thoughts of every day life in a regimented society. an exclusive peek behind one of the last iron curtain is. a north korean dial starting december twenty eighth on t w. this is it over 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 where in the capital kiev for more on why it's happening now and what the immediate future may

bring also coming home. a flicker of hope for almost thirty six thirty six people from a perceived town in syria and aid groups organizes their evacuation as government troops close in on the damascus suburbs. and detained in myanmar a court order to reuters journalists to be kept in custody for another fourteen days over allegations they breached the country's official secrets act. the. hawk thank you very much for your company and a bloody conflict that has been grinding on for years a rare moment of a let up in tensions ukraine's forces and pro russian rebels in that country's rest of east are exchanging prisoners as we speak ukraine's central government is

releasing three hundred six prisoners and expects the separatists are released seventy four of its captives in return this after talks in moscow mediated by the head of the russian orthodox church. well some are calling it the largest prisoner exchange in the east ukraine conflict david stern is in kiev david what have you heard has the prisoner swap already taken place. you know as we've heard it's now under way but this will be a swap that goes in stages what we know at the moment is that sixteen ukrainian ukrainians have been returned to the ukrainian side as you've said before there's going to be quite a few more of them as well as three hundred four of the russian backed separatists that are going to be returning home now the ukrainians also say that some of the separatists have refused to do not want to go back we have not confirmed that but

there is a question of what the final number will be and as you said this is a major major exchanges also the first exchange of this size in more than a year so obviously this is something that people here in kiev as well as the rest of the country are watching very closely give us a lot about the backstory who made this prisoner swap possible will difficult to say what exactly the mechanics of the the negotiations were these are negotiations that are ongoing and have been going on for quite some time in fact the prison exchange is one of the main points of talks to go on in minsk and among the what's called the tri party contra contact group one of the people that's involved in this is from the ukrainian side is a man by the name of viktor medved shoop very interesting person a bit ambiguous as well as i say he's ukrainian but he's also very close to russian

president vladimir putin in fact mr putin is the godfather of his daughter and he's been part of these negotiations he's been speaking in fact to mr putin directly so it will remain to be seen what exactly is role is but it seems that he did play some some role in these dismissed recent exchange rate and interestingly in a related development we're hearing that a potential other prison prisoner swap is in the making because earlier a spokesperson for the pro russian rebels had this to say. and that's the last minute that there are sixty more prisoners in kiev who are 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 at me in the butt at all right very encouraging words there from the spokes woman what do you make of this could we see a ceasefire on the horizon possible resumption of the peace process well yes very encouraging encouraging words indeed and i guess we'll have to see

what the momentum is the ukrainians say there are a number of their people that are still on the rebel side close to one hundred or so if we see further prisoner exchanges that's all the see a positive sign but ultimately what people are hoping for is a full ceasefire for a extended period of time we're not seeing that right now there's been heavy fighting in the last week in fact in the last twenty four hours one ukrainian soldier was killed and five wounded and we've also heard over the weekend angle america and emmanuel mccall calling for this immediate cease fire so far we haven't seen it david stern reporting from ukraine thank you next we're going to have to syria where the red cross there has begun evacuating twenty nine critically ill people from a besieged rebel held town in eastern guta evacuations near the syrian capital damascus were agreed as part of

a prisoner swap deal between the syrian government and rebels government troops have besieged eastern ghouta for more than four years the u.n. has drawn up a list of at least five hundred people including children with cancer to be evacuated from the suburbs. all right while a joining us now from rome is francesco darko he is president of the international federation of the red cross a very good evening mr rocker this is a significant development set the scene for us how are the evacuations progressing . it's still ongoing i think a date is not a twenty four hours maybe for tomorrow. will be ended but we are very optimistic that this is the already beginning of a new battle of. our feeling let's open it see what's what will happen in the next days and weeks goes out twenty nine not. need

a gun but not enough because as you mentioned there there are hundreds of people that are but he is going to be treated and nobody got there and efficient way that they cannot and they cannot be treated they met in that i am which lot or most of everything i give us a sense misurata these twenty nine patients that to the i.c.r.c. has been able to evacuate were there any children among those. yes she's been with there in yeah concert or concert lunches all of the coffee day in day out acts and she does well so so it is very critical of some of them. because they saw my daughter was released of twenty nine and not they were very very urgent we would write is the syrian government facilitating access. so far and he's ok john yes and he says he's on now we think that you know last week.

last time that we could access you know who that was at the end of november but on me for good food for seven thousand people which was not enough when you are are facing about four hundred thousand people stuck in yeah but this is an encouraging sign not that it's coming out. very long discussion not negotiation that we may also we take on exultation out of a question which may be a big getting down to all the news director with both sides is not on any approach to coming to one side what sides can you tell us a little bit more about how this deal came about or look maybe after the after the operation i would be more than welcome of the moment that you spent them up to talk about more debates. i hope you will understand that we cannot go deeper and easy is very moment back maybe maybe in the in the next hour when regular gave up

which you know it's all there we could talk about the entire permission yes most certainly this is a very sensitive issue at the moment how many more people i mean many more people require your help but life has been described as almost impossible in ghouta are there talks underway to plan more evacuations. of course this is something better for us. because we are talking about people we choose these uses but when we come to do. in that crowd are. very very. accessible for basic items bodybags very very difficult indeed is the reason why we have not one. but for a revote are you wanted by the marxists in the big book parties that must allow the president of the international federation of the red cross francesco rocca thank

you. accordingly and maher has extended the detention of two reuters journalists for another two weeks while authorities have charged the reporters with violating the country's official secrets act that carries a maximum sentence of fourteen years the journalists were reporting on the crisis in iraq in states where a military crackdown forced more than six hundred thousand random muslims to flee the country. while alone in the blue jacket hadn't seen his family in two weeks. even so as he and fellow journalist charles solo arrived 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 and runs on 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 all had his say. we try to tell the truth. with the man a little rain bands wife made one final bid to hold him. a

trial date has been set for january tenth. now imagine coming home from work to find a huge boon trashing your kitchen all that nightmare is real for many people on south africa were booze often break into homes rummaging for fruit but now a new method of deterring the free primates could put an end to this monkey business once and for all. a boon by glory in south africa's keep potential people bashes primate is an almost daily occurrence thanks to brazen but boone's inception of their next meal. pot riley has seen her fair share of the monkey business. woman cape town and they're coming to your house and they make an awful mess just live with it but not too bad they have been in my house quite often. they're not aggressive i did find 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. of petain the. predators along. the sands of being killed they're scared to go. a few bangs. reinforces this earth and. with the help of predators such as lions leopards and hyenas the aim is to create what they call. an imaginary birendra that the monkeys do not dare to cross for

villagers in nearby her minus its music to their ears. i've noticed in the last two weeks since the team arrived with what they call the virtual friends we've had . for the last two weeks there will be there are magination are these. but there are. at stake is the region's famed been population until recently the cheeky monkeys would have been shot following positive results the plan is the system another key. hopefully ensuring that fewer and fewer light fingered friends are killed unnecessarily. now before i let you go on to remind you of our main headline this hour. a major prisoner swap between ukraine and pro russian rebels is underway at this hour and total three hundred eighty prisoners are being exchanged and will soon be returning home. and that brings us to the end

of this edition of the other news only a la iraq in berlin sarah harman is up next and i'll see you again tomorrow. my first my state was a sewing machine. where i come from women are.