unbelievable it sounds like an agreement between criminal busts just like trading in stolen goods that have been taken by the place if anyone ever comes to ask that question then sort of throw their hands up in the air and say i don't know i was just nominated director we're doing any investigation into. ukraine could you pay bribes you've been corrupt been corrupt did just the presidency al-jazeera investigation the only guy coming soon. the final hour of voting in liberia's presidential election between the vice president and a former international football. hello

i'm suited to mrs algis there a long way from london also coming up from the bottom of his hocks peru's former president asked for forgiveness for his crimes a russian opposition leader calls for a boycott of next year's election the kremlin investigates whether he is breaking the law i'm strong in seattle the u.s. says it comforting plastic waste and encouraging recycling. we start in liberia where just one hour remains for people to cast their votes in the country's presidential runoff election which will see its first democratic transition of power in seventy three years turnouts has been a lower than the last round both candidates have placed to revive the struggling

economy and kickstart infrastructure projects fifty one year old george weah spent his childhood in the slums of monrovia rising to become the first african to be named fief as world football player of the you. here in one thousand nine hundred five his bid for the presidency was unsuccessful in two thousand and five he was also the running mate for the main opposition candidate in twenty eleven his rival joseph block a house held posts in the private sector and in government including agriculture minister a seventy three year old has served as vice president under ellen johnson sirleaf since two thousand and six but he's twelve years of service didn't secure him so lease backing she endorsed george weah. to. do to her that are so she would lose it to this this is very true they said i'm going to win the great beer because of the

curse of democracy that we went in once there were two hundred workers and i will reduce it to. we have got through the process this is what the president produced we are willing to live with for a while voter turnout has been low compared to the first round of election october just days runoff represents several milestones for the country mohammed ago has more from the capital monrovia. this country house seen for. such a long period of uninterrupted peace since ninety nine and secondly. for seventy three years led be a hospital to know the hondo of all of power from one civilian leader to another so generations later libyans will have the opportunity to see these up and secondly they need a leader who builds on the peace that had been managed by the government of ellen

johnson sirleaf and then bring back the economy back on its feet it's bought up by ball i'll break as well as the un something sounding these elections. and also what the people of liberia want is someone to talk whole crop shouldn't so. today they're choosing who is going to replace ellen johnson sirleaf on take their country into the future. peru's former president alberto fujimori has asked for forgiveness from peruvians funk the bottom of his heart thousands of people have protested to president petro pablo kaczynski announced he was pounding on health grounds he was serving a twenty five year prison sentence for corruption and crimes against humanity

joining his time in office in the one nine hundred ninety s. challah ballots a small. chaos in lima these peruvians a furious the former president alberto fujimori was pardoned by the current president pedro public option ski a man they believe was trying to save his political korea ok so i thought the summary of seeing all the people mobilizing the police were following us is circling us they got close to us and threw bombs at us. fujimori was serving a twenty five year prison sentence for murder is kidnappings and disappearances carried out by a government death squad during his time in office he led from one thousand nine hundred ninety until two thousand. started on sunday the families of his victims lead the charge was. that i tried to see if any i'm angry because i think it's a violation of the memory of her family members it's

a violation of the fight for the relatives for justice and truth a frail seventy nine year old fujimori was admitted to hospital on saturday suffering from low blood pressure and hostile arrhythmia he responded to the outcry on facebook and think kaczynski. i am aware that what resulted during my administration on one hand were well received but i recognize that on the other hand i also disappointed other compatriots to them i asked forgiveness from the bottom of my heart. critics say it was his son came g.q. secure with the pardon he's a congressman in the majority popular force posse that's led by his sister keiko and saved president kaczynski from impeachment by abstaining from a vote last week critics say it was in exchange for his father's pardon the president has defended the decision saying it was may because of fujimori's poor health. moore says it's obvious to all of us that the government he inherited at

