beyond the headlines, beyond the quick cuts, beyond the soundbites. we're giving you a deeper dive into the stories that are making our world what it is. this is al jazeera america. we have a look at today's stop stories. breaking news out of north korea. the country launches a long r e range technology. the candidates gather for the last time before the first primary. a major shake up in the polls for the democratic nominees,

hillary clinton over bernie sanders. new found pressures on muslim americans. we take a deeper look at the struggles to protect their rapidly changing image nationwide and in the media. we begin breaking news out of north korea which says they have successfully launched a long rage rocket. media made a statement about the launch just a few minutes ago. >> translation: our astronaut has ejected a satellite into the

orbit. it happened at 9.09 on 7 february. the earth observation satellite was precisely injected into the global orbit analysts suspect north korea was actually testing a ballistic missile something banned. last month they claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb. our correspondent gives us more >> reporter: we have the announcement claiming success, a turning point in the national security was the phrase that stood out to me is there is some linkage there, which they call a peaceful satellite launch but they're linking it to national security. north korea keen to point out that its nuclear program and missile program are designed to defend itself against what is

perceived to a threat. this flight path left a glorious gift to our country. this is the few days running up to the birthday of the child of the current leader. there are increasing numbers of reports in the south korean media citing unnamed sources in the south korean military saying they do appear to have traced the rocket all the way through its flight path and that it does appear to have launched an object into orbit. that is contradicting what the agency was saying earlier about a possible failure of this launch. the japanese are also saying that they traced a number of separate objects going along the predetermined flight path. the united strategic command saying it traced a rocket launch

into space. i think there is a growing body reporting now combined with this north korean claim that they have had a successful launch we have more from our correspondent. north korea claims that this launch of theirs was, in fact, a turning point. do you think it was a turning point? >> i don't think it's so much a turning point as a continuation down the road that they've been on. this is not the first time north korea has managed to put a small satellite into orbit if, indeed, it turns out that they were successful in doing that. it's another test of this three-stage rocket. we referred to rock et as something that puts a satellite in orbit. it goes up into space and the stages fall into the sea. that's how it is worked. but it is the same technology used in missiles, those which

you could put a war head on, and they go out of the earth's atmosphere and back in and reentry, there is a reentry with a war head. that's a weapon. that's the technology that the u.s. believes is being tested here. it does appear that they successfully had a three-stage rocket which gives them some greater range. they're still assessing exactly whether something went into orbit and what the range of this rocket or missile would be. north korea has had short range and intermediate range before. if it has a long rage capability it might be able to reach the u.s. north korea has been trying to develop that and match it with a war head that is small enough to fit on that rocket which would be much heavier than the satellite. then it would be in a position to threaten the u.s. directly. that's why the u.s. is concerned about this.

that's why the u.n. passed resolutions prohibiting north korea from testing that kind of technology and that's why the entire world is united in condemning them, including china, who is the closest country and has the most influence over north korea as well what are we hearing from the official departments now? >> very predictable. john kerry called this a major provocation, said it threatened not only the security in the peninsula, but the states. susan r ice called it a flagrant violation of multiple sanctions. the security council will meet on sunday, in a matter of hours. they will consider another resolution. it is questionable what that would accomplish. there may be some talk of

sanctions. china appears to be opposed to putting additional sanctions on north korea. north korea is already probably the most sanctioned country in the world. it is very isolated. it doesn't have much saebs to the outside world and the leader doesn't seem to care vuch about sanctions. he does seem interested in developing this nuclear capability. that's why everyone is so worried turning to jim walsh, an associate with mit studies program. thank you for joining us. the usual response to north korea's rocket test is to call for more sanctions. you say they've had unintended consequences in the past >> that's right. it's not what you would expect. the u.s. imposes sanctions, right. it raises the cost of doing business. then the north koreans have to pay higher fees to their chinese

partners' illicit companies that are helping them dodge sanctions. what happens is as the north koreans have to pay higher fees, it draws more bigger and more competent chinese firms who are willing to do business. in the old days it used to be the low-level firms. now because they have to pay so much more, bigger, more capable firms are helping them out. so in some ways it's the exact opposite of what you want to have happen. i think the same old same old ain't going to work here. we've been doing sanctions for a while. clearly they're able to launch tests. we need new thinking and a null policy the other response is to call on china, north korea's biggest neighbor and most important ally to use its leverage to prevent north korea's efforts. the first question is why hasn't that worked in the past?

