And im rob matheson and this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next sixty minutes a large scale prisoner swap between Ukrainian Government and pro russian rebels is now complete plus i knows nothing has no treatment available and i have nothing no medicine no many emergency medical evacuations under way in war torn syria but for some its too little and too late also. The women and that willing for us to go back to war for anybody to be president of this country and not to wait for the vote counting is finally complete in liberias president ial runoff Officials Say dont expect riots in the streets. And its off to the socalled salt suck capital of the world colombias on your Christmas Parade is all about the dons. Ukrainian government and pro russian rebels have swapped prisoners in war torn east ukraine this latest exchange is reported to be the largest since the start of the conflict that happened in the city of hard leave its mainly controlled by pro russia separatists the conflict in Eastern Ukraine erupted in april twenty fourth team soon after russia annexed ukraines crimea peninsula the United Nations says more than ten thousand people have died in the donetsk and lugansk regions i see news of true steals has lowered the level of violence but it hasnt ended the bloodshed several of the ukrainian prisoners have been speaking about their release. Im very happy that im going back to ukraine and i thank everyone for the work thats been done to be able to help me see my loved ones again. Spent a year and a half in a cell one by one and a half meters without anything no deliveries nothing they treated us as if we were dogs rory chalons 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 scruffs 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 an 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 church Patrick 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 a 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 so here is a macof is a Senior Research associate at the George Washington university is joining us now from washington d. C. Thanks very much for being with us rory chalons our correspondent there describing this as a breakthrough give us some context how significant is this. This is very significant first of all it is. One of few realisations of the minsk agreement between Ukraine Russia friends and germany that was. Agreed upon in two thousand and fifteen and the article six of those agreements implied that ukraine and the two separatist republics would 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. On both sides detained and the sides dont want to give them up yet this is very important because it was practical initiated on the highest level between ukraine and russia when or november of fifteen putin met with the with chuck a whole was. Chief chief of staff of former ukrainian president and suddenly putin made their phone call during the meeting and initiated the contact the with the separatist leaders plotnick and as a hard guy and then two days ago on december twenty fifth. Met at russian monastery with the mediation of russian Patriarch Kirill and then they agreed formal exchange three hundred six versus seventy four so this exchange was conducted very. Fast and efficient and it is very important for both russian leader putin who is running for reelection soon and. Ukrainian president poroshenko who is facing major demonstration and challenges from the opposition and it was so important. That he personally arrived at the spot and. Greeted the. Prisoners as you mentioned this all happened as part of the minutes to agreement that happened back in twenty fifteen were now at the age of twenty seventeen is it simply the case that its down to politics that has pushed president putin to move this forward or other wider issues why is it taking so long. It seems that there are politics behind it though its not clear. But some contacts show us that maybe somethings going on politically first of all. Two days before the. Joke and the separatist leaders met on december twenty fifth so two days before that on december twenty third u. S. President donald trump signed. The. Decree is that he the u. S. Would sell a Lethal Weapon to ukraine and russia. Was very angry about it in the foreign minister of russia a love rock of promise to retaliate however there were no signs. Of that yet another context that we can also see is that. As i mentioned the president ial elections that putin is facing and also persian right now he is under pressure from the opposition. Which is. Very. Strong leader Mikhail Saakashvili the third pro president of georgia and former ally of. Persia is challenging the ukrainian president and demand in his impeachment so for poroshenko it was very important and this was kind of a breakthrough for him in domestic politics and even hes main opponent Mikhail Saakashvili praised him for doing that and one final question and briefly if you dont mind we are slightly up against time here you mention of course that there are still many prisoners who have not yet to be released once all the politics goes away we get past the election in russia we get past the political situation thats current in ukraine does that mean that were less likely to see any of these swaps happening in the future it is very hard to say because for most of all something already happened and it gives hope that there are mechanisms that might help to conduct the second step the exchange of all prisoners however youre right after the president ial elections in russia and. The may go away and those dozens of prisoners that are left on both sides both sides consider of them as war criminals and they dont want to give them up so if you enjoy mccaul thank you very much indeed for your time at least ten people have been injured after a bomb exploded in a supermarket in the russian city of St Petersburg the explosion was caused by a homemade device packed with shards of metal Authorities Say it was hidden inside a locker used by shoppers to store their belongings no one has claimed responsibility for the attack. The taliban has claimed responsibility for an attack in southern afghanistan thats wounded fifteen people a spokesman for the provincial governor says the suicide bomber targeted a military convoy leaving the base in the city of lashkar gah all but one of those wounded or soldiers aid workers have started evacuating critically ill patients from eastern rebel held on klav of syrias capital damascus at least eighteen people have died while waiting east to go to his one of the last remaining rebel strongholds its been under a tight a government see since two thousand and thirteen and the target of hundreds of airstrikes and artillery attacks thats caused severe food and medical shortages for about four hundred thousand syrians trapped there last month the u. N. Called for five hundred people in need of Urgent Medical care to be allowed to leave but it was only after a long negotiations that twenty nine critical cases were approved for medical evacuation aljazeera is in a hard it has the latest and let me give you a warning some of the following images may be disturbing. Its a start but its not enough only a handful of east scooters critically ill are being allowed to leave to hospitals in damascus which is less than an hours drive away twenty nine patients the majority of them women and children a six month old baby was on that list but when the aide workers reached the others house they found out she died weeks ago the Syrian Government is allowing them to be treated outside the besieged opposition stronghold after the armed Group Official islam agreed to release some government prisoners its not clear if new deals will be reached it has been four years since east water was besieged by the syrian army the siege has tightened in recent months there are according to the United Nations almost five hundred Urgent Medical cases employee man has brain cancer she says her condition is only deteriorating the u. N. Says more than