website aljazeera.com/consider-this or facebook or google+ and twitter. see you next time. good evening everyone. this is al jazeera america, i'm john seigenthaler in new york. on the ground - a u.s. team joins the search for the kidnapped school girls in nigeria as one girl who escapes speaks out for the first time. convicted - the woman found guilty of hitting a police officers at an occupy wall street protest. does she deserve 7 years in prison, and is she sorry. we talk to her attorney. drone economics - the big money, big push for an eye in the sky. we'll take you to the silicon

valley for unmanned aircraft. joy ride - our first-person report with a dad who built a roller-coaster in his backyard. in just a few hours a team of u.s. military personal will fly to nigeria, joining the group of americans already there locking for 2 -- looking for 276 school girls ab ducted by the group boko haram a month ago. it's a dangerous mission, an uncertain one and comes as boko haram is suspected of having killed scores of people in a remote village. nobody knows where the girls are tonight. but new details are emerging about the ordeal, and coming from a girl who managed to escape. she talked to ahmed edris. >> translation: after they attacked the town they took us

to their camp, i and three others lied saying we need to use the toilets. that's how we ran away. they chased us, we kept running. >> many in the town where this happened worry that the missing girls have been trafficked out of nigeria. some parents say they feel abandoned by nigeria's government. >> i prefer if they would ask my suggestion. they should go into my house, burn my house, break everything in my house. that would be better for me than taking my daughter. even taking my life at that moment, i think i'm satisfied. >> boko haram killed 1300 people in nigeria already this year. the group has become more active ahead of the world economic forum, and adrian finighan has more from the capital of abuja. >> despite the huge advances of economies in africa, there's a long way to go before growth is inclusive for the vast majority of africans, it's a challenge

that the country's politicians are rising to. security across the continent is an issue and deterrent. president goodluck jonathan says he believes the girls kidnapped will be the beginning of the end of terror in nigeria. the government is being criticised for hosting this event and devoting so many sources to security while boko haram holds the 276 girls captive. former british prime minister gordon brown told me earlier today of his frustration that outside assistance for the nige earian government has just been offered, and accepted. he has been calling for that to happen for weeks. and thinks that the girls may no longer be in nigeria, could be in niger, chad for marley. to a certain extent, the real drama of the missing girls, the main story - that may have overshadowed the world economic

forum, it focussed the eyes of the world on this part of the world and some of the most pressing challenges. politicians, policy makers came to abuja to discussion. adrian finighan reporting. >> in washington some political fall-out. it centres around hillary clinton, who, when secretary of state turned down requests label boko haram as a terrorist organization. >> rosalind jordan has that story. >> reporter: the state department is pushing back against that report, saying it's important to note in the final year hillary clinton did designate three top members of the boko haram, including the current leader. especially designated terrorist. that means they were hit with visa bans. they couldn't come to the united states. if they happened to have money, those funds would be processen.

however, what is important to note is that while there was an active discussion about what to do about boko haram, if anything, it's important for viewers to remember. when the u.s. designates an organization as an fto, foreign terrorist organization, that has to pose an incredible threat to the united states and to its national interests. so the state department did not believe that there had been that case built. it's important to note, that they had a lot of support at the time from the nigerian government. even up until the end of 2012, when the u.s. designated these three men on the terrorist list. the united states government was opposed because they were afraid it would make the group feel it had stature in the world. what the u.s. said is that you have to look at this designation

as simply one way of combatting a threat. if it were just enough to basically make it impossible for people to travel to one country or another, or to freeze their assets, and if that's all it took, it seems that many more people and organizations would be on that list. >> that's rosalind jordan reporting from the state department. when president obama and vladimir putin attend d-day ceremonies next month in france - don't expect the two to meet. that's the word in the white house. both plan to attend the 70th anniversary of the allied landing in normandy in world war ii, a time both countries fought together to defeat nazi germany. tensions are high between the leaders because of the crisis in ukraine. it's been two months since crimea voted to leave ukraine and join russia. now, donetsk is on the verge of voting for its own independence.

