a victory in texas for abortion rights supporters. a federal judge shutdown a key part of a restrictive abortion law that was set to go in to effect in the state on tuesday. embroiled in an embarrassing spying scanneddal president obama may order the nsa to stop eavesdropping on the leaders of american allies. this has congress considers legislation that would strip the agency of some of its powers i've settlement deal for jerry sandusky's victims, penn state agrees to pay out nearly $60 million to the 26 mena beused by the former assistant football coach. and one year later, remembering hurricane sandy. the super storm was one of the most damaging and one of the most expensive storms no ever hit the u.s.

welcome to al jazerra america, i am steff stephanie sa federal judge has ruled a restrictive abortion law set to go in to effect on tuesday in effect is uncons strungal. the ruling allows dozens of abortion clinch i cans to remain open in the state. >> reporter: even as antiabortion protesters rally outside of a texas abortion clinic in support of the state's efforts to restrict abortions. >> i am out here to express our conviction that human life is sacred in all its forms. >> reporter: inside those clinics, abortion providers are celebrating a legal victory that

insures all of the state's 36 licensed facilities are in operation tuesday. >> it was great to be able to tell -- women were calling us saying, do i have my appointment tomorrow? can i come in. it was also even more rewarding for me being able to tell my staff that they have a job. >> reporter: the antiabortion legislators who backed the law were hoping to shutdown clinics like this one. austin-based whole women's health. am i is thie is the founder rung six clinics in texas. three of her clinics and about a third of those in the state would have closed under a new provision requiring doctors to be associated with a hospital one a certain distance. monday's ruling found the requirement to be unconstitutional because it is, quote, without a rational basis, and places a substantial obstacle in the path of a woman seeking an abortion. a second part of the ruling was less direct. he upheld the requirement for

doctors to follow fda guidelines when administering drugs for nonsurgical abortions, however, he said abortion doctors could opt out of the guidelines in the interest of preserving the life or health of the mother. >> we are literally light rite now working with our attorneys trying to figure out exactly what the decision means for the women we actually have booked for medication abortions tomorrow. >> reporter: the lawsuit did not cover two other controversial regulations in the new law and they will be implemented. banning nearly all abortions after 20 weeks and requiring that within a year, all abortion clinics meet certain standards of surgery centers. the state has already filed an emergency appeal to the judge's ruling. with governor rick perry vowing to continue his effort to protect life. now three months after a marathon filibuster against the new refrictions captured the nation's attention and crowds for and against the law flooded

the techs capital to voice their opinion it will be a higher court that makes the final decision. hidheidi jo castro. >> the restrictions in texas were among the toughest in the nation and could have force the one-third of the state's 36 abortion clinics to close. curbing the nsa spying powers. al jazerra has learned congressional lawmakers plan to draft legislation that would cut down on the security agency's ability to indiscriminately collect percentage information. the bill is called the usa freedom act. and it's authored by democrat senator patrick lachey and republican representative james. james coauthored the patriot act and pushed for more power to be given to intelligence agencies following the september 11th attacks. power that he says is now being misused by intelligence agencies. if passed, the bill would end the nsa's capacity to bulk collect phone records, provide

stronger restrictions against who the nsa can target and require the government to delete information it collects accidentally. the sponsors of the bill wrote an op ed piece that says: now is the time for that reform and for a meaningful discussion about protecting privacy and national security. we have heard from americans across the country who rightfully question the need for these intrusive programs. the usa freedom act reportedly has a dozen sponsors i sponsors. a european delegation was in washington, d.c. looking in to the allegations including that the us monitored 60 million phone calls in spain last december. when asked for details about who the security agency did or did not record. president obama says he would not discuss classified information. he did say, however, there will be a complete review of the nsa spying policy. more now from al jazerra.

>> reporter: the white house unwilling to address the specific allegations of mass surveillance in spain that have been revealed in the press over the last few days, they did talk in more general terms about the scope of their surveillance, mean while, anonymously the white house is briefing the press as to its side of the story when it comes to angela merkel's surveillance. at the white house, the presidential spokesman refused to be drawn on reports the u.s. tracked millions of spanish phone calls, but repeated the nsa surveillance programs are being examined. >> we are conduct conducting a. we are mindful that some of these disclosures have caused tension in our relationships. with new capabilities rerecognize that there need to be additional constraints on how we gather and use intelligence. >> reporter: tensions spiked with reports in germany suggesting that president obama was briefed on the surveillance of german chancellor angela merkel's phone in 2010 and fast tracked any information gathered

