all of us to explore. and it's a strange thing for us to be apart. cats are always going places together in a country where parents often pick who you will marry falling in love can have serious consequences one on one east meets the men risking their lives to protect india's young lovers one of one is that this time on al jazeera. we understand the differences and the similarities of cultures across the world. so no matter where you call home al-jazeera will bring in the news and current affairs that matter to. al-jazeera.

polls close in liberia's presidential runoff the voters choosing between a former football superstar and the vice president. barbara sarah this is al jazeera live from london also coming up on the program peru's former president of the fujimori pleads for forgiveness as thousands of protesters rally against his release from prison the kremlin says it wants russian opposition leader alexina browny investigated for calling for a boycott of next year's presidential election and the straw less in seattle the u.s. city passing plastic waste and encouraging. thank you for joining us we begin in liberia where polls have officially closed in the

presidential runoff it's the first that democratic transition of power in the west african nation in seventy three years but turnout has been low voters were choosing between former football superstar george where and experienced political operator and the current vice president joseph di mohammed the reports now from the capital monrovia. thousands lined up to vote in more than five thousand polling stations across liberia arriving long before the stations opened the tunnels however nowhere near that of the foster home held in october that had been delayed twice of the being contested in court amid claims of a declared it is in the foster round officials say the reduction of candidates from twenty two just to may have cost a pretty among voters i can go for it for the sake of the. new process to score a smoke this morning and i hope. this morning the contests is between

a former international football star george ware and vice president just whack i the window will replace africa's first female head of state ellen johnson sirleaf who came to power after the country's last civil war toll of years ago but i'm not as so sure there were losing to this there's virtually they said to me that i'm going to wind up work hard to know when the georgia seventy two year old joseph walker has served as layby as vice president since two thousand and six he too wanted in the capital we're going to do because of the curse of democracy we went in one there we're doing your work and i will reduce it to. we have gone through the process this is what the president would do we're willing to live with both where promising peace in liberia and also an end to corruption in one of the world's poorest countries if there is also hold it will be the first time in

generations that liberians will witness the transfer of power from one elected leader to another international observers also praising what they call of violence free process and that finally in liberia the ballot box hospital placed bullets but this is a big election for everyone who is following. democracy west africa the trend has certainly been you know more towards the democratic shift and really rooting that more firmly and i think that is what we will see here in liberia today the liberian people are determined to do with they're ready to do it. and i'm very confident they will then have two weeks within which to declare the results it's official confident they will have them ready in four days. beaty. the former peruvian president of regime or has apologized for the wrongs committed

under his government in the nine hundred ninety s. in a videotaped message from his hospital bed mori asked to be forgiven from the bottom of his heart thousands of people protested against his release in the capital e-mail monday after he was pardoned by peru's current leader in what many believe to be a formal political payback shallop belli six planes. chaos in lima these peruvians are furious the former president alberto fujimori was pardoned by the current president page republic christian ski a man they believe was trying to save his political career. the summer of seeing all the people mobilizing the police were following us in circling us they got close to us and threw bombs at us. fujimori was serving a twenty five year prison sentence for murders kidnappings and disappearances carried out by a government death squad during his time in office he led from one thousand nine

hundred ninety into two thousand. started on sunday the families of his victims lead the charge here. to try 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 haas arrhythmia he responded to the cry 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. who secure with the pardon he's a congressman in the majority. the 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 made because of fujimori's poor home. more 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 backed by a silent majority a survey in may found sixty percent of peruvians wanted fujimori free supporters criticize him with the defeat of the shining path in 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 bellus al

jazeera the kremlin says it's investigating with the calls by a russian opposition leader to boycott next year's election break the lol alexina valley 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 very chalons has the something from moscow. 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 prosecutes 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 now no one really believes that would be able to beat putin if they went head to head in a votes the recent polls suggest that if a vote were taken now we don't you 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 on the streets in parts of the country where you do not normally see political protests. syrian state t.v. is reporting that a government jet has been shot down over hama province it says the military jet was

downed by rebels in the north of the area and the pilot was killed in the attack how much has been subject to heavy airstrikes by russian and syrian forces throughout the six year civil war. well turkey reportedly wants to use a syrian military base in the rebel held province of it as an observation post it already has some troops deployed there as part of a deescalation zone deal although that is having little impact on fighting on the ground civilian areas have reportedly come under heavy airstrikes by syrian government forces and their allies in a harder is more now from beirut in neighboring lebanon. 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 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 but the civilians would pressure the rebels not to fight because the regime has made major advances on the ground and. they want people to haze the rebels and the regime is trying to pressure the rebels to agree to a political settlement. the stepped up air strikes 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 intends to. the whole province or whether it's just. control of some areas in the countryside. what is clear is that the government wants the air base back it is one of the largest military airports in the north turkey reportedly wants to use that base as an observation post already its military is deployed in some areas of it live. as part of a deescalation deal. it is supposed to be a safe area under that deal. the opposition now fears the presence of al qaeda linked fighters and it 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 adlib. beirut. at least twenty five people have been killed in a saudi led coalition air strike on a market in the yemeni province of taiz children are sought to be among the thirty others have been injured human rights groups have accused the coalition of bombing markets hospitals and residential areas across yemen since it began in march two thousand and fifty. a to museum officials says the united arab emirates has intelligence that female fighter was returning from iraq and syria may be trying to use passports to stage attacks the u.a.e. caused outrage earlier this week by banning female citizens from landing in the gulf state leading to protests in tunis the north african country responded by barring emirates flights from tunisia and demanded an apology a government spokesman says the u.a.e. did not communicate its reasons for the ban properly and says it won't accept how

