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tv   News  Al Jazeera  April 3, 2014 6:00am-9:01am EDT

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>> >> he walked into one of the unit buildings, opened fire, got into a vehicle, fired from oo vehicle, got out of the vehicle, walked into another building and opened fire again. >> a soldier opens fire at fort hood in texas, killing three before taking his home life, five years after a mass shooting at the same military post. >> the united states allegedly trying to park a revolution in
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cuba. a report saying america secretly funded a texting app into creating an uprising. >> a supreme court ruling ending limits on financing - some say it will lead to campaign corruption and politicians being brought. >> the fact that it's orange means there's metal in the water. >> land deemed too toxic to live on earmarked for a federal clean-up. why it's being given back to a native american tribe now, despite the dangers that remain. >> hi there everyone. good morning to you. welcome to al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton. people at fort hood in texas are coming to grips with another tragedy. a texas congressman identified 34-year-old army special ist
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ivan lopes as the gunman that opened fire. the iraq war veteran allegedly shot and killed three soldiers before killing himself. he was in the process of being evaluated for mental health issues. wednesday's shooting was reminiscent of violent scenes in fort hood in 2009, 13 were shot and killed by another military man. yesterday's deadly attack happened deep within the military post. lopes shot his way through two military buildings before taking his own life. >> we go to texas. i know this investigation is clearly in the early stages here. what more do we know this morning? >> the person responsible was being treated for depression and anxiety. no word on a motive, something the authorities were looking into as the investigation continued into the second deadly
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shooting here in less than five years. >> the shooting quickly put fort hood, u.s.'s largest military organization into lockdown. it park -- sparked a huge response as a gunman dressed in his army uniform was on the use firing a 45 calibre handgun snuck on to the post. officials believed the shooter, army specialist ivan loep ez, by texas congressman michael mccall, got on to the base, fired his weapon, got into a vehicle, headed to another vehicle where the shooting continued. >> within 15 minutes military responders and the police responded to the scene, engaged the shooter and the shooter is dead. from a self-inflicted gunshot
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wound. >> the confrontation between lopes and the military police ended in a parking lot. >> we have confirmed there are three victims killed, and then the shooter was killed. there are 16 injured, being treated at scotland white and here. >> nine of the injured, some in critical condition were transported by ground and air to hospitals. >> they had a variety of injuries, raping from -- ranging from gunshot wounds to the chest, abdomen and in effect. >> for the thousands living and working at fort hood, it was a reminder of nidal hasan's rampage leaving 13 dead and 32 wounded. nidal hasan faces death by lethal injection. >> a declared emergency no longer exists.
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>> as authorities look for a motive, they do not believe there's a link to terrorism. more is known about lopes, including he served in iraq. was married. had been undergoing treatment for depression and was being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder. >> now, fort hood was on lockdown for several hours, it's open. traffic is moving freely. it's not business as usual. physical training activity has been cancel. >> painful emotions. thank you. >> to give you a better understanding of the post. fort hood is in central texas between dallas and austin. it's the largest active duetied armoured post, training men and women for the army reserve and the national guard. 45,000 soldiers are stationed there, many serving tours of duty in iraq and afghanistan. the soldiers have nicknamed fort hood the great place because the
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standard of living is considered better than other army posts. >> president obama is vowing to get to the bottom oft fatal shootings. i want to bring in randall pinkston. what else are we hearing out of the white house. >> president obama was in chicago when she received the tragic news of another shooting. the federal bureau of investigation is joining the defense department's investigation to determine what happened and how that particular tragedy could happen in the same place twice. >> any shooting is trub lipping. obviously this reops the pain of what happened at fort hood five years ago. we know there's families, the incredible service to our country and the sacrifices they make. thoughts and procedures are with the community, and we are going to do everything we can to make
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sure the community has what it needs. >> the president will continue to monitor the developments and the ongoing investigation. >> the president was in chicago defense secretary chuck hagel in hawaii at the time of the shoot ngs. what was his message. >> secretary hagel, like everyone else, first thought about the families of the victims, and the fact that it happened at fort hood again. chuck hagel reflected on the apparent breakdown in the procedures that are supposed to protect military personnel. >> when we have these kinds of tragedies on our bases, something is not working. so we will identify it, we'll get the facts, and we'll fix it. >> chuck hagel said that there is nothing, nothing more important than the safety and well being of america's military. >> we have heard this many times. the shooting brings up memories of the dwayne shootings at foott. how is the military responding to the shootings. >> they made sure that everyone
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knew the investigation does not show a connection with terrorism. and then they proceeded to set up family counselling centres on the base and off the base as you indicated, 45 to 50,000 military personnel are on the base. plus another 18,000 family members are there, and then almost a quarter of a million more in the neighbouring communities. there's a vast community affected by the tragedy. the red cross is setting up a joint assistance center. the notifications to the families of the victims are wrong. the names of those who were killed will not be released for 24 hours after their families have been identified. >> another difficult time. the investigation is ongoing. randall pinkston joining us from washington. a moment of silence was held for the victims of the fort hood shooting, taking place before the texas rangers and philadelphia fillies game.
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they paused to honour the lives lost before the singing of the national anthem. >> in the next half hour - a closer look at the mental health of our troops returning from war. we look at the symptoms and treatments for post-traumatic stress disorder. >> it's clear at the juste in ohio, they were put on lockdown after a man fired a gun. police captured the suspect who is now in custody at a local hospital. they remember it was the site of a deadly shooting in 1970, national guard'sman opened fire on vietnam war veterans killing four. >> chile has been hit by an aftershock. the 7.8 magnitude quake struck off the coast of northern chile triggering a tsunami and coastal evacuations. it comes a day after an 8.2 earthquake hit the region. six were killed in tuesday's
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earthquake. so far no reports of damage or injuries. >> a narrow scaip for pak -- escape for pakistan's former president pervez musharraf. a bomb exploded on a bridge minutes after he drove past. it was an assassination attempt. the former president and army chief was charged with treason for suspending the constitution and imposing emergency rule in 2006. pervez musharraf denies charges and says the accusations against hum are politically motivated. >> afghans head to the polls. the current president hamid karzai was afghanistan's first democratically elected leader. the taliban has carried out several high profile attacks in the run off to election. they've been targetting polling centres, the election commission and candidates. the vote on april 5th, and the results will be announced later this month. >> a supreme court ruling could affect elections in this country for years to come. the high
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court voted on campaign limits. conservatives say the ruling is a one for free speech, but liberals say it will remove ordinary minister from the process. adam may looks at impacts. >> it's a familiar scene during every election season. candidate on the trail chasing votes, and always looking for donors to help pay for it all. now the way candidates raise money is about to change dramatically. sense the 1970s don augustses to individual -- donations to individual candidates have been subject to rules and limits. today's decision rolls back a lot of restrictions. until now, the overall cap on don't eightses to poll -- donations was $123,000 per election cycle with a limit of $5,200 per capped date. now the cap is gone.
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that means rich donors can give $5200 to as man candidates as they want, with no limit. so if you are rich enough, and you find november candidates you can spend millions. the court's reasoning, political spending is a form of speech, and sips the constitution protect speech, there should be no limits on spending. the decision rolls back campaign finance laws that grew out of a famous political scandal the watergate, which forced the resignation of a president and restrictions on the influence of money and politics. even richard nixon said enough is enough. >> i pledge to you tonight that i will do all that i can to ensure that one of the ruts of watergate is a level of political decency and integrity in interk in which what has been -- in which what has been wrong no longer corrupt or demeans what is right in the politics.
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>> the restrictions and limits have been chipped away through a series of new laws and some court decisions. often led by conservatives, the moves have changed the political lapped escape. the big -- landscape. the biggest change in 2010, a group called citizens united opening the door for corporations and labour unions to spend unlimited amounts of money on issues, not candidates. >> we want deeper cuts for education and medicare. >> whether that is the best strategy for the president to be... >> it led to a boom in the super pack and a sharp criticism from president obama in the 2010 state of union address. >> i don't think american elections should be bank rolled by powerful interests or foreign entities. they should be decided by the american people. the ruling could take the power of the superpack away. only because it means the
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superrich will be able to take their money to the candidates. another rewrite to the campaign finance laws, expected to have an impact on the way politicians run their campaigns and pay for them. >> that was "america tonight"'s adam may reporting. >> president obama signed a disaster declaration for washington state, meaning for federal help for vic estimate. 18 are miss, the death toll is 29. officials are working on a plan to prevent melting snow from flooding the area. more rain in the pacific north-west. another story is happening across the middle of the county. let's bring in meteorologist nicole mitchell. good morning. >> an active day out there. for the north-west, a little bit today, but especially friday and saturday, more of the rain coming in. it's starting to approach in the
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final frame. the big weather maker, into the midsection of the country, a system causing problems. it's the setup. it's warm hume ied air, a dry line, warm, dry stuff, and in this section warm and dry. then cold air behind that, the dynamics to give the thunderstorm. you can see the images. the balloon is hail. an inch or greater. one isolated report. that is more of the risk today. as everything continues to move along we'll see the risk in ms and arkansas, a -- and missouri, a moderate risk. the chance of damaging winds and tornados. hail is a threat. outside that risk there has been
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heavy rain, you can see it popping up. it's caused flooding. on the northern side a dynamic system, a lot of moisture causing snow between today and storm. >> it'll be an active way. another day of suf questioning. senators accuse the company of trying to cover up an ignition problem linked to 13 deaths sparking a recall. lisa stark has more from washington on wednesday's contentious hearing. a tough question about whether general motors hid the defect. it's blamed for 13 deaths. the c.e.o. insisted that the g.m. will do the right thing. lawmakers weren't buying it. >> the subcommittee will come to
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order. angry senators confronted the c.e.o. about why the company did not act sooner. accusing g.m. of a culture of a cover up. >> we don't know how many crashed. we do know that many died. the company swept the defect under the rudd. >> ignition switches leave drivers without engine power. >> we now no that the difference between this switch and one that would have worked was the difference between life and death. do you note the other difference? the other thing that we now know? that it would only cost $2 to repair. senators challenged general motors suggesting they put profits over people, deciding it
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was more cost effective to settle lawsuits than fix the pardon millions of vehicles. >> do you know if g.m. used this cost benefit analysts in the history. >> the documents shared with me, if they are true as we go through the time line will demonstrate that it's completely unacceptable. >> i didn't ask you that. i said do you know if g.m. used this kund of cost benefit analysis in its history. >> if it was used - not for a safety item, it would be unacceptable. >> mary barra has been with general motors for 33 years, insisting that she did not know about the cobb alt issue before becoming c.e.o. >> as a woman to woman, i'm very disappointed. the culture that you were representing here today is a culture of the status quo. >> another key question, why general motors changed the defective part in late 2006 and early 2007, but did not tell anyone or change the parts
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serial number. >> i think we need to know wh you believe the company acted in the best interests of the consumers who bought your car, and the u.s. taxpayers who bailed you out. >> first of all,ize agree, it took too long for this to come to the attention and do the recall. we admitted that and apologised. >> an apology is far from what some is demanding the u.s. attorney's office in new york launched a criminal probe. >> i think it's pretty much incontrovertible that g.m. knew about this lethal safety defect. failed to correct it, and failed to tell its customers about it, and then concealed it from the courts and the united states. general motors will reveal its version of what happened within the company in regards to the defect when it completes an internal having. that's expected to be within the next two months. back to you. >> lisa stark in washington. we should point out the acting
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director. national highway traffic safety administration says his agency didn't know why the faulty ignition switch kept airbags from deploying. >> the federal bureau of investigation looking at a controversial trading tactic on wall street, how high frequency trading a making millions for insiders and leaving early investors out in the cold. >> the tribe gets it after. >> toxic land given back to a native american tribe in oklahoma. the reason the super fund site is not cleaned up decades after being declared dangerous.
