this is bbc america, and now live from london, "bbc world news." >> hello, i'm david eades with "bbc world news." our top stories. kurdish forces say they freed thousands trapped by islamic state militants after breaking the siege of mount sinjar in northern iraq. eight children have been found dead in the australian state of queensland. a bbc investigation exposes poor working conditions in a chinese factory. and it's that time of year again. alcohol sales expected to peak today in the uk ahead of

christmas. but what's your drinking nationality? we have a booze calculator to tell you. hello. it's small, but significant strike against islamic state. kurdish forces in northern iraq say they've carried out their biggest and most successful military offensive against the extremist group. 8,000 kurdish fighters backed by u.s.-led air strikes have broken the siege of mount sinjar, liberating, they say, thousands of ya zidis. in august, many who had taken refuge there were eventually air lifted to safety, but thousands more who came after that were then trapped. >> our hope is that all those

people will eventually be able to go back to their own homes and villages and towns, but those that are in need of evacuation, now a corridor has been open to evacuate those people. >> well, for all that, the town of sinjar is still under i.s. control. as is nearby mosul. that, of course, is one of the country's biggest cities. overall, though, this operation being seen very much as a success. >> 53 precision strikes that have resulted in allowing those forces to maneuver and regain approximately 100 square kilometers of ground. combined efforts like these are having a significant effect on the able to command and control, to resupply, and to conduct maneuver. >> that is the view from the pentagon. our correspondent jim muir in beirut has the details on the military advance. >> well, basically a corridor has been opened up to them, so yazidis have been trapped on the mountain top. a lot of them have actually

taken up arms. a lot have managed to escape. they now have the option of staying put and having humanitarian supplies brought in much more easily over land than the very perilous helicopter trips that were the main lifeline. or they could leave. so that there's the option. the kurds are extremely pleased with that operation. they say it achieved its goals. its goal was to break the siege. but of course, there is still a long way to go. mount sinjar is a very big hill area. the i.s. forces, the militants were all around it. now a kind of corridor has been opened up, but it will still be vulnerable. there's a lot more work to do to clear i.s. from the whole area, and of course, the town of sinjar, which lies to the south of the mountains on the far side, remains in islamist hands. so the work is still there lying ahead, but the kurds i think are pretty happy that this operation went very swiftly and basically they have achieved their

objectives in less than 48 hours. >> right. a big operation for them, clearly. so. 8,000 peshmerga involved. how big would you say -- how big a deal is this in terms of the ebb and flow of the conflict with i.s.? >> well, if you're taking it as the overall struggle against i.s., the whole shebang, this is just a nibble at the edge, right. because you've got the whole of the rest of these sunni areas of iraq, plus, of course, big parts of northeast and northern syria to contend with. and the complications outside the kurdish area are massive. both iraq where the army has really not been in very good shape. a lot of shia militias are piling in, but that's complicated. you can't overrun very safely sunni areas with shia militias. so in iraq, there are problems, a massive problem trying to get

together a credible force on the ground. i mean, the american strategy of trying to support moderate elements in the opposition movement in syria is really in a bit of disarray because those moderate elements so-called, many of them are quite extreme islamists themselves. and the franchise is emerging as the biggest of the non-i.s. opposition forces. so a lot to do. the kurds are doing their bit, but they can't really go far beyond their own area. >> that's jim muir. to australia now. eight children have been found dead in the same home in the northern state of queensland. there were eight between 18 months and 15 years. police in the town of cairns say a woman in her 30s has been taken to the hospital with stab wounds on her chest. they also say there's no reason for other residents in the area to be concerned for their safety. ben blands has the latest.

