chaos in libya with warring militia and government - we take a look at the ongoing crisis. great to have you with us. the al qaeda suspect accused of issuing straight -- orchestrating the 1998 bombings died in custody. he was captured after 15 years on the run. he was due to face trial in nine days on charges of conspiracy. keenan reynolds has wore. >> abu alibi died days before his trial was scheduled. he was accused of planning the attacks on tanzania that killed 224 people. the bombing triggered a manhunt resulting in the death of 18 suspected al qaeda operatives. >> the big take away is terrorism is a crime, can be fought with crime-fighting methods successfully and civil courts can get convictions, people can be identified. >> in october 2013 u.s. army commandos snatched him off the streets. he was taken to a u.s. naval vessel in the mediterranean and questioned for a week of the later he said that during the interrogation he was threatened and made incriminating statements under duress. and pleaded not guilty. prosecutors said he was a close associate of osama bin laden, and joined al qaeda in the early 1990s. his attorney said he had no connection with the organization after 1994. >> he had severe health problems including hepatitis and liver cancer. prosecutors say he was taken to a new york city hospital on december 31st after which his condition deteriorated. >> one of his sons told al jazeera that u.s. officials neglected his father's health and hastened his death. >> translation: we hold the u.s. government fully responsible for the death of my father. >> of 21 alleged operatives indicted 10 are dead. six serving life terms in u.s. prisons, and two are awaiting trial. three, including al qaeda head remain at large. earlier tonight i spoke with mark lyons about his death in custody, and what we know about him as a high ranking al qaeda operative. >> it's probably not what the united states wanted. the evidence was clear that he had been with osama bin laden back as early as 1994 in the sudan. he had been one of the top terrorists on the list following 9/11 with a $5 million bounty. they had enough proof to indict him and they were going to take him to court. his base was in libya. he was against the mark kadleak government. the proof they have is photographic evidence of him checking out the embassy's intensity. that would be the basis of that indictment. he was clearly tagged as someone who is an early stage al qaeda operative likely involved with operations. >> for many years the u.s. didn't have assets on the ground. his codefendant told a judge preparing to sentence him that he has always opposed violence. in an alert delivered in court papers he wrote that he wanted to be reunited with his family. the egyptian attorney made a plea deal capping his sentence at 25 years. bari who served 15 years is due to be sentenced on january 12th the trial of boston marathon suspect is clear to begin monday in boston. that after a federal court ruled defense lawyers and not met the extraordinary standard required for the court's intervention. his attorneys asked to postpone jury selection and move the trial to a district out of boston. 1200 jurors have been summoned for the first stage of the jury selection process. a solemn tribute on a grim rainy day. thousands gathered to honour the death of the second police officer. the wake for officer wenjian liu is being held. state and foreign officials poured in to pay respects. this has been a season of mourning for the n.y.p.d. how are people remembering officer wenjian liu. >> good evening. officer wenjian liu was 32 years old when he was killed. he was newly wed. many of his extended family that he moved here with respect dependent on his n.y.p.d. salary. this is what new york's governor andrew cuomo had to say about him today. >> young man, officer wenjian liu, this was his dream, to become an n.y.p.d. officer. in some ways it's the ultimate assimilation into america, into new york. to well a police officer, and he was so proud and he was so proud for his whole family. >> thomas you had new york mayor bill del blasio who appeared as the wake started, alongside police commissioner bill bratton. and bill bratton did call the killing of officer wenjian liu and his partner, that happened two weeks ago an assassination. >> can you set the scene for us what can we expect to see at officer wenjian liu's funeral. we saw an overwhelming turn out for officer rafael ramos last week. >> while i have been standing here i have been watching fire department officials inside. i saw police officers from chicago, also travelling from as far as los angeles to pay respects to their fellow fallen officer. you have hundreds from his precinct and officer rafael ramos's presinct pt a ceremony will start tomorrow. >> another emotional day in the city. >> an american man is said to be extradited from argentina after a decade fighting for asylum. kurt is wanted. he threw to south america when prosecutors fired. particulars say he'll be sent to the united states on the condition he not face the death penalty. he was a 9/11 conspiracy threeist saying his wife killed herself and the government is setting him up to