And. Also coming up unicef says global humanitarian law fails to protect children in times of war. Hundreds of prisoners exchanged in ukraine and one of the biggest swaps agreements between moscow and kiev. Were getting reports of multiple explosions in the Afghan Capital kabul at least forty people have been killed dozens more have been injured one of the blasts hit the office of the News Agency Afghan voice. Heard is on the line for us from kabul abdullah tell us more about what you know. We heard from most posters that there were when explosions in the west of the city targeting an afghan wise news agency now this neighborhood is unable to vote it happens to be the net the next. The second bomb happened to be next to this Media Organization now she did Ministry Spokesperson here speaking to us saying that at least forty people are dead among the forty people that are women and children and journalists as well now this comes just after an attack that happened. In kabul targeting. As well. Do we know what course of law they were. When initially. Been reported that this was a Suicide Attack jared carried out by a bomber now no group has yet claimed responsibility for this attack taleban has put out a statement denying any involvement in such attack now. The last the latest attacks that happened in kabul. Claimed by i still. These attacks targeted. Mosques like shrines belonging. Minority in afghanistan so im reading that there were a number of students this particular center at the time of the attack what do we know about that. These days mid afternoon in kabul and in this neighborhood. Is a populated neighborhood. Its a myth because. This time of the day you would expect much trout around that location. Ok thanks very much for the update they are seeing pictures of the injured being evacuated to hospital after multiple blasts in what absolute was saying was a shia area of western kabul the capital of afghanistan the a. V. A Afghan Voice Agency the Media Organization was particularly hits there and were hearing reports of at least forty People Killed in that blast in the Afghan Capital keep bringing you more lines on this story as it develops and as we have them now in conflict zones across the globe children are being used as both targets and weapons thats a conclusion from a report by unicef all children have long suffered join water and the reports of the situation worldwide has reached shocking levels as children have become front line targets and are often used as human shields many are recruited to fight rape and slave meant to become standard tactics the conflict in yemen has been one of the worst for children this year with five thousand killed or injured the u. N. Agency also says there is widespread and blatant disregard for International Laws designed to protect young people. Just avoid scientism deputy executive director of unicef he says children are being increasingly drawn into conflicts. What weve seen in recent years and even more so in twenty seven is children being deliberately targeted i mean weve heard stories from our staff on the ground in bangladesh but also in mean maurice south about raping the children who have stood by us soldiers of right on their mothers have shot their father even brutalized those children the cells and theyre saying to those children theyre deliberately doing this we have stories from within syria and from a school that we worked in with snipers deliberately targeting the children in the playground i was in Northern Nigeria recently and i met children who would who had to talk to me about being forced to be im human bombs for baccarat her arms and this deliberately targeting of children to make them part of the conflict to brutalize army is a is a is a new development yes its always happened in part but it seems to be growing and growing is normal now that you can target a hospital a group of doctors in syria told me recently when i was in northern turkey how the armed groups wouldnt even come near the hospital because the hospital was more of a target than the armed groups so hospitals and schools are being deliberately attacked children are being brutalized and it feels like all the rules in war as you say that used to at least protect civilians and children in particular in these terrible wars have all disappeared and feels like there are no rules to protect the most Vulnerable Children in these conflicts and our appeal is unicef is to all the warring parties whether their governments or rebel groups is it surely we can all agree that we need to protect the children. Tired has more now on the dire situation facing refugee across the middle. When youre in the moderate refugee camp in lebanons eastern because valley is not easy. Last year for several months shelters which are made out of bits of wood and plastic sheeting were blanketed in snow warm clothes are often in short supply and fuel can be expensive or hard to find. Really to help vulnerable refugees prepare for the cold temperatures the u. S. Refugee Agency Offers cash and other assistance to those who most need it so far around six hundred fifty thousand refugees have receive some form of help but many others are still doing without they need more c one in winter to keep warm the blankets they need more food they need medicine because of the diseases that spread more easily in the winter season. According to the u. N. H. C. R. More than three point eight million refugees and internally displaced people in syria lebanon iraq turkey jordan and egypt need winter assistance a Cold Weather Program which began last month is aimed at helping the most vulnerable