nicholas parsons, thank you for being with us. >> i appreciate it. >> the show may be over but the conversation continues you can also find us on twitter @ajconsiderthis. we'll see you next time. >> good evening. this is al jazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler in new york. it's 11 on the east coast. 8 in the west and you are watching the only live nationality news cast at this hour. a soldier's story. a tape the moment bowe bergdahl was released by the taliban, and the home town celebration is cancelled. the hero - we are live to the air force pilot who rushed from his passenger seat in a 747 when the captain suffered a heart attack. unbreakable.

the last of the wind talkers turning their language into codes that helped to win world war ii. saving daff vincy - restoring a masters piece. sergeant bowe bergdahl's four days of freedom after five days in captivity has been a we'll wind of praise and controversy. members of congress met with security officials for more details. randall pinkston has the latest. >> reporter: a pick-up truck delivered bowe bergdahl to a field in eastern afghanistan. taliban fighters surrounded him. one fighter, holding what appeared to be a rocket propelled grenade launcher was on a hill top. the 28-year-old bowe bergdahl appeared frail as he talked with

fighters in his last motels of five years as a prisoner of war. as a black hawk helicopter approached, one of the taliban reportedly told bowe bergdahl "don't come back to afghanistan. if you do, you won't make it out alive next time." the exchange took less than a minute. three u.s. special operations soldiers approached from the helicopter, shook hands with a taliban fighter and escorted bowe bergdahl back to an aircraft where he was frisked before boarding. where one helicopter touched down, dozens of troops took part. along with aerial surveillance and intel gones. his release, widely praised, is the subject of controversy, especially over the president obama's administration decision to exchange five high-level leaders for freed ox. on wednesday, administration officials from the department of defense, state and c.i.a. gave senators a closed door briefing

explaining the administration's assistance that the released detainees are not a threat to u.s. security. >> i have not been reassured is that the five high-risk taliban detainees will not get back and re-engage in the fight against us and our allies. >> these are real dangerous people. that's why we held them in captivity for so long. if they do get back in, in the same mentality, it won't be a good situation. >> while sergeant bowe bergdahl receives medical treatment, some of the soldiers that served with him accused him of doing a deserter. defense secretary chuck hagel said that will be dealt with later. >> let's get the facts, but first focus on getting sergeant bowe bergdahl well. getting his health back. getting him reunified with his family. >> and another twist in this

story. in hailey idaho, plans for a celebration were cancelled. the official reason, the town doesn't have the infrastructure to handle the huge crowds expected when bowe bergdahl eventually returns home. and another alleged taliban hostage situation in afghanistan. these videos show kaitlin coleman with her canadian husband. they plead for help, asking president obama to work to free them and their child. coleman's familiarsed the video today. they decided to go public in light of bowe bergdahl's release. and an american in egypt - mohammed subtlon was smuggled out of the cairo prison. he was arrested and recorded video in january after starting a hunger strike. john terrett reports. >> is my life not worth anything to you.

has the life of american citizens become worseless. is it because my name is mohammad. >> mohammad sultan's blunt message to president obama, smuggled out of the the toura prison has gone viral. the 26-year-old has been held since august for allegedly using his cell phone feed for filming those angry at arming mohamed mursi. >> i was documenting crimes against justice, humanity, democracy, trying to share by principles, hoping to build bridges between the generations. >> reporter: sultan who was shot in the arm is on hunger strike and said to be frail. after being picked up he tweeted at president obama:.

>> reporter:. >> reporter: he wrote an open letter to the president. now he appeals to fellow minister. >> i had my freedom stripped away. why? because i was living by the values and principles that our founding fathers built the nation on. his brother omar said what the family wants is what other families removed. >> hillary clinton went to egypt applying pressure to free them. the charges were dropped and they were put on a plane and sent back to america. >> omar said his brother has been on hunger strike. family feared for his life. >> are you saying there are, in fact, different variations of american. and my type in this period and this time happens to be the one that matters less or not at all.

sultan's family says he's a critic. his father, a member of the brotherhood was detained after criticising the brotherhood for the way he ran egypt when they were in power. now, last month the state department told al jazeera we continued providing appropriate counsellor services. it includes monitoring his health. authorities to assure he has access to care and maintaining access. they said we take, with utmost seriousness the hunger strike, and a foreign prison. hundreds of californian prisoners are suing the sit over solitary confinement. it's a class action suit brought by inmates who spent a decade in isolation. we talk to a prisoner in solitary confinement for eight years.

