>> this is aljazeera america. live in new york city. i'm michael leeds. tony harris has the night off. crash in the alps. the stunning accusation that the copilot deliberately downed the german airliner. and coalition airstrikes in yemen. the risk to the region and u.s. security. and the impact on oil. the price in crude in the oil rich region.

good evening shocking new details emerged today about the final minutes of germanwings flight 9525. the plane crashed in the french alps on tuesday killing all 150 people onboard. this morning the french prosecutor said that the voice recorder indicates that the copilot locked the pilot out of the cockpit and deliberately sent the plane into a steep descent. and the prosecutors are trying to find out. lufthansa owner said that he's stunned by the prosecutor's conclusion. the families of the 150 victims visited the crash site and we have the latest from france. >> a search team's forensic expert made use of the remaining daylight to control the crash site. and unanimous of the black box recovered from the site on tuesday has revealed the plane's final moments. listening to the voice

recorder, the prosecutors said that the pilot was locked out of the cockpit in the finally moments. the copilot put the plane into a steep descent. just before it crashes into the mountains, the passengers are heard screaming. >> the most likely interpretation we can make at this point is that the copilot deliberately refused to open the cabin door to the captain. he then activated the button that triggered a severe loss of altitude. we don't know why he activated the button, but it can be interpreted as a deliberate attempt to crash the plane. >> little is known about andrea stubbic. he was a german citizen with little flying experience and no terrorist background. they're shocked. >> this is a big shock to us here and i can only say that we're shocked and very sad.

in our worst nightmares, we would not have imagined such tragedy. >> airbus, the makers of the 23 said that there are situations when crews need to enter the cockpit. seen here, an emergency access can open the cockpit door, but not if access is denied by the pilot inside. search teams have started retrieving body parts of the flight victims, and dna testing is underway. the family of the victims will be asked to give dna samples to start the grim process of identification. for the families of the victims who arrived at the crash site, the news that their loved ones were deliberately killed is distressing. this tragedy is being felt throughout europe, parliament remembered the 150 victims. >> this news affects me as most

people. it's beyond imagination. we don't know the whole background yet. and therefore, it's important that the investigation is conducted. it must be thoroughly investigated. >> the town of housen in western germany was particularly affected by the tragedy. 16 children were on the plane and to know that their deaths were deliberate, is more distressing. >> the new details about the copilot of the germanwings airbus, and paul, what do we know about andrea lubitz? >> we're starting to fill it in a little bit. here's what we know so far about the 28-year-old. the chief executive of lufthansa said that andre lubitz began his training in 2008. and he learned to fly in germany and arizona and there was a gap for several months in his training, which is not usual. when the flight took off from barcelona on tuesday, lubitz

was 100% fit to fly. he joined germanwings the low cost carrier in 2013, out of flight school, and so far he had been a pilot for 18 months, and people who knew him said that he seemed to like his job. today, they went to his home in northwest frankfort looking for anything that would explain the motive behind the crash. he underwent a regular pilot security check back on january 27th, and nothing unusual there either. the reaction in his hometown is what you would expect, shock and sorrow. >> it is an unusual situation because you just don't expect something like that can happen. especially in your own neighborhood. it is very unusual and you get caught up in it, because it's just sad. whole situation is quite simply sad. >> lubitz wanted to fly since he was a boy. he got his glider pilot license when he was a teenager, and the

people at the flight club that he attended described him as rather quiet, but friendly. so there are unanswered questions, and we'll try to have more pieces to the puzzle. now to the war in yemen the coalition led by saudi arabia with airstrikes today. they could move into a bold offensive. and mike viqueira in washington mike, the white house has said that it will not take part in any military action and is there any reason to believe that that will change? >> reporter: there's no reason though before that that will change any time soon, michael. thuation is largely the same on the ground in yemen. the u.s. is backing through rhetoric and intelligence and logistics, but here in yemen the critics are coming out once

again and accusing the president of leaving behind. the top brass confirms, the u.s. is helping the saudis strike houthi targets inside of yemen. >> we're providing support to the gulf, the gcc and saudi arabia. >> that support in the form of intelligence and logistics and the military confrontation in step with american mistakes. >>politics. >> we see this as consistent with our goal. and we wish it was happening now. >> but the sudden escalation exposes tangled alliances, and raises the risks for the u.s. in an ever complicated and volatile region. the conflict is casting a long shadow. as john kerry sat down in switzerland to begin talks over the country's nuclear program. there was a new agenda.

