>> hello, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm jonathan betz in new york. >> an al jazeera exclusive. south sudan's vice president is clear he wants to be in charge. protesters in ukraine vow to keep the pressure on the government through the new year. millions of target customers were victims of a data breach now have spending limits on their cards. tonight the united nations has pulled its workers, including hundreds of americans, out of south sudan. the violence is growing in that troubled country. about 700 foreign nationals were

moved to uganda. tribal differences between the president and former vice president are driving the conflict. the violence escalated when the president dissolved his party, reshuffling the government making it a one-party state, making it almost impossible for anyone else to be elected. >> as the violence in north and central south sudan escalates, thousands are trying to escape the fighting. government soldiers have lost control of the unity state to rebels, and are battling to recapture bor in jonglei state. >> a lot of people are now in the u.n. compound in bor town. the whole town is vacated completely. it is only these rebel soldiers who move about in the town. all the bodies have not been collected. we don't know how far, what is the number. dead up to now.

the town is under the control of the rebels. >> the rebels are loyal to former vice president salva kiir. riek machar is accused of plotting the coup. he de nice this, but speaking to al jazeera's david foster he says he is ready to run the country. snoom so the answer is yes, you would like it be the next president. >> yes. >> no one knows where riek machar is and government officials seem to be losing patience. >> since he continues with the atrocities against the people,

definitely the government of south sudan will not tolerate that. we will not allow him to kill the people. we fall on our hands and keep on waiting for him to accept peace. i strongly believe that after this there'll be no way, but we'll have to move to protect the lives of the citizen. >> there are diplomatic efforts to get the opposing sides to talk. government officials say losing key towns to the rebels is a temporary setback. they say they want exporters loyal to riek machar to take the capital. >> the u.s. and u.n. envoy are in the capital. riek machar makes it clear he wants the president removed, making the request for a dialogue difficult. >> president obama has been briefed on south sudan whilst on vacation. >> the united states, in cord

nation with the united nations, has airlifted, according to the u.s. state department, a number of u.s. citizens who presented themselves to the u.n. camp. they were airlifted to juba. now, the specifics of the evacuation have not been made available by the state department for deliberate reasons, this being, in fact, that on saturday there was an effort to air lift and it was abandoned when members were fired upon. they are recovering from the injuries, but the safety and security is of concern and they are releasing details. more than 380 government officials and private citizens have been taking it from the region to nairobi, and another 300 from partner nations have been evacuated. president obama is continuing to be updated by government officials on the situation, he

is vacationing for his family in hawaii, but is staying abreast. the white house issued a statement saying there is great concern about the volatility in the region. any result will result in long-standing support from the u.s. and international community. the secretary of state john kerry has appointed an experience envoy to the position, donald booth, and he said it's the position that sudan and south sudan not slide back to violence. the u.s. believes it will be detrimental to both sides and the u.s. conditions to encourage both sides to resolve their differences through political means. >> earlier we spoke to ambassador princeton lieman about whether he is hopeful negotiations could solve the crisis. >> i don't think there's an easy

sol use -- solution to the competing differences between president salva kiir and vice president riek machar. the time to resolve it was last year and earlier this year when the problem as arises and have it done through the presses of the political party. that did not happen. now it's turned into a situation where riek machar is reviving memories of the 1991 split when he split from the s.p.l.m. and made war on the s.p.l.m. movement. it will take international effort to enable the two to even start to talk between them, and to work out the conditions for ending this conflict. >> you are expecting a lot more violence, it sounds like? >> i think there's going to be, until there is a process that both have agreed to.

