takeaway is our company emerges from a time of war that i was elected in part to end. buzz we really want to turn away from taking appropriate action in the face of such an >> hello and welcome to aljazeera. our top stories at this hour: >> if the congress were to reject a resolution like this, after the president of the united states has already committed to action, the consequences would be catastrophic. >> key republican senators meet with president obama, looking for agreement on a strike against syria. syria president bashar al assad warns a strike against his country will lead to a wider war. >> verizon says a $130 billion deal gives the communications giant full control of its future. success for a swimmer, diana nyad, after 110 miles through the chilly, choppy florida

straits. >> tonight, we begin with syria. president obama is trying to rally congressional support for a u.s. led strike on that countries military. he met this afternoon with two leading republican senators, john mccain and lindsey graham. both have been pushing the president to take a much stronger stance on syria. they say the stakes are high for both the u.s. and the syrian people. >> if the congress were to reject a resolution like this after the president of the united states has already committed to action, the consequences would be catastrophic in that the credibility of this country with friends and adversaries alike would be shredded, and it would be not only implications for

this presidency, but for future presidency's as well. >> the president has no one to blame but himself about the lack of public understanding of what's at stake in syria. we talked about the past, the present and the future. two years ago, with an opportunity to get assad out when there were dozens of al-qaeda in syria. two years ago, there were not 600,000 refugees in jordan compromising the king of jordan. time is not on our side. we urge the president to up his game. >> paul is following developments for us from washington. paul, congressional hearings set for tomorrow, secretary kerry will be testifying. are we going to hear a new line from the secretary or more of what we heard from last week. >> secretary kerry is going before the senate relations committee to face questioning. what we're learning tonight from a senior state department official sounds a loot like what

we've heard the past couple of days from the secretary. he's goings to argue that a failure to act against assad unravels norms against the use of chemical weapons, endangers the region and our allies, a reference to his remarks about these countries being just a stiff breeze away from a chemical attack. he going to say it emboldens iraq and assad and north korea in their quest for nuclear weapons. tony. >> paul, senators graham and mccain, along with president obama, are they on the same page when it comes to moving forward with a military strike against syria? >> well, senators graham and mccain as you know have been hawkish on syria for the past two years. they both came away from today's meeting saying that they were encouraged, indicating that they might vote yes if the president were willing to go farther. this puts the white house

between a rock and hard place between mccain and graham and those who don't want action at all. mccain and graham might be able to convince others. >> i think it's a fair assessment to say that we still have significant concerns, but we believe that there is in formulation a strategy to upgrade the capabilities of the syrian army and degrade the capabilities of bashar al assad. >> there seems to be emerging from this administration a solid plan to upgrade the opposition, get the regional players more involved, saudi arabia, jordan can be turkey, arab states have been cooperating and now can get up front and be more overt.

>> there's going to be the meeting with secretary kerry, also secretary hagel and joint chiefs. wednesday, a top secret meeting will be closed while again with secretary clapper as well as defense -- pardon me, the director of national intelligence james clapper. on wednesday, kerry will testify again before the house foreign affairs committee, so a flurry of activity interactions between top administration officials and congress ahead this week. >> thanks, paul. >> syrian president bashar al assad is warning that a u.s. strike would cause that reason to descend into further chaos. he said:

>> there are new suspicion that the chemical weapons allegedly used in syria may have come from the united kingdom. lawrence lee is following that part of the story for us. >> exporting's great for the economic recovery. when a company approached the department of business for an export license for syria at the end of last year, it was granted. the company said it would ship chemicals for the manufacture of window frames and showers. those same materials are also integral in the manufacture of chemical weapons, which much of the world assumes the syrian government has used against its own people and britain has described as a war crime. >> the shipments never actually went, so at the moment, nobody's suggesting the british chemicals have been used to gas syrian children, but there's a bigger

