>> here are the stories we're following for you right now. a california meat company is recalling nearly 9 million pounds of diseased meat. and the justice department is changing policies aimed at giving more rights to same-sex couples. plus, thank you, n. aid workers are trying to evacuate people with attacks on their convoys,

and beatle mainio, the 50th anniversary. >> in a major milestone for gay rights, the justice department plans to expand recognition of same-sex couples in federal matters. >> on monday, li 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. [ cheers ] >> reporter: attorney general, eric holder, received two standing ovations during his speech with a fundraiser for a human rights campaign.

they called it a victory, calling him a crusader for human rights, and comparing him to robert f. kennedy. >> this means that in every courthouse, and every place in the department of justice on behalf of the united states, they will strive to insure that same-sex marriages receive the same prokes and rights as opposite sex marriages under federal law. >> the new policy will protect same same-sex couples from having to testify against their partner in court. anwill have spousal visit rights and other rights that they have. they have to be legally married, but they will apply them nationwide, even when they're

being held in states that don't recognizes same-sex units. >> 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 it builds on the promise that's president obama made last year when congress can't or won't academy. aljazeera, new york. the new changes would make same-sex couples eligible for federal death benefits. louisiana, federal officials have received reports of two children dying from the flu. there are currently 52 influenza deaths, and that includes four children. hundreds of people have died of the flu louisiana since october. and the flu season continues to april. intense fighting in syria as

aid workers continue to try to reach people in the city of homs. aid workers are taking cover from the shelling. the humanitarian effort has been delayed during fighting between the syrian government and the rebel forces. and we have more from beirut. >> reporter: part of the tensions on the ground that boys over 15 and men over 55 were allowed out, including women and children. any man in between are considered fighting age. and they are coming out. the syrian army has taken them away, we don't know to what location, but the fighting continues. we are hearing reports from a different activist groups, saying that there have been incidents inside of the city.

explosions and gunfire and some civilians have been killed and injured as they're waiting to be evacuated. this is a very difficult operation to carry out. the u.n. determined that they will execute there. they're in there with armored vehicles escorting the civilians out. and then we have the syrian red cross waiting on the other side to provide much-needed medical aid and food and water. >> there are many different groups fighting the government of president bashar al-assad. one of the fears is that the al qaeda offshoot. and now the two groups have split syria. so i took a closer look at the changing nature of al qaeda. >> it's base firmly in pakistan, al qaeda has branched out into somalia, and africa. >> you could say that there have never been so many members of

al qaeda and the world. and many of them are very large. >> richard barnett is a training expert. and there are training camps and easy financing for any of them. but instead, the u.s. policy of drone strikes has weakened the structure and isolated it's top loaders. >> they have been in afghanistan and given up great wealth to go in very civil which has appealed to many people. >> the death of osama bin laden has launched it into broader appeal. >> his weak point is his relevance. >> al-zarqawi doesn't have day-to-day control over affiliates in places like somalia and yemen. he ordered the leader to

concentrate on iraq. >> i don't believe that it has any impact on these young jihaddists, they will carry out on their own without instructions from al qaeda center. >> reporter: obama officials worry that some radicalized fighters will try to launch attacks within the u.s. >> why syria matters is that there are at least 7,000 foreigners from 50 countries fighting in syria today. this is from the u.s. tremendous officials and they're going to go home. >> al-zarqawi is more like a spiritual leader than a military commander, making al qaeda more than a political organization. it inspires some homegrown terrorists, like the boston bombers. >> we learned in 2001, you can't kill them all. that's not the best way to deal about terrorism.

>> the best way with any ideology is to work with the leaders, but that takes time. >> reporter: is it one generation or several generations? it depends on where it goes from here. >> reporter: they are allowing an extended probe into nuclear facilities. their investigation has been stalled for years, but the agency believes that iran has been secretly working on nuclear arms. this is separate from a nuclear deal that iran made with six world powers late last year. 6,000 government protesters are governed in kiev. the government supporters converged near one of the barricades, highlighting rising tensions between the two groups. nieve barker talked about some of the demonstrations demanding more in the standoff. >> with the anti-government slogans, these protesters are

doing something different. with blank placards and covered mouths, they are marching to the city, demanding that europe does more. >> we're calling for people to pay attention to our cause, and open their eyes and stop being blind and testify to the tortures and the murders that are happening before their eyes. >> on independent square, they drew much-needed cheer with servings of hot food. and others being kept away for weeks like a game of chess. >> there are always knights and pawns in this game. and in this game, we the people are the pawns, but it's time for the pawns to become knights, and this is what's happening now want we are united because of our spirit, and we're becoming more and more powerful. >> sundays have regularly drawn tens and thousands of demonstrators with opposition