>> china hates these tests. they say don't have a nuclear test, don't have a missile test. north korea does it anyway. what does that do? it makes china look weak. it doesn't stop there. it does everything that china doesn't want to have happen in the region. it brings the u.s. further into the region. it makes missile defense with the chinese hate. it makes that attractive. so it definitely undermines chinese sanctions. why don't the chinese do something tough because the only thing worse than north korea doing all this is the north korea that collapsed because china sanctions them or squeezes them too hard. they're trying to navigate in the middle who would be wrong with a north korea collapse. that will solve china's problem

with the issues on the southern border, wouldn't it? >> i hear you. there is sympathy for that, but think that through. north korea collapses. what happens next? millions of refugee start to flood across the chinese border. what else? south korea forces move up north, with their u.s. partners. china wakes up and what does it see across the border? south korean and u.s. military forces. what about those nuclear weapons? if this starts to unroll, what happens to north korea's nuclear weapons. china hates what north korea is doing and the only thing worse than what north korea is doing is the prospect that north korea falls apart you've written a lengthy article on this. you say there is another approach to take some measures

to reduce this threat. >> i think so. we interviewed a bunch of north korea defectors whose job was to evade sanctions. what we concluded is china can get after this. it can't pressure north korea but it can block that weapons technology if it expands its rupgs, it's anti corruption program, so it-- corruption. if it strengthens this trend twarpdz compliance so banks don't fund the north korean procurement-- towards-- it can do all that without saying to north korea, "i hate you", until north korea goes all rogue. i think there is a middle way here, but we've got to be smart. the thing that we're doing isn't working. we have to be different and smarter our coverage continues.

coming up in the next half an hour we will be heading back live to washington plus gordon chang will be joining us in the next half an hour. the debate just concluded. seven hopefuls took the stage tonight. especially donald trump who boycotted the first one. carly fiorina did not meet the debate requirements. polls that averages all the new hampshire state polls put donald trump in the lead with nearly 31%. marco rubio second place and the other two tied for third. new hampshire's and our

correspondent, who were the strongest and who were the weakest? >> reporter: we talked about this earlier. some people had an assignment in this debate. marco rubio was the target for a lot of people. if you look at who was strongest, chris christie out of the gate tonight, the governor of new jersey coming right at marco rubio. you saw strength also from john kasich. you saw donald trump as the front runner, taking the incoming but not being aggressive. it was chris christie when you ask me who may have done the most to change their fortunes here. it may have been christie and me also may have changed the fortunes of marco rubio. >> when you talked about how great america is, it doesn't solve one problem. they expect you to plough the snow and get schools open. they expect you to rebuild their state which is what i've done.

non-of that happens on the floor of the united states senate. >> your state got hit by a massive storm. you didn't want to go back. those are the facts. this notion that obama doesn't know what he is doing is not true. he knows exactly what he is doing. >> reporter: what he is saying is he was harping on marco rubio's propensity to repeat talking points extrapolate from his speeches. you were a junior senator. we have one now. you don't deserve to be president. it was sharp criticism and i think effective criticism from chris christie tonight let's talk about the poll leader, donald trump, and jeb bush who is trailing in the back. they have gone back and forth in the debates.

jeb's mum wanted him to interrupt. did he take her advice? >> he was and he did. if jeb bush has a stride, he may have hit it tonight. he was in demand the things he wanted to talk about. he was moderate. he didn't allow himself to be as flustered as he did by donald trump. he was trying to paint donald trump as someone who says he loves eminent domain, something that may not have worked well with in crowd. >> the difference between imminent domain for public purpose, as donald trump says, roads and infrastructure, that's for public purpose. what donald trump did was use imminent domain to take the property of an elderly woman on the strip in atlantic city. that is down right wrong >> i didn't take the property. the woman didn't want to do that >> that is not true.

>> to turn this into a limousine parking lot for casinos is not a public use. >> reporter: it really is true that donald trump was the object of a lot of criticism. it didn't come hard on anybody, but jeb bush was able to articulate a little bit more vision, more comfort, and even as donald trump walks behind me now, i think that it was a night for jeb bush to say i did what i had to do as well what about ted cruz, when he was asked about heroin addiction, and he became very personal. >> yes. heroin addiction is a big problem here. it has been talked about by a number of candidates, both republican and democrat accurate. ted cruz has a little bit of drug addiction in his own family. he was poignant about it when asked about it tonight. it wasn't all that way, but when it koim to talking about drug