question, it's whether the government here has learned the lesson of a decade ago about so-called dual use materials. >> dual use was the phrase on everyone's lips at the end of 2002, when united nations inspectors were racing around iraq. the british and american governments were arguing then that some things imported by iraq and which looked harmless enough also had a military capability. that suddenly sounds a bit familiar. >> i expect there's a great deal of soul searching going on within u.k. ti and security services to find out exactly how these chemicals slipped through the net. >> what has changed is the internet. sodium fluoride can be bought freely on line. you can buy from a variety of suppliers in china. perhaps the point is policing trade is becoming more and more

difficult. countries that take the moral high ground against syria can't afford to be making mistakes. >> aljazeera will have live coverage of the senate foreign relations committee hearing tomorrow. the hacker group the syrian electronic army apparently managed to break into the u.s. marines recruiting website, a message posted on the site called for marines to fight with the syrian army and said" obama is a traitor who wants to put your lives in danger to rescue al-qaeda insurgents." the same group has hacked into several news and social media outlets, "the new york times" and aljazeera. >> an attack on the u.s. military base monday, at three attackers were killed, afghan and u.s. forces fired at the attackers with nato helicopters joining the fight. no member of the afghan security forces or civilians were killed

or injured. >> single mothers are now in charge of about a quarter of all u.s. households, according to a recent pew research study. the report shows that many of those moms are young, undereducated and poor. as diana easterbrook found, some are finding new ways to build a future for themselves and their children. >> it's not tangly. we're just going to put the headband on, ok, because it matches your shirt. >> ok. >> valerie was homeless and jobless when her daughter was born five years ago. today, the 37-year-old single mom's life is headed in a different direction, thanks to newly acquired job skills. two weeks ago, she got a full time job as a welder at a chicago firm that makes bus seats. >> it was really hard. i struggled a lot.

now, it's kind of -- i got a brighter outlook on life now, because i feel like i have a career path now. >> galvin got certified as a welder at chicago james adams research corporation, a not for profit offering job training and resource development. they started training low skilled unemployed moms. jane adams has placed nearly all of the 80 women welders it has trained and plans to expand to train even more. >> we see women coming in all the time, but they don't want to work in office jobs. they want to work with their hands. they don't necessarily know what that translates into in terms of a job, and so when we show them how to weld, they get really excited about it and they're like well, i can do this. >> galvin is making $10.50 an hour. that's not a fortune, but it's better money than she made doing odd jobs. >> the average u.s. factory worker makes $77,000 a year,

including benefits. with a few years of experience, galvin could make between $45,000 and $50,000 here, moving her into the middle class. >> they have hired five women welders in the past year, including galvin. the company president says he'd hire more if he could find them. >> i think reliability is a big factor. decision making has been great on the part of these women, and they show up i think better than that you are counterparts. >> with a stable job, galvin has high hopes for the future. she wants to buy a home and with her first paycheck. >> it's good. i don't mind showing it, i'm proud of it. >> she's on her way. aljazeera, chicago. >> going to show you some pretty dramatic video. a destructive tornado hit a suburb outside of tokyo. the rare twister blew through neighborhoods around the city. local media reports it toppled power lines, blew roofs away at

an elementary school. thousands were left without power and hundreds of homes damaged. >> hello again, we are looking at some very nasty conditions across most of the northeast. come and take a look at the radar and clouds here. pushing through many of the states right now, we're talking about flooding right here. before i leave this map, i want to show you what is coming. it is a cold front right here. you can see it at the end of the loop coming through the great lakes through pennsylvania. it is that cold front that will clear out the atmosphere. the rest of the night is going to be pretty stormy for many people. what is out there now? flooding in the green, as well as red spots. all of new england or most of new england is under flash flood watches right now. because of heavy rain, the ground is saturated and has no place to go. towards new york, it's a

