welcome to al jazerra america i am del walters and these are the stories we are following for you. nearly 10,000 american force to his stay in afghanistan past this year. the president set to explain it all in a couple of hours. and the president calling the president elect of ukraine offering him congratulations as fierce fighting goes on in the eastern part that have country. dozens have been killed. and a week to remember in california. students honoring those killed in friday's mass murder. with the u.c. week of solidarity. ♪ ♪

it all began on october 7th, 201 aspiration enduring freedom. 13 years later, it's now america's longest-running war. but today a new chapter has just been announced the president expected to announce nearly 10,000 perhaps will remain in afghanistan next year. mike have a tara joins us live now from washington. what can you tell us about the latest development? >> reporter: this is a number that's been much- anticipated the united states going back with afghanistan about saying the so-called bsa. a status forces agreement. how many american troops will be there. what would their mission be. how long would did he they stay after the combat mission is over. today we have an answer from president obama. at the beginning of next years at the end of 2014 when the american combat role is over in afghanistan, the beginning of

next year, 9800 american troops the president will nouns according to a senior administration official will be in afghanistan. by the end of 2015, that number will be cut in half and the official says and the president is expected to say it in the rose garden at 2:45 here in washington, by the end of 2016 the only american personnel left in the country will be a normal embassy staff, plus a quote, unfeed, security assistance staff. now what will american troops be doing until now and 2016, counter terrorism training says the senior official as well as training afghan forces, they will not be in the lead role in combat in any sort of regular basis del. >> and mike, the afghan president till to sign a trea ty is there any indication that they will be signing that soon? >> reporter: there is an indication. the first democratic transition of power in afghan's long and very torturous history, it's

down it two candidates, as you know they have had the first round, a run off comes on june 14th and both candidates have said that they would sign the status of forces agreement. now karzai, the administration had been urging him since way back in december to do so. he had refused. del, there are a couple of other numbers we want to throw out at you at this point. remember president obama's surge announced at west point in december 2009, since that time the number of u.s. troops had peaked at about 100,000. from mid 2010 to the spring of 2011. as of this point, the president making a surprise visit sunday to bagram air base. the number was down to 32 now and we described how the president envisions the further dry dawn. one other number, 2,184 americans have lost their lives in the almost 13 years of war in afghanistan. >> the most important number. mike viqueira live in washington for us. mike, thank you very much.

already local reports coming out of nigeria saying 24 security personnel have been killed by boko haram. it happened at a nigerian military base. it's also being reported that a senior police officer in charge of that area is one of the people that was killed. we will bring you more information as it becomes available. meanwhile, there are new questions in nigeria, a top military official there saying they know where the missing school girls are, but will not use force to rescue them. the 276 girls seized by boko haram have now been held for more than a month. and as erica reports, for some criticism of the military is commonplace. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: in the wake of mass protests and prayers. nigeria's defense chief made an important announcement by the much-criticized military mission to rescue the missing school girls abducted by boc boko hara.

>> the good news for the girls is that we know where they are but we cannot tell you. we cannot tell i where they are. just leave us alone, we are working. we will get the girls back. >> reporter: the defense chief spoke in front of thousands of demonstrators who march today the ministry headquarters in the capital. >> nobody should come and say the military doesn't know what we are doing. we know what we are doing. >> reporter: he is the military will not use force to free the girls fearing that could get them all killed. >> we can't go and kill our girls to get them back. >> reporter: on the same day of this announcement a sit-in protest, where citizens say the nigerian government is failing in one of its basic duties to its people. >> it is the responsibility of the government to protect every citizen. therefore if a citizen is missing it's the government to help that citizen. it says that the government has two primary responsibilities.

the welfare and the security of the people. >> reporter: now, this comes as violence between nigerian citizens and boko haram he is ca slates, since the girls were kip mid that was filled 500 citizens. university students, civil servants and businessmen are arming themselves with bows and arrows, sword and even homemade guns. del. >> erica, thank you very much. mean whaoeurblg family membermeanwhile, family memberss to do more and they want action now. here is more from the capital of >> reporter: the families of more than 200 girls kidnapped have start today respond to the statement by nigeria's chief of defense staff that they know where the girls are but they are not going to use force to rescue them. and the family that his we have been speaking to say that they are waiting and watching very cautiously regarding what the military intend to do. they say that in the past they

have received conflicting and confusing information from the military about where the girls are, so they are a little bit skeptical and distrustful of some of the information emerging from the u authorities. on the broader picture of the nigerian response to this development, where many nigerians welcome the news that the military knows where the girls are but many are asking if they know where they are there must ache rescue attempt as soon as possible. however for operational and security reasons the military authoritys say they can't give us anymore information about what rescue attempt is underway. it's also important to state that various other arms of government, for example, the presidency, have not made any statement about this new development. however, it is hoped by many that the rescue attempt will be mounted soon and that the girls will be turned home 123-4678 12.

