>> now science and technology take on mother nature. >> who wins? >> it's completely fine. >> techknow. sunday 7:30 eastern on al jazeera america. real reporting that brings you the world. welcome to al jazeera america. i'm morgan bradford live from new york city. here are the stories we are following for you right now. israelis pay their respects to ariel sharon, the former prime minister who died on saturday. and residents of west virginia wait for answers as well as the all clear to turn on their taps again. four years after the devastating earthquake, many haitians struggle to get their lives back in order. plus photographs of women living in lands of conflict and exhibit now touring the united states.

>> israeli dignitaries and members of the public are now viewing the coffin of former prime minister ariel sharon in jerusalem. tomorrow sharon will be buried in a military funeral on his farm in southern israel. for more let's go to nick who is live in jerusalem. explain where you are right now. >> yeah, this is the equivalent of the u.s. capital. basically we are outside the knessetet the israely parliament. we didn't hear a lot of people. we talked about how polarizing sharon was. let me just show you the crowds right here. hundreds and thousands of people have come out and now that work is over. there is a lot of people coming out here. and i talked to a lot of them. talked to israelys and americans who say they want to say their good-byes. you can see his coffin surrounded by the military officers that he led, that he inspired for so many people, morgan. and you get a sense of how

sober this feeling is here. while he was so polarizing and so controversial so many people were directed by his policies and so many people wanted to come out and say thank you, say good-bye to a man who above all others in the last 50 years created the mo tern state of israel and changed the borders. you mentioned how polarizing. what about his critics. how are they reacting as his body lays in state? >> well, look. a lot of people saw sharon as the pillar of israeli strength. but others saw him as the symbol of israeli cruelty. if you go to southern lebanon, parts of the palestinian territories, you saw celebrating last night. you saw people actually handing out candy to each other. and you also saw that in gaza. these are people who fought sharon. they felt he was the arch nemesis of the people who

wanted to create a palestinian state. so many people were in the crosshairs of sharon. he had a militaristic outlook on how to create peace. he created a commando unit. creetated israely reputation for ruthless reprisal. and tried to drive yasser arafat out of his compound. he created a siege of arafat's compound and made him a presumerrener in his own home and forced him outside of the west bank. and he never saw the palestinian state. so many of those people called sharon a butcher. called him a war criminal where as these people called him a war hero. that is the kind of polarization that we are she people talk about ariel sharon today. >> i want to talk about the burial tomorrow. explain to us more about that decision not to be buried at the national cemetery when so many similar leaders have been buried. why is he going to the south

of israel to his family farm? >> yeah, you saw ariel sharon's son the other day announcing his death saying my father went when he wanted to go. and that is so typical of what sharon did all his life. he didn't listen to his military commanders as a young general as prime minister. he made unilateral moves to what he thought was peace. so what he did when his wife did about 13 years ago, when she died was that he created a burial site across from his farm in southern israel that a lot of people here call illegal. he told his family before he got into that coma, he told his family he wanted to be buried next to her, though it is an illegal plot. so what the family has told the state is that no, we refuse your requests to be buried on the mount. we want him to be buried next to his wife on the family farm. he had so much pride in the farm in southern israel. he really wanted to be buried

there and he really actually spent most of his time there right before he had the stroke that led to this coma that he has been in for the last eight years. and he wanted to be remembered there and spend the rest of his life there. so what he told his family is refuse the israely state request. let me be buried by my wife morgan. >> sounds like he went when he wanted to go and where he wanted to go as well. nick, thank you so much for joininger us. secretary of state john kerry and other diplomats are attending the friends of syria summit. the goal is to put the pressure on the main opposition group to obtain peace talks in egeneva. though expectations are low, diplomats say it is the only hope to put an end to the war that has killed more than 130,000 people. phil joins us live now from live from paris. what exactly are the obstacles

diplomats are facing to get them just to come to the table? >> yeah, morgan, there are a lot of obstacles to overcome here. see if we can get through at least some of them. first and for most, who is the syrian opposition? and they are trying to determine that. this is not one unified open signatures of course. there is a number of different groups that fall under the opposition umbrella. so when will attend from the opposition side. >> next, the issue of pre-conditions. some very prominent leading members of the opposition that say that one of the pre-condition says that assad himself must go before talks can be engaged upon for damascus that is a nob starter. then we go to who will attend the talks in a larger sense. there is the question of whether or not iran will be at the time of course, iran has a

