molly: welcome to the "france 24 " newsroom. i am molly hall. hero the headlines. lawmakers in south korea impeach the president. park geun-hye suspended after weeks of antigovernment protests. the syrian government showing in aleppo, despite the russian announcement of a new pause infighting. a new report exposes the

russianionalized athletes. we will go to moscow for the latest. molly: we start with a major seoul, thehakeup in south korean president impeach this friday after weeks of antigovernment protests against her rule. scandalence peddling caused park geun-hye's suspending of her powers. go to jason strother, who joins us from the south korean capital. i understand there is official reaction coming in about the impeachment. we heard from president park herself. jason: right. she expressed regret over

causing all this chaos, as she said. it was not an admission of guilt, by any y means. she has been accused of pressure in some of south korea's largest companies to give tens of millions of dollars to a close friend who embezzled much of those funds. but she says she is stepping down and peacefully handing that will peacefully wait for the constitutional court to make its ruling on whether or not the impeachment was valid. said, where dong things go here for south korea. -- n co jason: the prime minister has speech ofacceptance his new powers. he will be acting as the interim president while the court decides whether or not to keep the impeachment in place. he says that people's voices have been heard and now his

government will try to satisfy those needs. will most likely find some sort of power-sharing agreement with the national assembly, which is mostly controlled by the opposition party. and if -- but despite all this, the testers who have been taking to the streets for the past several -- the testers who have been taking to the streets for the past several weeks say they will continue their demonstrations. until park geun-hye is removed from office, if the constitutional court upholds the impeachment. molly: jason strother reporting from seoul. next we crossed to syria, where there are reports of government shelling in rebel held parts of aleppo. airstrikes stopped on thursday evening following moscow's pause fighting. but shelling continued thursday night into friday morning. the plan is to allow for the evacuation of civilians from

besieged areas. leaving a war zone. these people among thousands of aleppo residents taking the chance to flee after the syrian army decision to suspend its advance. thennouncement made by russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov. you, all active military operations of the syrian army in aleppo have been suspended. it is so far the most widescale operation to evacuate civilians from eastern aleppo. the white house welcomes the news, saying it was an indication that something positive has happened. russian and u.s. representatives met in geneva on saturday to outline a roadmap for ending the conflict.

the french foreign minister says they will continue to ask tough questions of russia -- in particular, it's decision to -- it's decision to block the syrian government. >> total disagreement with tocow's military approach block the regime. this is a humanitarian issue. >> three weeks into a major offensive to retake the city, government troops have captured around 85% of rebel-held territory in eastern aleppo. syrian president bashar al-assad -- opposition fighters have rejected any decision. molly: in neighboring iraq, fierce back and forth writing -- fierce back-and-forth fighting rages on in mosul.

it is thought to be used as an islamic state base. they were forced to his draw from the site when they came under sustained attack. rebel forces say they have taken back in neighborhood from i.s. fighters. our correspondent has the details. >> one building after the other, these homes are being secured and cleared of any sign of the islamic state group. after coming up against stiff resistance, iraqi special oppositions forces -- eric a special operations forces helped capture the neighborhood from -- iraqi special operations forces helped capture the neighborhood from islamic state group. >> they have left weapons behind, so we're looking for them. we also have word that some of the fighters are wearing civilian clothes and are in these houses. >> tens of thousands of mosul residents have left the city to escape the military offensive. iraqi security forces are being

backed by kurdish fighters, sunni arab fighters, and u.s. led coalition aircraft. here in the east of the city, their presence has brought a sense of stability. >> we lived a miserable life. our children stopped attending school. they abused us. they imposed strict rules on men. they did everything they could to hurt us. >> there are christians who used to live here. islamic state group took their homes, moved them, and then they turned on us. destroying our homes, looting us, killing us, including my cousin. with the offensive almost two months old, press has slowed in recent weeks. forces to the north and south have yet to enter the city. is concerned about 1.5 million civilians still living

in mosul. molly: across egypt, there has been a deadly bomb blast in cairo. six police officers were killed when a bomb placed in a garbage bin exploded at a security check in the egyptian capital. four civilians were injured. there has been no immediate claim of responsibility. we cross to cameroon, where antigovernment protests turned deadly. police shot dead four demonstrators in one of the country's small anglophone areas. there has been unrest and people are demanding more rights. >> armed with water cannons and tear gas, police moved through the streets in an effort to restore order. cameroon's english speakers have been demonstrating against a meeting organized by the ruling cameroon people's democratic

movement party. clashes between the protesters have resulted in injuries and death. president's the party came to the city to call on the anglophone protesters to stop strikes they have been carrying out for months now. makeoon's english speakers up just 20% of the population. they say they are being marginalized. now many of them would like to see the united republic go up in flames. and return to the federal state system that existed before 1972. molly: vote counting is still underway in ghana, following wednesday's presidential election. there has been a delay in results coming in due to the verification process, and now all sides are calling for calm. our correspondent reports. ghana'sing outside

