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 you. al-jazeera. and she manage terria. or trigger any war commander. giovanni did you know every tired bosnian army general who defended saturday vote against attack by served forces. and covers the story of tough choices and determined. that he gave all. this time on al-jazeera.

the philippines government reaches out to help people displaced by storms and political violence in mirali. hello and welcome my name's peter w. watching al jazeera live from my headquarters here in doha also coming up vote counting is underway in liberia's presidential election. russia's biggest party makes it official backing putin for another term in the kremlin. also this half hour the legacy of pakistan's first woman prime minister benazir bhutto ten years after her assassination. top story beginning in the philippines where the government is setting up more than six hundred temporary shelters for people displaced by the conflict in the city of murali the army the area from separatist fighters in october after

a five month siege the fighting cause more than a billion dollars worth of damage and thousands of people are still homeless or are we was hit by tropical storm tembin last week making the situation there much worse rob mcbride has more now from morocco. on the edge of more our way this is a hopeful sign in an area that has been plagued by conflict and now the effects of these damaging storms this is a new housing development for people who've been displaced by months of fighting between government forces and also fighters who are linked to i still be given its importance president rod really go to turkey and it will be coming here to perform the ceremony it is very important for him in his presidency he is from. mindanao he calls himself a son of mindanao and has promised that the people will find eventually long lasting peace and the people here have suffered from the double effect of both the

storm and also conflict so it's very important around the building exercise for the president to be here in this hole of mindanao faces the classic guy lam out of a conflict which holds up development then the lack of money and jobs then feeds into the underlying feeling and rest which then contributes just. the violence all of this is of course not helped by have being batted by the storm. the u.s. has imposed sanctions on to north korean scientists linked to the country's missile program the u.s. and south korea kim jong see and reap young our senior figures in north korean leader kim jong un's ballistic missile development team now the sanctions are the latest move by the u.s. to pressure pyongyang into abandoning its weapons program in south korea the era of the electronics giant samsung has appeared in court again he's appealing against the conviction in a corruption case legia yong was sentenced to five years in august only submitted

in the peel in september and the high court is expected to hand the ruling next month and he can only be kept in detention until then under south korean law another case was part of a bribery scandal that also saw the impeachment of the country's former president park geun an egg. vote counting well underway in liberia's presidential runoff between the former football star george weah and the current vice president joseph despite a low turnout election officials have praised the process that's expected to produce the first democratic transition of power there in more than seven decades 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 the foster homes held in october that had been delayed twice after 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 the among voters a kindle for for the so-called. new process to score small this morning and i hope. this morning the contests is between a former international football star george where and vice president just whack i the wino would replace africa's first female head of state ellen johnson sirleaf who came to power after the country's lost civil war told me years ago i'm not associated there were losing them to do this there's virtually no they said to me that i'm going to wind up work hard to know we know 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 and had red bearded coaches in terms of democracy we went in one time they were doing to our work and i would use

a tool. we had to do they were going through the process is it working to the president or do we are willing to live with both wear and walk promising peace in liberia and also want to corruption in one of the world's poorest countries if the results. it will be the fourth time in generations the blood videos will witness the transfer of power from one elected leader to another international observers also praising what they call of violence free paul says about five million liberia the ballot box placed bullets but this is a big election for everyone who's following democracy west africa the trend has certainly been you know more towards the democratic shift and really rooting them washed firmly and i think that is what we will see here in liberia today the liberian people are determined to do what they're ready to do it. and i'm i'm very confident they will there are two weeks within which to declare that exalts it's

official so how about confident that we'll have them ready in four days mohammed atta will just. be the international committee of the red cross and red crescent have begun medical evacuations from eastern guta the besieged rebel held area in syria's capital damascus almost four hundred thousand people have been trapped there by government forces since twenty thirteen the enclave has been the target of hundreds of airstrikes and artillery attacks the u.n. had earlier called for five hundred people in need of urgent medical care to be allowed to leave. turkey reportedly wants to use a military base in the rebel held syrian province of an observation post the country already has its troops deployed in some areas of it as part of a deescalation agreement but the region has recently come under heavy attack by president bashar al assad's forces zina holder has that story 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 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 will 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. 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. fighters many of whom were forced other areas by pro-government forces it's still not clear whether the government intends to. the whole province or whether it's just to 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 database 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. 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. favorite. russian president vladimir putin has been nominated for reelection he's running as an independent candidate but is backed by the pro kremlin united russia party he's expected to win use force in march easily push and refrain from campaigning but has praised his government's management of the economy after the country rebounded from its worst recession in two decades. of course these have been difficult years for both the country and for those who had to ensure stable development and overcome the difficulties that stemmed from the world economy i can say that the russian government not only did everything

