Transcripts For ALJAZAM News 20140203

In seattle after the seahawks first ever super bowl title. The first ever European Commission reports on corruption exposed fraud, bribery and describing a breath taking scandal. It is in 160 billion and the cost to the european economy every year and roughly equal to the Gross Domestic Product of romania. We have more on that. The commissioner is saying no state is corruption free. Across the Member States 76 of the people saying that corruption is widespread and that number is higher in spain, italy and greece with a number of people thinking that corruption is widespread. Those perceptions are far reaching. Corruption erodes the trust and hampers Foreign Investment and costs taxpayers millions and in many cases it is tooled for organizationed crime to watch their money. There is estimate that corruption is no less than 120 billion euros every year. That is a lot of money we are talking. On the whole the countries are performing well, finland and sweden and denmark. The solutions the Commission Proposes are different for each country and involve improving the frame works and conflict of interest and protecting the whistle blowers and making sure that the politicians have the will to do so. There is an organization that aims to stop the corruption and appoint accountability and do these figures surprise you in any way . Well, sadly they dont surprise me. They quite reflective of the research being done over a number of years and they are sewing that corruption is not just a problem in the emerging countries and across the world as well. Why different figures in Different Countries and what makes it better or worse . Well the eu has 28 member countries koved in this report and there is quite a diversity across those countries and there are arguments the state of the development of the country and the countries with strong institutions do better on the corruptions surveys and those with weak state institutions tend to do much worse. Does it say anything about the psychology of the country and you just go with it . Thats is beginning to change. People have gone with it in the past but across the world citizens are knowing more about corruption now and not feeling as helpless and the people are acting and going on the streets and talking about the problem and perhaps for the first time in history. Should going from street level up to the institutions . Well, we have seen citizens on the streets talking about corruption. The solutions need to happen at a number of the levels. One of the key things the political will. One thing that it is pointed in the report is the fact that the politicians in the eu are weak on the fact of corruption and not speaking about it and not addressing it. That is a problem. Right from the political level through to people at street level i think that is greater awareness of the corruption and more needs to be done. It is not helping with the economic recovery, does it . No. It is bad in several ways. It is a tax on society and on the poor and creates an environment in which the business is more difficult to do and countries are not getting the level of investment. A number of studies show hag the corruption is damaging the community and the economic recoveries. Thank you. Nice talking with you. Thank you. The greatest humane tarn tragedy of our time, that is deskrid d described syria. We hear from the conference in a moment. First we have a report on where efforts are being made to improve education for the syrian children. Here in one of the scattered communities in northern lebanon, children are struggling to get to school, to get access to education, that is because hundreds of thousands of syrian children cannot attend school run by the lebanese government. The government cant accommodate hundreds of thousands of additional students, they would have to build new schools to allow the syrian children to attend school here while awaiting to return to their children. Here is private charity built a school for the students and it is running two shifts and around 500 students get to go to school and get an education here. They are among the luckier children in lebanon the syrian children that get to go to school, however, the school is saying that the funding is little and inconsistent and dont have the money to buy the fuel to heat the classrooms and the children is wearing Winter Clothes and hats and they dont have enough photo textbooks, sometimes they photo copy the textbooks so they are sharing or copy the notes from the back board and take the notebooks home with them to do their homework. Jackie is joining us live in rome on the conference going on. What are the problems faced by the aide agency . Well, the agencies and the nations have been meeting to essentially discuss the next step. They say they have the aide supplies, the medicines, the food, the problem now is how to get it to people inside of syria. There are 9 Million People that have a desperate need for food and medical supplies, there is a fear of polio outbreak inside of syria itself. I am told that the biggest problem facing aide agencies is access. The security of the situation, we have the areas in syria which are hard to reach or besieged either by Government Forces or by opposition forces. We have got border points we cant cross. We got a situation now on the border between iraq and syria to get the supplies into africa. So a number of Different Things are making it dilt to get to all of the people that need help. Jackie, what about the money, are the donors