welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories we are following for you. a new report on one of the biggest scandals ever to rock the catholic church. a texas man taking legal action to remove his pregnant wife from life support. and a monster sinkhole swallowing up 26 acres in louisiana, creating cracks in the surrounding levee. ♪ for more than a decade that has been one of the biggest

scandals to rock the catholic church. child sex abuse within the ranks. the first report this week from an international children's rights organization, coming out ahead of a separate report out of the united nations due out tomorrow. >> reporter: peter saunders was a victim of sexual abuse at the hands of his catholic priest at school, so was his brother mike. peter runs an organization helping other survivors. >> most survivors are not particularly interested in compensation. they are interested in seeing change. they are interested in knowing that what .hahhed to them is not going to happen to future generations. having said that, compensation, i think is entirely appropriate, when it comes to people whose life -- whose childhoods have been stolen.

>> reporter: the vatican has a new pope. he's popular and he has made some big promises. he wants openness and a new transparency even on this toxic issue. he set up a new committee of its own to look into it. thursday's appearance before the un is overdue, the extent to which they engage seriously with the un will be a test of francis's papacy and whether he can deliver on the issue of sexual abuse and allegations of cover up. a new report details how widespread the abuse has been. the authors have little optimism the church will change its approach. >> we have traced back over the last two decades all of the promises they made versus what actually happened. and there have been promises in the past, but very little has happened concretely. and everything that has happened happened in complete secrecy.

>> reporter: the un asked the vatican to respond to questions about child abuse and what has been done about it. >> in the institution acknowledges its many failings then i like many who suffered at its hands will, as you say, have some form of closure and some means of moving on. >> reporter: the vatican is coming to geneva because it signed the un's treaty on the rights of the child. this is a good opportunity for the church and for pope francis to finally signal they are going to do something about it. simon mcgregor-wood all jazz, geneva. call it the right to speak versus the right to be heard. the supreme court set to hear a case that questions the legality

of buffer zones outside of abortion clinics. eleanor is a grandmother from the anti-abortion group, and claim that those barriers infringe on her first amendment right to talk to women as they enter the clinics. a man want his right to be taken off of life support. thomas drayton reports. >> reporter: as she lies in a hospital bed on life support, her husband is preparing for a legal fight to take her off of it. she is 20 weeks pregnant with her second child. she has been hospitalized since november when her husband says he found her on the floor of their home. the victim of an apparent blood

clot. her husbands says she would have never wanted to be like this. >> we both knew that we didn't want to be on life support. >> reporter: but the hospital in fort worth, texas has refused to take her off of life support, citing a texas law which prohibits doing so for patients who are pregnant. >> we're not about making law or contesting law and if this goes to a court or judge who says you need to change what you are doing in any way, then we will follow the direction of the legal system. >> reporter: while the hospital is refusing the comments on whether or not marlies is brain dead due to patient privacy laws, her husband has been very adamant and vocal about his wife's condition in state of pregnancy. marlies cannot be a pregnant patient. marlies is dead. those words declared by his attorneys who are now suing the hospital demanding she be

removed from a ventilator immediately. this case stands in sharp contest to another family who fought to keep their 13-year-old daughter alive after an oakland hospital ruled to take her off of life support. the girl was eventually released to the family and she is now at an undisclosed facility. back in fort worth there have been dueling protest in support of the family. >> this family deserves peace and closure. >> there is a second person here, and that's the unborn baby. and that child is within weeks of being viable. >> reporter: doctors are expected to make that determination in february. now to washington where they are dotting the i's, crossing the t's and counting the dollars and cents.

