we'll leave it there, alex, author of the book "the distraction addiction." it's great to have you on the show. thank you very much. >> thank you, great to be on. >> the show may be over, but the conversation continues on the >> breaking news out of thailand. violence takes a deadly turn, and what's behind the latest violence in getting back to the bargaining table with iran, a prisoner of war since 2009, and today there may be a new deal in the works. and a stay of execution for now. how a pharmacy is delaying the death sentence for a convicted killer.

we begin with breaking news out of thailand. protesters in the city of bangkok. police detained 100 demonstrators on tuesday, they have occupied for weeks, and the protesters have been rallying in the capital since november. they want the prime minister to resign and make way for the new government that they say would be free of corruption. aljazeera will be following the latest throughout the night. there's a new round of talks over iran's nuclear program set

to begin in vienna hours from now. starting today, the negotiators from iran, u.s. and five other countries will be looking for a permanent deal. and there's a lot on the line for tir an. >> reporter: the vienna talks are all about places like this, and what's going on in them. the u.s. said that it's attention. and iran said its peaceful. both sides will try to find common ground to ensure a lasting deal. they suspended elements of its nuclear program. in return, the u.s. and western powers agree to roll back some economic sanctions. >> what is the future of this teal? i think that iran would narrow

it down for the agreement. >> the talks in vienna could last for months, and they want to end iran's nuclear program, not just limited. limitit. the negotiations are known sas the 5 plus 1. >> some are interested in continuation of regional tension, and don't like that iran and the 5 plus 1 reached an agreement. they seek tension. especially netanyahu himself. saudi arabia, some of them are interested in talks. >> for iran, it's unacceptable.

what's happening at the same time as these high-level talks are technical ones, betwee for t atomic energy ax. iran has made seven commitments to the i. ea to lear up any issues by may. and this can help confidence building in vienna. aljazeera. >> one person not expecting much is the supreme court leader, ayatollah komeno. accusing north korea of human rights abuses similar to the nazis. his crimes against humanity, the highlights including torture,

forced starvation. the international community has no reach to stay silent. >> well, it will be available in our report, and it's a wake-up signal to the world. and hopefully for the leaders in north korea. >> those responsible for the alleged bubbieses should be abue referred to the international critical court p. >> captured in afghanistan in 2009, it's believed that hez being held in pakistan. according to the wash post, of the obama administration is willing to swap prisoners with the taliban. the u.s. would release five members of the taliban in exchange for him. the white house wants to change his release before this year faithful. >> one person killed and dozens

injured in a detention center. the island is one of the pacific camps used in australia's controversial offshore policy. the death comes after a second day of rioting at that facility. >> it's in a very remote part of new guinea. and getting reliable information from there is difficult. but australia's immigration minister said that it began at 11 p.m. local time, but it was over by 3:00 a.m. in that time, 77 people were injured, three of them seriously. one of them died, and two more for the extent of their injuries. a very confused picture as to where these injuries occurred, whether inside of the detention center, something that the security company denied as well

as the immigrations minister, but some of the injuries were sustained inside of the camp or outside of the camp once the detainees had broken down the fences and got out. one man was shot in the buttocks. and that would imply, and how were the police involved? a confusing picture. the australian government said that that doesn't change their overall policy, and they will continue to support this camp in new guinea. and the tough policy continues despite that. >> australia has seen a rise in asylum seekers in the past two years, according to the u.n.. the company only receives about 3% of the world's refugees. a pharmacy in oklahoma said that it will not provide a drug

for inmate execution. michael taylor is set to be put to death, but lawyers argue that limiting eliminating the drugs, they are concerned about its effectiveness. and i. >> just dawes after venezuela expelled three american diplomats, they are fighting back. on sunday, the venezuelan president asked them to leave, accusing them of using a student visa program for anti-government rallies across the country. >> the anti-government protests continue in the venezuelan capital. this time marching and venting their frustration for sate television. while they took to the streets, the headquarters of the opposition party was raided by an unidentified man.

the security video could not be independently verified, and what appears to be armed men forced their way in. this congresswoman, who was there at the time, describes the scene. [ speaking spanish ] >> interpreter: the men forced us to go down, they said they were looking for the national coordinator. they nooked down the doors, they were armed and they left. >> this attack on the opposition comes just a day before they have called for a massive rally here, and they expect to have thousands of their supporters take to the streets again. >> reporter: the government has turned up diplomatic pressure by expelling three diplomats. the president cues them of trying to aid groups that are trying to overthrow his government. >> we will be forced to leave

the sovereign and independent homeland in the next hours, because of promoting these groups, which is said to generate violence in the country! >> reporter: the u.s. represented the allegation, saying that the country's political future is for the venezuelan people to decide. but for now, the growing tension is doing little to ease the financial crisis gripping the country. venezuela has the highest i flation in the world. and it's getting harder and harder to support her family. >> we can't find chicken, meat, milk, oil, sugar or coffee. we can't find any bakery products. >> with the opposition refusing to give up, and the government refusing to give up the pressure, there's no sign when, how or if this political crisis will end soon. aljazeera, caraka, venezuela.