giving enough . There are two main appeals here, the u. N. And other agencies are asking for 2 billion to help the displaced people and asking for 4 billion to help in the neighboring countries and the Host Communities and the amount pledged is falling short of that and the amount being paid over is even smaller still. Again, they have to dig deep in their pockets and this is a major hue han humanitarian tragedy of our times. Thank you. While the International Community is focussed on the cry i didnt say is syria, the fight something continuing. The government helicopters and the planes bombed a dozen rebel Held Neighborhoods in lebanon on sunday and using drums packed with explowsives and fuel and scraps of metal and causing massive damage on impact. Four car bombs exploded in baghdad and killing 13 people. They have exploded in different parts of the city. 41 people were injured. Three large explosions in yemen. One of the mortars was fired in the direction of the french embassy. It is unclear who is behind those attacks. Al jazeera has condemned a leaked video showing the arrest of two of our journalists in cairo. It is appearing to be shot by the Security Officials who arrested them. The acting bureau chief and producer have been held without charges for over a month now. The privately owned channel broadcast the moment two of our journalists were arrested and for the purposes of the piece we are using the screen grabs. A voice thought to belonging to a Security Officer is asking the bureau chief about the accreditation and he replays i asked them times if it is valid and i was told it was valid otherwise i wouldnt have accepted the job. The video is overlaid with music and a phone camera is picking up the printers and normal tools of the trade used by the Television News journalist. The al jazeera director of news condemned the video and saying it was deliberately leaked it is violating the standards of justice, if it is out by mistake, the prosecution process is called into question. They were not operating secretly and filed a number of packages and live reports prior to being arrested. In way justifies the on going incarceration and should be released. The Al Jazeera English and other offices are closed down because of the revolution. Al jazeera has a license to operate in egypt but the individual i accreditations are not always issued. It says this is the latest incident of incitement against the network and the employees. Three are held without charges for a month. Al jazeera continues to call for their immediate and unconditional release. Still to come in the news, tributes are pouring in for Philip Hoffman that died at the age of 46. How an olympian is firing back about being paid. Preparations are being made to reopen the voting stations following sundays elections and some people were unable to vote. Polling was disrupted in 18 of the voting areas. Some unable to register or take part due to the disruption a quorum cant be reached to elect a Prime Minister and 95 is needed. They cant hold more votes until the troubles stop. The big question that the government needs to answer for the Election Commission is when will the conflict and unrest end. After those things are over, then we can organize a new election within 7 days. We have more from the thai capital of bangkok. There are still questions on who is going to lead thailand. The question is the number of people coming out. There is a 46 voter turnout. One in ten Polling Centers were closed by antigovernment protestor. The protestor and the Opposition Party boycotting the polling and 26 tuned out to vote. Thousands of would be voters filed Police Complaints saying they were blocked to cast a ball botly the protestor. Across the borders all share the same principles. We are peaceful protestor and held a picnic protest on election day and didnt disrupt anyone. But they are maintaining the disruption on the streets of bangkok. The leader is continuing with the goal to remove the current government and dismantling the stages that were set up during the shutdown Bangkok Campaign last month. Post elections some see the protestor playing a roll moving forward but only a supportive one. They are is very important element before february. They need to be there to create a simmering for solution to come that they are not the direction solution giver. The government admits when the polls closed on sunday that didnt end the political crisis. Yesterdays election was a protection that we asked this power of the people who legitimatize it and participate without violence and we knew that the next step has to be by election. Quorum cannot be established until all of the elections are completed and that means no permanent government can be established and until that happens they are remaining in political uncertainty. The japanese government and a group of conservationist are blaming each others for a boat collision off the coast. This is a video of the sea ship and the whaling ship colliding. They want to stop japan hunting the whales. Japan is allowed to do for for scientific purposes. Such an act of obstruction is dangerous and must not be tolerate and the japanese government is asking for proper measures. The ukraine president returned to work from sick leave. The opposition is proposing mesh yushs to weaken his powers. He was flown out of the ukraine to be treated for wounds. Those affected by the uprising, four demonstrators are killed and hundreds have been arrested. Fears are growing for dozens of protestor still missing. After four days