>> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ hello and welcome to the news hour. i'm in doha with the world's top news stories. double suicide attack in lebanon. 23 people are dead after the iranian embassy was targeted in beirut. a roof collapsed at a shopping center in south africa. >> i'm in london with the latest from europe, including a state of emergency declared after 18

people die in flash floods. plus new immanges of the gunman being hunted by hundreds of police after the shooting in paris on monday. is the quest for green energy threatening wildlife 180 feet down? that story is coming your way from the bottom of the sailor's sea. ♪ we begin our coverage in lebanon. at least 23 people have been killed after two suicide bombs exploded outside of the iranian embassy. a group linked to al-qaeda says it carried out the attacks. iran is a major supporter of the syria government as well as the armed lebanese group hezbollah, which had been fighting alongside government soldiers in syria. there has been conflicting

reports about iran's cultural attache. one suggesting he was killed and another suggesting he was seriously injured. iran's embassy is located in the southern part of the lebanese capitol. the area is known to be a hezbollah strong hold. in a moment we'll get the latest from tehran, but first straight to the report from the site of the explosions. >> we have seen bombings in beirut over recent months but this time it is suicide bombers and this is why officials here have told us it's very hard to prevent such attacks. we have talked to a number of people who witnessed the explosions. they were close by. this is a residential neighborhood. people told us that the first suicide bomber detonated his

explosives, and as people rushed to the scene, the second bomber detonated his explosives, and that's why we have such a high casualty toll. there has been reaction from iran, from its local allies in lebanon, the hezbollah shiite group saying we know this is a message to us, but in no way are we going to change our political stanc stance. >> reporter: scenes of devastation. two powerful bombs were detonated outside the embassy early on tuesday. along with civilians the cultural attache is among the people killed. firefighters rushed to the scene to put out the flames and help the wounded. >> i am syria, on my way to work the first explosion took place

minutes later the second took place. >> reporter: al-qaeda claimed responsible for the attacks. >> it is a message that says clearly we can hit you anywhere you are, you cannot hide. if you are going to be involved in syria, then we can also hit you in front of the iranian embassy in beirut or anywhere else. >> reporter: iran is a major backer of bashar al-assad. the attack appears to be the latest spillover from the syrian war. it wasn't the first of its kind. in august massive car bombs killed many civilance. those who carried out that attack said it was in retaliation for hezbollah's participation in the syria war. for both the fight in syria is their fight. >> translator: this message is

useless and our deployment there is strategic and political, yet distant from sectarianism. similarly iran's position cannot be changed by such bloody message. hezbollah will continue fighting to safeguard its enterprise in the region. >> reporter: lebanese people are already divided by the syrian war. it has become a deeply sectarian conflict. many people now warn of more attacks in the days and weeks to come as syria's war is also now being fought in lebanon. lebanon is now part of the syrian war, and that's why many lebanese are worried that the security situation could deteriorate even further. we have seen bombings, and

titfor tat kidnappings, and now we know the syrian regime is on the offensive on a number of fronts and if they do manage to push rebels out of the region close to the lebanese border, there are a lot of observers in lebanon who fear where are the thousands of rebel fighters going to go? most likely into lebanon. iran's foreign minister has given his reaction to the attacks. >> the extremism and violence cannot be contained in any country. we already see the consequences of the extremist forces in syria operating inside iraq as the same organizations are killing more people in the streets of bagdad, and.coms th that -- damascus. so it's a very serious problem,

and once we see a flair up of the tension that is boiling in syria, there will be hardly a possibility of stopping it at the syrian border even within the militaries. the reaction from the iranians is one of anger and one of resolve. after these attacks, which killed iran's cultural attache. he died of his injuries several hours after the blast took place. and security personnel were also caught up in the bombings and lebanese civilance too. condolences have been sent to the lebanese people and the president of lebanon has condemned these attacks. the secretary of iran's national

