goodnight, and we'll have more "america tonight" this >> good evening, this is al jazeera america, i'm thomas drayton in new york. we're following a hostage situation in sydney, australia, customers at a coffee shop at gunpoint, could be politically motivated. refusal to call diplomatic, in

tonight an in our week ahead segment, senate approved bill to keep the government running. we'll examine how that will radically change the bank reform law in the walk of the financial crisis. we begin with our breaking news. the hostage situation started before 10:00 a.m., 6:00 eastern. hostages were taken in a lindt coffee shop. a black and whiel white flag wib writing is flying. to give you a better understanding, the lindt chocolate shop is located in the center of sydney in martin place. this is a very active place for business. during the height of the monday morning rush hour. tony abbott said he didn't know

if the incident was politically motivated but appeared to be. >> this is a very disturbing incident. i can understand the concerns and the anxieties of the australian people, but our thoughts must 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. >> once again the prime minister urged people to go about their business despite the ongoing situation. he also encouraged anyone with information to contact a special hot line. andrew thomas is in sydney and has been following this developing story. >> that's right, they do, they say the incident is contained in martin place. let me give you an idea of the geography here, this is

mcquarry place, about a kilometer down there is sydney's famous opera house. but in between there, about left-hand side is the eastern part of martin place, the pedestrian square right in the heart of sydney cbd. this is a busy thoroughfare, there is a big hotel, lots of banks, officest, a buzzing heart of the city and this cafe is right on that square and itself not a particularly famous cafe but its location is very, very central. it's at 9:45 in the morning sydney time, right when the workers are grabbing their coffees and going into work, is when this happened. there is at least one armed man inside that cafe and an undisclosed number of hostages,

speculation, that number was 13 but to be honest, those numbers have changed a little and i wouldn't want to peg my honest to the mast, about that number. those being held hostage, there have been a number of so-called terror raids by the police on addresses in the western part of sydney, and speculation that some arrested were somehow plotting something in sydney center. no specific threats, no. and we don't know of course whether this has anything to do with the fact that australia has had to raise its terror alert, its so-called terror alert with the understanding that a terror attack on australian soil likely, whether this has anything to do with the situation in the middle east, communicated back with people in australia trying to encourage

them to carry out attacks. we don't know if that has anything to do with that sort of chatter as yet. >> our anthony lewis on scene in sydney. what do we know about this black flag with the white lettering? >> not a lot. originally it was said to be the islamic state flag, that was quite quickly found to be wrong. syria or iraq, in the last six to 12 months, we don't know more than that. the actual person in charge of the siege apparently has an arabic message. there is a lot of media around the actual site in martin place. there is not a great deal of accuracy about what's happening

inside sadly. >> we are understanding that the a black flag is displayed in the cafe window. can you explain the situation of muslims or nonmuslims in the area? >> absolutely. australia has a population of 23 million. they have been in the country for years. the relationship is generally pretty peaceful. there's not a lot of actual riots or direct violence. but there's a lot of islam phobia, a lot of islamic phobia, increased a lot since 9/11 and particularly this year the australian government has joined the americans in the military fight against i.s.i.s. in syria and iraq. and i have a number of muslim friends. i'm not muslim myself but i have a number of muslim friends who say the verbal attacks against muslims have undeniably

increased in the last six months. the grand mufti has issued a statement condemning the attack. one of rupert murdoch's biggest newspapers in, this, quote, cbd attack, i.s. takes 13 in attack. that ifactually incorrect. incredibly vague information. >> i know a lot of the information coming and a lot of this reporting is premature. i want to talk a little bit more about the situation you reported, anthony, is there distrust of the muslim community

in the government there? >> huge, massive mistrust. that didn't start this year, it was certainly around after 9/11, but it's gotten worse. i think what you're saying though has been a little disconnect between the way in which the muslim community feels, and mind you reported incorrectly, when for example the last six months, there has been talks about i.s.i.s. and undeniably a group of young muslim men who are fighting in syria and iraq with i.s.i.s. the majority of journalists in australia are from white backgrounds including myself but has no understanding of the muslim community itself, even those though these issues have been around for years, particularly since 911 -- 9/11. the current government but also frankly the governments before

