♪ >> this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm tony harris with a look at today's top stories. delegates arrive for peace talks in syria. will it make a difference. the report shows systemic torture and killing of detainees. security throats in sochi. the hunt is on right now for black widows who may be targeting the winter olympics. and a winter storm causing lots of problems already. look at these pictures covering the mid-atlantic and the northeast. >> a crucial meet something about to take place.

the syrian government and the opposition are preparing to meet face to face for the first time tomorrow. they will try to find a way to end nearly three-year-old civil war. that conflict has killed agreem.

they represent those who have been killed and tortured, and those who want to see an end to the conflict. the regime, i'm not so sure. they believe they're winning. >> reporter: two decades ago the u.n. was struggling to stop bloodshed in the balkans. peace talks halted the violence but one key figure, the foreign minister, now fierce they save a dilemma. >> they will face an unfavorable set of options. the expedited solution that probably does not address the furor one that allows the conflict to continue with all the killing and ethnic cleansing that is underway right now with the extremists getting ever

stronger. >> reporter: the initial meeting is an international gathering. more than 40 countries but not iran expressing their support for this brass. around the table talks then start here at the united nations in geneva on friday. the reality is this, the syrian regime just like iran has made it clear that it will not support any plan that does not involve assad. the challenges ahead are massive. james bays, al jazeera. >> list take a look at the power players and these talks. jonathan betz with more on these talks. >> reporter: let's break it down for you. first, who is actually going to these talks? well, 40 countries total, united states, saudi arabia, a lot of power players. in syria's corner is russia and briefly iran.

but the u.n. quickly disinvited it after it failed to back the plan. had a is the point of all this? president bashar al-assad, how to get rid of him and who should replace him. forming a new government, the problem is assad has been very clear. he doesn't want to go. so what does the united states want? the war to end and assad out. but it does not how to do that and who should take over. scholars fear losing assad may further destabilize the area. why does russia care about this? russia and syria are old friends, and russia has been losing allies, and syria buys a lot of russia weapons. will the talks work? probably not. there are up to a thousand groups fighting for control of syria. many fighting for many different

reasons. some are linked to al-qaeda. some to carve out a new country, and almost none support those peace talks. you ask, why are they trying? do you have a better idea? smarter people say there is no plan b, but maybe it will slow it down and ease some of the suffering like the starvation. >> that would be a start. >> baby steps, as we said before. let's do this, let's bring in kurt volker, ambassador, it's always good to talk to you. thank you for taking time to be with us today. >> my pleasure, ambassador, it is really easy to be really pessimistic about these talks, but are these talks better than nothing at all? >> well, i think that it is always good to try to create a framework where people can talk, but let's be realistic. just as your analyst just said, all the power, all the use of force is favoring the government. assad believes he can till

enough people and keep fighting and hang on to power. so he's not going to give up anything in these talks that is going to be a concession to the opposition that is going to bring other people into government. it's simply not going to happen. you need to have curren counterg force that wants to have assad come to the counter as well. that is missing. there is humanitarian access. good to give people food and bandaids, and the other is the expectation that there needs to be a cease-fire. right now that expectation is barely out there in the public domain, and in the assad regime you now have people who have the counter vei willing force. >> what does that mean? >> that could be a number of

things. could you have support for intervention, supports, it could be that it is the most extreme elements of the sunni terrorist who are infiltrating into syria as we speak that creates enough concern in assad's mind that helps them deal with him. there are any number of ways that assad may feel pressure, but right now i feel that he feels he has the upper hand. >> it's difficult to marriage a video in which our involvement, and i'm assuming he means beyond what the united states is doing now. it's very difficult to imagine a video in which our involvement in syria would have led to a better outcome. what do you think of that statement? >> well, i personally don't agree with tt. >> yes. >> i think two years ago i wrote an article about two years ago and fewer than nine thousand people had been killed. organizing that was the time to step in, intervene, stop the killing and force some political dialogue. at that point you didn't have

the radicalization, you didn't have the al-qaeda groups in there, and you didn't have the sense of bloodshed, loss and revenge that fuels a conflict like now. you could have done that. two years from now we may be kicking ourselves for not doing more today. we have to think about what we can do that will make a difference for the people who are still alive, the refugees who can't go home but want to, and try to find a way to force the assad regime to be more inclusive or step down. >> ambassador, you're talking about today moving forward. you mentioned humanitarian assistance, is it imperative to have some kind of discussion about a cease-fire so you can set up these humanitarian quarters to help the eternally displaced? i'm trying to think of what is a

