where some of the stars prefer tv to movies. we'll stay on the story, as always, good to have you with us: the show may be over, but the conversation continues on the website aljazeera.com/consid aljazeera.com/considerthis. >> allegations of human rights violations in ukraine. police accused of beating journalists and medical workers during protests. now the u.s. is getting involved in resolving the situation. >> a little girl rescued from the rubble of a bombed out home in syria. a look at how she is recovering after this ordeal. >> tragedy in kentucky blamed for an electrical fire. flames burning through the home.

>> it is a mistake. i'm not getting into the blame game. >> a clean-up in the deep south. the governor of georgia admitting they were unprepared for the storm. >> hi there. welcome to al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton. the growing unrest in ukraine is getting the attention of u.s. leaders. secretary of state john kerry is said to meet with key ukrainian opposition leaders in germany on friday. assistant secretary of state victoria nuland travels to kiev to meet with both sides in the crisis. as jennifer glasse reports the trip came amid accusations of human rights violations against ukraine's government. >> a report from human rights watch says ukrainian police targeted journalists and medical

workers when clashes started in kiev and are calling on the ukrainian government to carry out an investigation. the ukrainian government does not have a great reputation for investigating such violations, coming as an actist who had been missing for eight days was found alive, badly beaten and had been tortured. he's an activist in the thorn of the side of the government. his demonstrations for the past few weeks targeted government officials personal homes and has taken dozens of officials there. he has been in the darker side of what had been going on. there are reports of ak ductions and bettings from security officials, thugs connected to the police. they are called tatushki. dozens of them have been around ukraine and the country recollects fighting on behalf of

the government. serious allegations against the security forces here. this all comes as president viktor yanukovych goes op sick leave. he has his - his office says he's suffering a res pier atry infection. no word on how long he will be out of the picture as the crisis goes on. the opposition unhappy about an amnesty law passed in parliament. they say it was passed illegally in parliament. there were some iregularities. the amnesty law not what was wanted. the political divide between the government and opposition goes on. despite the bitter cold temperatures hundreds of protesters here in independence square, and thousands around the country remain on the streets opposing the government. >> jennifer glasse in kiev. washington says it may impose sanctions against the ukraine if the violence escalates.

ru the u.s. is accusing syria of delaying the hand over of the chemical weapons. 4% of the stockpile has been removed, with the assad regime missing key deadlines. the u.s. military force is an option. officials are pursuing a diplomatic resolution for now. >> deputy secretary chuck hagel is calling on russia to push syria to comply with terms of an agreement reached. from syria, an amazing story of survival. >> the activist, who shot this video says the girl's mother was killed in the attack. the footage shows neighbours and relatives scrambling the dig this 14-month-old out of the concrete. look at this rescue.

>> an amazing site. after three minutes trapped under the rubble the little girl emerged dusty and dazed, but alive. >> there she is, looking healthy, without a scratch on her. she was spotted on an aleppo street earlier this week. the father says rescuers heard a voice and dug until they uncovered her. >> federal prosecutors say they will seek the death penalty against the accused boston marathon bomber. the 20-year-old faces 30 federal charges, more than half carrying the death penalty. attorney-general eric holder asked the justice department to pursue the death penalty. eric holder said in a statement: >> he has pleaded not guilty, no

trial date has been set. >> amanda knox has been convicted of murder again. an it anion court re -- an-italian court reinstated the conviction. originally she was convicted. but it was overturned in 2011. italy's supreme court ordered a third trial. knox didn't attend the trial. attorneys for knox said she will appeal again. >> atlanta is getting back to normal after the crippling ice storm. george's governor admitted the state was not well prepared for the emergency. for many, saying sorry is not enough. >> after two days of a winter weather storm para liesing the city of atlanta many roads have opened. politicians came out and took blame for the situation. local people here are looking

forward to temperatures in the '60s this weekend. >> it's been two days since atlanta was hit by a storm paralysing the region. >> there was so main cars. >> stranding thousands of commuters on roadsides. >> nine hours i spent on the road from downtown. at 10 o'clock i abandoned my car. >> schools were not closed. buses were left stranded. thousands of kids slept in gymnasiums, some spending the night on buses. others sought shelter in store aisles. >> they shouldn't have opened the school. everyone went to get their kids at the same time. >> governor's up for re-election took responsibility. >> i think we did not respond fast enough. we did not respond in the magnitude at an earlier enough time to be able to avoid these

