News. All that and more on tonights pbs newshour. Major funding for the pbs newshour has been provided by moving our economy for 160 years. Bnsf, the engine that connects us. Supporting social entrepreneurs and their solutions to the worlds most pressing problems skollfoundation. Org. The ford foundation. Working with visionaries on the frontlines of social change worldwide. And with the ongoing support of these institutions and friends of the newshour. This program was made possible by the corporation for public broadcasting. And by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Sreenivasan a series of suicide bombings rocked Northern Nigeria today. Four women blew themselves up early this morning as soldiers challenged their entrance to maiduguri, killing at least 18 people. The blasts occurred just hours after two bombs struck a nearby mosque. At least 30 people died in those explosions. Officials suspect boko haram extremists are behind both incidents. Nick schifrin is on assignment for us in nigeria; i spoke to him earlier today in the capital, abuja. Nick, so you were in the town where the bombings happened. Youre in a different city now. What can you tell us about todays violence. Hari, good evening. Cant get into the center of maiduguri nor can they seize any land outside of it. Theyre strapping people with bombs, more bombs, according to intelligence officials, in the last nine months than the previous 16 years combined. This morning, the attack was actually thwarted by police. Last nights attack, horrific. Somebody actually got into a mosque and blew himself up. The vast majority of boko harams victims are muslims. Sreenivasan whats the u. S. Doing to fight boko haram. The hope is to retrain Nigerian Forces to fight boko haram and flood the zone with drones. There is a brandnew base in northern cameroon. Intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, these are the kinds of things the u. S. Will give nigeria and the whole region. There will not be troops on the ground. The u. S. Hopes to train more to have the local forces and give them the intelligence they need. Sreenivasan nick thanks, hari. Sreenivasan well have more on the security situation in nigeria right after the news summary. Tensions between israelis and palestinians flared for another day. A palestinian man wearing a press tshirt stabbed and wounded an israeli soldier in hebron, while elsewhere in the west bank, palestinians firebombed a jewish holy site. Violence also broke out in gaza, where Israeli Soldiers shot and killed two palestinians. All this, as both sides pleaded for international help, at a special meeting of the u. N. Security council. translated we come to you today asking the council to urgently intervene to end this aggression against our defenseless palestinian people, and against our shrines, which are subjected to violations by the Israeli Military occupation and by Israeli Settlers and by extremists. Israel is facing an onslaught of terrorism. Yet for them, there has been no demand for a emergency session of the Security Council, no call for the palestinian leadership to stop their incitement, and not even a whisper of condemnation of these acts could be heard from this council. Sreenivasan there was also word that u. S. Secretary of state john kerry will meet israeli Prime MinisterBenjamin Netanyahu next week in germany. The two also spoke today about the conflict, during what the state department called a constructive conversation. The u. S. Ambassador to the United Nations insisted today an Iranian Missile test last weekend was a clear violation of u. N. Sanctions. Samantha power issued a statement warning the u. S. Will seek Security Council action, now that it has determined that the Iranian Missile was, inherently capable of delivering a nuclear weapon. And at a News Conference today, president obama maintained the landmark deal over Irans Nuclear program wont deter the u. S. From pressuring the country over its missile program. Syrian troops initiated a fresh offensive against rebel forces today. The new push in the Northern Province of aleppo was coordinated in conjunction with russian airstrikes. It follows a separate operation launched yesterday farther south in homs province. Meanwhile, the Turkish Military shot down an unauthorized drone flying in their airspace near the syrian border. U. S. Officials believe it was of russian origin, but moscow insisted all its aircraft were accounted for. Hungary is further sealing itself off from the sea of migrants flowing into europe. The government is officially closing its border with croatia tonight, a month after doing the same with serbia. Earlier in the day, more than 1,000 refugees streamed off a train in a croatian border town, hoping to make it into hungary before the closure. More than 383,000 migrants have entered hungary this year. Parts of Southern California were digging out from a deluge of mud and debris a day after powerful storms soaked the area. Emergency crews worked around the clock to reopen one of the states major thoroughfares, interstate five, north of los angeles near fort tejon state park. Hundreds of vehicles were stranded in the area yesterday in up to five feet of mud. On wall street today, stocks closed higher for a Third Straight week. The Dow Jones Industrial average gained 74 points to close at nearly 17,216. The nasdaq rose more than 16 points. And the s p 500 added nine. For the week, the dow, nasdaq, and the s p 500 all gained around 1 . Still to come on the newshour, the journalist who spent 400 days in an egyptian jail cell; three former inmates try to beat the odds by staying out of