>> this is "france 24." i am mark, and these are the headlines. the last member of pussy riot is released from a russian prison. she joins her punk partners, calling their release a publicity stunt by vladimir putin. he u.n. is looking for 5,000 more peace keepers in south sudan. they say there have been summary executions. a catastrophic ice storm hits toronto in canada, cutting

power to thousands of homes. weather wreaked havoc to many christmas plans. >> thank you very much for joining us. the last member of the punk protest group pussy riot was released from jail earlier monday, calling for a boycott of the sochi winter olympics. she gave a defiant speech. she called her release a publicity stunt by vladimir putin in the run-up to the games. >> flashing the victory sign, she walked free after spending almost 18 months in a remote siberian prison. it was seen as an attempt by the kremlin to improve russia's image. >> they just put on another

show ahead of the olympics. such is their desire to prevent european countries from boycotting our olympics. >> another member was released she said it was a publicity stunt and would not give up. >> we remain in our human rights activity. we remain passionate about what we believe. >> they were sentenced to prison in 2012 after a protest song that criticized president vladimir putin. along with a third member who was later released, they were found guilty of julio beganism. >> i am a proud russian, and i think it is wrong. >> of course it is right that they release them. they shouldn't have been jailed

at all. got women's convictions outrage from foreign governments and activists. >> the latest there on the released members of pussy riot. here is our correspondent who joins us from moscow. good evening. what has the reaction been to these defiant words to the two members of pussy riot? >> well, most of the media is state sponsored and state-backed, so responses were not taking any stands against or for the band members. what we have seen from other media, social twitter, there has been a wave of support from lillibridge rat russia and abroad. there were local feelings of jubilation almost. a lot of people in this country

feel this has been, as they have described it, a move that has somewhat backfired. these two members came out of their corner, so to speak, taking swipes at vladimir putin, turning this into a personal battle against him and his version of russia, which is not players, calling if a boycott of the olympics to shed ight what is going on in the penitentiary system in russia. they said they were subjected to some horrific treatment while in-run. this has caused a lot of response worldwide. >> is it fair to say that pussy riot is far from finished as a protest group? >> not at all. say they ard them will continue fighting for what they believe in. they really do believe they should start what they call a

collarful project, saying that everything is just starting. that is pretty interesting. the first words she uttered when she came out of riot, ironically of course, was russia without putin. that shows what they plan to do in the future. they are going to meet tomorrow in siberia, and they are going to plan their next moves. it is going to be an interesting time for russia, and they plan some more music. we will see what they have up share sleeves for putin and his government. we will see if there is any official response from kremlin officials because we have not heard from them at all since the release and the harsh words from the members of pussy riot. >> thank you very much. the controversy continues there. the two remaining members of pussy riot have been freed, calling it a publicity stunt by putin. next, an assault planned on a

key town held in south sudan. it is a place where 17,000 people are under u.n. protection in the face of growing violence. aid workers say they have witnessed summary executions, pushing the state toward ull-scale civil war. calls on an -- moon them. >> more u.n. peace keepers don: ed to protect them. violence must cease immediately. the united nations will investigate reports of deprave human rights violations and crimes against humanity. those responsible at the senior level will be held personally

accountable and face the consequences. >> our correspondent has been observing the situation for us in juba, the capital of south sudan. duncan, thank you for joining us. we heard ban ki-moon calling for 5,000 more peace keepers. that tells us about the situation on the ground where you are. >> we are in the captain, and it appears reasonably calm. that has been the case the last few days. while i have been here, there has been no fighting between the elements since tuesday. in the country the situation is different. the rebels have taken ground in a number of key states, including oil-producing areas. here in juba, although the military situation appears to have calmed down, there are increasing reports and increasing allegations of atrocities carried out by elements of the security

forces. >> we will leave it there. thank you very much. that is our correspondent there observing the situation in juba, south sudan. let's go to washington to get another angle on this story. the u.s. special envoy, donned booth, is in juba. let's talk to philip for more on that one. what are we expecting mr. booth to announce, if anything about the situation? >> we just heard from him here on a call from juba. he is currently in juba in south sudan and just spoke to reporters. he is already having discussions on the ground the his most important one has been with the south sudan ease president kiir. he had a frank and open discussion with him on measures to hauled the violence. here is what booth had to say. he said president kiir has committed to begin talks with

machar. the u.s. is getting involved on the ground more diplomatically. it is turning into more and more of a mediation. the united states will try and get the two factions together. that is president kiir on the one side and former vice president machar on the other, for political decisions. that is the term used by the senior administration official we just spoke to. >> philip, why has the u.s. become so involved in south sudan. >> this is a country the united states feels very involved with. it was a large partner in its independence two years ago and now it feels there is a lot happening in south sudan where the united states needs to first of all-pro tekotte its own citizens. the united states is insisting this is a mission, and a military mission, to protect its own citizens, staff and ray emery. hat is why there are more u.s.