in the muslim community. there's not a lot of open and frank dialogue. having spent time in muslim community in my recording and with friends what you find i think is the frustration that so often when the muslim community is talked about in the press they are framed as terrorists or terrorists in waiting as opposed to like any community has extremists, if the person carrying out the sydney siege has extremist views -- >> apparently we have lost anthony lowen stein. lowenstein. we are following the situation very closely, the hostage situation in the central business district of sydney. we want to take a look at other headlines at this moment.

former vice president dick cheney is defend technical bush administration on what he calls the enhanced interrogation techniques. our kristin saloomey has more. >> bush era former officials are facing tough questions as more details come to light from that 500 plus page report detailing cia interrogation techniques in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. cheney defended these attacks which included water boarding, hanging them from their coffin size boxes and rectal hydration. these techniques stopped short of torture according to cheney as was defined by the justice department. the report does detail steps taken by the cia to make sure their agents did not cross the

line as was laid out by the justice department. vice president cheney not only said he thought they were legally justified but morally justified as well. >> 19 rlg passengers with box cutters did on 9/11. >> a former prisoner of war himself, john mccain, takes a completely different view. >> this flies in the face of what americans stand for. you can't say that tying a person to the floor and having them freeze to death is not torture. >> there seems to be little appetite to prosecute anyone in connection with the cia tactics. on the international level however, more outrage and more

questions being asked, including the u.n. special reporteur on terror. how the united states could be held accountable under that convention, raimtion to be seen. >> u.s. secretary of state john kerry has a lot on his diplomatic agenda. kerry met with russian foreign minister are sergeminister serg. >> i'm grateful for foreign minister lavrov changing his schedule. >> more from claudio lavango. >> met here on rome on sunday, at a time when u.s. and russia

relations, after last thursday the u.s. senate passed a ukraine freedom act bill in which it impose ed or proposed to impose new sanctions against moscow and releaves 300 million in hardware to to help ukraine to help turn back separatists in the crimea district. calling that overtly confrontational message and saying that those are antirussian sanctions and saying that russia will not be intimidated in giving up its interest and tolerating interference in its internal affairs. lavrov has a few aces up his sleeve, in particular, he may threaten to withdraw from a de deal, by the iranian nuclear

program to convert into fuel rods so iran can only use that to produce energy. it may not be a coincidence that the next meeting to discuss that deal will take place in geneva next wednesday. >> our claudio lavongo in rome. opec says it will not try to drive up plunging oil prices. the price of crude dropped to below $62 a barrel, the lowest since 2009. opec officials say they are trying to determine the reason for decrease. >> these could lead to the lack of oil projects both from the member states or even countries outside opec. that will lead to reduces in the supply on the market and could involve increases. >> falling gas prices have cut into government revenues. it is not just oil prices that are slipping.

the national average of a gallon of gas is now just $2.55. last year it was 3.33. the cost of flying is still sky-high, chuck schumer is calling for an investigation into those high prices. >> oil prices have gone downing dramatically, from over $100 a barrel to $60 a barrel.why are the ticket prices going up as well? that is unfair and wrong. >> the air transport association predicts that air profits will grow to $25 billion next year. a grim anniversary for residents of newtown, connecticut. two years ago, adam lanza shot and killed inside sandy hook elementary school. thno celebrations are going on,

same as last year. guard overpowered in chocktaw county. boast both escapees were found in central opportunities to in alabama. one man remains at large. still on hand, google is calling it quits in spain. we'll explain why. riders, one of them a provision rolling back the dodd frank financial reforms. we'll explain that in the week ahead. plus: >> i said it was really neat you could respond to these letters and help the kids. >> a 102-year-ol02-year-old trao lend a hand to those who need it most this holiday season.

