it's. to show the way. shape. or. this is due to the news coming from berlin prefer dozens of gravely ill people in the syrian battered by years of war among them children who need medical treatment

a syrian aid agency who brokered the deal between the government and rebels in of the siege area east of damascus also coming up. a large exchange of prisoners between pro russian separatists and the ukrainian government is underway in the east of the country why is it happening now and. go go go go go go go. not monkeying around conservation as in south africa getting to grips with food raiding baboons find a new way to keep these are invited guests at bay and away from feeling like. i'm sarah harman thanks for joining us aid workers in syria have begun evacuating twenty nine critically ill people from a besieged rebel held town in eastern guta the evacuations were part of an

agreement between the syrian government and rebels the u.n. has drawn up a list of some five hundred people to be evacuated from the damascus suburb it faces severe shortages of food fuel and medicine as winter sets in. for this little girl it's not just the end of a nightmare it's a chance to stay alive. she was one of the first of almost thirty critically ill people evacuated from eastern cooter. for weeks international aid organizations have been calling on syrian president bashar al assad to allow hundreds of people in desperate need of medical attention to leave the besieged suburb. tuesday night saw the first of them get into ambulances and leave. where they are and there has been no medical supplies for months children are dying. so it is an absolutely shocking state so a small glimmer of hope that there are now twenty nine desperately children who

should start receiving medical attention very soon. syrian government forces have laid siege to the eastern part of quarter for the last four years now. not far from the capital damascus it's one of the last rebel strongholds in the country activists accuse government forces of trying to starve out any resistance by blocking deliveries of food fuel and medicine the united nations says dozens of people have died in the suburb after waiting months for medical evacuation. turkey claims it used its clout to organize the latest evacuation deal but president richard sipe over one still insists that asset should have no part in syria's post conflict future. said you to make first of all it is impossible to continue with our sad why how can we embrace the future with the syrian president who was killed close to a million of his citizens. it looks like these evacuees have

escaped death for now but the fate of hundreds of thousands of others in eastern ghouta hangs in the balance and there is still no sign of a breakthrough in talks to end syria's civil war. i'm joined now from dallas the untap in turkey by mohammad could two he's with the syrian american medical society which supports hospitals in mostly opposition areas mr gotobed thanks for being with us are the evacuations proceeding smoothly or is this too little too late. exactly thank you but if this is too late and very manners say to what the evacuation is only for people who are evacuated last night from a list of twenty nine people who are approved from a bigger list of six hundred forty people who need to go evacuation from there unfortunately all the talks about two minutes here in operation and the syria's

turned on the on medical evacuation why there are four hundred thousand people are in need of basic needs like food and medication and vaccinations there are one hundred thirty thousand children in days of school. least half of them cannot see schools because of the seizure and because of the a bomb meant on the area the evacuation issue started months ago when the tsunami jeanne tightened the seas on the area so people couldn't have any axes to go out of the area to have complicated cheetham and she is already not available nor for medicines inside for the one hundred and seven doctors who are still in the area cheating people to give them to their patients so yeah it is a school of services that we it is guiding a really grim situation the u.n. has a list of five hundred possibly more people who need to be evacuated from good but

only twenty nine are being about to rent in this round are there going to be more about here way sions how optimistic are you. we don't have high hopes on this because this is this issue is stocks is a stock and in some place months ago where the syrian government is not giving any approval for the medical evacuation very few cases where in fact with it and everyone for some reason and those those twenty nine twenty nine people are very good example of those isms this is a deal between the syrian government and one on the honorable including the and leasing of detainees by the position ahmed who. so we don't have any hopes that people will be evacuated for him instead in reasons just all the to get the the teeth and that they deserve how exactly does this current deal come about because what you're describing sounds like a prisoner swap. exactly and we don't have

a lot of information about how the government on this group use this deal but the twenty nine list it was submitted that did the list of the twenty nine patients was submitted to wants to go through that you and. those were considered at that time as the very urgent cases who need to be evacuated immediately this took mom's the conditions are completely different and one of them died while on the other side we don't have information about that either but yes as you said the prisoners we don't know if there are civilians or soldiers but at the end they also have their rights being released but the issue is normanton aid without such deals and this is not a new issue and twenty fifteen there was a deal between. position and the government of the

