nick spicer is in berlin. he explains why al jazeera may

let's go to our correspondent spicer who is covering the elections for us in berlin and how likely isrand coalition with the opposition with a social democrat? >> well, we will be finding out a little bit later today, possibly, when merkel speaks to the media about how she will use the score in the federal elections and she may choose to keep the cards close to her chest and wapt wait until they hold a congress on friday and they will talk about what kind of conditions they would impose on joining a grand coalition. there is another option which is a bit of an outside one is that merkel decides to align herself with the greens and invite them in a coalition and that is made possible by the fact that merkel decided to end the use of nuclear energy in germany and something the greens have long been calling for and something merkel decided to do in the wake of the fukushima disaster in japan. >> there has been fighting with the greens, there seems to be a lot of public support for a grand coalition but what kind of ativdvances would bring this ab? >> the grand coalition despite being som

. >> i'm nick spicer on a tour of germany ahead of the federal election. we're looking at voters tempted by the far left and far right. >>> a shortage of sand could spell trouble for florida's tourism industry. there's more to financial news than the ups and downs >>> these are the top stories on al jazeera. talks between the u.s. and russia on syria's chemical weapons are into a third day in geneva. the russian foreign minister, sergei lavrov and u.s. secretary of state kerry have been seen in discussions outside the hotel. the u.s. president is open to a u.n. resolution not backed by force. >>> the three-week sit-ins by teachers in mexico have been broken up by riot police. the teachers are demonstrating against reforming the national education system. >>> a cease-fire has been broken in the southern philippines just hours after it was agreed on between the army and separatist fighters. this was an attempt to end a five-day siege by rebels who are holding civilians hostage in the city of zamboanga. >>> the report by human rights watch accused the army of

now for the other side of the issue, sean spicer is communications director for the republican nationalttee and joins me live in studio. thanks for joining me. >> absolutely. >> there are some within your own party that are saying this is a losing battle. i want to listen to what tom coburn had to say and we'll talk on the other side. >> it's not a tactic that we can actually carry out and be successful. the answer now in the senate by those who proposed the strategy is to filibuster the very bill they said they wanted. >> i'd love for you to respond directly to something that congressman pascrell just said, this is not about the debt ceiling or the budget, it's a group of right wingers who want to get rid of boehner. what's your response to that? >> boehner was the one who led the vote the other day to defund obama care so i think the speaker is implementing the will of the house, which is in fact the will of the american people right now. we've got $17 trillion in debt. we have an obama care bill driving up costs. as you see over and over again, it's companies like home depot, the cle

polls in 9 day's time and they hope to have office by forming another conservative coalition and nick spicereports. >> reporter: on this part of our tour of germany as it prepares to vote we are on a small fishing boat going up the river towards the city of hamburg, a stronghold of the social democratic party and looking at why some voters are beginning to feel a bit adrift. these days fishermen is like the social democratic party or spd. over the years the daily catch he gathers with his son is getting smaller and smaller. the same goes for spd and the haul of voters and they used to vote for the party, no longer. >> translator: they are no longer the party of the little man. all they are interested in is power. >> hamburg is a city of sailors, dock workers and that discussion of left wing politics going back to the 19th century and the creation of the modern welfare state so you think of the campaign promises of wage and taxing the rich could find a lot of support but there are problems. their leader has come under fire for making paid speeches for big business and making repeated gafs in

for war crimes since the war ended. 13,000 were found guilty and about half of them sentenced, 96 spicerberlin. >>> vodafone has sold verizon's stake to the company. one of the biggest corporate buyouts in history. shareholders will get a portion of the agreement, not be required to pay any capital gains tax, the potential tax levy would have been a minimum of $38 billion. >> well for what this means, we're joined in the studio by rks telecommunications expert helen keegan. so what does it do essentially that vodafone has lost its market? >> emerging markets which is very important to them and actually, such a cultural difference between verizon customers and vodafone's european customers that maybe it didn't make sense for them to work together anyway. >> the roaming chars are so different and whenever you cross the border. >> they couldn't negotiate a wholesale roaming deal so vodafone'sing customers in u.k. weren't even roaming on verizon. >> do you think it's going to damage vodafone? >> it's going ohelp vodafone, it gives them lots of money to shore up their business in the u.k. and