combination of severe weather, as well as flash flood warnings in effect. this is something we'll watch all night. this has changed in the last hour. we expected these boxes to move more toward the east through the rest of the night. temperatures right now because of all the rain in the atmosphere, new york right now current temperature is 79. when you factor the heat index, it feels more like 91. washington feels like 90. up towards the north is where they have the cold front, 55 degrees, a lot cooler there. out towards the northwest, we are getting rain showers. about a week ago, i was telling you about the 55 wildfires that were burning in the western united states and canada. right now, we're talking about over 27, so we are beginning to see a change. the changes is happening here. we're starting to see a decrees in wildfires. toward september, normally the trend is that we pick up more wildfires in southern

california. that's going to be a big problem. red flag warnings in effect for most of oregon, as well as fire weather watches, but notice idaho, as well as nevada, we're looking at flooding going on there. we showed you earlier flooding that was happening in parts of las vegas. tony, back to you. >> atlantic city once the gambling capital of the east coast has been dealing with a losing streak for the past few years. there was a recession in 20008 and last year, the city was battered by hurricane sandy. atlantic city is now all in for revival. >> they are truly cathedrals to gambling. >> gambling is a bless or lose. >> it's a bless if you win. >> yes. >> he once worked in a casino but laid off, and now runs ladies fashion shops. hurricane sandy damaged his store and he was forced to tap into his pension and close an

i.r.a. account to keep going. >> if i had no i.r.a. and if the insurance will not help me, i never would have opened the store and i would be in the street. >> he said things are so slow after the hurricane that he and his wife often stay open all night just to try to make ends meet. >> sandy caused damage along the new jersey coastline. they're there was flooding and part of the historic boardwalk was swept away. the message seemed to be atlantic city is closed for business permanently. >> they were reopened in a week. the revenue was down 10%-15% for weeks after. for years, it's often a combination of family and gambling entertainment that kept itsward walk packed. then came the 2008 global financial collapse, and stiff competition from nearby states that legalized gambling. >> first pennsylvania, delaware,

maryland, now new york city has the largest the casino in the united states, taking business from feeder markets to atlantic city. >> ray is the architect of new laws that would allow gamblers to place bets at home. it's a desperate bid to prevent further layoffs in atlantic city. >> it's going to be a significant boost to atlantic city and hopefully in the end, sports betting would be a big, big win and make the town the las vegas of the east coast. >> the supports bedding bid is mired in court action. the hope is it accounted fill atlantic city's hotel rooms in winter. lisa cartmel is charged with broadening the city's appeal. >> taking advantage of the natural environment, the beach, the boardwalk, the nightclubs. we have the restaurants. we are definitely going back to our roots as a tourism destination that has so many things for people to do.

>> he is hoping the town's big gamble pays off. with his savings all but gone and pension plan depleted, he is literally betting his life on it. >> coming up, a triumph factual arrival in florida. endurance swimmer diana nyad has been trying to complete this swim for years. today, she was successful in her quest to conquer the jelly fish and shark infested florida straits. more on that coming up. >> one of the biggest buyouts in history, verizon says it has taken full control of its own destiny. details coming up after the break.

but should you be made aware if you are consuming them. that's next on "consider this."

>> welcome back, everyone. relief for cbs customers who get their t.v. from time warner cable. about the sides agreed to end a month long blackout. the dispute hit 3 million homes over transmission fees the cable operator pace per subscriber. >> it is one of the biggest deals, verizon has agreed to buy out it's partner for $130 billion. >> verizon and vote a phone have been partners in the vierless business for 14 years, but it's been a rocky relationship, marked by sporadic talks over full control by verizon. under the deal agreed to by company boards, verizon will pay $130 billion, including the biggest cash payout in acquisition history, almost $60 billion. the deal frees verizon to invest its receivers in faster mobile

networks, helping verizon hold its own in a competitive u.s. market where it controls nearly a third of the market share. although sirota phone will pay $5 billion to the u.s. treasury, the u.k. government will collect no attaches. >> they're going to have to pay back an enormous amount of debt. >> at the moment, all is talk is about shareholders and very little about consumers. if the voice networks and data networks be improved, customers should get a better deal. >> since verizon already controls the business, it's unlikely to meet much resistance. >> now a look at other business news. it was a record-setting summer at the movies. hollywood.com is reporting movie theaters made $4.7 billion

