we will never stop work to go insure that equality under the law is protected by the law. equal rights the justice department says it will extend equal treatment to game married couples. seize fire broken, aid worksers trying to get supplies in for the syrian city of homs come under attack. plus why iranian war ships are said to be on their way to the u.s. ♪ ♪

hello and welcome to al jazerra america i am morgan radford live from new york city. after a year of victories for game rights the white house is adding another. the attorney jenna nounsing saturday night that federal privileges will be extended to game married couples in the country's legal system, courtney keel i has thkealy has the late. >> on monday i'll issue a new policy memorandum that will for the first time in history formally instruct all justice department employees to give lawful same-sex marriages full and equal recognition to the greatest extent possible under the law. [applause] >> reporter: attorney general eric holder received two standing ovations during his speech at a funds raise feeder human rights campaign. they hailed his remarks a victory. calling him a crusader of federal rights and comparing him to robert f. kennedy. >> this means in every

courthouse in every proceeding and in every place where a member of the department of justice stands on behalf of the united states, they will strive to insure that same-sex marriages receive the same april privilege, the same protections and the same rights as opposite-sex marriages under federal law. >> reporter: the new policy will pro secretary same-sex couples from being forced to testify against their spouses in federal courts, game couples can also file jointly for federal bankruptcy. and in prisons they will have visitation rights and other privileges other straight couples have. they must be legally married but the justice department will apply the rules nationwide even when cases are being heard by federal courts in states that don't recognize game unions. with the attorney general's speech here tonight in this ballroom, the department of justice is solidifying its policy to end discrimination against same-sex couples.

the shift in policy doesn't come as a surprise. it follows changes set in motion last year after the supreme court declared that it was unconstitutional to deny federal benefits to same-sex couples and builds on the promise president obama made in last month's state of the union address, to advance his policies using administrative orders when congress can't or won't act. courtney kealy, al jazerra, new york. this would also make same-sex couples el jake for federal death benefits, given to spouse of publicist safety officers who die while in the line of duty. the united nations vow to give aid to syria despite coming under fire on saturday. a convoy came under attack threatening to stop aid from people suffering from years of con fleck. the ebb head of human tear crane affairs says she is disappointed adding i continue to call on those engaged in this brutal

conflict to respect the humanitarian cause. they were trying to hands out aid in homs and here is a report. >> reporter: it took most of the day for these aid convoys to get in the besieged city of homs only to come under fire as soon as they arrived. 10s of civilianses injured, so were some of the members of the syrian red crescent team. a mortar shell reportedly landed near one of its vehicles and another was shot at. >> we got two trucks of aid and one car and some other cars for the u.n. team and mortar shells started to fall near the place where we supposedly were to deliver the aid materials. >> reporter: the syrian government says so-called terrorists inside the old city were responsible. opposition activists, however, say it's the work of syrian regime loyalists. it's hard to confirm who is

responsible for this, but it appears the fragile seize fire was broken. it was agreed that the truce would be in place from 6:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. for three days but throughout saturday it did not hold. >> i have to say that parties should refrain from hints everything the humanitarian deeds and should not fire or put in jeopardy the humanitarian workers who are just -- they are only there to just come and help those people inside. >> reporter: the long-awaited humanitarian mission is facing an immense challenge. it was hoped that this operation would be manageable. after the agreement was brokered by the united nations with pressure from the u.s. and russia on the syrian government. 83 civilians were evacuated from the old city of homs on friday to receive humanitarian relief you were the agreement. but over 2,000 civilians are

still inside. the plan was for more to make their way out on saturday, but the pictures coming out of the city show just how difficult this mission is. al jazerra, beirut. >> meanwhile, the war rages on in syria, and activists say government air raids killed more than a dozen people saturday. they say athlete five bombs fell on parts of the rebel-held city. peace talks between the two warring sides are said to resume in geneva switzerland tomorrow. turkey's prime minister says he's not optimistic that those talks will, in fact, lead to peace in neighboring syria, he spoke exclusively to al jazerra. >> translator: the steps that we are taking in geneva talks were not accepted by the regime in geneva two. in my opinion the geneva two conference didn't have a good start. it is still ongoing, but it doesn't look like we will get a got outcome from it. we see that it is taken a negative course.

