hello. you're watching "gmt" on "bbc world news." i'm lucy hockings. our top stories. after months of intense fighting kurdish forces appear to be making significant gains against islamic state militants in syria and iraq. street by street fighting in sinjar has paid off for the peshmerga. we have a special report for you from inside the town which was home to the persecuted yazidis. >> they have captured and killed many yazidi women. i am here to kick them out and

liberate my sisters. a challenge to the power of sepp blatter. prince ali of jordan launches a bid for control of fifa but can he win? and less than a week into the new year, oil prices continue to plummet. u.s. oil prices fall below the symbolic $50 a barrel mark. aaron's here with more on this as well later in the program. a huge story. really spooking investors. >> oil prices are down and we're seeing big slides across the global market. here the twist. you may think lower energy costs are a good thing. you'll certainly be paying less at the petrol pump. but the dramatic fall in the price of this black stuff could be a warning sign that our global economy is in worse shape than we first thought. hello. it's midday in london 2:00 p.m. in northern syria, and 3:00 p.m.

in northern iraq. we are focusing today on both of these regions, as kurdish forces are making significant gains against islamic state militants. for months we've been watching this town the town of kobani on the syrian border with turkey as kurdish fighters fought i.s. backed by u.s. war planes. well, now those kurdish forces say they've taken a key district in the town and control 80% of it. in the eyes of the world the capture of kobani would be a symbolic and moral boosting moment in the fight against islamic state. and we can also take you to northern iraq because kurdish forces there are making progress too against i.s. and the strategically important town of sinjar after breaking the siege of nearby mount sinjar. you'll remember those incredible scenes back in august as thousands of yazidis were stranded on the mountain after being forced from their homes by i.s. taking back control of sinjar would mean restoring much of the territory seized by i.s. from iraqi kurds in the last six

months. here's a special report. >> reporter: every step must be taken carefully. one wrong move could be deadly. the fighting here is a street by street, house by house. this is how the kurdish fighters confront islamic state militants. we have been taken to the front lines by the pkk kurdish fighters. one of the fiercest enemies of the i.s. in syria and iraq. we are in the old town of sinjar city. snipers are positioned on every rooftop on this northern front. here, everyone must stand guard. at only 19, hejar has been

fighting jihadists in syria for two years. and now in iraqi kurdistan. >> translator: those houses in front of us are highisis positions. they have no respect for women rights. they have captured and killed many yazidi women. i am here to kick them out and liberate my sisters. >> reporter: before retreating i.s. militants looted and set fire to many yazidi houses. >> so this is one of the yazidi houses. the pkk fighters tell me when they entered this part of the city, they found bodies of women and children. they were beheaded. their bodies were decomposed. obviously they had been killed when i.s. militants took over the city. shawn is a kurdish iranian. he has also lost many of his friends, taking this part of the

city. >> translator: in this land we cannot accept slavery and oppression oppression. our ultimate goal is to end i.s. barbarism. >> reporter: as sun goes down the fighting intensifies. the pkk fighters at this post stay vigilant around the clock. the supply route is under constant fire. but at this outpost and the front line they are holding i.s. back for now. >> he has made his way back to erbil, the capital of kurdistan in northern iraq. he joins us from a rather windy rooftop, it seems. tell us who is helping those kurdish forces in the town of sinjar? >> reporter: much has changed. obviously there is a cooperation between kurdish peshmerga

forces. they are equipped with heavy weapons, heavy machine guns. at the same time the pkk fighters, who have many members from other parts of kurdistan, like iran, turkey syria, iraq and draw a lot of troops. >> we have to interrupt you. the wind really interfering with the quality of the sound. we perhaps can return to him a little later in the program. but that remarkable report from sinjar and the progress that is being made there by kurdish fighters. we've also got some breaking news actually to bring you now from that part of the world. we've been hearing that 23 people have been killed in iraq. this follows two suicide bombings and clashes. the attack taking place west. it has targeted a mosque where anti-jihadist fighters were arresting. that attack killed 10 and clashes which killed a further 13 security personnel. 23 people though killed in those two suicide bombings.