keep him quiet an incredible story of survival. a 7-year-old worked away from a plane crash. killing her mum, dad, sister and cousin. the family made a return trip home. she walked three-quarters of a mile through a cold dark-wooded area and knocked on the door of larry wilkins. >> opened the door. there was a little girl about 7 years old, bloody. legs and arms bleeding bloody nose crying. she told me that her parents were dead and she'd been in a plane crash and the laneways upside down. the little girl was not severely injured and has been reunited with family now to the airasia crash. the airline was flying without a permit last sunday. singapore says the airline was cleared to fly. meanwhile officials say four large peace in the java sea are from the flight. >> reporter: before the cause of the crash on december 28th is known, airasia has been barred from flying between the indonesian did i of surabaya and singapore, because they were found to operate the flight that went down without a proper licence. the minister of transport does not rule out more sanction saying he's investigating everyone involved. air traffic control had it was. airasia. also the other airlines and also the whole play in this air transport. including our own people. if any airlines does the same thing, they can sell the licence. if everybody doing it we will cancel everything. >> reporter: analysts say it's not only airasia that has been breaching the regulations indonesia's industry has a poor industry almost all its airlines are banned from flying to europe after their safety rating was downgraded in 2006. things have not improved since then. >> there was some improvements, nothing specific. we wasted a lot of time. the country's main airport in jakarta has the capacity to deal with a third of the counter flow of passengers leading to worrying statistics of near plane collisions because of heavy traffic. jakarta's airport is busy many indonesians can afford to fly. many board every day. a booming industry struggling to keep up with the demand. >> instead of banning indonesian airlines, the transport minister says international organizations like the european union should help. >> please come and help indonesia. >> translation: please come here help indonesia, are you happy that we have the accidents so you can punish us. you are a developed region we buy many airbus froms you. >> reporter: the minister of transport wants to take measures to improve safety records, investigations are under way to find out why airasia's flight crashed into the java sea, killing 162 people. rescuers detected four large parts of the plane at the bottom oft sea, increasing the chances of finding the black box recorders soon meanwhile, the u.s. embassy in indonesia was of a threat against american hotels and businesses in surabaya. the warning posted on the embassy's website does not specify the nature of the threats. >> israel is taking action in response to the palestinian authority's bid to join the international criminal court. israel said it will freeze 127 million in tax revenue. palestinian officials say the decision will affect ordinary citizens. stephanie dekker has more from jerusalem. >> they do this as a punitive measure, when the palestinians take action they don't agree with. they don't do it for too long. there's a possibility na it collapses when they don't get the millions that it relies on. israel doesn't want the pa to collapse. who will run the west bank. it is back and fourth. we are hearing the language of the i.c.c. the palestinians are going, and we heard from the israelis saying the palestinians go to the i.c.c. and if we investigate war crimes we'll do it to your leaders who are accountable of funding terrorists - using that language, all in all it's an unconducive scene, timing to try to get any peace process on the table. palestinian people who will be watching their leaders making the moves, supported. but nothing is changing on the ground for them stephanie dekker in jerusalem the palestine organization responded to israel saying in part that it is responding to our: . >> three armed opposition factions in south syria announced a merger forming the first army. the opposition has been weakened by infighting to undermine efforts to remove president bashar al-assad. we have this report. >> the commander of syria's newly formed army is based in the south. by joining forces the rebels hope they have more success in gaining control in provinces from regime forces. opposition groups emerged in the past with limited success. in 2013 seven groups united into a force called the islamic front. and in the northern city of aleppo the islamic front, in turn joined forces with other rebel groups. fighters say the integration was limited and aleppo is a city besieged by regime forces. infighting and disunity weakened the opposition across syria. in the joba area rebel groups are on the offensive. syrian state tv said president bashar al-assad visited. the rebels say it's untrue because they control the area. >> translation: we dismissed the false reports, perpetrated by the regime's lying media machine, that bashar al-assad has been into that area. as you can