>> turkey has take then about 400,000 refugees from syria's civil war and thousands more have gone in to other countries, including lebanon. in just a few minutes, stephanie decker joins us live from beirut. iran says its war ships in the atlantic ocean will come close to the u.s. for the first time ever, teheran says it's in response to the stationing of american vessels the in persian gulf. they are down playing the move and iran's supreme leader had strong words for the u.s. on friday. he said washington what overthrow iran's government if it could. >> translator: the americans say in some of their comments and word play that we are friends of the iranian nation. they are lying, they are lying. you can see this through their actions. they threaten iran, then they expect the is ram i can republic to reduce its defense capabilities. this is not funny, it's ridiculous. at the same time of threatening us they saw you must reduce your defense capabilities. no, the iranian nation and

authorities, various authorities from different sectors in the armed force with his the help of god will increase their defense strengths every day. >> the supreme leader spoke at an events to mark the 35th an verse rift 1979 islamic revolution. the remarks come as the world powers are negotiating ideal on iran's nuclear program. ♪ ♪ >> meteorologist: ice storm warming in parts of oregon continues overnight. freezing rain and snow is going to continue to taper off in the overnight hours and will finally warm up. but the supreme of moisture bringing in the stream of storms in to the pacific northwest will continue for the next week ahead. we have a lot of rain moving in in place that his really need the rain. but what it's really done is change things up. portland, oregon doesn't even look like the same city. heading east out of portland you got a lot of ice out there and

it has made for a lot of traffic accidents because the roads are so slippery. right now we have a picture sent in from portland, oregon, university the portland to show you all the snow that's been coming down. an additional two-inches of snow came down on saturday. and then on top of that, was that glaze of ice. so that made it very difficult and you can see the ice on the camera lens here, this is heading east towards the interstate 84. i-84 definitely iced over. this is where we had some real problems coming right through the columbia gorge so that ice storm warning will expire in the early morning hours of sunday, but we are going to continue to get some areas of freezing rain. and we'll also continue to get some snow coming down through parts of western washington. we'll probably see up to an inch from everett washington to seattle, but then as we get farther south of seattle, closer to portland you get, we are going to get anywhere from 123-inches by sunday morning. here is what we call an atmospheric river it's the

moisture tracking underneath the jet stream. california get a lot of rain helping to make a dent in the draught of. the in the last three days the oregon cass days have had 20 to four-inches o40-inches of snow.s interesting to that but the so n so much a russia, no snow. we should really have the olympics in the pacific northwest. because we are going to continue with that drier weather for the games to continue in the mountains. all right, thanks so much, rebecca. the syria conflict. a live report from beirut on the breakdown of the seize fire and the aid workers who were caught in the middle. plus sigh nar a smoking, cvs will stop selling tobacco products late they are year and more stores could follow.

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two women were killed when a giant boulder derailed a passenger train in the french apls, you can see how the force of the falling rock pushed a train car over the edge i've cliff. there it is lying on its side. around 30 people were on board and police say nine others were injured. the train was on a three-hour trip. now back to our top stories. aid workers the latest to be caught in the cross fire in syria. in homs4 workers were wounded in an attack but were able to deliver the first patch of aid to civilians trapped in the ba sieged city. the government says rebels are behind the tack the rebels say it's the government. stephanie, what can we expect today in homs. are other aid workers now afraid to go? >> reporter: what we know is that there is a meeting taking place around now between the governor of homs and the u.n.

delegation there to try to figure out an alternative route in to the old city because from what we saw on saturday it's extremely difficult. they said they are determined not to let that deter the mission. the heads of the u.n. mission there who went in to the city says that it was -- he described it as a day in hell and he said this really shows what the civilians there are going through on a daily basis. their priority is to get out civilians and 222 civilians were identified. they are ready to come out today on sunday, so that's something that they are working towards. they also say that they have more aids that can come in to that old city. yesterday as you mentioned, the first batch of aid was delivered. this is something very welcome there, food packs, hygiene kits and also medicine that is needed by the city that is been under siege for more than a year. >> and stephanie, i understand that the geneva peace talks resume on monday. what are some of the challenges that they are facing now, both

sides are facing ahead of those talks? stephanie deck he should it seems like that we have lost the feed to you, thank you so much for joining us this morning. it's been a month since the west virginia chemical spill which fouled drinking water for hundreds of thousands of people. many still don't trust the water and as andy rosen reports some of the utility to pay for the trouble of not having water. >> reporter: health officials here say that despite the odd smell of licorice still in the drinking water doesn't rise to the level of being unsafe. meantime, demonstrators are now shifting their anger away from the company that caused this chemical spill and towards the company that is try to manage it. hundreds of people marched saturday from a charleston church to the city's water company. last month, they were furious at freedom industries for causing the chemical spill, which shut off access to water for 300,000

