welcome to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. guns in america, al jazeera's in depth investigation into gun violence in the u.s. and resettling syrian refugees. forecasters are saying a big snow storm headed our way again. this is a scene that could play out in several states. ♪ tomorrow marks one year since the sandy hook shootings. 20 children and six adults

murdered inside a elementary school in newtown, connecticut. today we take a look at violence and gun control in the wake of the massacre. we begin in georgia, where for more than 30 years that town has required each and every household to own a loaded gun, and it claims it is helping to lower crime. robert tell us more about this law. >> reporter: yeah, good afternoon, dell, from kennisaw, georgia, the only place in america that has a law on the books saying that each household has to own a loaded gun. there are some exceptions such ooze mental conditions or religious reasons. there are a few places around the country that have tried to enforce the same law, up in in massachusetts, utah, and a

little town called nelson, georgia not far from here, they passed the same provision back in april of this year, but had a lawsuit put on them by the brady institute, so they changed the verbiage saying there is no requirement, and they skirted around the issue. let me bring in a guest we have. lieutenant craig graden, tell me why is this law on the books here? what is the purpose? >> originally in 1982, the city of morton grove, illinois banned hand gunns from their city limits, and the city council here at that time felt that was an infringement on second amendment rights, so they passed an ordinance to counter that saying every household would have to own a handgun. it's a way of sending a strong message that has a government

body they supported the citizens who lived here secondary rights to own a gun. and the area had started to take off in population growth, and they thought it might send a strong message to deter crime. >> has it deterred crime? >> yeah, we have one of the lowest crime narates in the nation. >> but if i move here tomorrow, will you tell me i need to purchase a loaded gun? >> no, not at all. it's an ordinance on the books, which is a law, but it was more or less a resolution than a law. >> why have a law at all if it's not going to be enforced? what is the point? >> the original point, like i said was morer or less to make a political statement, saying we

support our citizen's second amendment rights. and also to take a stance against crime. >> thank you very much. like the lieutenant said it was there to prove a point, so to speak, to let the world know that the second amendment is alive and strong here in the south. so a lot of things have occurred in the past year after the terrible tragedy in newtown, this town is sticking to their guns, so to speak. so interesting story here, dell. >> robert thank you very much. meanwhile some local governments adopting new tough gun restriction ordinances. >> reporter: jersey city is home to a quarter of a million people. it spends up to $350,000 per year to arm its police officers.

now, the major wants to use that money to hold gun makers accountable. >> if you are using the pocketbook there is an opportunity to really push people that can move in a responsible way. >> reporter: starting this week, jersey city will require gun and ammunition contractors to answer six questions about their positions on gun safety. >> we want to get a sense for how are they looking at the resell of weapons. how are they looking at assault-style weapons? how are they using their brands? so we want to kind of get framework around what they are thinking about from a dealer, manufacturer standpoint. >> the dealers's social responsibility score will help determine who gets the city's business. jersey city aims to become a model. several cities and counties have

already asked for copies of the questionnaire. but the idea didn't popular for some gun dealers. >> the manufacturers i'm quite sure they know their responsibilities. i know when they manufacture something it is not manufactured with chances of it exploding in people's hands. as far as people getting hurt in another way, because of illegal use that's a different story, but that's not the responsibility of the manufacturers. >> reporter: police recruits are required to pay for their own weapon. >> all of the manufacturers are going to say we're not going to deal with jersey city or anybody that feels this is a requirement to prevent illegal use of firearms. >> reporter: the major doesn't expect things to change overnight. >> i would suspect the impact would be gradual, and no dealer or manufacturer is going to answer those questions

perfectly, but it's imimportant that there is an attempt. it's amazing the nra or gun law has been able to dig in and not move at all. the white house says robert levinson did not work for the federal government. this following reports by the associated press that the former fbi agent worked for the cia. he disappeared in iran in 2007. allan fisher reports. >> reporter: it's now almost seven years since bob disappeared in iran. he is now in the eyes of some the longest-held american hostage in history. >> i'm not in very good health. i am running very quickly out of diabetes medicine. i have been treated well, but i need the help of the united states government.

