this is the news live from berlin a series of explosions hit the afghan capital kabul the blasts including one suicide attack have left dozens dead one target is

a shiite cultural center will go to kabul for more. also on the program a major prisoner swap after months of negotiations ukraine and its progress in separatists exchanged captives in the biggest such swap since hostilities broke out in the country's east. hello and welcome. good to have you with us. we begin in afghanistan where officials now say at least thirty six people were killed and dozens more wounded in a series of blasts in the capital kabul a suicide bomber reported to have detonated a device at a gathering in a shiite cultural center witnesses say many of the victims were students in an online statement so-called islamic state planes its supporters were behind the attacks. and joining us now from competent journalist friends marty

france islamic state claiming responsibility for this attack the group of course has been behind similar attacks in the region how big a threat is i-s. now posing in afghanistan. yes indeed the group has in the past month claimed most of the attacks even more than the taliban in kabul inside kabul city so it sort of it poses a threat inside kabul city as well as in some other areas where it has confirmed presence especially in the eastern province of among the hot on the other hand the islamic state is very limited in the presence throughout the country so the only conferred presence is in the east there are some reports about presence in the north that are not that clear but in any event the truth of the so-called islamic

state is only a small fraction of the taliban so overall they don't pose the same threat the same threat taliban throughout the country ok and what about today's targets what what what to what do they tell us about the strategy that i asked may or may not be pursuing. today's target more or less. expect to do usual targets that the so-called islamic state attacked due to its ideology. was as up to states so this was this young cultural center so this makes perfect sense that the claim stays contrary to the colleagues on who usually don't attack like or at least in the policy used in the attack like religious minorities this comes after deposit money. islamic state has attacked the. mosques so

this is the profile that they have interesting to note is that the last with texts on eighteenth of december and by the fifth of december here in kabul that were also played by the islamic state were targeted at televisions personal so will these two attacks kind of suggested that islamic state might switch target in shi'ites to more targeting security forces today has again shown that there are still going after the religious minorities ok friends many thanks for that france monti reporting from kabul thank you very much we're going to catch up now and some of the other stories making the news around the wild russian president vladimir putin says an explosion in a so petersburg supermarket on wednesday was an act of terror at least ten people were injured in the blast the homemade device containing two hundred grams of explosive was traced to a bank huge laca. the man who led moves to oust zimbabwe's long time leader robert

mugabe has been sworn in as the country's new vice president former army chief constantine chiwenga recently retired in order to accept the new job critics have accused president amazon went on god of drawing too heavily on the military for government appointees. a court in myanmar has dropped additional charges against two foreign journalists arrested back in october the flying a drone over the country's parliament the pair working for turkish broadcast of geology and the due to be released on january the fifth after serving a two month sentence for illegally flying a drone. a spanish humanitarian group has rescued more than one hundred thirty migrants in the mediterranean as they attempted to reach into the from libya dozens of miners were among those rescued the spanish angio was responding to an emergency call from the italian coast guard. the united nations children's agency

unicef is warning that children have become targets in conflicts around the world at a shocking level this year in its latest report the group documents cases of children being used as human shields being raped and being forced into marriage unicef has urged warring parties to respect international law governing the treatment of children in conflict as well ukraine and its separatist rebels have exchanged hundreds of prisoners in the largest such swap since a still it is broke out in the country's east three years ago the deal followed months of negotiation it's part of the minsk peace accord signed in twenty fifteen the hope now is that the exchange could help deescalate the conflict that's claimed over ten thousand lives so far. in the dark and the cold seventy four people came home he created president petro poroshenko greeted former prisoners held by russian backed separatists. one

former volunteer ukrainian fighter said he faced daily threats and beatings in captivity. in the beginning there was strong psychological pressure they threatened me and my relatives. they told me they would send me my mother cut up in pieces. it's some point the beatings began. look what's left of my teeth but it's ok i'll buy new ones. earlier in the day ukrainian authorities send two hundred thirty three people back to the self-proclaimed separatist republics of the hanscom donetsk both of which are allied with russia. many of the prisoners have been held for more than a year. so. they were in the critical. most years it's emotional i talked with my wife on the phone.

through a little bit what do you want most now just to see my son and my wife is a. prisoner exchanges like this one were envisioned back in two thousand and fifteen as part of the minsk agreement but the final details of the deal were only agreed last week authorities are still waiting to see a full implementation aimed at resolving the conflict. aid workers in syria have begun evacuating twenty nine critically ill people from rebel held areas in eastern capital damascus the evacuations part of an agreement between the rebels and the syrian government the united nations are called on the government forces to allow around five hundred people in dire need of medical care to be evacuated is to go to the site of syria's biggest remaining scenes with its four hundred thousand people facing severe shortages of food fuel and medicine. 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 guta. 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 but there are now twenty nine desperately children who should start receiving medical attention very see. syrian government forces have laid siege to the eastern part of go to 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 guta hangs in the balance and there is still no sign of a breakthrough in talks to end syria's civil war.

boxing is a high impact sport no water no matter rather what level you're competing at it requires a robust physique which is why most boxers quite well a group of pensioners in south africa are now showing that age is in fact no real obstacle once you've decided to step into the ring seventy nine year old constant and seventy seven year old lad is. just best friends and neighbors there or so books and partners. twice a week they come to the a.t.m. gym in johannesburg to hit the punching bags and keep fit constant used to suffer from high blood pressure but has already noticed improvements in a health or model i enjoy boxing because it makes me fit and when i go to the clinic the doctors say i no longer have high blood pressure and i feel stronger since i started coming to the gym because. the development of obesity and

noncommunicable diseases like high blood pressure high cholesterol and type two diabetes is on a critical rise in south africa which is why nutritionist cloud welcomes the pensioners combined cardiovascular and resistance training routine. when you combine those two kind of ascertaining things like crunching runnings swimming walking this is resistance training it is body weight exercises circuit training training exercise like that not any thoughts of muscle mass but also proves immiscible a great which means you can control that development maybe city there's no disputing the importance of exercise but it would be ill advised for pensioners to receive in line punches to the head or body especially as preexisting conditions like aneurisms or high cholesterol could lead to fade talents he or strokes according to dr sally scott santa a medical supervise a boxing matches in south africa extreme force being applied to that to the head or to any part of the board. would be to some for eternity.

bearing in mind that these people have not been chipped by doctors scar santa advises a full check up before anyone can box in the meantime these grandmothers are fighting their way to fitness turning to soccer now after a relentless some up astute premier league club liverpool have finally signed southampton defender virgil van dyke for eighty four point five million euros that makes him the world's most expensive defender the dutch international will be moving to anfield on january the first who is expected to join the appalled at the start of the season after requesting a transfer but the move fell through when they were poor forced to make a public apology after accusations of making an illegal approach for the player. in sailing the final outcome of the sydney to hobart yacht race has been changed to

him comanche awarded first place after a jury agreed to penalize the wild oats eleven team by one hour for failing to follow competition rules during the race the two yachts almost collided missing each other by just one metre and after that they have missed comanche immediately raised the red to protest flag both yachts crushing the existing record by the way by more than four and a half feet. right. now just imagine this was the view from your office so if you work on the international space station it is actually the view from your window to make sure we are all part of that astronauts on the i.r.s. us regularly share the pictures they make from their office window we're going to leave you now with a selection of the very best pictures this year you're watching t.w. news do stay with us if you can.