addiction, he struck a cord, a nerve with a lot of the people watching tonight we have a sound bite. >> my older sister miriam, who was my half sister, struggled her whole life with drug and alcohol addiction. i still remember with my father going to get her out of that crack house trying to convince her she needed to be a mum to her son. five or six years ago she died. she went to sleep one night. took too many pills and her son walked in and found her dead. >> reporter: that's what he did to connect with his audience. he wasn't the focus of a lot of the conversation except as it pertained to his relationship with ben carson, the robo calls and trying to steal votes in iowa. i think if any debate was going

to have an effect, it was tonight. i think it helps john kasich, and bush ben carson, is he fading? >> i would have to say he was fading. they asked questions and when it came to him or didn't come to him, carson said he wished he had been asked about north korea. he didn't provide an answer when he had the floor. he was trying to get his foreign policy bona fides up for the group but it didn't work for him. he is still in the race a new poll shows that the democratic race is now virtually equal. 44% for hillary clinton and

bernie sanders is 42. clinton used to have a 31 point lead. presidential candidate hillary clinton served as obama's first secretary of state. she got support this day. >> a lot of you younger women don't think you don't have to climb the ladier. it is not done. you have to help. hillary clinton will always be there for you, and just remember there's a special place in hell for women who don't help each other of course, clinton narrowly beat bernie sanders in the iowa caucus on monday. now to haiti where provisional government is set to take control tomorrow after the president steps down following a botched election. he said he would not resign until a replacement was

identified. but the presidential run-off election is scheduled for april. it has been more than 24 hours since an earthquake has hid tainan. 17 are dead and 100 are still missing. rescue workers pulling out a 20-year-old man from the rubble has been seen. earlier they rescued a 7-year-old boy from the building. while the rest of the city seems to be less affected, thousands of rescue workers continue to work into the night searching for survivors. our correspondent reports. >> reporter: with the night came more teams to join in the rescue effort. reports of contact made with

survivors still waiting for rescue added to the sense of urgency. every now and then another. this woman is now safe. injured and in pain but clearly alive. like our survivors, she was rushed away to a waiting ambulance. >> reporter: as this rescue operation has continued, equipment has been brought in to carefully move away the debris as the rescue teams search for more survivors. sadly the number of people brought out dead appears to be rising. in other parts of tainan city damaged and teetering buildings are evidence of the earthquake's strength. residents still in a state of shock at the damage around them. >> translation: everything was shaking violently. then it came a big crash. when we rush out, we saw that

the buildings had collapsed. >> reporter: a number of people have chosen to spend the night in shelters, some with their homes destroyed. >> translation: we will stay here for now but we will have to find out place because our home was completely destroyed. >> reporter: back at the main rescue site, as monks prayed for the souls of those who died, there is confusion about how many people were in the complex. anxious relatives and neighbors have reported scores of people unaccounted for. it has raised fears that the death toll will rise significantly. but so too is the number of those being brought out alive law-abiding muslim americans taking the blame for the actions of a few extremists. >> if you're wondering whether you fit in here, let me say it as clearly as i can as president

of the u.s., you fit in here, right here up next, a deeper look at the struggle to change the perception of america's muslim community. later, north korea defies the international community again launching a long-range rocket test. a live update on this still developing story straight aahead.

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american. this comes as the presidential donald trump candidate has called for a ban on muslims entering the country. tonight we take a deeper look at how islam is viewed in the u is s and how those views have shifted since the turn of the 21 century. there are more than three million muslims in the u.s. that is expected to double by 2050 even though most of muslims feel that they are not respected in the country. >> reporter: obama made his first visit as president on wednesday to a u.s. mosque. he delivered a message of unit and religious tolerance and. >> translation: it scares our

community as well when it is politicalised. >> a large portion of where there are no muslims. so people who don't know muslims i hope they hear them >> today there are voices in this world particularly over the internet who are claiming that you have to choose between your identities. as a muslim for example or an american. do not believe them. if you ever wonder whether you fit in here, i will say it as clearly as i can as the president of the u.s., you fit in here, right here. >> reporter: the presidential can't dates pounced quickly. donald trump tried to raise doubts about obama's citizenship and suggested he is not a christia christian.

>> i don't know if - maybe he feels comfortable there. we have problems in this country. there are a lot of place is he can go and he chose a mosque >> reporter: marco rubio during a town hall meeting accused obama of pitting americans against each other >> he gave us a speech to the mosque. basically implying that america is discriminating against muslims. of course there's discrimination in america, of every kind, the bigger issue is radical islam. >> reporter: a new poll suggests a59% of the republicans agreed with donald trump's statement of banning muslims into the u.s. fears here in. u.s. has spiked to levels attached to the 9/11 era.

