it's considered one of the most powerful jobs in the world, and later today janet yellen will become the first woman ever nominated to head the nation's federal reserve system. president obama ratcheted up the pressure on republicans saying he's unwilling to negotiate over raising the debt ceiling, but he may have provided a small opening to get a deal done. in bangladesh a raging fire kills nine people at a garment factory. it appears to be another case of unsafe working conditions in a country that has suffered a string of recent deadly mishaps. in haiti a rare legal move as advocates sue the united nations accusing u.n. peacekeepers of introducing a

deadly cholera epidemic. the disease has killed thousands of people there. good morning, and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm stephanie sy. president obama is expected to nominate janet yellen to replace ben bernanke as the head of the federal reserve. yellen is a respected economist who has a long history with the fed. patricia takes a closer look at the woman who could soon hold one of the most influential jobs in the world. in the class photo of the g-7 financial leaders summit in may, she's the tiny one on the right, but don't let size fool you. janet yellen is poised to land the most powerful job of them all. the least contender to head the federal reserve built a career spanning academia and policy, including a long-standing

relationship with the university of california berkeley and chair of the council of economic advisers. >> the economy is the strongest it's been in a generation. >> reporter: perhaps her best qualification to take over for ben bernanke is her 36-year history with the federal reserve system, including a turn as president of the san francisco federal reserve bank and her current role, vice chair of the fed board in washington, d.c. along the way she's gained a number of high-profile endorsers including former fdic chair sheila bear. >> she's completely qualified and has a great public image. i want someone main street trusts and respects. >> reporter: for now at least wall street likes her, too. when larry summers withdrew his name, markets reacted positively believing he would have tightened the rein on the stimulus policy more aggressively than yellen. some question whether yellen would be as daring if tested by crisis. >> today's nomination would end

an unusually prolonged and public search to fill an important position. as ali velshi tells us, the timing is a bit of a surprise. >> the conventional wisdom is this announcement wouldn't be made now while so much else is going on, particularly with the debt ceiling situation. it's no secret it was going to be janet yellen, and i'll tell you why. the rules of how the fed chair becomes a fed chair is the vice chairman becoming the chair automatically if someone isn't nominated or confirmed by the time the fed chair's term expires, which by the way this case is the end of january. one way or the other, if president obama wanted it to be janet yellen, it was going to be yellen. yellen has served as the vice chair of the federal reserve since 2010. she will succeed ben bernanke. his second term ends at the end of january. she had emerged as the leading contender.

she was in a strange campaign battle versus larry summers. there's never been a campaign for a fed chair. in fact, most fed chairs, the public wouldn't know who they were going to be before they were named. in this case there was a campaign. there were people who wanted larry summers versus people who wanted janet yellen at the head of the fed. now, summers withdrew his name from consideration after a lot of opposition surfaced from senators. yellen is 67 years old. she will be the first woman ever to run the federal reserve. her appointment has to be confirmed by the senate. the big challenge facing ben bernanke and janet yellen over the coming months is what to do about all the money that the federal reserve puts into the economy. they have said they will start to pull that money off, tapering if they see unemployment down a little lower and economic growth a little stronger. that was expected to take place in september. it didn't. then we were thinking it would take place maybe in november. certainly by the end. year. this whole discussion about the

debt ceiling has thrown everything into confusion because at this point if the debt ceiling is breached on october 17th we will see a slowdown to the economy. so that's the mess that janet yellen is walking into. >> ali velshi, host of ""real money."" thank you. now to the government shutdown. as day nine begins, there are no signs of progress. pressure is mounting on congress to break the partisan gridlock with the deadline to raise the debt ceiling now only eight days away. the gop is attempting to leverage that deadline against democrats for concessions, but president obama is rejecting that idea. white house correspondent mike viqueira reports. >> reporter: different day, same message. president obama says he won't negotiate under threat. >> we can't make extortion routine as part of our democracy. >> reporter: sounding the alarm on the debt ceiling, mr. obama rejected claims steps can be

taken to avoid default, even if congress fails to act. >> there's no silver bullet, there's no magic wand that allows us to wish away the chaos that could result if for the first time in our history we don't pay our bills on time. where were when -- >> reporter: when presed president obama said a short-term deal would be enough to bring him to the table with republicans. >> absolutely. i've said i will talk about anything. >> reporter: it was a small opening, but john boehner shut it down. >> what the president said today was if there's unconditional surrender by republicans, he'll sit down and talk to us. that's not the way our government works. >> reporter: boehner refused to back down, no agreement on spending cuts, no vote to raise the debt ceiling. >> the long and short of it is there's going to be a negotiation here. we can't raise the debt ceiling without doing something about

what's driving us to borrow more money and to live beyond our mines. >> reporter: the president did negotiate around the debt ceiling in 2011, a move he now calls a mistake. >> if reasonable republicans want to talk about these things again, i'm ready to head up for hill and try. i'll even spring for dinner again, but i'm not going to do it until the more extreme parts of republican party stop forcing john boehner to issue threats about our economy. >> reporter: the latest victim of the shutdown? families of the fallen who are not receiving their so-called death pen fit, the $100,000 promised them when a loved one dies in combat. >> i'm ashamed. i'm embarrassed. all of us should be. the list goes on and on of people, of innocent americans who have fallen victim to the

reality that we can't sit down and talk like grownups. >> reporter: when the dust settled, the nation was one day closer to a possible default, and the shutdown continues with no end in sight. mike viqueira, al jazeera, the white house. the families of four u.s. soldiers killed in afghanistan last weekend are not receiving all the benefits because of the shutdown. a charity has raised money so the families can travel to doefer air force base when their flag-draped coffins arrive. despite the consequences, more political rangling as opposed to action is expected in washington today. randall pinkston is in the capital. good morning. you heard mike viqueira report that president obama gave a little opening yesterday for a possible deal. boehner seemed to reject that idea. is it dead? >> reporter: well, you know, the first thing to note is that the president's opening is over the objections of some democrats,

because what he's talking about doing is a short-term deal for raising the debt ceiling. democrats, especially senate majority leader harry reid, had wanted a debt ceiling raise that would last beyond the next election to get us through the end of 2014. so the president has given ground on that. certainly republicans are aware that that is a -- for the democrats at least a significant opening and possibly an opening for them. you heard the public war words from house speaker john boehner saying that there is not going to be any deal, but on the other hand, the president keeps saying he's willing to negotiate. let me give you a quote. he says to them, extends the debt ceiling. if they can't do it for a long time, do it for a period of time during which negotiations take place. then the president went on to say something rather unusual. they can attach some process to that that gives them certainty that, in fact, the things they're concerned about will be topics of negotiation, and here

are the keywords. if my word is not good enough. so in a town that has for generations operated on handshakes, the president is suggesting that maybe the opposite party won't believe him, and he's willing to put in writing he'll deal later. he wants the debt ceiling raised now and the government to be open now and not to hold either items as he calls it hostage to the political of the republicans. >> yet, the republicans aren't budging clearly. house speaker boehner said they're using the debt ceiling now as political leverage. do we know how that message will play among americans concerned with the possible default? >> reporter: well, poll after poll shows that americans are not liking either party, but republicans are taking the brunt of it. here are the results from a recent poll from rutgers ipso released yesterday. it shows 75% of americans are

concerned about the government shutdown. that's up from 66% last week. that same poll shows 30% of americans blame republicans. that's up from 26% last week. 19% blame democrats, and that's up from 18% last week. so we are seeing that the american public wants both parties to do something to resolve this. >> randall pinkston reporting from washington. that goes without saying. thank you, randall. the shutdown has furloughed hundreds of thousands of federal workers, including members of the central intelligence agency. the cia director is calling some of them back to work saying their absence may pose a threat. that includes employees in counterterrorism. they won't get paid into the budget impasse is resolved. the white house is denying reports that claim the u.s. is considering cutting off most of the military aid to egypt. the reports come amid protests

in egypt demanding the return of ousted president mohamed morsi. the u.s. gives egypt about $1.5 billion each other. about a third goes to the egyptian military. the obama administration says an announcement on the aid to egypt will be made in coming days. rutgers says any cuts to the egyptian military won't affect security in the sinai region that borders israel. an egyptian court set a date for the trial for ousted president mohamed morsi. he's expected in court on november 4th. 14 other members. muslim brother had have been ordered to appear. morsi is facing murder charges for the alleged killings of opponents and protesters in office. we're going to our al jazeera correspondent in cairo. for security reasons, we cannot reveal her name or location. good morning. morsi, as we know, is the first democratically elected president in egypt. what is he being charged with