jonah hull reports:. >> reporter: the separatists of eastern ukraine might have been expected to do what russia's president urged them to do - postpone the referendum and negotiate with the government. but citing a unanimous vote at the council of the people's republic of donetsk. its chairman said the referendum would go ahead. >> we don't have direct contact with vladimir putin, we found out about his proposal. i think he'll learn about our decision in the same way. >> representatives of the neighbouring luhansk republic announced they'd do likewise and the in the stronghold of slovyansk, the focus of an effort by ukranian forces to dislodge pro-russian groups, the message is that here, too, they are ready for the vote. >> translation: the majority of the region and city will vote positively. i know this because i talked to citizens in all sectors,

everyone will support us and wants a better future. >> with that, in the corners of occupied eastern ukraine, vladimir putin's intervention was comprehensively dismissed. >> i can only expect, and i think all the the cities in donetsk agree with us, a separation from ukraine from our own independent donetsk people's republic. >> translation: we are oriented to european policies, not europe. the routes of most of the people here are deeply in russia. >> with soviet music blaring across the square, this is the local administration building in donetsk that for several weeks has been upped by represent ties of the peep's republic, after sunday's vote many hep it will be the -- hope it will be the seat of an autonomous government. the hopes raised by vladimir putin on wednesday of a resolution to this crisis in ukraine appear to beunfounded.

in this country we are keeping a close eye on dangerous weather. there are reports of tornados in minnesota, and thunderstorms in dallas - several numbers of of rain setting off flash floods and strong winds and reports of power outages. kevin corriveau has been tracking all of it and joins us with more. >> it's been an active day anywhere from the north to texas. we'll take you closer to texas and show you the rain that has been going on. in some places of dallas, they saw two inches of rain in a 45 minute period. if you go closer, you see rain showers pushing through another band. look at the video of strong wind and rain pushing through the area much the winds brought down power lines, damaging to some of the houses. there was a lot of roof damage going on across the area. things cleared up, but left a mess. the airport saw delays in

cancellations as well. there was a dramatic rescue that took place in parts of dallas. five boys decided to skip school, go to the creek and the apart started to rise. all five were rescued. this boy was taken to the hospital. it took two hours to rescue them from a local creek in the area. coming back to the weather wall. this is what we expect to see as we go through the rest of the evening. we have flash flood warns in effect for the dallas area. the yellow that you see are severe thunderstorm watches, down towards waco, and into parts of austin. that will continue for the next couple of hours. to the north most of the threat for parts of minnesota, and wisconsin is diminishing. we saw the tornados here in parts of wisconsin, and down in arkansas, we saw activity there, as well as over here towards colorado. seven tornados in all.

heavy rain continuing. we'll bring you the forecast tomorrow. >> see you then. oklahoma put an execution on hold because of last month's botched lethal injection. a convicted rapist and murderer god a 6-month -- got a 6-month stay to allow the completion of the execution of clayton d. lockett. he was seen convulsing and died of a heart attack. it was the state's first time using a 3-drug cocktail. to a story of the montana homener that shot and killed an exchange student in his garage. paul beban has followed the story and it's drawing worldwide attention. >> reporter: this ghostly surveillance footage shows 17-year-old diren dede moments before he was shot, after midnight on april 27th. he was using his cell phone as a flashlight, poking around an

open garm in missoula. there's -- garage in missoula. there's no question diren dede had no question being there. the question is did he deserve to die for it. marcus kaarma is the homener facing charge of deliberate murder. marcus kaarma and his partner told police they were on edge after two recent burglaries, rigged the garage with motion sen sos and a baby monitor and a purse with belongings that could be taken. when diren dede entered, marcus kaarma grabbed a shotgun and pulled the collision. >> my client did not want to kill a kid. he feels terrible. >> the prosecution tells a different story. marcus kaarma's hairdresser says two days before the shooting marcus kaarma said he'd been up three nights waiting to shoot some blapinging kid -- blanking kid. >> reporter: almost all 50 states have laws on the books letting people defend themselves.

