join the club conversation at this time on al-jazeera. aid agencies evacuate critically ill patients in syria's besieged but at least

eighteen people die before they can be moved. i know i'm maryam namazie in london you're watching al-jazeera also coming up we hear about the alleged rights abuses in yemen by a political prisoner who says he was kidnapped and tortured. families of murder victims in mexico demond on says as the country suffers its bloodiest year on record. in the auto exhibition that gives public a reg lives into life a kuantan a mo back a perspective although its inmates. know our top story aid workers have started evacuating critically ill patients from east and in syria's capital damascus at least eighteen people though have died while

waiting east and is one of the last remaining rebel strongholds it's been under a tight government siege since two thousand and thirteen and the target of hundreds of as strikes and artillery attacks that's course of a a food and medical shortages for about four hundred thousand syrians trapped there last month the u.n. called for five hundred people in need of urgent medical care to be allowed to leave but it was only often long negotiations that twenty nine critical cases were approved for medical evacuation. order has the latest now on a warning that some of the images you'll see in her report might be disturbing. it's a start but it's not enough only a handful of east bhutto's critically ill are being allowed to leave to hospitals in damascus which is less than an hour's drive away twenty nine patients the majority of them women and children a six month old baby was on the list but one aid workers reached. others house they found out she died weeks ago the syrian government is allowing them to be treated

outside the besieged opposition stronghold after the armed group. agreed to release some government prisoners it's not clear if new deals will be reached it has been four years since east water was besieged by the syrian army the siege has tightened in recent months there are according to the united nations almost five hundred urgent medical cases employ a man has brain cancer she says her condition is only deteriorating the u.n. says more than a dozen people have already died while waiting to be evacuated for treatment i know there is no treatment available for me here i have nothing no medicine no money i'm just waiting for god's mercy it's not just the lack of medical supplies there is a lack of food the united nations says the area is experiencing the worst case of child malnutrition since the start of the conflict. the lack of medical equipment of vaccines have affected children also they are malnourished and this has that to

a number of diseases unfortunately that children are facing in dire conditions. there have been reported because of malnutrition in the past. even. the. thousand five hundred children are at risk two hundred thirty two. more than four hundred thousand. children. for the first time but it was forty thousand people there. the worse. the government. as a military strategy the situation the likelihood of becomes more.

the president. says the group has been struggling to get. or look these areas. is a busy justice for us now but in the last month that was about to be very difficult to reach the areas in the ear out there usually we do want to red cross requests and very you know in other parts of the of syria our last very very our last convoy allowed when getting the area was in november but only for goods and food for only seven thousand people it might be the number is exactly because four hundred thousand people are stuck into him these arak people are really staring out and this is not a modern music saga. great daily life for that these people is expediency every day especially the children and the enemy in reality the arabs suffering

a level of suffering and yes reached really pretty got going that we we cannot wait any more we have to increase our capacity to believe in these out and it is that while we are pushing for the you might get an access. france's president emmanuel lachlan is a saudi arabia's king sound man to lift the blockade on yemen a blockade which was in for since october is limiting supplies of feel fluid and medicine back on says he's concerned about the humanitarian crisis in the country by millions of people on the brink of famine parts of yemen are also in the grip of a cholera outbreak well a political prisoner in the country has been speaking to al-jazeera about his prison experiences behind bars human rights groups say thousands of yemenis have been arbitrary detained and tortured during the country's two and a half year war warning that some of what you're about to hear in this report is

graphic it's actually going to name has more. yousif knew the opposition newspaper he edited made him a target of the armed rebel who thiis it was time to take precautions but it was too late last year he says he was kidnapped outside his home in sanaa. i was repeatedly tortured and interrogated due to my job as a journalist before my detention i openly declared that i was suspending my work because of the harsh conditions facing journalists opposed to the who he's in sanaa and so began more than a year held in several prisons in yemen's capital. to have the. i was threatened with physical abuse and rape so was my family i was put in solitary confinement for twenty six days my health deteriorated. human rights groups say thousands of people including children have been arbitrarily detained and tortured

by both sides in the war yemeni forces and who the fighters are accused of beating using electric shocks and forcing prisoners to strip others taken captive have simply disappeared this human rights attorney says families have reported the deaths of almost one hundred twenty prisoners in one of the events in seventy year and if there are secret prisons human rights groups have documented four hundred seventeen alone in sana from residential houses to schools and even places of worship the kidnappers have abducted individuals from all walks of life and juniors doctors and even journalists they are subjected to brutal torture but journalists are given a harder time ashlan was eventually transferred to a military prison camp where he says he was housed along with prisoners of war last month he was released as part of a prisoner swap. but if i thought about it i wished it didn't happen that way simply because i was not to convict

