>> cyber insecurity. president obama makes changes to the n.s.a. programs, but is it enough? >> plus, state of emergency as wildfires burn near los angeles, california faces what could be the worst drought in history. >> earthquake. >> the things people don't like about earthquakes, people have no idea what will come. it's been 20 years since the earthquake in california. new technology warning you when quakes are coming. shoppers beware. target was the tip of the

iceberg. we talk to you about the other companies who could be a threat. [ ♪ music ] hello to you. welcome to al jazeera america. i'm radford live from new york city. president obama announced several reforms to the national security agency's electronic surveillance programs. n.s.a. will continue to collect millions of phone records, but the government will not keep that information, but it is not clear who will. patty culhane explains. >> the extent of the spying carried out by the united states, hugely controversial overseas. beside president obama's speech, only a handful of protesters showed up demanding changes. the president took to the statement, promising to change little. when it comes to spying outside the u.s., allied leaders can be

assured that the u.s. won't listen to phone calls. but some people - every call, text may be stored, but not as long. the u.s. president says it shouldn't bother most people in the world. >> the bottom line is people around the world, regardless of nationality should know that the united states is not spying on ordinary people who do not threaten national security. we take their privacy concerns into account. >> there are few changes, if the fbi wants to contact my credit card company, eventually they will keep it outside the government. if they want to search, they'll have to ask a court, a court that didn't reject a request in 2012. for many outside the white house, that's not enough.

>> they didn't go far enough or deal with recommendations made. he took a narrow tact. >> the president sounded a defensives tone. >> no one expect china to have an open debate about their surveillance programs, or russia to take privacy concerns of citizens in other places into account. >> the debate is not over. congress has to approve the changes and may go further than the president. and the supreme court has to decide if domestic satisfying is constitutional. as evidenced by the size and scale of the protests, so far they are not facing much pressure to change his decision. >> the president said the n.s.a. will stop spying on countries that are allies. revelations that the n.s.a. is doing that soured relations with several country.

phil itner has more on international reaction's speech >> reaction in europe ranged from cautious to mild approval to outright skeptisism. on the outside of the paper that broke the edward snowden leaks the comments were negative. few believe change will come. if it does, it will not apply to europeans, just americans. it's been a major issue on this side of the atlantic, that mass surveillance of u.s. citizens, and allies shows a double standard, invitating string et laws on privacy, established in the court of rights. jim kellock runs an advocacy group saying non-americans are furious at a bias against them. >> of course american citizens have a right to privacy, but don't believe it's true to people outside of the u.s.

of course that will cause immense concern for people in europe. >> but despite the leaks being published in the u.k., the public debate so far has been mild. critics say it's because the british version of the n.s.a., the government communication headquarters works in conjunction with washington, sharing the very same data that is mined by america. where today's speech may find greater attention is in germany, where the tapping of angela merkel's phone angered the country. attempts to calm fears and ellimb nate anger, the damage caused is great. it will take significant action to restore the faith of many europeans who now question america's friendship. and right here at home

president obama signed a 1.1 trillion federal spending bill, keeping almost every government agency funded through the end of september, and scales back automatic spending custody, known as the sequester which hit the pentagon and domestic programs. now congress faces a challenge of whether to raise the federal debt ceiling. a blaze continues to burn for the third straight day. 1800 acres scorched, by fires started by campers. 300 homes are understand mandatory evacuation orders. california governor jery brown declared a state of emergency. california is in its third-straight year of below-average rain fall. melissa chan looks at the impact the dry conditions are having on industries. >> in the city of willett in the heart of the forming country pt

the drought's impact can be felt over town. >> i may have to shut den. >> dennis manages the car wash. >> i happy it doesn't come to that, we pray for rain. >> officials say they have 100 days of water before being forced to find alternative water. this is one of the communicationies to mandate water conservation. >> we declared a water emergency in willetts and we required our citizens to conservative their water usage to 150 gallons a day. >> normally at this time of the year there would be water 12 feet deep where i'm standing. people in willetts hope with a rainy season halfway through, water levels can go up. for now it's at 16% capacity. the reservoir collects mostly rainwater. if it runs dry, willetts can tap

into wells. the cost of purifying water is high. >> 1985 was the driest year. we are 1% below that. >> businesses are ordered to cut back orders. at lum berjack's, they are giving customers smaller water glasses. >> the residents have given a wonderful result. we exceed what they ask for >> the rest of california is nowhere near mandatory rationing. governor jer yoi brown asked businesses to cut back voluntarily. the easiest solution would be rain. >> governor brown is urging residents to cut water use by 20%. >> the company behind the chemical spill in west virginia has filed for bankruptcy. freedom industries is facing

lawsuits after a chemical storage container leaked into a river near charleston. the state's government declared a state of emergency and banned drinking water for 300,000 people. >> meanwhile another school shooting this time in philadelphia. two students shot in the arm at the high school. police say there are two boys in custody and are searching for another they believe was involved. they don't know if the shooting was an accident or intentional. this is the second school shooting in the country this week. on tuesday a seventh grader opened fire at new mexico middle school, wounding two classmates. >> more dry weather on the way for the west coast where most all of our storm systems are heading up into canada. we look at the california forecast for saturday. no rain. the temperature is rather warm.