nick spicer reports from berlin. >> reporter: leaders of germany's biggest opposition party, the social democrat, said on friday they received the resignation of their failed candidate for chancellor. his campaign was seen by many as a big cause of the party's poor performance. now they will consult with members to decide if and how their party will join angela merkel in a governing coalition, even if two-thirds of members are opposed. >> translator: our goal is not to be part of a government, nor are we afraid to be opposition. we will enter the talks confidently. our goals are to implement the values of social democratic policies. >> reporter: the victory of angela merkel's christian democratic union on sunday was its biggest since reunification. so big they should she said treat the coalition partners like the contents of the handbag. the media saw a fairy tale merkel as kissing a frog to return to power. going red with a bigger social democrats is what most germans would like merkel to do. a big problem for the social democrats and their plans for the future is their past. they've a

nick spicer, al jazeera. >>> raul is here now with the rest of the day's big sports stories. >> thank you very much. marino have accepted the blame for chelsea's 2-1 loss against basel in the champions league. they put the london club ahead just before the intervals, but goals gave them a surprise victory. it's chelsea's first home loss in the champions league group stages for a decade. >> i am responsible. i like in the good moments a place to shine, and so happy tom here in good moments and say this player had a fantastic performance. this player was outstanding. when you lose, i am the responsible one, and i don't like to obviously in a moment of defeat say this player was better or worse than one. >> messi had a hat trick. the argentinian took his tally to 62 goals. here are the scores in the 4-0 win. >> translator: during the first half, we didn't dominate the game the way we like, especially playing here. we like to control the ball more, but in front of us we had a team that also liked to control the ball and knows how to escape from pressure situations. i think we could have p

nick spicer is in berlin. he explains why al jazeera may have been targeted according to the documents. >> reporter: the german news mag sfwleen believes it's because al jazeera was provided with cassettes and recording of senior leaders of al qaeda. this is speculation. there's nothing in the touments revealed that suggest any other motivation. it's interesting it all says this is the first media organization that has been targeted by the national security agency in the united states, at least according to the documents made public by edward snowden. we don't know what documents the nsa hacked into. we do know the existness of some of the documents handed over to the news magazine including one which was date-stamped the 23rd of march, 2006, top secret, which spelled out that the nsa's network analysis center was looking at interesting target within our system network to understand what was going on as regards discussions between them. it didn't spell out, however, in the article whether the nsa was looking a

nick spicer, al jazeera. >>> let's update you with what's happening out of washington, d.c. those reports, of course, of a shooting that happened in a naval base. you can see this helicopter, which is lifting definitely somebody in there. you can see them moving, so presumably one of the victims of the shooting who has been injured. we're getting reports that four people have been injured at this shooting. details still sketchy, but we know that one suspect is at large and still being looked for and is apparently carrying an ak-47 assault rifle. so that helicopter there taking off one of the victims in the shooting we believe to be treated. that incident still ongoing. we'll bring you more on that as we get it. >>> let's get to sports now. >> thank you very much. less than a day after becoming the oldest ever winner cycle winning the tour of spain, he's become involved in an unusual doping mix-up. team radio shack officials plame the doping officials after the 41-year-old missed an out of competition test on monday. they issued a statement saying that the officials went to t

al jazeera's nick spicer has more from the german capital. >> reporter: the berlin marathon course issidered one of the world's fastest with eight world records set here in 15 years. the city is mostly flat, and sunday's weather was perfect. lots of sun, but the air was cool. perfect conditions then for wilson kipsang of kenya to set a new world record of two hours, three minutes and 23 seconds. he won $54,000 for coming in first and took home another 68,000 for breaking the world record. but he said he was also grateful for how his win would make his countrymen back home in kenya feel after the devastating attack to nairobi's westgate mall. >> people were really injured and afraid of what the country is going through. yesterday when i broke the world record, they were so happy and celebrating. >> reporter: the second and third place finishers were also from kenya. kipsang said he set out to break the world record on sunday, and he was planning to break that record, his own now, again. nick spicer, al jazeera, berlin. >>> alex rodriguez gets to tell his side of the story as his appeal

for more on this, joined by nick spicer in berlin. why did they access al jazeera? >> well, the german news magazine speculates it may be becausays was provided with audio cassets and video recordings of senior leaders of al-qaeda. this is speculation, nothing in the documents that are revealed by "der s piegel" says. it's interesting it also says this is the first feed i can't organization that has been targeted by the national security agency in the united states at least according to the documents made public by edward snowden. >> so do we know what documents the nsa hacked into? >> we don't know what documents the nsa hacked into. we do know of the existence of some of the documents thatch handnd over to the news if magazine, including one which was dit stamped the 23rd of march, 2006 action top secret, which spelled out that the nsa's network analysis 7er had been looking at what it called interesting targets within our sister network to understand what was going on as regards discussions between them. it didn't spell out, however, in the article whether the ns

