this is al jazeera america live from new york city i'm johnathan betz were a look at today's top stories. >> a train journey into disaster at the edge of the harlem river in new york. killing four people aboard. >> by the time i looked up it was completely going off it's track and there was the rubble from under the track just flying at my face. now safety investigators try to understand what happened. protestors in bangkok confront police using tear gas and water cannons. >> and world aids day is marked around the globe as the struggle to prevent and cure the deadly disease moves forward. ♪

>> an early morning train ride into new york turned into a nightmare today. a passenger train derailed narrowly missing the harlem river. seven cars in the metro north train came off the tracks just outside of the station in new york city. four people are dead and dozens more are hurt. they were heading south to grant central terminal in manhattan. right now the fire department says there are 63 reported injuries and 11 are in transit call conditions and six injuries are reported serious. >> morgan rad ford has more. quiet weekend was shattered when a commuter train violently derailed. the train jumped the tracks along a nare ro turn. narrow tu.

there are police a and firefighters here gathering in clusters. >> when we got here it was a traumatic scene. we had people in cars and we had to lift use air basion bags to e train. >> the train was about half full carrying far fewer passengers aboard than on a busy workday when this rail line deposits tens of thousands of passengers heading straight for new york's grand central station. >> i was sitting on the train and i wasn't paying attention to anything in particular and all of a sudden the train felt a little more sideways than it should be. and by the time i looked up it was going off the track and there was rubble from under the tracks flying at my face. >> the ntsb will be conducting the accident investigation. >> ntsb investigators from the regional office have been on the scene gathering evidence.

>> but the report from this incident is still months away. >> we are joined live from the bronx with more details on the accident. what can you tell us now? whaupdate for us. >> the ntsb has been working several hours now. they pushed the media up the hill here. we had a better vantage point and we were able to see what the response teams were doing. i want to show you what we are looking at now. down here we have four cars and we are seeing the front of the cars right there and of course the ntsb as it's getting dark outside is doing everything they can to get as much material as possible. but interestingly enough, no one can probably describe it quite like this eye witness. listen to this. >> the train looked like it completely derailed. but when it snapped apart it

looked like maybe two popped back up to the up right position completely over the tracks. it looks like they skidded it along the rocks and the gravel because there are a ton of rocks and gravel inside of the train now. >> and absolutely an incredible scene here and we are still getting developments as we go along. the nta are reporting that 14 are critically injured. earlier that number they said there was he i 11 and 45 are in. so we are still actually determining what exactly the numbers are. and we know that four were fatally -- there were four fatalities. all four of those bodies at this point have been removed from the scene. >> and about those injuries, we are hearing from doctors at st. barnbus hospital where the victims were taken. let's listen in on that quickly.

>> the injuries are consistent with what you see from an accident of this nature. a sudden deceleration and roll over. injuries are consistent with broken bones and open fractures and lacerations and head trauma and injuries of that sort where folks are thrown about inside of a train car. i think this is on the higher side of numbers for us to get all at once. we practice this and drill this and dread this but we are ready to do it. what more can you tell us about the survivors of this accident. >> well i can tell you this, i was not so is it you surprised g what these actual train cars looked like. but police commissioner ray kelly did say earlier and some other responders did say that they had to cut some o of these passengers out of the train. the metro north sits three seats and two seats. and so if you can imagine, some of these being tipped on their

animaledges and passengers in tr seats. i imagine it would be quite the effort to free some of them. those injuries sound like they fall in line with that. >> any early work from the investigators on what exactly went wrong here to cause this accident? >> that is the question on everyone's mind, johnathan. and in fact we are going to be hearing shortly from the ntsb they are going to be holding a press conference. right now they are going through all of the boxes and all of the material. the passengers said too they did feel the train was going very fast. we are not sure if that was a factor in what derailed this car. but we are going to know more very soon. >> we are expecting that press conference later this hour. we are live in bronx were the latest on the deadly train derailment, thank you. >> authorities in new mexico are investigating a deadly train

