hello and welcome to al jazeera, i'm tony harris in new york. our top stories at this hour, investigating an atrocity, president obama orders u.s. intelligence services to gather details about an alleged chemical weapons attack in syria. robert bales says he is sorry. the justice department moves to sue texas, saying it discriminates against minority voters. the wildfire burning near yosemite national park has more than tripled in the last day, and the work to put it out is

just getting started. ♪ >> there has been international outrage over yesterday's chemical weapons attack in syria. hundreds of residents were killed, victims, they say, of toxic nerve gas. and some first responders in syria died after treating victims. the aledged attack happened in a suburb of damascus. president obama has directed the intelligence community to gather information about the use of chemical weapons in syria. we want to warn you, some of the video we are about to show you is graphic, and we have selected images we thought were appropriate to air. >> reporter: a day after hundreds of syrians including

women and children were killed or injured, a search among the dead for missing relatives. more than is 1300 people died after government forces used chemical weapons in a number of areas. an accusation strongly denied by the government. the french government demanding some sort of action. >> translator: if proven, our position in france is that there needs to be a reaction. a reaction of international condemnation, a condemnation of force. >> reporter: and the germans hinting at an act of bar bare annism. >> translator: these reports are serious, and should they turn

out to be true, it would be a monstrosity. >> reporter: un secretary general called for a thorough investigation of all reported incidents, but ultimately, it would be up to the syrian government to give their permission. they continue to deny responsibility. >> translator: everything that has been said is ridiculous, naive, unscientific. we mean what we are saying. there is no any use of that weapon at all. our forces are making progress, and all sides facing the groups. >> reporter: both russia and iran say if the news is accurate, it is most likely that rebel groups are behind the attacks. one of the main opposition

groupings has also called for an international investigation. they say un inspectors already in syria should surgently include wednesday's atrocity as part of their mandate. there have been claims and counterclaims over the use of chemical weapons over the last two years, and the slaughtering of the syrian people is likely to continue. >> so let's get more reaction from washington now. mike viqueira joins us from the white house. mike as you have been hearing there is a lot of outrage sake t

spokesperson. let's listen to what she had to say today. >> the red line has been clear. the red line is the use of cw, the choose of chemical weapons. a was crossed a couple of months

ago. the president took action, which we talked ariel cast about at t. ifs the reports are true, it would be an outrageous and flagrant escalation of use of n seeing any of that. >> so all right, mike. what are the president's options if the chemical

unfolded. >> well framed. mike viqueira for us in washington. former egyptian president, hosni mubarak is out of prison and taken to a military hospital. when discharged he will be placed under house arrest. >> reporter: a helicopter rises from the prison after hours of legal procedure, hosni mubarak is released, but his immediate destination is a very short flight down the road, the medical facility. his release at this stage is very much a technical term. he will remain under house arrest. the formal ban on leaving the country has always been imposed. >> translator: we lost everything, and now the police state will return, and justice

will return, and everything other negative thing we hoped would stay away will come back. >> translator: we have an independent judiciary. that alone is more than enough. >> reporter: mubarak is expected to be back behind bars at his trial on sunday. on the same day in a different court, leaders of the muslim brotherhood that opposed mubarak for decades will also appear. they stand accused of inciting violence during the demonstrations that followed the takedown of the morsi government. the youth body that spear head pass public protest, has called for courts to strongly pursue the prosecution of mubarak and morsi. and ironically it accuses the morsi government of not being aggressive enough in taking

action against mubarak, and insists because of this morsi must take responsibility for the release of the man he replaced. mike hanna, al jazeera, cairo. the american soldier responsible for killing 16 afghans last year, says he is sorry. he described it as act of cowardo cowardous. the 39-year-old pleaded guilty in june to avoid the death penalty. a military jury will determine if his life sentence should offer a chance of parole. allen what did you make attorne

always given a chance to make a statement on his own, during which he repeatedly apologized to the familiar list of the 16 people that he killed, many of them women and children. he and the rest of us listened to a lot of earlier testimony about the horrors of war, and specifically about fellow soldiers describing what he had been through in iraq. >> i think he passed on the sense of frustration that multiple deployed soldiers have, when they are just dealing with a normal stress-inducing incident, and everything gets completely out of proportion.

