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we offer expertise and tailor solutions in a wide range of industries. hat can we do for you? >> and now, "bbc world news america." >> this is "bbc world news america" reporting from washington. a u.s. grand jury is preparing to announce whether a white police officer who shot dead an unarm aed black teenager will be charged. the u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel is stepping down after less than two years in his job. speculation turns to who will succeed him. >> when it's mattered most, behind closed doors, in the oval office, he's always given me strength. for that i will always be grateful. >> and we've got a special report on the american forces who are training african soldiers in the hunt for a notorious warlord.

>> welcome to our viewers on public television here in america and also around the globe. the lawyers to for the family of michael brown, the black teenager who was shot dead by a white police officer in missouri in august, say the grand jury investigating the case has now reached a verlander. it was asked to consider whether to bring charges against the policeman. the shooting sparked waves of violent protests in the town of furgsone -- ferguson. for dent obama has asked calm. >> it was on this housing estate in the town of ferguson that 18-year-old michael brown was killed. he'd been challenged by police while walking in the middle of the road and was then shot six times. these pictures from soon after the shooting are of the officer

involved, darren wilson. he argues he was acting in self-defense. some eyewitnesses said michael brown had his hands raised when he was killed. that led to the mantra that symbolized this case. ing an aer spilled onto the streets -- anger spilled onto the streets. there were demonstrations but also isolated cases of vandalism and a lotting. things got worse when cctv footage was leaked showing michael brown harassing staff and stealing cigars from a shop. tensions rose, these images shocked americans. many accused security forces of bavegging like an invading army. accusing them of turning on peaceful protesters and the media too. the police say their response was proportion ath. now all eyes are on a grand jury

that's been considering whether or not to indict the police officer, darren wilson. ferguson's been preparing for more confrontation. young people who say they're tired of police brutality and lack of accountability warn they'll protest if the officer's not charged. missouri's mayor has mobilized national guard troops. there is a great deal of nervousness about what's going to happen here in the coming days, the authorities and tactics are going to be heavily scrutinized. act sifts -- activists say the issue of discrimination and police brutality is no longer ne they'll keep quiet about. >> i'm joined now by our correspondent and she's also in ferguson. do we know when we're going to get this decision announced? >> we know it will come sometime this evening, in the next few hours. we haven't got an official time for the press conference.

we know, for example, earlier that i spoke to a member of the family, michael brown's cousin. she told me that the family has been notified that the grand jury had come to a decision. but they haven't been told what that decision is. indeed the whole of ferguson is bracing itself for that decision and preparations are already under way. we know that schools have announced that they will close tomorrow. many shops have begun boarding up their store fronts in this area, in anticipation of possible violent protests and petrol stations say they are also going to close early today. so people are perhaps preparing for the worst eventuality. >> ok, thanks very much. the u.s. defense secretary chuck hagel has resigned after less than two years in his job. he oversaw america's military response in a series of global crises including ukraine and the emergence of the islamic state. president obama today described mr. hagel as an exemplary

secretary of defense, but relations between the pentagon and the white house have not been smooth recently. our north america editor has more. >> the purple heart is awarded to the following soldiers. >> chuck hagel says this job has been the greatest privilege of his life. as a vietnam vet, he's at ease with the service men and women of the u.s. armed forces. he's driven change, reduced the pentagon budget and brought thousands of troops home from afghanistan and a iraq. so if it's all going so well, why is he quitting? barack obama described him as an exemplary defense secretary. but hinted at the rows behind closed doors. >> when i nominated you for this position you said you'd always give me your honest advice and informed counsel. you have. when it's matters most, behind closed doors, in the oval office, you've always given it to me straight. and for that i will always be grateful. [applause] >> but from chuck hagel, no explanation about why he was going, just warm words.

