>> all this week, >> the strength of our future relies on education. >> we are creating a class of adults exposed to mediocre education. >> stealing education, part of our week long, in depth series. america tonight only on al jazeera america >> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories that we're following for you. who is in, who is out. trouble with that planned peace talk in syria. the city of charleston, west virginia, now considering the lawsuit against the company responsible for the chemical spill that tainted the water. and people around the country taking a day off to remember a king.

>> there are concerns today that the syrian peace talks may be over before they begin. united nations has now invited iran to the conference set for geneva in switzerland. opposition groups say that is a none starter and they're threatening to pull out. secretary general ban ki-moon he addressing the situation. >> i will have more to say about this situation in a day. for a moment let my appear again for all involved to keep the needs of the syrian people foremost in mind. >> meanwhile it will day one in the newell deal o nuclear deal t the deal overshadowed over the late breaking developments regarding syria. >> reporter: ban ki-moon has finally invited iran to the

party. >> that iran would play a positive and constructive role. therefore, as convener and host of the process i have invited iran to participate. >> reporter: a year and a half after the first syrian meeting in geneva, a country in which many analyses say could help bring the crisis to an end. >> the best has realized that without taking iran on board you cannot seriously talk of resolving regions problems. >> reporter: but the question remains will iran attend? iran has said all along it will participate in any peaceful solution to the syrian civil war only if there are no pre-conditions. that means no requirement to

remove bashar al-assad out of power. iran has not agreed to the steps outline in the geneva communique from 2012. the governing body must be established with full executive powers and enter armed violence and allow essential humanitarian aid to be delivered to affected areas. >> it is a sensitive issue and as we continue for three years some insist on a military solution. but iran's stance on this is clear. i feel that a common agreement is forming, but the main problem is extremism and sectarianism. >> those comments were made a week after a trip to jordan.

>> they support not only the syrian conflict but political conflict in iraq and lebanon, and saudi arabia is nervous about iran's growing ambitions including its nuclear ones. >> reporter: iran has agreed to suspend its most sensitive nuclear work in return for limited sanctions relief. iran and the five permanent members of the u.n. security council plus germany will implement the agreement over the next six months. it took ten years of diplomacy to make the deal happen, but just six months and a new government to start what many see as iran's return from the cold. al jazeera, tehran. >> for more on those syrian peace talks that may or may not start we turn to james bays in geneva. >> reporter: it's taken nearly eight months to get the syrian opposition to agree to come to

the talks which are due to talk here in switzerland from wednesday. they finally agreed at the weekend, but now this invitation to iran seems to have put that all in jeopardy. the syrian opposition now say that in a matter of hours if the u.n. has not rescinded its invitation to iran they will pull out of the process. they will not send a delegation to geneva. even if they were to sit around the table with the assad regime the prospects of getting a deal seem quite distant. that's because of key points, the key sticking point which is whether assad and those heading his security services could be part of a new transitional government in syria. for his part the president of syria has been given an interview in damascus saying these talks should be mainly about counterterrorism. >> the geneva conference should produce clear results with regard to the fight against

terrorism and syria. it needs to put pressure on countries b that send money to terrorist and western countries that provide political cover for these terrorist organizations. >> in the spotlight right now the u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon who made that invitation to iran, ban ki-moon normally doesn't do anything regarding syria without first consulting with the permanent five members of the security council and particularly consulting with the russians and americans because in many ways they are the architect of the whole idea of these peace talks. >> james bays in geneva. the u.s. is threatening sanctions against ukraine if it does not stop ongoing violence there. tensions have been building in the city of kiev for two months. people were injured in vicious street battles.

demonstrators fighting police who in return use tear gas. the head of the house intelligence committee said its no coins against that edward snowden ended up in russia. the u.s. spy contractor may have received help from russia and some of the things that snowdon did was beyond his technical capabilities and it was suggested that russia held snowdon steal information. it's been two weeks since chemical spill tainted the water supply in west virginia. robert, on top of the individual lawsuit being brought, i understand the city is now considering action.

>> good morning, del, indeed. city council members have heard from many businesses here in charleston about the economic loss that they have taken over the past two weeks. also, charleston finance director estimated $120,000 loss in tax revenue is coming their way because of water outages. so city council was having an emergency session. there could be a vote as soon as tomorrow as to whether they file lawsuit against freedom industries. in the meantime just off the phone with county commissioner, he told us that they have distributed over 10 million bottles of water in the past week and they could not be more happy with the response from fema, the national guard and the federal government. but also people here are not happy with the water system still, most people not drinking the water out of the taps, and there is still a lot of concern on the safety.

>> in west virginia roadside water distribution sites dot the highways and county roads. >> well, some are still afraid to actually drink the water. >> over the past 11 days nearly 300,000 people have lived through the unprecedented do not use order from west virginia american water. but the problems are not over yet. >> we're still getting complaints from various residents in and out of the area that has come through that they're still smelling the chemical in the water stream. >> even as communities get thal clear there is little faith among the population. >> it's just something you don't want to drink unless you have to. >> pregnant women have been warned to drink only bottled water even now. houses smell strongly of licorice. people are still showing up at emergency rooms cooking to the department of health. >> my throat burns, i felt

congested in my chest, and i have a splitting headache. >> the daughter of a coal miner and a community advocate for the people concerned about chemical safety. >> right now one of the things that we're doing is working the state and federal legislators to come up with laws to protect us. but the problem is they haven't protected us for a number of years. i'm not exactly sure what the best real form of change is going to be here. >> al jazeeral jazeera america n asking for an interview. this is what they sent to us: >> state political leaders say it's their desire to find a balance between clean water and

jobs. but overwhelmed west virginians say they've heard that rhetoric before. >> how long do you think this is going to go on until we get answers? >> years, years. that's the way it always happens. >> reporter: meanwhile, freedom industries the company blamed for the chemical spill has filed chapter 11 bankruptcy protecting them from class action lawsuits and debt collectors. >> so del, a lot going on in west virginia. on top of the city council having their closed door meeting this afternoon you can see behind me the state capitol building. that is where at 2:00 governor tomlin, and other state lawmakers will have a press conference proposing legislation which will introduce an above ground storage tank regulatory program. as we know there was no regulation on freedom industries, on the chemicals that spilled into the elk river from those above ground tanks.