i don't know if he conveyed that well. i know that that's the concept of posttraumatic stress disorder, and some of the pressure that sergeant bales was under at the time that his attorney says he snapped and killed those 16 villagers, but that didn't happen today. the defense-member panel to determine the possible of parole. the wildfire burning near

yosemite national park has now tripled in size. one of the country's most tref insured park is severely under threat today. it contains some of the country's most diverse wildlife. the fire is only 2% contained, that is down from 5% yesterday. let's get to ourhe trees are extra dense. >> reporter: what is called the rim fire tripled in size in less than 24 hours, at one point licking close to the incident command center up in the

mountains. >> it's not burning into yosemite national park yet, but it is moving east towards the park. yosemite is an ironic park, so there is a lot of interest on whether or not it will be directly impacted by the fire. the fire team is doing their utmost to keep it out of the park. >> reporter: for now yosemite remains opened. the fire jumped the highway we took earlier. this is a remote and mountainous part of california, and one of many wildfires happening simultaneously across the western united states. this week the federal government announced the highest level preparedness on the scale. it means resources are stretched. teams move from fire to fire. many firefighters working 24-hour shifts.

despite the size of this fire, there has been minimal loss to property so far. a few buildings destroyed early on, but none damaged in the last couple of days. >> we are a strike team from za sacramen sacramento. we're going through the area and checking it out. >> at least every decade we have a major fire up in this area. and i have been through several and been evacuated, and we did all right before. with pine mountain lake here, there are so many houses and so many trees, all -- one small area that if it got in here, i'm afraid that would be it. >> reporter: more help continues to arrive, but handled in

this way. >> all right. melissa thank you. let's talk fire weather now. here is kevin. we have a change from what happened yesterday, the temperatures across idaho, in particular are much warmer. right here in this area, notice over the last 12 hours, we have had not a lot of clouds or rain in that area, it has really let the sunlight in, and the temperatures for boise are about 95 degrees, which is about 7

degrees higher than yesterday at this time. but look at all of the red flag warnings -- most of idaho as well as oregon and down towards california. this is an expansion of what we had seen yesterday, so this is a major problem here. boise as i said is seeing about 95 degrees, yesterday it was about 87 degrees. down towards salt lake, but in this part of the country, we are not yet at the heating of the day, so we'll watch these temperatures go up a little bit higher. down towards the south, a lot of rain is coming into play, and we could be seeing anywhere between three-quarters of an inch and l

highlights and get reaction from students. and take a look at what happened in louisiana yesterday, a sink hole --

>> al jazeera america, a new voice in american journalism. introduces america tonight. >> in egypt police fired tear gas -- >> a fresh take on the stories

that connect to you. >> they risk never returning to the united states. >> we spent time with some members of the gangster disciples. mission. >> there's more to america, more stories, more voices, more points of view. now there's are news channel with more of what americans want to know. >> i'm ali velshi and this is "real money." this is "america tonight." sglovrjs our -- >> our news coverage reveal more of america's stories. ♪ welcome back everyone, as president obama tries to ratchet up support for his economic

policies he is targeting a key constituency focused on the soaring cost of higher education. david shuster has the report. [ cheers ] >> at the university of buffalo, the president announced ambitious changes to make colleges more affordable and accountable for their costs. >> college has never been more expensive. over the past three decades, the average tuition at a public, four-year college has gone up by more than 250%. >> reporter: and so the president said he will use executive orders and lobby for new legislation that would make changes in three years. >> what we want to do is rate them on who is offering the best value so students and taxpayers

get a bigger bang for their buck. >> reporter: the american council on education reacted cautiously, describing the president's effort as a sweeping thoughtful proproal. at the university of buffalo, where instate tuition plus room and board is over $20,000 a year, the reaction from students was more upbeat. >> everything he put in place would help me personally. coming out of school, i don't want to be 80 grand in debt. >> reporter: the president's proposal is the essential message of a two-day bus tour across new york and pennsylvania. >> we're going to keep fighting to make sure that this remains a country where if you work hard and study hard and are responsible, you are rewarded.

>> reporter: and the president is hoping to remind everybody he is focused on the middle class. >> david shuster joining us live now. and david if you are talk about young people in college, and the president making a big play here for those younger voters, isn't he? >> he is, and the timing is interesting, because a lot of young people are going back to college in the next few weeks, but the larger picture in all of this is that the obama administration in order for their health care plan to work, they need to keep younger people to buy into the health care system. so you make an appeal to college students with an issue they are most concerned with, which is paying back the student loans, and therefore their opinion of the president remains high, and therefore, the opinion of the health care, is something they can participate in. >> all right. david thank you. and for more, we turn to ali velshi.

ali, as always, good to talk to you. are, the pressures they are

under, and what some of the solution might be. >> let me take another stab at this. because we hear about the middle class being squeezed. what doe the margins, and that's why the entire economy suffers if you don't have a strong middle colle

cost is going higher than inflation. >> all right. ali velshi appreciate. take a look at this. a russian military landing craft arrived at this beach. officials say it was on a regular drill -- at the beach? and the beach was supposed to be empty, because it is military property. amazing. as we mentioned president obama white house has not pushed for more interactional action to the

syrian claims.

