>> hi, i'm rachelle carey. although is the latest from al jazeera. hundreds are dead from the capital of damascus. the opposition said that the government used chemical weapons. bradley manning sentenced to 35 years behind bars for leaking thousands of documents from wikileaks. and former army major,s responsible for the shooting at fort hood, has rested his case without calling any witnesses.

>> syria is facing growing international condemnation after opposition groups say the government carried out a chemical attack. opposition groups claim hundreds of people died in the attack in a suburb of damascus. the government denies the charges. the attack happened as inspector investigate reports of previous chemical weapon attacks. we have more from beirut. >> opposite vision activist as well as the main political opposition in exile demand the united nations investigate the claims that chemical weapons were used in the suburbs of damascus. there is an u.n. team in syria at the moment. they were investigating three alleged chemical weapons attacks. but those attacks happened a few months ago. according' to the head that have mission, in order for them to investigate a new incident they will need an official request

from the united nations, but at the same time they'll need the approval of the syrian government. it took months of negotiations with the syrian government before the u.n. team was granted access. sos is unclear if the u.n. team will be able to investigate. it is hard for us to independently confirm what happened on the ground. this is not the first time that the government has been accused of using chemical weapons. but the government has accused the rebels of using these banned weapons as well. a very murky situation on the ground, undoubtedly a growing conflict that only leads to escalation with the absence of solution to this crisis. >> they will met to discuss the use of chemical weapons in syria. the spokesperson said that the

international community is alarmed. >> they are aware that the there is grave concern about the use of chemical weapons in syria. the secretary generally affirms her determination for a thorough investigation of the reports brought to his attention. >> meanwhile, william haig responded to the alleged use of chemical weapons. >> this would be a shocking escalation of the use of chemical weapons in syria. we are determined that those responsible would be one day be held to account. i hope it is clear that the u.n. team will have unrestricted access to the area of concern, and the united kingdom will be raising this at the united nations security council. >> a military judge sentences private bradley manning to 35 years in prison. the former intelligence in the

located classified document to wikileaks. prosecutors were hoping for a heftier sentence. >> well, the judge presiding over the court-martial split the difference. prosecutors just days ago in a sentencing phase asked for 60 years for bradley manning. obviously the defense attorney came in much lower than that at 20 years. the judge splitting the difference at 35 years. still it has to be said something of a surprise. this same judge, an army colonel denise lind, had thrown out the most serious grievous charge aiding the enemy. she said after the end of the court-martial, after the proceedings in court that it did not meet that threshold. 35 years seen by some, particularly the legion of manning supporters around the

country as particularly draconian. it must be noted there isn't a lot of recent polling as far as public opinion is concerned but the majority of the american public believes the manning prosecution should have gone forward. as far as the white house is concerned, the white house has said very little on this case on the course of this saga. 700,000 documents were leaked, perhaps the most damaging of those was not something on paper but the video from the apache helicopter cockpit showing the attack what turned out to be innocent people, non-combacombas in iraq, two of them journalists. it had an immediate and brutal impact on world opinion. the president has said when asked about this by supporters of manning, that he broke the law. a lot of people had a problem with that. the president is a commander in chief and there is a court-martial under way.

but under the context of everything that is happening on the security transparency front, and those receiving the leak namely reporters on the part of the obama administration, what will be the affect in the long term on whistle blowers, on transparency and the government carrying out these surveillance matters that have become controversial. >> in egypt, former president hosni mubarak could soon be a free man. the court ordered him to be free while prosecutors investigate corruption allegations against them. if they do not appeal the ruling he could be released in a couple of days. mike hanna has more on the former leader's legal trouble. >> the case is concluded. hosni mubarak is to spend the rest of his life for failing to

stop the killing of protesters. and those celebrating his sentence began to live their life in a most mubarak era. but the defense arguing against the sentence. the prosecutors appealing against the court's decision to acquit mubarak on other charges in direct complicit of civilian deaths. the decision for a retrial was seen as a victory. but prosecutors in the morsi government realized with no new charge formulated mubarak would be released and hastily brought corruption charge that would keep him in jail pending trial. in recent weeks these charges have been dismissed by the court, and mubarak lawyers contend he should be released. their simple argument, he has to date not been formerly convicted

