we will be live with our correspondant in islamabad but this report from erica wood. >> reporter: leaving behind their homes and fleeing violence between the government and fighter groups in north waziristan. some have crossed into af pakis in search of safety. >> our schools are closed. the hospital is closed. the government is giving us great trouble. >> the latest offensive in the border region follows a brazen 5-hour attack on karachi's airport last week. >> siege left at least 36 people dead and shut down the country's busiest international transport hub. the taliban said it carried out the attack alongside fighters from the is lackim movement from uzbekistan. many killed are thought to be uzbeks. their group was formed in 1991 to overthrow uzbekistan's government. it included the rest of central asia attack u.s. and nato targets in afghanistan. the movement has long based themselves in pakistan's northwest. the porous region is movementnous and remote making it difficult to launch counter offensive k578 pains. but attacks by drones have been controversial. the taliban is vowing regf

erica wood, al jazerra. >>> let's speak now washington, d.c.ays in our report a presidential pardon is only possible after all legal proceedings have been carried out, including an appeal. so is there then still hope of a sisi pardon? >> there is a chance. sisi is unlikely to actually issue this pardon, especially having given this speech recently. because he's put himself out on the line, he's signaling to the judiciary that you work with me and i'll work with you. and so it's going to take a lot of international pressure for him to change his mind. but even if he does, i think that it's more likely that you'll see a commuting of these sentences after appeal. this will -- this case will more than likely go to the court of -- the highest court of appeals in egypt, and they will review the sentences, they will review the procedures, but they are not going to be offered much in -- they are not going to be offered the entire case file. nonetheless, the -- there is clearly a politicized culture that's building in the judiciary right now. as we have

erica wood, aljazeera. >> the aljazeera media network, he joins us tonight from dc. welcome. >> thank you, john. >> what do you make of these comments by the president of egypt? >> two days ago, there was a verdict that was announced and they could have released peter and mohammed and bahar. but enough evidence was given in the course of the trial which would have prevented their guilt. and today egypt would have been receiving applaudits from the international community, instead, the court went the opposite direction so, today what you have is virtual unanimity in the international community, human rights groups, and the international media, and everyone has condemned what happened. and it seems with sisi's tainment, it will make it much more difficult. >> it's hard to tell if it's him feeling pressure from around the world or him digging in. what do you think? >> i don't know obviously what his motives were, they did come one day after the secretary of state of the united states, john kerry, made his attempts where he encouraged them to issue presidential pardons a

erica woods, al jazerra. >>> we should tell that you a small nebraska town is cleaning up the damaget behind by two mass and i have deadly tornadoes the rare twin tornados touched down jed in pilger. two people including a five-year-old girl remember killed. the twister detroit or damaged more than half of the buildings in the farming community. nebraska's governor has declared a state of emergency and police have closed all roads in to pilger. meteorologist nicole miller joins us with more on the storms and their impact. nicole. >> meteorologist: very impressive system yesterday. all tolled almost 500 reports of severe weather over 30 tornadoes. the weather service goes in the day after and sees if any are duplicate reports and tracks the intensity like of those tornado that his we saw, very impressive that there were two at the same time, twin tornadoes and they were about a mile apart, really major, initial reports, so this is a look at one of them. but initial reports that go back and see the damage that has done, and based on the damage estimate wind speeds and that's how they a

as erica wood reports for us now, the case has raye raised concerns about the fairness of egypt's judicialtem. >> reporter: if the world already had little faith in egypt's judicial system, this verdict cemented those opinions. >> reporter: the sentence of seven and 10 years in prison for al jazerra's journalists, was a culmination of five months of trial. a trial which international governments, observers and journalists agree followed little sense or reason. there are no jury trials no egypt. only judges can hear evidence in a court. rights groups say that leaves the judicial system open to subjectivty. so if the court fails to provide justice, can the government intervene? according toy jim law a pardon can be granted by the president, but not until all legal proceedings, including appeals, have been wound up. but comments by the president sisi tuesday says there is no chance of him stepping in. >> translator: we will not interfere in judiciary matters. it is an exalted jew dish air, no one interferes in state institutions nothing comments or talks about state institutions. >> reporter:

erica wood has wore. >> reporter: imprisoned without charge for 10 months. abdullah al-shami maintained he had done nothing wrong. five months into detention, abdullah al-shami went on the hunger strike. he lost a third of his body weight. >> days after the leaked video, abdullah al-shami said he'd been placed in solitary confinement. he said he vomited and passed out. the court extended his detention. family warned about his declining health. abdullah al-shami said he would not stop the protest until he was freed. a court ordered that he be released because of his deteriorating physical condition. there are three al jazeera journalists behind bars in egypt. on monday peter greste, mohamed fadel fahmy and baher mohamed stood once again in the courtroom cage. it was a final day for defense lawyers to put forward their argument. but they'll have to wait until june the 23rd to hear the verdict. the egyptian prosecutor asked for maximum sentences, meaning peter greste could get seven years in prison. mohamed fadel fahmy and baher mohamed are facing 15 years. >>