>> welcome back. still developing scene in side

australia. this is the prime minister tony abbott speaking just a few minutes ago. a gunman took hostages inside a lindt chocolate shop. nearby buildings have been evacuated as well as the u.s. consulate as south wales police work to defuse this situation. the protests in hong kong are over at least for now. police cleared out the final camps. proampts said they would bprotee back. voters in japan have given shinzo abe another term in office. al jazeera's harry fawcett reports from tokyo.

>> the voters gave their prime minister another term in office. there was a lack of zeal. >> the opposition is very weak so we really had no choice even though you wish others could challenge. >> and opponents were fatalistic. >> it is an election that was designed to be won so it's very strategic. as a citizen it makes me wonder, why now? >> confused by the need for this election just two years into this government's term in office. there is littl little enthusias. even from those who said they voted for shinzo abe. known as abenomics, abenomics has succeeded in third and most

critical stage structural reform is still stuck in low gear. >> he was going to be facing a tough reelection in next fall for presidency of the party. that if he delivers 300 seats today in the election, he's going to be sitting pretty and will not be facing any leadership challenge for the foreseeable future. >> this election gives shinzo abe more time to make good on his economic policies. restarting japan's nuclear power industry. it was a big political opportunity and japan's prime minister has grasped it with both hands. harry fawcett, al jazeera, tokyo. >> spanish law would require any news aggregator to pay.jake ward explains. >> google news was built on the idea that more visibility for

any news report from any publication would somehow be a welcome thing. utterly bewildered to pay a fee to spanish publishers for using their content. the company finds that unimaginable and is so bewildered it would seem that they are not going to attempt any fix or negotiations, they're just going to shut the whole site down in spain. europe has caused this kind of situation for google before. but what's new here is that the spanish law requires google to pay whether or not the publishers request it. they have to pay even if the publishers don't want to charge google. google is a huge source of traffic for news outlets. google is infact the single greatest traffic for outlets,

dwarfing facebook which comes in a distant second. the company wrote in a blog post that it doesn't make any direct money from google news. but spain's law seems to push back against that notion. and now, 47 million spaniards are about to go back to the days many publishers openly pine for when their stuff wasn't readily available and given away for free on google news. >> jake ward. sony warns about publishing data leaks. released a letter to news organizations. in the letter this is a warning boyce says, downloading or making any use of the information. now the hackers were able to obtain digital copies of thousands of documents detailing

budgets and staff salaries. the holiday season is in full swing and many children are writing letters to santa. the u.s. postal service has a tradition of selecting letters and letting employees answer them. courtney keely reports. >> christmas in manhattan. only a few blocks from the elaborately decorated windows, new york's central post office, zip code 10001 is also home to operation santa. now in its second year nationwide with 20 cities currently participating. volunteers sort through thousands of letters to santa, identifying those from poorest zip codes. letters are available to anyone who wants to read them. shop for presents and send them.

>> i'm a huge fan of christmas and i thought it was really neat that you could respond to these letters and help little kids. >> many come back year after year. >> sometimes you'll hear about a parent who died, or you know someone just lost their job right before christmas and they can't provide for their kid which is really hard. i never had to deal with that when i had a kid. i always had a great christmas so you want to try to do what you can to help these kids have a great christmas. >> here in the main post office, they receive between 300 to 500,000 a year. but only 10% get answered. >> pete has been chief elf since 1995. while there are requests for x boxes and laptops, there are many that are asking santa for simply food, warm blankets or clothes.