derailment as well. >> a lyc locomotive plunged inta ravine. it was carrying nine cars of iron ore. >> in thailand the leader of the anti-government pr protest has t with the prime minister and refuses to back down. they took control of the state broadcaster aroun and forced the minister to take ref funeral ina police compound. >> in a haze of tear gas thailand's political divisions became clear yet begin. police had warned anti-government pr protestors if they tried to confront them they would respond. and that is exactly what happened. if it wasn't tear gas it was a water cannon. they came to the area around a heavily guarded government house to seize it from the prime minister. it's an important target in their plan to disrupt the

government and force it from power. >> we will definitely succeed. we have already cut the razor wire in front and then we'll enter. >> this is another violent day in thailand's long running battle for control. as usual it was not the rich and powerful orchestrating the crowds to be heard. it was those on the front line who are fighting for a true democracy. thin recent days the protestors have been able to roam around bangkok seemingly at will. targeting government facilities with no or little resistance from the police. certainly it's not the case here. the police are holding firm and determined to defend government house. >> the protestors are showing no signs of backing down some are fighting with their own crude weapons.

throwing rocks and home-made explosives and using selection g shotsling shotsto target police. this could be a long fight for government house and the country. >> the 85-year-old american held by north korea is in good health according to a swedish diplomat that visited him. he was seized when he was leaving the country in october. yesterday he was seen on television reading an apology. the swedish am bas ambassador we to visit him in a hotel where he is being held. >> in kiev the protestors have broken into the mayor's office and set up a headquarters there are over 100,000 people rallyig there. it turned into demands that the ukrainian president should step down. >> the blo pro europe pro protes

were in sheer numbers breaking back into the court. the call for the rest u resignae growing stronger after his decision not to sign up to a free trade pact with the european union buckelling from pressure from moscow. he issued on the morning of the rally saying owe would do everythinhehe would doeverythin. the prpeople came out to say noe government. there government is il illegal. >> they don't respect the people of ukraine. >> what is happening here is a revolution. i was here that night. i heard the scream screams and t sounded like the oppressors were

shooting the people. i don't want ukraine to be turned into a massacre. i will stay here until the end. >> so the pro europe pro test pr are back in the square. less than 36 hours after they were brutally evicted from hire theherethey have retaken the sqd intend to t stay this time. >> along with several protestors i climbed the metal support being constructioned in the -- construcked iconstructed in thea christmas tree to get a look at the demonstration. clashes in othe other martz of e city have been taking place. police used tear gas to break their lines. >> the hall has been occupied by the demonstrators. it remains to be seen how the

authorities will respond. the fears are growing with fore violent dome o stem on demonstr. >> today marks the 25th anniversary 6 worlanverseannive. >> for 18 years bobby has been living with hiv. >> it's a ritual everyday. i'm pretty used to it now. >> he says because of advances in treatment his future looks good. >> hiv is not a death sentence but a life sentence. we have a life and we concern ourselves with living and not dying. the outlook was bleaker for people diagnosed with hiv in the 1980's. back then they were often toll d they had months to live. in 1991 basketball star magic johnson announced he was hiv positive. many people assumed it would kill him.

he is still going strong today. >> now when a person is diagnosed with hiv if they have access to healthcare and housing they can live a near normal life span. >> a million americans are likey infected with hiv. these days there is an hiv test that people can buy at their local pharmacy and use at home. it shows results in less than half an hour. advocates hope it will reach the roughly 20 million americans that don't know yet they are infected. >> despite advances like this the challenges remain. they are affected socially and marginalized and people experience discrimination and that includes gay men of all races and women of color and transgender women and people that inject drugs. >> there are troubling numbers more men are having unprotected sex with men raising more

concerns about spreading hiv. blacks makeup of half of those with hiv and hispanics one of five bobby says he contracted the virus by eye abusing drugsd sharing needles. >> it was tough at first was he was homeless. it was hard to go to the doctor when you were worried about your food being eaten by a mouse when you were you a way. >> he now volunteers he says it's no lo low longer a war for survival it's a battle he wants to help others fight. >> as you can see hiv remains a major public health issues. iss. according to the world health organization 35 million people are infected with the virus.

