♪ let the games be again, in just a few hours the opening ceremony kicks off in sochi, russia as athletes get ready to take part in the games. embarrassing for a top diplomate and what she said and she is apologizing and who they are blaming for secretly recording her phone conversations. the rough winter has many states dealing with a big road salt shortage and they say it's not a bad thing for the environment.

>> and it's such relief for me as well and lots of other mothers that were like me. >> reporter: her story of great personal loss was documented in an award-winning movie and the woman who was forced to give up her son shares her story with the pope. ♪ all eyes are on russia as the sochi olympics are officially underway. the most expensive olympic games in history began smoothly on thursday and qualifying events took place and the olympians arrived and the opening ceremony is coming soon and they talked about gay rights and security and promising a safe olympics and rolling out 37,000 police and security officers and good morning and welcome to al

jazeera america and i'm stephanie sy and we are in sochi and good morning and a pretty routine start to the games despite the weeks of anxiety leading up to it. >> yeah, well stephanie i suppose as routine as any large opening ceremony can be in the most expensive winter olympics there has ever been. but, yeah, the olympic games always start with a huge great bang basically and all the dignitaries arrive and everyone packs into a stadium or in case it's that one down there that is sort of slightly strange turtle building over my shoulder and we will have a show this evening and the question is who is going to be there because many western leaders have snubbed us and no barack obama and no merkel and i

think the message is clear. another big question is of course who is going to be lighting the olympic flame. we don't know yet because this is shrouded in secrecy and will not know until the actual olympic ceremony gets underway and starting at 2014 local time and we will see significance in the numbers that. that is going to be 1614 gmc, quite a big show. >> reporter: a lot of pressure on vladimir putin to make it a success and the atmosphere seems empty where you are standing outside that venue. >> yeah, well, most of the sport that is actually taking place at the moment is not down here at the coast and it's up in the mountains where the snow boarding is going on and various ski events happening as well.

the stuff that is going to go on in the stadium behind me doesn't begin quite yet and we are actually only going to see people filling into this zone later on this evening for the opening ceremony. but you are right, this is a lot of pressure on vladimir putin because it's his game and championed this whole thing from the start. he is very fond of sochi and comes from st. petersburg but sochi is where he has two holiday homes and he comes here a lot to chill out and get away from the business end of what he does in moscow. but he has been pushing this whole thing from the start. as we have been saying it's the most expensive winter olympics in history. this has to go right for him. a lot of his own prestige is riding on this. but for russia as well because it's their chance to show the world it can put on a successful olympic games. >> reporter: rory for us live

in sochi, rory thank you. u.s. residents travelling to the sochi olympics will have to leave their shaving kits and toothpaste behind and tsa is banning liquids, gels, aerosols and it is immediate and applies to carry on luggage and a day after officials warned that explosives could be concealed in toothpaste or cosmetic cases and the u.s. is partnering with russia and other countries to try and disrupt possible threats in sochi. a top u.s. diplomate is trying to do damage control this morning. it appears she was secretly taped making insulting remarks about the european union. the white house claimed the phone call was recorded and released by the russians and as mike reports them baring disclosure comes as washington tries to broker a solution to the ukraine crisis. >> u.s. assistant secretary of state victoria newland meeting

with the president viktor yanukovych. >> senior leaders of the opposition, united states intends to remain engaged, working with the european union. >> reporter: instead of the steps it's clear she has locked horns with eu, a close american ally and a video on youtube and they are talking with u.s. ambassador jeff and dismisses the eu as she talks with him about their plan to ease the crisis in kiev. >> it's gotten both bonki moon saying sari could come in monday or tuesday. >> okay. >> so that would be great i think to help glue this thing and have the u.n. help glue it you know and blank the ceu. >> reporter: and she neither confirmed or denied that the recording was real but she said

nuland has tried to make amends. >> she has been in contact with counterparts and has apologized. >> reporter: but she latched out at russia. >> we think this is a new low and in russian trade craft in terms of publicizing, posting. >> reporter: tensions between the u.s. and russia over ukraine are growing with each accusing the other of meddling in the ongoing crisis. at the white house jay carney left little about the call. >> the video was noted and tweeted out by the russian government i think it says something about russia's role. >> reporter: in a tit for tat tweet at the end of the day it was posted a picture of himself and nuland and enjoying the tweet in kiev and the russian official who tweeted about it, mike with al jazeera in washington. >> al jazeera's barker has reaction to the leaked call from the ukraine capitol kiev.

>> i think the americans are really going to have to struggle to explain exactly what they meant in this private phone conversation with the ukrainian ambassador. but whether it was private or public i think the ukraine people it doesn't matter. what people want to know more about is the level of involve thament the americans have in shaping the future of the country and this phone call was particularly revealing and showing that the americans have preferences between some of the key opposition figures that they prefer for instance the head of the father land party over "the boxer" turned poll significants vitali klitschko who needs to sit out for the time being and do some more homework. this is particularly dangerous at the moment purely because the opposition are relying on it

being cohesive and trying to maintain pressure on the ukraine president and many people gathering here at independent square would prefer to see him stand down but now knowing that the americans have their own choices among who should be in the future government, who should be the future prime minister, it could well cause fractions among the opposition group at a very, very critical time. regarding the russian allegations, i don't think the russians will be rubbing their hands be glee over this but it does go some way into propping up repeated russian allegations that the americans are meddling too much in ukraine's affairs but the suggestion is look if the americans have this kind of attitude then the russians do too. the president of ukraine is off to sochi probably meeting with president vladimir putin and we will have a clear idea who the russians would light to see leading the government. >> barker and reaction from

kiev. winter weather is impacting states from coast to coast, a rare snowstorm hampered the pacific northwest thursday and dumped a foot of snow in parts of oregon and washington. a second storm today could bring 6-12" of snow to the area and hundreds of thousands of people across the midwest and northeast still have no power after a serious snow and ice storm on wednesday knocked down trees and electric lines in many states, more than 400,000 in pennsylvania are effected. officials say it could be a few more days before their lights are back on again. more snow is on the way, let's bring in metrologist nicole mitchell with a look at what is going to hit the country this weekend. >> a lot going on and the trend is not going to end as we head into the weekend and a couple places we will have to watch for snow. already we have a boundary in the south bringing light accumulations because not as easily handled in the southern tear of the country and northeast quiet and chilly temperatures and more on the temperatures coming up, in a few minutes but let's get to the

west coast where we are dealing with this again today. so we have already had one system, another one and a little break on thursday night or tonight into early friday and another system behind that. we have been very dry and this is really beneficial rain and snow. but it is going to make those roadways extra treacherous over the last couple days. this is a look at the radar in california and getting a break now but you can already see more clouds starting to build in off the coastline as we get a little more in the northwest, one round and then we have another one right behind that. and this is going to be more snow even for places like portland and normally this time of year around 50 degrees and yesterday 23 with snow. so usually that is a city that would see more rain and even this time of year versus the snow but we had the snow instead and we have widespread of the winter storm warnings in this region because some of the higher elevations in california and parts of the sierra could get 3-4 feet of this and

beneficial and the snow pack melts in the spring and helps with moisture contents. but when we have not had it recently and get so much at once makes a mess on the road and you see that over the next couple days. watching that over the weekend we also watch a clipper system move through the midwest. the system that early in the week some people were excited about possibly impacting the east coast looks further off the coastline and that helps so a lot of the snow totals over the weekend should be fairly limited. back to you. >> thank you. the organization human rights watch says women and girls are being abused in iraq prisons and they released interviews with women who say they were tortured and raped by security forces and a spokesman for iraq's human rights ministry says there is some limited illegal behavior by security forces but aids that the report is over exaggerated. there may be some relief for syrians living in a city that has been under siege for nearly two years, a cease fire went into effect in homs today and

they said evacuations can begin, as al jazeera's james reports it paves the way for desperately needed humanitarian aid. >> their plight is desperate, the old city of homs has been besieged and bombarded for months on end and food, medicine and shelter needed by men, women and children trapped there now after weeks of negotiation some fresh hope. >> we welcome the reports that the parties have agreed a humanitarian pause to allow civilians out of and aid into old homs city. >> reporter: some nations and the world's most powerful ones are expressing reservations and concern. >> reporter: given the regime up to this point described just about anybody living in opposition territory as a terrorist, and has attacked them as such, you know, we have reason on the basis of history to be very skeptical and frankly very concerned about anybody who falls into regime hands who

comes from a part of the country that has been under opposition control. >> reporter: nearly two weeks ago a deal had seemed close, sharing peace talks and brahimi announced a deal to let aid in and people out and nothing happened. people are cautiously optimistic this time, not only would a deal bring relief to people in desperate need, it's estimated there are between 700-2500 people trapped in the old part of homs and it also would be one positive step ahead of the next round of syria peace talks in geneva which are due to start on monday. james with al jazeera, of the united nations. >> reporter: the city of homs has seen some of the most intense fighting in the three-year civil war in syria in their desperate search for food and many have resorted to eating grass just to stay alive. a second around of south sudan negotiations will be postponed

until monday and look at the cousin of the conflict and reconciliation and it produced a cease fire agreement but there are already growing fears that the truce is falling apart and this week a team from the african union arrived to monitor the violence and several thousand people died since the conflict began in mid december. pakistan and taliban have face-to-face talks and the first formal meeting between the two sides and want to negotiate a decade long insurge and saying the talks have to be held in the framework of the constitution, all fighting stop when the talks are underway and should be limited to areas effected by violence, not all of pakistan. taliban fighters in afghanistan released this video of a working dog and the taliban says they took the dog during a fire fight with east afghanistan last december but a spokesman said

the dog belongs to british nato troops and say he had a flashlight, camera and gps device. snowstorms slamming the u.s. are raising serious environmental concerns. >> it's a really good example of how the actions that we have in our day-to-day life can have inuntended consequences in the environment. >> reporter: he is talking about the salt used to make roads safer, how that could be harming water supplies. >> my engineers and all the crews did exactly what they are trained to do. >> reporter: an argument over a car accident and why first responders trying to help ended up getting in an altercation. >> if i blind folded you and took you to laguardia in new york you would think i was in some third world country. >> reporter: the vice president slams one of the busiest airports in america. >> i'm john and if you are excited for sochi olympic action your wait is over and i will have the highlights coming up. >> reporter: this is a look at

sochi russia and sunny and 50 degrees and the opening ceremony just a few hours from now.

