tv News Al Jazeera April 1, 2014 12:00pm-12:31pm EDT
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>> that brings us to the end of this edition of inside story. thanks for being with us. in washington, i'm ray suarez. welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are the stories we are following for you. gm has some explaining to do. and its ceo will do just that in a couple of hours. the possible release of a convicted spy to save the mideast peace process. an american experts now on their way to africa, concerned about an outbreak of ebola. ♪
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13 people are dead allegedly because they drove gm cars that had a problem. now the head of general motors is on capitol hill to answer why. she is set to testify soon concerning the ignition switch recall. libby casey is in washington. give us a break down of what we might expect to see and hear today. >> we'll hear from gm's ceo, mary barra. she is a second generation gm employee, and her written testimony was released yesterday. she plans to .a ol guise for what happens, and also the fact that it took gm a decade to recall the vehicles with the ignition switches. they have hired a prosecutor to independently look into when things were known and why it wasn't revealed. they also have created a global
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vehicle safety supervisor to oversee safety. and work with customers to give them replacement vehicles while they get their cars fixed. these ignition switches fixed. she'll get tough questions today, del, and tomorrow she'll go before members of the senate is. some of them are pushing for real changes. one is ed markey of massachusetts. he joined some victims families outside of the capitol building to talk about changes he would like to see including making sure car companies report when their vehicles have been used in accidents, part of a fatality on the highways. senators like ed markey want that revealed more quickly. and senator mar -- markey slammed gm for not revealing the problem earlier. >> that's right.
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$2. that's how little this ignition switch could have cost to repair. just $2. $2 that could have saved the priceless lives of 18-year-old natasha waggle, 16-year-old amber marie rose, 19-year-old sarah troutwine, and the lives of so many others, but that was a -- apparently $2 too much for general motors. >> we're talking about ignition switches that would cause the ignition to go off. victims families say they want a lot more. they want to see these cars off of the roads. sherry still expects her son do come home. >> i'm still waiting for him to knock at the door.
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>> reporter: but michael sharky is never coming back. michael was killed two years ago when his brand new blue chevy cobalt crashed into a rock wall and burst into flames. at the hearing on tuesday, they will discuss why the recall was not issued until 2014, a decade after they discovered the problem. >> by their own admission, they say we were slow, we were slow as slow could be. but there's slow and then there's intentional refusal to act. and, you know, we're talking about ten years. we're talking about documents that expose the defect for a decade, and a decision if you believe their documents not to fix the defect because of the expense and the cost. >> reporter: robert is an attorney representing 52 openers of gm vehicles including the families of 15 people he says
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were killed in accidents due to faulty admissions. he says this hearing should be a wake-up call. >> so many of the folks we run across. they are not even aware of the recall, or the dangerousness of he the recall. >> reporter: for renee who lost her daughter five years ago, an apology doesn't go very far. >> what have they done other than say we're sorry and our cars are fine. well, prove that. i would like to hear effective immediately these cars are off the road immediately. there's 2 million still out there, how many more lives do we have to go through? >> reporter: a federal court in texas is set to hear arguments about a demand that general motors issue an order that all of the recall vehicles are not safe to happen. on march 18th, the new gm ceo
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mary berra issued an apology. >> we have apologized but that is just one step in the journey to resolve this. >> reporter: but for sherry sharky there is little that the gm executive can say or do. >> it doesn't matter. she can't bring my son back. she can't bring my daughter's brother back. she can't bring their -- my grandchildren's uncle back. for my mother's grandson back. i'm very angry, and i'm tired of being an angry mother.