recovering from a high fever and respiratory problems hes returned to work and there are questions on the ability to rule and there are rumors hes planning assaults on the square. Hes going to fool us all. There is a risk of a state of emergency being d eclaired. He was hiding in the spotlight and waiting for the orders. He is under mounting pressures to hand over the powers to the parliament and hes made concessions by way of a new amnesty law and providing that the protestor give up independentens scare and the opposition is saying that concessions are not good enough. It is time when the old regime cannot survive without changes, definitely the president and the Political Group are ready for the concessions and which they con seeded to be reasonable, not just concessions that lead them to prison and imprisonment or immigration. O now the barricades are getting higher and the fences are elaborate. On the front line they have catapults and projectors. The protestor are a media spectacle and the president knows that the world is watching. Russian School Student is in Police Custody and accused of shooting a teacher and Police Officer. Several of the children were taken hostage and happening just days before the Winter Olympics begins. We have the story from moscow. The initial report was a father going into the school and looking for his son and it was a teenager looking for a geography teacher armed with two rifles and opened fire. The fatalities include the geography teacher and a Police Officer and the teenage alleged shooter is taken into custody. The terrifying experience was heard, the gunshots were heard by other pupils that were evacuated and gave reports on what went on in the terrifying minutes as the gunman burst into the classrooms. Those are the windows of our classrooms. We were told to moh away from the windows and everybody was led out to the corridor. We all and of the kids were led into the performance hall. Everyone was crying. Everything was fast. There was panic. Mommy saved me. Hes got a rifle, mommy save me. This is not a joke. I texted her to call the police. Now the teenager shooter is taken into custody and we are told that he is going to be subject to evaluation. We have heard no motivation suggested so far. Certainly the details of exactly what it was that motivated this boy to do this may become evidence in the coming hours or days. Saying that, there was a huge security operation. So close to the sochi olympics and the roads were blocked off and the schools on put on alert and lock down. There really is a real appreciation that there are Security Issues here and they are not taking any chances. Ice and blizzards cut power to a quarter of the homes in slovania. It is the worst situation in living memory. Uk banned french comedian from entering britain. Hoping to travel to the uk to support a hearing after performing an antisemantic gestures. Now back to jane. Thank you. Nelson mandelas estate worst 4. 1 million when he died, that is according to the summary of the will. The contents were revealed two afters passing away. The read something following the reports between the family members of over a who is getting what. The last wishes were read out to the public and in that people got to see he went to great pains to make sure that the family members got equal shares of the wealth. Some saying thank you for helping him and making his life more comfortable. Hes giving money to schools and universities saying he wants the money used to better education in africa, and money to the Ruling African National congress and he wants to money to educate the africans about the policies and ideals and take the Party Forward in that regard. There are problems and could be some problems, certain family members are fighting over the estate. If anyone is unhappy about the wealth being shared within the family they could table the matter to court. Staying to africa, a move to challenge the president and the National Congress collapsed and had joined forces with a party to fight the elections this year. After five days the partnership collapsed and would be president ial candidate and appears to have changed her mind about the merger. Tributes are pouring in for oscar winning actor Philip Seymour hoffman. The cause of death is under investigation, but the Police Suspect hoffman may have died from a drug overdose. He was sunday morning in his apartment by a screen writer. Hoffman had many a number of roles appearing in 50 movies. Hollywood choose to reward him for a writer. I think youll like it. In cold blood. He won the academy accord for the performance. He received nominations for the roles in the master, doubt and Charlie Wilsons war. Recently hoffman was promoting one of the latest works sun dance film festival, a most wanted man and admitted for being treated for drug adeks diction in the past and was drug free for 23 years and then going through a Drug Treatment Program for addictions that included heroin. He has struggles with addiction and was beating it and was a very talented actor working. The family release add statement saying we are devastated by the loss of our beloved phil and peesappreciate outpouring of love and support. He was just 46 years old. More ahead, including fighting for his familys history and how a canadian is trying to save the 18th century land title. O plus, going against the grain, why rice growers are losing out to smugglers. The spanish title race, that is coming up. Families, just like yours, as they try to get by. Were all struggling