♪ good morning and welcome back to al jazeera america, i'm stephanie sy and salt used on roads during snowstorms is not just in short supply this winter but creating serious environmental concerns but let's look at what temperatures we will see across the nation and metrologist nicole mitchell is back. >> there has been so many salt short amounts with all the snow we had to import in some from canada just to deal with things. as you look across the northeast after that last snowstorm a lot of power outages so places like philadelphia 24 degrees this morning and if you done have heat in your house because of the outage this is brutally cold weather not going up soon as the temperatures barely make it to the freezing mark today and that is one of our concerns. in the meantime a lot of negatives for the midwest once again. a little bit of a wind chill making it feel colder so that too is one of our concerns.

and finally as we get to the west coast the system after system we are getting here have places like portland, 20, 30 degrees below average and that is a little on the cold side as well. as is houston at 38 degrees. at least it goes up a little bit in the day tomorrow. back to you. >> okay, nicole, the string of winter storms has cities scrambling to get salt to treat the roads but we report that some environmentalists consider the shortage to be a good thing. >> at the port of milwaukee and 50,000 tons of salt has arrived for the depleting supplies in wisconsin and illinois, with multiple snowstorms and heavy accumulations this winter salt has been a precious commodity and 22 million tons of road salt or sodium chloride used to clear snow and ice from the roads and it comes with an environmental cost. >> chloride is soluble in water

and will always remain soluble in water. as the snow melts and as the salt-laden runoff goes to the streams and lakes the chloride will find its way down to our water resources. >> reporter: the salt concentrations of streams, lakes and groundwater has been increasing over the last 50 years. according to the u.s. gee logical survey they have levels toxic to life and long-term exposure can effect reproduction and other organisms. it has potentially damaging effects on plant life particularly when used in access. >> the sodium component which are the ions will actually rob water from the plants and actually help kind of desicate the roots and in the spring they will look like under drought stress. >> reporter: chloride is highly corrosive to metal and steel bridges and reenforced concrete

causing millions of dollars of damage each year. >> it's a good example of how the actions that we have in our day-to-day life can have inintended consequences in the environment. cities and municipalities are looking to less harmful substances like deicers as alternatives and sugar beat juice is used in conjunction with rock salt and used with lower temperatures and echo friendly at the same time. >> rock salt stops working at 15 degrees above 0 and with the addition of the organic sugar beat juice it drops that effected temperature range down to 10 below which is 25 degrees swing. and it also allows municipalities to reduce the amount of sodium chloride they are putting in the environment. >> reporter: for now alternative deicing agents are more expensive than rock salt and without alternatives the continued use will lead to

increased contamination. al jazeera, chicago. >> reporter: they say if the concentrations of salt are high enough they can cause same negative evens as acid rain. three more west virginia schools closed their doors after strange smelling water and schools in charleston closed earlier in the week and it left people would drinking water and since then the water has been declared safe but some residents are not sure and the water pipes at the school are flushed and tested and all five schools are expected to reopen this morning. former new orleans mayor denies using power for profit and on trial for corruption accused of taking bribes in exchange for city contracts and took the stand on thursday for the first time since the trial began and he testified he was simply trying to speed up the process for selecting contractors because the city was struggling

to recover from hurricane katrina and faces wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering charges. olympic send out from john kerry and took to the ice thursday in washington to congratulate nhl players heading for sochi and a hockey fan performed the ceremony hubbing drop between the game of the jets and the capitols at the verizon center and joined by players of both team whose will complete for them at the winter olympics and nhl will play through saturday before taking a break for the sochi games. the torch will be lit in sochi in a few hours but competition is heating up and we will look at the start of the 2014 winter games and good morning, i'm excited about this. >> a long wait but the games are here and opening ceremonies are 11:00 eastern time and competition has begun in some sports like slope style snow boarding and thursday the

american team got off to a great start and the team has 7 members men and women combine and all 7 managed to advance and jamie anderson who automatically qualified for the women slope style final with a score 93.5 on her first run and the second best score of the opening round. those daring down hill skiers were doing their thing too but only in trial runs. american stars bode miller and julia look ready for prime time and miller the best are unwith the men of a time of 2 minutes and 7.7 and mancuso 1:42 and they do it for real on sunday. the figure skaters were doing it in sochi and a good day for russian fans but not for the stars and stripes. the u.s. is in 7th place after the opening round of competition in the wake of a disam pointing

champ abbott and fell and he netted a low score of 65:65 and he had a dominant performance with a score of 91.39 and are russia is in first place and two points ahead of the canadians. boxing outcomes are scored by judges and two junes ago most bokszing world were saying they needed better eyeglasses. next april 12, he will have a chance to avenge the controversial loss and the 7 year unbeaten street and returning to the scene of the first fight and the mgm garden arena and spoke at a press conference on thursday. >> this coming april 12 is going to be a good fight when we are actually in the ring and we don't know who is going to win. i mean we never know. only god knows what is going to

happen. >> this fight is basically redemption for me. i'm going to beat him back out to get the credit i didn't get in the first fight. and that's the bottom line. >> reporter: well if snow and ice has you under siege in your hometown i will present to you a sure skien that spring is coming and the first pitchers and catchers reported to spring training and thursday the arizona diamond backs was the first team to get workouts underway and an early start to prepare to go to australia for a series of games in march and dodgers pitchers and catchers report saturday and every other team will get rolling next week and that is a look at your sports. >> reporter: beloved baseball hall of famer ralph kiner died and he hit more home runs in his first five season than any player in history. he ended his ten-year career

mostly with the pittsburgh pirates with 369 home runs and one of the first major sports stars to enter the broadcast booth and sent the next half century as the play by play voice for the nets and remember his unique post game show called kiner's corner and congress is having a hard time dealing with important issues from immigration to the debt ceiling deadline. >> just a sense of relief over the gift that vanished from me. >> reporter: meeting pope francis and a woman forced by nuns to give up her son 50 years ago gets to share her story with the head of the catholic church. another case of a brain dead pregnant woman on life support but unlike the one in texas the husband is keeping her alive to save their unborn baby.

welcome back to al jazeera america, i'm stephanie sy and the top stories at this hour, the winter olympics are officially underway in sochi, russia and several qualifying events have already taken place and the opening ceremony will begin in a few hours. the white house is doing damage control after the release of a tape of a top u.s. diplomate making insulting remarks about the eu union and the obama administration said it was recorded secretly and released by the russians. this is a captured military working dog and says they took the dog during a fire fight with u.s. soldiers in eastern afghanistan last december but an american military spokesman says the dog belongs to british nato troops. the by partisan ship in congress that passed a budget bill last month may be over for now and there is plenty of unfinished

business in washington but hard to push through for the election year and with the house up for reelection and 33 seats in the senate up for grabs and thomas looks at legislation that remains at a stand still. >> after passing the farm and budget bills in congress other big issues appear to have stalled in washington, issues that even millions of people in the u.s. and threaten the economic well-being of the country abroad. first immigration. after signalling he would seek immigration reform this year house speaker john boehner is retreating a bit. >> i never under estimated the difficulty in moving forward this year. >> reporter: the biggest obstacle to the goal says boehner is the president. >> listen there is widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws. >> reporter: the charge rejected by the white house. >> the president has an exceptional record of improving border security on his watch.

there are more cpb agents on the border now than ever, consistently. >> reporter: another reason for the potential gridlock the promise during the state of the union address to act alone when congress won't. >> wherever and whenever i can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more american families, thats what i'm going to do. >> he is talking about his phone and his pen and he is feeding more distrust about whether he is committed to the rule of law. >> reporter: as for extending jobless benefits to the 1.7 million who lost them in december. >> the motion is not agreed to. >> reporter: republicans shot down the latest proposal by democrats who are vowing to keep up the fight. >> we all support it on this side of the aisle. >> reporter: there is the debt ceiling and today the country reaches the debt limit and runs out of money at the end of the month. republicans say there is time for a deal but the white house wants action now.

>> we are not going to pay ransom for congress fulfilling this responsibility. >> reporter: an old battle waged again with another washington deadlock in deadline, thomas draydon, al jazeera. >> reporter: the stalled congress is on track to go down as one of the most unproductive in modern history, the 113 congress passed 58 laws so far and the lowest total since 1947. bear that to 113 bills signed into law by president georgia w bush during this same point in his second term. that is a little better than the 41 bills passed by the 110th congress at this same time in 2011. president obama plans to officially sign the farm bill into law today at michigan state university, nearly $1 trillion billion will fund the food stamp program and crop subsidies for farmers and funding for the aid program known as snap will decrease by $8 billion over the

next ten years and the bill passed with by partisan support in the house and senate and the michigan democrat authored the bill. the u.s. and south korea are preparing for the annual military exercises but al jazeera harry faucet reports that north korea is not happy about it and the country is threatening to cancel eagerly anticipated reunions for korean war families. >> the u.s. has more boots on the ground on the korean peninsula and more tracks as well. nearly 400 pieces of military commitment including tanks and vehicles are joining the 800 battalion which arrived from texas. >> in total numbers it is small but it is a front-line combat unit. so increasing a unit like mine of transporters would not add the same type of capability. but adding this unit it does add a lot of fire power and a lot of heavy maneuverability. >> reporter: and this bolstering of u.s. forces acts

both as a demonstration that south korea is getting value for the $850 million it pays the u.s. military and added deterrent to north korea and comes an a sensitive time, days before they start the schedule of the combined military exercises between south korea and the united states and complex neck yagss between pung-yang and seoul and families separated by the korean war. and they crossed the border to check on the mountain resort where the reunions are due to be held in two week's time. >> translator: the purpose of the visit is to conduct preparations so south and north korean elderly people will not face discomfort. >> reporter: agreed in principle this week but north korea has put it in doubt. it warned on thursday that the forthcoming exercises must be cancelled and in dialog and acts of war could not go hand in

hand. last year the exercises coincided with the worst break down in north, south relations for many years with north korea making repeated threats of nuclear war and seoul and washington have a new defense strategy aimed at countering numerous scenarios and plan to rehearse the strategy in the coming weeks exercises and harry faucet al jazeera south korea. >> reporter: and north korea originally agreed to allow families from the korean war to reunite at the end of february. this would be the first time in several years that relatives would be able to visit in person. the california highway patrol is trying to make peace with the two la vista fire department after a fireman was arrested at the scene of an accident when a police officer asked the firefighter to move his truck out of the way. well the fireman refused saying his truck was protesting the other firefighters and said the

actions were outrageous. >> the safety of citizen or those of us rendering aid would be put in jeopardy just to have a lane on the freeway open. i would definitely stand up and make a stand for the safety of my crew. >> reporter: on thursday police and fire officials met to discuss accident scene protocol, the two agencies have agreed to work together in the future. joint statement the arrest was described as an isolated incident. a pregnant canadian woman declared brain dead is being kept on life support until doctors can deliver her unborn child and erica is joins us now and similar to the one in texas but this time the husband wants to keep his wife on life support. >> that is right, the husband says he could not give up the chance to possibly save his son so for five weeks doctors have been keeping the mother on a ventilator hoping the baby grows enough to be delivered by c-section sometime next month. the husband says he spends

everyday sitting next to his wife, holding her hand and talking to his unborn son. in late december 32-year-old robin been some of british columbia can'ted yeah collapsed on her bathroom floor and a brain hemorrhage caused irresponsible damage and five months pregnant at the time and doctors told her husband they could keep her on life support and try to deliver the baby and decided to do it and he named his unborn baby boy coen and a blog to his progress, my wife would want me to try and give our child the best life possible and he wrote about his family tragedy online friends started raising funds for him and the unborn child and donations have been pouring in from around the world. more than a month later and the donation goal of $36,000 which would have been his wife's salary for the year has been met and then tripled. meanwhile the unborn baby is growing everyday and he blogged

the child now has a higher than 80% chance of survival adding it's very difficult to know. we will have to say our good-byes to robin within hours of seeing avair for the firefighters time. this canada case may seem similar to the texas case of munioz who was three months pregnant when declared brain dead and they said her unborn child was not healthy, state law required them to keep pregnant patients on life support. her husband ended up in court fighting to shut off the ventilator and he ultimately won and she was taken off machines about two weeks ago. >> and the health of the child and british columbia doesn't have the law they do in texas. >> more than two dozen u.s. states have rules just like the one in texas but all of canada does not. >> erica thank you. vice president joe biden digs at one of the country's busiest airport in philadelphia and

