and their pursuit of a nuclear weapon free world and we look ahead to the big stories that could dominate the headlines in twenty eighteen. december on al-jazeera. in jakarta school students are taking up weapons to fight in deadly street battles . one on one east investigates this violent phenomenon. at this time on al-jazeera. with al-jazeera is our eyes and ears on the ground in southern africa identifying the crucially important stories for an audience that's incredibly diverse. north korea fires a missile the first such launch in two months and it comes just a week after the u.s. they cleared it a state sponsor of terrorism. and

are you watching al-jazeera live from london also coming up on the program the u.n. security council meets to tackle the grim business of people trafficking as evidence mounts the trade is booming. the man accused of masterminding the two thousand and twelve benghazi attack is cleared of the most serious charges. and i repeat. the promise is to unite kenya. second term as president. thank you for joining us south korea's president is chairing a national security meeting following a missile launch by north korea an initial assessment by the u.s.

suggests it launched an intercontinental ballistic missile it traveled to an altitude of around four and a half thousand kilometers before eventually splashing down in the sea of japan well for the latest let's cross live to seoul and speak to kathy kathy what else do we know. well this missile launched happened in the middle of the night at about three fifteen a.m. local time and as you mentioned the president of south korea is chairing a national security council meeting the south korean armed forces responded quickly with a live fire drill involving the army navy and air force the armed forces launched three missiles which hit a simulated target simultaneously so what that message is from south korea's armed forces is that it is monitoring north korean activity and that it is ready to

respond if need be to take out the launch site in north korea as this particular launch seems to be another test not posing any direct threat to territory of course a little over two months ago north korea launched a missile that flew over japanese territory this time it fell into waters off of japan but as you mentioned it had an altitude of about four and a half thousand kilometers and analysts have been crunching the numbers on this latest missile launch and the union of concerned scientists say that they estimate the range if fired at a normal trajectory would put it about thirteen thousand kilometers meaning that if this missile were fired at a normal trajectory and not locked it into the air it would theoretically have the range to hit all of the continental united states and of course we know that north korea's ultimate goal is to develop a nuclear weapon that can be mounted on an i.c.b.m. that can hit the u.s.

mainland and that has continued to be its threat and of course much concern around the world here in south korea in japan and indeed in the united states barbara risen indeed kathy novak in seoul cathy thank you and speaking of the united states well that is of course among the countries condemning the launch so let's go to the state department in washington and speak to rosalynn jordan role as well what reaction there. well as you might expect barbara very strong reaction from the trumpet ministration starting with the president himself speaking just about ninety minutes ago a missile was launched. a while ago from north korea will tell you that it will take care of it we have general mess in the room with us and a very long discussion on it it is a situation that we will handle. the secretary of state rex tillerson

was in a meeting at the time of the report a launch with the king of jordan king abdullah and his spokes person how they are now it says the secretary was passed a note about the launch of this apparent i.c.b.m. ended the meeting with the king and returned to the state department where he's now been engaged in a series of phone calls and interagency meetings about the launch the main point though for a month the u.s. is that diplomacy is still the preferred way of trying to resolve the crisis with north korea and we should also mention the u.n. security council is going to hold an emergency meeting on wednesday twenty one thirty g.m.t. to talk about the situation with north korea. jordan with the latest from the state department ross thank you. at the u.n. security council has held an emergency session on human trafficking in libya evidence has emerged that hundreds of people are being auctioned in modern day

slave markets in libya some of them for as little as four hundred dollars my kind of reports now from new york. a small crowd of africa next gather outside the libyan embassy and protest against the practice of modern day slavery why do we were. not here disputes that libya is now a failed state but many argue that those who were affected the overthrow of the gadhafi government six years ago must share responsibility for the consequences of the political vacuum that was created among them the abuse of migrants and refugees who fled their native lands. just up the road the security council discusses what is to be done with. france calls for a strong expression of condemnation from the security council the horrific images emerging in recent weeks. they underscore the urgency of improving our global