>> the relationship soured between the two countries in the 14-year rule of hugo chavez. the mother of a tennessee baby has been arrested. her seven-week-old daughter was reported missing in january. she said that she left the child home with a three-year-old while taking another child to school. the child's body was found if in a ditch on sunday. walker is facing charges of murder and child abuse. passengers saw as a city bus veered off the road and kept ongoing. and the sierra ski belt, the drought on the economy. >> i'mful traing with the u.s. coast guard. coming up, we look at the environmental impact on the

extreme temperatures on the great lakes region.

consider this: the news of the day plus so much more. >> we begin with the government shutdown. >> answers to the questions no one else will ask. >> it seems like they can't agree to anything in washington no matter what. >> antonio mora, award winning and hard hitting. >> we've heard you talk about the history of suicide in your family. >> there's no status quo, just the bottom line. >> but, what about buying shares in a professional athlete? real perspective, consider this

on al jazeera america >> this is the video from a driver's point of view. he closed his eyes and took out a power pole and several trees. he has been charged with negligent driving, but the good news, no one on the bus was seriously hurt. >> other. >> it was an overnight night that turned terrifying, and now we have video from inside of the hijacked plane. >> please don't move, keep an eye on your -- >> the copilot got the pilot out of the cockpit and rerouted the

mane to geneva. the man who identified himself as the hijacker turned over to the police. and he wanted asylum in switzerland. there's no relief i in sight to the record-breaking drought to the west. ski resorts depend on snow. >> this ski resort has fared better because they have all of the water from the lake they can pull from to make the snow. 85% of the snow is manmade. but they need natural snow, and they're not getting that this year. they typically get 100 inches in a year, and the other concern, warm temperatures. the operators here have all of the machines to make the snow, but they can't keep it. >> we're down about 17% over

last year, and there are a lot of areas in california that are down 30, 40, 60%. so relatively speak, with our snow making, we have been able to weather this pretty well. >> and the situation isn't getting any better across the region. we found 60 miles east of los angeles, mount baldy. no snow whatsoever. we talked to the skiers who wet there over the weekend. and they ended up walking or hiking or biking because there was no moisture on the ground. it's down 60% from last year. >> i've been skiing all of my life and i love to snow. i spend 100 days a year skiing on the snow. and this year, i haven't even succeed one day yet. not even at my own resort. >> there's good news, the forecasters expecting it to drop over the next 100 days.

they can at least make snow and make sure that they keep it. >> they may not have snow in the west, but there's plenty of snow across the northeast. and there's yet another round of snow headed for the region. piles of lock solid ice in boston root now, and in fact, looking at the skyline of new york city, they're expecting 2-3 inches of snow today before it turns over to rain later in the day. kevin corbel says it's certainly not over. >> we're continuing the week for people here, and it's only going to get worse as the storm system makes its way to the northeast. chicago, earlier, 2-plus hours delays because of the snow there, and now we'll see it for the northeast. tomorrow morning, this will make its way to new york, and by 8 a.m., heavy snow for a two-hour period, making the

commuting fairly miserable. wednesday, 35, and time, we get some temperatures that are above average for this time of year. on friday, 54°, and unfortunately, that comes with rain in possibly thunderstorms with it. here in the northwest, still more arraign, and flooding continuing in some areas, as well as the risk of mudslides and landslides, especially over here towards oregon. a lot of snow in the cascades. we need it, we're in a abrupt still. and 49 is the high in seattle. and throughout the weekend, any mix of rain and clouds. it's pretty much going to be rainy conditions for the next several days. down in southern california, we're going to be seeing those temperature, and 70 as we start the week. as we go through thursday, how about 79 there. across texas, the temperatures

are are a already up. 70s in many locations, dallas today, 76 degrees, and sap antonio, 77. and corpus, 73. >> near-record cold in the midwest is causing big problems for the shipping industry. we're talking about huge chunks of ice that are making it difficult to navigate lakes and rivers. we have the impact from a frozen lake michigan. >> it has been a busy season for the cutter, biscayan bay. for commanding officer, tom and his crew, their mission normally involves search and rescue. >> typically, we're up north, in the st. marys river, and lake huron. smirch but this year, breaking through massive ice formations across the great lakes to keep the traffic flowing. it shows just how have