>> reporter: police say they were aged between 18 months and 15 years old. it's believed they had been stabbed to death. >> we don't have any formal suspects at the moment. it is very early, though. we're speaking to a range of people. and we're speaking to anybody that's even had the associations with this family in the last two to three days. >> reporter: a woman in her 30s was also found at the house seriously injured. she was taken to hospital with stab wounds, but is in a stable condition. police have confirmed that she was the mother of seven of the children and is assisting with the investigation. the incident happened in far north queensland in australia. the house is in manoora. >> still standing around, totally in shock, as you can imagine. the family members that i spoke to said they were a really close knit family, that there had been no trouble at that house prior

to today. >> reporter: in a statement on social media, the australian prime minister described the events as heartbreaking, saying all parents would feel a gut wrenching sadness. meanwhile, detectives remain at the scene, trying to establish what exactly happened and how those children died. ben bland, bbc news. we're going to catch up for you now on the business news. jamie, oil has been bothering everyone for as long as we can remember now, but it's been a volatile week again. >> yes, because people don't really know how to interpret the fall in oil, whether it's good for economies or bad. there are beth sides to the story. the markets very volatile. the falling price of oil helps to drive large fluctuations and evaluations of shares and some currencies. on thursday, saudi arabia's oil minister tried to reassure traders that it's a temporary situation and will pass.

did little to reverse the actual slide in prices, although brent crude fell to $59.27, and put its losses since the summer at almost 50%, 48% to be exact. the shock waves are beginning to be felt throughout the oil industry because investments are being shelved. staff are being laid out. people are getting very worry fed in the arabian gulf. this is a plot that reads more like a hollywood movie, about a hollywood studio. the world's corporate giant has been brought to its knees bay group of hackers. i'm talking about the cyber attack on sony pictures over "the interview." sony is left the count the cost. this is a figure for you. $200 million. now, it's what some analysts now estimate the scandal could cost

sony. includes what it spent making and marketing this film and what it will have to spend if it were to overhaul its i.t. systems, tackle the lawsuits from staff who had personal data revealed. doesn't count the damage to the company's reputation. that is quite difficult to quantity. european leaders have outlined a plan to create an investment fund to boost the country's economy. it would raise private capital to spend on infrastructure, research, and on education. the announcement came at a summit in brussels. the president of the european central bank was saying he was welcoming the plan, saying it could be very effective provided that it's speedy. we had a very strong day on the dow last night, largely because oracle shares up very sharply. they're up about 8% on very good figures. but also, we've got the leftover effects from the announcement from federal reserve, saying we've got to be patient in the way they regarded putting up

interest rates. the feeling is we're not going to get interest rates going up until probably the middle of next year. slightly disappointing reaction from the dax and cac, but they were up strongly yesterday, so perhaps some of the steam has been let off that market. that's it. we'll have more later. >> this could be one of your stories, because it involves a big beast in the business world. a bbc investigation for panorama has exposed poor working conditions at factories making apple products in china. the undercover team secretly filmed the iphone production line and found apple's promises to protect workers were being routinely broken. one undercover reporter making parts for apple computers had to work 18 days without a day off. other workers were filmed falling asleep. apple say they'll address any concerns brought to them. richard bilton has this report. >> reporter: this is where your iphone 6 comes from. these are the first secret

pictures from inside the factories that produce for apple. an exhausted work force. people sleeping on their breaks. others falling asleep as they work. in 2010, after 14 workers killed themselves at a factory producer iphones, apple published promises to protect workers. so have things changed? our undercover workers got jobs through agencies and within minutes, apple's rules were broken. everyone in china needs to carry an i.d. card. our worker's card has been taken. >> translator: they said they needed to see my i.d. when got it, they didn't return it to me. i demanded that they return it.

i felt helpless. >> reporter: they came to work at pegatron where iphones and ipads are assembled. they have to pass a crucial health and safety exam. they will. the answers are chanted out. and they're offered a choice, whether they want to work nights or do work standing up, but there's no choice. >> translator: he said, if you don't do what the company asks you to do, what is the point of employeeing you here? >> reporter: on i.d. cards, apple says they've done more than any company to prevent the widespread abuse of migrant workers. once in, our reporters were overwhelmed by the workload. >> reporter: shifts have overtime built in, so workers

regularly do more than 60 hours a week, more than apple's guidelines. and so workers rested when they could. this iphone 6 testing area has virtually no one awake. apple says they'll examine sleeping during production, but napping on breaks is not unusual. >> translator: apple has been championing itself as a perfect enterprise, but it is all a facade. i don't think they care about the workers at all. >> reporter: pegatron, who run the factory, say they are carefully investigating the bbc's claims and will take all necessary actions. apple say they work with suppliers to prevent excessive overtime and that no other company is doing as much to ensure fair and safe working conditions. what we found were broken promises on the iphone factory floor. richard bilton, bbc news, shanghai. do stay with us here on "bbc world news." still to come, 20 years now

since the brutal war that erupted in chechnya. we take a look at what life's like for the people living there now. ow!