now oil prices are down again, which is having a knock-on effect on the stock markets in asia. the u.s. benchmark oil price dropped below $50 a barrel on monday and has fallen further since then. aaron is with me now. this is huge isn't it? $50 a barrel. >> very symbolic indeed. we talked about this a lot leading up to the end of last year. i used to say to you, how low can they go? they just keep defying the odds and keep dropping. $48, just over $48. $50 a barrel at the moment u.s. brent crude is around $51 a barrel. it is a very similar story to why we started seeing the falls. let me just put this into context. the price of a barrel of oil has lost more than half of its value since the middle of last year in six months. they have fallen off a cliff. it is supply and demand. so the supply -- the world is awash with oil at the moment. nobody is cutting production.

everybody keeps looking at saudi arabia opec's biggest member to cut production. it doesn't want to cut production because anybody who blinks first, cutting production will lose market share. nobody wants to lose market share. on top of that just yesterday, we heard that russia big oil producer, and iraq opec's number two, have increased production. they need to put more oil out there so they can recoup as much money, because they're losing vast sums. but it's a dog chasing its tail. that means now there is more oil awash out there and demand is down. and here's the twist. typically you'd think lower energy cost great thing for many economies around the world. but there's a bit of a warning here that if demand is down all over in places like europe and china, that it is a sign that the global economy is perhaps in a worse sort of shape, worse condition than we all previously thought. certainly going to have a lot more. and that is having a knock-on effect to the global markets. >> it's spooking investors out

there. you'll have more on that. cog up. >> very shortly. >> we're going to return to our top story that kurdish forces appear to be making significant gains in some quite symbolic places. not only in kobane on the border with syria and turkey but also in the strategically important town of sinjar. you remember the siege of mount sinjar sent thousands of yazidis fleeing. we've been hearing kurdish forces are about to take possibly the town of sinjar and we can return. there was a moment in your report where we saw a young female peshmerga fighter talking about the yazidis and how she wanted to return the town to them. what is happening with the yazidis? are they expecting soon to be able to come home? >> well, i don't think anyone expects they can go home soon but many of them are hopeful, if something happens, i.s. militants will be crucial in the

region. but at this moment, resistant against the kurdish fighters and the pkk fighters, who we met, we spent the night with them. the rest of the city is in the hand of the kurds. one of the kurdish peshmerga commanders was telling me if the order come from the top, they could take over the city. but as i said the fight is street by street and it takes time for the kurds to be able to take complete control of the city. >> good to see you and to get the sound quality back from erbil there, joining us with that update. let's bring you up to date with some other news now. a prominent american lawyer is accused of having sex with an underage girl in the case that also involves britain's prince andrew, has begun legal action

to clear his name. he filed papers at a court in florida to contest what he described as absolutely outrageous claims. both men vehemently deny the charges. the wife of a former mexican mayor where 43 students went missing in september has now been charged with organized crime and money laundering. it's unclear if the charges are related to the students, who are believed to have been murdered afflalo call police handed them over to a drugs gang. prosecutors say her brothers are leading members of a local cartel. turkish airlines the last foreign airline operating in libya, says it's suspending all flights to the north african country due to the worsening security situation. they stopped on monday and says it will no longer operate in its other libyan destination. the country is caught up in a violent power struggle between an internationally recognized government and islamist rebels.

the man who has been in charge of fifa for almost 17 years has a challenger for the job. jordan's prince ali bin al hussein has jumped in to take on sepp blatter for the presidency of world football's governing football body which has been mired in controversy. sepp blatter is 78. he is after a fifth term in the job when the election is held on the 29th of may. prince ali, we heard from him today, announced his plans on twitter. he said that he is seeking the fifa presidency because he believes it is time to shift the focus away from administrative controversy and back to sport. he said it wasn't an easy decision and came after careful consideration and many discussions with respected fifa colleagues over the last few months. the world's game he said, deserves a world class governing body a service organization and a model of ethics transparency and good governance. alex, does he stand a chance? >> it's going to be very

difficult for him to oust sepp blatter blatter, who's been in charge for 17 years and a red-hot favorite to win the election on may 29th which will take place at fifa's headquarters in zurich. prince ali has been described as a credible challenger although he did say it would be tricky for him to win. his problem is where does he get his support from? it's likely that he's been encouraged to stand by europe europe's boss the head of uefa said he has been very critical of sepp blatter and was looking for somebody to stand against him. he didn't want jerome champagna, who said he will stand as well in the election. but where else apart from europe does it come from? because even in asia his home confederation, he's already said that his organization is behind acceptsepp blatter, so he needs to sway the asian vote behind him. >> so what actually happens on may 29th? >> the election will take place in the first round.