up to today. $300 million more than the old time mark set in 2011. seek women's like eye iron man three" reigned at the box office. major disappointments such as the lorne ranger and after earth. >> the parliament's upper house has joined the lower house improving a plan for improved assistance to two thirds of the countries residents and five times when it is right now. >> the most in debted nation in the world. portugal, ireland and grease follow it. the top lending nations are singapore, switzerland, saudi

arabia and norway. >> ross is here now with sports headlines. good news for the redskins. >> rg3 cleared for takeoff. coach shanahan made it official robert griffin iii coming off reconstructive knee surgery and the redskins have been very careful with their franchise player. he didn't play a single snap in the preseason, but come monday night, he will be unleashed. thursday night, the defending superbowl champions and ravens head to denver to take on peyton manning and the broncos. the ravens are 9.5. underdogs. for the second have it game, gronkowski back on the field. he is coming off multiple surgeries on his forearm as well

as back surgery. will the he play sunday in the season opener? the head coach said he is day to day. >> we are all day to day. this afternoon, diana nyad reached the goal of becoming the first person to swim 110 miles from cuba to florida without the protection of a shark cage. we have more on her historic swim. >> 64-year-old diana nyad wanted to prove it's not too late to chase your dream. arriving on the shores of key west florida, she succeeded after five attempts. spectators cheered her on during the last 100 yards of her swim. >> i got three messages. one is we should never ever give up. [ cheers and applause ] >> two is you never are too old

to chase your dreams. >> that's right! >> three is it looks like a solitary sport, but it's a team. >> 53 hours after beginning in havana with a 35 person support team helping her along the way, nyad completed the journey, without using a shark cable, wet suit or flippers. >> adios! >> her past attempts started in 1978, but she was defeated by severe weather, jelly fish stings and exhaustion. today, she triumphed over that which had seemed just beyond her reach. >> south korean researchers may have come up with a solution of sorts for busy commuters. it's an electric car that actually folds in half for easier city parking. take a look the a this. the armadillo tees body can lift

and slide and shrink to less than five and a half feet long. the car has a maximum speed of 40 hours and hour and with a 10 minute fast charge can run for more than 60 miles. take a look at that. >> fans say it has a unique quality unlike any motorcycle, although it doesn't fold up. that is a sound they love, the roar of a harley davidson. thousands of passionate riders celebrated the countries 110t 110th anniversary in milwaukee, coming from as far as mexico, brazil and australia for the weekend rally. >> it is the beginning of alligator hunting season in mississippi, if you didn't know and there has already ban record breaking catch. this giant alligator was caught in the mississippi river. my goodness. it weighs 727 pounds and is more than 13 feet long. >> how long did it take to catch this thing?

this catch was the second 700-pound alligator pulled out of the river within an hour. >> still ahead, paris said it has its own intelligence that the syrian government has used chemical weapons. protestors. i'm morgan radford, you can see us again at 7:00 eastern.

nothing. here is my question for every me

>> welcome back to aljazeera. here's a look at your headlines this hour. two top republican leaders met with president obama this afternoon, john mccain and lindsey graham have both pushed for a stronger stance against syria. tomorrow public hearings get underway on capitol hill. syrian president bashar al assad

is warning an attack on his country could start a larger war in the middle east. he said neither the united states or france has any evidence that the syrian military was behind the chemical weapon attack that killed more than 1400 people. verizon is buying out it's partner for $130 billion, one of the largest corporate deals ever. the company hopes it will now have full control and will make verizon more competitive against at&t and smaller rivals like sprint offering cheaper phone plans. >> 64-year-old diana nyad completed her goal of swimming the florida straights from cuba to key west. she is the second person to swim the straights and the first to do it without a shark cage. this was her fifth attempt to make the thin the crossing in 35 years.