a lot of moving parts here in west virginia. the story continues and people here still not drinking out of the taps and moving towards mostly bottled water. >> robert ray joining us from west virginia. robert, thank you very much. it an american still being detained in north carolina hoping the u.s. can help secure his release. kenneth bae has been detained for more than a year. he was seasoned to 15 years of hard labor for what north northa called an attempt to topple the regime. two suicid suicide-bombers attacked, and many say the threats is real. >> dressed in black and holding ak-47's, the two men in this video claim to be the suicide-bombers responsible for

the twin attacks at a train station and on a bus in volgograd last month. they're shown building the he bombs and trapping them to their bodies before heading to their targets which killed 34 people. in this video an ominous message for vladimir putin. they say if the olympics proceed they will continue attacks. a similar video is offered to tourists attending the games which has prompted more concern. this time from american politicians. >> i would not go. and i don't think i would send my family. it's just such a rich target. >> but president putin said he is ready. >> the job of the olympics host is to ensure security of the participants in the olympics and visiters. we'll do whatever it takes. >> sochi has become a virtual police state with beefed up security in the resort town.

a so-called ring of steel, tens of thousands of soldiers, police, bomb-sniffing dogs and video cameras. >> i think the threats are real. they have basically called for attacks on the olympics. >> that warning made in july by russia's most wanted militant whose death was reported a few days ago. but the claim has yet to be verified. >> i am very concerned about the security status of the olympics. who do we need to worry about? are those groups, the terrorist groups who have had some success, are they still plotting? >> hoping to dispel any notion they don't have security under control russian authorities released a video their own. a full-scale attacks on suspected militants in the northern cacecases.

the shoot out after the grenade and bomb attack that injured several people. it's the type of response that russia says it is prepared to unleash to protect and secure the games which are less than three weeks away. al jazeera. >> today is martin luther king jr. day, and in denver, as you can see live they are planning something big and something different. a live report when we come back.

>> the strength of our future relies on education. >> we are creating a class of adults exposed to mediocre education. >> stealing education, part of our week long, in depth series. america tonight only on al jazeera america >> translator: based on our medical records she was

>> welcome back to al jazeera america america. i'm del walters. these are your headlines at this hour. the syrian peace talks scheduled for this week are now in doubt. the u.n. wants iran at the bargaining table. the city of charleston, west virginia, now considering a lawsuit because of losses caused by a chemical spill. investigations are now under way at the state and federal level. today is martin luther king's birthday. a federal holiday honoring the civil rights leader. >> it is considered one of the daring space missions ever undertaken. a probe plan to go chase down and land on a comet.

the rosetta craft has been in highibernation trying to consere power. >> for ten years rosetta has been traveling through space. it has been using the planets to catapult to a speed of 120 kilometers an hour. now it's coming out of hibernation it's hoped its system is still intact. >> it is a real veteran of space flight, and it takes its toll on probes. they're hoping that it will function fully for its main mission which is to orbit, map, and even land on a come mitt for the first time in human history. it's due to catch up to this comet in may after circling the kilometer, using a harpoon

system it will bolt itself to the comet and study its surface. >> it will go to an area where we're sure the comet will erupt from. it will head back towards the sun and get warmer and produce a big tail. if you land where the tail is going to flair out, damage t interesting but risky, or do you land in a safer place where you can hopefully hold on for the whole ride. >> scientists are interested in the rock that make up the comet. they believe it was formed when the solar system was formed. they say the findings could help answer whether the comet brought water or even life to earth. >> i'm meteorologist dave warren. we're talking about dry weather

or cold winter weather. we'll start here. right in the northern plains where this initial storm is. bitter cold arctic air moving south. and 35 in home had a, an omaha. the cold air will move south, and the timing of this looks like it will be shaping up until late tonight and tomorrow as this front moves south all the way through to the mississippi valley and the southeast, and then tuesday morning we see this develop and rapidly intensify. this is happening off the coast of north carolina. and we see these storms work their way north. it's moving south and east, just light snow moving to the coast. the storm moves up the coast, takes a lot of snow with it. so it really depends on where the storm develops and how quickly it intensifies. right

now four to six inches of snow through this band, heavier in the mountains and heavier towards boston and it's a combination of how far north the moisture can make it and where the cold air, and that will be shaping up right over northern virginia, baltimore and philadelphia. we'll talk about the bitter cold air coming in behind it. highs on wednesday below zero in north dakota, 10 to 20 in philadelphia. this weather pattern shapes up to talk about this polar air, this blob of polar air. but it looks to be coming down in eastern canada, here's the dry air again. persistent drought out west not much change of this weather pattern this week. >> thank you very much. and thank each and every one of you for watching al jazeera america. i'm del walters. inside story is next, and a

programming note. ali velshi will be talking to some of the most important people in the business of finance world at the world economic forum in switzerland. you can see him all week long on real money on al jazeera america at 7:00. r50iding on the information super highway, turns out it may have fast and slow lanes. new rules that may mean you have to pay for the quickest ride on "the inside story." >> hello. i am ray sworees. put a plug in a wall socket. an e licktricity powers an appliance.