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♪ it's all fitbit you're watching "bbc world news." i'm david eads. the latest headlines for you. kurdish forces say they've freed thousands trapped by islamic state militants. eight children have been found dead at a house in northern australia. the mother of at least seven of them has been taken to the hospital with stab wounds. the festive season is in full swing in many parts of the western world, so for many people, that may mean a bit of extra merriment in the form of an alcoholic drink or two.

to curb consumption, campaigners are already calling for dry january during the holiday period. we are offering you a chance to find out what sort of a drinker you are. we'll get on to that in a moment. a bit earlier -- here we are. are we on this now? i think we can show you right now. good. so you put in how many pints of beer you had in a week. what should we go for. one? yeah? and how many glasses of wine. one? we'll play it safe. no spirits. which country are you from? you press on how you compare and it says you'd be from togo, the 36th-lightest drinking country in the world. that's not bad, is it? let's be realistic this time. i'll do me. about five pints of beer a week. well, last week. ten glasses of wine? go on. i don't do spirits. and that makes me a drinker from portugal. that's not quite so good, is it? 11th heaviest drinking country in the world. i hardly touch the sides, i have

to say. now, let's go to the deep end. if we can just have one last go at the top of the page. just one last go. let's go ten pints of beer and 20 glasses of wine. what would that do to you? quick comparison. and then -- oh, you missed the button on the compare button. you've missed the button. there we go. one last time. press that button. see how you compare. up you go. up you go. that's it. hit that. well, i tell you what. it's off the scale. that seems to be the answer. but have a go, because it does work and it's quite fun. a little earlier, i was joined in the studio by emily robinson. she's deputy chief executive of alcohol concern uk, and i asked her first of all what would be a sort of sensible amount to drink? >> well, in the uk, you do drink quite a lot more than we should be doing. at least 10 million people are drinking over the chief medical officer's guidelines. those are actually really quite

low. for a woman, that's two to three units a day. for a man, that's three to four units, which works out to about two pints of beer a day, and of course in the festive period, it's quite easy for people to be drinking a lot more than that. >> that's certainly true. can you stop that up to have a weekend? >> i'm afraid not. the idea is you should take at least two or three days off a week. at christmas, you can find yourself at lots of different occasions drinking more than perhaps you should be, which is why we're saying today on the day when people drink the most in the uk, that perhaps they should be thinking about changing those habits in the new year and doing a dry january a month off from drinking. >> one thought about dry january in a moment, but isn't one of the benefits that it calms you down, it destresses, and stress is bad for you? i'm not saying go for it, but alcohol does serve a purpose? >> it can serve a purpose in terms of a social occasion. people like to feel more relaxed. but actually, i'm afraid the health benefits of drinking have

been really overestimated. >> even red wine? >> i'm afraid there were lots of myths out there that we want to believe. but in terms of your health, you're much more likely to cause yourself serious health problems from drinking too much. it's easy to think that perhaps you'll sleep better or feel more relaxed, but actually if you drink over these limits, you're more likely to feel stressed, more likely to have your sleep disrupted, and in the long run, it really isn't that good for you, i'm afraid. >> you mentioned dry january. >> yeah. >> sounds like a good idea, but what is the benefit for saying for a period of time, nothing, and then you get back on the wagon. >> what we've discovered is people taking the whole month off january, that by having the break, they feel better. they feel the benefits. they save money. they lose weight. and it encourages people to cut down in the future. i think one of the really good things about taking a whole month off is you will find at least one occasion where you're tempted to have a drink, and if you can push through that barrier, if you can turn that drink down, people discover that