its citizens are being treated. so to come on the program. by being its all the houses were wiped out a trail of death and destruction the philippine island where entire communities were devastated by storm tembin and most saw slowly comes back to life five months after the end of a brutal operation to retake the city for myself. hello again as we look at weather conditions across a straight year we've lost the thunderstorms around the sydney area twenty six degrees the high on wednesday well main features there is this developing tropical low effect in the kimberley over the next twenty four hours as heavy rain is likely here for the south cooling off in perth just twenty two degrees there is that low

pressure making further progress across the region during the course of thursday so at that stage we've got cooler weather for adelaide there twenty six melbourne coming in at twenty nine let's head across into new zealand where here we've got to approach the quiet conditions at the moment want to share this run but gerry not looking too bad for both north and south on and indeed as we head on into thursday we should see some showers push a lease inside the north anna but otherwise looking fine in christchurch should see plenty of sunshine and highs of nineteen degrees up into northeastern parts of asia we've got a deep area of low pressure across the far north of that weather map giving cold air across northern parts of japan as a maximum for sapporo and showers of snow further south into central northern parts of honshu heat subzero across the korean peninsula as you head on through into thursday it turned slightly less cold beijing should look at highs of four for the south cloudy in shanghai but maximum of twelve.

documenting street. was inspired to transform perceptions that we had to change to south africa and capture the. culture now is one of the people that said i will be giving a speech all of us this is where. i african photography. at this time on al-jazeera. a reminder now of the top stories on al-jazeera polls have closed in liberia's

presidential runoff but turnout has been low voters were choosing between former footballer george way and the current vice president joseph. peruse former president i'll bet of regime already has asked for forgiveness from peruvians from the bottom of his heart after being pardoned for corruption and crimes against humanity the kremlin says it's investigating with the calls by the russian opposition leader like me to boycott next year's election break the law. authorities in the philippines have been criticized for not doing enough to help the areas that as stated by storm ten been over the weekend the storm killed at least two hundred forty people and many more are still missing bride travel to to board the town where an entire neighborhood was the story. when the floods came this river was turned into a torrent throwing boulders and trees against the houses in its path. 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 imo 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 louis tim'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 me until we were all crying and the water it 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 going on i don't want to get that 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 bride al-jazeera to board town southern philippines. it's five months now since i saw fighters were

driven out of the northern iraqi city of mosul it was devastated and there i saw. the iraqi government's fight to retake the city but this week residents have been able to celebrate christmas for the first time in years and there are signs that mosul's businesses are beginning to recover one of the phillips reports. in parts of mosul it's a city is coming back to life the people relieved the economy reviving. mahmoud a tailor saw all his equipment destroyed during the shelling somehow he must start again. i cannot resume work simply because i'm short of materials i need textiles and other equipment businesses and tradesmen must join hands to bring back life to decision the state and the people must come together and this has not happened yet. mosul famous for its markets selig projects from the

surrounding countryside now the crowds have returned the people hope the city has left its darkest days behind of how to journey you know what are the costs and how to get them or you're making swith progress at all levels industry commerce the movement of people we had not expected things to go so fast we are confident the residents of know and most will want to help the federal and local governments. but all the streets west of the tigris the tangled debris of war has barely been moved this all that remains of the old commercial center the reconstruction of mosul's buildings and its people's confidence will take many years barnaby phillips al-jazeera. 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 them attacked by suspected boko haram fighters in the same area at least four people died in that attack. and israeli court has

extended the detention of a palestinian teenager her mother and cousin they were arrested a week ago after this video was posted online it shows a sixteen year old that had alchemy me pushing and hitting an israeli soldier the incident reportedly happened after her relative was shot in the face by israeli forces and critically injured i head appeared on several other videos challenging israeli soldiers well the u.s. decision to recognize jerusalem as israel's capital has caused outrage around the world palestinians are demanding that countries downgrade their embassies in israel in response they've now received support from one of their strongest allies south africa's ruling a.n.c. party tanya page reports the african national congress as decision was unanimous to immediately and unconditionally downgrade south africa's embassy in jerusalem to

a mere liaison office it's an apportioned show of support for the palestinians but it is conditional on governments adopting the policy there is a long plus relationship between south africans and the palestinians forged during the years of apartheid president nelson mandela was a close friend of late palestinian leader yasser arafat mandela once described arafat as a fellow freedom fighter and he said the south africans freedom was an incomplete without the freedom of palestinians other n.t. apos hate heroes have also never forgotten that deep connection and they still use their position to speak out in solidarity with the palestinian cause we might be back yet. well. there right now don't forget. and got rid of. the fight against apartheid it was a mass movement across civil society religious groups trade unions and political

