>> announcer: this is al jazeera america. ♪ >> hello and welcome to the news hour, i'm steven coal in doha. the search goes on for more than 200 african migrants missing after their boat went down. the nation declares state of mourning. there will be no decision on a winter world cup qatar 2022. syrian president says turkey will pay a heavy price for

supporting rebels fighting to overturn him. a car chase in washington, d.c. turns deadly. ♪ first, drivers are continuing to search for over 200 african migrants missing. 127 people are now declared dead and that somebody is expected to rise. the boat set sail and almost completed its journey when it went down. >> italy's coast guard has released this video after a boat carrying migrants sank off of the coast of lapaduska on

friday. after the vessel started taking on water, someone lit a fire to get the attention of passing ships. but the flames spread and passengers surged to one side causing the boat to capsize. a fisherman described what he saw. >> translator: at dawn it seemed i could hear screams. he thought it was sea gulls, but my friend said he need to go out to see, so we started sailing out and the scene was dramatically. all of these people crying with their arms raised calling for help. we picked up 47 of the people. drivers have seen many bodies trapped in the vessel and

scattered around on the seabed below. but poor weather conditions meant bringing those bodies up to the surface was delayed. >> translator: today the operation is focusing on searching inside the ship where bodies are trapped. we don't know the somebody of bodies yet. >> reporter: the united nations says nearly 8.5 thousand migrants took boats to italy and malta in the first six months of the year. the mayor says the authorities are struggling to cope and has called on european countries for help. >> translator: we expect that after so many instances something will change. we hope for something to change after hope francis came here.

otherwise there will be other bodies in the future. >> reporter: the italian government has called for a day of mourning. men women and children who were fleeing from poverty from violence. italy's president called it the out latest slaughter of the innocent. >> peter described the risk journey they take to reach europe. peter tell us more about people smuggling in east africa, and of course the horn of africa too. >> reporter: it is incredibly well organized steven, every time you go into the refugee camps you hear stories of bro r brokers from smug -- smugglers

looking for people with enough money to take them across into southern italy and southern spain. interestingly enough there was a study done not so long ago that surveyed the refugees making the journey, and they said between 97 and 99% of all of the migrants from africa at some point in their journey used the services of some people smugglers. it is an incredibly well organized underground, undercover criminal network involved here. the international organization or migration believes the people smuggling is as profitable as narcotics. so it is a very lucrative business. >> the estimates vary about how many have made this per journey across the sea. this the early days of the arab

spring a lot were coming from the migration. but has that changed? >> reporter: look, there has been a pretty steady flow from the horn of africa. a lot of people expected the migration to slow down after last year's stabilization here in somalia. we had a new government that was elected, there was stability across the capitol, they say the situation has now stabilize, but in truth what we're seeing is a continued flow of people out of the country. it might have slowed marginally but not in any significant numbers, and that's because people are saying although there is an absence of fighting that is not to say there is security or stability. certainly there is no economic security. a lot of people are still saying

they have no choice but to send the younger capable men across to get jobs to send money back to the families at home. nobody makes this choice lightly. nobody wants to leave the familiarity, the safety of home, but people here still say they have no choice. >> a perilous journey certainly. and as you just told me, peter, sort of this trade now rivals narcotics in terms of profitability. what about the governments in somalia, are they targeting the gangs? >> well, not really. i mean one of the problems here is that they have not enough difficulty establishing security inside somalia itself. as i mentioned there -- just because we don't have the war doesn't mean that the authorities have the excess resources to place on the people

smugglers. certainly up in the north authorities are talking of cracking down on that trade, but they really don't have the capacity to deal with it in a meaningful sense. and what we're hearing too is corruption is massive problem. the people smugglers have the resources to bride the border officials and security services to make sure they don't crack down on the networks in a way that will have a significant impact on the trade itself. so although the authorities insist and i'm sure they would like to do something about it, i don't think we're see any significant effects. >> thanks, peter. one person has been shot during fighting between protesters and police in kenya. it happened in the port city, after a rioter set fire to a protestant church.