exactly here? >> reporter: well, the charges are murder and encitement of murder. they all relate to an incident that happened back in december when a huge protest descended on the presidential palace after he announced huge new sweeping powers with regard to the constitution and many of the anti-supporting crowd came to demonstrate against that. there was fighting outside the palace, and at least six were killed in fighting and over 300 injured. many people outside there have claimed people were tortured and shot by morsi supporters. apparently in the cairo criminal court that will start in november on 4th, some residents are expected to give a sort of media force that says that certain senior brotherhood figures were inciting violence and asking the army to disperse

the crowd by all means. we haven't heard what other evidence will be put forward, but it's likely that members of morsi's inner circle may be called. among the circle is a man head of the armed forces here and one in the country of a military backed government. the general will be on trial. >> how will the rest of the world be watching this trial and can there be an expectation of a trial independent interim military regime that is now in charge? >> reporter: i'm sorry. repeat the question. >> i guess the question is, what is the expectation that this will be a fair trial independent of the interim military government that is in charge there now? >> reporter: that is a good question. we have honestly a very long running court case going on against the previous president, president mubarak, and that

court has been going on now for two years. most egyptians would say that they do believe that there is an independent judiciary here, and that the legal process can be seen as independent from the government. the international world is looking on as you mentioned earlier. already the u.s. government is considering withholding military aid, $1.5 billion worth of milled tear aid it gives to egypt. last month president obama said to the u.n. general assembly it doesn't believe -- it says the interim government is inconsistent with inclusive democracy. that has to include legal moves, and it has to include the democratically elected president of egypt, mohamed morsi. >> some say the rule of law is the litmus test of the interim government. thank you to our al jazeera correspondent reporting from cairo. a deadly fire ripped through a garment factory in bangladesh, at least nine are kimmed and

dozens more injured. the factory was closed but about 200 workers were still in inside. no word on what sparked the fire that happened 25 miles north of the capital of dhaka. this is the third deadly incident since last november. six months ago a factory collapsed there and killed more than 1100 people. the captain of another boat that sank off the italian coast is facing charges in the drowning deaths of hundreds of african migrants. the 35-year-old was arrested on tuesday. he may also be charged with causing a shipwreck and helping an illegal immigration provision. the captain was at the helm of a ship carrying as many as 500 people when it capsized near the island of lampedusa last tuesday. more than 250 died in the accident, and that number could still rise. protesters gathered tuesday on the national mall in washington, d.c. on a rally demanding immigration reform. the rally was followed by a

sit-in on capitol hill where eight house democrats were arrested along with 200 other demonstrators. among them is congressman john lewis of georgia, charlie rangel from new york and keith ellisson from minnesota. parts of u.s. are facing winter storm watches and warnings this october. for more let's bring in nicole mitchell. good morning. >> a lot of the country is quiet after that big snowstorm last week, but we do have a couple trouble spots this morning. let's take a look at the big picture, and as i mentioned, the whole mid-section of the country is having a couple of problems really good today versus the problems as we get to the coastline. it's this system as we get more into california. parts of the sierra are under a winter storm warning, so that's the higher elevation. we see that push into places like denver as well. we could see some of those upper elevations with some of that snow in the next couple of days. the other area we're watching is

as we get to the opposite side of the country on the east coast. low pressure system off coastline. you can see that there. definitely bringing some moisture in, and that's going to cause problems for a couple of days, possibly some flooding rain with it. the low pressure off the coastline, but as this skirts its way northward, we already have areas up. look at the precipitation forecast. some of the places in virginia northward could see three, four inches of rain over the next couple of days. closer to the coastline you are, the more you will see. it pushes into somewhere like new york city as we get into thursday. friday, looking for a little bit of that. that's one of our bigger problems as well as the cool temperatures this morning causing some of those frost and freeze advisories out there. we look at the rest of the country coming up in a half hour. >> nicole, thank you. a cholera epidemic in haiti killed thousands, and now the victims are suing the united nations claiming its peacekeepers are responsible for the outbreak.

the unique legal hurdles families face for justice. >> we demand our justice, and we want it now! >> in a surprise move, boston school bus drivers walk off the job. why they put the brakes on taking kids to school, and what the city is doing about it. and we'll go for a ride on america's only floating post office. wall street is smiling on news of janet yellen's rise to fed chair. how long can it last?

in a rare legal move victims of the 2010 cholera outbreak in haiti are suing the united nations. their lawyers say a u.n. peacekeeping force was responsible for spreading the disease. >> reporter: they are farmers and laundresses, haitians whose lives are more challenging ball of cholera. >> reporter: before cholera i

was pretty mehealthy. now i always have headaches and stomacha stomachaches. >> they're looking to the united nations to pay compensation for the damage inflicted by the disease which came to their country in 2010. 8300 people have died. >> reporter: we followed a complaint against the u.n., but we still have not got justice. >> reporter: scientific evidence points to this u.n. base on the river as the source of haiti's cholera epidemic. the strain of the disease came from nepal, as did the u.n. peacekeepers who al jazeera found moving the base's leaky latrines in the weeks after the outbreak. the u.n.'s own report found they failed to properly sgoez of the sewage, which scientists believe is the source of the bacteria in haiti's water supply. lawyers are filing a class action lawsuit on behalf of haiti's cholera victims a

new york federal court. they face one monumental obstacle. the treaty that established the u.n. grants is sweeping immunity, a treaty signed by all member states including haiti. for two years haitians sought justice through the u.n.'s internal legal system. the u.n. denied their claims and continues to deny their responsibility. >> peacekeepers operate under a veil of immunity. this cholera case is challenging that on a civil side. if one wants to sustain the community, it's best to clean up messes and it's a mess. >> reporter: lawyers say the u.n. has a moral as well as a legal responsibility. >> the u.n. is one of the world'leaders in promoting human rights and the rule of law. the way it responded to the case has been hypocritical. there's no follow-through in the principles that the u.n. preaches with regards to the victims of cholera.

>> a thornary legal question for the question for the courts. for the survivors it's a simple matter of right and wrong. al jazeera, the united nations. >> plaintiffs in the lawsuit include haitians and haitian americans that contracted the disease as well as family members of those that died. time for business news now. the markets are reacting positively to news about janet yellen's upcoming appointment as federal reserve chair. good morning. >> it couldn't be more exciting and the timing is just perfect it seems. now, wall street is showing some enthusiasm over janet yellen being appointed as the nation's central banker. they see a positive start to trading this morning. that's a relief today following yesterday's steep sell-off. the dow and s&p 500 both lost more than 1%, double that for the nasdaq, which is down 2%. overseas europe was unphased by the yellen news. investors there are focusing

more on the international monetary fund's grim outlike for the economy. the imf has cut its forecast six cone secretaryive times. hong kong ened lower and china's shanghai slightly higher. normally this time of year wall street is focused on earnings as corporations report bottom lines. analysts say the impasse on raising the deblt limit is overshadowing everything. >> it's a huge shock to the financial system, and some people even compare it to what we experienced in the depth of the 2008 crisis had the credit markets froze and the fed had to do extraordinary measures to unclog the financial system. >> a big earnings day with major banks reporting their profits. in other business news, a possible merger in the men's apparel business. joseph a. banks made an offer to

buy rival men's warehouse. it's $48 a share, and it hopes to pay all cash for the company whose slogan is you're going to like the way the look. that's 30% higher than yesterday's closing price for men's warehouse. the total cost of that deal would be more than $2 billion, stephanie. >> i want to talk about the markets, because the futures are seeing a bump right now on this yellen thing. do you think they will continue to ride the wave, given that the shutdown and debt ceiling are still looming? >> it's complex. one hour before the markets closed, the president, yellen and ben bernanke will make the announcement. the timing, again, is perfect. a lot of people say there will be some excitement, but ultimately we're in earnings season and the question is how much are companies earning, and is there a return on investment? that will likely move the markets more than this historic announcement. >> a lot of variables at play today. clearly what miss yellen is

decides if her nomination does go through will impact the markets in the future. >> that is for sure. she doesn't take the throne until january, and that's several months after the october 17th deadline, stephanie. >> it still needs to be confirmed by the nature. new arrests in the road rage incident involving a bunch of bicyclers. an off-duty police detective surrendered. the pivotal role he played in the beating. helps the blind to see. the project restoring sight to poor children in south africa. swimming for sandy. diane nyad is going the distance for victims of the storm. another team moves closer to another world series berth in baseball. we have the boston highlights coming up in sports.

