tv News Al Jazeera August 22, 2013 11:00am-11:31am EDT
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>> i'm richell carey. here is the latest from al jazeera. former egyptian president mubarak is no longer behind bars but still not free. there is still more to be done in syria followed an alleged chemical attack by government on civilians. the cost of college is the topic of the day for president obama. he's talking about making higher education more affordable. dozens of wildfires are burning out of control in several states including one at yosemite national park.
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>> former egyptian president hosni mubarak's time in prison is now over. a helicopter flew from the prison to the hospital. when he was taken to the hospital he was put under house arrest. hosni mubarak may no longer be behind prison walls but his legal problems and those of his assessors are far from over. we have more from cairo. >> reporter: hosni mubarak is out of prison. he remains in custody at an undisclosed location. but mubarak's freedom is technical. the interim prime minister has evoked state of emergency to keep him under house arrest, and mubarak is expected to be back behind bars on sunday when his trial on charges of complicit in
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the deaths of the revolution resumes. >> he's now on trial for three different cases. it means that they will use it for marking that. it's not just the revolution, it is a military tear coup. >> reporter: on the same day in a different court leaders of the muslim brotherhood who opposed mubarak for decades may appear. the movement, the self-styled youth body that spearheaded mass protest that proceed the military action has called for courts to strongly pure sue the prosecution of mubarak and morsi and ironically accuses the morsi government of not being aggressive enough of taking action against mubarak, and insists because of this morsi must take responsibility for the release of the man he replaced.
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mike hanna, al jazeera, cairo. >> jonathan betz joins us from cairo. how long is hase mubarak expected to remain in this hospital? >> reporter: that's a question that we simply do not know the answer to. i can tell you that he faces several accusations, several charge and several trials. he is not a clear and free man although he is free from prison. it's a stunning development, we've expected it the last several days nevertheless still stunning. his next trial date is the next one, the one where he's accused of having a role in the deaths of the mass protest during the revolution.
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that trial will resumes sunday. he could be sentenced back to prison as soon as tease other trials wrap up. >> we understand that he'll be on trial, but where will he be under house arrest when he's being tried? >> reporter: he'll remain in that military hospital not far from ka cairo. you saw the helicopter lifting him from prison walls and the ambulance waiting to escort him to the military hospital. we understand that he has a private suite there. since he is 85 years old and in ailing health, that is where he's presumed to spend the rest of his time until the trials are settled and decisions are made. he will not be allowed to leave the country while he is under house arrest. >> any reaction from the government, any reaction from anybody?
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>> reporter: well, the reaction from the government is that they're simply following the law. keep in mind that hosni mubarak is not currently convicted of anything. he's been held in prison for two years now. they say understand egyptian law that is as long as he stays in prison. the state law is simply more muted. groups that are not in favor of hosni mubarak and were pleased with his removal from office are generally okay with this decision since he will not be free in the streets. he will be under house arrest. but it's certainly a blow to a lot of people in egypt, and it's certain to stoke more fear, anger, and the possibility of more protests. there is a protest planned tomorrow, it will be interesting to see how many people show up to that protest, and how angry they get. >> jonathan betz from cairo. thank you some of. we'lso much.we'll have more comd
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you can follow developments on www.america.aljazeera.com. there is condemnation after chemical attacks in syria. al jazeera's omar al asalah now reports. >> reporter: a day after hundreds of syrians including women and children were killed or injured. a surge among the dead for missing relatives. a syrian opposition said more than 1,300 people died after government forces used chemical weapons in a number of areas east and west of the capitol damascus. accusationaccusation strongly dy the syrian government. the shocking pictures of the victims have brought swift international condemnation. the french government demanding some sort of action. >> if proven opposition is there needs to be a reaction. what does that mean? not to send soldiers into the
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field but a reaction of international condemnation, and condemnation, i won't be more precise, of force. >> reporter: and germans hinting at barbaism. >> these reports are series and should they turn out to be true it would be an monstrosity. >> reporter: a meeting at the united nations security council failed to produce the best ponce. secretary general ban ki-moon called for an investigation of all incidents but ultimately it would be up to the syrian government to give their permission. they continue to deny responsibility. >> everything that has been said is ridiculous, naive, unscientific emotional and subjective. we mean what we're saying, there