security council as well weighing into what happened, a very powerful body here in iran. iran officially blames israel despite the claim of responsibility from the al-qaeda group. the attacks are a sign of desperation of the zionist and allies and the attacks have no impact on the continued support. what iran is trying to find out now is how these attacks could happen? how these attacks and attackers could get so close to one of iran's most important diplomatic missions. >> al-qaeda-link brigades have claimed responsibility for the attacks. the cleric close to the group

has posted his demands on facebook . . . let's take a closer look at the group who claimed responsibility for the beirut blast. the group which is an offshoot of al-qaeda in iraq was formed in 2009 and has claimed responsibility for several attacks. it was listed as a terrorist organization by the u.s. in 2012 and repeatedly continued to carry out attacks. the attack hand as representatives from 71 countries and organizations with meeting in kuwait, taking part in an arab african summit. >> reporter: strong condemnation has come from several delegates and countries participating in

this summit here in kuwait with regards to the attack, particularly and naturally from lebanon's government who described the attack as a terrorist attack, insisting the country's resolve would remain steadfast in the face of what he described as terrorism. in terms of actual practical solutions, because of the possibility of more sectarian strife, there hasn't been any tangible proposals from those gathered here as to how to combat that. whenever we have spoken to delegates and international players, their solution has been more aid is needed to help those displaced and there needs to be pressure put on the opposition to take part in the proposed geneva 2 conference and involve themselves in a political solution, but in terms of

actually having some sort of framework to try to combat such attacks takes place in lebanon or other neighboring countries, there haven't been anything new. so-so far just condemnation. to egypt now where there have been skirmishes on the second anniversary of deadly street protests in cairo. protesters have taken to the streets to remember those who were killed two years ago. these pictures are from the university in cairo. students have been demanding an end to military rule and restoration of elected representatives. security has been tightened. 45 people were killed in cairo in 2011. earlier demonstrators were carrying banners against those who they say betrayed the revolution. around 50 people are feared

trapped under rubble in south africa after the roof of a shopping mall collapsed. the shopping mall was under construction when the accident happened. those trapped were workman at the site. dean mcpherson is the managing corrector of crisis medical, he says rescue efforts are still underway. >> concrete that is involved and scaffolding, and heavy-lifting equipment has been brought in to try to assist in the rescue efforts and to try to lift up the concrete and search for survivors. it's incredibly difficult, and it is on a construction site. and there were no members of the public involved. all trapped and injured are workers. so it's extremely rainy, it has been raining here for the last

24 hours, and the scene is quite difficult to get to and work in at the moment. the venezuelan national assembly is on the verge of granting special powers to the president. critics say he will use the powers to clamp down on opponents in the elections next month. andy gallagher is live, and is it a forgone conclusion that he'll get this vote passed, and what will it mean? >> it is a forgone conclusion. parliament began about 10 minutes ago. there was one politician that was an obstructionist, and has now been effectively removed and

charged with various crimes. this is all part of what he is calling the war on the economy. it will allow him to pass laws without referring to parliament. and we expect some of those laws to go into place quickly. among those requiring people slashing their prices by 15%. he says this is against people who are killing the economy there. people want to go to the stores and shops expecting the prices to have been slashed. at some violence where people have been trying to bialek tronnic goods that are far less than previously charged. the opponents say he is basically hunting for ghosts, things that don't exist to blame for the poor state of the economy. remember inflation here runs at about 55%.

that's the highest in the americas. and they say it is due to his failed policies and not outside forces of private business owners who are price gouging. but we expect the law to be passed in a little under two hours? >> what about his political rivals, andy, are they worried he'll be able to use his new presidential powers against them? >> that's essentially their main worry. three weeks before these municipal elections, which basically will be a referendum -- of course it isn't unusual -- passed similar laws about four or five year's time. >> andy, we're going to have to leave it there, i'm afraid, because we're having rather severe problems with your audio. i'm so sorry about that. but we did get the gist of that.