>> they even send us their bills now and ask us to pay them with their account information. >> he says he has seen a number of needy grow in recent years. >> there's no doubt that the need has tremendously gone up. and it goes with the economy. you know you can pretty much see it from the way the tone of the letters is how the state of the economy is. >> figures indicate that one in five american children currently live in poverty. in some cities that rate is over 30%. >> still considerably higher than it was before the recession started. that's true with both urban child poverty and with national child poverty. >> the sting of going without can be particularly hard dural the holidays. >> it is what it is. and i think it is a source of disappointment for poor children. >> despite the dire reality for many the lesser of christmas

magic has not worn off. >> do you still believe in santa claus? >> i do, it is a force. >> courtney keely, al jazeera. >> still more rain headed to california. coming up we'll look at what that means for state's drought. and after the 2008 financial crisis restrictions were put on banks to reduce the risk they could take. thanks to a new spending bill that's going to change. we're going to explore in our week ahead segment straight ahead. and we're watching the developing news story in sydney australia, a gunman took several hostages inside a lindt chocolate shove and cafe. stay with us.

>> a deal went against they're own government >> egypt mismanaged it's gas industry >> taking the country to the brink of economic ruin >> this is because of a corrupt deal to an assigned to basically support two dodgy businessmen an israeli one, and an egyptian one... >> al jazeera exposes those who made a fortune betraying an entire nation >> you don't feel you owe an explanation to the egyptian people? >> no...no.. >> al jazeera investigates egypt's lost power on al jazeera america >> welcome back. a five-hour scene still developing in sydney, australia, a gunman took several hostages inside a lindt chocolate shop and cafe inside the central

business district. we still don't know how many hostages or who is behind this act. as new south wales police work to end the situation, mike baird the premier of the new south wales spoke just a few minutes ago. >> we are being tested today in sydney. the police are being tested, the public is being tested. but whatever the test, we will face it head-on. and we will remain a strong, democratic, civil society. >> mike beard with new south wales. we'll keep you updated on this hostage situation throughout the program. it is sunday evening and time to our regular work week ahead. buried deep inside, changes to dodd frank. the reform bill passed in the wake of a financial crisis,

critics say it will be easier for banks to gamble with taxpayer money, your money. we begin our look at dodd frank and the changes to it in this report from patricia sabga. >> j.p. morgan chief jamie dimon, personally telephoned rlg representativerepresentatives o. had opponents crying foul. >> wall street is the result of citigroup and the other wall street companies now can continue to engage in reckless

derivative speculation. >> derivatives that bet heavily on the future of the housing market. the dodd frank provision was designed to make sure federally ensured banks do not put taxpayers at risk when they engage in excessive speculation. >> they're all the more likely to engage in more risky trading in higher volumes. >> while the white house does not support rolling back such legislation, it's willing to live with it to get a spending bill in place. >> big banks have spent millions lobbying congress to repeal regulations they claim are bad for the economy but with taxpayers still bri bristling, a return of wall street excess is a bitter pill for many to

swallow. patricia sabga, al jazeera. >> the bill is named for bernie frank and chris dodd, both retired. revised, also watered down version of series of bills proposed by the white house. passing dodd frank took nearly two years but was widely seen as a major victory for obama administration which vowed to bring the u.s. out of the deep recession it nature inherited fm george w. bush. some politicians said it didn't go far enough to reign in. wall street. others said it didn' went too f.

peter morrissey who joined us from washington, d.c. i started by asking richard if he was surprised to see the outcome of dodd frank. >> this is the first shot in a longer war. it is surprising to see how easily this was done. stanley fisher, the vice chairman of the federal reserve said he was surprised how easy to roll back the provision. a signal that republicans are going to be going after dodd frank when they have their full majorities in place next year. >> was there a problem with dodd frank to begin with? >> oh absolutely. in the case of citigroup what brought the bank down was its reckless mortgages not derivatives trading. and the existence of this provision didn't keep the banks

from doing reckless trading, they just moved on to other things, foreign exchanges, commodities, warehouses, whatever, parking lots in greece if necessary. so it really didn't solve the problem and it really imposed a restriction that didn't address the problem. to my mind, what still needs to be done is to divide the investment banks from the commercial banks, ones that were ensured and made mortgages and have the banks focused on making mortgage and get the heck out of the investment banking business. as long as they are domiciled in the same place, they expect to make those $20 million bonuses and they can't borrow at 2% and lend at 5 about. for ways to recklessly use those deposits. this is not a solution -- >> break it down here do you think it impaired economic growth at all? >> absolutely. dodd frank is so complex convoluted and contradictory

