>> finding her voice >> i was not a ham, i was ham & cheese... >> and turning it around... >> you don't have to let your circumstance dictate who you are as a person >> talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera america >> this is al jazeera america live from new york. after a mining explosion in turkey tensions are high, and protesters chant that the government should resign. residents in the nigerian state where hundreds of girls were forming are now forming vigilanty groups. they say the military has not done enough to protect them from boko haram. and president obama making a big push to repair bridges and

roads that are falling apart the but will congress respond to the multi billion price tag. conditions that are making people sick. >> there is agony in turkey. 270 miners died in an explosion and fire. violent protests broke out, demonstrators saying that the government is responsible for the disaster. al jazeera's andrew simmons reports. >> reporter: what was a rescue operation has now become a long running procession. carrying bodies to the surface. a flight of ambulances no longer waiting for the injured but driving away the dead.

this, the somber aftermath of an underground fire, an explosion, point fumes. every miner's worst fear. now for their families a stunned comprehension at the loss. rescuers did their level best but most of the miners who died had no means of escape. hour after hour families waited in grief. hour after hour, hoping that they'll recognize their loved ones, hoping that they'll be alive but that's a fo a forlornd hope. it's as if people couldn't bring themselves to believe the scale of what had happened. the timing couldn't have been worse. the power failure following the

explosion and that meant the lift of the surface didn't work. fire and rescue teams pumped oxygen into the pits. the thought most victims died from carbon monoxide poisoning. there mr. claims that safety standards here were not adequate but they were rejected by the mine's owners. demonstrations took place in the capitol. water canons and tear gas were used to clear the crowds. protests were staged outside of the company that owns the mine in istanbul and later spread to the district where anti-government protests flared last year. prime minister erda wan promised an inquiry.

>> 77 people million are feeling this pain. it's hard to go through the process. i give my condolences to their families and to the nation. >> reporter: whatever lies behind the disaster deep beneath the turkish earth, some will never recover. an drew simmons. al jazeera. >> the world's worst mining disaster was in china. more than 1500 people died in 1942. 1100 people died in a 1906 explosion in france. 139 people died in a 1913 explosion in wales. 445 people died in a 1960 mine disaster in south africa, and 362 people were killed in an explosion in west virginia. vigilanty groups in northeastern nigerian are

matters are in their hand. they say the military is not doing enough to protect them. this comes as the british prime minister tells reuters that nigeria's president has rejected the idea of swapping boko haram fighters for the missing girls, and the u.s. said unmanned, u unarmed drones joined reconnaissance flights to help with the search effort. we have more now. >> reporter: it is not the first time we hear the involvement of these vigilanty groups in trying to push back and fight boko haram on the ground. these local residents have taken up arms for quite some time now because they are also from the area just like the boko haram fighters. they know them better than anyone. certainly better than the military soldiers who were being sent to fight boko haram on the ground. they are able to glean better information about pending attacks.

that's exactly what happened on the ground. they were able to know that boko haram fighters were willing to move in the direction outside of the main capitol of borneo state, and they were able to push back the fighters. one official tells us that they believe there were boko haram fighters were killed, and the police have yet to confirm the reports. the vigilanty groups have been stepping up their activity on the ground after the brazen abduction of more than 270 girls by boko haram fighters which brought tension and pressure. separately the senate has not yet discussed the request by the president to extend the state of emergency. they have postponed the discussion and said they will summon for a wider discussion before they make a decision on extending the state of emergency

as requested by president jonathan. >> ukrainian leaders met today to discuss an european back plan to end the crisis. officials took place of the parts in kiev but pro russian separatists who declared independence from the east who not invited. a top u.s. diplomat said sanctions against russia are starting to bite. firefighters in southern california are fighting fires in that part of the state. they're making progress with some of the fires as they deal with new ones. ijennifer, what is the latest from where you are? >> with california in the midst of what could be the worst drought on record, it's not a matter of if there will be wildfires. it's a matter of when.

