>> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ >> welcome to the news hour. the top stories on al jazeera, searching for survivors after a powerful earthquake rocks the central philippines. devastation on a day of prayer, bombs killed dozens of people during one of the holiest times in the muslim calendar. and world leaders search for

a solution in curbing iran's nuclear program. and changing the way mothers and children are cared for, we have a special report from sin gal this hour. we begin in the philippines at least 93 people have been killed after a powerful earthquake shook the center of the country. it measured at 7.2. and the densely populated city was also badly hit. powers cut to many areas, buildings toppled. >> reporter: what was once a marketplace is now an open air hospital. lack of space equipment means medics are overworked.

rescue workers are also stretched. the earthquake hit just after 8:00 in the morning. many say it was the strongest they ever witnessed. offices and schools were closed for a national holiday, which may have saved lives. >> reporter: there are many, many lifelines which have been blocked like roads and bridges and powers. and we're beginning to get the messages in right now as people make the reports, but in the meantime we have a lot of problems in terms of 400-year old churches collapsing. but, you know, a lot of these things are happening and many of the dead came from falling debris. >> reporter: reports suggest that people are still stuck under the rubble, and after shocks continuing to come, they

call this region the ring of fire and earthquakes are common, but one of this magnitude is rare. for now it is all about rescue efforts which will continue for days. a lack of power is making communication with the area very difficult, but we're joined live from the region. bring us up to speed with the latest. it is nighttime there now as i can see, what is the latest on rescue efforts? >> reporter: basically the entire province is in virtual darkness. power lines have been cut. the local government says as the night deepens the rescue operations are still underway. the philippine government has already announced both provinces

to be under a state of calamity and they are going to ensure that more and more help will be sent as soon as possible. but the local government is far more worried about economic repercussions. thousands of people are dependent on their livelihood based on tourism alone. >> the people who have survived this earthquake, how are they coping tonight? where are they sleeping in what sort of help are they getting? >> reporter: it's unsure exactly where they are. according to reports -- according to philippine red cross some of them have been trying to go back to their homes, although homes that have been completely destroyed, the roads are not passable. coming here we have not seen any tents or anything that has been

set up by the philippine government. and we passed through several offices, including the office of the governor, and everything seems to be shutdown. >> a lot of buildings and historic buildings have been damaged in this earthquake. were they prepared for this kind of earthquake and disaster? >> reporter: well, it's unsure exactly. now the -- basically a lot of analysts all right note the usual game with the local governments saying they have already given enough information for local government to act. what is even more worrying though for the local government is how they can rebuild these heritage sites. the whole province sits at the very historical part of

philippines over 400 years ago it was here that the spaniards came first. so this is quite symbolic for the roman catholics who are here. >> thank you very much. now to world news. iran says it is confident progress can be made for proposals over its nuclear program. iranians officials have given a new proposal but it's proposal will remain confidential. james do you have any idea at what is in the proposal? >> reporter: not any of the detail, no. this was a very important

meeting. iraq has met with these six other countries representing the international community, but it was very different this time around. as you say it was a powerpoint presentation laying out iran's position. now iran making a very clear three-step plan, a road map, as they are calling it of the way forward. we tried to find out the details, in fact i spoke earlier on to iran's deputy foreign minister. >> i am confident that if there is goodwill on both sides, is there is also the same goodwill on the other side, progress will be very possible. >> reporter: can you tell us what is new in this plan? >> many things. >> reporter: [ inaudible ]? >> no, our plan is confident shall and is supposed to remain

confidential. >> so a fair amount of confidence and optimism then, james. what was the future of these negotiations look like? can we expect a final deal very soon? >> do not expect a make or a break here in geneva at this one meeting. yes, they are now in the coming hours going to go through all of the technical details, but iran has presented a new plan for the very first time, and i think the other countries will probably have to take some of that detail back to their capitol cities, so i don't suspect you'll get a final deal done here in the next 48 hours. having said that, everyone wants this to move along as soon as possible. now the iran's want to have a deal very quickly.

and i think that's because the new president and his team feel like they have an opportunity. and they are going to try to get a resolution to sanctions as soon as possible. what i'm hearing from diplomats is if there is progress, then there could be another meeting very soon. >> james thank you very much. there have been multiple bombings in several countries, as muslims celebrate one of their holiest festivals. this was the scene after a bomb blast at a sunni mosque in northern iraq, 12 people died as worshippers left the mosque after morning prayers. here in syria some of the injured are brought to a hospital in southern damascus.

