i think al jazeera america is a watershed moment for american journalism hostages ran for safety in australia, but there are others still trapped inside a cafe, held by an armed man city central business distribute in sydney, that is, in lockdown, major buildings evacuated. police have descended on the area. hello from al jazeera headquarters in doha, i'm david fost foster. following a story out of australia. we'll be live in sydney for the latest. coming up, south sudan a year on, a report from mallet

cows, coming back to life after a conflict leaving thousands dead. former u.s. vice president defends the c.i.a.'s torture techniques. starting in australia where hostages are being held in a sydney cafe, bringing much of the central business district to a standstill. within the last hour two hostages have been seen running from the building. i'll tell you anyway, it's not known if they escaped or were released - two in the last hour. earlier, three others made it out through the fire exit. it is unclear how many are inside. some have been seen with their hands pressed against the windows. the siege began at 9:45 in the morning local time, when a man believed to be armed walked into the lindt cafe.

at one point a flag was put in the wind, on it was written the islamic creed which said "there's no god but allah, and mohammed it his messenger" come for islams. >> the information i have is no harm has come at the moment. we have been working through negotiations to try to make sure that the people inside are cared for, that they have what they need so that they don't become ill or injured. we will continue to do that. >> taking a look at where this is happening in sydney. the lindt cafe located at the elizabeth street end of martin place, close to sydney harbour. next door is the reserve bank of australia. directly opposite is channel 7

newsroom. the parliament and supreme court building has been evacuate. it's close to the heart. we have the sydney opera house. taking a look at the scene outside the cafe - you can see armed men - members of the security forces - they are there, left of your screen in the distance. it was through there that a number of hostages ran, and we are expected to hear from the police apparently within the next 30 minutes or so, another press conference. andrew thomas our correspondent - you have been following this since it started. bring our viewers up to date, please. >> well, let's go back to the beginning. 9:45 sydney time, about eight hours ago, the peak of the morning rush when it comes to martin place, a central square in the heart of sydney's c.b.d. a few hundred meters from the

opera house, an iconic square, the headquarters of banks, a big motel and a big newsroom is opposite. you couldn't get a more profile spot in the middle of the city. we know at least one armed man went into the cafe and took a number of hostages and we don't know exactly how much. at one stage there was talk there might be 13. that number seemed to fluctuate over the course of monday. we don't know how many people remain in the cafe. within the last hour and a half five people appear to have got out of the cafe, whether they escaped or were released by the hostage taker. we do not know either. >> andrew, you say he is armed - this is what police say. do we know in what way he is armed, because we have seen no

weaponry? >> no. some people we have spoken to say - these are people that were evacuated from the buildings around the cafe - they say they think they saw a gun. certainly other people who have been interviewed on other television networks mentioned a gunman. that is not to say we have any confirmation from the police whatsoever that this man is armed with a gun, if, indeed, it is one man. the police will not confirm that there is just one hostage taker. when asked that question directly, they said they would not confirm or deny whether there was one man or more than one mon. nor do we know how many hostages remain in the cafe. the police say that some speculation that there may be as many as 30 held in the cafe. it's probably overblown. they don't believe there's 30 hostages inside the cafe. i should add, and it's unconfirmed. i have seen a message from a reporter at chanel 10, another

of the big networks in australia, saying someone claiming to be a hostage in the cafe phoned his newsroom and says that the hostage taker wants to speak to australia prime minister, and that hostage taker claimed to chan nel 10, a commercial network that there are two bombs inside that. i have no way of verifying whether that's accurate, i'm passing on what a normally trusted journalist in australia is saying about the phone call received by chanel 10. >> we have to treat that with cautious, i suggest. out of respect, we don't know who called the journalist. >> indeed. >> i'm going ask you to stay here. you have heard this, our viewers were around the world would not have heard from tony abbott. he was in a cabinet meeting when told about the siege. this is what he had to say in the capital canberra after the meeting. >> we don't yet know the

motivation of the perpetrator. we don't know whether this is politically motivated, or obviously there are some indications that it could be. i can understand the concerns and anxieties of the australian people at a time like this. but our thoughts and prayers must, above all, go out to the individuals who are caught you will in this. i can think of almost nothing more distressing, more terrifying than to be caught up in such a situation. our hearts go out to those people. >> andrew, i can't stress strongly enough that what we are talking about at the moment is supposition, but there's a lot of people who suggested that the actions of the person holding the hostages may be down to a policy initiated by tony abbott in which he came down hard on what he believed to be suspect

