facebook. goodnight, and we'll have more "america tonight" this week. good evening, everyone, this is al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton in new york. we are beginning with breaking news at this hour. an armed man is holding several people hostage at a cafe in the central business district of sydney as we look live here. witnesses say hostages are standing near windows in a chocolate shop with their hands up. a black and white flag with arabic writing is on display, the affiliation has not been confirmed. police station, however, confirm the surrounding area has been evacuated. and an operation is under way.

hundreds of armed police sealed off martin place, in sydney's central business district. new south wales police asked people to avoid the area. an australian broadcasting corporation reporter said gunfire was heard on the scene. that is yet to be confirmed. major landmarks in the area, such as the opera house have been evacuated. it's been reported that the air space above the cafe has been shut down at the moment as police continue the operations. you are looking at video from channel 7 in sydney. hundreds of armed personnel trying to get the situation under control. we are trying to confirm the affiliation of the black and white flag this witnesses report seeing with hostages holding in the window. it's the black standard, a flag with arabic writing, on display. once again, police confirmed the surrounding area has been

evacuating, we see a lot of personnel with federal force and local police with rifles and heavily arm, trying to get the situation under control. i want to go to anthony lowenstein. what is the latest you are hearing? >> thanks for having me on. this has been going on for an hour and a half in the center of sydney. we know little. when it happened there was a thought there was an i.s.i.s. islamic state flag in the window, it is incorrect. it is a flag used throughout the muslim world, which has been sometim appropriated by islamic groups in israel and iraq. it's unclear what the flag is. there's between 5-14 inside, held hostage. we don't know the number. we also don't know exactly the reason behind.

we don't know the person who is doing this - person or people. the context for this is australia, of course, has about 23 million people, and there is a sizeable muslim community. in the last six months since the - i guess you'd say the american fight in the islamic state in the middle east, there's a number of counterterrorism raids against the community here in sydney, and australia, where there's a connection between the raids and what is happening today, we don't know at this stage. it's possible. >> can you tell us more about the area in sydney, if there major landmarks nearby. >> indeed. it's the center of sydney. sydney is a city of 4 million people in the east coast of australia. it's a popular area. martin place is like a thorough fair. many of the leading businesses in the country, in the city, are based there. it's an open space. it's - the location of the cafe where the siege is happening is op state channel 7, one of

australia leading commercial television stations. it's hard to think that was not deliberate, that it was - you know, it was planned in such a way, whoever did it, to have maximum media coverage because it was opposite that place. it is about a 5 minute drive from the sydney opera house, a famous building in sydney, which this morning, just recently, was shut down for an alleged suspicious package - i think at the moment, you can imagine, something like this happens, and there's a great deal of fear and misinformation. there was talk of the air space above the siege in sydney, being closed. that is not the case. apparently some planes have been diverted to other areas, but it has not been officially closed by the government or the authorities. so it's kind of what we know at the moment. >> i appreciate you clarifying. has the prime minister tony abbott responded to the situation? >> he has.

prime minister abbott made a statement, fairly generic as you expect. he's convened his counterterrorism committee to discuss the latest, as has the premier of new south wales, which is new south wales state where sydney is based. the statement from tony abbott is pretty general, doesn't really go into detail. they, themselves, probably don't know what is going on, urging calm, allowing the police to do their job. i have seen in some of the coverage, especially on twitter, it is an amazing tool for information, and is a place where misinformation is sent out quickly, including the movement of police in the area. i'm hoping journalists and others will be a little cautious in what they tweet. >> it's important to point that out. can you tell us about the special force, the new south wales police that are on the scene?