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>> in an attempt to undermine cuba's communist government, the u.s. government created a secret platform to encourage dissent among young in the county, according to the associated press investigation. it went on for a while.
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>> lasted two years. over that time tens of thousands of cuban residents posted the image. none of those people knew the social media platform had ties to washington d.c., because cubans know if their government found out they were using an american site, they could have gone to gaol or worse. >> undermining castro's cuba by masterminding a secret social media network. the u.s. government reportedly created the network for the young cubans to get around the controls. the platform was based on twitter. and slang for a cuban hum iping bird's tweet. you could log on, write 140 characters and hit send. it was free of charge. the organizers of the program made sure to grow the network slowly to avoid detection by the government. they hoped it would reach
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critical mass to dissidents could organise smart mobs, similar to flash mobs. smart mobs found that it would renegotiate the power between the state and society. this analyst knew about the project. >> it's true every agency of the u.s. government, including unclassified programs want to protect details on who they were working with. we were told we couldn't be told in broad terms what was happening because people will die. >> documents show u.f.o. went to the great -- ufa. the u.s. government spending $106 million to pay the bills. so the money trail would not be traced back to america. after being online for two years, with nearly 40,000
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cellphone users, it was shut dope in 2012 because the government grant ends. for the users, it vanished without a trace. more to come. erica pitzi, thank you. >> turning to business news. local headaches for citigroup. federal authorities opened a criminal investigation into a $400 million fraud involving the mexican unit. it is looking into whether the bank ignored warning signs and if lack of internal controls contributed to the fraud in mexico. >> wall street looks to set open a little higher following four straight days of gains, dow futures is up at 16. the do you starts: >> overseas asian markets ended
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the day mostly higher after china took some steps to prop up the economy, including spending on railways and houses and offering tax breaks. >> i.m.f. chief christine laguardia guard to take action. >> medicare plans to release billing data for 800,000 physicians as early as next week. the files will identify the providers by name, what they charge for procedures, and the average amount they were paid. individual patient information will not be made public. consumer groups say the data will make it easier to spot quality and fraud. position organizations say it's an invasion of doctor's privacy. >> detroit will be able to get an infusion of cash. a federal judge giving the city a green light to borrow
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$120 million. it's the first time they'll be able to raise funds since filing for braupsy. the money can be used to help fight crime. >> they fight for the country. when they come home they are often forgotten. a closer look at mental health treatments for our veterans. the number of refugees fleeing syria is staggering. the milestone reached, shedding light on how severe the problem is. a world cup tournament for formerly homeless kids. valuable lessons they are learning that can be used far beyond the field. >> i'm john henry smith. usa and mexico - highlights of a friendly world cup warm-up later.
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>> good morning and welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton. a man identified as army specialist ivan lopes shot and killed three soldiers on fort hood, and died of a self-inflicted wound. 16 others were injured. it comes after 2009's deadly attack that killed 13 people. army officials say the gunman was receiving treatment for depression and anxietiy and evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder. the incident is raising new questions about mental health among veterans. we have a physician and associate professor of new york university's medical center joining us. so good to have you with us this morning. we hear more and more about post-traumatic stress disorder. i have someone in my family struggling from post-traumatic stress disorder, and it took me several years to fully understand the disorder.
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i don't think people exactly understand what we are dealing with. >> i think the reason is there's a stigmaa taxed with mental illness. people don't want to come forward. the key is somebody has to have experienced a trauma, so a dramatic event where they felt their life was in danger. a lot of us may have something like that, let's say we have been in a car accident and we may get better. if you re-experience the event, if you have nightmares, intrusive thoughts, if you are not quite the same person, you might actually have post-traumatic stress disorder. >> that is ptsd, reliving that experience. we understand that ivan lopes as being evaluated for post-traumatic stress disorder. what is the evaluation process? >> it is difficult. you can ask people if they have intrusive thoughts, nightmares, whether they are claustrophobic, but the symptoms can be different in different people. there's no test in an m.r.i.
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where you can find an answer. a lot of the issues with mental illness is that we are relying on people to tell us things so they may not know what is important to reveal and at the same time they may leave out important things because they don't want to share that, they are worried about their job opportunities. >> how do you determine if a person has ptsd over another mental illness? >> in this case, for example, this person had a couple of different diagnosis. first they thought he had an anxiety disorder or depression. a lot of time post-traumatic stress disorder goes along with other things. it's in the spectrum of anxiety disorder. people are alarmed, alert. they are aware of a lot of things that happen. sometimes they are startled. so you get a sense of whether the person might have pts d from anxiety, and then you look further. was there a traumatic ept. sometimes you can do neuropsychological testing.
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it's an evaluation involving a tonne of questions, trying to figure out what is the source of anxiety, is the anxiety normal or is it out of proportion, and then you go down the path to figure it out. the other thing in this case is there are other things that can look like post-traumatic stress disorder, ptsd. they thought he may have had a brain injury, there's a couple of things that can look similar, so it's difficult to tees it out. >> we know 30% of men and women who spend time in war zones experience ptsd. do you think the number is low? are men and women coming forward. >> for veterans they may come forward a little more than other people. the department of veterans' affairs has good resources, so does the military, to treat mental illness. in some cases people may come forward because there are a lot of treatment options. at the same time let's think about what veterans do after.
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a lot go into law enforcement and other arse. that's the training, but at the amount if they are going that, they may not want to reveal they have post-traumatic stress disorder. are there mann tated evaluations. >> -- mandated evaluations. >> they do when they come back, they are mandated. because they have to reveal the symptoms, you may not be able to diagnose it. >> we'll certainly lower than more been ivan lopes. thank you for joining us. appreciate your time this morning. >> there are now more than a million syrian refugees in lebanon. the united nations is calling it a devastating milestone. when the war began, 2,000 syrians fled to lebanon. in 200917,000 crossed the -- 2009, 17,000 crossed the border. is jumped to 300,000.
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by 2014 there were a million registered syrian refugees in the bordering company. we are at the u.n. refugee agency registration center in tripoli. more than 2.5 million fled to turkey, jordan, iraq, but lebanon is hosting the largest number. how is the country handling the influx? >> not well. not well. as you said, this is one of the registration interests. this is one of the first destinations that the refugees reach out to when they reach lebanon. thousands of them, 2500, cross the border into lebanon, now in the past few months many have been declined help, and the reason is that the resources that the u.n. agencies have, and the lebanese government have depleted. they don't have money to give
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away, they don't have money to provide more smpss. >> to -- services. to put thing in concept, lebanon has 4 million people, over 1 million refugees, there's a big burden that the lebanese government is shouldering. nanette kennedy is the representative for the united nations high commission for refugees, and she'll explain why this is a colleging task to provide for all the refugees. >> because we have the sheer number of it. we have a million refugees in lebanon, 2.5 syrian reeve gees in the -- refugees in the region altogether. 6 million displaced in syria. it's a humanitarian disaster. the agency has not seen anything like this in decades. as you mentioned, a quarter of the population is refugees. imagine connecticut receiving
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a million refugees in the same time period. the local infrastructure is starting to really buckle under the strap of the increased refugees. we see it in terms of public service, the demand on health services, education, and see that the fragile infrastructure that exists here is starting to bucked upped the strain k k under -- under the strain. you see it in terms of water shortage, and a waste management problem that is getting greater every day. what could be done in order to avoid the shortness that you talk about, so you can provide as much as the refugees need. >> the first thing needed is the solution inside syria, the wait of the crisis and the traj by, i hope everyone sees the consequences to galvanise the solution inside syria. in the meantime we need more international support. right now the funding here is one quarter, 14% funded, that
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means we have to make painful decisions between needs. lebanon is a tiny country bearing a disproportionate burden and needs support from the international community, from traditional and nolle prosequi traditional donors that has not -- non-traditional donors that has not been forted coming. >> for the lebanese government there's another matter, security. they feel there's a growing threat to the stability of the country. there are over a million people. many of them have been politicized. the lebanese government says it will take time before things get out of hand as a result of the presence of a huge number of refugees. >> al jazeera's correspondent at the u.n. registration center in lebanon. >> search crews have not found debris for the missing malaysia
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airlines flight mh370 with 239 people on board. malaysia's prime minister joint his australian counterpart to thank the pilots and crews searching for the plane. the australian air force base in perth is acting as a hub for the recovery operation. the prime minister told crew members, they were confident that the efforts would provide closure for the tragedy. >> a native american tribe have had enough of toxic waste near their home. they want control to clean it up. >> from the highway they seem like other hills, some representing monumental wonderers. these are the piles of tar, existing of millions of tops of toxic dust. ril fully dumped by mining -- wilfully dumped by order of the
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government. now only the street grit is visible under what is able to survive on this polluted land. even the water runs orange here. >> the high cadmium content and zinc content - you can't see that in the water, but the fact that it is orange means that there are metals in the water. >> the site was earmarked for environmental remediation in 1983, it is still a waste land. residents were brought out and moved. it was never their land to begin with. it's kaw territory. mineral deposits were discovered beneath their homes. many tribal members who refused to sell up were ruled incompete ent, their lant -- incompetent their land seized. they are allowed to reclaim some property, it's felt only it has the ability to regenerate the
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area. the kaw have grown rich from the kaz een i don't resort. with -- casino resort. with wealth comes political clout. >> we have more economic power in the region. the u.s. government allowed the tribe to clean the piles on a site less than a square kilometre leased to the catholic school. the church leased the land to mining companies. when mining seized the church returned the land. the tribe gets the land after it's looted. >> right. that seems to be the pattern. >> the project is ahead of schedule and under budget. now they hope to lobby the deposit to clear the 103km square area and take ownership of what the government promised would be the sovereign nation. >> it's a worldwide problem that indigenous people are always left out of the decision making process when it comes to exploitation of natural
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resources. >> but even if granted the tribe's stewardship the land would not recover for decades to come. >> for the last 13 years, the epa has given the tribe funding to monitor the air quality on tribal lands in oklahoma, including the kaw site. >> an n.b.a. team, one of the best is one of the hottest. talk about a winning streak. >> absolutely, i tell you what, if you were able to develop x-ray vision, and you were able to look inside the san antonio spur, i don't know if you find blood and guts or circuitry. this n.b.a. machine found 15 games for 15 straight seasons and put together an end-season streak that is impressive, winning 18 in o row coming into the golden state tilt. look at them get fundamental. spurs have a 15 point lead at the break. originally in the third, the
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subtle brilliance of tony parker creating space and knocking down the j. finding the open man, knocks down the three point. patty mills putting them up 20. they win 111 to 90. >> the indiana pacers lost first place. dropping five of the last six. knocks down the j. pacers possession, hib its misses the lay in, but gets the rebound. he shoots from half court. drills it, pacers up 94-90, under two to play pacers up three. david west knocking down the j pacers win 101-94. ba baseball - the seen is a week old. fans are saying their team is doomed or going all the way.