football's governing body as agreed to set up a working body to study whether the timing of the world cup in qatar now be switched to winter. lee wellings is at fifa headquarters in zurich. committ committees love to defer decisions and said was no exception. >> yes, and we have seen this many time from fifa, they will take a position and then try to reez towards a different position. we came to zurich with the expectation that they wanted to push through a winter world cup

in qatar, a switch from summer, and then there would be consultation process. instead we don't have confirmation of a winter world cup, instead the earliest it looks like it will come after the world cup in brazil. a perfect excuse not to talk about it by the way. so you are deferring decisions and actually getting to a situation where people want something firmer from fifa. >> you would buy now they chose qatar, there might have been a bit of a clue if they had come to qatar in the summer. they haven't made it easy for themselves, have they? >> absolutely not. we asked why did you say this on

this occasion and then change the process? i mean when the world cup was awarded to qatar, there was no talk from fifa about the heat. and i would say this, sooner or later there is going to be a world cup in the middle east, qatar is a great place to host it, the european leagues would be effected so why is there such a fuss about it? they will bring in people who are most affected like from richard from the leaguish premier league. we'll have a big part in the process going forward. and [ inaudible ] as well will be a very big figure on making sure all is good in qatar. the health and safety issues as well not just the summer to winter switch. >> all right. thanks, lee. a major development is underway in qatar to get ready

for the football world cup. they are needing an army of migrant construction workers, but reports of labors dieing in summer heat has been a focus. >> reporter: he has been recruiting what are the foot soldiers in the global labor army for the past 25 years. on average each client pace him $320 to be placed with a company in the gulf. concerned about worker rights, and the safety of its citizens abroad, the indian government regulates exchanges like this now. >> translator: we now have to provide better guidance to people who go to the gulf. we have to tell them what to do once they will get and who to

call once they get there. >> reporter: in the past three years it has introduced these former checks and balances, reck lating the recruitment business at home is the government's way of protecting its workers abroad, but in other parts of asia it is a very different story. this woman's husband died on a construction site in qatar in july. she received $380 in compensation. but she says that is not enough to pay off the loan he amassed to get the job. while discussing the situation with al jazeera, the daughter was overwhelmed by the mention of her father's death. most napoli laborers put their

faith in unscrupulous account fors. who should be responsible as become a source of diplomatic tension. >> translator: if the a qatar government had given more attention to issues like these, things might have been different. we have directed our staff to effectively monitor, and we hope to see less of these incidents in the future. >> some governments like the philippines have taken it upon themselves to negotiate better working conditions for their nationals. >> when we allow filipinos to go out in this kind of territory, we also would like them to enjoy the same kind of protection for workers who live in the philippines. >> reporter: many of these workers will soon be powering development in some of the most powerful nations in the world, and there is renewed international pressure on their

country of origin and the need for their safety. supporters of egypt's deposed president morsi have been gathered on the streets after friday prayers again. these are pictures northeast of cairo. there are reports security forces have deployed vehicles around the area in response. let's go to our correspondent in cairo. >> reporter: there are several protests that have started up around cairo. hundreds of people came out after prayers, and were chanting anti-coup slogans and made it their intention was to head towards the square. i understand in the last few minutes there were reports that

tear gas has been fired to prevent them from getting to the square on one of the bridges in central cairo, and this is not only in cairo. in alexandria, there are reports that police have been shooting tear gas. so there's very much a sense that something is happening here today, but not a sense of quite how large scale it is, or how important it is. >> well, many thanks for that. we're getting reports that two soldiers are being killed in an attack east of the egyptian capitol. officials say gunmen attacked an army convoy. two men have been arrested in connection with the attack. there have been protests too in jordan. hundreds of people marched on the streets demonstrating against inflation, and demanding

the release of several political activistings. coming up on the program we'll speak to syrians who have fled the france. plus extra judicial killings in brazil, police officers in the dark on charges of murdering a man in rio's largest slum. and hamilton sets the early pace of the grand prix. all of the details from the track a bit later. ♪ the woman killed in washington, d.c. after attempting to breach a barrier near the white house has been identified as miriam carey. her mother told u.s. media she was suffering from postpartum depression. kimberly reports. >> reporter: it was this black sedan seen speeding away from the white house that police tried to stop.

