he said he is the man living anywhere in the world that they admire most, pope francis and donald trump tied for second place, each with just 5%, hillary clinton topping the list of women for a record 20th time. 13% of respondents saying that she was the woman they most admired and second place, mall la la use some someday, with 5%. also the san antonio spurs mascot, a flying into the at&t center, a real bat, not the first time it has happen sod the spurs coyote was ready, after putting on a soup hero bat man costume, he managed to capture the bat, thank you for joining us, the news continues live from london, next, and check us out 24 hours a day by going

to our website, aljazeera.com. wherever you are watching this al jazeera news hour, and this is some of what we have. >> actively planning additional attacks against the west. >> the u.s. military says the air strikes have killed an isil fighter suspected of being involved in the paris attacks. more than 20 die in pakistan as a suicide bomber targets a government office.