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that's the sentiments of pittsburg pirates. anthony rizzo gets a go-ahead home run, up 3-2. sterling marta deposits the pitch into left field driving in clint with a single. we are back to a tie. bottom of the 16th inning runners at the corner, tony sanchez delivering a single giving the pirates a 4-3 win and a 2-0 record at 5 hours, 55 minutes, the longest game played in pittsburg. a pitchers dual in milwaukee between the brewers and the brawns. the brew crew dab u for matt, looks every bit the pitcher who received the $4 million deal. he and the team carried no hitters. braves win 1-0. >> to soccer, wednesday's
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friendly between team usa and mexico will be the last chance for players to make the case for us that they deserve to represent america at the world cup. markus beasley and michael arosco wouldn't get the chance to take the field after the mexican club team refused to let them play. m.l.s. had no problem letting chris play, burying putting the u.s. up 2-0. mexico rallied. 4th minute. michael fabian's clinic finds the back of the net cutting the lead to 2-1. they go back on the attack. paul shot each, feasting on the rebound for the equalizer. the game ending in a 2-2 draw. >> got to love the energy and the spirit. the world cup can't get here soon enough. thank you. >> kids are catching world cup fever as well. a lesser known soccer tournament is underway in rio.
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al jazeera's rob reynolds shows us how the game is bringing attention to the problem of child homelessness. >> football is under way in rio, argentina battles tanzania, two teams competing in the street child world cup. teams from 19 countries are taking part, organised by a british charity. these children are growing up in poverty, and have spent time living on the streets. now they have been reunited with parents, and are attending school. earlier the boys and girls visited rio's famous stadium, where the other world cup final will be held. >> ali - he is from pakistan. >> now i playing a role as an ambassador for children like me. >> he was eager for the pakistani boys first match against india.
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this is a striker, south african girls team. >> i was nervous. now i'm okay. >> pretty is pretty sure her team will do well. >> i want to [ bleep ] >> the competition is intense. but so are the friendships. but the kids - for the kids the tournament is an adventure. behind the fun and games there's a serious purpose to draw attention to an often-neglected problem. >> the children will go back and continue to work on the issue, raising awareness and understanding of what the children go through. lobbying governments to do more, lobbying society do more for street children. >> after the opening round of matches, the burundian boys did a victory death and the buddies
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were all smiles. pakistan beat india 13-0. >> the program that is making a difference. 100 million children live on the streets worldwide. >> still ahead - a practice called high frequency trading is a driving force behind wall street. critics say tech savvy brokers are making millions, while ordinary investors are prevented from participating. >> coming up in the next half hour, a closer look at the supreme court decision on campaign finance. why some say it will lead to widespread political corruption, allowing people with deep pockets to buy elections. a look at park avenue in new york city, the latest public park exhibit to grace the street - alice acox paper chase. it will be a beautiful day in
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new york city. al jazeera is coming right back.
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>> have you been sneezing and the watery eyes? relief is on the way for allergy sufferers. the first under the tongue treatment for hayfever. the tablet curves allergy symptoms by up to 30%, building a patient's toll wraps to grass -- tolerance to grass, and elimb nates the need -- 60% suffer from hayfever. into welcome back to al jazeera. ahead, a litteral split 2 costing wall street investors millions. first a look at the forecast, meteorologist nicole mitchell. >> you were talking about the allergy counselled. high in the south. people are hoping the next
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weather system washes some of that away. temporary relief. do you know where we are not having the problem, in northern parts of the midwest. the ground is frozen and we see snow. you can see it in some places. this progresses today, tomorrow, through the northern interior of the country as we head to the weekend, more chances that it will be rain for the east coast and northern parts of new england. into the mid west for today and tomorrow. these are totals for both days. some places easily the core running from minnesota into wisconsin. some places could see over a foot of snow. this is the dynamic in the system, that the wind gust will be 30 to 40 miles per hour. it will below the snow around. some systems will be thunder snow. you may want to listen to that. on the south side of this, heavy
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rain will be the concern. flooding concerns, and a risk as well. more on the severe side of this in a few minutes. >> in spring a lot of us celebrate. we are dealing with storms and snow. thank you. michael louis, the author of the best-selling book "money ball" is taking on wall street. "flash book", his light back says wall street is rigged. they look at trades using computer trades, allowing them to snap up the stock and sell to buyers at a higher price. the practice hurts investors and honest traders, making millions for hedge funds. the government is investigating high frequency trading. the director of sales at the financial firm kutone and company joins us. good morning to you.
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>> a lot of investors say it's tough to make a single trade. here we have high frequency trading what is it. >> it's a catch-all phrase for smart people, ph.d. s who developed sophisticated programs as well as investing millions of dollars. not just the internet, but their own fibre to move rapidly. they trade millions of times a day. they look to shave pennies. >> what are they trying to do? >> they are capitalizing on statistical anom police. they can buy on one exchange and sell on another. now we are in a competitive marketplace. they are capturing what is called a rebate. they are paid nor posting an order. it's a complex process. doing it millions of times a
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day. >> this is fascinating. they have access to a propriety feed. >> this is complex and has people confused. there's two ways to get it, a consal dated data or the sip, security information process, or you can buy a feed for the exchange if you pay the money, it's open for anyone, banks, brokers, you or i. >> we saw the graphic, we are talking 1.5 milliseconds. >> 15th one thousandth of a second faster. >> how are they able to do that. >> it's allowable by the regulations allowing the exchange to sell the propriety feed, they put the feed in, it gives them a speed advantage over the rest of the market. that is what gets investors and traders. the fcc allows this. >> yes this is market structure driven.
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people may not like it, but it's the market structure that we have. it's fcc driven. that's the part no one talks about. >> when we talk about "flash boys", the new book, is michael saying it's rigged. >> it's unfortunate language. it's not rigged. it's allowable by the laws and regulation. if you want to talk about the rig, it's more rigged by what the federal reserve has done as opposed to what this has down. >> the fbi is investigating - why? >> they are looking at the stand point, are they using computer algorithming to peak behind the exchanges. i think they'll come up with nothing on that. it will leaked to a dead end -- lead to a dead end. as far as i know they are not doing anything illegal or outside the regulations. >> should ordinary investors be concerned. >> not really. you'll be recognised at the top
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of the book, best bidder option. the maximum slippage meaning it may be a quarter penny one way or the other. for people like you and i, it doesn't matter. >> it's not necessarily an even playing field. again, high frequency traders are needed in the market. it's within the bounds of the regulations. good to have you with us. >> let's head to stephanie sy, for a look at what is ahead. >> at the end of the first hour here is what we are following. a soldier opening fire at fort hood killing three and injure whying 16 others -- injuring 16 others. details are emerging. an associate press report says the u.s. backed a social media platform aimed at creating an uprising in cuba, the twitter-like service amount at creating dissent against cast
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castro's go. . >> and campaign contributions. >> more coming up, what makes a great wine - it's not about how much it cots. -- costs.
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>> a mass shooting at ford hood, investigators trying to determine his motive. >> they didn't want anyone to know what they were up to. >> a secret government program exposed, using a twitter like app to cause unrest in cuba.
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>> the supreme court removes limits on campaign donations, some say it boosts free speech, others say elections will be bought. >> conversation should be deeper and deeper. >> how to find a fine wine without a high price tag. >> another shooting at the fort hood military base, this time an iraq war veteran killing three people before turning the gun on himself. welcome to al jazeera america. i'm receive sigh. >> good to have you with us. i'm thomas drayton. a texas congressman identified the shooter at army specialist ivan lopez. he entered the texas military
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post wednesday afternoon. >> shortly after arriving, shots range out. >> he walked into one of the unit buildings, opened fire, got into a vehicle, fired from a vehicle, got out of the vehicle, walked into another building, and opened fire again and then was engaged by local law enforcement here. >> what more do we know this morning? >> the person responsible was being treated for depression and anxiety. no word on motive. authorities are looking into that as the investigation continues into the second deadly shooting here in less than five years. >> police take cover immediately. >> the shooting put forth hood, u.s.'s largest military installation on lockdown. [ sirens ] >> it sparked a huge police response at word spread that the
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gunman, an enlisted soldier dressed in his army uniform was on the loose firing his weapon, a 45 caliber handgun he snuck on to the army post. officials believe the shooter identified as army specialist ivan lopez by texas congressman michael mccall had entered this medical building, fired his weapon, got into a vehicle, headed to another building where the shooting continued. >> within 15 minutes, first responders from the military police and emergency services responded to the scene, engaged the shooter, and the shooter is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. >> the confrontation between lopez and the military police ended in a parking lot. >> we have confirmed that there are three victims who were killed and then the shooter was killed. there are 16 injured being
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treated at scott and white and here at darnell. >> nine of the injured, some in critical condition were quickly transported by ground and air to nearby hospitals. >> they've had a variety of injuries that we've been treating, ranging from gunshot wounds that involved extremities, abdomen, chest and neck. >> for the thousand living and working at fort hood, the violence was a stark reminder of 2009 when army major nidal's shooting rampage left 13 dead and 32 wounded. he now faces death by lethal injection. >> the declared emergency no longer exists. >> as authorities look for a motive, they do not believe there is a link to terrorism, but more is being known about lopez, including that he served in iraq in 2011, was married, undergoing treatment for depression and being evaluated for post traumatic stress
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disorder. >> fort hood was on lockdown for several hours. now traffic is back moving, but it is not business as usual. there were physical activities that were scheduled today, they have all since been canceled. >> stephanie. >> are investigators any closer to determine ago motive for the shooting? >> well, at this time, they're working trying to find and talk to anyone who may have witnessed anything and also looking to possibly talk with anyone who may have heard anything. they want to try and see if conversations involving the gunman could provide them any detail as to why this all happened. >> reporting from texas, thanks. >> painful emotions this morning, the fort hood serving tragedy was a reminder of a prefers ram pain on the post. >> shot range out in november, 2009 when major nidal hasan killed 13 and wounded 31 more.