consequences. >> the governor blamed his georgia emergency management agency for alerting him of the weather warning six hours after it was issued. frustrated and defiant in interviews, the major continues to be on the hot seat for the say's response, mostly to explain why schools were not closed and salt spreaders did not retreat roads. >> the eyes of the nation are on the state. >> we can make excuses that it happened in the middle of the day during a work week. it complicated the situation. >> when it's going to be wet and cold, bet the salt drugs on the road around the clock. it's not that hard. >> it's been rough. >> 2,000 vehicles are sitting on atlanta highways. the national card and police are helping to push cards, gassing them up, and driving citizens to

where they need to go. mayor reed is not in charge of school closings and the roads. and pointing to metro municipalities, and their response or lack thereof. the error, and we had shared responsibility was everyone letting out at once. >> for a family the traffic nightmare had a great ending, a little girl. >> born on the side of the highway, after her parents car was stuck. >> we hoped and parade to make it to the hospital. >> it took less than three inches of snow to bring the city to a standstill. with the recovery under way, there's a looming question on minds of many. what would happen if there was a major disaster. would the city be prepared. >> robert ray reporting. two headquarters before the

storm, the mayor's twitter feed ready, "ready for the snow, check out our release." . problems on the south-east. (technical difficulties)

... and the temperatures are going to be warming up, dallas at 74, as for the saturday rain, 63. >> thank you.

nine members of one family killed when fire races through their home in kentucky. we are learning the family was trying to keep their house warm in frigid temperatures. new york city's new mayor keeping a campaign promise. ending a controversial practice, stop and frisk. a look at reform differs from the one president obama was imposing.

>> the cold weather played a part in a house fire that killed a mother and some of her children. it is called a trammingic accident. >> the only two survivors from the house fire include a father and his 11-year-old daughter. the father is in critical condition. the daughter stable. by all accounts the father did everything he could to go in to

save his family. >> ricky saw smoke from a mile away and realised his nephew's home was on fire and the family of 11 was in danger. >> we fell apart. >> ricky says he ran to help, but could not get close to the home, the fire ripping through the home in western kentucky's cold country. calling lorraine nicky watson and eight of her children, ranging in age from 4 to 15. >> we suffered all we can suf, we don't know how many we can take. they were like loving kids, playing in the yard every time you go by. >> the father chad watson and his 11-year-old daughter were the only members to escape. they got out as help arrived. >> the first responders, one of them lived down the street, realising that mum and dad had nine children, they were looking

for nine additional children. the fire started accidentally in an electric heater in a front bedroom. overnight the temperatures dropped to single digits. in my heart i could not deal with this. this is a bad situation. i hate to see things like this. >> now this small close community must pull together to heal from an unspeakable tragedy. like any other family, the best people, never had a bad thing to say about nothing. they didn't have any money to speak of much. but you know they had each other. it's all that counts, really. >> sadly this is not the first time something like this happened. within the last year there was three fires, including this one, where five or more were killed, most of them children. >> first responders who lived nearby say the house was engulfed in flames by the time they arrived within minutes of the call. >> new york city has a new

mayor, and is throwing out old policies. the mayor bill de blasio said he would not appeal a court decision saying that stop and frisk was rerog tri. >> policy that treated the young people of colour like their rights didn't matter. >> bill de blasio said a federal monitor will oversee reforms in the police department. >> house republicans will offer up a blueprint on immigration reform. they are calling for a path to legal status, but not citizenship, 11 million undocumented immigrants. it includes proposals on border security and a plan for dreamers and immigrants to earn citizenship. the plan could be a challenge for the party. >> house speaker john boehner says he's been ready to deal

with immigration reforms since the day after the 2012 elections. >> it's been turned into a political football. i think it's time to deal with it. how we deal with it is critically important. >> republicans lost the hispanic vote to president obama in the 2012 race 3-1. there's doubt in the ranks that now is the time to tackle a divisive issue when they could focus on the president's health care law or the economy. the editor of the weekly standard says speaker john boehner could concede and announced he won't move forward and writes if there's one things that could blow-up g.o.p. chances it would be an explosive debate over immigration in the house. republicans run the risks of facing checks if they support immigration reforms. north carolina representative says he's tired of the perception that the g.o.p. is

not friendly to his panics. immigrations has not changed for the last two and a half decades. i'd like something down to assuage the uneasy innocence. >> republicans are concerned about the future. the hispanic population is growing. >> mark directs research at pew research center. >> the hispanic population has not only been growing but has been dispersing. they have had some of the fastest population growth driven by his panic growth. that's with less than half turning out to vote. some rub cans think they can buy time and push off the issue until 2016. >> for the spanish there's a

drop off from 20 to 15 points. >> as the house and leaders inveigled their standards, the question is how far are they willing to go, and how many members of their party will get on board. >> the g.o.p. 's proposal would require the nation's 11 million undocumented to pass rigorous checks, pay fines and back taxes. >> toyota says 36,000 of its cars will no longer be for sale. legally they can't sell them. the order affects 36,000 vehicles that are sitting on dealer's lots. they include models of avalon, camry, tacoma and tundra. it doesn't know how long it will take to make repairs. it first it was target, now yahoo. the second biggest email provider has been hacked.