kerry talked yemen with the iran foreign minister. >> i'm not going to characterize it further. >> many see the saudi move in yemen as part of a proxy war against iran. with rebels controlling much of the country. the saudis accuse iran of going further, by sending weapons and iran denies it. president obama and turkey's president talked yemen in a phonecall on thursday. the call coming the same day that he claimed that iran is trying to dominate the region. drawing forces from yemen and syria and iraq. he put it into a wider context. the arab spring. changes in the middle east where american policymakers have struggled to respond. >> it created instability in yemen in particular, one of the realities, i know, with respect

yemen, the houthis grew in prominence and capabilities, it drove them in, and that's why yemen is so important to us, in terms of dealing with the dynamics there. >> this, as high-profile critics of the be obama foreign policy, laid it at the feet of the president. >> i understand why these countries, led bring saudi rainia did not notify us, nor seek our coordination for our systems in this effort. and that is because they believe that we are siding with iran. >> his statements on afghanistan, his policies in general, are putting our nation at risk. and the region is on fire. and this needs to stop. >> and michael the political controversy continues here in washington. of course over the president's comments just last september when he termed his policy in

yemen and openalia, a success and the white house has stood by that. the drone campaign on the arab peninsula has worked and it has driven that force back, but the tom commander told congress under aggressive questioning from republicans that in fact, it's not currently a success story. >> mike viqueira, reporting live from washington, thank you. the stability of yemen could have major implication not only on its neighbors but around the globe. yemen is at a cross roads after centuries of conflict. the saudi intervention is a major escalation of the religious divide. the saudis, along with other sunni muslims in the gulf support the president and reject the sunni uprising but reject iran, because they support the houthis. the houthis have control over the province along the saudi

border. much of the country has influence of al qaeda in the peninsula, and it has become a major ballings for the group. crossing the border, it's being supported by the united states and several muslim nations including the united ameris, and kuwait and iraq. christopher swift is an adjunct professor at george town university. and he joins us from washington d.c. professor swift, thank you for being here tonight. >> it's good to be with you michael. american officials including special operations advisers left yemen well before the saudi airstrikes, and how important is it to the u.s.-led operations in yemen? >> well, it's important because the absence of a presence in yemen means that it's difficult to manage relationships

politically, and it's difficult to execute military operations, and it's difficult to collect the kind of intelligence from the ground that would give us a better understanding of who is involved in the multisided war in yemen but there's a question of how useful such people would be in the middle of such a war and right now things in yemen are deteriorating so quickly that it's not clear whether having u.s. personnel on the ground in the middle of it would make a distance in policy making. >> you mentioned in yemen there are reports that they looted the documents and how likely is it that that classified information could make its way to iran? >> we don't know yet whether an actual looting occurred. and if it did occur we don't know what the nature of those documents are so it's important that we not speculate on the basis of the information that we currently have, but even if it was classified

information, and even if it was sensitive, it's not entire clear if the houthi are in the position to give iran something that iran doesn't already have. >> what verifiable proof do we have that iran is indeed funding the houthi with weapons and training? what is their influence exactly. >> well, it's primarily financial. and they have been supporting them financially and there's pretty about evidence to back that up. and they have been providing armed shipments to the houthis and they have been doing that, and there's pretty clear photographic evidence that iran has been doing that. and one of the things that iran has been doing is training the senior houthi leadership in propaganda and giving them sort of a world view that would help them understand the relationship with the outside world. the houthi are sort of hillbillies, for lack of a better word. they're not terribly cosmopolitan, they're

parochial. and one of the things that they have done over the years is adopted hezbollah's playbook without necessarily adopting their agenda. they have a local agenda, and it's focused on their control of the yemeni institutions and protecting their succession to resources and patronage. and that's different from the agenda that iran has and generally speaking, the groups like the houthi are not with anyone in the outside powers. >> president obama made it clear that there should be no u.s. military intervention in yemen, and can you see anything in that country that would make the president change his mind. >> certainly. the difficulties in the type of interpretvention that we're seeing now is it makes it more likely rather than less likely that people in yemen will see this conflict in terms of a sectarian civil war, rather than the political and parochial and tribal interests that are involved. and if that continues for a