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he served as an army psychiatrist and opened fire at the sprawling texas base. he was sitting with his colleagues in a deployment center in the waiting room before firing 150 rounds. iit was a chaotic scene of peope diving for cover. it happened before he was set to be deployed to afghanistan. after the shooting, reports came to life that hasan posted internet messages about suicide bombings and other threats. he eventually revealed the attack was retaliation for wars in the muslim world. during the shooting, he was heard shouting god is great in arabic, saying he wanted to be a martyr. he went to trial last year, representing himself, and convicted of 45 counts of premeditated murder and attempted murder and faces death by lethal injection. ette i also just the sixth member of the armed forces on death row. although his defense team is
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still appealing the death sentence, many families were relieved with the verdict and thought justice was served. of the 13 victims, one was retired officer, the others active duty soldiers. what happened in 2009 at fort hood served as a painful reminder of a shooting that happened decades before. in 1991, a man shot and killed 23 people in the nearby town. aljazeera. >> president obama said he will get to the bottom of wednesday's fatal shootings at fort hood. in 2010, the pentagon released a report saying the initial response to the 2009 shootings was satisfactory, but said more should be done to identify possible threats to military bases and posts from within the armed services. we go to randall pinkston joining us from washington this morning. it does raise a very important question, what has the military done since 2009 to make these bases and posts safe officer. >> just months after that 2010
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report on the 2009 shooting, then secretary of defense robert gates ordered the implementation of several of the recommendations from the 2010 report, closer coordination between the military and f.b.i. on possible terrorist threats. the f.b.i. maintains an extensive database of people linked to terrorists. there was also the recommendation that the military needed to coordinate better with local law enforcement providing information about a soldier's involvement in civilian criminal activities. the military was supposed to take steps to provide early warning of potential violence. when a soldier returns home after having been deployed in combat situations, the military is calling on situations to actively look out for possible abrant behavior so they can give the soldiers assistance before there's any threat to the family or anyone else. >> the man in charge, defense
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secretary chuck hagel was in hawaii at the time of the shootings. what is he saying? >> secretary of state chuck hagel like everyone expressed his deepest sympathies to the families of the victims and he said he is obviously keen to determine exactly what broke down in the system that the military uses to protect personnel on military bases. >> anytime you lose any of your people to these kinds of tragedies, there's an issue, there's a problem. we don't have the facts. we will get the facts. >> so far, the investigation at fort hood has not found any link to terrorism in this latest shooting. thomas. >> the defense secretary responding. we know president obama was in chicago at the time. he spoke briefly, as well. >> yes, president obama like secretary hagel expressed sympathy to the families. he said the f.b.i. is joining
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the investigation headed by the defense department. he said that this incident of course reopens memories of that tragic 2009 shooting. >> many people there have been through multiple tours in iraq and afghanistan. they serve with valor and with distinction, and when they're at their home base, they need to feel safe. >> this morning, the question is what exactly can be done so that military personnel can feel safe, even among their colleagues, who sometimes commit acts of violence. thomas. >> we know the military community is a tight knit community. randall pinkston in washington this morning, thank you. >> a moment of silence was held for the shooting victims that took place between last night's baseball games between the texas rangers and philadelphi philadea
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phillies. ahead, we'll focus on security at the military post and what has changed since the last mass shooting there. >> it's all clear this morning at kent state university in ohio. the campus was put on lockdown last night after a man fired a gun. police captured the suspect who's now in custody at a local hospital. you may remember kent state was the site of a deadly shooting back in 1970, national guardsman opened fire on a group of vietnam war protestors, killing four students. >> chili has been hit by a huge after shock, the 7.2 magnitude quake triggered a tsunami alert and coastal evacuations in per are your, one day after an 8.2 earthquake hit the region. two were killed in tuesday's earthquakes. there have been no reports of damage or injuries from wednesday's after shock. it's amazing there was not more.
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>> many reports of hail this morning back here in the u.s. and even a possible tornado today. >> meteorologist nicole mitchell is going to be a very active morning across the country. >> yes, and chance for tornadoes again today. there's no many elements with this system, you don't want to just focus on the severe weather aspect of it. here's the broad system in the midsection of the country. you can see cores of heavy rain, missouri into portions of illinois, another problem spot. snow to the north and rain to the south and that risk for severe weather. this is a similar setup yesterday when we did see the hail in places like kansas. we have the warm, moist air coming in, helping fuel the storms and give them moisture. the lift from a cold front giving lift from those storms into the atmosphere. where we have the warm dry air on the backside of that dry line, even the fire risk because of all of that. storms i don't mean yesterday,
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hail areas in blue, a rope tornado was viewed, that is usually those skinny once, the last stages of a tornado, although not always. another report near st. louis of a possible tornado because of roof damage. the risk shifts, missouri and arkansas to memphis, hail is still the primary threat. wind damage and isolated tornadoes still definitely a possibility. because of the heavy rain north of here, we have places in flood watches and warnings including missouri and illinois. on the north side, a lot of snow. could pick up over a foot in minnesota and wisconsin. back to you. >> the u.s. government secretly created a social media platform to encourage dissent among young people in cuba. that's according to a new investigation by the associated press. none of its users new americans were covertly collecting their data. >> undermining castro's cuba by
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masterminding a secret social media network, the u.s. government created the network for young cubans to get around the government's tight controls. a simple social media platform was based on twitter, named for a cuban humming bird's tweet. >> you could log on and ride 140 characters and hit send. it was free of charge. >> the associated press reports the organizers of the american program made sure to grow the network slowly to avoid detection by the cuban government. they hold it would reach critical mass so dissidents could organize smart mobs, similar to flash mobs in that their mass gatherings called at a moment's notice, but smart mobs are political demonstrations that could renegotiate the balance of power between the state and society. fulton armstrong is a former analyst who knew about the project. >> it's true that every agency
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of u.s. government, including unclassified programs want to protect certain details on who they're working with, this was far beyond. we were told we couldn't even be told in broad terms what was happening because "people will die." >> the who you plan tarian group u.s. aid went to great lengths to hide america's involvement with the project, spending $1.6 million setting up operating companies in spain and the cayman islands to pay the bills so the main trail would not be traced back to america. after on line for more than two years with 40,000 registered cell phone users, it abruptly shut down in 2012. u.s. aid said it's because the government grant ended. for those thousands of users, it vanished without a trace. >> the moment when it disappeared was like a vacuum in that in the end, we never learned what happened. we never learned where it came from. >> now they may know where it came from, washington, d.c. >> the network's computers
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allegedly stored and analyzed demographic information and user messages to determine political tendencies. >> still ahead this morning, in one ruling, the supreme court wipes away decades of campaign finance reform. >> who is likely to benefit the most from removing donation limits, plus how much the changes could affect future elections. >> our big number of the day is 7 billion. >> why that number could skyrocket, because of that supreme court ruling. >> also ahead this morning, struggling to rebuild a wine cellar destroyed by hurricane sandy, the lessons about the value and taste of inexpensive wines and how they might benefit you.
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although they are complaining right now. now. >> >> thanks a lot. we're going to have much more on this. in our next hour, john mccain's response to the ruling that wiped out reforms the senator helped put in place, plus how the changes could affect america's image of the republican party. >> can we talk about the temperatures? >> let's talk about that. >> walking to work, it has been beautiful the last couple of days. >> unfortunately, not the case everywhere.
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meteorologist nicole mitchell is back. >> i walk in the middle of winter, you just have to have the right coat, right? >> we have the big temperature contrast, this section of the country, look at changes, from wichita to oklahoma city, over a 20-degree change. that's where the front is, warm, moist air helping fuel that risk of severe weather today. >> four people dead after a soldier opened fire at fort hood. >> neighbors talk about the gunman and his wife's reaction to the news, plus the security changes put in place after the first mass shootings at the military post and if they affected the response to this attack. >> millions of syrians fleeing their home country in serve of a safer life. what's being called a devastating milestone in the refugee crisis.
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>> good morning, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm stephanie sy. >> i'm thomas drayton. is live on an army post any safer than a regular american community? i spent most of my life on military installations and there were safety concerns. >> don't know how to you pick out an inexpensive bottle of wine? >> if you're like me, i always go for the white zinfandel, because that's all i know. >> we'll talk to an expert. >> the new ways predators are using to get around predatory measures and get access to kids on line. what every parent should know to keep their children safe. >> federal agents and army investigators are search forego answers this morning in that deadly shooting at fort hood. >> a soldier opened fire at the
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texas military post, killing three and injuring 16 before turning the gun on himself. the attack is the second shooting at the nation's largest army post in five years. >> all year but still far from ok this morning at fort hood. >> he walked into a unit building, opened fire, got into a vehicle, fired from a vehicle, got out of the vehicle, walked into another building and opened fire again. >> three people were killed, 16 injured in the attack before the suspected gunman identified by military sources as 34-year-old ivan lopez apparently turned his weapon on himself. >> we do not know a motive. we do know that this soldier had behavior health and mental health issues and was being treated for that. >> lopez was undergoing diagnostic testing for post traumatic stress disorder. officials say in 2011, he served four months of combat duty in
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iraq. >> you never know who you live next door to. >> this woman was with the wife of the suspected gunman when she heard the tragic news. >> she wasn't able to say anything. she just broke down. it was like she was hurting and was in disbelief. >> shock and pain felt in central texas. >> i think we all feel in debted to the men and women to serve our country and put themselves in harm's way and it is hard breaking to be so close to such a tragic event as this. >> a tragedy that affects the entire country. >> we're heartbroken that something like this might have happened again. >> in 2009, major nadal hasan opened fire at nation's largest army post killing 13 and injuring 30. >> in 2009, i was here and it happened again. it's unbelievable. >> and unbearable for the family
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and friends of those injured. >> for more on the inner workings of ford hood witness a former military prosecutor. he joins us via skype from houston this morning. great to have you with us mr. corn. when looking back to the 2009 attack on fort hood, has anything really changed on military posts and bases? >> well, i think the answer's yes. i think that the military security services both uniformed and civilian on the installations have become much more effective at responding to active shooter incidents, but ultimately, i don't think there's any way that it's possible to guarantee that incidents like this will not happen. it's like any other aspect of our community. this f. someone's determined to commit this kind of heinous crime, they're going to be able
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to do it. >> do you think military police who are armed are enough on such large and contained installations? >> well, it's not just military police, it's also the civilian federal police services that are on the installation. the a question like that on a morning like this is always difficult. the instincts would be to say no, we all wish we had had more security, but at what cost? we could arm everybody, have soldiers walking around constantly with service weapons and ammunition, but there probably be would more accidents or incidents if we did that than under conditions now. i think that the balance is about right, even though this is a tragic consequence of an individual who just snapped and decided to take the lives of other people. >> it's certainly impossible to search every vehicle entering the base or post. do you think this will spark the
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debate about concealed weapons on military incidents lakes. >> i was a guest last night and a former military officer argued that he felt safer in springfield, virginia. i think other people would contest that. we know that in areas of our country where people are entitled to carry weapons, there are incidents of violence, sometimes mass violence. i think ultimately, when you look at record of safety and security on military bases, although there have been several tragic incidents recently, in the totallity of the analysis, it's pretty good and people have a sense of confidence on the installation. they can own private weapons in their residence, as long as they're registered. allowing soldiers to carry concealed weapons i think is a step that the military would be very reluctant to take. >> i know it's very difficult on the morning after, we always look back. we talk and focus on guns, but
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do you think we should be doing more screening for ptsd and other mental illness within the military? >> i think if we had the capacity to do more, i think every commander, every leader in the military would want to do more. it's ultimately a question of resources and availability and demands on the system. i do think that one of the issues that's going to come out of this is going to be some criticism of the lack of sufficient resources to deal with the challenges that these young men and women confront after multiple deployments. we know that veterans are waiting extensively to get treatment and to get diagnosed and evaluated. that is, i think a problem that needs to be considered and maybe the d.o.d. is going to have to devote more resources to the mental health issues that so many of these service members seem to be dealing with.
