during world war 2. but with building a life and a city from scratch has proven difficult and some experts say manila has never to leave recovery. a top court in the central african republic rejects last ditch appeals to perspire is election after attacks by armed groups. well again i'm watching al-jazeera live from there are also coming up hopes for a turning point in the fight against 19 countries across the european union get their 1st vaccines and prepare for mass immunization. police in the u.s. city of nashville say they found human remains at the site of a powerful explosion there's still no clear motive for the attack. and holding on

to their voice new group of young iraqi writes who is keeping the nation's rich literary heritage along. to begin with the central african republic and a ruling from the constitutional court that the election on sunday will go ahead despite rising violence from groups their opposition parties want to defer spode and accuse the president to vote rigging rebels also rejected the legitimacy of the government and threaten to march on the capital bangui 3 un peacekeepers have been killed and human rights groups are warning that violence could reach levels last seen in 2013 when thousands of civilians were killed in a moment we'll hear from the u.n. but 1st catherine saw it has more on an election seen as a crucial test for a nation that suffered years of conflict. judges the constitutional judges made

this unanimous decision in the courtroom behind me and they say that the petition did not have strong enough grounds to have the election postponed now we've. so what this means is that the election is going to go on tomorrow wherever it can we have spoken to u.n. officials with a 70 percent of the country think enough people to come out to vote we have spoken to the government spoke spokesman who said that. they expect a low water tunnel but they hope that this turnout is not going to be so low as to discredit the process but the reason we are not just in areas where there is active fighting back in places like even bongi we have been talking to people who are saying that they will not come to the polling stations until they feel absolutely safe their priority is to protect their families so yes there's going to be an election but a lot of tension really and we had the president today in his final rally telling

the people of that this is for change. group the thing that they're coming to the. a was appealing to the residents of the to be vigilant to help security forces to block access. and you know just his words alone just show how precarious the situation is but people here in saying yes we want to come and vote but we are really not sure about i think the. room was mentioning there on the ground the u.n. is insisting the conditions are stable enough to ensure a free and fair election the deputy special representative of the u.n. secretary general spoke to al jazeera just a short time ago she told my colleagues people are determined to exercise their rights to vote. distribution of the voter cards is ongoing and people left through this country were registered to vote are coming in large numbers to

collect their cards the population is determined in this country to vote tomorrow and we are determined that the united nations rictus who are an international community to ensure that the ball goes ahead i've just finished a meeting with all the regional representatives and the country and 80 percent of the country the situation is progressing there are preparations are on there and. so in most parts of the country people will be able to vote tomorrow in security yet in some parts there to be caused by the armed works but as you know we brought in be important martin spoke english and in south sudan to ensure that the boat goes hard and that the people who are this country can grow security and our last estimate this morning is not just at them maybe about 4 percent of the electorate is not able to vote but it's absolutely not region why it's very specific

communities in those communities. blue how much the. kurds have green force 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 they can steal the elections from the population of this cancer international can't have them out this country to be dragged back to the conflict and chaos of 2013 where innocent people were killed institutions. and that and local chaos let's bring in this country that cannot be our last we can allow them to leave the country back in months. we have a mandate from the security council of which we are responsible for the citizens of this country unfortunate very unfortunate and all of our people with. the country the real last yes but this is what we're here to do and this is right that her.

reinforced our presence and many in this country along side the people of this current recently wrote as they want to do this that they have said they weren't. international community is becoming increasingly concerned the violence could spiral out of control in central african republic russia france and rwanda deploying military forces in support of the government catherine so again reporting now from the capital. was president for stina dara arrives for his final election rally in bongi in 4 force has been telling people to come out and forth on sunday without fear i recently formed a group called the patriot for 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. reaches a coalition of several armed groups has called off a ceasefire it had declared them wednesday. my only because they are trying to come to bangui you sent our africans must open your eyes help our armed forces u n peacekeepers mean those from rwanda and russia giving us a hand i'm to fight has come into the city. 16 presidential candidates have been cleared to run in the polls. south of the country's only self declared 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 march to as president would dare a strongest challenge. 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 back my candidacy it's the party that endorsed me. most opposition candidates paid a while back and won the election postponed presidential candidates are each promising to finally bring it back to the public room by me and provide basic services but people talking here involving gay. i'd say that the hard problem was before. knows all about pain caused by conflict his leg was blown off by a hand grenade when the mostly muslim armed groups are over on him 2013 and over through. actually i cannot understand what's happening to me and i'm scared of what's happening now they're only coming to kill i want to ask the