>> he has the backing of five companies. >> the date is january 29th. they need to have five members to become them. we don't know which of the five members of fifa. there were 209 altogether. will back prince ali. and then the vote or the election will take place november 29th. in the first round, you need a 2/3 majority. sepp blatter despite all the controversies, and there have been many of them in fifa in recent years, is still a favorite because he has so much support throughout the world. >> what is prince ali's reputation, though? he comes from of course the jordanian royal family and they've got a long history, a long tradition in world sporting government. >> he's the son of the late king hussein. he was educated in the usa and in britain where he went to the elite military academy. he's a general major in the jordanian military. and he has created a reputation as a reformist within fifa since

he joined at vice president. he was behind the decision to lift the ban on female islamic players, women players from wearing head scarves during competition. he's been very much behind development of various youth programs in the middle east. so he's gained lots of friends. he's seen as a reformist. whether that's enough to get past sepp blatter, that's a different thing altogether. >> thank you very much. do stay with us here on "bbc world news." still to come, we'll be finding out why wine makers in australia are having to apply sunscreen to their grips. no hidden fees from the bank where no branches equals great rates. you want an advanced degree, but sometimes work can get in the way. now capella university offers flexpath, a revolutionary new program that allows you to earn a degree at your pace and graduate at the speed of you. flexpath from capella university.

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protests in germany against imgrigs andmigration and the influence of islam have attracted their loudest crowds so far. thousands more have been taking

part in counterdemonstrations. the lights in the cathedral in cologne were turned off as an expression of anger at the anti-islam protest. jenny hill reports now from dresden. >> reporter: we are the people they shout. and their voice is getting louder. germany for germans, he says. no mosques in germany. no mosques in dresden. >> you won't see, you won't hear a german word. and it's not a good situation if you have four daughters, four blonde, long-haired daughters. >> reporter: immigration is at a 20-year high in this country. the group behind this demonstration claims to be anti-islamist. it's called pegida and it's increasingly popular. what shocked and perplexed the authorities are the sheer number

s here. modern germany is not used to scenes like this. >> and they've provoked disgust and shame. the lights of cologne cathedral put out in protest. counterdemonstrations were held in 11 german cities. among those publicly condemning pegida, the german chancellor. don't follow these people, angela merkel says. too often they have prejudices, coldness, even hatred in their hearts. but the voices persist. immigration is expected to be high on the agenda when the chancellor visits britain later in the week. these scenes make many in germany uncomfortable. but they've provoked a debate which many also say can no longer be ignored. jenny hill, bbc news, dresden. at dawn on tuesday, the american firm spacex was supposed to be lifting off from cape canaveral on a mission which was to attempt something that had never been tried

before. landing a rocket after it had launched into space. but with one minute remaining in the countdown, this is what happened. >> the countdown has aborted for this morning. >> our science correspondent -- actually, our space correspondent jonathan amos is with us now. it's always so disappointing when it doesn't work. what happened? >> that's the thing about rockets. they're sort of fickle. in this case something on the rocket told them that its steering capability on the upper part of the rocket might not be working properly. they are taking -- or scheduled to take supplies to the international space station. you may remember the catastrophic explosion of another rocket another system just before christmas back in october, i think it was. so they're getting supplies to the space station quite crucial at the moment and they need to make absolutely sure this rocket