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>> a lot of questions will be raised moving forward. former military prosecutor, certainly appreciate you joining us this morning. >> the post is in central texas, it is the military's largest active duty arm post, training women for the army reserve and national guard. 45,000 soldiers are stationed there, many have served tours of duty in iraq and afghanistan. the soldiers have nicknamed fort hood the great place, because the standard of living is considered much better than at other army posts. >> stay with aljazeera america for in-depth coverage of the fort hood shooting. in our next hour, a live property from the military post and washington's response to the attack. >> there are more than a million syrian refugees in lebanon, called a devastating milestone. in 2012, 17,000 had crossed the border. last year, their numbers jumped
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to over 300,000. but the latest count for 2014, there are over a million registered sir jen refugees in that country. >> as aljazeera reports, the massive in flux is putting a huge strain on lebanon and forcing officials to make difficult decision. >> this is one of the first destinations the new refugees reach. thousands come here requesting aid. lebanon is one of the countries that has the highest concentration number of refugees in recent history. lebanon was a country of 4 million people and they have over a million registered refugees and 10,000s more not even registered. every day, 2500 syrians cross the border looking for aid, shelter and all kind of services. the lebanese government and the u.n. agencies here say they don't have enough money to provide anymore. not only money, but even the
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infrastructure inside lebanon is suffering. water resores, electricity, health confidences and education. just to give you an example, 300,000 lebanese children are registered in public schools and now we have on top of that, 400,000 syrian children. they need to get into school, but only 100,000 are enrolled. 300,000 syrian children don't have a school to go to. today, the 1 million registered refugees, he came from the city of homs with his two sisters and mother. they were evacuated in february. only until this day, he was registered and maybe in a month will receive aid. many people here have been declined because the u.n. said it doesn't have enough resources anymore and it has to make the painful decision of declining to help those who do need help.
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>> aljazeera reporting for the u.n. agency's registration center in tripoli. >> g.m. c.e.o. mary barra faced a tough day of questions, lawmakers accusing the company of covering up an ignition problem linked to 13 deaths. one senator asked barra if the company decided it was cheaper to pay for lawsuits resulting from the faulty parts than launch a recall. >> do you know if g.m. ever used this kind of cost benefit analysis in its history. >> documents were shared with me yesterday that if they're true, will demonstrate that it's completely unacceptable. >> i didn't ask you that. i said do you know if g.m. ever used this kind of cost benefit analysis in its history. do you know. >> if it was used not for a safety item. it would be unacceptable. >> barra, who has been with g.m. for over 30 years said she didn't know about the ignition problems until be became c.e.o.
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just three months ago. the company apologized to pictures' families and faces lawsuits that may not be the end of the story. the attorney's office in new york is launching an investigation into all the way it was handled. >> medicare plans to release billing data for 800 ate thousand physicians could happen next week, providers listed by name, procedures and amount they were paid. individual patient information will not be made public. consumer groups said it will be easier to track quality and spot fraud. some doctors say it's an invasion of privacy. >> a look at how the service sector is holding up with the dow starting just shy of the record at 16573, the s&p kicks off at another record 1890, the nasdaq at 4276. over seas, asian markets ending
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mostly higher after china propped up its economy, including offering tax breaks to small businesses. european markets mostly lower, policy makers urged to take action to stimulate europe's economy. >> cooking up that breakfast, grub hub is gearing up for its wall street debut, expected to set the price of its initial public offering after the market closed today. it raised its estimate between $23 and $25 a share. that values the company at nearly $2 billion. the stock is expected to list on the new york stock exchange under the ticker symbol grub. >> new legal headaches for citigroup, "the new york times" reports federal authorities have opened a criminal investigation into the $400 million fraud involving the bank's mexican unit. the probe is looking into whether the bank ignored warning
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signs and if lack of internal controls contributed to the fraud in mexico. >> a famous father's legacy can be a tough one to live up to, but a couple have nba stars are doing that and more. >> john henry smith is joining us with the story of two teammates with special dads. talk about a special bond here. >> really a couple of very special players. golden states warrior guard seth curry and steven thomson set the most points in a season. this season, they can break their own record. as you're about to see, these teammates have more in common than a catchy nickname and their love of the three-point shot. >> there's no doubt seth curry and klay thompson are deadly from behind the arc. that's why they have earned the nickname the splash brothers. >> he got it. >> i like it. you know, it started to coach jackson kind of labeling us one of the best shooting back courts in the history of the game. >> how did currie and thomson
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become two of the best shooters in the nba? it's in their d.n.a., both of their fathers played in the league for years and had successful careers. >> clay's dad played a little before clay can remember. i remember a lot of any dad's career, so only a little difference there, but, you know, when you grow up around the game of basketball with a dad that was successful, a lot of comparisons and it's nice that somebody else has gone through kind of the same situation you did growing up. >> seth's dad played for 16 seasons and was one of the top 10 three-point shooters of all time. >> he was direct with me about, you know, my potential in the game and what he saw. >> direct is good. i always let him know where i thought he was at, what he needed to work on, what to work on, what he needed to do. >> i could never create a shot or handle the ball all the way he does. >> his dad was a rugged big man who retired with two
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championship rings. >> i told him every minute of basketball you'll remember as the sweetest time of your life. >> my dad appreciated patience. that helped me when i was going through a slump. >> their dads of set the tone on off the court, as well. >> i was never flashy, the kids were around me growing up. they saw how dad handled himself. hopefully, i passed that on. >> for sure, i'm sure that had something to do with it. they let us be ourselves and i'm sure they might have something to say along all the way, but that's not who we are. i got a little bit of style, but i don't need the flashy jesus piece and the bling to let it speak for me. >> he jokes about it, i just learn from him how to, you know, take care of your family, put your work first -- in mean family first, work second and everything will fall into place. >> scoring 30 points, that's all great, part of it, but when they toll me how nice he is to
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everybody, that makes me real proud of him. >> with their sons' on the court partnership, you think the dads would get together to watch their kids play, but they never have. thomson broadcasts for the lakers, dell currie for the bob cots. >> that's too bad. >> to imagine what you do, to be a fly on the wall. >> thank you. >> how a hurricane affected one restaurant owner's view of wine. >> his most expensive bottles of wine were ruined, so what did he do? he drank the wine inside. what he discovered about fine wine that is revolutionized all the way he thinks about the industry and how it could help you save some money.
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>> americans drink 850 million gallons of wine every year. >> why you are pointing at me? >> the question is which wine to buy. we have the story of a wine director at a top new york city restaurant who had the rare opportunity to try some of the world's priceyest wines and he said they're not worth your money. >> perched on the edge of the east river, the river cafe rebuilt in the wake of hurricane sandy. a new wine cellar, a new kitchen, a new dining room. floodwaters ravaged the restaurant from the inside-out, the damage severe. >> it was full of water up to about here. >> joe, the river cafe's wine director lost many of the restaurant's finest bottles. >> this is a 1972, which normally would have sold for somewhere in the range of about $8,000 to $10,000. i made the mistake of having some of the more expensive rare
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wines at the bottom. we now put them at the top. >> he started at the river cafe when he was 23, then a wine novice in an industry only just getting started in america. >> my father owned a little brooklyn bar. wine was considered, well that's what you drink when you're not drinking. >> he built from 12 bottles to 750. now one of new york's most substantial wine lists. after sandy, half of the cafe's 10,000 bottles were ruined. it gave joe the chance to try some of the most choice bottles that were damaged only in appearance and then a revelation. >> they weren't worth the hype. they won't worth the cost, and the biggest problem that i've seen evolving is probable the alcohol levels in wines over the past 10 years. >> alcohol in wines around the world hasriesen by 2% over the last decade. joe said that's a problem for
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aging wine. >> as the natural evolution of a wine takes place and the acid levels drop and fruit drops and the alcohol is still there, it stays the same. what you have now is wines that don't age and that are unbalanced. >> while some say global warming is responsible for the spike. others say it has more to do with impressing critics who often reward powerful and robust wines with high ratings, pushing up price. instead of buying back all the top shelf wines lost, joe decided to stock the cellar with more affordable, approachable wine that is pair well with food. >> because we have a good variety of wines and pricing on the wine, everybody hawaiian, which is nice for a chef. >> the river cafe still has the marquee bottles on its list, but it's pushing pass the ratings labels and asking is the juice worth it. >> a wine should be like a good conversation and that should get
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deeper and deeper as you go into the bottle. >> after a storm and recovery, a nice glass of wine shows sometimes good things come in pairs. aljazeera america, new york. >> this is aljazeera, folks, not the fourth hour of the today show, but when it comes to wine, we're going to talk about that today. some say you get what you pay for. andrew bell, president of american sommelier joins us this morning. good morning. >> good morning. >> are you seeing a movement away from the rare expensive wines? >> there's certainly a movement toward affordability. the value of a bottle of wine is a function of what you can afford to pay as often as you want to drink it. >> alcohol content in wine, i understand, i want to talk about this, has increased on average by 2%. why, and does that affect the taste of wine? >> absolutely. you can talk about global warming, about the heat or the
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signature of the weather in the region where the grapes are grown. the warmer it gets, the more sugar in the wine. >> does it affect flavor and burble? durability. >> sugar rises, acid decreases, limiting agability. >> we see a lot of twist off bottles, box wines. there's sort of a stigma attached to those, but is that fair? are those wines necessarily not as palatable? >> if you like to have a certainty of the integrity of whets in the bottle, a screw cap is a sure fire way to make sure the wine's perfect, because there's no live material like a cork that comes off the bark of a cork tree. >> the. >> tops better. >> they're better in the sense of the integrity of the wine but there's an agability issue, because they're not necessarily porous. >> people like me that go into a wine shop and have no idea what
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to get but want an affordable bottle, i see you did bring some bottles of wine. what are some tips to choose a night bat jewel know what you're willing to pay, don't be talked above that and have three or four adjectives when you enjoy drinking at home, so you can say i like it fruity, juicy, a little sweet, bone dry, and guide the conversation with the retailer. >> are there certain varieties of wine that are safer bets like a cab-sav versus a riesling versus a merlot. >> overall, old world from europe is lower in alcohol and have more earthiness and spice. the new world will be juicier, truthier and have a fruit forward profile to it, more alcohol and less acid. >> great tips. thanks so much for joining us. >> my pleasure. >> thank you. talk about a public uproar, it
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is forcing atlanta's roman catholic archbishop to look for a new place to live. archbishop gregory turned his home into a rectory for priests and moved into a brand new mansion in a plush neighborhood that was built just for him. catholics criticized him for not following the example of austerity set by pope francis. the archbishop apologized and said the new mansion will ultimately be sold. >> i'm disappointed in myself and i don't intend to do that mistake again, namely not take the opportunity of hearing my people. >> where did the money come from? >> a single donation from joe jeff mitchum made the new mansion possible. he is the nephew of gone with the wind author margaret mitchell. >> we could be dealing with strong storms across the country, nicole mitchell tracking the activity.