welcome back. these are the top stories at this hour. in washington president obama and house speaker john boehner are playing a dangerous game of chicken over the nation's checkbook. the president said he's willing to negotiate with republicans only if they first end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. boehner says that's not going to happen. in bangladesh there was a factory fire. moat goods created in these garpment shops are sold in the u.s. and europe. later this afternoon president obama will officially nominate janet yellen as the first woman to head the federal reserve. if she was confirmed by the senate, she'll replace ben bernanke retiring at the end of the year. joins us to discuss a potential credit default and its impact on markets is bruce cassman, the chief economist and director of global research at jpmorgan.

thank you for being with us this morning. let's start with this possible appointment of janet yellen. she is believed to have similar views to current fed chief ben bernanke on easing money and quantitative easing keeping interest rates low. how do you expect wall street to react today? >> i think there's a modest positive that we remove that uncertainty. it's well telegraphed for a while now. i think the markets have responded and i think we've seen some in interest rates with the tone she will take. it's positive to remove uncertainty, but we've already filled in the idea yellen will be the next fed chair. >> the markets could use some certainty at this time. given that yellen's nomination may inject some of that, do you think it was strategically timed, this announcement by the white house? >> i don't think it's really timed to have an influence on what's going on with regard to the debt ceiling, and i don't think we should kind of put it in balance here. it's a situation which is quite

serious going on in washington. yellen's appointment is important. it definite telly -- dwenltly tells us something about going forward. >> we saw the dow fall quite significantly yesterday. how anxious are investors about a debt ceiling breach? do they think it could happen? >> reporter: i think the situation is one where almost everybody believes it would be crazy to go over that edge, and most people believe there will be a solution. at the same time we're getting increasingly nervous as we move closer towards it and recognizing that there would be meaningful and increasing damage if we got to that point and didn't pay our bills or paying off our debt. >> i understand that there are some traders that are berth on a u.s. debt default. how big is that sentiment on wall street? >> reporter: again, i think there's a creeping sense that the risks are rising. i think there is still very little priced into financial market assets of that event happening. as we continue to creep towards

it, i think the likelihood is the risks are going to continue to rise as markets process the uncertainty. >> president obama yesterday suggested perhaps a short-term increase in the debt limit while congress and president negotiate on some of these larger points. how much would that calm fears of u.s. investors and big debt holders globally like china and japan? >> reporter: i think there's two things here. one, anything that we see that brings agreement between the two parties here would be a positive, particularly if it pushes back the deadline. if we were pushing back the deadline just a short amount of time, i think it would come back in the picture pretty quickly. it wouldn't take out all of the uncertainty we're facing. >> it's clear that traders in the markets care, but how should the average american -- why should they care about the debt ceiling? how does it impact them? >> reporter: i think the first and most important thing is we're not talking about only the payment of our debt. we're talking about a government

which is running a roughly 4% gap between -- the gdp between what it takes in and pays out. if we do not solve this problem immediately, we're going to start seeing spending cuts. social security checks, food stamps, payments to contractors go to down immediately. even if we don't deal with the issue, this is a huge effect on the average american and u.s. economy if it comes to pass. >> there are signs consumer confidence has been impacted. bruce cassman, chief economist for jpmorgan. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. new york police have arrested one of their own in connection with the brutal biker gang attack in manhattan last month. an undercover detective is accused of taking part, but he's not believed to be one of the gang members who dragged a motorist from his car and beat him in front of his wife. the detective faces riot and criminal mischief charges. so far six bikers have been arrested including four who have been criminally charged.

police may be closer to solving the mysterious murder of baby hope, the little girl found stuffed in a cooler in new york she in 1991. the nypd has identified a woman they believe is the child's mother. they have not yet named the woman, but they say she's not a suspect and that she's cooperating with investigators. baby hope's case shocked the country because of the brutal conditions her body was found in. in ohio police have made their first adult arrest in connection with the rape of a 16-year-old girl. two high school football players have already been convicted of the crime. now the head of technology at steubenville city schools, william rhinaman faces four separate charges including tampering with evidence. a grand jury is investigating whether members of steubenville community tried to cover up the rape. if convicted rhinaman could face up to four years in prison, and that is more time than the two high school football players received. school buses are rolling again in boston.

drivers say they're acting in good faith while the union negotiates with the city's transportation contractor. it was a different story on tuesday when drivers went on a surprise strike leaving parents racing to find a way to get their kids to school. erica ferrari has the latest. >> reporter: 700 drivers refused to operate school buses in boston tuesday leaving some 33,000 kids attending city public, charter, private and parochial schools without a ride to class and parents scrambling. >> it's crazy because i have tloo kids three different school, one is autistic and without the bus there's no way to get to school. i have to drive in three different parts of boston. it's inconvenient and you have no notice. >> i wish they would think about the kids first before they do something like that. >> reporter: an attorney for the drivers union said it was not authorized and led by rouge members. workers are at odds with the

transportation contractor over changes to their health care plan, payroll issues and a recently installed gps tool that allows parents to track buses in real time. >> we're not looking for a dime more, a benefit more or a right more. we are looking for the respect. >> reporter: boston mayor looks to purr legal action against the trooifrs and unions. >> there's some rules in place. they agreed to a very good contract. now they don't want to live up to the contract. >> reporter: in an unusual move boston's police fanned the streets to help kids get to class. a few kids hitched rides with city cops. a police superintendent tweeted this picture of two children he shuttled to school saying one was happy because he didn't want to miss gym class. erica ferari, al jazeera. >> the number of children that missed school on tuesday was nearly tripled that of a normal day. we have one more team moving closer to a world series title. john henry smith is here with

sports. good morning. >> let's hop in the time machine and go back to the summer of 2012, august of 2012. the dodgers acquire three big-named players from the red sox who mostly acquire $264 million of salary relief in return. 14 months later, the dodgers are in their league championship series, and boston had a chance to reach those heights on tuesday night as well. this kid tried to eliminate david ortiz with a shot to the nether regions to move on to the alcs game. rays take a 1-0 lead. peralta takes the mound in the seventh. his first pitch picks up speed. bogart scores, and he was at bat when all that happened. he beat out the infield single. ellsbury scores to up the sox up

2-1. longoria has to do something with two outs. he said you'll do nothing and like it. they eliminate the rays 3-1 #. they're going to the american league championship series. >> this is what you set out to do all last season, you train for it and go to spring training with your guys and know your team and get prepared for moments like this. i give all the credit to the rays. they did a great job all year long and battled until the end. you know how you come out on top? i tip my hat to them. they gave us a run today. we have one more to where we want to be. as the tigers realize that game three of their series with oakland was lost, and they came fighting literally. nothing more than angry words were thrown. facing elimination tuesday detroit came out fighting again, but it was in a way to get them somewhere. the somewhere oakland tried to send them early in this one was out of the postseason. a's jumped ahead 3-0. johnny peralta got the tigers

right back in it with the fifth inning three-run home run to tie the game at three. first homer of the series for the tigers. seventh inning tigers call on max scherr. >> for a little relief. he gives an rbi single to coco crisp. victor martinez evens the score with a solo home run. check it out, though. the a's say a fan interfered with what would have been a josh reddick catch. the umps looked at the reply and decided if he dent morph into shaquille o'neal he wouldn't have caught that one. in the eighth the tigers added three more runs. tigers win 8-6 forcing a decisive game five in oakland on thursday. >> i was challenging him, and i thought if there was a change-up, you can get a swing and miss. i was able to do that.

with boyd, he's been battling me the whole series and put good ones against me. i got ahead of them and was able to get a fastball by them and it was a big pick me up. you're so close to get out of it. i know he's a great fastball hitter and i challenge him. he almost got a hit, and there's a challenge. i thought i gave up a hit, but austin ran it down. that was one of the greatest things i've had. to hockey, he's 19 years old and speaks barely enough english to order dinner in san jose. after three nhl games he's looking like the next big star. he scored four fwoels tuesday night in new york including this ridiculous between the legs top shelf shot for the goal. he scored his four goals in just 11 minutes of ice time. he's the younger player to score four goals in a game since jimmy carson did in in 1988. hertl leads it with six fwoels this season.