. >> let's go live to our correspondent nick spicer in berlin. it looks like there are big winners and losers in these results, doesn't it? >> angela merkel is a huge victor in this. the party ran a campaign basically built on her personality, the campaign placards that people held up said angie - her nickname - and it was a cricketry for the christian democrats union which hadn't had a score since 1990, when there was german reunification, and germans were grateful and they won a bigger majority. angela merkel almost won an absolute majority which has not happened in half a century in germany. she fell short and will say later today what her plans are in terms of forming a coalition, which she'll need to do. her junior partners in the counter government have been eliminated, which you talked about when talking about the free democrats. what sort of coalitions are there. i'm joined by the european council on foreign relations. what is she likely to announce? >> that is a big question. it will be hard to find a coalition partner. the fdp was crush

somewhat different as one human rights campaigner in bahrain found out she says that gammas finn spicer valence was used to target her off to she took part in anti-government protests looked like the genuine email addresses term another political activist saying that they were going to begin talks with the king of bahrain about the future of the country so i was in fact very intrigued very curious the manufacturer was government and national just opened my eyes into this other world of surveillance technology monitoring so we know that the british intelligence carries out this kind of activities but also allowing private in the private sector to carry out these kind of activities for other foreign governments researches have identified. around the globe you saw a big target against activists and journalists last year. servers were spyware it appears for the number of other countries such as turkmenistan carter we also found a sample of the spyware by spyware appeared to be targeted back to ethiopia the scary thing. is that this technology in china work for it around the world without an

somewhat different as one human rights campaigner in bahrain found out she says that gammas finn spicer valence was used to target her off to she took part in anti-government protests look like a genuine email addresses from another political activist saying that they were going to begin talks with the king of bahrain about the future of the country so i was in fact very intrigued very curious the manufacturer was government and national just opened my eyes into this other world of surveillance technology monitoring so we know that the british intelligence carries out this kind of activities. allowing private apartment sextant to carry out these kind of activities for other foreign governments researches have identified. around the globe. activists journalists last year old. servers spyware it appears to be used in another number of other countries such as turkmenistan. carter we also found a sample of spyware weapons by spyware that appeared to be targeted back to ethiopia the scary thing every from our perspective is that this technology in chapter were created around the world withou

. >> 96 spicer live for us in berlin. >>> voters in northern sri lanka have gone to the polls the first time since the civil war, 26 year long conflict. the tamil tigers, began their struggling for their own country in the far north. the number of people killed in the 26 year civil war is estimated to be 80 to 100,000. at the end of 2008 the president launched a huge offensive on the north dwe defeating the south in 2009. >>> allen live from london with what the election means from the country long term. thank you very much allen for being on al jazeera how important are these elections are, when we know provincial governors have very little power and the government has centralized much of the government's powers? >> well, yes that's obuilt of a paradox. iit's extremely important, first time that the tamils have the chance to elect their own council, and there's some sense that perhaps having done so they will gain somewhat of a foothold and be able to challenge the central gof of government's policies a little bit. but the basics problem is you have a very hostile government in colombo

nick spicer is standing by from the christian democrats party and joan is among the voters at a berlin cafe. first, nick's report on how the election day unfolded. >> joy at seeing the woman they call angie lead her party to victory and likely a third term as chancellor. her christian democratic union scored better, a reflection of angela merkel's management of the country and europe during the eurozone crisis. >> >> translation: we have shown that the cdu is the people's party. we'll do everything to be successful in the next four years. we'll await tomorrow's results, but for now we can celebrate. >> there may be a need to wait because merkel's free democratic party need to gain 5% of votes to get enough seats in parliament, and they appear to be falling short. >> there are no divisive issues in the campaign. unemployment is at its lowest level in 20 years. all of the parties, including the opposition voted in favour of bailouts for the eurozone and will provide more, with conditions. angela merkel borrowed ideas from the opposition, such as a u-turn on nuclear energy. polls before t

