>> challenging diagnosis - president jimmy carter reveals that he has cancer and it has spread throughout his body environmental mineraling si. -- emergency, we are doing an internal e.p.a. investigation, and will seek independent review and investigation of what happened the government steps up response efforts a week after toxic spills in colorado

fireball, powerful explosions shake a city in nearby china. more than a dozen killed, hundreds injured. legalizing prostitution, a legal rights group makes a move to repealing laws making the sale of sex fine i'm libby casey in for antonio mora. we begin with an announcement from former president jimmy carter. he disploffclosed he has cancer it has spread from his liver. >> the important thing to remember is president carter is a robust 90-year-old. he is 90 and battling cancer is tough enough for anyone. >> reporter: at 90 years old president carter is the second

oldest of the presidents, entry and alert. now his health is making the headlines. recent liver surgery revealed cancer spread through his body. in a statement the 39th president said: carter's cancer is widespread, but doesn't reveal where it is or where it started. last may he shut court a trip. he had been in the south american country. in a formal statement the white house wished president carter a fast recoveringry adding: a tweet from the obama seemed to be more formal:. >> i jimmy carter ...

though his one term in washington d.c. is rarded as troubled, arguably jimmy had the best post presidency of anyone occupying the oval in modern files, winning the nobel peace prize in 2002. after losing to ronald reagan in 1980 carter formed the carter center, dedicated to democracy, peace rights and other issues. he's been active hoping to cure river blindness in africa, and championing the causes of free and fair election. his recent book was published in july. his battle now moving close to home. cancer, never easy to overcome, but president carter has the good issues of the neighbours. >> today president obama

telephoned carter from his vacation in martha's vineyard. the e.p.a. is visiting the site of a toxic waste spill, caused by a clean-up crew working for the agency. he toured the areas along the rivers, saying the quality of the work is back to what it was before the spill, but experts warn heavy metal deposits settling into river sentiments. allen schauffler visited the mine. >> reporter: the blow-out is for silverton colorado, a town built by mining. hundreds of abandoned shafts are cut into the hillsides. we passed them as we passed the roads into the country. there's no public access into the sites. we take a detour around the closure. it's slow going, a switch back of terrain coloured by the

minerals. >> where the road ends is where the trouble started. >> we get a chance to see ground zero. this is the entrance to the mine that blew out last wednesday. >> it was a mine entrance dammed by a landslide. work crews were probing, trying to figure out how much water wag built up behind it. the gallons burst out of the mountains and flooded into the rivers. the e.p.a. built pods for the run off, around the hole and around the corner of the mountain. agency administer visited nearby dewar anningo on wednesday. >> i came from a briefing that dave and others provided to me on the status of the clean-up, and the status of the monitoring of the plume. i am excited that they are fully operational, and we are working this issue very hard.

>> we came to the accident site with a member of the incident management team, and several congressional staffers getting their first look. and with steve, an engineer with 40 years in mining who doesn't think happened here should signal an end to the mountains. >> what are the opportunity for more mining? >> we didn't comply with the rules. even in today's market, metal prices can work. >> we can see mining grow in the silver tonne area. >> yes. some could start it again. >> chances of future mining could disappear if it's designated as a toxic clean up side, something many downstream would like to see. that could bring clean-up money. it's a contentious issue here, for the super fund label could

slow development, and kill the tourist trade. silverton's true goldmine. >> this is where the flow came down. the guide represents the city and county as a spokesman. the funds from the national priority list may come quickly or take decades. and if the 2 for 1 site is on the community, it could be devastating for the people that live here. >> this hole in the ground is not gushing sludge. but other nearby mines leak contaminated town water at hundreds of gallons per minute. it happened for years and super fund or no super fund. it's a small win stretching into the future? >> the e.p.a. says the toxic spill is dissipating, glutens

are heading downstream. scientists worry toxins will reach lake powell, a tourist attracti attraction. jacob ward visited the lake to tell us why scientists are concerned. >> lake powell is a punisherman's paradise, a major source of drinking water. that's why state and federal people are trying to sort out the downstream effect. >> we need to check out the spill and take preliminary data, water samples, fish samples. and each time they do that, they obtain a little bit of heavy metal into the system. it bails up time after time, after many mills. >> lake powell is it more than 200 hills. with tens of thousands of mines.

spills into the rivers, a body providing drinking water, lake powell is not safe. those that work to protect lake powell are not worried about the instantaneous effect. what they are worried about is what they can't see, the build-up of minerals and chemicals, and mines from the rivers, the san juan river, everything that needs into lake powell. this goes down of the river, and will land in the sediment delta, and the san juan arm and will stay there, get locked up in there. if the lake goes up and down, the river can cut in, and release the touch back to the lace. when we need long-term modelling to understand the full implications of this time.