montana is one of several that take the laws a step further. their castle doctrine grants residents freedom when it comes to the use of force. >> legal observers say the case hinges on whether a jury believes marcus kaarma had cause to think diren dede was there to hurt him or his family. >> you can't defend property with deadly force. >> montana state representative, a missoula democrat says in 2019, ellie hill says the national rifle association helped to push through stronger gun laws in montana that went too far. >> i have nothing against the second amendment, we gun owners ourselves. we want commonsense, safety put back into the neighbourhoods and communities. we don't need the law to make us safer. ellie hill proposed rolling back the 2009 law. that's cold comfort to diren dede's family in germany and turkey, where the teenager was

buried. >> the popular soccer star has been mourned with candle light vigils and memorials. his killer plans to plead not guilty to a charge of deliberate homicide on monday. now to the rights of drones. while they watch us, the f.a.a. watches them. industry analysts estimate that the global commercial drone market will double over the next decade. up to $12 billion, shute takes a look at the market. >> reporter: out here on the endless plains of south texas where wind turbines out number people, a lot of folks are counting on a new industry to take flight. >> it's been a lot of work, a major headache at times, but it's fun. i'm on the leading edge at the university of this. >> david bridges runs the unmanned aerial bridge programme at corpus christy university, a

lead organization of a test site set up by the f.a.a. out of 25 fiercely competitive bids by states hoping to be the silicon valley of drones, these six are selected to make what may seem fantastical today a reality for the future. >> a lot are familiar with the amazon video. it was cute. the video didn't show how the amazon helicopter was going to avoid colliding with the dominos hipt and the target helicopter bringing groceries. >> it's called sense and avoid - one of the unperfected technologies that researchers at corpus christy and other sites need to improve in order for civil yap use to grow -- civilian use to grope. as many as 7800 could be flying by 2018. >> reporter: here are two

unmanned crafts. >> david yoel's cap works with corpus christy, he's from american aerospace advisors. door drop delivers are years away, yoel says applications exist from drones detecting when and where a field may need fertiliser and water, to unmanned planes to an energy grid and pipeline monitoring. unmanned aircraft can be flown. these aircraft behind us can fly for 12 to 16 hours on a gallon and a half of gasoline. >> the uav trade union projects the test site has an impact of $8 billion stayed wide. $260 million in south texas, with 1200 jobs created in the region. until the f.a.a. finalis the regulation, and officially opens the air space, the industry

remains grounded, with possible delays to come. coming up, hidden danger, why senators are taking a closer look at e-cigarettes. plus, true crime - murder in texas, a movie based on it, and a very strange definite involving the director of that movie and the killer.

. >> the electronic spoking device known as e-cigarettes is growing in popularity. it's a $1.5 billion industry and may increase to $10 billion over the next three years. what are the health risks. eight senators are falling on the food and drug administration to look into studies suggesting that e-cigarettes produce dangerous carcinogens. supporters argue that the devices are safe are than traditional cigarettes, but reference from the roswell park cancer institute suggest it may be just as dangerous. dr david newman from mount sinai medical center joins us. tell me about e-cigarettes. how dangerous are they? >> the research is not in on that. we are not sure how dangerous they are. one of the things we know about

cigarettes is it took us decades - 50 or 60 years before we had long enough research to tell us that they were quit carcinogens and dangerous. e-cigarettes are new enough that we don't know that yet. >> you have people using e-cigarettes that may have smoked and got off the cigarette habit, but that's better. >> it looks like it's certainly better. whatever darption it impose -- danger it impose, it's less than by regular smoking. that's where the debate begins, but we don't know where it end, the danger with the e-cigarettes - we have a signal and a bunch of noise. >> the fact that the e-cigarettes got on the market without being studied or regulated means we don't know what is in them. we know that it convoys nicotine or other things. i thought there was a study