see, that is the parliament square and the hospital. >> near the lebanese border another group, al qaeda, the al nusra front attacked hezbollah positions around the town. assad's forces have the backing of the military wing of hezbollah, a military shia organization. syria's wore is not a six one of opposition versus the government. there are many groups and allegiances allegiances. whatever side the fighting is on, the chaos shows no signs of ending the death of muammar gaddafi created a vacuum of power in libya ha hasn't been filled. coming up next - we xim the chaotic situation in that country. >> separating art & politics >> if you have an agenda with people... you sometimes don't see the truth >> and the lifelong influence of his mother >> she was worried i was gonna be a spoiled brat and not see how complicated the world was >> every monday, join us for exclusive... revealing... and surprising talks with the most interesting syria's wore is not a six one of coming up next - we xim the people of our time... talk to al jazeera only on al jazeera america welcome back. tonight we are looking at the crisis situation in libya. the death of muammar gaddafi created a power vacuum that has not been filled. united nations says the rival factions agreed in principle to peace talks on monday. courtney kealy has more. >> more than three years after the death of muammar gaddafi, chaos rules libya. fighting rages between the forces allied to the two competing governments and heavily armed militias. a coalition of former rebel fighters from western coastal towns called libya dawn forced libyan prime minister and his internationally recognised government to debase to the eastern city of tobruk more than 750 miles away from the capital of tripoli. they nominated its own leader and formed its own administration in tripoli. the u.n. special envoy met members of the two rival departments in tripoli and tobruk. >> we will not allow the collapse of the state institutions. we need the backing of the international community, but not to violate sovereignty. >> it's like the peace talks will lead to a national unity government. dismantling militias. they are ambitious goals in a lawless country. battles for control of libya's second-largest city benghazi rages. between the army a powerful militia led by the general shura council. for more than three weeks, the largest depot, and it's connecting terminal has been shut down after libyan dawn fighters attempted to take it over. >> it ignited storage facilities. raging fires lasted a week and destroyed an estimated 1.8 million barrels of crude. scoring to the state-run oil corporation, the recent fighting reduced the output to 380,000 a day, a fraction of the normal capacity of the 1.5 million a day. libyan forces are determined to gain ground. >> we are moving step by step. we don't need to rush. there are families here and we don't want to harm them. >> reporter: according to the united nations hundreds of libyans have been killed in the fighting since august. the conflict has driven 120,000 people from their homes, causing a country-wide humanitarian crisis. let's take a deeper look. joining us from washington d.c. is sara foyer, a research fellow and analyst of north african affairs at the washington institute for near east policy. great to have you with us. >> thank you. >> looking back to the ousting of muammar gaddafi in 2011 there was optimism. why has libya failed to obtain stability? >> well there are many reasons, it's a complicated situation, as the segment suggested. in many ways actually libya had a lot going for it after muammar gaddafi's fall. i mean even the absence of anything resembling state institutions which now seems to us as a real liability - at the time people were reasonably pointing out that that could have actually worked in its favour because there were fewer entrenched institutions entrenched individuals and interests to contend with. so it could have been easier to begin to lay the grouped work for a new political process. i think the main problems arose when it became clear that the country was awash in arms and some of the groups that had fought muammar gaddafi and those among his loyalists were hard to compel them to lay down their arms. we have the situation we are in today. >> i'd like to welcome our second guest, app expert on u.s.-libyan relations and spoke to congress about the situation. do you think we overestimated what the libyans could do for themselves? >> well you know you are talking about a country that has not had reliable or viable institutions for a long title. the old regime for 42 years did nothing but destroy and did not give a chance to leaders to emerge and institutions to build themselves, i would say this is in the core of this. libya's need just by the mere intervention by words or support, or dialogue. libya is at a point now were not many libyans have the courtroom to say this. i speak with people in the libyan hor, in tobruk some working with the g.m. c, members of the current government former officials, none of whom want to put their name into what i am about to say. international military intervention is what is needed in libya today. we did it