they can have a good time without getting drunk or without having to drink at all, and that can really inspire people throughout the rest of the year. >> okay. you can have a good time by playing our game, our calculator. pints of beer in a week? >> two pints. >> glasses of wine in a week? >> i would say two or three. >> i usually add 10%. i'll give you three. >> okay. >> there we are. you're a macedonian at heart. the 86th heaviest drinking country in the world. shame on you. dry january. >> i'm going to do dry january. >> thanks for joining us. if you want to go, just put in booze calculator, it will take you to the appropriate place. let's bring you some other news. details have been emerging of a failed attempt to secure the release of the kidnapped american aid worker who was killed by islamic state militants just last month. a new lawyer told the bbc he persuaded two radical muslim

clerics to contact the militants, that those talks broke down when one of them was arrested by the jordanian government. kenya's president signed into law controversial new security measures, caused quite a stir in the process. so contested was this bill that politicians were scrapping over it, quite literally. a debate on thursday had to be adjourned twice after those who opposed the measures were throwing their papers, sang protest songs, even poured water over the deputy speaker. the legislation allows terror suspects to be detained without charge for up to a year. want to get some more now on our top story. the siege of mount sinjar, which appears to have come to an end. can you give us a sense as to precisely whether or not this siege is over? >> reporter: well, obviously this mountain has been under

siege since august. the kurdish peshmerga forces in the past two days, they have conducted an operation. now they say the kurdish peshmerga forces from the ground has managed to rejoin the kurdish fighters in the mountains, who they were protecting yazidis in the past few months. so talking about recapturing an area of the size of 700 square kilometers. this would be massive, if this advance continues, they might be able to in the next few days and weeks liberate and recapture the sinjar city, and many kurdish officials i talk to, particularly one of the commanders said this advance in the past two days paving a way for recapturing the city of sinjar. >> this is one of the high-profile issues and incidents of the i.s. era even.

i think was in large part a spur for the americans to get more involved. does it -- the end of the siege, does it signal anything decisive in terms of the conflict with i.s.? >> reporter: well, obviously, it would be a great victory for kurdish peshmerga forces, boost their morale. on the other hand, it would affect those people who want to join i.s. militants. but this area has been very symbolic, as you said. if you remember, we went to the mountain. entire world watching and listening to the story of those yazidis who ran away from their cities and villages, and the story of yazidi woman being abducted and being sold as a slave, that was something that captures many, many people around the world's attention. right now, the kurdish peshmerga, they really feel they have a responsible to recapture

this area. if they manage to capture sinjar region, and liberate that area, that would be a great victory for them at home and abroad. >> thanks very much indeed for that. in erbil bringing us the latest there. i want to bring you the latest on a situation that has emerged in madrid. we've got some pictures for you, where a spanish businessman it appears drove a car with gas cylinders onboard. he drove the car into the headquarters of the governing people's party in the course of the morning. that led to, as you would expect, a major police alert. there were dozens of police cars involved in shutting off the central madrid street where the building is situated. bomb disposal experts are examining that car as a precaution. our understanding is that the driver was an unemployed spaniard. he said he was a ruined businessman, and he rammed the car with gas cylinders into the

headquarters of the people's party in madrid, causing quite a stir in the process. we'll have more for you on that on the website, bbc.com/news, and you can get in touch with me. i'm @bbcdavideades, always good to hear from you. thank you for joining us here on "bbc world news." and now angie's list is revolutionizing local service again. you can easily buy and schedule services from top-rated providers. conveniently stay up to date on progress. and effortlessly turn your photos into finished projects with our angie's list app. visit angieslist.com today. ♪