nick spicer reports. >> reporter: a studio in east berlin filled with famous figures of myth and historykull ter. he likes talking about music perhaps because talking politics was tricky in a dictatorship. >> translator: i describe her as very calm and matter of fact. but she could also be spontaneous. it was an unusual mixture. reserved but fun loving. >> reporter: the political front began with the fall of the berlin wall. she served as his minister before a few years later, stunning many by saying it was time for him to go, and taking his job as chancellor. her popularity reached his peak as the financial crisis hit bottom. >> translator: after greece went bankrupt she reacted uncertainly at first, but then she found a compromise that kept everyone happy. the austerity appeals to speck ticks, but shes also pushed for reform in parliament. >> reporter: her supporters like her precisely for her delib rate manner. >> because she always thinks before she talks. >> i like very about her is that she is so straight? what she is doing and what she is thinking. >> reporter: it is of course too

. >> nick spicer reports from berlin. >> joy at seeing angie lead her party to victory and likely the chancellor. her party doing better in the polls this time as a result of the eurozone crisis. we showed that the cdu is the people's party. we'll wait for the final results tomorrow but for now we can celebrate. >> there may be a need to wait because merkel's coalition partiers, the free democratic party needs to get five seats. >> there are no major divisive issues. unemployment is at its lowest level in 20 years. all the parties, including the opposition voted in favour of bailouts at the eurozone. angela merkel borrowed ideas - such as a u-turn on nuclear energy. >> it's been shown many germans prfr a coalition -- prefer a coalition. >> >> translation: the ball is in angela merkel's circle. >> something that could soften aust erty in europe - but not likely. >> there may be less pressure on austerity. maybe some countries will have more time fulfilling the criteria. the german policy will be what we have seen in the last four years. >> the shape of any coalition and what it means f

nick spicer has the details from duecel dorfe. ♪ simply the best ♪ better than all the rest >> bettern all the rest. a fact for merkel if the polls are right. this is called the hot phase of the campaign. it's being dominated by a woman whose performance in office is cool, quiet and deliberate. on sunday, though, even if her party seems to have an unbeatable lead she let passion shine through. >> translation: let us use every minute to the election, let us fight and go to the people and tell them yes, we can succeed with the help of every german citizen so everyone can realise their dreams and aspirations. >> this at times feels like a presidential race. it's gerangela gerkel's popular pushes her against her oppone s opponents. >> the social democrats candidate did well in the recent tv debate against merkel, not well enough to revive a struggling campaign and to have a serious chance of forming the next government. that is fine for angela merkel supporters. >> she's a great leader. i think because there was so much. >> i think she did well for germany for eight years. she could do it

. >> i'm nick spicer, and i will be looking at why support is so strong here for the party in the upcominglection. >> and coming up, in sports all the latest including floyd may weather jr. lives up to his nickname, money, with a record breaking fight. it began when israel captured the golden heights during a so called six day war, in 1970 war, the syrian army tried and fails to regain the territory, but as simon mcgregor wood, injured syrians are finding help. >> the army brings them to a hospital 40-kilometers from syrian territory, most too badly hurt to know where they are. but 96 have been here in the northern israeli city this year. the army won't say how or where their journey starts. >> in recent months many children have been brought here, this boy is 15. we cannot show his face, one day he may return to syria. he has a head wound and shrapnel to the stop imagine. he is not fully conscious, they don't even know his name, his pain is obvious. >> some people could say why we have to do it, okay, a few people can say something like this. when you see the kids and the people are innoc

. >> nick spicer joins us live. the voting is underway. what is the turn out like, the german's interest? >> to be frank, a poll conducted recently suggested 70% of germans were bored with the election. they have a strong sense of their civic duty. that doesn't mean they'll necessarily stay at home. participation rates in the last election in 2009 was over 70%, a number many would be proud of. it's expected that angela merkel will continue in hor role. however, the big question is who will she govern with. >> they are deciding germany's future, and maybe that of europe as a whole. the protection is the current chancellor angela merkel will keep her job. voters who would like to see her lose it recognise her popularity. >> many are happy with what is happening throughout europe, because germany benefits from it. >> merkel's handling of the euro zone crisis managed to pull her party ahead. >> ahead of her brifl and his party. >> there were no major divisive issues. unemployment is at its lowest level and all of the parties, including the opp