>> i believe we have set not only this department, the department of defense, but the nation on a stronger course toward security, stability and prosperity. if i didn't believe that, i would not have done this job. >> however, tensions surfaced in the campaign against the islamic state. there were rows over what the strategy should be. a feeling that the white house is too slow to react to the threat. and after recognizing the danger, too reluctant to commit the resources necessary to tackle i.s. chuck hagel's friend, the former presidential candidate, senator john mccain, said the defense secretary was in an impossible position. >> believe me, he was up to the job. it was the job that he was given where he really was never really brought in to that real tight circle inside the white house that makes all the decisions which has put us into the incredible debacle that we're in today throughout the world. so i know that he was very, very

frustrated. >> all of which leaves the question hanging -- did chuck hagel jump or was he pushed? what seems clear is that barack obama didn't exactly go out of his way to dissuade him from taking the leap. >> to sort out what actually happened with me now is the pentagon's press secretary. thanks very much for joining me. can you explain why chuck hagel is stepping down as defense secretary? >> sure, i can. look, this was a discussion that he and the president started about a month ago. they started in late october. having a discussion about the final two years of the president's second term. and what was best for the pentagon going forward. and after a series of those discussions, both men agreed that it was time for a leadership change here at the department and that's what drove the secretary to submit his resignation. he's fully supportive of this decision, and came to that same

conclusion with the secretary. i might add, that he's not leaving today. he agreed to stay on until his successor is confirmed by the senate and installed here at the pentagon. so it could be quite some time before secretary hagel actually leaves the pentagon. he came right back to the pentagon after the white house ceremony and got right back to work. >> why is it time for the new leadership at the pebble beach? >> the secretary was brought in to affect some changes here and to help the pentagon transition after 13 years of war to a different kind of footing globally and a different kind of budget scenario than we faced in the past. he's done that. he also instituted more than a dozen reforms of all kinds of programs and initiatives here in the pentagon. military health. nuclear interpriles. sexual assault. the military justice system. i could go on and on. he defected these reforms, he put them in place and now i think he and the president believe it's time for a new secretary to take those reforms and implement them. >> but generally speaking, most organizations when somebody is seemed to be doing a good job and when the head of the

organization is very happy with that person, they don't leave suddenly, do they? >> well, look, it's been clear that the relationship was strong between the secretary and the president. and the president said it quite well. that the secretary hagel has been an exemplary defense secretary. and has accomplished a lot. i think as they get to the last two years of this term and in fact this administration, there was a general understanding that new leadership would be the right way to go to focus on implementing these changes that secretary hagel has put in place. >> does that suggest that secretary hague something not up to implementing those changele? >> i don't think so, not at all. i would point you out to what president obama said today. >> the two previous secretaries of defense, both mr. hagel's predecessors, secretary gates and leon panetta, have been quite open in their criticism of the white house for excluding the secretaries of defense from the real inner decision making process. did secretary hagel have any of those problems with the white

house? >> no, he did not. the secretary was a very close member of the national security team. he met with the president regularly, once a week. he met with susan rice, the national security advisor, more than once a week. he had private sessions with the president's chief of staff on a frequent basis. he had more than enough opportunity to have his voice get heard and to be a part of the decision making process and he feels very comfortable with the relationships that he has at the white house. >> ok. who's your new boss going to be? >> that's -- >> i'm sure you'd like to know. >> that's up to the president to decide. >> do you think we'll get a decision fairly soon? >> i don't know. i honestly don't know what timing the white house is going to be on for determining who the successor will be, who they'll nominate. of course after the nomination is made, there's a confirmation process that has to be undertaken as well. that could take some time. >> ok, thanks very much. >> thanks for having me.

>> a quick look at other news now from around the world. the turkish president has said that women are not equal to men because of their different natures. he's a devout muslim and he told a women's conference in istanbul that mothers or pregnant women cannot go out and dig the soil and that islam defines women as mothers, something he said feminists do not accept. ukraine's president has said they'll hold a referendum on joining nato once certain criteria for membership has been met. he said he'd worked out what the details are but he didn't go ive any more information. russia of course is opposed to any eastern enlargement of nato. new measures have been announced by the british government to tackle the threat of terrorism. they include preventing insurance companies from covering the cost of ransoms to kidnappers and banningment ised u.k. jihadi fighters from returning home unless they agree to be investigated. the deadline for a deal on