and they see there'll be a way to address their respective needs. i think also there should be consideration of beefing up the u.n. peacekeeping mission in south sudan, to provide more protection for civilians, and be available to monitor and enforce an end to the conflict. >> what do you think can be done to end the conflict diplomatically at this point. >> the africans, the u.s., the norwegians, the british and others, need to work together on the two to set up an understanding between them that the conflict has to stop. there has to be talks and they have to be without preconditions. that's not going to work. there has to by app understanding between them that carrying on the conflict will hurt both sides very badly. i think right now, the initiative has to come from riek machar. but president salva kiir has to

be ready to respond immediately. maybe to release some of the detainees that he's arrested, and open the door to a political process. >> who is really in charge at this moment? is it the president or the former vice president? >> well, the president, of course, is still the president and commands the government and the bulk of the army. riek machar's forces, and this is an army that is largely made up of ethic militias, so it split. the forces loyal to riek machar control a good deal of territory in the east two provinces. president salva kiir's writ does not extend over the entire country. >> it sounds like you are saying the former vice president is the one who needs to be negotiated with, he holds a lot of power and future of the country. >> he does, but president salva kiir has to. the detention within his party

and over the way he was governing preceded the split. some of the people who he has detained and pushed out of government could be helpful in mediating and helping to overcome the crisis by being allowed to do the work and revive the role of the party to manage this a little better. >> moving to the central african republic, where french soldiers killed three rebel fighters, it has caused backlash. andrew simmons reports from bangui. >> this is a scene after a french army patrol confronted seleka. they shot three men dead. the french have come onward fire

themselves. here they are trying to secure the air, backed up by a helicopter. they decided to withdraw for a short while and returned. minutes later former seleka fighters started to spread hate messages towards anyone. then peacekeepers backed up the french. there's an air of hatred and tension. this is a congolese contingent from the international peacekeeping force deploying. we have seen a situation where roadblocks have been set up. we stopped at one, which had to, because we were threatened with a handgrenade. >> these men were trying to stop anyone they thought was french from coming through. later they summoned the media to she them the body, most from seleka. the rebels were supposed to have

been disbanded. the three men are from the presidential guard, and the french have been accused of being soft on anti-balaka but hard on seleka. >> we have not heard of the french killing one anti-balaka. the seleka are back in barracks, travelling only with right papers. >> as the bodies were about to by driven away a relative gave this mowsage >> translation: i'm asking all you french to go home. since independence you have done nothing for us. now you are manipulating us. sometimes you are against you. which side are you on. >> this caused fear for the impoverished people of this country. such clashes followed by reprisals on civilians. the interim government appears to be going nothing to cool down the anti-french sentiment.

>> tens of thousands are in ukraine's capital protesting for a fifth weekend in a row. leaders are encouraged to purpose through the holiday. they are angry the president backed out of a trade deal in favour of stronger ties with russia. the center is independence square in kiev, becoming a significant site of the movement. >> as the demonstrations enter their second month in kiev, there is the power to draw tens of thousands of people to independence square in the center of the cap tam. the demonstrations began as a protest when the government failed to sign a deal with europe and grew when the government tried to crackdown on the protesters. four weeks later many protesters wondered what next. >> the protest was joined on september 1st, after seeing place crackdown.

he said he will stay here until the government agrees on demands. >> what next. >> i haven't thought of that. the next step has to come from the government. our cards are on the table. >> the demonstrations are entering their second month. the president called them revolutionary and criticised the leaders for personal ambitious. >> again ukrainians come to independence scare in tens of thousands. this protest will condition. they called on people to celebrate new year's eve. >> valentino is impatient. she has been here saying something needs to change. >> we can't stand and wait, we need to act. there must be concrete action. they said a peaceful outcome is not agreed.

>> they are willing to head towards violence. >> no chances at all. >> we prevented all kinds of violence. we have shown to the entire world that we are pro-european opposition. >> a pro-government member predicts there'll be movement to apiece the protesters. >> the government's mistakes make the opposition stronger. so we need to correct our mistakes in the next few days. the situation will calm down. >> the people on independence square will not be easily won. after a month, they want to see changes before they consider leaving. >> protests are boiling over in thailand against the prime minister. tens of thousands marching through bangkok calling for yingluck shinawatra to resign. some marched to the prime

minister's home. the opposition party announced it would boycott elections next year. >> a bloody day in syria, 56 people, including children, are dead after an army air strike. the military dropped air bombs out of the air, according to a human rights group. if we look at an online video, the footing cannot be independently verified. hundreds are dying. the military made several aerial raids. rebels are fighting back. they captured a strategic hospital. we have this exclusive report. >> two huge truckloads of explosives are detonated and the battle begins. rebel forces declare victory. their target a hospital in aleppo and what is left of it.

