. . welcome to al jazeera america. i'm richelle carey. here are stories we are following. a deadly blast rocks the suburb of damascus, killing a dozen soldiers. >> a nationwide manhunt for two killers who walked free from a florida prison thanks to forged documents. >> six months of talks stalled - workers off the job in san francisco - stranding thousands. [ ♪ theme ] >> fighting and bloodshed again in syria despite the presence of

international weapons inspectors. an explosion outside damascus left 16 government soldiers dead and several others wounded. the bombing happened after syrian rebels freed a group of hostages who had been held captive. we have this report from the syrian border. >> a joint assault against a government complex south of the capital damascus. that's an army complex south of damascus. according to an activist group, the attack started with a suicide car bomber, and then it followed by heavy clashes. according to an activist group, at least 31 people from the two sides - that's 16 soldiers and is a rebels - were killed in the attack. now, the importance of this complex, that rebels for

six months have been trying to storm it because it will give them a vantage point over some government and military bases within the capital, damascus. >> chemical weapons inspectors report progress, saying they have checked 14 of more than 20 sites on the list. footage of inspectors checking a sight has been released. inspectors have nine month tos find and destroy all of syria's chemical weapons. >> the manhunt for two convicted killers continue. authorities are looking for the men. it happened in the flord institution in the panhandle and is 300 miles south in orlando. >> police say these are the most recent photos of joseph jenkins and charles walker - taken days after the convicted murderers

used forged documents to get out of prison. they posed for the pictures. after they got out they reported to the sheriff's department orlando, the area where they committed their crimes. they registered as felons, possibly to seem less suspicious. the sheriff says there's reason to believe the fugitives are there. >> certainly this is frustrating to all of us who work in the system. it's frustrating to me as a law enforcement officer. these individuals murdered individuals in this community. we want to bring them back to justice. >> walker and jenkins have been serving life sentences about 300 miles away at the franklin correctional institution. someone faked a judge's signature to help them get out. the judge was impressed. >> i have never seen anything like this. you have to give them "a" for being imaginative. >> while the search goes on, the state is investigating the escape. one obvious question - whether it was an inside job.

>> the key here is they had an insider. they had a person at the courthouse that was able to take the document and slip it into the paperwork chain. it opens a question that they could have had things slipped in for years. >> florida corrections officials are adding extra checks to prevent a repeat. they are facing tough questions about how the system let two men, who were never meant to go free, walk out of the prison in front of everyone >> they'll be fighting at the alamo, testing the limits of the gun laws. texans are not allowed to openly carry hand guns, but it doesn't ply to long guns for rivals. we go to the rally. that's a sizeable crowd behind you there at the alamo. what is happening? . >> you are right. this is a big crowd. several hundred demonstrators

are here supporting gun rights. you can see the weapons slung on people's shoulders. we are seeing assault rifles, semiautomatic weapons, anything that is qualifying as a long gun. i should mention too, that these weapons are loaded. they do not have bullets in the chamber. it's a safety precaution that organisers of the rally asked the demonstrators. they say the purpose is not to scare folks off, rather it's to normalise the sight of the guns in public. as you mentioned, texas law says you can carry a loaded long gun in public legally. the rules that we have the licence or you have to have a concealed weapon applies only to pistols. we asked the organisers here, though, is it accomplishing their purpose at the alamo on

saturday - fill the with tourists and children. a sight like this can be alarming, especially in the wake of the sandy hook shooting. listen to what the organisers said in response. >> the media is good at talking about how guns kill people. we want to show that guns don't kill people. if more people openly carry firearms, and people can see that these things like sandy are abnormality. >> here, too, they are trying to test the bounds of the local municipal ordnance. in san antonio there's a city code that says you can't carry a loaded weapon displayed in public. organisers say that is a conflict the state law and, in fact, san antonio's city council for the day suspended enforcement of that ord nans in an effort to keep this a

peaceful demonstration. >> and i assume so far it has been peaceful. i imagine there has to be a police presence when we talk about that many weapons in one place. >> sure. it's hard to hear your question. if you are asking about people protesting the rally, they demand action - a group that has been around since sandy hook. they are staging that protest. it's a family-friendly event. they are pro-gun, against event like this. later we'll talk to those folks as well. >> heidi, i know it's difficult. that's not what i asked but it's a great point. i'm glad you pointed that out. what i did ask was about a police presence there. >> sure, you can see that there are texas rangers. there are police officers here.

we know the rally has been on the city's radar for weeks and they've been preparing for it. it's a tricky subject for them. part of the project targets the police chief of san antonio as a person they are trying to get the message across to. the department arrested three men carrying guns in public. the organisers say the arrest was illegal, prompting the rally here >> it will be an interesting day. thank you so much. >> no deal in san francisco, that means hundreds of thousands of commuters are without a ride. the union for bart public rail system went on strike friday for the second time. lisa bernard joins us from san francisco. lisa, this is a city where a lot of people depend on public transit.