stressed the need to beef up infrastructure but took a shot at laguardia airport and compared it to an airport in the developing world. >> if i blind folded someone and took them at 2:00 in the morning in the airport in hong kong and said where do you think you are, it must be america, it's a modern airport. if i took you blind folded to laguardia in new york you would think i was in some third-world country. >> reporter: the u.s. has fallen behind 20 countries in the past decade and the quality of infrastructure, investing in roads and public transportation would boulder the economy and creates jobs and it was built in 1947 and serves 29 million passengers each year and they say there is a push to modernize the airport at $3.6 billion. they shut down parts of rio

protesting fare hikes. riot police used batons and fired tear gas to disburse demonstrators and up set over a 10 cent bus fare hike and forced the main train station to closed and they cracked down on a protest in paulo and the hike was reversed. a month-long drought is crippling farms across california and the lack of water could cost the industry billions of dollars and jennifer london has details on one southern california city feeling the drought's pinch. >> reporter: this farm in california some 50 miles north of la has been in the family since the late 1800s. >> we are one of the pioneer california family farmers here. >> reporter: and he has seen it all, wet years, dry years, but nothing like this year. >> we are doomed here. i mean we got to have water or,

you know, you need water, soil and sunlight to grow a seed and you're missing one of those it just doesn't happen. >> reporter: what is happening summer crops like these tomat o es are growing in the winter. >> in february. >> and winter crops like the strawberries are struggling to survive and means so is phil mcgrat. >> if we don't get rain this year. >> reporter: too distressing to say out loud it's the same up and down the state and means there is not enough water to produce everything from milk and beef to fruits and vegetables and estimated 500,000 acres of the state's farmland will go unplanted because there isn't enough water to grow the crops. what happens in california definitely does not stay in california, it's the largest producer of food in the country

and as more and more farms like this one feel the effects of the drout it means food prices are going to rise and that impacts everyone. >> you will not get the fresh crops you depend on from california. >> reporter: he is an expert in california at river side and says over all food prices could rise as much by 10%. >> crops you would see a big increase in costs where where we grow the country produce in and that is artichokes and avacados is a big one and there is a big drought in california and it's not going away and likely will persist for years. >> everybody turns on a tap and wash their hands and drink the water, no problem, the day that doesn't happen is the day they will be as worried as most farmers i know and that is where i feel we are at now. >> reporter: as california prepares for what could be the worst drought in modern history

and the country prepares for higher food prices farmers like phil mcgrat can only watch as the family business dries up right before his eyes. that was jennifer london reporting, california finally got some rain on thursday but the west coast would need 18-36" of rain to end the drought. investors are gearing up for the key january jobs report this morning. the data will shed some light on the strength of the labor market. economist estimate 185,000 jobs created last month and for the unemployment rate to stay at 6.7%. one market watcher says the jobs numbers could determine whether or not we see a further pull back in the stock market. >> they are looking to see that things are back on track and not as terrible as december where we saw a meager 74,000 jobs created. the markets are skittish and any bad news is a reason for a sell off so in general we are looking for some reason to feel

optimistic and some reason to feel hope. >> reporter: live coverage of the jobs report at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. wall street is signaling gains ahead of the jobs report and stock futures are higher at this hour and the dow the best day of the year yesterday and is 15628. the s&p 5 00's 1773. nasdaq is 4057, asia they ended the day on a high note and japan up more than 2% and shanghai reopened after the long chinese holiday and gained half a percent and european marks also higher. apple seized the opportunity to buy back its own stock after disappointing quarterly results and ceo tim cook told "the wall street journal" they were surprised by 8% decline in shares and bought $14 billion of its own shares over the last two weeks. a verdict in the biggest insider

trading case ever and the portfolio manager has been found guilty of using confidential information to help the firm make more than a quarter of a billion dollars and he is the 8th sac employee who worked for founder stephen acoen to be guilty of charges and could face 45 years in prison and coen not charged with a crime and denies wrongdoing. an emotional meeting between the pope and the real mother between the oscar-nominated movie philomena. >> it was a positive feeling because there was some nervousness. >> she hopes her story will help other mothers who children were given up for adoption by the church. >> we are seeing needed moisture for the west coast but around after round and i will have your national forecast.

>> it was a positive feeling

♪ welcome back to al jazeera america, straight ahead how meeting the new pope healed new wounds for a mother forced to give up her child but first let's look at where the snow and rain may fall across the country today and nicole mitchell is book. >> hoping everybody is having a great friday and it has been a rough week weather wise and activity going on in the west and i will get to that in a minute and yesterday we had boundary through the south and lingering back with that and a lot not making it in the ground and kansas a couple reports of light snow so do watch for that and it's cold that a few southern places could get snow. it moved through yesterday and atlanta had such chaos with 2 1/2" last week that when the weather service started mentioning this which only brought a trace of rain

yesterday they put up watches the street signs that were incorrect warning people of snow that wasn't in the forecast. as we get to the west coast a lot of the wet weather in the next couple days and i'll talk more about the totals in a few minutes and back to you. >> reporter: the roman catholic church is being sued over allegations of child sex abuse and the first lawsuit of its kind in the country and the man claims he was molested as a child and seeking $64,000 in damages. the priest was convicted last year and serving two years. church leadership has previously apologized to all child abuse victims and insists it will not be held financially liable. a woman was forced by the catholic church to give up her son, more than 50 years ago her story was the basis of the award-winning movie philomena and after years of coping with her personal loss the real philomena got a chance to talk to pope francis and claudia says it's helping her find some

relief. >> this is the moment that philomena thought would never happen. on wednesday pope francis met the woman whose story became an award winning movie that shocked catholics worldwide. philomena tells of her search for her son given up by adoption by irish nuns in 1955 when she was an unmarried teenage mother and on thursday she was in rome to promote the project and a campaign that calls on the government and vatican to open up records on forced adoptions. >> i could not believe i was going to meet the pope, you know. and meeting him, after all the years of feeling such unforgiveness within myself that happened that many years ago, the sense of relief that all gift had vanished from me and meeting the pope is what an honor it has been for me. i know he is going to do something about the situation

and which is such relief for me as well and lots of other mothers that were like me in the past, you know. >> reporter: her son anthony was one of thousands of children believed to have been given up for adoption by irish nuns and the british actor said after the meeting he showed the film to a vatican delegation including popepepepepepepepepepepepepepep kind of a warm feeling and positive feeling because perhaps there was nervousness but when the film was over they were delighted. >> reporter: the film was not well received in other vatican circles where it was seen as an attack on the catholic church and he did not comment on the meeting between pope francis and philomena but film producers and

campaigners hope the success of the film will help thousands of other mothers to find the children who were given up for adoption by irish nuns in the past, al jazeera, rome. >> reporter: at least 2000 babies were forcibly given up for adoption in ireland. the 300-year-old violin was found in a milwaukee attic and the rare instrument worth millions appears to be in good conditions and robbers used a stun gun to steal it from frank almond a week ago. he has been called the japanese batoven and his music will be played at the winter olympics but as kaitlyn reveals his talent may have been a scam. >> after 18 years behind the scenes it was finally time for

him to stand in the lime light on his own. the part-time university professor admitted that he was the author of classic music that has been credits to the man known as japan's betoven. >> translator: i'm aware that he had been publishing his pieces by deceiving the world and i ended up composing the music as instructed. in this way i'm his accomplice. >> and he wrote everything including the powerful russian symphony where he took the credit. but it was the winter olympics that made him spill the beans. >> translator: i knew figure skater will be using the music i composed for his skating program during the sochi olympics and i thought if i let it be he will become part of my lie. >> reporter: it is front-page news in japan because he is also believed to have lost his

hearing before composing some of his greatest works but even that is in doubt and his ghost writer says he saw no evidence his alter ego was unable to hear. and she has apologized for his music betrayal to his fans, but his lawyer saying he was too unstable and emotional state to appear in public. and he says he hopes to continue composing and performing but this time in his own right. kaitlyn mcgee, al jazeera. >> reporter: a japanese figure skater will perform to one of his songs at the olympic games. 50 years ago the beetles caused a sensation around the world when they songs hit the air waves and it's 5 decades since they landed in the u.s. and rock and roll music has never been the same and sunday is a milestone when the four mop-top boys from liver pool made their tv appearance on the ed sullivan show and where the theatre that david letterman has gone retro

and changed it to look like the night that the beetles performed and we sat down with ringo star with the trip to the states and shared memories from the band's early days and you can see the interview at 8:00 a.m. right here on al jazeera america. for now, dale walters has a look at the stories we are following for the next hour and good morning. >> the united states has been reportedly talking about using a four letter word on a telephone call talking about the ukraine and winter games in sochi and figure skated started ahead of the opening ceremony and immigration reform unlikely to pass this year and house speaker john boehner blaming president obama and doubts it can be trusted to enforce the laws. in our next hour the sochi olympics are starting but preparations are underway for the summer games in 2016. we will tell you how brazil was

trying to avoid mistakes made by russia. paul mitchell after a couple rounds -- i'm metrologist nicole mitchell and after the storms what is your weekend looking like? we will have that after this.

>> playing defense, russia blows the whistle on the u.s. for using foul language against the e.u. now the white house is pointing fingers at moscow. >> ease in investors concerns, apple's $14 billion buy back, but it is enough? >> a new way to do probation, a more effective way. >> dealing with trouble in paradise. how one state is paving a path for an effective probation system for other states and

countries. >> satisfying a craving. one country is cashing in on its dairy supply at the expense of another. >> good morning, welcome to aljazeera america. i'm libby casey. >> some of calling it shades of the cold war era. the united states and russia battling over a leaked phone conversation with two top diplomats with ukraine in the middle. victoria new land was secretly taped making a remark. >> the white house claims the call was recorded and released by russia. this embarrassing disclosure comes as washington tries to broker a solution in ukraine. >> u.s. assistant secretary of state victoria newland in ukraine, meeting with its

embattled president. >> this session, all senior leaders of the opposition, united states intends to remain engaged working in lock step with the european union. >> instead of lock step, it's clear she has locked horns with the e.u., a close america ally. in audio posted on you tube, she is said to be talking, appearing to coursely disappear the european union talking with their plan to ease the crisis in kiev. kiev. >> >> speaking for an edge bard state department, it is neither confirmed nor denied that the recording was real. >> she has been in contact with her e.u. counter parts and of

course has apologized. >> she lashed out at russia. >> we think this is a new low in russian trade craft in terms of publicizing, posting. >> tensions between the u.s. and russia over ukraine are going with each accusing the other of meddling in the on going cries. spokesman jay carney at the white house left little doubt about that the administration believes eaves dropped and recorded the call. >> tweeted out by the russian government, i think it says something about russia's role. >> in a tit for tat tweet, ambassador pieette tweeted enjoying here in kiev. mike viqueira, aljazeera, washington. >> we are in kiev, ukraine. russia's accusing the u.s. of

meddling in the ukraine affairs and the u.s. says it is not taking sides. how is it perceived there? >> well, you get the distinct impression that all top officials here in ukraine are bin very, very careful about what they say next, perhaps drawing lessons from the newland leak. neither representatives, the president or opposition are prepared to comment on what they say is a leaked diplomatic conversation. there are concerns about protestors here gathered time and time again, that the leak shows that the united states has preferences within the opposition camp and that could be potentially dangerous for their sense of coerce now. the united states indicated that they preferred to have the likes of yatsenino go.

