just because it's available and thousands of hotels resorts and cruise ships world why. have you found determined sign on the subject that shoes d.w. in your room you could win a great prize d.w. dot com travel quiz. this is you know we news live from berlin a major prisoner swap between ukrainian forces and separatist rebels the exchange of three hundred eighty prisoners is underway in eastern ukraine we'll go live to our correspondent in the capital kiev for more on why it's happening now and what

the immediate future may bring also coming up. detained in me in mar a court orders to orders journalists to be kept in custody for another fourteen days over allegations the breached the country's official secrets act and. a go go go go go. not mucking around conservationists in south africa getting to grips with food awaiting but who has come up with a new way to keep these uninvited guests at bay and own way from humans. it's a pleasure to be with you. in a bloody conflict that has been grinding on for years now a rare moment of a let up in tensions ukraine's forces and. russian rebels in that country's restive

east are exchanging prisoners at this very hour ukraine's central government is releasing three hundred six prisoners and expects the separatists to release seventy four of its captives in return this after talks in moscow mediated by the head of the russian orthodox church. while it's being called the largest prisoner exchange in the east ukraine conflict and the w.'s very own david stern is in ukrainian capital kiev with the very latest david to talk to us a little bit about whether this swap has actually taking taken place so what are you hearing. or not hearing anything yet we will only hear about it after it happens and the logistics and the mechanism of it will also become clear but as you say what we're anticipating is that seventy four ukrainian soldiers will be released as well as three hundred six from the russian backed insurgents now

what we're hearing at the moment again this will only find out if this is actually the fact but what we're hearing is that first it will be the ukrainians who are released they will then go to nearby cities and then they will be flown back to kiev little bit later closer to the evening the insurgents will be released at the moment we're still waiting to hear whether it is under under way but we did the last thing we heard it was happening any time soon are it happening any time soon ok tell us a little bit about who made this prisoner swap possible in the first place. well again this is going to be clearer later if it happens maybe a lot later but it is part of the ongoing talks the peace talks this is the try a lateral contact group which meets in minsk there those are the russians ukrainians the o.c.e. as well as the russian backed separatist taking place are taking part there one

thing we can say is most likely one person did play a role at least a role in it and that is viktor amid the chook who is a very interesting and slightly ambiguous figure he is a ukrainian he represents ukrainian side but he's also very close to russian president vladimir a lot of mir pugin in fact mr putin is the godfather to mr than with jukes daughter and he has been the person who has been very key up until now in these talks for the prisoner exchange all right and david a stick around because we're hearing that another prisoner swap is also being worked on at the moment because a spokesperson for the pro russian rebels had this to say a little earlier. that there are sixty more prisoners and key had who were not part of this exchange they weren't included in the first list we placed them in a second round of prisoner exchanges we haven't forgotten them we'll continue this discussion after the new year. but. they're encouraging sounds they're coming

from that spokes person does this mean that a cease fire is now on the horizon. well it's difficult to say it also should be said that the ukrainians maintain that around one hundred of their soldiers are still in captivity in the east and what we are seeing are i guess you could say a number of a mixed of developments this is obviously very positive but at the same time the fighting has continued and in fact within the last week has become considerably worse and in just the last twenty four hours another ukrainian soldier has been killed and five wounded what we're hoping for is a cease fire for the holiday season that's not happening yet but perhaps given the progress on the prisoner front this could be something that could happen in the in the near future all right david stern reporting from the ukrainian capital ukraine thank you. and next we had to asia where

a court in myanmar has extended the detention of two reuters drug was for another two weeks authorities have charged the reporters were violating the country's official secrets act that carries a maximum sentence of fourteen years the journalists were reporting on the crisis and working states were in military crackdown has forced more than six hundred thousand muslims to flee the country. alone in the blue jacket hasn't seen his family in two weeks. even so as he and fellow journalist chose so-o. arrive to a courthouse scrum he protested their innocence. we're just carrying out our jobs we would never violate journalistic ethics he told the crowd. in the frenzy no amount of police or press could stop his wife. the men are accused of breaking secrecy laws as they pursue the story of

a military crackdown on range of muslims human rights groups and foreign governments have condemned their arrests observers say it's an attack on press freedoms outside the hearing while loans wife called for him to be released. i want my husband to be free soon and i trust him that he would never violate the rules of law he has good morals so he should be free soon. but not for another two weeks at least as the judge extended their detention shows so low had his say. we tried to tell the truth. with the men level range while don's wife made one final bid to hold him. a trial date has been set for january tenth. now to some of the other

