>> welcoming to being al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories we're following for you. senate on the hill taking up presidential nominations on a budget deal and some americans about to be cut off. unemployment benefits running outs in days. i. we begin with breaking news coming from massachusetts. police there investigating a security scare at one of the nation's most prestigious

universities, harvard, explosives. four buildings are being evacuated, one is still being searched. three are cleared after being searched. students taking final exams. we'll have more information as developments warrant. aleppo, women and children the more than 100 dead after government troops dropped barrel bombs filled with explosives on that city. people are now searching for survivors in the rubble. nicole johnston has the details. >> reporter: no child should have to experience war like this boy. he's clearly in shock. many people in aleppo will also be feeling that way after an intense bombing raid on the city. in the el hadari neighborhood bombs fell on a garage. >> translator: they call us terrorists but they are the

terrorists themselves. play god take revenge on them. our cars were burned with women and children inside. >> reporter: this is what's left after activists say were hits on the city. people killed but on sunday alone more than 100 people died and many more were injured. >> we have not rested since morning. more than 10 different areas in aleppo came under heavy bombardment. explosives and missiles. as you can see this is the only equipment the civil defense team has. we don't have any other weapons or equipment. >> reporting 50 people are still trapped under the rubble. explosives on the people below. it is not the first time, pipes and oil drums packed with things like tnt oil or nuts and bolts,

and pushed out of the back of helicopters. crude but lethal. >> translator: here a many barrel was dropped. there are no heavy machines to get people out from under the ruins. >> reporter: as if syria wasn't miserable enough, people are barely surviving the winter. nicole johnston, al jazeera. >> appeal for billions of dollars in national aid. largest ever for u.n. half that money they say will go to syria. >> this is the largest amount we have ever had to request at the start of the year. $6.5 billion of this will support our efforts in syria and in neighboring countries and again this is the largest ever appeal for a single crisis. >> the u.n. says the civil war

in syria has resulted in the largest displacement crisis sin the genocide in ira rwanda. now facing a winter storm that could kill even more. anita mcbryde has more from istanbul. >> the sort of figures that the war in syria is generating are now becoming difficult to even adequately comprehend. the world food program says it's staying $2 billion a month to feed the syrian and the last figure we had was 9 million syrians in need of immediate assistance. the refugee crisis will be almost twice the size it is now by the end of 2014 if nothing is done to deal with the war raging inside the country. but however bad the situation is for refugees outside, it is

infinite reply worst inside. syrians are affected by war, political wrangling, who can access where and how. and they are grievously affected by the weather. it's killing young and old and impeding the arrival of supplies. you have people without shelter, without heating oil, many hospitals destroyed or inoperable, the access to most basic of crugz in the areas. many -- drugs in the area. the politics is also a big problem for them. if you have areas where fighting between rebel groups and between rebel groups and the government is raging out of the control in those areas, also out of bounds for aid agent agencies.

reporters can't tell the story either. another supplier plans to give the gas to power those stoves. the region is dealing as can you see with freezing temperatures foblg thafollowing massive snowe are told you about. guantanamo detainees, neither have been charged with any crimes. 160 detainees remain at guantanamo bay. australia's role in afghanistan is now almost over. 12 years later. the last australian l soldiers are leaving afghanistan. >> the lowering of the flag at what had been the soldiers main base in afghanistan. australia's role comes to an end. the handover to afghan soldiers will patrol what australian

soldiers have for over a decade. australian soldiers first went to afghanistan in 2001. 25,000 have served there since then, mostly in central orisgan province. emotional 250 seriously injured, 40 killed. despite the sacrifice australia's efforts have not been in vein. >> we have ended the longest deployment. ending with hope that the afghanistan is a better place and orisgan in particular is a better place for our presence. >> mixed reaction to the news. >> what's going to happen will be like it was before. the taliban or some other group will move in. >> i think they've done an amazing job, all of them. through but circumstances. >> although australian soldiers have all left afghanistan, 400

will remain into next year, but in a training capacity. the trip has been longer than he be nebraska expected,ing prime minister tony abbott says, there is no jubilation here, more a sense that too difficult chapter is closing. andrew thomas, al jazeera, sydney. (t) house leaving washington for the holiday recess. the senate is expected to leave town later on this week without taking care of the sticky budget deal. mike viqueria joing >> the house of represents, has been a straight -- representatives has been a straight party vote. last week a landslide, 332

