Hello, I'm Justin Greene with the BBC news

A video sent to the Nigerian government by the Islamist group Boko Haram appears to prove that some of the 276 girls kidnapped two years ago in the town of Chibok are still alive. The images apparently filmed on Christmas Day and aired by CNN showed 15 girls in black robes. Relatives of the kidnapped girls have no doubt about the tape's authenticity as the BBC's OM explains.

One of the parents was given the, was shown the video and she was in serious tears. Not only that, there was a classmate of one of the Chibok girls, and she too, said she recognized one of them used to her classmate and she was really showing her grief. This video has given some kind of hope to Nigerians that theses girls or some of these girls are still alive.

Our report commissioned by the American city of Chicago has concluded that the police force there is plagued by racism. It was commissioned by Chicago's mayor in response to an outcry of police shootings. Here is Laura Bicker.

The damning report claims that police in Chicago have no regard for the sanctity of life when it comes to people of color. It asks for over 100 sweeping changes to the police force. The panel concluded that the fear and lack of trust in law enforcement among minorities is justified. They found 74 percent of the 100 shot by officers in recent years were African Americans even though backs account for 33 percent of the city's population. The new police chief Eddie Johnson is an African American with 27 years' experience. He vowed to root out racism within the force.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have confirmed that Zika virus in pregnant women causes babies to be born with unusually small heads and severe brain abnormalities. There have been months of debate on the issue since Zika was connected to a surge of birth defects in Brazil. Dr Sonja A. Rasmussen is one of the researchers.

It really has been a careful analysis and we had heard about this relationship, this powerful link with Zika virus several months ago. Ever since that time of hearing about that possible link, we started evaluating the evidence.

The political landscape in South Korea has undergone a significant change with the party that's governed for the last 16 years suffering a shock defeat in elections in the national assembly. The sluggish South Korean economy has been blamed for the reverse for president Park Geun-hye's Saenuri Party. But internal frictions may also have contributed to the lose of more than 30 seats in the assembly. Saenuri 's leader has offered to resign following the defeat which will hamper Ms Park's attempts to push through reforms. The biggest party in the new assembly will be the liberal Minjoo Gathering.

World news from the BBC.

President Obama has said the US will do everything it can to ensure the current cessation of hostilities in Syria holds. At the opening of a further round of peace talks in Geneva, the United Nations asked all parties to recommit to the truce. Mr Obama said there had been violations by the force of president al-Assad and the al-Nusra Front but said the truce has saved Syrian lives and allowed aids to be delivered.

US Secretary of State John Kerry has said he wants to remove any doubt about the administration's opposition to torture. Mr Kerry made the remarks during the launch of the State Department's latest global human rights report which indicates an increasing global trend towards stifling civil society and press freedom. In an apparent reference to Republican presidential hopeful who've advocated the use of waterboarding, Mr Kerry emphasized that there was no place for torture anywhere.

The United States is opposed to the use of torture in any form at any time by any government or any non-state actor. This is a standard that we insist, that others meet and therefore we must meet the standard ourselves.

One of the biggest stars in basketball Kobe Bryant has played his final game in a professional career which had spanned 20 years. He played for just one team, the LA Lakers, with whom he's won 5 NBA titles and recorded the third-highest total number of points in the sport. Speaking ahead of his final game, Bryant said the reality of his retirement hadn't sunken yet.

Thankful about everything. I'm very happy about everything. It hasn't really hit me yet. So we'll see. We'll see where it goes. Inevitably, you're bound to have regrets no matter what decisions you make. So if I maybe go back and change things that I'm regretful for, you know, I'be sitting here today and being regretful about something else.

BBC news.