modest baby step that could potentially come out of this. >> this is one of them. the cease-fire by definition if it is actually being implemented means that people are not being killed. i don't believe it, i don't think that's what the assad government would do even if they promised to do it. but that said, creating all those expectations and paving the way for something else is at least a baby step as you said. >> what do you think about the diplomatic mess that ended up being the invitation of iran to these talks? you can make an argument that iran needs to be there, and yet there were clearly signs that would have disavowed the conference. >> well, you can argue it either way. iran is a principle backer of the assad regime. it is a backer of hezbollah, which is in syria doing the fighting on behalf of the assad regime. it is not a neutral player in

this conflict. it is clearly backing one side and the side responsible for most of the killing. you can argue that they don't belong there. but you can argue if you're ever going to have a deal they have to be involved. the real issue is there a balance of force or counter veiling force that will cause both sides to negotiate. or do they feel it is willing to use all the force necessary and in which case it's going to keep killing and creating refugees. >> can i stop you for a second? >> yes. >> do you think there should be a force on the ground? >> well, here's what i would recommend. i think we do have to use international forces in air space over syria and we have to put some offensive strikes, artillery, aircraft, it does not require western or u.s. troops

on the ground. >> n.a.t.o.? >> no, i wouldn't do n.a.t.o. either, but i would direct against the opposition and cut off the extreme ones and support the moderate one that is have a chance of governing. in order to make that call, they'll have to have confidence that they are not alone. there is a wider international community including the united states willing to support those groups and we'll see there is a change. without that i'm afraid the calculous of some of those other countries we can't do it alone and it will create the most pain for assad. >> the video that you just described, is that a conversation that can be had at this set of meetings? >> no, i don't think so. i it has to be done privately, bilaterally and let them know that we're willing to play a

roll, not boots on the ground, but provide some leadership. other than that, i don't think it will work. >> joining us in washington, d.c. thank you. more than a half million people who threat syria's bloody civil war, nick schifrin is in switzerland and we spent time with several refugees, what are they saying to you? >> well, tony, they're really, really struggling. let's talk about the violence inside of syria. one out of every three homes has been damaged or destroyed. that's why so many people. 9 million people inside and outside of the country have had to flee their homes, and they've gone to lebanon. they've gone to jordan, and they've gone to turkey. i just spent the last four or five days with them, and they do feel safer now that they're in turkey, but they're not very welcomed. >> reporter: the front door is that open blue tarp.

seven months ago she fled syria for turkey. her house feels like a cinderblock cave. the family of five eats and sleeps in one room. they can't afford wood for the fire, bread to eat or the rent that is due tomorrow. >> how are you able to feed your family? >> we have nothing. organizations help other refugees but nobody helps us. >> reporter: 700,000 syrian reliefs have flooded turkey. today the camps are full and turkey does not hel allow aid agencies to help. so they are on their own. >> we live in a very bad condition. we live in a bad condition. look at this house. in syria we had a beautiful home. >> her husband tries to find work in construction, but last month he earned $30 for four

day's labor. >> we will survive if i can get work. >> around the corner, their neighbor lives in a converted shop. he, too, pays rent to live like a squatter. no one in the community has windows, running water or toilets. >> we will return to syria because here we are jobless. >> but they can't go back. they're all from the countryside outside of huma. the city that has long resisted the government. and thousands of homes destroyed, countless have been killed. and in the living room his neighbor shows the ravages of war. syrian bombs burned the four-year-old's legs and face. his mother said assad soldiers burned down her house and took

over her neighbor. >> we are here because of the assad george. they kill whenever they want, and they kill with snipers. >> he needs surgery, but his mother has no money. her husband has been in jail for two years. she doesn't even know if he's still alive. >> assad separates the children from their fathers. he makes all the children orphans. >> outside those children fill their days with whatever activities they can. they don't trust the sanitation. they are members of a generation far from home and isolated. back in in the room their three-year-old has no toys. one-year-old, the one so hungry she tries to eat paper, she has leukemia. they don't know what to do or who to turn to, so they ask help from god. >> because no one else will help you? >> no, nobody will help. >> turkey said it needs financial help.