charles as far as residents, but today they are protesting the water company, accusing it of not providing enough compensation for the expense of losing their water. the organizer of the rally says after 14 schools were close aids couple of days ago because of smelly water there is no confidence the problems have been fixed. >> who do you trust as the community -- is the community question right now? we get some contradictory things that vary from day-to-day. i was told and took a shower when we were told it was it have to sake a shower and i had eye infections and problems. >> reporter: and marchers say they think the tide is starting to turn for local politicians who have long supported businesses like freedom industries. >> marches like this hopefully will show them that industry may be their gravy train but there are other industries that want to be here and who really want do a really good job for our state. >> reporter: and these folks say the protests will continue. those demonstrators are mailing a list of their demands to the

water company in these envelopes which include a piece of black relinquish up, around i, s*, charleston, west virginia. a group of u.s. law make percent on a human train vinnie mission to cuba visiting detained american contractor allen gross who is serving 15 years in prison for attempting to establish an illegal communications network on the island. the congressman toured the guantanmo bay detention center. the wife of former vice president walter mondale has been laid to rest, she was known as joan of arc for her decades long support of the fine arts. she helped put art in public venues like train stations and address vo indicated for arts fundsing in washington. mon tail whose husband launch an yoyouanunsuccessful president in knee 74. former president jimmy carter and vice president joe biden both attended her funeral in minute' us, she was 83 years

old. thousandses marched in raleigh angry at new laws passed by the republican-led state legislator including voterism d. abortion and cuts to benefits. it was part of a moral monday movement. and just yesterday it was the largest since the weekly protests began last spring. flu deaths are riseing in louisiana where state health officials say they received reports this month of two children dieing from the flew. there are 53 confirmed influenza deaths in the current season, including four children. the death toll will rise and the state health department says hundreds of people die of the flu in louisiana, the flew flu n is continue to extend to april. cvs is hoping to make bolter moves. lisa bernard has more. >> reporter: the pharmacy as we have known it is changing.

leading chains like cvs and wall green's say they want the next generation of drug stores to be less like small supermarkets and more like small clinics, the idea is that a convenient neighborhood pharmacy could save patients an inefficient trip to see an overworked doctor. to make that vision a reality. walgreen's is working with professors from the university of california san francisco. >> you can chat to the patient and get it all taken care of. >> reporter: the community pharmacy is so accessible in this primary care shortage we are seeing the need for much more primary care and chronic disease management. and the pharmacy, because of its access point, and the number of pharmacists available in the community, is a perfect environment for this team-based care. >> reporter: the plan is to focus stores on health care and get out of the business of selling things that are bad for you. san francisco banned the sale of tobacco products at pharmacies here back in 2008.

but cvs's announcement that it will stop selling tobacco products at all of its stores nationwide is consistent with its goal to evolve in for a place that provides health care. cvs says the move will cost the company $2 billion in lost revenue a year. but the company's chief medical officer says the new focuses appropriate. >> we are engaged increasingly in treatment of disease, we are trying to help doctors make sure that their patients take their medications. >> reporter: but it won't be simple. business models will have to change. >> right now a pharmacist is compensated for a product. and it needs to change to be competent forked a service. and an outcome. >> reporter: it's clear that cvs believes the move will help the bottom line but customers will have to get used to the idea. >> there are groceries here, i wouldn't feel like i am at a doctor's office. >> reporter: a new law in california lets pharmacists do

things only doctors have been able to do prescribe medications give vaccinations and order lab tests. it's all to help an aging population and do to at a lower cost. lisa bernard, al jazerra, san francisco. >> cvs also plans to launch a national anti-smoking campaign this spring. all of its pharmacies will be giving out information on how to quilt. what is old is new. vinyl records are spin on the grounds turntable again and it's becoming a big, booming business. and on the market, the florida mansion of a mob legends up for sale.