>> an authorized vehicle attempted to gain access at an outer perimeter check point of the white house. beyond that check point there are multiple other check points that someone would have to go through. >> reporter: no shots were fired at the white house but the car struck a secret service officer as it drove off. with police following closely behind. witnesses say they were terrified when they saw the suspect's vehicle come down the street and stop about 100 meter down there, police ordered her to stop. she didn't stop, instead she rammed into a security barricade and it was then the police opened fire. politicians were told to stay in doors, tourists and bystanders found themselves running for cover. one officer was injured as he

tried to block the suspect's car with his own. >> they surrounded the car, she backed up and smashed into one of the cruisers, and took off again, and that's when i heard the gup shots. >> i thought somebody was attacking the capitol, and i was trying to get away. >> reporter: the female driver was killed by police. she was reportedly unarmed. a small child who was riding in the car throughout the police chase was not harmed. >> the child is approximately one year old and is in good condition. >> reporter: the incident is still under investigation. president obama has called off his trip to asia as the partial government shutdown in america enters its fourth day. congress still hasn't agreed on

a budget to pay 800,000 federal workers. >> hello, everybody. >> reporter: u.s. president barack obama on the road with a message. >> we can get back to the business of governing and helping the american people. >> reporter: shutting down the u.s. government is one thing. the next big thing is a much bigger deal for the entire world. >> the united states is the center of the world economy, so if we screw up, everybody gets screwed up. the whole world will have problems, which is why generally nobody has ever thought to actually threaten not to pay our bills. it would be the height of irresponsibility. >> reporter: but that's what the republican controlled house is threatening, to refuse to borrow anymore money, unless the president agreed to a list of demands. in about two weeks that means

the u.s. government won't have enough cash to pay all of its bills, meaning it could decide to default on its debt. the head of the international monetary fund describes finding a solution as critical. >> reporter: failure to raise the debt ceiling would be far worse and could very seriously damage not only the u.s. economy, but also the entire global economy. >> reporter: if the u.s. defaults on its debt, some possible outcomes, stock markets panic, the value of the dollar plummets, banks stop lending money, interest rates climb, slowing the u.s. economy. irene foster says all of that puts other countries currencies at risk. >> countries like brazil for instance are very attractive to the global market, so capitol

might flow from the u.s. to brazil, it all tends to flow -- it is hot money so it flows fast and quickly so countries often can't recover fast enough when that happens. >> reporter: all of those predictions come with one caveat, everyone says that think that is what will happen, but they don't know. other countries have defaulted on their debt, but they weren't the world's largest economy. standing in for president obama, u.s. secretary of state john kerry arrived in bali for the asia trade block. the annual meeting is focusing on regional economic integration and security. after apeck mr. kerry will go to indonesia and philippines. indonesia they said fully

understand his decision not to appear at the convention. bashar al-assad called the prime minister of turkey, and says turkey has aligned terrorists across in to syria. >> translator: in the near future these terrorists will have an impact on turkey. it's not possible to use terrorism as a card and put it in your pocket, because it's a like a scorpion which won't hesitate to sting you at any moment. the nan date was extended for another year despite opposition from other parties. turkey hosts hundreds of thousands of syrian ref fees.