>> thank you. as the one-year anniversary of hurricane sandy approaches, a famous swimmer is going to great lints to raise money for the victims. diana nyad made history last month swimming 110 miles from cuba to florida. now nyad has begun another marathon swim in new york city. >> reporter: for 48 hours diana nyad is swimming. virtually nonstop in this two-lane pool built especially for her in the middle of new york city to help the victims of superstorm sandy. >> the whole focus isn't on some athletic record. it's on those people that endured. so my feeling is, the least i can do is endure for these 48 hours. >> hurricane sandy hit her hard. a lot of people still without homes to live in, and she said, let's go to new york and see if we can do this. >> reporter: last month the 64-year-old nyad made history freestyling her way from cuba to florida in under 53 hours. she called that the swim of a

lifetime. this swim is about helping people who are still have youingling almost a year after sandy struck. >> the least we can do one year later is raise some funds and put their faces and their stories back on the front pages. >> reporter: this family from staten island is a family in need. >> we really didn't get much warning to evacuate. we had maybe two hours where they finally said, okay, get out. so we packed up whatever we could that we felt was valuable to us, and we left. >> reporter: their home was completely destroyed. their neighborhood, unrecognizable. >> sand everywhere. there was dumpsters, storage containers thrown all over the place. there were cars all over on top of fences. it looked like something from a movie. i thought it was a movie set when we got back. >> reporter: this unique event will raise funds for americares. >> hurricane sandy happened

approximately a year ago, so this event will raise a lot of money to help people for whom there's still a great need. >> reporter: they have teamed up with procter & gamble to put this event on. procter & gamble is paying for all the costs to make sure every penny goes directly to sandy victims. the second lane in the pool is for volunteers that want to swim alongside nyad. some are celebrities like olympic swimmer ryan lochte. >> we were hit heavily by hurricane sandy as well as the surrounding community, and we were cited to come support nyad in this wonderful volunteer. >> today a special volunteer, her 13-year-old daughter alyssa joined nyad for about 15 minutes of her two-day mission, a mission to help bring some relief to tens of thousands. juan carlos molina, al jazeera, new york. >> nyad's new york city swim which you see right there live

is expected to last 48 hours. she's bl halfway through that. her trip from cuba to florida took 53 hours, and, of course, much more difficult conditions. nyad would be fighting some tough weather conditions if she were swimming in the ocean right now. for more on the national weather forecast let's bring in nicole mitchell. good morning. >> when i first heard this story before i saw it was in a pool and i just heard she was swimming in new york, i was thinking off the coastline. i thought that won't be good. we have a coast alal low dumpin lot of rain. there could be a flood potential with it. north carolina to virginia getting rain. more places are under the influence. as we get into the nekz couple of days, some of the heaviest core of that, virginia to southern parts of new jersey, some of those areas could look at easily three or four inches over the next couple days. more of this moves into -- this

is just a 24-hour forecast. you can see the areas highlighted in red, but as we get more into thursday and friday, places like new york dealing with that. that definitely would have been a problem had the swim been in the coastline. otherwise, as we get to the rest of the country, you can see how quiet it is for the mid-section of the country, but we have another disturbance off on the west coast and that is already causing some problems as we get in this direction. so temperatures in between all of that are quite mild. in between the two areas, we have 60s -- 60s and 50s if you get to the disturbance areas, fwhut mid-second of all of that, 70s and 80s. here's the other area i was mentioning. we'll see snow in the areas of sierra, and now that's the higher elevations. if you're on one mountain pass, that could be a problem especially once we add in a little bit of wind. all of this moisture moving more interior, so we start to see portions of the rockies getting

more influenced by all of that over the next couple of days. here's what it looks like. you can see down that line of the sierra we're dealing with a winter storm warning, and we get to the other side of this, some winter storm watches starting to pile up in parts of colorado. around this you see the beiges and even the reds. those are combinations of wind problems, either high winds or the red, we see the red flag warnings. that means low humidity, dry conditions with the wind could fuel that fire potential through the rest of the day. a couple of problems we see because of that system. coming up, we look at the problems we will see in the northeast. back to you. >> nicole, thank you. tuberculosis claiming the lives of a mom and her twins. how more than 140 babies were put at risk of infection. a lack of medical care is causing blindness for children in some of the world's poorest communities. how one program is giving them the gift of sight.

the floating post office. with its own zip code and a reliable track record of delivering mail to some very hard-to-reach places. and another live look at diana nyad swimming here in new york city for victims of hurricane sandy.

new research shows one in three blind people in the world are kids and half could be treated with a simple operation. we report from south africa on a unique project helping blind children see again. >> reporter: this game was impossible for her two months ago because of his cataracts. they caused his eyes to appear cloudy. he was going blind and was often excluded, teased for being different. in august he had an operation to

remove the cataract on the right eye. he is a lot better now. >> it's been a huge difference, because now he can see profrp properly outside, even he watches tv. he can sit far away from the tv now. everything is better with the kids now. they don't tease him all lot. >> reporter: he will be better whether they're removed at the hop. the nonprofit organization teamed up with government to establish this pediatric eye care center. sub sa hairian after rick has the highest prefance of it in the worlworld. if they were screened soon

enough and present to us early enough, we will have better visuals in the long run. >> they say there isn't one main cause, but working with government to educate communities and health care workers should make a difference. >> the childhood blindness contributes to one-third of blindness globally. i think it's very significant, and in 50% of this is avoidable, preventible and treatable. then those children need not go blind. >> with the cataracts sucked out, a new lens is inserted. it unfolds itself before the doctor stitches up the anythings. the stitch is part of the process when the therapy goes to the first time to take the bandage off. for the first time in years he can see out of both eyes and soon he can go back to school where he has a lot to catch up on. at least now it's a challenge he's ready for. tonya page, al jazeera, durbin,

south africa. >> world sight day was created to focus global attention on blindness and vision impairment of the nearly 300 million people worldwide who live with low vision, 90% live in poor countries. nevada health officials are asking the parents of more than 140 babies to have their children and themselves checked for tuberculosis. this follows the death of a mother and her twin babies and more than 2600 tb infections. they've been linked to the neonatal intensive care unit in las vegas. officials are focusing on babies who were treated there between may and augt of this year. even when the government isn't fully funded, the u.s. postal service has found itself in rough fiscal waters. a unique mail service near detroit is managing to stay afloat. we explain. >> reporter: the detroit river and the motor city is what separates the united states from the canadian border.

it's a busy waterway keking massive international freighters to the great lakes. >> this is j.w. on channel 10, the vessel calling. >> good morning. it's captain henry jackman. >> reporter: in 1949 j.w. westcott, a company that sits on the banks of the detroit river, was commissioned by the u.s. postal service to deliver mail, and they're still at it. bill redding and sam buchanan operate one of the few floating post offices in the world, and the only one in the u.s. moving alongside the ship without stopping, sam and bill deliver letters, food, supplies, even the captain's who man the freighters. >> at one time this was the world's busiest commercial waterway. >> while the internet has slowed the volume of smal mail and thrown the u.s. post office in fiscal turmoil, j.w. westcott is

still managing to stay above water. >> we're still getting letters, believe it or not. folks are still writing letters. the reason is on the lakes you don't always have real reliable communications with phones and internet. >> reporter: j.w. westcott has been delivering mail right here from the water for over 100 yea years. just lining the post office, this mail boat has its own zip code. >> we put down detroit, michigan, 222, and once the downtown post office sees the zip code, they bundle everything together and bring it down in the morning. >> reporter: neither rain nor sleet or snow keeps this appointed men from their deliveries on the water, but

when the lakes freeze over and the winter, they shut down and patiently wait for the ice to thaw. >> we're very dedicated in getting stuff delivered. that's for sure. we really care about the people we service. >> reporter: while the u.s. postal service may be on thin ice, this one of a kind delivery service may indeed be hard to sink. al jazeera, detroit. and today is world post day marking the establishment of the world postal union in switzerland in 1894. the day is meant to celebrate one of the most inclusive and accessible public services worldwide, the postal service. at the end of the first hour, here's what we're following. president obama will nominate janet yellen to replace ben bernanke at the head of the fed. at least nine people were killed when fire destroyed a clothing factory in bangladesh.

it's comes six months after a collapse. nine days without a deal. the federal shutdown drags on as we move within eight days within the debt ceiling deadline. i'm john henry smith. detroit tigers still have hope as they try to give hope to their beleaguered city. a report on the tigers and their town the next hour in sports. conditions are deteriorating along the mid-atlantic today. i'll tell you who else is in for that rain by the end of the week. >>. thanks for watching al jazeera. we're back with you in two and a half minutes with del walters.