members of the house. they only needed 218, passed that bipartisan budgets. it was a big surprise. john boehner putting down an insurrection, on his right flank. outbursts coming from john boehner but over in the senate normally a place where there is a little bit more cooperation anyway, they flipped the script. sharply partisan divide. they needed 60 to pass the budget, it is believed they have 60 now and it will pass but it has been touch and go for a while. some surprising republicans have signed up including ron johnson a very conservative member from it. looks like smooth sailing but we won't be sure until tomorrow. >> 2013 will go down in the year

interesting statistics, all in all, 942 hours work for the entire year for the house of representatives. if you work a 40 hour week, you work more than 2,000. they work about 28 hours a week on the weeks they are here and they take off virtually all of august, all the holidays, many weeks in between. 2007 they worked 1700 hours. another basis of comparison. over to the senate, 99 days worked by the end of this week when they leave town, they will have worked in 23, that is an all time low when matter how you

measure it. >> i don't think they heard you mike viqueria from the white house. thank you very much. andrew snowden, it's not clear how much he stole when working for the nsa a deal could

be in the works. >> we now know if you are anywhere in the world the nsa can find out who you are calling. who you are e-mailing. where you go on the web or on the planet. in some cases they can listen to everything you say, whether you are a politician or a regular person. we now know edward snowden, turns out the nsa can't quite figure out what other information he has. the office he worked at in hawaii reportedly didn't have the technology okeep track. >> do we ever know what he's got? the new york times says we may not this morning. >> the repercussions seem he has a negotiating edge on us because he can hold this overhang over us in terms of negotiating. >> that's the big question in washington now. should the u.s. government negotiate with snowden, offer amnesty for the estimated 1.5 million documents he has.

the person leading the investigation is yes. >> my personal view, yes, it's worth having a conversation about i would need insurances that the -- assurances, my bar would be more than an assertion on his part. >> the obama administration doesn't agree. they want him returned from russia and prosecuted. the programs we know about, it is believed that we have seen only about 1% of what snowden has. the other 99%, turns out not even the u.s. government knows what that will reveal. patty culhane, al jazeera. >> coming up.

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>> the judge handling detroit's bankruptcy case is handing a victory to those trying to block it. representing unions, retirees and pension funds to appeal to the u.s. circuit court in cincinnati. declaring detroit can move forward in its bankruptcy case. others fear it would slash pension payments to decrease its debt. unemployment benefits expire at the end of the month. kimberly ducar talked to a woman

in queens who is barely scraping by. >> her reality is far from the one she knew more than a year ago. she spends her days caring for her elderly mother who has suffered several strokes. >> i love my mom very much. and a lot of times i can't give her what i don't have. >> reporter: it's a far cry from the 11 years she spent in manhattan, working at an executive assistant. earning a wage that gave her the financial freedom to help her family. she has been living on $328 a week, dipping into her 401(k) to make ends meet. >> with my two children, grown adults, a lot of times they will, say, mom here's something. me being a parent you take care of your kids.

but then at the same time many sometimes the kids have to take care of their parents. >> the stress she says has taken a physical toll. >> weight gain, weight loss. so you know things can go up and down. >> well, the overall unemployment rate has dropped to 7% the number of long term unemployed, those that have been out of work for more than 27 weeks, hasn't budged. more than 4 million of them are still struggling to find jobs. extended unemployment benefits were created in 2008 to give people assistance who needed more time to find work. more than 1 million unemployed will receive those until they entire, that will increase people looking for jobs at this staffing agency in new york. >> people are more flexible with the types of positions that they're willing to consider. whereas, in the past, i think

that people were really holding out and looking at something specific are that was full time as opposed to now a little bit more flexibility and maybe considering temporary to start with. >> lane says they are also competing with recent college grads for entry level positions in what's still considered a competitive marketplace. she wonders how she will survive in the new year. kilmeni dukart, al jazeera, new york. after a mostly lackluster start to december, investors are showing enthusiasm for stocks. the blue chips have been in triple digits all day, following corporate an economic news that came out. just nine days to christmas and the rush is on. u.s. postal service expecting this to be the busiest day of

the year. 600 million pieces of mail, by the way an increase of 12% from last year. soaring demand for online video forcing verizon to update its network. the increased demand is a result of more customers to use their smartphones to watch tv and stream video. census numbers reveal most immigrants coming at the time u.s. are women. many of them struggling and battling abuse and exploitation. now there's a nonprofit in new york that's giving them careers as bakers. al jazeera's kayla ford has it. ing c ch a lla,ing chibatta, she