election commission, it is inside this building that the lengthy protest of the verification is still ongoing. this morning we heard from the head of the election commission, who said there were delays in getting verified results out. this was because they are having to manually go through the process of counting the results from the 275 voting areas. they so have to be signed off by party officials before they can be officially released, and that is taking longer than expected. both political parties are saying they are confident of victory. both sides are still appealing for calm. we can say that from the unverified provisional results released from the election commission, the general trend does seem to suggest that nana is at thisd oh -- moment ahead. we can also say that those who

turn out according to the election commission, more than 49%, the lowest ever in ghana election history. in the words of the election commission, that was extremely disappointing and something that political parties moving forward will have to address. next, a dutch court has convicted and anti-islam politician of -- it simms from an incident in which he led supporters -- the judges say there was insufficient evidence to incitement to hatred. the dutch lawmaker of -- did us lawmaker plans to appeal the judgment. to a new doping report concerning russian athletes. over rush -- over 1000 russian athletes benefited from a state sponsored conspiracy to conceal doping, according to the latest

findings released from doping investigator mclaren. that's cross to moscow for an update on what this means. for that we are joined by thomas lowe in moscow. tell us exactly what is in this report. thomas: richard mclaren no punches. he said this was doping on an unprecedented scale. as you mentioned, 1000 russian athletes either benefited from the doping system that covered ,0 sports, including football because of the world cup that we had recently. so on an unprecedented scale, but also that it was institutionalized, not just the russian anti-doping authority. but it also included the ministry of sport and specifically indicated in the the man who has been

replaced as minister of sports, promoted to one of russia's deputy prime ministers. as more rules were implemented to try to catch more doping athletes, that these apps plates -- that these athletes in this institutionalized system were able to adapt so they could get around these new rules and keep winning medals and keep going undetected. molly: thomas, what are we likely to see in terms of reaction in russia or even possible fallout? thomas: this report comes on the back of two previous reports down by the independent commission from the anti-doping authorities. a lot of this material is not new. we have already had reaction to most of these allegations, which have been well proven in this report. so we have a hint of what russians think, and we have a

hint of what the authorities think. president last year, as the first report came out, said this is really an effort to politicize sport or that it was not just sport for sport, but that it was initiated by western nations to take russia to task a lot of people on the streets that i have been speaking to too, isthat this, politicized. that it is a politicized subject. many people think that russia is being picked on unfairly. they believe that most nations, most states are involved in doping in one way or another, but that russia was being picked on, and they think quite simply that is unfair. on another side of what the government might think about 24, the mainrussia state news broadcaster, has not been carrying rich mclaren's address, as he believed that report.

it will be interesting to see what the russian state does next. as far as what we have seen in the past, if that is any guide to what we have seen in the future, it will deflect aiticism and suggest it is politicized report, albeit a damning one. states,n the united pioneering astronaut john glenn has died at the age of 95. he made history twice as the first american to orbit the earth and the first senior citizen to venture into space. the space agency nasa paid tribute by calling him a true american hero. >> with that, john glenn was on his way to making history. the date, fairbury 20, 1962. theplace, cape canaveral -- day, february 20, 1962. the place, cape canaveral. over the next four hours, the

40-year-old astronaut onboard the friendship 7 capsule orbited the earth not once but three -- keeping hisby cool during a malfunction with the heat shield, john glenn came back to earth a national hero. in the wake of the cold war, he had relaunched american hopes in the space race against the soviet union. part of a select team for the vii.ry >> we were very competitive with each other in trying to do the training for the flights, but when it came time for a flight, you never have seen anybody, any group of people work more closely together. >> he became a household name for his spaceflight, but decades before he had already become a decorated war hero for his contribution in world war ii and the korean war as a fighter pilot. after returning from space, he turned to politics, representing

his home state of ohio for 24 years in the senate and even running for the democratic presidential nomination in 1984. still dreaming of the stars, glenn had to wait until 1998 to return to space. when he became the world's oldest astronaut. on his desk, glenn's family death, glenn'ss family said, "he has left the earth for the third and final time." molly: we are going to start off here with france. the country's deficit is likely to be bigger than expected. >> yes, some bad news. saying that francois hollande's government will fail. cuts, it wouldg

go from 1% gdp from feet to 3% this year. wouldr 4 billion euros need to be saved in order to hit the e.u.'s 3% gdp target next year. candidates spar on spending and taxes. --taper or not to taper analysts are up sussing over whether the european central bank's decision to continue but cut back its quantitative easing program is a prelude to the bond buying scheme being phased out. brian quinn has the details. the european central bank's quantitative easing program will continue throughout 2017, a nine-month extension of its original march date. purchasing financial bonds with