fighting has sometimes spilled over into turkey. >> translator: 71 turkish citizens have lost their lives in attacks originating from syria. the pressure from waves of ref geese has increased day-to-day. there are currently over 500,000, the number of internally displaced has reached 5 million. in syria, fighting between rebels and government forces remains fierce. amateur video captured this government tank exploding on the countryside. the two sides battle for control of the capital superbs. the united nations says european nations should do more

he to help the refugees. >> reporter: it's been a long journey for this man from the northeast of syria to the outskirts of paris. one of the first thing he learned about france was that cigarettes are expensive, so he makes them himself. >> translator: it has been seven months and for seven months by children have been cooped up at home. and the conditions in which we have been living are very bad. >> reporter: he arrived in france with his family six months ago. france says it has received 1700 asylum requests from syrians since the conflict began, and not all of those have been processed.

groups representing refugees say the french simply aren't living up to their international obligations. >> reporter: lawyers in france say western governments have been very vocal about the conflict, and now it's time to turn words into action. >> translator: it may be easier to get to mars than it is to europe. >> reporter: so far european countries have accepted very few syrian refugees. her was a plane load awiving in germany early last month. the united nations says europe needs to do more. >> we have seen a rise in the number of people trying to cross the mediterranean sea to arrive in italy, a rise of people trying to cross through turkey and greece and arriving in bulgaria. bulgaria is already flooded with refugees with its own capacity

to deal with them. so we need a better responsibility sharing within states within the eu. >> reporter: the camps in lebanon and jordan with saturated. faced with these images it's hard for europe to argue it can only take a few thousand refugees. meanwhile on a different continent a typhoon is brewing. everton will bring you up to date. >> yes, we have a typhoon drewing. this is the tropical depression 23w. rather well organized this is little system, we're look at around sunday before the system makes its way through. winds gusting to 200 kilometers

per hour. we're expecting the storm to make its way northwestwards. we can't be too confident it will miss taiwan all together. but on the eastern side of china, we could see a significant amount of flooding coming in here. meanwhile it's hurricane watch for the south coast of the us. tropical storm karen has developed. that's its position there. wind is no great problem, gusting to 120, but it will make its way northwards. so heavy rains in new orleans, and all of louisiana. and also effecting florida. >> wet and windy. everton many thanks. more to come, we'll go live

in rome. plus, tweeters -- twitter unveils details of his stock market sale next month. is it worth investing? that's a billion dollars question. and we could see a change in tennis. more on that in a minute. ♪

♪ welcome back. i'm steven coal at the al jazeera headquarterers in doha.

divers continue to search for over 200 migrants that are missing after a boat went down. 127 people are confirmed dead. italy is marking a day of mourning. fifa says it won't decide when to hold qatar's world cup until after the next world cup in brazil. it says it can't get involved in controversy over the migrant workers. bashar al-assad says turkey will pay a high price in backing the rebels fighting to over throw him. he said they are terrorists. let's go back to our top story. the search goes on for more than 200 african migrants. 127 people are already confirmed dead. the island is one of the main

entrance points for migrants trying to get into europe. while the boat, which was a fishing vessel sailed from libya two days ago. it is actually closest landfall to the island and a popular root for smuggler's boats. i'm joined now live from tanusia. >> reporter: there are boats still heading to europe from the south. you didn't really hear about them unless things go wrong as it has happened in this case. but they have clamped down a lot since post revolution on this migration of boats from the coastline, and whenever they catch the after cans they tend to push them towards libya, which we know is pretty lawless

and out of control. so it's easier for migrants to head there and to get on boats. it's very well organized. we understand that each migrant can pay up to $2,000, there are bigger boats being used now. the italians are trying to target mother vessels, but are finding it difficult to do so because it is so well organized. the focus really has to be on the european union getting with the governments and trying to solve this problem. getting the border control agency involved. >> indeed, the united nations called for action, but they are seeing no evidence of that anywhere. have you been able to speak to any of the migrants? >> yes, i have spoken to a lot of migrants, and when you speak