until then or until syria is safe, these refugees fear they will lose what little they have. >> that was nick schifrin reporting from switzerland. right now northeastern mid-atlantic states are dealing with another winter storm. this system to dump up to a foot in some areas and it's wreaking havoc on travel. john terret at penn station, those flakes are getting thicker and heavier, i would imagine. can you hear me? >> reporter: i can't hear you, tony. the flakes are getting bigger and bigger, i would imagine, yes, go on. >> and it's already causing travel problems. the storm that you're in the middle of with those big thick plates. >> reporter: yes, they're talking about this being the i-95 corridor storm. you know the i-95 goes all the way from miami to the tip of the country. the bit of a snow dump of 12 inches or more that you were talking about, that's going to come down between roughly

washington, d.c. and boston. there is travel chaos expected on the road. on the rail ways, and i've just come from penn station, we see a couple of delays on the amtrak system. the local system seems to be okay. we'll get the snow going all the way tonight. so tonight's commute is being badly disrupted, and disrupted,t casualty so far is governor chris christie of new jersey who has declared a state of emergency in his state, as has the governor of delaware. and because the weather is so bad, they were going to have a big party on ellis island on the new jersey side of new york harbor. because of the weather they have canceled the party and all the food has been given to the food pantries. there would have been a lot of food. >> there would have been. if you're trying to catch a flight, is there a chance that

will happen for you tonight? >> reporter: i can't hear you because the snowflakes appear to be getting bigger, apparently. oh, no, we've done that joke. if you're planning to come into the northeast today or tomorrow, forget abouforget about "it." they canceled 3,00 3,000 flights flights{^l" ^}. so there are going to be a lot of people camping out at the airport from boston all the way down to d.c. to give you more detail about the train, this is penn station am track, several amtrak services are delayed, one by 2.75 hours. the metro north the other train service that services new york, they're talking about rolling their services dramatically back

by 8:00 tonight. if you're not on a train, you can probably forget about it again. >> forget about it. john, you look good out there. go in and get warm. you have a couple of hours before you join john seigenthaler at 8:00. >> listen, i'm just happy to be here. it's great. >> john terrett for us. let's get a check on weather conditions. >> meteorologist: that's right. we're looking at another winter storm. a lot of people call these polar vortexes. this is wintertime, and this is what we expect to see. let's take a look at what's happening, and you can see a little bit closer the snow actually beginning to fall earlier today down forwards parts of virginia. we think not until 10:00 a.m. noon tomorrow it's going to start to end. princeton, new jersey, and it

goes all the way up to the coast. the warnings are in place pretty much until tomorrow. we're talking some time until noon, 6:00 p.m. we have a blizzard warning, that means all that snow and mixed in that very, very gusty windy conditions, that's going to cause a problem there. everything is out except for the very cold temperatures. we expect those temperatures to drop all across the board for many people. it will be nasty, nasty. >> okay, that board does not look particularly good for the northeastern and mid-atlantic. thank you now. russian police are reportedly looking for suicide-bombers who could target the olympic games, and the hunt and what it means for visitors. that's next. and more on our top stories. and syria's civil wars.

thousands tortured, killed and then photographs.

>> welcome to al jazeera america. the hunt is on in russia for three women known as black widow. suicide-bomb whose may try to attack next month's winter olympics in sochi, police are distributing leaflets at hotels and other parts of the area. phil iftner has more.

>> three women are thought to be in sochi, that is of grave concern for many because the russians set up what they thought was an impenetrable ring of steel. there are regulations on gathering and even driving motor vehicles. you can't drive in sochi unless you have a special license. there is u.s. delegation on the ground in sochi headed up by the chairman of the u.s. house security homeland security committee, russian mccall i mico make sure that american delegations are september safe. there are security concerns. sochi is located in an area of

great voltairety in russia. sochi itself is a safe area. it is more or less a resort for the russian elite, but the caucasus, where sochi is located, has a long history of restlessness of russian rule. there have been two navy warships moved to the black sea to help primarily in evacuation. but the sheer presence of naval wawarships is quite contentious. they will be there through the entirety of the russian olympic games. >> that is phil ittner reporting from london. we'll check in with michael yves how they're impacting olympic ticket sales. >> the winter storm in the