lawmakers finalizing the details of the budget deal. libby understandably americans get a little concerned when they hear congress pushing bab yet another deadline. >> del, this looks like it will be able to achieve passage in both the house and senate. over the holiday appropriators worked on this spending bill. they finally unveiled the details this week. they needed a little more time to get the house and senate approval. the senate is likely to make the same extension today. and the house moving forward today to vet on that big spending package. and like all spending packages there are winners and losers. some of the winners include programs like head start, and disabled veterans who are retired but of working age, we ire going to see their lost of living adjustment decrease, well

sdrshgs a stop has been put to that. and then there are things like the irs agencies that don't get enough money as they had in prior years. that agency under a lot of heat in the past year because of some politics. there are always draws, del. republicans had hoped to use the spending bill to make some cuts to the affordable care act. they weren't able to do so, although there is one budget cutting to the prevention in public health fund, and then the epa will see a little bit of a decrease, and problems will come in terms of things like light bulbs. there was an effort to try to get light bulbs upgraded, and that didn't make it. >> libby we keep hearing the phrase regular order, meaning business getting back to usual, and yet there is the issue of unemployment insurance. >> absolutely the budget is an example of regular order actually happening. it goes through the proper

procedures and process, a society time line, not so for unemployment insurance. there is a real fight there over politics. they were not able to agree yesterday. republicans andment democrats at odds over the amendment process over whether and how to pay for unemployment insurance benefits. they weren't able to get anywhere. and the someone nate -- senate is supposed to be out next week del, so we may not see a resolution until the end of january. >> thank you very much. president obama says he is not going to wait around for congress to get things done. he is calling this his year of action. th saying the global economy now at a turning point. mike viqueira what is the president going zones last

week, naming the first five of those 20 geographic areas around the country for special attention. today's manufacturing turn, but part of the same theme, partnering with the private sector, universities and non-profits, today he is in raleigh, north carolina. these manufacturing enterprise zones that the president actually brought up in the state of the union last year, now coming in just under the achiev.

but that obviously very much still up in the air, del. >> mike, the president also of where we are. in this the midst of the height of the edward snowden scandal, the president appointed a council to come up with recommendations on how to handle the intelligence gathering processes that proved to be so controversial in the wake of the revelations. the president received that report last month. now on friday he is assimilated all of thathis divisions on fri. >> mike, thank you very much. there is a new report out

that says that attack on the u.s. console late in benghazi could have been prevented. security officials ignored threats in libya. it was initially called a protest despite a lack of intelligence to support that. the u.s. ambassador to libya was one of four americans killed in that attack. and a string of attacks in iraq today. a half dozen car bombs exploding across bagdad this morning. a suicide bomber targeting a funeral in one area, killing 18. imran khan is in doha. imran why so much violence and why now? >> reporter: it's sectarian in nature. there is a political conflict that is turning bloody, and has

turned bloody for the last year. also let me give you some grim statistics. we're 15 days into the year. already over 50 people have died. -- 500 people have died. let's take a look. the twisted metal from a bomb blast is once again spread across a bagdad neighborhood. it's a pattern we see time and time again. parked car bombs go off and blood spills. the attacks follow a familiar pattern. al-qaeda-linked troops want to keep sectarian tensions boiling and chaos on the streets. the prime minister is calling this a war on terror, and says those responsible will be punished. >> translator: we will distinguish between houses that were possibly taken over by

al-qaeda and used as bases. the houses that were the source of fire that killed our sons will be targeted by our forces. >> reporter: elsewhere in iraq, and it's not just shiite muslims that have been punished. in a northern city car bombs brought more misery. in the past two weeks alone, more than 500 people have died from violence across iraq. is this violence turning the country towards a civil war? many say this could be the beginning of the break upof iraq. imran a lot of u.s. soldiers lost fire lives fighting in anbar province.

was it all for not? >> that's a very interesting question. nobody in iraq would like the americans to return, but what happened is the fact that the americanest when they left, the sunnis who had been supported by the americans and american troops felt they had been abandoned, and that lead to an immense amount of anger and that result is what we're seeing now, and it's turning bloody. >> imran thank you very much. a danish tourist in india says she was gang raped in a train station in new delhi. she was approached by a group of men and asked them for questions, she said she was robbed at knife point and sexually assaulted. that is the latest case of sexual violence against women in india. it is the second and final

day of voting in egypt on the new constitution. 52 million people turning out despite the violence. the violence has left 11 people debt. there was extra security at polling stations today in alexandria and cairo. it's the second constitutional rewrite in two years. the muslim brotherhood recently labeled terrorists by the current leaders. and al jazeera continues to cover the vote from outside of the country. because authorities are still detaining several of our colleagues. three have been in custody since december 29th, they are accused of reporting false news harmful to state security, al jazeera continues to deny their allegations and demands their release. two other journalists from our sister channel also in egyptian custody, and have been detained for five months. coming up a massive sinkhole

in louisiana only getting bigger. experts aren't sure how to stop it from growing. plus condolences for a former first lady. the never before seen letters to jackie kennedy after the assassination of jfk. those and your business headlines when al jazeera america returns.