troops going towards south sudan as we speak. 150 marines moving toward a permanent military base in djibouti. they are told it is to protect u.s. personnel and citizens. not to get involved militarily in the conflict but just to protect those on the ground right now. >> thank you for bringing us up to date there. moving on, there have been protests against the french military presence in the central african republic, protests on the ground. muslims are accusing france of taking sides with christians, calling the preference president a criminal. it has become a conflict along sectarian lines. >> they call the french president criminal and demanded french troops leave their country. hundreds of demonstrators say

the french are partial. the say they are putting muslims at risk. >> the operation has turned into bloodshed. why? because while they are disarming ex-members, they are taking the population along with them to the christian militants, allowing these gunmen to i a tack and steal from the muslim community. >> 1,600 french soldiers have been operating in the central african republic since december 5th. their goal, disarming militias to end months of sectarian violence. but after reports of incidents where others were killed, muslims have turned hostile. they accuse the french of favoring the christians. france says its soldiers are impartial, arming all groups, including anti-christian

militiamen. they said they only opened fire on gunmen who pointed their guns toward them. > bombs has have been used there to deadry effect. 300 people have been killed over eight days, including 8children. syria's opposition saying it won't attend talks unless the bombing of aleppo is stopped. >> collecting ruck sacks from the wreckage, these children can barely recognize their classroom. opposition activists say this footage shows a school on the outscops of aleppo after it was hit by barrel bombs dropped by raiding aircraft. >> the shrapnel from the explosion, the aircraft that attacked our school. >> we were inside when an aircraft came and attacked us with a rocket.

look at the destruction. teachers fled from the school. after we left, it attacked the school again. >> their faces covered with blood and dust, many of the children are brought to this hospital trying to cope with the influx. aleppo has been split between government and opposition forces since the summer of 2012. for over a week, the raging attacks have been held on rebel-held areas. government forces have bombarded neighborhoods with barrel bombs, improvised weapons made of schlep necessarily and nails. >> we have had enough. if he thinks we will be defeated by them, we will tell him that we won't, and we will stay strong. >> what can i say? he doesn't fear god. look at this destruction. what have the syrian people

done to deserve this? what have the women and children done? it is shameful. >> the opposition has ordered schools to be temporarily closed and renewed calls for a no-fly zone as the battle for aleppo rages on. >> dramatic disruption to christmas travel plans in north america due to a winter storm. toronto is very much at the center of a big freeze. >> snow and twisted trees lined the streets of toronto. the largest city in canada has seen snowstorms before, but this one was so violent it paralyzed large parts of the city and caused electric substation toss explode. thousands are homes are without power, and emergency crews are working around the clock to fix fallen power lines. >> this is truly one of the worst ice storms we have seen here in toronto. >> thousands of flights were delayed at the airport.

>> we have been stuck here for about 24 hours. we have had a couplele of lanes stopped already. >> cars are submerged, and a canoe becomes the only way to get around tone. authorities have evacuated hundreds of people from flooded homes. >> we had been warmed of the r.f.k. of flood and to be ready. >> but the storm spared the city of new york, where people ore t-shirts and shorts. temperatures topped 18 degrees celsius, but it is not expected to last. >> a freeze hitting north america, toronto in particular. let's remind you of the world news headlines. from paris, the last member of pussy riot was released from a russian prison. she joins her partners in calling her release a publicity

stunt from president vladimir putin. the u.n. has asked for 5,000 more peace keepers for south sudan. they are ready to move into the rebel town of bor, and they say there have been summary executions. a catastrophic ice storm hits toronto in canada. freezing rain bringing power cuts to thousands of homes. in europe, storms wreak havoc to christmas travel plans. > time now for our media watch section. joining us is our correspondent here in the studio. tell us what has been trending? >> el well, the big story that has been buzzing this weekend is the story of the p.r. executive who tweeted this. you should see it on your screens now. this tweet is recent and idiotic and caused quite a stir

there. it wasn't viral just as she got on her flight. it provoked such outrage that even before the plane landed, the company she worked for reported they were firing her. this happened just before she landed. this is the time line of how events unfolded. justine landed yet. ever since then her twitter and facebook accounts have been closed down. she has issued a very possible apology. what is interesting about this story now are the reactions that have followed since the story unfolded. some twitter users were un comfortable with the way things were rolling out. opinion pieces have been published. here this one says she has