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[ technical difficulties ] >> the senate committee is requested to vote on thursday to request that the report's summary be declassified. convicted spy jonathan pollard was arrested back in 1985 for passing on u.s. intelligence to israel. his release was suggested during the region administration. and now there is talk to release him once again to extend the peace process between israel and
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palestine. >> this is a personal prestige, kerry's prestige is on the line when it comes to these talks. he has come here 13 times. completely unprecedented for any secretary of state. the palestinians say we will walk away from these talks in 24 hours unless israel sticks up to its promise and releases a fourth batch of prisoners. israel saying no prisoners are going to be released until the pal stins first agree to extend the talks. the palestinians say, no way, we're out of here tomorrow unless they are released. that's why he came so quickly. >> and tell us more about the possible release of convicted israeli spy job than pollard. >> this is part of a deal that
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kerry and the israelis are getting toward. no one has agreed to this deal and it's not finalized yet. but the number one part of the deal is the release of jonathan pollard. this is an american who was spying on america for israel. and the fear is, that 25, 30 years ago, long before edward snowden, his leaks were among the worst in u.s. intelligence history, and so what as you mentioned cia director tenant said in the late '90s, and defense and intelligence officials over the last decade have said is we cannot allow people who spy on ourselves even if it is for an ally, to walk free. and the white house would say pollard is up for parole next year. there's a standard parole hearing just in the next few weeks. if he is released, he has done his time and will be allowed to
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go back to israel. but critics say this is a weakness. they say if we're going to give up pollard for just the continuation of the talks, just how much are the israelis going to demand for actually solving this peace process. there is a lot of firth is a precedent that shouldn't be changed. >> nick thank you very much. the ukrainian parliament voting unanimously today to take part in joint military exercises with nato. those exercises will take place near the crimea border. secretary general for nato sharing concerns that russia will not withdraw troops from crimea. and meanwhile the ukrainian crisis has some questioning nato's mission. >> reporter: the political crisis in ukraine, and what nato considers the illegal annexation of crimea, has the alliance
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stressing why it is still relevant. but some analysts say the alliance needs to return to its roots. >> the nato alliance felt like things in its immediately neighborhood were relatively under control and had the freedom, capability and experience to understood take missions in far-away places. >> reporter: the original mission was simple. they agreed to defend each other if attacked. indeed they went to war in afghanistan after the september 11th attacks. but they also operate with partner states including russia and ukraine, countries in africa, and eight countries not located anywhere near the atlantic ocean. its members have used one off
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alliances to respond to emergencies around the world such as the 2004 tsunami. all nato members are support to spend about 2% of their gdp on defense. only two countries do so. that means joint operations were run mainly think u.s. forces. after the russia-georgia war in 2008, some nato members resisted expanding the alliance because didn't want to have to defend russia's neighbors from attack. >> moscow sees this as an organization that was set up to contain and defend itself from the soviet union. >> reporter: is a rethink
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required or has russia reinforced the purpose of self defense. a storied defense alliance, who focused on its original mission even as it tries to refrain itself for 21 centry challenges. >> reporter: there has been a deadly ebola outbreak in west africa. senegal has now been prompted to close its border with new guinea. robert ray what exactly will the cdc be doing to assist. >> we got a call from the cdc yesterday telling us that they had five scientists on their way to guinea. they lackeded last night in the capitol. they are there to assist with this outbreak that is crossing borders. they are very concerned with the
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situation. they are hoping to advise government officials and help the world health organization set up camps that can help people that are infected and helping to improve communications in the region. we spoke with one of the scientists here, and here is what he told us. >> a question which is coming up frequently is why are we seeing this virus over here in west after ya ka? and i think this relates to the bats as the likely reservoir for the virus. bats are highly mobile, so the virus can actually be present out there a much broader area of africa than was previously known. >> reporter: del, we have a team, couple teams in western africa now on the ground reporting on this deadly
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outbreak. here is one from them. >> reporter: the world's most deadly infection diseases is spreading across urban and remote parts of west africa. its movement across guinea makes it more severe than any medical group doctors without borders has dealt with. >> translator: we're facing an epidemic of an event that has never been scene. >> reporter: the similar tons include vomiting, diarrhea, and external bleeding. it is a particularly dangerous strain. >> translator: we are facing the most aggressive strain of ebola. >> reporter: doctors without borders has sent more than 40 tons of equipment, as well as 60 field workers, including doctors, nurses, epidemiologists, and water and
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sanitation experts to guinea. but all doctors can do is try to boost the immune system of patients. it's crucial to stop the virus from spreading further. liberia has confirmed victims. and sierra leon has a number of expected cases too. >> del, although doctors without borders says this is an unprecedented situation, folks in the cdc behind me say they wished perhaps they would not have used this word. this is very serious. western africa has not seen an outbreak of ebola in 20 years. over 75 are dead, and folks on the ground are hoping to stop the spread as we speak. there are two more headed over from the cdc in the next week.
