relationship with government and there are moments when that may happen with finished. violence escalates in the central african republic we speak to a top u.n. official in the capital bangui after 3 peacekeepers are killed ahead of sunday's elections. sami's a than this is al jazeera live so coming out. the new coronavirus variant spreads further japan and france report the 1st cases of the new strain. the mystery around

the nashville explosion deepens police say they found human remains at the scene of the blast. and the young writers are sharing in a renaissance of iraqi literature music to be silenced. central african republic is a nation on edge as it waits for a landmark ruling on whether to perspire on sunday's election rebel forces are advancing after a ceasefire with the government broke down 3 un peacekeepers have been killed by unidentified attackers in the color of u.n. secretary general antonio has condemned the killings he's demanding an investigation. oh international community is becoming increasingly concerned violence could spiral out of control in central african republic russia france and

rwanda are deploying military forces in support of the government catherine sawyer reports from the capital bangui. was president thorstein dara arrives for his final election rally in bongi in full force has been telling people to come out and forth on sunday without fear i recently formed a group called the patriot put change all c.p.c. has threatened to march to the city and launched attacks against government troops backed by un peacekeepers in some rural areas the c.p.c. which is a coalition of several armed groups has called off a ceasefire it had declared them wednesday. moon they are trying to come to bangui new center africans must open your eyes help our armed forces un peacekeepers mean those from rwanda and russia giving us a hand those and the fighters come into the city. 16 presidential candidates have

been cleared to run in the polls but johnson. sound of the country's only salty cleared emperor has withdrawn citing security concerns former president francois was disqualified by the constitutional court state officials and the u.n. accuse him of being behind the c.p.c. rebellion to disrupt the election and overthrew the government has backed and he said who's a marched as president would dare a strongest challenger. president is the founder of one of the strongest political parties with solid policies he himself is a very popular leader but he did not but my candidacy is the party that endorsed me . most opposition candidates a while back and won their. election postponed and that's all candidates that each promising to finally bring back to their loved one publicly and by. my belief

that. people are you talking to here in bondi i think that the hard problem is people don't miss loss rate you can knows all about pain caused by conflict his leg was blown off by a hand grenade when the mostly muslim armed groups seleka over on bondi 2318 and over through. a very sick you. actually cannot understand what's happening to me and i'm scared of what's happening now there are only coming to kill i want to ask the government to help us to stop those who are coming. to is now preparing to vote in an election clouded by fear and satin he tells us he'll only go to the polling station if he feels absolutely safe a sentiment shared by many other voters cathy zoi al jazeera. take a look at the fragile political landscape in central african republic president foster

in our challenge why there came to power in 2016 invalid to pursue peace and unity but he struggled to contain unrest his rival france wobbles easy was forced from power more than 6 years ago by mostly muslim rebels known as the seleka prompting reprisals from christian armed groups un investigators say large scale killings were carried out by both sides against civilians the subsequent violence worsened the country's ongoing civil war from think thousands of un peacekeepers to be deployed in 2014 and the peace accord signed in february 2019 between the government and 14 armed groups led to a lower level of violence with armed factions forming a coalition against the government it's fed the country could see a return to wider conflict that forced 4 and a half 1000000 people to flee their homes. the nice brown is the deputy special representative of the secretary-general of the un's peacekeeping mission she joins

us now live from bungie good to have you with us so let's start with the situation in benghazi right now how concerned are you about what will happen with the state of elections. situation in bankia this morning where i am talking to you from. distribution of the voter cards is ongoing and people very country who are registered are only large numbers to kurds the population is determined in this country to grow tomorrow and we are determined they should reject this who are going. to ensure that the ball goes ahead but can this be a free and unfair vote right now in the midst of all the instability that's going on rebels are a force to be trying to march on by. yeah all of this instability that you referring to is localized in several communities in the western part of the country

and that's been ongoing for a ricoh i just finished a meeting with all the regional representatives of the country and 80 percent of the country the situation is progressing there are preparations are ongoing and. so on must. people who are be able to morrow in security yet in some parts there is interference it was caused by the armed words but as you know we brought in horseman's yesterday from arkansas who actually in south sudan to reassure him that the brokers heard and that the country brought in security and vote in the way that they would like to but if somebody joins a left out one that lead to greater instability with claims that the vote is not legitimate because sizable chunks of the population were excluded no there will be no region left that we're talking about pockets of communities and