newly money was envisioned as an economic stimulus of last resort, but markets seem to have come to rely on it. the ecb meeting made some waves. while the key interest rate will remain at 0%, the value of bonds purchased by the ecb will dip from 80 billion euros per month in april down to 60 billion euros for the rest of the year. that remove ash that move -- that move calls for a gradual winding down of zero by the program. mario draghi was quick to refute the interpretation. >> the council is acting in a callr and flexible way, to when they materialize. second, there is no question about tapering. tapering has not been discussed today. brian: german members of the saysal bank's council

winding down will allow necessary reforms. mr. druggie is hedging his bets. if economic conditions worsen, aghi is -- mr. dr hedging his bets. >> markets are trading up slightly after hitting a record high after draghi's announcement. been -- markets have what is known as the trump rally, this has been compounded by what is known as the santa rally. shares often do well in december. finally, your flights could be getting a lot noisier. u.s. aviation regulators are leaning toward eventually froming in-fight calls airline passengers. "the wall street journal" reporter airlines would be able

to choose whether to provide the service, and passengers must be informed where in the flight allows calls. offer kuehneready occasions over wi-fi. calls ony offer occasion over wi-fi. molly: i do not know if that sounds like a good thing. , thank youfernande very much. it is time now for our "press review." molly: i am joined in the studio by dheepthika laurent. we are going to get reaction to some comments made by boris johnson per tell us. dheepthika: he is

accused saudi arabia of puppeteering and proxy wars and abusing islam during a conference in rome last week. the comments were picked up on a video. his comments have reached protocol. theresa may was quick to react, saying it was not all -- it was not at all the stance of the government. even worse for boris johnson, he is due to meet with authorities in saudi arabia this weekend. molly: and he took a lot of heat from the british press for his words. dheepthika: pregnant saudi arabia has supported the saudi-led coalition in -- and saudi arabia -- britain and saudi arabia -- britain has been critical of saudi arabian airstrikes there. it has criticized what he calls johnson's hypocrisy, saying his conduct would be best expressed by helping the export of weapons

to the country. he is licensed more than 3 billion euros of weapons sales since the conflict began. molly: another big story where following the press is the battle for aleppo. the ticket code the atlantic putin -- that aleppo has all but fallen to the syrian regime. it shows how a foreign power can influence in a war, this time russia. they lack of stability can cause a turnaround in the civil war. the saudi newspaper slammed what it calls the powerlessness of the u.n. she criticizes the west's at parker's he from the west were calling for bashar

al-assad's -- now they are saying he is actually part of the solution, a solution she says is unfair to the syrian people, even that at least 400,000 people have died in the five-year war. this cartoon, which really sums up the chaos in the middle east -- you see santa claus there is pulling his sled. the signboard says "middle east ," and he is essentially removing landmines. the comment being that that could be the best gift this christmas, just removing those landmines, political and otherwise. let's talk about the blend of art and politics. "the guardian" talk about one artist who said that -- one artist whose photo mockups of donald trump has been centered by the -- has been censored by the british press. dheepthika: this picture in wasicular, she says,

censored, that certain press refused to run it. it turns out that some of her most politically sensitive images featuring donald trump have been shunned by the press. "the guardian" chose to run it on its front page, a strong statement by the british paper. the artist said she chose to self publish a book of her works last october, saying he was part of the protest against the effect that a litigious president could have on artistic freedom. donald trump has been involved in a whopping 3005 hundred legal actions in the last 30 years. .olly: it is quite interesting the front arrest could be misleading, considering all the talk about fake news that is going on. briefly, in the united states, we are getting an idea of what donald trump's cabinet will look like. onwill come into office january 20. what we are seeing so far is not pleasing all of his supporters. dheepthika: and especially this

up is that were there from the beginning, his most loyal followers. -- his most loyal supporters. they are feeling a little bit shafted. them,ore frustrating for some of the top jobs have been going to people who have been the most vocal critics of trump during the presidential campaign. so this gives us a glimpse into of aearly machinations divided administration," one that was catapulted to victory by a ragtag group of conservatives coming against the party a step -- running against the party establishment. the trump administration is sort of causing problems now. molly: this is a look ahead in 2017. i understand the world color has been decided. dheepthika: the company in town -- an american company -- every they comed december out with the color of the following year.

these were the colors for 2016 -- pink and blue. i am sure they have more sophisticated names for it. but the idea is to reflect gender equality or at least a hope of gender equality. this year they have chosen a sort of lime8úxúa?ó?]#ñw

narrator: this is grace, a business woman in kigali, rwanda. eight years ago, she was starving and unable to feed her children. many of her family had been massacred in one of the worst gegenocides of the late 20thth century. but today, thanks to an innovative program, life is good. she earns up to $200 a month from her furniture business and employs 11 people.