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hello, i'm david eades with "bbc world news." our top stories. kurdish forces say they freed thousands trapped by islamic state militants after breaking the siege of mount sinjar in northern iraq. a candlelit vigil and memorial service has been held in australia's queensland in order of the eight children found dead in the same home. >> scientists believe they've discovered the part of the brain that's responsible for our sense of direction. also, the criminal gangs blackmailing men through online

flirting. how sextortion is catching hundreds of thousands of victims. hello, it is a small, but highly significant strike against islamic state, it seems. kurdish forces in northern iraq say they've carried out their biggest and most successful military offensive against the extremist group. 8,000 kurdish fighters backed by u.s.-led air strikes have broken the siege of mount sinjar. they're liberating, they say, thousands of yazidis and others who have been trapped with next to no food or water. if you go back to august, many who had taken refuge there were eventually air lifted to safety. but thousands more came on afterwards, and they were trapped there. >> our hope is that all those

people will eventually be able to go back to their own homes and villages and towns, but those that are in need of evacuation, now a corridor has been open to evacuate those people. >> the town of sinjar is still under i.s. control. it's much the same in nearby mosul as well, one of the country's biggest cities. we can just give you a map showing you where they are, sinjar here, and a little bit further over to the east, mosul. nonetheless, this operation has been deemed a success by the pentagon. >> 53 precision strikes that have resulted in allowing those forces to maneuver and regain approximately 100 square kilometers of ground. combined efforts like these are having a significant effect on the ability to command and control, to resupply, and to conduct and maneuver. >> so how big a breakthrough is this? gerard russell is a former u.n.

diplomat to iraq and i asked him if he thinks this could be the beginning of the end of the yazidis' plight. >> there's quite a long way to go. mount sinjar itself is where a minority of the yazidis used to live and that is the area in which the kurdish forces seem as though they're about to liberate. they are capturing, as you've heard, recapturing towns that isis took in august, but they vice president yet penetrated to the interior of the mountain where the ya zidis are holding out. the majority used to live in villages and towns further south in the plain of sinjar, which is going to be a lot harder i think to -- certainly to hold. it may be possible to take it. but whether it can be defended against another isis attack, i don't know, and whether the yazidis will feel safe enough to go back to their homes, that is unclear as well. >> that is the question i was going to ask you, actually,

whether you think if the siege is broken, they will simply want to get out of there, or will want to remain there and start rebuilding their lives there. >> on the mann taken itself, where the yazidis are holding out on villages, where isis with humvees have been unable to take those villages, they can hold out there and have been, but the majority of them, hundreds of thousands of them, were living in towns and villages and settlements on the plain south of sinjar mountain, and that's an area where they will feel very vulnerable because it's so easily retaken from mosul again. and when i saw the yazidi refugees near erbil in august, just after they had been driven from their homes, they were absolutely determined that they would not go back. so it will take quite a lot more than this i think to end the refugee crisis of the yazidis.

to go back to their home where is they have lived historically. that will be quite an effort. >> you mentioned that you were there in august. the point at which it was brought to our attention, what sort of fate awaited them potentially. of course, now it seems that things are changing. would you be confident enough to suggest that this signifies any change in the general direction of the conflict even? >> well, it does seem as though isis has been unable to hold out against the peshmerga assault. and it may indicate that they have run out of manpower to defend all the places which they've taken. we know that they have invested a lot of effort in holding or taking kobane in syria, and it's possible that that has bled them dry of manpower to the point where they're unable now to hold these towns near mosul. but i think that this is, as you say, just the beginning of quite a long campaign, and although

it's very good news, very good news for the yazidis who are on the mountain, there are many, many other towns to be taken, and mosul itself is going to be a much different challenge. >> the situation regardi ining t sinjar. to australia now where people in the city of cairns in queensland have been holding a vigil for the eight children found dead in a house in the suburbs there. the victims were aged between 18 months and 15 years. cairns police say a woman in her 30s has been taken to hospital with stab wounds to her chest. they also say there's no need for other residents in the area to be concerned for their safety. earlier, i spoke to scott forbes, a reporter for the "cairns post." i asked him first of all as a journalist, as well as a resident of cairns, just how shocking this incident was. >> to be honest with you, shocking is probably the right word.