encompassing the ice is this year. 80% of the great lakes combined are frozen. the u.s. cutter like this have been forced to expand their ice breaking operation. the cutter in biscayan bay has shifted face, and the sheets have become 2-3 feet thick. >> that's not typical. usually they can handle chi through the winter. >> but tugboat operators say that they require more tugboats and extra time to break through the ice, and those are price that's shipping companies don't want to pay. >> it drops our sales from 35 manufacture 50%, and we have to layoff three-quarters of our workforce to keep a skeleton crew on, so it really is an impact on us. >> reporter: at the great

lakes research lab in ann arbor, michigan, it normally covers 323%, in the last time it covered this much was 23 years ago. >> we have the arctic vortex in january. >> it maintains levels and lake affect snow. and it could be a boom for the commercial fishing industry. the increase protects spawning beds, but should the frigid temperatures continue, it could mean a busier few months of ice breaking to come. aljazeera, chicago. >> well, this year, there's much more ice than the past five years, but it's not as bad as the record set in 1979, when

almost 95% of the lakes were frozen ifism. >> at the center of an international dispute. the small piece of land that has japan and south korea involved. >> and the astroid that made a very close encounter with earth. ♪

what is this place? where are we? this is where we bring together the fastest internet and the best in entertainment. we call it the x1 entertainment operating system. it looks like the future! we must have encountered a temporal vortex. further analytics are necessary. beam us up. ♪ that's my phone. hey. [ female announcer ] the x1 entertainment operating system, only from xfinity.

tv and internet together like never before. >> monday at the winter olympics in sochi, an american team did something in the two man bobsled they hat done in 62 years, win a mead. steven holcomb came in third. it's the first time since 1952. this is holcomb's second medal. four years ago, he led the u.s. to a four man event, which is

the first since 1908. >> there were two other u.s. teams in the event and they finished 12th and 13th of. >> now to hockey, the russians aren'ta willing to accept the loss to the united states. in moscow on monday, the demonstrators who were organizing the party's youth groups, they protested the ruling by that american referee, but they ruled that it was the correct one pest. >> the swedes on monday with a dominating 6-1 victory. how dominating? well, team usa out shot sweden 70 to 9 to advance. and i suspect that they will face their biggest rival as team canada advances with a win over switzerland. the usa and canada will meet for

the fourth time. the canadians have won three straight medals at the game. three men found in a mine shaft in south africa are charged with illegal mining. and are still this, but are afraid to come up. the mine will be sealed on march 3rd. there's an island in japan that's a popular destination for tourists. though they cannot be completely avoided, tourism may be easy contentions. >> every day, ferries from the south korean mainland arrive with monies of korean tourists, the numbers are recessing. five times the island's population. >> it's good for tourism.

there are korean relatives. >> it's good practice for making overseas trips, for immigration and so on. >> it was a time when the relations between the japanese and the korean governments are far from cord nal. >> the two groups benefit the local economy. >> of a handful of establishments have signs like these. he doesn't want to be made, and he said his band is not politics, but rather to keep out those he calls ill mannered. >> it's a good thing for the island to have south korean tourists. we say no to korean customers. >> there is evidence that a more recent shift in the relationship, the japanese-korean cultural

festival has been canceled and the fall out is being felt. one of them by the korean nationals. another island flation, it's acting as a staging post. >> if it had not been for the statues, we would feel awkward, but the statues were stolen, it's a most significantrin' between country and japan, and it's unforgivable. >> this island in korea should in fact belong to korea. a south korea institute has gathered information for the basis for the claim, but it could be used as leverage if the two countries have takashima in

japan. >> this is the way, and tokyo continues it's cleanse. >> recent reports of the south korean media, all things korean seemed overflowing. but within the activity, the hard edges and the distrustful present remains. >> the name of the water where the contested islands lie is disputed. south korea calls it the east sea. did you feel anything last night? a massive astroid risked right past earth, 2 million miles away. it's as large as three football fields, and traveling of 27 miles per hour when it dipped right toward our planet. it happened monday night. it was eight times as far from us as the moon.

the astroid comes a year after a smaller one shattered windows, and injured more than 1500 people. that will do it for this edition of aljazeera news, i'm thomas graden in new york. hi, i am lisa fletcher and you are in "the stream." states spend more on prisons than schools, but could a push from washington change that? we are going take a look at renewed efforts to store restore rights to ex-cons ♪ ♪ th