mid-atlantic and northeast today is doing more than disrupting travel. david shuster is filling in for ali velshi. ali is in switzerland, david. good to talk to you. what kind of toll is this storm going to take? >> reporter: the big thick flakes that you and john terrett were talking about, they cause more than travel problems but they're causing something of an energy emergency in ohio and 17 states. states where supplies of propane gas was already tight. and 6% of the people use propane in the market, and it's tight to begin with. there is an effort to make it easier for propane tanks to get to people who need them during the storm. >> dravid, how much might this cost companies? >> well, as far as the airline industry, which is a lot of

people like to talk b the estimate, for example, in the last storm earlier this month, the polar vortex, the expectation is that it could create a storm that is the same. and more airports are involved today than were involved last month. the good news with the airline industries, they have insurance that protects them up to $1 billion of catastrophic damage, but it's not good for the industry, and it's not good for the economy. >> what else are you working on in the program? >> reporter: ali has filed his first report, it's not just about chocolates and watches, but these incredible financial celebrities including ali velshi who are in switzerland for this forum. ali will explain why it matters and what policies get done there, on "real money" at 7:00 eastern on this snowy evening in new york.

>> all right, david, appreciate it. 6,000 pages of documents all showing how the archdiocese of chicago tried to hide claims of child sex abuse. the latest on the investigation is next. also we will have more on the snowy weather conditions in new york, and up and down the eastern seaboard. we're back in a moment. >> six strangers with different points of view... >> i don't believe in borders... >> our government is alowing an invasion... >> get to experience illegal immigration. up close and personal...

>> it's very overwhelming to see this many people that have perished... >> a lot of families that don't know where their babies went... >> i wanna make sure her life, it's remembered... >> what happens when lost lives are re-lived? >> the only way to find out is to see it yourselves... >> on... the borderland... only on al jazeer america >> hey guys wanna come to the united states? first sense the conflict began nearly three years ago. syria's bloody civil war has killed more than 100,000 people and displaced millions of others. more than half a million threing the conflict are now in neighboring turkey. many of them are living outside refugee camps. he spent some time with several refugees and nick, good to see you, what are those people saying to you? those syrians? >> yeah, tony, these are stories of absolutely heartbreak, and inside syria they have all fled horrific very violent

fighting and just give you one statistic, one out of every three homes inside syria has been destroyed or damaged. and so that's why these people have to leave, they feel like their lives depend on them leaving. they are fleeing to lebanon, fleeing to jordan, as you said thereforing also to turkey where i was over >> welcome back, every, to al jazeera america. i'm tony harris. here is a look at your top stories. northeastern and mid-atlantic states are dealin dealing with r storm. this system could dump up to a foot of snow. this storm has already canceled thousands of flights, in russian police are on high alert looking for three female suicide-bom

suicide-bombers. police are warning visitors they may already be in the area. the opposition o face-to-fad shows how brutal the syrian government has become. accusing the regime systemic oh torturing and killing thousand people and we should note that al jazeera was founded and owned by katari interests. we have more on what the report said and the ages may be disturbing to many. >> the photographs are alarming. most of the victims are young men. many of them emaciated,

bloodstained and showing signs of tortured. some have no eyes and others have been electrocuted. one of the leading lawyers who examined the evidence said it amounted to industrial killing. >> they were reminiscent of pictures of auschwitz after the second world war, and they've been tortured as well to add to their miseries. strangulation is regularly found around the neck. >> the source is a photographer with a syrian military police. identified only as caesar. he defected and smuggled the images out on memory sticks to the syrian national movement.

at one point he was photographing 50 bodies a day. the 31-page report was commissioned bay leading london law firm acting for qatar, which has demanded president bashar al-assad's prosecution. they say they're confident of their source. the inquiry team said there is clear evidence capable of being believed of systemic torture and killing of detained persons by the agents of the syrian government. it would support findings of crimes against humanity, and could also support findings of war crimes against the current syrian regime. but any action of the international criminal court would face many hurdles. al jazeera. >> there was another sign today that the syrian civil war has spilled over into neighboring lebanon. authorities say four people were killed in a car bombing in a