what are the effects, two generations from now. >> they are high. they have individual effect on humans and other organisms, and native fish and their eggs exposed to this. and things like that. the metals are bad news. we don't want any contacts in them. >> this event doesn't seem to pose a threat to anyone else. it's the cumulative effect. event endanger a fragile eco system and the millions that depend on it. when you think about a crisis like this, you can't think in the immediate terms. there's no light where it says past this point it's dangerous. there are secondary and tertiary effects that people are worried about. for instance, if, in fact, they stopped fishing in this place, if it's dangerous to do so, that

would wipe out the eco system. the invasive system wool take over completely. there's 2 million fish ayear, it is necessary to keep the place in balance. the tenuous balance. that is what is at stake when you look at the cumulative effects of a spill like this. >> jacob ward reporting. >> an all-out rescue is under way in north-east china after a series of explosions at a warehouse, these are some of the first images from the aftermath of the explosion. the area resembles a post apocalyptic scene. thousands of cars were incinerated. 12 hours later you can see smoke rising from the scene. so far, 17 people are confirmed dead. hundreds injured. doug brown is there with the latest on the explosion. >> even china is unused to

scenes like this. sudden and deadly explosions jolting a busy port. large firele balls incinerated buildings and cars. some people say it felt like an earthquake. >> i was sitting, after watching a film. i had my window open, and i heard a rush of air, followed by a second much larger rush of air sounding like a shock wave. i looked outside and saw the smoke. >> officials say the multiple destinations were caused by exploigss in the warehouse, close to a residential area. others describe hazardous materials. at first, local hospitals struggle to cope with a tide of injury. it feels like a disaster zone. people that get out are leaving, what worries the authorities is the air may be contaminated.

no one nose what is built in. >> officials believe it was an industrial action. an inclusion zone has been imposed where the investigation into how this dent happened has begun. police say the owners of the warehouse where the explosions happened have been detained the explosion cams as china let's the currency fall for a third straight day. right now asian markets are staging a rally in hopes of reversing the sell off spurred by the currency devaluation. people are worried it will ignite a currency wars with the u.s., and is a sign of slow economic growth. roxana saberi has the details. >> reporter: the united states has been accused of doing it. so has japan. and europe. now china has become the latest powerhouse economy critics

charge with escalating a global war. >> everyone wants to make the exports competitive. so the quickest way of doing that is to devalued their currencies. and so the fear is that china now is playing part of this game the federal reserve understand former chair victor bernadez was accused of using -- ben bernanke was accused of using grounds to swell the balance sheet and push down the value of u.s. dollar, at the expense of competing countries. a process that kept the yen weak against the dollar, and found their way to europe this year when the european central bank started bond buying to devalue the euro against the dollar. moves that whipped around to

china, because the value of its currency is loosely pegged to the dollar. >> because of that loose peg, because the dollar has dropped against the yen and euro, china is down. when the people's banks of china decided to execute a one-off depreciation on tuesday, it's lit the surprise economists around the globe are crying currency war. >> this week evaluations came on the heels of weaker than expected export data. the china central bank insists it's not competitively evaluating, but changing to give market forces more influence. something the international monetary fund is pressing to do to earn the juan status. enjoyed by the dollar, euro, yen and british pound. but the timing of the devaluation is raising eyebrows

in washington. >> the u.s. trade deficit with china has been growing, and a lot of politicians have been calling for policies to curb currency manipulation, that will make the voices loud ir. >> when it comes to currency war, any devaluation is tempting political fodder. roxana saberi reporting. >> ferguson, missouri will be under a state of emergency for one more day, that's the latest from the st. louis county executive after another night of peaceful protests marking a year since the shooting death of michael brown. the state of emergency was declared monday after a shooting death sunday night. >> amnesty international declares a new policy on sex workers. the best way to help them is to decriminalize their livelihood. we speak to a sex worker about the proposal.

and kim jong un continues his bloody efforts to consolidate power. power.

