rob mcbride is in budget, and harry fawcett is in seoul. is this a tit for tat move? why have they done this? >> well, certainly it's a very direct response to what china did on november the 23rd by extending their zone into the east china sea. a lot of the attention on that surrounded the islands claimed by japan and china. the e.u. in china. as well as that, it did enroach on the existing south korean air defense zone and south korea has wanted to extend its own zone to cover two of its islands that were not included when the original zone was drawn up in 1951 by the americans, and there's a submerged reef and that falls under the new zone which extends 150km or more korean peninsula. that has south korean scientific research station and helipad on it. it's in a strategically important part of the waters and south korea's own military aircraft operate with greater ease in this area. sea trying to say that it's going this in a regularized way than china did a few days ago, saying it's consulting with its neighbours, leaving them with a grace period so it can have fur

rob mcbride, al jazeera, hong kong. >>> a mass grave containing 21 skulls has been found near a militaryin somali. prosecutors say it contains the bodies of soldiers who opposed the former military chief. >>> libya's government is confident of resuming full oil production within the next two weeks. the oil minister made the promise after the army threatened to use force against armed protesters. a mix of militias, tribesman, and political minorities have shut down the oil fields for five months. they have been demanding a greater share of the country's oil well. >>> four somali men have been denied bail in kenya. they are accused of being involved in this the west gate shopping mall attack. >>> african and asian nations have reached a deal to crack down on the illegal trade in rivalry. the number of africanel -- elephants is declining rapidly. >> reporter: they have walked the planet for a mill lennia, now the future of these on malls is being decided here in bo botswa botswana. all 30 countries present agree to help protect africa's dwindling elephant population. >> this was unique and

. >> more from rob mcbride in beijing. >> merrill newman's release has come from delicate behind-the-scenes negotiations. he arrived in one flight from pyongyang, and is on his way to the west coast of america. he said little. he said he's pleased to be free and is looking forward to seeing his wife, obviously, and the american embassy here said that he received consular assistance, and the state department welcomed the release. it seems to have been arrived at on account of his apology that he gave last week. he'd been held for a month for alleged hostile acts against north korea. what they were we still don't know. it could have been connected with his war service. we know that he was working with american special forces, training and operating with partisan unit behind enemy lines during the korean war. was he held personally responsible or did they get the wrong merrill newman. another theory is they could have mistaken merrill newman for a more celebrated veteran of the same now. his family said there was a misunderstanding between newman and his minders. the government, tall -- tour g

rob mcbride joining us br beijing. >> opposition groups in bangladesh called for a strike on sunday after the execution of a senior leader. violent protests have broken out in dakar. abdul quader mollah was the first person executed for crimes dating back to the 1971 war of independence. >> united nations inspectors say it appears chemical weapons have been used five times during the syria war. the final report has been handed to u.n. secretary-general ban ki-moon and will be send to the members of the security council. james bays has more on the report from the united nations in new york. some of the images in this report may be disturbing. >> it is a detailed report, some 82 payments here of scientific evidence gathered by the team on the ground in syria, gathering forensic evidence, samples taken from the sites where it was claimed that chemical weapons were used. there were seven different instances of a possible use of chemical weapons that this team examined. they went through all the details, and they have confirmed that they believe that there is clear and convincing evidence in o

rob mcbride has more from baj beijing >> the rabbit landed. this was the moment the rove or touched down on board the lander, the changi-3. arriving in an area known as the bay of rain bows, and watched live across china on tvs, like the one in a restaurant near workers' stadium. it marks a milestone, following in the footsteps of americans years ago. >> translation: i'm happy to see the way the space program developed. i'm very prou. >> translation: i never expected to see this, i'm happy my country managed to do this. >> a tangible display to the world of china's growing expertees and mite. the space program is a priority for the country's leadership. it looks to build the first space station on the moon in the 2020s. for ordinary chinese citizens, a source of pride. >> a scale model is selling fast. >> in recent years as the space program developed, there's more tension paid to chinese spacecraft and the models are more popular. the next challenge, the rover has to venture out to begin its work, conducting tests, including the use of ground

rob mcbride, hong kong. >> still to come on the news hour, what killed yasir arafat? new findings cast doubt other the theory that he was poisoned. plus, why a spark of optimism. and in sport, a world record crowd, in the test with england. >> >> al jazeera america is the only news channel that brings you live news at the top of every hour. >> here are the headlines at this hour. >> only on al jazeera america. >> >> the news hour of our top stories. 23 people have been arrested for being linked to the muslim brotherhood. egypt's government declares the group a terrorist organization. the government has reject add call from the election commission to postpone an election due in february. the leaders of kenya and ethiopia have met with south sudan's president in juba. they are trying to mediate an end to an apparent coupe attempt. the cause of his death is still the subject of debate. now a team is raising more questions. al jazeera first obtain add report in 2012 by a lab which claimed there were unusual radio active -- let's take a look now at the findings the swiss r

rob mcbride reports. >> the rabbit has landed. called yutu in chinese or jade rabbit, this was the moment the rabbit touched down on board "chang'e 3." arriving on target, watched across china on tvs like the one in a restaurant near workers' stadium, beijing. it marks a milestone in the chinese space program, methodically following in the footsteps of russians and american exploits years ago. >> i'm so happy to see the way the space program developed. i'm very proud. >> translation: i never expected to see this. i'm happy my country managed to do this >> a tangible display to the world, of china's growing expertise and might. it looks now to build the first space station on the moon in the 2020s. for ordinary chinese citizens a source of pride. at this store copies of jade rabbit are selling fast. trans-france -- >> translation: in recent years more attention is given to chinese spacecraft. >> the rover has to venture out to begin its work, conducting tests, including the use of ground penetrating radar to reveal what is below th

rob mcbride reports. >> the rabbit has landed. called yutu in chinese or jade rabbit, this was the moment the rover touched down on board the lander, "chang'e 3." arriving on target in an area known as the bay of rainbow, and watched live across china on tvs like the one in a restaurant near workers' stadium, beijing. it marks a milestone in the chinese space program, following in the footsteps of the russian and american exploits of the years ago. >> i'm happy to see the way the space program developed. i'm very proud. >> translation: i never expected to see this. i'm happy my country managed to do this. a tangible display to the world of china's growing technical expertise and economic might. the space program is a priority for the country's leadership. it looks to build the first space station on the moon in 2020. for ordinarily chinese citizens, a source of pride. at this store the scale model of the jade rabbit and its lander are selling fast. >> translation: in recent years as the space program developed there's more attenti