suggesting that the device itself might be putting toxic chemicals into the vapour, and that was a big danger. >> one of the things suggested by some research, that a good deal of it hasn't been published and reported on in a couple of venues, we have not seen the research reports suggesting if a pham aldehyde might be a by-product. it is classified as a probable carcinogen. there's mixed research on that. that's where a lot of concerns is coming from. >> i heard there may be metals conveyed in the vapours that mr part of the device itself. that aside, what about second-hand vapour? >> well, the way e-cigarettes work, the vapour is the same on both end of the cigarette. what we see in the second hand is sort of the same as the first hand. it's a little bit of risk, based on the phnom aldehyde and the

metals. too early to know what that means. >> could you inhale nicotine from the vapours that are blown out? >> a trace amount potentially. at the most, trace amounts. not enough to be a health risk. >> would you recommend them for your patients? >> you know, the real question is whether they are a safer alt erpive. whether they are -- alternative. whether they are totally safe is a tough question. for those that smoke, if it cap be a replacement and mitigate the effects of smoking for real cigarettes, then absolutely. >> in the meantime, we'll wait to see what the research produce, and you may change your opinion. >> that's possible. the research is still coming. >> good to have you on the programme. albuquerque police will no longer be allowed to carry personal weapons.

they'll have to carry guns issued by the department. that's according to a memo from the chief of police. the city has been on edge because of controversial police-involved shootings. albuquerque officers were under scrutiny for more than 30 shootings since 2010. the justice department crit sifed the police -- criticised the police department for use of force. inmates at a prison in louisiana are participating in a rodeo. it's drawing controversy. >> reporter: it's billed as the wildest show in the south, for good reason. take a convict poker, an event pitting nerves against the power of a raging bull. the last man sitting wins cash. these are inmates at a prison. >> today they can be king for a day. victims say who cares. what is important is we have to rehabilitate them. so if any of them get out, they

don't hurt you, this is part of the rehabilitative programme and part of the re-entry is to do the rodeo. >> the prison is known as apping owla or the farm -- angola or the farm. it houses murderers and rapists. it join the rodeo the rules are relaxed. inmates run their own arts and craft stalls and allowed to make money to keep the businesses going. the rodeo attracts the most attention. >> there are those that say this is not short of an inhumane spectator sport. half the prisoners are first-time offenders who will never see the outside of prip walls, and in -- prison walls and injuries are commonplace. >> staff would not give information about how many prisoners have been hurt obvious the years. every precaution is taken, and there's little sympathy for convicted criminals. >> they have nothing to lose, i

guess. just something fun and different from today. >> they have a choice just like they have a choice with what they were doing. they made the choice to come here. >> none of the prisoners are forced to take part in the rodeo. the $500 prize money known as guts and glory ensures participation is high. for many it's the highlight of a life behind bars. >> when i came out here, i was hooked. i think gee, for me to come here and find a rodeo, it's a joy for me, for my family. they come every year. >> at anning ola prison -- angola prison the average sentence is 95 years. most of the men will die and be buried. for them, the rodeo is a taste of freedom, even if only for a few seconds.

coming up, guilty for assaulting an officer at the occupy wall street protest. she's a symbol of the movement - but is she sorry. we'll ask her attorney. plus, artificial d.n.a. - a breakthrough for the scientific world and jacob ward tells us what it means for all of us.

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler. we have a lot to cover this half hour, and a new development involving the highly charged occupy wall street movement. tonight a woman who has become a symbol for the protesters is behind bars. her case has much to say about the movement and perhaps the police. richelle carey has the latest. [ chants ] . >> reporter:. >> reporter: the occupy wall

street movement began here in new york's jason zucker in 2011. it swept across the country. there were confrontations with police and arrests in cities. the 23-year-old stupid cecily mcmillan, was one of the few protesters who have been convicted. she was arrested on the night of st. patrick's day 2012. >> is he getting beat up. >> new york city police were clearing occupy prove testers from jason zucker. somewhere in the crowd cecily mcmillan encountered grantley bovell. she said he grabbed her breast and heel bowed him in the eye. they both testified. after a month-long trial she was found guilty of felonie assault of an officer. she faces 7 years in prison. it could be the longest for a protestor. the jury expressed concern, telling the "the guardian." that it would be ludicrous to se