iran's nook leer program came and went today with no agreement. talks in vienna between six world powers and officials from tehran failed to come to a resolution on a series of tricky issues and so the negotiators decide that no deal was bet than a bad deal. they haven't, though, called off the whole process. choosing instead to give themselves another seven months to keep on talking. our middle east editor sent us this report from vienna. >> they've given themselves another seven months to get a deal. but they won't be able to talk indefinitely. taking too long would play into the hands of hard liners in washington and tehran who don't trust their old enemies. britain's foreign secretary said failing to agree in vienna wasn't a defeat. >> of course it's a disappointment. but rather than continue blindly, we have to recognize the reality that we're not going to get to a deal by tonight, but that we have made enough

progress to make us confident that we can get to a deal. >> in iran businesses have been hit badly by sanctions. the discussion is about lifting sanctions in return for limits on iran's nuclear program. at the tehran stock exchange, they want foreign investment in the economy so iran can exploit its massive reserves of oil and gas. president rouhani who reports back to iran's supreme leader sounded even more optimistic than the ministers in vienna. he said there would be a final agreement, whether it's today or tomorrow. here in vienna they're starting to think about christmas. crystal balls are on sale behind the conference hotel. but high-tech surveillance, not claire voins, is being used by the u.n.'s national watchdog to monitor iran's nuclear program.

the agency gave the bbc exclusive access to new cameras installed at rab's nuke -- iran's nuclear facilities. this agency's latest report says iran is reducing stockpiles of enriched uranium which could be used for a nook loo -- for a nuclear bomb. that's not enough for israel. the only middle eastern state with nuclear weapons. >> no deal is better than a bad deal. the deal that iran was pushing for was terrible. the deal would have left iran with the ability to enrich uranium for an atom bomb while removing the sanctions. the right deal that is needed is to dismantle iran's capacity to make atomic bombs and only then dismantle the sanctions. >> the fact remains the world's big powers still can't get agreement with iran on one of the most dangerous issues in the middle east. nobody here wanted to leave

vienna without at least an agreement to keep on talking. that's because the alternative to this negotiation may well turn out to be war. a year ago before they made an interim agreement israel had threatened many times to attack iran's nuclear facilities. nobody here in vienna wanted to go back to that. and that is why they are still going to talk. >> you're watching "bbc world news america." still to come tonight, the search for a cure for ebola. guinea gets ready to start medical trials for a vaccine sing the blood of survivors. france's former first lady has published a book about her relationship with the president. speaking with the bb, she explained why she went -- bbc, she plained why she went public. >> i decided to write it because

as far as iffs concerned, it was vital because the shock was such that i found myself in a situation where i didn't feel well, so i began to write. and as i was writing, the writing did me good and of course i could have also not published that book and i could have simply put it away in a drawer, but when one's lived through what i lived through, in other words, a sort of planetary humiliation, you need to make sure that the planet understands you. >> how how much do you think your book has contributed to the president's unpopularity? >> in no way. in no way whatsoever. because you can look at the results of the municipal elections, as we're well before the book and the results of the socialist party were appalling. >> so why is he so unpopular? his ratings have dropped again this weekend. >> well, i never heard of many people -- i have a brother who is unemployed at the moment, and when he went to the job center

they said, don't bother to come. so how can people not be disappointed? they're not disappointed because of my book. they're simply disappointed because they just don't have the responses to their requests because during the campaign a number of promises were made and they're not kept. >> you have written about that he has been con temp white house about the poor. i think you said he described the poor as toothless. >> yes. i also say -- i also say in the book that it's a joke. it's a joke. he said this on a number of occasions but he said it but nevertheless it does reveal something when you talk about eople in that way. >> ebola has killed more than 5,000 people in west africa. but a few hundred have caught the virus and survived. they could now be the key to

fighting this outbreak. next month clinical trials will begin in guinea using blood donations from survivors to try to find a cure for the disease. the trials are being set up by the medical charity. from the capital of guinea, we have more. >> could these two hold the key to finding a cure for ebola? fanta and jules survived the virus which means their blood holds antibodies capable of fighting the disease. but they had a narrow escape. >> i even asked the man at the hospital to tell my mum not to cry much when i die. because it is the will of god. >> this is where fanta was treated. and it's where survivors like her are due to start donating blood next month. medics here will take blood from

recovered patients and use it to give transfusions to sick patients. it's hoped the antibodies that successfully fought off the virus in the donor will do the same in their recipients. but such procedures could prove controversial in land where some still don't believe ebola exists. >> we don't communicate with the media. just about what is going on here. just to avoid people thinking that we are making some speermtation on people -- experimentation on people. we will do it with the approval of each patient. >> trials are due to start here next month. but trying to find a cure for ebola in the midst of this unprecedented outbreak, when there's so much mistrust, is going to be a huge task for getting communities engaged in what's happening here is crucial.