♪ welcome back, everyone to al jazeera, i'm tony harris. the fire threatening yosemite national park more than tripled overnight. right now the firefighters are losing the battle against the blaze. it is only 2% contained. hosni mubarak was released

from prison today. he was taken to a military hospital outside of cairo. medics and security tried to form a human wall around him when he arrived. pressure is building on world leaders to do something about the latest chemical weapons attack inside syria. the state department can't conclusively say chemical weapons were used on rebel forces. john is covering this story for us from the un. >> exceptionally grave is our peilay put it, and there has been writing to the government for the un inspectors on the

ground to look into this latest incident. and he is sending the disarmament chief to try to speed things up a bit. the president of france who has been in power since may of last year, spoke to secretary general on the telephone today, and he talked about the probable use of chemical weapons, so that gives it more of an authoritative nature there. syrian government denies it, of course, and all of this comes 24 hours after the security council, the body here at the un charged with looking after peace and security in the world, turned in a very, very, very weak set of words to members of the press yesterday on this issue. >> john how likely it is that

the syrian government will investigate this attack? >> i have to say when you shake it all out, i think it is probably very unlikely, at least very unlikely in the near term. the problem is that the team on the ground at the moment, sent there by the secretary general of the united nations has a very clear mandate, and that is to investigate three previous alleged uses of chemical weapons. now, mr. ban has written to the damascus government, and you know how long it took to get them on the ground in the first place. the problem is the longer you leave it, the less evidence there will be. >> all right. john, thank you. the new voter id law in texas is being challenged by the justice department. eric holder is suing the state

to stop it from asking voters to show id at the polls. holder accuses the texas legislature of intentionally trying to discriminate against minorities. mark snyder is live with more on the story. texas has been looking to get this law implemented or a couple of months. what does this suit mean f the state, and it conflicted with the u.s. voting right's act, but this summer the supreme court took away some of that, and texas said okay we're going to go ahead and implement it now, that's what they have done. >> how big of a problem is voter fraud there in texas? >> well, it's interesting we

just found out the other day a woman was indicted for voting five voter fraud convict snuns the past ten years. so we have some here. >> any thoughts on what the possible outcome m sides. >> appreciate it, mark. mark schneider live for from dallas. bob filner may resign as part of an agreement stoet -- to

settle a sexual harassment lawsuit. japan's nuclear watchdogs says that the latest leak of contaminated water may be the start of a real crisis. this is the fifth, and the worst leak since last year. the water is so contaminated, someone standing too close could get five year's worth of radioactive exposure in mere minutes. >> reporter: these tanks were supposed to store safely the radioactive water held from damaged reactors, instead they have been steadily leaking hundreds of thousands of liters in unprotected ground close to the sea. they say they can no longer call

the i situation at fukushima under control as the area is so contaminated. >> translator: is is like a haunted house. so many things keep happening. we need to think how to prevent such incidents becoming fatal and serious accidents. we will need to take measures to lower the risks. >> reporter: the earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2011, which wrecked the plant, killed more than 18,000 people. so far no deaths have been attributed directly to radiation from the nuclear disaster, but that could change if the reactors turn critical again. and tokyo is only 4 hour's drive away. the company responsible is tepco, the tokyo electric power

company, and while it has manage to keep the lights on in this capitol city, it is increasingly clear they cannot get on top of the problems at fukushima. the president visited fukushima soon after his election. his government is under pressure to take tighter control of the plant. >> translator: any way you look at it, this is deplorable. >> reporter: it may take an international effort to turn the situation around. now it appears the nuclear power plant is neither secure, nor stable. a small community deep in louisiana's cajan country is being swallowed by a sink hole. take a look at this video. pretty amazing stuff, right?