we'll look at this divisive and emissional issue, jonathan betz is here with more. >> there are 81 thouds prisoners in solitary -- 81,000 prisoners in solitary confinement. class action status has been granted to 200 inmates, who claim their prison took things too far. >> reporter: the prison at pelican bay is home to the toughest prisoners. it's near the oregon border, miles from the nearest prison. inside prisons are cut off from society and each other. relegated to windowless cells and fed through a slot in the door, with almost no human contact. critical it inhumane. >> there's no reason why they should be held in a cage 23 hours out of the day. >> reporter: pelican bay is a prison with a solitary housing unit, known as the shoe. the state says it's necessary to keep the peace.

if the inmates are kept there for years. the civil rights group says more than 500 prisoners at pelican bay spent more than a decade in solitary. more than 200 have been in the shoe for 15 years, and almost 80 have been there for two decades. the prisoners say it violates eighth amendment rights, making it a form of cruel and unusual punishment. both the californian corrections department and the prison guard told al jazeera they are reviewing the case but have no comment. they have defended the use of solitary confinement saying it curbs violence and gangs. the head of california's adult prison told al jazeera one of the inmates leading the class action suit leads a prison gang. >> he came to prison for burglary, robbery. while in prison he stabbed an inmate to death on behalf of the

airian brotherhood. >> reporter: supporters say the crimes do not justify years of isolation. an argument that found some support in washington last year. >> united states holds far more prisoners in segregation or solitary confinement than any other democratic nation on earth. >> reporter: the united nations says isolating prisoners for longer than 15 days could qualify as torture. they force california to prove how long it uses the shoe. it's not the only push back. they launched hunger strucks and the prison introduced changes, including allowing inmates to earn their way out the solitary confinement. more on the story. one of the attorneys joins us, she is working on the class action lawsuit and is joined by

steven september to prison for carr jacking. he spent two years at the shoe for getting in a prison fight and spitting op an officer. he's a student at u.c. berkeley. welcome to both of you. what is it like to be in the shoe? >> well, from the outside looking in, i see the pictures that others see. it looks sterile. but i can tell you from being on the other side of the gate, that it's nothing short of time like. it's like being buried. >> do you think you deserve to be in the shoe for the violations that you committed in the prison? >> at the time, you know, i wasn't critically analysing the situation. looking back, i spit on an officer and i got into a fist fight. these two accounts somehow

justify - i was in the shoe for four, cork ran for two, pelican bay for two. four years in solitary confinement living by myself in a little box. i think it was a drastic response. there's no doubt test retribution. >> did it change your behaviour? >> well for the fours years that i was alone, i was a very well behaved boy, yes. you know, did it make me rethink spitting on an officer? not really. i mean it was heat of the moment. he was taunting me. i spit on him. >> you've been in trouble since you were a kid. >> yes. i would... >> go ahead. >> i haven't been in trouble since i was a kid. i left prison 12 years ago and have been doing just fine. there was a time when i was getting in trouble yes. >> for a good portion of your life, beginning in your teen years, you were in trouble. >> ever since i was probably seven. my first time i was arrested, i

was seven years old, yes. it escalated from there. >> what is it you want to say about solitary confinement? >> i'm a really bad example to hold up promoting solitary confinement. i didn't hurt anybody. i spit on a guy, hurt his feelings. i got in a fist fight. the guy might have got his cheek bruised. i spent eight years in solitary for those exact behaviours. so what is it i'm trying to say? i don't what you've done. i don't care if you've stobed somebody -- stabbed someone in prison or spit on an officer, no one has the right to put anyone in a came, bury them align, drive them mad, kill their bodies and mind slowly for reasons that are at best contradictory. >> tell us why you filed the lawsuit? >> i filed the lawsuit with a

number of people, center for constitution alt rights. there's about -- constitutional rights, we have about 10 lawyers. we filed it because of the torture. imagine living in a box, a medium sized bathroom is how you live your life for 20, 30 years. you are in restraints, you have cavity checks, abused by guards, terrible foods, no educational opportunities. i got involved in 2011 during a hunger strike where some lawyers were banned from pelican bay, from then on i wept up there. we organised a group of lawyers to take on the case. california is an outlier. we have more prisoners per capita, the harshest conditions of any prison system in the world. it is extremely punishing. it's a system where, you know, everybody is demonised. i know the men for a couple of