it's considered one of the most powerful jobs in the world. janet yellen will be nominated. president obama turns up the heat on republicans say he's unwilling to negotiate over raising the death ceiling, but he may have provided a small glimmer of hope to get the deal done. in bangladesh a fire kills nine people at a garment factory. it's another case of unsafe working conditions in a country that suffered from a string of deadly mishaps. we're so close of getting a glimpse of getting who he is. >> an infamous and mysterious street artist is creating a stir

as he turns new york city into his canvas for hotly sought-after work. good morning, and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters in new york city. president obama is set to nominate janet yellen to succeed ben bernanke as head of the federal reserve. while she's not well-known outside of financial circles, she's a respected economist with a long history with the fed. she takes over at a pivotal time for the economy and country. both are looming large. kimberly hopkins reports. >> reporter: running the central banking system in the united states is one of the most powerful jobs in the world, and the person in charge can directly affect the wallets of every american and the global economy. >> good afternoon. >> reporter: the fed chief is or

the chair sometimes called sets the price of borrowing money. this directly spurs economic growth or curbs inflation. the chair also controlling the supply of u.s. money in the world economy by buying and selling u.s. treasury securities. president obama has announced he will nominate janet yellen for the job when the current head of the u.s. central bank, ben bernanke, steps down at the end of january. if confirmed by the u.s. senate, yellen takes over at an unpredictable time. since the financial crisis in 2008, the u.s. central bank has been pumping money into the nation's struggling economy. over the summer bernanke hinted the practice of printing more money to lift the u.s. economy would be winding down. when u.s. interest rates started to rise, bernanke made the surprise announcement. >> the committee decided today to keep the target range for the federal funds rate at 0 to one-fourth percent and make no change in the asset purchase program or its forward guidance

regarding the federal funds rate target. >> reporter: the rapid shift in thinking left investors around the world wondering whether they could look to the u.s. to take a lead on fiscal policy. >> we still aren't in a robust recovery by any means. we still haven't got to where we want to be on unemployment. we haven't got to where we want to be on growth, and we've really perhaps reached the limits of what you can do with these measures. >> reporter: it may be up to yellen to figure out how and when to stop the bank's unprecedented practice of stimulating the economy by printing more money. with an unemployment rate of 7%, timing is everything. yellen faces a tough political climate for making change. the u.s. congress is already in a heated budget crisis, and soon it will need to approve a white house request to raise the u.s. debt limit so the country can continue paying its bills. the white house delay on nominating yellen has caused uncertainty in the global

markets. a worry that the u.s. can no longer be trusted to manage its money. al jazeera, washington. >> yellen would be the first woman to head the fed. both yellen and bernanke are scheduled to appear at that formal announcement, and president obama is expected to make that announcement at 3:00 eastern time. al jazeera will cover that event live. now to the government shutdown. as day nine begins, there's no sign of progress again. pressure is also mounting on congress to break the partisan gridlock with the deadline to raise the debt ceiling eight days away. the gop is attempting to leverage that deadline against democrats for concessions, but president obama is say no-go rejecting that idea. mike viqueira reports. >> reporter: different day, same message. president obama says he won't negotiate under threat. >> we can't make extortion routine as part of our democracy. >> reporter: sounding the alarm on the debt ceiling, mr. obama rejected claims that steps can

be taken to avoid default even if congress fails to act. >> there's no silver bullet. there's no magic wand that allows us to wish away the chaos that could result if for the first time in our history we don't pay our bills on time. >> reporter: when pressed, mr. obama said even a short-term deal lasting just weeks would be enough to bring him to the table with republicans. >> absolutely. what i've said is that i will talk about anything. >> reporter: it was a small opening, but little more than an hour later, house speaker john boehner shut it down. >> what the president said today was if there's unconditional surrender by republicans, he'll sit down and talk to us. that's not the way our government works. >> reporter: boehner refused to back down. no agreement on spending cuts, no vote to raise the debt ceiling. >> the long and short of it is there's going to be a negotiation here. we can't raise the debt ceiling without doing something about

what's driving us to borrow more money and to live beyond our means. >> reporter: the president did negotiate around the debt ceiling in 2011, a move he now calls a mistake. >> if reasonable republicans want to talk about these things again, i'm ready to head up to the hill and try and i'll even spring for dinner again. i'm not going to do it until the more extreme parts of the republican party stop forcing john boehner to issue threats about our economy. >> reporter: the latest victim of the shutdown? families of the fallen who are not receiving their so-called death benefit, the $100,000 promised them when a love one dies in combat. >> i'm ashamed. i'm embarrassed. all of us should be. the list goes on and on of people, of innocent americans who have fallen victim to the

reality that we can't sit down and talk like grown-ups. >> reporter: when the dust settled, the nation was one day closer to a possible default, and the shutdown continues with no end in sight. mike viqueira, al jazeera, the white house. >> the families of four u.s. soldiers killed in action in afghanistan last weekend won't receive their benefits because of the shutdown. a charity has raised money so the families can travel to dover air force base when flag-draped coffins arrive. it's still unclear whether the families will accept the help. now, despite the consequences, more political rangeling as opposed to action is expected in washington today. randall pinkston is in the capital. good morning, randall. >> reporter: good morning. >> president obama gave a window of hope for a possible deal. how was that received? >> reporter: you heard speaker boehner saying what the president wants is unconditional surrender. what, in fact, the president did

was to distinguish himself a little bit from what senate democrats want. the president offered a short-term debt ceiling rise in exchange for negotiating some other issues over time. what senate democrats want is a long-term deal that gets them beyond next year's election. there's a window there for some compromise, but so far republicans are saying that they want to tie any deal to do go about long-term debt. the president is saying that the negotiations can take place. they can attach something to the process that gives them some certainty that things they're interested in will be done, and if they don't believe him, the president says they'll put it in writing if his word isn't good enough. no takers so far. >> house speaker john boehner said without reservation that his party is using the debt ceiling as political leverage. how do we know and what do we know about how that message is playing out among the everyday people out there affected by the possible default?

>> reporter: poll after poll shows it's not playing out well. here's the latest development of the reuters poll released yesterday. 78% are concerned with the shutdown. 33% blame republicans and 19% blame democrats holding steady from last at 18%. so americans don't like it. >> randall pinkston joining us live from washington. thank you very much. at least nine have been killed in a garment factory fire in bangladesh. those flames engulfed a warehouse and two others on theout skirts of the capital the dhaka. that's a country that supplies the u.s. with a the lo of -- a lot of goods. >> reporter: it happened again. this time it's a clothing factory 40 kilometers north of the capital of dhaka.

>> translator: when the fire broke out, i came here to search for my uncle who was working in this factory. i have not yet found him. i found out the fire started from a machine that exploded. the fire spread, and the factory caught fire. many people ran out of the factory, but a few got stuck inside. >> reporter: officials describe the fire as massive. it started in the knitting section of the factory. once again, people have died. it's the latest tragedy in a string of accidents that keep highlighting the lack of saift standards in the garment industry here. last november more than 100 died in a fire at another clothing factory in the capital. in april of this year more than 1,000 died when a garment factory collapsed. bangladesh is the second largest garment producer in the world. most of the products go to major western retailers, but the workers may very little money,

around $38 a month. bangladesh has previously said it will improve safety standards, and there's pressure on western buyers to demand reform. it seems nothing has been done. >> bangladesh earns $20 billion each year from garment exports which are sent mainly to the u.s. and europe. if you live on the east coast, you might want to braet out the bumper chutes. a low pressure system is bringing heavy rain to rt pas of the eastern coast. for the latest we turn to nicole mitchell. >> it's a problem over the next couple of days. i've watched airport delays and haven't seen widespread delays yet, but i think that will be a problem as well as kind of a tricky drive this morning if you head up parts of interstate as we get through especially around the beltway we see that. as we get to parts of north carolina and virginia, that rain is persistent. that's a problem for us. as it moves its way up, so 95,

for example, will see that rain. some of the heaviest stuff towards the coastline because the system is off the coast, that could be 3, 4 inches in some cases. now, this is just the next 24 hours. so you can see this starting to edge towards new york and into new england a little bit. after that it will be on the move northward, so that's going to be a problem. i actually am supposed to hike tomorrow, and i'm not too happy about this wet weather forecast. as we get across the country into the rest of the country, once we get away from that system, that's also going to help keep temperatures cool. that and the fact we've had kind of that flow coming in from canada and that air has been just cooler. well, it's a southerly flow in the midwest, so that is definitely one of our warm spots out here, and temperatures today once again are going to be in the 70s and 80s. winds are a little bit of a problem, and increasing some of the things like the fire dangers as we get towards parts of the southern plains. in the meantime, the west coast is dealing with yet another

system that could bring some snow to some of our higher elevations. back to you, del. >> you did say snow. thank you very much. weeks after crews uprighted the doomed costa concordia, the remains of a worker on board of the cruise ship have been found. he's thought to be a indian waiter when it sank off the coast of italy in january of last year. another victim, a passenger, still has not been found. divers are searching the sections of the ship inaccessible until it was pulled off the reef. a captain of another boat could be charged with the drowning death of over # 00 africanmy grants. he was arrested on tuesday. he's facing charges of murder, causing a shipwreck and helping an illegal immigration operation. the tunisian captain was at the hep of the shift when it capsized off the island of lampedusa last tuesday. more than 250 people died in the

accident. european unions offered 40 million euros to help. still ahead, the u.s. is moving closer to the debt default deadline. who may be hurt the most if the government can't pay its bills. members of congress under arrest. we'll tell you what happened and why they wound up in handcuffs. and a commuting culture shift as the popularity of bicycles picks up speed in spain. janet yellen is having an impact on wall street already. i'll have the market's reaction to her nomination.