>> president obama is seeking support for a military attack against syria. senator mccain said he has now hopeful that congress will act. >> americans skeptical. we've gone for two and a half years without helping these people. obviously people are weary after iraq and afghanistan. americans have to be assured that the plan will not entile boots on the ground. they have a selling job to do, but at the same time, i believe that if we can formulate this strategy, degrading his bashar al assad's capability, upgrading the resistance in the long term, then i think that we have a chance of succeeding in the vote. >> well, president obama made it clear that the u.s. should take

military action against syria. many americans disagree. a recent poll asked americans whether the united states should launch an attack on syria in response to the alleged use of chemical weapons there. 42% of those questions said yes, while 50% said no, more americans say they support military action when specifically told the attacks would not involved so-called boots on the ground or navy jets. 50% support that kind of attack. 44% oppose it. 79% or eight in every 10 americans poled said they agree with the president about seeking congressional approval first, but 16% said a congressional ok is unnecessary. some allies are trying to build the case for military intervention in syria. >> making the case for war, senior politicians arrive in the prime minister's residence to give a key briefing about french

intelligence on syria. the government wants to convince members of parliament across the political spectrum that fans should intervene. it's a tough sell. >> on the 21 of august, president bashar al assad's regime used chemical weapons to suppress the syrian people. nobody denies the reality. evidence that we gathered allow us to hold the regime responsible. this act cannot remain unacknowledged. >> the government gave a nine page report to support its case. the document makes a number of key points. the report says that satellite imagery shows the chemical weapons were fired from government held territory. the attack was massive and coordinated and the rebels would not have had the capacity to launch it. government forces bombed the area afterwards to remove evidence of chemical weapons. some opposition politicians left

the meeting unconvinced by the government's argument. >> france is very isolated. where are our allies? there are no european allies at this stage to support our position on an international level. we should seep our position, which is that of intervention. it's only justified within the sitting of the united nations. >> france is still talking about trying to assemble a coalition of the willing, but the u.k. parliament says it won't take part. germany and canada have ruled themselves out of the and we still don't know the position of the united states. it's hard to see right now who the other partners in a military intervention could be. speaking in brussels, the secretary general of nato ruled out involvement of the alliance. >> if a response to what has happened in syria were to be a military operation, i would

envision a very short measured targeted operation. >> the french parliament will debate, but there will be no vote on military action. that decision lies with the president alone. right now, he looks like a leader who is paralyzed. aljazeera, paris. >> there have been new crackdowns by egypt's military backed government against the brotherhood. a judicial pap he will is acting the status to be revoked as a no one governmental organization. the group registered in order to gain legal status, but since president mohamed morsi was pushed from power, most of the group said leadership have been arrested, 14 members of the brotherhood as well as morsi have been ordered to stand trial. there has been more violence. early monday morning, a homemade

bomb exploded near a cairo work station. two workers were injured, no one has claimed responsibility. rye lens surrounding the crisis has left an egyptian an particular wilt's museum in ruins. about 150 miles south of cairo was attacked by several hundred armed men last month. they reportedly stole or destroyed more than a thousand artifacts. the united nations heritage organization says it has a record of these objects and warns that any sales on the black market are illegal. japan's government says it's going to be much more directly involved in the clean up of the fukushima nuclear plant. levels outside the quake have soared to lethal levels. there are growing concerns over the ability of the plant operator to deal with the crisis. aljazeera is in tokyo. >> japan's nuclear regulation

authority says there's no evidence that there are any new leaks at the fukushima nuclear plant. the radiation readings were higher over the weekend than compared to two weeks ago, because the company in charge of the power plant have been using more sophisticated machines to detect radiation levels. the previous could only read up to 100. the machines used now can read up to 10,000, but this latest embarrassing revelation has force said the government to come in and take a more direct approach in handling this crisis. >> we have decided to take charge of the issue, not just leaves it to the company. we will deal with this so as not to repeat such an incident. >> the prime minister is due to chair another session of the nuclear emergency response meeting on tuesday, so the speculation that details of this plan could be revealed on