hezbollah stronghold in south beirut. it is the second deadly car bomb in the area this month, and an al-qaeda-linked group is saying it's responsible for the bombing. thousands of new documents released by the archdiocese of chicago showing the lengths the church went to deal with sex abuse scandals involving priests. it goes back decades and shows that the archdiocese sometimes relocated priests after abuse has been reported, and assigned others to watch them around children. the evidence recovers only 30 of 65 clergy for whom the archdiocese says it has proven claims of child abuse. diane estherbrook is outside of the chicago archdiocese for us. diane, these documents were posted online today, and i'm wondering how victims are reac reacting? >> well, tony, the victims say that these documents acknowledge

what went wrong, and it shines the light on the abuse that went on for several decades within the catholic church here in chicago, and they're hoping the acknowledgment of this would protect future generations. the victims, family members and attorneys gather for a press conference today and had boxes of those 6,000 documents. those documents included letters from family members and memos from within the church, and those memos contained details of some of those priest who is were transferred to other churches. in one case there was an acknowledgment that one priest was involved in criminal activity, but that activity was never reported. the father of one victim said he's outraged by the chicago amp diocese and said this has shaken his faith in the catholic church. >> they have done nothing in the archdiocese of chicago, and that probably hurts more than anything else. being brought up catholic, and

and the faith and trust you ha have, and to be disappointed like this and have your child abused like this, there is no excuse, i don't care what they say. >> now the archdiocese released a statement today and said the archdiocese acknowledges that they made decisions decades ago that are now difficult to justify, and the archdiocese said if there are any other victim outs there, victims of abuse, the archdiocese is asking those victims to come forward and notify it. >> the statute of lemtations have run out to press charges, so what comes of this? >> hard to say, many of these priests, half of those priests included, those 30 priests, have died. the others have left the church. they are no longer working as clergymen. as you said the statute of

limitations have run out so they are not likely to bcharge are ue pressed. >> new information out today shows last year was one of the hottest on record. nasa and the national oceanic atmospheric association announ announced that for 2013. did the report explain why the temperatures were so high, and does global warming factor into this at all. >> nasa scientists certainly think so. they didn't mince any words. they said this warming of the earth is due to greenhouse gasses. 2013 whereas either the fourth or seventh warmest year on

record, and those records go all the way back to 1880. this map plots the average temperatures, and the areas that are pink all the way to red those areas are hottest than average in 2013. the averages taken from a large 30 years of temperatures in the mid 20th century, so that's what they're comparing it to. there is only a little bit of the map in purple, and the purple are areas that were cooler than usual. the average global temperatures worldwide was 58.3 degrees fahrenheit. now, here in washington today and i know in new york it was very cold. it was snowing, so it seemed a little odd to be talking about warming temperatures, but that is really missing the point according to david donagher with the national defense research council. >> no one said that we're not going to have winter any more.

but the winters are not as severe as they used to be on average over these last, 10-25 years. summers are more--are hotter, and the extremes of storms and bad weather events are piling up. these are signals, and we should be paying attention. >> he said the number one contributor to global warming is that carbon pollution. he said that is from power plants both cole and gas power plants. the epa is working on standards to try to reduce those emissions. tony, just to give you an idea this is the 37th--2013 was the 37th consecutive year of above average temperatures. and the hottest years have come in this century since the yea year 2000. the trend continues. >> jacob ward is with us, and he's nodding his head with us. lisa stark, washington, d.c. thank you. as temperatures rise, sea levels

are expected to rise. the aforementioned jacob ward is herhere with a look on the impat of rising oceans. good to see. >> you pleasure. thank you. earlier this week i had the opportunity to speak with andrew david thayler, the report that lisa mentioned that has us you will speculating what the world will look like in the future. this is a software package that will show us exactly what it looks like when the world is subjected to flooding at the end of the flooding. >> what does san francisco look like. >> this is something you can download for free. you can control the altitude of this water level, and you can use it to get a rough estimate of what sea level rise will look like anywhere in the world. >> how much water are we talking about now.