in 2011 because we have a humongous monster that ran the country for a long time and nobody had any sympathies for him, and the world rallied, the u.n. voted to intervene, save lives and use the protocol of the april 2006 u.n. protocol. >> i want to get ms foyer's take on this. do you feel the international military forces are needed now? >> well i think that for a while the united states and the european allies wanted to give the un.n. mission a chance so we have held off from any major intervention to try to see if we could convince the warring factions to come to the table. the problem, though is that it is increasingly clear that absent real incentive for the groups to put down their weapons, and come to something resembling a process of political reconciliation it's difficult to see it happening, absent some kind of intervention. i want to give yours more background. today i.s.i.l. killed 14 libyan soldiers, 13 christians were kidnapped, seven others abducted a few days ago. officials blame a number of extremists. that is causing concern for western nations who fear the spread of i.s.i.l. and other groups. france's defence minister made a surprise visit to troops in niger. multiple nations called for international intervention in libya. following a meeting the french defense president said: continue your thought. how big of a threat is libya to its neighbours? >> well it's a growing one. it's an ever-increasing one. you know one country, as an example, but tiny tunisia which went through a very important process of political elections got through it relatively unscathed. they are worried. for them the biggest security threat is spillover from libya. to say nothing of the countries that you mention. niger, chad. the countries are worried. you can see, i think, why the calls for intervention is growing. it puts the united states in a tricky position. to the extend the president obama administration articulated that it would like to degrade and defeat i.s.i.s. if you have i.s.i.s. outposts proclaiming themselves in places like libya, that is going to demand a response, it seems to me. >> as i mentioned you spoke to congress about libya. what should the u.s. be doing. >> frankly, you know the international community represented by the united nations and the security council. generally speaking they build up to whatever intervention they want to build up too. they had done that. it opinion going on for four or five months. you can call for dialogue conferences, all of which had taken place. there are resolutions on the books already at the u.n. if the united states along with burton and france do not sit down with the russians and the chinese and say this, we had every one of us had something at stake. i think there has been a little apprehension since ukraine and what has been going on and other parts of the world, the united states did not feel like it would get the votes. i did speak with people that are close to the white house, and pushed for intervention. it is in the interests of the libyan people to do this. we fought muammar gaddafi, and his troops on the verge of... >> what is the hesitation to get involved? >> obviously, you know there is internal toll ticks in the united states the -- politics in the united states the u.k. was asked and they said "no, we are not ready to do anything." everybody sees thou that there's waves and waves of migrants that are entering europe illegally. there are dash -- - there's so much going on on the ground. in my opinion, what needs to happen is enforce the u.n.'s resolutions. make a list of the individuals in libya, whether it be in the east or the west that are responsible for conducting themselves or warring involving civilians to be legally targeted as terrorists. bring them to the hague to try them, and name them by name. shut the ports the ports where weapons come in. if there's anybody thinking that this guy is a renegade find a resolution to include him to be part quasi relationship that is normal so he may gin legitimacy in what he is doing. and move the process forward. if we don't intervene in libya, it will get worse. i grew up in benghazi and spoke to my family last night. they don't have gas to cook food with in benghazi. it's getting terrible. what do we do sit and watch. the united states needs to take the lead. the french are rumbling. the french foreign minister suggested that we should - the french should either take the lead or have some substantive discussions with the u.s. and the u.k. and move the process forward. unfortunately, and i feel like i failed myself that we have not, as libyans or libyans that are abroad, have not been able to make the case effective enough to the war community, namely the five members of the u.n. to intervene. >> it's not an easy process. >> i want your final thoughts and moments. hundreds of thousands have been displaced. what does the future hold? >> well the almost immediate future holds monday which is when the next session of the special missions negotiations are scheduled to relaunch. if that doesn't happen. you'll start to see conversations about additional steps. a final thing i might note is that the most recent statement that the - the joint statement to come out of the state department. this was following meetings between secretary kerry and our allies in europe at the beginning of december did, for the first time make reference at the end to considering alternative measures if the u.n. special mission negotiations failed. so monday is a big day, and we'll have to see what follows. >> we follow this closely. sara foyer, from the institute for north-eastern policy. great to have you both with us on "a deeper look." next on al jazeera america - the italian coast guard boards the ship set on autopilot with hundreds of syrian migrants. possessions left behind as people fled for their lives. plus the ebola crisis reaches snore tragic milestone -- another tragic milestone. stay with us. lib italian investigators are searching a cargo ship filled with hundreds of syrians and abandoned by the crew. the crew set the ship to autopilot and was on course to crash into the coast. rescuers rescuers brought the boat to sure. the italian coast guard rescued another crewless ship carrying 800 migrants on wednesday. investigators are checking the wreckage of the ferry, 11 died, 20 are missing. italian officials rescued 474 passengers and crew members. parts of the ship burnt as the ship was towed into port. >> the houthis are celebrating the birth of prophet mohammed. yemen is a landscape of changing alliances. >> reporter: the houthi celebrations started overnight. people woke up to tighter security measures. more than 2,000 fighters were deployed. some armed with weapons, setting up checkpoints to deny suicide attacks. >> we have maximum communication. people are cooperative. there is communication between security forces and us. >> death to america and death to israel is the main chant. the fighters want it heard. vehicles sprayed in grown. the main colour are everywhere. all roads lead to the camp where main celebrations are taking place. people were forced to take other groups. there are threats and the houthis are taking it seriously, they want to show their force. >> the houthis seized the camp when they swept through. organizers say thousands of supporters and fighters showed up. this is a religious celebration mixed with politics. in the northern province of sadr they will condition. >> we will carry on actions in fighting corruption. to end tyranny and have population between our committees army and protect the state and institutions. >> reporter: anti-houthi sentiment is rising. hundreds of protesters took to the streets of the province south of the capital. they are calling on the houthi militias to withdraw. some use activities born of consequences. >> translation: the houthi groups want to clash by showing their wealth and promoting banners. >> reporter: houthis have taken control of nine provinces, large by because of political infighting shifting alliances. the president was toppled. alliances could change and the houthis could end up with more enemies than friends in iraq members of a community are taking the fight against i.s.i.l. into their own hands. the yazidi attacked a town looking for women or girls that i.s.i.l. ab ducted. peshmerga didn't know about the attack. as erica wood reports, the yazidi appear to be acting alone. >> reporter: when around 20 armed yazidi stormed this town on wednesday, it caused panic. several men were killed women and girls were taken away. many escaped to surrounding towns for safety. it has been condemned by higher ranking soldiers who say the attackers acted alone. >> we found out that three yazidi girls were abducted after some youths decided to storm the village and free the girls. we condemn an act. and have no idea how many were killed and injured. >> they came and arrested my husband, the mayor of the village, the imam and two motor many. look at my children. we have done nothing wrong. it's believed the attack was an attempt to free yazidi women and girls who were abducted. thousands have been taken from the home region of sinjar. amnesty international said the girls, some as young as 10 have been raped, forced into sex slavery and accused to tempt fighters. it was that sault on the yazidi community prompting the u.s. and other allied forces to join the fight against i.s.i.l. in september. yazidi fighters have joined the battle teaming up with peshmerga forces in the north-west. together they have pushed i.s.i.l. fighters out of the area. this attack exposed cracks in the joint campaign. >> translation: we will make sure we find out who the perpetrators are, and take them to the court, because we condemn what they did. >> it exposed tensions between the ethnic groups in the region arab towns say since i.s.i.l. was chased out. they were under siege and suspicion. >> the peshmerga is putting pressure on us and the entire area is under siege. they arrested the men. both peshmerga and the yazidi say they were against the attack on the town. they realise to fight a foe like i.s.i.l. they can't risk fighting alone. they need to act together the toll from the ebola outbreak is rising according to the world health organisation 8,000 lives have been claimed. more died in liberia, with 3400 deaths. guinea and sierra leone combined