>> look, i don't know the is numbers of people that are there. they don't get released during a seem. australia has a relatively safe record of terrorism, there was one act, about 25 years ago, but minor incidents here and there. like in a lot of countries, like the u.s. and western countries post 9/11, a huge build-up of counterterrorism forces, massive amounts of investment. mostly they have not been used, except in a lot of counterterrorism raids against muslim communities and individua individuals. the press reports these as serious acts. my reason for saying that is that virtually nobody has been charged with any alleged crime after the raids.

it's important to understand in the context of many of the muslim community. i'm not muslim myself, but many feel understand attack so to speak. not just from radicals who are going off to fight for i.s.i.s., but we don't number the number of australians fighting in the middle east for i.s.i.s. it's a decent number, 50 to 150, which per capita is a high number of people. mostly men, some women. many in the muslim community feel under attack. not just from those individuals, but also from a wider political and media environment that demonizes them and blames them for the actions of a few. whether it has any connection to what is happening today, we don't know. it's conceivable that it does. >> you talk about the concerns within the community, has tony abbott addressed the concerns at

all. >> he has not addressed it today. in the task he has, i would argue, and i write regularly for "the guardian", and i have written about this, i would argue the policy that the abbot government and foreign governments exacerbates the problem and makes it worse. you can't on the one hand have the government saying yes, we think all citizens of australia are treated differently, yet at the same time you are endorsing and supporting various figures in the media and others and elsewhere demonizing the muslim community, inflaming the wider community. there's about 500,000 muslims in australia, a population of 23 million. it's a sizeable minority. the abbott government, i think, in the last year, has been appalling in its policies towards not just the muslim community, but the middle east itself, where australia was so

keen to sign up with the president obama administration, before president obama had even announced a bombing campaign for i.s.i.s. this is the context about what might be going on. >> giving us an understanding. appreciate your type of, and we want to remind everyone looking at images from news channel 7, it's australia leading newsagency. now to our colleague andrew thomas in sydney. can you bring us up to sfeed with what you know? >> it is a fast-moving situation, that you get very little information in real time. what we know is that this hostage situation is ongoing, it began over two hours ago now, 9:45 sydney time. at the peak morning rush to work, as people go into what is a chocolate shop, but it does coffee. the morning rush is the peak time. that is when what appears to have been one gunman carrying a back pack - we have no idea what

was in the backpack. seized hostages in the cafe. somewhere between 4 and 13 hostages are inside. at one stage three of those people had their hands up against the window. and another stage, an hour ago now, a sheet or flag, black sheet or flag with arabic item written "there is no god but allah", having said all of that. the why the that this is associated with events in the middle east or i.s.i.s., is speculation at the moment. we don't know the details. >> i know, this is still developing. do we know why the cafe, looking at the bigger picture - why this area? were there specific threats? >> other than the fact that the cafe is about as central as it gets. martin place, the square where the cafe is located is right in the heart of sydney's c.b.d. a kilometre from the water, a

kilometre from the sydney opera house, which has been evacuated in the last hour. that's a precaution, because it's a famous building, rather than because of information about any specific incident going on. the square is in the heart of sydney, where the cafe is. you imagine it's busy with office workers. channel 7, your previous interviewee said that channel 7 has its headquarters there. it's one of the main commercial networks in australia. whoever is behind it, if they were looking for publicity, they couldn't have chosen an obvious spot." >> the national security of cabinet convened. do we know of plans or action? >> no, canberra, the australian capital is 3 hours drive from sydney. that's where the prime minister convened the national security committee. they met about half an hour ago, and other than a bland statement about being concerned about what is going on, we don't know of

any action that they plan to take. it comes in the context of heightened tensions in australia. about three months ago australia raised its so-called terror level. the likelihood of a terrorist attack on australian soil to extremely likely, and there has been a number of raids on properties in the western parts of sydney in recent months with a number of arrests made. when those investigations are concluded in the past. few people remained in custody, normally one or two from a rate of 30 or 40 people. some people have been saying that it was overkill, overblown rehabilitation to a threat. but, of course, it was this sort of attack that the police said they were trying to guard against. it should be said as well - i don't want to go too far down the path, but a more recent terror raid - nothing official came outline, but speculation in the media, it was said to be a reaction to chatter intercepted