lot of influence on damascus and a lot of foreign policy issues that they are very concerned about and very, very involved with. there is also the issue of russia. now the friends of syria, an 11 body group, mostly western and arraign rab countries that the sus part of. russia is not part of that group, they say they explicitly say they will continue to support assad. now, they are here. there will be talks between the u.s. and russia in which the u.n. will be present. but these are just some of the obstacles that exist. there are others. but those are the big ones and they are pretty sizable. so, we will to have see whether or not some arm twisting can happen and we get some sort of political engagement later this month in switzerland. morgan? >> so, given the difficult of these pre-conditions that you just mentioned, what do you

really expect to come from these meetings? do you think they will have any real impact on the geneva peace conference coming up? >> well, the u.s. diplomatic teen teamle that is here are cautiously optimistic. they think they can persuade the open sayings and some of the prominent members to attend the geneva 2 talks later this month. and we have also heard today from the french foreign minister fabius who said that if there is not a political engagement, if there is not a full attendance at geneva that there will be no political solution. and it is widely recognized that at the end of the day there must be a political solution or this is just going to be a war of attrition with one side eventually winning or the other and that is going to be quite bloody, the international community does not want to see that happen. it is very important that at least from the perspective of

the friends of syria that these opposition members meet because otherwise, what's the point? if it does happen, it will be a significant development in and of itself because it will be a face-to-face meeting between the opposition and direct representatives of the government in damascus. morgan? >> al jazeera's phil ittne re, thank you for being with us this afternoon. >> meanwhile in iraq, 13 people are dead and dozens more injured in win the bombings that targeted sunday morning commuters. the first explosion rocked a busy bus station killing 9 people. then four people were killed when a second bomb ripped through a group of buses in northern baghdad. no group has claimed responsibility for the attacks yet. but there has been intense fighting between government forces and fighters linked to al qaeda. speaking out for the first time since excerpts of his book were released, robert gates says he was trying to

provide a nonpartisan look at key issues in washington. in his memoir, he slams president obama on how he handled the war in afghanistan and the attacks and vice president biden on foreign policy and national security issues. on cbs sunday morning gates talks about serving under two administration and emphasized he agreed with president obama's decisions on the war but did question his commitment. >> it is one thing to tell the troops that you support them, it is another to work it, making them believe that you believe as president that their sacrifice is worth it, that the cause is just, that what they are doing is important for the country. and that they must succeed. president bush did that with the troops when i was secretary. i did not see president obama

do that. >> in his book gates said says the obama administration voiced skepticism about working with karzai and tried to oust him four years ago. as i sat there i thought the president doesn't trust his commander, can't trust karzai and doesn't believe in his own strategy, and the war is not for him. it is all about quitting. this is exactly what the afghan president often cited himself. >> it was an accusation dismissed as paranoia. during his reelection campaign karzai accused the u.s. of trying to get rid of him. >> there were a lot of stories in the media about the plans in washington and in london to bring a change into the structure of governance in afghanistan, to weaken the central government of afghanistan and to go to the strong men that they like in afghanistan and to put

resources to afghanistan. now ex stretch then u.s. defense secretary robert gates new book says that was true. he writes angrily about president obama's envoy, richard holbrooke. he says they extended support to many of karzia's challengers. the presidenttial palace spokesperson in kabul has reacted with an i told you so. >> what secretary gates has revealed in his book further proves the righteousness of president karzia's claims that there were deliberate efforts to disregard and manipulate the votes of the afghan people. but karzai was accused of foul play. evidence of a campaign to rig votes in his favor was widely reported. new allegations of interference by the obama administration could further discredit to election, leaving

the afghan people unsure of who to trust. they don't believe anybody anymore. the people of afghanistan have been misled so many times by so many players that sometimes lost -- at times they don't have the self-confidence that is sufficient for a nation to act in their own interests. and it is very dangerous that we have depleted a nation from its self-confidence. >> revelations about a possible u.s. interference in the last presidential elections here come just a few months before afghans go to the polls to vote for their next leader. president karzia has warned repeatedly against foreign manipulation. a warning which seems to hold more weight. jane ferguson, al jazeera, kabul, afghanistan. coming up next, they survived the earthquake. but four years later, many haitians are still homeless.