bombers attacked a mosque just south of the capitol. and there has been an attack in the capitol's neighborhood. and to the north of damascus, assad made a rare public appearance to attend morning prayers. in afghanistan, meanwhile the governor of a province has been killed in an attack while addressing worshippers, from kabul jane ferguson reports. >> reporter: it was a dangerous job from the start. provincial governors have been targeted by the taliban many times before. this man has survived five previous attempts on his life. in 2008 he said he knew he was under threat but would never stop traveling. >> i did not reduce my travels

around. it is my job. sorry to travel, yes, but i have to travel more cautious. >> reporter: back then he was the governor of a province, and deputy campaign manager of president karzai's presidential lack shun campaign in 2009. he had only been the governor for six months when he was killed. on the first day of the eve holidays he attended prayers in the main mosque. >> translator: it was about 8:30 when he finished his speech and invited the governor to speak. while the governor was speaking, we heard a bang, and as a result he was killed. >> reporter: violence across afghanistan continues 12 years after the war began. it expands beyond military fighting to the deliberate killing of afghan officials. the state is being targeted, and

that means anyone who represents it. still ahead, one of the biggest chain of [ inaudible ] in the uk is accused of dodging billions in taxes. plus -- >> reporter: i'm in michigan where students are waiting to here if the highest court in the lust uphold a ban on affirmative action. and the dodgers fight their way back into the series. john will have all of the details coming up later in sports. oil giant chevron and ecuadorean villages are back in court in a million billion dollars legal battle. oil fields were operated by texaco which chevron bought in

2001. chevron denies any pollution, and today that texaco cleaned up the area. >> reporter: donald is an activist who gives so-called toxic tours. he digs a small well outside of a house in the amazon, and shows us the waste of oil drilling. he says it was dumped in a pit by texaco without proper safety measures. >> translator: why did they create this pit? why didn't they put the rescue in metal tanks like in the united states. >> reporter: this man lives in one of the homes. >> translator: our health have been effected. i'm sick, my bones ache, and my sons are ill.

>> reporter: she is one of 30,000 people that filed a class action suit against texaco. the company was told to pay $18 billion by an ecuadorean court. but chevron appealed and is accusing the team of mass fraud. >> translator: spilled oil on the roads, children with leukemia, all of these problems are chevrons now. >> reporter: chevron did not respond to al jazeera's interview request. the company has denied wrongdoing in ecuador, and claims the area was properly cleaned up. people here say the new trial means they may not get the damages. we're standing on top of an oil

reservoir, and it has actually gone solid, but it's pretty deep. about 3 meters or so. and as you can see there is oil everywhere, and the smell is really strong, and the whole place is like this. while the community awaits the verdict, many say the damage to the environment is done and hope the country bans drilling in the amazon rain forest once and for all. and we'll being to our correspondent in new york in just a few minutes as they trial is due to beginning in the us. typhoon nari came ashore with winds of up 130 kilometers per hour. heavy rains, flooding and landslides destroyed homes

across the region. okay. all right. as promised let's take you back now to new york. kathy are you there? >> reporter: yes, i am here. we are just a few minutes away now from starting the trial just to give you an idea of what we're expecting. this is day one of a trial that has been a long time coming. this is chevron against two plaintiffs who is representing thousands of those ecuadoreans. chef -- chevron wants that verdict to be decided to fraudulent and unenforceable. they are saying the attorney bribed a judge in the ecuadorean court which awarded those damages. and that he is guilty of fraud

and corruption. and the verdict should not stand. if the judge rules in chevron's favor, it may also cause problems for steven if he tries to get to another court to try to have this case reheard. >> and what do you think the outcome of this case and trial is likely to be kat? >> reporter: well it's almost predecided, because the judge has already made a number of rulings. firstly he has denied stephen and the ecuadoreans the chance of a verdict. the judge has already released a pretrial ruling, and he said that there is probable cause to suspect -- suspect some kind of fraud. the fabrication of scientific evidence, coercion of an

ecuadorean judge and the bribes of a ecuadorean judge. so that's pretty clear that he has a decision on what happened. and the lawyer him self says he is not confident either, he says the judge is heavily in favor of chevron. so this is really a test case for how the u.s. legal system can help this kind of behavior by the multi-nationals overseas, and it is seen as a david and goliath trial. >> kat turner reporting live from new york. let's start with typhoon nari, a final warning was issues