so the state of louisiana is going to court, claiming a houston-based drilling company is responsible. robert ray has our report. >> for people who haven't seen bayou corn it truly is a beautiful paradise. >> reporter: one year ago, people here began to sense that something was wrong. >> you could not walk outside. it burnt your nose and throat. it was horrible. >> reporter: the smell of natural gas was swirling around, and the water was bubbling. they noticed these doub double -- bubbling comes up out of the water and down the bio, a sink hole was forming. >> hundred foot treese would just bob and then they would

just sink. >> reporter: last summer scientists from around the world, state and federal government regulators arrived. assumption parish ordered the mandatory evacuation of the residents of bayou corn. >> to our knowledge it has never happened anywhere in the world. >> reporter: the state of louisiana says that the houston based company is responsible. the drilling and extracting of salt they say caused the collapse of the earth. and creating danger on the surface. >> she was three when we evacuated now she is four. >> for karla her bayou paradise is gone. they now are part of a federal class action lawsuit against the company, seeking damages as their lives have been shaken. >> it was our life plan. we planned that, and no it's gone. >> reporter: one year since the

disaster, almost half of the people here have left, taking cash settlements from texas brine. for those who still live here signs of frustration picket many of the homes, as do this. wenting wells. >> the biggest problem is the methane. rrm and that is the main reason people left. >> it has hand and we have tried to respond in an appropriate way. >> reporter: state officials state could take three to five years to vent all of the gas, as the sinkhole now the size of 20 football fields continues to grow. texas brine says that nature will dictate what will happen here. yet state officials have real doubts that bayou corn will ever be the same. and for those that stayed --

>> reporter: paradise is not lost yet. >> reporter: robert ray, al jazeera, bayou corn, louisiana. a small florida lake is gone, believed to be swallowed up by one of that state's infamous sinkholes. people who live near the lake said it looked low on tuesday, be late afternoon it was draining into the sinkhole. so far no homes have been evacuated. russia has been hit by some of the worst floods in 120 years. authorities say the situation got worse yesterday after water in the amora river rose to new levels. the fate of nidal hasan is

now on in the hands of the jury. he is facing the death penalty for shooting and killing 13 fellow shoulders at fort hood in 2009. coming up next, at al jazeera, the case against a former nfl player charged with murder took another step today. michael eaves has that and more in sports.

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in for a seventh term. >> reporter: president robert mugabe, was sworn in. in 2009 we was forced to share power. after elections the year before were marred by violence and allegations of rigging. on tuesday the constitutional court declared him the winner of last month's election. he criticized western countries still questioning his legitimacy. >> today it is written, and dominions of australia and canada who dare tell us our

election was not fair and credible. >> reporter: the us won't remove sanctions, and the european union says it is concerned about vote rigging. most african governments have congratulated magabe. he is africa's oldest leader, and there are concerns about his health and whether he can serve another five-year term. he says his policies will one day help the economy recover. analysts say his party must move towards issues more relevant to people today. >> they have to be more serious about their governing, and one of the big issues is performance. fix the economy, create employment, and generally to fix our international standing as a country. >> reporter: he served as the

first interim prime minister, and has held the office of president ever since. all people can do now is wait and see if zimbabwe moves backward or forward. the police and security services in germany have been severely criticized for failing to attack neo-nazi violence. the national socialist underground killed ten people during a seven-year period without being caught. now a report says the police underestimated the neo-nazi report from berlin. >> reporter: it's a reported that examines what went wrong and try to ensure it doesn't happen again. a near nazi gang carried out so many killings over so many years, without authorities suspecting or perhaps really caring that a far-right group

was involved. it is a story of failure by the police services. >> they directly linked the background to organized crime, mafia structures, and so on. it's not to criticize that they looked in that direction also, but what we do criticize as parliament is that they only looked in that possibility, and not the possibility that there could be a racist background. >> reporter: these two men are have thought to have been the leaders of the gang. they killed themselves in 2011, apparent loi fearing to being close to being convicted. and these are the victims. very ordinary people, a locksmith, almost all shot in the head, usually at point-blank range. today's report recommends that the police recruit more from

diverse ethnic groups, and the police have to look for political motivations when a serious crime is committed against somebody from an ethic minority. this is the neighbor of moorebeat, and many of the people here come from immigrant backgrounds. it's in places like this that people feel mote bitter. to many people here it's evidence that they are not yet equal citizens in germany. a turkish community leader told us he was shocked by the killings, but also by what he calls the impetus of the police reaction. >> translator: my confident in the security authorities and law enforcement has disappeared, i must say i no longer feel safe. >> reporter: germans are used to soul searching.