that it could but in my opinion even more than that you have a stench and we solved all the economic tasks at hand. staying in russia the electoral commission has allowed t.v. personality. to run against puts in elections is nominated by the group civil initiative she's the daughter of putin's former mentor anatoly sobchak still active mayor of st petersburg but critics say her decision to run plays into the hands of the kremlin by creating an offer she'll contest. those most ill to come for you here on al-jazeera including these stories as tensions rise on the korean peninsula one family's hopes for a reunion continue to fade. in the united states five hundred million. every day there are bam or if i can it's called the strollers in seattle campaign the push to keep plastic waste out of the world's oceans.

hello and welcome back now across western parts of europe the weather is turning colder with the risk of snow across the alps but also further north across the u.k. will see some snow sort across the middle east ten centimeters of snow in places further south certainly temperatures struggling there madrid just making double figures but the whiz come from the south for the east side temperatures a pair of good fries in quite nicely as they were looking at twelve in bucharest on thursday there's a snow pushing down into the balkans region unsettled weather generally then across more eastern parts of the mediterranean but the cold air sitting across the you came fronts temperatures of just five in both london and paris on the other side of the mediterranean sea we've got showers for coastal parts of old syria and tunisia certainly tunis will see a big drop in temperatures so head through into thursday and it's looking quite

cool further along the coast in indy car only seeing a high of eighteen across central parts of africa we have some showers for the bone but otherwise weather conditions are the humidity find plenty of sunshine for lagos nigeria and i crank out over temperatures around the thirty degrees for southern parts of africa we've got heavy showers for parts mongolia some be in zimbabwe through towards mozambique but further south is looking largely dry and fine should be a decent day in durban with high sierra of twenty seven. welcome

back recapping our top stories for you so far today the government in the philippines says it's setting up more than six hundred temporary shelters for people displaced by the conflict in the city of murali the army read so clear from separatist fighters in october for a five month siege around we was also battered by tropical storm tembin last week. the counting is underway in liberia's presidential runoff between the former footballer george weah and the current vice president joseph despite a low turnout the process is expected to produce the first democratic transition of

power there in more than seven decades and the russian president vladimir putin has been nominated for a fourth term in office was running as an independent candidate but he's backed by the pro kremlin united russia party he's expected to win the vote comfortably shuttles take place in march of next year. was 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 our final report we focus now on tensions on the korean peninsula and families split between the north and the south florence luis spoke with a man who's been separated from his father for nearly five decades. this is one of kong and charles' treasured possessions it's the only photo he has of him with his father he was two years old when he last saw his dad nearly fifty years ago it wasn't until he was nine that he found out the truth. i asked my mother when he was

coming home she told me he was on a business trip to the united states and will be home for christmas i believed her and waited and waited his father. had been traveling on a domestic flight in south korea but it was hijacked and flown to north korea the incident sparked an international outcry in north korea eventually returned most of those on board the flight that refused to allow eleven of us to leave including kwan's father. there was a time i hated my father so much because i was told by my family that he stood out too much during ideologist sessions in the north he would argue with the of dorry's and that's why he wasn't sent back to hong has spent much of his adult life campaigning for his father's release setting up a group to the south korean government and international community to pressure north korea to release the remaining crew and passengers. when there were tensions

around the korean peninsula intensified my father's case was pushed aside whenever there were any issues between the core yes and our story became the least priority it's a tragedy my family has to carry looking inward. and security concerns on the peninsula had deepened this year in september north korea tested a hydrogen bomb weapons experts also say north korean scientists appear to have made rapid progress with each missile test and could possibly combine nuclear and ballistic missile capabilities by next year. one realizes these developments will make a reunion more unlikely but he's certain his dad still yinz for home and here can seem to try to defect in two thousand and thirteen i heard that the rest of the people in his group who made the same attempt were all executed the one was then in march two thousand and sixteen i heard he was living in pounce on what i was told