elements in australian society, and the australians have been alongside the united states in its campaign against i.s.i.l. in iraq and shia. there was a group, the australian new zealand counterterrorism committee is that one of its concerns is that it's a lone wolf attack. there's speculation about the motivation from whoever is doing this, from all over the press. >> that's right. in the last few month, there has been a number of so-called terror raids on properties in the west of sydney and melbourne, where the police said afterwards that they mounted the raids because they had information that they were plotting something that would be some kind of spectacular in the middle of sydney or melbourne, highlighting their issues of what the australian action is going on in the middle east, the air strikes support for example by australia for the united states on i.s., islamic state

so-called, positions in iraq. we don't know at all, of course, whether this incident has anything to do with that. certainly there has been a raising of the terror level here in australia, suggesting that australia government believes that a terrorist attack of some description was likely to occur on australian soil. a raft of anti-terror legislation passed through australia parliament in the last couple of months. it should be said with the support of the government's mps, and the main opposition mps in australia as well. that legislation stops people travelling, cop fizz kates their pass -- confiscates passports if police or security services believe they may be travelling to countries for malign regions, and can cansel people's passports if they are involved in activities with islamic state, or others. those legislative moves in the

last few months have been high profile in australia. they've had, it should be said, relatively widespread support of most. many muslim leaders feel it has been unfairly targeted at them. they have relations in iraq and syria. they may want to go back to those places for innocent reasons, and to assume that you are going back for malline reasons, if you are assumed to be guilty before you get on the plane, which is what some say the terror legislation does. they don't like that one bit. if this turns out to be a terror attack - and we should stress as many times as we can at the moment this is criminal rather than terrorism, we know nothing more than that. if it turns out to be a terrorist attack, it confirms what australia government is saying about the likelihood of such an attack. >> i know you are not going anywhere. i'll take a look with the

viewers, where this is all happening. it's an area called the central business district in sydney. you saw the water. that's close to sydney harbour bridge there. you have the reserve bank at that area, the main buildings in that part of the town, and there's the new south wales parliament. now, the supreme court - it's a compact area. the sydney opera house, the iconic building and the lindt cafe in martin place, where the hostages are being held. here we see one of the women within the last hour making her way out of the building. we heard from some people who saw at the start of the siege what took place in that part of sydney. this is a woman who worked in the building where the cafe is.

>> i literally walked up to martin place station, walked up the stairs to get coffee at the lindt cafe. for some reason i decided to get it at the station underneath - sorry. and then i was pushed back by the police as i walked up the step. it was happening as i - as i was approaching the steps to go up to the building. my work colleagues are all up there. it's a bit worrying. >> andrew thomas, again with us in sydney, pretty close to that area. i should stress that it is contained, that it is a cordoned off area, you can't get as close as you would like to see what is happening. we are expecting to hear from the police in 20 minutes again. what is their latest line on this? >> well, the latest line is that the last thing they said was that three people escaped or have been released from the

cafe, we saw picture of that happening. since that press conference, it looks as though a further two have been released or escaped. that's five in total. that's the latest. we should get an update in 20 minutes time. we are hearing that the police negotiators have made contact with the hostage taker and remained in contact with him too. in a sense, that is some potentially good news. there's a line of communication open as far as we know. we should get an update on that in 20 minutes time. to give you a bit of geography. i'm about 150 meters back from the eastern edge of martin place. it's on the left-hand side. this is macquarie street, a thorough fair. ordinarily it is full of cars and people, deserted now because of the police cordons at either end of the road and in a big circle around martin place. sydney is a sprawling city but the c.b.d. is concentrated so

the iconic buildings, the sydney opera house, the harbour bridge - it's in a compact walkable area, it's in the heart of that area where that siege is underway. martin place has a major commercial network. the initial images of the hostages with hand against the window, they were shot by a cameraman inside the offices of channel 7. there's lots of offices there. it couldn't be a more high profile part of sydney. >> thank you, indeed. let's go to another part of sydney and talk to mike carleton, a writer and historian joining us via skype. are you surprised about the level of speculation about the motivation for the attack, for the taking of the hostages. >> well, there's a lot of journalists with a lot of air