now on the friday there's a lot of record high temperatures. fresno tied a record high of 71. it was set all the way back in 1809. temperatures in the mid 80s around los angeles. we are looking at dry stretches of whether. we are looking at records here - 44 days is the longest period of time that sack remento has gone without rain during the rainy season. here we are now, at 40. in the midwest it's a different story. we had a clipper system gear up the snow. coming into more arctic air. gusty winds blowing the snow. it will cause problems blowing. that snow is going to be moving across the great lakes saturday into sunday. it will cross up into the north-east, and we'll continue to see warmer weather for a lot of folks in the north-east along with colder weather. we'll see the temperatures drop

with the breezy winds and start out with textures in the mid 20s for the east coast, into the low 30s around atlanta. it's a big cool down. polar vortex sliding south. and the high temperatures reflecting that as well. note, still warm in california, and comfortable too in the mid to upper '60s. cooler for the north-east. what we expect in the current weather pattern, moderately cool weather coming down the jet stream, but as we move into this next week, and into the end of january, we are definitely going to be on the colder side for much of the midwest to the north-east. >> hit by hackers. we are learning the target at neiman marcus are not the only ones. we'll tell you about the other stores that may have been compromised. >> earthquake, earthquake. >> the thing people don't like

an earthquakes is people have no idea what will come. plus, predicting earthquakes. and frozen fish - an annual

the united nations is condemning an attack on a pop popular restaurant in afghanistan. 21 were killed. it was popular with westerners in a neighbourhood home to foreign embassies and consulates. jane ferguson reports. >> three attackers targeted the restaurant 7:30 on a friday night. the first wore a suicide west which he detonated at the door of the restaurant, blowing it off, allowing the other two to enter the restaurant and open

fire on diners. al jazeera obtained footage after the security officials arrived and entered the restaurant. it's unclear if many diners escaped. we returned from the area were they were taking bodies away. this restaurant was popular with diplomats, u.n. staff and high-ranking officials, because it was considered one of the few safe restaurants. it had reinforced steel doors, security and in the diplomatic area, in the heart of the city, close to many western embassy. it was considered to be safe, as well as the area that it was in. clearly not safe enough >> the taliban is claiming responsibility for that attack. meanwhile a spiritual leader's death in india sparked a stampede in mumbai. 18 died, 50 injured. tens of thousands came to the financial capital to mourn the

loss of the 102-year-old leader. the stampede began when the gates to the leader's house were closed. the crowd pushed forward. they were crushed with no way to escape. police were outnumbered. uganda's president refused to sign a bill punishing homosexuals with life in prison. he did say to parliament that they were abnormal and could be rescued. discussing homeo sexuality would be punishable with prison. uganda's parliament could pass the measure with a two-thirds vote. russia has warned about gay propaganda. he said gay people have nothing to fear, but says leave our children alone. now to cyber attacks. a serious and growing threat to

many americans. stores and customers at risk as hackers continue to strike. al jazee al jazeera mark schnyder reports. >> looks like cyber security form intel crawler alerted law enforcement and visa about other breaches. at least six u.s. merchants that have not been named. the firm says it's the same type of software used to steal customer's information from target. >> at m, cash, that's it. i can't do it no other way. >> you have a check card but wouldn't swipe it at a store. >> no, i don't trust it. i don't carry it. people can scan it and get your information. i don't do that. >> a cyber security firm noticed malicious software codes on the black market, explaining that

the malware affects point of sale terminals, sends out stolen information and deletes files. the firm will not say if the software specifically affected target, neiman's or others. they are working with other firms and looking to characterise malware asserted with point of sale data breaches. they put out a report to retailers on how better to defend themselves. the ceo of the cyber security firm expects more attacks to be launched, suggesting copy cats will use similar software to steal from customers. 20 years ago californians were jolted by a deadly quake, 50,000 died in the northridge quake and thousands injured. a lot has changed, including new

technology that could give a warning. jennifer london explains. >> when the earthquake hit at 4:41, we were sound asleep. the thing that woke me up was my wife screaming. the volume of the quake was horrendous and then it stopped. it was like there was a death silence for about a second, and then you could start to hear everyone screaming in the complex >> 20 years ago robin done woke up at the northbridge epicentre, his three-storey building pancaked on top of him. >> it looked like a two-storey building. the fire department thought, "this is a two-storey building" and kept growing. >> it shifted eight feet and dropped 10. >> i lowered my wife, i climbed down. we had neighbours we helped. >> dunn turned off the gas main.