in see equipment, on low voter touch out. they will be giving them more time to cast their ballot for president, al sisi is expected to win by a landslide but the low turn out is raising concerns even if he wins the margin may not be wide enough for him to call a mandate. prompting official to his declare a public holiday which was the last day of the election to encourage citizens to go to the polls. russia calling to the end of violence, heavy fighting leaving 40 people dead. the fighting has been fierce. this video is from ukraine's defense ministry, showing soldiers firing machine guns and mortars at pro-russian rebels. ukraine's government saying it has gained control of the airport. but not before a dramatic confrontation with the government troops storm that go location. nick spicer has more from kiev.

>> reporter: they came from above to retake the airport. the ukrainian government was lawrenclaunching its biggest opn yet against pro-russian fighters. it began early monday when separatists seized control of the building. the air pot shutdown, no flights in or out of the city of 1 million. police blocked access to the entrance, ukrainian authoritiess set a deadline for separatist to his lay down their arms it, came and went, no vendor. the crack down came quickly. smoke rose over airport as jetses and helicoptered made attacks, but more arrived to join the fight, fighters belong to go a pro-russian militia. they ran in to it the major government fire power. with scores of separatists reported killed and others being brought to hospitals. this man said around 100 fellow fighters were killed around him. >> translator: there were not many injured left. most of us were dead.

a lot of us. >> reporter: and here is where many of the deadenedded up. the city morgue. piles of bodies with many missing limbs. one al jazerra crew got caught up in the cross fire. they were on the road lead to go the airport when shooting broke out. the crew escaped unharmed. >> keep going, keep going, keep going. explosion. >> reporter: but they mayoly avoid an explosion just as they were turning back. >> go, go goshes he goshe gogo,! drive, drive, drive! drive, drive, drive! 67 the government now says it has control of the airport, but there are reports of fighting elsewhere and of armed men trying to enter ukraine from russia. nick spicer, al, kiev. and on the diplomatic front, the president, president obama calling ukraine's president

elect congratulated him on his victory offering u.s. support. meanwhile, four european military observers in eastern ukraine are now missing. they were there watching developments in the country, the organization for security and cooperation in europe says they lost contact with their members on monday. they were near the eastern ukrainian city of don evening. a memorial service set to be held for the victims of the california rampage, services will be held on the campus on his friday elliot rodgers killed 16, and injuring several others before turning on the gun on himself. that his a kansas is is there and that his a, how are students coping with the strategy? >> reporter: i am standing in front of the deli where one of the shootings took place, this is where elliot roger shot and killed kristopher martinez and as you can see, over the last few days, a lot of students have been stopping by setting down candles and flowers and just

moments ago actually a remembrance wall has also been set up. it's just all the way on the other side of the street. it's fairly empty right now, because really just a half hour ago they set this up, but expect people to be dropping off throughout the day. and some students already take initiative already to start writing messages, they have written down here on the pavement messages of love and peace and they will not forget this and need time to heal. this is the end of the long weekend, start of the week here. and the start of classes, but classes have been canceled to allow students to remember the lives lost. ♪ ♪ >> reporter: the vigils and memorials have spread beyond where the three were gun downed. high schools and universities across southern california remembered the victims, including the parents of george chen who added their names to this memorial. according to police, their son and two others were stabbed to

death bile yell you want roger before he went on his shooting rampage. >> we would die a thousand times but we don't want [inaudible] this shouldn't help to any family. should be the last one in the united states. >> reporter: chen had been visiting rodgers to two mates. who parents at home on monday could not contain their grief. >> reporter: questions still linger about how elliot roger could carry out his ram page when clues appear to be everywhere, including videos he posts on youtube. >> a beautiful environment is the darkest hell if you have to experience it all alone. >> reporter: videos like that concerned his family enough to ask police to check on him a month ago. they did and after finding him polite and lucid, they left. >> if they felt that he was a