>> it's the word's leading infectious killer and claimed 36 million lives. joining us from norfolk, virginia is dr. john. dock tocdoctor thank you for beh us. >> thank you. >> we hear people toss around this term, aids free generation, are we there yet though? >> i would take exception if you don't mind with the report that you just had that still talks about the stereotypes of hiv, aids. what i'm talking about and the number of researchers are talking about is that young people, adolescents are now the fastest growing group at risk for hiv, aids. arounand i'm not talking about y youth or african-american youth. i'm talking about white youth. i'm talking about wealthy middle class and poor youth. and any that are having unprotected sex and what we are finding right now is that

50 percent of all teens begin sex by 16 an 16 and a lot of pas that are listening to this show understand what i'm talking about if their kids are out there having unprotected sex they are now at great risk for hiv. that is the new story. >> doctor why do you think people are having unprotected sex especially in this day and age. do you think people have become a little more complacent when it comes to hiv? >> again i'm focused onned aneda lesadolescentsright now i undery are not getting education in schools all of the education have stopped from ten or 15 years ago. adults are com complacent and at of media no longer talks about it. so kids are not hearing about it. what we are doing we go to the streets. we go to the parks and the basketball courts and the skateboard carts. we bring free hiv oral swab kits

and we test them in front of their friends and in public and so they will use social media to tell their friends go get tested. once they are tested we have a better idea how fast the pan pandemic is spreading. >> why do you think there is not the education being done we hear these terms that aids, hiv is no longer a death sentence. >> right. but the problem is you have to get medical help when you find out you are i infected. most young people, 90% of young people never go to a hospital or clinic and get tested because they don't like the aids stigma. they don't like the white coasts and the laboratories. most people are not getting tested when they are young and they don't know any better. >> we arbetter. we are telling them look get tested and it's better to know

your status. it's noa lot of it is politics. it's not convenient prove toe say that white mi middle class youth are at risk for aids. the world health organization just came out and said thatted a less ends arthatadolescents aret growing population at risk. >> i'm glad you are here to talk to us about it. >> thank you very much. >> well millions of americans are traveling home after the busy holiday weekend. i'm glad to report overall mother nature is behaving. let's take a look at the map here. it's quiet from the east coast back into portions of the west coast. and certainly across the center. we have a few disturbances right now understand on.

one particularly across the northwest where the rain is coming down. all because of this high pressure ridge that is across the pacific. ushering the cloud cover over the pacific northwest. the winds are gusting quite a bit, up to 40 miles-per-hour. in areas west of seattle they climbed to a high of 54° and the clouds rolled in and tomorrow we'll see snow and rain and tuesday the temperatures are plummeting and will reach a high of 35° on tuesday. we have a flood warning in effect in areas east of seattle. if you are traveling along i-5 or i-90 you want to use precautions we are looking at snow and winter snow warnings in eastern portions of -- western portions of montana and northern portions of idaho. we could see 7 to 24-inches. 7 in valleys and thi 24-inches n

above. >> today is the day that the obamacare web 15 website is supo be fixed. is it we'll tell you next on al jazeera america.

tony the cio said they believe if they had the 80% functionality that would be a good day for them.

it's working better and more people are abe t ability able t. this is predicated with young people signing up. so at the end of the day premiums are not going to rise next year and you are not going

to have a healthcare system that is more than was promised in the first place. >> that is a big hurdle for the obama administration to get those young people to buy into obamacare. how d do you think it's going so far. >> there has been a major political push on the right and the left. >> let's take the left, organizing for action that is the lobbying group that sprung up out of the 2012 presidential reelection campaign for president obama. it's out with a cheeky video about a kid going to thanksgiving dinner and his parents wants to talk to him about a big, big question. and he is imagining all of these horrible things his parents getting matching tattoos and moving in with him and what they want to talk to him about is signing up for obamacare. there is a push to reach young people to take interest in signing up for healthcare an ultimately going on to the website that may or may not be working that much better and signing up for coverage so that this is going to be a system