families they receive a mixture of cash assistance Building Materials to repair and weatherproof shelters and winter items including thermal blankets gas heaters and warm clothes but of the two hundred twenty eight Million Dollars needed to finance this years Winter Program so far only one hundred forty three Million Dollars has been received a shortfall of nearly forty percent today we are facing funding shortfalls which forces you any other aid agencies to target the assistance that we are able to deliver to the families who are most in need the poorest of the poor unfortunately we know that many other families who are also in need do not have access to this assistance today and while Syrian Refugees and internally displaced children face another winter away from their homes according to unicef children have been used as human shields trapped under siege targeted by snipers and lived through intense bombardment and violence. You served is demanding all parties involved in the fighting abide by International Laws so that children like bees dont have to suffer if youre starved aljazeera. Aid workers evacuated the second batch of critically ill patients from eastern guta thats a rebel held area near syrias capital damascus four people were taken from there on wednesday last month the u. N. Called for five hundred people in need of Urgent Medical care to be allowed to leave but only twenty nine cases have been given approval at least eighteen people have died whilst waiting. Russias president has called wednesdays explosion is a supermarket in some petersburg a terrorist attack at least ten people were injured when a homemade device packed with shards of metal went off police say it was hidden inside a loko where shoppers store their belongings no one has admitted responsibility for the attack. Ukrainian troops are being welcomed home after the government and pro russian rebels conveys a swap of hundreds of prisoners some two hundred thirty people were sent to rebel held areas in return for seventy four prisoners being held by pro russian rebels the deal with mediated by the Orthodox Church in moscow fighting in ukraine began more than three years ago off the separatists who backed moscow took over parts of the east timor remarks it we will put out all their greatest efforts the maximum to point out a deal ones relatives or loved ones as soon as possible this is very important. Britons have been speaking about there really are no more for sure. But i feel joyful at the fact that we are finally home that i will be able to hug my relatives and close ones i will hug my little son i really want st nicholas to bring him home for the new year. I cant believe it at the same time i can and cant believe that we were still there in the morning and now were at home i want to say thank you to all relatives and everyone who participated in a release and i want to say that our guys are still there and they have to be rescued. Has more from moscow. Well both sides are now confirms that this prisoner swap has concluded with people being handed in both directions across the front lines in Eastern Ukraine the numbers that actually did scrubs the lines a big difference from the early advertize figures of three hundred six people going from kiev territory back to the east and seventy four people going from the eastern regions back into kiev territory the reasons why the numbers are different is because some people were transferred earlier and some people on both sides it seems didnt actually get want to go back to where they come from this is and events that has been quite a long time in in the making the final impetus though came as a recent meeting in moscow there was attended by the heads of the two separatist regions in Eastern Ukraine by the head of the russian Orthodox ChurchPatrick Carroll and by representatives from kiev but the the real political will it seems as come from both kiev and also from moscow with Vladimir Putin saying that he was going to use his influence with the with the separatist regions to make it happen its a breakthrough undeniably a step in the right direction and the sides now are talking about keeping this going theyre doing more prisoner swaps but while people are still dying while moscow is still supplying the rebel regions with weapons and hardware etc and while there doesnt seem to be a final drive for peace this is just a step in that direction we havent got to the destination that we want to get to yet which is a final political solution if you enjoyment of it is a Senior Research associate at George Washington university in the u. S. He says this latest exchange is politically significant for both sides. First of all it is. One of your realisations of the minsk agreement between Ukraine Russia friends and germany that was agreed upon back in two thousand and fifteen and the article six of those agreements implied that ukraine and the two separatist republics with the exchange all the prisoners so this is the first step since then however not all the prisoners were exchanged and there are dozens of ukrainian prison their wrists and the separatist prisoners still are on both sides detained and the sides dont want to give them up yet so this exchange was conducted very fast and efficient and it is very important for both russian leader put in who is running for election soon and. Ukrainian president poroshenko who is face in major demonstration in challenges from the opposition it seems that there are politics behind did though its not clear but some contacts will show us that maybe somethings going on politically as i mentioned the president ial elections