welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters, these are the stories we are following for you. a compromised budget bill expected to come before the senate today. people fleeing the violence in south sue sdan, looking for refuge. a diary from hitler's inner circle recovered and turned over to the holocaust museum. ♪ that bipartisan budget deal now on the brink of passing the senate sometime today. the bill passing a key hurdle in

the senate and avoiding any threat of filibuster. lisa let's talk specific about this bill. what is in it and what is not? >> this is a two-year budget bill. this would increase spending $63 billion for defense and domestic programs now and there would be $23 billion in cuts down the road. how would that be paid for? reduces benefits for military retireries currently under 62, raise airline fees, and decrease pension for future federal workers. it is expected to pass the senate, the question is how long will republicans want to debate it before the bill takes place. we are expected to vote possibly about 4:30 this afternoon.

>> lisa what are the main objectives in this bill? >> the main sticking point seems to be of this plan that would decrease some future benefits for militaries -- for some military retirees. republicans want to amend the bill to take care of that problem. here is texas senator john cornen. >> this is about making mistakes that hurt people. mistakes that we would not make if we took the time in a bipartisan way to try toed a -- address some of these concerns. >> democratic leader harry reid does not want any amendments to the bill. and today he urges passage. here is what he had to say. >> the agreement the center is considering today will help us

avoid another costly shutdown. devastating cuts to education, medical research, infrastructure investments and defense jobs. >> so why will it pass? well, perhaps the best explanation came from the independent senator from maine. he said i'm going to quote my favorite philosopher mick jagger who said you can't always get what you want but if you try sometimes you get what you need, and he said what we need is this budget deal, and that's why it is expected to pass today. no one wants another costly government shutdown. dell. >> lisa thank you very much. don't expect to see the president, vice president or the first lady at this year's winter olympics. they are not is who will lead the official u.s. delegation.

two former athletes, billie jean king and a former us hockey winner, and two openly gay athletes. billie jean king having a tweet that just came out. she said i'm honored to represent the usa at sochi. the controversy stems from a law passed in russia, created an up a message being sent here from the white house.

>> this is an relations at the outset of the fist term. dell? >> reporter: mike, thank you very much. the future of the federal

reserve stimulus policy is set to be reconsidered in a few hours. they'll decide whether the recovery is strong enough to pull back on its bond-buying program. that has kept interest rates low and fuelled this year's stock market rally. >> we saw that the first time the fed tried to signal it would be scaling back its program, mortgage rates shot up and folks began having a harder time, getting a mortgage, and being able to afford the homes they wanted to buy. >> we'll have full coverage this afternoon, and then tonight, ali velshi is going to add his unique incites as to what the fed action means for you and your family. the senate intelligence committee is asking the cia to

turn over an internal study about how it details and interrogates prisoners. the study is said to be critical of water boarding and other interrogation techniques. and there is another report concerning a secret program run by the u.s. government. this time out of all places the campus of the u.s. air force academy. the program turns cadets into undercover informants. >> reporter: it was adam's lifelong dream to be an elite officer, inspired to join the military at age 12. >> when 9/11 happened and you could see the towers burning from my main hometown, it gave you a sense of, in a couple of years i am going to be fighting those people. >> reporter: he enrolled in the

military, and then was caught on a website chatting with what he thought was to be a person of legal age. he says osi offered a deal, your website mistake goes away if you spy on other cadets. >> there was evidence that cadets had been soliciting themselves for sex on line. and they were interested in this. >> reporter: he posed as a woman replaying on craigslist to their ads soliciting sex. just about everywhere you walk at the air force academy, you see the honor code. this is an ideal which is ingrained in the mentality of every cadet and airman from day one. but the air force says it has no

choice but to ask cadets to spy on each other. >> at the same time they are spaying always be honest, they are also using a program that says lie to everybody, trick your colleagues. >> colorado springs reporter broke the story on the cadet program. shortly after his report, the osi issued a statement indicating . . . on tuesday, afa superintendent told al jazeera america she intends to eliminate the need for cadet confidential inform apts. as for adam, his junior year website mistake never completely went away. it was brought up again when he got into trouble for alleged

frat earnization. >> i want to serve, be willing to serve, be able to serve, and then being told you are not allowed to serve. >> reporter: the academy has asked an investigation of the informant program. adam is hoping his case will be heard. he has never been charged with a crime. what could be the last major