between two suspects, that they planned on seizing someone in martin place, the square we are talking about, and beheading them in public view. nothing came of that, not yet, and hopefully it won't. that gives you context to what is going on in the heart of sydney. >> can you tell us how many people are believed to be in the cafe, just to confirm? >> i do not know the answer. i wouldn't want to hazard a guess. all i can say it's 9:45 sydney time. that sort of cafe, at that time would have been busy, i'm guessing 20-30. i'm struggling, i have no idea of the number there then. >> andrew thomas in sydney. i know you'll stay on the scope and keep us updated. andrew thomas, thank you. we want to update everywhere on the breaking news we are following in sydney. an armed man is holding several hostage, it's unclear how many are inside the chocolate cafe. hostages have been seen standing near the window, at least three, with their hands up, and they

report seeing a black and white black, a flag are arabic writing on display. we don't know the affiliation of the flag. police confirm the surrounding area has been evacuated and a heavy police provision is under way. we are following the story on al jazeera america. we'll take a break and return after this.

welcome back, i'm thomas drayton in new york, we continue to follow breaking news out of sydney. as you can see a major police operation is under way in count sydney, a central business district where several people are held inside a chocolate shop and cafe. we understand the individuals could be seen with hands in the air. hundreds of police sealed off martin place. it's in the sydney central business distribute. we don't know who is behind

this, or the affiliation. major landmarks, like the sydney opera house has been evacuated. it was reported that the air space has been shut down. we understand that it is open at this hour as police continue this operation. we will continue following this developing story throughout the hour on al jazeera america. turning to other news right now. former vice president dick cheney is defending bush administration policy on what they called enhanced interrogation techniques. he says the senate got it wrong in its report on torture. kristen saloomey has more. >> vice president dick cheney and other bush era officials are facing tough questions as details come to light from the 500-plus page senate report detailing c.i.a. interrogation techniques. dick cheney defended the tactics, which include waterboarding, hanging people by the wrists, putting them in coffin size boxes, and a

technique known as rectal hydration. it may be tortuous to the average person, but according to former vice president dick cheney, they stop short of torture as defined by the justice department. the report does steps taken by the c.i.a. to make sure that agents do not cross the line laid out by the justice department. that said, vice president cheney said that not only does he think the techniques are locally justified, they are morally justified. >> i told you what makes the definition of torture, it's 19 guys with airline tickets and box cutters did to 3,000 americans on 9/11. >> there's a lot of debate and the republican party is divided. a former prisoner of war, john mcca mccain, takes a different view. >> some of these practices fly in the face of everything that america values and stands for.

you can't claim that tying someone to the floor and have them freeze to death is not torture. >> reporter: while there's a lot of debate and discussion in congress, there's little appetite to prosecute anyone in connection with the c.i.a. tactics. on the international level, however, more outrage and more questions are asked, including from the u.n. special rapporteur on torture, juan mendez, who said there should be an investigation to see if the united states violated the convention against torture, how they can be held accountable remains to be seen. >> kristen saloomey reports. president obama is expected to sign a $1.1 trillion spending bill passed in congress. the final vote to the senate was 56 to 40, with half the republicans voting against it. senator john mccain was one of them. >> the reason we are in the debacle we are in, is because we refuse to pass any of the

appropriation bills, most of the authorisation bills, so you end up jammed up at the end of theier. here is a trillion dollar bill within a few hours of a debate. >> ted cruz was in the well pushing his so-called constitutional point of view order, which risks shutting down the government. 5 feet away was mitch mcconnell imploring senator to vote the other way. republicans from not the only ones opposed to the bill. elizabeth warren voted against it because of a provision, really back part of the financial reforms. we'll examine that. it starts at 8:30 p.m. eastern, 5:30 specific. from the strained relationship with russia, u.s. secretary of state john kerry has a lot on his agenda. kerry met with russian foreign