for the storm this morning. you can see it made its way into parts of vietnam. it is starting to fizzle out, but we saw very heavy rainfall. a little south 221 millimeters of rain in 24 hours. we are going to see strong winds now, but the kind of conditions we're talking about, as you were saying earlier, those winds got up to 130 kilometers per hour. the winds no longer a problem, the rains very much still a problem. this allows intricate parts of northern thailand. the wetter weather started to nudge its way a little further northward. and a typhoon making its way

towards japan again. that it make it to the east of tokyo in around nine or ten hours, so damaging winds and flooding rains over the next couple of days. a suspected senior al-qaeda figure captured in libya is due to appear in court. he is one of the world's most wanted terrorists, he is accused of master mining the bombings in kenya and trans-nia in 1995. a chain of chemists have been accused of dodging nearly $2 billion in taxes. this times at a time that the british financial system is facing huge financial pressures. >> reporter: for several years this company hasn't been british owned at all.

it was brought by private investors and its headquarters was set up in switzerland. they were designed to leave the private equity buyers with an enormous profit. that allows boots legally to avoid paying nearly $2 billion in tax inside the uk. >> we need to close down these great tax havens around the world to make sure companies like boots do pay the taxes they owe. some other multi-nationals like google have already been accused of tax avoidance. the differenrear is frp found ts gets a full 40% of its revenues from contracts to the national health service year.

and it is that that complainer -- campaigners find to questionable. the idea that these people could make money from a public health system that they are under no obligation to pay back into. with increasing public concern, hospitals simply can't cope because of lack of funding. the amount of unpaid tax was worth the same as the salaries of 78,000 nurses. >> money gets taken out of the nhs and into private profit, and we're very, very stretched. particularly nurses, and without nurses with the right level of qualifications the standard of care drops away massively.

>> reporter: boots said some of the findings were misleading . . . so we can extract and expose those who aren't paying their fair share. >> reporter: earlier this year the president say they closed down its tax loopholes. it's just at this time, tax avoidance is directly linked to the health of the nation. police in russia have named the man they say is responsible for stabbing to death a moscow resident on thursday. security has been stepped up following the violent riots.

our correspondent sent this update from moscow. >> the police in moscow have issued a photograph of the man they want to question in connection with the fatal stabbing. the police forces in moscow are out now around the mosque because of the celebration of the eve festival and the prayers. the police presence also been increased. residents in those areas say that the whole question of whether the police have been turning a blind eye, whether it had been taking bribes from illegal immigrants is really what sparked the protests, which was originally peaceful, but were taken over by violent nationalists. new laws are about to be passed,

tightening the restrictions and regulations concerning immigration, but of course, russia desperately needs immigrants. so the whole question is a very difficult one. italy's navy and coast guard have rescue 300 more migrants from the water. many rescued were from syria, airtria, and somalia. a bomb has exploded in a luxury hotel in myanmar. police say the bomb was a small homemade device with a timer. the motive for the bombing wasn't immediately clear, and no one has claimed responsibility. there have been several explosions around myanmar in

recent days, killing at least four people. the highest court in the united states is considering a ban on using race for enrollment. there are ongoing legal cases in michigan and california, but in other parts of the u.s., universities have a quota system for underrepresented groups. >> reporter: this is a 60s style civil rights freedom ride reborn. these high school students are rolling from detroit to the supreme court in washington to keep affirmative action alive. >> there are a lot of barriers here in america. >> reporter: in michigan universities can favor minorities, but by state law they can't give preferential

treatment to minorities. in 2005, michigan voters passed a constitution to ban affirmative action. >> somebody who is more qualified with grades or something like that, doesn't get a job or doesn't get accepted because somebody who is from a lower socioeconomic status, different area, different race, and i just don't think that is fair. >> reporter: the number of black and latino's students fell by a third since the law went into fact. the court has made it clear that universities can make race one factor they consider. now the u.s. supreme court will decide if voters can say no. >> i think it's a very tough case for the challengers to that provision because the -- the -- there's nothing in the constitution requiring a

state to engage in affirmative action, and the people of the state have simply said we don't want to do it. >> reporter: supporters of affirmative action say the law unfairly disables minorities. if the court upholds the ban that could encourage opponents of affirmative action to seek similar bans on campuses like this across the us. defending affirmative action is now harder than ever in a nation that has a black president. >> having a black president does not mean we live in a post-racial society. >> reporter: these modern day freedom riders are taking their case to the american people

outside. still ahead, south korea plans to stop cross cultural marriages from getting in to trouble. and in sports, england will be hoping history doesn't repeat itself as they try to qualify for next year's world cup. stay with us. we're back after the break.