government to help us to stop those who are coming. is now preparing to vote in an election clouded by fear and uncertainty he tells us who only go to the polling station if he feels absolutely safe a sentiment shared by many other voters catherine al-jazeera. at least $35.00 people have been kidnapped in the north east of nigeria armed men dressed in military uniforms set off a roadblock and abducted the travelers as they headed to it's believed the incident could be linked to book or brom. more than $25000000.00 corona virus cases businesses hit with another round of shots and the threat of a new more infectious strain that's the challenge facing the european union but it's hoped monday will mark a turning point shipments of the fires

a biotech vaccine have started arriving in countries across the it was given the go ahead earlier this week with inoculations due to begin as early as sunday the rollout is starting slowly 10000 doses for each country with the old and vulnerable being a priority but $300000000.00 doses have been secured and the modernity vaccine is also being considered to boost stocks until they can be administered though many countries are reimposing the strictest lockdowns to stop the spread the u.k. germany france greece and italy among countries telling people to stay at home paul brennan is in london he says the virus is having a huge impact on the usually very busy retail period. colonel virus really has hollowed out the high streets and none more so than here on london's famous oxford street perhaps the most famous shopping street in this country and over my shoulder you can see how few people there are we are in the highest level of restrictions here to here for so strictly speaking people should be staying at home unless

they're out for essential exercise or to go to an essential shop such as a pharmacy and you can see lots of places are simply closed to unpick names to top shop over there is closed foot locker on my right hand side shot prime mark on my left hand side also shots and it really has decimated the expectations of the retailers now i see one estimate from the credit card company barclay card this morning and they expect boxing day people to spend around $3600000000.00 online but that's small consolation to the people with bricks and mortar buildings in places such as this and the restrictions on expanding to. say for the 1st time an extra $6000000.00 people are under these tier 4 highest level restrictions meaning households cannot mix all essential shops have to close that brings to a total some $24000000.00 people in britain about 43 percent of the population who

are now under these restrictions and the biggest difficulty over this christmas period has been how circumstances on the government have a sense of balance people around well the more contagious variant of the coronavirus is now also being confirmed in japan 5 people who arrived from the u.k. were found to be infected and put into quarantine they traveled before japan and joined more than 50 countries in banning flights from britain. australia is 3 imposing coronavirus restrictions in parts of sydney off the 9 new cases in the states 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 go shopping on boxing day sydney's northern areas will now be on a stay at home orders for at least 3 days. still to come on this program a new coronavirus trials underway looking into using antibodies to help people already infected with coping 19. we know for so many of you and i know this has been a very difficult year. the next us president has sympathy for the thousands who

lost loved ones in 2020. how i'm pleased to say that way they are losing the wintry weather that we've seen in recent days weeks across northern parts of japan or the way of rain than the snow but we still got a few flurries there into the far north of colorado soko on through sunday further south well this wetter weather will become the dominant feature moving across south korea and on into q she easing across a good pass off southern hard she was we go on into monday some very wet weather coming in here with the possibility some localized flooding it will sweep 3 prices guys dry weather comes back in behind well actually dry across the korean peninsula tonsil wanted to well wintry flowers at least inside north korea much of china is

looking fine a dry cold in beijing temperatures no higher than minus one celsius we've got some wintry weather across the western side of the country some wintry weather to into the far north of in the end of in parts of pakistan but for much just south asia dry unsettled pretty much sums it up because the fog the small across the northern plains of india further south it's looking pretty quiet at the moment but there's still. larry rachela stripping him across lying to will bring some heavy downpours and the possibility some flooding as we go on through the next couple of days before that west of where the crush pushes to topple of the. american people have finally for poking around here as i see it when america is off balance or becomes more dangerous the world is looking at us mixture of sadness and grief. with the election behind us the republican party dumptruck the feel we can