that a lot of small banks just can't cope with it. banks that have flog to do with the crisis. five or six largest banks have about 50 to 60% of the deposits. they're not interested in making loans on main street, they're interested in trading on wall street. dodd frank didn't solve the problem it made it better. >> let's go to you. did it stifle the financial industry? >> not enough. i agree with a number of things peter is saying but my solution would be to regulate it more. the reason the dodd frank is so complicated, banks shouldn't use insured deposits to bank on their own accounts. those stupid bureaucrats, it is a long rule because the financial industry lobbied to put in exceptions. they spent millions of dollars in48thing the rule so it got so complicated that the poor reergts couldn't geregulators ct

straight. >> elizabeth warren, democratic smart from massachusetts has been very frank about the dodd frank. she spoke up against repealing any portion of it. >> the provision was flipped in last minute to benefit wall street. in fact it was written by lobbyists for city corp. republicans don't like wall street bayouts. the american people are disgusted by wall street bailouts and yet here we are five years after dodd frank with congress on the verge of ramming through a provision that would do nothing for middle class. do nothing for community banks. do nothing but raise the risk that taxpayers will have to bail out the biggest banks once again.

>> mr. mcgahey, i see you nodding, what does this is mean for big banks or wall street? >> more of an opportunity for them to engage in las vegas like behavior. they have government insurance on their deposits and access to the government window. split them up. get the investment banking thing far away from the insured part of the law. >> the notion that the obama administration that somehow or other it can outsmart the bankers with regulation. no matter what we do they will be able to lobby just like for example advocates for health care, to get what they want. my feeling is break up the banks. simply divide the investment from the commercial banks and also prohibit any one commercial bank from having more than 5% of

u.s. deposits. we simply -- banks were too big to fail before and they're even too big tore fail now, it's going to get worse as long as we think we can essentially out-lawyer wall street. >> there is always too much money to make and too many smart people to do it. yes, regulation, the dodd frank bill didn't go far enough in my view but to say we aren't going to regulate, take the investment banking function out requires regulation. you can't get away from that. >> are there enough safeguards in place? >> i'm hardly not in favor of regulation, let's do it smartly. they are doling out $20 million bonuses just like they did seven years ago, and again too big to fail, this is a failed regulator model -- regulatory model. that you have to acknowledge.

. >> someone conservative and someone liberal agree that this doesn't go far enough. so-called senators have been taken over by these large banks. jamie dimon's rehe voolg they had 6.2 billion in london whale, and he is asking regulators to lay off him and they did. >> is the fdic prepared to handle systemic crisis? >> not like 2007-2008. we came this close to a global and financial melt down. dodd frank is meant to address some of those problems. in some sense generals fighting the last war. there are going to be new crises

break out but we don't know where they'll appear. >> mr. morrissey? >> i don't think we're at all prepared to handle another crisis. this thing became politicized. in detroit they got rid of the ceo of general motors and chrysler because they had to bail them out. jamie dimon is still there. the chairman and ceo is still there. they are not going to get restructured as long as mr. obama is sitting in the white house. >> taking this away from big business, i want to talk about small business, what does this mean to small business and access to credit? >> it means they don't get enough credit, that's the bottom line. jamie dimon has about enough interest in financing small business loans to companies in detroit as in advancing my

career. >> i agree with that. it's bad for consumers and taxpayers because it's putting us on the hook for more risks and potential bailout and bad for small businesses. >> we have to leave it there, as we continue to follow breaking news. >> former executive director. >> and peter morrissey, professor at the university of maryland. coming up more events at the week ahead. monday is obamacare open enrollment, over the year more than 6 million have purchased health insurance through healthcare.gov. follows the senate approval of the government spending bill of 2013, thursday parks the year of

self-immolation of mohamed aziz. after two weeks of intense negotiation in peru, delegates have agreed on a shared approach to climate change. and we'll have an update on the ongoing hostage situation in sydney, australia. stay with us.