that putin is facing and for permission to go it was very important and this was kind of a breakthrough for him in domestic politics and even his main opponent Mikhail Saakashvili praised him for doing this still ahead here on out is the. Time when hey reporting from thailand where the military government says democracy will return at the end of two thousand and eighteen but well tell you why many believe it wont happen. By the skyline of an asian harbor or off the coast of the italian riviera. Hello there weve got plenty of wet weather across europe at the moment the cloud is showing up very kaon the satellite picture this huge massive cloud thats across the entirety of the central belt is given a sin very heavy downpours this is what it looked like in rome we only had a twelve minute mate is that rather a wet day but elsewhere in milan we had sixty six millimeters of rain and of course the other side of the age yet it will still have some very heavy downpours to share in the day today were going to see yet more very heavy rain has stretching from greece only way further north till you come to the out where well be seeing that turn to snow then further north as you go down to the lower levels again well see a mix once more of rain and snow before heading up to scandinavia where theres plenty of wintery weather to be found a whole system is working its way eastward so here it is as we head through friday giving us yet more heavy outbreaks of rain and some snow as well behind it theres a small break a little bit of sunshine coming through before the next system works its way and that will be across the u. K. Across the western parts of france there as we head through friday giving us more heavy rain and a bit of snow mixed in to if have the tools a sound that you can see but that weather system has also been affecting us in the northern parts of africa quite a few showers here moving offshore really as we head through the day on friday just the occasional shower hey. The way sponsored by qatar at least. You are making very pointed remarks whether online the main u. S. Response to drug use and the drug trade over the last fifty years has been criminal minds or if you join us on sad to know you will first this weeks of the over the in the morning and says i want to cover the world of darkness this is a dialogue and that could be whats leading to some of the confusion online about people saying they dont actually know whats going on join the colobus conversation at this time on aljazeera. Oh any watching on to there has a mind of a top story thats allan at least forty people have been killed and dozens more entered and multiple explosions the Afghan Capital kabul one of the blocks to the office of the News Agency Afghan voice has been no immediate train of responsibility for the attack. As a specialist in Legal Security joins us now via skype from kabul thanks very much for being with us what is the target tear up to two main targets here first and foremost this is the Shia Community which has been the target of the. Isis of honest on the weighing of the isis did have been targeting this Shia Community to argue two thousand and seventeen and they have been targeting the larger gatherings previously they have attacked some of the religious persuasions and gatherings and this was yet another one the second reason for targeting this group was that it was a media outlet that was are going to gather in which was committed commemorating the twenty seventh of december of this day where the ships invaded iran as a nine hundred seventy nine and the media targeted media and they have been targeting Media Outlets i mean the isis in afghanistan in order to make a mark media has not been providing them enough amount of coverage that they have been seeking to get activities and so they have been targeting the Media Outlets as here in capital kabul as well as in the regional hub in order to make sure they get royces least because anomalistic my stance is they dont get the amount of coverage they want to get a social get to basically since have been used to ok what do we know about the strength of i still in afghanistan. Well the big hat did that they have been reported to be around two thousand to four thousand but nobody can provide an exact numbers they have they are scattered mainly focusing in the eastern part of the country where they have. A nice even emerge from there so we dont have exact numbers but its not destroyed but be the sophistication of the operation and the amount of exactness impreciseness in their operations that do usually target with little strength but little amount of import it create a lot of land in terms of achieving their strategic objectives. Have been so many attacks in kabul havent its often the focus of these groups and they always face like a double threat now from the taliban and now i self well a taliban has immediately to announce that they have not been engaged in this attack they have come up with with each try and i still has undertaken and attack on any of their targets and taliban have in recent past stopped their targeting the civilians as shields had been receiving their damages in cocacola got out which but they have not asked such that it be attacked such as such groups that tried this double for the government but for general civilians the i still are isis has been got if you talk of keeping the shia communities and so given that theres this is a whole new level of threat against civilians in the capital what sort of security is saying there. Well the government has made some some sort of frames range during the modern professions where