the beginning of the ninety's the country was in a chaotic and violent crisis incurred significant transgressions of the law as far as democracy and human rights are concerned but i also believe his government contributed to national progress i'm convinced that those of us who believe in democracy cannot allow alberto fujimori to die in prison. the pardon was bet by a silent majority a survey in may found sixty percent of peruvians wanted fujimori free supporters credit him with the defeat of the shining path and saving the economy from collapse . the fujimori's critics the death squads still hold them with a he's imprisoned or not they say they will voice their calls for justice charlotte bellus al jazeera fifteen men have been hangin in egypt for attacks which killed security forces in the sinai peninsula is believed to be the largest number of executions on a single day since president abdel fattah el-sisi took office in two thousand and

fourteen emanuel hung from a two separate jails in cairo eight people have been injured in a suicide attack in northern nigeria just outside the city of my degree a female suicide bomber struck a day after the military stopped an attack by suspected baka her own fighters in the same region at least four people died in that attack and heavy gunfire was reported in the most area as the army fourth off the attackers. a chin is an official says the enlighted are about intelligence that female fighters returning from iraq and syria may be trying to use chin is in passports to stage attacks the u.a.e. caused outrage earlier this week banning female shooting in citizens from landing in the gulf states leading to protests in china and north african country responded by firing emirates flights from tunis here and in mounting an apology.

we are not part of emirates we are a sovereign country and they should deal with us according to what normally happens in relations between two countries after the continuous calls with the immoralities through our ambassador in abu dhabi it appears they have lifted the ban but they did not give us details on how the ban was lifted the kremlin says it is investigating whether calls by a russian opposition leader to boycott next year's election breaks the law alexei navalny has asked people to avoid the march vote after he was barred from running as a candidate official say he's ineligible to take part due to a suspended prison sentence he claims the charges are politically motivated or were challenges in moscow with the latest. it's no surprise that the kremlin seems sensitive to what looks like an attempt by alexei navalny to drive down voter turnout in march the talk has been this year that the kremlin is concerned about voter apathy and want to turn out to be around seventy percent if it dips much

below sixty percent well they've got a problem with legitimacy quite how they will prosecute in the valley for calling for a boycott that remains to be seen i think this can be viewed basically as a shot across as a warning. no one really believes the valley would be able to beat putin if they went head to head votes the recent polls suggest that if a vote were taken now we don't get between two and three percent but perhaps factoring into the kremlin's thinking was the potential damage the valley could have done if he'd been allowed say on state t.v. with his anti corruption message so in around he will now have to do his appeals and also go back to doing what has been very successful actually for him over this year which is his online videos his anticorruption message reaching out to particularly younger russians and calling them out onto the streets in parts of the

country where you do not normally see political protests taking reportedly wants two years a military base in the rebel held province of idlib in syria as an observation post the country already has its troops deployed in some areas of it to i.d.s. collation zone but the region has recently come under heavy attack by president bashar al assad's regime and its allies with an increase in ass strikes targeting civilian areas they know how to has more from beirut. those who were killed in this airstrike were internally displaced syrians a woman and her two children their new home a tent has been destroyed whatever belongings they had now rubble they moved to tell it to convolute in the southern edges of the rebel controlled province of idlib and search for safety but in recent weeks the region has been the target of heavy airstrikes. the displaced from the scene came here the planes came and hit them they're targeting civilians there are no unfortunates here where do you want

us to go or i it's not clear if the bombing raids are being carried out by syrian government planes or those of its ally russia but what is clear is that the strikes are only increasing. they are putting pressure on the civilians the civilians would pressure the rebels not to fight because the regime has made major advances on the ground. they want people to hazed arrivals and the regime is trying to pressure the rebels to agree to a political settlement. this stepped up airstrikes coincide with a ground offensive by pro-government forces who have been advancing from the northern countryside of hama and the southern countryside of aleppo towards. they entered small parts of the province advancing into the administrative borders for the first time since the rebels forced them out of and two thousand and fifteen an all out assault on. many of whom were other areas

by pro-government forces it's still not clear whether the government. the whole province or whether it's just. control of some areas in the countryside. what is clear is that the government wants the. back it is one of the largest military airports in the north turkey reportedly wants to use as an observation post already its military is deployed in some areas of as part of a deal. is supposed to be a safe area. the opposition now fears the presence of al qaida linked will be used by the government as an excuse to step up the bombing campaign they also fear that pro-government forces are no longer busy on other fronts and are now turning their attention to ad lib. beirut you're watching. the program. for.