for the time being, concerns here that these comments could be divisive more than helpful, certainly. >> thank you so much. joining us from kiev. >> all eyes are on russia as the olympics are officially underway in sochi, the most expensive olympic games in history beginning shootingly on thursday. several qualifying events taking place and the remaining olympians arriving, the opening as her main set to begin in a few hours. roy, a pretty good start to the games but a lot of pressure on vladimir putin to pull them off. >> when he steps up in the stadium, you can see just over

my shoulder, the slightly strange turtle shaped building later in the evening to open the ceremony that starts the games, there will be a lot of pressure on him, because this is really his games. he has championed this whole thing. when russia was bidding for the sochi olympics, he actually delivered a delivery to the world in english, which is something he doesn't do very often. he has a soft spot for sochi, has he two residences here where he can get away from all the business of moscow and come and relax down on the black sea coast. he loves this place. he's absolutely driven this from the start. this is costing a huge amount of money and it has to go right for him for his prestige, but also for russia, really, because this is a chance to show the world that it can put on a large-scale sporting event such as this and do it well. >> we keep hearing so much about the tight security in sochi.

tell us what you're seeing. >> security has been a massive concern here for quite a long time, and really sort of ratcheted up a bit around 2013 when a video was released from one of the arms groups that's based not very far from where i'm standing in the northern caucuses saying that they would specifically target the sochi games. yes, security is a big concern. the u.s. has just put a ban on all liquids being hand carried on planes to russia in the light of some information that they have that possibly explosives might be smuggled in tooth paste tubes. russia has had a similar ban on all internal flights since march, so they are one step ahead of that. there is a huge security operation here. there are 100,000 security personnel around sochi. there are various rings of security spreading out through

this region. you've got drones up in the sky, you've got patrol boats off the coast. all hopefully there to ensure that this games goes without a hitch. now what the arms groups might find is if they cannot attack sochi, they might have to divert their attention elsewhere in russia. we'll have to see what happens over the course of the games, of course. >> joining us live from sochi, russia this morning, thank you very much. >> u.s. residents traveling to the sochi olympics will have to leave their shaving kits and toothpaste behind, liquids gels and air soles banned on flights. it is effective immediately, but only apply to say carry-on luggage. this comes a day after that warning from u.s. intelligence officials about possible explosives concealed in cosmetics. the u.s. is partnering with russia to try and disrupt possible threats in sochi.

>> by partisan harmony in congress that led to passage of a budget package last month may already be over. there's still plenty of unfinished business in washington, but it may be hard to accomplish much in an election year. all the house faces reelection and a third of the senate up for grabs. we look at washington's looming fights. >> after passing the farm and budget bills in congress, other big issues appear to have stalled in washington, issues that affect millions of people in the u.s. and threaten the economic well being of the country abroad. first, immigration. after signaling he would seek immigration reform this year, house speaker john boehner is retreating a bit. >> i've never underestimated the difficulty in moving forward this year. >> in the biggest obstacle to that goal, says boehner, is the president. >> there's widespread doubt about whether this adding can be trusted to enforce our laws. >> that charge rejected by the

white house. >> the president has an exceptional record of improving border security on his watch. there are more c.p.b. agents on the border now than ever, consistently. >> another reason for the potential gridlock, the president's promise during the state of the address to act alone when congress won't. >> wherever and whenever i can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more american families, that's what i'm going to do. >> he's talking about his phone and his pen, and he's feeding more distrust about whether he's committed to the rule of law. >> as for extending jobless benefits to the 1.7 million who lost them. >> the motion is not agreed to. >> republicans shot down the latest proposal by democrats who are vow to go keep up the fight. >> we all support this on this side of the i'll. >> today the country reaches its

debt limit but runs out of money at the end of the month. republicans say there is time for a deal, but the white house wants action now. >> we're not going to pay ransom in return for congress fulfilling this basic responsibility. >> an old battle waged again with another washington deadlock and deadline. aljazeera. >> the stalled congress is on track to go down as one of the most unproductive in modern history. >> vice president joe biden taking a dig at one of the countries busiest airports, in philadelphia stressed the nation's need to beef up investment in infrastructure likening new york's laguardia to one in the developing world. >> if i blindfolded someone and took them to 2:00 in the morning into the airport in hong kong and said where do you think you are, they'd say this must be america, it's a modern airport. if i look him to the laguardia airport in new york, he'd think

i must be in some third world country. >> biden said the u.s. has fallen behind 20 countries in its quality of infrastructure and investing in our roads and public transportation would boaster the economy and create jobs. laguardia was built in 1947 and serves 20 million passengers each year. in the morning transportation officials say there is a new push to make it more modern at a cost of $6 billion. >> winter weather is impacting states from coast-to-coast. a snowstorm hammered the pacific northwest, dumping snow in oregon and washington. forecasters say a second storm today could bring up to another foot of snow to the region. meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people across the midwest and northeast still have no power after a serious snow and ice storm wednesday knocked down trees and electric lines in many states. more than 400,000 people in pennsylvania are toughing it out. officials say it could be a few more days before the lights are

back on again, del. >> they are still sitting in the dark. to find out more about the precipitation, let's turn to nicole mitchell. >> there's always the problem when you haven't had some for a while and you understand get it especially in the form of snow, it causes a little mess if you're not used to those winter driving skills which we haven't had to practice this year. i'll talk about the temperatures coming up in a few minutes, but they're chilly for people without power. the west coast where we've had that activity, coast top to bottom under drought conditions, the most extreme in california. you can see we have a little break now, but it's one system, then another coming in, a little break friday morningish, then another comes in. we have multiple chances for all of this moisture. here's the california side of all of that. a little break, but you can already in the last frame see the new clouds approaching with the next area we're going to see. this is going oh be our highlight for the next couple of

days, needed moisture. you mentioned rare snowstorm. it's not too rare that have it in the mountains that we would get snow with the storm system, but portland yesterday, which is usually 50 degrees, so that would be rain this time of year versus snow getting snow. the fact that the lower elevations are even getting snow with this with the cold temperatures, that is impressive. we really need places like the sierra, higher elevations, we could get over the next couple of days with round after round coming in three or four feet in the higher he willations. that helps build the snow pack that will be the runoff we need in the spring season for the agriculture. in the meantime, the system that looked like it was going to cause problems for the weekend a little more off the coastline, so some snow but not the whopper some people predicted. back to you. >> hundreds of prisoners escaping the city of aleppo, a suicide bomber blowing himselves up at the gate freeing the inmates to capture government

symbols. it holds about 4,000 inmates. >> silver lining for the people living in the syrian city of homs. state t.v. said evacuations are underway. humanitarian aid is expected to be allowed in, as well. thousands have been trapped with no access to food or medicine. rebels accuse the syrian government of using starvation as a weapon of war. >> here are today's headlines making news around the world. china's global times said the president met with the russian president thursday at the sochi olympics, marking the first time a chinese head of state is attending a major sporting event outside the country. you know who's not at sochi? president obama, angela merkel, david cameron. >> they all said no. >> billie jean king saying she

is not going because of the illness of her mother. >> governor chris christie was in texas. state democrats pounced on the opportunity to tie the scandal plagued governor to the gop and his counter parts. christie's bridge controversy forced texas governor rick perry and greg abbot away from him. texas republicans enjoy and usually employ similar strong-armed tactics. however are we now, two years? >> you think that the 2016 presidential election was right around the corner, but this is a trial balloon to see how chris christies reputation is withstanding the bridge scandal. >> texas a conservative state. if he can make it there, he can make it anywhere. >> the head of the gop said i don't know anything about the christie visit. >> welcome to texas. >> president obama throwing a curveball at the washington status quo. the president will sign the farm bill in michigan today, a rare

bill signing outside the beltway. he'll squeeze in lunch with detroit's newly elected mayor. >> detroit always needs a visit from the president, good news on that part. >> apple spending $14 billion to buy back its stock. why that may not be enough to satisfactory one high power investor. >> judges in hawaii taking a different approach to help convicted criminals from repeating mistakes. how the method provides hope in keeping offenders out of prison. >> $440 billion, that is our big number of the day and why some gamblers are feeling a little lighter in the wallet today.

>> today's big number proves that the house always wins. $440 billion, that's how much gamblers lost worldwide in 2013. it was compiled by the economist magazine. >> america continues to be the gambling capitol of the world, $119 billion gambled in the automatic last year, a quarter of the global losses.

china was second on the list, betting away $76 million, australian lost the most money per person, while the german and dutch lost the least. >> i lost $4.95 in a st. louis machine. too much. >> that was a good outcome compared to the rest of the u.s. >> apple buying back $14 billion worth of its shares. >> first let's get a look at what temperatures we can expect around the nation today. nicole mitchell is here with us. >> good morning, a lot of places are running blow average, midwest the core of the cold, billings minus eight right now. that spreads down into texas, houston at 35 and not getting much warmer over the course of the day. i want to focus on the northeast, this is where we still have widespread power outages after that last snow and ice system. it was ice that caused problems. philadelphia 25 degrees. if you have a power outage and

no heat, you really feel that temperature. >> as i mentioned, houston temperature barely moving today, 38 degrees is the high temperature. the west coast on the cool side, as well. portland yesterday, rung 30 degrees blow average with storm systems coming in. houston, from the 30's to the 60's tomorrow, so a little recovery heading into the weekend. >> prosecutors called it the most lucrative insider trading scheme in u.s. history and now a former portfolio manager faces years behind bars. on thursday, matthew martoma was convicted on fraud and security charges. se a.c. capitol reaped more than a quarter billion dollars. some people argue the real target could escape a prison sentence. >> matthew martoma's work as a portfolio manager earned him a $9 million bonus and now the prison sentence of up to 20 years. he worked for the investment

company, s.o.c. capitol advices, a firm once the envy of the finance industry. >> the trial gives us insight into how s.a.c. operated. he stayed very close to whatever sources he could find that could give him an edge on information and what was going on. >> the trial revealed he called his boss, founder steven cohen a day after a doctor passed on confidential information about a new alzheimer's drug that produced disappointing results. shortly after that call, s.a.c. began selling off $700 million of shares in the two pharmaceutical companies involved in the drug tests. share prices plummeted, but s.a.c. made millions. cohen faces civil charges by the s.e.c. for failing to supervise

martoma and others found guilty of insider trading. >> steve cohen remained a presence throughout the trial here except 11 person testified that it was cohen, not martoma investigators were really after. cohen has not been criminally charged but remains under investigation by the f.b.i. >> the public wants to see these guys go to prison as opposed to get find or barred from the industry. do i think the public is appeased? >> no. is it a step in that direction? yeah, probably. >> we will continue to pursue inside trader investigations. >> the firm can no longer invest money for outside clients, but unlike martoma, steven cohen remains a free and extremely wealthy man. aljazeera, new york. >> martoma was the eighth current or former s.a.c.