>> reporter: but in the past almost three years there has been nothing to confirm he is still alive. he was on a business trip when he disappeared, but now the associated press news agency is reporting that levinson was in iran on an unapproved intelligence mission for the cia. john kerry wouldn't confirm that he was spying. >> i don't have any comment whatsoever on the -- the condition with respect to employment or any other issue, except to say to you that we have raised the issue of his whereabouts on a continuous basis. i personally raised it with the iranians, and we will continue to try to seek his release and return to the united states. >> reporter: the newspaper says the cia paid the family

$11.5 million to not publish the fact. the family issued a statement saying . . . the iranians insist they do not know where bob levinson is, and there is no evidence he is in the country. the u.s. offered a million dollars for information for his safe return, but even that has taken investigators no closer to fining him. secretary of state john kerry is on his way to southeast asia. it follows his ninth trip to the middle east since february.

he says israel will release more palestinian prisoners on december 29th. that's part of that deal that relaunched negotiations. a new report by amnesty international says just ten european countries have offered to take in syrians fleeing the war. barnaby phillips has the story. >> reporter: escape from syria. as dawn breaks, mohammed runs from his country and makes it across the border to turkey. now he'll meet the smuggling gangs who say they can take him to europe for a price. >> translator: i have got a two-year-old daughter and when planes bombed our town at night, she hid in the corner and screamed daddy they are bombing

us. fear is a plane in the sky and who can cope with that? >> reporter: in istanbul mohammed meets other syriians, including this 8-year-old who has traveled here without her father they plan to go to greece on a boat, and she does not know how to swim. amnesty international says germany is the most generous eu country, offering to take 10,000 syrians. the other 27 countries have offered to take just over 2,000 between them. 18 eu countries have not offered anyplaces at all. >> there has been some money given to the humanitarian effort, but we need to help the

people on the ground, people who are really suffering who cannot get the care they need. people are a risk because of who they are, and they really need a safe place to go to provide them what they need. >> reporter: in sweden 20,000 syrians have found refuge, but most had to make the long and dangerous journey themselves. other countries like britain have helped fund camps on syrian's borders arguing this is a way to help many people rather than offering resettlement to a few. mohammed does end up in greece. he wants to go to sweden, but for now that is just a dream. barnaby phillips, al jazeera. a huge storm expected to drop even more snow in this the northeast on top of what we lived through last weekend. here is dave warren. >> it will be a problem here

especially on the roadways. this is a winter storm watch. a warning just issued. most likely this area will continue to spread northeast, because not really happening until about tomorrow morning. look at how sharply it cuts off along 95. a very tricky forecast coming up in the next 24 hours. snow is spreading into the northeast by tomorrow morning. this will start as light snow. you can see the storm here and than it will redevelop off of the coast of north carolina. that pulls a lot of moisture in and keeps the cold area place. temperatures are big and have a key on the road conditions. i'll look at those coming up. there are reports that the government has disrupted a plot in kansas to blow up a

mid-continent airport in wichita. once again, reports today that the government arresting a man who was planning to blow up mid-continent airport in wichita. coming up people in india making pennies a day, and suffering injuries to harvest ka shoes. wrong way to go to start to cut entitlements or at least slow the growth of entitlements. both of them came to a neutral, compromised ground. this is a compromise of the sort that people have been asking for

for quite some time. the bottom line here, those conservative objections are getting some traction, but the betting is now this evening that this is going to pass the house of representatives on thursday and go to the senate the next week and end up on the president's desk, joie. >> mike, thanks for being with us. we'll follow up. ahead. the international space station marks 15 years. are we getting enough bang for our buck, or is it just taking up space? get it?

the african union says it will send more troops to the central african republic bringing the total contingent to 6,000 troops on the ground. france also has troops on the ground. the public viewing for nelson mandela's body has ended as dozens of people wound up being turned away, and that did not go over too well. there were several incidents of pushing and shoves, and several people were injured as they broke thu a police gate. the mandela family set a strict deadline to end the viewing at 5:00 local time. some people believe that nelson mandela could have done more on one issue, the issue of aids. peter has more. >> reporter: a clinic in south africa is crowded with aids patients. this country is struggling with more aids victims than any other

in the world. more than one in ten adults is infected. nobody knows why the numbers are so high, but actists say that nelson mandela failed to address the problem. this is the icon who forced the president and the nation to look aids in the face. he was 11 when we spoke in 2000. >> orphans are infected. there are little boys that are living with a foster family, and grow up strong and healthy, and i'm just -- and that's just what i want all of the other orphans to have. >> reporter: a year later he lay close to death. by the time he died in 2001,

nelson mandela has begun to speak publicly about the problem. >> it's a grave pity that this young man has departed. he was exempt lair in showing how one could handle a disaster of this nature. he touched many hearts. >> reporter: out of the very public tragedy came this shelterer for aids patients set up by father mother. the country still paid a terrible price for the delays at the top in coming to terms with the disease. south africa's attitudes to hiv and aids have changed over the years. and orphans are no longer ostracized in the way this boy was.