i last estimate this morning is not there maybe about 4 percent of the electorate not able to vote but it's absolutely not region why it's very specific communities in those communities. blue helmets because you went to church and reinforced their presence to ensure that people can come so we are very determined the population is determined and push back on the armed groups who believe that the other actions from the population in this country then what happens then if the cold rules against elections being held. we are not expecting the courts to rule against the elections being held because the national electoral authority has issued it. saying that mission are in place for the directions to be held that said united nations respects decisions that are taken by the institutions of this country particularly the constitution and we are

waiting for the announcement but we are we are we're optimistic what you make of the rebel groups claims that they had to end the cease fire agreement because they believe the incumbent president was trying to fix the election these are criminals there and they have armed themselves they are creating fear amongst the population if they want to change the government of this country they should have friends there to vote taken there let's do a card board tomorrow we cannot allow international can of them out of this country to be dragged back to the conflict and they are as of 2000 and where innocent people were killed institutions were ended and brutal the honest words ring in this country that cannot be allowed and we can arouse them to lead the country back along this. so i guess there's no possibility with the off to the

deaths of 3 u.n. peacekeepers it's not on the horizon that's whole for the u.n. to think about scaling back withdrawing its troops presence there right absolutely not we have a mandate from the security council of which we are responsible to protect the citizens of this country are unfortunate very unfortunate and all of our condolences to the family and the country of the peacekeepers we lost yesterday but this is what we're here to do. and this by that terrible loss reinforced our presence and many in this country alongside this. vote as they want to do less that they have said they want on ok what about the thousands of people who have been displaced from their homes i think the figure was 55000 the last estimate i read what's happening to them to their basic needs and

how will people like that participate in a political. absolutely 55000 people displaced by the concert most of that is going to children who are following that situation very closely for the moment even of humanitarian crisis is. represents the. national represents. the situation. yes we are here further. ongoing. in the country but we are paying careful attention to the situation of those people and most of them not not bones there's. no but yes some or we're not able to birds more or less they're able to go home. thank you so much for your focus on that denise brown that thank you at least 35 people have been kidnapped in northeast nigeria men dressed in military

uniforms set up a roadblock in the ducted the traveller's as they headed to my degree it's believed the incident could be linked to boko haram afghanistan's capital has been hit by a series of explosions at least 5 separate attacks are of forces across kabul 2 police officers were killed in the worst incident no group has claimed responsibility yet it comes as the taliban the afghan government continue talks here in doha. more areas of the u.k. are entering the highest level of coronavirus restrictions shutting non-essential businesses and forcing people to stay at home northern ireland scotland and large areas of england are joining the regions already under the tear for rules they've been reintroduced to combat an alarming rise in infections partly blamed on the spread of a new more virulent strain of the virus of a more contagious variant has now been confirmed in japan 5 people who arrived from

the u.k. were found to be infected and put in quarantine they traveled before japan joined more than 50 countries in banning flights from britain and france says confirmed its 1st case of the mutant variant to the health ministry says the infected person is a french citizen who arrived from the u.k. a week ago france of closed its border to britain but lifted its ban on wednesday for travelers with a negative code test france is among a number of european union countries receiving their 1st shipments of coronavirus vaccines vaccinations start on sunday beginning with people in elderly care homes it's part of a wave of deliveries being made across the e.u. after the blocks drug agency approved the pfizer bio on tech shot and those says have also arrived in romania with an ocular asians due to begin on sunday the

government hopes 70 percent of the population will receive the vaccine in the next 6 months. australia is reimposing coronavirus restrictions in parts of sydney after 9 new cases in the state of new south wales were traced to a cluster in the city's north in other areas of the city people were told not to shop on boxing day sydney's northern areas will now revert back to stay at home orders for at least 3 days. again our strategy is to make sure we need this in the bot as soon as we can and that we get on top of it as soon as we can and of course in the next few days we'll let the community know what. the people on the northern beaches but also. and also what january looks like. for the rest of. you so we want to thank everybody for your cooperation. well still ahead on al-jazeera we meet people in delaware this day but for joe biden's political career . thousands of migrants spend christmas in shelters in north mexico opening bat

silent hopes on the incoming u.s. president. we've got plenty of showers across so much of southeast asia as usual plenty of showers there making their way through the philippines wetter weather sliding across the south china seas this little disturbance here will grassy graze the far south of vietnam and push its way over towards southern parts of thailand through the mill a peninsula usual showers there was you can see across much of malaysia will break down polls coming into indonesia over the next few days and some of the shallows also affecting the far north of australia simson disturbed weather continuing here showers there too into northern parts of queensland south of that it's not too bad