erica woods, al jazeera. >> for more on this we're joined in the studio but former pakistani high commissioner to the u.k. thank you so much for joining us here on al jazeera. >> my pleasure. >> just paint us a picture, how crucial is this defensive is? >> this is th the last bastion of taliban. it took some time to decide to go in. first tried dialogue, which failed. and then the government on the 10th of june decided they would have to go in. >> so the attack on the karachi airport. >> we decided we should go in and have it out, and this is probably the time that we have to go in because they were creating a lot of mess in the country we had come to a point where we would not take it any more. >> it seems that it's going to be a decisive offensive. we've seen people runaway from the area. other fighters who may be trying to cross into the border of afghanistan it's going to be difficult for the army to strike that balance of how far they will attack. >> the army will keep the peop people. they're not going to target the civilians. now they're targeting a ground operation. it has got to be th

erica wood is more. >> peter greste, baher mohamed and mohamed fahmy stand in the courtroom in a cage. the egyptian prosecution has asked for the maximum sentences. that means greste could get seven years in prison while fahmi and model could get 15 years. >> a rapist or murderer has a television and four hours of outdoor time. we are locked up all day, this is unbelievable. >> they are accused of supporting the outlawed muslim brotherhood. al jazeera rejects all charges and since arrested in december the 29th has repeatedly demand he their release. >> we feel the court is fond believe that our defendants are innocent on all the charges they are accused of. they have not done anything they should be facing trial for. i believe the court will acquit them. >> we have to be optimistic because we have to maintain hope if we lose hope there's nothing to hold onto. >> on the trial on sunday the defense lawyers issued a final plea, saying this is not a trial for these defendants alone but a trial of all journalists. since the overthrow of mohamed morsi last year, many which are detained with

erica wood, al jazeera. >> there was pause today to show solidarity with the al jazeera journalists in. there was a moment of silence. there were similar events at al jazeera offices all around the world. journalists at bbc also paused to honor them. "the new york times" criticiz ing the obama response. when the verdicts were announced mr. kerry called them a disturbing set back to egypt's transition while the white house condemned the convictions and urged them to pardon the journalists but there is no talk on cutting back on aid. and on tuesday mr. sisi said he would not interfere with the judicial process. >>> it has been a bad day for the department of veteran affairs. a series of whistle blowers reports and independent studies, a scheduling chec clerk at the va said she was supposed to keep a waiting list. veterans died while waiting to receive treatment. joining us now is reporter for the senate investigative reporter. as you know this whistle blower is detailing what she was asked to do by supervisors, some of the claims to me sound absolutely criminal. how much more shocking is

erica wood, al jazeera. >> every hour according to the center for disease control and prevention, three people are killed by guns in this country. and almost seven people are shot every hour. all this week, we're taking an in depth look at guns and their global impact in our series, five days, guns around the world. and after so many mass shootings in the united states we decided to look at other countries where people owned guns. but where violence is rare. jonathan betz gets us started. jonathan. >> well, john the numbers of guns around the world has been growing over the years. without question the united states has the most. but number 3 on that list is the country of switzerland where guns are kind of a national rg obsession there. asked and answered is not far behind, number 13, rks canada is not far behind, number 13 . and places like israel where is tensions are lie, still have are relatively low gun being possession. being australia has as many guns per capita as the country of mexico but less crime. a string ever sproinls led australia to nationalize its gun possession, jamaic

erica wood reports. >> reporter: if the world had little faith in egypt's judicial system, the verdictcemented the opinions. [ speaking foreign language ] >>> the sentence of 7 and 10 years imprison for al jazeera journalists was a culmination of five months of trial - trial which international governments, observers and journalists agreed followed little sense or reason. there are no jury trials in egypt. only judges can hear evidence in a court of the rights groups say it leaves the judicial system open to subjectivity. if the court fails to provide justice, can the government intervene? according to e-egyptian law a pardon can be granted by the president, but not until all legal proceedings, including appeals, have been wound up. comments by the president abdul fatah al-sisi on tuesday hold little hope of him stepping in. >> translation: we will not interfere in judicial matters because the egyptian judiciary is ipp gent. no one interferes with the affairs of state institutions, no one comments or talks about state institutions. >> reporter: egypt's courts suffered a lack of resourc

>>james: erica thank-you for 18 justin hurricane christina has wood into a category 2 storm off a close to the post office that hurricane is expected to weaken to a tropical storm on sunday saturday. cristina is about three and 25 mi. west of mass and nail mexico. >>: also this just then the mayor of venice in italy has resigned amid a corruption scandal one day after being released from house arrest and giorgio or sony was arrested last week and incorruption probe related to the construction of barriers used to protect the state from flooding and investigation there discovered that slush fund the the was a board to bribe officials to get the project done more some was released of >>: the beating of its one year-old gay man during in pride festival on the trade on sunday was caught on camera by bystanders as kristin howard was attacked by a group of men on the river walk. cellphone video shot by a bystander shows the group kicking and punching him. he was taking a picture with a friend one thing suddenly turned violent when he says the attack left him roof with a bloody fight cuts and a