a person i was kidnapped outside my house. is lucky to be alive days before he was released the camp was bombed dozens of his former cell mates die natasha to name. ukrainian government and pro russian rebels have completed a major prisoner swap in the war to one eighth of the country it happened in the city of heart of which is mainly controlled by the pro russian separatists exchange is reported to be the largest since a pro russian uprising in eastern ukraine in two thousand and fourteen or a challenge has more from moscow. well both sides are now confirms that this prisoner swap has concluded with people being handed in both directions across the front lines in eastern ukraine the numbers that actually did scrubs the lines a bit different from the earlier advertize figures of three hundred six people going from kiev territory back to the east and seventy four people going from the

eastern regions back into kiev territory the reasons why the numbers are different is because some people were transferred earlier and some people on both sides it seems didn't actually get want to go back to where they come from this is an events that has been quite a long time in the making the final impetus though came as a recent meeting in moscow there was attended by the heads of the two separatist regions in eastern ukraine by the head of the russian orthodox church patrick carroll and by representatives from kiev but the the real political will it seems as come from both kiev and also from moscow with vladimir putin saying that he was going to use his influence with the with the separatist regions to make it happen it's a breakthrough undeniably a step in the right direction and the sides now are talking about keeping this going they're doing more prisoner swaps but while people are still dying while

moscow is still supplying the rebel regions with a weapons and hardware etc and while there doesn't seem to be a final drive for peace this is just a step in that direction we haven't got to the destination that we want to get so yet which is a final political solution russian opposition leader alexina valley says he'll organize a nationwide rally in january to support his call for a boycott of the presidential elections vanny has been barred from running in the march election over and the conviction which he says is politically motivated meanwhile the russian president vladimir putin has officially filed his own documents to run for reelection if he wins putin's rule be extended until two thousand and twenty four making him the longest serving russian leader since dictator joseph stalin. mexico has had its most violent year since modern records began twenty years ago at least twenty three thousand people at the nodded one every twenty minutes this year the killings spread to states which had previously escaped clashes between drug cartels charlotte ellis reports. three years ago

forty three students were abducted on their way to approach in mexico city their parents want answers remains from just two of the students have been positively identified i mean when they were there they know they may he got the virgin of guadalupe is the patron saint of mexico and we will ask her to speak to the hearts of those in government to return our children because it's not fair that thirty nine months on our children have not been returned. the void these parents feel is repeated across mexico. this is how the year began in the resort town turned murder capital of mexico acapulco six people including three women were shot and killed at a market during lunchtime on january fourth two days later two more people were shot to death on a beach popular with locals and it continues nationwide until the number of people

murdered passed a record twenty three thousand in november mexico started keeping homicide records in one thousand nine hundred five the figure drops until two thousand and seven when former president felipe calderon launched his drug war this was the result it dropped again after president pena nieto was elected and to now this year the drug fueled violence has spread affecting peaceful regions like california where the murder rate has doubled. the jump has been blamed on corruption a week your dish eerie and the capture and extradition of drug lord joaquin el chapo guzman to the united states. leaving competition for his domain. it's because. of the drastic adjustment the criminal organizations have had in the last three years in mexico the appearance of new criminal groups the dissolution of others and the great struggle that is beginning to be noticed in the country states in regions of the country where there was relative peace after the capture and

extradition of walkman koosman. in an attempt to control the contact congress approved a controversial law that would see soldiers take over from police in the drug makes the co supreme court is deciding if it will become law next year. for now forty one students are still missing any information on a whereabouts would likely change these people's lives but do little to mexico's homicide tally shallot ballasts al jazeera you're watching out. hundreds of new shelters a set up in the philippines for the thousands displaced by fighting and flooding and its nuclear tensions escalate on the korean peninsula we speak to one family that's been separated by conflict for almost a century. hello

there the weather is all quite quiet across many parts of the middle east at the moment we've had one weather system with this but that is pulling away towards the east then there's quite a large break before cloud is making its way in from the mediterranean but this is just making things that a bit gray at times it works its way eastwards for the western parts of turkey though we're looking at some more active weather not on thursday most likely on friday the next weather system pushes its way and that's going to be giving us some very heavy downpours there around that western coastline during the day a bit further towards the south and here in doha twenty three degrees will be our maximum on thursday and no real change as we head through friday maybe just a degree or so higher towards the south so long as looking at the top temperature of around twenty nine degrees down towards the southern parts of africa the weather here is more active we got plenty of very violent thunderstorms stretching their way across parts of mozambique and towards madagascar will likely to see some more very heavy showers here as we head through the next few days and again some of

those bringing the old rumble of thunder up towards the south a largely fine and dry for many of us his cool we're looking at thirty to invent all the cape town we're looking at around twenty three is a maximum durban is likely to see more in the way of cloud there and the old shower .

