check check >> two californian cops acquitted of killing a homeless man. a jury finding them not guilty in a violent struggle caught on camera. >> after five days without water because of a chemical spill in virgin -- in west virginia, the taps are back on. >> many forced to flee in indonesia after a volcano erupts. >> people in the central african republic returning to their villages to find little left after intense violence.

>> hi there, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton. two former californian police officers were found not guilty in the death of a mentally ill homeless man. the incident in 2011 was captured by surveillance camera. it showed kelly thomas struggling with six police officers. thomas's mother is outraged by the verdibility -- verdict. >> they got away with murdering my son. >> a third officer was awaiting trial but the orange county district attorney said the charges would be dropped. >> hundreds of thousands urged not to drink the water in west virginia can turn the tap on

again. chemicals left the water undrinkable and untouchedable. jonathan martin is in charleston, where they are slowly bringing the system back online. >> while the state of emergency has been lifted it may be a couple of days before the citizens can use the tap water. priority is to the hospitals like those behind me. surgeries have been put on hold. they have been using watertankers. for many people things are slowly getting back to normal. >> russ fuller is relieved he has the okay to use his tap water again. >> that was the easy way to keep us messing with them. >> before noon on monday officials in west virginia lifted the do not use order that went in effect on thursday. >> i can do laundry, i can wash dishes. a chemical spill into the elk river promoted a state of

emergency. m.c.m.h. are below one part her million and meet federal standards. >> numbers we have today look good. we are at a point where the do not use order has been lifted in certain areas. >> to keep the water system from being overwhelmed. the restrictions are listed in phases. residents have been told to run their faucets for 20 minutes to flush out the pipes. >> if you work out without three or four days without a shower, you start to smell. >> even though the water is safe, this man will wait a few days before drinking it. >> you never know. i don't want to take that chance. i'll stay as long as i can. >> it will be hard to recover from. >> a small down-town restaurant was shut for three days. now they are back in business. >> people are happy to sit down

and have somebody else make them food, and drink a cold coca-cola. >> west virginia's governor said it's too soon to know how much of an economic impact the water crisis has. investigators are talking to the country responsible for the spill, freedom industries, trying to figure out how it happened and when they notified authorities. >> jonathan martin reporting. less than a week after the bridge-gate scandal more problems are surfacing. investigators are looking into whether the governor used sandy release funds on a tv ad starring him and his family. an investigation was requested by frank palone. he pushed for the investigation to be pushed late august, after a review concluded that there was enough evidence. the audit will take months and the findings will be issued

through an official report. >> in washington president obama responded to criticism from former defense secretary robert gates. in his new memoire gates questioned the president's confidence in his own strategy in afghanistan. >> secretary gates did an understanding job for me as secretary of defense. he and i and the rest of my national security team came up with a strategy for afghanistan that was the right strategy, and we are continuing to execute. i think that what is important is that we got the policy right. >> gates served as defense secretary under president obama and george w. bush. >> desperately needed help could be on the way for people struggling to stay alive and safe in syria. in paris secretary of state john kerry and russian foreign minister sergei lavrov said aid was on the way.

syria's government and the main opposition group agreed to allow some humanitarian relief in the blocked off parts of syria. envoys are looking at the possibility of enforcing local help in aleppo. >> federal officials are looking into why a jet landed in a wrong airport. the boeing 747 took off on monday with little run way to spare. we explain how it got there in the first place. . >> federal aviation safety investigators are trying to work out how two experienced pilots could have made the mistake. the captain had 15 years of experience with the airline. now, they landed at the wrong airport, about six miles away from branson missouri, and they landed at a small county airport. the boeing 737 coming in on a run way, over half the length of the one they were supposed to

land on at the other airport in branson missouri. 124 passengers on the jet came from midway airport, and a crew of five. it landed about 6:30 pm. it was dark. the weather was good. there are air traffic controllers. pilots were in touch with them. it's unclear how they made the mistake. they must have been coming in for a visual landing and looked at the wrong airport. perhaps they did not punch the right coordinates into on board computers. it landed a few hundred feet short of the end of this run way. at the end was an embankment and a highway. luckily the plane stopped in time. no passengers were injured. we were quite inconvenienced and had to stay on the plane for an hour and a half before south-west could get them off.