andy thank you so much for that. still to come here on this news hour, voters in nepal give bickering politicians another chance to draw up a long-delayed constitution. plus after the typhoon they are getting power again in the philippines but switching the economy back on will take far longer. and coming up in sports the last chance for teams in europe and africa to qualify for the world cup. ♪ at least 18 people have been killed after storms hit the italian island of sardennia. >> in fact a state of emergency has been declare where rivers bursts their banks, and parts of

the island have been left in chaos. the worst seems to be around a northeastern city where three people died when a road bridge collapsed on their car. here is the latest. >> reporter: eyewitnesses called it a water bomb. the amount of water that falls on average on the usually sunny area over six months on monday fell in the space of 24 hours, and this is the result. entire towns under water. cars swept away. terrified residents trapped in their own houses. >> translator: i was here with a relative and we managed to open the door with all of this water inside. it was just devastating. the kids didn't have anything. they were naked. they managed to get out by the back stairs. i came in virtually swimming. the water came up to my chest.

it was just devastating. >> reporter: overnight the storm took out this town. the emergency services moved in, but several people are known to have died. by dawn the scope of the destruction became clear. a state of emergency was quickly with declared by the italian government. >> translator: the operation at the moment is concentrating on saving human lives, and unfortunately the number of the victims has risen in the night dramatically. >> reporter: after leaving death and destruction, the depression is now moving towards the mainland threatening the center and south of italy, including rome. usually when rain hits italy as a whole, this is where all eyes turn to, the river tiger.

it is still far from the dangerous level of 13 meters it reached last year. with forecast of uninterrupted torrential rain until thursday, authorities didn't take any chances and closed all access to the tiger in the hopes that rome and italy will weather the storm. new images have been released of the fugitive gunmen in paris. he fired shots at the offices of a newspaper and a bank on monday before escaping in a hijacked car. and on friday the same man is thought to have threatened people at a news channel. >> translator: there should be no doubt about the commitment of the police and me in catching this individual, because as long as he remains at large, as long as he is on the run, he

represents a real danger, and we will only rest once he is caught. >> and paul brennan is in paris with more. >> reporter: no break through yet here in paris, but it's not for a lack of trying. the interior minister said all available office verse been mobilized not just here, but also around the country, and a new set of cc tv images has been issued, including one very clear photograph of the man's face. it seems he was carrying a change of clothing. police still believe he was working alone, but the change of clothing he was carrying in one of the other bags seems to show some degree of premeditation and planning involved in that series of attacks which took place on monday. as a result of issues the cc tv images police say they have had more than 400 calls from members of the public, but they are not

any closer to actually apprehending the man. they have some dna evidence which they say they have been able to isolate from the car the gunman hijacked. police recovered some dna from the car and are rapidly comparing it to any other possible traces on the national databases here in france. the man who was injured after the shooting -- or during the shooting at the offices, the 27-year-old photographer's assistant has been brought out of the induced coma he was placed in by doctors, and although he is still critically ill, he is at least now stable in hospital. >> and we'll have more from europe a little later, including nine green peace protesters are granted bail in a major change of position by russia. ♪

banks, petro stations and other vital services are trying to reopen in the philippines. the government says it is doing its best to return people to its norm alives after typhoon haiyan. harry faucet looks at why that is far easier said than done. >> reporter: as far as reconstruction goes it's pretty meager, but at least it's something. the government is trying to get streetlights functioning again. four petro stations are now open again. the main branch of the government bank is due to open on thursday even if an official told us he didn't expect much demand for the services. inside city hall the admin chief is on the phone to the business community in exile. many fled to manila amid security concerns during the

early days of this disaster. >> it's to really inspire the people and give them the signal, that hey, everything is going back to normal. >> reporter: the government is now talking about one of its new priorities a push for so-called normalcy, trying to persuade businesses to reopen at least on a limited scale. but for many this is what passes for normal and it doesn't look like changes any time soon. the fishing port utterly laid waste by the storm surge. a few meters here a telltale grouping of recovery workers signifies another body found. this man worked as a day laborer, he lost his wife, the mother of his four children, in the typhoon and doesn't know when he'll be able to earn money again. >> translator: my boss doesn't