groups from different political parties to share ideas on what to do next. opposition proceeders have described independence square as being like a state within a state, protected by ice filled barricades. but as temperatures start to rise, it's only a time before the barricades start to melt, leaving them more vulnerable to attacks. the future of the country hangs on the formation of a new government. but so far, no decision has been made. and the question is, will that lean toward russia or europe, and will ukraine's next prime minister be the people's choice or the president's? aljazeera, kiev. >> in turkey, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in the country's capital. they're protesting new internet laws and the critics say that the legislation will clampdown on freedom. they responded with teargas and

water cannons. meanwhile, protesters in bosnia, protesters are camped out following the worst arrests in years. they are presting the violate demonstrations angry at high levels of unemployment. more from sarajevo. >> the protests and frustrations aimed at bosnia's leaders are unrelenting. the violence has ceased for now, but the passion remains many. >> you have to fight for your future because they don't fight for our future anymore. >> reporter: this country is in crisis. years of pent up anger over a stagnant economy finally erupted last week with street battles with the police. >> the protesters here are praying for a peaceful demonstration, but they also know to achieve their aims, they

have to keep up the pressure on politicians, the national and local level. >> reporter: two local government workers examine their government offices, burned out after friday's rioting in sayerievio. they managed to save the building during the bosnian war in 1992, but now it's being wrecked by their on citizens. 44 people held. and 10 remain in custody. civil rights groups chamber the police are leaking these photographs that sees guns and drugs in an amount to discredit demonstrators. and the police deny the claim. unemployment has hit the young the hardest here. an economist tells me this may be the moment when ethnically divided politicians finally see sense. >> we have a limited number of resources, and what we need at

this moment is to modernize the education system, which is a weak link in preparing youth to the labor market. >> reporter: attempts at genuine political progress may be the only way to prevent further violence. tim friend, aljazeera, sarievio. >> apparently it's not just the nsa that's monitoring your online activities. now private companies are using the internet to obtain your personal information. and plus, a california meat company is recalling 9 million pounds of diseased meat. those stories and more when aljazeera returns.

>> good afternoon, and welcome back to aljazeera. i'm morgan bradford. millions of pounds of beef were shipped from a california

processing plant without inspection, lisa joins us from california, and lisa, what exactly did the department of agriculture find? >> morgan, several regulators said that meat had been shepherd out of here from diseased animals over the course of a year, and we're talking about an extremely large amount of beef here. this is 87 million pounds of beef, being recalled from rancher feeding corporations here in california. that's a huge speculation from mid january, when only 40,000 pounds of meat was recalled from this same company. the meat was shipped from retailers from florida, illinois and texas over the first week of january, and so far no one has reported being sick from it. i spoke to a food safety expert who told me that what probably happened was inspectors came in here last month, when they had

the other two problems, and they probably found this time that animals that had been on the ground not walking were being slaughtered when shows inspectors weren't here and that's probably the source of what happened and why the recall, morgan? >> lisa, you said that no one has gotten sick, but how is that? how did they manage to escape becoming ill? >> well, the food safety expert i spoke to said that it is actually hard to trace illness to contamination, and it could be that people have gotten sick and it wasn't reported properly. but also, he said this is an industrialized product that's not readily available in our supermarket. so much of it is still in the freezer somewhere, and it could be recalled and it is possible that no one will become sick from it. but he also said that this is one of the largest recalls we have seen in the united states in the past several years.

morgan? >> all right, lisa bernard live from california. thank you so much for being with us this afternoon. there's more concern about just how easily edward snowden managed to download altogether of those national security secrets. he used common web crawler software to grab some of documents, and that raises concerns on how the nsa protects it's secrets. and it's monitoring online activities. companies are using personal information to market their products, but where they access it, and where they store it are unanswered questions. >> reporter: the retailer, officemax, knew not only that mike's daughter was dead, but how she died. >> it said daughter killed in car crash or current business. why would they have that information? why would they need that?

what purpose would it serve anybody to know that, and how much information would they know that? how do they use it, and what do they use it for? >> these are questions that congress has been investigating. >> last month, a sub city said that millions of dollars are being made each year by the data brokering industry, the information taken from each of us by online and offline sources, and moreover, there's no comprehensive way to find out what that information is, where it came from, how accurate it is, who is buying it, and what entrances are being made from it. of concern, vulnerability documents, who would be interested in such lists and why? rachel thomas lobbies congress on behalf of data brokers for self regulation. >> i think that consumers are smarter than perhaps you're giving them credit for, and i think that consumers understand generally that we all live data

driven lives today. our economy is data driven, and our days are data driven, and information is constantly flowing in different directions and here we're making sure that it's flowing in responsible directions for responsible uses. >> to stop information from being used. required for transparency. it violates law of. >> what we might need, cellphone technology, and mobile apps now provide an unprecedented knowledge of movement and lines. all being held by technology companies. but up to now, only the government's access to that has

been debated. and not the existence of protest databases. aljazeera, washington. >> coming up, 50 years after the british invasion by the beatles, we take you straight to the english port city where it all began.