as the u.s. approaches the october 17th deadline, fear of a default is growing and so is the debate over what happens next if the nation can no longer way its bills. jonathan betz takes a closer look at the impact. >> reporter: the shutdown means the government is not works, but the default means it's out of

money. it's like you maxed out your credit card, but you have bills to pay so you try to raise your credit limit. how much is it the u.s. government spend? let's peek into the checkbook or the daily treasury report. on thursday, just last thursday the united states brought in $110 billion. that's from things like taxes, farmers paying loans, customs fees. also on that very same day the treasury spent $143 billion. just from thursday the united states is in the red $33 billion. so to pay those bills, it borrows money. we're about to hit america's credit limit, and this is what it is. $16.6 trillion. it's a huge number, but it's not enough. it can borrow no more than this right now. the united states government needs soon a trillion more dollars just to pay the bills. so what gets paid? what doesn't? well, no one actually knows for sure, but things like social security checks for her retirees

and military pay and money from local cities and schools could all be at risk in theory. there's a huge impact on the economy. the value of the dollar will nosedive, so american products sold overseas are not worth as much. stocks, 401 ks and bonds go down. folks trying to buy homes or cars will see higher interest rates, so some stop shopping. some argue it may not be as bad and they will pay the things that really matter. overall many economists warn a default would be felt globally and could trigger recession worst than the one we just went through. >> thank you. >> joining us to discuss the political gridlock is the chief political strategist from the potomac research group. president obama has said he's not budging on the demand for a debt limit increase without any strings attached. what are the risks and rewards of such a decision? >> the risks are huge, del.

good morning. i think several would stand out. number one, senior citizens may have to worry about getting their social security checks on november 3rd. number two, the u.s. credit rating around the world since i thought we were the safe haven to invest in, that could be jeopardized. number three is the financial markets in the u.s. in general. short-term yields rose by quite a bit. finally, there's an enormous risk for the republican party, which look like they were going to have a pretty good election in 2014. now that's really in doubt. >> we are just eight days away now from the debt ceiling deadline. what is the worst-case scenario that you're seeing and hearing about? >> the worst-case scenario is we come up to the 17th with no deal. my hunch is treasury would have enough money to pay bondholders on the 17th. the really crucial day is around november 1 when the social security checks go out and other big obligations have to be hit.

if we go past the 17th of october with no sign of a deal, i think the markets will get even more nervous than they are now. >> house republicans have suggested creating a super committee. this is they're latest plan to re-open the government and raise the debt ceiling. is it a workable solution or a political ploy? >> we've heard this before. it's happened many times before, and these committees usually fail to come up with an agreement. i could envision a scenario. in fact, it's the most likely scenario right around the 17th both boehner and obama say, all right, we'll raise the debt ceiling and end the shutdown at least for a while in exchange for some committee that will look at options. maybe it will last for a couple of months. that means the cloud continues to persist. we could get into mid-december and have another crisis if this committee doesn't come up with anything meaningful. >> and they are watching overseas as well. how is the shutdown affecting global investors with interests here in the u.s.?

>> for now it's not enormous, although the backup in yields on short-term bills yesterday was troubling. i would say for investors around the world there are two concerns. we've talked about default. i think default maybe is a 20% chance. it's not a strong possibility. the other concern i think is real and above 50%, and that is this could drag on for week after week after week and have a corrosive impact on our economy. terrible for business psychology, market psychology, consumer psychology. this could really hurt fourth quarter growth. the only good news, del, is that the federal reserve would keep buying assets. they would begin tapering off purchases this kind of uncertainty. >> greg, chief political strategist for the potomac research group in washington. thank you. >> you bet. we turn to business now. some good news. janet yellen giving stock futures a lift this morning. we have the latest on that, but still a mixed bag when it comes

to the economic picture. >> quite a mixed bag, del. the big question is how long will the lift last? wall street is showing enthusiasm over janet yellen's appointment. futures are up at this hourme. it could be a good morning for traders. all three closed deep in the road, the dow and s&p 500 both lost more than 1%, double that for the nasdaq, which is down 2%. overseas europe was unphased by the yellen news. investors there are more focused on the international monetary fund's grim outlook for the global economy. the imf has already cut its growth forecast six consecutive times, and mixed results in asia. tokyo nikkei is posting a 1% gain, hong kong ended lower and shanghai is slightly higher. they don't expect janet yellen to alters it from ben bernanke.

>> janet yellen has voted with the rest of the members with the fed, one or two dissents over the last year. ian net yellen votes with the overwhelming majority in every meeting that she's been on the board. >> yellen is expected to be officially nominated later this afternoon just before the close of the markets. falling interest rates are bringing back demand for home refinancing. the latest report on the mortgage application shows an increase of .4% in the last week, and the mortgage bankers association says the number of refis topped purchases. freddie mac says rates 30-year fixed rate mortgages have fallen for three straight weeks. samsung is comiing out with wha it says is a one of kind smartphone calmed the galaxy round. it will have a curved screen. it will give the phone a better resolution and make it easier to grip.

del, it's all for the low, low price of $1,000. >> i could put it on my christmas list and thank you in advance. i want to turn back to yellen. why does the market like her so much? >> unlike larry summers, she was in favor of increased bond buying, especially pumping money into wall street and lowering interest rates. that's what wall street likes until inflation is a problem. >> everybody wants to know, is she a quick fix for everything going wrong in washington? can she correct the government shutdown? >> that's probably unlikely, because she has to be approved and that can be a point of contention. the fed has two swords. they control the interest rates or the price of money, and they also can give guidance to the market. there's a joke on wall street the fed is always going, guess what i'm going to do? there are surprises. >> a point of contention in washington? hard to believe. thank you for being with us. protesters gathered on tuesday at the national mallal a rally demanding immigration

reechl. it was followed by a sit-in on capitol hill. eight house democrats were arrested along with 200 other demonstrators. among them congressman john lewis of georgia and charlie wrangell of new york and keith ell ellisson from minnesota. a judge struck down. in 2011 nissan won a ten-year contract worth an estimated $1 billion to provide taxis, but the judge ruled that new york's taxi and limousine commission overstepped its authority when it cut the deal. the decision should have been left up to the city council. biking good for the environment, your health and wallet. those are just some of the reasons why a growing number of people in spain are swapping four wheels for two. we have that story. >> reporter: the shine has certainly come off spanish car sale figures. people pass this madrid showroom, but no one comes in to admire the sleek, expensive machines let alone actually buy one. from a high of 1.6 million new

car sales in 2007, spanish dealerships are shifting around 7 hundr0 700,000. >> lose over 4,000 in employment, and we lost more than 400 different dealers. so during this time they are doing things to say in the market. >> reporter: spain's financial crisis has dealt a hammer blow to car sales. though four wheels lose their appeal, two wheels aren't. two saw an opportunity. cycling is increasingly seen as both cool and value for money. in spain new bikes are now outselling new cars. >> translator: the reason is the bicycle is a saving. it's a form of transport that doesn't cost anything over a year. they don't need much maintenance.