employee to be convicted in the biggest inside trader case in history. >> apple is buying back shares. the head of trading at t.j. partnership in london joins us this morning. we have a chart that shows that apple shares are down nearly 9% in 2014, so does this buy back have more to do with easing investor concerns or that pressure that carl icon, the biggest investor is putting on the pressure. >> the pressure from him and other significant investors marks somewhat of a turning point for apple. unfortunately with the demise of steve jobs a while back, the company has changed tack and in terms of new products, there's nothing dynamic coming new to the market. it seems to be losing market share to the other products that are out there, and so therefore,

apple, which is sitting on a large pile of cash needs to do something a little more dynamic with its cash. it's not conducting any m.n.a. activity of any of size. it's not paying huge dividends, therefore a share buy back is pretty much the only option left for o apple. >> tim cook had this to say, it seems to be if you are a layman, you are more discussion about apple outside the boardroom than in the stores. >> apple is yeah -- by virtue of the fact that apple is conducting the share buy back is not for the day trader, not for the short term traders, for the long term benefit of the company. the company has matured in what it does, and has done it

fantastically well. apple needs to look at where it's positioned in the global economy and start repositions itself so shareholders remain interested and continue remained invested in the company. the only way they're going to be able to do that at the moment is by either paying a dividend or reducing the amount of supply of stock that they have in the market and therefore helping to support the current stock price. >> i want to tell you what i see in my glove compartment, i think about research in motion and my old blackberry, i think about my old motorola flip phone and think about those companies once being to youring figures in this global phone market and now they are last year's elephants. are we looking at the demise of apple? >> no. i think that the be presumptuous to say that. unfortunately with the likes of nokia and certainly research in

motion, they weren't quick enough to keep up with the move from conventional mobile phones into smart phones and that's why they demise so rapidly. apple do innovate and have a large chunk of the market and have other products such as the apple star and itunes, et cetera. they're almost like the razor blade model that some of the other companies have. i think that they will be here for the long term, but there are other competitors out there that are putting increasing pressure on apple to carry on innovating. there is pressure coming from shareholders, as well. >> thank you very much. >> we'll get the key january jobs report in about an hour, she hadding light on the strength of the job market. ate 5,000 jobs were created last

month. one market watcher says the winter chill could impact the jobs numbers. >> the big thing is the weather. the number of snow days that we've seen. if you're a parent, you know how many snow days you've experienced. with all of this weather comes closures of schools, closures of stores, truckers that can't travel, it creates a lot of disruption. >> we'll have live coverage at 8:30 eastern time this morning. >> wall street set to open higher ahead of that data, do you futures up. the dow having its best day of the year yesterday. in asia, the markets taking their cue from wall state ending the day on a high note there, japan leading the games up 2%, shanghai gained a half of a%.

european markets are mostly higher at this hour. >> yahoo is saying goodbye to france and hello to i'd, transferring operation to the green isle at the end of march, limiting exposures to france's high corporate taxes. the tax rate there is 34% compared to 12.5 in ireland. yahoo is not alone, google, facebook, apple all doing the same. >> two opposing ciders working towards peace. >> we're going to tell you about the steps the pakistani government and taliban are taking to find common ground and the hurdles that accounted derail that goal. >> hawaii is work to go stop the surge in methamphetamine and property crimes. how a judge's zero tolerance for bad behavior is keeping convicts from ending up back behind bars. >> the olympics in 2016, we'll tell you about the steps brazil is taking to make sure it doesn't have the same problems

sochi had preparing for the games. >> talk of gay rights has dominated the discussion of the sochi olympics. we'll take a closer look at the controversy.

al jazeera america. we understand that every news story begins and ends with people. >> the efforts are focused on rescuing stranded residents. >> we pursue that story beyond the headline, pass the spokesperson, to the streets. >> thousands of riot police deployed across the capital. >> we put all of our global resources behind every story.

>> it is a scene of utter devastation. >> and follow it no matter where it leads - all the way to you. al jazeera america, take a new look at news. >> that special marquee marks the 50th anniversary of the day the beatles' performance on the ed sullivan show. i remember that well. my older sister was lying on the floor crying and i looked at her like why? >> crying from happiness. >> just hysterical. >> welcome back. >> i don't remember that day, but i'm still mad about the beatles. it's great to see the anniversary. >> peace talks are underway between the pakistan and taliban trying to chart a path to end a

decade long insurgency. >> hawaii taking a different approach to probation. >> as sochi takes the global stage, the international olympic committee is turning its attention to the summer games making sure the city is ready to host the competition. >> there is a war of words between are you sure shaw and the united states. victoria newland responding to that leaked phone conversation where she had choice words for the european union. the white house believes russia leaked the tape. she is in ukraine meeting with the president there in kiev. >> i'm obviously not going to comment on private diplomatic conversations, other than to say it was pretty impressive trade craft. the audio was extremely clear. what i would would say with regard to u.s.-russia relations, you know that they are very

broad. they are very deep. they are often complex. we do a lot of things together around the world. when the u.s. and russia can work together whether on problems like iran or syria, arms control, the world is a better place, but we will also always be candid with russia when we disagree, whether it's with regard to their policies inside russia or with regard to other policies, including policies in the neighborhood. >> she said the u.s. has been in contact with russia about ukraine's situation. >> negotiationers for the pakistani government and taliban have met for a first round of peace talks. a government negotiator scribbled the atmosphere as cordial and friendly. here to shed light on what's at stake is director of the south asia center at the atlantic council. he joins us from washington, d.c. last month, 100 people died in

attacks by the taliban across pakistan. why talks now? >> this is more talking about talks than real talks so don't hold your breath for the action to stop for the taliban in pakistan to stop attacking soft targets and even the military. the people representing the tall bonn are not from the taliban itself, and that is one of the problems. they say themselves as intermediaries, so the taliban has a very clear demand. they want sharia law to be imposed first on the territory and border region of the federally administered tribal areas and then in all of pakistan. the government side has not yet defined its goals except that it hopes to end the taliban violence, but there doesn't appear to be any room for compromise. >> when you said the taliban leaders are talking about sharia

law, that includes banning women from wearing pants in public. are they gaining ground? >> the government does not support any such moves. the speculation generally around this series of talks says that the government is making an effort to have talks. when the talks fail, the government will move to military approaches. >> what is the expect is as from people in pakistan? do they sense this could yield anything? >> i don't think the people in pakistan are expecting a great deal very soon, largely because it's not clear yet what the original goal of the government is in this. there's been no public debate or discussion. much of the policy that has been

discussed at the governmental level has been within governmental circles and much of it has been behind closed doors, so the public has really not been involved and other political parties have not been involved. i think the government needs to be careful about shaping the public environment in such a way that it can carry the public along with it and then define exactly what they want to do. part of the problem is that the government, not just this government, but since the independence of pakistan in 1947, governments have ignored the border region. there's been no economic or social development. until that region is integrated into pakistan proper, any solutions will be temporary. >> thank you so much. >> human rights watches reporting widespread abuse of women and girls in iraqi prison, publishes interviews with women

who say they were tortured and raped. there is comment to they believe the report is exaggerated. >> more than 130 people were hurt thursday, demonstrators demanding social reform. this is the second day of mass protest and more people are expected to take to the streets. 40% of the population is out of work in bosnia. >> the senate confirmed democratic max baucus, he served at chairman of the senate finance committee and was instrumental in the passage of president obama's signature health care law. he had already planned to step down at the end of the year. before that, he was nominated for the ambassador post in december, soon to be ambassador.

>> neigh began is on trial for corruption accused of taking bribes while mayor in exchange for city contracts. he took the stand thursday. he testified that he was trying to speed the process for selecting contractors because the city was struggling to recover from hurricane katrina. in addition to bribery, he faces wire fraud, conspiracy and money laundering charges. >> crime and punishment hawaiian style. even paradise has its problems. drug use and other crimes landed thousands of hawaiiens in prison. one judge thinks there's a better way to deal with inmates. >> away from the tranquil beaches and glimmering resorts, an evil tide has swept the island, methamphetamine. drug abusers repeatedly arrested were clogging the criminal justice system. judge alm created hope, hawaiis

opportunity probation with enforcement. >> hope is a new way to do probation, a more effective way to do probation. >> traditional probation is offered by courts as an alternative to hard time. for a misdemeanor or even a felony, the guilty party is assigned a probation officer. the judge calls hope probation on steroids. >> you do something wrong, your parents give you a consequence immediately. that's what we're doing. >> america tonight sat in court to watch hope in action. >> today is going to be your first day in the program. >> the i deal thing would be you start following all the rules and i won't see you again, but i recognize we're all human beings, we can make bad choices, make mistakes, we can even run into old friends who say let's go get high, right? if that ever happens, come in and admit it to your p.o. right away. if that happens you get a few days in jail. if you test positive and deny it and lab con confirms it, you're

getting 15. >> don't show up at all? thirty days behind bars. not sometime in the future, but right away. >> if that happens repeatedly, it's the open term. >> it's a pyramid. some people don't violate at all. a smaller group violate once. a smaller twice, a smaller group vital three times. >> a study revealed hope probationers are 55% less likely to be arrested for a new crime. 72% less likely to use drugs, 61% less likely to skip appointments with their super vicary officer. >> washington, texas and massachusetts and representatives from foreign governments are interested from places as far away as japan and sweden. >> you have been doing really well. >> even tough guys like the judge say some of them deserve the chance. >> since you've been doing so

well, as of today, i'm going to grant the motion, so your court supervision is over. best of luck. >> a chance to prove they can be free. aljazeera, hawaii. >> hawaii has seen a spike in the number of inmates in recent years and the state doesn't have space to house them. many are sent to three facilities on the mainland, one in kentucky, two in arizona. >> shutting down parts of rio de janeiro protesting fare hikes. riot police using ba tons and firing tear gas, they're upset over a fare hike. the clash is forcing the main train station to close, police cracking down sparked nationwide unrest. that hike was reversed. with the opening ceremony in sochi, all eyes on the 2016 summer olympics in rio de

janeiro. juan carlos is with the kato institute, good morning. >>. there are con kearns following massive protests last summer. will rio be another sochi? >> i think that the main concern when it comes to brazil is definitely infrastructure. we can see that happening already with the work preparations. brazil is hosting the world cup sporting event at the olympics this summer. this is olympics could be a disaster for brazil. both events were supposed to be brazil's coming of age as a global power, but what we see right now is it can be a global embarrassment. >> the thing that people don't seem to be explaining is why. why would the protestors in brazil want to embarrass brazil

when it is going to be on the world stage? >> if we look at the cost of this sporting facilities that brazil is building, they are norm mouse. some of these stadiums are costing a fortune, built in parts of brazil where they will probably never be used again and brazilians are very heavily taxed people, it is one of the nation that is taxes people the most. brat still is looking at spending on extravagant sporting facilities where they have poor infra structure. it depends on how brazil performs. this could be a major disaster for the president, who is facing reelection in the fall. >> a lot of eyes right now on vladimir putin in russia but the

eyes will be in brazil. >> just facing eelection later this year, her popularity took a dip last summer when the process took place. she recovered somewhat, but faces a strong challenger this time around. her reelection is not assured. it would depend on how brazil performs. soccer is a religion and their national team is the major passion. if brazil loses the workup and that creates unrest, definitely that could spell trouble for the president, and i wouldn't be surprised if she gets defeated for reelection. >> the i.o.c. is concerned about massive street protests we saw during the federations cup. with that as a backdrop, did anybody in government say hey maybe we need to do something about the lower class to make sure that at least they are

appeased ahead of the games? >> yeah, the authorities have taken some steps towards appeasing the public. one is more spending when it comes to health and education. the other one was the approval by congress of an anti corruption bill. corruption is a major concern and the fact that the way that the government is building these sporting facilities, there have been corruption scandals involved. the government has been take interesting steps in order to appease the population, but we have seen in rio, people are very angry, and the way that they can shut down the city when it comes to rio at least could spell serious trouble for the authorities coming to the olympic games, like coming to the word cup this summer. >> always interesting, the lead up to the games. after the game starts, somehow