. >> thank you so much rob mcbride. >> now, more than half a million homes in the u.s. and canada lost power because of delays in snow. many are in the dark. temperatures drop to minus 15. dominic kane reports. >> it may look like a winter wonder land. for many across canada and the u.s. there has been little cheer. hundreds of thousands of homes have been left without power by an ice storm. a combination of blizzards and the cold has taken its toll on the electricity and transport networks. in buffalo the conditions are treacherous, with accidents as road users lose control of their vehicles. in cleveland the weather caused a 28-car pile-up on a road. across the board a main concern for the emergency services is getting the power grid online. a lot of people don't have heat. the sooner we get up and en, the better. >> many in vermont spent much of the day in the cold and dark. firefighters went door to door to check on residents and shelters. across canada and the u.s. many resorted to using generators, but it increased the risk of carbon monoxide poisoning and deaths

. >> rob mcbride in hong kong. thank you very much. >> good evening, everyone, earlier tonight we were talking about the snow event happening in the north. we are dealing with it out here in the west. actually, here in wyoming highway 90 is closed because the snow. idaho saw 30 inches of snow. i want to show you what colorado looks like. this is fort collins, colorado, live pictures out of colorado. we are looking at a lot of snow. it will continue in the region about 18 inches of snow, of course much more in the overpat. if the wind picks up, visibility will go down considerabliry. coming back to the wall, and we'll look at what is in the picture. we are looking at warnings. a lot of winter storm warnings. they are the dark blue ones, nevada, utah, wyoming. i'll get to the north in a bit. here the snow will be substantial. the snow up to the idaho, and we expect that to go down in intensity. it will be colorado. that's where the 18 inches over the next 24-36 hours, we are looking at about 2 feet. >> kevin, just ah

and smoothed the transition of power from father to son something went very wrong. >> that was rob mcbrideting and it has been six weeks since the typhoon went through the philippines and the death toll is 6,000 with 1700 people still missing. officials fear the number could go up as more bodies are recovered everyday, it flattened millions of homes in the philippines and could take at least three years before new houses are built. in taliban many displaced by the storm are living in temporary shelters. a big storm is moving across the country and nicole mitchell has been tracking it and which areas will be hit the hardest? >> we have some places feeling the impact especially heading into the weekend. one piece of energy is a clipper we have coming down, light snow with that and another developing system in the southern plains and already rain this morning in texas e oklahoma, isolated strip of freezing precipitation but is this system to the south develops and pulls in the gulf moisture and we also have reenforcing of the shot from the clipper and see some problems over the next couple da

. >> on the global copper trail, i'm rob mcbride in china and reporting on the country's appetite forecial metal. ♪ and the top stories on al jazeera, a rescue operation is underway in south sudan after the killing of two u.n. peace keeping soldiers and a state-run uganda newspaper say soldiers are being deployed in south sudan capitol juba. after ten years of being behind bars he has been released. the former oil tycoon and critic was freed after the president vladimir putin signed him out. there are reports of fighting in the capitol despite a new peace-keeping force being deployed to help stop the violence and christians and muslims turn on each other. people in madagascar are voting for the next leader in the runoff election and two presidential hopefuls are promising to ease years of political and economic turmoil and sanctions were imposed in 2009 after the last government was over thrown in a coup. and john is a former health minister and promising to increase investment, collect more taxes and launch an agricultural revolution and the challenger is harry, he served as former f

rob mcbride, aljazeera, beijing. >> a study found that as many as 90% of china's die men is that suffererse diagnosed. we're getting data on the housing news is mixed. applications for home mortgages rose after five weeks of decline, but the mortgage bankers say mortgage rates are at their highest since december. the average stands at 4.61%, up from 4.51% just last week. >> hilton's stock price is likely to pass twitter as the second biggest of the year. the hotel chain is looking to raise $2.7 billion. one watcher said the i.p.o. is boosting optimism in the market. >> so while still not as sexy as the twitter i.p.o. it has worldwide appeal and it's a well recognized name particularly among retail investors. i think that's an important sign in terms of the catalyst that it could drive into the marketplace. >> the i.p.o. market this year could be the big evident since the dot com era. >> the second biggest credit cord processor master card is splitting shares for the first time since going public in 2006. investors will get 10 new shares for each they own. share price is the third highest i

rob mcbride joining us from budget. what has beijing been saying about the passing. >> the first official reactions came from the top as you expect. president xi jinping issued a statement broadcast on state television, expressing sorrow, condolences and talking about the great contribution that nelson mandela made to south africa from china relations. china in the past decade or so has established relationships with a number of african relations. nelson mandela is a part of that process. he's been here twice to china. he was a well-known figure here and elsewhere throughout the world and the premier has given a statement which is also broadcast on the television here. expressing sorio on behalf of all chinese people, given the universal matter, where everyone thought nelson mandela was their forehand. people in china expressing their condolences, active with tributes passed by ordinary chinese people about nelson mandela's passing. >> the exercised thing about nelson mandela is he uses inspiration by world leaders and