♪ ♪ this is al jazerra america, live from new york city, i am tony harris with a look of today's top stories. ' admission from the vatican today that it needs to do more to handle the global priest sex abuse scandal. new information that the nsa collected up to 200 million text messages per day. and three people in jail accused of setting this wildfire that has forced nearly 2,000 people to flee their homes. ♪ ♪ the catholic church is fighting back against allegations it protected pedophile priests at the expense

of sexual abuse victims. vatican officials told a u.n. committee today that the church can do a better job dealing with the global priest sex abuse scandal but denied accusations of a cover up. al jazerra's same inning mcgregor-wood has more now from geneva. >> reporter: for many this was a chance to display a new at thate and it was a very public form em. it opened with a statement from the vatican delegation. >> the results of the combined action taken by local churches and by the holy see presents a framework that when properly applied, will help eliminate the occurrence of child sexual abuse by clergy and other church personnel. >> reporter: an attempt to reassure but didn't convince many. the questions came thick and fast. >> what is the holy see doing with regard to article 39 of our convention, which refers to reparations both psychological and financial to children who have been victims of sexual

abuse? despite the extensive protests, what steps have been taken with regard to sakes an spankses and punishments for clerics who have engaged in inappropriate conduct. >> reporter: most were disappointed then today know more about what was being done by the church. are priests being reported to the police? what was being done to give children more of a voice? it was certainly no apology. >> i am also here to say that the holy see gets it probably a bit -- i don't know, let's say the holy see gets it. let's say not too late or not. the holy see gets it. >> reporter: it was at least at are an admission, but many didn't like the tone nor the attempt at humor. >> absolutely offensive when they are sitting in a room full of very damaged people. who have gone through hell and back and they sit there being evasive and, you know, colluding

with each other and actually joking at one point. >> reporter: this has been an uncomfortable session for the vatican. they were asked for more disclosure and to finally start taking greater responsibility for the crimes committed against children by its clergy. but they didn't really deliver either and for many people that will be a huge disappointment. >> and that was simon mcgregor-wood reporting from geneva john terrett is here now to expand on the history of these child abuse cases for us. john. >> you know, tony, i think quite a big deal. >> yes. >> and you get the monsignor in charge until very recently in charge of prosecuting sex crimes, and base chi klee the ad am boss tour to the vatican to geneva and three other vatican key figures this is a big deal. we have not seen this before. these pictures are unusual to us and you probably won't see them again. so cute news them an scrutinizei don't our own conclusions let's

give you a time line explaining the history of the catholic abuse story. it begins like this allegations of child abuse within the clerk any the catholic church have been building since the 1950s and the city of boston has been central to many allegations, in 1990, the vatican ratified the international convention on the rights of the child. now that's the convention that is being discussed in geneva today. but it waited something like 20 years until 2012 just last year, in fact, to issue any progress report on priestly sexual abuse. now, the issue of child abuse within the catholic church, flowedded onto the national stage here in the u.s. in 2002, you may remember that was the year the vatican issued guys lines for dealing with allegations of child sex abuse by priests. calling for cases to be reported to rome but not to local authorities. also in 2002, the same year the archdiocese of boston paid around $10 million to set think lawsuits with victims and in

december of that year, cardinal bernard law fled boston to rome and that was on the day that everybody thinks he was due to be subpoenaed to appear before a grand jury to discuss the abuse allegations going on within the boston church community and cardinal law has not been back to boston since then, he's still in rome or thought to be. now, accord to this conference of catholic bishops more than 6900 catholic priests have been accused of child sex abuse crimes in the u.s. and as of -- that's as of now going back to 1950, when those allegations start today emerge. that's 60 years, remember. now, the website bishopaccountability.org says it's about 5% of all the 110,000 catholic priests who have been active in this country during that time. the conference of bishops acknowledge that his something like 16,463 victims have now been identified. i am sure that figure will have gone up a little bit because

that was according to last year. bishopaccountability.org says there huh been 3,000 lawsuits filed in the country between 1984 and 2009 which have resulted in 37 trials. and the conference of bishops tells us that the church has so far spent $2.5 billion trying to settle all of this. but that figure, too, will go up because it doesn't take in to account, for example, the $10 million recently settled in the diocese of los angeles. >> you know what i want to ask you and up today ask this at 4:00 we just didn't have the time. >> right. >> i had a guest on the program that was very disappointed at the response from the representatives from the vatican today. very disappointed. not nearly enough disclosure. >> right. >> not nearly enough honesty in dealing with the length and breadth of this problem. so i guess the question to you is, what comes of all of this? what really comes out of it? why does it really matter at this point? >> it's very difficult to same the problem is that the catholic search sees itself as a country. the vatican say country. the smallest country in the