unity takes place. >> we're just a few hours away from the opening as her moneys at sochi and the games will start and things will start to manifest. the question is whether the athletes will use the opportunity to protest russia's anti gay laws. john henry smith is here with that story. >> certainly, the lead up to the games have been full of controversy with regard to the gay rights issue. $51 billion, the sochi winter games have been turned the most expensive ever and the sochi games the most controversial olympics so far. at least since the last time russia hosted the games. we have more. >> more than three decades since hosting their last olympic games, russia again finds itself at the center of another international controversy. in 1980, the issue involved its invasion of afghanistan and prompt add boycott by 65

countries, including the united states. now in 2014, the host nation is embroiled in battles with gay rights otherses after laws passed under president vladimir putin criminalized non-traditional sexual relations. >> we talk about marriage equality and rights for the lbgts in the united states but when you travel abroad, our brothers and sisters are being persecuted, murdered, show up missing, can be imprisoned. it's a great opportunity for to us take this cause worldwide and make a huge impact while the whole world is watching. >> it's happening because the anti lbgt laws in russia. that's what we have to focus on. >> that's one of the reasons a gay rights advocacy organization has used a direct quote from the actual olympics chart tore build awareness and support for their

attacks on what they call the attacks. >> sports will not discriminate on race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, purely on the merit of the athlete. >> the reason this is a big deal, started the principle six is because of the laws in russia. that is where we want to have an impact. >> many organizations plan to use social media to support their cause instead of sending representatives to the front lines. whether russia likes it or not, gay rights will be part of the winter games. >> it's really saddening that we're in a time when people still don't see the humanity in lbgt individuals. i think sport has really done so much and to really helping us understand race relationships, class relationships and now these issues. >> nobody is more offended than

me by some of the anti gay and lesbian legislation in russia. i'm looking forward to gay and lesbian athletes bringing home the gold, silver and bronze, which would go a long way in rejecting the kind of attitudes that we're seeing there. >> there will be ample opportunity, as 294 total medals will be awarded in sochi across 15 different sports. >> opening ceremonies in the 2014 winter games are set for 11:00 a.m. eastern time. the olympic competition has already begun. we'll have highlights in our sports report in our next hour. >> turning down the radios and televisions around the world, because they don't want to know yet and that time delay problem. >> china facing a growing demand for dairy. >> how the staples are seeing a boom in popularity in the east.

>> we'll tell you about a husband's plea to care for his brain dead pregnant wife so their unborn child can live.

>> the opening as her moneys of the winter olympics set to begin a few hours from now in sochi, russia. threats of international protests and security concerns. >> people without power in the northeast while a rare snowstorm hits the pacific northwest. >> in california, all eyes on the skies, operating for rain, a drought causing farmers to kori. it will be years before they

recover from the devastation. >> we didn't really know about ed sullivan. he saw us coming from sweden and he booked us. >> looking back at this day, the beatles 50 years ago today, ringo starr sharing memories of the british invasion and what it meant for those four young lads from liverpool. >> good morning, welcome to aljazeera america. i'm del walters. the 2014 winter olympics are now underway in sochi. the opening ceremony officially kicking off on the games in just a few hours, organizers are saying they have quite the show plan but keeping the details a secret. we do know the ceremony will showcase russian culture and history. there will be fireworks, pat raid of nations and lighting of the olympic flame. paul brennan take a look at what

the games mean to russia. >> after 65,000 kilometers, the journey is nearly completely. in the streets of sochi city, the torch relay is drawing ever closer to the olympic stadium. the excitement is growing. staging the games is a matter of national honor for russia and listening to the people here, the word being used is "pride." >> i'm very glad, very emotional. there are so many people here. >> i am very proud, for my country, first of all. >> this flame will unit our country. russia will become more united, stronger and happy. >> you can see the enthusiasm, the excitement that comes with the torch passing through the streets of sochi just a few hours before the opening ceremony. after it passes, what then? >> the i.o.p. on friday expressed his hope for a successful olympics with the unifying power of sport. >> it's exciting. i'm really longing for the

second when the olympic flame shines over the olympic stadium. i'm sure so do the athletes. i'm sure it will be an exciting show. >> these games have permanently altered this coastal resort and not always for the better. vladamir used to fish in this stream, now it is polluted. >> the athletes and the officials are celebrating today, but the problems for sochi are still here and after the olympics, it's the citizens who have to cope with those problems, issues with ecology, economy, social issues. all those problems appeared because of the olympics. >> there will be a temporary reprieve. the pageantry and sport will take precedence. previous olympics have been judged by their legacy. the legacy of the sochi games remains a huge question mark. paul brennan, aljazeera, sochi.

>> the porch and circumstance of the opening ceremony is being overshadowed by security concerns. roy is in sochi, a pretty good start to the games, but a lot of pressure on vladimir putin to pull them off. >> yeah, that's right. i mean, this really has been vladimir putin's project from the get-go. he was championing it many years ago when he actually stood up himself and spoke to the i.o.c. in english, something he very rarely does and bidded himself for the games to be held here. now the moment that actually come and there's a huge amount of pressure for him personally to pull this off, and also for russia as a whole, as paul was saying, it's a matter of real russian national pride. that's why so much time and effort has been put into the security here, because the security is of paramount importance for the games going well. there are 100,000 security

personnel who have been drafted in to make sure that everything goes smoothly. you have drones up in the sky. you have petrol boats off the black sea coast and everywhere you go, scanners vet you to make sure you have credit the correct accreditation, the right badges and things to get into the facilities. it is incredibly important to make sure everything goes well. >> with all the talk about security, measures being put into place, how does it feel? do you feel in russia like you are in a police state as opposed to an olympic ceremony? >> i don't think so. this is a place where security as i've just been saying is absolutely paramount. most people i think here feel that the policing is here not for repression or anything like that, but for actually making this event go safely. so yes, there are police

everywhere you look. there are police in the train stations, there are police not just in the train stations, but all along the train tracks from sochi city to where all the actual sports events are taking place, a few kilometers away, so it's all here, i think to make sure things go well. of course there are complaints made by human rights activists and gay rights activists who have been saying they're being denied access to these games, kept away. after the games, i think there will be a lot nor investigation, stories coming out about people who haven't been allowed to come here but for the actual spectators coming here for supported, i think all of this has been done for their protection. >> thank you very much. >> the united states residents traveling to the sochi olympics will have to leave their shaving kits and tooth paste behind, liquid gels and aerosols are band, effective immediately, but only apply to say carry-on

luggage. it comes after intelligence officials warned explosives could be concealed in cosmetics and tooth paste. the u.s. is working with russia and other countries to disrupt threats to sochi. >> the white house says russia is responsible for leaking a recording in which a top u.s. diplomats insults the european union. this comes as washington is trying to broker an end to the ukrainian crisis. >> a leaked phone call between victoria newland, officials remain quiet, none commenting on the leak. they say they will not do so in rewards to this private conversation between two top u.s. diplomats. the feeling is that the leak has drawn attention to the fact that america may well have its own preferences on who it would prefer to see in power here in

ukraine. at the time, the opposition are somewhat united, putting a side political differences to show a unified front in trying to push president victor yanukovych from power. that most certainly is unlikely to go down very well here. suspicion for the leak is focused on moscow. the russians are for the time being denying any kind of involvement. the indication of the suggestion at least is well look, if the americans have their own interests at play over ukraine, then most certainly russia does, also. we know that the ukrainian president is heading to sochi where the winter games are likely to start, likely to meet up with the russian president and may learn more about where the russians are hoping to take the future of this country. >> russia accusing the u.s. of meddling with ukraines in

terrible affairs. the u.s. says it is not taking sides. >> president obama will sign the farm bill into allow, funding the food stamp program and crop subsidies for farmers. that bill passing with bipartisan sport. that bipartisan feeling in congress that led to the budget deal may be a thing of the past. there is lots of unfinished work in washington. it may be hard to do with the house up for reelection and 33 seats in the senate up for grabs. we look at the big legislation that is stuck. >> after passing the farm and budget bills in congress, other big issues appear to have stalled in washington, issues that affect millions in the u.s. and threaten the economic well being of the country abroad. first, immigration. after signaling he would seek immigration reform this year, house speaker john boehner is

retreating a bit. >> but i've never underestimated the difficulty in moving forward this year. >> the biggest obstacle to that goal, says boehner, is the president. >> there's widespread doubt about whether this administration can be trusted to enforce our laws. >> that charge rejected by the white house. >> the president that an exceptional record of improving border security on his watch. there are more c.p.b. agents on the border now than r., consistently. >> another reason for the potential gridlock, the president's promise during the state of the union address to act alone when congress won't. >> wherever and whenever i can take steps without legislation to expand opportunity for more american families, that's what i'm going to do. >> he's talking about his phone and his pen, and he's feeding more distrust about whether he's committed to the rule of law. >> as for extending jobless

benefits to the 1.7 million who lost them in december. >> the motion is not agreed to. >> republicans shot down the latest proposal by democrats who are vowing to keep up the fight. >> we all support this on this side of the aisle. >> then there's the debt ceiling. today the country reaches its debt limit but runs out of money at the end of the month. republicans say there is time for a deal, but the white house wants action now. >> we're not going to pay ransom in return for congress fulfilling this basic responsibility. >> an old battle waged again with another washington deadlock and deadline. toms drayton, aljazeera. >> vice president biden taking a dig at one of the country's busiest airports. speaking in philadelphia, he stressed the need to rebuild the nation's infrastructure, comparing laguardia to an airport in the developing world.

>> if i blind folded someone and took him at 2:00 in the morning into the airport in hong kong and said where do you think you are, they say this must be america, it's a modern airport. if i took him blind folded to the laguardia airport in new york, you must think i must be in some third world country. >> biden saying the u.s. is following behind 20 countries over the past decade in the quality of its infrastructure and investing in our roads and public transportation he says would bolter the economy and create jobs. laguardia was built in 1947, serves 20 million passengers each year, new york transit officials saying there is a push to modernize at a cost of $6.3 billion. >> five schools shot down because of strange smells from the water, schools sending kids home on thursday one day after two others in the charleston area closed their doors. a chemical spill contaminated the drinking water.

since then the water has been declared safe, the pipes in all five schools flushed and tested. >> federal investigators joining a massive search in southern wisconsin for a newborn baby. cadeen powell has been missing since early thursday morning. his mother didn't find him in his crib, the baby's father was also in the house. both parents are cooperating. the step sister of one of the parents has been arrested in iowa. right now, police are not calling her a suspect. >> winter weather affecting states coast-to-coast, hammering the pacific northwest thursday, dumping a foot of snow in oregon and washington. a second storm today could bring up to another foot of snow to that region. meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of people across the midwest and northeast are still without power after that series of snow and ice storms wednesday knocked down trees and power lines. more than 400,000 people in pennsylvania roughing it. officials say it could be days before all of the lights are back on again.

for more on your national forecast this morning, we turn to nicole mitchell. good morning. >> good morning. >> where we have those power outages, the temperatures have been pretty consistently in the 20's. if you don't have heat that's a big deal and that's up and down portions of the east coast. more on the temperatures, but let's get to the moisture. we had disturbance through the south, now a few places will get a couple drops of rain or snow, but the big player is in the west coast where we need it. we've been under drought conditions up and down the coastline. it's making driving tricky. we're not used to these winter storms. we've had one area push in, a lot of places getting a break, but then another round and then maybe another break as we get into tomorrow before we get more. it's going to be pretty consistent for us. we definitely need the moisture, but this is our big game in town over the next couple of days. how does all of this shape out

in terms of totals? >> we have winter storm warnings up so widespread, because the sierra, we could see the higher elevations now, four feet or more of snow in a couple of isolated spots. lower elevations that would normally see rain, portland, 50 degrees is the average, yesterday we were in the 20s with know. really other than a few places along the coastline, most of this is snow even for place that is typically get rain, causing travel problems, but needed moisture. >> desperately needed help coming to syria, a ceasefire in the city of homs, allowing humanitarian aid to get through. >> there are increasing concerns about the long term that have drought in california you heard nicole talking about. farmers are worried about their crops and impact on the state and national economy. >> ladies and gentlemen, the beatles! >> marking 50 years since the

british invasion. ringo starr looks back about the day the beatles touched down in america for the very first time. you are looking live at the ed sullivan theater, the way it looked 50 years ago. television was black and white and so was the marquee. we will be right back.