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. here is a look at today's top business headlines. we could be seeing back-to-back triple-digit gains on wall street following a report on strong manufacturing reports. tobacco is showing up in u.s. economic data, inflation rising .4 of a percent last month.

labor department says a significant chunk of that increase came from tobacco prices going up, the cost of energy also rising as well. demand for mortgage loans is up as well. increase as the average 30-year fixed rate mortgage fell. in louisiana they are calling it a recipe for disaster. cracked levees and the threat of methane gas are of the biggest concerns. at least 26 acres have been swallowed in a sinkhole. the people of bayou corn have be head

here. here is what we told us. >> around the christmas/new year's holidays, the micro earthquakes did increase again, and with that activities the tr where the texas brine folks are, we asked to get someone on camera to tell us what the situation is here. if nothing make a statement, and let me just read this. quote, i was told we have other issues to deal with, and that the seismic activity in the past

month was small and no big deal. i said to him, well, and growing, and people want an answer, that's not an answer i wanted to hear from texas brine. >> we keep hearings not continue to expand. the problem is the seismic activity in the past few weeks fractured the south levee that way. one of the residents came up earlier right before our shot about a half hour ago, and said i don't believe what texas brain is saying that they said the

northern trying to get answers, and we'll keep pressing professionally, del. >> robert thank you very much. coming up next on al jazeera america, letters to jackie kennedy. condolences going on display for the first time since jfk's assassination. and what an entire city takes the day off to go fly a kite.

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. here are your headlines today. the vatican being forced to deal with the issue of child sex abuse in the catholic church this week. the report shows how widespread the problem is worldwide. tomorrow the vatican sits down with the united nations to discussion the situation. tomorrow the senate is

expected to vote on the bill by the end of the week. there is a burst of color in the skies over india today. the festival attracts people from all over the world. >> reporter: the night before the big day, it's a festive atmosphere, for this festival the kite market is open all day and all night long. by morning it's easy to see why. most households stop work to celebrate the kite-flying tradition. >> translator: i have quality today and i woke up a need to fly kites all day. it's a lot of fun. >> translator: compared to the past, we now have music systems and better kites and strings. so it's more fun. we bring snacks and fly kites all day. >> reporter: they fill the sky. it seems the whole city lives on the roof tops today.

it even helps some families make ends meet. >> translator: the whole family gets together to make kites. even the kids when they are not in school help out. it earns extra money for the households. >> reporter: the festival's popularity has even sparked an international kite festival the day before the event. not everyone flies kites. some spend all day selling them. >> translator: we are all too busy working, so we get together at my house the next day to do it. >> reporter: on this day whatever their background, whatever their age, everyone in this the city heads for the roof. while modern technology is linked to almost every part of modern indian life, this is one time of year where everyone puts

down their phone and heads to the roof top with string, a kite and a sense of tradition. and the public is getting a look at thousands of condolence betters from the time of the assassination of jfk. the letters were sent to jackie kennedy. the collection now on dislay at the jfk presidential library in boston. there are 22,000 in all. telegrams postcards and mementos from people around the world. i'm meteorologist dave warren we are k looking at snow moving into the northern plains. these are the actual air temperatures single d

did -- digits. wind picks up, so we have wind chill temperatures down below zero, 16 below in far go, but up to 28 bismarck. some more light snow is moving south. we have blizzard warnings in effect because this blowing snow the really reduce visibility along with the gusty wind. there is the cold air, not the arctic air we had a few weeks ago, but dropping temperatures significantly. the cold air will move east, mild weather is gone, temperatures right up to about 40, rain cleared out, maybe slight snow in central pennsylvania, and that will continue to push east. but it's this weather parn -- pattern we'll continue to track. we could be talking about a little snow across the

northeast. del? >> dave thank you very much. thank you for watching al jazeera america. i'm del walters in new york. "the stream" is next.