world. so their attitude is we don't actually have many kids in this country in the vatican, they are our responsibility. what the u.n. was saying to the vatican panel today is, look, you have -- we asked other country to his look beyond their borders and look at things that go on in other parts of the world that their people take part in. that's what we want to you do. but, of course, as you know, that same panel where they were appearing today in geneva, asked the vatican in november to hand over all the documents of its own internal investigations and they refused. and victims of child sex abuse in the u.s. are very angry as well that there is a bishop who is in -- an archbishop in the vatican, poland is talking about extraditioning him to put a request it or putting a request in to the vatican and the vatican is saying we won't do it and that's angering pimas well. you look at the public today and measure with the real actions going on and some people say there is a great difference. >> and there were questions asked today and the response was something in the order of we'll get back to you as to whether or not we can answer on that.

>> exactly. and the attempt at humor went down very badly as well. >> poorly. j.t. appreciate. john terret for us. new information from the guardian says the n.s.a. collected up to 200 million text messages per day. that's according to documents provided by wills blower edward snow en these details comes as president obama is set to detail new guidelines tomorrow. the new rules have been in the works since snowden first revealed the extent of the spying bun b done by the nt s*fa but critics say it doesn't go far enough. david shuster is here. >> civil libertarians and privacy advocates has had a lot of anticipation. according to officials the president will announce new limb it's the nsa program that collects billions of phone records but the president will also and congress to help determine the future.

officials say president obama has conclude the it is valuable as a counter terrorism tool. but the president is staring at harsh political realities. that's why, for example, he will be giving the speech from the justice department and not the ns actual. white house officials want to underscore the president's commitment to civil liberties. he will also announce according to officials the phone records collected in bulk will continue to be held by the nsa not the phone companies as a pam had recommended. a few months ago the white house floated private control of the orders to phone company executives who were meeting with the president at the white house, but the executives said the idea was unworkable given that the companies hold data in different formats and for different lengths of time. finally when it comes to future limitation on his nsa surveillance the president will announce he's going to defer the prograperimeter to his congress. the law governor think the current collection program expires next year and the votes are not there for renewal particularly that that chamber the u.s. house.

so by deferring to congress the president can avoid appearing to fight for something that he would lose to those lawmakers. critics are accusing the president of seeding power to the legislative branch. but by take this is to congress the white house can put pressure lawmakers to take ownership of new nsa restriction stkpwr-z okay. david appreciate it. thank you. i think we have got a little bit of news, do we want to go to libby or to mike viqueira? all right, let's do this. we want to get to libby casey, she's on capitol hill right now. and libby, i understand the senate has voted and has approved this budget deal, $1.1 trillion if you would that's a lot of money, where is it going? >> reporter: that's right, more than half of it is going to defense spending military programs. and then we see a range of other programs funded through this. everything from the epa to the irs, tony and this just did pass the senatal i'm couple of votes are trickling in but it's gotten enough for passage and the house already passed it earlier this

week. it's 1500-page bill, though, and senator january mccain, republican of arizona came out today fired up saying, he was not going to vote for this bill because he just found out, thank to reporting by the washington post, about a provision in it that he disagreed with. and so there is so many details inside of this bill that people are still just learning about some senators and house members railed on the floor and said we wish we had more time think they were up against a agreed line of tomorrow to get it done. they could have given themselves more time, of course, but this is how bills get passed sometimes, tony. and some senators who are supportive of this legislation touted it as a return to regular order. that is, the appropriators going through a budge tour process working on 12 bills across the spectrum in agencies and getting it through both bodies of congress. so you are seeing it pass right now. there are quite a few descension votes but realty managed to get more than enough to get through. >> well, if you need more time