as a cease fire hazard begun in the besieged city of homs designed to let aid in and some civilians out. the united states has been forced to apologize after a diplomate aligned an opposition leader in ukraine and swore about the european union and suspect russia of leaking a private phone call made by victim yeah newton. the most expensive olympic games in history and spent more than $50 billion to stage the winter games in sochi and athletes are being assured of safety despite threats of attacks. a former u.s. hedge fund manager has been found guilty of involvement in one of the country's biggest ever insider trading schemes and prosecutors

says matthew misused secrets from clinical trials of a new >> good morning within welcome back to aljazeera america. i'm del walters. >> human rights watch saying that women and girls are abused in iraqi prisons. the organization releasing interviews with women who say they were tortured and raped by security forces. iraq's human right ministry said there is limited illegal behavior but say the reports are overexaggerated. there may be some relief for syrians in homs, a ceasefire going into effect. bashar al assad's regime said evacuations can begin. these are the images live from syria of evacuations taking place.

refugees are being loaded on buses. aljazeeras james bays reports of the desperate need for the humanitarian aid to get into the city. >> their polite is desperate, the old city of homs besieged and bombarded. food, medicine are needed. now after weeks of negotiation, some fresh hope. >> we welcome that parties have agreed a humanitarian pause to allow civilians out of and aid into homs. >> around the security council table, some nations, including the world said most powerful express reservations and concern. >> given that the regime up to this point described just about anybody living in opposition territory as a terrorist and attacked them as such, we have reason on the basis of history to be very skeptical and concerned about anybody who

falls into regime hands who comes from a part of the country that has been under opposition control. >> nearly two weeks ago, a deal had seemed close. >> the convoy is ready. >> during syrian peace talks, it was announced a deal to let aid in and people out. then nothing happened. >> u.n. officials are cautiously optimistic this time. not only would a deal bring relief to people in desperate need, it's estimated there are between 700 and 2,500 people trapped in the old part of homs. it also would be one positive step ahead of the next round of syria peace talks in geneva, due to start monday. aljazeera at the united nations. >> the city of homs has seen the most fighting during the civil war, many residents eating grass just to stay alive.

>> hopin hoping to negotiate ano a decades long insurgency, several conditions set for the meeting including all talks held within the framework of the constitution. they say all fighting should stop while talks are underway and talks limited to areas affected by violence, not all of pakistan. >> it has now been 41 days since egypt's interim government has been holding our colleagues. aljazeera demanded the immediate release of its journalists. >> canadian filmmaker john gray son is now comfortable in the media spotlight. he was arrested in egypt last year, held for 50 days. his imprisonment heavily. ized became a cause for celebrities and politicians. >> the fact that petitions were being signed by in our case ben affleck and charlize they are

reason. our cell mates said who, but were impressed by robert deniro. >> officials heard from canada's prime minister. steven has stayed silent on the case of these colleagues who are all in prison in egypt. the editor of the leading newspaper believes he knows what's behind the different treatment. >> unfortunately, i think it's been dismissed as a case that is not involving a full canadian witness which we've editorialized against. he has full rights as a canadian to consular support. >> he was speaking of this press conference by aljazeera to bring attention to the imprisonment and harsh conditions. >> they are coping with appalling conditions, head at times in cells with new access to light, little food or water, infested with insects, being

forced to sleep on the floors without blankets or pillows. >> the three aljazeera america employees are held in a cell together. >> journalism is not terrorism. >> most canadians don't know about this story. it hasn't gotten a lot of media attention which is why the network hosts these events hoping the people will pressure their governments to say something. they hope the average person will weigh in with this simple sign. >> these pictures are spreading on social media, the image sending a powerful message from the mostly powerless. they are not politicians or celebrities, but their message is clear, free the journalists, free speech. aljazeera, toronto. >> the white house i also also calling on egypt to release the aljazeera journalists. >> taliban fighters in afghanistan releasing this video of a captured military dog,

taking it during a firefight, an american military spokesperson saying the dog belongs to british military troops. >> the drought is crippling farms in california. we have the details on one southern california city that is feeling the pinch. >> this farm in california 50 miles north of los angeles has been in the family since the late 1800s. >> we are one of the pioneer california family farmers here. >> he's seen it all, wet years, dry years, but nothing like this year. >> we're doomed here. we got to have water, or, you know, you need water, soil and sunlight so grow a seed, and if you're missing one of those, it just doesn't happen. >> what is happening, summer crops like these tomatoes are growing in the winter. >> tomatoes in february. >> while winter crops like these

straw about herries are struggling to survive, which means so is phil mcgrath. >> this is my livelihood, that is what to do. it's my family's livelihood. if we don't get rain this year... >> it's the same for farmers in the state. california's megadrought means there isn't enough water to produce milk and beef to fruits and vegetables. it's estimated 500,000 acres of the state's farmland will go unplanted because there isn't enough water to grow the crops. >> what happens in california definitely does not stay in california. the state is the largest producer of food in the country, as more and more farms like this one feel the effects of the drought, it means food prices are going to rise, impacting everyone. >> the reality is you're not going to get the fresh crops you depend on from california. >> milt is a field crop expert

at the university of california at riverside. he said overall food prices could rise but as much as 10%. >> crops that you'd really see a big increase in costs are where we grow almost all the countries produce in, art chokes, asparagus, o avocados. there is a big drought in california. it's not going away and is likely to persist for years. >> everybody turns on the tap and gets water. the day that doesn't happen is where they understand what's happening to the farmers, but that's where i am right now. >> it could be the worst modern drought in history. farmers like fill mcgrath can only watch as the family business dries up right before his eyes. >> that is jennifer london reporting. california did finally get rain on thursday, but they need

18-36 inches of rain before the drought is over. to find out if there is any rain on the way, we turn to nicole mitchell. >> we have more rain for the west coast, more snow, actually more widespread element out there. because we've had that and the system after system coming in, temperatures blow average after a mild winter so far. now, you're still feeling mild compared to the midwest where minneapolis, billings more negative, houston, 35 degrees. that temperature won't go up much today, so well blow average. the northeast, philadelphia, for example, in this region, because of the ice storm, a couple of days ago, still, many people without power, so if you don't have heat in your home, that 25 degrees feelsery chilly. we will stay below average the next couple of days so that's a problem for us. if you want a warm spot, miami, 82, piet be looking good for the weekend. >> it sounds pretty good, too. another case of a pregnant woman

declared brain dead but in this case her husband fighting to keep her alive and also planning for the birth of a son. >> a power struggle at the scene of a car accident, a firefighter handcuffed and thrown into the back of the police cruiser. >> you have to learn to say no and walk away at times. >> gauging the economic recovery, why the spending habits of americans may not be the best indicator that things are getting better. >> i'm john henry smith. the winter olympics are finally here. we take a look back on opening day and what the u.s. downhill team is saying about competing without one of their stars.

>> start with one issue ad guests on all sides of the debate. and a host willing to ask the tough questions and you'll get... the inside story ray suarez hosts inside story weekdays at 5pm et / 2pm pt only on al jazeera america >> welcome back to aljazeera america. one of the top stairs of this hour involves a pregnant woman in canada, five months pregnant

and brain dead. she's kept on life support until her doctors con deliver her unborn child. erika joins us now. this story is similar to the story in texas, but this husband wants to keep her on life support. >> he cannot give up the chance of possibly saving his son so machines have been keeping the mother alive in hopes the baby gross enough to be delivered by c-section sometime next month. the husband spends every day sitting next to his wife, holding her hand and talking to his unborn son. >> in late december, 32-year-old robin benson of british columbia canada collapsed on her bathroom floor, a brain hemorrhage caused irreversible damage. since she was five months pregnant, doctors told her husband they could keep her object life support and try to deliver the baby. he decided to do it. dylan benson named his unborn baby boy, deseating a blog to

his progress while divulging his own thought process. my wife would want me to try to give our child the best life possible. after he wrote about the tragedy, friends started raising funds for him and the unborn child. donations have poured in from around the world. more than a month later, and a donation goal of $36,000, which would have been his wife's salary for the year has been met and tripled. meanwhile, the unborn baby is growing every day. he blogged the child now has a higher than 80% chance of survival, adding it is very difficult to know we will have to say our goodbye to say robin within hours of seeing the baby for the first time. >> this case sounds similar to the texas case of marlise munoz. her unborn baby was not healthy.

her husband fought to shut off the ventilator. she was taken off the machines two weeks ago. >> the big difference involves the health of the unborn child. british columbia doesn't have the same law texas did. >> more than two zeb states have the similar law as texas, but all of canada does not. >> also a bizarre story, a fireman in california arrested for doing his job at the scene of an accident. take a look. >> this is ridiculous. he is arresting engineer greg for where he spotted the fire engine. we're in the middle of patient care with patients on the freeway and trying to protect our scene. >> it began when a police officer asked veteran firefighter to move his truck out of the way. he said no. he was handcuffed then in front of the news cameras. a fellow firefighter said the officer's actions were outrageous. >> that the safety of a citizen or those of us rendering aid would be put in jeopardy just to

have a lane on the freeway open, i would definitely stand up and make a stand for the safety of my crew. >> now on thursday, police and firefighters met to discuss accident scene protocol. the two agencies agreed to work together in the future. in a joint statement, the arrest was described as an isolated incident. >> the olympic torch to be lit in hours, the competition is underway. we look at the start of 2014. >> that olympic torch must be putting out some really, really hot temperatures, balmy in the 50-degree range right now. the winter olympic games are underway in sochi, russia. competitions began thursday but take a break today for opening ceremonies, scheduled at 11:00 a.m. eastern time this morning. sunday, it's back to the games. here's a sample of what you'll see. some of these start way early,

the united states takes on finland at 3:00 a.m. eastern time. the men's slopestyle finals starts around 3:45 a.m., and later in the day, the ladies mogul finals begins in freestyle skiing at around 1:00 p.m. eastern time. one of the events already underway is the women's freestyle moguls freestyling competition. hanna kerney turned in an excellent score of 23.05. american heidi kloser weren't down with a knee injury. >> downhill skiers were doing their thing in trial runs. american star value i can't mancuso had the third best run among the women. the three time olympic medal winner and her teammates get to do it for real sunday. knee injuries will keep two time olympic medal winner lindsey von

from being one of those teammates. the americans must adopt. >> we definitely miss lindsey. she's a big presence on our team and always the one to beat. you definitely feel that she's not here. i think also, it leaves a lot of opportunity for everyone else, too and to do your best. really we're always here to do our best and without having lindsey, it's kind of like we've adopted to it already, and we just can't wait for her to get back. >> besides vonn, another star missing the sochi olympics is henrik sedin, recovering from a rib injury that forced him to miss six games. this is a blow to letting gold medal contender team sweden, now missing sedin and franzen. >> two goons ago, most of the boxing world was convinced the judges who awarded timothy