that is full of young people an healthy people that are going to provide the foundation that is going to make the whole thing work. >> president obama took a big hit over the website and the affordable care acte act comple. do you think he will be able too recover from this now it's working. >> what the republicans are doing is telegraphing their next movie amove. the website is going to keep getting better. what we need to look at is not the website not functioning it's about the policy not functioning. the republicans in 2014 expect them to focus on not the functionality of the website but the functionality of the system itself if the obama administration cannot get enough people to sign up for obamacare expects thexpect the republicane full bore on that issue. you have senate republicans

today coming out with e mails this is all about 2014 and trying to get a senate in there and being republican and appeal obamacare. it strikes to the heart of the issue. at the end of the day republicans are going to do everything they possibly can to highlight the problems of obamacare and keep doing it because there are political points on both sides to score in the here and now going into 2014. without question a lot more to it. the website may work but the big question is does the law work. david, thank you. >> thank you. okay we are here with the sports head lineheadlines and a big sh. >> number one alabama being shocked. move over georgia florida state is moving on up in the rankings the seminoles are the number one

team in the rankings. it's the first time since october of 200-000 2000 that the seminoles have been ranked number one intersectio ohio sta2 and crimson tied tide is no. 5. the steelers coach got cot up on thcaught onthe field. that move is going to cost him a six figure fine. the steelers could lose a late round draft pick. the league is expected to make an announcement this week. >> new information on the drama in miami. according to espn dolphin's coach wanted to cut incognito after he was accused of harassing a volunteer at a golf tournament. his wish to cut him was over how ruled. >> incognito continues to be suspended while the league continues their investigation into this matter.

off the field dolphins are having issues but on the they are taking care of business. >> when al jazeera america continues the deadly derailment of a passenger train in new york. we'll hear from the national transportation safety board in a few moments. we'll bring it to you.

power of the people until we restore our free

welcome back to al jazeera america here is a look at your top stories today. in thailand the leader of the anti-government protest has met with the prime minister and refuses to back down. 30,000 protestors attacked government building today. they took control of the state broadcaster and forced the prime minister to take refuge in the police compound. >> the obama administration says healthcare.gov is working most of the time. the white house has given a deadline at the end o of novembr to get it up and running. they are hoping to get it running successfully with 50,000 people flying to sig trying to

once. >> four people are dead and 63 injured. the train left the tracks stopping feet from the harlem river. >> and the ntsb is colonell is y investigating the deadly train accident in new york. lisa stark is joining us live. what can you tell us about that investigation. >> ntsb has sent their go team a team of investigators that will look at of aspect of this accident to try to figure out what went wrong the good news is the train had vent reporters. r. it's like a blac black box on a airline but less sophistocated. it will tell how fast the train was going and whether the operator tried to apply the brakes. speed will be the main thing they'll look at first, we are told by the nta that runs this

rail the speed right before the curve is 70 miles-per-hour. but as the train comes into the curve the speedin speed is to sn to 30 miles-per-hour. the big question is did the engineer slow the train and if not, why not. the ntsb will look at issues like the track signaling and they will look at distractions. there have been a number of accidents where operators were on their cell phone or texts or o --texting or on a computer and didn't slow the train down. did that happen in this case. they will get a chance to interview the engineer. the engineer did survive but we understand that that person was injured in the accident. they are just beginning their work but the they will have a lf clues to help them along the way. >> back in july a freight train also derailed near where that accident occurred. do you know if officials made

any changesa changes after thatt train accident. >> it was a ten car freight train carrying garbage from new york city. it derailed a half mile from this location. it happened in july on a very hot day. and the suggestions at that time was there a problem because the rail lines were too hot because they heated up and expaneledded. this is th the second passenger train derailment in two months. but an official with the nta did tell the ntsb last month at a safety hearing did tell them that the railroad is behind in a number of critical areas and they need to catch up. the ntsb will look at the

culture of the entire railroad as it looks at the cause of this accident. talk about the transportation of this area. especially since it's a busy travel day in the northeast. how do you expect the accident to affect trans330330 transporte area. >> amtrak does use this track. amtrak has put out a notice that service is suspended and no one can use this part of the rail until the investigation is over and the rail is repaired. it does not affect train service between new york and washington, d.c. or new york and boss t bos. >> really quickly as we begin to watch this news conference. can you tell us how these triens artrainsare operated? how much control does the driver have over these trains. >> what is interesting about the accident today the locomotive was at the rear of the train.