in mississippi, a group of same-sex couples is challenging a law banning them adopting children. they called the policy unconstitutional and controversy. referring to the supreme court legalizing gay marriage saying they are owed the same rights the heterosexual couples. 15 years ago they were banned from adopting children amnesty international voted to support decriminalition ace of sex work. 400 activists endured a controversial plan to press government to repeal laws on prostitution. after two years of research, they feel it's the best way to protect the rights of sex

workers. arbitrary arrests and extortion. antihuman trafficking groups are against the idea carol lee has worked in the industry for 20 years. she joins us tonight from san francisco. what is the significance from today's amnesty international international vote. >> well, the sex worker community and activist is excited about this. this endorsement of decriminalization is another from international bodies that a long list of endorsements from human rights watch, global alliance against traffic and women, world health organization, this is one nor in a series of endorsements. >> is anyone paying more attention? >> certainly this had publicity. part of it was the strategy of those pushing prostitution of

enlisting celebrities. it true attention. i guess it backfired. >> a lot have concerns about women and children. how do you prict sex workers from getting in a situation that is dangerous. >> well, of course the amnesty international policy discusses that in detail, and came to the conclusion that as a matter of fact decriminalization is what protects people, sex work from exploitation, protections from the police, protects their right to move, to associate. at this point. if you are a sex worker and you work with friends. you can be prosecuted to work together. >> the laws are ridiculous. we'd like to move things to protect safety and health.

does that work? >> well, that needs to be looked at in an historical context, and the need of decriminalizing aspects in an effort to protect sex workers doesn't work. they don't have time to screen them on the streets. the work place is illegal, and underground. so, again, they have no recourse or ability to organise, it pects mare alth and safety. >> explain the nation, decriminalizing sex work, what it could look like. what does it many in terms of deorganising. the new zealand model is the one we look towards. in that model one uses

antidiscrimination, labour regulations, workers rights and controls the working assistance so they advocates. de criminalisation as amnesty international stated is not about no regulation, sex worker and advocate joining us from san francisco another north korean official may have been xe cuted by kim jong un -- executed by kim jong un. the vice mayor was killed after expressing discomfort with a forestation policy, a north korean defence minister was executed for showing disloyalty to the leader this year.

>> kim jong un ordered the execution of 15 officials by april this year. >> the head of the central african republic u.n. has esigned. peacekeepers came under criticism, accused of using excessive force and abusing residents. the security force is holding a meeting to decide how to in responds. ban ki-moon promised offenders would be brought to justice. >> coming up, the result of a huge experiment in education, new orleans turned public schools into charter schools. 10 years later, it's controversial. >> why los angeles dropped 96 million black balls into the largest water source. source.

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get excited for the 1989 world tour with exclusive behind the scenes footage, all of taylor swift's music videos, interviews, and more. xfinity is the destination for all things taylor swift. this month marks 10 years since hurricane katrina hit new orleans. public education like many things in the city were transformed. the country had all of chart school system. some showed it was great for students. others insist that a decade later the kids are not better off. here is jonathan martin. >> reporter: the public school system in new orleans reshaped by hurricane katrina is like no other system in the country.

>> new orleans is the only city in america that is majority charter school. >> a failed and corrupt system was dismantled. the state took control of low-performing schools. thousands of teachers were fired. this is the result. schools like this arts academy. one of more than 90 publicly funded charter schools that student must apply for. >> sending your child to the nearest school that does not exist. >> caroline running the charter schools, saying the model is working because of choice. >> parents can shop around for the best schools. that has forced competition. >> you have to produce to those parents, the teachers and the students into your building. >> they care about the kids. they want to stee them thrive and do better. >> reporter: this woman has three children in new orleans charter schools, and feels that it is an improvement.

like many parents, she has no choice, but more of a chance when it comes to getting her children into the best schools. >> if i want my child to go to an a or b school and there's no seating, they have to suffer and be in a c, d, f school. it's not fair. >> another complaint, top schools require an administration plan and mandatory parent involvement. >> these are ways of giving advantages to the already advantaged. >> you guys did an awesome job. >> governor jindal and others site gins, graduation rates, 73", up from 54%. and the numbers of kids in ailing schools up 3%. critics say the fuller picture is not as encouraging. >> it's been 10 years, and the gains are marginal.

>> to this university professor, she studied the reforms and said while there has been improvement. gains are small, and she points to the a.c.t. scores. the average student scored a 17, 10 years ago, and today it rose by a point. >> scores are so low that the average student can't get into lsu, the university. >> most advocates and parents admit that there's a long way to go before public education can be considered good. a decade later, they feel it's a far cry from what it was le finally tonight - shade balls. they have become a popular inexpensive way to protect water supplies. the last 96 million have been added. the concept is simply. they block out the sunlight

preventing evaporation. the balls stop toxic chem kag reaction caused by the sun contaminating water. i'm libby casey, thank you for joining us. lisa fletcher is up next with "inside story". [ ♪ ] in a sweeping plan president obama is taking aim at what he calls the single biggest source of carbon pollution in america. power plants. his deponents are ready to take the fights to congress and the courts. president barack obama's push to clean power - at what cost.