>> it will be the end of those who do evil. >> reporter: and spoke of islam as a religion of peace. >> terror is not the true faith of islam. that's not what islam is all about. islam is peace. these terrorists don't represent peace. they represent war. >> reporter: 15 years later,

fears again. demands for american isolationalism joining me now a board member for american islam ing relations. also a professor. thank you for joining us. you've written the anti muslim, can you give us examples of what you describe as a bias? >> one thing i note in my research is that for roughly 154 years we had a prohibition of muslims. there was a statute in place. during the time span it restricted individuals who

identified as muslim from become natural citizens. obviously, you had the persecution of the first muslims to live in this country which were enslaved populations. you had other

>> basically, it was terrorism

to be tolerated. has there been any problems shown to you with your support?

>> there is, but i don't care. >> reporter: they say their mosque will remain for those who want to pray there you see this story and you wander what is it that makes americans worry. if you remember the 9/11, everyone who was identified of those attacks were linked to islam. do you have an understanding of americans saying not everyone is terrorists, but what happened in america has happened due to people with religion. >> you have a range and a mass shootings committed by non-muslims, but specifically white male christian men.

there was a statistic that stated 63% of all attacks or mass shooting since 19782 were committed by white christian men. so there were a handful of rogue people. that shouldn't label an entire people. the point about radicalization being focused on muslims is a good one. the idea that there are elements that need to be vetted, it might be logical, but only if that is coupled with the idea of also monitor and policing other elements which have proven themselves to engage in mass violence we've managed the extremism program, but there was an earlier one. i believe it was called the anti terrorism and effective death

penalty october of 96. what prompted that? it was the first piece of legislation used to surveil muslims; correct? >> yes. it was passed over the bombing in 1995. that introduced surveillance focusing on muslims. it proves the dissidence, that you don't need a muslim corporate to essentially usher in this. they introduced legislation that focused specifically on muslim americans, even though the culprit was a white christian something that has happened in this neighborhood, the surveillance by former commissioner kelly. can you tell me about the

personal impact that that program which i understand that is been disconnected was in progress. did the do any good and how much harm did the do? >> tremendous harm to the muslim community/family. there were actually secret surveillance and msas, which is muslim student associations, so muslim organizations. 18-year-old kids. if you're a kid, you belong to a muslim organization or school, they proliferated new york and universities, but they were spice in those groups. how would you like someone spying on your 18-year-old kid. they've never proven to have

caught anyone do anything wrong. in fact the lieutenant who ran the demographics unit said he hated doing that. we had a great relationship with the muslim community and that went away because they thought we were suspicious with them as opposed to work together for community policing and to protect the communities today is there cooperation between the muslim community and law enforcement authorities? >> there was a settlement last week where there were going to be some advances on surveillance programs by independent agencies. i think there's a settlementment in court. there are ways to come to an agreement where we can have security and be safe, but we don't want to give away our constitutional rights. no group in america, whether they be muslims, jews are on

christians, are going to be less than anyone else. they keep making us feel like second class citizens, but we're just as patriotic, we want our streets and our children safe just like our neighbors, whoever they may be thank you for joining us. up next an update on north korea. the possible motive on the supposed rocket launch.

al jazeera america. al jazeera america gives you the total news experience anytime, anywhere. more on every screen. digital, mobile, social. visit aljazeera.com. follow @ajam on twitter. and like aljazeera america on facebook for more stories, more access, more conversations. so you don't just stay on top of the news, go deeper and get more perspectives on every issue. al jazeera america. state media reported today

that north korea launched a long range rocket. the rocket was carrying a satellite for non-military purposes. critics say it was a destabilizing action. it comes a month after north korea claimed to have tested a hydrogen bomb. south korea is planning on holding a meeting to discuss north korea's actions. going back to our national security correspondent in washington. what more do we know about today's launch by north korea? >> what the u has been able to confirm is that just over four hours ago north korea did, in fact, launch three stage rocket apparently successfully put an object into space ostensibly that earth observation satellite.