and when is happening throughout southern california right now. we do have aerial pictures of a fire just broke out today in carlsbad, california, in north county san diego. two homes have been destroyed, and thousands of people have been evacuated. that fire breaking out today, and it is burning at this point out of control. with regard to the other fire, the bernardo fire spreading to 800 acres prompting an evacuation of 5,000 people, and the closure of three elementary schools. by sundown last night evacuation orders were lifted as of today. no new evacuation orders are in place. again, no mandatory or even voluntary evacuation orders. and it's a combination of extremely high temperatures,

strong gusting winds. gusts up to 50 mph and low humidity that is making fighting this fire a challenge. >> we're engaged aggressively and mop up operations. we're very cognizant of weather conditions. we are prepared for the worst and hoping for the best. we're going to monitor the next 24 hours with weather conditions. if we have any flareups or spot fires we'll attack those from the air in the ground. >> san diego has declared a local state of emergency and california's governor jerry brown is urging all californians to prepare for a long and severe fire season. >> so jennifer, in these cases as you know a lot of it is about the resources you can bring to bear to tackle these fires and to try to stop them, right, setting these backfires and the like. what resources are being used so far to stop the fire?

>> reporter: this is a multi agency response. there are fire agencies from as far away as central california, and tony, there are also california inmates battling this blaze. there are over 300 convicted felons on the front lines of the bernardo fire. they're very easy to stott, and they're the hand crews working to draw up those containment lines. it's worth noting that these convicted felons are non-violent offenders, but it makes you wonder if it is safe to have felons on the front line. >> it's concerning initially. i've got all these guys i got to watch. after a while you watch them very closely, but it's not as concerning. you're doing counts of the people every 20 minutes. you're always counting them. that's how you keep track to

know that no one has walked away from you. >> reporter: this program is done in corporation with the california department of corrections. the inmates are given two weeks training and they're sometimes referred to as california storm troopers because of the dangerous nature of the work they do trying to make those containment lines on the front lines. >> jennifer lyndon for us in san diego. thank you. america's roads and bridges are falling apart and the government is running out of money to fix them. president obama wants the money to improve america's aging infrastructure. but first jonathan betz is here with a look at some of the major issues involved. 12,349 america's infrastructure does need a lot of work. when you look at the country's airports, highways, water plants the american society of civil engineers gives it a poor grade of d-plus. bridges get a grade of c-plus. about one out of every nine

bridges in the united states need major work, especially in states as pennsylvania, iowa and oklahoma. construction has stepped up in recent years, and the number of bad bridges across the country has decreased. dams on the other hand rank lower than bridges. they rank d. 14,000 are considered high hazard and that number has been growing. the average age of a dam is 52 years old, and engineers are worried because many people are living down stream from these dams. in the past five years $75 billion has been spent upgrading thousands of miles of tracks. amtraks ridership has doubled since 2000, and freight companies are installing new rail. american needs double how much money it spends on repairs.

>> yes, at least. jonathan, appreciate it. thank you. president obama made his pitch for congress to take action in a busy bridge at new york state that is now being replaced. mike viqueira is at the white house. good to see you. what did the president say about the main component about this plan. >> reporter: it's the first bridge built in new york state in 50 years. that bridge, the tappan zee bridge over the hudson rive built in 1955. it's head of schedule and below budget, that's certainly good news and that's the backdrop the president chose to promote of what he wants to do in terms of transportation funding. if congress doesn't act transportation funds are going to run out of the money by the end of the summer. that could cost some 700,000 jobs. he has a proposal to spend another $300 billion to address some of the problems that we just heard about, trying to get that grade up from a d-plus. here's what the president had to say about his program for

transportation barack obam. >> obama: we're using the same plan to projects all across america. we're announcing 11 more projects to accelerate from boston south station to peninsulpensacola bay bridge toh and south seattle. we're cutting bureaucratic red tape that stalls good projects from breaking down. we're launching a new center to implement these reforms. >> reporter: this is going absolutely nowhere and congress this year, it's an election year. republicans aren't going to spend the money. ananyway, the funding is unclea. the funding comes from gas tax, it has not been raised since 1983. if it had been adjusted for inflation it would be up near