[ technical difficulties ] the target was to remove syria's most toxic chemicals out of the country by december 31st, but there is going to be at least a month delay, and the reason is the very volatile security situation on the ground in addition to the weather. what is going on here is an attempt to rid syria of their chemical weapons in the middle of a raging civil war, and it's a very difficult situation on the ground. the security situation is

another guarantee. major highways in syria are changing hands constantly between the government forces and the opposition, and the weather. there had been a snow storm that hit the region, and that also added more hurdles that inhibited thement implementation of the earlier plan. but officials say they will be able to remove these toxic chemicals very shortly, according to a very detailed plan they have in place. >> and we are learning now that president obama is meeting right now with the security review group from the national security agency. the white house is going to review the recommended changes. yet the president meeting with the ceos of apple, google, and the social media giants who attended. alls -- also news coming out of russia.

peter sharp has more from moscow. >> reporter: the punk group pussy riot are apparently eligible. they come under the category of young women with children. and the green peace, the arctic 30 who were arrested in september, they were charged with hooliganism, another area that would benefit from this amnesty. the green peace people have been released on bail, but they can't go anywhere. they are hoping they will be home for christmas, but most of the people will be ordinary russians, 26,000 of them. they include the vulnerable, women over 55, men over 65, men and women who served in the armed forces, but no one with a criminal act or any commission of violence will be allowed to

participate in this amnesty. a lot of the people too, 16,000 we understand are people who have been charged but not actually gone to court. it was an amnesty drafted by the president to mark the 20th anniversary of the constitution of russia, and should start to take effect in the next couple of days and will last for six months. opposition forces and the ukrainian government now fighting over that deal with russia. ukrainian leaders say the deal with russia guarantees financial stability. the foreign minister weighing in this accusing the west of putting pressure on the ukraine to close closer ties with europe. >> everyone should respect sovereignty of every country,

and everyone should allow the peoples to make the free choice of how they want to develop their country and develop their state. trade agreements between ex-soviet states including the ukraine are not meant to [ inaudible ] which he calls their partner. >> reporter: fleeing for their lives, these people are looking for a safe place to hide from the fighting. the united nations base, the message from their leader is to go home. >> translator: when you came here, you were looking for peace. now there is no fighting. now we are telling you that everyone should go back to their house. listen to me, listen to me, listen to me. >> reporter: but the crowd is far from reassured.

>> translator: can be in his house and other people come and ask him to speak a certain language, and if he couldn't speak, they can take him out of his house and kill him. >> reporter: the situation on the ground is dire. thousands have taken refuge inside un compounds, thousands more are waiting outside. officials say they are running out of food, sanitation is becoming an issue. if the crisis goes on much longer, they may be unable to cope. >> thousands of civilians have taken refuge in the two bases. we have limited means in terms of medical support, food, water, and protection. >> reporter: soldiers of the army are mainly fighting along

ethnic lines. the government says the vice president's forces have been defeated. >> ten of his followers have been arrested. so there is nobody there to undermine the security of the capitol of south sudan. >> reporter: an unknown number of civilians, women, and children, are among the dead. circumstances on the ground remain in flux, and the south sud sudanese people remain caught in the middle. a journal filled with nazi history has been discovered. krooer

he was the man behind some of the most racist policies in nazi germany. now 70 years after it disappeared a journal belonging to alfred rosenberg has been found. >> reporter: this is the writing of a nazi ideologue, the diary of alfred rosenberg, hundreds of pages, the piece of history formally turned over to the u.s. holocaust museum by customs enforcement.