directly to the white house. in the past few days, anonymous administration officials told the u.s. media that was false. and that a white house review only discovered the surveillance of world leaders in the summer. the bugging of merkel's phone ended soon after. for european parliamental delegation it's visits to washington is about more than the bugging of world leaders. about the surveillance of 10s of millions of its constituents. >> itrust has to be rebuilt. we need to figure out why this kind of massive activity is happening. and what kind of trust needs to be rebuilt. in the end we are fighting a battle in terms of security, we need to get that balance right. we are concerned, too, about security. and we made that very clear. but also there is a balance to be struck with privacy of citizens and i think these frank exchange need to rebuild that very important trust. >> reporter: their first meeting, however, was with the house intelligence committee chairman mike rodgers. he says europeans should be

grateful for the surveillance as it's keeping them safe. that's a theme echoed by the white house. and officials are briefing journalist that his european governments should be aware that more information from whistle blower edward snowden may emerge detailing their cooperation in the dragnet surveillance of their citizens if not the monitoring of their leaders' phone callings. that's european parliamentary delegation will be in washington until wednesday. we are also expecting delegations from the french and german intelligence agencies at some point in the coming days and weeks. the question is whether they are truly concerned about the mass surveillance of their citizens or the surveillance of their leaders, both political and business. >> that was al jazerra reporting. also on monday the head of the senate intelligence committee, diane feinstein once a loyal supporter of the nsa broke ranks she can norankssaying she is opf

collecting intelligence on u.s. allies. words of praise from president obama during a ceremony formally installing his new fbi director. he took over for a stepping down director. president obama describes him as someone who knows what is right and what is wrong. he served as a deputy attorney general during the george w. bush administration. he says the fbi must be independent of any outside political forces or interests. >> the fbi's reputation for integrity is a gift. given to every new employee by those who went before. but it is a gift that must be protected and earned every single day. >> during his time in the attorney general's office, he blocked senior bush administration officials from getting a controversial wire tapping program re-authorized. the u.n. special envoy to syria is back in damascus on its latest raft of shuttle did moment see, trying to bring together outside in the conflict

for peace talks in geneva rob matheson has the story. >> reporter: once more he faces what many would call a near impossible task. a return to damascus try to muster any enthusiasm for finding a way out of syria's crisis. it's not just a matter of getting two sides to the table. before that he has to try to knit together a fractured rebel opposition, much of which doesn't even wants to be involved. >> the intimate national community wants to support the syrian regime in geneva too. they don't want to weaken them really. that's why we completely reject this conference. when it leads to a court for the crimes of assad then we will negotiate. but first there has to be real and effective statement on this. in the absence of political solution, the military solution is the only one on the table.

>> reporter: else ielsewhere ina the deadline for di destroying chemical weapons is only throw days way. they have been to 21 of the 23 sites where syria said they have been mike storing the weapons. fighting prevented them from getting to the other two. and the battles continue, just a few kilometers from where they are beginning the slow process of persuasion, these pictures claim to show rebels firing at government sources in the countryside. while here, they are using rocket-propelled grenades and weapons against the military. al jazerra can't verify the pictures. again, the fighting spills in to neighboring lebanon. gunfire in tripoli. the army is called in as assad supporters and mostly sey sunni fighters trade bull nets a battle that's been going on for a week. and the political fallout continues to spread across the

middle east. hezbollah's leader accuses the saudi government of the blocking a political solution for syria. >> acceptable and available solution in syria is the political solutions th solutiona political solution is through political dialogue without preconditions. of course there is a state in the region which is furious about the proposed geneva two peace conference and its name is saudi arabia. >> reporter: and in the middle of that difficult diplomacy and mistrust is this man, and the future of the geneva two talks, rob matheson, al jazerra. >> bringing all sides to the negotiating table hasn't been easy. the syrian opposition says it won't sit down to talks until bashar al-assad steps down. the president meanwhile doubts the talks will ever take place. a suspect u.s. drone strike killed two alleged senior members of an al quada linked group in somalia. they were struck while driving in a car south of the somali capital. the u.s. does not report its activities in somalia, however

drones about have been used before in that area. tuesday marks one year since super storm sandy slammed in to the east coast. in the u.s., 182 lives were lost. and the storm caused $65 billion in damage. making it the second costliest storm in this nation's history. while some victims have bounced back, others are still struggling to return to normal. during the past year, less than 10 billion of the $50 billion in emergency aid from the federal government has been distribute today local communities impacted by the storm. europe is recovering one of the most powerful storms to hit the continent in years. at least 13 people were killed, hundreds of thousands were left without power. and many were stranded when transportation shutdown. the storm named st. jude, hit britain, germany and denmark the hardest. ♪ ♪