$0.30. >> infrastructure going nowhere, gridlock, it all comes together. >> reporter: really. >> mike viqueira for us at the white house. mike, thank you. congested roads are a big problem coming up later this hour. science and technology correspondent jake ward tells us may not be new roads but how we organize cars on existing roads. hillary clinton prepares for a 2016 presidential campaign, the debate over her health and how that debate started. >> reporter: tony, the new york post reported that george w. bush's former political adviser spoke to a republican audience and repeatedly suggested that hillary clinton may have suffered brain injury two years ago. she did fall. she suffered a concussion and spent four days in the hospital from a related blood clot, but

he exaggerated the amount of time spent in the hospital and said, we need to know what is up with that. >> reporter: newt gingrich went even further, quote, i'm total opposed and deeply offended by karl rove's comments about secretary clinton. i have policy disagreements with hillary, but this personal charge is what is wrong with american politics. he, rove, should apologize. >> reporter: they caapologize.js called the race. >> this is what i say about cognitive capacity which is dr. rove might have been the last person in america on election night to recognize and acknowledge that the president had won the election including in the state of ohio. we'll leave it right there.

dr. rove. that's the tweak on that. karl rove asked that she release her health records should she run for president again. in nebraska senate beating out four republican rivals featuring a campaign with his daughters talking about their dad's view of obamacare. >> he discuss not like obamacare. he read it and he realizes how bad it is. he wants to find a way to destroy it and rebuild something that's successful. >> he despises it. >> he di despise it is and wanto destroy it in nebraska. >> reporter: clay aiken has been the winner of his house primary. on monday crisco suddenly died after suffering from injuries from a fall. this november aiken will take on

congresswoman renée he will measures. finally in florida democrats hoping to defeat a vulnerable republican congressman and took the unusual step this week of endorsing an independent candidate just before the filing deadline. stopping over potential presidential candidates from running in the race, now janie dropped out. david jolly will be on the ballot alone. there will be no democratic challenger. his district is usually a swing district, and this was supposed to be a competitive race, and in politics there is that axiom, can't beat somebody with nobody, even in florida. >> even in florida, that's the tweet. coming up on al jazeera america, the secretary of veteran affairs about to face a grilling on capitol hill.

and the '9 museu 9/11 museum op. we'll have more on that.

>> let's take a look at the numbers. wall street took a tumble as investors are starting to worry about the economic recovery. taking a look at the board, the dow down 101 on the day. veterans affairs secretary will face a tough crowd on capitol hill. a civic committee will question him about allegations that veterans are dying while waiting for medical attention and va facilities have covered up delays in care. libby casey with more on the story. >> reporter: tony, the va is the country's largest healthcare system, and a backlog of cases waiting for healthcare is nothing new. something in a the secretary s shinkesi vowed to fix. >> reporter: republican members

of congress are calling for secretary erik shinseki to resign. >> shinseki's time as secretary of veteran affairs has come to an end. >> reporter: but shinseki said he has been trying to cut the backlog in veteran's healthcare since he began in. >> you no veteran should have to wait. we're committed to doing that as quickly as we can. five years ago we had no standard for what was a backlog. >> reporter: shinseki served in the army and received medical care after a combat wound in vietnam. he used his experience to relate to veterans seeking care. but now allegations of cover up and veterans dying while waiting to see doctors. >> i'm sorry i'm shaking but they were quick to dismiss him. >> reporter: she lost her father to cancer. he died after waiting for months

to see a doctor at the va hospital in phoenix, arizona. whistle blowers at the arizona facility said staff hid their patients delays by hiding a second set of records. >> this is an elaborate scheme to cover up patient wait times, and cover up patients that we didn't have providers for. again, the main problem was we had a huge demand, and we had relatively limited supply of service. >> reporter: the va has placed three of its executives in phoenix on administrative leave. but that's not the only center accused of cooking the books. someone at the top near shinse shinseki. >> these are unacceptable things that have come about that led us to this decision. >> reporter: the white house is standing behind the secretary, but even democrats have questions. >> it is important for us to figure out what the problems are and ride herd on the va to make sure they get results.