ladies first, the u.s. women's hockey team got off to a great start with a 3-1 victory over finland in qualifying

action. the biggy, the first gold medal won at so much a games went to an american snowboarder. if you said shaun white, wrong answer. i a talking about sage kotsenburg, the 20-year-old kid from park city, utah had to qualify first in the slopestyle competition, which is making its olympic debut, but not only did he make the finals, he captured a gold medal and kotsenburg did so with a trick that he's never done before. he called it the holy krail, which is and a half rotations while catching some serious air and he nailed it scoring a 93.50. and as you can imagine, he was stoked. >> i can't believe like when this is all in one day, too, it feels like already a week ago that it happened because it's just been already getting so crazy, but i am so stoked to be here and just like represent the usa for sure and being part of the first slopestyle team for the u.s. is pretty cool and then bringing home the gold is just icing on the cake. with shawn dropping out it

definitely kind of sucked because i mean, most of the spotlight in snowboarding is on shawn but when he dropped out it was kind of cool because everyone is like oh, there are other guys that compete too. >> so kotsenburg got the party started while fellow american hannah cur kearn i added a kear. here are look at the marquee events for sunday. the ben's downhill, bodie miller is primed for an epic run. he has posted unbelievable times, has his experience, being his fifth olympics and he's no longer the party animal that he used to be. in fact, the 36 year old father of two realizes that this could be his last shot. >> i think i am in a much better spot this year than i was in 2010. i was really pretty tested and nba 2010. i was way behind from the very start of the season and my fitness was very low. at the beginning of the season, i managed to pull my fitness

together by the time that it was time to race for the olympics, but not nearly where i am now. >> now miller has five olympic medals, do i hear six? we'll find out on sunday. that's your sports for this hour. thank you. the florida mansion where notorious ganger al copone lived and died is back on sale. the 10,000 square foot property is going for 8 and a half million dollars. and the currents owner bought it six months ago for $7.4 million. the mansion was built in 1922 by a member anheuser busch brewing family. capone bought it in 1928 for $4,000. last year music downloads fell for the sirs final since the creation of online music stores and now it seems more and more music fans are dusting off the record players, al jazerra's jonathan martin reports on the vintage trend from nashville. >> the first beatles seven-inch in america was pressed. >> reporter: it's the large the effort vinyl record plant in the

u.s. for more than 60 years united record pressing in nashville has been making and distributing vinyl all over the world, 30 hydraulic presses push out one album every 30 seconds. >> it seems like ma'am i think a bit. the whole process is a bit of a science and a skill as well as an art. >> reporter: cds all but killed the lp industry 30 years ago, but final sales have turned a corner. in 2013lp sales increased by more than 30%, of course, while the trend is up, the number of vinyl albums sold is still a tiny fraction of music sales. and for what's behind the resurgence, audio files have always said music just sounds boater vinyl. >> few would debate that it's the best sound experience. >> reporter: but there is also the revival of the appreciate from the object itself. from the cover to the inside sleeve, albums put art at the forefront of the musical experience.

>> those people that prefer something tactile and want that optimum listen experience have gone back to vinyl. jack white's 2012 album was the highest vinyl selling. >> reporter: for jack white focusing on lp san diego nothing new, he started his label third man records five years ago and since the beginning, albums have been a key components. >> it's always been on vinyl. we have never stopped. this isn't new for us. >> reporter: what is now is that while album sells are climbing digital music downloads are diving. in 2013 for the first time since the dawn of i opportunities, digital sales fell. on demand streaming, online radio and to a much smaller degree, vinyl all contributed to the decline. vinyl is so hot and al mums moving so fast guy grimy's recod store has expends the. turntables are becoming hot commodities too. >> it's fairly addicting i find once i sale somebody a turntable

here in here every week. >> reporter: most same releasess come with a digital components. showing once again, vinyl has staying power to keep on spinning through generations to come. jonathan martin, al jazerra, nashville. vinyl sales hit a 22-year record high last year with the remarkable 32% rise from 2012. for the first time in 138 years, mixed breed dogs are competing at the westminster dog show, but it was a pure bread that stole the show on saturday. the kennel club tweeting congrats to kelso, first time winner at the masters agility i championship. the border collie beat out more than 200 other dogs, and the dog show runs through thursday in new york city's madison square garden. thanks for watching al jazerra america park i am morgan radford "inside story" is coming up neck. recognize you can always stay up-to-date on all of our top story by just heading over to aljazerra.com. i look forward to seeing you

again at 4:00 a.m. eastern in the meantime you can follow us at ajam. of governments. but when the state sets out to kill a prisoner, how could it be done in the 21st century death penalty is the inside story. ♪ >> hello, i'm ray suarez, once a court decides a defendant has committed a crime so