you are watching al jazeera, america. >>

n. three years have passed since japan's nuclear disaster. now warnings that leakage of contaminated water could reach u.s. shores later this year. in the second part of our series, here is the story of the folks doing the dirty work of clean-up. >> this is jay village what used to be the national soccer training center is now where workers gather before heading into the nuclear power plant. and the frontlines of the john going disaster. >> a number of workers that work is a relatively small percentage of people who work. the rest of them are contractors, subcontractors. >> david mcneil is a journalist and author who has followed the plight of the

unsung heroes. >> they are recruited by some of the hundreds of subcontractors that have poured in. there is an enormous amount of money. >> america tonight found very little of that money actually makes it into the hands of those on the frontlines. >> workers tell me that they make 100 a day give or take. the lowest being $60. >> workers say they are given little training on avoiding exposure. >> a worker we will all the tanaka has traveled to japan for most of his life. he didn't want to be identified for fear of retribution. he was shocked to find radioactive hot spots where they worked. marked with tape but never decontaminated. the lack of training made him fear for his health. >> we used to wear charcoal filters. but because of the cost cuts, we got dust filters.

like those who buy the convenience store. >> employees wear charcoal filt nevers all locations. >> it sounds as if you are saying that there were different classes of workers. >> the main contractors are kings and we are the slaves. >> i spoke with a spokesperson in tokyo who defended the company's handling of workers. isn't this the responsibility after all all the workers are working for you. >> if there are labor practices occurring that violate the law, there is a legal process to remedy those situations. >> however, it is our responsibility to improve the working environment inside the plant. we have made a lot of progress, but we do aim for a higher level of improvement. but any improvements will be

too late for the invisible army of workers. who who fear they no longer have a future. because of a system they feel puts profit before safety. when they needed people, they needed subcontractors to hire us. when our services were no longer needed, i'm among the victims who are thrown away. >> reporting from fukushima japan, for al jazeera. i'm meteorologist steffi. keeping the mild temperatures around and to the eastern u.s. slightly cooler but are catching a break from all the rain we had to come down right along ahead of the cold front which has now cleared our coastlines. aside from that high pressure building in, it is giving away to quiet conditions here over much of the deep south. but our next front.

this is the same front that moves through the pacific northwest is heading eastward. with that, we are seeing a bit in the way of snowfalling across much rough the up of michigan and dakotas and minnesota. active weather remains in place across the northwest. seeing a series of disturbances rolling in. it is bringing a lot of rain into seattle around the portland area. even southward in the northern areas of california. but also bringing a good deal of snow. that is why we have our winter storm warnings for the cascades and the mountainous areas of colorado just off to the west of denver. now, in addition to the that, we are seeing our winds really quite gusty. winds have been gusting on the order of 60 and upwards of 70 miles per hour. right now, wind gusts not that strong. right now we only have a wind gusting towards 23 miles per hour towards great falls but we could still see the winds increase. as far as the rain, not seeing

it widespread. it is along that immediate coastline and finding light to moderate rainshowers. it has been persistent through much of the day that will cause localized flooding concerns. and into themontus areas that could continue to pileup. taking you into the northeast. you can see what little snow that we had flying around late breaking apart just a bit. but still watching out for a wintry mix into some areas of vermont and new hampshire. flood concerns into early monday morning from maine down into pennsylvania. morgan? >> keeping our eyes on that snow and the floods. that you eboni deion. >> frustrated residents are days away from heavy water. they have flushed out contaminated water ways but tests need to confirm that the water is safe before they can open their taps. 300,000 people are told not to drink or wash with water after a chemical spill on thursday.

