in total 133 plants, 26 fish, 10 amphibians, a reptile, a bird, and a familiar -- mammal will discovered in five years. aljazeera.com for more on all of that. ♪ general john am -- campbell is being questioned. corruption at the united nations. fraud charges against several officials. south carolina has new problems, dams may still break, and damage is estimated in the billions. ♪

this is al jazeera america live from new york city. i'm randall pinkston. the commander of u.s. forces on capitol hill today revealing more on a deadly air strike on a doctors without borders in afghanistan. general john campbell called the air strike that left 22 people dead a mistake, but also clarified just who authorized it. mike viqueira is live in washington. mike, general campbell addressed this question head on. is there any question, however, about u.s. responsibility? >> reporter: it comes after a series of changing explanations to the u.s. military, to the infuration of doctors without borders. the strike from a gunship, the attack killing 22 individuals,

including 12 staff members, 10 patients including three children. a contrite offering of condolences from general campbell, and yet his explanation is likely not to console doctors without borders. he first said that the afghans requested the strike. but the request went through a rigorous u.s. chain of command before the strike was launched from the gunship. >> to be clear, the decision to provide aerial fires was a u.s. decision made within the u.s. chain of command. a hospital was mistakenly struck. we would never intentionally target a protected medical facility. i must allow the investigation to take its course, and

therefore, i'm not at liberty to discuss further specifics at this time. however, i ensure you the investigation will be thorough, objective and transparent. >> and he said he expects a preliminary report from that investigation within 30 days, but, again, doctors without borders having none of that. they are calling for an independent investigation, apart from what the department of defense is doing, what the afghans and nato is doing, they want somebody outside of the chain of command to conduct this investigation. >> he was also asked about the obama administration's decision on remaining u.s. troops in afghanistan. >> reporter: this was fascinating. and this was the point of this previously scheduled hearing, to talk about the rate of drawndown. you recall the current path is to reduce to all but an embassy presence about 1,000 u.s. forces in afghanistan protecting and

securing the embassy by the end of 2016. there are many voices being raised that that has to be all theed, that the afghan forces are not capable of standing on their own, and defeating taliban forces. those voices now include none other than general campbell, an extraordinary event here in washington as the commander of all u.s. nato forces in afghanistan. he says he has presented the senior leadership with options to keep that counter terrorism alive beyond 2016. >> i believe we need to have a counter terrorism capability, and you need a certain number of forces to be able to do that. so that is based on what has happened over the last couple of years, and as we look to the

future. i'm appreciative the senior leadership are looking at these options, understanding that conditions on the ground have changed and we have to look at the pros and cons of this. >> reporter: randall yesterday the white house did confirm the president is considering those options, more changes could be on the way. federal prosecutors in new york have announced charges in a major united nations-related corruption investigation, at the center a former u.n. general assembly president, john ash. he was arrested today here in new york, charged with making more than a million dollars in bribes in exchange for promoting chinese business interests. >> ash himself, a u.s. permanent resident who lives in west chester, evaded taxes on the bribes he received. although this case involves the high-flying world of billionaire executives and influential u.n.

executives, at its core it was a classic quid pro quo criminal scheme. >> our diplomatic editor james bayes has more from the u.n. >> reporter: the official charges have now been handed down. this is a scandal that is going to shock and rock the united nations, because the job of president of the u.n. general assembly is one of the main jobs here in the u.n. system. a mainly ceremonial role for one year, the person presides over the work of a body that represents all of the members of the united states. john ash had this role from september 2013 to september 2014. it involved for example, presiding over the high-level week when world leaders come here to new york. he introduced those world leaders, including president obama. but the allegation is while

doing the job he was also taking bribes, a total of more than a million dollars of bribes, and the u.n. now i think will have to look at its systems and procedures, it emerges in the indictment that mr. ash was the only person who is the signatory on the official bank account of the president of the general assembly. some will be asking that checks and balances are put in the system so this sort of thing can never happen again. we understand that mr. ash currently is in custody. the death toll has risen to 14 in the carolinas from the historic rains over the last few days while the chis are now clear in south carolina. the big concern, the dams across the state. more than a dozen have given way since saturday. officials fear more could burst, sending flood waters into homes and businesses. robert ray has the latest from columbia. >> reporter: this is a