>> it's a chilling and draconian sentence... it simply cannot stand. >> this trial was a sham... >> they are truth seekers... >> all they really wanna do is find out what's happening, so they can tell people... >> governments around

the world all united to condemn this... >> as you can see, it's still a very much volatile situation... >> the government is prepared to carry out mass array... >> if you want free press in the new democracy, let the journalists live. >> welcome back. we want to update you on the breaking news out of sydney australia. there is a hostage situation. a gunman took several hostages inside a lindt chocolate shop. witnesses say a black and white flag with arabic writing is on display in the cafe. buildings have been evacuated as well as the u.s. cons alat. the police commissioner of new south wales gave this update about an hour ago. >> we have an armed defender in

premises holding an undisclosed number of hostages in the city in the martin place area. police have been in attendance and have controlled the situation from very early this morning, shortly after it was advised. >> want to get right now to andrew thomas who is in sydney. we understand there's some development right now andrew. >> reporter: just in the last three minutes or so we've heard reports from one of the main brown actors here from one of their reporters who say they have seen three people emerge from the lindt cafe the inin just the last five minutes. apparently unhurt. now i must stress these are unconfirmed reports that i've literally gotten in the last few moments but they do come from a reliable source, one of their reporters who have the sight of the cafe. that is the absolute latest, we

don't know how many are inside the cafe still. we know there's at least one armed man inside. maybe more. we just don't know. the police chief said there is at least one armed man inside. he did not say though how many hostages were believed to have been inside. the manager of the chaim o chaif cafes that this is a part of is that there could be 30, 40 people, early speculation was the number of hostages was about 13. just so difficult to get a handle on just what's going on. to give you geography this is mcquarry street one of the main roads through the center of sydney cbd. mainly a pretty active thoroughfare. right now it is deserted. it is 150, 200 meters down that road on the left-hand side, you

may be seeing people walking out, coming out in the last ten minutes, some people were working in the office blocks around this cafe. the reserve bank for australia, central bank of australia has its headquarters on martin place. all the buildings around this cafe are being evacuated. be the police have the central square in sydney in lock down. >> you touched on this in a little more detail andrew. can you give us a better understanding of the police presence in light of what the prime minister tony abbott said, he encouraged everyone to go about their business but i would imagine it's difficult at this hour. >> if your business has anything to do with being in the center of sydney this monday, then you can't possibly go about your normal business. because the central business district of this big australian city is in lock down. the vehicles you may be able to see just down there the number

of ambulances in fact are all obviously on stand by if something goes down turns nasty. one might know that is a police helicopter. places i could get with a car with a vehicle about an hour ago now was well over a kilometer from here and the walk from where i parked the the car to getting to here i saw probably about 200 police officers. we know there are many armed police officers in martin place as well, we just don't know what's going on inside that cafe. >> as you mentioned andrew, i'm looking at video, a number of individuals coming out of the lindt cafe, there have been reports, we haven't been able to confirm those reports but you see south wales police there heavily armed pointing their guns at the cafe. there is one person, as you can see from the video, you can see by the video here, this is taken moments ago from our news service 7 with south wales

police by the door. we saw one person move out, three people may have left the cafe, still trying to confirm the exact number but it appears one worker did leave. we're continuing to follow this developing story just really aplaysing video see a number of people moving out. the lindt cafe, you have to understand the details are still coming in this hour from our news service from sydney, not live images, taped a few minutes ago. as andrew mentioned, this is a five and a half hour situation at the lindt cafe, a chocolate cafe in the center, the business district right there in sydney, it's been a very tense situation. looking at video we don't know how many hostages are inside the cafe, we don't know how many gunmen are inside the cafe. a number of people running from the cafe at this hour as police try to get the situation under