to read it, don't work so close to the doggone deadline. that's just me thinking out loud as i am listening to you here, libby. this is a bipartisan effort. it clearly moved through the house and i am wondering, is this considered by some to be a bit of a slap in the face of the tea party? >> reporter: well, that's a good question. you know, there was an attempt by conservative groups by tea party activist to his halt it. to get house republicans, especially the ones who hold the power in the house, the republican party, to vote against this. they had no success. it passed overwhelmingly in the house this week. and so you saw victory for speaker boehner, for moderates in essence, we'll see what preveiled in thprevails in the . congress is set to leave town. it was originally scheduled for tomorrow more than but they agreed unanimously to move it up because they want to get out of town. they'll head back to their home districts they have the week at home next week. then they lead just a bit of january left with whether they return to deal with unemployment

insurance. that is long-term unemployment benefits never got dealt with by congress. that means more than 1.4 million americans are not getting them. they ran out december 28th. democrats are up in arms about this. they want to see some movement on it. but so far, no agreement because of politics and philosophical differences, primarily in the senate that would have bled over in to the house, though. so bipartisanship moment in terms of this big omnibus spending bill but not when it comes to unemployment insurance and other battles coming town the pipe like that over the debt ceiling. atrial question of how loud the tea party voices will be. one thing i wanted to mention senator cruise was on the floor earlier and he tried to throw in some amendments to this spending bill to defund the federal health care law, obama care, we have heard that one before. he got an objection right away. that didn't end up going anywhere. >> libby, terrific. libby casey on capitol hill. a lot to deal with there. well done lib i thank you. the president and first lady

have launched a new effort for american to his get a college education, cost as you know is a huge factor in deciding whether to attend college, the average cost of an education, a private four-year college has nearly tripled from about $11,000 in 1973 to just over $30,000 in 2013. but a college degree really does pay off in the long run. while a high school drop out earns less than a million dollars over a lifetime, someone with a college degree will earn two, three, even four times that amount, but that's not the only factor that keeps people out of college, today president obama wants to make college accessible for everyone, regardless of their bac background, my viqueis at the white house, tell us more about the president's plan. >> reporter: you are right. the president want to make college more accessible. obviously tuition now becoming a huge hurdle not just for middle class but families across the

economic spectrum. today the president and first lady wanted to focus in on lower income children, it's not all about tuition according to the white house, it's about access, about mentoring, about changing a mind set. it's about getting lower income children thinking about college, thinking about going to the right college that matches their ambitions and that matches their skills. some of the things that were promoted today the president appearing before some 100 top executives and officials from universities and colleges around the country connecting the more low income students to the college that's right for them. increasing the pool of students, preparing for college through early interventions giving them help. shepherding them along giving them to the secon s.a.t. classet are the province of wealthier families. even waving the application fees up to four colleges that you can apply to for those participating colleges, the president would he have it together with the classic american themes of opportunity, saying that it's not simply a matter of opportunity but a matter of giving everybody an equal chance

to realize their highest ambitions. let's listen to the president. >> we have to make sure that there are new ladders of opportunity in to the middle class. and that those ladders, the rungs on those ladders are solid and accessible for more people. >> reporter: it's part and parcel of what the president has been talking about over the last several days, he has a pen and phone, this is something that he did without congress, it's not going to, you know, it's sort after be incremental thing, tony it will not revolutionize college admissions across the country. certainly not going to lower tuition across the country that's something that the president has been working on with congress and college administrators. but it's something that can do unilaterally and fits with his theme about income disparity, something that he's been talking about the last several months. and he will certainly be talking about it in the state of the union in just about two weeks time. mike have care at the white house, thank you. a u.s. army helicopter made a hard landing today killing one person and injuring two it happened in georgia at a savannah air field.

there we go we spot shadowed the picture of the chopper there. this was not a crash but a heartlanding officials are investigating exactly what happened here. secretary of state john kerry appealed toot syrian opposition to join a peace conference scheduled for next week, the goal of the talks let by the u.n. and dubbed geneva two is to install a transitional government in sea syria. the syrian national coalition is expected to vote on whether to attends in the next few days, about 130,000 people have now died since the conflict began in 2011. >> the united states, for these reasons, urges a positive vote. we do so knowing that the geneva peace conference is not the end but rather the beginning, the launch of the process, a process that is the best opportunity for the opposition to achieve the goals of the syrian people and the revolution. and the political solution to this terrible conflict that has taken many, many, many too many lives. >> kerry's comments come as al