years. our clients they are representatives of the various organizations in california's prisons and are some of the most brilliant, amazing people you have known. i'm not exaggerating and not the only bun who says it. >> i need to push back. i can hear people out there saying but look, they committed crimes, they violated the rules in prison. how else do we deal with people like this? >> one - to come back a minute. ways that people are validated as gapping members and put into pelican bay shu. the people never have an evidentiary hearing, never have dew process, they don't confront the abusers. so and is a big-time character. so they say they have secret nv apts that say this, secret evidence. the person validated, that can

be put in californian shoes, for 30, 40 years. they never have a chance. they don't have due process, that is a claim in the lawsuit. >> and cruel and unusual punishment as well. >> torture. this is the first lawsuit in the united states, class action that will try and show the torture goes on in the security housing industry to isolate someone for that lopping, destroys -- that long, destroys their parliamentary. creating psychiatric harm. this will be the first lawsuit in the united states trying to address this issue of solitary confinement and it's being considered a violation of the 8th amendment of the united states. we thing we can make the cruel and unusual punishment case. steven, i know you've been out for a while. how has life been, and what are you doing right now.

>> now i'm wrapping up the undergraduate studies, getting ready for grad school and doing a research project on security housing units. i'll tell you what life has been like. life has been exciting, challenging. do you know what, what is jermain to what i'm talking about is that in the last 10 years i have experienced everything that life has had to offer, i've had a sun, a family and jobs. and everything i've done since then has been tainted, has been with this over - this kind of overriding sense of unease of impending doom, paranoia. it hasn't been until recently that i tracked being alone, how

it affected me. i mean, i was in - i'm still in a long-term relationship for eight years. it was five years into the relationship before my partner could embrace me. this is a story we are following. thanks or being on the program. >> you're welcome. >> a developing story out of california tonight as well. a military plane crashed into a residential area outside san diego. the pilot was able to eject safely from the aircraft. one house was an fire. the pilot was taken to a hospital for evaluation. no word on injuries on the ground. in the wake of general eric shinseki's resignation as head of veterans' affairs, it falls to his successor and congress. they are trying to fix problems. libby casey reports. >> reporter: plenty of

congressional outrage over problems at the v.a. this cause ought to be one that galvanises the nation. >> the scandal reached proportions where the american people are deeply angered. veterans groups say they have heard this before. >> it's not a new problem. >> reporter: this man served in vietnam and says this is deja vu. a decade ago hundreds of thousands of vets were vating six months for health care. >> they found a mismatch between the funding and demand. if the mitch match wasn't addressed that we would have access problems and we'd have quality of care problems. >> there was concern that there was no real action. funding is a problem. >> congress constantly pushes agencies to do things without giving them adequate resources and authority. >> reporter: peter, a lawyer and

political scientist said incentives to move veterans through the system may have backfired as v.a. took shortcuts. >> agents like the v.a. cannot discipline employees effectively or quickly. >> reporter: congress grease the v.a. -- agrees the v.a. needs to change. congress said fire bad employees, september veterans to -- send veterans to other doctors. >> money is not the problem, it's management did accountability. >> reporter: many democrats say it can't stop there and the federal government should invest more. >> in many parts of this country primary care physicians are saying we can't do it. tooen mam are coming in. some know first hand how the v.a. works. one in five members served in the military down 70% in three decades. in congress, where seniority is

power, the v.a. is not the ones most members fight to turn on. turn over is high. of 25 turnovers. 17 are relative to congress. they hope they are listening, and not politics as usual. >> using veterans to get re-elected and forget about us. hopefully someone will do something to correct the situation and take the political atmosphere out of the situation. >> this time they will not let congress forget. the senate republican primary in mississippi is heading for a june run off. chris mack daniel and dan cochrane will run off. mc-daniel is slightly ahead. it's a battle between the g.o.p. and the tea party.

same-sex marriage won a battle. the supreme court. the order follows an appeal for marriage. requesting they be halted. hundreds of same-sex couples tied the knot. the state's ban on marriage violated the application. coming up, to the rescue. the story of a pilot that helped land a passenger jet after the captain had a heart attack. >> the last reunion, world war ii vets head back to normandy to remember d-day.