space and page space to fill and not much to fill it with, isn't it. so as you expect of a murdoch tabloid paper it came out with i.s. killer cult or something like that, and so op and so on. no one knows what is behind this. we'll have to wait and find out. >> does that say a great deal about the climate of opinion in australia at the moment. . >> yes, there's an edge of islamaphobia. the far right nutters are out in force, seizing this as an opportunity to do islam bashing. there'll be a fair bit of that. most australians will take this in their stride. newspapers are trying to drum up, you know, a climate of fear, a city in terror and so on. just up the road is a gang of people taking selfies outside the police barriers. it's not exactly as terrifying as some of the beat-up merchants

would like you to believe. >> we have news from anzc c.t.v. saying yes if there is an attack, it will attract a cloud. attracting extremists, disgruntled individuals. you put that information out in the public domain, people will be worried. >> yes, but i don't know that australians are that worried. it will be frightening to be involved, verifying to be held as a hostage. the rest of ussar absorbed by the news, we want to know what is happening. i don't think there's a huge environment of fear. i'm guessing, i don't think it's something directed by i.s. i expect it's one disturbed, possibly deranged person thinking he's doing the work of allah, but he's not.

>> what about tony abbott's position in this. he's been described as a hard liner, he's obstinant when it comes to international positions vis-a-vis australia and what is happening in the middle east. he's not likely to change, is he? >> no, i don't think so. abbott follows the conservative line you expect to get from david cameron in brisbane. to some extent from president obama in the united states. but it's not just an abbott thing. you'll find that the opposition, the labour party is at one with the government on this sort of thing. a rigid and village leapt opposition to terror. if this is some lone half wit, it's an act of terror to take hostages, and to wave a black flag is an act of terror. >> mike, thank you very much indeed. get back to us if you see or here of anything you think we may be interested in. >> writer and historian, mike

carlton in sydney. these are pictures of one of the two women that broke out of the lindt cafe in the business district of sydney in the past hour. speculation that they are employees. they have been held for most of the day. ever since a man they believe has been armed - we haven't seen a weapon, just a backpack and a black flag with writing on it - came into the cafe and took a number of hostages. we don't know how many, we know that five got out. speculation is somewhere in the teens. and police due to hold a news conference in about 15 minutes time to give us their version of what they believe is happening in this part of sydney that has been locked down. around about 6:15 in the evening we'll be back with the police

press conference as soon as it starts. in the meant let me bring you other world news. pakistan anti-government protesters shut down major roads in the city of lahore. the supporters of the opposition pakistan party is staging sit-ins in 18 different locations. it's a party led by former cricketer imran khan, and demands on independent audit of the general election held last year. to our correspondent scott heidler live in lahore. has the city effectively been closed down? >> well, it's a good question. this is a city of almost a million people, the second largest city of pakistan, the most powerful as far as the

punjab province is concerned. what they have done is they took the city at 18 different points, even though the administration is saying it is more than that, two dozen, two points have been blocked. i'm standing at liberty square, the center of town. this is a place which is jam-packed with traffic on a monday. as you can see. every day at a standstill, a population of almost 10 million, as i mentioned, is not able to come out. people are not able to go to schools, shops are closed and imran who arrived in the city will address a large crowd. as you mentioned his demand is that the audit should be held, and the prime minister should announce a judicial commission, otherwise he is planning to shut down the country. >> this was the point i was going to come to next, imran

khan's support in lahore is strong, and he would expect people to follow his encouragement to walk out and shut the city down, or is it reflected across the country? >> he has support across the country, and he has been dealing with that support because of this protest, because a great many people believe that the mandate of the people was stolen, but, however, when it comes to the city of lahore, imran's party leaders did well. however, this is the city in which they say there was massive rigging. they wanted a recount in four constituencies in the city of la hour, however, the government didn't agree to that. imran wants a larger audit. he does have a commercial following here in the city of

lahore. >> back with you later on. scott heidler there talking to us from lahore monday marks the first anniversary of the beginning of south sudan's civil war. 10,000 people are believed to have been killed, millions lost their homes,a conflict that is unresolved. and going to the capital of south sudan, juba. reflecting on the last 12 months, and where people stand with regard to a possibility of peace in that country. >> people are tired of the conflict. they are hoping there would be a political settlement by now. and are hoping that they'd be home by christmas. let me tell you a little about what has been happening in south sudan. security has been beefed up in juba, in the last few days, leading up to today. we have seen a lot of movement