what is the latest you can tell us? >> the latest i can tell you is no progress with the negotiations. the bay bridge is one of the only way s to get into the city and a boat across the bay. the trains are not running. stations are locked. people have to find other way tos get in. yesterday morning commuters had to wake up early to get on ferries, bus, get into the car. this morning still the same case. we spoke to a woman who had to take a cab to get 10 miles to san francisco for her job as a nanny. she is essentially irritated, as are so many others, that the two sides cannot yet reach a compromise. >> people need to go to work. people couldn't go to work.

i saw the traffic. they can't move, the cars, across to the top of the other one. it doesn't make sense. >> commuters and business owners are among those with no patience for the strike. it is costing them money. they are struggling to understand what the two sides are -- why the two sides are far apart. they agreed on wages and benefits and what it comes down to know is work rules - items such as electronic pay stubs, overtime hours and scheduling. the two cannot reach an agreement. the region is losing patience. we had a 4-day strike in july. it cost about $73 million a day to the region. commuters are simply fed up. they are looking for a solution as quickly as possible. >> lisa, it sounds like it

amounts to the fact that people are paying to stay employed because they have to get to their job to keep their job and are spending money on transportation. you can understand their frustration. >> that's right. a woman had to pay a cab to get to her job as a nanny. she would have had a monthly pass on the bart change. she shared a story about a friend in oatland that couldn't get to work in the city, perhaps into the week as well, because there's no other way to get into the city. the cost is great. it's affecting small businesses and people independently employed, as well as the larger businesses. as someone told me yesterday, an expert. it's a true regional transportation emergency >> that we hope is solved soon. great wrap-up. thank you, live from san

francisco. >> pulled from a bus in front of classmates and ordered back to her native country. what a kosovo deep is saying to the french president. taking legal action months after a teenager was killed after the plane she was on crashed in san francisco.

. welcome back. same-sex couples are filing applications and many plan to be married sunday. friday's new jersey's highest court ruled the state must allow same-sex marriage. chris christie says he will comply. new jersey is the 14th state to allow same-sex marriage. >> a second arrest in relation to the dried ice explosion.

a ground service employee was arrested at lax. he was a supervisor for the first employee arrested last week for the same incident. the device was planted out of personal court ofty. >> the family of a 16-year-old girl killed after surviving a plane crash is planning legal action, according to their attorney. the teen was run over by an emergency vehicle responding to the asiana airlines crash in july. the firefighter who struck and killed her will not face criminal charges. >> a 15-year-old girl who was arrested in france and deported, along with her family, is being told she can return to the company. france's president says the rest of the family cannot join her. al jazeera's tim friend tells us what the teen said. >> the latest development marks a twist in an extraordinary week in paris. a local incident where a young 15-year-old schoolgirl was

detained on a school trip in front of her classmates. there was outrage. this local issue became a national controversy. it's ended saturday with a meeting, discussions between the interior minister who returned early from an overseas trip, the president himself, and the prime minister. they came up with a compromise. they are going to offer leonardo debrany the chance to come back to france, but not her family. she doesn't want that, she wants to come back with all of her family, and her father described that as a kat as strofy. the problems are not over for francis hollande, and not least because we herd from the leader of his socialist party, who says he supports the idea of all of the family, apart from the father, being allowed to return to france. just to set this briefly into context. what happened here in france in

recent months is that the far right have been making gains, calling for tougher immigration laws, and, of course, on the left you have people who are outraged by the way in which this young girl, school girl, was treated by the police, even though the asylum denial was perfectly proper and legal. so they are the two arguments on either side, if you like, that president holland is caught between. >> tim friend reporting there. >> it's expected to be a busy weekend at the nation's popular parks and monuments. this is the first weekend they've been open since the government reopened. we talk to tourists in louisiana. >> these folks fought for basically our freedom. >> jeff schulz travelled 1200 miles from minnesota to louisiana to see the spot where the war of 1812 ended.

it's an historic park. >> all of our plans revolved around coming to the battlefield and seeing the park and the mon u elements. he earringly awaited the chalmett battlefield trip. >> a major part of our trip was gone. we were going to have to restructure what we were going to do. >> after the government reopened rangers went to work cutting grass and people poured on to the grounds. >> everyone is saying, you know we are glad you are open and here. >> i'm glad that i'm here. >> people come here to see where american troops won the victory over the british in the battle of new orleans. for hard core buffs this is not a roadside attraction. >> jeff and teresa krill spent six months planning their trip. >> i love history, i went to a lot of civil war battle fields, trying to learn about the war of

1812. >> it anningers me that the government can shut down what matters. >> they were able to take the tour. >> it's a shame the american people were deprived from visiting their historic sites during government bickering >> for that greg krill hopes all americans have learnt from the past - even the recent past. >> standard & poor's estimates the shutdown took $24 billion out of the economy. tourism is a huge part of that. after a tough summer of wildfires in the u.s., australia is battling 68 fires of their own - all burning near sydney. fire officials say these are severe outbreaks, and they have started earlier than they have in the past. so far the fires destroyed about 200 homes and damaged another