he tried to reach an elderly neighbour. >> she was one of 16 who died in the building. the northridge earthquake killed 57. 22,000 were homeless. the victims had no warning, but two decades later. >> we dodged a bullet in the northridge quake. >> thomas heaton is a professor of in relationing sys mollingy and says there is a system that could give the heads up before the shaking starts. the system sends an alert to your smartphone showing you where the quake began and how soon it will reach your election and the duration and intensity of the shaking that you can expect. >> what people don't like about earthquakes is when it starts to shake, you have no idea what will come. the system will tell you, relax, enjoy it, it's okay.

>> a similar system is online and working in japan. here in california, it's a prototype. heaton has an idea why it's not in use here. >> if washington d.c. isn't destroyed by an -- is destroyed by an earthquake we'd have had a system long ago >> for now they'll design a system that could give calvans what they never had before - time to prepare. >> it's an ability to turn science into something that is useful to everyone else. >> a warning system giving me a 45 second head start as it were would be beneficial. >> an understatement from a survivor of the most deadly earthquake to hit california in 20 years. >> geologists didn't know that a fault line was running under northridge when the quake hit which is why the governor jerry

brown is allowing a budget increase to map and find the fault lines. >> a chilly tradition in south korea, where an annual event draws thousands to a frozen river, braving the cold. and the first lady growing older gracefully. michelle obama

>> we are down to the n.f.l.'s final four. the first game on sunday an old school match-up between old masters, tom brady of the patriots and peyton manning of the broncos. 90 other players will suit up on championship day sunday, but the big-named quarterbacks are where it's at, so says our analyst, chaar een williams. >> it's a quarterback match-up,

we have to appreciate how good it is, a great quarterback rivalry. they have met three times, and it's seven years since we saw this. they are late in their careers, it could be the last time we see the guys, we have to enjoy this for what it is. >> sunday's second title game will not be the last time we see san francisco and seattle lock horns. they play twice a year and split the first two matches. chaar een wells talks about who has the edge. >> seattle has to have the advantage at home. if you look at san francisco on the road, they have been successful away from home. colin is undefeated, not counting the super bowl. he's good on the road, except in seattle, 0 and 2, 4 interceptions one touchdown, outscored 71-16. seattle has the upper hand being

at home. russell wilson struggled. lowest passing yards of his career in two of the last three games. >> thank you. championship game sunday starts at 3:00 pm eastern time, with the broncos hosting the patriots. that will be followed by the 49ers seahawks grudge match. live reports from both games this weekend on al jazeera. >> with their star-studded line up, the miami heat are not supposed to have losing streaks. that's the spot they found themselves in, spencer hobbs was no match for 6 foot 8 lebron james determined to put the losing streak to bed. bosch led all scorers. lebron james 21. the heat beat of sixers 101 to 86. the top two teams in the west battled.

blazers versus spurs. poppo vich whereas ejected. 26 points from 13 rebounds for the blazers, beating the spurs 109 to 100. i'm john henry smith, that's a look at sports for this hour. typically when you think of ice fishing you picture silence and sol attitude. not so in south korea. thousands gathered side by side on a frozen river, some wearing shorts and a t-shirt for a chance to hook a fish and a chance of tradition. harry fawcett has the story. >> it's become a winter tradition, january is ice fishing season. not just for a full hardy enthusiasts. tens of thousands come with their own fishing style to a frozen stretch of river. >> it's fun. this is my third year here.

times we come twice a year, the family. there's the fun of eating as well. >> the common factor in the hunt for the prize, the trout. rewarded with the arrival of the fish truck. three to eight tonnes of farmed fish are added to the river. when fishing armageddon arriving, it's been being in the right place at the right time. >> this is my first time. it's fun already, you know. >> if that's not enough of a challenge, you can try this. it's cold enough when all this happens, let alone dressed like these guys. >> the object is to catch the fish by hand, and in case the discomfort levels were not high enough, success means a wet fish down the front of your t-shirt. fish can be consumed roasted, raw, or for the brave, wriggling. it's a boon for the town, a

festival in its 12 year, becoming ever more important to its economy. >> this year around 1.4 million people are expected to come. each tourist is expect to spend $50 million. we are talking $50 million for the local economy. >> crowded, far from natural and obviously mun. for many the festival is the perfect way to brighten up a bone-chilling season. >> organizers say more than a million people may attend the festival before it's over. tickets have been sold out for weeks. finally, a milestone birthday. michelle obama turned 50 and showed off her new aarp card, tweeting that she was excited to join the president in the 50 plus club and celebrated with the likes of oprah winfrey, taylor swift, be and george

clooney. that will do it for this edition