would work. they weren't sure. they scrubbed for the day. >> but it wasn't what was going on in space that we were interested in today, it was what was happening, what they were attempting to do here on earth. that was to be the highlight. it seems remarkable that they were going to try and land this rocket on something reasonably small in the atlantic ocean. >> they were going to run an experiment in the background. this has been rescheduled for friday. just a bit of a brief here. rockets are disposable. they're expendable. what we do we go skyward, we dump engines and fuel tanks to save the weight that allows you to make that final jump to orbit. in this case, it would be a cargo vessel that would go to the international space station. those bits of the rocket come back to earth, sooner or later. in the case of the bottom part of a rocket it comes back pretty quickly, within a few minutes or so. it tumbles over and comes in faster than the speed of sound. it breaks up. it burns up. you never see it again. imagine taking a jumbo jet from

london to los angeles, throwing it away buying a new one and coming back. that's what we do with rockets. what spacex are trying to do is find a way, find the technologies that will allow them to bring the segments of the rocket back to earth, to land them, to refurbish them and use them again. >> this is the spot x marks the spot where they were hoping to land it. what are the actual chances? i heard 50/50 being tossed around. and then the head of spacex said no, i just made that up, we don't really know. >> elon musk he's a little bit like that. but the point is the experiments that they've run to date they've made the rocket hover over the ocean's surface, so they brought it to a standstill just above the ocean, but then because there's no solid platform underneath the segment has gone into the water and they've lost it. the attempt was to bring it back on to this. it's only 100 meters wide in the longest dimension. the accuracies that they were working with up until now were ten kilometers. so to go from ten-kilometer

accuracy to 100 meters, it's a big leap. >> spacex saying it's like trying to balance a rubber broom stick on your hand in the middle of a wind storm. thank you. let's take you to australia now. it's recorded its warmest quall estest calendar year since 2010. brush fires fanned by strong winds and soaring temperatures. to cope with the insufferable heat businesses are being urged to start heat-proofing their operations. from the hunter valley, phil mercer has more. >> reporter: the blazing sun beats down on some of australia's oldest vines. they date back to the late 1800s and have thrived in tough conditions. the quality of the vintage here in the hunter valley north of sydney depends not only on the sun and the soil but the temperature. very hot weather can inflict serious damage. while vineyards spray their crops to ward off fungus and

pests, sunblock is also used to shield the plants from excessive heat. >> we put sunscreen on the kids when they go out in the sun so we put it on our grapevines. it just goes on like a normal spray. your vineyard gets this funny white-blue color, and it is like a -- you look on the berries and there's a little coating on them. it's just like putting sunscreen on. and it gives us sun protection. >> reporter: too much heat can cause the berries to shrivel or suffer sunburn. temperatures here in one of australia's most famous wine-making regions can exceed 45 degrees celsius. the vines are hardy, but sometimes they need extra manmade protection from the harsh conditions. and growers are having to be adaptable and inventive to protect their precious crops. scientists warn that climate change is making heat waves in australia more frequent and

severe. when the mercury soars, the economic costs could be significant, as the health and productivity of workers wilt in the heat while energy supplies also come under pressure. >> my own take is a lot of businesses are probably fairly unprepared for what's coming. large shopping centers. looking at dramatic increases in electricity costs. try to increase air-conditioning. the climate in australia particularly heat waves, they're becoming longer, becoming more frequent and more severe and that becomes quite hard to manage depending which business sector you're in. >> this is a land of extremes. and while there's disagreement about man's influence on the climate, there is a shared belief that australia has thrived in the face of unrelentingunrelent ing environmental challenges, a nation's prosperity could now depend on how it adapts to a warmer future. phil mercer, bbc news, in the hunter valley. >> the temperatures in the 30s at the moment across new south

wales. do stay with us here on "bbc world news." coming up in the next half-hour on "gmt," we're going to take you live to the indonesian capital jakarta. the search area is expanding for the wreckage of the airasia flight which crashed nine days ago. officials now believe they may have found the plane's tail which holds the all-important black boxes. see you in a moment. oor opening] ♪ what makes it an suv is what you can get into it. ♪ [container door closing] what makes it an nx is what you can get out of it. ♪ introducing the first-ever lexus nx turbo and hybrid. once you go beyond utility there's no going back.