take on us politics and society that's the bottom line. be the heroes the world needs right. washer. warm. welcome back let's just recap the top stories we have so far today the central african republic will go ahead with sunday's presidential election as planned despite fears over the spread of violence the constitutional court ruled unanimously the request final position candidates to postpone the vote. $1000.00 vaccine shipments are arriving across the e.u. the 1st 2 series of the finds of biotech vaccine

a limited to around $10000.00 in most countries with mass immunization expected to start early next month. the u.s. city of nashville is under a curfew after a motorhome exploded in one neighborhood on friday it blew up early on christmas morning after a recorded ball morning was played several buildings were damaged and 3 people suffered injuries the police haven't been able to establish a motive. we have found 2 issue that we believe could be remains that were just have that you know examined and they will be able to let you know from that point darby was detonated so if it was someone inside we have no idea it was such a large explosion but the investigation continuing there's a matter all over this the area down there and so we'll continue to examine it to see if it is human remains. alexander shihab rattansi is following that from washington he says it's still not clear who was behind the attack. we're expecting

hopefully more press conferences and in the coming hours i think all we have right now are questions and let's go to the beginning there was that initial emergency 9911 call which alerted the police that there was something going on in the area that the report was that there were shots being fired that at least one person was living in the area said he heard those shots what was that about who was responsible for the shots who was responsible for the 911 call when the police arrived they see this motor home it's broadcasting a message calling on anyone in the vicinity to evacuate because of an imminent explosion but it's the recording suggested the explosion would be within 15 minutes it didn't occur within 15 minutes in fact some people who were evacuated were beginning to return to the area when the motor home exploded what was that about was that intentional was not a mistake it's unclear and now there's also a great deal of focus being paid to the 18 to switching facility which is was adjacent to the to the motorhome clearly that the struction of the damage that was

caused because it almost telecommunications outages a brief stop at national international airport local emergency 911 calls were disrupted was that the target it's not clear if it was the target why wasn't the motor home parked closer to the a.t.m. to the facility and now we have the human tissue that's been found and it's not entirely clear you know how widespread it is and whether it was human tissue from related to the attack. turkey's defense minister has arrived in libya despite threats from the eastern warlord hurley for hafsa a lucy a car promise to increase cooperation with the internationally recognized government in tripoli on friday ankara voted to extend the deployment of turkish forces to libya for another 18 months warlord hafter who backs a rival eastern government responded with a threat to target turkish forces no more than half of the decisive confrontation

has begun to appear for the near future from what our scouts have detected from maneuvers of the turkish mercenaries and soldiers near the front lines piling up weapons equipment building military bases and operating rooms where i have been were to flex turkey's insistence on war and the delusion that they will achieve their dreams of expansion and influence and then visions to control the oil fields and export ports to cure with our wealth its collapsing economy and then the incursion into the depths of africa members of yemen's new power sharing government have been sworn in taking the constitutional oath in the saudi capital riyadh it was overseen by yemen's president who ordered the formation of a new administration after negotiations with the u.a.e. backed southern transitional council fighting broke out between the 2 sides 2019. the afghan capital kabul has been hit by a series of explosions at least 5 separate attacks were reported across the city 2 police officers were killed in the worst incident no group has claimed

responsibility it does come as the taliban and the afghan government continue their talks here in doha 2 palestinians including a 6 year old child have minor injuries after israeli air strikes in the gaza strip a number of empty sites belonging to hamas and islamic jihad were targeted a hospital was damaged earlier the israeli army accused hamas of firing 2 rockets towards southern israel. researches in the u.k. are starting trials for an antibody treatment that could prevent illness in people infected with covert 19 it's hoped the antibodies developed by the drug maker astra zeneca could prevent the viruses development in people who have already been exposed a new trial dubbed storm chaser aims to recruit more than 1000 people to take part worldwide key target groups in the trial will be health care workers people in long term care and factory workers to 10 people have been injected with the antibodies

so far dr sanjay 70 ica is an associate professor of infectious diseases at the australian national university he says the antibodies could especially benefit people with weakened immune systems. one issue with the vaccine is of course that the vaccine works by getting our own immune system to make antibodies so that's fine if we've got a strong immune system that's capable of making antibodies but what if certain groups don't and the most common group where this is an issue are elderly people because they get an aging immune system which isn't a strong as when they were young and of course people who have a very low immune system because they've got a primary immunodeficiency or they're on medications to suppress their immune system so those people the vaccine may not do any harm but it may not necessarily work as well as a young healthy person so these monoclonal antibodies are an alternative where you