>> this is five meters of sea level, this is from mean low tide, this could be a foot or a meter of sea level rise above what the high tide would look like. >> this is a bad day with only really a meter or so of rise. which is pretty much what they're predicting we'll see by the end of the century. >> i got a lot of asks for requr washington, d.c. we can fly over washington, d.c. to see what it looks like with five meters of sea level rise. >> that's hilarious that of course d.c. was a couple of months ago in the middle of a the sequester, people upset with d.c. and wanted to see it drowned. >> it wasn't planned this way, but i launched drown your town during the sequester. a lot of people wanted to see capitol hill in particular drowned. the one that brought the message home to me was nagoya in japan.

because nagoya is a city of 9 million people. and even with one meter of sea level rise, it was fairly drama cantic how much flooding we observed. the most important threat for me, i wanted to make the idea of sea level rise personal. >> it's so abstract to the rest of us, three feet, that's not so bad. >> when i take the requests on twitter, if your hometown is above 1600 meters of sea level, and you want to see it flooded, go flood it. sea level climate change is not just going to effect coastal cities. you'll also see a massive migration of people out of those areas. >> what is so funny about this, seeing the flood of requests, they want to see oakland under

100 meters of water. you have people who really want to see. >> is this apocalyptic dream-nightmare? the mapping is very interesting, but is it possible that this could actually layout this way? >> that's the thing you can lose sight quickly. it looks like fantasy about what he's starting with is one meter of sea rise and the consensus is by the end of the century we'll see three feet of rise. he's showing rea realistically e and of the century, in our children's lifetime. >> the bogus interpreter gained access to mandela's state memorial service. he stood close to world leaders

like president obama. experts say his signs were meaningless. edward snowden may have a new job. the university of glasgow in scotland has nominated the leaker for a position there. the student representative to university management. glasgow students say they wanted to support snowdon and send a message againsmessage of for st. today, calling for their son's release. andrew thomas has hour report. >> peter greste is an ward winning journalist. he is their son. >> he has a strong sense of

social justice. the need to seek the truth and do whatever can be done to help those in need. >> as well as to let the world know, to get it out there so things can change. >> reporter: peter greste has worked since it's 19 90's and winning awards. they're raising awareness of peter's situation and calling passionately for the release of son. >> it's important for the whole family. it's a living nightmare at the moment. until he gets out i will continue. >> full sections of the australian meeting were at the conference with full radio and tv reviews afterwards.

>> he has been held since the 29th of december without charge and some of the allegations that have been leveled at him are unimaginable. >> they have been able to speak to peter these times since his arrest. they're proud of their son. and they have prow found concern. they echo the calls of the australian government of al jazeera, and journalists around the world. peter and his colleagues were doing a legitimate job in a legitimate way. they should be released now. andrew thomas, al jazeera. >> and two other journalists from our sister channels have been in prison for five months. al jazeera denies all th the allegations and demands all five men to be released. maria is here, i don't think

there is a big surprise about this story. >> reporter: that's right, bob mcdonnell and his wife were indicted on corruption charge. they're charged with illegally accepting gifts, money and other items from wealthy businessmen. the spokesmen said that the couple is innocent. mcdonnell left after a four-year term. and at the site of monday's deadly plant explosion, two people were killed in the blast and ten are in the hospital. records show that the plant has a history of safety violations. federal investigators have started to look at what caused the accident. and in the nation's capitol michelle obama proves she can slam dunk. she video bombed from miami heat and the dumping on lebron james.

and that's the photo op where they're all eating apples. >> she has better knees than dwayne wade these days. >> one protester said revolution is underway in ukraine. we'll look at the video. people clashing with police. and threatening protesters with tech messages.

>> with the olympics opening ceremony in sochi less than three weeks away, a significant number of tickets for the games are still not sold. michael eves is here to tell us about that. you know, attending the olympics is on every sports fan's bucket list whether it's the winter or summer version the olympics presents the biggest sports event that have year which leaves hundreds of thousands of fans to flock to the cities of the various events. but sochi is lagging way behind on ticket sales. only 70% of the 1.1 million tickets have been sold leaving 300,000 still remain.

now by comparison the 2010 olympic games in vancouver sold 97% of its 715 million ticket allotment. there are various reasons for the slow sales but experts believe security concerns is reason number one. >> there are two people with a promise of surprise, that's why everybody should be concerned. >> now another major issue is location. sochi is not the easiest city to travel. most flights have to go through moscow, and most are available only through germany and turkey, that's why they expect russian citizens to make up 75% of the spectators of the games, which leads to the issues of economic. the average monthly salary in