apart from that it's healthy and the best way to get around the city. >> reporter: cycling culture is gaining momentum, too. hundreds of cyclists turned out for a night ride through madrid recently as part of the global bicycle movement critical mass. promoters of the event are watching changing attitudes here with satisfaction. >> maybe four years ago i was alone in the street. three years ago, i say i can see another cyclist around the corner. last year people began to tell me, hey, i have seen people in the streets. something is changing. now it's very clear that people are taking their bikes in the city. >> reporter: cyclists here are realistic, though. despite the accelerating sales, spanish prefer petro to pedals. spain is not a cycling culture yet. it still has a long way to go before it catches up with

countries like the netherlands or the u.k. there are a couple of cities blazing the trail like saville or barcelona. for the most part, infrastructure here is poor, cyclists are few, and the car or the bus still very much king of road. al jazeera, madrid. >> at last check he's still going. since the country's economic crash, activists estimate the number of cyclesist is doubles every two and a half years. spanish cities have started bike sharing programs like those in new york, washington and paris. still ahead, the pilots in this summer's fatal air crash in san francisco are weighing in on that accident. why they believe a mechanical error was to blame. and reading and writing scores not only dropping among school-aged kids. we'll tell you why adults in america are falling way behind as well. get this. surviving not one but two shark attacks. it is a scary story with a

remarkable and happy ending. i'm john henry smith. coming up in sports, i'll have the story how professional sports are helping to revitalize a troubled city.

well come back. later this afternoon president obama is going to officially nominate janet yellen as the first woman ever to head the federal reserve. if she's confirmed by the senate, she will replace ben bernanke who is rye tiring at the end of the year. in washington president obama and house speaker boehner playing a dangerous game of chicken over the nation's chook

checkbook. the president is willing to negotiate with the republicans if they end the government shutdown and raise the debt ceiling. boehner said that's not going to happen. it has furloughed hundreds of thousands of federal workers including members of the cia. the agency is calling some of them back to work based on national security concerns. that includes employees considered to be essential to foreign intelligence and counterterrorism, but they won't get passed until the budget impasse is resolved. a second team of inspectors is headed to syria to seed up the destruction of the chemical weapon stockpiles. the head of the organization is sending a team of 100 inspectors over the next couple of months. they will join 20 other inspectors and they have to check out more than 20 sights. the white house is denies reports that claim the u.s. is considering cutting off most of the military aid to egypt. those reports come amid protests

in egypt that are demanding the return of ousted president mohamed morsi. the u.s. gives egypt about $1.5 billion each year. about a third goes to the egyptian military. the obama administration says in an announcement it will made in the coming day and the decision will be made then. reuters says any cuts won't afkt counterterrorism programs and the security in the sigh knee region that border israel. an egyptian court set a november date for the trial of ousted president morsi. 14 other members of the muslim brotherhood have been ordered to appear. morsi is facing murder charges. for more on that we turn to our al jazeera correspondent who is in egypt, and for security reasons, we will not reveal his or her name or location. so morsi, the first democratically elected president in egypt, what is he being

charged with? >> reporter: well, the charges are incitement to murder. they relate back to the beginning of last december when viewers might remember that the president at the time, mohamed mor morsi, was trying to bring in all sorts of constitutional sweeping changes that gave him much greater powers. those against him staged a large sit-in outside the presidential palace. those for him, pro-morsi and pro-muslim brotherhood supporters went in. according to human rights groups, they started to attack that sit-in and violence ensued. as many as ten were killed and over 300 people injured. now, the court is bringing those charges against morsi saying that he was, indeed, involved in instructuring the incitement of murder as some of these supporters were killed. >> how will the rest of the world watching this trial, especially in hopes it stays independent of the independent interim military regime, react as the events unfold in cairo?

>> reporter: you mentioned earlier about the budget that the u.s. gives to the egyptian military already being in question. i think the rest of the world will watch to see if this trial is, indeed, independent. we've been speaking to one of morsi's lawyers. he says that they haven't even managed to meet their client, mohamed morsi, yet, although he says the public prosecutor said the reason for that is because mohammed morsi refuses to meet lawyers because he says he's still the president and he doesn't have any charges to answer to. very much we'll watch how the lawyers get on and whether or not they, indeed, get to talk to their client and whether they find out if this is true. >> calm on the streets today? >> reporter: calm so far. there are security forces outside of cairo university just to check whether the students might react to this news. >> that's you're al jazeera special correspondent in egypt who we do not name for reasons of security. the crash of a small plane near arizona's sedona airport left two passengers with life-threatening injuries. the pilot was coming in for a

landing when he decided to pull up and go around. he cleared a fence at the end of the runway but crashed into a ravine. the poilt pilot managed to walk away. all three on the plane were from germany. they say the auto throttle, which controls engine power and the speed of the aircraft, may have malfunctioning ed on the boeing 777. back on july 6th the landing gear hit the sea wall short of the runway at san francisco's international airport. two students were killed as a result of that crash. america's children have been falling behind other countries when it comes to subjects like reading and math. now there's a new study out that says american adults are falling behind as well. jonathan martin has more. >> reporter: adults in this

nashville literacy class are trying to catch up with skills they need. they're not alonalone. a new study tested people aged 16 to 65 in 20 developed countries. >> that's it. >> reporter: they measured and compared reading skills, math skills and the ability to resolve problems. researchers found that the u.s. ranks below average in all three categories. in literacy the u.s. ranked 16th out of 24. 21st, third from the bottom in math skills and 17th in problem solving using technology. along with basic reading and math, participants were tested on things like calculating mileage, sorting e-mails and comparing expiration dates on grocery store tags. they found social background and poverty have a major impact on adult skill levels. >> we're not surprised about that report. >> reporter: the nashville adult literacy council trektor says the core akts necessary nor most

jobs. >> every everything and every job is computerized in some way. of course, it's also going to affect their personal lives, because if you can't read, you're not going to do e-mail. you aren't going to be able to read documents work or even things that are on the computer. >> deborah boyd is social dean of education in nashville, tennessee. she says american adults fail to learn critical skills as stupts and fail to apply it beyond school. >> i think we're all realizing that some of the important literacy skills we need to encourage among our younger people and, therefore, in our adults is the ability to use what they read to draw conclusions, to support their thought processes, to actually read for the content and the context and be able to use that. >> reporter: u.s. education

secretary around arne duncan agrees and says they will fund the doors closed to them. >> in all three categories, adults in jap, kandz, australia and finland and other countries scoring significantly higher than americans. it may be early october, but parts of the west are already dealing with snowfall. for more on the national morning forecast we turn to nicole mitchell. >> we had that huge snowstorm in the dakotas last week, most of which melted because the temperatures were so warm. this is early season stuff. a lot is higher elevations unlike the last snowstorm that made it down to lower levels. you can pick out in the southwest the cloud cover in the region and what rain you see is fairly spotty. so with this it's going to be more scattered showers and not a dousing rain unlike the system

earlier in the east coast. enough of this with the cold temperatures and higher elevations. of course, you already have the temperatures that tend to lessen as you go up into the atmosphere. that's snow for those higher elevations. kind of moving more of the moisture interior over the next couple of days, and as that does it, spreading from places like the sierra getting the snow to more in the rockies. we're starting to see some of that pop up in our watches and warnings, and so we had the warning up for the snowfall in california and now it's going to be, as i said, parts of colorado seeing winter storm advisories pop up for the potential as we get into tomorrow and friday for more snow to hit the fwrougroun. it's been pretty warm in the midwest, and the snow in the dakotas melted. part of the flow is actually funneling moisture or wind up from the south through that mid-section of the country. between a low and high pressure

area, which is what's funneling the wind, we see windy conditions. so the areas of beige and red you see are all because of the wind. the red flag fire warnings, the combination of wind and low humidity, that is going to be a problem. look what it's doing to the temperatures. so the low pressure out here, the low around that heading northward, and we have 70s back in places like minnesota, which is pretty spectacular as you get into the month of october. now starting to get more toward the middle of the month and those places with all the snowfall back in the 60s. a lot has melted after a very rough go last week. this is the coastal system, though. that's causing a lot of rain, so already, you know, it's a slow go on the road. anticipate all those airport delays a little later today. this is going to be moving northward causing more problems. del. >> nicole mitchell, thank you very much. imagine surviving a shark attack only to be bitten again by another shark years ago. it happened to fwrgreg pickerinn

australia on tuesday. he's currently being treated for his injuries which doctors describe as serious. >> reporter: greg pickering is either the unluckiest man in australia or the luckiest depending on whether you think being attacked is unlucky or surviving an attack twice makes you extremely lucky. he was diving for a edible sea snail prized in restaurants off asia just off the southwest coast of australia when a shark thought to be a great white attacked. he was healed into a nearby boat and transferred to perth where he was treated for massive head, shoulder and neck injuries. this isn't the first time mr. pickering has been attacked. in 2004 another shark attacked him. at the time he said it wouldn't put him off getting back in the water. >> the shark grabbed me and i felt the teeth go right into the bone when this happened 34

years, that's small odds. >> reporter: the odds of it happening twice to the same person are small, but traj yikally it is proved possible. this is a spokesman for the fisheries department. >> if a sizable white shark is caught in the waters over the coming hours, from the evidence i have available to me at the moment, i'm likely to give the order to destroy that shark. >> reporter: conservationists don't like that. if people go in the environment, they should accept the risk. >> it's very sad, and it's a terrible experience for people that -- it's -- we're playing in their waters. we have to be more careful. >> reporter: greg pickering has had ten hours of surgery. his condition is described as >> authorities have called off the search for the shark which was spotted off the coast. if sharks to tigers, still magic in motown these days.