prison, a u. S. Ambassador gets his own Reality Tv Show in denmark, and much more. The deadly attacks in nigeria this week come as the Obama Administration announced 300 u. S. Soldiers would be sent to neighboring cameroon. For more on all this im joined now by peter pham, director of the Atlantic Councils africa center. What does the u. S. Hope the to accomplish here . What kind of skills are we bringing . Two things, hari. First, to provide better intelligence on the increasing core activity of boko haram. Its no longer a threat in nigeria but theyre reaching into niger, chad and cameroon. So to monitor its movement. Once the full complement of the 300 u. S. Personnel are there, to engage in further training of cameroons military. Cameroons military halls the Rapid Reaction force known by the acronym b. I. R. The b. I. R. Has been u. S. Trained, has had u. S. Cooperation and equipment since 2009. Its one of the best military units in the region, so bringing them up to speed, up to the level necessary to fight this new type of challenge theyre facing. Sreenivasan compare that to the rest of the neighborhood, the military capacity. Nigeria has the Largest Military in terms of personnel in the region, but since 1999, when the military ceded power back to civilian rule, in an effort to avoid future military coups, nigeria has contributed to peacekeeping in africa and darfur and elsewhere in the world. But the skill sets in peacekeeping are entirely different from war fighting, much less the type of specialized warfare, counterinsurgency and counterterrorism boko haram calls for. Chad has an army but face as new type of challenge in boko haram. Niger is one of americas best partners in america but a desperately poor country. Its in cooperation but needs our help. So were struggling to find the units that can be trained up to the standards we need. Sreenivasan whats the threat to the u. S. Interests here . Well, boko haram is an evolving threat. Its been evolving for the last several years and its alliance and allegiance to the socalled Islamic State presents a new dimension to the challenge. That being said, however, one has to be frank. Boko haram does not present a direct threat to the United States but, as a growing dynamic, an evolving part of the Islamic State and one that ties down the resources of a number of countries that are critical partners of the United States in west africa, it does pose a challenge to u. S. Interests. So i think the best way to approach it is the way the administration has already taken which is building up partner capability to knit the challenge nip the challenge in the bud. Sreenivasan given how long we have been working with trainers on the ground there, will the addition of this 300 make a difference . I think it will make a difference marginally in cameroon. We have a trained unit but its not trained for the desert or counterinsurgency and counterterrorism it needs. So this will be helpful and the intelligence gathering will be helpful. Lets be realtyic, its going to take time to build up the Multinational Force to train up the elements. So were in for the long haul, not only the United States, but the other partners of west africa, france and other countries. Sreenivasan i assume were supplying drones for intelligence gathering as well. Yes, the predators will be deployed in cameroon together with manned aircraft in the region operating in other countries and this will build a better, broader picture of whats going on. Sreenivasan peter pham, Atlantic Councils africa center. Thanks so much. Thank you. Sreenivasan journalist Mohamed Fahmy returned home to canada this week, the end of a long saga that began in egypt almost two years ago. Chief Foreign Affairs correspondent Margaret Warner sat with him for his First American interview. Warner this din of everyday life in dowtown toronto is new again for Mohamed Fadel fahmy and his wife marwa omara, three weeks after his sudden release from an egyptian prison. The canadianegyptian journalist was pardoned september 23rd by president abdel fattah elsissi, ending a nearlytwoyear ordeal. Our families have suffered so much. Warner fahmy, a longtime cnn producer and Los Angeles Times writer, was the new cairo bureau chief for al jazeeras English Channel when he and two colleagues, Baher Mohammed and peter greste, were arrested in their cairo hotel on terror charges dec 29, 2013. The raid was quickly broadcast on egyptian television. Thus began a kafkaesque journey through egypts judicial system, just months after thengeneral sisis ouster of the elected president , mohamed morsi, of the Muslim Brotherhood. The three were initially charged with terrorismrelated offenses to aid the brotherhood, which had just been branded a terrorist organization. Al jazeera is owned by the government of qatar, which continued to back the brotherhood, even after morsis ouster. Caged in court, fahmy emphatically denied the charges. Evidence . I dont even see it do you see it . I dont see it. Warner they were convicted and sentenced in june 2014. After a retrial was ordered in january, the australian peter greste was deported. But fahmy and baher were retried and convicted again this summer, sentenced to three more years. Finally, amid worldwide pressure, and with the help of noted human rights attorney amal clooney, president sisi pardoned them. I spent some time with fahmy yesterday in toronto. E scorpion super maximum security prison is probably the worst prison in the middle east. I was in the terrorism wing with mohamed alzawahri and fighters and extremists who arrived from syria to topple the egyptian regime and members of