german chancellor angela merkel tells president obama spying on her and her country is fool i up acceptable. staunch u.s. ally is among of numbeagrowing number complainino the u.s. tough questions during a congressional hearing. a new trial for a kennedy cousin a judge gives him another chance at freedom in the case of 1975 murder of his neighbor mar that mockly. new hope in the battle against breast cancer a promising new drug that treats one of the most aggressive forms of the deadly disease. ♪

♪ welcome to al jazerra america. am stephanie sy. president obama is once again trying to contain diplomatic fallout over the nsa spying program. new allegations have emerged the agency may have tapped the german chancellor's phone and listened in on private conversations. angela merkel told president obama if the allegations are true, it would be a grave breach of trust between the u.s. and germany. ellen fisher has more. >> reporter: the german government has have been pretty sure something went ongoing public with allegations that the american spied on angela merkel's mobile phone. a spokesman for the german leader described the idea as completely unacceptable. the chancellor herself called the white house, that brought this response. >> i can tell thought president assured the chancellor this the united states is not mourn touring and will not mon the

communications of the chancellor. >> reporter: listen to that denial again. >> i can tell that you the president assured the chancellor that the united states is not monitoring the communications of the chancellor. >> reporter: missing are the words have not, did not. when al jazerra asked if it was something that happened in the past the national security council spokeswomen repeated the line. then added. >> reporter: the german claim comes just days after the french accused the american spy agency the nsa of hacking diplomats computers and recording data from 70 million calls in france over a 30-day period. just after edward snowden revealed the size of the u.s. spying program, barack obama made a foreign trip where he was asked about the extent of operations a broad. he was in berlin. standing in effect to angela merkel. >> this is not a situation in which we are rifling through, you know, the ordinary e-mails

of german citizens or american citizens or french citizens or anybody else. >> reporter: so now the germans join the french, the mexicans and the brazilians among others who have been upset by a edge haded u.s. spying. u.s. officials have started a review of how and what ised because of growing international ainge, he allen misher al jazerra washington. >> angela merkel is calling on the on american to qualifying the extent of their spying. they are scheduled to testify before a house committee. health and human services secretary kathleen don't draw fire for her handling of the website's rocky roll out. white house correspondent mike viqueira has a look ahead. >> reporter: the problems and the controversy continue around that healthcare.gov website the disfunk they blamed on volume

but now admit there are problems in the way the sof software was engineered. they promise 24/7 help. a tech surgeon side and outside of the government. on wednesday the white house hosted the ceos of many major insurance companies trying to keep them abreast of how they are recognize at this flying the problems. republicans in congress as a whole are jumping all over the president and the website coming off that shutdown show down that they lost trying to regain the political momentum. >> the roll out of obama care is nothing short i've debacle. and the american people are now fearful of their health care. >> reporter: meanwhile here at the white house the president's spokesman jay carney says everything that can be done is being done to try to get that website up and running smoothly. >> we have launched this all-out effort, 24/7, with a tech surge of experts, new eyes and ears coming in to assist the existing

team to identify and isolate each problem, that exists with the functionality of the website. assess what the best solutions are to creating a remedy for that specific problem. and then applying it, whether it's increasing server capacity or writing new code to work around a situation. >> reporter: and on thursday, the first in what promises to be a series of congressional hearings in to just what went wrong with the website many of the architects, outside contractors who wrote the code and designed the website will be on the hot seat. back to you. >> thanks, mike viqueira reporting from washington. in a sign of easing tensions president obama and pakistan's prime minister met for talks in washington. one of the main issues to come up the american use of deadly drone strikes in pakistan. patty has more. >> it's a great pleasure -- >> reporter: the usual words of friendship, cooperation and commitment often pledgeed in the

oval offers but this meeting and handshake could symbolize much more. pakistan and the u.s. had barely been on speaking terms since the unannounced raid that killed o*eub in pakistan more than two years ago. and nato killed 24 pakistani troops. that led to roads being closed. u.s. aid being cut off. but the traffic and the aid now flowing again. but it was evidence in this meeting that there is still a huge source of tension, u.s. drone strikes. >> i brought up drones in our meeting. fa emphasizing an end to the strikes. 67 the president didn't talk about the drone strikes but when the pakistan president talked to al jazerra, he said they talked about it behind the scenes. >> they said evansto evan inninw they have tapered off. once the remaining few targets