know what to do yet. >> reporter: with such uncertainty and sadness now embedded in the fabric of this town, the effort is on to give its people something to stay here for. voters in nepal have cast their ballots for a special assembly that will try to draft a new constitution. none of the three main parties are expected to win a majority. it is hoped the polls will end a six-year political dead lock. in 2007 the country abboll lishged the monarchy. eight months later a party was elected and given two years to write a new constitution. in august 2011, the fifth prime minister in three years was voted in to power, and vowed to complete any constitution, but he failed as well.

finally in may the chief justice of the supreme court was put in charge of the elections. >> reporter: nepal voters wait patiently at the polling booth. >> translator: the constitution is in the people's hands, but we don't know what the politicians will do after the election. >> translator: i'm proud i voted for the fwirs time. it's for the people and future peace and prosperity of the country. >> reporter: international observers came to make sure the election went well. a member of the french parl and former presidential candidate told al jazeera that she was very pleased with the way the election had been organized. security was tight. vehicles had been banned from the road for 24 hours. over 200,000 armed personnel

have been deployed across the country. this was after a coalition of 33 parties threatened to interrupt the elections. despite the disturbans, former u.s. president jimmy carter is confident. >> i think the ones that had a more radical or extreme views in the past have come towards the middle, so they can understand each other and cooperate better. i think there's a better chance now of being successful than at the end of the 2008 election. >> reporter: to make that happen, politicians were out early to vote promising a change for the better if elected. >> make people feel and realize that things have changed and moving in a positive direction. >> reporter: this is the first time that a country has elected a second national assembly to

write a new constitution because the first one failed. politicians have now given themselves another four years to get it right. but whether they do or not will depend on whether they can make the right decisions that will benefit the people of this republic. coming up, the largest american bank is expected to announce a multi-billion dollars mortgage settlement people with the government. plus burgers fries and politics. that's what one fast-food giant has on its menu. find out who has got the appetite for it. and on the eve of cricket's series, find out why this man feels he is misunderstood. that's coming up in sport. ♪

nation's top stories... >> a fresh take on the stories that connect to you... >> live news at 8 and 11 eastern followed by america tonight on al jazeera america there's more to it. power of the people until we restore our freedoms a

>> al jazeera america brings you live coverage: typhoon haiyan. >> relief efforts are well underway here in cebu. >> we have a problem with no homes to go back to. >> clean water, food, medicine, all vitally required. >> the australian medical team arrived. >> this is a government warehouse that is preparing relief for the families most effected. >> al jazeera america is there with continuing live coverage. >> the water rose to half-way up to the second story.

>> to find out how you can help, go to aljazeera.com. >> while you were asleep, news was happening. >> here are the stories we're following. >> find out what happened and what to expect. >> international outrage. >> a day of political posturing. >> every morning from 5 to 9am al jazeera america brings you more us and global news than any other american news channel. >> tell us exactly what is behind this story. >> from more sources around the world. >> the situation has intensified here at the border. >> start every morning, every day, 5am to 9 eastern with al jazeera america. ♪ welcome back. i'm judy at the headquarters in doha. here are our top stories. a group linked to al-qaeda says it carried out two suicide.c bo

attacks. one person as has died at least 29 have been injured. dozens of people are expected to still be trapped. at least 18 people have been killed after storms battered the italian island. a state of emergency has been declared on the island. parts of the island were left in chaos after heavy rain and flooding. back to the suicide.coming in beirut's southern district. nicole johnston has this report on how the war in syria has come to lebanon and the rest of the middle east. >> reporter: the war in syria has been inching ever closer to lebanon. this area borders eastern lebanon, one of the new

remaining supply lines left for the rebels. lebanon has become increasingly tense. it is also deeply divided. the sunni shiite sectarian mirrors the problems in syria. other lebanese support the rebels, and this makes for an explosive mix. >> translator: what happened today, the terrorist act, it comes from a series of terrorist acts that are targeting lebanese area. terrorism is expanding in the region. >> reporter: added to this is the broader regional involvement in the syria war. it is blaming israel for orchestrating the attack.