the hospital was transformed into an outpost by bashar al-assad's forces this year. strategically located the building's top floors over look key roles leading to the countryside and another to the city's prison, used as a base by the syrian army. >> this is one of a series of attacks targetting the regime everywhere. we will not rest until we reach bashar al-assad's palace in damascus. >> as with most gains made by rebel fighters the capture of the hospital is fold by government reprisal. >> barrels filled with explosives and other bombs are dropped from the skies as forces try to limit the rebel's advance: as both sides prepare to see who will win the next round in the conflict, the fact that a hospital, intended to save lives has been reduced to a symbol of death and destruction,

leaving many wondering what victory there could be for either side. >> here in the states, days before christmas shoppers are hit with limits on how much they can spend. chase bank imposed restrictions on millions after target's massive security breach. we have more. >> this woman walked into this branch and discovered she was a casualty of the target credit card breach. she could only withdraw $100 from an atm, short of what she needed for an extended families's christmas list. >> i have 12 girls, 13 brothers and i have to get swaet shirts. i don't know what i'll do. i am sure it's over $300. >> more than what chase will allow her to charge on her debit card. she's far from alone. she's one of 200 chase customers that used their cards at a store

from november 27th to des-15th. a third of branches were open to help customers print new cards. half of its branches can issue cards on the spot. for customers that can't make it intoment bank, a new card could take two weeks. i learnt my card needed to be changed whilst christmas shopping. it was an inconvenient fact. >> they issued this statement: >> on sunday i got a new card at the bank in less than 5 minutes. for shoppers like this woman, who couldn't switch their cards... >> i feel i can't use my card. we'll have to use cash. it's not convenient for this time of year. >> did convenient not just for

shoppers, but stores, including target, which is trying to figure out how some 40 million debit and credit cards were hacked. >> there is still a lot more ahead on al jazeera. including time running out to sign up on the health care exchange. what you need to know ahead of the deadline. >> last night we dealt with tornados, now it is ice and problems with flooding. i'll have details of where that is happening, next.

>> last minute shoppers have a little over 24 hours. we are not talking about christmas. monday is the first key deadline to sign up for health insurance. we have more on what you need to know. >> if you haven't already, you may want to pencil in a couple of hours to sign up for health care. millions of americans are

uninsured in most states. monday, december 23rd is a deadline for slepinging a plan if you are looking for coverage starting january 1st. it's important for people in high-risk pools to get insurance now, including those with pre-existing conditions, people that lost coverage when insurers cancelled 2013 plans, and people scaling back. the january 1st deadline varied in states that occupied their own health exchanges. openen enrolment runs in march 31st. website difficulties lead to confusion. people without coverage could face a penalty if they don't have insurance in place by march 31st. it starts small and rises rapidly. by 2016 people without insurance face penalties of close to $700.

to avoid the penalty you need a plan in place by january 15th. it can be a plan by an employer, purchased on a federal change or elegibility through a government change. the white house says increased staff at calling centres across the country are being used to help people navigate the system. there are 12,000 representatives at 17 sites. >> outside denver communities are grieving after the latest school shooting claims one of their own. students have been praying for the recovery of 17-year-old senior claire davis. when they heard the news of her death they held a vigil. >> one of the only things that all of us here could hope for is for her to make it out of it okay. >> claire davis had been in a coma since december 13th, when struck at point blank range. the kunman was looking for his

debate coach. >> harsh weather on the first official week of winter. new york's governor declared an ice storm emergency. sheets of ice have been reported on homes, cars and roads. many trees mel, pulling powerlines down and electricity was out. the storm brought a little of average. tornados, ice, rain, flooding. >> and record heat. >> new york, it feels like. >> and this storm was impressive. when you look at the size of it, tracking eastward, we have concern about ice. here is the good news. that area that we have the ice is shrinking. now it is limited to maine new hampshire. we'll see areas on the roadways. as we look at what is hang right-hand the lakes, there's a