>> reporter: across the county a republican-led house panel has taken the rare step of subpoenaing secretary shinseki's records. members from both parties as well as america's veterans will be watching closely to what the secretary has to stay. secretary shinseki said he will not resign. he said that in interviews last week and he said he has more work at the va. >> libby casey for us. washington, d.c. va medical centers in san antonio are at the center of attention. they say they were affected by long waits of medical care. heidi zhou castro has the story. >> reporter: mark went to vietnam at age 17. whatever happened he knew that his country would take care of him. >> there are promises from the military that they would care

for us. >> reporter: in vietnam his unit was exposed to agent orange. it caused craney severe nerve damage and eventually disabled him by age 42. now at 64 his health conditions to decline. last spring a private ophthalmologist recommended a urgent operation to treat glaucoma. >> it was probably four months before i got to see the va eye doctor. >> reporter: by then he says his vision had deteriorated permanently. >> i can't read. i can't see street signs. it is--i can see colors and shapes. i can't see much. >> reporter: many vets we spoke to said it's common to wait month for a va appointment. yet in its last annual report the va claimed 93% of patients

got in within 14 days of their desired appointment date. the disconnect as shown in previous reports may be in clinics deliberately misreporting wait times. federal inspectors have documented the practice in dallas and temple, texas, dating back to 2011. this clinic as quickly the latest to come under scrutiny after a va scheduling clerk said he had been told to hide the wait times. >> i have claimed there has been coaching to change those dates to make it look like the va has shorter weight times. >> reporter: va said the allegations were false but would not immediately provide data on how long patients wait for help. meanwhile, the american legions

said they must acknowledge they have a problem. >> it's lodger than 14 days. it gives us indication that more providers are needed to get veterans the care they snead 2347 as for craney, he said despite the problems with his va care he remains proud of his country. >> standing tall. do the best you can, and go on from here. >> reporter: he said he only hopes that in his next time of needle' get better service. heidi zhou castro. >> children as young as seven working 12-hour days in tobacco fields. startling new report that gives an inside look at the conditions

these children face, and it is the worst public unrest in years. mobs in vietnam looting, setting fires over anger towards china.

>> it is a startling statistic children as young as seven are working in u.s. tobacco fields. oh the report said children are working long hours and getting sick because of it. stephanie sy reports. >> reporter: they board a school bus every morning but it's not school they're going to. they're heading to work. thousands of children who will put up to 50 hours a week on america's tobacco farms where

they are being poisoned, exposed to nicotine and toxic pesticides. >> when they spray you can feel it, it's very, very strong. i couldn't work at all. i couldn't even. >> 141 children were interviewed and reported vomiting, nausea and headaches while working the fields. those symptoms are stim to green tobacco symptoms. the report suggested it's almost as if they were smoking cigarettes. too young to buy cigarettes but old enough to pick the ingredients to make them. but with summer coming their exposure to tobacco increases. >> you'll get fevers. you can get sick just by the smell of it. >> reporter: it's not just the potentially life-threatening

health effects, the organization said kids sometimes work in extreme heat handling dangerous tools up to 12 hours a day. >> when i first went out to the fields i didn't know what to do. i used a knife to cut the flower on to have hoff. >> reporter: the report has urged the u.s. government to keep children out of tobacco farms. but with the department of labor having withdrawn a 2011 proposal prohibiting kids under 16 working in tobacco, a change may not come quickly. >> you feel like there is no air. you look down, you look besides, and you're only halfway down, and you feel like its time to get out because you feel like you're going to die in there. >> u.s. labor laws have prohibited children under 14 to keep from working in every industry except agriculture. farming laws are lax by comparison. there is no age restriction to work on a small farm as long as

parents give written permission. and children can work up limited number of hours if the work does not interfere are school, and it is dangerous. two-thirds of occupational deaths, four workers under 18 were in agriculture. in three of the top five tobacco producing nations have laws prohibiting children working on the farms. let's go to coauthor of the report. margaret, is it time for u.s. laws to change? >> absolutely. we found that kids are working on tobacco farms in the united states. they're getting sick in the fields. they're left without protections. no safety training, no health education, no protective gear. they're exposed to pesticides using sharp tools and heavy machinery, and most of what they're doing is perfectly legal under u.s. law. congress absolutely needs to amend the protection for child

farm workers. >> are you going to take that message to congress? >> absolutely. we've repeatedly called on congress to change the law, and we've called on the department of labor to protect kids from tobacco farming. but we feel that tobacco companies have a responsibility to protect workers in their supply chain. >> what should we know about big tobacco's role in all this? >> the largest tobacco companies in the world by tobacco grown on farms are in the united states. the and the states that are the largest producers of tobaccos. they all say they're concerned about child labor in their supply chain but none of them have policies that protect kids from the problems identified. >> you did the interviews. you did the research, we're talking about poor families with poor kids, we're talking about migrant workers.

