welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters, these are the stories we're following for you. germany says it is sending its top delegates to the us. it wants to know more on the spying issues. and president obama pushing students to learn the latest technologies. we'll preview his trip to new york city. ♪ the u.s. is now in damage control mode as european leaders are demanding answers after new revelations about u.s. spying

activities. germany and france now calling for talks on new surveillance rules. that process could begin next week when top officials travel to washington. >> translator: we said that france and germany -- not as germany plus france, but each country, individually, will get in contact with the united states and the security community then and try to work out such a framework for future cooperation. obviously we will also have an exchange on views on how this is to play out. >> mike viqueira is live at the white house with more on how the administration is handling these latest allegations. >> dell, the united states and the administration are admitting there is tension in these relationships, and allies, close

allies who are very upset about these allegations, but that's about all they are admitting. jay carney saying that the united states is using diplomatic channels to discuss concerns of allies with those same allies. the president has been on the phone with the french president and angela merkel, over the course of the last week trying to explain u.s. policy to them. and then yesterday another shoe drops. the national security agency in a 2006 memo solicited phone numbers. and in response they received 200 phone numbers for some 35 world leaders. one thing the united states and the obama are not doing. they are not apologizing. jay carney said the u.s. is

gathering intelligence like is gathered in all nations. >> what mr. snowden has effectively done and what some newspapers are assisting him in doing, and that is going to make it a lot more difficult to keep our countries and our people safe. >> now the spokesman here says the united states is reviewing procedures with its intelligence community to try to address some of these concerns, and in response to the call from angela merkel and other european leaders, they will simply say that the u.s. is committed to engaging bilaterally. dell. >> mike, the government shutdown has everybody outraged. with regards to this latest spy allegation is it the talk of the town or the official echelon? >> more or less the official

echelon, good phrase. and what you hear from them is this is business as usual. and some of the outrage and expressions of disbelief is for domest domestic consumption. many people believe a lot of this is being overblown, and a lot of people believe, like chief keith alexander yesterday firing back at edward snowden. >> mike, thank you very much. the fallout from the spying allegations is already taking place. important trade talks between the u.s. and the european union should be suspended some suggest. >> shame on you mr. ear-boma said one paper. germans by and large are grateful to the u.s. for

rebuilding and then protecting their country for decades. but that made the news that the american allies may have spied on the chancellor made it all that much more painful. >> translator: i think it's not okay. because i think the germans are one of the biggest partners of the u.s. in the world. >> reporter: memories of the cold war have helped give germany some of the toughest privacy laws in the world. the chancellor grew up in east germany. and the anger is spreading, and some suggest it may be time for a rethink. >> translator: the americans must respect basic rights.

it's hard for me to imagine agreeing to a free trade deal with the united states if the u.s. was infringing citizens rights and privacy. >> reporter: the german media now speculates may have run the eavesdropping operation on merkel's phone. whatever the truth or anger, the expectation is relations will be repaired because they have to be. >> of course they need to work together. but there are different degrees of how closely they with work together. security issues, contribution to whatever [ inaudible ] are going to go on in the future. >> reporter: but if it's back to business one day, the level of trust when allies may never be the same. there appears to be two mind sets at play in reaction to those spying allegations.

i talked about it with jim walsh. >> everyone spice. spying is as old as foreign policy. a lot of these countries have asked for or benefits fr frfrom -- [ technical difficulties ] -- on the other side of the ledger, though, you know, there's domestic politics. the voters in those countries are very unhappy with u.s. surveillance practices, and those leaders have to respond to that. and this makes them look weak and compromised in front of their own domestic political audience, and no one likes that. so no wonder they are angry. and most policy is about national interest and hard-nosed stuff, but personal advertise, individuals matter, and if someone feels like you have betrayed their trust or crossed a line, and they are angry, that does have reverberations in international politics. it sure looks like angela merkel

is pretty ticked off right now. there is a new report out from the united nations that says that there is strong evidence that senior pakistani officials gave the cia approval to launch drone strikes. kristin? >> reporter: that's right. we heard from pakistan's ambassador to the united nations during an international forum here at the united nations. and he appeared to respond to recent media reports saying that his government had indeed given consent to u.s. officials to launch drone strikes, and allowing the united states to use pakistani airstrips. he did vehemently deny those reports. >> all drone strikes are a chilling reminder that reprisal strikes by terrorists are around

the corner. they put all pakistanis at risk. the psychological impact on the use of drones on those killed in inhumane manner radicalizing more people. drone strikes are therefore counterproductive. >> reporter: so again this is an international forum. in fact the first time the issue of drones is being discussed between countries here at the united nations. >> is there another one of those examples like we were discussing with the nsa in which they are saying one thing publicly and doing something else privately. >> reporter: it is true it has been a long-held secret that the pakistani government was behind these attacks. but what is being discussed here is the need for more transparency. officials were calling on the