john henry smith is here now with sports. >> del, as the tigers realize that game three of their aldv series with oakland was lost, they came out fighting literally. nothing more than angry words were thrown. facing elimination on tuesday, detroit came out fighting again. this time it was in a way that could get them somewhere. here's tuesday's controversial play in detroit's half of the seventh victor martinez evening the score with a solo home run. check it out, though. the a's say a man interfered with a josh reddick catch. they looked at the replay and must have figured that reddick wasn't catching that one. tigers won 8-6 forcing a decisive game five in oakland on thursday. as the tigers continue their hard-fought trek to back-to-back world series, for the city of detroit itself, it struggles with it's own adversity. they're digging out from bankruptcy and the tigers and other sports teams help to keep

spirits up in the motor city. greatness is a word not associated much with detroit in recent years. crime, blighted buildings, shuttered schools and high unemployment. with bankruptcy looming, once fwen again the city of detroit is turning to sport teams for a different relief, the kind they won't get from washington, d.c. >> sports has a common thread to bring people together. it's not a long haf range solution, but it can be a positive influence. >> reporter: drew sharp is a long-time sports columnist for the detroit free press. he believes all detroit area teams know their importance to the city. >> it brought the teams in this town together for a common purpose in that they have the opportunity to give this city something to feel proud about. something for three hours they can forget the fact you may not have a job, that you can't get your bar gaj picked up, it might take an hour and a half for the

police to come by. it's not the end-all, but it is something. if it can build up the psyche of a city beaten down continually for years, you can't help but build up the mindset. >> reporter: that spirit is felt throughout most of this city, like here at a local barbershop in detroit. >> being bad or being good, we follow our teams. we love our teams. >> we ride it out no matter what. >> reporter: what is it sport mean to this town? >> it means everything to the city of detroit. the lions coming off strong and the tigers playing strong and michigan and michigan state. then at the time the city is in night, we need it to back us up. >> reporter: the city was detroit was in no greater need in 1967. a police raid sparked rioting that ripped detroit apart leaving 11 dead and 1200 injuries and more than 2,000 buildings destroyed. more than four decades later, the city still wearing the

social and economic scars from those five days in july. >> i was seven years old during the '67 riots, and you know, i remember seeing the national guard jeeps going down one of the streets near my house. to this day i still remember a neighbor of mine gave my father a gun. >> reporter: smoke from the riots could be seen from tigers stadium if downtown detroit. moved to do something about the mounting violence, tiger outfielder willie horton in full uniform walked to an area where trouble was brewing and talked to the angry crowd about ending the violence. >> willie grew up a mile away from here, you know, and to see him do that, it was special also. i mean, you can't make those things up. they're spontaneous, and in his uniform it meant a lot to people and to us. >> in the following year in '68, the tigers win their first world series in several years, and, you know, it kind of galvanized

the city that sunk. it didn't cure the economy. it didn't cure racial relations in the city. for four months that summer when the tigers played at tiger stadium that evening, everything else stopped and everyone was together for a common purpose. that was to see the detroit tigers win. >> reporter: detroit's motto trillion translated from latin means we hope for better things, it shall rise from the ashes. sports in detroit have been a recurring source of hope and faith as the city plans to reset its financial future, detroit sports teams will continue to play their role on and off the field in keeping the spirit of detroit alive. >> it's nice to be back in my hometown for a few days to shoot that story. the tigers are trying to bring a world series trophy back to detroit for the first time since 1984. that's your look at morning sports. >> you don't mess with motown. >> don't mess with motown. >> thanks a lot. still ahead, the search for the elusive graffiti artist

known as banski. the art that has new yorkers going on a wild-goose chase.

all across the country a lot of programs have been affected by the government shutdown including the federally funded preschool program head start. thanks to a $10 million donation from a couple in houston, a lot of head start coschools kept thr doors open. we have a mom from orlando, florida. how bad did things get when the government shut its doors? fw go through the first few days. >> what happened is our children -- our children were told that their classroom will be shutting down. they tried to explain the situation as gently and softly as they could to the young children. i can honestly tell you the children were devastated because they look forward to going to school. the head start program makes it

fun for them to learn and they get to interact with other children. the day that we were in which whiched -- informed that the school will close that next friday, parents -- the parents were scrambling to try and figure out what we were going to do. we were kind of like, what day are you going to be off? i can watch the kids this day. so it was a shock, and at the same time it was like, what's next to do? you know, we were going to -- a lot of people -- a lot of women and men would lose their jobs due to the fact they had nowhere to send their children. >> we hear an awful lot of talk from washington that some programs need to re-open, and then others are ignored. one of the ones that's ignored an awful lot is head start. how do you feel when you hear the politicians talking around your situation? >> well, to be perfectly honest

with you, on the head start program, it's wonderful. it offers so many different -- so many different things as far as the children and the famil s families. i just totally lost -- >> that's okay. no, don't worry about it. i did want to ask you one question though while you gather your thoughts on that. that was what was your reaction when you heard that there was a couple in houston that set aside $10 million to keep things open and get your kids back to school? >> i thought it was amazing because now the students get to go back to school. they get to -- the teachers get to follow through with the curriculums they already set for the children, and also, you know, the mothers will be able to keep their jobs, which is huge because, you know, it's a lower income-based program, and

you know, there's single parents struggling trying to pay their bills. with the head start program being shut down, i mean, it's a snowball effect. with the couple setting aside the money to help fund the head start programs, they're not helping the children, they're helping the families. they're helping their families. i think it's a wonderful, wonderful thing that that couple is doing. i know for me from the bottom of my heart i'm truly grateful that my child will be able to have the tools that he needs to succeed in life due to the program of head start. >> we are very happy for you and your family. kathleen westerfield joining us live from orlando, florida. thank you very much, and good luck in the future. no one knows what he likes like, and he doesn't make a dime doing what he does. for years the mysterious and legendary street artist known as

banski has spray painted graphfy across europe and the middle east. now he landed here in new york. you may see his work, but as we explain, don't expect to see him. >> reporter: no one is will to notice it. these new yorkers aren't looking any any graphfy. he invaded new york for the month of october with works like this is my new york accent or occupy the music. a fan is hunting down his latest work on the city streets. >> as soon as i saw he was in new york, i started to look up the locations. i'm out today looking for them all. >> reporter: his 50,000-plus fans follow him on instagram. a web audio accompanies the daily pictures of his latest strike. >> the helium balloon. >> reporter: his canvas is a garage door and new york delivery truck. he doesn't identify himself and

doesn't do interviews leaving his followers gasping with suspense. >> we're all following him around, maybe one step behind, you know. it's so close. we're so close to kind of getting a glimpse of maybe who he is. >> reporter: his following is international. his art often has political and social overtones. his stencils and other works are exhibited all oifr the world and compared to andy warhol. the street art makes him accessible to his fans. >> it's rare to see a real piece of bankski where it belonged. >> it doesn't last long as captured on a brick brooklyn street. fans race to see it before it's tagged. >> reporter: especially these pieces. it's not there long. it makes it way more exciting than something in a gallery for a month. you can see it any day. >> reporter: in essence his street art is illegal, defacing

property without permission. this chelsea gallery sold a door for $300,000. the value is higher on works that isn't defaced. >> it helped him achieve goals on several levels allows him to have his works in public viewing and allowing people to see them and to get the artistic or the art experience that he wants them to have, but then if they get defaced, i think they're no longer relevant in the marketplace or much, much less relevant. >> bankski and i get here about the same time. more news in two and a half minutes. see you then.

>> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ >> welcome to the news hour. these are the top stories. >> this is an extraordinary situation. it's [ inaudible ] and we are at the beginning of a difficult process. >> the head of the world's chemical weapons watchdog calls for a ceasefire in syria. accused of invitement to murder a date is set for the trial of