policy to tackle this scourge and put an end to this human tragedy. the un's refugee chief proposes immediate measures but says funds as well as words must be deployed strengthening refugee protection and offering solutions along the routes. including in chad and you share is key but dramatic funding gaps persist especially in sub-saharan africa some ninety percent of refugees and migrants attempting to get to europe pass through libya and it's the most vulnerable who are the prey if you can about this so africans over there in libya they sell men even fifteen year old libyans are there in a car they're armed the coming kidnap you and the cell you for seventy two one hundred fifty dollars and then others will resell you their good vision as soon as you arrive in libya the first thing that happens is that you are taken away and sold under discussion in the security council the possibility of sanctions against

individuals and entities and of applying the full range of international law including the use of the international criminal court but the session ends without resolution it could be weeks even months before the u.n. security council agrees on concrete measures to stop slavery but those suffering in africa and their contact in new york adam and even today will be. my kind of al-jazeera new york. the so-called mastermind of the two thousand and twelve attack on the u.s. embassy in the libyan city of benghazi has been convicted on terrorism charges in the west but ahmed abu khattala was clear on the more serious offense of part or the palace captured in two thousand and fourteen and brought to the u.s. to face trial for more on this let's cross to share. so he was convicted of four of the eighteen charges against him that's two counts

of conspiracy to provide material support or resources to terrorists one count of maliciously destroying an injury and property and placing lives in jeopardy and one count of using and carrying a semiautomatic weapon during a crime of violence acquitted of all the murder charges against him and several other charges as well the prosecution had presented him as a ringleader for the attack the defense said he was simply a bystander who appeared on the scene of where the attack a take place these compounds in benghazi after the attacks had taken place and that was a point of the prosecution did have to concede the defense also tried to poke holes in the prosecution argument by saying the main one of the main prosecution witnesses the star witness was paid seven million dollars for his testimony and in addition they raise questions about the manner in which could tell i was interrogated he was seized and then kept on a boat at sea for two weeks interrogated without a lawyer the defense said so they raised all of these issues as well but convicted

all these four counts he could face up to forty five years in prison if he is given the maximum sentence for each one of these counts she had breast cancer with the latest from washington thank you. well still to come here. a ceasefire is announced in the syrian. as a new diplomatic push to end the war gets underway. and time for big. just past the ten thousand dollar mark for the first time. the hot weather continues across southeastern parts of australia we may well see a fundie breakdown in those high temperatures as we go towards the weekend lots of clouds showing up just around the gulf coast with the wet weather here recently

sydney still on the hot side temperatures here getting up to around twenty five degrees celsius that's not where so weather down to the southeast from melbourne could touch thirty four in adelaide go on into with a little cola still warm enough in adelaide at around twenty nine celsius and you can see we're still hovering in the mid twenty's there for sydney and also for brisbane low twenty's there for perth wet weather makes its way into the southeast right in the states and that will cool things down meanwhile at chelsea one of two showers same to northern parts of new zealand over the next dials but not looking too bad by a large temperatures getting up to around twenty celsius the cautious further north or getting up to around twenty two degrees some of the pictures we go on into. some on set of weather to be making its way towards japan over the next day or two but some cloud of rank coming into southern most past not so bad there at least on this day for much of honshu up towards cada as you go on into or thursday started to cloud over more cold weather coming in behind with temperatures struggling to reach

freezing. it is melting. that is affecting the time. in a special episode. fifty point find on a bright journey of discovery around the continent look into the past and the future. but that's quite a. long time.

now a reminder of the top stories on al-jazeera the u.n. security council will convene on wednesday following the latest missile launch by north korea it's believed pyongyang fired an intercontinental ballistic missile the first such launch in two months earlier the security council held an emergency meeting to discuss reports of human trafficking in libya evidence has emerged that hundreds of people are be in modern day slave markets in libya for as little as four hundred dollars. a libyan accused of involvement in the two thousand and twelve attack on the u.s. embassy in the city of benghazi has been convicted on terrorism charges in the u.s. however. was cleared on the more serious offense of murder. kenya's president uhuru kenyatta has urged his divided nation to move for months of political upheaval after being sworn in for a second term elsewhere in nairobi and least two people were killed when police