long period of time, we could see a syria type situation arise where you have the hard sectarian divide, around the negotiating table. like we have in syria with isis where the united states is reevaluating. >> professor swift from georgetown university. we appreciate you joining us, and we appreciate the insight. >> good to be with you michael. >> in iraq, government troops are making a final push to take tikrit back from isil forces, and during the last day smoke from airplanes as troops and be special forces move toward the city center. according to the pentagon, there have been 17 strikes from

the target in and around tikrit. and it's going on without at least three major shia religious group. today they protested the united states' involvement in the fight. we have the latest from the pentagon, and jamie, there were heavy airstrikes going on today, the united states competing with iran, and explain what's happening behind the scenes here between the two nations. >> well, michael, it has been an interesting week. last week, the defense was stalled, and the irany -backed shia militia said they were not making any progress, but they said they would not do that, with the support of those troops backed by iran. and today we found out why. the united states convinced the government of iraq that the iranian strategy was flawed, and they didn't have the wherewithal to take tikrit and they really needed u.s. air

power, and they conditioned the airstrikes on the idea that the iranian troops would be sidelined and kept out of going into the city center. we learned about this in the testimony today from the u.s. central command austin, and here is he with the exchange of the arkansas republican, tom cotton. >> do i understand you correctly to say that there are now no iranian forces in tikrit? >> the forces are isf forces, special operations forces and federal police, and as of this morning, when i checked my commanders the shia militia had pulled back. >> so what the general is saying there the u.s. was willing to come in and essentially try to save the day and get that restarted. but the condition was that there would be none of the iranian backed militias, and as

you said, three of the militia groups have pulled out. they claimed all along that they didn't need the u.s. help. but the u.s. was able to convince iraq that with better firepower and planning the offensive was going on. >> as i understand it, at your request, the u.s. led a copy of one of the isil pamphlets dropped over syria this month and what does that show us? >> they mentioned that they were dropping leaflets, and we said, can we get a copy of that in and they produced one. it's a cartoon, it's kind of singlester looking and it depicts a couple of isil recruiters and it says isil in arabic isil recruiting center, and now serving 6,001. and meat gride, and dash, the arabic acronym for isil.

and what it's saying, the united states feels like they're losing the alcohol operations war with isil, and feel of better about minting the opinion with propaganda, and the u.s. is trying to combat that, so it dropped 60,000 leaflets from an f-16. >> thank you very much. an army national guard it specialist and his cousin appeared in federal court today, accused of trying to support isil. edmonds was caught last night when he was trying to board a flight to egypt. his cousin, jonas preparing to attack a military installation in illinois was charged with conspiring to join isil. iran's nuclear capability, the u.s.. to -- before the deadline. they are trying not to get

overshadowed with the situation in yemen. >> with the delegation from the u.s., close allies from saudi arabia, and iran, with houthi, staying in the same hotel because of negotiations, they're obviously with phonecalls on the sidelines with the crisis in yemen but all of theist is focused on trying to get a framework deal before the deadline, they say that these are tough negotiations but they're making progress and they said last week's talks made more progress than any other dur the long period of negotiation. it's not just the u.s. negotiate be with iran, but lots of other international players. one of those is france. we understand that the french foreign minister is currently on his way to new york to preside over the u.n. security council, coming here on saturday. and we believe that the other foreign ministers will follow,

coming here in the coming days as this deadline gets closer. >> a state of emergency in dozens of counties in oklahoma. the severe storms is that swept through the region ripped off rooftops and left thousands without power. >> . >> and anger and agreed. the parents of the mexican students have demands from the government.