tuesday. we don't know what it will include, but it will have to deal with this very immediate problem of how do you store the con tom nateed water at the plant. the chairman of the nuclear regulation authority reiterated that they may have no choice but to discharge some of this water into the ocean but will make sure discharged water meets the regulatory thresholds. >> japan hopes news about fukushima radiation leaks won't hurt its bid to host the 2020 olympic games. the international olympic committee will be choosing between tokyo and two other finalists this weekend. the fukushima power plant is 155 miles north of tokyo. the other two finalists are madrid and istanbul. >> flash flooding outside of las vegas had dozens of drivers and motorists stranded. the tree limbs and debris that flooded canyons, damaged many

homes and businesses. in the two years after hurricane katrina, the number of homeless people in new orleans jumped from 2,000 to nearly 12,000, but an ambitious effort has the city working on a new way to fight chronic homelessness. >> it wasn't so long ago bruce james was living the life he planned. >> aero space was my career, fabricated parts from blueprints. i worked on the space station, space lab. >> it changed in an instant in 2008. >> a potential government was schizophrenic, heard voices. he came and opened fire on me and my coworker. me and my dummy, i popped up to look and caught a 45 in the temple. i lost my eye. i have a titanium plate in my head to open up my skull. >> he lost his job and his pride. frustrated by the bureaucracy, he never could get social security.

his outlook on life faded with his sight. >> i find myself not being able to work. it was different for me. it was difficult. i had nowhere to go after that. i was homeless. >> bruce became a part of a growing sub culture of did he de people on the rise. >> the definition is that you have serious mental or physical disabilities and you have been literally homeless, meaning you're sleeping on the street, third, you have to have been doing that for over a year. in some cases for 30 years. >> new orleans has become a case study in homelessness. after hurricane katrina, 80% of the houses were flood understand and rent prices went up by 50%, leaving few options for people. >> in 2005, the homeless population was 2,000. in 2007, nearly 12,000. >> because the research shows that the longer you stay out there, the worse your health and

eventually, you're going to die out that. >> that reenergized helping homelessness. >> we had a goal of housing 200 chronly homeless people in 100 days. >> using federal funds for housing vouchers, non-profit groups surpassed the goal, finding homes for 220 people in 95 days, the fastest rate in the country. >> my bed was over here in the corner. >> bruce james spent 14 months in a homeless shelter when they helped him finally get his social security. his mother came from california to help him pack. >> come on through here. it was a blessing. this is a blessing. i love the way you've come through. >> bruce will be in his own apartment soon. he's one of the 220 taken off the streets of new orleans. >> i can do i. i know it in my heart i can work and i'm going to work, you know. i just need somebody to give me a chance. >> for now, he's just happy for the chance to have a home.

aljazeera, new orleans. >> several members of congress are push to go make the 13 victims of the fort hood shooting eligible for both military benefits and the purple heart. the so-called honoring the fort hood heroes act as a terrorist attack. right now, that rampage which killed 13 and injured 32 is labeled as workplace violence. that means the victims and their families are receiving reduced benefits. last month, nidal hasan was sentenced to die for his crimes. >> it wouldn't be labor day without a parade. ♪ ♪ >> thousand us danced to the beat of a caribbean camp visual new york, and in sports, the baltimore ravens, the superbowl champion baltimore ravens prepare for a run at another superbowl championship.

same champs as english and arabic channels. disorder in a mexico court. why this judge lost his cool.