user names and passwords were stolen. the company is not saying when or how many accounts were compromised. it's resetting passwords on the accounts that were affected. >> peyton manning is being called one of the greatest in the n.f.l. how he came back from a career threatening injury. ringing in the chinese new year, a look at the traditions surrounding the big holiday.

>> >> welcome back. super bowl 48 is this sunday. the quarterback match up pits old against new. jessica taff caught up with peyton manning who has proven he is ready. >> super bowl 48 features the best offense taking on the league's best defense, and that's the way peyton manning likes it.

the 2014 season for the quarterback looks like a revenge tour, tossing seven touch downs over ravens, the team that knocked denver out during the first round and he hasn't taken his foot off the gas. >> i'm in the home stretch of my career. i'm still in it. it's not over. it's playing out. this has been the second chapter of my career, and it's an exciting chapter, and i'm excited to be back in the super bowl on behalf of the broncos. >> the sea hawk defense has a big challenge, but poses many of its own. trying to prepare for a quarterback who leaves the league in the film room, and is one of the q.b.s which is an offensive coordinator. manning is famous because of his ability to read the defense at the line of scrimmage, making

him more dangerous. seahawks quarterback richard sherwin aimed his mouth at peyton manning calling the there's he makes ducks. >> i believe it to be true as well. [ laughs ] >> he's a smart player. i think that's a real reach what he's saying there. i do throw ducks. i throw a lot of yards and touch down ducks, and so i'm actually proud of it. >> will this be manning's swan song. only if doctors tell him so. the 37-year-old qb is playing his best football, spreading the wealth and making the guys better. broncos receivers and tightened are having the most number brs of their careers, for former pat roy ots, he's said his nemesis has rejuvenated him.

we are making sure we are on top of what we need to do and getting the signals and the calls and whether they are fake calls or real calls or whatever, he does a great job of keeping the event on edge and making sure we are on top of the assignments. >> critics will judge his legacy, like the "denver post" did. writers are paid to question him, those who play against him are not. two years removed from potentially career-ending neck surgery, he could win the mpv in 2014. i'd like to win it for the wrongos, for pat boylan, and for it to be his eighth super bowl

is an accomplish. i would like to help the broncos. >> jessica taff, al jazeera. >> with the super bowl comes the good and the bad. bootleggers have been busy. federal investigators confiscated more than $20 million worth of phoney super bowl tickets and merchandise. >> the knock-offs include fake jerseys, caps and souvenirs. a different kind of celebration, chinese new years in full swing. this is the year of the horse. we have this report from beijing on predictions and superstation surrounding the holiday. >> across the country chinese families spring cleaning making way for good luck. >> workers and students travelling home witnessed something new.

a flash mob chinese style. >> translation: i want to go home after watching this, i feel warm after working hard in shanghai. i want to be with my family, in south-west's sich jaun province, 450 glass bottles went into the design of the peacock. 2014 is about saying goodbye to the snake and hello to the horse. it's long been a part of chinese ethos. >> translation: for most chinese people's perspective the horse is a good word. used for good meanings. >> superstirns are strong at this time of year. while the rest of the country is on holiday an industry is thriving. fortune tellers are in big demand. everyone wants to know their fortune for the next year so they can decide what to do.

that's why many come to me now to predict their life. >> cultural conditions can be confuse k. i prepared a guide to get you through. firstly, it's not called the chinese new year, it's the spring festival or lunar new year. it doesn't run for one day, but is a days, on the first day of the festival, there's no showering, washing, cleaning laundering. thirdly as a foreigner generous. >> what does 2014 hold in store for china? >> there'll be a drought. water pollution will get worse, and friction with south-east countries will increase. on the bright side jung says chinese national strength will increase significantly. however, if you are not superstitious there are other ways the year of the horse may

bring you good fortune. >> this year the lunar new year will last until valentine's day. that will do it for it edition of al jazeera america. remember news on the top of every hour. thanks for watching. hi, i am lisa flipper and you are in the stream. sex traffic and this super bowl. we'll look at the darker game being played off the field at the america's biggest sporting event. ♪ ♪ our digital producer wajahat ali is here wiping you all the feedback.