welcome back. you are watching the news hour on al jazeera. a reminder of our top stories now. at least 93 people have died in

the philippines after a powerful earthquake struck the region. rescuers are still trying to reach people trapped under the rebel. multiple bombings have left several people dead. and iran says it is confident progress can made over a proposal for its nuclear program if there is goodwill from world leaders. iranian officials have presented a new plan to world leaders in geneva. the details haven't been made public yet. back to our top story of the earthquake in the philippines. tell us about the situation right now in the central philippines as you know it. how bad is it? >> the government has reported

that over 2 million people have been effected by this earthquake. some of them are forced to stay in evacuation centers. some are staying out in the open air because they are afraid of returning to their houses because of the risk of after shock, so they do have significant needs certainly in terms of shelter. we need to get them tents as soon as possible. the local authorities have been doing a very good job in terms of providing food, water, and other relief items, of course supplemented by the national government, but we need to increase the aid effort to them as soon as possible. >> the death toll is now at 93. do you expect that number to rise once areas that haven't been reached yet are reached? >> reporter: well, it could unfortunately well rise. indeed as you say it has been difficult to get access to some

of the areas. there has been damage to some bridges and some of the roads have been damaged, so when we get access to these areas, we may indeed find a dire situation. >> the people who managed to survive and escape from the buildings, where are they staying overnight tonight? are there shelters in place? what kind of help are they getting? >> they are getting help from the local authorities, but some of them are staying out in the open air, which is why we need to get emergency shelter to them as soon as possible. >> and there is the issue of power which has been cut off in many areas. do you have any information on how soon that will be reestablished? >> power has certainly been an impediment. it has obviously effected communications. we hope that will be restored as

soon as possible. the national government is providing a lot of support. they have accepted offers from us to support them in a joint needs assessment to get a better idea of what is needed in terms of shelter, camp management, items of food for these people. so we'll conduct a more in-depth assessment. >> all right. thank you very much much to take time to talk to us. >> thank you. now returning to iran now, which has put forward as we mentioned a new proposal on its nuclear program to world leaders in geneva. rosalyn jordan reports from washington on what is at steak.

>> reporter: it has been six months since iran and the p-5 plus one nations last met to discuss iran's suspected nuclear program. this time the obama administration heads to geneva. >> i think if there is an actual deal that diminished iran's steps toward nuclear weapons, i think this is a important step forward. >> reporter: the new president says this issue can be solved within six months. >> we have made it clear to iran that they can have a peaceful nuclear program as they meet the requirements of the international community. >> reporter: for starters, the u.s. and other members of the

p-5 plus one want iran to do the following . . . in exchange the p5 plus 1 has promised to impose no new sanctions and ease restrictions on iran's oil industry. >> they have to deliver something for the iranians, because on the iranian's side there are huge expectations. >> reporter: is there a long-term benefit to the u.s.'s efforts? >> if we are able to establish some area of trust, there are a number of areas, syria being one of them, where we could see it producing benefits for the u.s. and iran.

>> reporter: the americans also need to take into consider the allies. israel's prime minister recently made it clear he does not trust iran's public relations campaign. >> iran wants to be in a position to rush forward to build nuclear bombs before the international community can detect it and prevent it. millions of people around the world are celebrating the muslim holiday. in indonesia many gathered to pray and mark the day of sacrifice. it marks the end of the harsh muslim pilgrimage. in the philippines the muslim leaders held prayer in a park.

many syrian refugees are kinding themselves far from home and family this eeds. >> reporter: the syrian conflict has torn families apart. many of these children haven't seen their fathers for months. this 12 year old came from the countryside, and when they found out we were doing this telecast, she asked to be on television so her father can see her. these children are traumatized. they want norm alives, but they are too scared to return now. this man, i spoke to him, and he just wants a political solution

to this crisis, any solution, because he no longer can afford to feed his children here. lebanon hosts the largest number of refugees this country can't cope, and these people celebrating ede away from their families and homes with barely enough money to buy new clothes. sinigal is making sweeping changes to their health care system. but some say the measures don't go far enough. >> reporter: protecting a child from harm starts here. in this hut is a healer. they call him a [ inaudible ]. he is believed to have healing skills that no doctor or nurse can match. >> translator: the spirits gave me this gift. doctors treat, but i heal, and i

never get it wrong. >> reporter: this woman's five year old son is at home suffering from a fever. he has no doubt an evil spirit is making her sick. >> translator: we gives me natural remedies. it's no different than what you get in a pill, except seeing a doctor is more expensive. >> reporter: in a country where most earn less than $2 a day, spending a dollar to see a doctor is not an option. so to encourage mothers to bring their sick children to hospital, the government is offering free health insurance for everyone under five years of age. emergency care, vacations and doctors visits are now all paid for by the state.