he joined the nazi party before hitler. he was the man who laid out the parties racial philosophy. the aryan race at the top, jews at the bottom. >> he has a very rigid understanding of the world. he thought he figureded it out -- immediately after the end of world war i and stuck to the belief right to the end. >> reporter: the belief was that jews were germany's most deadly enemy. he notes . . . historian says rosenberg who-.ed orchestrate the looting of valuables worried about his competitors. >> he felt he wasn't all that able to compete with them, so

there is a sense of frustration that you can see in the diary. >> reporter: but hitler does anoint rosenberg to oversee the efforts in europe. his own words were used against rosenberg at thor i thor in neuro'emberg trials. getting the document has been a tail worthy of a spy novel. the journal was taken by an attorney who smuggled it into the u.s. after his death his estate turned over documents to the holocaust museum, but not the diary. it took years to find it in

buffalo, new york. >> it's part of history. i mean, wow, to be able to return an actual document that was part of the history of this world is pretty amazing. >> reporter: the diary is now ready for historians to decipher and the public. the museum has put all 425 pages online. lisa spark, al jazeera, washington. ♪ in business news wall street moving mostly at a higher -- right now ahead of today's meeting by the fed. the dough now up 47 points. the data showing demand for homes is booming despite the higher mortgage rates. commerce department reporting new home construction up almost 23% in december.

builders breaking ground on more than 1 million homes. that is the most since early 2008. there are at least two very lucky people out there celebrating, because that's the only people that have won the mega millions jackpot, $648 million, and it wasn't me. the winning numbers were . . . one of the tickets was sold at jenny's gifts in san jose, california, the other in atlanta georgia. the two winners have not yet come forward. they are probably hiding from relatives. this was the second largest jackpot in u.s. history. the odds of winning 1 in 258 million. i'm still crying. up next on al jazeera america, a crane accident leading to a very dramatic rescue.

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are your headlines at this hour. after sailing through the house, the budget bill now passing a key hurdle in the senate, any threat of a file was diverted. an international chemical weapons watchdog group releasing plans on how it expects to destroy syria's chemical weapon arsenal. a major lawsuit against the 9/11 attacks has been settled with american airlines. i'm meteorologist dave warren. snow on the ground in the northeast. the roads slushy and the snow will stick around at least for a

day or two. there might be more snow coming down around the great lakes as you get that bitter cold air. that is lake-effect snow. you will feel the cold air in many place here. 30 in philadelphia, finally above freezing there in washington, d.c. the snow is on the ground for a while, but things will be changing here. there is the cold air with the lake effect snow, the storm is gone and that takes the snow with it. nothing moving in, except for maybe up around the great lakes. starting thursday night and friday temperatures will change. look at the high temperatures. look at it on sunday, much warmer temperatures expected. we can go from below average to close to record highs across the northeast. now it does come with the threat for showers or strong severe storms across the southeast. maybe isolated strong severe

storms with gusty wind, damaging hail, and possibly attorneys if the they start to spin a bit, but that will be saturday and sunday. hoping for some rain across the southwest. the precip an average of about a quarter of what you normally get, so the fire season kins in in california. unusual to see it lasting this long, but not unusual knowing it has been that dry for the last 12 months. the operator of a construction crane stranded after a fire broke out below. flames were raging underneath as a military helicopter plucked the man from the top of the crane. and remember those flames created a huge up draft for that

helicopter. thanks for watching al jazeera america. i'm del walters. "inside story" is next. . >> the u.s. seeks a renewed relationship with the philippines, still hurting after a major storm. recovery and the pivot towards asia are the "inside story." >> welcome to "inside story." i'm ray suarez. for more than a months the specific island nation of the philippines have struggled to recover from the worst national disaster that it's ever known. typhoon haiyan. there are still people missing