the brotherhood group. And it was surreal because i am a journalist, what am i doing with these people . There was no outing, no sunlight, no way of telling time. It was pretty brutal and really freezing in the cell. I had a broken shoulder, sleeping on the floor, lots of insects. Reporter the human rights report talks about torture, beatings, isolation. Were you subjected to any of that . I wasnt. I had been to three prisons throughout my 438 days in detention. I didnt see any torture. I was not ill treated or abused in any way. Of course, its psychologically unbearable. You cant see your family, you have no writing material. The food is limited. Its pretty harsh. The fact that you are living with these terrorists, its seriously insulting. Of course, we tried to do what journalists do and we were interviewing them and trying to understand what theyre doing there. It was very interesting to dig into their minds. It represented a mirror image of whats happening in egypt now, that many of these people are in prison, including some seculars as well. Reporter the pro democracy activists. Who started the revolution in 2011 when we worked together. Reporter were the jihadists among them as ext warner the Tahrir Square with revolution. And i dont know how to ask this question but i want you to describe but i mean were the jihadists among them as extreme still in their views and beliefs . They were as extreme as can be, they were they have no respect to democracy, humanity unfortunately i was incarcerated during the time of Charlie Hebdo and the slaying of my friend Steven Sotloff who had visited me in cairo before going to syria and just seeing them celebrate this. Warner when he was beheaded yeah when he was beheaded and was really awful and again it was just really weird seeing them and living with them for a year and realizing that there is no hope for these people. They twist the meaning of islam to suit their unacceptable actions. Warner did the Muslim Brotherhood members who were in there were they cheering the beheading of sotloff . No they werent. There is a clear distinction between how the Muslim Brotherhood were viewing these extremists actions and what these hardened extremists were saying and i was playing the devils advocate inside and we sort of had a radio mock show to keep ourselves entertained and we had like a hatch in the door of our cell because we were in solitary confinement you could only see the eyes of the person in front of you and this other cell so wed call everybody to come up to the hatch and wed have like one hour show which contained poetry or reciting of koran and also interviews. Very so i would play the devils advocate and put the extremists and the Muslim Brotherhood on the spot and compare of how they view things. Warner and did you take notes . Were you able to take notes . I did and i took notes and i smuggled them out during family visits with my wife when she visited me and it was very important because a lot of these notes are useful in what im writing my book now and of course some of the journalists outside also got a little bit of the notes from what i wrote inside. Warner we just were just talking about that you took notes and all that and thats going to be the basis of your book and did you manage to communicate with people on the outside somehow . Well my family when they visited me my wife used to smuggle in inside the food printouts of articles that had been written outside and i realized there is a Serious Movement across the globe and people were fighting for us and i this is what kept me going knowing that you the journalists and armies of diplomats and ngos and i felt that its not about me now its about our cause, freedom of expression and thats what kept me going and i somehow the news always slipped through the concrete cracks and the very, very secured prison and one guard would come in and say hey they are fighting for you in canada so that kept me going and it made a huge difference. Warner even though you thought your employer aljazeera and the canadian government were letting you down. Yes i mean i was very critical of aljazeera my employer because although they had a very successful Staff Campaign and keep our fight alive they didnt really have a parallel strategy with good lawyers in the courtroom and weve seen that the lawyer that michael quit abruptly and confirmed a lot of the acquisitions of prosecution made us look really bad and then he went on other tv channels and he started attacking us warner you think the prospects are now for egypt to ever realize the promise of the arab spring . Now i think the arab spring is dead and buried. I think press freedoms are at its worst times and i think that the Political Parties are almost nonexistent so in order for egypt the country that i love and where i grew up and where i had the dream in Tahrir Square wants to reach this true Democratic State a lot of work needs to be done and a more inclusive approach should happen and you know i am willing, i am already cooperating with the egyptian journalists in syndicate in a new charter thats been written as we speak that will be submitted to the egyptian president to make sure that journalists are not imprisoned under any situation and to make sure that you know we as journalists are protected from prosecution and i just really hope that the democracy i see here in canada where i am today could be one day implemented in egypt. I remember the first time i saw him smiling in years. He was like a young kid. There are so many people giving us hugs and saying hello and asking for photos. You feel a lot of warmth and love. Reporter the two of