we speak with anna therese day in an exclusive interview, one of four u.s. journalist who were detained by the u.s. backed state of bahrain. she of her camera crew were in bahrain during protest marking the anniversary of the kingdom's february 2 111 uprising. >> of course we are delighted and relieved and grateful to be out of bahrain custody, but it could not be a more stark reminder of the privileges we have operating as western journalists in these countries while our bahraini colleagues suffer and rot in jail. amy: all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. at least seven people have died as more than 50 tornadoes swept across parts of the south and eastern united states over the last two days. the extreme weather destroyed hundreds of homes and forced the closure of schools and government offices. at least four people have died in virginia, including a two-year-old boy. virginia governor terry mcauliffe has declared a state of emergency. scientists have linked an increase in the

well, we are glad to be joined by anna therese day, one of the journalists just released from detentionahrain. it is great to have you with us. talk about when you went to bahrain and what happened. >> we went for the five-year anniversary of the uprising, which was february 14. one thing that is interesting about bahrain, while it is often overlooked, it had one of the highest percentages of its population that participated in the arab spring uprising. we were excited to get back there. i reported there in 2011. we wanted to follow-up on the reports of human rights violations continuing. again, human rights violations they continue right next to america -- one of america's most important military presence in the world. amy: what happened? >> we entered on tourist visas. amy: white tourist visas? >> we were entering undercover. we knew we would be meeting primarily with figures that face enormous threats inside the country and we made that decision to liberally, understanding the potential consequences and we decided that we absolutely felt the story was worth the risk. we entered on to

journalist anna therese day is one of them. bahraini officials arrested them on suspicion of participating in an illegal gathering - they were island nation's2011 uprising - protests outside the capital. one of the four accused of participating in atttacks on police during protests over the weekend. they were charged - but they were allowed to head to the airport after intervention from us embassy officials. many there - arrests and charges show the sensitivity the nation still feels five years after that uprising governor nikki haley announced today that she plans to build on an already successful program that reaches poor south carolina mothers. through the state's pay for success project and the nurse family partnership program - which pairs nurses with first time moms on medicaid - governor haley says they can reach an additional 3200 mothers and children. more than 1200 families in south carolina are currently involved with the program. more of south carolina's poor mothers-to-be will get parenting help at home through a $

anna therese day. the four americans were arrested during demonstrations marking the fourth area of the aish arab spring uprising. uganda's main opposition leader kizza besigye was detained twice when he tried to hold rallies in ka mrvegpala. mrvekampala. >> we thought we had the right to vote for anyone we desired. there is tension. they are tear gassing us, we don't know where uganda is going. we will straight as ugandans. >> yoweri museveni seized power in 1976 and is one ever africa's longest serving rulers. >>> in burundi, turmoil since last april when the cup's president announced woe seek a third term which violates the constitution. more economic sanctions on burundi if it doesn't improve its human rights record and end the country's political crisis. haiti swears in an interim president. coming up the hurdles the interim government faces to end the political chaos in the country. >>> and pope francis makes ocontroversial visit to mexico's indigenous community to bring attention to their plans.

anna therese day and her camera crew have reportedly been charged with illegally assembling with the intent to commit a crime. bahraini authorities accused them of falsely representing themselves as tourists, and claimed one of the journalists participated in an attack on police. bahrain is a close ally of the united states, home to the u.s. navy's fifth fleet. in egypt, newly released documents show the senior police officer investigating the death of italian student giulio regeni has a prior conviction related to the torture and killing of a prisoner. regeni, who wrote about egyptian labor unions for an italian newspaper, was found by the side of the highway, naked from the waist down, his body showing signs of torture. reuters reports khaled shalaby, who was investigating regeni's death, was one of four people charged in with torturing and 2000 killing another prisoner inside an alexandria police station. on the campaign trail democratic , presidential candidate bernie sanders has launched a petition against the democratic national committee's quiet lifting of a ban on donations f