minister sergey lavrov, who is raising concerns about the prospects of new sanctions. >> we have a number of issues to talk about. i'm appreciative of foreign minister sergey lavrov changes his schedule, travelling on short notice to be here, i look forward to our conversation. >> we have more from rome on the meeting. >> reporter: secretary of state john kerry and russia's foreign minister met here in rome on sunday. at a time when u.s. and russian relations reached a low. particularly after last thursday, the u.s. senate passed a ukraine freedom account bill, in which it proposed to impose new sanctions against moscow, and release $300 million in hardware to help ukraine to fight back in the southern region of crimea. the russians didn't appreciate the bill, and put out strong words in the russian foreign minister's website, calling it

an overly confrontational message, saying they are anti-russian, and that russia would not be intimidated into giving up its interest in internal affairs. russia will use strong words with kerry, but he has a few aces up his sleeve. he may threaten to withdraw from ta deal seeing russia taking the bulk of the nuclear program, converting it into nuclear rods so iran can use it to produce energy. it may not be a coincidence that the next meeting to discuss the deal takes place in geneva next wednesday. >> on monday, kurt kerry turns his attention to the stalled middle east talks, when he meets with israeli prime minister binyamin netanyahu. on the agenda, talks over a bid urging israel to withdraw. something the prime minister says will not happen.

>> translation: we are facing the possibility of a political incidentive to force us to move to 1967 borders, bringing radical islam to the heart of tel aviv and jerusalem. we will not allow it. >> the secretary of state will move on to london on tuesday, where he's expected to meet the chief negotiator in a delegation of arab foreign ministers. >> thousands of armed fighters took to the streets, marking the 27th anniversary of the group. many say they are unhappy with the slow pace of recon instruction following the war with israel. i.s.i.l. gained control of the eastern province. the syrian government is hoping to keep one stronghold in the area. bernard smith has this report from istanbul

one of the last remaining regime strongholds is in the east. of the forces of marta bassino managed to hold on -- marta bassino -- the area. there are oil fields. winning control of the airport would give i.s.i.l. a control of the oil. they made attempts to gets on to the airfield. they have been beaten back. this video has been aired, claiming that the government is in control of the area around the airports. in kobane, kurdish fighters have pushed i.s.i.l. out of the southern part of the town. they say they have gut an i.s.i.l. supply line. three months of air strikes, car bombs and fighting have reduced much of kobane to rubble.

i.s.i.l. fighters control the east and have a supply route open there. they face the stiffest resistance from the town, pushing to other parts of syria and iraq. kurdish fighters are backed up by iraqi peshawar, and u.s.-led coalition air strikes 34 rebel fighters were killed when an area north of aleppo was seized. the key city was at the center of fighting between syrian forces and fighters. the u.s. is trying to negotiate and hopes to allow human tarian aid to reach civilians. >> o.p.e.c. says it will not force up prices by reducing production. price of oil dropped to $60 a barrel since 2009. they are trying to determine the reason behind the decrease. >> low prices could lead to a lack of investment in oil

projects in the member states or countries outside o.p.e.c. after a while it leads to reduces in supply in the factor, which may lead to high price increases. >> o.p.e.c. is under pressure from some members to cut production as falling prices were cut in government revenues. it's not just oil prices that are slipping. the national average is 2:5. a year ago it was 3.23. while fuel is falling, the cost of flying is sky high. u.s. senator is calling for a federal investigation into the high airfares. >> oil prices have gone down dramatically from $100 a barrel to $60 a barrel. that's had profits go right up. why are the ticket prices going up as well? that is just really unfair and wrong. >> the international air transport association predicts

airline industry profits will grow from $19 billion to $25 billion next year. a grim anniversary for residents in connecticut. two years ago adam lanza shot and killed 20 children and six teachers in the sandy hook public school. a professor of psychology told us that we should not be too quick to look at mental health as a threatening factor. >> sheriff deputies had to recapture two in mates that broke out of gaol. they overpowered a guard in the town of butler. the guard wept into a shared cell to check on an inmate. both were found in separate towns in central alabama. one man is at large an armed man is holding several hostage at a cafe. this is breaking news. hostages are standing near

windows and a chocolate shot with their hands up. they are expected to hear from the prime minister in just a moment. following the breaking news, we'll have the latest coming up in a moment.