>> once we see a flair up of the tension that is boiling in syria, there will be hardly a possibility of stopping it at the syrian border even within the middle east. >> reporter: a group linked to al-qaeda has claimed responsibility, but it's difficult to know who is really behind it. >> why he accused israel? because it could be israel? could be any arab country through intelligence services. >> reporter: on the other side, sunni powers are mostly against the syrian government. saudi arabia and qatar support the rebels and want assad out. >> i think we'll see a lot more of these activities because of the political games that are being sorted out and throughout

the arab world are too great for iran to give up at this point. >> reporter: syria has already been torn apart by sectarian war. nicole johnston, al jazeera. the largest u.s. bank has announced an agreement with the u.s. government. the claim is that it overstated the quality of mortgages during the u.s. housing boom. even after the settlement the bank faces at least nine other government investigations including its hiring practices in china, and whether it manipulated the libor benchmark interest rate. tom akerman joins us live from washington, d.c. it looks like they are close to

a deal. tell us more about the deal. >> the government and jpmorgan are expected to announce they have signed the settlement today. the 13 billion dollars in total is comprised of three parts really. almost 7 billion goes to investors in jpmorgan and banks that it acquired, about 4 billion dollars will go to home owners in the form of either lowering the principal on their mortgages -- these are properties which are now worthless than what the homeowners owe on them, or lower monthly payments, and interesting places like detroit and other places that suffer from blight will be the beneficiary of jpmorgan's anti-blight program. but only 2 billion dollars will go to fines against jpmorgan and

those are in the form of civil fines for actual potentially criminal charges. right now we still don't know whether the justice department will proceed further on with actual criminal charges against jpmorgan. >> this of course is a massive, massive bank, but it has already had to pay out billions in other settlements, how is this going to impact on jpmorgan in the future? >> well, already it announced a rare third quarter loss mainly because they had to pay -- or had to set aside 23 billion dollars in total, anticipating all of these settlements as well as legal charges, and also there are other -- as you said, there are other charges that -- that they may still be facing, not only in the united states, but also in the uk, so they are actually braced for a lot more. however, you have to again say

that a bank with more than a trillion dollars in assets, the second-largest bank in the world, much less the largest bank in the united states will have enough reserves. also you have to take into consideration that much of what jpmorgan has agreed to pay for came in the form of reckonpence for the kind of dodgy practices by banks that they had agreed to take over at the behest of the united states government. nevertheless those are assets that are still in their possession and they have to claim responsibility for all of that past mispractice. >> okay. tom thanks for that. tom akerman in washington, d.c. nine foreign green peace activists have been granted bail. let's get more. >> yes, a significant shift in

the russian position on this case. lawyers say the activists will now be allowed home ahead of their trial. >> reporter: it was mid-september in the freezing waters off of the coast that the green peace activists aboard the arctic sunrise were arrested by armed russian security forces, and taken into custody, as they attempted to climb aboard the oil rig. the 30 taken offer of the ship came from 18 different countries, and included three russians. the group were all initially charged with piracy and later reduced to hooliganism. the action received

international criticism. two activists came from argentina. one bailed on tuesday, 49-year-old engineer, david houseman from new zealand was told that he and the others would be required to return when a trial date had been set. for him it had been an unpleasant experience. >> we were put in a cage and publicly humiliating, and also the presumption of guilty. >> reporter: the others will be allowed to return home after paying 61 thousand dollars. over the next day or so it is expected more of the activists will be granted bail. australian activist colin russell had his detention order extended by three months. peter sharp, al jazeera, in moscow. the foreign office [ inaudible ] has summoned the spanish ambassador after a