are met. >> reporter: he wouldn't tell sp*el out exactly what promises were made but experts say with the deadline quickly approaching for u.s. troops to leave afghanistan, both countries have little choice but to try to find a solution. for the u.s., it's all about security. >> sits afghanistan and pakistan's help in reconciliation, it's counter terrorism both within pakistan and groups that are operating across the region, but using pakistani soil. it's the pakistani nuclear weapons and their safety and security. and then, of course, it's overall stability in pakistan which means some economic help. >> reporter: but the u.s. aid he's that's been promised each year has been on a steady decline in 2010, 4.5 billion, then 3.6 billion the next year 2.6 billion, could total eventually 1.5 billion this year and just 975 million is pledged no frequent year. pack between needs not just aid but trade and help with

development ex-specially it's energy sector if their economy i can recover and foreign investments return. this may mark a new beginning for two countries with a complicated relationship. sometimes allies, occasionally angry but both know they need each other. >> in their first fairs for face meeting they discussed afghanistan's fewer and security of pakistan's growing nuclear arsenal. the city of detroit? federal court attempting to move ahead with what could be the largest municipal bankruptcy in u.s. history. currents and retired workers are trying to block the move in order to protect retirement benefits. they say the city did not negotiate in good faith before going ahead with its bankruptcy filing. detroit is now 18 and a half billion dollars in debt. s firefighters say of australia's massive bush fires are subsiding for now. temperatures have unexpectedly

dropped. more than 64 fires are still burn, many of them are still not contained. al jazerra's jonathan has more from new south wales. >> reporter: expected to have cooler temperatures with a little bit less of wind gusts over the next few days. by then again next week they are expecting the high temperatures and winds to return again. thethere also appears we may hae had our secretary fa fatality de to the fires. a private water bomber crashed. apparently only one person was aboard. and there are early reports that a wing may have snapped off on that plane before it went down. it's taken place in very rugged terrain so emergency crews are having a difficult time getting to it. certainly the rural fire service isn't saying anything publicly but if body language is anything the chief looked very angry when the results came out and they said perhaps life ordinance firing had caused what is now the largest fire to have burned here in the lithgow area, the

fire was much more difficult to control at the very outset being on the army base and live ordinance says there fir firefighters were concerned for their safety before they went in to fight the fire and it could have caused the fire to be more serious than it was. >> ♪ ♪ >> meteorologist: hello again, well it is going to be cold this morning for many people up in the northeast as well as across the ohio river valley that is because the polar air mass that has come down from canada is really just slowly moving up here towards the east. so let's take a look at all of those rain showers turning it to show news into isnow showers ove locations syracuse eight to 12-inches of snow coming off lake ontario. up towards the northwest, it's a completely different story. we have been talking about the

great air that's been happening over the last couple days, that's all bus because of high pressure dominating. now this is a satellite image and there are no clouds to be seen across the region, so all of these cities here are going to be quite nice even seattle. we are going to be seeing 60 digress, sin, partly cloudy conditions as we go past the weekend, though, more clouds coming in to play. and those temperatures are going to be more in to the high 50s for you there. now down towards the southwest, more of the same. the same high pressure is dominating. a few clouds coming in off the pacific but that's real notice cause anything rain showers at all. los angeles you look like this, 72 degrees is going to be high today, on thursday maybe going up to about 82 by the time we get towards saturday. now, if you want some very warm weather, it is going to be here across the central regions of the united states. texas is going to be in the 80s, look at these temperatures as we go towards today. dallas at 80, san antonio 82. and those temperatures for dallas, though, are going to be dropping off on friday down to

71, and maybe coming back up to 79 as we go towards the weekend and beautiful weather for parts of atlanta but rain down towards miami. ray senior level white house official getting the ax, how his tweets landed him in serious hot water. a new twist in the conviction of kenny cousin michael scaringal for the murder of his neighbor 30 years ago. why a judge is ordering a new trial. a 14-year-old massachusetts student facing murder charges accuse asked of killing his teacher. news stories? >> they share it on the stream. >> social media isn't an after-thought, it drives discussion across america. >> al jazeera america's social media community, on tv and online. >> this is your outlet for those conversations. >> post, upload and interact. >> every night share undiscovered stories.

