accidentally killed president obama confirms u.s. air strikes took the lives of two al-qaeda hostages who has been missing for years. european leaders hold an emergency meeting to figure out what to do about thousands of migrants crossing the mediterranean seas. and loretta lynch could become the first african american woman to serve as attorney general. the decisive vote a few hours

away. ♪ good morning and welcome to al jazeera america. i'm randall pinkston we are following breaking news at this hour. the white house, president obama, calling a special news conference to identify two hostages that u.s. forces accidentally killed in january. warren weinstein, an american was held by al-qaeda since 2011, and geovany laporto, held since 2012. mike viqueira is live from washington. we just heard from president obama -- not a news conference my error, he took no questions -- what else do we know? >> reporter: it came as a complete surprise. the president appearing in the briefing room taking full

responsibility a somber even rueful president obama, taking responsibility for those two hostages. here is a little bit more. >> as president, and as commander in chief, i take full responsibility for all of our counter terrorism operations including the one that inadvertently took the lives of warren and geovany. on behalf of the united states government i offer our deepest apologies to the families. >> reporter: the president says that the operation was fully consistent with the guidelines under which these operations run. of course it happened on the border between afghanistan and pakistan. dr. weinstein taken from his home in pakistan some three years ago. >> mike this happened in january, why do you think it took so long for this

acknowledgment to be made by president obama and why now? >> reporter: first of all, yes, it takes a while to get confirmation especially considering the fact that the united states doesn't have a lot of assets boots on the ground will you will in that region that border land there between afghanistan and pakistan and as we were gist discussing a military offensive by the pakistani army cracking down on the tribal regions in northwestern pakistan has driven many of these fighters over the border into afghanistan, and that coupled with the withdraw of forcing fighting in afghanistan, they are trying to keep this area under control, while planning their gradual withdrawal. so evidently it has taken some three months. there are probably other

considerations that go into this. but obviously i think they want to be absolutely sure that it was the two who were mistakenly killed, in the president's version, killed by this strike. >> the white house, the pentagon notified the families of those who were killed before making this public statement, as we know our colleague, lisa stark has introduced the weinsteins. one more question about president obama. he talked about an independent review. what is the purpose of that. >> because it involves american citizens who were not involved with extremists or militants in the view of the white house. one thing the president did not mention, randall, and you mentioned just a few minutes ago, a couple who had joined al-qaeda were killed in separate

raids. so the president's efforts to fight these kinds of groups with -- with commando raids with counter terrorism operations sometimes they are successful randall, sometimes they can go tragically wrong. as the president outlined this morning. >> thank you. let's go to lisa stark also in washington. you recently interviewed the weinstein family. do you recall whether there had been any offer or effort by the hostage holders to get money from the family for the release of weinstein? >> reporter: there was, they didn't indicate it to me. they talked to them in june just after the release of bo bergdahl who of course was a u.s. military soldier captured in afghanistan. he was released exchanged for five tal ban members. and family had gotten a call

from the white house the day before they released the news of bo bergdahl to let them know about it. because their husband, father and grandfather was not going to be released. and they were quite upset that somehow the u.s. government couldn't also have negotiated the release of warren weinstein at that time. they said the president had indicated, you know, no soldier left behind in announcing bird bergdahl's release, well what about no citizen left behind. they have been waiting by the phone for years hoping to get the call that he would be coming home coming back to his family unfortunately, as president obama indicated he called the weinstein family yesterday to tell them about this horrible mistake, and about the death of their loved one. randall. >> thank you lisa stark in washington. in other news at this hour

another wave of migrants arriving in southern europe in morning. european leaders are meeting in brussels this morning to work out a plan to deal with the crisis. italy's prime minister was just one of the leaders who arrived in the past hour. he has called on e.u. leaders to provide more assistance to deal with the situation. lawrence lee is at that meeting and a has this report. >> reporter: it now looks, as though europe's leaders want to use this crisis as an opportunity of their own not to make immigration easier but to make it more difficult than it has been in the past for refugees to try to come to europe. you remember the logic of stopping the search and rescue operations run by the italians was that it was taking it too

easy for people to come here and now europe has to clearly say it is doing something. but all of the leaks that have come out prior to this summit have been to suggest that if anything europe's presence in the mediterranean is going to become more militaryized warships talks of drones even bombing smugglers boats on the libyan coast, and to make it more difficult for migrants to make the voyage as all. it is exactly what the most extreme right-wing elements in europe have wanted. but it is apparently the mood of -- of the european union leadership. how do you choose between good migrants and bad migrants? they are talking about letting 5,000 people in. how do you pick and choose between them. what do you do with the syrians? where do you take them back to?

there doesn't appear to be answers to these questions, but it doesn't appear as though europe wants to embrace this as an opportunity to allow better immigration of people who may be fleeing persecution in on the african continent. the senate is considering the nomination for loretta lynch as the attorney general. the vote is supposed to happen approximately 11:30 am eastern. they delayed the vote in order to first deal with the human trafficking bill. if confirmed she will replace eric holder. today david petraeus will find out his punishment for leaking classified material. kimberly has more.