danger they would have taken additional steps, but they didn't feel that because of the way that he was able to convince them as he was able to convince so many people obviously in his life. >> reporter: because he was never committed to a mental facility, roger was able to legally buy three handguns, that is adding new fuel to the debate between proponents of stricter gun control and the n r.a. which maintains that improving the country's mental health care system is still the best strategy to prevent such incidents, but the diagnosis of mental illness isn't an exact science and only a handful of those diagnosed might ever go to a killing spree. >> the truth of the matter, as sad as it sounds, these are rare occurrences even though they are catastrophic occurrences and there is no way to study them and predict them with any accuracy. >> reporter: that's really part of the difficulty. scientists say you can predict behaviors in people with mental health problems. but to predict a specific action that they will take in, this

case, you know, elliot roger did declare his intention and plan it out in a very elaborate 140 page meandering manifesto but he didn't release it until moments he started going on his rampage, del. >> melissa chan for us live in california. melissa, thank you very much. coming up on al jazerra america, vacant lots abandoned homes all too familiar in detroit these days, now that city taking matters in to their own hands. ♪

it has now been 10 months since the city of detroit declared bankruptcy. but for some the city, both officials and residents they say they are making strides trying to save their city. billion dollarb.c. is there. what did the blight task force reveal today? >> reporter: the task force has spent the past eight months analyzing every single property here in the city of detroit. and what they found is that there are over 80,000 blighted

structures in detroit. now, this is a report that was compiled by businesses as well as the city of detroit. and they estimate that it will cost $2 billion, if not more, to rid the city of all the blight over the next several years. this afternoon, the city's emergency manager kevin orr addressed the media and said that this report is essential to moving detroit forward. >> for the first time in this city's history, you have a comprehensive proposal to analyze all the properties in 144 square miles of city, including lakes and rivers, with the resources and technology to address the issue you. >> reporter: as the emergency manager mentioned, this blight issue has been something that has been lingering here in detroit. not just years, but decades. and i had the opportunity to

talk to a detroiter who has lived here all of his life and he had issues of in his community and then he decided to take things in to his own hands. despite what it looks like, this is not your typical farm. these ghost, turkeys and chickens are being raised in a neighborhood on detroit's east side. the farm yard belongs to mark covington, he has living in the neighborhood all of his life, abandoned and rotted out homes, vacant lots, illegal dumping, his once thriving community became one filled with decay. in 2008, covington decided to take on the flight himself. >> i said from the beginning that i wanted to shine the most positive light on my neighborhood as possible. >> reporter: first he started mowing the grass. then he bought this abandon building and built a farm yard and community garden. so what do you have here? >> right now we have broccoli,

kale, collard, buzzal sprouts and lettuce planted. >> reporter: it's known as the georgia street community collectcollective. >> it's no the items to pick whatever they want to pick and have whatever they want to have and get help if they need it. >> reporter: in a bankrupt city with an estimated 80,000 abandoned structures, covington is considered an innovator but the fight isn't his alone, the city's emergency manager has proposed spending more than a half billion dollars over the next five years to eliminate blight. wayne state university urban development professor john mike says it's a step in the right direction, but there are more hurt go ahead ahead. >> thhurdled ahead. >> the city's biggest challenge after eliminating blight is to reestablish the ground for better use. >> reporter: covering tonight is laying down the groundwork hoping to get setoguchi an example of what is possible in a bankrupt city striving if a

comeback. so a lot of optimism today over the release of the report. city's emergency manager kevin orr has set aside nearly a half billion dollars going towards eliminating blight here in the city, federal funding, city funding as well as private donations, all of that first has to be approved by the bankruptcy judge. del. >> joining us live from detroit, thank you very much. coming up on al jazerra america, do you know what cool is? there is an exhibit in wash dedicated to those that define the very ward. a rare sight in north dakota a tornado hitting a workers' camp.