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>> storms this time of year, this is getting into severe season, this is more unusual, the snow we're already seeing in the midwest, places like far go, minneapolis with rain, temperatures above freezing, so converting over to snow. heavy rain, even when we're not seeing the severe weather. snow total significant. this isn't just a little bit of april snow. we have different warnings and watches across the region, some places could get over a foot. i'll talk more about the severe side in a bit. >> a delta airlines jet slid off the runway last night at new york's kennedy airport after making an emergency landing. the flight originated in atlanta, supposed to land at laguardia airport. the plane was diverted to j.f.k. because of a hydraulic system problem. the plane touched down, then rolled into a grassy area as it was taxiing to the terminal.
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>> a soldier opens fire at fort hood texas, killing three and injuring 16 others. details are slowly emerging about the gunman's emotional troubles. >> the u.s. backed a social media platform aimed at creating an uprising in cuba. the twitter like service was meant to spark dissent for the communist government. >> a supreme court decision ends limits on how much americans can give to political campaigns. critics worry it will create a world of corruption where the rich can buy political influence. >> afghan citizens head to the polls to vote for a new president. a look at who's vying for that job and where they stand on u.s. troops remaining in that country. >> keeping your kids on line, dangers from child predators trying to reach them and what you can do to protect them. >> the aljazeera america morning news continues. have a great morning.
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a live look at park avenue in new york city, this is the latest public art exhibit to grace the street. aljazeera america is coming right back.
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>> the united states tried to create an uprising in cuba and tried to hide it. >> what is worth than raising a child for 15 years and then in one second, knowing you'll never see her again. >> a parent's worst nightmare object on line predators getting access to their kids. safety measures aren't doing enough to protect them. >> good morning, welcome to al jazeera america. i'm stephanie sy. people in fort hood in texas be coming to grips with another tragedy this morning. a texas congressman identified 34-year-old army specialist i've van lopez as the gunman who opened fire at the military post. army officials say the iraq war veteran allegedly shot and
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killed three soldiers and injured 16 before killing himself. officials say he was in the process of being evaluated for mental health issues. the news sent shock waves around the community, including a woman who says she was with the suspect's wife at the time of the shooting. >> she wasn't able to say anything. she just broke down. it was like she was hurting. >> brandon is in texas where the fort hood army installation is located. what you are hearing about the 16 people injured yesterday? >> of the most seriously injured, three remain in critical condition, six others are now in serious condition. they're expected to be upgraded to fair sometime today. the motive is still not known, but authorities are trying to figure out what led to it all. >> the shooting quickly put ford hood, the u.s.'s largest
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military installation, on lockdown. it sparked a huge police response, as word quickly spread that the gunman, an enlisted soldier dressed in his army uniform was on the loose, firing his weapon, a 45 caliber handgun he apparent snuck on to the army post. officials believe the shooter, identified as army specialist ivan lopez by texas congressman mccall entered this believe, fired his weapon and got into a vehicle, fired again before heading into another building where the shooting continued. >> within 15 minutes, first responders from the military police and military services responded to the scene, engaged the shooter and the shooter is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. >> the confrontation between lopez and the military police ended in a parking lot. >> we have confirmed that there
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are three victims who were killed and then the shooter was killed. there are 16 injured being treated at scott and white and here at darnell. >> nine of the injured, some in critical condition were quickly transported by ground and air to nearby hospitals. >> they've had a variety of injuries that we've treated, ranging from gunshot wound that is involved extremities, abdomen, chest and neck. >> for the thousand living and working at fort hood, the violence of a stark reminder of 2009 when army major nidal hassan's shoot be ram pain left 13 dead and 32 wounded. he now faces death by lethal injection. as authorities look for a motive, they do not think this is a link to terrorism. more is known about lopez, he
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served in iraq in 2011, was married, had been undergoing treatment for depression and was being evaluated for post traumatic stress disorder. >> fort hood was on lock gown for several hours, now back open, traffic moving freely, although there have been and will be some activities canceled for the day. >> are investigators closer this morning to determine ago motive. >> they talked with witnesses, hope to get an idea from conversations with those witnesses. at this time, still no word on a motive. >> reporting from texas, thank you. >> fort hood is in central texas between dallas and austin. it is the military's largest active duty armored post. it also trains men and women for the army reserve and national guard. currently, about 45,000 soldiers are stationed there, many surfed tours in iraq and afghanistan.
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they have nicknamed ford hood the great place because the standard of living is considered much better than at other army posts. president obama is vowing to get to the bottom of the statal shootings at fort hood. randall pinkston is in washington for us. what else are we hearing out of the white house? >> president obama was in chicago when he heard that the 33-year-old soldier used a privately owned smith and wesson resolver and turned it on his fellow soldiers. the f.b.i. is joining the d.o.d. heading up the investigation into determining what happened and how such a tragedy could occur in the same place twice. >> any shooting is troubling. obviously, this reopens the pain of what happened at fort hood five years ago. we know these families. we know their incredible service to our country and the sacrificing that they make. obviously our thoughts and prayers are with the entire
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community, and the we are going to do everything we can to make sure that the community at fort hood has what it needs. >> the president said that he is getting updates from his national security team. stephanie. >> meanwhile, randall, defense secretary was in hawaii at the time of the shooting. what was his message after wednesday's fort hood incident? >> the secretary who himself is a military veteran extended deepest sympathies to the families of the victims, and the fact that it happened in the same place was also something else that he was concerned about. he is looking into how there was an apparent breakdown of the system that's supposed to protect military personnel on military facilities. >> when we have these kinds of tragedies on our bases, something's not worked. so we'll identify it, get the facts, and we'll fix it. >> hagel said there's nothing more important than the safety and well being of america's
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military. >> of course the shooting has brought up memories of the 2009 shootings at fort who the. how is the military responding in terms of providing services to victims and their families? >> the first thing the military does was reassure everyone that apparently unlike the 2009 shooting, they're apparently at this point of the investigation no connection to terrorism. fort hood set up counseling centers on the post and surrounding communities. the base has 45,000 active duty personnel. you also have 17,000 family members living on the base and more than a quarter million in surrounding communities, so they are providing counseling services for the people who are obviously very shaken by this tragic incident. >> i would imagine so, randall, thank you. >> chili has been hit again by a huge after shock. the powerful 7.8 magnitude quake struck off the northern coast
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and coastal evacuations in peru were triggered. it comes after an 8.2 earthquake hit the region. two people were killed in tuesday's earthquakes. there are no reports of damage or injuries from wednesday's after shock. >> president obama signed a major disaster declaration for disaster caused in the washington state mud slide, meaning help for the victims. the death toll stands at 29. twenty people remain missing. more heavy rain is on its way. officials are working on a plan to prevent the melting snow from flooding the disaster zone so they can continue their search. >> the new ukrainian government has detained members of an elite riot police unit suspected of shooting protestors during anti-government clashes in february that left more than 100 dead. the government report on the killings will be released today. meanwhile, russian foreign minister sergey lavrov said troops massed near the border with ukraine will be returning
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to their normal post as soon as they have completed their the accident tasks. he said russia did nothing inappropriate sending additional troops to its own borders. russian president vladimir putin is flexing his military muscle again, sending more deadly weapons to syria. the report said moscow is supplying damascus with arm vehicles, tanks and helicopters, supporting bashar al assad's government, defying the u.s. and the nato. >> there are now more than 1 million syrian refugees in lebanon. it is called a devastating milestone. when the war began three years ago, 2,000 syrians fled to lebanon. in 2012, 17,000 crossed the border. last year, that jumped to over 300,000 and by the u.n.'s latest counts for 2014, there are over a million syrian refugees in
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that country. the massive in flux is having a huge strain on the government and forcing officials to make difficult decisions. >> this is one of the registration centers and this is one of the first places the refugees reach out to whenever they reach lebanon. thousands of them, every day, 2500 cross. in the past few months, many refugees have been declined help because the resources that the u.n. agencies have and the lebanese government have depleted. they don't have anymore moneys to give away, they don't have more money to provide services. just to put things in context, lebanon has 4 million people and there are over 1 million refugees, so you can tell there's a big burden that the lebanese government is shouldering. with us here is nanette kelly, the representative for united nations high commission for
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refugees. exactly why is this becoming such a challenging task to provide for all these refugees? >> we have the sheer number of it, a million refugees in lebanon, 2.5 million syrian refugees in the region altogether, 6.5 million syrians displaced inside syria. it's a humanitarian disaster. the refugee agency hasn't seen anything like this in decades. one quarter of the population now are refugees. imagine connecticut receiving a million refugees in the same time period. here, what we're seeing is that the local infrastructure is starting to really buckle under the strain of these increased refugees. we see it in terms of public services, the demand on health services, among education. we also see that the project jill infrastructure that exists here is starting to buckle under the strain. you see it in terms of water shortages, electricity cutouts,
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and a waste management problem that is getting greater every day. >> thank you very much. as you can see and she had explained to us, the economic hardships, but for the lebanese government, there's another aspect to the challenge which is security. they people this is a growing threat to the stability of the country, there are over a million people here, many of them have been politicized or involved in the crisis in syria and the lebanese government says it's going to take only time before things get out of hand as a result of the presence of this huge number of refugees in lebanon. >> aljazeera reporting from the u.n. refugee center in lebanon. >> still no sign of the missing malaysia airlines flight 370. today the pilots and crews searching for the plane were thanked. the australian airport base in
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perth is acting as a hub for the operation. they are confident their efforts would provide closure for the tragedy. >> we could be dealing with severe weather today, including the chance for tornadoes. for more, let's bring in meteorologist nicole mitchell. >> st. louis had tornado sirens with all the severe weather. all all the way south to north and north side is snow. yesterday, as well, causing those problems. warm, humid air. you need that moisture and the heat to fire this system. the lift mechanism, cold front and dry line pushed those into the atmosphere. on the back that have dry air side, enough that there's a fire danger for west texas. there's a lot going on being caused by this system. here's storm damage from yesterday. you can see a lot of kansas, then spilling into missouri with
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the blues hinge hailed. over 100 reports of hail. we do have one report in kansas of a rope tornado, usually the last stages of a tornado, although not always, and then another recently come in from the st. louis area causing roof damage. yesterday was a slight risk, today a moderate risk. the risk is more elevated today. hail is still the primely concern, but through this area, we do have the isolated chance, very likely that somewhere, we'll be seeing a tornado or two in all of this. the northern edge, heavy rain, so flood concerns, mississippi into illinois will spread through the course of the day. i mentioned the snowy side, some places could get a foot of snow in minnesota and wisconsin through tomorrow. >> nicole mitchell, thank you. >> the mayor of albuquerque new mexico is in a hurry to clean up his police department. a video showing police shooting and killing an unarmed homeless man last month set off days of
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violent street protests. the justice democratic has been investigating allegation of excessive force and civil rights violations by the albuquerque police department. the mayor asked the feds to speed up the probe. >> it's an all-clear this morning at kent state university in ohio. the school was put on lockdown after a man fired a gun on campus. police captured the suspect, now in custody at a local hospital. in 1970, the campus was the site of a deadly shooting when national guardsman killed four students protesting the vietnam war. >> the home of the gunman who killed 26 children and teachers at sand wh sandy hook elementard she demolished. the home has been appraised at $100,000. others say what the community needs most is more counseling. the foundation that conducted the study is trying to help the town to distribute millions of dollars in donations.