and this report examines what has gone wrong today, and how this country can be a safer and fairer place for all of its citizens. barney phillips, al jazeera, berlin. ♪ >> michael eaves is here with a day in sport and the aaron hernandez case took a big step. >> yes, a grand jury officially indicted aaron hernandez in the murder of a form friend. the indictment charges with hernandez with killing the sister of hernandez's girlfriend -- her boyfriend. police have yet to find the murder weapon. attorneys for hernandez say they are confident they can clear their client's name.

two weeks after seeking clarification on russia's anti-gay law, the international olympic committee said it has been assured that visitors to the up coming games will be welcome regardless of sexual orientation. the law passed in june banning the prop gan diezing of minors. but they cited a letter today that everything is fine, and they are satisfied with russia's stance. fans across the sports landscape have become accustomed to seeing the slow-motion replays to get the call right. now the english premier league has reacted in an effort to take controversy out of the game of soccer. >> reporter: arsenal manager

enjoyed his look at goal line technology, but getting it right is a serious business. a goal needs to actually be a goal. [ cheers and applause ] >> reporter: the english premier league had pushed hard for the introduction of goal technology since 2006. and they are the first league in the world to use it. the goal decision system is being made by hawk eye. in football a complicated process has been made very simple. >> very simple, quick, and accurate. many you are in the stadium, you will be able to see it, and so be broadcasters will see if it was or it wasn't. >> reporter: there is seven cameras at each end of the ground, 340 frames her second. so when there is a contentious

decision, this vibrates. so it's an instant accurate decision. there has been some recent controversy over the technology in cricket. they held out against the technology until the 2010 world cup. but have now licensed four systems. german company gold cup will be used in next year's gold cup. it won't be used in the champion's league, but there is optimism that more nations will be able to use the technology. >> we recognize that this is not universally able to be applied today. but the cost of the technology -- we have all seen it in our homes, as the

technology plummets. >> reporter: there will still be plenty of post-match debate, but no longer about whether the ball crossed the line. and we're halfway to the final four at the little league world series. team from connecticut, washington, mexico, and panama, take the diamond today. california and japan had already advanced to the final four, and they await the winners. the game right now is in a rain delay. mexico leading panama, 4-2 -- that is actually in extra innings. >> it gets good now. >> it does. >> all right. michael appreciate. thank you. move over google. there is a new top website in town. yahoo. it is back on top for the first time in more than two years.

and check of the weather now with kevin. coming up on "real money," the middle class, what is us exactly? and what needs to be done to make it stronger. i'll show you tonight, and help you better understand this very important group of americans. plus, wonder why college costs are growing so much faster than everything else? i'll show you. and i'll introduce you to someone who is bullish on detroit, despite all of the city's problems. all of that and more next on "real money with ali velshi."

my name is ranjani chakraborty, i'm from houston, texas, and i'm an associate producer

hello again and welcome

back. well, we are looking at some very strong storms down in parts of florida this evening. i'm going to show you on our weather wall. come over here, take a look down towards parts of florida right now. and really the thunderstorms that popped up especially over the gulf of mexico. we are starting to get a little bit of break in certain areas, but as you can see on the weatherern coast they are really still there, so it will be a stormy evening for many people across the area. we're also getting those pop-up thunderstorms in parts of georgia as well. atlanta you do have some delays at the airport atlanta, about 86. birmingham, 84, that's a little bit lower than average for you this time of year, but not over towards the west in shreveport. and in parts of new england -- first of all let's

take a look at your five-day forecast for atlanta, sunday 82, can't beat that. down towards the northeast, we will see delays for many of the major airports. and that's due to the rain shower activity that has pushed through. we are going to be seeing some better conditions right now. new york city is seeing about 75, and philadelphia at 78, but look at the forecast for new york. you're looking quite nice. tomorrow will be the warmest day at 86. we'll see some clear to partly cloudy skies across the board, and next week on tuesday, we finally get our temperatures back up to about 85 or 86 degrees. down towards the southwest, stormy conditions across parts of arizona. your headlines are coming up right now. ♪

welcome to al jazeera, i'm tony harris. the fire threatening yosemite national park more than tripled in size. right now firefighters are losing the battle against the blaze, it is only 2% contained, down from 5% just yesterday. a tour bus overturned outside of los angeles today. at least 50 people were hurt. five were air lifted to a nearby center. president obama unveiled a new plan to help cut the cost of college. he wants to use a ratings system that would judge sch