neighborhood, in the capitol, that is still under water. you can see this is a stream, where a stream shouldn't be. gill creek is a few hundred yards to my left. the water is still rolling through here, and the flash flooding scenario is the huge issue in south carolina even though the skies are still -- are sunny and rice, and the rain is gone, that's what people are concerned about. there are still hundreds of road closures. the national guard is rolling through to make sure the infrastructure is okay, and if something happens that they can assist, police, fire, and coast guard. unfortunately there is still a boil order. thousands of people without water. you shouldn't be drinking the water because there may be bacteria and raw sewage in it. so there's a multitude of issues

even though the rain is gone. south carolina had federal funding coming in from the president who declared it a disaster area just the other day. as we can see here, there's a few residence that have returned to this area that has been mandatory evacuated and they can't even get to their home. their home is still under water. we're told in some places like this one, the water was all the way up to the roof top. so there are days ahead of assessing the damage, and weeks and months likely for the state and federal government to figure out just how much this disaster has cost south carolina. >> robert ray reporting in columbia, south carolina. now to our meteorologist kevin corriveau with the latest on the weather picture. >> the rain ended this morning across the carolinas. the big problem is that standing

water and also what the rivers are going to do over the next several days as most of that flood water starts to make its way down towards the coast. as you can see we were still looking at floodern waing -- warnings in effect. those in the southeast are going to stay in place probably all the way to sunday, because we are looking at these rivers not cresting until we get towards the weekend. that is now long it is going to take for all of this water to make its way down the black river and others. so we'll be watching this very carefully as communities are going to be effected. the rain totals are amazing. we saw 26 inches at mount pleasant. some locations saw up to 30, and charleston, about 23.6 inches there. the rest of the day will be beautiful, sunny skies as well as temperatures into the low 70s, and we do think for the

next seven days, the eastern seaboard is looking quite nice. we don't expect to see any rain in the forecast all the way through next week, and temperatures are going to stay into the high 70s there. the white house says president obama is considering a range of gun-control options following the mass shooting at a college in oregon. he plans to be in roseburg, oregon on friday. as sabrina register tells us, teachers are preparing for classes to reopen next week. >> reporter: just up the road from a growing memorial for the victims, a community resolves to move forward. reopening campus just days after the shooting. staff arrived for work, and students pick up personal belongings they were forced to leave behind. and we are hearing from one of

the students who was shot. >> he sounded really deranged because he said he had been waiting to do that for a really long time. and he laugh after he shot the teacher. >> reporter: since the shooting, the sheriff has repeatedly refused to identify the shooter by name. >> you will not hear anyone from this law enforcement operation use his name. i continue to believe that those media and community members who publicize his name will only glorify his horrific actions, and eventually this will only serve to inspire future shooters. >> reporter: his focus on the investigation and victims has spread throughout the community. the major applauded the decision. >> i believe part of the problem we have got is the copycats that want this attention.

and taking that away from them is one good tool to help put a stop to it. >> reporter: that candle vigil shot i'm thinking of putting on the main page. >> reporter: this man is the ed for for the weekly newspaper. >> reporter: the sheriff has the right idea of saying we don't want to glorify this. so we're going to follow that lead with our edition this week. >> reporter: at the local ymca where two shooting victims were members, and where shooting survivor chris mintz works, the sentiment is the same. >> we're glad that evil has been removed from your community, however, we want to move forward. >> reporter: that includes getting updates on mintz as he is treated for multiple gunshot

wounds. students on campus call him a hero. >> for someone to put himself out there to prevent other people from getting killed, knowing he full -- fully well that he was going to get hurt himself, we're so blessed and proud of him. >> reporter: and she and others wait for mintz injuries to heal, they know they have their own emotional pain to deal with, but say the ordeal they have been through won't define them as a community. protecting privacy data. straight ahead, the european ruling that could change the way u.s. tech companies do business. and the reality of fantasy sports leagues, a new scandal hah new questions over that multi-billion dollars industry.

new controversy today for the daily fantasy sports industry. an employees for one of the biggest sited has admitted to winning $350,000 on a rival website. that has caused some to accuse that employees of a form of insider trading. >> reporter: an employee for draft kings has admitted to inadvertently releasing player data before the start of nfl's week 3 slate of games. that employee won $350,000 that same week at a rival sight.