when you think of the trains you think of the locomotive pulling the train. it's not uncommon to have locomotives at the back of the train and pushing the train forward. that is what was going on in this accident. that is the reason the front car that almost went into the river was a passenger car and not a lycalow mow locomotive. i asked the nta why the lyco lyw locomotive was pushing the train. was that some how a factor? the fact that the locomotive was at the rear of the train as the train approached the curve. there have been some reports that the innin engineer tried tt on the brakes but he was unable to. that is not confirmed. that is another question they'll be asking this engineer. that will be one part of the investigation. >> these commuter trains operate differently than passenger

trains. talk about a difference between a train like this and something like amtrak which a lot more people are familiar with across the country. >> these trains first of all they are frequent. as you know they make a lot of stops. what is interesting about today's accident was this train was just before the next station however it was not a station that the train was scheduled to stop at. there was no slowing down at least to go into the next station whether that was a factor and the engineer thought we don't have to go through the next station and maybe he didn't slow down appropriately. it was interesting that they were going to by pass that station and go on to the next stop that was scheduled for this route. these trains obviously as you say run very frequently. but still these trains are supposed to be designed to protect the passengers just like anaanan amtrak train is. p onone thing that will be

interesting to the ntsb three of the four people that died were thrown out of the train. they were found outside of the train. the ntsb will take a close look at that as part of the survival impact investigation. they want the train to protect the people inside. they have made a number of recommendations for better and sturdier rail cars. so you are protected in the event of the crash and so you can be cushioned from the train. the fact that three people were thrown clear that is going to be something that the ntsb is going to look at. >> and i wouldn't be surprised if you see recommendations on how the trains could be built better to protect the passengers. >> we'll let you go. lisa stark from washington thank you for your time. >> we'll move on to other news now. egyptian police and several hundred students protestors clashed near cairo university.

the activists set fire to a police car. they are angry about the death of an engineering student. riots are happening in square. it's the largest gathering there in recent months. >> more than 4 40,000 bed 40,0 s live in the desert. they call the area home longer than israel has been a state. now they have to leave. israel parliamen parliament is o vote on how to close their villageses. thevillages -- villages. they are not going quietly. though promised a day of rage and this is what it looks like. hundreds of bedouin are fighting police and the plans to evict 40,000 of them from their homes. forty people were arrested here in the desert and in haifa on saturday. the authorities responded with tear gas and rubber bullets

amount a water cannon the fighting is over. ramsay is a carpenter but he has no intention of fitting out a home for him and his family he is happy here and he says there is no way he will be leaving. >> they want to evict us and and replace us with jews we tell them it's okay to bring jews here we'll live together. but we refuse to leave. >> this is where the bedouin live aer i series of small vills and towns as they have for generations. this is where the israeli government wants to move them. a new urban community that has bother a amenities. at the heart of this is this who only thowns the rights to all ot land. the bedouins say they do.

they have ontari owned this lane 1948. >> these people are citizens of the state of the israel and they deserve to live in conditions similar to those that you and i would like. and that is what we are doing, we are putting billions of dollars into a program that will bring to them education and bring to them health and elick electricity and running water and all of the basic amenities that you and i expect our authorities to give us. >> with this accident and if there is. we'll listen quickly to the ntsb news conference. the new york governor is speaking right now about the deadly train derailment outside of the new york city. >> safety is job one and any lessons we can learn from this tragedy is what we want t want w and that is the purpose 69 ntsb's investigation o on site. >> once the ntsb is finished