i'm back with al jazeera other top stories aid workers have started evacuating critically ill patients from a besieged suburb of syria's capital damascus but at least eighteen people have died while waiting france's president has called on saudi arabia to completely lift its blockade on yemen so aid can be delivered to millions of people on the brink of starvation and the government and pro russian rebels have completed a major prisoner swap in the war torn east of the country. and other stories we're following closely the philippine government to setting up hundreds of shelters for some of the thousands of people displaced by fighting and flooding in the city the army we took the area from fighters linked to i said in october after

a five month siege only for tropical storm tembin to sweep through the city of mcbride reports from. for people displaced by the more are we fighting life in a muddy camp with open drains was already miserable then came the floods some tents were washed away and all of them were strong and that was the bureau family's possessions are still a wet pile and they go to sleep in the damn things their neighbor for an hour and her family lost their home and business in the fighting now her daily battle is with the water and mud to keep it out. you have to constantly think about where to put your things in made out he had money and good property and i could go to school in the city bears the scars of the months of conflict between government troops and fighters linked to eisele for now which is quiet but there's still a threat of renewed hostilities and martial law in mindanao has been extended for

another year but on the edge of the city signs of hope new permanent homes are being built for displaced people president rodriguez who's from mindanao has promised to find a lasting solution to the conflict for him this project is an important step on the road to peace. by doing my job or know what i'm going to love them and it's an ongoing dialogue for mindanao the conflict holds up development the lack of money and jobs then fuels the underlying discontent and none of this is helped by being battered by storms from her tent home for an ample one can see the new houses being built on the opposite hillside but doesn't know if she will get close to moving into one mass i hope one day we can make a new start and living in one of the new houses would have. for now the new house

is far outnumbered by the thousands of tents. bright al-jazeera we city southern philippines living to liberia now where the national elections commission is expected to begin releasing the provisional results from the presidential runoff election pitted the former football star george where against current vice president joseph because i local newspapers are reporting a low turnout among the two million people who are eligible to vote is the first democratic transition of power in the west african nation in seventy three years that it has more from the capital monrovia of to our day of orderly and peaceful visiting in move on five followers important stations across liberia the people of this country are waiting for the results of the runoff election it puts the former football star where against current vice president joseph walk by local media is already reporting that. the lead involves counted on tonnage

shortfall in some of the counties all for the country georgia where is banking on his support with in the youth which accounts for more than sixty percent of the population of this country. just of walker has tied himself as the much for cutting bit of transition as he has been deputising for outgoing president ellen johnson sirleaf for the past twelve years electoral commission is expected to announce the election results in a matter of days a former army commander who led the military takeover against involved ways formulate a robert mugabe has been appointed vice president the promotion of constantino to anger is deep in concerns about the close ties between the military and zimbabwe's new president and. local media say former state security minister campbell has been named as second vice president. it's been ten years since pakistan's former prime

minister benazir bhutto was assassinated at a campaign rally she was part of pakistan's most famous political dynasty kemal i do reports from qana the ancestral home of the bhutto's. the budget can't be. commemorating their tenth anniversary of benazir bhutto and you can see it's a jam packed crowd people have come from across the country from all of all provinces of pakistan but here in the province of st still enjoys considerable support after all how far the group began here and larkana hope father good for coralie virtue or for usually popular but outraged as villagers over the mantle of responsibility for the pakistan people's party as you can three quarter of the people who have turned up there are ordinary forfour come

from the nearby religious for the people of. the ledger and this is only down yes i think after. the and for does take that father she always leave india because she votes for them she die for them. maybe she need to say we fight for life. and we shall continue. mission until the last minute of our lives and i e military and all the people coming in that the mission of p.p.p. mission of the shaking will those will remain continue and the pride of our great she's room. for little girls still enjoys can support her son for troll is now the chairman of the pakistan people's party they have a provincial government and the provincial. but it all sure expected that in the forthcoming elections the people's party may get more wards in other provinces that