quite differently to things you would have seen in sydney, where there are enormous outpourings of grief. this is very much at odds with the lifestyle of queensland, and also the island community. the people involved in this incident were very peaceful, loving people. so i think they are the ones who are really reeling with shock today, because none of them could have seen it coming. having spoken to a lot of the residents and some of their family members on that street today, no one could have known that anything was about to go wrong there. by all reports, they were a very loving, very loyal family and the mother was very fiercely protective of her children, so it's really taken everyone by surprise. >> yeah, it's a pretty desperate situation, isn't it? it's sad to say, but it's true, people second-guess all the time at moments like this. what can you actually tell us in terms of what you know to have happened? >> reporter: at this point, the

information, what we're still working off. the forensic teams have gone into that building along with some scientists. i understand that the detective inspectors have been allowed in to start their investigations and trying to piece together exactly what had transpired before about 11:20 was when we all learned what was happening inside the house. it's unclear what transpired, but it seems that the attack may have actually happened at some point earlier, and a relative has attended the house and notified police of the attack. >> right. and we understand the mother is this hospital. but her condition? >> we don't know at this stage. it seems she was take on the the hospital in a stable condition. she's still in hospital. she will stay in hospital overnight. once she's cognizant, obviously she'll be the first person police are talking to. >> scott forbes, reporter for

the "cairns post." pakistan's military are reporting that they've killed 59 militants in combined ground and air strikes in the northwest, near the border with afghanistan. it follows a renewed pledge to combat the taliban after the school massacre on monday. a third day of mourning for more than 130 children who were killed during that attack in peshawar is being observed across the country. a committee of major political parties is also meeting in the course of the day to determine a national counterterrorism action plan. i've been speaking to our correspondent shaimaa khalil in peshawar, and i asked her what more she could tell us butt those reported strikes. >> the pakistani army has been ski consistently telling us that the operation in north waziristan is still very much ongoing despite what happened here in this school. a couple of days ago, we got updates that almost 20 militants were killed in that operation, and today, we're getting as you

said updates from the pakistani military saying that they have killed a number of militants in different operations, ground offensive, and also in air strikes. but only north waziristan. we're also hearing that militants have been killed in karachi. the prime minister has been getting briefed on the security situation at the moment, and of course, he came out with a unified message with the rest of the political leadership that now is the time to indiscriminately go after the taliban, and just to explain to our viewers, the significance of that is we've never actually heard a political consensus in how to deal with the taliban here in pakistan. there were always different political parties with different stances, on how to deal with the shades of militancy here. we always heard about the good taliban and the bad taliban, but things have changed after this attack. and many people here, not just in peshawar, but the whole of

pakistan, are urging the government to come up with a unified stance. the real question is, david, whether this is going to translate on the ground, to make the people here feel more protected. let's get you some other stories now. we'll start in kenya. because in the last hour, the president has managed to sign into law highly controversial new security measures. you can see the impact. the bill was so contested, politicians were fighting over it, literally. a debate on thursday had to be adjourned twice after those opposing the measures were throwing their papers. they sang protest songs as well. even poured water over the deputy speaker. the legislation allows terror suspects to be detained without charge for up to a year. russia's foreign minister sergei lavrov has warned that a new american law authorizing further sanctions against moscow could undermine relations for a long time. american and european sanctions coupled with falling oil prices

have thrust the russian economy into a crisis. cyber crime is an increasing concern for many. we've seen it even in the wake of the recent hacking at sony. but some are falling prey to much more personal and targeted attacks. often on social media sites. they end up as victims of online blackmail. a number of the criminal gangs behind these operations are based in countries like the philippines. angus crawford has been to find out more. he sent this special report. >> reporter: from these slums, a new crime is emerging. targeting men thousands of miles away on the other side of the world. they call it sextortion. really it's online blackmail. scammers can make hundreds of dollars a day. access to the internet is cheap and easy in the philippines, and this crime is now happening on an industrial scale.

officers from the country's cyber crime unit raid a call center. they find young people working in shifts, targeting victims using social media. there are even bonuses for the workers who make the most money. but how exactly does this new crime work? a friend request online. she's atrackive and suggests a more intimate chat on a webcam. >> i was very frightened. just the thought. >> reporter: as john found out, that threat is recorded followed by a threat to put it online unless the victim pays up. >> she'd tell my family and friends, tell my daughter, tell my wife, you know, ruin your life, ruin your family. >> if anyone were looking at me right now, that's what they would see. >> reporter: what victims don't know is most of the women respect real. just prerecorded videos, programmed to obey commands.