stories making news around the world the red cross in syria says the evacuations have begun of critically ill patients from the rebel held on klav of essent hotel forces loyal to the government of president bashar al assad are currently besieging the enclave were almost four hundred thousand people live the u.n. called on the government to allow the evacuation of five hundred patients who urgently need medical care in libya militants have blown up a pipeline pumping crude oil to the port of a see that the explosion occurred near the town of. libya's oil output has been cut by one hundred thousand barrels a day leading oil prices to search to two and a half year highs the country's state run national oil cooperation or corporation rather is blaming a so-called islamic state in south korea says the comfort of women rao

with japan is unresolved as the two countries reaching a deal back in two thousand and fifteen officials in seoul say the agreement over south korean women who were forced to work in japan's wartime brothels fails to meet the needs of the victims. vote counting is underway in the west african nation of liberia after a presidential runoff yesterday there are no reports of irregularities during the polling and results are expected within the next few days liberians hope the election will mark the country's first peaceful transfer of power and over seventy years observers say the election has gone off smoothly with only minor irregularities former nigerian president goodluck jonathan who was there to observe the vote count called on the candidates to respect the result and the will of the people. so what was it was without this is it. because it was so so.

so the issue is now we know it was that if you win you celebrate this a bit and we're sure that it was to go to the president of everybody if you lose yourself accept. it's a runoff vote between former international footballer george weah and vice president joseph. both of whom join voters in casting their ballots. that are good beer because of the curse of democracy that we went in one that would warrant your work and i would reduce it cool. we have got critical process here's what the president were to we're willing to live with. born in a slum in the capital monrovia george weah star performances for europe's biggest football teams in the ninety's won the hearts of young liberians this is his second run for president. to do this. they said i'm going to win all black cock and now we know georgia. outgoing president ellen

johnson sirleaf several cemented peace in the west african country after civil war ended in two thousand and three but the majority of liberians still live in dire poverty. whoever wins this election will face that challenge and will have to prove that he can govern in a way that will benefit the country and its citizens imagine coming home from work to find a huge burger trashing your kitchen while that nightmare is real for some people in south africa's cape and insular where bones often break into homes rummaging for food but now a new method of deterring the pesky primates could put an end to this monkey business once and for all. a boon burglary in south africa's keep potential people dashes prime meat is an almost daily occurrence thanks to brazen but boone's in search of their next meal.

pot riley has seen her fair share of the monkey business. a lot of them in cape town and coming to your house and they make an awful mess. with it but not too bad they have been in my house quite often. they're not aggressive they're for them aggressive and they're not really interested in you they were looking for food that's what they're looking for to drive the monkeys out of our brain areas conservationists from the human wildlife solutions organization have been testing a new strategy g.p.s. callers are used to track the baboons movements once the pesky primates get close to town come the boom boxes. play call of pertaining to or predators the long course on the prison sounds of being killed they are scared to go. a few banks were. reinforces

the theory an earth and the void. with the help of predators such as lions leopards and hyenas the aim is to create what they call a landscape of fear an imaginary birendra that the monkeys do not dare to cross for villagers in nearby her manas it's music to their ears or even artists in the last two weeks since the team arrived with what they call the virtual friends and we've had large military you know barbarians for the last two weeks they were saying is there magination are these have never been but they are. at stake is the region's famed but been population until recently the cheeky monkeys would have been shot following positive results the plan is now to rule out the system in other cape town suburbs hopefully ensuring that fewer and fewer light fingered friends are

killed unnecessarily. now everyone loves a white christmas that people in the city of erie in the northeastern us got a whole lot more than they bargained for a record amount of snow has fallen since christmas day and it just keeps on coming the only thing people can do now and strike and pick their way out. without them this city would be in much deeper trouble snowplow drivers in erie pennsylvania are currently in high demand today will be probably pad fifteen hours easily. we've been out since morning. but that will hardly be enough police of closed a number of roads already this city declared a snow emergency after a record breaking one point five meters of snow fell in just forty eight hours. many locals spent christmas shoveling their way out. i'm used to snow i've been born and raised here so but not this much on one day that thirty hours fifty three

inches and here it comes again so and they said this storm isn't over till tomorrow afternoon so i can only imagine what will get again tonight like it wasn't last. you know it's a little ridiculous but i keep a at it look at it clear. however the dogs of erie seem to be enjoying the white out. and they will have plenty of time to do so more snow is forecast for today. all right thanks so much for watching the news continues at the top of the out.