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a all right showing u.s. manufacturing may finally be putting the winter doldrums behind it. the dow is up 50 points after a 134 point game yesterday. caterpillar saying it does comply with u.s. tax laws. the company responding to charges by a senate subcommittee that it avoided paying $2.5 billion in taxes since 2000. >> caterpillar is an american success story that produces iconic industrial machines, but it is also a member of the
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corporate profit shifting. >> caterpillar may not have broken the letter of the law, huh bebelieves its practices aren't tolerable. gm sales still pending for march. it is expected to announce its figures later today. chrysler is reporting a strong 13% increase in sales, jeep sales soaring 47%. and ford had his best march in eight years. its fusion model setting new sales records. with recent earthquakes in california, scientists are now working to develop an early warning system. they are hoping the new technology will save laws. >> reporter: here in california one of the most seismically active parts of the
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united states, .scientists have learned that it is crucial to predict ahead of time. on this very corner a fire raged out of control, and much of this neighborhood had to be rebuilt. this the end the earthquake caused more than 60 deaths, more than 3700 injuries, and over $6 billion in property damage. making it one of the most expensive disasters in u.s. history, but while we might think we're acquainted with the damage a big earthquake can do, the truth is we have just barely begun to study them. >> we have been watching earthquakes seriously for about 50 years now, and to think in the last 50 years of recording, we captured the important parts, well, probably not. so there's probably a lot of
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surprises still south there for us. >> reporter: science can't cur recollectly forecast exactly when an earthquake will begin, but in japan, a national network of size mom meters will ping your phone before an earthquake begins. this simulation shows an earthquake beginning down here about five miles into the earth's crust, and slowly moving up the fault here toward los angeles. the red denotes the heaviest shaking. this will be a magnitude 7.8 quake. as the purple and blue lines hit los angeles, that's when the residents of l.a. are going to get their warning. that's about a minute and a half before the bad stuff starts. what is the use of a one-minute warning. >> even with a couple of seconds
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there's a lot you can do. the dentist can take the drill out of your mouth or the surgeon takes the knife out of your chest, but there are a lot of automatic things that can be done in manufacturing setting. >> reporter: consider howed because earthquakes can be and how few we have really experienced, the year 1811, and 1812 when five earthquakes at 7 or higher shook california and southern massachusetts. -- missouri. >> so there was very little to damage, but if you put them in the united states today, people would have a different opinion about earthquakes. >> it's a question of whether we're willing to pay for the ability. a system in california could cost anywhere from 16 to $200 billion to implement, and that is not taking into account
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the new construction codes we would have to put in place. a big earthquake will happen, and the question is whether we're prepared even by a few seconds to handle it. here in california the state legislature has passed a bill looking at the possibility of putting one of these systems into effect, but have put no money behind that. when you contrast that with japan, it's a pretty startling difference. here in the united states very few lawmakers have experienced an earthquake firsthand, where in japan, they have all felt what it is like. coming up on al jazeera america, baseball back in full swing, and even though the red sox lost yesterday, they still managed to sneak in a very special celebration. [ male announcer ] it's here -- xfinity watchathon week,
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your chance to watch full seasons of tv's hottest shows for free with xfinity on demand. there's romance, face slaps, whatever that is, pirates, helicopters, pirate-copters... argh! hmm. it's so huge, it's being broadcast on mars. heroes...bad guys... asteroids. available only on mars. there's watching. then there's watchathoning. ♪ welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are your headlines at that
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hour. there's a new report out raising questions about methods used by think cia to get people to talk. the "washington post" saying they mislead the public about the effectiveness of using torture to get information. gm's ceo going before congress today to answer questions about several massive recalls, one involving faulty ignition switches being blamed for at least a dozen deets. john kerry headed back to the middle east to continue peace negotiations. a convicted spy could soon be set free just to keep the talks going. ♪ >> i'm dave warren. storm across the southwest here just off of the coast, bringing needed moisture, rain and snow into california here. but april 1st, typically the day they compare the averages too, because this is the time of year where everything starts to melt.
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but the averages this is what we typically see. . .. it has been down to about 9 or 10%, so it has come up a little bit, but still well below average. this bringing all of that moisture in, and it will slowly drift south. there is some snow inland. but the storm will redevelop east of the rockies. today we're looking at rain and snow up and down the coast of california and inland. east of the rockies starting to see some rain develop here with the computer forecast, but this has the potential to be severe. here is a dry line developing. that dry air pushes east, and just east of the dry line, south and east of the low is where you get the potential for severe
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storms. the storm will slowly begin to work east, so tomorrow this area of severe weather could be pushed father east. here comes the warm air across the southeast and slowly up the mid-atlantic states. temperatures into the 60s and 70s by this weekend, del? >> dave warren thank you very much. it is a tradition for championship teams to visit the president. and the red sox visited the president. the last time the team went there was in 2008 after they swept the colorado rockies in the world series the year before. an historic treasure revealed in the desert. it dates back to the 6th century ad. they were discovered prior to
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the road construction in the area. thanks for watching al jazeera america. i'm del walters in new york. "the stream" is next. and remember, you can check us out 24 hours a day by going to aljazeera.com, where the news never stops. hi, i'm lisa fletcher, and you in the stream. information you may be entitled to is kept secret by the government. mean the man being called a superhero for accessing what they may not want you to see. ♪ . >> you know waj we're talking about the freedom of information act which is law that allows fo
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