♪ >> people across the country are celebrating this labor day in very different ways, but for thousands of people in brooklyn, new york, labor day means a party in the streets. we have more. >> it's a labor day celebration caribbean style, the 46 annual west indian day parade in new york city, a carnival of color, music and costume. dionne roman lives across the street. it's just a short step out her front door to watch the festivities. >> it is important, because we does not want this cult tour die. if we give up the culture, we die. we want this to continue in this country. >> hundreds of thousands of

people lined the streets in brooklyn to see the west indian day parade. they are here to celebrate caribbean culture, but the real star of the parade are the costumes. >> some people spend months preparing for this event, making the costume by hand. many of them not leaving much to the imagination. >> while the parade route is filled with participants and watchers, vendors filling food and other items packed the side streets. the five day 50 haveties leading up to and including the labor day parade pumps hundreds of thousands of dollars into the local economy. >> this culture will be bringing in a lot of revenue into this neighborhood. with all the different people flying in and people at different hotels and renting cars, it's a lot of money for the city. >> the parade brings a huge police presence, more than 1,000 officers were on hand. over the years, the celebration has been overshadowed by a number of shootings and stabbings. >> stuff's been happening for a

few years and they're here for a reason, for the safety of the people, and it's what it is, dude. >> for most everyone here, the labor day tradition is all about having fun and letting loose. aljazeera, new york. >> ross is here. let's get an rg3 update. >> imagine the team wasn't cleared for take i don't have. robert griffin iii has been saying i'm going to start the season openers, but his head coach has had to hold him back saying whoa until today. shanahan made it official, saying griffin will start the season opener monday night. rg3 coming off major reconstructive knee surgery. the redskins have been very careful with their franchise player. griffin didn't play a single snap in the preseason. after being cleared by the doctors and head coach, rg3 will

be unleashed against the eagles. the nfl season kicks off thursday night when the defending superbowl champs head to denver to take on peyton manning and the broncos. despite ching champ it is, they are 9.5 underdogs. the ravens still have fire power. joe flacco and ray rice. >> it feels good to be week one again. you start a new year, new chapter, you go through camp, and obviously, when you win a superbowl, you can say you feel the pressure, but you get out of a training camp like we just got out of and you build the camaraderie that we built, you know, just having week one again is exciting. you know, that whole defending the title is, you know, it's a long way from that. i still have to go out there and play the game on thursday night. i'm excited for a new year and definitely new opportunities.

>> to get you jacked up for the nfl season, aljazeera will be having one-on-one interviews with some of the best players. tonight, we strong with safety palamalu. can he stay healthy or lead the steelers back into the playoffs? we went searching for answers with the seven time pro bowler. >> where are the steelers in 2013, are they a team in transition, reloaded or ready for one last run with the familiar faces? >> it depends on how things, how healthy we can be throughout the season, how this team can the camaraderie and how this team is built, that's kind of been our strength. >> what will your defense be missing this year with james harrison gone and signed with the cincinnati bengals? >> obviously his game speaks for itself. he was the in tim dadeor, the guy that could play, you know, he was the steel curtain, you know what i mean? he was one of those style of players, so we lose that, for

sure, but we also have guys that can carry that on, you know, we've got jarvis jones, who is extremely talented. he's not a james harrison, but harrison wasn't a porter and porter wasn't a gill and gill wasn't his predecessor. thank god we've had a line of people who are very successful and their games may not be similar, but their production will be. >> with your age come the questions of folks saying he's not what he once was, is not the same player anymore. what do you do to get back in the form that earns you the 2010 defensive player of the year award. >> well, they're right, i am getting older. honestly, i'm not sure. i will say that my knowledge of the game is much more. my feel for the game is much better. but who knows, you know what i mean? time will tell the level of success that i have this year. >> how do you feel the league is

changing and it is a good direction, because players are getting protected or a little bit the other way, because you have to think about what you're doing on this field now more than you ever had? >> of course when you talk about health, that's a very, very important issue, especially brain health, so the development of that part of the game obviously is positive, because you want to take care of people and to be healthy. on the other side of it, i'm a football purist. this game challenges people in so many different ways, and fear is a huge part of it. when somebody is going across the middle and he's got to think about somebody taking his head off, it's what separates a professional football than somebody that's watching it from a couch on the t.v. there's only so many things you can do to this game before it's not football anymore. you're not going to tell people to stop punching people in the head in boxing or m.m.a.,