very famous agreement which called for downs agreement to towns where the seized by the opposition and other two towns were seized by the gov and noraid was allowed to this town it's eight is not allowed to do the other tom and this is the exchange of aid push people deserve yes it was dramatic in that situation first century driving mohammad could to peace from the syrian american medical society thanks for joining us this evening from gaza and thank you thank you very much an explosion has ripped through a supermarket in the russian city of st petersburg authorities say at least ten people were injured in the homemade explosive device was traced to a baggage locker no one has claimed responsibility for the blast which occurred northwest in the city center police say there's no indication this box was a terror attack but they have yet to rule out the possibility. u.s. secretary of state rock's tillerson has expressed concern about the wising level of

violence in eastern ukraine during a phone conversation he asked his russian counterpart sergey lavrov to make efforts to lower the bloodshed in the region it comes as ukrainian government forces and production separatists carry out a prisoner exchange kiev handed over three hundred six captives to the rebels and received seventy four presidents in return. what's being called the largest prisoner exchange in the eastern ukraine conflict david stern is in kiev david this is the first major prisoner exchange in over a year why is it happening now. it's a good question this could be a sign it's obviously a sign of progress the only question is how big of a sign of progress it is this is a very large exchange as you've said in fact exchange has been completed now and what we're being told is that all seventy four of the ukrainians have are now on their way back to kiev where they will actually be greeted by people crowds that

are going to the main airport just outside the capital and on the rebel side on the russian backed rebel side a few some fewer than were originally reported the cravings are saying about forty three have decided to stay in ukraine but again the question is why is this happening now obviously this is a sign of progress but the fighting is still continuing in the east and as you said at the top that there is concern about the level of fighting right now and indeed the u.s. secretary of state rex tillerson has asked russia to clamp down on the violence in eastern ukraine so is it fair to say this conflict is heating back up. well this is the question right now it is it has definitely heated up over the last week or week two weeks whether this is a temporary surge which we sometimes see before cease fires could be a possibility or it could be something a sign of something much more serious obviously the international community is

watching very closely and also making statements not just secretary secretary of state tillerson but emmanuel mccall and angle americal made statements over the weekend what they're hoping for is a ceasefire for the holiday season which will hope which they hope will prove to be more lasting all right so world leaders are watching this very closely but david put this in context for us what it all mean for the peace process we will see exactly how what the moment the momentum is whether we'll see more exchanges in the coming weeks or perhaps a month there is there have been indications or some statements by the rebels and we'll see what exactly comes from this on the in the in the bigger picture whether there is going to be a larger agreement between russia and united states and ukraine right that's david stern reporting for us from kiev thank you as

a look now at some of the other stories that are making news around the world russian opposition leader alexina bonus says he is organizing a nationwide rally on the twenty eighth of january to support his boycott of next year's presidential election the country's election commission has barred the kremlin critic running in a march vote citing a controversial embezzlement conviction of only claims is politically motivated. south korea says the comfort women ral with japan is unresolved that's despite the two countries having reached a deal and twenty fifteen officials in seoul say that agreement over south korean women who were forced to work in japan's volatiles fails to meet the needs of the times. on monday coming off from work to find a huge bag boom trashing your kitchen that nightmare is reality for many people on south africa's cape peninsula or baboons often break into homes to rummage for food

but now a new method of deterrence could put an end to the monkey business once and for all . a boon burglary in south africa's keep potential people versus primate 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. woman 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 are there 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. of pertain to all predators along kawthar and the sounds of it all being killed they're scared to go. a few bangs for. the reinforces this earth and their void. with the health 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 minus its music to their ears. we've noticed in the last two weeks since the team arrived with the with the call the virtual friends we've had largely through neighborhoods for the last two weeks so we will be saying is it

our imagination or are these suddenly never broods but they all said lean over green at stake is the region's famed been population until recently the cheeky monkeys would have been shot following positive results the plan is now to roll out the system another keep one suburbs hopefully ensuring that fewer and fewer light fingered friends are killed unnecessarily. and that state of the news this hour please join us again at the top of the hour for more and as always you can find the latest on our website or on twitter i'm sarah harmon in berlin for the whole team thanks for watching. images from an isolated country images from what's called. tell musatov the front captured fascinating shots of everyday life in the regimented society.