children of family farms doing this work. what happens to those families if they are not getting this bit of money from the labor of their children and migrant kids? >> look, we heard the same reason from kids in all four states for why they started working. they use their checks to meet their basic needs. this cannot be the only option for these children. companies who buy tobacco have responsibility to set up alternatives. we can't send 12-year-olds into tobacco fields who are being poisoned. >> do you think that america at large knows this is going on? >> i don't think people know this is even legal. you can't buy a pack of cigarettes until you're 18. but at age 12 these kids absorb nicotine through their skin.

i don't think people know this is happening. >> are children missing out on school? >> some of the children we interviewed talked about skipping school to work especially if a family member was injured. but for the most part these are kids rooted in communities. they go to school full time. when school let's out for the summer this is their summer job. >> wow, appreciate it. margaret researcher for human rights watch, and she is coauthor of this pretty devastating report. thank you, thanks for your time. >> thanks for having me. >> the resignation of brahimi. it would require all sides to cooperate. mean, human rights organization documented 150 attacks against hospitals across syria. james bays with more. >> reporter: a blatant breach of the rules of war. a children's hospital

deliberately targeted and badly damaged. the geneva convention protecting medical staff and facilities in times of warfare have existed for almost 150 years. but the most comprehensive survey of attacks on medical facilities in syria reveals they are now being completely ignored. >> the medical personnel certainly are in incredibly difficult circumstances. i've spoken with doctors in the field that are covering many field hospitals. there may be only one doctor in an area that's treating hundreds of people. we know this homes there--in homs there are three doctors. before there were 800. >> reporter: opposition fighters film themselves as they targeted the hospital in damascus, but this latest research shows the vast majority of violations when not actually by the opposition side.

>> is there a clear picture of which side is responsible for most of the attacks? >> well, as you look at this map you see a lot of blue circles and the blue represents the government. 90% of the attacks have been committed by the government, by the syrian government. >> reporter: we spoke to one syrian doctor whose currently in a neighboring country by skype. he did not want to be identified. >> syrian doctors were targeted by every means, being killed, being arrested, tortured. they were struggling every day to being committed to the oath they have towards their patients. >> reporter: the picture this report presents is one of numerous violationings of international law lead to go a situation where very men syrians have virtually no access to basic medical care. things continue to get worse this year alone 49 doctors killed, 14 medical facilities

destroyed in the last month. james bays, al jazeera. >> every minute a family in syria has to flee their home because of fighting. a new report by a refugee monitoring group and u.n. found conflict in different parts of the world has led to a record number of displaced people. the u.n. provides aid in more than 110 countries right now but it is not enough to cover the need. insteastephanie decker has the . >> reporter: the numbers are staggering. what they amount to are millions of lives torn apart. they tell the story of desperation, hardship and heartbreak as millions of people dependent on hands outs. >> it's in many ways an x-ray of global conscience, and i feel we're failing because 8.2 million people had to flee their homes last year. we have never had as many on record that have been forced to flee the homes as now.

>> the reports by the internal displacement monitoring center found that 33.3 million people were internally displaced worldwide by the end of last year. the countries with the highest number, syria, with at least 6.5 million. columbia with 5.7 million, and then after having official figures for the first time its nigeria with 3.3 million. here they don't have nowhere to go. central african republic. one of the countries facing the highest levels of new displacements. this is the city of homs in syria. these were homes where lives once thrived. now everyone has gone. the report states that the family is forced to leave their home in syria every 30 seconds. >> they are in the bottom of the bit, really, of humanities at

the same time we feed to help more people. the numbers are accumulating. now 33.3 million and rising. >> imagine what it's like to have everything taken away from you. imagine what it's like not to be able to go home. >> mobs set fire to factors as public anger boils over. more than 400 people were detained in one of the worst bouts of unrest in years.