al jazeera america - a new voice in american journalism - >> introduces america tonight. >> in egypt, police fired teargas at supporters of the ... >> a fresh take on the stories that connect to you. [[voiceover]] they risk never returning to the united states. >> grounded. >> real. >> unconventional. [[voiceover]] we spent time with some members of the gangster disciples. >> an escape from the expected. >> i'm a cancer survivor. not only cancer, but brain cancer. america tonight 9 eastern on al jazeera america a white house staffer with high level security clearance has been fired because of his twitter habit using an online alias took pot shots at the obama administration and others. >> reporter: he was director of nuclear nonproliferation issues at the national scurry council

working on need to know issues like nuclear talks with iran for more than two years he had a secret persona. he took shots at those in the administration. this tweet, i am a fan of obama, but his continuing reu lines an: >> valerie jarrett is one of the president's most trusted ad vosors. another tweet swiped at u.s. ambassador to the united nations samantha powers use of twitter: >> he portrayed himself as saying the things that were on people's minds that they were too afraid to say. and certainly some of that was the case. but that was also mixed with a lot of things that people would not say because they were incredibly rude or just misguided. >> reporter: his covert communications offered daily incite the intimate workings of

the government. now fired his twitter account has been taken down. >> i think it's important to know that unless you have an authorized official twitter account or social media account, as some of us do, the white house employees are not able to access social media sites like that. for -- at all. obviously for personal use. you can't go on twitter and sign up for an account unless it's authorized. >> reporter: joseph was quoted by politicos as saying: >> reporter: one social media expert i spoke with says this incident may send a warn to go washington employees, who may want to think twice before they tweet. al jazerra, new york. >> the hazards of tweeting.

on his twitter site joseph described his online alterego in simple terms writing i am a braising and i bring the snark. lawyers for boston bombing suspect may try to save him from the death penalty by blame is his brother, against attorneys are trying to gain access to investigative records that implicate these brother in a grizzly 2011 triple murder. the move could help the defense prove that he was under the influence of his older brother at the time of the marathon bombings. a connecticut judge has order aid retrial for kennedy cousin michael skakel who was convicted of murder in 2002. skakel is serving 20 years for the death of his neighbor martha mockly wok in 1975 when they were both teenagers. skakel was arrested and tried for the crime at 25 years after her murder. judge granted skakel a retrial saying his lawyer did not provide adequate representation, his new attorney has failed a motion to have him released from prison on bail.

a 14-year-old boston student has been arraigned after allegedly killing a popular math teacher at his school. a vigil was held wednesday night for the teacher. her body was found in the woods behind the school. a day after she was reported missing. the student philip, is being tried as an adult. officials said the two knew each other but have not released a motive. in nevada they are remembering teacher ike mic the lansbury the former marine was killed when a seve seventh gradr opened fire. two students were shot and their parents spoke out on wednesday saying they don't believe their sons were specifically targeted. the shoot are a 12-year-old died when he turned the gone tkpw*pb ogun onhimself. the question of how to take care of refugees, south certain european countries are expected to ask for help in resource to his handle the crisis. simon spent time with the coast guard in italy.

>> reporter: he has 75 men and seven vessels you remembered had i command. two of these restless would you boats with eight crew members each are on permanent stand by to rescue the next my grant boat in trouble. today it's routine, it always always like this. we are close to the spot where on october 3rd a boat carrying 500 migrants sank. and this coast guard mess sr*es and this crew were the first to arrive at the scene and many of the men on board here are haunted by memories of what they saw. 340 drowned, they pulled a few from the sea. it was the worst thing they have seen. >> after we think the people rescued, the people found dead. we found also a lot of child dead. all of us also fathers.

>> reporter: migrants have been trying to reach these shores for years, but the sheer volume is overwhelming. 33,683 migrants are entered italy so far this years 13,075 of them have come via this. all but 500 of those have needed help from the coast guard. despite the stress of this job, the common can't doesn't play the migrants he tells us what the father of one migrant family told him. >> i have to decide tomorrow i died in my country, or tomorrow go for italy, and i have 50% of possibility to save my family. you are a father, what do you think about that?

>> reporter: the coast guard takes great pride in every life saved. it's a shame it's taken so many lives lost to focus the attention of europe's politicians. simon, al jazerra. >> an increase in deaths have prompted calls for a comprehensive and shared european response to the crises. on october 23rd, 1983, 2 trucks loaded with explosives rammed in to american and french military bases in beirut, lebanon in the massive explosion 241 american soldiers were killed. at the time it was the deadliest attack by militants against u.s. servicemen since world war ii. it was blame odd hezbollah suicide bombers. wednesday marines marked the 30th anniversary of the attacks in a ceremony near jacksonville, north carolina, in a statement president obama called the bombing a, quote, despicable act of terror immaterial. one of the nation's largest banks suffering a legal blow over bad mortgage loans.