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m so glad we could be here for larry.

this is "bbc world news," i'm lucy hockings. in this half-hour, we'll update you on efforts to recover more bodies and wreckage of the airasia flight that crashed into the java sea. work crews have been combing the sea floor, but still have no clue as to what brought the plane down. we'll take you live to jakarta on the latest. judge me on my first 100 days the words of ashraf ghani. that milestone is today, so we'll be looking at what he's managed to achieve. also on the program, aaron is back and we've been hearing from the big boss at sony.

>> absolutely lucy. he made his first public comments since last month's computer hacking attack on sony pictures. he says he's proud of his staff who stood up to these extortionist tactics, so stay tuned because he also had some very, very harsh words for those who were behind that hack attack. welcome back to "gmt." we begin with the search for wreckage of airasia flight 8501. officials have reportedly pulled two more bodies from the sea on the tenth day of operations. that means that the bodies of 39 of the 162 people onboard have now been recovered. strong currents have forced the teams to expand the search area and officials believe they could have found the tail of the plane which holds the black box flight recorders in the shallow waters around 160 kilometers off the

coast of borneo. the flight from indonesia to singapore crashed on the 28th of december, but bad weather has so far delayed salvage efforts. let's take you to alice, just bring us right up to date with everything we know about where we're at with this search operation. >> the search operation today was again hampered by bad weather. even though they managed to send some 17 divers into the area where they suspect the fuselage of the aircraft might have been. but the divers could not see very much. there was muddy water because of the strong currents. so certainly they couldn't see much at the bottom of the sea where they were hoping to find the aircraft. so obviously, this search operation will continue, and the focus right now is very much on finding that black box of the aircraft, which will tell us a

lot more about what happened on that tragic day. but at this point, it's been more than a week and then they have about three more weeks until the battery of the black box will die, and so the search operation will resume again tomorrow with that focus in mind. >> finding the black box is obviously so crucial because of all those unanswered questions, but the weather is playing sup a big factor. how is it looking? is it expected to improve so that more can be done? >> well, in fact in the past couple of days it was already better than the whole of last week. but this time of the year it seems like the weather is very unpredictable. so officials are actually bracing for more bad weather. but indonesia is getting a lot of help from countries like the united states, russia china, malaysia singapore, and there's a lot of equipment that can detect signal from under the water and metal detector as well so certainly officials are hoping that all this technology

will help as well. but it is very crucial to have divers actually go in there and to be able to get good visibility, you know to see what's under the water, and that so far is what they haven't been able to do. >> thanks so much for updating us from jakarta. afghan president ashraf begunny marks s ghani marx 100 days in power on tuesday, but he is still struggling to form a government. last week afghanistan took over formal responsibility for military operations after the u.s.-led combat mission came to an end. david loyn reports now from kabul. >> reporter: now that the u.s.-led forces have formally handed over combat responsibility to afghanistan, i joined the head of the afghan army on his first trip out of the capital since the handover. our destination packed here close to the volatile border with pakistan general karimi is

tipped to be the defense minister when the prolonged deadlock over the cabinet can be broken. >> to pick up the right people, to select individuals that are good for their job professionally and from other point of view, you know to be the right person it takes time. >> reporter: taking a long time. >> well, we agree with you. i agree with you that it is taking a long time but it won't be very long. soon you will hear the new cabinet. >> reporter: 100 days have passed since the new president ashraf ghani agreed to share power with the runner-up in the election dr. abdullah. government across the country is paralyzed. in the western province officials from the governor down to district level have been fired, but no one appointed in their place. >> people are tired. very much tired of waiting for the development of the government some cabinet, for

example. the question today in afghanistan is about the cabinet. >> so are they losing hope? >> they're losing. every day they're losing hope. >> do you think this will strengthen the taliban? >> of course when you have weak government, the taliban is getting strong. >> everywhere, people are talking about the failure to form a government. this man said he would take his vote back if he could. the barber didn't vote but blamed worsening security on the failure of the government. and the man having a haircut said the economy was suffering because of the political failure. it's a hard time for those in the front line. this force is now fighting the taliban on its own, without u.s. and other international support, and without the backing it really needs from a strong government. and amid the political paralysis, the afghan army is still taking heavy casualties in a war that's not stopped just because foreign forces have gone. david loyn bbc news kabul. >> let's bring you up to date