the national safety transport board pulled the black boxes, flight data recorder and they'll come back to washington as investigators figure out how the mistake was made. the pilots have been grounded while the investigation continues. >> lisa stark. a volcano that's been dormant no 400 years is wreaking havoc in indonesia. volcanic ash has damaged homes since mount sinabung. most people have had their livelihoods destroyed as falling ash destroyed crops. >> mount sinabung is erupting more frequently, and especially today it is active. we were closer to the mountain. we were in front of a huge eruption. it was pretty scary, i have to say. this is something that the people here have been facing for the last couple of months, for

four months the volcano erupted, and it has erupted more and more frequently. nobody has decide so far. they are facing the imminent danger of the volcano every hour. the only protection they have is a mask to protect them from the ashes. ashes is literally everywhere, covering the skin, hair and all over. it's been killing the crops. >> we are looking at stormy weather, particularly along gulf coast state. that has been pushing through. georgia, you have been seeing that. we see by the morning time when the flights start to take off. they'll start to clear out. not a lot of delays. but that is moving up the eastern sea board. it could cause delays for the metro area locations.

here across the north-west it's been quite a mix of activity over the last couple of days. avalanche, slow rain across montana and the winds, where some locations reported 85 miles per hour. it clear up over the next day, and snow as we go towards tuesday. for temperatures on seattle, a high of 51 degrees there. over the next few days, the temperature remains. overnight lows down to 39. down to the south-west, it is a threat of wildfires all due to the santa ana winds, temperatures are going up. los angeles will reach 83 degrees on tuesday. that is not going to be really the low of it. we'll see it go higher as we go towards wednesday and thursday, up to 84 degrees, with very dry conditions, relative humidities into the single digits.

a lot of rain going to the east, leaving texas dry. dallas, a high of 63. >> thank you, kevin. returning home. people impacted by the violence in the central african republic are coming back to the vilings to pick up the pieces of their lives. automobiles. getting high-tech bells and whistles. heads turning at this year's auto-american auto show.

>> welcome back. sectarian violence in the central african republic claimed the lives of more than 1200 people. entire villages have fled, hiding in the bush from christian and muslim militias. as barnaby fill inns repor phil some are returning to their home. >> people fled, houses burnt down. the villages have suffered attack after attack. but at this settlement hundreds

of people emerged from the push, for the visit of a u.n. official. they were hanging on his every word. >> we want to hear about your needs. >> he was shown all that was left of the health center. everything taken by the seleka militia. these people do not have a government that can help them. any assistance has to come from outside. >> the institutions of the state don't exist. there's no health infrastructure, no schooling. we have to step up in an unprecedented way to respond to what is an unprecedented situation. it's so long now that this country, the people of this country have been languishing without very basic infrastructure and support. >> there's to much destruction it seems that the villagers have lost everything.

yet we have seen some signs of hope. hafr mont-- after months of liv in the bush in fear, some have decided to come home. nina is busy. she has come out of hiding. she has to tidy up around her looted house. but inside there's almost nothing left. and nina is alone with her two children. muslim herdsmen murdered her husband last month >> translation: i have been left alone to raise the children. i hope that there is peace and the village market reopens so i can make money to feed them. >> this is the village militia. they may be brave, they don't have much to fight with, but they know if they don't protect themselves, no one else will.

>> the u.n. is trying to raise $1,500,000 to raise money for food for the people in central african republic in august. >> a vote on a referendum to create a new constitution in egypt. the landmark vote could pave the way for fresh elections. the new charter could create the new way forward. >> mohamed morsi's muslim brotherhood is boycotting the vote. >> more than 50 journalists are calling for the release of five al jazeera journalists. representatives from the bbc, npr, c.b.c., n.b.c., new york times and other news organizations wrote:

>> producers mohamed fadel fahmy, baher mohamed, and peter greste have been held in custody for a couple of weeks. two other journalists from al jazeera's sister channels are in egyptian custody and have been detained for five months. al jazeera is demanding their immediate release. >> senator john mccain also tweeted: >> the north american auto show is traditionally the first chance of the year for auto makers to showcase new concepts and the city of detroit to strut their stuff. it brings in there $300 million. it's a chance for the big three to build on a promising 2013.

ford, chrysler if and general motors had their best sales, selling $15.6 million new cars and trucks. al jazeera's ali velshi is in detroit where ford is a big attraction. he spoke to ford's ceo alan malawi about the show, the future and concerns. >> we announced the f150 and all the developments. it is lightweight material, turbo charging and all the improvements that we are making in fuel mileage. hauling capability and cargo capability, and the features. it's a great day for ford. >> outside of ford 2013 was a banner year for the u.s. auto industry. there were a lot of people that thought we wouldn't get to those numbers. was that better. obviously you had forecast so long. what does it say about our

economy? >> it's saying a lot of positive things. it's where we say it would be. we also thing that based on the economic recovery, we'll see an economic expansion of gdp of 2.5% for the next year, and an industry between 16 and 17 million units in the united states. >> what did you do last week in ces when one of the guys collected information on drivers. cars have the black boxes, like aeroplanes. this is a business you know about. . >> right. >> it made people a little worried. is ford collecting data on me? >> absolutely not. we do not track where you are or the vehicle is. it was a mistakenly said. it was not right. it's part of a bigger conversation about the importance of privacy. the number one priority is to focus on the privacy of consumers and help them with driving experience. we do not keep track of data.