clashed with supporters of the opposition leader. catherine sort of reports now from the cup. looking out to arrive for his inauguration to a rousing welcome from tens of thousands of supporters the to as relieved as their reelected president following long difficult and controversial and action campaigns this year the second of two polls was especially mad by fighting between rival supporters and violent confrontations between police and protesters kenyans are deeply divided along ethnic lines and millions over position supporters feel marginalized. or ok not out. truly and diligently. as expected he said all the right things uniting kenyans more jobs continuing with development projects started in his previous stop by to listen carefully

to my competitors and in the spirit of inclusive ety i will endeavor. to incorporate some of their ideas many kenyans also want to see how you is going to deal with an economy that has been slowing down because of among other things a severe drought the political uncertainty around the election only made things worse many kenyans will tell you that they're struggling to make ends meet. it's a very high one and sixty thousand people came to cheer a president who will call on for many of them are leaving without knowing where they're going to get their next meal they say that the president needs to deal with them finally as a matter of clarity. the economy is very burn i am a businessman two of my shops are burned down during campaigns and i have to start over. we need to shun tribalism we are all kenyans we're business people.

with no. joy in homs on the move can afford to buy a bringing together especially those who are in opposition. as he was being sworn in. position the supporters police in running battles in another part of the city they say they don't recognize king arthur's presidency. what he now needs to do is stay true to bridging the ethnic and political divide fixing the economy dealing with corruption and improving their welfare catherine al-jazeera and i will be kenya. zimbabwe's new president has opened a three month amnesty window for the return of stolen public funds emmerson and says those individuals and companies that have illegally stashed money abroad have until the end of february to get her back. was sworn in as president on

friday and promised to tackle corruption following rubbish when i was thirty seven herbal. but francis has avoided any direct mention of me on mars or hinge a muslim minority as he appeared alongside the country's leader and son suchi the pope touched on the range of crisis but he never directly named the ethnic group as widely expected he insisted myanmar should respect the rights of all listening groups scot heiler reports. pope francis traveled to the capital a poor tuesday on a day trip for me and gone to meet on song suchi she introduced the pope after their closed door meeting of the many challenges that our government has been facing the situation in the rakhine has most strongly captured the attention of the world. touching on the issue that many are waiting to be brought up the plight of the ranger. well not calling them by name though he has before he alluded to their

plight a growing number of nations and international bodies are calling ethnic cleansing. the future me and my must be peace a peace based on respect for the dignity and rights of each member of society respect for each ethnic identity respect for the rule of law and respect from a democratic order that enables each individual identity group not excluded to offer its legitimate contribution to the common good earlier in the day here in yangon the pope started his first full day in myanmar by conducting an interfaith meeting with buddhist christian hindu jewish and muslim representatives. when represented muslims he was on the kind commission led by the former head of the united nations kofi anon they provided recommendations on the real hinge of crisis i didn't use that word i didn't mention about the crisis but i did say

that. this multi-racial multi-religious literalistic society where diversity and unity prevails but recently religion has been hijacked and it has been politicised the roman catholic leader is due to hold mass in a stadium and gone on wednesday it will be the first time to speak to the tens of thousands of christians who've traveled from all over me and mark the seal it's got harder al jazeera younger. it's going to pakistan i want some are describing as the capitol hill ation of the government the hardline muslim protestors a sit in blocking a major road in the capital islamabad ended earlier this week after the resignation of the law minister who was accused of blasphemy government leader is also agreed to a list of other demands by demonstrators now the ruling party is facing another challenge this time in lahore. ports. and

another city another sit in by a new religious political party named after the prophet muhammad but. the law is different to the group of protestors who sat on a main road in islamabad for three weeks. this group has its own list of demands including the resignation of the provincial law minister who was also a senior member of the ruling party and who was accused of blasphemy to run a sonoma fun denies the accusation the protesters say they won't leave this main square in lahore until like fellow protesters in islamabad their demands are also met including justice for lives lost in violent demonstrations earlier this month. ourselves about the murder of muslims cannot be forgiven and the murder of muslims is a debt on all our necks the blood of muslims that has been spilled we want justice for that protest leaders in lahore say they expect their ranks to soon swell with