a trail of. its way into the heart of the. hello again across western parts of asia we've got a massive cloud which is gradually clearing away towards the east look at the forecast dry conditions across much of this region falling in kabul in afghanistan the highs of twelve and it's all looking fine on the caspian sea the eastern side of the mediterranean still a fair amount of kleiber the winds from the south so temperatures not too bad if i should reach twenty degrees in beirut on thursday here in the arabian peninsula has been a weak front pushing down from the north and temperatures only just twenty one in

riyadh and russia the cool nighttime temperatures quite low doha twenty three just sort of clear the air somewhat so we've lost the fall for the time being on the other side of the peninsula is looking warm in mecca with highs of thirty four degrees let's add that into southern parts of africa where we've got some heavy showers affecting parts of angola through zambian zimbabwe and towards mozambique that's where the bulk of the shariat seventy will be it could be quite wet into soccer but further towards the south following up to the woman harare just nineteen degrees plenty of sunshine across parts of south africa that would durban coming in at twenty seven degrees celsius and that fine weather continues to head on through into thursday showers across angola further south fine across much in the maybe thirty three the high in winter.

welcome back remind of the top stories here on al-jazeera polls are closed in under an hour in liberia's presidential runoff election which will see its first democratic transition of power in seventy three years bruce former president

alberto fujimori has asked for forgiveness from peruvians from the bottom of his heart after being pardoned for corruption and crimes against humanity. and the kremlin says it is investigating whether calls by the russian opposition leader alexei know valorie to boycott next year's election breaks a law. about a storm that left a trail of death and destruction in the philippines has been downgraded while it was on route to vietnam typhoon tembin fell to make landfall mekong delta where hundreds of thousands of people were moved from their homes but experts say heavy rain and strong winds from the weather system could still cause damage to infrastructure in the region ten been devastated the philippine island of mindanao where authorities have been criticized for not doing enough to help the storm has killed at least two hundred thirty people with many was it took more than one hundred homes and killed nearly fifty people those in the area had been told to

leave but many had heeded the warning too late there are trying to evacuate but the surge was like in three to five minutes all the houses were wiped out. what's left of mary lou eaton's possessions are below the ruins of what used to be her house. she escaped with her children and her brother's family just in time well only until we were all crying and the water kept getting stronger and i told my brother i think we are going to die here they survived but another brother died. their temporary home is now the local school it's also where rosemarie sort of yellow now lives with her children and ten other families in the one classroom she says she had never experienced a flood like it got on the born-again there was a flood before but we didn't evacuate that time but after what happened this time i

can't go back. in a country that receives up to twenty life threatening storms a year there's been criticism of why mindanao suffered so badly as one of the most disaster prone countries in the world the philippines invests heavily in infrastructure and awareness programs to deal with severe storms but in mindanao the ongoing conflict makes that difficult and it's the poorest people living in the most vulnerable places who suffer the most in storms like this community leaders have told people not to rebuild their homes along the river but the need to earn a living from farming nearby means many in time probably will and when a future storm comes the river will probably take more lives rob the bride al-jazeera to board town southern philippines hospitals in gaza have been forced to cancel operations after cleaners went on strike over delays salary payments the