jazerra has obtained a letter from syria's foreign minister to u.n. second general bon ki-moon talking about talks set to take place in switzerland next week, al jazerra diplomatic editor james bays has more in the hague in the netherlands. >> reporter: this letter is i think important. it shows the syrian government replying to the u.n. saying, yes, we are coming to geneva, yes, here is our list of our delegation, but, and it's a big but, we have reservations about some of the details of the whole process. this is supposed to be building on what was known as geneva one back in the summer of 2012. the idea is for both sides to sit around the table to come up with a transitional governing body with full he ca full execur to take control of the governance of syria members of the opposition and government part of that boyd. it seems now syria has reservations about that, the syrian government the opposition hasn't decide first degree they

are going to attend the peace talks that are taking place in switzerland next week. they'll be some in the opposition who well seize on this letter and say it shows the general government is is not serious about making concessions there will be others who say this the opposition should attend and sit around the table because that will expose the position the saer crane government and force it. to actually negotiate conceding power and possibly a sat standing down. >> that was james bays reporting from the hague, the syrian national coalition just released a statement saying negotiations with the is sad regime cannot go forward until it accepts all of the principles of a gentleman never a two. drought, high winds and fire, they have combine today create a serious threat in southern california. the latest on the wildfire there next. also new information from the government about that giant data theft. that targeted other stores, now we know some of the methods used

by the hackers.

telephone calls every single day >> glenn greenwald on "the stream" on al jazeera america

>> three men are charged with setting today's wild fires outside of los angeles and it was a burning scrap of paper from the campfire that sparked this fire. the flames quickly spread and consumed at least two homes. we are in california with more on the effort to get the fire under control. jennifer? >> tony, the fire here has been burning for the past nine hours and out of control and burning in the foothills of the mountains and moments ago i spoke with a public information command center and two people have been injuries and two firefighters have been injured and they are minor injuries and

five to six hundred firefighters on the scene and working 24 hours around the clock. they have five helicopters and two airplanes to try and contain the fire. it is zero contained right now. they are confident they are getting the upper hand on the fire. the winds have really died down. earlier this morning the gusts up to 40 miles per hour and that was really causing the spread of this fire. as you mentioned, tony, three people were aest ared in starting the fire. >> they were all three together. the way it is told to us, all three of them together at that time and sitting around a campfire and a breeze kicked up and that caused the fire. >> authorities are saying they have no reason to believe it was

intentionally set and we are expected to learn more as more information becomes available. tony, this is to open the conversation about the extremely dry conditions throughout the state of california. they have the distinction of 2013 being driest year on record. to give you a perspective on that, the annual rainfall is 15 inches a year and the region saw 3.6 inches of rain. the snow pack is 25% and this is causing great concern because a third of california's water comes from the snow pack. and in january, tony, one of the two wettest months of the year and so we have had not a drop of rain. >> okay, we are going to get into that more. jennif jennifer, thank you. now with a look at some of the draught conditions. >> extremely dry. if you think about the last

summer, tony, as we watched the storm track coming in, remember how they got the rain and the flooding coming to the denver area? >> yes, yes. >> what is notable this was all south of san francisco and just nicked areas of southern california. it really came in from the southwest, south and california didn't get any of the rainfall during the storm patterns last summer and that contributed the the dry conditions we have been talking about. red flag warning impacting the mountains of california. that is really for the officials that handle the wild fires. it is only indicator that we have weather conditions that are not good for fighting wild fires. so that in addition to wind advisories are bringing concerns. 20% above normal. 85 for los angeles for the high. the wind gusts, you don't see

them as we look at the wide view here, but if we zoom in closer, you are going to see santa anna winds 40-50 miles per hour. and the draught area that we are looking at, mainly california, a good portion of the state. california snow mountain readings they are the driest on record and the los angeles rain amounts is impressive not here the amount of rainfall they normally do. >> thank you. a confidential bulletin is describing the methods and the software that the hackers used to attack the target stores. the malware used was written partly in russia, the hackers targeted the unnamed retailers apart from target. the code is not detected by the

antimalware software and a high degree of sill. this report is sent to the retailers. >> the villagers in southeast china build their own great wall made of money, and worth $2 million. the 7 foot high wall is made from the money earned from the profitable co-op farming. some received 30 times the average way. west virginiians are using the tap water. >> and another move in new jersey as lawmakers are digging for more information on the bridgegate scandal.