>> a trial has revealed a growing gender divide in the technology industry is coming to a close. the question was whether an employee at a silicon valley company was denied a raise because she was a woman. and is there any indication of which way the jury could go in this case? >> michael that's a very good question. we do know that the jurors have paid a lot of attention and asked very good questions. and in terms of the gender

makeup of the jurors, six women and six men and you would think that that would work in favor of ellen powell, the plaintiff. but history has showed us that when you look at gender discrimination cases women jurors tend to be harder on the female plaintiffs and that says something about gender biasing just about everywhere. and regardless of how the jury makes their decision, some say that the venture capital has already lost. just the fact that the ins and out of that company have been revealed to the public, how they make their hires and investment decisions and here you have ellen powell, and she really believes that there was a gender discrimination against her, and she saw male colleagues who came in after her who got promoted and she never got the promotion she wanted michael. >> what would a verdict in powell's favor mean to silicon valley as a whole. >> even before you can imagine

the hr departments already with their hiring policies and their promotion policies, but the numbers are really bad. if you look at partners in venture capital firms only 6% are women. and if you look at the engineering side. 20% offer computer software engineers are women x those numbers are not going to change overnight, even if there's a will for change. 26%, you have a parity that has to be 50/50. and women told us that they don't think this high-profile lawsuit is going to make a big difference. in you okay at wall street in the 1980s it has not changed much as well. and there are those who don't feel this is going to make a big difference. >> you cover the tech industry in depth. and does this trial accurately show women's struggles? >> it's a case-by-case thing

but its something that law professor, deborah rhodey also says. >> this case is really a wake-up call to the capital industry and silicon valley in general. it's a window on the microindignities that seem small, but cumulatively get in the way of women in the workforce. >> even for us, it was hard to talk to women. very few women were willing to speak on camera about being a woman in silicon valley. and i think that says everything. >> reporting from san francisco, thank you. >> cleanup in arkansas and oklahoma after tornadoes swept through the states, killing at least one person. the town of moore oklahoma, which has seen five tornadoes since 2010, was hit yet again. >> it was the intro to severe weather season yesterday.

and we saw quite a bit of damage, we want to go a little bit closer to show you what we were looking at yesterday. let's put the radar into motion and stop it when it's the most active to oak toke city. look at the tornadoes that pushed through this particular area yesterday. and in just oklahoma itself, we have seen five tornadoes in the area. and of course after the tornadoes, it was the damage we were dealing with. in the area of moore they saw most of the damage, and we saw a fatality in tulsa. over 60 homes were destroyed. and tens of thousands of people were displaced in the area. in terms of history in 1999, we saw any ef-5 push through and 36 people died. and then in 2003, any ef-3 and

4 pushed through and then still pushing through with 24 yesterday. and there's the system. >> all of a sudden, another one comes through, thank you very much. >> airstrikes intensify in yemen. one on day two of a military operation. a major player could be ready to send in ground troops. and plus, cockpit security on the airbus 8320. the copilot was able to keep the pilot out. that's next on aljazeera america.

>> welcome back to aljazeera. keping neighboring yemen from crossing the border. airstrikes today. and ground troops could move in as part of a bold and america-backed offensive if

keep rebels from seizing key cities. expected to travel to egypt for an arab-led meeting on saturday so discuss the crisis. and john kerry was on a crisis call this morning with arab prime minister. and the u.s. so far will not take part in any military action. for deepening talking on the crisis in yemen we talk to a political analyst. and thank you for joining us. with so many different parties involved and invested in the current situation in yemen what are the larger geo political issues facing it at this time. >> reporter: my thoughts and prayers are with the families and friends across yemen and i think today is a clear -- what the saudi's attacks on yemen is very clear that they're giving a strong message to the iranian regime. there's a proxy going on in the

region between saudi and iran, and you can see it very clear in syria and iraq and lebanon and now yemen and there are also some other sort of uprisings within, and it could lead to saudi. so i think what the saudis did today, the strikes that they committed in yemen against the military bases basically is sending a strong message to iran. iran already backed up the houthis, and they send weapons and they invested in houthis and gave them all kinds of support. from media the houthi for example, is based in southern lebronlebanon, and with the houthi territory. and it's a very clear problem where lately, the saudis, and the iranians are coming out

strongly saying that in the past few days, and last week even, the adviser to the iranian president said that now the bergan empire is coming back, and iraq, but that is the new capital for that empire. so it is a very clear under the ba'ath control for power. and it's clear that iran is using sectarian groups in the region. >> let me interrupt you if i may. you bring up a very good point. if this proxy war between saudi arabia and iran, what does that mean for the united states? >> the policy right now, it's basically in the dark. they lost sense with reality on the ground. we have said time and time again, that not supporting the