cecily mcmillan to prison. nine of the 12 jurors wrote the judge ronald zweibel asking the court for leniency: so far the judge has not shown sympathy. he denied her bail and an appeal. for now, cecily mcmillan is in rikers island gaol awaiting sentence. martin stolar is cecily mcmillan's attorney, and told us cecily mcmillan hit the officer, but the video evidence doesn't tell the whole story. >> it definitely shows her hitting the police officer. the problem with the video tape, of course, is that it's - it's a poor quality video tape, and from a bad angle. so you can see from that point of view it looks like she's

hitting the officer for no reason, but as we all know from instant replay, if you have a different angle you get a different picture of what was going on. >> the jury believed the prosecutors, and they convicted your client. she could be sentenced up to seven years in prison. the judge has the discretion. is that right? >> the statute calls for a term of 2-7 years as a maximum sentence. the judge can make findings to reduce the minimums from two years to probation or a discharge. the officer's injury was not terribly serious. he got a mouse upped his eye. it -- under his eye. it hurt him, he had a black eye, out for a couple of weeks and back at work. >> you are arguing that your client shouldn't have been convicted and doesn't deserve to go to prison for seven years. what is the case really about. >> what is strange about it is how heavy they prosecuted the

case. there were 3,000 arrests over the active portion of the occupy wall street. 90% were dismissed, almost none of them was prosecuted as felonies, with one speption, certainly no cases of assault on police officers were prosecuted. cecily mcmillan is the only indicted felon case that went to trial for the occupy wall street arrest. it tends to send a message to anyone involved in protest saying if you are involved in protest, watch out, we can come down heavy, if we want to, we can find a police officer who has made up a story, which is a bit incredible as to how the event took place. the jury, however, i think was convinced by the poor quality video tape. they convicted cecily mcmillan. the question now is the sentence

imposed. this is not somebody that deserves to be punished by going to jam. >> she's at rykers right now. >> after the conviction the judge remanded her. he offered no excuse, other than the fact that a jury convicted her. she had been out on her own recog nis arranges had come back to court 30 or 40 times as the case progressed through the court system, never gave an indication that she was going to run away. >> i've been in court, someone has been sentenced and a judge asks if they are sorry for what they did. is your client sorry? >> she is sorry for the fact that the police officer is injured. she is not sorry for the fact that she was there and reacted when someone grabbed her breast. unfortunately i think an incident woman has been wrongly convicted.

whether or not there was a fair trial will be determined, because we think there's a number of errors that the judge made that could result in a reversal of the conviction because of judicial errors made on rules of law. >> good to have you on the programme. thanks for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> a federal judge ruled indiana must recognise the marriage of a massachusetts same-sex couple. it's the only gay marriage accepted in indiana. one of the the women has terminal cancer and lawyers argue the marriage had to be protected to allow for death benefits. attorney david boies is fighting to bring marriage equality to every state. i asked him if he thinks the battle is linked to the civil rights movement. >> i think there's a direct line. it's not necessarily a straight line, i think there's a direct line from the struggle of equality that the country is going through. it's involved race, gender, sexual orientation, reliage on,

national origin. we have moved increasingly in this country towards the dream of equality. our founders had great principles. the idea that all people were created equal. they had unailiable right of life, liberty. it was a revolutionary idea and great principle. the problem was in those days it didn't really apply. when our constitution says we the people of the united states - it means we white male property owners, and expanding the concept, who the we is, in we the people has been the process this country has gone through. >> and joining us from my conversation with david boies, on saturday. on "talk to al jazeera". it's perhaps the level-kept secret in philanthropy.