financially. Americas middle class rebuilding the dream only on 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 dont just stay on top of the news, go deeper and get more perspectives on every issue. Al jazeera america. Al jazeeras Investigative Unit has tonights exclusive report. From coast to coast. People selling fresh water for fracking. Stories that have impact. We lost lives. That make a difference. Senator, we were hoping we could ask you some questions about your legal problems. That open your world. It can be very dangerous. I hear gunshots. The bullet came right there through the widdow. It absolutely is a crisis. Real reporting. This. Is what we do. America tonight, only on Al Jazeera America. Welcome back. The European Commission is saying that the level of corruption across the European Union is brekt take and estimating that the corruption is costing the economy 162 billion every year. Italy is hosting a meeting on aide for syria, and the u. N. Is calling for immediatea and saying that 3 Million People are struggling to survive. Nell son mandelas estate divided between the contaminately and the staff and schools and the anc. It is worth 4. 1 million when he died. We are getting reports of an explosion in southeast beirut. The cause is unknown. Preliminary reports are saying one person is killed and several wounded. These are the pictures coming in now that rather big explosion in southern beirut. Well have more on the explosion as we get more of details. Turning to the top story, the corruption in european. 99 of greeks think that corruption is widespread in the country and remaining an obstacle to going business. John, they are right, it is bad in greece, tell us about the findings and how that is playing out, the corruption on a daytoday basis. Well, these are the sorts of findings that we expected to see in greece but the index is carrying out and released last year it is quoted in the report forming, finding that greece is on the bottom and 40 out of a hundred grade performance. Now the problem with this is that on the one hand it is a great blow to the credibility of greece as it is trying to recover and posing a. 6 rate of growth this year. It is particularly bad because greece is still coming at the line of the europe nations that include former soviet satellites. So the question across the eu why is greece failing to adhere to the best practices. It is going to necessitate further actions. This may welcome with further Strings Attached regarding the transparency and reform. And they have to clamp down. Rp there measures in plait at the moment to put a stop to this . Well, the government is trying to show that it is going to behave differently from previous governments. It started to sending the parliament to the Supreme Court to be disposed and continued to do that consistently throughout the 18 months so far. It is true that greeks do want to see high profile politicians, public figures held to the account like ordinary citizens. But at the end of the day greece may have to do more to restore the Public Confidence in institutions at home and in order to attract Foreign Investment from overseas. Having said that, greece is not alone, they are in a neighborhood where other countries are also facing similar problems of high corruption. Thank you, john. From corruption to europe torques africa, the president told al jazeera shes determined to clean up the crooks with out or without the help of the international donors. Aide is being withheld after being accused of stealing over a hundred million dollars. Corruption in the capital and the shortages appear. The crowds are warmed up and the singers are in full voice. As the people in the rural district is celebrating the visit from the president. Joyce is a companied with a counter part that is here nor a joint electrical project. But the orange color of the Political Party is everywhere and making clear this is a political rally as a state visit. This is hitting the economy hard and salaries are not paid and the subsidies are frozen and the government could be suffering the consequences at the polls. It is ignored at the weekly meetings between the donors and the governments action committee. It is not political decision that well take on the level, well take a judgment based on progress. It is an art and to keep that out of the political debate. Anybody that has a stake in the election will use it for political purposes. She insists she had a clear choice to cover up and win the elections or fight corruptions. I choose to fight corruption and i intend to fight it with or without the support of the donors. The ruling people have responded. They see exactly what im trying to do. I need to decide and any leader that comes after me will move forward. They are pondering the options, the corruption courts will make the rulings but the most important and lasting judgment will be that exercised by the people at the polls. Al jazeera africa. Going back to that breaking news coming out of lebanon, there are reports of a blast in south eastern beirut. We are outside of bay rate and on the phone. What are you hearing about the blast . The information is very scattered and we understand that this was a car bomb that happ happened southeast of beirut. It happened to a petro station. One person has been confirmed dead. We understand from the reports that the explosion was caused by a suicide bomber. [inaudible] it used to be an area and inhabited and now more or less a mixed area and close to the southern suburbs. With that itself is a very crowded