lost more than 4500 people. a british in other words treated for ebola in london is in critical condition, and getting worse. the hospital says the 39-year-old's health is deteriorating despite being treated with an experimental drug. she was diagnosed last monday arriving the day before when she was volunteering at an ebola treatment center coming up why the u.s. continues to send aid to egypt despite a questionable record on human rights and the gaoling of journalists raging brush fires are driving thousands of australians from their homes. we'll have the latest and nasty weather is heading to england. we'll have your forecast. >> al jazeera america presents >> somebody's telling lies... >> it looks nothing like him... >> pan am flight 103 explodes december 21st, 1988 was the right man convicted? >> so many people, at such a high level, had the stake in al-megrahi's guilt >> the most definitive look at this shocking crime >> the major difficulty for the prosecution that there was no evidence >> al jazeera america presents lockerbie part three: what really happened? welcome back. the u.s. government continues to give big bucks to egypt's military in spite of the country's poor human rights record. detaining opponents and targetting journalists. an estimated 6 journalists have been killed by forces with at least 11 remaining in detention since july 2013. among them three colleagues from al jazeera. ali velshi has more. >> reporter: the united states gives up to $1.5 billion a year in aid to the egyptian government. 1.3 billion of that goes strait to the egyptian military. president obama temporarily suspended the military portion of that aid. in july 2013. that's when the egyptian military removed mohamed mursi, the country's first democratically elected president from office. since then the new military-dominated government cracked down on dissent and made moves to silence the press inside egypt. in december 2013 egyptian authorities gaoled three al jazeera journalists. australian correspondent peter greste and two egyptian producers, mohamed fadel fahmy and baher mohamed, who also holds canadian citizenship. six months later u.s. secretary of state john kerry met with the new president, abdul fatah al-sisi, and protested the journalists detention. during the talks kerry offered to release u.s. aid to the egyptian government. >> i emphasised strong support to upholding the universal heights of freedom to all jurisdictions. >> reporter: that did little to help the al jazeera journalists. the next day an egyptian court convicted all three of aiding terrorists and reporting false news. they maintained their innocence. despite the deterioration of human rights the obama administration released $570 million of the aid and 10 apache helicopters to the egyptian military. the u.s. congress inserted language into the 2015 spending bill making egypt's aid dependent on free and fair elections and freedom of expression. it gives the u.s. secretary of state discretion to wave the continues if doing so is deemed to be in the u.s. national center. >> we wam the flexibility, and the national security interests. that said there has been no policy decision with records to the assistance programme which is under review. concerns about the human rights record which we speak about, that has not changed. >> once again, that was ali velshi reporting. today marks 371 days since al jazeera journalist peter greste mohamed fadel fahmy, and baher mohamed has been imprisoned. two days ago a retrial was ordered. al jazeera maintained their sentence an epicentre of a 4.9 earth wake today was in chalize, idaho mountains, it was felt as far ace way as boysie. the quake knocked out power it's not shaking, it's freezing. rebecca stevenson joins us with the forecast. >> wait until you feel tomorrow. >> great. >> no. >> better? >> in the '60s. tonight into the early morning hours, a better part of the day in main new hampshire, vermont. your transportation dollars have been working hard - putting out gravel and preparing roads for snow and ice that is coming in. you can see on the satellite that it is rain for the southern new york state. it goes into an an icy sleek wintry mix. boy is it icy out there. it's tough to do any travelling as you get into parts of the ummer north east. torl there'll be a warning for areas getting 4-8 inches of snow. piling up. passing through. mild mid '60s wait until you fell the temperatures on monday. wouldn't you expect to har about tornados but further south you'll get a mix of cold air. coming together slamming and dumping 2 inches of rain for the storms bringing down hail and wind gusts, blowing down winds and trees. we had four reports of a toronto, and storm reports bringing in the wind gusts taking roofs off of homes, barns. the storm that weres that we started the -- reports that we started with hail dropping. wind gusts increased in strength and number slamming through the south-east. it's feeling like 41 degrees for fargo. >> the folks in fargo are saying '60s. thousands of australians are fleeing their homes, driven out by raging brush fires. six homes have been destroyed. there's no reports of injuries nicole johnson shows