in al jazeera labor unions the demanding the government step in to control the country's spiraling crime rates. it was endorsed. protesters say inflation is hurting the middle class. a senior army officer was killed in an attack blamed by al-qaeda fighters. >> reporter: this used to be an al-qaeda stronghold. but the town is now under the army's control. >> we control many areas now.

we're preparing for an offensive against al-qaeda's last stronghold in the area. >> the town has been an al-qaeda base since 2012. houses have been destroyed in the intense fighting, thousands of people have no shelter. >> our houses were destroyed. we lost everything. and we're concerned about the ongoing military operation in nearby towns. >> drops have been deployed. tribesmen are trying to negotiate an end to the violence but the army said al-qaeda fighters have only two options. surrender or be killed. the attack by al-qaeda shows the risks involved in launching a major offensive against a group well trained in hit-and-run tactics. now forces are expecting more revenge attacks across the country.

al jazeera. >> concern is growing over a potentially deadly virus that has made it into the united states. roxana saberi has that story and other headlines from across america for us. >> reporter: tony, 18 hobbs workers in florida are being tested with mrsa. mers. it has killed 150 people since first reported two years ago in saudi arabia. the cdc is now posting signs at major airports warning people traveling to the region. north dakota wants the courts to up hold one of the toughest laws on abortion. it bans abortion as soon as a fetal heartbeat can be detected. they ruled that the measure was unconstitution. north dakota's only abortion clinic say that it would ban the abortion before many women even

realize they are pregnant. facing charges of attempted murder, flat mirror baptista showed signed of mental illness. no one was hurt. and a realtor in indianapolis is so fed up with the city's potholes he's taking matters into his own hands. >> there wasn't really a lot of thought. there was the pothole, there is the plant. we were having fun with it, but it's a serious issue. >> fun but serious. kurt posted this video of himself filling a pot local with a plant. that's a big one right there. he's urging volunteers to adopt a pothole. city officials asked him to take the video down but he is refusing. and the city council just passed an $8 million measure to address those potholes. >> good, good, see, there you go. in action. getting it done. >> and there are a lot of

potholes across the u.s. because the winter was so cold. >> we're back to infrastructure. roxana, thank you. it's been 13 years in the making. the 9/11 memorial finally opening its doors. we'll show you the scenes of the controversy.

real reporting from around the world. this is what we do. al jazeera america.

>> a video has been leaked sho showing al jazeera correspondent abdullah al shammy. he has been on hunger strike for 114 days now. his attorney asked that he be transferred to a hospital. he's dangerously close to dying. he has been without charge since his arrest in august of last year. >> i have been detained 266 days without any charge and without committing any crime. i record this video after i have reached 106 days of my hunger strike to hold the egyptian government, the egyptian judiciary and general the

responsibility if anything ever happens to me. i have requested several medical checkups from independent sources yet these have not been provided. i have also not receive any medical care here inside the prison. this is a record for the history and for the state of documenting my state, and thus if anything happens to me whatever it is either my health fails totally or anything happens to my safety, i hold the egyptian regime the responsibility of that. >> another three al jazeera journalists have been held in egypt for 137 days.

they are accused of conspiring with the outlawed muslim brotherhood. the brotherhood has been declared a terrorist organization by egypt. al jazeera rejects all charges and is demanding their immediate release. 13 years after the september 11th attacks a memorial museum opens tomorrow. the memorial is designed to take us back to those days. >> good afternoon. this is what the world trade center looked like before the world towers came down. i'm now standing in the new national 9/11 memorial and museum. when you come in you're greeted at once by two steel columns taken from the exterior of the north tower and returned home to where they pretty much stood for all those years. the rest of the exhibit is down a gently sloping walkway that

takes you down to the bedrock. and when you enter its like receiving a punch to the gut. it takes you back 13 years. it's as if 9/11 happened yesterday. the vezee street, the giant slurry wall that held back the hudson river and most movingly the ladder 23 fire truck. it says, jeff, we will not forget you. of course, this whole museum complex is surrounded by many controversy. it's been that way since the idea was first thought of. maybe that's for another day because tomorrow this museum will open. president obama is the guest of honor, will begin a whole week's worth of dedications. families will be able to see the museum themselves.