your round of snow. we'll get a dusting of snow on the ice. as the know and rain moves out of the there's cold air coming in from canada. we have the bite near the canadian border. bismark is 20 below zero. that's what it feels like when we take the temperature and factor it in with how strong the winds are gusting. note, if you head to the south, boy, it's warm. well, cincinnati at 34 doesn't sound warm. but it beats being below zero. here is a wind chill advisory in effect. something else we are watching is across the pond as we look at ireland and england. a major storm swinging to the north of the islands. winds increasing 40-55 miles per

hour, gusting above that. rain in the picture and snow as we get into the next two days. stormy wherever. here in the u.s. travelling will improve when it comes to roadway continues. better for the south and the midwest because roads are treated quickly to the north - salting, clearing, ploughing. it goes on, but when you factor in the ice, we won't have the greatest travel. >> in the north-west of the passes become snow filled and cold as well. with temperatures now, single digits to the north, and watching to the north-west. warmer weather will sign off as we get into midweek. our above normal temperatures will taper away. flooding is a concern. plenty of flash flooding in effect. almost 2 inches of rain in the

last 24 hours. more details on this in the south. >> thanks. imagine this kind of gift. it's the world's richest christmas lottery totalling $3.4 billion up for grabs. today it's being given away in spain. the lottery draw is so popular that most of the country's 46 million watch it. tens of thousands take home part of the prize money. top winners get 500,000. for the first time this year the tax man is taking about 20%, billions that they have to share. >> coming up on the week ahead. we look into the national problem of homelessness. plus, how an organization in the u.s. helps afghan carpet weavers grow their business.

>> welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm jonathan betz with the top stories. united nations got about 700 staffers out of south sudan.

most were americans, all noncritical staff members were taken to neighbouring uganda to escape the violence in south sudan. rebel fighters have been trying to overthrow the government, citing ethnic discrimination. protesters going into a second month with 100,000 demonstrating in the capital. protesters encouraged to push through the holidays. the president backing out of a trade deal with the european union, in favour of stronger ties with russia. >> chase bank is trying to protect debit cards at target stores. they are limiting debit card withdrawals to $100, and customers will only be able to spend $300. outside the u.s. a debit card will not be able to withdraw any cash. >> pope francis used his last devotional prayer before christmas to make an appeal for homeless families, speaking of difficulties that homeless

families face and called for everyone to do everything possible. he encouraged 1.2 billion catholics reflect on how to help others. >> homelessness is a topic for a look at the week ahead. poverty and charity receive a lot of attention. they are problems that exist up years round. half a million are homeless in the united states. a third have no shelter and one in four homeless are children. >> the issue surfaced when a 12-year-old homeless girl named dison. >>. michael bloomberg blamed the circumstance on chance. bill de blasio said it came down to policy, and it should be changed. >> shelter are preparing for christmas. charitable are at their highest. they are looking at a dip in giving coming after the hol

says. >> lynn louis, director of the picture the homeless, and the executive director of the national coalition for the homeless, jerry. >> let me start with you in washington. homelessness with families is on the rise. why? >> because housing is becoming less and less affordable. for families that are homeless, it is an economic problem. there was just a study last week from harvard finding that 27% of all renters, not just folks struggling with homelessness, but everyone renting, is paying half their income on housing. it squeezes out the budget and household for basic necessities. >> housing has been expense v for years. people suffered paying the bills. why, now, are we seeing high numbers of homelessness?

>> housing costs are out of control. they are part - part of the findings from the study is they are worse now than they've been. the rise in homelessness is due to the real estate market heating up for families finding themselves out of doors because they can't afford rent. it's very much tied to what is going wrong in the economy for low income households. >> let's talk about new york city, the biggest city in the united states. a massive population, close to 46,000 homeless people. the worst since the great depression. 20,000 are children. lynn, the city spends close to a billion a year. is it working. >> no, it's not working and now the numbers are up to about 53,000. >> a billion a year on shelters.