. >> nick spicer life from munich, the capital of bav airaa >> flooding in colorado - five have been killed, thousands having to lose their home. we have a report from the worst-affected areas. >> rescue efforts are in full force. local, state and federal agencies have been coordinating efforts to save people who have been trapped for days. the roads are not just blocked, but gone. >> we had people dialling 911, people calling for help, communities that we couldn't reach. frustrating for first responders and our staff. >> boulder municipal al airport is a command center. >> much of the efforts are focused on rescuing stranded residents in isolated communities and searching for those unaccounted for. a team of 400 assembleses a dozen chinook helicopters have taken to the sky to airlift residents to the ground. >> we have a call, we go out and get them. >> in somes areas hit the hardest, there's no electricity or cell phone service, making it hard to account for dozens. whole mountain communities have been cut off. >> within an hour, houses crumbled off the mountainside. people's lives

nick spicer joins us from a polling place in central berlin. nick, why is merkel struggle ling to sekeep her positive whe it seems everything is going her way? >> reporter: because of the german electoral system which requires parties to build coalition it has done so for half a century thousand. necessary by far the most popular politician. her party, the christian democratic union had a 15 point lead poll in the latest poles for last week. i am not allowed to give you any numbers today. but that's not enough for her to governor alone should she keep up those good numbers. she has needed a junior coalition partner. in the past three years it's been the free democratic party. it night not break a 5% barrier you need to get into pardon me pam wiped out for the free democrats which means angela merkel needs somebody else to governor with and many germans would like her to governor with the party she has been campaigning against the hardest live from germany, life in berlin. thank you. for the second week in a row, a college football power avoids

. >> i'm nick spicer and the german region and i'll be looking at what the ruling green party here hopeso achieve in the national elections. >> reporter: and in sport find out which brother came out on top in the manning with the denver broncos took on the new york giants and we will have details of this later in the program. ♪ ♪ . >> announcer: this is al jazeera america. we now rejoin this program already in progress. >> get in iraq safely. >> reporter: the human rights group says the military can't distinguish between civilians and rebels worried that civilians may have already been killed. the government may have violated the rules of war by turning the largest hospital in the city into a military garison where soldiers are based and deployed from but they are aware of the rules of engagement. >> these are the things that we don't wish to do. but maybe it's the urgency of the situation. as much as possible we want to avoid it but unfortunately we are not in a normal situation. we are in a battle area and rest assured we will remind our commanders and our soldiers not to do those thin

as the first woman chancer whose shows germany was the most popular country in the world and nick spicerberlin. >> reporter: more weather now and we keep hearing about storms and floods but it is not all bad news, is it? there is apparently some good weather for western europe and parts of the u.s. >> that is right, absolutely, it's not all about the typhoons and hurricanes and deep low pressure. a nice area of high pressure and good news and a little in the atmosphere and pushes the air down and means clear skies in western europe and the sun is shining at the moment and will go many through the weekend and temperatures will be 20 in london, 23 for paris. we have got showers and longer spells of rain for eastern parts of europe through saturday. and into sunday but the high pressure will be larger as we go on through the second half of the weekend, may see the temperatures in london getting up to the highs of 23 degrees. so sunshine and high pressure and quieting things down to the flood effected parts of the united states so around denver down to new mexico and things looking better th

our correspondent is live for us now in munich, nick spicer. i always thought they would do well but perhaps better than expected >> reporter: well, they now have an suit majority in parliament which means the christian social union will be able to govern without a coalition party which is what it has been doing with the three democrats here in bavaria. now, the other big news out of munich tonight has to do with the free democrats, a small par party but with national significan significance. the free democrats are the coalition partners of angela merkel in berlin who must be looking at these results with some concern because she wants to govern with them in the upcoming federal election in one weekses time. to help me understand what has happened to the free democrats, i am joined by an outgoing free democrat. can you help me understand just what happened to your party in this race? >> we don't really know. we had a very, very good coalition during the last five years, and the liberals were very important for the conservatives. so we don't rea