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>> historical elections in afghanistan days away as the afghan people go to the polls to choose their next leader. will the u.s. have a role in helping to shape the future of this country? >> a secret government program exposed to the political revolution the u.s. hoped to spark in cuba using technology and the steps they took to stay under the radar. [ male announcer ] it's here -- xfinity watchathon week,
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♪ >> welcome to al jazeera america. afghans head to the polls to elect a new president, marking the first democratic transition of power in the country if successful, but the taliban carried out several high profile attacks in the run up to election day, targeting polling centers and candidates. bernard smith followed one of the leading candidates, the runner up from the 2009 election. >> it was chaotic, crowded and almost out of control. that seems to be just but abdullah abdullah likes it.
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it is his second attempt to win the presidency. >> the size of this crowd isn't necessarily a reflection of the support for abdullah, but does show the enthusiasm and interest in the election process in afghanistan. >> abdullah has crisscrossed the country on his mission. to right or wrong, he and many afghans felt was committed in 2009 when he lost the election to hamid karzai. it was a poll with widespread ballot stuffing. >> the voters are much more aware of their rights. it's much better conscious decision than it used to be. they are asking about the outcome. >> abdullah abdullah needs more than 50% of the vote to win outright. to help his chances, he's chosen two running mates he once fought
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against during the civil war. the parties they belong to ended up destroying kabul. without an outright winner, the election goes to a run off between the top two candidates. here abdullah has a warning for the election organizers. >> if it goes to a runoff, we are prepared. that will become difficult. that will create a very uncertain situation. i hope that's not the case. >> ethnicity matters in afghanistan and abdullah abdullah knows that. abdullah will need to attract broad based support if he's to have any chance of being propelled to the presidency. bernard smith, aljazeera, afghanistan. >> mark jake con send is a
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senior advisor at the truman project. how much does it matter to use foreign policy at this point who wins the afghan presidency? >> i think that we are at a pivotal moment. this is a real transition, the first real transition of political power in afghanistan in decades. we are talking about a new leader who most importantly is not hamid karzai and secondly a leader that is going to take afghanistan into a period where it is largely self reliant, without the sort of military support and without the sort of development and international aid it's relied on in the past. >> let's compare this election to the 2009 election when you saw u.s. troops helping to guard voters and polling stations. we're not expecting to see that this time around.
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why not? >> i think if you look at 2009 presidential elections, the 2010 parliamentary elections and now the 2014 presidential and provincial council elections, you see two things in terms of security. first, you have the nato forces gradually pulling out so they are the outer rings, the last line of defense. only if there's a true crisis would the afghan national police and army require support. the afghan national security forces today are much more capable than back in 2009. you've seen this in their response to the last several attacks that have happened in the kabul area itself. >> let's look at some poll results about how afghans feel about this election. according to a recent gallup poll, 70% of afghans lack confidence in the honesty of elections and that number is significantly higher than in 2009 when 49% lacked faith in the electoral process.
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is there going to be a credibility problem for whoever wins? >> this concerns me, just the numbers. you can't simply discount them, but at the same time, what i'm seeing, even in just the news clips you showed before, the enthusiasm for this election, the desire of the afghan people to participate in the process, i think is a more important metric than the polling. polling is always very strange in afghanistan, and the numbers that would be important are after the election. do the afghan people have credibility or i'm sorry, do the afghan people believe that the process they just participated in was fair and just and does the new leader represent their interests, that will be the telling factor and that's absolutely critical to afghanistan moving forward. >> let's talk about the election relative to u.s. policy. all three candidates are willing to sign the bilateral service
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agreement. is that any guarantee? >> i think it's likely that -- well again, all the candidates have declared that they are going to sign the b.s.a. i think it's likely they will. what i wouldn't be surprised to see, however is a little bit of renegotiation or a request for renegotiation by let's say abdullah abdullah, the likely next president really to help solidify domestic base to say we know the loyal jurga passed this, but we're not going to roll over for the what nato and america wants. >> mr. jacobsen, thank you very much. nicole mitchell is back. >> good morning. milder trend for the east coast,
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cooler trend for the west coast with moisture coming in. the midsection of the country really have the big contrast. places like kansas versus oklahoma, temperatures go from the 40s to the 70's quickly with that boundary coming through and a lot of 70's, but due points sets that moisture in the atmosphere that we measure are in the 60's. those are dewpoints that you help fuel the storm. combination of heat, high humidity and all of the lists coming on today is why we have the severe weather. on the north side, minneapolis with rain, but that will switch over to snow, given all that moisture. back to you. >> the justices speak, and now a decision by the supreme court could change the business of political contributions. thousands of firefighters from across the country gathering in boston to honor fallen comrades. >> i have seen a conversation
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turn from how are you doing to sexual favors back and forth. >> a website giving on line predators a new way to be in contact with kids, by passing measures aimed at keeping young users safe. >> i'm john henry smith. the world cup over two months away, the u.s. and mexico continue their heated rivalry. highlights of this friendly world cup warm up game later.
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>> a live look now at sculpture cyclone twist on display in new york city. good morning, welcome to aljazeera america. i'm stephanie sy. ahead, the secret program by the u.s. to damage cuba's government, and a program of a different type bringing students with autism together with their classmates to help conquer the social challenges of high school. >> first, a ruling by the
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supreme court that could make money even more powerful in american politics. many conservatives say the ruling is a win for free speech, critics say it will divide the country further along economic lines. we report on the campaign finance decision. >> it was another close decision on a sharply divided supreme court, voting 5-4, conservatives on the court struck down limits on the total amount donors can give to candidates. it was $123,000. writing for the major city, chief justice john roberts: >> justice steven briar who cited the controversial 2010 court decision opening the door for unlimited donations and
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spending on political issues: >> it's expected to hurt democrats. >> they wish to dismantle all limits on giving piece by piece until we are back to the days of the robber barons, when anyone or anything could give unlimited money, undisclosed and make our political system seem so rigged that everyone will lose interest in our democracy. >> welcoming the decision, house speaker john boehner, saying donations can now flow directly to the candidates and by pass road groups that have undermind his authority. >> it's pushing all the money
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into outside party structure into various forums. i'm all for freedom, congratulations. >> critics say the wealthy already that actions and influence and this decision will skew it further. in the cost of elections steadily increasing, in 1998, the total cost are congressional races was $1.6 billion. by 2012, it was $3.6 billion. presidential races, the cost has doubled from $1.4 billion in 2000 to 2.6 in 2012. with the current makeup of the supreme court, the lid may soon come completely off campaign finance limits. >> campaign finance, the restrictions as they exist now seems to be in danger. the court has reroded some of the main restraints on wealthy individuals being able to have
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outside influence on the process. >> joining us now to discuss the possible effects this decision could have is the deputy communications director for the republican national committee, joining us from washington. thanks for being with us. how do you think this decision -- thanks for having me. >> how do you think this decision is going to affect your party? >> well, i think it's important to start with the fact that this wasn't a win for one party or the other, it's a win for free speech. i think that what you see here and what some of the speakers you just played were missing was this doesn't dismantle the individual limits and how much you can give to a candidate. what it did change was how many candidates you can support. >> right, wimp means that you can -- >> free choice -- >> that means $6.3 million is what you can give if you supported each candidate running for congress. it doesn't change the individual
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lits. i just want to talk about the dissenting opinion, since you bring it up, if the court in citizens united opened a door, today's decision may well open a flood gate. are you concerned at all that all of this money flowing from a small number of very rich people is going to corrupt the political system? >> well, i'd say that right now, there's no evidence that this will actually put more money into the system. those donors can give to any number of outside organizations. what this does do is allow them to give money directly to candidates that's disclosable, you can see everything that's going on. it's a pretty easy website. >> a lot of people are saying at least it offers this transparency if you do donate. one prominent republican, though, senator john mccain who
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had been at the forefront of campaign reform issued this kit six, saying: >> does this decision, combined with the citizens united case spell the end of campaign finance reform? >> well, with all due respect to senator mccain, we disagree on what the first amendment says there. i think it's important that people realize, justice thomas in his concurring opinion has a foot nate that says when jay-z goes campaigning to the president, his final or frankly my time or your time, his is worth more. why should he have significantly more influence than someone who
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just wants to support all of the school choice capped dates in the country. >> jay-z being one of those individual donors. how will this affect the mid term elections at all, if you think. >> that's a really interesting question. what you had before was that you could only support nine candidates under the maximum allowable contribution limits, wimp meant that the vast majority of people were going to give to the top nine competitive races, whether according to polling or the cook report or something else. what you have now is that we can expand the map, have more competitive races in the country. i think that means getting to talk about more ideas, more solutions to the problems that americans face, and we could always use more of that. so i think that will actually expand the map and where we're all looking at for election in the next season. >> deputy communications director for the republican national committee, really appreciate your perspective,
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thank you. >> the top story, the shooting at fort hood army post, the military installation is located in texas. join us now is the mayor. thank you so much for your time this morning. this must be a shock to you and your city. what went through your mind when you first heard about the shooting yesterday as it unfolded? >> it's kind of like a kick in the gut. my first thought was i hope no one's been injured or killed. as we found out about three people in our community killed and 16 injured, it made me think of other incidents. our community is very resilient. we'll deal with this, work
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together. these are our friends and neighbors suffering. their america's heroes. we pray for them when they're deployed. it's sad when something like this happens. >> you mentioned three killed and 16 victims injured during the shootle. do you have anymore information about who they are this morning and how they're doing? >> we're not allowed to release any information with regard to that, but there's three in critical condition. we hope that they are able to pull through. the medical team at scott white memorial hospital intel p.m. is terrific, going above and beyond to help everyone in our community. >> do you think enough was done on post, post 2009 after that mass shoot to go secure these folks that are on that base?