last december you know that the surveillance was too strong for anyone to approach him or took him that i can prove. but one is not giving up determined to be reunited with his father no matter what it takes florence lee al-jazeera saw. it's exactly ten years since pakistan's first female head of state was assassinated benazir bhutto was killed at a campaign rally after a suicide bomber detonated explosives. on the legacy she left behind. oh. gould in the art of complicated pakistani politics by have followed i don't think i really porto energy but go became the was youngest prime minister and pakistan's first woman state. was actually an incredibly. during her lifetime she got such wide screen off. literally everything she wasn't really into she was the thing that isn't. she

had a strong command on foreign funding she had intense interest. in pakistan the bottom of her feet in the prime minister twice been as it was unable to recover from corruption charges during her second term as prime minister she was barred from politics but i managed to did my gender card with mccarthy in two thousand and seven paved the way for her return in october two thousand and seven when i did vote. don ending almost eight. she had a narrow escape procession was bombed into southern port city of karachi but despite that her life continued read the political rally across the country however little did she know that the rally hadn't got bob. her life

despite the security tricks i mean there determinately she was the region really she lost her life is struggling for the betterment of the muscles of. his her come into pakistan. was that renews she made up a mind when it was picked over anything and she knew or used it months before her return to pakistan yemen prime i'll judge later certain. about the security attached to her lies some of them the rogue elements and been working with al qaida possibly on one assassination attempt on you i do believe that there are elements within the security of paris just particularly those who are associated with the prime jihad of the eighty's against the soviets who still had links with some of the fall about elements and the al qaida elements it was dogs element she feared were trying to kill her.

after getting a rally in rawalpindi what do emerge from i had her on top of feeling you could wave to her to pull. a suicide bomber blew himself up. again ten years on she stands remembered by friendly and fortune like. that ajay create laws for democracy. box knocked on our. now the detention of two reuters journalists in myanmar has been extended for another fourteen days while alone and your so you'll have been allowed to meet families and their lawyers they were arrested earlier this month after they were invited to make release officials on the outskirts of young gone mean more accuses the reporters of planning to share illegally acquired information with foreign media they were working on stories about the military crackdown on wrangel muslims in rakhine state who are on your own i want my husband to be free soon and i trust

him that he would never violate the rule of law he has good morals so he should be free soon with all the reuters chief operating officer reginald schwab spoke to al-jazeera about those arrests he said information from me and he's had been hard to come by. we don't believe they've done anything wrong we think they're completely innocent or wrongdoing you know they report it they report they go out they gather facts. their yard i'd rather not talk about what they were working on but certainly everything that they were doing you know was the gentleman journalism and to accuse the you know of having secrets of some kind seems to be a stretch what they're working on you know is good important stories but nothing that would that would rise the level of you know no. challenging national security that's what the law is about and that's such a broad law in any case right it's an official secrets act that's from claudio days

that's very broad you know pretty much anything that the government. is of official or deans of you know national security points can be can fall into law which means pretty much anyone can fall afoul of it in given time so again until we have some access to them and we don't have any access to them we don't know what questions they've been asked we don't know what the government is looking for and frankly they won't tell us either. mexican police have arrested a suspect in the murder of a crime journalist the man is accused of planning the killing of numerous love a breach in march the journalist was shot several times and she drove out of garridge mexico is one of the world's most dangerous countries for reporters at least sixteen journalists were killed in the last three years on the network one of the search and location works continue to achieve the arrest of the other people responsible for the homicide and want the public prosecutor's office and state's general prosecutor's office processed the first back we'll present the main elements of the investigation and it's methodology this past year has seen numerous

protests denouncing violence against journalists activists accuse the government of not doing enough to protect reporters or to bring their killers to justice mexico is one of the world's most dangerous countries sixteen killed in the past six months. egypt's subpoenaed to the world bank to help resolve a dispute with ethiopia over a dam on the nile foreign ministers from both countries have been meeting in the ethiopian capital addis ababa they're stuck in a row over the grand renee song stand project which also involves sudan egypt for years the hydroelectric scheme will reduce its share of the water supply. we usually work and cooperate to avoid any kind of tension and there are some issues that should be taken away and separated from others and i think the water issue of egypt sudan and ethiopia should bring us together in the union because it's the issue related to the future and the interest of the three countries it's.