president obama is in belgium, he met with the leaders for the g7 summit. topping the agenda trying to find a plan for peace in ukraine. russia part of the meeting was not invited. following an annexation of crimea. mike is travelling with the president. now there are seven, as the group known as the g8 gathered in brussels. it was the banished leader whose presence hung over the summit. meeting ukraine's president-elect petero poroshenko earlier in wor way. president obama vowed to keep the pressure on russia by

pressuring allies for actions in ukraine. >> a unified international community, that it is a violation of international law and willing to back up the principals with consequences for russia. >> in his west point speech president obama declared his policy of sanctions is working. >> our ability to develop world relations... >> vladimir putin is not frozen out. leaders of three allies, br britain, france and germany will meet him at the d-day celebrations. president obama will not. tight nipping sanctions will be a suf -- tightening sanctions will be a tough sell. >> this is hard. there'll be european reluctance

to move forward in a difficult stage of sanctions. >> before leaving warsaw president obama spoke, praising gains for independence. we stand together because we believe people and nation have a right to determine their open destiny. syrian president bashar al-assad has won a third term in office. polls were opened in areas under government control, not in cities held by rebels. the closest challenger received 4% of the vote. the u.s. is calling bashar al-assad's victory meaningless. secretary of state john kerry is speaking out against the election, promising humanitarian aid. the u.s. will provide an additional $290 million, and the countries that took them in. the u.s. contributed $2 billion to help with the crisis created by the syrian war.

next - big money, big risk. we take you to the most dangerous place to work in america. plus, exposed. the new place for whistle blowers to share their secrets.

the performance review. that corporate trial by fire when every slacker gets his due. and yet, there's someone around the office who hasn't had a performance review in a while. someone whose poor performance is slowing down the entire organization. i'm looking at you phone company dsl. check your speed.

see how fast your internet can be. switch now and add voice and tv for $34.90. comcast business built for business. hi everyone. this is al jazeera america. i'm john seigenthaler in new york. coming up, saving the day. a passenger rushes to the cockpit after a pilot has a heart attack. risky business - the problems oil drilling is causing in north dakota. and d-day - remember - why a few of the american troops stormed the normandy beaches.

imagine being on a night and hearing from the cockpit "is anyone here a pilot?" that happened to mark. travelling as a passenger to denver. after the pilot had a heart attack he stepped in to guide the jet to safety. safely back on the ground now, captain mark joins us from cleveland. good to see you. thank you for joining us. >> good evening, thank you for having me. happy to be here. >> has anything like that happened to you? >> definitely not. this was a first. >> so explain - when did you decide that you would have to get up and go up fronted? >> it was after - it was only after the plane began to divert off course, back to omaha. there were the three quick calls. at first i thought nothing of it. in terms of being a captain and a pilot. after two nurses began to

respond then they asked for non-revenue pilots on board, which is airline parlance for any pilots who are dead-heading - professional pilots off duty out of uniform. i peaced it together what that mental. that was the first ippingling. >> i have been on flights where people have gotten sick and they had to move them. never the pilot. they had to take the pilot out of his seat and you got in? >> that's right. i got to the front of the aircraft and two other passengers helped the nurses pull the captain out of the cockpit to the forward gallie and closed the door, after being invited to do so by the first officer. she asked me "who are you?", and said "what do you fly?" i said i flew bi. >> talk about the work between a pilot and a co-pilot on any

flight like this. >> sure. in commercial operations and in the military, in crewed aircraft you have the pilot flying and not flying. it's what it sounds like. the pilot flying, if the airplane is off autopilot. it's manipulating the throttles, and is flying the airplane. if the autopilot is on, that is working the autopilot. to manage the pilot and manage the aircraft. the pilot not nighing is doing everything else. it's tuning the radios. receiving clearances, reading it back. >> we are talking about a 737. what are you used to flying. >> i'm fused to flying b 1s. that's where the predominance is. >> how different? >> not too different. in the grand scheme of things. i didn't fly the aircraft, the

co-pilot retained control. she was pilot in command. i just was had pilot not flying. >> with the controls and that, are they different, the same, you had to learn something quick. >> they were similar enough, you know, where it was not too big of a problem, actually. it was very ipp tutive to know -- intute if to know what was what -- intuitive. boeing designed an exlant aircraft. it was very intuitive. it was obvious where everything was. >> this is a difficult situation. the co-pilot lost the pilot who had a heart attack. i mean, talk about the tension in that - in that cockpit. >> you know, i'm not. i guess there was - there was obviously some tension, of course, when i first got in there, you know, because she's doing literally about 30 to 35 minutes of work in about 20 minutes.