business news week published a story about a man by the name of andrew shechtel who donated more than $100 million per year for research on hunting tonne's disease. he created a charitable trust worth more than $9 billion, lager than the rockefeller and carnegie foundations. over the years shechtel and two others have given away more than $13 billion. >> just 35 days to go before brazil hosts the world cup and as many of the country struggles to get ready, some are struggling to find a place to live. residents in sao paulo are occupying land near the games after being pushed out of their homes by rising rent. gabriel elizondo reports. >> alessandro de-souza and his

family are clearing land for a place to sleep. >> translation: we are fighting for housing because we need it. i have a big family and i have to raise and feed my children. >> this family is not alone. look around the area on the outskirts of soo paula, you see people building shelter - made of sticks and plastic sheets. they are working families, the majority of them are women and children, who organised to take over the land as squatters, seeing their meagre incomes stretched by sky rocketing rent prices that some atripled in recent years, due to the world cup speculation. in the distance, over the tree line, the $500 world cup stadium in the city. >> translation: there's a contradiction between the world cup being done in the interests of foreigners and the people. like those of us that need a dignified place to live. >> in just a few days there are

an estimated 2,500 families, more than 5,000 people, with more arriving every day. it's a mini tent city, and they are calling it the world cup of the people community. >> reporter: this is actually private land, it's been abandoned for a decade. the owner could go to a judge to have all these people evicted. that happened in several other instances of land occupations in brazil in recent months. but the people tell me they'll fight it, they will not leave under any circumstances. >> like lucia fernandes and her 19-year-old grandson johnny, setting up where they plan to build. >> translation: we can't pay rent, my husband is sick and lives on fixed income. i'm a maid and can't afford anything more. >> in the level case scenario, local lawmakers will decide to

turp the area into affordable housing for everyone. if that happens, it will be a long way off. the football party may fast approach. for these people, the reality of an affordable place to live is a distant dream. . >> now to a strange twist to a bizarre crime story. bernie tiede was released from prison after serving 15 years for murdering an elderly woman, it was turned into a movie by richard linklater. the film is called "bernie." here is a clip. >> movie reel: there are people in up to, honey, that would have shot her for $5. >> he was freed from prison after a judge reduced his life sentence because of abuse he suffered as a child. he is now staying in a garage

apart. of the director richard link-later. skip hollandworth is the executive editor of the texas monthly magazine, his reporting on the bernie tiede case inspired the movie and he is joining us from dallas. can you explain why the judge made the decision? >> well, there's an uproar, of course as there has been about everything regarding this story, for the last 17 years, ever since her body was found in the freezer. the judge was given a - a motion was made to the judge by a young defense attorney who saw the movie, and she thought there's something that must have been missed in trial because it doesn't make sense that a congenial assistant furniture home director, bernie tiede, well loved in the town would

have committed a stunningly atrocious gross esque murder. she, this attorney, began looking for something through the trial transcript, property records, anything that might indicate what made bernie do this. the attorney found four books that had been taken from bernie's home after arrest by police on child sexual abuse. eventually bernie began to tell a horrid story about being abused by an uncle from the ages of 12-18. that, then, gave this attorney the argument that if a jury had herd that evidence that theoury may have voted for second degree murder instead of life sentence in prison because the jury may have understood the argument that he had a disassociated

experience, all the rage from his sexual abuse came out when he got in a verbally abusive relationship with mrs. nugent, and it caused him to snap and shoot her. >> do you believe that? >> i stay in the middle. the story is still developing. there's a lot of people that, of course, don't believe it. >>. there has been an outrage, it's a small east texas conservative down. they argue everybody build claim abuse to get out of prison. the argument is if the jury had heard that story, would they have been more likely to vote for second degree murder, which had a total punishment of 20 years, versus a life sentence. bernie served 18 years, that was presented to the judge. but the key - the key was that the district attorney, the

long-term pug nashes prosecutor agreed with the jury. he thought he was a killer, re-evaluated bernie, looked at the evidence, bernie's record in prison, where he was a model inmate and decided he served enough time. >> before the sexual abuse claims, i mean, didn't - weren't there people that believed bernie bernie tiede couldn't have done this. the suggestion - it seemed bizarre, but the suggestion was that the woman was so many. you know, it's like he killed her because she was many. is that... >> that's one of the arguments. is that she was just so demanding. >> in his own original confession, bernie had a kind of emotional breakdown and said she was so mean and demanding and cruel to him over the years that he began to have some kind of