people's demands in the middle east and not supporting human rights, and transparency, this is exactly the result. we have seen today just because of that. if we go back to 2011, when the yemen he's came out peacefully and the saudis helped them stay in power and gave them power and unity and accountability. and i think this is a complete failure and the result of that kind of foreign policy in yemen by the united states, and by the international community, by saudi and by the gulf countries. i think this is their rain issue now, and instead of sending aid and support and development in yemen they are bombing the country. so i think it's a proxy war right now, but i think it's not

going to get any worse than what it is in yemen. saudi targets are focusing very much and the military capabilities of saudi and the houthis, and it looks like they will not back off until they completely destroy us. >> and it's definitely going to get worse in the coming days. >> not only that, but it's important to mention that the forces that they bombed today were completely supported by the u.s. and supported by the saudis and they were only mainly targeting yemenis, the peaceful protesters. we have seen it, and in the last few days, we have seen it, and we have seen it across the countries. >> we appreciate the time. and i apologize we're out of time. but thank you so much for joining us tonight. >> thank you. he's a yemeni political analyst. the oil prices are surging today. and the cost of crude rose

several points hours after it began. sharp increases about the supply and disruption. >> reporter: well, michael u.s. benchmark crude rose with the news of yemen. buts not just yemen's oil production, but the chaos in yemen disrupting how a fair bit of oil gets to market. we're talking about the route through which it's shipped. by standards yemen is not a major oil producer, but it only pumped about 100,000 barrels a day, and that's a drop in the bucket for the 90 million barrels a day globally. but when it comes to influencing global oil markets. yemen is located on the strait that links the red sea to the gulf of aiden and it's a

crucial point for oil tankers to the east and the west and north africa to the market in asia. the bab al manned ebb connects it to the u.s. and some 3.4 million a day pass through the bab-al-mandeb. and they have to go around to reach the u.s., and that means more time. >> and that cost always gets passed on to consumers and so are these concerns likely to have a long lasting nunce in the price of oil? >> not likely, because we have a glut of oil around the world. and it has been a perfect storm of u.s. shale producers pumping more oil into the oil market because of ebbing demand because we have economies

slowing in europe and asia, and you add into that opec, and what you get is a global gut that has reached the highest levels in decades. >> so why is saudi arabia not cutting back it's production? >> saudi arabia claims that this is it's market share and what it's trying to do is trying to put a lot of pressure on the shale producers, but there's also a school of thought that this is quite political as well. because it puts a lot of pressure on oil exporting countries like iran that need oil to fetch $140 per barrel of oil, if you will. >> it's funny how politics and business are always intertwined. and that's why we have you. thank you so much. relatives of those killed in the plane crash in the french alps visited the crash site today. buses brought them to the small

villages near where the flight went down. relatives went closer to the crash site where they spent moments of reflection in a chapel and a memorial room. the final details of the final minutes of the flight. the voice records indicate that the copilot, andreas lubitz, locked the pilot out of the cockpit. and the germans are stunned by the revelations. it raises new questions about the in-cockpit procedures. joining us live from san francisco, it's much stronger, but in this case, it was too strong. >> reporter: well, michael it turns out that the whole move after 9-1-1 was working against us, and turns out that the door is built to protect the occupant from anyone that's

outside, and that, michael was the tragedy here. like everything on the airbus 320, there's a very particular system to opening the cockpit door. >> the doors are technically set up so they can always be opened from the inside. when that's not possible, there's the option of opening the doors from the outside the code unless it's explicitly blocked from the inside. as you know, these rules were implemented after 9-1-1. >> here's how the technology works on the airbus 320. the cockpit is impenetrable. it has electronic locks, and it can with stand gunshots and explosions. and when it's locked, there's no getting in. the pilot can set the door to three modes, lock, normal, and unlock. when it's unlocked, he can hold the toggle position, and the crew can buzz in, and the

normal mode, the resting mode on the switch, leaves the door unlocked. but in an emergency if the pilot or copilot are incapacitated, a key code can open it from the outside, there would have been time to enter that code. but here's why it didn't look. the locked mode overrides the door code and makes it impossible to get in. but locking the door requires that the pilot actively set the toggle switch to that position. it's to account for emergencies, like a heart attack with neither person at the controls. but one thing that the cockpit technology cannot account for a pilot that decides to crash the plane. so now the focus changes to procedures. >> a policy when one policy needs to leave, it should only be fora as short a time as possible. and others have a policy of