with troops deployed to potential key points. the government says that this is a precautionary measure. we are told that displaced people in some camps are planning to hold a demonstration demanding that the leaders come up with a speedy resolution to the crisis. people are angry. we are in the capital. there were people - they just want their lives to return to normal. >> malakal is coming back to life. hundreds died, many displaced. it changed hands self times, each after intense battles. the town has been quiet for months. many people are still afraid. this person has family and friends, they left their homes earlier in the year. going back is not an option

right now. >> translation: i blame the government and the newark people. the quarrel started in juba and came to us. why? i don't know. >> reporter: but a few like this man came back. he told us that he had to leave the displacement camp and start his life, no matter the risk. hundreds of miles from here in ethiopia leaders have been holding peace talks. they started in january, but there's not been political settlement yet. grandstanding between rivals have hampered progress. negotiating teams agreed on the formation of a transition government with sal vac ear as president and a prime minister to be nominated by mashar's rebel group. other details need to be worked out, sup as the power of the prime minister and how wh when the two -- how and when the two

armies will integrate. >> it's a great compromise on the part of the government. you don't get core members at sit-ins. >> analysts, including this map, believes that this is a power struggle that may not yield much in the long run. >> the leadership in government and in the opposition. i think we will not have peace. if the only condition for peace is that one sustains his kusht position. >> both salwa car and rick mashar say they want peace. many are suffering and are not sure katherine, the peace process - is there such a thing, where is it going, and what are the problems? >> i have been speaking to politicians from both sides of the conflict and asked why has

it taken so long for the deal to be reached. it's been a year. they told me that they are hope with the progress, they made good progress. they say look, this is a delicate process, and being that delicate, the parties involved have to closely monitor, to closely security nis this deal. they have to check every full stop, comma and phrase. that's what he told me. people say they need a peaceful resolution. there are some proposals on the table. we have agreed on a transition government, but a contention is the structure of this transition government. the opposition led by rick mashar wants an executive prime minister. the government wants a non-executive prime minister. there's a condemnion when will they be reintegrated, how. people here, really, like i

said, they want this deal, and not just a signature on paper, they want is to be binding and more importantly we look at the reforms that come. reforms that should be implemented to make sure that this country, the south sudan do not find themselves in a position that they are in now katherine, i know we are coming back to you and there's a lot of interesting people that will be talking to you in juba in the course of six or seven hours. katherine sawyer reporting from south sudan former u.s. vice president dick cheney defended brutal interrogation techniques which the c.i.a. used in office. he made no distinction between: his comments coming after the u.s. released a report after interrogation techniques used at rendition sites worldwide.

kristen saloomey has more from new york. >> reporter: former vice president dick cheney and other bush era officials are facing tough questions over the c.i.a.'s so-called enhanced interaction techniques. new details have been coming out of the 500 page senate report, in the wake of the 2001. these include descriptions of the tactics used, like waterboarding, hanging people by their wrists, putting them in coffin-sized boxes and a technique called rectal rehydration. they may sound tortuous to the average person. dick cheney and other officials say they stopped short of torture, as defined by the justice department. the report also outlined steps taken by the c.i.a. to stay within these guidelines, having medical personnel on hand, for

example, to make sure they didn't over step the bounds. vice president, former vice president dick cheney is unapoll getting and stand by the technique. >> torture to me is an american citizen. on his cellphone, making a last call to four young daughters shortly before he burns to death in the upper levels of the trade center in new york city, on 9/11. there's a notion that there's moral equivalence between what the terrorist did and we do. that's not true. we stopped short of torture, the senate saw fit to label it torture. we stayed short of the definition. we captured only, and a lot of the senior guys of al qaeda, who were responsible for the attack on 9/11. i'd do it again in a minute. while the report and that point of view are causing debate in the united states, at this stage it's unlikely that congress will

move forward with prosecution against former c.i.a. agents or former officials, especially considering that the congress convening in january will be made up primarily of republicans who have been supportive of the bush era techniques in large part. >> stay with us if you can, we have this coming up... we go to the supermarket putting foot on plates and smiles on faces for some of london's poorest.