you know. turning the plane around, looking up the new approach, the new numbers, doing all of this alone while the nurses are trying to take care of him and get him out of the cockpit. when i got in there, i think she - i think she would have done okay. she would have been fine, actually, and flying it in alone the rest of the way, but she chose to ask for help, to see if there was a resource available in the form of another pilot, that happened to be me, and i was happy to step in and help and ease the load. >> fortunately - i am sure the papers were happy -- passengers were happy. what happened when you landed they gave you a big cheer. >> not me directly. the nurses got a cheer after getting the captain off the aircraft. >> your wife was on the plane. >> yes, my wife and daughter. >> what did she say. >> good job. >> she encouraged you to get up. >> she did. all she heard was any pilot. she looked at me and got really

eyes wide. i was impressed thinking she knows what non-revenue pilot means. she said "i think you should ring the call button." i said "i will." i will give it a second to make sure there's no one else. >> captain mark, i am sure glad you were on the flight. you came to the rescue, good job. nice to talk to you. good luck. >> thank you for having me. we are keeping our eye on other top stories, richelle carey is here with the briefing. >> home coming celebration for freed army sergeant bowe bergdahl has been cancel. the town of hailey idaho planned to honour his release about a city-wide celebration. it cancelled the event citing concerns the infrastructure couldn't handle it. >> what appears to be a hostage situation out of afghanistan. the videos show missing american kaitlin coleman and canadian

husband. in the videos they ask the u.s. for help. the recordings were send to colemans family, and decided to make them public following bowe bergdahl's release. >> in cairo an american prisoner is asking for help. mohammad sultan recorded the video in january, and asked president obama if his life is considered worthless. he's been in gaol since august for allegedly using his cell phone for recording egyptian security forces. the state department says it takes hunger strike of any u.s. citizen in a foreign prison seriously. thank you, richelle carey. former u.s. deposit employees set up a website to encourage whistleblowers to come forward and expose criminal activity. it comes a year since the mass surveillance programme of the citizens was exposed. we have that story.

>> they are former national security agency employers, wanting to expose concerns about how the agency was working. when they did, the government was not happy. >> when we addressed n the unconstitutional activity they sent the fbi at us to shut us up. >> they took the computers, any notes we had to find something to use against us. >> reporter: the two resigned from the n.s.a. but said retaliation continued. each time they were hired by a government agency they said the contracts were terminated. it was years before edward snowden provided proof through leaked documents that the u.s. government was conducting mass surveillance on ordinary americans. >> we are at a severe crisis point. >> so the pair is now part of a group launching a website - exposefacts.org, aiming to shet

light on hidden government activity. >> what is at stake - our civil liberties, the first amendment, the fourth amountment, the fifth amountment. what makes democratic functioning possible. >> they know getting employees to come forward will not be easy, given u.s. government threats against those like edward snowden that expose wrok doing. >> edward snowden is a coward, she's a traitor and betrayed his country. >> the u.s. justice department will not reveal how much money is spent investigating government whistleblowers. it's estimated to be a billion dollars. this group hopes others will come forward. >> i would say depressing to go through this kind of process of exposing what our government is doing in terms of corrupting our

entire process. >> the website is back by 40 former officials by the n.s.a. state and u.s. justice departments. the group purchased a bus shelter add in front of the u.s. state department. it's hoped their own experience will encourage more u.s. government whistleblowers to speak out. back in 1997 controversy surrounded the federal bureau of investigation's crime lab. an agent revealed what he called a pattern of the flawed forensics. it ended with hundreds of verdicts being over turned. it was the topic. "the system." >> michael was an agent in the laboratory. when you look at him you said "this is the kind of guy i want to be like." two examiners from the lab in florida came to me and said "you got to stop this gibing, michael." . >> reporter: stop him from doing

what? >> overinfering the hair data. we tracked all cases, 1836. he testified false, false and misleading. >> many of those cases are still being lit kated. part 3 of the -- litigated. part 3 of "the system" focussing on flawed forensics. north dakota is the hottest place in the u.s. to find jobs. it's the deadliest. the labour department says the fatality rate is five times the national rate. many of the people who lost their lives on the job work in the booming oil and gas industry. diane eastabrook has more. >> reporter: jobs in north dakota campaigned big bucks. up to six figures a year. some workers say the risk isn't worth the reward. ty james is one, injuring his spine when drilling equipment he was loading fell on to him. >> the emergency response people