welcome back to al jazeera america. i'm thomas drayton in new york. we are following breaking news. an armed man is holding several hostage at a cafe. hostages are standing near window in a chocolate shop with the hands up. you are looking at images from australia. from news service 7 at this hour. a black and white flag with arabic writing is on display in that cafe window. police confirm the surrounding area has been evacuated. in an operation that is underway. we understand that the prime minister tony abbott will be speaking here in just a moment. as soon as that happens, in fact, you are looking at the podium where he'll be addressing the media in a short moment.

when that happens, we'll take you there live. >> it is sunday night, and time for our regular look at "the week ahead". last night the senate approved a bill to keep the government running, buried inside it was something else. changes to the bank law, saying it will be easier for banks to gamble. banks say it's needed to promote economic growth. we beginning with a look at the dodd franc and the changes to it. >> reporter: it's an item in the spending bill, so important to the nation's big banks, jpmorgan chief jamie diamond telephoned lawmakers urging them to vote for it. buried on page 616 of the bill is a bombshell, a provision repealing a key dot franc financial reform preventing banks leaving taxpayers on the

look when certain trades turn sour. drafted with reports coming from citigroup lobbyists, the item had opponents in the senate crying foul. >> wall street as a result of citigroup and other wall street companies can continue to engage in reckless derivative speculation. derivatives betting on the health of the housing market was a driving force behind the 2008 mortgage meltdown. it was designed to make sure banks do not but taxpayers at risk. >> if they have action to the bailout money, they are more the likely to engame in more risky trading in higher volumes. >> while the white house does not support rolling back protection, it is willing to live with it to get a spending bill passed. >> on balance, the president is pleased with what was included

in the proposal. >> big banks spent millions lobbying congress to repeal regulations they claim are bad for the economy. with taxpayers bristling over bailouts, provisions that could invite the return of wall street excess is a bitter pill for many to swallow. >> let's get a little more background. the dat frank act is named for those that chaired committee. the law was a response to the 2008 financial crisis and was a revised, some would say watered down version. of a series of bills proposed by the white house. passing it took nearly two years, but was seen as a major legislative victory for the obama legislation, which vowed to bring the u.s. out of recession. however, when the bill passed. almost everyone was unhappy with it. some politicians from both

parties said it didn't go far enough. wall street had the opposite reaction, claiming the bill went too far. the industry has been lobbying for changes ever since. >> i'd like to welcome the professor of public policy at the new school and executive director of the joint economic committee. and a professor from the university of maryland. great to have you with us. >> nice to be here. >> nice to be here. >> i want to start with you, are you surprised to see the surrender of dot franc? >> it's not the surrender, it's the first shot in a longer war. it is surprising to see how easily this was done. stanley fisher, the vice chairman said he was shot and surprised to see that it was easy for banks to roll back the provision. it is important in and of itself, it's important as a signal that republicans will go after dot franc. >> were there problems with dot

franc from the very beginning? >> i believe so. it took aim at the long tart. in the case of citigroup what brought the bank down was the reckless tenning. the trading desk helped to bail them out, generating profits helping them get back on their feet. the existence of the provision didn't help, others moved on to other things. it didn't solve the problem. it imposed a restriction that did not address the problem. they need to divide the investment banks from the commercial banks. and have them focus on making mortgages and get them the heck out of the investment banking business. as long as they are domma sil

they'll expect to make the 10 million $20 million. and they can't do that borrowing at 3% and lending at 5. they'll look at getting around regulators for ways to use the deposits. >> this is not a solution. do you think it impaired economic growth at all? >> absolutely. dot franc is so complex, convoluted and scractry that a lot -- contradictory that a lot can't cope with it. they have sold out to bigger banks. five or six largest banks that 50% to 60% of those. they are interested in making loans on wall street. dot franc didn't shut down the casino, it gave them a monopoly, making it better. >> did it stifle the financial industry? >> not enough. i agree with a number of thing that peter is saying. my solution is to regulate it more. the reason it is complicated.