to them, there are a variety of reasons why they decide to make this perilous journey. here there is up to 50% unemployment in many areas. getting to france in particular is the only way of fining work. you have the sub sa sharian africans fleeing war, and there are a new wave of refugees i spoke to in sicily. they say there are thousands who have bossed the border into the desert, and they are just waiting for the next boat. when autumn comes the met -- mediterranean sea is very choppy and even more dangerous. >> indeed, during this rescue

attempt today, the rescuers are facing meter-high waves. for the moment thanks to you. pope francis has made an historic place to sisi. the pontiff told people insisy he wants to keep reforming the church, and make it a church of the poor. berlusconi's long and often controversial political career could come to an end today. a panel is deciding whether the former prime minister should be stripped of his seat. berlusconi was given a four-year prison sentence last year. he could be banned from holding political office for six years,

in fact he could be -- i think he could be, phil in rome, banned from politics for the rest of his life, couldn't he? i mean what are the options? >> reporter: there are several options on the table. and that meeting is still going on behind closed doors behind me. we're just getting up to five hours since they went in. the fact of the matter is that every member of the senate committee -- there are 23 in the committee -- every member get assay, and if there is one issue all italians have an opinion on it is on berlusconi. he will be impeached, and there are two reasons for that, first of all 23 members in there, but only 6 to 8 people will be supporting second quarter ilvio

berlusconi. so he few friends. and the law says that any person convicted of a crime with two years or more in prison cannot hold political office anywhere in italy. he was convicted of a crime and was sentenced to four years. we saw earlier in the week where they were talk about trying to bring down the coalition government. and members of his own party appeared to be going against him. >> the cracks started appearing didn't they for berlusconi's personality, if you would like, and his power when his own party members started to defy him. there are analysts and people saying this is in fact the end of berlusconi. is that the feeling there? >> yeah, very much so. i spoke to one analyst this morning and said silvio berlusconi is a fighter. you know he is the kind of man

who pushes for his own way, and often gets his own way. but there is nowhere left for him to go. if they approve to kick him out of the senate, it has to be ratified by the entire senate floor. as for those 23 people in there, they have been asked to give their decision in front of 250 senator. and if he is stripped of his parliamentary abilities here, that will have a real consequence. he is a man who thrives on his image, and he will loose the fact that he will no longer be a senator, he will become a convicted criminal who was once a politician. but he will become vulnerable of potentially being arrested in the future. so if more allegations are made

against him, he could be arrested. he is staying firmly behind closed doors, although knowing berlusconi, if this goes against him, we will have very strong reaction from him. >> i suspect we will. phil, thanks. the party have opened talks on forming the next coalition government. the csu party are holding discussions with the central left democrats. exploratory talks will also be held next week. in ireland voters are deciding whether to app boll -- app boll lish the upper end of the senate. now back to cairo, we're hearing of clashes here the square. let's go to our correspondent

who is on the phone. what is happening now? >> reporter: we have heard sporadic bursts of gunfire. and we have seen clouds of tear gas being tire very close to the square. there have been clouds of tear gas rising there, and spo spospor spospor spore -- spore rattic gunfire. >> thank you very much for that twitter is hoping to raise a billion dollars next month. it marks a crucial period for the company. however, twitter has not made a profit in the last three years. here is more on the biggest tech float since facebook.

>> a lot of like -- >> stand up comedy can be lonely. >> for a lot of us it started out as, okay, i just had this funny thought about a headline in the news, let me just tweet it out this joke, and -- and based on the retweets you got and the responses you got to that tweet, it became like maybe i should do this on stage. >> reporter: seven of the top ten people followed on twitter are pop singers. twitter launched just 7 years ago and has become a powerful way to share information. and now you can own your very own piece of the company. it plans to start selling shares later this year.