>> ali velshi in detroit. 2014 is a chance for u.s. automakers to continue their resurgence. it's a path far fetched five years ago when the big three needed a government bailout. as john hendren reports, the resurgence is a highlight of the detroit auto show. >> the world's auto maker completes a journey from bust to boon. >> the winner is the stingray. >> at the auto show general motors took home the north american car of the year for a redesign of a classic muscle car, the core vet stingray. the chevrolet silverado won the truck of the year, and gm offered the most watched car with not a car but a coe, the first female executive. all that five years after the

company filed for bankruptcy. >> it's a pivotal time. there's no government involvement. the debt has been repaid. everything is clear. we can step forward, and continue to make great cars. it's an old cliche. >> it's not just general motors, sales in north america surged 13% last year. >> a good time for the industry. >> a great time for the industry, yes. from the subaru to the big general motors. everyone is experiencing good products. >> with dramatic innovations planned for up-coming models, auto motors hopes to accelerate sales. >> under the hood is nothing. the engine is under the passenger compart. . the real innovation is not under the hood, but inside the passenger compartment where high speed internet is offered. >> heavy trucks are light weights with the ford pick-up

replacing steel with aluminum. >> the frame is stronger. it is the next generation of truck. >> those looking for speed have mercedes new entry level class. >> it's not just a luxury car, it's a driver's car. it's sporty in dynamic as it was. >> with sales rising for the once ailing american auto makers, the shows hosts hope it will help the bankrupt city's efforts of a turn around. >> analysts say the harsh winter weather conditions could help the detroit auto makers, because shoppers will be looking to by s.u.v.s. remember the "costa cordia," the ceremony to mark the second anniversary of the deadly voyage. >> breaking new ground in face, a major step for commercial travel for the stars.

>> and what alex rodriguez is doing to get his job back. ho>>

>> despite what major league baseball and an independent arbitrator viewed as evidence that alex rodriguez received and used performance enhancing drugs, the baseman claims his innocence. the latest coming when alex rodriguez filed a lawsuit against the league and the players' association in which he is a member. what alex rodriguez contends is the players' association abdickated its responsibility to protect alex rodriguez right and that the inaction by the union created a climate in which his rights were trampled on.

a team-mate responded saying in part: >> now to the n.f.l. a denver bronco will be without a player after aninjury. >> the titans found a new head coach. their previous coach filed. i'm michael eaves, and that is a look at sport. >> it's one small step for

virgin galactic and a bigger leap for the future of commercial space travel. richard branson's company ran a test with the rocket burn lasting 20 seconds, commercial space flights will begin in august. >> it's been two years since the wreck. "costa cordia." 32 were killed when the massive cruise liner crashed on rocks and capsized off the italian island of gillio. cleaning up the mess has been difficult and the salvage effort is far from over. >> a sombre commemoration of the "costa cordia" shipwreck on its second anniversary. two years after the crews line ercapsized off the island of gillio, 32 passengers lost their lives and were remembered. >> the island's mayor says it's important to remember the

tragedy, but he looks forward to putting it behind him. >> we will be relieved to see it go away. it shouldn't have happened in the first place, let alone on an island like this. >> many survivors observed a minute's silence in the room where the trial on the shipwreck is ongoing. >> i'm getting fed up with the politics of "costa", we weren't the persons with the problem, we were the persons near to death. a firm like this, who makes millions of billions spends so less money or nothing to us that it's unbelievable. >> this is likely to be the last anniversary of the shipwreck with the "costa cordia" off the island. the crews liner will be towed away in june. >> the port where it will be dismantled for scrapping will be chosen in march.

four are in italy. france, britain, turkey and china are committing for the commission. >> after the ship was pulled up right in september. the next phase is to make it floatable again. 15 giant water tanks will be annexed to the damaged starboard side. they'll be emptied to give boyansy to the ship. through the cop cordia, if it is not stable to be carried away. the world's largest semisubmerchable ship will be used to lift the shipwreck and sail away for its last journey at sea. >> in the two years since the accident clean-up efforts have topped more than $800 million. >> that'll do it for this edition of al jazeera news. i'm thomas drayton in new york. news at the top of the hour. log on to aljazeera.com for the latest headlines. thanks for watching.

here again is a lie look at a polling place in cairo. more updates throughout the morning. >> th welcome back to inside story. i'm ray suarez. we're talking about the president's ability to make nominations when the senate is at recess.