but things could have been different activists said if nelson mandela has been more forceful early on. >> one wonders what our another tuesdays would have been done if he had gone public before his son passed away from aids. because that would have made it even more real that hiv aids is totally non-discriminatory. >> reporter: the government with nelson mandela at his head danced around the issue for years, but if acted sooner, this woman believes there might have been far fewer orphans for her home to take care of. ♪ in money news stocks just can't seem to gain any traction, the dow had been higher much of the day, but now up just under 2

points. wall street trying to snap that three-day losing streak. we have new developments concerning where boeing will build its new plane. it would guarantee the plane is built in the seattle area. there would be worker concessions that deal -- rejected by the union yesterday. boeing said without the contract it might have to move production to another state. 60% of the world's cashews come from india. but the worker there earns $0.05 a day. >> reporter: these women are just a few of the nearly 1 million cashew workers across india. at this government-run facility, not much has changed since the industry took off in this the 1920. here cashews grown locally or

imported are opened and roasted before being peeled and sorted. but the disshellers especially it's back-breaking work, literally. >> translator: many women here have pain in their back and knees. i even know some people who have died from medical problems, but now we don't get acid on our finningers anymore. >> reporter: this government-processing facility is better than most private ones. here workers have covers to protect their fingers and a roof with fans to keep them cool. but they still have squat for more than seven hours aday. de-shelling cashews for 30 years has caused this woman major body pain. now she helps current and

retired workers in everything from getting medical help to being paid on time. >> translator: at least the necessary medicare we should get. we have had to protest and even strike a few times just to get wages or pension owed to us, so the amount is still not enough, not when inflation keeps rising. >> reporter: the government body that runs this unit says medical facilities are available to workers. and the government has looked at ways to make the process less stressful. >> we are trying to make it by sitting in chairs. we did a lot f experiment in that. but most of our people think that the other position is comfortable for them. she doesn't buy that and says that conditions haven't improved in years. she believes while processors and retailers are making money

from the cashews, it's workers like her who are paying the real prize. again, we are following breaking news coming out of wichita where there may have been a plot to disrupt air traffic. we'll be right back. fight drug trafficking and forbid marijuana consumption, or let the

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm del walters. these are your headlines. updating our breaking news coming out of kansas. the government now says it has disrupted a plot to blow up m - mid-continent airport in wichita. they arrested an worker who had been under investigation for sometime. >> he spent months developing a plan to use his access card to the airport to drive a carloaded with explosives to the terminal. it is alleged he planned to pull the trigger on the explosions himself and die in the process as a martyr. the white house is asking for the release of robert

levinson. ap saying that levinson was on an unauthorized mission for the cia when he disappeared almost seven years ago. secretary of state john kerry said there will be a peace deal between israeli and palestine by april. it's where you find geothermal wells under michael angelo. the kindl museum's piano pa vivian houses 16th century masterpieces in 21st century innovation. >> lots of architects have been wondering what is going to happen here. >> reporter: albert is among those who flocked to study the new work of the italian

architect. the $135 million project broke ground in 2010 and opened this november. to admirers this is a temple. >> the new seems around the world have been the new at drals. >> reporter: it exemplifies the latest in green building. part of the roof is sod, offering insulation, and much of the building is underground. the staircase is a work of art itself, light comes in through the window, bounces off of the slanted wall and creates a well of light >> it's wonderful seeing works of art in natural light. >> reporter: the museum director says the piano pavilion uses half of the energy per square foot as his older neighborhood.

>> much of our lighting is supplied by the energy produced by the photovoltaic cells. you see little gaps between the floorboards, and the air rises between the gaps. >> reporter: creating a settle and efficient ventilation system. >> piano has been trying to expose the inner workings of the building. >> reporter: critics say this opens a new chapter in the marriage of art and technology. heidi zhou castro, al jazeera, fort worth. ♪ i'm dave warren. a lot of the roads are being pretreated here as this storm approaches the northeast. you might notice trucks spraying

a solution on the roadways. it's perfect conditions for the situations. that is the good news, because the temperatures are expected to drop down below freezing, but not below 20 degrees, and this being tomorrow morning by the time this storm is approaching. it will eventually warm above freezing, so we could see a mix of rain, sleet and snow. the timing as light snow comes down, the treatment should work, so the main road should be fine. tomorrow evening as the storm intensifies and moves north now you are getting the heavy snow and mix. that's when the roads can be slippy and the snow could really accumulate. >> thank you for watching al

jazeera america. "people in power" is next, and for more information just go to aljazeera.com throughout the day. ♪ >> in the early hours of april 16th 2009, bolivian special forces burst into a hotel in downtown santa cruz. within minutes three european guests had been shot and killed. when news of the raid broke, the bolivian authorities said little - ex