a draft king spokesman says there is no evidence that the employee used that information to win that prize money. both companies released the following joint statement on monday quote: the incident has raised concerns about the fairness of the loosely regulated fantasy sports industry. gamers say the chances of actual players or others profiting from insider information is slim. professional gamer spoke to ray suarez. >> the main concern is the concern of players throwing games or something like that. and that certainly is reduced by fantasy sports where individual players are selected. >> reporter: but government officials are increasingly

deputy call. new jersey governor has called for an ininvestigation into whether these are actually unregulated online betting. >> how is it different? because you call it fantasy. >> now that you don't be a day without seeing these ads it has lead to a company of people looking up and saying what is going on here? >> reporter: john henry smith, al jazeera. russia is giving google one month to clean up anti-trust problems or phase heavy fines. russia's anti-monopoly watchdog says googles practices violate russian law. android phones have google apps preloaded. three-quarters of all smartphones in russia run that operating system. a european court decision

today could make it a lot more difficult for american tech companies to do business with europe. it ruled that european law does not protect its citizen's personal data in the united states. >> reporter: the ruling by europe's highest court is a victory for privacy activist max. he has fought for years to get the european law thrown out. >> i never thought it was going to be a big thing in the beginning. we were just putting facts up on the website. what we got from facebook the complaints were drafted over two nights and suddenly you are in this whole privacy debate in the end. >> reporter: the case eventually ended up in the european high court. the 27 year old graduate student argued that his data protection rights were violated when facebook transferred his personal information between european and u.s. servers. under an international agreement, companies are allowed to transfer that data under a

so-called safe harbor deal. but the european court of justice has ruled the provision does not adequately prevent u.s. officials from peaking into the transferred information. >> it says it has to be an adequate protection in the u.s. and mass surveillance of all of my content is surely not adequate protection. >> reporter: the law began being questioned after edward snowden's disclosure of nsa spying. a statement was issued that said: but more than 3,000 companies, including apple, google, and microsoft rely on the safe harbor agreement. the ruling could force tech companies to significantly change the way they do business in europe in order to avoid breaking european law. for the first time in three years there is no ten

commandments monument on oklahoma's capitol grounds. the monument was removed late last night. the state supreme court ruled in june the display violates a law that public property cannot be used to promote religion. officials say they moved the monument late at night to avoid protests. the financial trouble in one of the world's favorite tourist spots. >> i'm taking a closer look at chinese investments in the caribbean.

♪ schools in one texas district are scramming to replace a u.s. history textbook this week after a student told his mom it referred to slavery as immigration. >> they had africans and african americans as workers, implying pay, as if we had come here willingly and were paid to our job. >> the school district is now removing the textbook from its classrooms. the publisher responded to the social media outcry that followed saying it was change the digital version only. the bahamas is a popular destination for tourists from around the world, and that makes it very attractive to foreign investors. china planned to open a state-of-the-art resort, but relays in construction are now

causing economic problems for the country. ♪ >> reporter: >> they market the bahamas as sun sand and sea. >> reporter: a small island nation caught up in one big gamble to bring in visitors. >> i thought it was a good idea personally when it first started out, because foreign investment is something i agree on. >> reporter: the ambitious project has become the biggest issue facing the country. >> we market it as the home of the largest casino in the car b beeian. it was going to be remarkable for the entire country. >> reporter: but it's opening has been delayed price as the

investors bicker over who is to blame. china construction charged with completing the resort stopped work in the spring, accusing its local partner of failing to pay its fair share. but the bahamian side as they the chinese have cut corners and the building doesn't meet ideas. >> reporter: this project that would have opened this past december, december 2014, would have been responsible for 10% of the country's gdp. it's that big. this is the story of what can happen when a small country does business with one of the most powerful countries in the world, china. >> not only are they partners in that development, they hold the mortgage for that property. the chinese bank, which is owned by the chinese government. ♪ >> reporter: now workers like justin spending their ways

waiting. >> for the average busboy, housekeeper, houseman, waitress, you know, they are not going to get this opportunity again. so obviously it has to happen. >> reporter: that is how many feel; that the resort must open. just blocks away, shopkeepers have waited and waited for tourists to materialize. >> we need them to open. that's a big building, you know. we need them to open. to help with all of our expenses, you know? we just hope when they open, more business come along, you know? >> reporter: it's delay has stirred growing resentment against the chinese. >> we have nothing against the chinese investors who are coming in, but we would like to see others coming in as well. we think there has to be some spreading of the risk. >> reporter: the government

defennings its position. >> we have investors from great britain, from the united states, from other parts of europe, and other parts of europe. >> reporter: it's the ground-breaking ceremony for china's other major project in nasa. >> we're here to invest. this project is evident what we are doing here. so bahama will be finished and soon. >> but they have weathered some tough economic years, and many people here worry and wonder whether the future can be as bright as their government pledges. thank you for joining us. i'm randall pinkston. the news continues next live from london, and remember, for the latest headlines, you can go to our website at aljazeera.com. ♪