the she has a gather for you really religious activities this shia shia sect did provided them with a with arms and ammunition to dance on security guards in order to make sure that they have their own people guarding their gatherings and yet. Assemblies but i did i mean the side effects are something that you cant always have restrictions on them and specially the body born ones they are using sophisticated where they are undertaking we decide bombings and as such most of the games they go undetected specific be in it in places like the one that was today which was a media outlet with not much of a security engineer and show many people coming together at once its difficult to really tackle such and such kind of threats absolutely it can vary and say indeed much tighter him to speak to you thanks very much for joining us on to sara speaking about the latest attack in the Afghan Capital kabul hearing about these forty people have been killed at a shared Cultural Center in the west of the city they can see many ended up being taken away to a hospital keep following the story closely and for the updates to it as we get them. Two thousand and eighteen is shaping up to be a landmark here for thailand a new king will be crowned and the military government is planning to hold elections signaling a return to democracy after a coup three years ago and the first of our series looking ahead to some of the big stories of next year when hey reports from northeast of thailand where many adult for the vote will go ahead. A long dusty dry season is well underway on the plains of northeast thailand by the time this crop of kosov is harvested in about a year thailand should be a democracy again most ties here back to the government ousted in the military coup three years ago including parrott born hometown a torn a coordinator for approved Democracy Group called the red shirts she says people in the northeast dubbed the military will honor its pledge to hold an election in november but. I would say seventy percent of the people here dont believe the election really happened and thirty percent think it might happen even if the election is held the type of democracy will be different to what ties had before the coup the military and the establishment in the capital bangkok know that its very difficult for them to win support in parts of thailand like this thats partly why theyve designed a system that will result in weakened Political Parties after the next election the military will hand pick senators to sit in the upper house of parliament who also have the power to install an unelected Prime Minister the plans are being criticised by the major Political Parties i think everybody will recognize that but asked for short of the kind of standards that we would like to to return. The leaders of the coup in two thousand and fourteen are also drafting a twenty Year Strategic Plan that future governments must follow everything is is planned or decides so and that the military military can hold on to power with the. Plans and strategy that he had earlier formulated. Per time i was the party ousted from power by that coup former Prime MinisterYingluck Shinawatra whos in exile avoiding a five year jail sentence for negligence related to a failed rice subsidies scheme says her trial was politically motivated in Rural Communities in the north and northeast where farm incomes are fulling her partys popularity seems to be intact but while political gatherings remain banned campaigners such as parrot porn have no choice but to get their hands dirty networking in the fields wayne hay al jazeera we dont tony thailand and in part two of our look ahead series or point from the us on what midterm elections could mean for Donald Trumps presidency thats on friday here on aljazeera the visual results of liberias president ial Runoff Election could be announced as early as thursday local media reporting International Football legend george where is ahead in the vote count but his rival current Vice President says its still too close to call. Reports from the capital monrovia as liberians wait for the outcome of tuesdays Runoff Election many place what they call a peaceful vote vote counting is underway and the process of tallent results trickling in from more than five thousand polling stations across like the wider national. There were. Very small number of incidents to report where the incident occurred and i should mention and they have been dealt with on his part in most of these cases if not all the contest pits fifty one year old former football star george where against seventy three year old Joseph Walker i who has been the countrys Vice President for the last twelve years but falling coincided with christmas and many chose to stay home observers say the tunnel close much lower than the fuss round held in october they look to a Commission Says it will announce the results in four days its what happens often whether the losing side will accept defeat that has most liberians concerned. Liberia is one when thats willing to destroy the women and that will mean for us to go back to war for anybody to be president of this country we will not do it we are going to have peace the children of this country need peace and they also want peace and were going to call for whom ever we decide is president of Liberia International observers to a calling for calm. Because. So the issue is now when you know. If you when you celebrate and you celebrate in the show because you get to be president of everybody if you lose you also served for the first time in more than seventy years this was founded by freed american