this dam will not bring any significant harm upon the egyptian side and we are working at the state of this we are trying to be very transparent the important thing here is that if there are any concerns that come from the egyptians we are working very closely to solve. since the war in yemen began one escape route from the fighting has been by road across the border into amman but some of mali is driving in the other direction they're taking truckloads of aid towards the battlegrounds rob matheson reports from moscow it. for over forty days mohammed has been waiting he has on call his brothers and their seventy year old father have traveled over two and a half thousand kilometers to muscat from their home in the yemeni port city of aden. for the services in aden are very bad there is no electricity water or food we have to buy it from the black market and it costs too much life is very difficult mohamed's father has spent those six weeks inside the muscat apartment

they all share he has cancer he has a visa for treatment in germany mohammed is his father's official companion but his visa hasn't come through him and the health system in yemen has almost collapsed they can only do simple first aid and basic operations but for serious illnesses there is no treatment and people can't afford it much of yemen has been ripped apart by fighting between who the rebels and saudi led forces backing the internationally recognized government documents or friday and many hospitals have been destroyed the government of a man doesn't issue official statistics to show of the number of yemenis there are in the country people who've been injured in the fighting or people who've escaped here and need medical treatment have been treated by the hospitals here but a man is very concerned that the fighting in yemen is going to spill over the border and because of that it's tightening its border controls and that's going to make it more difficult for people like muhammad and his uncle to come to amman so

some of monies are taking aid to yemen. has been three times already. in october he took three trucks filled with food clothes and blankets over time when i'm going there is given hope to go again ok not because i don't go for fighting my talk is not not not for fighting is to helping people. on the last journey seventeen year old sultan of reality you finally persuaded nasser to take him to more concerned seventy of those people there and the problems which we can fish in now and i wish any magic wend comes and remove this problem lebanon mohamed says he has no intention of staying away from yemen and it's not just like when he and his family work in construction and when the fighting stops they say they'll have to rebuild their country road matheson

al-jazeera muscat oman. scientists are finding vast amounts of plastic in the world's oceans now as this rubbish degrades it turns into microscopic pieces that ends in the food chain through the fish for the people of seattle in the us a fun a unique way to reduce the waste and to recycle brunell's is that. 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 call the campaign strong as in seattle so we really want to start with something simple that every single one of us every single day and that item is

just the other great thing about there is an alternative don't you worldwide people use one billion plastic straws a day in the united states we're five hundred million single use plastics through us every day there are a percent of them or if i call. those that find their way and break down into micro profit and when a marine animal if. they have a fifty percent mortality rate so it's a significant asset can we assume those cars 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 campaign is 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 jail a lot about the birth of the boss to go over there and are we talking to her i don't know if 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 brazen 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.

with your top stories from al-jazeera and other governments in the philippines says it's setting up more than six hundred temporary shelters for people displaced by the conflict in the city of mirali the army rita clear in from separatist fighters in october for five months a huge rally was also battered by tropical storm tembin last week. is underway in liberia's presidential runoff between the former football of george weah and the current vice president joseph despite a low turnout the process is expected to produce the first democratic transition of power in more than seven decades the international committee of the red cross and red crescent has begun medical evacuations from eastern guta be pussies rebel held area in the syrian capital damascus almost four hundred thousand people have been trapped by government forces since twenty thirteen the enclave has been the target

of hundreds of air strikes and artillery attacks the u.n. says that five hundred people they need to. medical care should be allowed to leave the russian president vladimir putin has been nominated for a fourth term in office he's running as an independent but he's backed by the pro kremlin united russia party he's expected to win and win comfortably come the vote in march of next year put in a so far refrained from campaigning but has praised his government's management of the economy after the country rebounded from its worst recession in twenty years the u.s. has imposed sanctions on two north korean scientists linked to the country's missile program the u.s. and south korea say kim jong seek and read. are senior figures in north korean leader kim jong un's ballistic missile development team the sanctions are the latest move by the u.s. to pressure pyongyang into abandoning its weapons program. the detention of two reuters journalists in myanmar has been extended for another fourteen days while

alone and your c.e.o. all have been allowed to meet families and their legal teams they were arrested earlier this month after they were invited to meet police officials on the outskirts of young gone accuses the reporters of planning to share illegally acquired information with foreign media they were working on stories about the military crackdown on rohingya muslims in rakhine state inside story is on air in about a minute and news has never been more of a liberal but the message is a simplistic and misinformation is rife listening post provides a critical counterpoint challenging mainstream media narrative at this time on al-jazeera. high hopes of continued peace and stability in liberia as voters choose a new leader that's how with this vote in hands democracy in a country that has seen its share of violence and what would it mean for the region this is inside.