>> reporter: when he was unanimously confirmed as the director of the cia, david petraeus was applauded for his military pedigree as the top u.s. general in iraq and afghanistan. >> i don't believe that i have ever quite encountered a military leader or civilian leader for that matter with the combination of charisma and intellect that general petraeus possesses. >> reporter: but fast forward 14 months and the most-respected general was forced to resign. he was accused of sharing top-secret documents with his mistress paula broadwell. she has been writing a biography about petraeus and the two became romantically involved. when she felt threatened by another female she began sending harassing emails.

according to court documents. petraeus is accused of sharing with broadwell eight of his personal black books, recording his time in afghanistan. the highly confidential material is said to include the identities of intelligence officers, war strategy and even notes from high-level security meetings. petraeus will plead guilty. the charge carries up to a year in prison and a $100,000 fine but it is unlikely petraeus will do any jail time. this analyst says he belongs -- >> belongs to a cast which is extremely powerful protected by powerful interests, essentially. petraeus certainly ingratiated himself with the people who are supporting not just america's wars abroad -- >> reporter: but also with those

in positions of power, that's why unlike edward snowden in exile, or chelsea manning, petraeus is expected to receive just two year's probation, and pay a fine of $40,000. it's about a third of what he collects for making a single public speech. earlier i spoke to al jazeera legal contributor jamie floyd and i asked here how he is avoiding jail time. let's bring in jamie floyd. now the report that we just saw indicated that petraeus is going to get special treatment. >> well he had a good lawyer. that's what it indicates. he had a good lawyer. he cut a good deal. and it could have been a lot worse for him. >> could he not been charged with the more serious offense? >> oh yes. >> given that you are dealing with top-secret documents?

>> yes. we could have done jail time and had a much larger fine. we could have spent a year in jail and paid a hundred thousand dollars fine. and now he will be on probation if it all goes according to plan today, and we're looking at probably a $40,000 fine. we have people in exile for leaking government secrets, who weren't as highly placed as petraeus. i'm referring of course to edward snowden and there's manning, and -- and, you know, generally you are not supposed to leak government secrets, and people are outraged because petraeus was a very highly placed well-regarded representative of our government overseas and here at home general. >> i want to press the point because in these days of concerns of all kinds of inequal injustice, to what extend to

discretionary prosecution play a role? where you have joe jones on the corner with a bag of whatever going to jail for five years. here is petraeus with top government secrets -- >> well you mentioned discretionary prosecution, but there is also the issue of who has the best lawyers. who defends well against these kinds of charges. so there is a lot going on in the system. how the system works better for some of us than it does for others of us. so that's a very very critical part of what is happening in this case. i think the other part of what is so interesting here is the issue of rehabilitation petraeus has been able to rehabilitate himself very quickly. all of this happened a couple of years ago. and already he is advising the administration again. he is speaking. he has joined the faculties of universities. that's amazing.

>> wait a minute -- >> i mean this is not legal analysis. i'm speaking as a citizen. i have interviewed the man. i have met the man. i know the man. i don't wish any criminal defendant ill, but i think there should be some repercussions for this kind of transgression. >> in the future when he fills out a job application, and it says are you a convicted felon? >> we'll have to check the box, but it doesn't work that way for everyone. people have been demonstrating for several days angry over what they believe was the excessive use of force of a man who died later of a serious spinal injury. >> my understanding is every officer involved in this has cooperated from the beginning. they -- three out of the four the first night, they volunteered to give statements. a lot of time it's so busy you

are running from call to call to call that they didn't do the positive interaction with the citizens of baltimore, and we definitely need to improve upon that. the family of michael brown, the young black man who was fatally shot by a white police officer last summer plans to file a wrongful death lawsuit against ferguson missouri today. attorneys hope to prove that officer darren wilson did not need to use his weapon against brown. brown's death ignited months of protests in missouri and around the country. coming up a billion dollars to pay retired nfl players for brain damage suffered in the game. ♪

welcome back to al jazeera america. time now is coming up on 10:49 eastern, busy news morning. here is an update on breaking

news. the white house has identified two hostages that u.s. forces accidentally killed back in january. warren weinstein, an american was held by al-qaeda since 2011, and geovany la port toe was held hostage since 2012. president obama defended the legality of the drone strikes saying there was no information that pointed to hostages being at the location. >> our initial assessment indicates that this operation was fully consistent with the a -- guidelines in the region. and based on the intelligence that we had obtained at the time. including hundreds of hours of surveillance. we believed that this was an al-qaeda compound that no civilians were present, and that