it is dry and boy has it been hot it's been extremely hot in the southwest of australia perth on christmas day got up to 40 celsius esperance we saw temperatures getting up to 42 degrees c. hottest christmas day that we have on record records go back to 1907 the heat will apply to little as we go through the next few days it personal getting up into the low thirty's as we go on through sunday showers down towards the southeast and notice some warmth there 33 celsius there in melbourne largely dry continuing for the test match here but much cola by monday. and. what is that they've been doing with the money that it's boring we bring you the stories in developments. dramatically changing the world we live in argentina's congress is debating a bill seeking to raise billions of dollars for the super rich poor families hit

hard by the damage counting the cost on al-jazeera. there is no channel that covers world news like we do we revisit cases day on syria really invests in that and that's a privilege as a journalist. group. who's . back there watching al-jazeera time to recap those headlines the u.n. mission in central african republic has told al-jazeera conditions are stable enough to ensure a free and fair election on sunday violence has flared and 3 un peacekeepers have been killed the constitutional court is set to decide on whether to pursue her own the vote. japan and france have confirmed their 1st cases of

a more contagious coronavirus mutation 1st identified in britain more than 50 countries have banned travelers from the u.k. . afghanistan's capital has been hit by a series of explosions 5 separate attacks were reported across kabul 2 police officers were killed in the worst incident no group has claimed responsibility. the us city of nashville is under curfew after an explosion ripped through a neighborhood on friday a motorhome blew up early on christmas morning after playing a recorded bomb warning several buildings were damaged and 3 people suffered minor injuries police haven't been able to establish a motive. we have found 2 shoe that we believe could be remains that would just have that you know examined and it will be able to let you know from at the door of the was detonated so it was someone inside we have no idea such a large explosion but the investigation continuing deaths matter all over this the

area down there and so we'll continue to examine it to see if it is human remains. how it is here is john hendren has this update from the national it's common nashville now but hours ago an early morning christmas explosion shattered the calm injuring 3 people and destroying 41 buildings according to authorities here they're not exactly sure what the intended target was but the explosion occurred outside of an a.t.m. t.v. transmission building and there were warnings the recreational vehicle was broadcasting apparently recorded messages telling people to evacuate the area and at one point saying that within 15 minutes there would be a possible bomb explosion meanwhile authorities say that they have found what appears to be human remains they don't know if that was someone inside the vehicle or someone who was nearby and have not confirmed that it is indeed human remains

but they are operating on that theory now and authorities are investigating this as a potential terror attack and they are looking into what the motive was who was involved in this attack but meanwhile they have declared a curfew in downtown nashville from friday through sunday the christmas morning explosion has destroyed a large swath of the tourist area here in what is the country music capital of the united states. u.s. frezza didn't elect joe biden has expressed sympathy for the many families facing their 1st christmas after losing loved ones he released a holiday message alongside his wife jill is promising to do more to combat the pandemic in 2021 we know for so many of you and i know this is been a very difficult year and we're reminded in this season of hope our common humanity

and what we're called to do for one another many of our fellow americans are struggling to find work literally put food on the table pay their rent or mortgage reminded we're on this earth to care for $1.00 another to give what we can and to be a source of help and hope to friend a stranger like many families are facing their 1st christmas having lost are not in jail and i know that. and we know how in times of grief a kind word can mean so much. now joe biden often talks about his working class roots in pennsylvania but his political career was made representing the tiny state of delaware his election to the highest office makes him the 1st president from delaware the 1st state to ratify the u.s. constitution al-jazeera as kristen salumi takes a closer look at the place the president elect calls home. delaware traces its european roots back to the 1600s the city of new castle boasts many historic sites

including the courthouse where the state 1st declared independence from great britain not to mention its more powerful neighbor pennsylvania this land marked example of the federal period architecture belonged to the son of george reid one of the signatories of the u.s. constitution like many in the state tour guide and murphy hopes the 1st state's 1st president will finally put delaware on the map i can remember traveling to california one time they asked me where i'm from and i said delaware and where's that even those who aren't huge fans of joe biden can see his election has benefits to bring more more tourists i think that she would be king from it was here in new castle that joe biden won his 1st election 50 years ago taking a seat on the county council he hasn't lost an election since and many here see a win for biden as a win for delaware the shipping industry has long since left the shores of this

former british colony these days wilmington home to the biden transition team is better known as a tax haven for corporations those in the struggling hospitality business are happy the hotels are now full of news media and more than that george taylor is looking forward to the new administration he gives that message of hope and for most black people out of a such as myself i believe he's going to do such a great job you know making sure that we are all integrated we are all united in one america it was in fact delaware founding father george reid who pushed to create the u.s. senate and guarantee equal representation for smaller states turns out politics in delaware has always been personal when you have such a small place everyone has to get along in some way and i think the. it's the tradition that joe biden is certainly coming coming out of where you're a senator or your representative or in this case your president as