parties so the n.c. doesn't have a monopoly on that close connection to the palestinian cause in fact last month it was the second largest opposition political party the economic freedom fighters that protested outside be israeli in the sea in which horror when the one hundredth anniversary of the balfour agreement was marred which helped lead to the creation of israel. this is the johannesburg office of b.d.s. a global movement calling for the boycott divestment and sanctions on israel they were the people lobbying and c. delegates to downgrade south africa's embassy in jerusalem we're here to talk to its spokesperson quote i can garner about the significance of the move when the a.n.c. asserts itself as the oldest liberation movement on the african continent in a way that also sends a message to other african you know that friggin governments but also other liberation movements formulation west african continent that this is the kind of you know wave on

a need to riding this wave as well these posters are for lots of different types of events the ways in which b.d.s. tries to influence people next to its focus will be on making sure the a.n.c. is party policy is adopted by government and implemented so that becomes a reality for the palestinian people the u.s. sanctions against to north korean scientists known for their role in the country's missile program kim jong sick and the repealing choi are thought to be senior figures in the north korean leaders kim jong un's ballistic missile development team the sanctions or the latest move in a pressure campaign by the u.s. to denuclearize the korean peninsula. much of the world's plastic waste ends up in oceans where it impacts badly on animals and their habitats in the u.s. city of seattle a group of activists have found a unique way to limit the damage inflicted on the environment while friends reports

. 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 strongest in seattle 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 every day they're zero percent of them or if i can. 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 files are part of their guy at unfortunately the strongest in seattle campaign began in september twenty seventh seen 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 premiums 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 fingers positrons everybody's mind bang goes to hell what about bob hopped over that's another boss to go over there and are we talking to her that 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 have 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. a plastic pollution is threatening to cause widespread damage to water's habitats and food chains in what's being called an ocean armageddon there's been a dramatic rise in the production of plastic back in one nine hundred fifty only two million tonnes was manufactured but by two thousand and seventeen that figure

had risen to eight point three billion tons and it's set to grow even more to thirty four billion by twenty fifty now the risk it poses to the environment is so grave that the un tried to implement internationally agreed goals to reduce the amount of waste entering the ocean but the move was rejected by the u.s. china and india but governments have agreed to set up a task force to advise on the problem and it seems plastic is not losing any popularity among manufacturers' with fossil fuel companies pumping one hundred eighty billion dollars since twenty ten into facilities that produce the raw material for every day plus that well erik solheim is the executive director of the united nations environment program he says initiatives like the one in seattle make a big difference but there are but there needs to be an entire cultural change. well the average north americans are using six seven this throws a year so it's in pretty much just just the drop throws when you're in the

supermarket clears out while you neither plate or plastic and a lot of plastic around two are also three oranges and simply unnecessary. because there's what why can't you make a much better approach that some of the biggest. companies in the verdict missed the moment just announced that they would make their own rules invented from completely degradable bio materials but it would be a huge change change makers a business can change but in the cost of pressure from consumers i'm very optimistic because i see governments not taking action and that's to use this heat about interchange and the sea of pressure coming from citizens who are probably this is a group don't want to be like this and the more you saw how fast change could happen say on smoking thirteen years folks moving was natural in all restaurants all over the planet now we have to be be difficult this is the problem that will burst and so change can happen we just need the political will to act.

now the headlines on al-jazeera polls have closed in liberia's presidential runoff election it's the first democratic transition of power in the west african nation in seventy three years but turnout has been low as we're choosing between form a footballer george way and the current vice president joseph both of whom are confident of winning mohamed atta who has more now from the capital monrovia. if the results are before anything to go by where the motion for my international footballer. of the vault cost his opponent. vice president for the last. support from candidates who fell out of the

race of him and will remain the reason for the romal peru's former president i'll bear to fujimori has asked for forgiveness from peruvians from the bottom of his heart thousands of people have protested in lima after the former leader was pardoned on health grounds he was serving a twenty five year prison sentence for corruption and crimes against humanity during his time is in office is that in the one nine hundred ninety s. the kremlin says it's investigating whether calls by a russian opposition leader to boycott next year's election break the law election of ali has asked people to avoid the march vote after he was barred from running as a candidate because of a past suspended prison sentence he says the charges are politically motivated. akin is in official says the united arab emirates has intelligence that female fighter is returning from iraq and syria may be trying to use to lizzie and passports to stage attacks the u.a.e.

calls outrage earlier this week by banning female tunisian citizens from landing in the gulf state leading to protests in tunis syrian state t.v. is reporting a government jet has been shot down over how my province it says the military aircraft was downed by rebels in the north of the area and the pilot was killed those are the headlines stay with us artscape the new african photography is coming up next. twenty seventeen has been full of stories that have changed the global political landscape and al-jazeera has been there to cover them all. joining us as we look back at some of our most memorable interviews of the year this special edition of talk. at this time twenty first century africa a continent undergoing great change and finally seizing control of it. but it's been a long way on that he has a goal for the was

a could go the two going to run without a trace.