>> wave to you. there's a wave. >> reporter: wayne runs a support group for victims and gets thousands of requests for help. >> so far today, we've had ten. >> reporter: the scammers, he says, are ruthless. >> i don't think they care. i really don't think they care what happens. just so long as they get their money. they tell people, i'm going to ruin your life. they'll say anything to them. don't care about the consequences. >> reporter: police are targeting the trade, but most victims are too embarrassed to come forward, leaving the criminals hidden in the anonymity of the internet and the sprawling slums of manila. angus crawford, bbc news in the philippines. >> stay with us here on bbc news. still to come, a sign of self-obsession or a rather smart badge et? bbc trending puts the focus on the selfie stick.

i'm david eades. the latest headlines. kurdish forces say they've broken the siege of mount sinjar in northern iraq. they say they freed thousands of people trapped by islamic state militants. in australia, a candlelit vigil and memorial service have been held after the bodies of eight children found at a home in queensland. it's 20 years since a brutal war erupted in chechnya, that's after separatists declared independence in the wake of the breakup of the soviet union. since then, large parts of the capital have been rebuilt. but islamic insurgents are still active. a battle between militants and police earlier this month left at least 11 dead. human rights campaigners say the militants' cause has been fueled by the government's brutal approach. >> reporter: a new home. the one the families here were dreaming of for almost 20 years.

the chechen village was a symbol of wartime and destruction. now the family still living here were given new houses. i could never afford such a house with my salary, she says. we're very happy, i'm sure more families will return here. now even the residents of the chechen capital can't easily put the battles on a new map of the city. it has transformed so much. a new name, had its houses restored almost from scratch. construction boom gripped the town. and where once stood charred remains of a presidential palace, now a memorial. the war, however tragic, is considered history. all the more shocking is the attack of islamic state militants. it took many hours for the

shooting to stop. flaming buildings and long bursts of gunfire, they thought it was in the past. it wasn't. the burned out house has already been restored. the chechen leader said it will be even better than before. but to restore confidence that the peace here is stable and everyday lives are not under threat, well, this job is way more difficult. now the chechen president returns fire for fire. two days after he said the punishment will be extended even to the relatives of suspected militants, four houses in this village were torched. this house belongs to a woman whose son has left the village and joined the rebels over two years ago. she told me she had no idea where he was or whether he had something to do with the recent attack. crucially, she said the son has gone away after being arrested, tortured, and put on trial for crimes he never committed. human rights activists say it happens a lot here. arbitrary arrests, evidence

extracted under beatings or even electroconstitution, intimidation. not all the militants are driven by the extreme ideology. >> translator: if you go to school with somebody who turned out to be a militant and never saw him after for years, it doesn't matter, you will be picked up for questioning, not always documented and quite possibly under duress. >> reporter: a few days after the interview, the office of this human rights group was set alight. although no one has been found responsible, the incident happened after they accused activists of aiding islamic militants. the president said that now he himself is defending human rights in chechnya. and here, anyone disgragreeing with the president is clearly taking a risk. some important news to bring you here with regard to the fifa story. we have just heard that fifa has

voted unanimously for the full publication of the garcia report, where legally possible, it says, and after current investigations are completed. fifa compliance chief recommending publication, but we're told by our sports editor it won't be for some time, it will be heavily redacted, but that story just keeps on moving. now, scientists believe that they have found the part of the brain which acts as an internal compass and makes some people much better at navigating than others. researchers from university college london found homing signals which help to determine a person's ability to work out which way they need to go in relations to the direction they're facing. with me is the author of the report, dr. hugo spears, senior lecturer in behavioral neuroscience at university college in london. i even struggled to work out where to look to find the right camera.

we've got a very nice graphic picture here with a little red blob here. i'm guessing that's the spot. >> that's the part of the brain we've identified that contains this sort of homing signal. that we've been searching for for a long time. we've known there is a system like a compass in the brain. but this new data today shows where the system is that provides that kind of homing signal. it tells you which direction you want to go as opposed to the sort of compass. >> so until now, you didn't even know where that was? >> we knew this would be a candidate. we knew there would be some sort of compass type signal there, what we department know is where the homing signal would be. and that's quite a different thing. it's like a gps system in our brain. tells you where you are, which way you're facing, but that's not enough to actually get you home. you need to know which direction home is. and it's this part of the brain that seems to contain that. >> is it about the size of this part of the britney thain that e difference between those who have a wonderful instinctive understanding of where they're going, and perhaps the rest of us?