with their investigation, then the site will be turned over to the mta to commence repair work. therthere is a crane that is non route that will right the trains that will be part of the investigation and part of the review of the site. but only once the ntsb is finished with the investigation can the mt affiliata seriously o fix the tracks. the mta will update people periodically as to what the schedule will be for for the rs and the return of service i think it's fair to say that tomorrow people there us peoples line should plan on a long commute or using the harlem line. mta.info is where you can go for the most recent information on service. i want to thanks all of the first responders who have been heroic all day long. new york city police department

and the fire department, the mta and the amtrak colleagues from the federal government were here very early. and really perform admirebly. the emergency services in this state i believe are second to none. unfortunately we have had too much experience in emergency service over these past couple of years with weather related incidents et cetera. but on a day like today the first responders are truly a blessing. also, as this day comes to a close, what is most important is we lost four new yorkers this morning. we have 11 who are critically injured and who are still in the hospitals and i would ask all new yorkers to remember them inn your prayers tonight. it's most unfortunate that this comes during the holiday season and i think it's a ry a remindeo all of us that life is a precious gift and take every day

exactly that bas because over ds precious. >> now i will turn it over to the ntsb. mr. warner who is conducting the investigation. i i'm earl weiner and i'm a member of the national transportation safety board the investigators fro from the ntsb arrived on scene today at about 12:30. the ntsb is an independent federal agency charged by congress to investigate all aviation related accidents and significant accident in rail, marine, highway and pipe line we also issue safety recommendations to avoid having the same accidents again. gbefore i go any further on behalf of the ntsb i would like to extend our condolences to the family and friends of the victims of the this tragic accident. here is the factual information

we have at this point in time. at approximately 7:20 this morning a metro north railroad train was derailed. the train was en route from poughkeepsie to

they have given the railroad permission to begin righting those cars. there is some sort of fuel leak from the locomotive and they want to take care of that from the diesel locomotive. and the indication las bee has m those on scene they believe everyone has been accounted for. they want to get the trains up to ensure there are no more victims or survivors underneath the wreckage. they have given mother mission r some of that activity to happen as well. >> they are looking into the locomotive in the back of the train. they don't know if that mattered. though said that will be a part of their investigation. will hthough willthey will be lr

factors. how did the train not protect them. they are really just beginning. they'll have their first big organizational meeting tonight. they'll break into the teams he was talking about. each team will take a very specific part of the investigation to look at. it will include the operators and the engineers and the engineerses union anengineers ur folks that th cop completes the knowledge the ntsb needs. >> having the locomotive in the rear of the train does that make it more difficult to control or more difficult to control the speed? how does it work? >> i wish i had a good answer for you. that question was asked during the news conference and the ntsb didn't anti-smoking i answer it. there are some issues that come

up oppose to the train being pulled. one thing that comes up you are vulnerable to derailed. so you have a passenger car right at the front, right at the point where you saw that car almost went into the river. whether that makes it more difficult to break the train, t- brake the train and apply the brakes. and whether that impairs some americmechanical function. i can't anti-smoking that. answer that. they usually put the locomotive in front. that is the usual configuration. but it's not uncommon to put the locomotive in back. clearly it's not an unsafeway to travel. whether there are some things to call into question we don't know yet. but that will be a part of the investigation. the fact that the victims were thrown from the train how

significant is that right there. >> i think that is very significant. you want the cars to protect you in the event of the crash. that will be something that they'll be looking at very closely as part of their investigation. >> johnathan. >> okay lisa stark thank you so much for your time in washington, d.c. with the latist late -- latest on this deadly train derailment in new york city. four people were killed. ntsb just held a news conference. and if you want to find out more information throughout the day you can go to our website at all jazeera.com. weather is up next. thank you so much for watching.

>> you are watching al jazeera america live from new york city i'm johnathan betz with a look at today's top stories four people are dead and more than 60 others are injured this morning when a metro north train derailed. 14 of those were critically injured. they were in the first two cars. the operator was also among those hurt. the train left the track stopping feet from the harlem river. >> by the time i looked up it was going to off the track and there was rubble from the track flying at my face. >> national transportation safety board investigators on the scene of the accident. the obama administration say healthcare.gov is working most ei the time.