psych: iccal breakdown. what the psychologist calls a disassociative experience and he shot her. >> you spent a lot of time with bernie? >> i have not. his original lawyer didn't let me talk to him. with the new order, part of the rule is he cannot have voluntary contact with the media. i had one meeting with him. and he was the portrait of gen tilty. >> he is living with richard link-later, a director of the movie. how did that happen? >> it's a twist as flabbergasting as you can imagine. you put a roomful of screen writers together for a day and they would never have come up with this. the judge, as part of her decision to let bernie out on bond - he's not completely free - but to let him out on bond, part of the decision was that he - she had to be shown

evidence that he had a place to stay and a job, he'd go to counselling and stay away from firearms, so the young attorney said that bernie would be working for her and comes into the courtroom and says he's more than happy for bernie to live in the garage apartment. this is a major hollywood director living in texas, who is willing to give up part of his time on his career to help bernie in his transition to a new life. >> you wrote the article, they made the movie. do you thinkour article and the movie got bernie off? >> well, it certainly got that defense attorney working on the case. if she hadn't seen the movie, she wouldn't have got close to this. the movie triggered her work, which triggered the discovery of the child abuse, and then the

hearing this week that let bernie go. >> i mean i - after hearing this, it makes me want to ask questions about bernie's psych: iccal state f it's trou -- psychological state. if it's true that he snapped and murdered someone, how can the judge let him out without psychological help. >> he's required to get counselling. but a lot of people against bernie getting out is what happens if bernie gets into a tense situation again, will he have another emotional meltdown, and perhaps do something as violent as he did before. >> how did he kill her? >> he shot her four times in the back, and buried her in a deep freeze, where she remained for nine months before anyone looked for her. she was so disliked in town no one missed her. >> have you ever seen anything like this before? >> never. it's a story that started 17 years ago, and it's something

i would work on every day today. >> and it continues. skip, thank you for explain this to us tonight. we appreciate it. coming up next - breakthrough. creating the first living thing from artificial d.n.a. built to seize, a family man builds a roller-coaster in his backyard. it's the first person report just ahead.

earlier this week we saw record-breaking temperatures across the central plains. it was dry, and there were wild fires going across oklahoma, texas and new mexico. things have changed. the severe weather is caused by this. we have warm temperatures. earlier today was very, very warm. we had colder air from the north-west. when you mix the two together. it causes the instability across the region.

as we go to the evening hours, a lot of activity will subside. tomorrow we expect to see more severe weather moving here towards the east. dallas was effective. we are seeing heavy rain charts. this will go on for the next couple of hours, until we get more - a little bit of cooling. like i said on friday. this is what we expect to see, severe weather taking place anywhere across parts of louisiana, all he way up to ohio. heavy rain will affect new england, but down towards louisiana and southern mississippi. we expect to see, believe it or not. 6-8 inches of rain falling across this area. we'll see flash flooding going on as we go through the rest of weekend. saturday looks better. a lot of these areas are still saturated. even though we see less rain, we are going to see flooding, because a lot of these places can't hold the water across that

region. temperature wise, this is what we are expecting to see tomorrow. warm temperatures. things don't change too much. they get a little warmer. here across new york, temperatures warm up to 75 degrees. atlanta - a rough day on society. the thunder storms pushing through. things get a little better as we go through the rest of the week. you can see 84 degrees and drier. here from new york - well, it will be a rainy day on friday. 65 degrees is expected, with thunder storms pushing through friday and saturday. temperatures are going to start to shoot up by the time we get to monday. we are looking at temperatures into the 80s. by tuesday, 83 degrees there, wednesday, a little warmer than that. that is a look at the weather. news with john is coming up after this.