standoff developed over a ship which entered the waters of gibraltar. the ship has refused to leave. arrest orders have been issued for former chinese leaders. they are wanted for their role in alleged genocide in tibet. now a fast-food restaurant chain mcdonald's is doing its bit for democracy, the dane initial government is asking for help in order to get more people to vote. but some say it cheapens the process. >> reporter: while cheeseburgers, big macs and fries are always on the menu at

this restaurant, today so too is politics. candidates standing in the local and region alec sh leec -- reg elections in den -- denmark, they are allowing candidates to argue their points of view in front of potential voters. >> they come with, like, this and they are like, take this, vote on this guy, read a lot, and i just want to eat my food. >> reporter: as well as hosting political debate, some mcdonald's have also become stoppoff point for mobile polling stations allowing some customers to cast their ballot ahead of election day. it's all part of an attempt to

reverse the trend of decline in voting. >> voter turnout in 2009 was the lowest we have had in 35 years. but it was still almost 66% which by some standards is pretty high. >> yes, maybe so, but it was a drop of almost four percentage points. >> reporter: the move has its critics. local councillor is seeking reelection. >> i think it cheapens the process when you go to mcdonald's. it like's like turning democracy into a reality show. >> it might be seen as controversial, but we don't see it that way. all we're trying to do is help people vote. >> reporter: the debate is over,

and for a few minutes these young candidates put politics aside, each, though, hoping they have persuaded customers to vote for them. all right. you are up to date with the latest news from europe. >> there is a lot more still to come here on the news hour, including winner of world of the year. here is a hint, just look at what these people are doing. details after the break. and we'll have all of the sport. egypt against ghana. find out whether it was enough to advance to brazil. ♪

♪ welcome back. let's get more on venezuela. the president is asking parliament to grant special powers. the president would be able to govern by decree for 12 months. he says he needs the extra power to battle corruption and boost the economy. but critics say he'll use the extra powers to clamp down on his opponents. let's speak to berry featherman. what do you make of this move by

maduro, his predecessor, h hhu hue -- used these techniques as well, didn't he? >> he did. it is very troubling. the economy has suffered in recent years despite, you know, the high price of oil, the country has still taken huge loans from the chinese, and largely that's been the result of the policies that were instituted under president chavez, and have continued under this president. so i think this is a troubling sign, and a bit of a sign of desperation especially given the low poll numbers. >> we saw a couple of weeks ago,

maduro forcing thousands of businesses to cut their costs, now this move, which you say is troubling. is any of this actually helping the economy? >> i don't see it helping at all. in fact it is causing just the opposite. there has been a significant amount of capital flight in venezuelans and foreigners as well leaving the country. so it's hard to see how these new powers designed according to the president to wage an economic war will actually result in a recovery. in fact i think it will make the country much worse. >> and where does this leave the opposition? >> well, it leaves the opposition in a very difficult

position. there is recognition that the population is largely dissatisfied with the government. a lot will be fortold when we have the municipal elections in early december. i tend to think that the opposition as a result of these measures will make gains, but nevertheless, the president is moving to consolidate his power and to isolate though opposition. so even if there's some gains in the up-coming municipal elections, i -- it looks very difficult for the opposition will ultimately be able to contribute to an economic recovery, and in fact i think we'll continue to see capital flight and the economy will continue to deteriorate. >> all right. good to get your thoughts. thank you very much. >> my pleasure. thank you. killer whales or orcas are

the superstars of the american whale-watching industry. >> reporter: shane has been running wildlife boat tours for two deck indicates. orcas are a big tourist draw. but he sees a new threat to the orca and the all-important salmon. >> if we don't have fish, we don't have black fish. >> reporter: this is what he is worried about, two huge turbines. it's a 20 million dollars pilot project testing the viability of tidal energy. he sees trouble. >> reporter: do you really want our endangered whales around big