>> that's a good question. what we've done is not so much measure the size, but measure activity patterns that we see there. what we find is the reliability of someone's seinse of north, i you have a reliable signal in that part of the brain, then you'll be good. >> we've got a couple of the pictures of the work that you did to reach these conclusions. as we have a look at those, though, can you explain what the value of this discovery actually might be? >> yes. so it's an intrinsically interesting question of how do we navigate. all animals have to do it. this is the first time in any animal where we've seen this kind of homing signal. so it's a sort of importance of discovering how our brain operates on something so fundamental. but of course, the other big important question for us is this part of the brain goes wrong in alzheimer's disease, so one of the first symptoms you

get is this disorientation, becoming lost. knowing which part of the brain is doing what, not just for understanding our brain, but for improving our health services. >> so the next phase presumably, the next hope would be that you can now look at ways of enhancing it, repairing it maybe, or whatever you need to do to help people in that situation. >> this is very much basic research. we're just making a discovery here. and it will be so much work we can do on translating these kind of findings into work with patients. >> fascinating stuff. thanks very much indeed. if 2013 was the year of the selfie, is this the year of the selfie stick? it's either a handy little gandolfini gadget which helps you take better photos, or a symptom of today's self-on sabsessed world. maybe both. >> selfie. a genius way of fitting more in,

but a narcissistic scourge on society. selfie sticks have been around for about two years. they only really took off this year. indonesia was one of the first places to use them, and they quickly spread to malaysia and the philippines. the rest of the world were still stretching their arms, up until a few months ago. by october, they had become popular in the u.s. but in the uk, they're still the preserve of tourists. >> you've got thousands of these things sticking out in your way as people try and get photos of big ben peeking over their shoulders. it's like a bunch of edward scissor hand impersonators. >> everyone in europe has them. it's easy to do it yourself. >> you don't need to ask anyone, if you want to snap pictures. >> london, there's a lot of big things. it's hard to catch them. >> whenever you're traveling

alone, then probably it will help. instead of asking someone to take a photo of you. >> i'll tell you one place you wouldn't get a selfie stick. for the first time, fish are being filmed nearly 8,000 feet under water. that's a new record. gelatinous pink and shrimp fish were filmed in the pacific ocean, so far down that you don't get a lot of sunshine, and therefore presumably not a lot of color in the fish, but this beats the previous depth record by a third of a mile. several new species of fish also caught on camera as well as huge crustaceans, quite a discovery there. i've just got time to remind you of the breaking news in this bulletin, and that is that fifa executives have agreed unanimously, we're told, to publish what they're calling a legally appropriate version of the disputed report into allegations of world cup corruption. that report, of course, an

ongoing scandal, put together by mr. garcia, who has now distanced himself from fifa in the process, but it does seem as if a heavily redacted version of that disputed report is going to be published. that coming from our sports editor in the last few minutes. thanks for watching "bbc world news." ow! so you think santa will like these... red and green m&m's? i don't know! i never met the guy! whaaaaa! he does exist! they do exist! uhm... santa?

but the comfort it provides is it's justimmeasurable.ece the america red cross brings hope and help to people in need every 8 minutes, every day. so this season give something that means something. hello, and welcome to "gmt" on "bbc world news." i'm stephen sackur. our top stories. a significant setback for islamic state, as kurdish fighters break the militant siege of mount sinjar. peshmerga fighters open up a humanitarian corridor to thousands of yazidi citizens trapped on the mountain and claim a significant strategic victory. australia reacts with shock to the discovery of eight