nick spicer, al jazeera, germany. >>> malaysia's once robust economy is feeling the effects of asia'sconomy downturn. fitch has revised the country's outlook from stable to negative, and the central bank has downsized its growth forecast for this year. stephanie has the story. >> reporter: from the food store this family earned $300 a month. one son's part-time job scattered a dispatch rider brings in another 350, and then the family of six scrape together the rest of the $1,000 a month they need to cover their costs with a series of part-time jobs. it's a constant struggle. >> translator: sometimes i can't sleep at night for the worrying. $300 from the store is not enough. it's a really big burden to earn the money to feed my family. we have no savings, nothing. >> reporter: though he's in a tough situation, he's fortunate. while he battles to stay financially afloat, it's estimated in malaysia household debt stands at around 83% of gross domestic product. simply put, that means that every $100 malaysians are earning they o83. the business is no better for big business, corporate deb

we have nick spicer live in duseldorf for us. what's happening? >> reporter: angela merkel is speaking to delegates in the hockey arena behind me telling them 14 days to see their dream come true, to see her reelecteded as chancellor. this feels like a presidential election, because angela merkel has a 70% approval rating in the german public. it's her managing of the euro zone crisis that is lifting the fortunes of the christian democratic union. she's around 15 points ahead in the polls the social democratic opposition. he has led a lackluster campaign. he has made repeated gaffes and he had a good debate with angela merkel in recent days, but it didn't give his campaign the boost he needs to seriously chang lenning angela merkel's lead and that of her christian democratic union. >> thank you for that nick. nick live for us. >>> it's the day after election night for australia's prime minister-elect, but it started like any other for tony habbit. the new leader of the pack. >>> we look at the impact of can ini bu s farming in the united states. >

nick spicer, al jazeera. >>> the german chancellor has warned the eu on imposing tough environmentaltandards on her country's luxury carmakers. angela merkel told crowds too much regulation would hurt innovation and economic growth. she blocked a deal to set ambitious targets to cut carbon monoxide emissions in seven years. >>> prince william has left operational military service after finishing his tour as a search and rescue pilot. the second in line for the throne is expected to focus on royal duties, charity work and helping to look after his 2-month-old. >>> you're update from here in europe. back to doha. >> thank you very much. >>> now to mexico where leaders of teachers union agreed to meet the government after bitter protests against education reforms. at least 15 people were injured on wednesday in demonstrations. aid adam raily reports from mexico city. >> reporter: weeks of protests result in this, a long standoff with riot police. police use smoke to disperse them from the capital's main avenue. they've been camping out in the main plaza and holding daily marches on high

. >> reporter: nick thanks for that, nick spicer in berlin.e gathering in new york for the general assembly and we will be asking if the u.n. needs drastic reform. also coming up, a chinese tycoon unveils plans for a new multi-billion dollar hollywood but in china. as sport continues, usa, one of the greatest come backs in cup history and we will have details a little later in the program. ♪ the rebels in the southern philippines have teachers in a school, three were captured and they are from the islamic freedom fighters and the group is said to be links to the group responsible for the on going violence in zambuwanga, the self determination in the philippines is almost 50 years old despite a peace agreement with the government in 1996 and we look at the problems that have led to the two-week siege in the city. >> it was supposed to be a glorious day for peace in the philippines and after 30 years struggle they are on the moral liberation front signed an agreement with the government in 1996 but that only brought on more problems. >> it's an

nine days to win over voters and the parties are strong on social justice but as al jazeera nick spiceren he visited hamburg even the party's usual supporters are skeptical this time around. >> on this part of our tour of germany as it prepares to vote we are going toward the city of hamburg and a stronghold of the social democratic party and looking at why some of the voters are beginning to feel a bit adrift. these days fisherman is like a social democratic party or spd. over the years the daily catch he gathers with his son has been getting smaller and smaller. the same goes for the spd and their hall of voters and used to vote for the party, no longer. >> translator: we are no longer the party of the little man. all they are interested in is power. >> reporter: hamburg is an old city of sailors, dock workers and the tradition of left wing politics going back to the 19th century and the creation of the modern welfare state so you think of a social democrats campaign promises of instituting a national minimum wage and taxing the rich and social spending would find a lot of support but