and it opens to the public on may 21st. >> appreciate it. glen greenwald has been the journalist in the forefront of reporting edward snowdon's leaks. but his professional and personal life has been drawn into that debate. >> it was like living in a spy film, essentially. we knew a couple of things that this was certainly the biggest leak in national security history. if the u.s. government found out what it was that he was doing they would put a stop to it. i was shocked. i had spent several weeks talking to him. i knew that he had access to enormous amounts of top-secret material. i knew that he had security insights, and i knew that he was prepared to spend the rest of his life in prison. >> this is from gary in

honolulu. he said has snowdon expressed his opinions regarding his life of russia in light of putin's annexation of crimea. >> people seek asylum in the united states every year. you never hear someone say how do you feel about seeking asylum from a country that continues guantanamo. the point of asylum is not to seek the country you want to live the most. it's to seek protection. >> you can hear more of the interview here on al jazeera america. we've been talking about the infrastructure here in this country and the president's push for improvement. why organizing cars may be the

answer, and is there a statute of limitations on crimes against humanity. many are prepared to push their case for reparations. >> more than 4 million men, women and children were imported as property and forced to work their lives away for free. later this summer a 14-nation group of caribbean countries will formalize their request for pay back from countries in europe. is there a statute of limitation on evil? that's the inside story. we'll be back at the top of the hour.

>> every saturday join us for exclusive, revealing, and surprising talks with the most interesting people of our time. rosie perez >> i had to fight back, or else my ass was gonna get kicked... >> a tough childhood... >> there was a crying, there was a lot of laughter... >> finding her voice >> i was not a ham, i was ham & cheese... >> and turning it around... >> you don't have to let your circumstance dictate who you are as a person >> talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera america >> the problem is widespread. when it comes to roads even the most perfectly built ones have the limited capacity to carry traffic. jacob ward is live in san

francisco for us. there is new technology that could pack in more cars, more efficiently? tell me about that. >> reporter: that's exactly right. really the trick it turns out is not so much building more roads as making sure you make the best possible use of the ones you have. repairing infrastructure, bridges, tunnels, roads, is a present-day problem. but the people paid to think about the future of the nation's infrastructure will tell you that traffic requires not new roads but new ways of organizing the cars on them. >> the amount of traffic has dramatically increased, particularly in locations like california. however, building additional freeway structure has become prohibitively expensive. to create one lane, the actual real estate you would have to buy off from the neighborhood is huge. >> reporter: we need freeways and city streets to communicate

with one another. the systems controlling the green lights are all under control of the local cities. the highways are under the control of state authorities, and there is no automated system to connect the two. the problem is one of systems not talking to one another. right now during rush hour there are no systems that allows the artery streets feeding on to this highway to know that there is too much going on here. people are left to fight through the chaos on their own. no metering lights, no signals, no help of any kind. highways are largely paid for by taxes on our motor fuels, but as cars become even more fuel efficient the amount of money per capita is shrinking, that means there is a need to make roads more efficient. >> the control safety, you may have to modernize a little bit the traffic lights so they can

communicate and reprogram. but again, that cost is nothing compared to adding to lanes to freeways. >> reporter: so tony, as you can see it's really just a question of sort of some simple fixes that require a little bit of investment but not too much. >> it sounds like at least in the short term a solution is to get the highways and the services to talk to one another, correct? >> reporter: that's absolutely right. if you can look here behind me you can see an intersection where the freeway touches down right into the heart of san francisco. this has--this was hailed when it was built a futuristic way of connecting the two. but it turns out they're not connected at all and it's created chaos. this is a nightmare over the rest of the evening here in california. that's because there is no communication between the highway, what's going on there, and what's going on here in the surface streets. if you had a truly connected system the street lights would slow cars down, keep them off the highway, or turn green for

everybody to get off the highway faster. we just don't have that. >> jake ward for news san francisco. that's all of our time for this news hour. i'm tony harris. "inside story" is next on al jazeera america. >> history is just one sad story after another. is there a statute of limitation of crimes of evil on one another. reparations is the "inside story." >> hello, i'm ray suarez. spin a globe and drop you