united states to provide more information about civilian casualties and more of their legal justifications for launching these strikes. it says as more countries start using drones that there really needs to be more discussion about the boup dris that countries need to adhere to, especially when civilian casualties are a possible outcome. >> before there were drones countries simply put boots on ground and launched wars against each other. has there been any discussion as to whether or not in this case technology is saving lives as well as costing lives. >> reporter: well they did make the point that there are often more civilian casualties when bombs are dropped from aircraft as opposed to these targeted instruments. the problem as i said, though is that there hasn't been a lot of guidelines on how to use this technology. so in this case the law has yet

to catch up, and yet to give a good review of how the technology is used. >> kristin, thank you very much. health and human services secretary is in austin, texas at this hour. she is there to support healthcare.gov. she was asked if the site was having issued. >> i didn't realize it wouldn't be operating optimally before the launch. if we knew we had another six months we would have probably tested further. and i don't think anyone would realize that volume caused some problems but also exposed some problems. >> critics are calling for her to resign because of the poor

rollout. thousands of supporters of ousted president mohammed morsi are marching in cairo today. they are demanding that morsi will reinstated. he was ousted in july after a coup. his supporters have been staging regular protests since the ousting. their numbers dwindling though, amidst a violent military contact. nigerian rebels say they know who kidnapped the american sailors. nigeria's navy says it is searching for the men who were kidnapped. there have been more than 40 pirate attacks off of the west coast of africa this year alone.

still to come, the fda trying to crack down on pain medications, the health concerns that could lead to new rules. >> how old are you? >> nine. >> how old were you when you first started working out here? >> seven. >> fault lines how children are hired by us agriculture to help put food on america's tables. >> in any other industry kids need to be 16 years old to be able to work. you don't see any of that in agriculture. >> they don't ask, "is she 12?". they just want their job done. >> how many of you get up before 5 o'clock in the morning?

welcome back to al jazeera america. here are your top stories. germany now sending its intelligence chiefs to the u.s. they want answers about allegations that the u.s. spied on them. a new report in britain's

guardian newspaper claims that america has now spied on some 35 world leaders. today courts denying the former chinese communist's leader only chance for appeal. he will serve a sentence of life in prison. >> a young girl found in a gypsy camp is indeed the daughter of roma parents. they said a woman came forward and is the mother of the girl. the roma couple accused of kidnapping the girl said that she was given to them by her real mother. saving people who suffer from sudden cardiac arrest is a race against time where every moment counts. now there is a new effort in seattle aimed at improving the survival rate, and it involves cold hard cash.

>> reporter: jamie is a very lucky man and knows it. >> it's pretty remarkable and i'm super grateful and lucky to be here. >> reporter: two years ago when he suffered cardiac arrest one of his friends knew where to find one of these. it zapped alls' heart back to life. >> it's crazy this technology even exists now. >> reporter: there are 1.2 million aed's in public places across the country. 180,000 nor get installed every year. miracles in a box at about $1,500 each. >> when a bystander as an aed and is able to use it, we know that doubles the chance of survival. >> reporter: which is great of course as long as that helpful bystander knows where to find the nearest aed.

dr. graham nichol as launched a month long city wide scavenger hunt. it is backed by heart care nonprofits, aedmakers, the fda and the university of washington. >> do you have an aed on the premise? >> what? >> an aed? >> contest acts like rob register online and then go out searching and report every defibrillator they find. there is a facebook page a twitter identity, 20 preselected golden aed's worth $50 for the first person to find them and a nice payoff for the winner. >> the winning individual or team that reports the largest number will win $10,000. >> reporter: but the bigger bonus is the data.

>> it is huge bringing all of this information together and it's the only way to do it. >> reporter: dr. nickel plans to replicate the game in four more cities next year. something jamie alls supports with all of his heart. >> put it on a map and if people know where it is, and somebody's life gets saved that's the way it is supposed to work. the food and drug administration now looking to make it harder for people to get their hands on prescription painkillers the move could limit access to drugs like vicodin. the new rules would reduce the number of refills a parent could get. they would also be required to take prescriptions directly to a pharmacy instead of having their doctor phone one in. still ahead big creatures facing a huge dilemma.

coming up these working elephants could soon be out of a job and left with no place else to go. i'm dave warren we have freezing temperatures in effect for a lot of the country. we'll show you where in the national forecast. status quo with unexpected opinions and a fresh outlook. including yours. >> what do you think? >> consider this. unconventional wisdom.