absolutely no one leaving so both pilots are in the cockpit. and that's something that needs to be addressed now, overnight. >> airlines around the world will obviously be reviewing their procedures after this incident. michael, here in the u.s., the rule in the faa two members need to be in the cockpit at all times and the flight attendant would swap out whoever is using the warm restroom. and now the two person rule, the germans are expected to follow. today, a commercial tracking service said that in the analysis of the tracking date a. they determined that someone onboard, presumably the copilot in the chair set the auto pilot system to bring the plane down smoothly to 9 on feet. this is not throwing the yolk,

but setting the dial. and watching it slowly descend into the alps. >> proving that it was a deliberate act by the copilot. it has been six months since dozens of young people went missing in new mexico. they vanished after the police stopped them. in mexico city today demanding answers, we're live in mexico city, and six months of protests. what are these people calling for at this point? >> right now, they're calling for two things, justice and debs pipe the fact that the office has arrested more than 100 people. and the investigation has been an exhaustive one and they always are calling for justice but more than that, they're calling for the suspension of the elections in the state

where this crime took place. because they say if the elections it take place on june 7th and they will take place across the country insuredly more people connected to the organized crime, it's a narcostate, a state run by organized crime. so they want to set up a grassroots government. and it's unclear yet what's going to happen on june 7th. but thousands of supporters say they're not going to allow these leaks to take place. >> adam, judging by the scene behind you the protest seems very peaceful. and is there any indication as time goes on, without the demand from the protesters, that can there could be an es place in emotions, and leading to any time of violence? >> well, this movement has had peaceful protests like the one taking place right here, but election strands of violence as well earlier today here in

mexico, in the state's capital of guerrero. and there were small outbreaks of violence, but overall, you have tens of thousands of people in mexico protesting on a weekly basis for justice. they live in a state and a whole government that's corrupt. not just the local government that they blame for this specific crime in guerrero, but the federal government is packed with corrupt authority. and it shows that they don't live in a functioning democracy. so therefore postponing the elections in june would not be such a bad thing because the elections have promised only criminals and corrupt politicians running the country. >> adam in the middle of the protests in mexico city. >> a university of virginia who was arrested for protests, martice johnson entered a plea and asked for more time to investigate, and johnson, who

is african-american, is charged with public intoxication and obstruction of justice. he was arrested last week, and he has accused the two officers who left him bloody after his apprehension, of raceiful. >> . >> gas may have caused an apartment building in new york city to collapse, flames broke out on the five-story structure before it collapsed and at least a does people were injured. three in critical condition. indiana's governor has declared a public health outbreak because of hiv. 79 people have tested positive since january. they usually have five cases a year. the most recent have been due to drug use. they have a needle replacement program to keep the virus from spreading. >> indiana has brought the full

resources of the government tomp give the local community what they need to get the job done. >> the governor says that his stance against needing the needle exchanges has not changed. and more than 100 people have been affected. a religious freedom bill is signed into law today. it protects people with strong religious beliefs from strong anti-discrimination laws. it comes about a week before the ncaa final four in indianapolis. the body, which is headquartered in indianapolis, say they're committed to making the games inclusive for all. >> . >> and californians are fighting a proposed bill that proponents violence for homosexuals. they want to put the bill on the ballot. and the state attorney general asked the state court to reject the bill, saying that it

threatens public safety. coming up next on aljazeera, a funeral fit for a king. king richard iii is final buried with honors. >> meet the women breaking stereotypes, and succeeding in an aggressively macho force.