>> it's a whole lot more of what is invested in housing. what we are concerned about is a misinvestment. not only is it in the interests of homeless folks, but community as a whole. that everyone has a place to live. we as a city figure out how that happened. it's the result of failed policies. the michael bloomberg administration yesterday announced that he's bringing on more - online more affordable housing than before. if we look at who is eligible for the affordable housing, people making $20 - $20,000 a year are not eligible, let alone seniors who are bringing home $7,000 or folks who are long-term unemployed. >> i have to go back to the

billion dollar figure. it's astounding that new york spends a billion dollars on shelters. are you saying it's wasted. does it need to be devoted to apartments. ism i wouldn't use the word waste. people need a place to be. particularly people with children. if the folks were not in shelters, they'd be in the parks, on the streets and on trains. it's a poor use of funds. it's a band-aid as oped to solving -- opposed to solving the road cause. >> what should it be used for instead? >> diverting some funds from the shelter system in order to test innovative ideas that have a proven track record of providing houses for folks that are poor.

it has to be faced in slowly. it's not only that folks are stuck in shelter, neighbourhoods are haemorrhaging because people are losing their apartments. we want to talk about the issues nationally. do you feel that it is a problem that is getting worse for a lot of cities or do you feel some are getting a better control of the homeless population? it is a problem of national dimension. it's unlikely that new york city will solve its homeless problem. the problem is not getting better. there are millions of people with nowhere to go. it will take some national level resources to stablilize the housing market, dealing with why folks are not earning enough to afford a place to live. to expect new york city with a billion which is insufficient for its portion of the problem,

to do this in one place when homelessness can be found in every community and sector of the population in terms of demographics the ethnicity, it effects people all over the country and so there's the need for a federal response. >> and federal response meaning what? do you think there's too much focus on the shelter system. does the government need to spend more money on the problem. what should happen? >> the federal government took a walk on spending adequate resources to make resources affordable. for that reason there's a huge gap in the number of affordable units of housing and the number of people in search of that housing. many of them wind up on the streets or wind up in shelters because there's not enough money in those programs.

housing assistance through rent. that program has been cut under the across the board sequester and so for the first time in many years we are no longer providing as many housing vouchers this year as in the prior year. that's driving up homelessness. >> we mentioned the new york times article, a fantastic piece of journalism. they profiled a homeless girlfriend. blo blom had a response and he said: >> when he speaks, he speaks for a lot of people. there's a feeling that you can only do so much, only spend so much on the homeless population, but you can't help people who cannot help themselves.

>> well, i would ask this: in new york city, a full-time minimum wage workers makes about $15,000. >> we are talking about people who often have addiction issues, criminal issues. why should cities continue and the federal government to pour money into the services when the people - the parents had choices, opportunities to improve their lot in life and did not take the opportunities. there's two arguments. one is as long as we have a minimum wage less than $8 an hour. people can make all the right choices, and still be a home health aid, making $15,000 a year. that's an important job. the people that clean this building may make less than $10 an hour, they probably do. the cashier, when you go home, if you stop at a dwayne read,

that person is making less than $10 an hour. i wouldn't say they made bad choices, someone has to do the jobs. in terms of addiction and all of that, that is less than 50" of the population of people that are homeless. what about the other 15%, where do they go. an addiction disorder is a health issue, we need a system that provides health care, who have community - mental health issues that they need help with. that's not the problem. there are plenty of people who have higher income brackets that have addiction disorders. no one asked them do we have a right to have a home. it's misallocating money to put it into a selter system that warehouses people as opposed to housing that a cheeper than shelter and stablilizes families, but whole communities.