>> translator: without a proper health care system, the country cannot develop. so it's extremely important that we move to universal health care by 2014. >> reporter: the government is subsidizing health care insurance. the state is spending $10 million to fund this reform. >> translator: the state needs to put in more money. politicians need to explain why getting health insurance is in people's interests. >> reporter: i asked if he fears this could push him out of business? but he doesn't seem worried. we believes health care reforms are also governed by spirit. south korea is introducing new rules for its citizens who

want to marry foreigners. the regulations come from tackling some problems that tackle cross cultural problems. >> reporter: this woman came to south korea from the philippines. 14 years later, theirs is one of 270,000 multi-cultural families. these marriages often run into trouble over language, money, gaps in age and culture. >> for me it is very ditch cult because of the tradition r tradition. because korean tradition and philippinian tradition is very different. because korean they say man is heaven and then woman is land >> reporter: she says her marriage has flourished. now there is a program to help

meet expectations of husbands and in-laws. next year a foreign spouse will have to be able to speak a minimum level of korean, and the spouse will have to have a minimum level of income. but they say that won't address the issue of marriage brokers. >> translator: the government thinks such strict regular laces will prevent brokers from setting up marriages recklessly. >> reporter: the wider challenge is tackling discrimination against multi-cultural couples and their children. mixed race koreans have to move team every three years, to prevent any one time getting an unfair advantage. >> when they first told me about

it, i was definitely bothered and upset. because being half black and half korean i have been through a lot of prejudice. i hope the best for my son, being here where it's a culture that doesn't know much about other nationalities, and i just hope the best for him. >> reporter: in a country who's racial makeup is gradually changing, it's attitude will have to keep pace. coming up, we're counting down to what could be a dramatic night of qualifying for the 2014 world cup. and a hero of african football dies after a long battle with cancer. my name is ranjani chakraborty,

♪ two turkish pilots held hostage in lebanon since august have appeared in good health in a videotape shown on lebanese television. they were kidnapped on august 9th. the abductors have been demanding the release of shiite rebels that have been held since last year. the winner of this year's booker prize is to be announced in just a few hours. whoever wins is likely to choose what types of book people read. past winners include life of pi, and the english patient.

>> reporter: the quiet interior of a london book shop. readers deciding what to pick. whichever wins this prize may greatly influence that. judges have one year to get through the dozens of novels in the running, while competing to become a worldwide success. this author knows how tough the competition gets. >> for any writer, i think that idea of having an audience and an audience who maybe wouldn't read it otherwise is terribly important, and that's what it does. it's -- it's one way of drawing the public's attention to a book, and the public may or may not like it, but at least they may pick it up and look at it, and that's important to me. >> reporter: past winners include the life of pi, and the

english patient. both films successes at the box office. until now it has only been open to contenders from the british commonwealth. >> for the first time ever, only one of the short listed authors actually lives in england. the rest are scattered all around the world. not only are they scattered all around the world, but the books themselves are talking about different countries all around the world. it's very, very exciting. >> reporter: this may be the most diverse selection in years. but now that the man book of prize is being opened to all english-speaking novelists, some are wary that authors from the u.s. will eclipse those from other areas. that may not be all bad for a prize that already enjoys an international perspective. >> british and commonwealth

authors are not at a disadvantage. it's hard to argue with the fact that in the english-speaking world, we live now in a really international literary culture. it is a goble culture. those divisions -- the division of the ocean, is much less important, i think, than it used to be. >> reporter: a reflection of a literary world that is crossing the boundaries. time now for sports. here is joe. >> thank you so much. european football fans are preparing for what could be a night of drama. as richard reports, there are some big teams at risk of having a longer reach to brazil via the playoffs. >> reporter: in 1973 england was denied a world cup place by poland.