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>> it's impossible for any organization to provide 100% assurance of security. there are tens of thousands of cars that go in and out of fort hood every day. of those, more than 41,000 soldiers, about 70% live off post with their families, and as they travel back and forth, they have to go through these entrances, it would be logistically gobble to do a detailed search of every vehicle. it would take thousands of people, create such bottle next and traffic inability and inconvenience of getting back and forth to work and getting back on post. i just think they're doing all they can reasonably do under the circumstances. >> your city obviously must have a unique bond with fort hood. talk about how tightly the communities are interwoven.
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i got here right after vietnam and made this my home. there are many military and retired military. we thighs with these folks and empathize with we're very close. military calls an assignment at fort hood the great place, because of community support not only in killeen, but our surrounding cities. >> do you think enough is being done to address mental illness in the u.s. military? >> i think that the military is doing a tremendous job in trying
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to get help for soldiers who experience trauma in combat, both physical and mental. it's a difficult thing in our country to get soldiers especially the kinds of people who serve in our military, you know, these people are very highly trained, trained to kill people and break things and to try to get those kind of people to seek help for what is considered by many a weakness is a difficult thing to begin with. i think the military is doing a great job in making it much easier for soldiers to seek help with their emotional problems and to self admit add this young man did to his traumatic brain injury and seek treatment. the question is what kind of side effects is that going to have on unintended consequences if you tell someone who is seeking help may not know what kind of problem if any he has, or he or she has, and then do
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things like pull their concealed handgun carry permit and other things like that. you know, that would just be a further disincentive that could keep people from seeking treatment. it's a difficult issue. i know that the military at the very top from generals on down to the local commanders are very much concerned about making sure that their soldiers get the finest medical treatment they can to include psychiatric treatment. >> mayor dan corbin, the mayor of killeen texas, thank you for your team and our con doles for the loss in your community. >> we need everyone's prayers -- >> go ahead, sir. >> we need everyone's prayers to comfort the families of those who have lost their loved ones and pray for those who are in recovery at the hospitals, that they have a speedy recovery and can get on with their lives.
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>> indeed. thank you so much, sir. >> in an attempt to undermine cuba's communist government, the u.s. government created a secret social media platform to encourage dissent among young people in the country. that's according to a new investigation by the associated press and erica pitzi joins me now. >> tens of thousands of cuban residents posted opinions using this program on their cell phones. none of them knew americans were covertly collecting their data. >> undermining castro's cuba masterminding a secret social media network, america made the platform based on twitter, named for a cuban humming bird's tweet. >> you could log on and write
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140 characters and hit send. it was free of charge. >> the associated press reports the organizers of the american program made sure to grow the network slowly in order to avoid detection by the cuban government. they hold it would reach critical mass so dissidents could organize so-called smart mobs, similar to flash employees in that they're mass gatherings called at a moments notice, political demonstrations renegotiating the balance of power between the state and society. a former analyst for the senate foreign releases committee knew about the project. >> every agency of the u.s. government including unclassified programs want to protect certain details on who they're working with and all that have, but this was far beyond. we were told we couldn't even be told the in-broad terms what was happening because "people will die." >> the humanitarian group went to great lengths to hide america's ties to the project,
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spending $1.6 million setting up operating companies in spain and the caymans so the money would not be traced back to america. it abruptly shut down in 2012. u.s. aides say it was because the grant ended. it vanished without to trace to the users. >> sometimes i wonder where is this from, where does the money come from, because so many things can't come out of nowhere. >> now they know it may have come from washington, d.c. the networks computers stored and analyzed demographic information as well as their messages to determine political tendencies. >> can't wait to hear cuban reaction to this. >> a positive sign for the job market, a day before the key february employment report, a survey finds lieu of announcements fell in march and over the first three months of 2014, planned job cuts sunk to
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the lowest level of any first quarter in 19 years. out placement firm challenger said this shows the job recovery is getting stronger, but the number of people filing for new jobless benefit gross to 326,000, the highest level in a month. >> we'll have coverage of the jobs report tomorrow, right here on aljazeera america. >> on wall street, dow futures now up just four points after four straight days of gains, the dow starts just shy of a record, 16573. the s&p a record 1890, the nasdaq at 4276. asian markets end higher after china propped its economy with spending on rail ways and housing, offering tax breaks to small businesses. european markets are lower, interest rates left unchanged. >> one of the nba's best teams i
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also one of the league's hottest right now. they have an amazing winning streak. >> if you suddenly developed x-ray vision, number one, i'd wear a lead overcoat. if you used that to look inside a san antonio spurs player, i don't know if you'd find blood and guts or circuitry. they have won 50 games for four straight seasons. they had won 18 in a row coming into wednesday night. the spurs have a 15-point lead at the break. in the third, the subtle brilliance of tony parker using a slight step back to create space to knock down the j. the spurs are putting on another clinic. finding the open man who knocks down the three-point j., they go on to win 111-90 for their
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19th win in a row. >> the season is doomed or this is finally the year their guys go all all the way. that describes pittsburgh pirates fans. the cubs antraise puts the fear in the pirate faithful with his go ahead home run, cubs up 3-2. bottom of the inning, sterling marte will deposit this pitch into left field to drive in clint barmes with an r.b.i. single, back to a tied game situation. bottom of the 16th inning, runners at the corners, tony sanchez gives the pirates a 4-3 win and a 2-0 record. at 5:52, this was the longest game ever played in pittsburgh. >> derek jeter was plucked on the arm with a scott feldman pitch. wednesday, a set of golf clubs, cowboy bootses, greetings from
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teammates and to top it off, an ovation from astros players. now to the game. astros up 2-1 with 2 outs in the seventh when matt dominguez with the sole lehome run. the mets and yankees are combined 0-4. >> wednesday's friendly between team u.s.a. and mexico in soccer would be the chance that they deserve to represent america at the world cup. two players were not let to play. the u.s. up 2-01st half. mexico rallies, the corner kick find the back of the net. mexico back on the attack.
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the shot eats post, but there to feast on the rebound for the equalizer, the game ends in a 2-2 draw. >> that's your look at morning sports. >> an exciting soccer game for a change. >> for a change. [ laughter ] >> 95% of american teens are able to actions the worldwide web. the new threat in staying safe on line.
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>> thousands of firefighters from across the country lining the streets of boston wednesday to say goodbye to a fallen comrade. lt. edward walsh died battling a blaze at an apartment complex last week. firefighters will say final goodbyes to michael kennedy, who died trying to put out the fire. >> welcome back to aljazeera america.
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keeping your kids safe from the threat of on line predators, but first let's get a look at the weather. >> it's been a rough morning. if you were in st. louis in the 5:00 a.m. hour, getting woken up by tornado sirens as this line moved through. it left hail in cans and 20 homes potentially damaged with that possible tornado going through the area. the severe weather risk through the day, i've talked about this this morning. i want to get to the other side of this, the snow side. this is really significant, especially for this time of year. we're talking today and then even extending into tomorrow, places that could get a foot of snow and by tomorrow, northern wisconsin, michigan, some places over a foot, a foot and a half and there will be high winds with this, even picking up into tomorrow. already today in the 20-mile per hour range, but in the third-40-mile per hour range tomorrow, blowing snow and reduced visibility, the type of snowstorm that if you can stay at home one definitely want to.
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>> a new kind of satellite is blasting into space today. the sentinel one is scheduled to lift off from the european space agencies launch pad in french guyana. the satellite will be joined by five more over time. it uses sensors on the ground and in the air and monitors things like climate change, oil spills and land use. 95% of teenagers are on line, posting personal information including photos, emails, addresses, birth dates and even home addresses. we investigate who is looking at all the data and what happens when it falls into the wrong hands. >> what it's worth then raise ago child for 15 years and then in one second, knowing you'll never see her again. >> not much scares daniel, but when we caught up with the father of three girls, he took
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us to the place where he had the most frightening experience of his life. he discovered the ipad of his young evident daughter, shelby, open to a chat with a stranger. he tracked her to this apartment complex and found her and a friend with an older man they'd only just met on a social media website. >> i had seen their complete conversation that they had and it turned into hey, how are you doing to sexual favors back and forth. >> he raced to the apartment complex, lights flashing, hope to go attract the attention of police. the man fled when shelby told him her dad was coming, but many other children have not been so fortunate. meetme.com where the girls met the stranger has been used by predators in numerous child sexual assault cases across the country. meetme declined an interview, but said in a statement: it's
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easy to provide false information as we discovered. we created an account using an anonymous email address, then set the profile to 13-year-old boy, added a picture of mickey mouse, and we were in. >> kidnapping becomes tremendously easy, stealing kids identities becomes tremendously easy. >> niko is a computer hacker, organizer of the one of the world's largest hacker convention. >> the n.s.a. is just the tip of the iceberg. surveillance has gone mainstream, this is the kind of thing we can teach the kids to do in a half an hour. >> the kids she's talking about are the young participants in a conference she founded called roots, featured in the infamous hacker convention defcon.
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>> you can't say privacy is good four. they will run from it. what you say is you want me to show you how stupid these other people are for being on line? look at how easily i can own them. hit send. you just sent a top secret encrypted message. >> she is teaching her own 4-year-old to protect herself on line by using a messaging app that she created called wicker. >> i definitely deploy an attitude of download very, very few apps before i'll let my kids use anything. >> child privacy advocates say parents should talk to their kids about on line safety, monitor use and block advertisements. >> that will do it for this edition of aljazeera america. here are images captured of the deadly shooting at the fort hood military post. investigators are trying to piece together a motive for the latest violence at that facility. more news in just two minutes.
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