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is not the use of that weapon at all. the military o on the ground isa successful one. >> reporter: both russia and iran say the news of the chemical attacks are accurate. it's more likely rebel groups are behind the attacks. the syrian national coalition has called for an international investigation. they say u.n. weapons inspectors already in syria to investigate allegations of previous attacks should urgently include wednesday's atrocity as part of their mandate. there have been claims and counter claims over the use of chemical weapons over the last two years. the slaughtering of the syrian people is likely to continue. al jazeera. >> for more we turn to al jazeera's zana who is in
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beirut. how is the syrian government reacting? is more and more condemnation comes in from world leaders. >> well, we do know that the syrian government has categorically denied using chemical weapons. in fact, they have accused the opposition fabricating these lice to use it as a pretext to intervene in syria. so this is a position of the syrian government, but when you talk to observers, they will tell you that the syrian government seems to be confident. yes, we've heard tough words from the french foreign minister, officials in turkey, they've been saying that force needs to be used, the red line has been crossed, but we've heard those statements before. the syrian government knows they
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can count on the support of russia in the u.n. security council of china, and they know that. more importantly it is not just the deadlock in the security council, is that there is a reluctance among the western nations to intervene in syria. they say it is not in their interest to intervene in syria at the moment because in the scenario at the moment the rebels, the armed groups on the ground are not supporters of the american government and it's al-qaida, really, which is the strongest force on the ground. >> any update on the u.n. inspectors? >> well, at the moment we do know that the opposition has been demanding for the u.n. team to investigate. they're in damascus, the site of the reported chemical weapons attack is just a few kilometers from their hotel, but they will require the approval of the syrian government if they are to investigate. demand the opposition has been
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making so far we haven't received anything official that they will go and visit these sites. you talk to people in the opposition, and they have really lost faith in the international you community. a stern warning really, when one opposition rebel group in damascus said if you don't go to the site then you might as well leave the country. >> thank you so much. president obama's quote red line for syria has been tested again after claims that the syrian government used these toxic gas to attack opposition groups and civilians. they have denied the allegations and th administration whether
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chemical weapons had been deployed at all. mccain from arizona said president obama's threats on syria ring hollow. he's calling for airstrikes to take out the air capabilities of the assad regime. he said it's been two years since the president, president obama, first call for assad to go. keep the lid on that if you take out assad's assets. no good answers at the white house. >> quite frankly, senator mccains point, it seems
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affordable. this is happening shortly. young people prepping for college, the president will be speaking and we'll follow that for you. we'll move on to another story. there are several wildfires burning, so far fire officials say there has been minimal property damage in the yosemite fire. there have been closure of roads leading into the park, it's only 5% contained. a chance of parole heat after admitting killing afghan civilians. we hear about the state of mind of army sergeant robert bales. plus living his life as a woman. the extreme measures a soldier wanting to through after being convicted of releasing
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there's more to financial news than the ups and downs of the dow. for instance, can fracking change what you pay for water each month? have you thought about how climate change can affect your grocery bill? can rare minerals in china affect your cell phone bill? or how a hospital in texas could drive up your healthcare premium? i'll make the connections from the news to your money real. my name is ranjani chakraborty, i'm from houston, texas, and i'm an associate producer
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for america tonight. i grew up in a very large, loud indian family. they very much taught me how to have a voice, and from a very young age i loved writing, and i love being able to tell other people stories. the way to do good journalism is to really do your research, to know your story, to get the facts right, and to get to know the people involved in your story. america tonight and al jazeera america, it's a perfect place for that to happen. >> welcome back. let's recap our top stories. there are new calls for the united nations to take action following an alleged toxic attack by the syrian government. officials there deny the military use chemical weapons. former president hosni
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mubarak was released from prison. he was flown to a hospital and when he leaves the hospital he'll be put under house arrest. the former president was born in 1928 in the nile delta province, graduating from the national military academy in 1949. he went on to join the air force aas a fighter pilot. egypt went to war with israel four years later and he was called a hero for his role in the war. in 1975 president anwar is sadt named him as part of his government.