with all the business. aaron is here we've already talked about the plunging oil prices, but obviously there's a massive knock-on effect. >> absolutely. investors around the world have got the jitters. they're worried about a slowing global economy, which is helping part of the picture to push these prices up. i mean it's a bit of a mess at the moment. let me break it down and explain. hello there. as lucy said stock markets certainly around the world, they have declined sharply, with the plunging oil price. it really is spooking investors. shares in tokyo slumped by more than 3%. and most of the major european markets have been following suit certainly in the early trading. that's before recovering somewhat. certainly the dax in germany has recovered a pinch. the price of the black stuff is continuing to slide today with the u.s. oil price falling below that symbolic very symbolic threshold of 50 bucks a barrel. it's currently at around $49 and

brent crude, traded more over here at around $52 a barrel. but the falls in prices let me tell you, they have been dramatic to say the least. i mean this is astonishing. the price of a barrel of oil has now lost more than half half of its value since the middle of last year. so we're talking six months. look at that roller coaster ride. and the question what is the sudden drop? why? well, it's a large part of it, sheer quantity of oil that's available. we got a sharp rise in u.s. production as a result of fracking. you combine that with opec's refusal to cut supply. nobody wants to cut supply. they're scared of losing market share. and all of that means the world is a awash at the moment with oil. now, then you combine those pictures, what i just told you, you combine that with what's happening to the global economy. yep, economies across the world, from europe to china have slowed their once verocious demand for oil, which is a suggestion that

their economies are slowing down. all of this has been giving the global markets a fright. you can see the ftse right here in london down around the half of 1%. that's the nikkei in tokyo in japan. look at that fall there. some astonishing falls. and this is what oil is doing. like crude in the united states as i said $49 and brent crude typically traded here. it's down about 1.5%. let's get more. a senior economist at schroders joins us. great to have you with us. i'll say happy new year to you, my friend. but listen we know this continues to be a supply and demand issue. there's more oil out there than the demand. i'm trying to get my head around this. you hear the likes of russia and iraq saying we're going to increase production. they need to make more money. but isn't that like a dog chasing its tail? the more they put out there, the

more that's going to drop those global prices. >> first of all, happy new year to you, too. but i suddenly agree. the additional supply is beginning to be adding more pressure on the oil price to fall. and that's the problem that we're seeing at the moment. financial markets and investors have been expecting opec to cut back production by now, in order to protect that crucial price on the black stuff. but non-opec countries have been adding more supply to the markets. we've had new energy supply coming through from shale gas out of the u.s. for the last few years. and it seems to us that opec countries have decided that they need to kill off this new supply of cheap energy. and the best way to do that is to make shale gas and alternative forms non-economic. you cut the price of oil so dramatically that it forces everybody to go back to oil. >> it's a bit of an economic battle in many ways. but typically, i guess it's fair

to say lower oil prices means different things for many different kmis. but typically you would think lower energy prices cheaper petrol prices.economies. but typically you would think lower energy prices, cheaper petrol prices. but this could be a foretelling tale. a foretelling tale of a weaker global economy. >> generally speaking oil prices have in the past reflected global demand and the strength of the global economy. as we saw from the collapse in oil prices through the financial crisis, for example. that was a clear reflection of weaker demand. but there is a bit of a supply story here and that extra supply is bringing down prices even further. now, this will be negative for the oil producers and this is why you're seeing equity markets really struggling over the last few weeks or so. but you're absolutely right. for households, for some corporates, this is absolutely fantastic news. this is like a tax cut. you will see greater disposable income coming through, leading to much higher retail sales, and