control the south wales police force. continuing to follow this latest situation, we will bring you any updates any information as soon as they are confirmed coming into al jazeera america. want to take a look at other news right now. the statement is urging turkey to, turkish police conducted raids in a dozen cities, those arrests were linked to a u.s. based muslim cleric, highly critical of the u.s. 351 days since al jazeera journalists were detained in egypt. peter greste, and mohamed fahmy were sentenced to seven years, baher mohamed was given ten years. al jazeera rejects the charges and demands their immediate

release. in pru delegates have agreed to a ds in peru, delegates have agreed to a shairt release. attack to global warming have to be filed by next year. vulnerable developing nations, and all countries have to set targets that go beyond the current undertaking. al jazeera's nick clark has more. >> at long last after through the hours ran wrangling, a resolution. watered down and very weak. >> this is an incredibly weak resolution. we came in here thinking we would get a pretty ambitious announcement. you had the u.s. and china

announcements but instead we got a half baked deal. >> the document was rejected out of hand by some. >> we feel this text needs a little bit of surgery, we need to put on our gowns and scalpels and carefully insert a few vital organs that need to be incorporated in this agreement. >> outside, this scene began but it would seem this conference would go on and on. the u.s. wanted it to stay that way. >> we have no time for lengthy new negotiations and i think we all know that. >> while the endless back and forth took its toll, developing countries worked on the words. china and the u.s. who are in disagreement over the state of the text here in lima, the fourth version of the text on the day. >> we do know that we must

address climate change. we know increasingly that we can address climate change and with this moving on to paris, we cement the fact that we will address climate change. >> this conference was hosted by one of the countries widely affected by climate change william, with melting glaciers, a road map for a meeting in paris in a year's period of time. a disappointment that has been saved from failure by last minute hustling. there is still a lot of work to do if paris 2015 is to be successful. nick clark, al jazeera, lima, peru. >> search crews looked for

victims in landslides in central java. the landslide followed heavy rains that loosened soil and collapsed a hill. meanwhile california is in for more rain but nothing like the soaking it got last week. that storm caused widespread power outages and soaked homes. rebecca stevenson, joining us now for the forecast. will all that rain help with the drought they have been going through? >> slowly but surely. our water year ended on september 30th. we're moving into a new water year and take the rain we got and add it in. this could be a year to start to put a dent into the drought but a better idea when we get into february. this front has brought only a

hundredth to 2/100ths of an inch. specifically we'll see one to two inches of rainfall in total, in this system, which will be changing to showers, coast range foothills further inland. in fact, tahoe is going to be adding two to four inches of snow into their basin, greatly news for skiers. the concerns will be the landslide issue and it is a risk of landslides later on this afternoon. debris flow come to block the highway they are wo working to clear that. we are looking at the big sur area. another system coming back on tuesday and wednesday. so we'll time out these systems

giving them just enough time in between to dry out a little bit, let the water soaking in until we get to the next round. we've had two tornado reports for oklahoma and one for kansas tonight, as we have seen the storm system blow through. through tomorrow reaching up into central canada so a lot of fog and icy wintery weather out there. >> bundle up, it will be a tough week ahead. rebecca, thank you. we want to update you, breaking news in australia, ongoing hospital an situation has been going on for about five and a half hours now. a gunman took several hostages inside a plinth chocolates shop and cafe. we don't know how many hostages but we did see several people running from the cafe, taken moments ago. we also understand there is a hostage negotiator on site and

we understand that nobody has been harmed but it appears several people have been seen running from the cafe. that's going to do it for this hour. thanks so much for joining us. i'm thomas drayton in new york. updates always on aljazeera.com. thanks for watching.

>> previously on "in god we trust". >> my name is eleanor, and for the last 25 years i was bernie madoff's secretary. >> the main team on the 17th floor were fully aware of what was going on. >> what nobody imagined was that bernie was stealing every nickel, that he wasn't trading anything. >> i said "60 million"? he said, "no... umm, 60 with a 'b'". >> sir, why did you do it? >> they lived this incredible life... it just never occurred to me that they were living on the dime of the clients.