place in a [ inaudible ] the united nations is not in favor

>> welcome back. here is a look at the top stories. the catholic church is under fire for the handling of the sex abuse crisis by the priests and allegations they protected the pedophile priests as the expense of the victims. >> tomorrow the president is unveiling new guidelines and the rules are in the works since edward snowden leaked the details of the nsa spying and the critics are saying they are not going far enough. >> pushing the syrian opposition to join the conference to end the conflict. it is being held next week and negotiations are not going to work unless their government complies with the meeting's goaling. >> west virginians with drink the water again, but the pregnant women are told to stay

away. the toxic chemicals have dropped and expecting mothers should stick to the bottled water. we sfoek to a west virginia resident who is waiting for the all clear to flush the pipes. she's back with us from dunbar, west virginia and what are you wearing there? what does the shirt say? >> my shirt says i love the smell of licorice in the morning. that is what the chemicals are smelling like in the pipes. a t-shirt company is making these as the fundraiser. >> where are the proceeds going? >> there is a nonprofit called the water project, which puts wells into places where there are water issues, and so they decided they would sort of try

to have a little humor and do a good thing at the same time. >> well, elizabeth, i jumped with the question and i didn't even ask how are you doing? >> i am doing all right. we flushed the pipes last night. the water was, as you can see, i saved a bottle of water for you. it is a little dirty. i have to say that in your lead-in you mentioned they have put out the release of pregnant women not drinking the water and i am convinced we are not going to use it for some time to come. >> i have to ask you, when did you get the word to flush the pipes, yesterday at some point? >> oh, i was aggravated enough

with the water company, they called me at 1:28 in the morning and woke me up to tell me i could flush the pipes. >> wow. >> i didn't leap out of the bed and go and flush the pipes. >> so when you turned on the water, what did you see or smell the licorice that we heard about? is>> i smelled the licorice, mine is not as strong as some of the other people have said. what happened because they called me in the middle of the night and i had to get to work and get my daughter today care, i waited until the evening to flush the pipes and all the neighbors had been pulling the cleaner water into the town, that is my theory, and so my smell wasn't as bad. it is really noticeable when you run hot water. that seems, i don't know if it evaporates more, but the smell

is more pronounced when the water the hot. you are not supposed to take hot showers or breathe that in and wash everything with tepid water so that the smell is not as bad. >> the last question, i suppose, how do feel about this, annoyed, angry, you are terribly inconvenienced, what are your thoughts with the experience? >> i have to say that i'm mad kind of on a couple of levels. i'm mad that there weren't regulations in place that said you can't put a chemical processing plant less than a mile from the batter plant. i mean that is just common sense tell you that is not a good idea. and it is not even just the inconvenience i have, there are places that still are not open and you have for example minimum

wage workers are now without pay for a week and they are never going to make that money up. it is economically bad to the people who are at the greatest risk. i'm aggravated and mad about that. >> thank you for hutting a real human face on that. i just want to see the water. can you turn it on? i don't know what i am expecting to see. just turn it on and let it run. >> well, when it runs it looks fairly clean. it is when it collects that you see, if you put it in a white bowl it is looking brown. >> oh, brown, and yucky. hey, elizabeth, great spending time with you, take care of your daughter and family and hold out and get the water quality you

deserve. hang in there. >> thank you, hold their feet to the fire for me. >> great to see you and thank you for your time. >> the ban on the water has raised a lot of questions around the country and joining me to discuss. he's a journalist and sustainable development consultant. great to talk to you. give me the take aways here. we have seen the story unfolding for 7 days. given the work you do z what is the lesson or the teaching moment here. >> it is simple, we have to have a culture of oversight and that has to be supported both financial and culturely. >> you are talking register ewe

lagss. and that is pricey and we can't afford it. >> well, this is is result. you have to ask the question, what are we willing to tolerate. we have, you know we have grown in the country to expect you turn on the water and it comes out and it is safe. we are not willing to commit to maintaining that. >> we don't even talk about the infrastructure to maintain it or the treatment facilities that are necessary or in terms of privateizing the operations. >> privatization is something that is happening 10-15 years and the reason is that nobody wants to raise water rates. it is just politically unpopular to do that. it is easy to pass the buck and get a private company coming in and saying they can do it easier and cheaper.

ultimately whether it is a private company or a public utility, the water has to be clean and able to drink it and there has to best thing. >> beyond that, it is an infrastructure question, it is about the pipes, we had a big pipe burst in new york a couple of days ago and reminds us, doesn't, how old the infrastructure is for much of the country. >> yes, the american society of civil engineers rated the infrastructure at a d minus. it is a problem. it is a big cost, but if you think about how much we pay for cell phones, our smart phones every month, you know, why are we as a society not willing to pay for it. >> we think water the free. we think of it as a human right but it can't be free. >> thank you for the time. >> thank you.