eventually stronger growth at a later point. but it does raise fears of deflation, for example. some areas like the eurozone really struggling with very low inflation. we're expecting in the next month or so for inflation to turn negative. that may force central banks to do a little bit more to try to stimulate the economy. >> absolutely. we were talking about that, too. it's another something else on the plate for the european central bank to ponder. you mention the equity markets. the fear of the global slowdown. investors are selling lots of different types of shares. not just energy related. even the experts say it's a mug's game to predict where oil is going to go. but you have to ask the question, how low can it go before the oil producers, but saudi arabia and the others go hang on, okay, enough's enough now, we've got to cut supply. i mean that's got to be asked, right? >> yeah i agree. and i think we're going to now soon, very soon reach a stage where you start seeing producers

start talking about shutting down some production in the u.s. for example, if some of these shale gas producers decide that they cannot operate with oil prices sub-50 per barrel, then they start pulling back. that starts to reduce global energy supply overall. and that may be the initial sort of trigger point for energy prices and oil prices beginning to stabilize. but they're clearly looking for a change in the production supply from alternative energy sources. that's the only way i think they can long-term win back their market share. >> interesting. fascinating stuff. take your pick what's going on at the moment. great to talk to you. we appreciate your time mate. thank you. let's move on. let's talk about this bloke right here. he is the boss, the big boss of sony. he made his first public comment comments since last month's hack on sony pictures.

the u.s. government has been blaming north korea for the attack, which was seen as a response to sony's comedy caper "the interview," a fictional plot to assassinate kim jong-un. he said he was proud of his sony staff who stood up against what he described as the extortionist tactics of the hearks. let's have a listen to what he had to say. >> sony pictures entertainment, former employees, and certainly employees, they were unfortunately the victim of one of the most vicious and malicious cyber attacks that we've known certainly in lerecent history. but i have to say that i am very proud of all the employees, and certainly the partners that we've worked with as well who stood up against some of the extortionist principles and worked tirelessly literally 24 hours a day, sometimes on days

on end, to bring "the interview" to audiences here in the united states and also up in canada as well, across online venues as well as in motion picture theaters across the united states and canada. and i have to say that freedom of speech freedom of expression freedom of association, those are very important lifelines of sony and our entertainment business. >> the big boss of sony. he was talking in las vegas. we'll have more on that coming up on "world business report." follow me on twitter. tweet me. i'll tweet you back. you can get me @bbcaaron. i think it's a couple of hours from now. >> so much going on. >> too busy. >> see you soon. do stay with us here on "bbc world news." still to come, the life of an east indian living in the u.s. cowboy state of wyoming. we take a look at the very personal journey of

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i'm lucy hockings. thanks for being with us. after months of intense fighting, kurdish forces appear to be making significant gains against islamic state militants in syria and iraq. sepp blatter is facing a challenge from a 39-year-old jordanian prince in his bid for a fifth term as president of football's world governing body. in the last ten years, the south korean government has made it much harder for foreign couples to adopt children. there is a taboo in south korea about bringing up other people's children so many and more are growing up in orphanages. but lately there has been a move to consider more koreans to consider adoption as steve

evans reports now from seoul. >> reporter: a reunion of childhood friends taking in different directions by fate. steven morrison was adopted age 14 by an american couple. in his new loving family, he blossomed. he became a space engineer in california. his pals from that time were not adopted. they stayed and have not thrived. >> translator: i was really envious when you were adopted. we were getting older and i was very worried about my own future. but i was envious of you. >> reporter: this is steven's old orphanage. he's trying to persuade koreans to adopt. south korea used to be the great exporter of babies to foreign adoptive parents. but the government made that harder, so adoption has fallen dramatically. ten years ago, 4,000 babies a year were adopted. today, it's a quarter that.

the result full orphanages. >> i lived here for eight long years. and during that time i experienced a lot of hunger to be loved. really longed for my own family. and i was not a really good student. but as soon as i was adopted into a family that loved me cared for me i felt that immediate sense of care and love. >> reporter: koreans think blood families are all-important. when mr. and mrs. che adopted their daughter as a tiny baby they kept it secret for months. pretending she was their own. >> translator: we didn't dare tell even our own parents because we knew that they would disapprove. why are you bringing up other people's children they would say? >> reporter: other parents who have adopted gather once a year to support each other.