of any crime and the period of detention pending judgment has long expired. but underlying this con complex legal process is a shift of power with the morsi government deposed by the military and interim state authority put in place, there is a possibility of political factors playing as much a role in mubarak's fate as legal ones. mike hanna, al jazeera, cairo. >> and we're live now from cairo. david, what is the expectation as it pertains to hosni mubarak's release? do you people believe it will happen? >> yes, they do. certainly that's the case, rachel, it leaves a big question mark. mubarak's attorney may be right all along when he was saying the former dictator would be released this week, and now the judge making that rule be, making it so he could be released as early as tomorrow

morning. you can see it is already evening here in cairo now, and people are worried, frankly, what the result could be if he is released tomorrow. the muslim brotherhood has released a statement saying they want to have large protests on friday after friday prayers. that's a common occurrence, nonetheless, but if he's released certainly that would be mormore demonstrative that perhs it might otherwise be. if he is released tomorrow morning he will join his wife suzanne at an undisclosed location certainly outside of public view. the last thing anybody wants is for him to make a public appearance and fuel what is already a delicate situation. >> and is international reaction coming in to this? >> there is international reaction all meaning that they're looking for something to lower the levels of things here. i mean there, is no international reaction that says he should or should not be released. that will be under egyptian law

in terms of what happens with him as we heard in mike hanna's piece there. the only thing is they hope that it does not lead to an additional level of tension, so internationally there is every effort being made either at the u.n. where it's being talked about, also the e.u. to make sure that everything is as calm and quiet as it possibly can be. >> a few days the u.s. canceled joint military exercises and an order for a fighter jet. now we're hearing that the e.u. will also suspend the sell of military equipment. is this expected to have any type of effect? >> that's what was expected to come from the e.u. rachelle, that's right. france, germany, spain, which provides most of the military hardware to egypt from the e.u. all decided independently from the e.u. that they would suspend that. it's about 20% of the money that

e.u. sends to egypt. the 80% being humanitarian aid. that humanitarian aid will continue to flow. there has been a decision made that they certainly don't want to hurt or hinder any part of the egyptian public over this. they want to continue to have that aid go to them. it is only the military that will be curtailed, and that's the e.u.'s stance for now as they along with everybody else will hold their breath. we have to say again of what might happen should has hosni mubarak be released. >> firefighters fight fires across idaho. homes still remain evacuated in ketchum. there is a large wildfire burning nearby. the town had previously evacuated monday afternoon but had downgraded evacuation status

later that evening. more than a half million acres have burned statewide. al jazeera reports from the town of haley. >> after more than two weeks of very dense firefighting here at the beaver creek fire there is good news this morning. this fire is now 30% contained. that is up just 8% or 9% over the past couple of days. one reason is the humidity has come up, the temperatures are dropping, and there is not nea nearly the wind. on the north, north of sun valley 30 miles away, they're trying to stop it from you running into the wilderness. it has been a tough summer in idaho, it is second only to alaska where 1.2 million acres have burned. right now the nation as a whole is at level 5 firefighting

preparedness. every available resource in the field fighting fires, it's the highest level of firefighting. that has not happened since 2008 to put that in perspective. the firefighting season is far from over. many months of firefighting still ahead. >> thank you. the west is expecting quite a bit of rain today, though. the question is will that help with all these wildfires? we hope so. let's check in with rebecca stevenson. >> meteorologist: as the storms work their way up southern oregon and idaho we start to see the rain evaporate, contributing to gusty winds. temperatures are 10 to 15 degrees above normal for minute at police, hitting 90 degrees today. for other areas like the west we're going to see the storm system sitting offshore spinning

up those showers and thunderstorms. i'll show where you they're hitting next, rachel. >> the army psychiatrist who could be sentenced to death for killing 13 people at fort hood in 2009 activists at the trial question no one for his defense? >> hassan spoke four words in court this morning. the defense has rested. he called on no witnesses, and he told the judge that he does not want the jury to consider any lesser offenses like voluntary manslaughter. this leads us to a quick ramp to the defense portion of the court-martial. the fact that hassan was barred from using the one argument that he would like to use, saying he was targeting u.s. soldiers in defense of muslim lives in afghanistan. early on in the legal process the judge said that argument is

irrelevant. leading us with just the fact of the case which hassan has never disputed telling jurors on day one of this court-martial that he is the shooter. the jury has been dismissed until tomorrow when they'll reconvene for closing statement and deliberations. heidi jo castro, al jazeera, fort hood, texas. >> a sensing is underway in the case of staff sergeant bales. bales has pleaded guilty to murders and they want him to face life behind bars. we're live in washington. so, alan, this has been really an emotional case, as you can imagine, talking about civilians and children who were killed. tell us about some ofhe