russia is less than $900. which means most locals may find it difficult to purchase tickets. we should say that half of the tickets for sochi cost less than $150, but the chiefest price at $15 while the most expensive go as much as $1,200. the problem is now even those cheap tickets most of them are gone and the big events have already been sold out. >> giving some of those tickets away. >> and they should. ithe games should be for everybody. >> lawsuits are piling up in west virginia nearly two weeks after a chemical spill. the water has been declared safe but there are questions of an odor that lingers. what is at the heart of these lawsuits? >> reporter: well, tony, the lawsuits have been filed in state and federal court. you also have individuals who

are seeking relief for things like medical monitoring and everyone involved is asking the water company to go back and do a complete risk assessment and look at any and all chemicals that are being stored by the water supply. it's still bottled water for georgia. nearly a week after the resident was told tap water was safe to use again. >> people are very concerned, and they are not really sure that everything is as safe as they say it is. >> she's joining a growing group of residents who are seeking damages and other relief after a chemical spill tainted water for 300,000 residents. the suit names the water company west virginia american water saying it should know more about the chemicals stored close to the water supply. georgia left the area to stay in a hotel where she could shower, spending more than a thousand

dollars. >> this was an expense that i did not anticipate, and it was not cheap. >> reporter: the water saga now spills over into federal court. freedom industries filed for bankruptcy friday, a hop move ty hope will protect them from lawsuits. now there is a challenge about the spill and bankruptcy. west virginia american water is arguing freedom industries knew that it's facilities were poorly plain takenned and di effective. and they also con ten that the bankruptcy i. many are concerned about the quality of their water, and many wait for their day in cour court{^l" ^}. >> i spend a lot of money on something that i didn't anticipate, but that's the way the world is. i would like to be reimbursed for it. but if i'm not, i'm not.

>> and we have repeatedly reached out to freedom industries for comments to ask them about the spill itself. we wanted to know more about the bankruptcy filings but they said they are not giving comments. we reached out to west virginia american water to ask them about the lawsuits and everything going on from their end, they also say they're not making any further comment. the next step is to watch this play out in court. >> absolutely. jonathan, appreciate it. thank you. warning today that protests in ukraine are getting out of control. violent clashes between protesters and police hav with police beating some of the protesters. there have been threatening text messages saying quote, you have participated in a mass riot. maria, we have that part of the story. >> reporter: i want to show you

some of the text. these are some of the text that protesters say they have received. they received the same exact tests and they were near protest when they got them. the phrasing is similar to the language used in a new law making it illegal to participate in a violent protest. what are some of the reaction? we have a ivan that says: says: >> and this page tells users, that they did not send out thighs messages nor give the message to the government. >> it's getting hot there in ukraine. marie y appreciate it. thank you. an update on the top stories and then dave shuster is in for ali velshi at the top of the hour with real money.

real reporting that brings you the world. giving you a real global perspective like no other can. real reporting from around the world. this is what we do. al jazeera america. >> to most, peter is an award winning correspondent, he is their son. >> what keeps peter doing the job that he is doing, is his very strong sense of social justice, the need to seek the truth. and to always do whatever can be done to help those in need. >> as well as to let the world know to get it out there, so things can change.

>> they have worked internationally since the early 1990's winning awards for his reports across africa, he was rayed in brisbane with where his parents still live. they were in front of the media to raise awareness of his situation and call passionately for the egyptian authorities to release their son and his colleagues. >> it is effecting the whole family. consider this. the news of the day plus so much more. answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> it seems like they can't agree to anything in washington no matter what. >> this is al jazeera america tony harris with a look at today's top stories. u.n. secretary general ban ki-moon and others are in

switzerland for political talks. they move to geneva for the talks. russian security forces are searching for three potential female suicide-bombers, one is believed to be in sochi, the site of the winter olympics. the police are warning people in the area. russia has blamed the so-called black widows for previous suicide attacks in the country. parts of the country are being hit hard by a know storm. federal government offices closed in washington, d.c. and 2700 flights are reportedly grounded for now. many schools also closed early today. thousands of new documents released by the archdiocese of chicago show showing the lengthe church went to, to deal with sex abuse scandals involving priests. the records were made public by lawyers for some of

the victims after a legal settlement. one person was killed in a shooting at purdue university in indiana today. the suspects were rendered within minutes and did not hurt anyone. the police believe the victim was targeted, but they don't know why. "real money" is next. >> an energy emergency, the all out effort to get fuel to the homeowners who are trying to stay warm during the storm. and there is a source of grg source of problems for people. and an i'm david shuster, and this is real money.