us how the sweltering temperatures are fuelling the fires. >> reporter: it's summer in australia, that means bushfire season. a heatwave swept the earn states. sending temperatures soaring to over 40 degrees celsius. it's a lethal combination, searing heat strong winds and dry grass. the worst fires are in the state of australia. in the hills, near the city of adelaide. >> the sound of the roar over the hills, almost like a jet engine on an aeroplane, getting louder. >> thousands fled from their homes, there are fears dozens of homes have been lost in the fires. five have burnt to the ground so far. >> we are losing properties. we don't know how many have been lost. >> police declared the fires a major emergency, giving them the power to force people to leave their homes. >> we are dealing with a dangerous spy, your life is at risk. >> it's hard work for firefighters. so far six have been injured. officials are calling on other states to help. they have their own problems. in the neighbouring state of victoria bushfires have threatened homes in the coastal area of the mornington peninsula and farming areas in the west. >> we quickly went back got a couple of things and they said "look, we can't save everyone's house, i think yours and your neighbours will be part of them." >> reporter: a wall of flames and smoke is turning the scrub black. for sum, bringing back memories of the greatest bushfire disaster 35 years ago. 75 were killed. it was known as ash wednesday. everyone is hoping the fires will not rival that one. australia has a long summer ahead of it. fires have become a dangerous part of it. >> tough road ahead. the artist known for outdoor installations gets a win in court. christo could be set to build his latest creation over the arkansas river. it was a bad year for bali what it means for beer drinkers when we come back. southern southern edward brook, the first african-american to win popular election to the u.s. senate died. the massachusetts republican was elected to the senate in 1966 at the height of the civil rights movement and racial unrest. he served as a senator in 1979. before being elected attorney-general in 1962 and 1964 the first african american to hold the post. eted ward brook was 95. ? rural colorado plans to create an art displace has been given the go ahead. christo, the artist plans to run 6 miles of colourful fabric over the river. opponents say it threatens wildlife and safety. friday a federal judge ruled against those. there is still one lawsuit pending at the state lel. al jazeera spoke to the artist visiting the site of his display this year. paul beban reports. >> reporter: it's called "over the river" and this is the river, the arkansas in south central colorado. what christo wants to do is suspend hundreds of huge panels of silvery cloth, nearly 6 miles of it in eight sections along a 42 mile stretch of the river. the drawing shows how the sunlight will filter through the fabric. christo says the best way to see is it underneath on a raft. >> they have 300,000 rafts of a similar size. that is spectacular, experiencing the product from inner space. that is creative play of life passing under the fabric. reflecting the water. up not down. >> reporter: christo and his team have been working op "over the river" for 20 years. they've had to get approval because most of the project is on protected land. christo is plaguing the $50 million it will cost by selling hundreds of preparatory works, made by hand. christo and his late wife became famous for the outsized and some say outlandish projects every one controversial in its own way. over the river is no different. >> the project has the journey, when it's in the minds of thousands who tried to stop and help us. in its own way, in public hearings i say to the opposition you are part of the project. willing or not willing, you related to the project. >> christo and jean claude travelled over the mountains scaling 89 rivers before deciding this was perfect. critics say this is anything but the ideal location. >> it's a major construction projects in an area of critical environment concern. >> reporter: christo's team say they'll minimise the damn. others support it. >> it will create attention for this part of colorado and i think it will do a lot to put this area of the state on the map get this - construction for the art installation is expected to last two years, but the finished peace will be on display for two weeks. beer production in the u.s. took a hit. the barley crop has been hurt by heavy rains in the west. brew brewers have turned to suppliers overseas. beer drinkers are not likely to shell out more money for their favourite beer. that's it for this hour. thank you for joining us, i'm thomas drayton in new york. i'll be back with another hour of news at 11:00pm eastern. "consider this," freedom under fire. attacks on human rights and freedom around the world have lead to growing humanitarian crises around the world. some 50 million people displayed by conflicts. nobody is suffering more than children, and despite heroic efforts, relief organizations are overwhelmed. women face discrimination and abuse. religious freedom is under assault.