published a racist tweet, and now she has been lynched and fired. this is a very disturbing public event that happened. forbes similarly is pointing out how disturbing this is, dispensing justice on the interpret like that. it is a fact that other twitter harm fl things. >> a stupid and misguided tweet. but did it merit what happened next. that is the big question. anymore storms brewing online? >> these are storms of a more lit nature, the ones you have been covering in your bulletin. one of the big ones is the ice storm in canada. 220,000 homes still without power, and power companies are not sure they can get them back on line by christmas time. a lot of images going out on the internet. this one is a car being crushed

by a tree. closer to home, we have ferocious winter storms playing out here as well. the british public love a good storm. one commentator on twitter saying the public's love of talking about the weather and traffic has gone into groifer drove. if you look it up, you will see what he men's. there are some staggering images here. these are live tweets of the wind speeds. under the arrows you can see the outline of the u.k. this is tracking them in real time. the french website has picked up on this and they say the winter storms actually look like a van gogh painting of starry night. trains ferry up and down the u.k. are being canceled. a lot of people tweeting they

are going to be stranded over christmas. gaels of up to 140 kilometers an hour forecasted over christmas. >> anything you can give us for a feel-good story? >> there has been one feel-good story we have seen over the past few days. lots of travel plans have been messed up, but there is a more pleasant christmas travel experience which has been going viral as well. it is a christmas video from the canadian airline westjet. this went viral as well. what they did was they set up a box for people to check in, and it was a live streaming santa claus. when they checked in, santa would ask them what would you like for christmas. they got on the flight, and during the flight they went shopping. this is what happened when they landed. take a look at the video.

lots of smiling faces. you can see on a conveyor belt christmas presents coming down instead of luggage. i shed a tear or two. 200,000 if they got views, they would start taking disadvantaged children and give them free flights. they are up to over two million views. >> you cheered us all up after the initial stories there. good to see one company giving something to its customers. with media watch, thank you for joining us. great to see you. we turn our focus here on "france 24," ukraine is digesting the news that the president signed off to russia.

a $15 billion bailout and a massive cut in the price of gas. pro european demonstrators say that precedent has surrendered ukraine to russian control and calling for his resignation. but there is relief in other parts of the nation that it is on the mend. russian sympathizers in the east, east of kiev to see what people had to say there. >> in a chilly part in ukraine's second city, a few hundred pro european demonstrators gather each evening. recent protests have been a ance to reaffirm their you ukrainian identity. we want to try to speak ukrainian. >> it is still a minority

language here. most people here speak russian. the city's cultural identity is linked intrinsically to russian. >> talking about joining the european union today or tomorrow, the report in ukraine. >> the city's workers see europe as foreign, abstract and above all, a threat to their jobs. a quarter of ukraine's exports goes to russia. he says local products don't meet european standards. and russia's threat to cut the markets if they sign with the i is real he says the >> if russia stops buying our products today, factories will stop making money and stop paying taxes. so how is the state supposed to pay our pensions? >> this is a light aircraft manufacturer.

it's director supports integration with both europe and russia but has seen first-hand that the russias don't. >> we already sold them 16 planes, and they had ordered two more. but when all this fuss about ukraine and europe started, they canceled. when they signed their agreement, they reinstated the rder right away. >> a third of the 50 employees are russian-born. their equipment is russian-made. but then europe -- for them, europe is a long way away. i do understand western ukrainians. europe is on their doorstep, and they see you can earn good money there. so they want europe. but for us, our neighbor is russia. we are-off sloss. we are one nation. >> a clock on the wall

indicates moscow time. some stopped to watch the president give a tv interview justifying his pro-russian choice. >> basically i think he has done the right thing in this situation. as to what might happen in the future, we will have to see. >> such uncertainty about the future and mistrust seemed to trump both pro european and pro russian sentiments here. >> i say both sides have their pluses and minuses. it is a tough choice. >> the country's economy is in dire straits, but it is not only the current government's fault. >> others note that initially doing the i, they had two years to repair the economy. >> what did you do for two years? the industrialist union, the directors of the factories, what have you been doing for the past two years?

>> while europe have ambitious modernization plans,gzw/w/

12/23/13 12/23/13 >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! i am writing to david gilbert, a white imperialist ,olitical prisoner who is aging wonderfully, as everything else. i think he is a little over 70 now. >>