capturing these terrorists was not possible. >> one operative was believed to be killed in the strike another an american who was a spokesman for the network was killed in a separate attack in january. a federal judge has approved a major settlement over head trauma in the nfl. thousands of players filed a lawsuit accusing the league of hiding the dangers of concussions. john henry smith reports. >> reporter: a billion dollars over an estimated 65 years. that's how much and how long it could take for the nfl to pay thousands of retired players who will suffer from the long-term effects of game-related head trauma. >> most corporations when they hire a guy, and the guy retires, after 30 years, they find a way to support that guy. they don't just give him a gold rolex. >> reporter: each player will get about $190,000 but that

number could reach as high as $5 million for players diagnosed with parkinson's or lou gehrig's disease. the families of those players who die will be awarded higher payouts. the payouts will apply to every retired player who left the game before last july not just those named in the suit but 200 players have opted out of the class action suit so they can continue pursuing damages on their own, if they wish. among them the family of junior seau and he committed suicide in 2012, researchers found his brain was racked by a disease caused by concussions. as part of the settlement the league will not have to admit any prior knowledge of a link

between football and chronic brain injuries. the nfl's lawyered welcomed the judge's statement. in a statement they said: former nfl defensive back and current lead plaintiff shawn wooden gave this statement, quote: payments won't be made until all appeals are heard, so it may be months or years before the nfl actually pays on this settlement. a new study finds more americans than ever are at risk of earthquakes. some 143 million people in the u.s. and puerto rico are living in quake zones. 28 million of them are in danger of strong shaking.

researchers say the record numbers are thanks to a population hike in hot zones along the west coast. a suburb of detroit has been dubbed the dirtiest zip code in michigan. five power plants refineries and factories cause poor air quality, and people who live there are suffering the effects. bisi onile-ere reports. >> reporter: it's the most pal looted zip code in michigan. the suburb is home to several industry power plants and refineries. the area also has some of the highest asthma rates in the state. it's a story we first reported last month, when hundreds of residents packed a town hal meeting. we recently caught up with elizabeth milton anned a ma educator who believes she is on the front line of health crisis. is there a link between the air

quality and these plants and the illnesses you are seeing? >> oh absolutely. >> reporter: we traveled with her as she met up with one of her clients. tonight you'll see how she is helping him cope. the state recently missed a deadline to submit a plan to the environmental protection agency tonight we'll explain what that means for residents. >> you can watch the full report tonight at 8:00 eastern. a volcano in chile has erupted twice in the last 24 hours. more than a thousand people were forced to leave the area. the eruption is the first in from the volcano in more than 40 years. youtube marks a major milestone. we'll look back at how it started. and the most popular videos of the past decade.

♪ google is launching a new cell phone service they say will provide a better wireless experience at lower prices.

it's called project fy. it works on cell phone data and free wi-fi at your home office and commute. it will cost as little as $30 as much. you may not remember the internet by youtube, but it was only ten years ago the website was founded. and you could have not anticipated its significance by its first video. >> here we are in front of the elephants. the whole thing with these guys is that they have really really really long um trunks. >> that is the cofounder of youtube, starring. the 18-second clip was up loaded on the site ten years. >> reporter: it's a place where videos go viral. ♪ >> reporter: break-out stars are

born. >> the power of social media is that you become your own story teller. >> reporter: and where virtually any footage has a home. from the most serious, to the most amusing. >> charlie! that really hurt! >> reporter: the company bought by google in 2006 for $1.65 billion in stock has been tape -- staple oppop culture. it has more than a billion users, and 300 hours of new videos are up loaded ever minute. the most popular one so far is this one, with more than 2 billion views. the ads on youtube, most of which you can skip are expected to generate more than $1.5 billion for google this year. in just a decade youtube has become synonymous with online

video, and to think it all started with 18 seconds of elephants. it's the kind of compliment any woman and a lot of men want to hear on that birthday. >> what does that mean? what is that look? say that again. give her the mic. >> you are too young for a 51 year old. [ laughter ] >> well all right. the first lady was fielding questions during the white house's annual take your daughter and sons to work. she invited the young girl up to the stage for a hug. mrs. obama celebrated her 51st birthday in february. the news continues next from doha. keep up with aljazeera.com. ♪

>> announcer: this is al jazeera. ♪ welcome to the news hour. i'm richelle carey in doha. president obama takes responsibility for the deaths of two hostages in a counter terrorism operation against al-qaeda. european leaders discuss ways out of the migrant crisis as victims of disasters are laid to rest. saudi jets launch new air strikes in yemen, houthi