and poor area and right now it is crowded and busy on the street where the explosion happened, jane. Thank you. Well leave it there. We are looking at the pictures now of the explosion in south eastern beirut. Probably quite a few people were there. We dont know what was behind it. Two People Killed in protests after the police raid on a mosque in kenya. The building was being used to recruit fighters. One man shot dead by the police and an officer was stabbed. Kathryn was outside of the court when the suspects arrived. I dont know whether you are see it, i will step out of the shot and you can see this truck that is bringing them in. This is a large group, about a hundred of them were arrested yesterday and they are going to be arraigned today here at the court. They were all arrested at the mosque and what happened is that the police went to the mosque because they were told there was a Jihad Convention going on and they had intell yens a recruitment drive for the group that is fighting in somalia and they went to the mosque to sort of break up that meeting and they were told there were flags jihad black flags with jihad messages and they had to break that up, especially now, there is a terror alert now in kenya and this is the highest there is. The intelligence reports that they are planning major attacks on the Government Installations and Public Places as well. These are things they dont want to happen and such conventions and movements like this, the Convention Going on cant be allowed to continue especially at this time. Farmers are suffering huge losses because of the cheaper rice being brought in. High tariffs are leading to snuggling. Planting the next crop of rice and hoping for a good harvest. Hes trying to cash in on the governments key. Small farms will be supported with seeds and fertilizer to produce enough rice of their own, but hes worried. After all you make no profits. We just dont get good price for the commodities. Now we are left at the middlemen and the smugglers. 60 of the land is unattached. Access to fertilizer and money to cultivate the props. They are saying that the government is determined to phase out the imports. We are getting billion dollars of dollars into this sector. Today we have 70 companies. You look at it in terms of what happened to fertilizer and manufacturing in the country, we have 5 billion of private investment in the center. Dozens of rice mills are being set up across the country as output increases. But the challenges are huge for a country of 165 Million People that generate only 4,000 megawatts of electricity. You see how big the factory is. We are 24 hours on generator. We spent quite a huge sum of money. While the high cost of production and raw material remain a challenge, there is a bigger problem, flooding the market with cheap foreign rice is the biggest threat to local production and the statistics regarding the amount of rice coming into the country, but the local produzers are saying that 75 of the rice is sm smuggingelled. It is posing a threat to local production and unless the high cost of production and especially the snuggling of the cheap stress is reduced the efforts could fail. In costa rica there is a slim lead after 75 of the votes have been coated. The rival right wing partys has a little under 30 . Both are short of the 40 needed to win without a runoff. El salvador is looking for a runoff report there and reports from the capital on the race between the Socialists Party and the other parties. Outside of the polling stations the faithful from both of the parties are campaigning until the last second. Voters knew this was going to be a tight race where the two main candidates have different visions. Former gorilla commander is already the Vice President of the socialist party and promising to create jobs and extend the welfare programs and the other party pledged to crack down on the gang violence. The fml candidate is pulling ahead and that could be significant for the runoff. Get it together and try to come up with something clear and connect with the people otherwise i think theyll win. One of the biggest issues with the voters is how to tackle the gangs. A two year truce is showing signs of weakening and that and the divided congress are the major issues. For the fmnl party is seen as incomplete victory and the ten point lead is making it hard for the opponent. Lets get more on the breaking news from beirut, we believe there is a blast in the southeast of beirut. There are conflicting reports on the injuries and killed. One person has been killed. This is a predominant druz area. There was an explosion in a car. Much more ahead in the news hour, will he come or will he go, Peyton Manningss fate. En elderly farmer in canada is attracting attention for resisting the governments plan to take over the land. We have a report from the town of trenton near toronto. Tractor wheels are crunching through the snow and 85yearold frank is driving around the land that has been in the family 250 years. One of the ancestors fled what is now the united states. The family farmed here ever since and now canada exercised the legal rights to buy the land for an adjoining air base. Hes saying hes not going. Im working for the people of this country to have food for the generations to come. And the bullies of this country want to destroy everything. Running a social Media Campaign his supporters gathered at the site and saying they are not going to leave until the government gives back the farm. Frank knows this farm land in and out and