bradley an upset win over manny pacquiao needed better eyeglasses. pacquiao will get a chance to avenge the laws that ended his seven year unbeaten run. mgm grand garden arena hosted a press conference. >> this will be a good fight and more action in the ring. we don't know who's going to win. we never know, only god nose what's going to happen. >> this fight is basically redemption for me. i'm going to beat manny pack you to get the credit i didn't get in the first fight. that's the bottom line. >> timothy bradley said he went into a long depression after that fight getting scrutiny from people that think he didn't win. >> we shall see what we shall

see. thank you very much. >> that stolen violin has been discovered, found in a milwaukee attic. the rare instrument appears to be in good condition. robbers used a stun gun to steal it from frank almond a week ago. the violins authenticator was afraid it might never be found. >> you had to know his schedule. i guess the thieves thought more about stealing it than getting rid of it. they were probably unprepared for the virtual ton of bricks that hit them when everyone noticed. >> three men connected to the robbery are now in custody. if you're wondering what all the fuss is about, that violin is valid at $5 million. >> president obama set to welcome the french president to washington next week. the visit is designed to strengthen ties between the two countries, editor at large for

time magazine sat down with the french president, talking about syria, the n.s.a. spying scandal and alleged affair that has consumed his country. she is in london today, quite the catch. during your interview with the french president, did he describe the n.s.a. leaker as a patriot or did he believe he is more of a traitor to the u.s.? >> he didn't actually look at it that way. the thing that was most interesting was that he sees the whole n.s.a. affair as something that although it clearly create add huge problem potentially between france and the u.s., has now given strength to his hand. he's turning up in washington with what he sees at leverage to get a kind of better deal on intelligence sharing and to reset the relationship when he arrives, so he sounded

remarkably bouyant about it. >> he believes that in this case, france hat upper hand against the united states in moving anythings forward. why does he feel that way? >> well, because, you know, it has been clear that france has been spied on, and france remains for the u.s. and actually for the rest of the world a country of a great deal of hard power by european standards. it has the largest military. it still has a very interventionist zeal, because unlike the u.s., it hasn't been involved in iraq and wars that put it off intervention. people actually want french help, and he's going to the u.s. saying look, you've done something bad to our country,

we're prepared to overlook this, but that means you have to actually reset the relationship, treat france not as a european partner, but as you're equal. >> he talked about the issue of syria saying that he believed the united states should do more with rewards to syria but both in the united states and u.k., the public does not want to see any type of military intervention. >> indeed. again, this is where france stands apart from other countries. he feels that he was very critical, very sharply critical of the failure to intervene in syria in 2012 when he feels assad was at his weakest. he also characterized the series of missteps and stumbles that saw america at the one minute to midnight call off the strikes against syria not as a failure,

but as a success, because he's saying that the threat of the joint strikes because france would have participated very prominently in those strikes, that is what led to syria begin to go surrender its chemical weapons. of course, a lot of people would say russia was the victor in that situation and assad was the victor in that situation, but very keen to say france was. >> i beg sometimes not to ask these questions but people are talking about an affair involving the french president. did he talk about it? >> indeed. >> and he said? >> he didn't want to, but it was an unavoidable question. he, in fact, split up with the official first lady on the very same day that i sat down with him, and when i went in to talk to him, there were really

thousands of media at the palace. yes, i asked him about it. she had a state-funded position. she was potentially going to be traveling to washington. he talked about how difficult it is keeping private life private. he later announced in a very kind of bold and some felt a bit brutal at the same time that indeed they had now split. >> i'm going to have to consult you off, because we're about to lose -- >> talking about it. >> thank you very much. we are following breaking news on the health of the labor market at this hour. patricia here to break down the key january jobs report. good morning. >> good morning, i wish i could say it's a better morning, but these are very disappointing numbers again, i'm sorry to report. in january, the economy added

113,000 jobs. that was well below what analysts were looking for, even the lower end of the forecast. it just missed. economists were looking for 185,000 jobs. 113 is a pretty disappointing number. the unemployment rate edged down to 6.6%. at least it edged down for the right reasons, because the labor force participation rated, the number of people in work and actively looking for work held steady at 63%. if there's a silver lining to this report, we saw some quality jobs created of the few that were created. manufacturing added 21,000 jobs and construction added 48,000 jobs, but make no mistake, del, this is a very disappointing report. >> not the numbers the white house or administration was looking for. >> absolutely not. >> thank you very much. the release of those numbers gives a better understanding of how the economy is going, but it is just a snapshot. it doesn't account for changing

attitudes about jobs and spending. we have that story, new trends in the workplace. >> as in most advanced economies, consumer spending in the u.s. accounts for most of the jobs, so there's ground for concern in the weak post holiday sales forecast of big retailers. looking past the bad weather that's kept buyers close to home, there's a long term trend in evidence. a leading culting company reports 94% of consumers said even if the economy improves, they plan to keep spending at current levels. >> no, i don't expect to start spending a lot of at any time soon. >> my shopping has changed greatly. you have to learn to say no and walk away at times. >> one factor behind tuesday, of course the number of americans who's paychecks have stopped growing or who may not be drawing one at all. that reality is part of a pattern that actually dates back years. >> since world war ii, a steadily growing share of

american men age 25-54 has been neither working nor looking for work. in december, one in six of those men were jobless. economists see the result in what they call the new gaggalty. >> you have a generation that they don't really care about keeping up with the joneses. they believe in d.i.y., do-it-yourself. they don't want to necessarily work long hours to pay high marginal tax rates when they can take in each other's laundry. >> many have stopped looking for work thanks to the benefits from the obama's administration expansion of health care. >> it's going to be a person who may be didn't want to work those hours. they still can, but in that case, maybe they'll decide they don't need to anymore and that in their case might be a better choice and a better option. >> an option that for better or

worse promises a radical reassessment of working in america. w.t.f., washington. >> flat consumer spending could spell trouble for the economy in the long run, two thirds of all activity activity is generated by the consumers when spending. >> marking 50 years since the beginning of this, the british invasion. ♪ ♪ >> former beatle ringo starr opening up and sharing memories with us this morning. ♪ ♪

>> welcome back to aljazeera america. for years, ringo starr provided the beat for the beatles, now

talks to us about the band said arrival in the u.s. first let's find out the forecast for the country with nicole mitchell. >> let's touch upon the weekend. the southern tier have the country, a band of rain. you could see a snowflake or rain drop, not expecting great moisture. the midwest, next system comes in tomorrow and more to the northeast sunday, lighter snow with this one. a lot of places one to three inches. we'll keep you updated on all that. >> west will stay very active, watch for snow even in lower i willvasions. >> 50 years ago today, beatle mania took hold in the u.s. the beatles were met by thousands of fans as they flew into new york city. we had a chance to sit down with ringo starr. >> even 50 years on, we all know

someone who knows exactly where they were when it happened, not when tragedy hit with the death of john kennedy, but when the beatles landed at j.f.k. airport. their frenzied arrival served as the antidote to a nation's sadness. ringo starr could feel how badly america needed the baseles. >> new york was jumping, and we were jumping a weed landed in new york, we were in america. there was nothing more far out than that because all the movie we loved, we were in our 20s, lads, were incredible. i felt even on the plane, new york was pulling us down, come on! come on! i had a great time. >> the beatles had a spectacular first look at america. >> i saw we were number one and living in the plaza, the whole floor. we didn't really know about ed sullivan. he saw us coming from sweden and he booked us, and we had no

records here, but we got here, it was up. ♪ ♪ >> what the country saw was one of the most memorable t.v. appearances in history. then it was on to d.c. >> in washington and around, the stage went round, i think it was a boxing ring. ♪ ♪ >> i had to jump up and get it going, because i'm playing here and the band was going around here. [ laughter ] >> i could just see them doing that now. oh, i'll fix it. >> 50 years later, ringo says it's the songs that are at the heart of the beatles, not the hype. >> for me, it's the music, not the haircuts we used to have or the beatle boots, the music is still out there, and it's still great. ♪ ♪ >> while the beatles musical

legacy is cemented, ringo's personal legacy is different. he was recently honored with a lifetime award for peace and love from the david lynch foundation. transcendental meditation is important for him. >> my second son had just been born. when i got home, there was a message from george and john. we just met this guy, we're going to wales, you got to come. >> ok. >> did you think they were nuts when you heard that? >> no, but we went to wales. the first time i met him, i thought this guy shines, you know, we went to india, had some lessons, and i meditated this morning, and it's still working, you know. >> what's ringo starr like when he doesn't meditate? >> angry.

>> on my birthday, the seventh of july every year, we celebrate at noon wherever you are. i'm usually on tour, so it could be anywhere. we had that moment of peace and love. that's all. now it's in japan, in spain, you know what i mean, it's taken off. >> seventh of july they run with the bulls. you're going to have to go to pam lena to tell them. >> i didn't know that. you see, you learn something every day. >> ringo's youthful charm on display for fans and enter viewers across oceans and decades. >> michael shure is in los angeles right now. ringo starr does not like to do interviews. what was it like to finally have a chance to talk? >> you know del, knowing that and going in with that knowledge, i said i wanted to get something out of him that we weren't able to get out of him. turned out he was very open, eager to take me back to the 1960's. it wasn't me who brought up the

stuff about going to india, going to wales and transcendental meditation. he was actually a very gracious interview. >> they have so guarded over the years with their reputation because so much has been said, some right, some wrong. do you sense now that we are at this 50 year mark that they feel they can let the air out of the balloon and tell the true story? >> in a way, i think also they may have grown tired of talking to the beatles for so long, they have had a break from it third baseman george harrison's funeral was the last time he talked about in depth until now. i think that they see how important it is to america 50 years on, to the history of their band and their legacy it is. i think it's somewhat exciting. i got a little bit out of that from ringo starr. >> did they understand why america went crazy? i had a sister that when they played on the ed sullivan show

began to cry. i looked at her and said really? did the beatles understand why america was going crazy? >> the sense that i got from ringo is that they did not. they understood they were big in europe, they were groundbreaking. i don't think that they got, you know, leading up to that that they got the feeling that it was going to be what it was and yes, they weren't aware of it. i think that was one of the things i got out of ringo that was kind of interesting. >> michael shure in los angeles. i am certain that somewhere there is a ringo starr autograph in your collection. great interview. that's going to do it for this edition of aljazeera america. more headlines straight ahead in two minutes.

>> welcome back to aljazeera america. these are the stories we're following for you. the white house is in damage control mode after the release of a tape featuring a top u.s. diplomat making insulting remarks about the european union

rewarding ukraine. she is now in ukraine meeting with the president in kiev. >> the winter olympics are now officially underway in sochi, russia. several qualifying events already taking place. the opening ceremony set to begin in a few hours. >> the t.s.a. banning liquids, gels, powders on flights from the u.s. to russia comes a day after warnings that explosives would be concealed in tooth paste or cross metic tubes. >> president obama set to sign the farm bill law, in michigan. funding for the supplemental aid program will decrease by $8 billion. >> the city of aleppo, a suicide bomber blowing himself up freeing inmates. the attack all part of an offensive aim capturing key government symbols in and around

aleppo. those are your headlines. you can always log on to aljazeera.com where the news continues 24 hours a day, seven days a week. vulnerable to terrorists? a stunning study raises concerns. what toss it feel like to have the disorder, autism. a deadly uprising. and surviving a real life house of horrors, i'm antonio mora. here is more what's ahead. >> scary aau