supporters nationwide a lot in this because. the government is not a sacred and city for us for us this government has already lost its credibility if the government goes from us kicking it and let them go this is exactly the kind of thing that government leaders in islamabad said they were worried about in the days before they finally agreed to demands by protesters politicians from the ruling pakistan muslim league noon warned that agreeing to the demands of one mob will only encourage others to do the same this crowd is smaller than others we've seen around the country in recent weeks but demonstrations by religious groups are not about size they're about location where in downtown la or in the capital of the punjab province and we're standing in the middle of the road the main road that runs through the commercial center of the city in the national assembly building is just over there this sit in is designed to rattle the power base. of the ruling party some clerics are even backing

a fatwa or religious edict that forbids voting for the ruling party in any elections to come while it may not be religiously or legally binding in the unpredictable political landscape of pakistan it is likely to have an impact on potential voters. so you'd mohammad habib are funny is a preacher and religious scholar he said one of the reasons these groups are able to attract supporters in meaningful numbers is because of a lack of economic mobility. the economy bitter war if a household has ten people and only one of them is able to earn a living and the others have no source of income then they won't do anything other than fight and quarrel wice their mental faculties on useless conversations. and singing to what these men have to say it becomes clear that in pakistan at this moment in time there is not much room for public debate. the same bus ravi al-jazeera. the un syria and voice stuff and the restore us says the

syrian government has agreed to a ceasefire. after days of heavy bombardment it came at the start of talks in geneva to try to find a way of ending the violence our diplomatic editor james bays reports from. the syria talks in geneva back on but for now with only one of the two sides present u.n. envoy stefan de mistura met the delegation from the opposition. but the government has been involved in a major intensification in eastern. geneva the suspicion is they wanted this aerial bombardment to strengthen their hand at the talks and you have any optimism when you see what's going on with these people as you're supposed to be. well i was just informed by do russia and then do it today or did people a meeting their russian proposal to end their government they've accepted

a defiant it's difficult because we were and are very content up till now we need to feel where they did take place but it did not point that they've actually been proposed to end a great job on just the day of the beginning of the station. there is tension within the opposition camp two groups the karo platform and the moscow platform or previously shunned by the rest of the opposition now they've been brought into the negotiating team but that decision made in recent days in riyadh is deeply controversial many including the former leader riyadh his job resigned their posts and now a letter signed by over four hundred prominent opposition figures saying the team here in geneva does not represent them that delegation is led by nasa hariri but even those with him in geneva believe the process may have been compromised his spokesman says he's worried that special envoy de mistura listens too much to the

russians the man who was tilting towards to be the supporter of a brutal regime russia is not a party in syria. but i believe that the man is between. a rock and a hard place with comments like that on the first day the prospects for this round of mr demers stories talks can't be good james zero at the u.n. in geneva police in greece have the tainted line people after finding bomb making equipment and detonators in raids in athens men in the woman are being questioned after police searched three separate locations the suspects are sort of links to a left wing turkish on the court. islands deputy prime minister has resigned over a police whistleblower scandal francis fitzgerald had been at the center of a political crisis that could have led to snap elections in ireland during crucial

breaks and they go see a shien's means barker reports from dublin. a close call for the irish government after days of tense talks the deputy prime minister francis fitzgerald said that she was resigning for the sake of the country averting the possibility of a snap general election she's been under pressure to step down over her handling of a corruption scandal of the operational arms of the police service when she was justice minister. the main opposition fianna fáil party who the government relies upon for support plan to stage a vote of no confidence if she fail to go which could have brought down the government a general election could have been potentially damaging for the country at a crucial time politically ireland currently wields a tremendous amount of clouds over bricks at negotiations it's threatens in the past to use its power of veto to block the start of trade talks between the european union and u.k. why because islands demanding progress on the politically sensitive question what's

going to happen here on the border between the republic of ireland and northern ireland a part of the u.k. after brics it for the past twenty years the border has been totally open and both sides have benefited economically but at the height of sectarian tensions in northern ireland there were checkpoints and border posts when the u.k. leaves the e.u. it will exit the customs union and single market raising fears of a return to a hard border but the border separates northern ireland and the irish states and it is the reason why there is no border there is because the twenty years ago the good friday agreement was agreed to ensure that there was political stability and peace among on the island also between our land and the u.k. there was a long hard for peace negotiation and to rollback that in any way which is what which is what would happen if there was physical borders put in place it would be a disaster for everybody on the island via the british government says there will be no solution on the border until the e.u. and u.k.