worked so hard so long and it is an emotional tie to the land. Tough love the land. Silence is a terrible thing. Be constructive, speak up, stand together, unite for a good cause and have each others backs. For now they have delayed the demolition of the farm buildings and heavy quilt is waiting to roll in again when the records are given. In canada the government can take the land for public projects so long as they pay fair composition. This legislation is harsh and firm and meant to allow the government to get things done. An 18th century land title is being depended with 21st century tactics with social media. There are generations of forming on the land before we existed. This is certainly a compelling story and the government is saying it is determined to proceed with what it calls a donedeal, whatever frank and the supports may say. Now to the super bowl. The jat fans are waking up to the first ever super bowl title. They beat the Denver Broncos at the metlife stadium. Scoring the faster ever super bowl points. Lynch running in a touchdown in the second quarter. It got worse for the broncos returning the second half kickoff for a td. The 35 point victory margin equals the third highest in super bowl history. We just have a great group of guys, guys that feed off of each other and have the same attitude and guys with chips on our shoulders and overlooked and its just, for us to be here and come this, its great. We believed in our talent and do the right things and stay on schedule and make the plays we could win and do the right things and we did that tonight. Thats the best thing. We clicked on all cylinders. Way to deal with it and process it, like i said, if you can to fuel it to make us a better team next year and it is a disappointing locker room in there. Guys are disappointed. Well, you heard from Peyton Manning there and the future has been up in the air going into the super bowl but the broncos quarterback hinted me may not retire following this game. We have a report from new jersey. The indications are that manning very much wants to come back. He says hes going to see the doctor. He had neck surgery a couple of years ago and thought that his career was jeopardy then and he played two years since and assuming he gets a positive report from the doctor, Peyton Manning will come back. Well, thousands of Seattle Seahawks fans took to the streets and partied throughout the night to celebrate the citys first major sports championship in 30 years. You could say, sleepless in seattle. The last time a major seattle sports franchise won a championship was in 1979 when the super sonics took the nba title. Theres plenty more super bowl reaction at al jazeeras website. Get in touch with the team using twitter and facebook and blogs and video clips from around the world. Al jazeera. Com sports. Lots of football, madrid is at the top. They made the most shots with a four0 defeat. Emotional start for madrid as they paid tribute to a boss. Coached them on four separate occasions. Only fitting that they would make this a night to remember. David opened the scoring after 38 minutes but the real damage done in the second half, making it 20 for his 20th goal of the season. The third goal of the night came two minutes later and finished 40 and now sitting alone at the top of the table. Title rivals around madrid claim second spot. It took them 65 minutes to open the scoring. The joy was short lived as levelling the scores at 11. Seeing red all around as the world player of the year reacting to a push. 11 was the final score, 2 points dropped and the missed opportunity around madrid. So this is how the table stands, 3 point lead at the top. Big gap back to 4th place. Well, four days to go until the Winter Olympics in sochi and security is a major issue leading up to the game. The Olympic Committee has arrived to sochi to check on the preparations. At the press conference saying that the big events are always a target for terrorists but added that hes confident that the russian organizers are delivering safe and successful games. We have to address this because anything else or the alternatives would be to surrender to terrorists and this is i think the last thing we all want to do. Every organizer has to make sure that the games are as safe as secure as possible. Lolo jones is hitting back on the critics. There are suggestions she was only picked because of the fame and the popularity. From the first week they accepted me, embraced me, they lifted me up and i think it was what i needed to not only be a bobsled athlete and returning to the track with my head held high and be proud of the things that i have achieved in the sport. Im grateful for them. Thorpe has entered rehab. He was found on a city city on monday morning by the police. The manager says he was affected by antidepressants and painkillers for an injury. He admitted suffering from depression. That is all for the sports now, jane. Thank you. We are going to have more on that breaking news of an explosion in beirut. We have the details to give you coming up in the next bulletin. Thanks for watching. See you then. Interpreter welcome to Aljazeera America. Im del walters, and these are the stories were following for you. Interpreter it comes up with something, a shotgun. Interpreter a test for floridas controversial stand your ground law. The trial beginning over the shooting death of a teenager. And protecting Consumer Financial data. Security breaches involving millions of you, and seattle fans celebrating that big super bowl win over denver