because that's part of the sport and this is what we've chose to play and that's the beauty of our sport is that there's so many different emotions in it. the most important one is you have to overcome this fear. >> former heavyweight champion tommy morrison passed away last night and 44 years young. the cause of death has not been released. he tested positive for h.i.v. and was best known for beating george foreman and being in rocky five. >> rain four and a half hour delay, cleared, now back on the court, nidal, federer, will be in prime time. all that rain, rain go away singing you've been doing. >> if both of those guys advance, they could play one another. wouldn't that be a night here in new york? one look at a family tree in iceland and you will find almost

everyone is distantly related and entering a relationship can be a bit risky, right? now an app is giving an instant answer to some important questions as tim friend reports, it is helping people get together without the risk of embarrassment. >> in a country of just 320,000 people, it's inevitable that during the day, you'll bump into someone to whom you're related, perhaps even closely. but how close do you want to get no. >> by simply bumping two phones together, you can find out exactly how closely you're related and avoid potentially embarrassing situations. >> the app was created by three university of iceland students, and emits a warning alarm if you're about to commit a social blunder. >> it's always fun to see how you're related to people you meet, like if you have a new friend and you find out that you are like fifth cousins. that's just a fun fact.

>> the on that taps into a database of residents and their family trees, dating back 1,200 years. so how close is agnes, our producer to one of the inventors? [ laughter ] >> it turns out that they're first shared ancestry dates back to the 1690's. the database was first developed by a bio tech company and has huge potential. >> this is only the first step in the direction of allowing people to have access not just to the genealogy, but health history through the smart phones. this is just we are monitoring data and actioning data in the future. >> this really its is a case of icelandic saga meets modern science without embarrassment. aljazeera. >> so there is a man in singapore, who is taking doll collecting to a whole new level. the 33-year-old has more than

6,000 barbie dolls in his collection. he became interested with the commercials as a boy and calls himself a self proclaimed completist. he says that's how his collection has gotten bigger and bigger over the years, 20 to be exact. he thinks he spent more than $390,000 sufficient on his collection. >> the long labor day weekend is winding down. kevin is back with a look at the rest of the work week forecast for you, then it's time for real money at the top of the hour. care of our family, take care of our children and to get 7.35 raise up to 12.35 or 15.

wouldn't believe there is a farm inside of it.

>> we do expect this rain to cause flooding as well as to the rest of southern japan over the next couple of days. a big problem here, we're already saturated, seen a lot of rain. we did see the video of the tornado. we'll keep you updated. we don't think it's going to get to typhoon status and will stay as a tropical storm. speaking of the tropics, august was a month this year that went without any hurricanes. we've only had six august all the way back since we've been doing historical records on the tropical spoken, but we are watching one particular storm right here, possibly in development. let me show you what the national hurricane center is.

this has anywhere between 30% to 40% chance of developing, as well as here near the cucatan peninsula, as well. this could be our next couple systems going toward the beginning of the week. let's talk about what's happening across the northeast, a lot of showers purposing through across this area. we have seen a little clearing, as i showed you there. that's that clearing area coming through new york. as you can see behind it through new york as well as pends, we're talking about more rain in the forecast a little later tonight. tuesday will be a rainy day for boston. as we go through the rest of the week, 72 is going to be the high temperature on friday with a low of about 61 degrees there. for dallas, we're looking at temperatures on wednesday to about 100. your headlines are up next.

welcome to al jazeera. i'm tony harris. are are tonight's top stories. president obama is working to convince members of congress to support a u.s. military strike on syria. two top republican leaders met with the president at the white house this afternoon, john mccain and lindsey graham. both have long called for a stronger stance against syria. tomorrow al jazeera will have live coverage of the first public hearing on syria on capitol hill.