let's take the rule, banks shouldn't use insured deposits to trade on their own account. the rule is 300 pages long. it's other stupid bureaucrats. it's a long room. the financial industry lobbied and put in exceptions, butting in million inflayeding the rule -- ipp flaiting the rule that the poor regulators couldn't get it strait. >> a perp that didn't throw up -- person that didn't throw up their hands is election warren, who is very vocal about the dot franc act, and spoke out about repealing any part of t. >> the provision was slipped in at the last minute to benefit wall street. it was written by lobbyists for city corp. that provision means big money for a few big banks. democrats don't like wall street bailouts. republicans don't like wall street bailouts. the american people are distrusted by wall street

bailouts, yet here we are five years after dot franc, with congress on the verge of ramming through a provision that would do nothing for the middle class, community banks, do nothing but raise the risks that taxpayers will have to bailout the biggest banks again. >> i see you nodding. what does it mean for big banks and wall street? >> it means more of a licence for them to engage in casino-like behaviour. they'll bring in risky deals inside the bank where they an action to the federal reserve discount window. i agree with the proposal - split them up. get investmenting banking far away from the insured side of the bank. >> why should taxpayers be up in arms over in? >> well, i think they should be up in arms not because this provision has been repealed, but the notion of the obama

administration, that somehow or other it can outsmart the bankers. they'll be able to lobby advocates for health care on the liberal side to get what they want. break up the banks. divide the entertainment from the commercial banks and prohibit a commercial bank from having more than 5% of u.s. deposits. banks are too big to fail before and a too bigger to fail now. it will get worse if we think we can outlawyer wall street. >> they'll always do this. there's too much money to be made, and too many smart people. regulation is inadequate. the dot franc bill didn't go far enough. to say we are not going to regulate it all, breaking up the two sets of banks, taking the function out requires regulation. you can't get away from that. >> are there safeguards in

place. >> i'm not an advocate for eliminating regulation. this is not start. they are dolling out 20 million bonus, we are at risk of citigroup failing again. this is a failed regulatory model. that you must acknowledge. >> it's an centring thing. you need someone to agree that this thing didn't go far enough. the senate has been taken over by the large banks. jamie diamond's chase bank revealed they had 6.2 billion in the trading losses that they covered up. now he's on the phone asking congress to lay off regulating them. >> not enough safeguards in place. >> he kept his job. >> on this note. is the federal reserve, the ftic, are they prepared to handle a sytematic crisis?

>> not likely in 2006 or 2008. hardly anyone is prepared to handle that. we came this close to a global financial and economic melt down. dot franc is meant to address some problems. it's a bit like generals fighting the last war, there'll be new crisis coming out. we still need a strong regulatory apparatus. >> i don't think we are ready to handle another crisis. what we began to say is this thing began to get politicized. in detroit, they had to bail them out. jamie dimon kept his job. the fellow at citigroup kept it for a long time. the chairman at goldman sachs is there. they are good democrats. they pile a lot of money into the democratic party. they are not going to get restructured as long as president obama is in the white

house. >> taking it away from big or small businesses, what does it mean for small business and access to credit? >> it means they do not get enough credit. jamie dimon has as much interest in financing business loans in detroit as he does, for example, advancing my career for criticizing to much. he has no interest whatsoever. >> i agree, it's bad for consumers and taxpayers. it's putting us on the risk for bailout down the road and bad for small businesses. >> we leave it there. as we follow breaking news. thank you both for joining us. appreciate your time. >> thank you. once again, as we mentioned we have been following breaking news. let's look at other event before going to the breaking news. other events in "the week ahead". coming up on monday - open

enrollment deadline for bare. in over a year, more than 6 million consumers will have health care. thursday marks four years since the self-emmolation of ma whommed bosis. >> the act that became known as the arab spring. we are following breaking news out of sydney australia. there's a hostage situation in a chocolate shop. we believe 13 people are held against their will in the central business district. we'll go live when the prime minister tony abbott will be addressing the media. you are looking live at the podium, when it happens, we'll take you there. stay with us.