really it really caught fear death of their popularity across pockets on. south korea says a deal with japan to settle the decades long comfort women dispute fails to meet the. dims needs dozens of protesters gathered outside the foreign ministry to denounce the twenty fifteen agreement japan had agreed to set up a nearly nine million dollars fund to help korean women who were forced to work in japanese military brothels cheering world war two but survivors say they want direct compensation japan has warned that any attempt to revise the deal would make ties on manageable as twenty seventeen draws to a close we're looking back at some of the biggest stories of the year through the eyes of five families so in our final report we focus on the crisis between north and south korea and its impact on the people there for it so we spoke to a man who's been separated from his father the nearly five decades this is one of hong 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 you know wouldn't go 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 juan 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 but refused to allow eleven of us to leave including plans father john and 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 dorothy'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 going never dare work any issues between the core us and our story became the least one priority for me though it's a tragedy my family has had 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 zillions for hope. they 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 ones who then in march two thousand and sixteen i heard he was living in pounce on what i was told last december you know that those surveillance was too strong for anyone to approach him or talk and 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. and the exhibition in new york is highlighting works by osas who are former and current inmates on a day the paintings offer a glimpse into life inside one of the world's most secretive prisons gave his own daughter reports. it's an exhibit where the artists were also inmates in fact some still are all these works painted by eight inmates at guantanamo bay detention center half of them currently being held the other half subsequently released after

years in detention and one day i got a call from a lawyer he said would you be interested in displaying my client had made a kuantan a band i said what do you mean those are from guantanamo bay and we went from there the theme of some of the paintings is dark not surprisingly for inmates who have spent years in prison all were interrogated some tortured sharks in an ocean is the work of them a yemeni inmate who's been held without charge for the past fifteen years he signs all of his artwork with his prison number two for two these works are fairly skilled there is darkness but as the curator told me there is also some light i was surprised to see how calm and peaceful many of the paintings were i was expecting more more pain more anger but the detainees i interviewed told me we paint to distract ourselves from our condition like

a pair of hands clutching prison bars and flowers created by another yemeni inmate who has spent fifteen years in guantanamo some of the work sorry labrat like this would model ship made with cardboard and bottle caps as powerful as this art is to fully understand its impact is to know where it came from guantanamo bay prison was opened in the aftermath of the september eleventh attacks to hold terror suspects at its peak it housed six hundred eighty four inmates today the prison remains open holding forty one prisoners some without charge us president donald trump has talked about filling the empty cells again. it's only in the past few. years lawyers for the detainees have been permitted to take the inmates art from the prison there have been some complaints the exhibit glorifies terrorism the pentagon is said to be considering banning more work from public view the theme of the

exhibit is ocean because many of the inmates say the ocean is a symbol of calmness freedom and escape each brushstroke a glimpse into the inmates innermost thoughts of the moment gabriel is on doe al-jazeera new york protesters in kosovo have hung hundreds of neckties on a fence outside the government's headquarters after the prime minister said he needed a pay rise to afford clothes ramesh denies says he's doubled his wages because he's obliged to wear shirts and ties and he needs a wardrobe update his salary now stands at three thousand five hundred dollars a month almost a third of cost of an unemployed. right well there's more to everything we're covering right here analysis that takes you behind the headlines including the latest on all of our top stories.

take you through the headlines now aid workers have started evacuating critically ill patients from besieged suburb of syria's capital damascus the united nations has been calling on the syrian government to allow some five hundred critically ill people to leave east and do so for months the area has been under a tight government siege since twenty thirteen and subjected to hundreds of as strikes and artillery attacks at least eighteen people have now died while waiting to be evacuated meanwhile the president of the international federation of red cross francesco rocca said aid needs to be provided to the area urgently. four hundred thousand people are stuck in these are people who are really starving guy and this is not a morbid using. article i read daily larry for good news people use expediency every day especially the children not only younger ers suffering and the level of suffering and yes reached really really got going but we we cannot wait any more we

have to increase uk possibly believing these are while we are pushing for the you might be a marxist. and our other top stories france's president is urged saudi arabia to lift the blockade on yemen the blockade which has been in force since october is limiting supplies of fuel food and medicine macron says he's concerned about the humanitarian crisis in yemen where millions of people are on the brink of famine parts of yemen are also in the grip of a cholera outbreak. russian opposition leader alexina valley says he'll organize a nationwide rally in january to support his call for a boycott of presidential elections vanny has been barred from running in the march election over an embezzlement conviction that he says is politically motivated meanwhile the russian president vladimir putin is officially filed his own documents to run for reelection. in other developments the government and pro russian rebels have completed a major prisoner swap in the war torn east it happened near the city of hard left

which is mainly controlled by the russian backed separatists exchange is reported to be the largest since a pro russian uprising in eastern ukraine in two thousand and fourteen are you up to date with one of our top stories now inside story is coming up next but will have the news out for you off to that city trying it and. generous no war the u.s. is cutting the united nations budget by more than a quarter of a billion dollars but why is washington squeezing the u.n. and what of the long term implications of this cult this is inside story.