how much bank of america may have to pay. the pope cracking down on the bishop of bling. the unusual step the pontiff is take to go punish him for spending too much money. and new hope for breast cancer patience, the drug that is giving those suffering from the disease a better chance of fighting it.

what happens when social media uncovers unheard, fascinating news stories? it drives discussion across america. >> share your story on tv and online. a federal court has found bank of america liable for fraud in a trial that stems from the 2008 financial crisis. the banking giant was found guilty of selling bad mortgages to fanny may and med imac through a subsid vary country identified financial. the justice department says it plans to seek $850 million in damages, bang of america has already spent more than $40 billion on disputes related to the 2008 financial crisis. amazon.com customers will have to shell out more money if they want to get free shipping. the minimum purchase for that benefit is going from $25 to

$35. the change comes ahead of the crucial holiday season when online shopping and package shipping activity sores. the online retailer has been growing at a break-neck pace and is seeking new ways to raise profits. pope francis has take unusual steps suspends a bishop in germany he has been at the sends of a scandal about his lavish lifestyle being called the bishop of bling after spending more than $42 million for con truck construction of hw residents. it was deemed appropriate to authorize a period of leave from the diocese. ray big day out for prince george. dressed in a lavish gown the third in line to the british thrown was christened in a ceremony at london's saint james palace. the events was attended by four generations of royals. breaking with royal traditional, william and kate selected seven of their closest friends and trusted advisors to be george's god parents. and finally this half hour

doctors are expressing new optimism in the battle against breast cancer as jonathan betz reports several important new treatments have he personalled and aremerged andmaking a big dn people's lives. >> reporter: 15 years of karen's life have been filled with doctor's visits and painful treatments for breast cancer. >> i lot my hair, up there, had to be in the hospital for white counts, you felt like it was a death sentence almost. it was very scary. >> reporter: the but now she has hope and strengths after being among the first in the country to start receiving a new medication called tdm1. this is one of the newest medications out there. it's a tdm1 also known as [inaudible] what makes it special is it works kind of look i can a smart bomb it attaches and kills the cancer cells with a tiny dose of chemotherapy. while leaving the healthy tissue alone. >> how are you? >> nice to see you. >> reporter: for patients like her, this means she doesn't get sick or lose her hair.

>> i am amazed by this chemo. and it's also seems to be work. so that's the key. >> reporter: approved in february, tdm unonly treats the most severe type of breast cancers known as her two positive but it's encouraging doctors, among the first in the country to test the drug in clinical trials where patients lives were extends by nearly half a year. >> this is in many ways what we have all been looking for for a long time because it is a very effective drug and yet it is accompanied by very few side effects. >> reporter: tdm1 is the latest of several new targeted pair tare approximate i treatmentthe. emerge. they better understand families of tumors, changing everything from the medicine to radiation and surgery. >> i think it is very reasonable to hope that 20 years from now, across the board for breast

cancer, that we will be able to say that no woman should have to die of this disease if she is able to get treatment for it. >> reporter: for now, breast cancer remains the second deadliest cancer for women. killing close to 40,000 a year. and these new drugs, like other chemotherapies, can have severe side effects like liver and heart damage. but early patients like yellen, feel better. >> we are thrilled at how well you are doing. >> reporter: no longer racked with illness from chemo, she's traveling and cherishing time with her family. >> i am stage four terminal. but i don't look at myself at ass that because i figure the treatment i am having now the tdm1 is working and as long as it's working, i am alive and i am fine. >> reporter: she's not cured. but now has hope one may be within reach. jonathan betz. al jazerra, boston. >> and doctors may soon have

another weapon in their fight against breast cancer the food & drug administration recently approved a drug made to treat breast cancer before surgery. here say look at some of the top stories we'll be following throughout the morning. it could get testy on capitol hill thursday, contractors who developed the troubled health care do the glove website take center stage when they testify before a house committee hearing. look for community members to drill them about why the website was lawn offed before referred. angela merkel called president obama to complain about reports that the nsa has monitored her cell phone the nsa said they are not listening to her phone and wouldn't in the future but would not comment on if they did in the past. that does it. i am stephanie sy. remember, news at the top of every hour and you can loss onto our website the address is aljazerra.com. for all of the latest headlines. thanks for watching.

>> hi i'm lisa fletch fletcher and you're in the stream. we're talking with innovators working to stop 35 million tons of food from being wasted every year in the u.s. our digital producer wajahat ali is taking your comments. how to get a handle on this problem.