♪ president obama is set to visit a high school in brooklyn, new york today. he plans to stress the importance of new technologies that are being taught to american students. here is the latest on the president's visit, roxanne. >> when the president arrives here, he is expected to praise schools that prepare kids with skills they need for the workplace which is to strengthen america's middle class. right now this school has about

300 students it is for grades 9 through 14, which means when the kids graduate they will have degrees in computer or engineering. and it is a free school. >> there is an old criticism in washington that when you are having problems, hit the road. is this visit any attempt to defle deflect all of the criticism he is facing down there. >> that is one view that can be taken. it can be seen as a welcome diversion for the white house for president obama to be here, and he's likely to use this as an opportunity to focus on education and other programs that he believes there should be more funding for. republicans are in general wary of increasing government

spending, but it is also important to note that this trip by obama to new york and p-tech is also to attend two important fundraisers this evening which he'll be going to before he returns to washington, d.c. >> roxanne thank you very much. taking a look at your money, it seems that business is still not all that confident about the economy. the government saying that orders for factory goods made in the u.s. rose in september, but they say most of the gain was because of aircraft orders. orders for most other goods fell. figures follow other economic data that shows companies are reluctant to spend their money right now. >> the food and drug

administration is proposing rules for production of pet food and animal feed for the first time. it says these regulations would help protect humans and animals from good-born illness. and regulators have received two reports of doors burns on a 2012 jeep liberty model. one injury was reported. ♪ i'm meteorologist dave warren with your forecast. the temperatures will be dropping again overnight tonight. despite a nice comfortable afternoon with clear skies and temperatures climbing into the 50s. areas in here will see temperatures dropping down to the freezing mark possibly. that's why freeze warnings are in effect.

lighter blue color here is just frost advisories, may not get down to freezing, but you can still get some frost forming on surfaces. that is the start of the weekend, but the freeze warnings stop right at the mississippi river. by tomorrow morning these are the lows, 60s and 50s in louisiana, arkansas, memphis at 60 degrees, but across the southeast you could wake up to temperatures right at freezing or below. high-pressure controlling the weather. sunshine in the afternoon, but cold night. a storm developing in canada is pulling up that warm air. that's why the temperatures are climbing there. but it's also bringing in rain or possibly snow. looks like this could stay north of the border. there are just a few snow showers as this storm develops. to the south temperatures will be warming up just a bit. 52 in chicago.

35 sunday morning, 50s and almost up to 60 degrees on mocked and tuesday. there is some rain coming in and by wednesday there is clouds in the forecast but the temperature is 63 degrees. 44 in cleveland, over the next few days temperatures will continue to warm up, 60 by monday. so a nice comfortable weekend. maybe a little chill in the morning, but nice and comfortable by monday and tuesday. watching the pacific we have two tie phones that will converge and track east of japan by saturday night and sunday that's about where they will be, just off of the coast. dell? >> daye, thank you very much. it is a tradition that dates back thousands of years elephants in myanmar used in the timber trade. nirmal ghosh reports.

>> reporter: this 36-year-oldel fanlt was originally caught from the wild and trained. now his handlers or oozies as they are called in burmese say the is strong, palace sid a obedient. >> translator: some of them are nice while others are wild. >> reporter: myanmar has more captive elephants than any other country. more than half belong to the government's official logging agency. others are in private hands. but times are changing fast. from april 2014, log exports will be banned, but while that may be good for the forests, the elephants and their handlers face an uncertain future. >> translator: the handlers might be worried. when logging extraction is reduced, whatever is not

economical will be eliminated. >> reporter: private owners like this are in a dilemma. >> translator: we are in a situation where we have to sell ourel facts. if we don't get any help, we have no choice. we will just release them into the jungle. >> reporter: theel facts could be trafficked, sold, exploited and abused. or if released into the wild, they could clash with farmers. the forest cover has fallen below 30%, andel facts are left with a shrinking habit. >> translator: the government [ inaudible ] logger people, those associated with the elephants, those close to the elephants in the jungle, they are all responsible. >> reporter: the big question is whether elephants will remain relevant or be relegated to tourist spectacles like these white elephants. white elephants are considered

incredibly auspicious in buddhism, because the buda's mother dreamt of a might elephant the night before he was born. myanmar'sel facts face taurning point. they have survived wars and dictatorships, now they must survive democracy and the free market. we are following breaking news out of japan where an earthquake has just struck. the quake hit a magnitude 7.6 and hit in the middle of the ocean. there's no word yet of any damage or injuries. the u.s. warning system for a tsunami say there is no wide-spread warning for a threat. thank you for watching al jazeera america, "techknow" is

next. and for more go to aljazeera.com, where the news is 24 hours non-stop. ♪ >> hello and welcome. i'm phil torrez, here to talk about innovations that are going to change lives. we're testing the intersection of hardware and humanity. rax is a neuroscientist. she has the invocation of bamboo and carbon. mar inkta davidson is a biologist specializing in ecologist and evolution. and i'm phil torrez. i'm an entomologist. but i'm over america for a very bad ride. how bad is our air? that's our team.