injuries of some of the children who were brought into the medical center of that forward operating base. once again just a grizzly play by play that he did of a five-minute videotape as those children were being treated. once again very difficult to listen to. also earlier this morning we heard from two men who were from those villages where sergeant robert bales committed those killings, both of them with horrific testimony. one describing he going to his cousin's house and finding 11 members of a single family killed, what he described as piled bo and

we expect them to have to do this at this point why he did wd he. he has, however, confessed to those 16 killings and many more accounts of assault, attempted murder and hindering the in, sergeant bales said he doesn't no. >> thank you, allen. coming up next on al jazeera the 9/11 pretrial hearings are under way at guantanamo. we'll have a live report.

hi, my name is jonathan betz, and i'm from dallas, texas, and

i'm an anchor for al jazeera america. i started in a small television station in rural arkansas. it's a part of the country that often gets overlooked. but there are a lot of fascinating people there, a lot of fascinating stories there. i like that al jazeera will pay attention to those kinds of places. what drew me to journalism is i like the idea that we are documenting history. al jazeera documents it like none other. and to be a journalist, and to be part of a team like that? that's an incredible blessing. >> welcome back. recapping our stories at this hour. united nations security council will hold an emergency meeting this afternoon to discuss the chemical weapons attack in syria. opposition groups say hundreds of people died in this attack near damascus. the syrian government denies the charges. a court has released, ordered rather the release of hosni mubarak. he's currently being held while

prosecutors investigate corruption allegations against him. mubarak could be free in the next couple of days. a military judge sentenced private bradley manning to 35 years in prison. the former intelligence analyst leaked classified government documents to wikileaks. manning was discharged and lost his pay. not going the university of cal, mr. ellsberg thank you for joining us. we appreciate it. >> thank you, glad to be here. i'm not sure that i understood you. i'm not hearing terribly well, who did you say cost thousands of lives? >> we said that you thought perhaps some of the mistakes

that you had made may have led

manning exposed has been indicted or less alone prosecuted or convicted for what they did, i would say that bradley manning should not spend another day in jail. there is an unjust. >> you actually said in the past when i hear bradley manning and when i read what he said in a chat log i'm hearing myself when i was--i'm hearing myself when i was manning i was burdened with the knowledge that the war was going on against the wishes of the vietnamese people the u.s. was prolonging that in some vain hope of success justifying the lives lost which meant a longer war, more people

killed. to try to shorten that and avoid that i thought that if the american people knew the truth about how we got in here, how four presidents in a row and now a fifth one lied us in with threats of escalation, maybe he would take democratic process to stop it, which by the way eventual

thank you. >> the pretrial hearings for the september 11th terror attacks case are continuing at guantanamo bay. they say the guards are depriving of food and psychological torture. ththe prosecutors deny this. and let's check in with rebecca stevenson for more on weather. >> meteorologist: we see showers and thunderstorms not just in nevada but there are areas where we got caught with weather today i'll show you coming up next.

>> meteorologist: with our primary weather systems moving west to east we're watching the pacific rights now, and we have an area of low pressure sitting and spinning right off california's coast. it's sending showers into california and nevada. unfortunately we're getting these showers in oregon and idaho. less rain for those, and the concern is dry lightening in the area to start more fires. we're expecting the storm system to drag inland tomorrow, that means a lot of us in the west will get more showers, more

thunderstorms, and more concerns of fire weather. while we look at the wide view of the u.s. there is one other spot that the showers are hitting, that's the midwest towards minnesota and wisconsin, a very limit the area that is right around the great lakes that we could see severe thunderstorms later today. thathat potential also also be around northern nevada. we'll see wind gusts of 60 mill and potentially some hail as well. we'll see showers around the gulf coast but it will be hit and miss thunderstorms around the midwest, the west as well. it will be wet in a few places. it is also be hot, too. that will be around minnesota. chicago, close to 90 degrees. so as we warm up today we'll enjoy the fact that we're still in summertime because fall comes all too soon. we'll bring you more weather this afternoon here on al jazeera america.

>> in maryland the defense attorney for branly man something about to speak about the 35 year sentencing of bradley manning, the army private convicted of giving thousands of