they've defied the korean taboo and share their joy in their new children. this meeting is brimming with pride. in a country where bloodlines are all-important for families to adopt is an act of courage. this is a place of love and courage. for every beautiful korean orphan who's not adopted, the orphanage becomes home. but it's not like the love of a real family. steven evans, bbc news, seoul. now we've decided to get a little bit cosmic here in the "gmt" studio because for the first time ever astronomers have been able to accurately tell the age of a star from how fast it's spinning. it was already established that stars slow down over time but until recently there was little data to support exact calculations. the u.s. team has been able to measure the spin speed of stars more than a billion years old,

and their research will allow astronomers to estimate a star's age to within 10%. now to a part of the world that really knows a beautiful night sky. the u.s. state of wyoming and a story which defines diversity. writer nina mcconigley was born in singapore to an indian mother and irish father but she relocated to wyoming. it's a mainly white rural state in the u.s. it's known for its outstanding natural beauty its night skies as well. it was the background for nina's short stories, "cowboys and east indians." here she gives us a glimpse into her personal journey. >> if having a bad day, i can be out here in minutes. it's really nice. you can just see so far out. >> i think this is a place where landscape shapes you, being able to drive and see antelope and snow fences and mountains and

sagebrush. i wrote the book "cowboys and east indians." i think it's really hard to talk without of the door every single day and never see a reflection of yourself. i think that is the hardest part for me about living in wyoming. i was born in singapore to an indian-born mother and my father grew up in ireland and he was working for an oil company that transferred us from singapore to wyoming, which was quite a shock. i think because we've been one of the indian families that have lived here the longest, my mom is often called in to be a translator at the hospital so we've met people who have been in car accidents. we've met people who have been arrested. or we just ran into them at the grocery store and my mom's like that person looks indian let's follow them. i think i internalize that a lot in wanting to later write about it and to write about some of the more odd circumstances, whether it be a car accident whether it be an exchange

student, will it be you know someone who was a cross dresser. >> it's a hard thing to talk about with people. i think people can understand, it's been interesting since the books come out to have people read it people i've known my whole life in wyoming who sort of have said i didn't know that was hard for you here. my first morning in india, i woke up really early and i remember i went out the gates of my aunt's house and stood on the street and i was looking around and i was 23 years old. and i realized it was the first time in my life i wasn't in the minority. but yet to look around that street, i couldn't have felt more distant from every brown person around me. and then to be wow, i am so wyoming because i'm freaked out by cars whizzing past and all the people.

>> i love antlers. i have a tattoo of a covered wagon and of a jackolope. i love that stuff. i do. every story is me trying to figure out something about how i fit in here. and a lot of people don't know what i am. are you native american? are you middle eastern? what are you? and i think i'm always thinking about what am i. >> a personal journey there of nina mcconigley in wyoming. we've got some pretty incredible pictures here for you from colombia. i'm going to show you what happened when a film crew went to report at a fireworks factory. this happened just outside the capital bogota. a local cameraman and other people who stopped to watch were literally blown off their feet when it exploded. the bystanders were then forced to take cover behind their cars as fireworks rained down on them. incredible scenes there. but i'm pleased to say nobody was hurt.

a reminder of our top story on "gmt." kurdish forces say they've taken a key district in the syrian town of kobane and they now control 80% of it. the town which borders turkey has been under attack by islamic state militants since september. kurdish forces are also said to be making gains against i.s. thanks for being with us. see you tomorrow. ♪♪ the adventures you've been imagining. the heroes you've been admiring. the worlds you've been dreaming of. ♪ the thrills you've been craving.

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picard: captain's log, stardate 4 47423.9. we have arrived at boraal ii in response to an emergency distress call from lt. worf's foster brother nikolai rozhenko. he has been stationed on the planet as a cultural observer. analysis, mr. data? the planet's atmosphere is dissipating, sir. intense plasmonic reactions are destroying it. the stratosphere is already breaking down. there are turbulent radiation storms across much of its surface. i estimate that the planet will be uninhabitable in less than 38 hours. the distress call came in only four days ago. why would dr. rozhenko have waited so long before sending it? atmospheric dissipation is a rare