larry is a professor of marketing at pace university. he says advertisers won't want to miss out of twitter stocks, but should be cautious. >> they are going to find ways to experiment. to take some degree of advertising on twitter, but they are not going to spend a lot of money until they get a sense that it's ways off. >> once the company is in the hands of shareholders, it must find a way to satisfy advertisers. twitter for ray into the stock market is being compared to facebook's debut on nasdaq. the hype surrounding facebook's shares was enormous but soon turned to panic, when glitches caused mass confusion for the first couple of hours of

trading. it's shrewd timing for twitter to go public soon. >> i think it is going to get more gross and more awful. i see some really awkward tweets out there about personal lives that make me cringe. >> reporter: and judging by the sustained growth, over sharing is here to stay. now let's speak to francis who is a general manager with full bright securities. is it the right price and is it the right time? >> well, the timing is fantastic, but i don't know about the price because twitter never made any money, and it will not make any money this year. and next year, they may make some money, depending on the growth of advertising revenue, but because of the tremendous

turn around achieved by facebook, social media is all the craze right now. so twitter is taking advantage of the market condition right now to -- to go public and to sell shares because if you miss the boat in internet, you -- you may not catch a boat at all, so -- so i think timing is everything for -- for twitter in this instance. >> indeed, if you miss the boat you fall into the sea, actually, but there you are. >> yeah. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] have all done deals with twitter recently. what would shareholders get? why would they invest? >> well, i think that number one it's really for the tremendous growth potential because people are expecting that the number of customers will increase maybe double in the next few years from currently about 200 million

to maybe 500 million, maybe sometime to 1 billion, and then twitter only started to sell advertising recently, and -- and actually there are a lot of room for growth in advertising revenue, because you have [ inaudible ] and for commercial consumer brands like coca-cola and things like that. they can sell their treats directly to customers, and they can also taylor as to geographic locations, so -- so it's a very versatile advertising gimmick, so i think people are very bullish about it, so -- and -- and that is why i think it will be a success when it comes to list. >> it's a lot more straight forward, isn't it raymond as an ipo than -- than facebook and google, because it isn't using the float as a way of appealing

to sort of retail investors and their stock. it's a far more simple flotation. >> yeah. yeah, definitely. and it is just -- only one class of stocks -- stock ordinary shares unlike google when you have three classes, you don't have ap shares and you don't have special rights to the founders, so it is much fairer. it is fair to everybody to the investors and then to the -- the founders, and i think it will be a good investment when it comes to the market. >> you say it's -- it's a good potential, and that's basically why any investor would invest -- >> yeah, definitely. >> it's potential. it is only seven years old,

twitter. i talked to the founder six years ago, and he wasn't thinking so much about making money, he was thinking about spreading the word. it is not very big in asia. how do investors know it won't be out of date by the time they start getting a little bit of money back? >> we don't know frankly, because in asia you already have very tough competitors. in china you have [ inaudible ] and in korea you have line. and everybody is trying to copy everybody's ideas and more, so you really frankly cannot tell whether twitter will be the market leader even year after today, so investors are taking a big, big gamble. the good thing about the net stocks is they have unlimited potential, but they also have

unlimited potential to tank, and that is the truth. >> indeed. we'll leave it there. thanks for joining us. >> okay. ♪ >> okay. let's get more now on the fifa non-decision. here is robin. thank you so much robin. football's governing body, about whether the world cup in qatar should be moved to the winter months. now an announcement will be made after the brazil 2014 tournament. that of course concludes in july. we have got reporters where it matters why the qatar capitol, and lee is in zurich for us. lee it looks like a stalemate

between [ inaudible ] who wanted to confirm a winter switch. tell us more about that. >> the fifa president usually gets his way. but this time it wasn't the case, because we arrived with the feeling that there was going to be a confirmation of the switch. but as we got to the executive committee meeting this morning, we spoke to the vice president, jeffery webb, and he said it would be irresponsible if a decision was made on a winter switch now until after a consultation period. he comes out after a meeting and looks as if he is being reasonable, and that consultation process will be the fairest things. and i predict, he'll say there