now shiers the kitchen with women from mexico and bangladesh. >> i like coming here and work and speak with people english and other language. i know another language like spanish, sometimes language. >> jessica rodriguez started the business in her kitchen. >> in the u.s. and in europe, men are getting jobs in professional baking. so i really wanted to marry a market demand for interesting ethnic breads with the need for immigrant women to get better jobs and career in management track jobs. >> according to rodriguez. the-oars one day hope to compete

with the cities biggest bakeries and find their programs with bread alone. >> the bakery also offers free english lessons. they have been her life line since she came here from moroc morocco, six years ago. alone. >> it was my dream. i came, it was very, very difficult because you're going like another world, like another world, no family there, no english, how do you spike to the people? it was interesting for me to leern lot of stuff, to have responsibility for yourself. >> so far, others have stayed here to teach new women to bake. >> we don't know the culture of each other but we know it by bread. >> bread that provides a taste of home to women here who have come to make new lives on their own.

al jazeera, new york. >> coming up, we'll tell you about a town in louisiana dealing with a cold case 50 years old. debate. and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get... the inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5pm et / 2pm pt only on al jazeera america you you

>> welcome back to al jazeeraam. these are your headlines this hour. the senate wrapping up its 2013 session this week, the senate expected to vote on some presidential nominations and a budget deal that was approved by the house last week. police are investigating a scare at harvard university. four buildings had to be evacuated, one building is still searched, three have been searched and cleared. students take final exams. the u.n. says it needs nearly $13 billion in humanitarian aid next year. half of that number will be pledged to help those flee

syria. the city of alap poe, more than 100 were killed mostly in surveillance. 120 unsolved murders all felt to be committed 50 ku klux klan. andy gallagher has our story. >> the local newspaper are a window into this small town's past. but among these dusty yellow pages there are some stories that some people would prefer to forget. >> this is september, he ran it almost every week. >> the man that died almost 50 years ago was frank morris, ran a shoe shop, well liked by the entire community, his white customers would often let their children play inside his shop. that was reason enough for ku klux klan to target him.

this is all that remains of frank's business. frank was forced to stay inside at gunpoint, he was last seen running from the corner of the building with his clothes on fire and as he ran for help he left bloody footprints on the road. four days later he died of his burns. stanley spent years piecing together, going through old police reports, what he found shocked him. >> but the more you dug the more you realized that there were some really bad people here. and that what happened then, were happening now, were the murders and beatings and whippings that were going on we would be terrified. >> but what's happened here isn't unusual. across the deep south there are still around 70 unsolved murder cases, most of them brutal and racially motivated. >> we are bringing justice, it

may be long time coming but it get there. >> for people like robert lee who remembers frank morris well, there is some hope that his murder may not be in vain. >> let's find out what happened and who was responsible and now the world knows who frank morris was, of person he was and, find out who was responsible. >> without efforts to investigate these so-called cold cases, perpetrators take their secrets to the day. but in farraday the memory of frank morris lives on and for those who live on that may be the oant justice they get. >> bacbackbreaking work, yes, shoveling all the snow that came down, 12 to 18 inches.

areas along i-95, lot of slipping and sliding out there but the storm has cleared out. this latest satellite picture shows where the actual snow is on the ground. this is the visible picture. the clouds are moving, the snow is not. this fresh coating of snow led to a very cold morning. toronto was at 1° for the low temperature. that's what the coating of snow does to the ground. really drops the temperature at knight. maybe not as cold overnight. the why alberta clipper this may be called. it dumped a little bit of snow in the northeast. it moves quickly, doesn't stay over one area, but a lot of snow on the ground. timing between tuesday night and wednesday morning in this area here could made the roads pretty slippery especially if they are untreated and certainly the temperature will be down below freezing. by wednesday midnight early wednesday it will be going out

of the area and clearing out dumping a little bit of snow on the ground, talking about a little bit, just some light snow here across the great lakes, a little heavier up towards new england. but this area where the snow is coming down, when you wake up the temperatures are down in the teens and 20s, could be a little slick on the untreated surfaces, front walk, sidewalk, intersections may be slippery, 45 to 46, thursday, friday and saturday so the mild air does return once we clear the snow out of the northeast with the temperature 35°. watch the roadways, early wednesday morning could be slippery. >> denny thank you very much. nsa phone program is in all likelihood unconstitutional. fourth amendment prohibits unlawful search and seizure. we will continue to follow this story and bring you developments

as they arise. thanks for watching al jazeera americ i'm del walters. techknow is next.