today marks the four year anniversary of haiti's devastating earthquake. hear is the report from port paw prince where many are still struggling to put their lives back tag. >> she has lived here three and a half years but it is not her home that was destroyed in the haiti earthquake. she moved to a tent city in port-au-prince, with her daughter and grand granddaughter. the conditions weren't good at all. it was very difficult life. mosquitoes all over. the heat was killing us. it was very bad. >> so when she was offered a $500 voucher to move into an apartment a year ago, it was a huge relief. she tock the money just like thousands of others. >> the yellow building is where they process money transfers. it is open five days a week and people line up for hours and wait patiently for what they have been told a way out

of the tent cities they are living in. >> the money comes from the haitian government and aid groups. once someone accepts the voucher. they have three days to destroy their tent and move into a new place. as this man told us, it doesn't go far. >> we pay the rent with this money they gave. now we have no money to eat. it doesn't make sense. it would have been better to stay where we were. >> there is a coalition of 40 organizations fighting for the rights of people still living in tent cities. it claims 2 billion that should have been spent on helping them has gone to nongovernment organizations instead. >> has spent on cars and big salaries because the foreigners are working far from their country. so they receive very high salaries. it is about equipment, salaries and maintenance. >> they say there are still serious problems in the camps. limited access to toilets and drinkable water, violins is increase. amnesty international and the

international organization for migration claim the government has forcibly evicted tens of thousands of people. officials deny the allegation and say relocation is a priority. after her rental subsidy ran out. she moved to the second tent city. that is now outside the capital. there are few jobs and no public transport. >> it is very isolated but i don't have a choice. i don't want to live in a place like this. we hear about the authorities but we don't know anything about the government. no one comes to visit or talk to us. >> not the life she wanted for herself and her family but the only future she can imagine. and coming up, lifting the veil on the arab world. a provocative and revealing photo exhibit of life amid conflict. you are watching al jazeera america. >>

activists show the

welcome back to al jazeera america. live from new york city. right now you are looking at live pictures from jerusalem where israeli officials and the public are viewing the coffin of prime minister ariel sharon. sharon will be buried at his home in southern israel next to his late wife lilly. a dozen extraordinary female photographers from the middle east are giving americans a strikingly candid portrait of life in the arab world. >> on the surface the bedroom look like any normalle girl's teenage room in the u.s. but this is in a refugee camp in lebanon. the portrait is a work of photographer matar. >> it throws people off. people argue with me that no this is not in lebanon.

>> i tell them i promise you it is taken in lebanon. >> for me she has a similar life in lebanon that my daughters have in the u.s. despite there is a car bomb here and there. the project, called a girl in her room was inspired by her kids. it captures young women in the middle east and u.s. to show their similarities. >> she was so excited with her new sunglasses. so she said i want to wear my sunglasses. she kind of sat there looking out the window with the sunglasses and kind of the stuffed animals behind her, it is almost like leaving her childhood behind looking out the window to what's next. the photographer, a palestinian is drawn to scenes of conflict. >> i started my career as a photojournalist. i did very, very well in photojournalism but i had severe problem there. i could never put my feelings on the side. the story was part of me and i was part of the story.

>> she photographed the aftermath of israel's offensive in 2002. the only people in the streets were either dead or arrested. army everywhere. tanks. i couldn't recognize it. >> she wants viewed her images as negatives because it is a dark landscape of conflict that has gone on for decades and touched her personally. >> i kept going around and taking pictures everywhere. until i hit this man. he -- i looked at his face. i said oh, my god. not this guy. i knew the guy. but when i saw him dead on the ground i felt like you know, what these were talking about. settlements are increasing more and more. the land is vanishing more and more. >> and her photos are here in this exhibit, alongside matar's. both women use their cameras to show the women of middle

east are not just victims of war and opression, but ordinary people in ordinary places trying to live their lives in the most difficult of circumstances. >> i love it when people can just go there and see that there is something else coming out of there. it is beautiful, artistic, intelligent, cultural. i personally love it that it is done by women. i feel that a lot of the things happening in the middle east are not the women's doing. i think if women were in the middle east would it be a better place. >> the museum of fine arts in boston is planning to send the exhibit on the road. first to san francisco then other cities across the u.s. for al jazeera, boston. >> thanks so much for watching al jazeera. i'm morgan radford. listening post is up next. for news updates throughout the day head over to al jazeera.com or follow us on twitter at ajam. >>

>> hello, i am richard. you are at the "listening post." how bad have things grown for the media in egypt? even this puppet is accused of dealing in muslim brotherhood propaganda. daggers drawn in turkey between the prime minister and journalists trying to get to the bottom of a political scandal. imagery and the career ending implications for proceed if he wassal photo journal accidents. -- journalists.