you >> welcome back, welt have been

following breaking news, there's a hostage situation at a chocolate shop in sydney australia. we believe 13 people are being held against their will. once again, we are weighing to hear from the australian prime minister. he will be addressing the media. we are looking at the podium live. we understand at this hour, the u.s. consulate in sydney has been evacuated as well as several attractions in the area, including the sydney opera house. this is in the central business district of sydney australia, you are looking at the podium where tony abbott is addressing the media. breaking news is happening downtown in sydney. 13 people are held against their will at at chocolate shop, we don't know by whom the affiliation, how many are involved. hundreds of armed police and federal officials are surrounding the area, trying to get the situation under control. this is in martin police in the

central business distribute. as soon as tony abbott speaks, we take you live as we continue to follow the breaking news turning to other news for a moment, an american who crossed into north korea was presented to the media. >> i would like to offer sincere apologies. for not only violating laws and bound rits, but entering as i did in a foolish way. >> 39-year-old arturo of el paso texas entered the country through china to convey information to the north korean government. he went on to criticize the north korean government. his mother said her son tried to enterpreviously but was deported and spent time in a psychiatric hospital. he was not in kust and his status is unclear. >> in a few hours police in hong kong expect to clear out the last remaining protest camp sites. a pro-democracy demonstrator

says they will not leave before the police action. protesters occupied parts of the financial district for many weeks. many say they'll keep up their fight for full democracy. protesters will be arrested if they resist efforts to clear the site. sony pictures warn news outlets against publishing data leaked after computers were hacked. the "new york times" said the attorney released a letter to news organizations saying: the hackers smacked several buildings and documents detailing salaries journalists detained were linked to a u.s. based muslim

cleric who has been critical of the turkish president. we have this report from istanbul. >> all the people wanted for questioning, or who have been detained for questioning are connected to a work or publications or media organizations that are sympathetic to or supportive of a muslim, an islamic scholar living in exile in the united states. he used to be very close to president recep tayyip erdogan. they had a spectacular falling out. the reasons for questioning comes a year since the organizations, publications led the coverage of corruption allegations and investigations into people right at the top of the ruling party. the people detained will say there's no cons dense that it's a year since they started reporting those corruption, and they'll see it as a revenge, and the reason for the detentions,

the excuse given when the warrants are executed is that they've been questioned, alleged to be trying to destabilize the government with their reporting of the corruption allegations. >> it's been 351 days since three al jazeera journalists were detained in egypt. guest and mohamed fadel fahmy from -- peter greste and mohamed fadel fahmy were sentenced to 7 years and baher mohamed 10 years. al jazeera rejects the charges and demand they be released an armed group affiliated with i.s.i.l. has been operating near a u.s. embassy. workers have been worned not to stray far from homes. the embassy closures caused nears that egypt's economy could suffer if tourists are driven away. we follow breaking news out of sydney australia, where 13

people are being held against their will inside a chocolate shop. we are waiting to hear from australian prime minister tony abbott, as we look live at the podium. when it happens, we'll take you there lie. stay with

stay witstay with us. ..we don't yet know the motivation of the perpetrator. we don't know whether this is politically motivated, although obviously there are some indications that it could be. in a society such as ours, there are people who would wish to d us harm. that is why we have police and security organizations of the utmost professionalism that are ready and able to respond to a whole range of situations and contingencies, including the situation we are now seeing in sydney. the whole point of politically motivated violence is to scare people out of being themselves.