100. more damage is expected with conditions described as dire by the firefighters. >> we are going to stay on the drier side here in australia where the fire danger is high here along coast at areas of new south wales, where most of the fires have been concentrated. we are really not going to see additional moisture brought into the area until about tuesday. aside from that high pressure dominated. it will build in. as it moves inland, we'll see the moisture returning as we see a southerly flow, increasing the chance of rain in the days to come. over the next 48 hours isolated spotty showers are expected, and the breezy winds will continue. elsewhere tracking supertifon francis - it looks like it's on the same path as typhoon wipha as it makes its way to japan. there's time to track it.

it looks like it will continue to make its way further north, carving up towards japan. there's a possibility that we could see strengthening. now it is equivalent to a category 5 hurricane. we'll continue to watch that. closer to home - quiet and dry over the western u.s. i'm tracking not one, but two frontal boundaries moving to the east. it's spreading rain through parts of the ohio valley. watching rain and thunder storm activity. the rain has been heavier and concentrated. showers in mississippi, pushing into alabama and we'll see wet conditions as we head to the remainder of the afternoon. lighter showers inland. elsewhere light and dry. it will be a chilly night as temperatures drop behind the front. >> a water shortage in zimbabwe is more severe.

in fact, the capital is on the verge of becoming a city without water. >> this is neither a lab nor a recycling factory. it's a kitchen in harrary, the capital. it looks like this because water is in short supply. for peter and his family huge water bills made matters worse. tackling the water crisis was a campaign promise of the government. the city council wiped off dues, but also decided to disconnect residents who were not paying bills after july. many can't make the full payments. >> they came in and disconnected my water. after i paid $50 from $80. >> it's a chronic crisis for harrary, a cash-starved city council facing challenges. infrastructure and lack of capacity means it can barely meet half of the city's required

water needs. a lack of revenue is a key problem. >> people who do not want to settle their bills in time or settle them at all. so if there's one of those policies that we use, that if we can have them pay up now so that we ensure flawless delivery. >> no funds mean they can't run old treatment plants like this. solutions like $144 million loan are not working, from a chinese bank. residents will endure three years of short ages as the city decommissions plants. >> we go for days without water supply. when it comes back it's dirty. people fall sick. >> >> translation: water in warren park is annish u. we go for days without water and

can't clean nappies for children. >> three-quarters of the population is unemployed, it is impossible for many to afford to pay for water. a necessity that is transformed into a luxury. >> making history - more than 100 years later an iconic treasure from the doomed "titanic' sells. >> how the art community is putting africa on the map.

. a deadly blast rocks syria and an explosion in damascus leads to 16 government soldiers dead - several others were injured. the bombing happened shortly after syrian rebels freed a group of hostages held captive for more than a year. a nationwide man hunt continues for two killers released from prison by mistake. both were serving life sentences. the fugitives are hiding out in

the orlando area. >> london is playing host to the world's contemporary fair. barnaby phillips reports on the exhibit and the challenging perception of art from africa. >> from zimbabwe a take on michael angelo's artwork. from mozambique sculptures made from guns and bullets used during the civil war. destructive weapons treated with humour and irony. photographs celebrating the dandes and hare styles of nij earia. brought together thanks to this woman. with 54 countries in africa is there such a thing as african art. >> influences are different. there's religion, tradition, but there are energy and this is what you can see on the wall.

there's no theme like what is surprising for all the people. it's the diversity of it. european history and african culture intertwined. >> ideas are merged from african and british history into her sculptures. they feel african art is sold too cheaply compared to europe or america. >> it's probably done a lot more for some of our white contemporaries that are more successful. we have an african tag. i think people are shy of looking at what we do. >> the fair has been busy. people have been buying, which, after all is what it's all about. although much of the art is new, is this the same old story of wealthy europeans taking the best from africa.

most contemporary african art is brought by collectors, it is changing fast. dealers tell us that more and more wealthy collectors from countries like ghana, angola and nigeria are investing in their own country's art. for years african sculptures are taking objects and transforming them into art. their skill and that of painters and photographers is getting recognition. at home and here in london where the organisers hope that this fair will become an annual event. >> the fair is titled 154, representing 54 african countries. sold, and for a record surprise, a violin played to calm passengers on the deck of the sinking "titanic" sold at auction. the owner drowned along with 15

either. it took seven years for experts to authenticate the implement. "inside story' is next. washington and trust in congress plummets, a look at the millennial generation. 95 million strong and ready to change everything. that is tonight's inside story. >> hello everybody, i'm david shuster. the government shutdown and the fight over the debt ceiling last the 16 days and the poll shows americans did not like what they saw. republicans are taking a hit, but so are democrats and