this was in defiance of u.n. resolutions. the rocket took a southerly past over the west coast of korea, over the yellow sea. it went over japan. japan has said it would fire at it, but it did not. north korea for the second time has been successful in placing an object in space. the reason the u.s. and the rest of the world is concerned about this is that this technology is exactly the same technology, ballistic missile technology that north korea has been seeking in order to develop a missile that could carry a nuclear war head and threaten countries around the world, including the u.s. that's why you've seen this almost universal condemnation of the launch during tonight's g.o.p.

debate, bush said that the way to deal with this is through pre-emtive strikes. how feasible is that? >> he is not the first one to suggest that. 10 years ago ash carter proposed the same thing. it was argued that the u.s. could very easily take out the launch pad by firing a sea launch, a missile on a launch pad with fuel would be easy to carry out. it was argued that after that north korea would probably not respond, but now 10 years later when he is the secretary of defense and privy to all the war gaming that goes on about what would happen in the peninsula, if there was a provocative act,

that that could spark all out war on the korean peninsula. that would be a very ominous scenario. first of all, the pentagon has said if the war would break out again, there would be a million casualties. the u.s. is in that war by treaty and has almost 30,000 troops in south korea. that would be a risky proposition troops there since the 1950s. the author of nuclear show down, north korea takes on the world's author joins us. what do you think the u.s. should do at this juncture given the north's latest action of firing a rocket missile in defiance of u.n. sanctions? >> first of all, we should ask

south korea to end the industrial zone, which is the zone just inside the north korean business and shovel a lot of money to the regime. we need to sanction those financial institutions that handled north korea's cash and transactions. that happens to be a lot of chinese banks isn't the u.s. doing that? >> no. we're not. that's the reason why there are things that we can do which we haven't. because north korea needs its access to the global financial system, this would be effective. we did this at the latter part of the bush administration. they couldn't move money around and they got upset. we know this type of action works why hasn't the u.s. done this in your opinion? >> because north korea has always been low on the priorities and also the administration before it.

right now we have this policy of strategic patience, which is just to let the north koreans stew, but they're making great progress not only on their nuclear weapons but also on their long-range missiles you have said there is an iranian connection. >> yes. they spell two billion buying weapons and technology from the north koreans. the booster was probably that 80 tonne booster that they have been working on for the last couple of years. that is funded by the iranians, and because it works we could see this booster in the iranian inventory. that means that they could put something into the east coast of the u.s. because they can reach us. the north koreans with this booster could reach the west

coast. this is a real issue for us china, what should the u.s. call on china to do? >> we should start sanctioning their banks. we've called on the chinese to do a lot, especially after the january 6 nuclear detonation. it is not going to impose any more coercive measures, it won't permit the security council to have sanctions. we have to see that diplomacy with beijing is at the end of the line. your honour fortunately forks the chinese-- unfortunately for the chinese they are are in a bad financial situation right now coming up the north-east digging out before another blast of snow. say it isn't so. >> reporter: that's right. we're watching what is on the coast and we have another system

out of the plains and this will bring some blizzard conditions. details of that when we return.

>> "inside story" takes you beyond the headlines, beyond the quick cuts, beyond the soundbites. we're giving you a deeper dive into the stories that are making our world what it is. metrologist is here with the news. >> reporter: we had one big storm yesterday. the low pressure that we had coming up the east coast moved

closer inland and brought more snow to new england. i want to show you some of the video. first of all, go to the island that has come here. in providence they saw about 7 inches of snow. most began to melt on the roads initially, but as the cold air stayed in place, it became a real mess for that area. here we saw 12 inches in long island. over in new jersey, look at what they were dealing with. they were getting accumulations of about four to five inches across the area, but still in some locations where the temperatures were down, we are still dealing with some locations looking at some nasty situations tonight as well. coming back to the wall. i want to show you the two storms. this one down here towards the south as well as this one up here towards the north. it is the one to the north that is going to bli the blizzard conditions-- bring the blizzard

conditions over the next day or so. they kick in tomorrow morning and going through to monday. we're talking about over here. this storm down here towards the south, that is going to be moving up very quickly along the eastern seaboard. we are going to be seeing a mix of rain and storm on monday as well such wonderful news. thank you for joining us. stay tuned. the news continues from our colleagues in doha. goodnight. goodnight. >> from rural midwest to war-torn mideast. she went for the money and found a greater calling...

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>> what's your message then? >> we need help now. >> you're watching al jazeera america. north korea launches a long range rocket. a critical debate at the presidential hopefuls. you're watching al jazeera live from our headquarters in doha. rescuers in taiwan pull out a 7-year-old survivor from a building after a massive earthquake on friday. forces tighten their grip