australia is a peaceful, open, and generous society. nothing should ever change that. that's why i would urge all australians today to go about their business as usual. of course, if anyone does have any suspicions of untoward activity, there's the national security hot line 1800123400 which i would urge them to call. i can let you know that the national security committee of the cabinet has been briefed on the incident. i have been in regular contact with premier baird over the course of the last couple of hours and been briefed by commissioner skippione and the

federal police. this is an unfolding situation, as it unfolds there'll be operations updated by the new south wales police. i want to assure people that the ordinary business of government must go on, and it will go on, that's why federal minister hockey and koram will release the fiscal midyear budget as planned. finally, this is a very disturbing incident. i can understand the concerns and anxieties of the australian people at a time like this. buts our thoughts and prayers must, above all, go out to the individuals who are caught up in this. i can think of almost nothing more distressing, more terrifying, than to be caught up in such a situation and our

hearts go out to those people. look, i'm going to leave it to the new south wales police, who are in operational charge of this incident to provide those kinds of details. obviously in a situation like this, all sorts of reports fly around. all sorts of claims are made. so i do urge everyone to exercise caution in their reporting, but i will leave all of the operational details to the new south wale's police who, as i understand it, will begin to provide operational updates shortly. >> once again, we are following breaking news here, there's a hostage situation at a chocolate shop in sydney, australia. we believe 13 are held against their will. you saw a moment ago tony abbott, prime minister, saying they do not know at this time if

it is politically motivated in any way. the prime minister is saying that police and security organizations are ready for any scenario. you saw armed military presence - actually, we saw police and federal officials surrounding the cafe there. the prime minister urged residents to report information that may be helpful to the hostage situation, if they know anything. the security cabinet has convened there following the situation in downtown sydney. the new south wales police are handling the situation, the hostage situation. earlier i spoke to andrew thomas about the situation. let's listen. >> the idea that this is in some way associated with event in the middle east or i.s.i.s., is speculation, and we don't know the details. >> this is still developing. do we know why the cafe - looking at the bigger picture - why this area, were there specific threats? >> other than the fact that the

cafe is about as central as it gets. martin place, the square, is in the heart of sydney's c.b.d., about a kilometer back from the water, a kilometre from the sydney opera house, which i should say has been evacuated. we are told that that is as a precaution, because it's a famous building, rather that because of information of any incidents going on. but the square is in the commercial heart of sydney, and that is where the cafe is. you can imagine it will be busy with office workers, channel 7, they have their headquarters on the square. that's a main commercial network in australia. if they were looking at whoever is behind it for publicity, they couldn't have chosen a more central or obvious spot. the national security committee of cabinet convened. do we know of plans or action? >> canberra, the australian capital, is 3 hours drive away

from sydney, where the prime minister convened the committee. they began to meet about half an hour ago, other than a bland statement about being concerned about what is going on, we don't know of action they plan to take, no. this comes in the context of heightened tensions in australia. about three months ago australia raised its so-called terror level, the likelihood of a terrorist attack on australian soil to extremely likely, and there have been a number of raids on properties in the western part of sydney in recent months with a number of arrests made. when those investigations are concluded in the past, few people have remained in custody. normally one or two from an initial rate of 30-40 people. some have been saying it was overkill, overblown reaction to a threat. of course, it was the sort of attack that the police said they were trying to guard against. and it should be said as well. i don't want to go too far down

one of the recent terror rates was set, and nothing official came out. plenty of speculation in the media. it was said to be in reaction to chatter intercepted between two suspects planning on seizing someone in martin place, the square we are talking about now, and beheading them in public view. nothing came of that - at least not yet, hopefully it won't. that give you some context of what is going op. >> my colleague andrew thomas reporting. informs -- in fact is coming in. as we follow the situation, happening in a coffee shop, a hostage situation, 13 are held against their will, we believe. we don't know who is involved, how many, or the affiliation. tony abbott a few moments ago saying they do not know at this time if this is, in fact, politically motivated in any