>> good afternoon, and welcome back to aljazeera america. i'm morgan radford in new york city. attorney general, eric holder, said that the same federal benefits given to straight couples will be listen to same-sex couples. the besieged syrian city of homs, the u.s. will not be discouraged from bringing in food and medicine even after four workers were hurt

yesterday. protesters in the ukraine will continue marching against the government today where thousands flocked to kiev in opposition to president victor yanokovych. we have major weather events all over the world. >> we start in australia, where a ridge of high pressure is in control. and look at this footage. you see the smoldering inferno taking over. folks have had to abandon their homes. and a strong ridge of high pressure is powering in with the sunshine, and we have low humidity and temperatures in the 90s and close to 100. this is what we're looking at. it's very very similar to what we see in southern california in the summertime. and then in bolivia, they're dealing with devastating flooding. 38 people have lost their lives, and we showed you the footage

yesterday. and now this new footage. it's horrible what the people are going through. 100,000 cattle are in the way of the flooding rain, and the pattern is not changing until mid march. and then in japan, they have had to deal with 10 inches of snow, the worst snowstorm in 30 years across portions of japan. 7 people have lost their lives, and we have had to deal with quite a bit of snow in the western portion of the u.s., and luckily it hasn't had that type of impact. it has been positive mostly, that the drought has been going on for a long time. we are looking at tractor trailers overturned but you need to be careful out on the roadways of we have a winter storm warnings in the sierra nevada. but if you're traveling in the higher elevations, slippery conditions out there in i5, all

the way down to yosemite national park. if you're traveling east to kansas and nebraska, a little bit of snow on the roadways as well in addition to the cold weather. but overall, the rain in california, very very good news. what's going to happen with the snow, it's going to melt and it's going to fill up the reservoirs that have been empty, and that's going to trickle down to southern california. california enough to make aing is impact. we need up to 6 inches of rain in some places but this is a start. >> it was 50 years ago that the beatles made their first live u.s. tv debut on the ed sullivan show. they broke broadcast records with 73 million viewers. >> reporter: it is from this northern england port city from

liverpool that the legend that would be the beatles began. the river that runs through the town is characterized by multiple harmonies and lots of guitars. fewer than half a million people live here, but more hits have come from liverpool than any other city in the world. 56 so far, according to the guinness book of world records. billy kinsey used to play alongside of the beatles. he says that the merchant sailors and the nearby military bases imported the sounds that influenced them all. >> it's a combination of all of the bands in britain, plus the association with all of these people going back and forth to america, the records that no one else in america had. >> reporter: but the seaport is all but dried up and liverpool is facing hard times.

luckily, the beatles are a big industry here. a british government analysis showed that liverpool gets $400 million a year from music tourism. >> this is the place where paul mccartney met 17-year-old john lennon. >> reporter: for 17 years, he has been showing it to people. and without his city, the public would never know penny lane or strawberry field. >> we say that it was liverpool that made the beatles, and not visa versa. >> reporter: but there's little doubt that the beatles changed the city profoundly. it's clear from when you step off the plane to check into a hotel, this is beatle's territory. they have concord america and changed the music landscape forever, but in this hearty

england town, they are firstly four local lads who made good. aljazeera, liverpool. >> the floor mansion where notorious gangster, al capone died, is back on sale. it's going february 8 and a half million dollars, even though the current owner bought it just 6 months ago for $7.2 million. it was bought a minute of the anhauser busch brewing company. iffy. >> they got to compete at the westminster dog show, but it was still a purebred that won the first round. at the master's agility championship, it beat out more than 200 other dogs, and the dog show runs through tuesday at the madison square garden. this is the first time that he appeared at westminster, breaking a 138-year-old tradition. thank you for watching

aljazeera. "the stream" is coming up next, and for updates throughout the day, head to aljazeera.com, or follow us on twitter@ajam. >> hi, i'm lisa fletcher and you're in the stream. comic books, we have all read one, and do their characters have the power to influence society? you might be surprised. our digital producer, rajahad ali is