have reached a trade agreement but without progress the e.u. insists breaks it talks cannot go any further ireland may have the power to veto future trade talks but with brussels also ramping up pressure on london it's a power it may not have to use any of barca al-jazeera dublin. greenpeace activists have broken into a french nuclear plant to demonstrate the facilities lack of security about twenty protesters settle flares near the fuel pools at the plant in southeast region the group says the study shows how vulnerable france's nuclear reactors are to attack. the online currency bitcoin has surged past the ten thousand dollar mark for the first time doubling its value in the space of just four weeks big coin is an online payment system independent of central banks it can be bought sold or traded online there are no actual notes or coins launched eight years ago it's attracted billions

of dollars of investment worldwide the financial mainstream however has kept away but change is in the air the world's biggest the river saves exchange operator c.m.e. group recently announced that it would start offering bit coin futures well june a year wall is a technology journalist with the web site quartz he says the growth and volatility bitcoin is experiencing is normal for young currencies it is worth remembering the big quote is about nine years old now so it's a very young technology and a young asset class the last big bubble was twenty thirty minutes one hundred and it took about almost four years for the for it to for the price to surpass that level so after each peak you'd have had quite severe crashes i think lots of you know economic historians have looked at this and said these sorts of cycles are quite common for young asset classes so you know mike novogratz who is a hedge fund manager has predicted bitcoin forty k.

by the end of twenty eighteen which could well happen in the long term if bitcoin takes off as a technology we would expect to see the volatile quality that you drop and it would start to be used much more like an everyday currency. a russian weather satellite has failed to enter orbit have to be launched from eastern russia on tuesday russia's ross cosmo space agency said it failed to establish communication with the meteor and one to whether satellite following the launch the cause of the failure is unknown but russian media is reporting a software glitch led to the problem. can find that more on that and all the other stories we've been covering on our website the address on your screens right now al-jazeera dot com. the number of us are in london these are the top stories on al-jazeera south

korea's president is chairing a national security meeting following a missile launch by north korea an initial assessment by the u.s. suggests that pyongyang fired an intercontinental ballistic missile which splashed down in the sea of japan casanova is in seoul the president of south korea monday in his chairing a national security council meeting the south korean armed forces responded quickly with the live fire drill involving the army navy and air force the armed forces launched three ms tiles which hit a simulated target simultaneously so what that message is from south korea's armed forces is that it is monitoring north korean activity and that it is ready to respond if need be to take out the launch site in north korea. the u.n. security council has held a briefing on the libyan people smuggling crisis amid evidence that the trade is

growing libya is the main transit hub for refugees and migrants attempting to reach southern europe by sea and there are claims that some are being sold there as slaves meanwhile a libyan accused of involvement in the two thousand and twelve attack on the u.s. embassy in the city of benghazi has been convicted on terrorism charges in the u.s. however i made abu khattala was cleared on the more serious offense of murder. kenya's president who has urged his country to move on from months of political upheaval after being sworn in for a second term his inauguration follows a violent and drawn out election process which included two disputed polls while elsewhere in nairobi at least two people were killed when police clashed with supporters of the opposition leader. says that he is the rightful president. francis has avoided any direct mention of me and lars or hinge a muslim minority as he appeared alongside the country's leader and son switchy the

head of the roman catholic church insisted that myanmar should respect the rights of all ethnic groups well those are the headlines stay with us coming up next here on al-jazeera it's our fries and my colleagues in the hive we'll have more news after that thanks for watching. the international campaign to abolish nuclear weapons we receive the nobel peace prize but what is the real threat in a series of special reports al-jazeera examines the state of nuclear proliferation around the world.