>> meteorologist: well, we are seeing quite a change from this time last week with we were seeing such beautiful weather out here across the west. now an area of low pressure has moved in and brought with it moisture and colder temperatures. let's zoom in here first over towards the northwest and show you what we can expect to see over the next day or so. you can see the rain here and parts of idaho as well as the snow in montana and wyoming. now, this will be the problem, we will watch this very carefully. there will be accumulations especially in the higher elevations some of you may see anywhere between 8 and 10 and then some of you isolated parts could see up to 12-inches of snow. and over here towards the west coast, though, anywhere from washington, oregon, california, we are looking at temperatures going below freezing so you may want to bring your plants in. for seattle that's not going to be the issue 38 agrees, probably the leest temperature there. you can see, though, not looking too bad in terms of rain. a few clouds, some sunshine, temperatures in to the mid 50s. now down here towards california, showers along the

coast, los angeles, light showers for you up towards parts of the valley. but as you can see in the sierra nevadas that's where the mix of rain and snow s about 10-inches of falling in that area. we are going to see a few light shoes in los angeles, they will not be heavy. 67 degrees coming up to 80 degrees by the time we gets towards friday. now things are looking pretty nice in texas right now. we are in for a dig change as we go towards midweek, i'll show you that in a second. the highs in dallas not looking to bad, about 80 degrees there, san antonio at 85 degrees, and it's by the time we get to thursday we do expect to see some strong thunderstorms and about 78. penn state reaching a settlement with jerry sandusky's sexual abuse victims. how much the school will have to pay up over the scandal. new video surfacing showing the chaos during a violent standoff between the military and rebels in the philippines. why leaders are raising red

flags over that video. and violence rocks one of mexico's largest states during a deadly battle involving a drug cartel members. on tv and online. >> this is your outlet for those conversations. >> post, upload and interact. >> every night share undiscovered stories.

all next week america tonight investigates the campus rape crisis. >> serial rape is the norm on college campuses. >> i know that when i did report, i was blamed. >> then this friday at nine eastern, we open up the

conversation in a live town-hall event. sex crimes on campus, a special week of coverage and live town-hall on america tonight nine eastern. only on al jazeera america. new video has emerged in the philippine it says appears to show hostages being shot during last month's siege in the southern city there. the nation's president is questioning the authenticity of the video. while human rights groups are demanding answers. is here more on the investigation. >> reporter: the maker of this online video says it shows hostages shouting at the army not to shoot. they are waves the white flag of vendor. nearby, carrying weapons are said to be national liberation front rebels. the philippine military believe to have opened fire. some fall, while others scamper

for safety. he is no stranger to armed conflict. he fought as a soldier against the mlf which they first sought independence at the end of the 11960s, now the very same fighters are the ones that held him hostage. >> we were so happy because we thought a ceasefire had been declared. the mlf fired so the military retaliate, i was slit with shrapnel. a student lost an arm, another shot in the stomach. >> reporter: the philippine government and president has questioned the authenticity of the video. they have even suggested that it may be fake. though they are taking the allegations seriously. >> these claims been properly investigated. if there are cases that have to be filed, they will be filed. but at the same time, perhaps i should caution you that it snacks of a bit of prop began a.

the actions, by the mlf brought about the crisis. >> reporter: it's been weeks since the government declared the crisis officially over. but many questions remain. what really happened here during the 19-day siege. and who is responsible for the deaths of many civilians. over 200 people have been killed. mlf fighters took over 200 sill samardzijaville vinnies hostage. they demanded to be allowed to hoist their independent flag at the center of the city. but no clear negotiation with the philippine government took place and in the weeks that followed, thousands of military troops surgeed in. the city became a battlefield. still junior says he doesn't blame anything. he has come to accept that to survive, he only has himself to rely on. >> more than 100,000 residents were displaced during the

two-week stands off. five neighborhoods taken hostage and thousands of buildings destroyed. drug gangs are doing battle with vigilante groups in mexico part trying to rid the region of a criminal organization. the fighting has left at least five dead. adam has more from mexico city. >> reporter: nine western state is an already violent place but exploded in more violence saturday and sunday after a gun fight exploded in the town that's considered the base of the knight testimony player drug cartel. there was gunfire coming from tall buildings. several stars set on fire. at least five people were killed according to the government, during this confrontation, a vigilante leader who was leading men that has risen up against drug cartels in the state say at least 12 people were killed and he says those were members of the drug cartel but it's very hard to actually get clear statistics in the state because