told me that had the trailer went down another two inches, i wouldn't have known what had happened, i would be dead. >> reporter: james was lucky. work-related death are up 45% in north dakota, in 2012. >> anything above zero is a cause for concern. >> reporter: eric heads the office for occupational safety. with hundred of oil services companies, brooks and others have their work cut out for them. he thinks inspections identify and correct hazards at drilling sites. inexperienced workers are still the biggest problem. if we have someone that had limited experience in the industry, and started their company, they may not be aware of the hazards and the means to protect them. brook says when it comes to

workers safety, it comes down to training. here, the training that rig workers get depends on the company they work for. company training runs the gamut. neighbours drilling is a large company, one of the more rigorous programs. >> where is the hazard here? >> no knew recruit starts the job without first giving nine days of hands-on experience. classroom training and passing a written test. we have somebody that is not progressing the way they should throughout the nine days. we hire. >> despite that, oceania vetted two accidents at the strike in north dakota that resulted in two worker deaths. meanwhile, other companies offer less training. so unions are stepping in to offer training programs. we have to look out for one

another. that's the main thing right now, looking out for one another. making sure that person goes home safe. >> ty says she watched a training video before starting his job as he struggles with pain. the 24-year-old wishes he knew then what he knows now. >> i heard stories. there's nothing to prepare you. i couldn't believe it. diane eastabrook reporting. >> donald sterling agreed to sell his team and drop a lawsuit against the n.b.a. it will be bought by steve balmer, former microsoft chief, for $2 billion. donald sterling was caught on tape for making racist remarks, banned from the n.b.a. and fined $2.5 million. michelle obama, first lady,

announced a programme for ending homelessness among veterans. they make up about 12% of all homeless. >> tens of thousands of veterans who risk their lives for our country are sleeping in their cars or in a shelter or next to a sub way vent. we should be horrified because that's not who we are as americans. >> homelessness among veterans has been reduced 25% by 2010. 60,000ant veterans are on the streets. hundreds of thousands of visitors are expected in normandy france to celebrate d-day. three veterans of colorado, survivors, will be there as well. they are calling the journey the last reunion. >> paul beban has their story. >> hey. good morning. >> bill caldwell is 86, the united states army thinks he's

88 or maybe 89. >> reporter: so this is you when you enlisted? on-august 7, 1943, when he was 15, he lied about his age to an army recruiter. he hoped to be a pilot. >> he said "we need paratroopers." i said what is a paratrooper. he said "we train you and drop you behind the lines, 20 miles, and if you survive, you get to go home after the war. >> that was his answer. i said "i'll take it:". >> at 2am at the tender age of 16, calendar well leaped into the darkness over normandy, one of the first waves of 156,000 allied troops who would land in france on d-day. 73,000 of those troops were american. many would not live to see the end of the day, much less the end of the war, and time has further thinned the ranks of

survivors. it's estimated that more than 1,000 american world war ii vets die every day. combat engineer alfonso is 92. he was one of the first americans to hit omaha beach. he was wounded, returned to combat and made it all the way to the outskirts of berlin. >> they would sit and shoot rockets at us. >> elma was known as lucky, since the days he flew 29 combat missions as a b 17 left-side waste runner. by the time d-day rolled around. he was on the ground training the men that would fly that day. a few days ago almer, alfonso and bill met up, heading back to where they helped to make history. at the ticket counter veteran storm vet got checked up as he checked them in.

>> it was a huge honour to meet them. it's part of the history. >> as a small band of brothers made their way to the gate, the grateful challengers honoured their sacrifices. they called this the last reunion. what they accomplished 70 years ago, it will fade from living memory, as those that survived the longest day say their last goodbyes. coming up, paying tribute to the last navaho code talker in world war ii. plus, fading fast - how modern methods are used to day this da vinci self-portrait.

sh i'm meteorologist dave warren. active weather. there's the radar picture and the severe weather coming through yesterday shows where we had the wind, the hail and the tornado reports. now, this afternoon and this evening, the severe thunder storms developed outside of that area. a few strong storms in wyoming. storms there through parts of kentucky, tennessee and parts of ohio. it will diminish, it's not severe. it is clearing out. you can see by tomorrow that rain is off the coast. things are drying out. weather is calmer and cooler.