just give them the antibody the immune system doesn't have to make them at all they haven't done trials compared directly comparing the vaccine in one arm versus vaccine the monoclonal antibody and another they really have to do that but it is possible that it might have an additive effect we don't know but certainly in that 82 year old who gets the vaccine and we were not confident that the vaccine would work the monoclonal antibody if these trials work would be an alternative and expensive alternative but not good for us president elect joe biden has expressed sympathy for the many families facing their 1st christmas after losing loved ones is released a holiday message along with his wife jill biden promising to do better to combat the pandemic in 2021. well you know for so many of you in our nation this is been a very difficult year and we're reminded in this season i hope our common humanity and what we're called to do for one another matter 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 one another to give what we can and to be a source of help and hope to friend in stranger like many families are facing their 1st christmas having lost a loved one in jail and i know that. and we know how in times of grief a kind word can mean so much and despite appeals from leaders for a pause during the pandemic the united states continues to deport central americans back to their home countries this year alone more than 20000 guatemalans have been sent back they find conditions there even worse than when they left john holdren has more. it's been a desperate homecoming for me gayle settle he was deported from the u.s. in september after 2 years of working illegally in miami. now he's back in his

village in the guatemalan highlands to find the harvest has failed the young man 20000 guatemalans have been deported from the u.s. this year according to the country's migration institute and they coming back to find the conditions they fled and now even worse the economy's projected to contract due to the pandemic and experts say the country's also increasingly affected by climate change some of its regions are part of a dry belt spreading throughout central america and guatemala is also just been devastated by 2 november hurricanes they destroyed the crops in miguel's village and now food is scarce going out of pollutants midst those natural disasters many of those deported also struggling to pay off debt. that's because people smugglers often charge migrants $10000.00 or more to take the north the idea is they'll pay it back gradually once working in the states. but it's a gamble and those that are kicked out have to pay the money anyway as the parents

of miguel and his cousin who was caught with him and now discovering it will be no business legal because when my son arrived i feel glad that we still have this debt to pay for suffering it $7700.00 now i'm trying to celebrate a plan to pay it as a father i want to help my son but instead of getting ahead we only get poorer what healthy but in our hearts we have that pain what can we do what can we go now we have nobody to support to see the u.s. . the guatemalan president has recently said the answer to the problem is to create prosperity in communities like ship you so that people don't have to leave in the 1st place. the incoming biden administration. this place to spend $4000000000.00 on central america to do just that but it's tough to make sure the money gets to where it's needed past efforts so that it won't be a silver bullet to stop migration. john heilemann does either. dozens of people

have been evacuated from their homes on the portuguese island of madeira after severe flooding roads were completely submerged rockslides damaged 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 conflict 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 his child stratford 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 has had 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. then millet who are not in 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 their right has to without freedom to write how can of this learn i feel have little effect on people's thoughts the bookshops along elements and up the street named after a 10th century poet have been immortalized in iraq in arab culture if a 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 and up the street as almost a mythical status in the history of arabic literature a place where writers and intellectuals would meet to discuss politics and the odds

but despite the political instability and violence in 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 we're 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 simulate minds without religion or focus on ethnicity instead we look at a reader's humanity we're not afraid because we have seen so much of course i sometimes worry about my family but we have to restrain relate 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 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 held by young iraqis reading and writing more chance traffic al-jazeera baghdad. the free fans are being treated to an online adaptation of charles dickens' classic a christmas carol performed inside the late author's home in london the specter

after listening for a moment enjoying a mournful and floated out there probably. night. tale of ebenezer scrooge is brought to life as viewers see inside the rooms where dickens wrote the book in late 1900 since the 1st time the story has been adapted for an online audience dickens home which now operates as a museum has been closed most of the year because of the pandemic. recapping our top stories here on al-jazeera the central african republic will go ahead with sunday's presidential election as planned despite fears over the spread of violence the constitutional court has ruled unanimously today after a request from opposition candidates to.