it's an area where vigilanty groupings, the drug tar wells and the federal government led by the army are all vying for control of a very dangerous territory. the violence continue in to the night as armed groups through molotov cocktails at power stations across the state causing blackout that his affected more than 400,000 people. and under of cover the darkness groups of armed mentor offed gas station as cross the state. there were no serious injuries or death reported from that violence but it's clear the state continues to be a place where the government has little authority and violent groups are able to act with such impunity. >> adam reporting from mexico. new pay outs in the penn state university child sex abuse scandal. penn state has announced settlements worth nearly $60 million with 26 victims of former football coach jerry sandusky. this comes more than a year after sandusky was convicted of 45 counts of child sex abuse.

and sent to prison for life. penn state president rodney erickson calls the settlements another step forward in the healing process for sa sanduskys victims. crews repairing a texas dam make a surprise recovery. they were trading dam when they found 20 submerged vehicles. the company called police who spent six hours removing the cars. so far, investigators have learned that 10 of the vehicles were stolen between 1987 and 2007. a new warning for parents over how much time your kids are spending using technology. and you are ga you are our guy o legalize marijuana, their approach to controlling drugs. >> share your story on tv and online.

doctors are sending out a warning to parents, kids are spending too much time on computers and cell phones. that's according to the american academy of pediatrics.

doctors say you should limit the use of smart phones and laptop to his two hours a day. and get the devices out of the bedroom. the group says unrestricted access to technology can have serious consequences in kids. it has been linked with violence, cyber bullying, obesity, and a lack of sleep. a british man is accused of hacking in to several u.s. army and nasa computer systems. 28-year-old lory love is charged with stealing information about government employees. prosecutors say he and three co coconspirators in other parts of the world were trying to disrupt government operations. uruguay could soon be the first country in the world where selling marijuana will be legal. and controlled by the government. it has the fullbacking of the country's president and could be passed by the senate before year's end. monica reports. >> reporter: diego says smoking american in public has been legal in his country for as long as he can remember.

but buying the drug is illegal. soon this won't be the case. >> if you want to smoke, it's your decision. you know, it's your choice. >> reporter: uruguay's senate is expected to legalize the production and sale of marijuana. activists who campaigned for 10 years to change the law say it's a huge step in the right direction. and now they want other drugs to be decriminalized. >> all bad things should be regulated. tobacco, alcohol, fire weapons, and marijuana. >> cocaine should be regulated so that consumers know if they are buying bad quality drugs that put them at risk. that way they can get it in a safe place. >> reporter: uruguay's president, the main backer of the marijuana bill, says his goal is to take the lucrative drug market away from traffickers. the government will give

licenses to grow marijuana and will sale it in pharmacies. the president says that means buyers won't have to deal with criminal networks. it's a controversial proposal. >> the government's message is drugs are here to stay. and we must learn to live with them. but we do not understand why we have to accept a life with dru drugs. >> reporter: congresswoman veronica alone so says the demand to drugs should be reduced dismissing the government's approach as damage control. uruguay is a small south american country with a big drug problem. consumption of hard drugs like crack cocaine is on the rise and nearly 70,000 people smoke marijuana. it's 11:30 and exercise time. at the main rehab facility for youngsters in uruguay, this place you see is publicly funded and it treats about 300 addict each month.

now, it's a pretty significant number considering that the country only has 3 million people. but doctors at this clinic say marijuana is the least of their concerns. it's more difficult to treat people who are addict today crack cocaine, alcohol or precipitation drug drugs. >> we would like the government to show signs that he will also take on regulating other types of drugs. it should not let it be governed by the crude market laws of demands and supply. >> reporter: doctors here hope the marijuana bill passes and said others will fall. as they continue to help young addicts rebuild their lives. monica, al jazerra, uruguay. >> if passed, sales should start by next summer for a price of about a dollar a graham of marijuana. that will do it for this edition of al jazerra news, i am stephanie sy. the stream is next. remember news at the top of every hour and you can always log onto our website

aljazerra.com for the latest headlines. accused of adult crimes? we'll talk about the issue of juveniles behind bars. our durable producer is wajahat ali. this is so polarizing. no middle ground. >> some people are saying you know what? they're not developed socially