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he then became president and was the longest president in history. you have written at one point mubarak's release has triggered massive speculation. it means something different than you thought at one time. why so? >> a little over year ago at i was the epicenter of the 2011 up rising against mubarak when a verdict was handed down in a separate case against him over the killing of more than 800 demonstrators in the january up rising. and there were massive protests for several days because mubar mubarak's deputies and interior ministry were not convicted even though mubarak himself was convicted in that trial. now we're seeing mubarak released to a military hospital
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in a corruption case even though there are--there is more than one court proceedings against him still now. but it's almost a sense now that mubarak, an is no longer importt and the country is swept up in its own political crisis having to do with the muslim brotherhood and new government backed by the military. >> still there are some activist groups who are not happy with this release. who are the most vocal? >> reporter: at this point there is not that many people who are very vocal at all. i spoke yesterday with a representative of the group that organized the up rising in june against mohammed morsi, and they're not happy with mubarak's
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release. a lot of other people who participated in the revolution two and a half years ago are not going to be happen with this. what is different now from a month ago or six months ago is that the kinds of mobilization that you would have seen otherwise are not going to materialize this time as far as we can tell to this point. that's really just a sign of how the entire political situation in the country has moved into a different phase since the military stepped in to remove morsi from power and the government has launched a sweeping crackdown on islamist groups including the muslim brotherhood and last year killed hundreds of people on a crackdown protest groups. >> i'm sure we will be calling on you again as hosni mubarak's
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traumatic stress mental health, state of mind at the time of those killings. we expect to hear from medical and psychiatric experts here outside tacoma. >> still any real responsibility taken for this, we certainly very heard that yet. we do expect to hear a statement of some kind from sergeant bales. the defense is now promising that, that he will address the court. that's not something that we heard before late yesterday. but he will address the court at some point probably the last person in the presentation of the defense. that will be unsworn testimony
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allowable for military court. it means that he won't be cross-examined, but he will be allowed to have the opportunity to make a >> that's a big development there. allen schauffler, thank you so much. florida community on edge. the sinkhole threatening to suck everything, everything in one community underground. >> meteorologist: and we're looking at weather in the west causing problems with the fire situation there. we'll like at the radar coming up.
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sinkholes. people who live near the five acre pond said it looked low on tuesday but by late afternoon it was draining into the sinkhole. it was eight feet deep in some spots but now it's barely there. so far no one has been evacuated from the homes closest to the bond. --pond. >> meteorologist: we're starting in the west here. there is active on the radar. these are showers acting up because there is rain but a lot of lightening and a lot of that rain evaporates before it hits the ground. so we're watching that area closely. rain developing here in the northeast. this is right over new york and north jersey. showers and storms there. the temperatures are trying to warm up a bit today but only into the 70s, new york, philadelphia, 80 degrees, and cooler in cleveland at 70. southeast we go. there is a lot of gulf moisture
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coming in on the panhandle of florida with rain there. the temperatures will climb to 80 degrees across the south. cool air approaches, but showers and strong thunderstorms are possible and we could see that again this afternoon and this evening. that cool air will oh slowly work its way out from minneapolis almost up to 80 in chicago. memphis is at 81, and southeast there dealing with temperatures closer to 90 trying to warm up to the 90s. we have tropical storm trami causing rain and flooding impacting that region. >> stay tune for no more news, u should also visit www.america.aljazeera.com. thank you so much for your time.
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keep it right here throughout the day. >> for 300 years, the most powerful nations on earth grew richer and stronger on the profits of the slave trade. over twelve million men, women and children were forcibly transported from africa on slave ships like this, to the colonies and plantations in north and south america. today slavery is illegal on every country on the planet. but the truth is, slavery did not die in the 19th century. it is alive, it is thriving, and it it is bigger than ever.
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