>> it's always a question of culture. but given that this ebola outbreak is an emergency, i think we can put cultural issues aside. >> the only problem is that people will need to be educated on this, just to make them feel at ease and confident about onating their blood. >> if my blood will keep others from dying, then it will be an honor to do it. >> these trials are in the early stages and, he perts warn they may not provide the answers the world is looking for. but they do at least offer a glimmer of hope. >> trying to do something about ebola. now he's a form catholic altar boy from northern uganda who has waged a brutal war in central africa for more than two decades. joseph kony and his rebels from the lord's resistance army have gone deep into the jungle and

u.s. special forces are taking part in an international mission to try to track him down. our correspondent has been given exclusive access to the u.s. operation. >> u.s. special forces on a mission. just two men in charge of an elite unit of congolese troops. this area is as remote and dense as jungle gets. we're heading to where the d.r.c. borders of the central african republic. the u.s. special forces team, which we've been given rare access to, is part of the search for the remnants of a rebel militia. the lord's resistance army was driven out of northern uganda and their fighters now live deep in the jungle. the ultimate propaganda prize for these soldiers, part of a multinational mission, is to capture the l.r.a.'s infamous leader. the wanted man is joseph kony, charged with abducting huge

numbers of children, forcing them to kill and mutilate innocent victims. >> so we operate or exist in an area about the size of the state of california in the united states. >> but u.s. commanders admit finding him and his dwindling army gets ever harder. >> do i believe there's someone out there who is going to come and tell us or we're going to capture someone who will tell us where joseph kony is and we're going to bring him to justice. >> is this a needle in a hay stack? >> it's getting close to that level. as the l.r.a. gets smaller and smaller and moves into survival mode and that is going to present us with a challenge in terms of finding him. >> but even though their mission is hard, by american standards, this is a small scale investment of military man power and money. this is the opposite of a boots on the ground strategy. there are around 140 u.s. military personnel in this region of africa at any one time. therefore any of the negative

connotations often associated with large scale troop deployments just simply don't apply here. so the u.s. special forces team is training these congolese and ugandan forces. so they can take on domestic threats like the l.r.a., but also police the region and fight groups that threaten american interests too. >> our priority is we engage on this. it's not so much to find kony specifically, it's to assist the regional states to develop the capability to manage a problem like kony and ultimately to find him. would we like to bring kony to justice? absolutely. i think everyone would like to see him brought to justice for the horrible act that they've perpetrated over the years. but this isn't defined for us in terms of whether we get joseph kony or not. again, that's not why our forces were deployed. we're deployed to be supportive of that -- building that local capacity. >> the capacity of congolese

troops is greatly enhanced by their american allies. we saw no sign of the l.r.a. on a two-day reson cans mission. but while they searched, this small unit of u.s. special forces is cultivating close military partners in central frica. >> a rare look there at an american operation deep in the heart of africa. now before we go, russian spacecraft carrying italy's first female astronaut has docked with the international space station. she's joining other crew members onboard the space station, including the russian female. she arrived there in september. this is only the second time by the way that two women have been on the space station at the same time since it was launched more than 15 years ago. during her stay, she will appear in a number of videos to teach children about the importance of recycling carbon dioxide to produce food and oxygen.

and we wish her, of course, very well up there on the space station. from all of us here at "world news america," thanks very much for watching. i'll see you back here tomorrow. >> make sense of international news at bbc.com/news. >> funding of this presentation is made possible by the freeman foundation, newman's own foundation, giving all profits from newman's own to charity and pursuing the common good, kovler foundation, nd union bank. >> for 150 years, we believe the commercial bank owes its clients strength, stability, security. so we believe in keeping lending

standards high, capital ratios high, credit ratings high. companies expected it then. companies expect it now. doing right, it's just good business. union bank. >> "bbc world news" was presented by kcet los angeles.

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