>> there's no question that it's a big issue looking worse for a lot of people. >> lynn louis, jerie jones, thank you for your time. >> afghanistan has been known for its carpets. australian chicago organization is trying to change that. >> the rich cultural history require of afghanistan's province was largely blown up by the taliban along with towering statues of buddha. decades of warfare drove the weavers to pakistan, depleting the nation of an income and industry, leaving shoeless children in afghanistan. >> now arvu - meaning hope - brings a revival, especially to

african women. >> there have been a lot of changes. people who were unemployed before can work now. the wages that they give are high. >> the idea came from american former investment banker connie duckworth who visited afghanistan on a state department mission and returned with a business custom designed for afghan women. it was seeing conditions of women, many living in rubble with small children, that hooked my heart. the ultimate definition of sustainability is profitability. we are not there yet. why? we need to sell more rugs. >> the revival of authentic afghan weaving comes with a twist. arvu makes traditional and modern rugs. a change from the complex patterns. >> we are comfortable with the foreign designs, because they are simply.

>> most of the women were illiterate, signing pore their pay with a thumb print. >> in the first year a thumb print. if you look now, it's sits. all the women know how to write and read. they learn maths. what we have done, how we transformed their lives is inspirational. >> it's a change appreciated by the men. >> some of the people have nothing, nothing. nothing to move their lives forward. thank god the lives of the people have gotten better. >> moving on with their lives remade as dramatically as the lines on their looms. >> ahead - the long drift of the boston bomber towards terrorism.

>> >> it's been more than eight months since the boston marathon bombings. a 5-month investigation by it boston globe said the two men were cared by violence and dysfunction going back several generations. one of the problems had untreated mental health issues and heard voices in his head. it casts doubts that the brother were recruited or direct by islamic factions. >> so that was kind of striking for a lot of people. most assumed that these young men were led by terrorism and radic radical idea eels and you say

why the the story. >> this is our city, that's what we wanted to find out. every lead we took up, especially when i was in russia, they just didn't pan out. there doesn't seem to be a connection other than the fact that they were reading jihadist literature online, they had videos, this seems to be a personal connection rather than a group effort or trained cell or anything like that. >> personal connection. how much did mental health factor into all of this. >> i don't have a written diagnosis, but what we do have is friends and loved ones talking about tamer lan hearing voices. the family psychiatrist who never saw tamerlan and saw the parents talking about possible schizophrenia. we have tamerlan complaining to oo friend that he heard voices that made him do thing, that he

believed in imaginest sick mind role, an entity involving the actions. none sounds good if we talk about the mental health of a person. the article got a lot of criticism from people who felt too much attention was focussed on the bombers and not the victims. >> the bost om globe has done a comprehensive job. we have done a lot about the victims. well merited. these are the mings. we are writing a book which is mostly on the people in massachusetts. we felt a responsibility to explain what happened. the story is not a venneration, and it's not to glory the people accused of this, we are trying to get to the bottom and find out what happened.

>> thank you for your time today. >> thanks for having me. >> and the director of the acclaimed movie like "the sixth sense" and "signs" stepped away from writing movies to write a book. m. night shyamalan's book "i got schooled" focus on inner city schools. he sat down with ali velshi for tonight's edition of "talk to al jazeera." >> the tenant, the thing we are saying is no roadblock teachers. what i mean is the research supports that the bottom percentage of teachers, the 1%, 2%, 3%, the bottom are pulling a drag on the system that it's hard for the other teachers to compensate. there was a bottom 1-2-3%. you can't make up the lose with 4 above average teachers. there's four in a row. slightly above average.

they can't make up for the one teacher. >> you talk about leadership or principles. explain this. >> in the schools that close the gap and are closing the gap, it's a consistent architecture to what the leadership looks lick. by leadership, there's a principle or another group taking care of paperwork, fundraising, facilities. they bifewer kate the responsibility and have principles. >> that's the chief academic officer. >> yes, and they spend 80%. time teaching teachers. if you are the coach, you can't be in the office room while the players hit each other. they have to be with the players. no matter how talented the five players are, they need the basketball coach to they will them what to do. in these schools closing the gaps the classroom doors are hope. people come in and out of the

classroom and say, "sally is being quiet. get-sally." and they constantly give them feedback. >> see the interview coming up on "talk to al jazeera," 10 o'clock eastern, 7:00 p.m. pacific. >> coming up, young kids compete in a 21st century olympiad.tñ