egg beaters? i don't. >> we have done an awful lot of work to substantiate the fact that this won't hurt wildlife. >> reporter: an extensive review found no threat to wildlife, but the project is still opposed to four native american tribes be fishing rights in the area. >> you are really only going to gather actual data by doing something, but getting out there in the water and seeing how things work. >> reporter: a professor is designing the cameras for what sees is a valuable underwater laboratory. >> it's a valuable area to learn more about the fish who live in the area. >> reporter: but tour boat

operators say they are not against trying to tap tidal energy. they say it is any right project, just in the wrong place. >> reporter: this is the site. it's the main entrance to busy puget sound, and now conservationists find themselves defending orcas and fighting against natural allies. >> we're swimming upstream because this is green energy. we love green energy. >> reporter: energy which could be spinning up from the bottom by the summer of 2014. let's get to sport now. >> thank you very much. let's start with the latest from the african world cup qualifiers. ghana have secured a spot next year with a win over egypt. the playoff was held in cairo despite security concerns.

the substitute pulled one back for the visitors in the dying minutes. the other african qualifier algeria are taking on their opponent. they are opening to overturn a 3-2 deficit of their leg. and the final 14 will be decided over the next few hours. france is ahead of their decisive leg against ukraine in paris. france's newspapers lead a national wave of support on tuesday. they will be the first team to over turn a 2-0 deficit.

>> translator: the ideal is to score a goal quickly. ukrainians are a high-quality team, so we need to put our efforts not only in attack, but also in defense. greece's clash with romanian kicks off shortly. the greeks with a 3-1 aggravate advantage. portugal held a 1-goal advantage over sweden. they have been doing their best to make life difficult for their opponents. they provided a special early-morning wakoff concert for the portuguese outside of their hotel. mexico is expected to qualify for their sixth consecutive world cup on wednesday. they will take a 5-1 advantage

with new zealand in wellington. despite an unstable qualifying period that has between four managers. the asian cup qualifier between lebanon and iran went ahead in beirut on tuesday despite twin blasts in the city. the two teams played in front of an empty stadium. the iranian players also wore a black ribbon on their jersey in remembrance of the 23 killed. aone of cricket's biggest rivalries resumes on thursday as the series against england and australia gets underway.

the occasion marks the 100th at the time for this man. he claims he is misunderstood. >> i can't help people thinking that i'm arrogant. i think a lot of great sportsman out there have that little bit something to them that makes them want to be the best and wake up every single day wanting to improve. i call it confidence. the australian golfer has spoken for the first time about the loss of several of his relatives to the typhoon in the philippines. at it of his relatives were killed including his grandmother. >> it's a real tragedy. you know, i -- i called my mum and she was just in tears, and i couldn't -- i couldn't -- it's so hard because i couldn't hold

my mum or hug her or anything like that, so, you know, it was really tough. >> and there's more on our website, you can check out aljazeera.com/sports. there's also details there on how to get in touch with our team using twitter and facebook. and that's it for me shoely. >> thanks very much indeed. if you have taken a picture of yourself with your camera phone recently, you are certainly not alone. in fact there is even a new word for it. bench watch, bitcoin, twerking. this are some of the words that have been short listed for the international word of the year. so which is the winner? let me demonstrate. you guested it. it's selfy. a selfy is a digital self

portrait. oxford dictionary says the term first appeared in an online australian forum back in 2002. but its frequency has spiked about 17,000 percent. it's not just humans taking selfies, nasa's mars rover opportunity caught this, showing its late afternoon shadow on the red planet, and of course not all pictures are created equal. check this one out by a japanese ott r astronaut. we see the gun, deep space, and of course our planet. that could very well be the ultimate selfy. >> that's it for my selfy, bye for now.

thanks for watching. ♪

welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories we're covering for you. the government is set to reach a settlement with jpmorgan. and president obama is set to meet with lawmakers on the issue of talks with iran. and michael bloomberg making it so no one under the age of 21 can buy tobacco. ♪ we begin with breaking news concerning jpmorgan chase. we're waiting for the ta