a dozen people have already died while waiting to be evacuated for treatment i know there is no treatment available from here i have nothing no medicine no money im just waiting for gods mercy its not just the lack of medical supplies there is a lack of food the United Nations says the area is experiencing the worst case of child malnutrition since the start of the conflict and. The lack of medical equipment of vaccines have affected children also they are malnourished this has that to a number of diseases unfortunately that children are facing dire conditions. There have been reported because. In the past. Were. Told. The. Thousand five hundred children are at risk two hundred thirty two who are acutely malnourished more than four hundred thousand. Children. For the first time but it was forty thousand people there is. The government is using this. As a military strategy and the situation the likelihood of becomes more. Is president of the Syrian American medical society hes joining us now from fresno in california thank you very much indeed for your time if i understand it correctly so your organization operates about fifty percent of the medical facilities available in. This evacuation of these critically ill people. Well thank you for asking us im really glad for some of the patients who were able to get you thank you it is hopefully they will get safe and appropriate treatment so that will save their lives or fortunately we have the harbor and our tears are still down for our patients who are b. C. s and so good to hundreds of them are in dire need of medications basic medications supplies that we can treat their medical conditions but with the state siege on mrs cooper for the last three and a half years despite the condition is very difficult and very challenging for the aid workers for the material workers to conduct in the you need to know operation at this time this evacuation has been a Long Time Coming is there any hope that this might be the start of more evacuations and possibly allowing food and medical care into the area. Quite openly i dont think so we see the Syrian American medical society on behalf of its patient more than four months ago we advocated for convoys to go in and for critically ill patients go out to when we met with many of us pretty Council Members we went to geneva negotiate with the un we provided the list of twenty nine patients that you saw that was the list back then many patients at that time including medical workers also were very skeptical that the u. N. Would be able to do anything and as time went on you can see how the need has grown significantly over the last few months to more than five hundred people on fortunately the deal including do with evacuations taking this right now is not based on a meeting in principle you can see but just by looking at any person who has basic knowledge of human in principle sick until this is more weve been izing the page the needs of the patients to try to score political points and try to negotiate bitter political nigger position for some of the parties including Syrian Government where were seeing some frankly heart rending pictures ins in a harder as a reporter just before we were talking to you obviously the people there are under terrible circumstances but how frustrating is it for the aid organizations and medical facilities like yours who are trying to work in the region. Weve seen over the last few months many of the International Aid agencies pulling out of guta and this is exactly what the besiegement is aiming to achieve because many of the facilities are inaccessible and the return operation this challenging many of the major resources actually and we can all days of pulling out says it is you just punishing the population for be misused thats not true i couldnt do it on the other hand you can see the commuter workers the physicians nurses first and responders thank you meet your leaders are committed to stabilize the community provide care even with limited resources and prevent any major displacement of the civilians out of their town and they made that commitment and that we would continue to do that and less breath unfortunately as were looking at it would similar to what happened in aleppo last year just a year ago the same exact same situation down under tight b. C. Has been for many months. Direct its destruction of the medical facilities and medical infrastructure and was all thats that sheaves they were looking for massive displacement we do not accept we want to provide care to every Single Person syria and we are committed to do that this but even if it will you please out im going to actually as president of the Syrian American medical society thank you very much for your time thank you thank you for a passion. Plenty more ahead on the news hour including a plea for help from mothers of brazilian children affected by the zico virus as doctors one day may mean a lifetime of care plus. One towards me in london with senator breaux t. V. News reporting is currently delicate operation but could robots be tucked in for women all around them. And one of africas greatest players makes a major u. Turn details in sports. In argentina president mockery is pressing on with the reform agenda that he claims will modernize the country on wednesday the senate to pass the twenty eight hundred budget and some of the new laws that will make the reforms possible but i still use a ball reports what it said is convincing people of its benefits may prove difficult. Three vegetables in front of congress when a site is well senators gather to vote inside in the last session this year farmers brought twenty thousand kilos of their produce to give away to those in need of us all night we are here so that senators know the part they vote for has an impact on peoples lives costs have gone up for everyone inflation transport energy but we want to share and draw attention to the demand that this government needs to do a lot more. Was elected two years ago with a mandate to rein in Government Spending and rejuvenate argentinas lagging economy after years of the center left presidency of Cristina Fernandez the kitchen or the government of mali so mike lee has pushed to have a series of laws that it says will make argentinas economy more competitive like reforming the pension and tax system but there are many here who disagree they say that the governments reforms are benefiting corporations and not the country. Among them i people. Shes retired and says she couldnt miss the opportunity of getting some free food. But if i was the pension i get is not enough and what im buying now would cost me a lot i worked all my life and now i can barely survive. Despite scoring a resounding victory in octobers Congressional Elections mackley spent with one sparked a violent protest last week when a situs that left dozens of people injured and new legislation changed the way pension increases are calculated which could end up hurting the elderly and those who depend on social security. The government said there were four aim to restore order to argentinas chronically imbalance fiscal accounts as in italy and what the in the path of the argentinean economy is very tight with the possibility of crises along the way but for now i believe the government has a clear idea of what it wants to do its trying to open up the economy to the world after years of financial isolation. Argentina has a history of Economic Crises that have left millions living in poverty even though the government insists Economic Reforms will lead to a Brighter Future there are many who doubt that the governments plans will turn out well. I just want to. Produce culture minister has resigned following the pardoning of its president. Salvador was a fierce opponent of the decision for modi was sentenced to twenty five years for ordering massacres carried out by military death squads is currently receiving Cancer Treatment that was granted a president ial jew to his ill health. Brazil is suspending fish exports to the