a next door neighbor he's just show it to a lot of people here the hope is joe biden will now speak for the entire nation particularly the under represented in keeping with local tradition christian salumi al-jazeera new castle delaware. thousands of refugees and migrants are spending christmas in shelters along mexico's northern border with the u.s. many have been waiting for months for their asylum cases to be processed delayed further by the pandemic john heilemann reports. he's the line separating the u.s. from mexico it's been a slow train coming for those who want to cross it legally and the pandemic has made things worse with u.s. immigration courts closed for months. there are thousands of migrants stuck in mexico to meet them open to process their asylum requests the u.s. has put them in a plan called m.p.p. which means they have to way in mexico where there are silent process plays out

even though they're from other countries. get out all fled brazil he says because of the threat of violence erupt in border city what is 10 months ago this still waiting for his 1st court date. a meter thematic or it was for march 14th of this year but that was changed because of the pandemic to the simper 15 now it's for the 10th i'm a of next year. you're just out though his son and his wife is spending christmas in a shelter many of the 10s of thousands of people that been ordered to wait in mexico in the n.p.p. program will be doing the same. some migration lawyers are worried that they could miss the one year deadline to start the asylum process altogether new stories hopes that's not the case but she's concerned about the well being of those she's trying to help there's a school mall or knesset bus here and it's a complicated situation for the haitian basic needs it's really in setting what's going to happen to them and that generics and sightsee just being here waiting not

knowing how to follow up with the proceeds. go to host church is one of many along the border which have been turned into shelters he's seen hope among those now under his care that a new u.s. administration could help them. but i don't know who. happier about biden's victory the americans or those stuck here in the asylum process because it means for them and then to their stay in mexico so that they can follow their dreams. president elect joe biden had promised to end the m.p.p. program on his 1st day in office now his incoming administration has signaled it will take more time and there are questions about what will then happen to those spending this christmas in shelters john home. thousands of people have been evacuated from their homes on the portuguese island of may there are the severe flooding roads were completely submerged rockslides damage property and at least one house was destroyed no injuries have been reported iraq has

produced some of the most celebrated and respected writers in the arab world but conflicts sectarianism and political oppression forced many to flee and right from abroad now a new generation is determined to keep iraq's literary heritage alive charles stratford explains. mcauliffe has been writing about the momentous and often violent changes iraq has suffered for more than half a century the baghdad based author whose novels short stories and poems have been published across the arab world present to navigate censorship political imprisonment and even death threats throughout his career he acknowledges his contribution to iraqi literature but he's saddened by what he says is the lack of impact his work has had. the country has culturally regressed people who don't read or write might struggle to develop culture across the arab world is suffering

terribly and there are writers to without freedom to write how can others learn i feel i have little effect on people's thoughts bookshops along element to not be street named after a 10th century poet have been immortalized in iraq in arab culture for centuries. the crumbling alterman buildings have witnessed how the pressures on iraqi writers and readers have changed over the years the challenge of avoiding jail worse under the rule of saddam hussein to bomb attacks and kidnapping by al qaida eisel and various armed groups that still have much power in iraq elements in the street is almost a mythical status in the history of arabic literature a place where writers and intellectuals would meet to discuss politics and the arts but despite the political instability and violence this country continues to suffer there is increasing evidence of young writers appearing who are determined not to

self and to protect and build on iraq's literary past. but i'll be arty is a young recently published iraqi poet she owns a bookshop and one of a number of recently opened publishing houses close by she says half the book seen her shot by new young iraqi writers. trying to wake people up from the hibernation for too long iraqis have accepted what we were told so as young writers we try to stimulate minds without religion or focus on ethnicity instead we look at a reduced humanity we're not afraid because we have seen so much of course i sometimes worry about my family but we have to re stimulate ideas of civilized things at baghdad's annual international book fair young people who can afford to buy books including arabic literature history philosophy and translated foreign works but. it is difficult for our generation to find the correct road to walk along so we depend on ourselves and through books and reading i hope we can change

the next generation to planted flowers not thorns that we find on the path we travel along we have to read more widely to forge a new future to young people here definitely seem keen to lead us home to a good that will. hope at least that iraq's literary heritage is being rekindled by a new generation who say their country's future stability and growth will be helped by young iraqis reading and writing more chance traffic al-jazeera back dad. i'm sam is a bad time to have a look at those top stories there are mission in central african republic has told al-jazeera conditions are stable enough to ensure a free and fair election on sunday.