>> he's a journalist and sustainable development consultant. thank you. air force taking actions today in the wake of a cheating and drug scandal. we are joined with the very latest. david? >> the air force is retesting all of the officers today that oversee the 420 land base ballistic missile bases and the bases are armed with nuclear war heads and deterring other nations from using nuclear weapons and 600 officers are required to pass the tests each month and again all of the officers we retested today and in efforts to remind the public that it is in trust worthy hands the results are posted on a pentagon website.

30 officers were stripped of the certification after they cheated on monthly exams last august and september or knew about the cheating and didn't report it. acourting to the investigation, the officers were texting each other to the answers with the test. the cheating scandal drew out of a drug scandal. these drug and cheating investigations are the latest m embarrassment of a force. the ahead of air force was fired in october for getting drunk while leading a delegation in moscow. six years ago the air force promised to tighten the controls, and transporting nuclear arms missiles across the united states and several congressman are expressing how

much progress the air force has really made. 90% of the voter approved the new constitutional results and this is the second constitution put in place since the revolution over throwing. the philippine government is saying tackling human traffic is a major focus after 40 people arrested as part of a child sex abuse ring. they rescued 15 children after searching the facilities. the videos were found in the uk of children being abused and the trail led to the philippines and the sex abuse tied to 12 countries. the west bank is a major sticking point between the israeli government and the p

palestin palestines. the israeli army bulldozed a number of their homes. we have more on the so a-called price tag attacks. >> in the pal tien village olive trees are all destroyed. >> just a few hundred feet away in the israeli outpost, this field used to have hundreds of olive trees and now only one left. >> this is the last ones that the tractor missed. >> this is the front line of the israeli palestine conflict. the settlers built communities of guard towers and prefabricated homes. they plant huge fields and right next to palestinevil villages.

the settlers are planting on the palestine land and they uprooted their trees. the settlers then attacked the palestin palestines. they fought back. one knocked unconscious and outnumbered they surrendered in a house. the soldiers arrive to take them away. they helped to shield the settlers. >> us lam is saying when you are, when your enemy is holding the hands up, you are not allowed to kill him. if he retaliates you can kill him. >> those fighting words show how tense the area is. the villagers are saying that

settlers have attacked 28 times in the past two and a half years. >> that is theville contamination and over that hill, that is the outpost. right in between, the soldiers. the israeli soldiers. >> they are there just to prevent the attacks. >> is that works? >> no. >> he feels like he's battling the government add the palestinians. the troops defend the settlers and the settlers feel they can stay. bottom line is neither side is going any where. >> just finally got back home after two thousand years and we are home and we are going to stay. o this is our land. we are not going to leave. >> the tension continues. >> he's teaching his son.

aaron plans to double the number of trees and taught his son to love the field. >> you like planting trees? >> yep. >> until there is peace, their children will fight over the same land. >> so let's look at the other stories making the news across the country, including an execution. we have that and more. >> convicted of raping and killing a pregnant woman and ohio man put to death today using a never tried new drug cocktail. it was one of the longest executions in history. he gasped for 15 minutes before being pronounced dead. the courts ignored the filing for a stay. why the new drug now? the old drug ran out. it was offs limits for capital

punishment. >> police identified two victims in an indiana market. the gunman 22 year old walter bare walked into the market and started to fire. he was holding the manager as a hostage. the officers shot and killed the suspect. he may have had some type of relationship with one of the victims. the nature of the relationship is still unclear. >> talk about getting served, more subpoenas are expected today involved in the bridgegate scandal. they are continuing the investigation just as a new congressional session is beginning. helping out a with the investigation, the prosecutor that helped to convict the former illinois governor. >> then this update on the story, dismissing a ticket

against a woman driving with google glasses. he was pulled over for going 80 miles per hour. she got a citation. the court ruled no proof she had the google glass operating when pulled over and three states have introduced the bills banning the google glasses while driving. >> you can wear them while driving. driving is difficult enough. distracting driving. >> maybe driving for you, tony. i don't know. >> we are done with morgan. thank you. >> i will tell you, he was known to millions of us the professor of gillgan's island. there he is. he appeared in 98 episodes. he was the smart professor. he was a veteran of world war

two and began acting in the 50s and appeared in a number of shows and known best right as simply the professor. he was 89 years old. from online petitions to webcasting protests, the technology has changed the way that activists work. >> also a fairs of state getting messy, punches are thrown.