>> a medieval british monarch is finally laid to rest much the remains of king richard iii were discovered a few years ago under a parking lot in england. and now he was buried with all of the pageantry. >> reporter: a 21st century burial for a 15th century king. leading the ceremony, the head of the church of england. >> as we return the bones of your servant richard to the

ground, grant him a quiet resting place. >> joining people of all faiths for richard's journey. historians have tried to recreate a ritual that richard himself would have liked. played by benedict cumberbatch not only is he set to play him on-screen, but is a distant cousin. >> my skull empty of crown. >> visitors queued for days to see king richard's coffin, and bringing a passion for the past with them. king richard was the last english monarch to die in battle. and around his coffin, veterans of repeat wars. some people had hoped for a full state funeral. but of course this is not a funeral at all. it's an internment, a burial that comes with style and substance with all of the

glitter and pageantry fit for a king. on sunday, the king's body was carried through the street, flanked by knights, and the coffin by the most direct descentent of the of the king, a canadian born carpenter. >> the discovery of richard iii's remains stirred an interest in history. and i think that anything that makes people read more about their own history, is a very good thing. >> this is where the king's bones were found three years ago, and excavations and the scientists involved could scarcely believe their luck. >> it's one of those things where i'm looking at the genetic analysis, and oh, my goodness there's a match here. and i wanted to dance around. >> in many ways, history has

been unkind to king richard. his name blackened by a succession of rulers, shakespeare called him a poisonous-backed told. but his story is the story of england. aljazeera, lester. >> the leader of the catholic church is coming to america. pope francis will meet with president obama at the white house on september 23rd. it's only the third time a pope has ever been to the white house. they will discuss immigration religious freedom and a handful of other religious topics, and he will address congress after his meeting with the president. now for what's happening at the top of the hour with john seigenthaler >> reporter: coming up on the broadcast, our top story the war in yemen the saudi offensive and the possibility of a ground warp and the impact on the u.s. policy in the middle east. plus denied a promotion.

a jury will soon decide a major lawsuit, alleging sexual discrimination in the tech industry. and we'll look at what some say is a growing culture in silicon valley brogramming. and controversy in hollywood saying there's too much ethnic casting in tv. i'll talk about the backlash, and the debate on racial inequality in america all of that in 6 minutes. >> after her 14-second victory in her last fight ronda rousey is becoming one of the country's biggest sports stars and in addition to bringing it to the mainstream, rousey and her sport are inspiring women around the world including in malaysia. where we're introduced to the first successful muslim cage fighter. >> reporter: is mixed martial

arts too violent for women in don't argue with ann about it. a southeast asian woman and a muslim she's smashing stereotypes as the first mulls limb cage fighter. >> people say that it's just another eye candy for the show. and that really hurts. >> the 28-year-old has earned her fair share of critics in malaysia, a country increasingly known for its extremism. >> i would not be perfect but i try my best. and sometimes to me, what i do is just a job. >> reporter: and success is inspiring other women to take up the sport. like them ma. >> she's really strong and brave. >> reporter: in the malaysian state, they train with the tribal squad where women are

breaking other boundaries as well. like ann's training partner gnat. >> people would say that being a fighter does not go with being a mother. not true. i am a mom a wife, better so. i'm a fighter. >> have you seen mom fight? >> yeah. but not in real life. >> what do you think? >> yeah, mom win! >> one of the main reasons women take up mixed martial arts and started four years ago. she has become an unwitting really model for women across asia. women have been involved in mixed martial arts for years but the promoters say that 35% of the fans are women and more women are getting into the cane. >> there are definitely more

male fighters all around the world. so i think we're in the early stages, but fighters like ann are an inspiration for women to consider this an opportunity. >> reporter: and once you're in the cage, it actually reveals your true self. you know? are you a fight or flight kind of person. and for me, i'm a fighter. >> reporter: and a winning one at that. ella callan, aljazeera koala lumpur. >> remarkable stories of remarkable young ladies. and finally tonight legendary coach, the late dean smith the former university of carolina basketball coach who died last month at the able of 83, included all 180 of his former lettermen in his will. each player will receive $200 from the coach. checks began to arrive today with a note telling them to enjoy a dinner out complements

of coach dean smith. john seigenthaler back in a few moments, tony morrow and stephanie sy. go to the website for all of the latest breaking news. see you tomorrow.

hi everyone think this is al jazerra america, i am john siegenthaler. gulf crisis. a are saudi-led coalition strikes targets in yemen. the blooming ground war and fears of new openings for isis and al qaeda. deliberate act. french prosecutors suspect the germanwings copilot crash odd purpose. >> translator: what can be interpreted as a club lit@attempt to crash the plane. >> killing everyone on board. access denied.