scientists made a disof that could recreate the building blocks of lives, creating an organism with a genetic code different from others. let's bring in science and technology correspondent jacob ward. >> reporter: the easiest way to understand d.n.a. is to think of it as a miniature alphabet composed of four letters g, a, c and t. genetic instructions for your body, for all its functions are written using that 4-letter alphabet. the english alphabet has 26,

denoting all sorts of words and meanings. other languages have more letters in their alphabets than we do. as a result they can communicate a deal more than can you and i in english. the cambodian language, kmer has 74 letters. with the expanded alphabet there's ways that the language can express complexities that we can never communicate in english. they have a second vocabulary for addressing people of higher social status. a third one for talking with loyalty and a fourth for speaking with months. with d.n.a. there's a limit of what wan can do with four letter. researchers found a way to add two letters. and hope by doing so they can create synthetic d.n.a. holding

instruction that natural d.n.a. can't. perhaps it can manufacture new medicine and vaccines on a tiny, tiny scale - things that our current genetic alphabet cannot spell. if they can encoat the new instructions using the two extra letters, they'll rewrite what is possible in our bodies. >> jacob ward - we always learn something now some people are calling a management consultant from san francisco the world's coolest dad because he built his data 180 food roller-coaster in his back ward. we speak with will pemble, the roller-coaster enthusiast who fulfilled his son's dreams. >> the latest project my kids and i and other kids in the neighbourhood is a roller-coaster built in the backyard in my house here in california. the idea came from my son lyle. he's a fan of roller coasters.

when he is interested in something he digs to the bottom of a topic. so we came back from a trip to a budge of amusement parks. when we came home he asked can we build a coaster in the backyard. i couldn't thing of a reason to say no. so i said yes. the way we figured out how to build the kofrt is to look at the way we new they had been built, and looked at youtube, google, research, in terms of who built things in their backyard. mine is not the first that got built. we took those two things, combined them together and where we could, we improved on it. building the coaster definitely had its share of challenges. the first thing you learn when you start - when you start a project like this is you learn how strong your upper body isn't. you move into engineering challenges. when you build a cart, the first thing i learnt, which i didn't

know, was that any four-wheeled vehicle - all four wheels are travelling in different directions at different speeds at the same time. you need to build something that can accommodate that. so building the cart was the biggest challenge of all. the coaster, once we finished it had 180 feet of linear tracks. the ride is about 180 feet from beginning to end and it took me 300 hours of labour to finish. the total cost was in the neighbourhood of $3500. a question i'm asked up front is is it safe. that's what people want to know most of all. my answer to that is absolutely. if it wasn't safe, i wouldn't let my kids ride it. if i could use it as a platform to teach kids about science, that's awesome, a great opportunity. now, will pem bell is

building another roller-coaster - this time in a friend's backyard. in tonight's freeze frame, the n.f.l. draft, where a college player's dream comes true. jay stands on stage with reasonablier cadell at radio city music hall. the south carolina native picked by the houston texans. congratulations. headlines are coming up after this with richelle carey.

>> welcome to al jazeera america. i'm richelle carey. here are tonight's top stories. severe storms. reports of tornados. inches of snow in dallas triggered flash floods and winds. there were power outages for thousands of relatives. the state department said a team of the officials is in nigeria to help the african country find

276 girls kidnapped. syrian state tv said rebels levelled the hotel in the city of aleppo. the rebels tunnelled underneath and planted explosives. the hotel was used as a base for government troops. 14 people were killed. both president obama and vladimir putin plan to attend d-day ceremonies next month, but the white house doesn't expect the two to meet. they'll attend the 70th anniversary. tensions are high between the world leaders because of the crisis. controversy over the occupy wall street protest. this time protesters are calling for justice in the case of cecily mcmillan. she was found guilty of a felony assault against a police officer at an occupy event in 2012 and faces seven years in prison. a call goes out for a study into dangers of electronic smoking devices. eight senators fanned the food and drug administration wants

research done. sales are expected to grow to $10 billion over the next three years. those are the headlines. "america tonight" with joie chen is up next. you can get the latest news online at aljazeera.com. on america tonight, nigeria's missing girls. is whether even other terror groups think this attack may have gone too far. also tonight, a smart gun, but a dumb idea? how a maryland gun dealer became the target of a progun lobby. i'm a gunning dealer. i don't know anybody that is is more progun than i am. seriously. >> and why selling the new