is a world cup in brazil to be played, we'll talk about it after that. >> what about the task force? what is the process, and when are we likely to get a final decision on that sfl >> it's going to be longer than expected. it will go through the brazil world cup next summer, and by the end of 2014, we might know when the switch will be. the task force will have [ inaudible ] the asian confederation president, he will be a key figure. there will be other really important people in world football that will ensure they consult like the head of the english premier league. they won't keep coming out publicly, but privately i know richard will have a key role in this. but everyone they hope will get a say, because it is now going to be a much longer process than

we thought. >> lee thank you for that. live from fifa headquarters in zurich. and now let's go to joe in the capitol of qatar. qatar organizers of course among the stake holders as fifa has mentioned. what has the reaction be in the capitol of qatar. >> i think it really is going to business as usual as far as they are concerned. they have always said they are prepared to host the world cup here in june and july, and they continue to invest millions in the cooling technology they will be putting in the stadium. the stadium behind me here is where the delegates fought before the big process, so they could experience the cooling process. qatar has always denied anial gayings of wrongdoing. they said it's really up to fifa

when the world cup will be scheduled. so they are prepared to host it in june and july, but many fifa made the decision to move it to the wintertime, then the qatar committee says they can accommodate that, but the construction goal is for june and july. thank you very much for that. to the club [ inaudible ] now your's second tier competition, the spurs had a comfortable win. >> very good first half, where we were in control, and always tricky because angie looked to be very threatening on the counterattack. so again he has the ball and the initiative and attacking our

spaces whenever we lost the ball. but i think for what we have done in the first half, we deserve the result. afghanistan cricketers are on their way to the world cup for the very first time. they beat kenya on friday. they chased down their target with east. it continues an excellent run for the company. raul was there for us. >> reporter: as you can see it is party time here. going to the world cup for the first time in their history. and it is ironically that the

international cricket council as spent millions of dollars promoting the sport around the world, and this afghanistan success story began almost by accident. and they will make sure that afghanistan cricket has a real long-term future. well the victor against kenya sparked massive celebrations in the afghan capitol of kabul. a remarkable achievement. a hamilton set the early pace at the korean grand prix. word champion sebastian vettel was second quickest. there could be a change in men's tennis for the first time in two years.

he fought his way back in his match after losing the first set to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-1. boxing icon mohammed ali has made a rare public appearance. the 71-year-old attended the celebration of a film after he refused to be drafted in the vietnam war, he was stripped of his tight ill, and sentenced to prison his conviction was eventually reversed. that's your sports, steven. thank you. let's go back to cairo, let's go to our correspondent on the line in cairo. we're not gaming the

correspondent for security reasons. what is happening in cairo. >> several different groups, at least three from different parts of central cairo have tried to go together and converge and get through the square. now in the background i can hear sporadic bursts of gunfire, and there has been tear gas fired as well from what we can see. in other parts of egypt there has been sporadic clashes, but it seems as though cairo is most of the place where the protests have been happening -- [ technical difficulties ] -- armored personnel carries have gone across barbed wire in an obvious statement of intent that the people are not getting across to the square. and are firing tear gas there as well. although at the moment weren't

see more tear gas, but we can hear sporadic gunfire. >> are these demonstrations different from previous fridays? >> this one seems slightly different because of the impending 6 of october, 40-year's revolution anniversary marking with the war with israel, so there has been certainly a sense that this fighting might be slightly more serious than previous ones, although it's not to say that is similar to the more violent incidents that have happened on previous friday prayers. we attended one of the protests earlier on today and some of the people were saying this was not quite a litmus test but a dry run for sunday. >> all right. thank you very much for that update from cairo. more from me in just a moment. ♪

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this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm stephanie sy with a look at today's top stories. it is day four of the federal government shutdown. president obama has canceled his trip to asia to deal with the budget impasse. senate democrats maintain they will not agree to reopening the government piece by piece. the woman shot and killed in washington after trying to ram the white house gate with our car had been sued by her condominium association for not paying her fees. mirian carey lead police on a high speedse