health ministry says plans surgeries cannot go ahead as operating theatres are not ready and cleaning staff are demanding overdue pay from the palestinian health ministry which is run by the national consensus government they say they have not received wages for several months. the u.s. canada european union have joined top u.n. officials and demanding the release of two want to journalists and mammal while own and carry our south who were arrested earlier this month after they were invited to meet police officials on the outskirts of young gong. says reporters quote illegally acquired information with the intention to share it with foreign media in working on stories about the military crackdown has forced over six hundred fifty thousand range of muslims to flee to bangladesh since august. the u.k.'s defense ministry says its navy escorted a russian warship as it passed near its territorial waters over christmas the admirable cost cough was sailing in what british officials call areas of national

interest it was then tailed by a navy frigates and a navy helicopter and other intelligence gathering vessel was detected and discourse in through the english channel on christmas eve twenty seventeen comes to an end we're looking back at some of the biggest stories of the year through the eyes of five families in power for we speak to a kenyan family who lost their six month old daughter during political violence following a disputed presidential election catherine sawing reports from kisumu. joseph and his wife linda are still trying to come to terms of the killing of the six month old daughter samantha pendle. they say she died from a severe head injury when police raided their home in the town of. this was in august just after the fast presidential election when president was declared the

winner. supporters of opposition leader the took to the streets in protest. police responding with tear gas batons and live ammunition joseph and learned so however say they were attacked in their home at night. it's been an unpredictable and volatile election year in kenya the supreme court over time to the oldest paul sighting irregularities of fast in africa. then withdrew from the repeat election saying the commission first needed reforms. rerun went ahead anyway in october. one thousand percent of the vote but only outside of the nine hundred million registered voters cast their ballots. all the while political brinkmanship deeply divided the country along partisan lines continue street confrontations between police and protesters only making things worse more

than thirty people including baby panda have died in the violence since august and are used to play here and on that night in august her family and neighbors say police came banging on doors they used tear gas to force people out of their houses pendle was in her mother's arms when they were being beaten she did not stand a chance. of a doubt she will ever vote again. back ok. i didn't know that that would cause me pain. or should a vote there's no need for me to the cost is tame will never be election at all is it remember that. during election day. she also says they'll continue to seek justice for their due to katherine saw al-jazeera kisumu western kenya and wednesday you can watch the fifth and final report in our series one year five families will tell you about

a father and son who haven't seen each other for more than forty years because of tensions on the korean peninsula. is demanding the release of its journalists who are saying he's now been more than a year since he was arrested and jailed in egypt a saying he's accused of broadcasting false news just read chaos which he and strongly deny he has repeatedly complained of mistreatment in jail canada is going to expel a venezuelan diplomat and strip him have his credentials as part of an escalating diplomatic crisis it's him italy ation to venezuela's decision to bar the canadian ambassador from returning to the country for criticizing its human rights record canada has been critical of president nicolas maduro crackdown on dissidents and opposition members the canadian government has already imposed sanctions against fourteen members of murderers administration since september. scientists are finding vast amounts of plastic waste in the wells ocean and as they throw away

junk modern civilization to grains it turns into microscopic bits that's on to the food chain in the paper of seattle in the united states to found a unique way to encourage recycling and the phone just pick straws. the streets around seattle's famous pike place market are full of cafes and restaurants the coffee is delicious but single use cups utensils and straws generate q.j. amounts of paper and plastic waste in this environmentally conscious city an activist group called lonely whale is urging people to think twice about throw away items leaders called the campaign stronger since yeah so we really wanted to start with something simple that connected every single one of us every single day and that item is to stop the other great thing about drugs there is an alternative don't use worldwide people use one billion plastic straws

a day in the united states we have five hundred million single use plastic straws everyday zero percent of them are recyclable those that find their way into the marine environment break down into microprocessors and when a marine animal in its path that they have a fifty percent mortality rate so it's a significant issue can we assume those trials are part of their unfortunately the strongest in seattle campaign began in september twenty seventh teen and resulted in two point three million straws being permanently removed in that month alone lonely whale has launched what it calls a global viral media challenge called stop sucking and it plans to take the strongest campaign to twenty cities worldwide in twenty eighteen the care previous not only meant to reduce plastics in the environment it also aims to get people thinking. about our throwaway culture every time we talk about. everybody's mind