cooler air is coming in from the great lakes. this is what you'll wake up to tomorrow. low temperatures into the 40s and 50s. highs are hot across texas and oklahoma. warm air across the southern south-eastern portion. and phoenix above 100 degrees. the heat warnings in effect. temperatures climbing above 100 degrees, and the rain fall - there's lack of it. the drought conditions, a new drought monitor comes out on thursday, showing the air expanding across the south-west, with little rain. a look at more news is coming up next.

beatlemania hits the auction house. john lennon sketches and poewe 'ems were put up for sale. the most expensive was a short story, parodying sherlock holmes. it went for 200,000 before it became a music legend.

he attended an art school and practised short story writing. a famed drug by leonardo da vinci aged to the point of almost being unrecognizable. polish and italian researchers pinpointed a way to work out how long the artwork has. the science of saving art. >> reporter: this is the legion of honour in san francisco, a great museum, and it contains a conservation ad. paper is one of the best ways to understand the creative process of art. it's true in the case of leonardo da vinci who did 2,500 works on paper. paper yellows over time. it's because all paper has what is called chromoforce, atoms that ab sort of blue light and reflect more yellow waive

lengths which is why it's yellow. modern paper is terrible, it's made out of wood pulp. back in da vinci's day, in the case of this artwork, it was head out of linen rags. i'm not going to draw a self portrait. if you imagine back then the contrast between the red chalk and the white of the papers, it made the work incredible. the yellowing of the paper reduced the contrast. it's more difficult to see what is on the paper. what the researchers accomplished is they are using a certain kind of near visible and infrared light to detect the chromoforce in the paper, determining how badly it's yellowing, how many years it has left. we are no closer to preserving a work of art like mine.

it's beautiful. you would want to preserve it. that's because there's no real way of reversing the effect of those chromoforce. in the mid 20th century, there was experimentation in bleaching works. with a black and white subject you may be able to do that. if you put bleach through tomato juice, it turns it white. it turns red shock a different colour. you lose the pigment. you wouldn't want to do that. while the work that the reachers has done is excellent at pinning down the effects of aim, we are no closer to refusing the effects in work-like da vipsys. jacob ward reporting. the last of the original navaho code talkers died. he and fellow marines made a huge contribution in the fight with japan. >> reporter: it was the beginning of world war ii. u.s. marine recruiters visit the navaho nation and asked 29 men

to take on a mission. chester was one of them. >> we should develop a code. >> the original 29 code dockers created a language based on navaho words. they were nearly impossible for anyone else to mimic. the navaho marines used the codes all over the pacific, on codes, shifts and front lines of battle. >> we had a small box, a radio. one guy would crank it up another used a microphone to send a message. >> some messages were intercepted. the japanese never cracked the code. >> the first message i sent in the battlefield was like this. japanese machine-guns on your right flank - destroy. and in a code i said

[ speaking foreign language ] . >> reporter:. >> reporter: the code talkers are credited with saving thousands of lives. after the war they returned to their homes and told to keep quiet about their missions. for dk aids no one -- decades no one knew about their story. in 1978 the work was declassified and it inspired books and the movie "wind code." in 2001, president george w. bush gave the original 29 the congressional gold medal. number of es called it one of the -- nes called it one of the greatest experiences of his life he was 93 and died in new mexico. the imaging of the day comes from tiananmen square. with heavy security, a photographer captures a picture displays playing cards marking the date.

june 4, 1929, and the weapons used to fire on protesters. see you back here tomorrow night. richelle carey with the headlines after this.

welcome to al jazeera america. i'm richelle carey.

here are tonight's top stories. the homecoming celebration for army sergeant bowe bergdahl has been cancel. the small town of hailey idaho planned to honour his release with a city-wide celebration. the official cited infrastructure concerns. another concern is the hostage situation in afghanistan. in these videos, kate lip coleman and her husband asked for the u.s. deposit to free them. they got the video last year and decided to go public now. an american prisoner in egypt recorded a video ha has gone viral. he asked president obama if his life is worth anything. the 26-year-old was arrested last august for using a cellphone it record egyptian forces. he's been on a hunger strike since january. president obama met with world leaders to discuss a plan for the ukraine crisis.

russia was not invited. obama met with ukraine's president-leght promising to keep the pressure on barack obama. the system is up next. check out the website >> this is joe berlinger calling, i'm the director of that documentary about the manning case and i know you had told my team not to call anymore-i just wanted to introduce myself, just to tell you a little bit about what we're hoping to do. can i just say one thing-which is, we're not here to talk about the guilt or innocence of mr.