if roy's team fail to win a wimbl wimbley, the ukraine is likely to take the spot. >> i still feel the tension and -- and feel the focus of this is a game we want to win. i don't know that i should be particularly satisfied if we don't win and know we have playoffs. >> reporter: fabio lead england to the last world cup and is in the process of doing the same thing with russia in group f. >> translator: it's too early to relax. there is just a little left, and then we can celebrate. >> reporter: [ inaudible ] could reach the finals for the very first time. they head into their last group g game in lithuania.

they have an advantage of 17 in goal difference over the greeks who host lick tin stein. >> translator: we will be very positive like we always are, but we have to be ready for all circumstances, in some situations often we let in a goal before we score one. >> reporter: it is unlikely that world champion spain will goose to georgia. well that england-poland game is as much about reaching the world cup as fans bragging reports. >> reporter: there will be a 90,000 full house at wembley for this last world cup qualifier, and a lot of the talk is about how many tickets will be for

polish supporters. the allocation is usually 9,000 tickets for away supporters, and it has been abled to 18,000. and they have decided to do that for security reasons meaning there is less chance of polish supporters trying to get in the english sections of the crowd. but it's simple equation, if england win, they are through to brazil next year, anything less than that it opens the door to ukraine. meaning england would go into a playoff. when poland famously came to wimbley in the past, they got a 1-1 goal. and england failed to reach the world cup finals. poland did go to the final and finished third. this time around they are going playing to be the spoilers for england's party.

two more teams can qualify automatically, and a fifth will go into intercontinental playoff. fifth place uruguay look to be searching for a playoff spot. cost rica and the usa are already assured of their places in the world cup, so there's just one more automatic place up for grabs. honduras is in a match with jamaica. if they beat costa rica, they may be able to go straight to the finals. egypt will look to maintain their 100% record in african qualifying as they take on ghana. ghana have scored an incredible

13 goals at home and conceded only once during the first round of qualifiers. it is still unclear whether the return leg will be played in cairo with authorities having requested the match will moved because of security concerns. former football coach who famously lead the team to the 2002 world cup quarter finals has died. he has been battling cancer since stepping down of the [ inaudible ] team. he shot to international fame in the opening game of the 2002 world cup, and went on to reach the last stage of the tournament for the first time in their history. in major league baseball, the dodgers have cut the st. louis cardinal's lead. a loss would have seen st. louis take a 3-0 lead. but 7 scoreless innings made sure that didn't happen.

l.a. were also 3-1 winners. l.a. now trail the series 2-1 but can level things later on tuesday in game 4. it's day two of the first taste between pakistan and south africa. reaching a century, he remains unbeaten. in english race car driver has been killed in a crash in australia. he was a passenger in a car when it hit the barrier and burst into flames. the driver survived the accident but remains in critical condition in hospital. that's the sport for now. thank you very much indeed. china is marking ten years since

it first sent a human into space. they plan to land a man on the moon and more. >> reporter: it was the epic mission that immortalized the name, china's first spaceman. orbiting the earth 14 times, he was the trail blazer. in the ten years since then there have been a total of ten, two of them women. for the whole country the space program is a source of national pride, evidence of a country bringing it's a out of poverty, and towards technological advancement. compares are made with the american and russian space programs. the consensus among the experts seems to be so far so good. >> they don't want to move too quickly. they probably could have moved

faster given the experiences of what the russians and americans have done, but they prefer to do it steadily just to avoid possible problems or errors, so i think that's a good thing. >> reporter: plans are already well advanced for putting the first chinese man or woman on the surface of the moon. talk of such moon shots seem somewhat old fashioned coming on the heels of the americans and russians missions. still the first chinese manned mission ten years ago made it only the third nation on the planet to put a human being into space. and while their space program is forging ahead, nasa is largely grounded on account of the u.s. government shutdown.

more news coming up on al jazeera. do stay with us. ♪

[[voiceover]] every day, events sweep across our country. and with them, a storm of views. how can you fully understand the impact unless you've heard angles you hadn't considered? antonio mora brings you smart conversation that challenges the status quo with unexpected opinions and a fresh outlook. including yours.

this is al jazeera america coming to you live from new york city. i'm del walters with a look at today's top stories. a suspect in the deadly bombings of those two u.s. embassies is to be arraigned today in new york city court. he is facing federal charges for his aledged role in the bombings in 1998. the government shutdown nearing its deadline. senate leaders move closer to raising the debt ceiling and ending the government shutdown. police in london are confirming the arrest of four suec