bang goes to hell what about bob huffaker that's another boss to go over there and are we talking to her about i don't know as well seattle began restricting plastic waste a decade ago starting with a ban on styrofoam takeaway food containers and disposable plastic bags officials want to help mold a major shift in public attitudes really the bigger thing is getting people to stop and to think do i really need this i had this single use thing is this something that i really need to use right now i'm going to use it for five to ten minutes and then i'm going to throw it away and it's going to go to a landfill so that's really the bigger issue is having people kind of raise and in their consciousness a pushback against the culture of easy come easy go disposables that offers hope for the health of our planet's oceans and the creatures who live in them rob reynolds al-jazeera seattle. for centuries hand-crafted knives have been status symbols in the middle east that still carried by men jaring important ceremonies

and family occasions made them on the traditional dhaka known as the jar is a source of national pride still struck from the poles. omanis often say that is a symbol of the national identity. similar knives are made in neighboring yemen and southern saudi arabia but the craftsmanship here in oman has been for centuries considered the finest in the region. the silversmith's at this workshop in the historical town of from india or how people they've been taught the arts of using traditional omani designs to make a dagger which can take months to cross my grandfather me this is the best things you can do with all of their life because this is the love of all might be both buying everything and so that's a clue that you're taking this water for you and then the. government recently set regulations on how the omani should be made in order to preserve it specific

characteristics the traditional say decongest favored by the royal family for example must have four or seven rings depending on the status of the wearer crime the rules that used to be made from black rhino horns are now called from buffalo horn or woods these are some of the oldest hunters in this shot. but one of the holding here is a sighted one just it's at least one hundred years old the cops are able to she's it's made out of snake skin the handle is made out of black rhino horn we're told that it's worth noting less than around twelve thousand dollars and tradition dictates that if i remove the blade from the sheath then i have to use it. mohamed el cough shows us how the conjurers warm or helping his son dress as he would for weddings and special occasions conjure is either worn on

a specially crafted belt or chopped behind the waistband of a wooden sword but i feel proud to be wearing my arab omani clothes my patriotism runs in my blood and he has been with the country represents the money personality pride in our nation it also exalts the sultan the country and our ancestors. what was once used as a weapon now crafted as a work of money. stuff at al-jazeera news we're. going to headlines an al-jazeera polls close in half an hour in liberia's presidential runoff election which will see its first democratic transition of power in seventy three years those are choosing between former footballer george weah and the current vice president joseph bach i both candidates have pledged to

revive the struggling economy and kickstart infrastructure projects that competing to succeed nobel peace prize laureates ellen johnson sirleaf who is stepping down after twelve years election officials say the turnout has been low muhammad zero is in the capital monrovia and has more this country house seen. such a long period of uninterrupted peace since ninety nine and secondly. for seventy three years liberia has been moved to know the hon'ble of power from one civilian leader to another so generations later the videos will have the opportunity to see these up and. peru's former president alberto fujimori has asked for forgiveness from peruvians from the bottom of his hearts thousands of people have protested in lima after president. kaczynski pardoned fujimori he was serving

a twenty five year prison sentence for corruption and crimes against humanity during his time in office in the one nine hundred ninety s. a chinese an official says the united arab emirates has intelligence that female flight since returning from iraq and syria. passports to stage attacks the u.a.e. caused outrage early this week banning female chin is in citizens from landing in the gulf states needed to protest in tunis the north african country responded by barring emirates flights from chinnis here and demanding an apology the kremlin says it is investigating whether caused by a russian opposition leader to boycott next year's election breaks the law alexei navalny has asked people to avoid the march photo after he was barred from running as a candidate official say he's ineligible to take part due to a suspended prison sentence he says the charges are politically motivated and you can find much more on our website just click on. dot com those are the headlines

but stay with us on inside story is next. high hopes of continued peace and stability liberia's voters choose a new leader that's hard with this vote in the hands democracy in a country the has seen its share of violence and what would it mean for the region this is inside.