slaves will see one democratically elected government power to another whoever wins will inherit tonic or me but by falling prices of liberias exports of rabat and i dont know and are forced depreciating currency in the past twelve years Ellen Johnson sirleaf has guided this country through the process of recovery from civil war on the horrors of a bull outbreak but you too has been criticized for not doing much to talk all poverty and corruption in hog government. At all does it or monrovia liberia. Friends and family are some of the one hundred first two Police Officers killed in Rio De Janeiro this year have held a memorial to honor them Police Uniforms saying to the red paint dedicated to the offices have been displayed along a prominent almost every year since the one nine hundred ninety s. More than one hundred Police Officers have been killed in the state of rio. Yes some of. This is a way we can to say the following to society the quiet the human rights has no side we cannot be selective this is a way to embrace the Police Corporation and express our solidarity to the relatives of the victims of this cruise cultural minister has resigned after a controversial pardoning of the former present Alberto Fujimori salvador del sol was a fierce opponent of the decision that you might have been serving a twenty five Year Prison Sentence for human rights abuses and corruption president petro public kaczynski denies the pardon was part of the deal to avoid his own impeachment on corruption allegations but as a stop thousands of people from protesting against that decision. The war in syria has created victims whose dreams and aspirations are often cut short by violence followed a young man from aleppo who is syrias champion in gymnastics and this one many twenty mins at the local level he now lives in areas under the opposition working to employ his sports skills and training children voluntarily and preparing them physically to qualify for championships at home and abroad heres his story and his own words from a lot. Of. My name is a comment so often im a jim. And i won the top position at the National Level for a number of years. I also won serious National Olympic medal. I qualified for and participated in a world competition in soccer republish. And i suffered injuries in my city aleppo during an air raid the city was pounded by barrel bombers the injury forced me to quit exercising and now im training Young Children to become future gymnast in the to. The sports team huge interest among residents so far ive maintained a high level physical fitness i still have a good command on my gymnastic moves i am still also prepared to participate in national and International Competition i was encouraged to train Young Children by my father i managed to prepare some Young Children to be able to compete in provincial national competitions. As i said the sport has a huge interest among children and their parents i lost my dream to the war and i really wish to enable those Young Children to make their dream a reality. And without these top stories. People have been killed dozens more injured and multiple explosions the Afghan Capital kabul one of the blasts at the office of the News Agency Afghan voice has been no claim of responsibility. Media outlet that was organizing a gathering which was committed commemorating the great seventh of december the day where the ships invaded iran as a nine hundred seventy nine and immediately targeted media they have been targeting Media Outlets i mean the isis in afghanistan in order to make a mark media has not been providing them enough amount of coverage that they have been seeking to get activities and so they have been targeting the Media Outlets in capital kabul as well as in the regional hub in order to make sure they get why is the least. Un is warning the scale of attacks on children in conflict zones wildlife this week shocking levels in a new report the u. N. Childrens fund said there was widespread and blatant disregard for International Laws designed to protect. Ukrainian troops have been welcomed home after the government and private rebels completed a swap of one hundred prisoners hundreds of prisoners some two hundred thirty people were sent to rebel held areas in return for seventy four prisoners have been held by probe russia rebels tale is mediated by the Orthodox Church and moscow fighting in ukraine broke out more than three years ago after prey russian separatists took over parts of the east with him are not free market we will put out all their greatest efforts the maximum to put out a deal ones relatives or loved ones as soon as possible this is very important. Aid workers have evacuated the second batch of critically ill patients from east thats a rebel held area near syrias capital damascus four people were taken from their wednesday last month the u. N. Called for five hundred people in need of Urgent Medical care to be allowed to leave but only twenty nine cases have been given approval at least eighteen people have died while waiting. The official results of liberias president ial runoff vote could be announced as early as thursday general antonio terrace has praised the peaceful conduct of the election which is set to mark the first democratic transfer of power ever in more than seventy years those are your headlines are back with another full news bulletin for you here on aljazeera after the street. As another year draws to an end well take you around the world to find out whats expected in twenty eight he. Joins us for a series of special reports as we assess the potential impact of whats to come. Here in this