>> every sunday night join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time... >> parkinson's forced his wife to type his novels. >> not only was i typing badly, but i was hallucinating... >> now, a revolutionary proceedure is giving is giving this best selling author a second chance >> it was a wondrerful moment... >> after the implant, they turned the juice on, and... >> emily & martin cruz smith on talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera america >> bankruptcy judge in detroit has denied the city's proposal

to pay back some of the bad debt. the judge struck down the deal and saying that the city had to stop making poor financial decisions. the and employees could gain because the banks are not paying the debt. there you go. >> a new york based website is saying it is changing the word one click at a time. it is called avase, that means voice in a number of languages. we visited the headquarters in new york city and what did you find. >> i have to tell you, it is meaning voice in persian. it is a growing power for social online activism. the orbing organizers saying

they are organize around the world to get the companies to change. >> that is the idea behind the social activism website and claiming 32 million followers, the aim is to save the world through technology. starting in this manhattan office. >> the power of one person is unlimited when you have the power to connect to other people. the world really is what we shape it and make it to be, it is ours for the making. >> this is how it works. >> i am excited the campaign. >> every week he skypes with the team and they brainstorm about campaigns the launch in the week ahead. to pushing brazil to grant asylum and edward snowden. they are start their own

initiatives. the member launched calling on the kenyan police to punish the man that gang raped a 16-year-old girl. they campaigned around it and tested the emails. the followers bombarded kenyan officials with 25,000 tweets. the results 1.2 million people signed the petition that local activists delivered to the kenyan police and the pressure lead to a police investigation and so far one arrest. it is sign to sign a petition, just click but it is creating armed chair activist, they would rather support the cause by clicking a mouse rather than taking to the streets and protest. many of the followers are active

in the virtual world and the real world. >> there is a ladder of engagement. you start by signing by the petitions and going to donating and then off line. sometimes they get celebrities to help spread the word about the petitions. the website is raising funds through the followers and gathered $15 million. >> are there many followers of the site here in the united states? >> well, asked the founder about this today and he said 5% of the 32 million followers are american. >> so room for growth. >> definitely. >> thank you. >> a brawl at the ukraine parliament. have a look at this.

you can see, a fight breaking out during the debate over the budget, opposition was trying to block the vote and bringing it closer to a russian trade union and new punishments for untho unauthorized protests. >> grammy weekend could be special for beatles fans, paul mccartny and ringo star will be playing together. they were the best artists in 1965 and this year for the lifetime achievement. the grammy's are january 26th. we are back with a check on the forecast and it is real money.

>> now we talked about the above normal temperatures, the very dry, warm conditions with gusty winds for california but now let's talk about the snow and

the cold air for parts of north dakota and nebraska and we have wind conditions here. gusting up to 50 miles per hour. it is not a lot of snow coming down, but because of the wind, in fact, through the day tomorrow the u.p. of michigan will be getting 8-12 inches of snow. elsewhere much lighter conditions. throw in the wind with that and you have problems. blizzard warnings for these spots. 84 degrees for los angeles. 15-20 degrees above normal for parts of the west. to the southeast, we are getting the averages. the clipper stms are continuing to ride through. the hazards right now, parts of minnesota for a blizzard warning and winter storm warnings as

well as high wind warnings. it is a large stormy area here. a cold winter storm. not a lot of snow but the blizzard conditions with the wind makes it hard to see very quickly. 52 for omaha. we expect to see the snow coming across the great lakes on friday. east coast seeing showers. drying coming through for you as well. looking at saturday, we start to get the system coming down across the great lakes and the forecast just to tomorrow alone, we are getting most of the snow coming in parts of minnesota and off the great lakes and this is the eastern side and up the line of maine.

this is al jazeera america. life from new york city. i'm tony harris with a look at today's top stories. vatican officials faced questions from a un committee over how the catholic church has handled clergy who abuse children. they denied allegations that the church protected pedophile priests. the syrian coalition has released a statement saying they find it, quoted, impossible to participate in the peace talks scheduled next weeks geneva. tomorrow president obama will unveil new guidelines for federal agencie