>> this weekend we have been telling you about an international competition to develop rescue robots. the aim is to find systems that can be used in situations like the meltdown of a nuclear plant. a team of japanese engineers dominated. a team of younger scientists had their own robot competition. al jazeera's jim huli. these students came from around the world turning the conference room into a learning lab. >> they programmed fancy footwork for the robotic dance competition. >> the dancers are put together well. more than 300 students are taking part.

putting the machines through the manoeuvres in 16 categories. two, one. >> there's an agriculture competition for designs to save money and water on the farm. >> there's six on the robot. it moves up one position. when it gets to the top it will dump out. sometimes things work. sometimes they don't. but that is not enough to stop the budding geniuses. most are in high school, some in elementary. >> randy is the executive director of amarobtics who worked to bring the competition to america. >> it's the physical world, all the pieces and the maths. >> this robot is getting ready

for the biathlon. american kids are falling behind. host of the competition here has been dominated by kids from asian companies. >> where are the americans? >> i think they are at home sitting on the couch watching tv. >> 10% of the competitors are from the u.s. >> the real issue with the kids is we need to take a look from a u.s. perspective how do we get them to go beyond where they are, not just be consumers of technology, but creators. last year south korea walked away with the top honours. according to the institute. u.s. opportunities are marked 23. 17th out of 19 in problem-solving. >> it doesn't mean everybody has to be a creator much if you move them up the continuum it will be a powerful experience.

a point not lost. >> if they don't know maths, you can't do this at all. >> students and robots head to budget china. >> the future is there. unreal. i was impressed by the dancing robots. >> you don't see it every day. >> not on the grid iron. >> there's a lot of n.f.l. teams. a lot of teams are in play off mode. have you to keep winning and keeping your hopes alive. before they scared off at lamb bow field, the packers were on the outside looking in. needing a win. the steelers still alive despite the 0 and 4 start. remember that. we picked up the third quarter. bell with the touchdown. giving pittsburg a 38-31 lead.

the pass is incomplete and the steelers somehow survive 38-31. the steelers winning five of their last seven against snowy lambo field. the packers not happy and the steelers winning five of their last seven games, as we check out the nfc north, green bay needs help. a chicago loss to the eels is needed. if the bears win they take the division. the lions are out. the cowboys in graish yn mode. des-bryant touchdown. 14 yards on the play. third quarter dallas up one. >> 20-14. crunch time. under a minute and a half left.

this is a whole season on the line. tony romo, critics on his back firing for a touchdown. the cowboys escape and live to play another day 24-23. the cowboys will face the eagles next week, regardless of the outcome. the two teams will play in big d for a winner take all game. the nfc title. the loser of the game out of the play-offs. >> the denver broncos were kout to prove a lose to san diego was an unexpected speed bump. the broncos and panic aring got on truck to the lowly texans. panic aring ties tom brady. number 50 to eric decker. and then the record, peyton manning, he's in the record books. denver wins going away 37-13.

>> patriots on the road. new england on the board. breaks the plain 1-yard score. later in the first tom brady to shane. good for four yards. 14-0. the patriots dominate. from the opening kick off this one not close. 41-7 is the final. with the chief's loss, the broncos win the afc west and the first-round buy. all four leaders locked up play-offs. with the loss, the ravens occupy the final wildcard slot with the dolphins and charges behind. you see the steelers are still alive as well. that is a wrap for sport. eagles and bears playing now. more at 11 o'clock tonight. >> any predictions. >> maybe next week. let's see how things shape out.

>> that's the show. >> into welcome to al jazeera america, i'm jonathan betz with the headlines. united nations has 700 staffers out of south sudan. most americans. noncritical workers were taken to uganda to escape the violence. rebel fighters have been trying to overthrow the government. ukraine protesters going into a second month with 100,000 demonstrating in the capital. protesters encouraged to push through the protest. the president backing out af a trade deal. one of vladimir putin's powerful rivals steering clear of