welcome back to al jazerra america. i am del walters in new york. these are your headlines at this hour. president obama says that he will keep nearly 10,000 perhaps in afghanistan next year. the president set to make that announcement at 2:45 eastern time, we will have live coverage of it when he does. nigeria's military saying it knows the location of those

missing girls who were abducted by boko haram, but it's not exactly said where they are, but they also say they won't use force to rescue them. many accusing the government of not doing enough to pretext the girls and bring them home. there will now be a third day of voting in egypt. that extension coming today which was also a public holiday. the holiday was declared to give voters more team to get to the polls, al se sisi is expected to win by a land slide. you. do you know what cool is in most teenagers think they do and there is now an exhibit in washington, d.c. that asks the very sim question. al jazerra's lisa stark takes a look at celebrities who seem to make them cool. >> reporter: even if you don't know his name, you know who he helped start. lester young's jazz style was individualistic, smooth. rebellious in a word, cool. >> american cool is rooted in a

particularly american rebellion against authority, going back to our revolution. >> reporter: the exhibit 0-s in on 100 americans, cultural icons, men recognizable by a single name. elvis, ali, hepburn, prince. >> i tends to think that you know cool when you see it. it's a particular style. it's the it girl. he's got it. there is an almost undefinable aura to them in which you say, wow, that's cool. >> reporter: some, such as paul newman, stayed cool their entire lives. for others, it was more fleeting. >> elvis becomes the victim of his own success and becomes rich and prosperous and fat. >> reporter: cool often means someone who is dangerous. an outsider. perhaps a tougher attitude to tackle for women. who make up barely one fourth of the exhibit. >> a man can be bad, a man can play around, a man can drink and smoke and get in a car and drive really fast. and disobey society's rules and

be creative. and he -- so that means he's bad, which is cool. if a woman does it it, she's bad and that's bad. >> reporter: okay. outside the museum in a currently cool part of d.c. we flip through the photos of the exhibit with passersby to see how they define american cool. >> they all stood out from each other. even if you put them in a group, they have something unique about them that separates them from the crowd. so that's why people i guess call them cool. >> cool is being able to hear the drummer in your head and follow that beat. >> reporter: what better place than a coffee shop tucked in an alley to meet honor by tour of d.c. cool. starting the popular weapon site d.c.'s brightest young things filled with local happenings, to her cool is being ahead ease in your own skin and she says in these days of social media, there are many ways to standout. >> i actually think right now in 2014, it is like a pretty democratic approach. and anyone can be there.

you don't actually need to be a famous person. >> reporter: even visitors to the museum are weighing in on who's cool. offering their opinion that some of these icons should also have been included in this collection of cool customers. lisa stark, al jazerra, washington. and for more on art, lit care and music, go to our website aljazerra.com. click on the culture button at the top and you will find photos of female priests being ordained and how football stake off in india as well as what is cool. you'll find those stories in culture on aljazerra.com. ♪ ♪ >> meteorologist: and i am meteorologist dave warren, you are looking at the radar of north dakota, sa south dakota qe a different story than yesterday afternoon and everything. severe weather. take a look at this it was moving across parts of north dakota, and this was a tou torno caught on camera here, certainly

a confirmed tornado. what is happening from today, you can see from the pictures it looks very power. the national weather service going out and investigating the damage trying to classify what scale of tour that i had owe it was, they do the next day to see how powerful it was. it certainly looks powerful with that video. unfortunately there were some injuries it was near a worker camp. we are watching it closely today. things are quiet. no more severe weathers air cross north dakota. to the south, so, in oklahoma and texas, now we are seeing this line of severe storms that move through parts of texas. no longer severe like they were in central texas, but it was the heavy rain that led to flash flooding. still having the flash flood watch in this spine he have at the presenevident hereon the sa. starting to get showers coming in, picking up showers and thunder storms later today. flooding problems along the gulf coast in texas and moving in to louisiana with flood washes and flash flood watches in effect.

warnings likely with all the heavy rain come do you think and more in the forecast the next three days, here is the rain moving across texas, in to the southeast, this will lead to flooding and flash flood as we are talking about three to six-inches of rain. and that area of rain spreading slowly east over the in effect three days, with where we are not get the rain is where we need it across the south west. the weather pattern doesn't want to change. the cloud will persist over southern california no, rain predicted over the next three days, just heat continuing to buildup with highs near 90 degrees. del. thank you very much, dave. finally risky business for one trying to set a fast world record. the aussie wants to travel 311 miles an hour on this thing, it's a street luge and it started as a jet-powered skateboard that you lie on feet first. if that's not crazy enough, he rides on roads alongside cars and trucks. he'll be racing an american and a brit for the title sometime next year. we will keep you posted on just how well he does or doesn't do. thank you for watching al

jazerra america, i am del walters in new york, earth rise featuring solar energy after dark is next. and a reminds that you can check us out 24 hours a day just by going to our website aljazerra.com. ♪ ♪