we are your new anchor team for the next two hours on cnn. welcome to those of you watching from here in the u.s. and around the world. i'm errol barnett. >> i'm rosemary church. coming up parts of the u.s. northeast buried upper a record moon of snow. as it turned out, new york city was of not one of them. how officials are justifying their decision to shut down the big apple. >> late into yesterday it was still projected to be close to two feet. two feet of snow would have paralyzed the city. ahead, japan's shinzo abe lashes out, condemning the latest threat from isis to kill

a japanese hostage. >> and a smashing success. apple posts the largest profit in corps history, massive sales of the iphone 6 and surging demand in china. thanks for joining us everyone. it is 4:00 p.m. in tokyo. japanese prime minister shinzo abe says his government is working together to win the release of isis hostage kenji goto. >> isis released a new public of-- new picture of goto holing a picture of the jordanian pilot captured last month. the message says isis will kill both men in 24 hours unless jordan release a female prisoner convicted in a series of bombings in 2005. >> we want to bring in will ripley now who is following developments from tokyo. it is a race again time now for japan to convince jordan to cooperate and consider releasing a convicted terrorist in

exchange for the two hostages. what progress has likely been made at this snow shower. >> reporter: we know that all of those discussions continue to happen feverishly behind the scenes. you mentioned it is a race against time. truly, the clock is ticking. less than nine hours before the apparent isis deadline for kenji goto to be executed. as a voice claiming to be goto said in this new video, less time for the jordanian pilot who was captured by isis last month. this is a sign that isis really is upping the stakes here. and it also makes it clear that the terrorist that is in custody in jordan and has been in prison there for the better part of a decade they are intent on doing what they can to get her out of jordan. the fact that they're putting two hostages on the line a japanese journalist and jordanian pilot, threatening to

kill two hostages, an ecochange for this one prisoner shows how important the woman is. she has ties to the isis founders. so you know what will happen in the coming hours is critical. jordan obviously getting the message this one of their very important prisoner' lives could be on the line. even though isis has not offered as far as we know to set him free in exchange for al hief-rashawi. an agonizing time for the families here in tokyo. goto's mother giving an emotional statement a short time ago. begging the japanese government to do what they can. >> yeah, will how is this latest isis video being received in japan? how is that playing out? >> reporter: it's been interesting to see the public opinion shift as this crisis has unfolded in the last week. the sympathy for kenji goto has dwroen enormously. in part because all of the networks here with a lot of

journalists that knew him personally are sharing the stories of his compassionate reporting from war zones. telling the stories of women and children who have suffered and that goto went to syria to rescue his friend who we believe of beheaded over the weekend. people have a lot of sympathy for him. many feel a prisoner exchange negotiations with terrorist should not happen. that japan should stand firm and not negotiate. prime minister not saying what steps are being taken but publicly demonstrating his commitment to try to get goto home he's also facing criticism for his role in triggering this by publicly announcing $200 million to support the coalition again isis knowing that there were japanese prisoner in the hand of that terror group at the time. >> a very difficult time for the people of japan and, of course the people in jordan as well as governments try to work out some outcome here. will ripley bringing us up to date on the latest details from

tokyo. many thanks. do have a bit of new information. the father of that jordanian pilot held by isis says he approves of a trade that would free his son. the iraqi woman held in a jordanian prison is of little person compared to his son he sayses. >> translator: al-rashawi commit a crime before. now she's in prison. it is meaningless to keep her in jordan. she's nothing compared to him. our country should know this in the eyes of the jordanian people she's not at all important. why not let her go? another story we're watching closely, a libyan branch of isis is claiming responsible for an attack on a luxury hotel in tripoli. at least ten people were killed including a french citizen, an american contractor and three people from tajikistan. >> a car bomb exploded in the

hotel parking lot, then the gunman shot their way inside. two of the attackers were also killed. indonesia's search and rescue agency says recovery operations will resume this weekend for victim of the airasia crash despite the military's decision to end its role in the mission. we're joined live from jakarta with more on the efforts. there was a bit of confusion yesterday when reports surfaced that the military was winding down its effort. indeed the recovery effort for victim victims' remains continues even with new resources being added to the search. what can you tell us? >> reporter: hi errol and rosemary. a lot of activity last night, concern mostly that the rescue operation may have come to an end. the military that was providing the majority of the divers of pulling out of that phase of the search. of course great disappointment

and dismay largely amongst the families of those on board flight 8501. some of those family members were present in a press conference this morning where we gained some clarity from the national search and rescue teams. one of them spoke to me afterwards. here's what he had to say -- >> now things getting clear who handled this thing. family mostly centralized there understand these conditions. this actually one statement asked what we think. that the mission never -- will not stop. so continue. so the information now clear. the misunderstandings being clarified. >> reporter: huge relief there as you can only imagine. that was lucas who lost his brother on board the flight.

in fact his brother of a tour operator who took a lot of people off and on the flights to and from indonesia. this time he was taking actually a close personal friend of his, his brother leaves behind a 7-year-old daughter and his wife. they're absolutely distraught. the bodies still haven't been found. likewise we spoke to another family member the other day. he is still waiting for the bodies of his daughter husband -- her husband, and his two granddaughters. incredibly sad stories. for those who haven't had the body returned so far 70 out of the 1 2 on board, passengers and crew have been found. 92 still remain. >> all of those relatives of victims, they're desperate to know why this plane went down. what is the latest on the investigation? and i guess how long it will be until we get a fully fleshed out conclusion. >> reporter: yeah of course.

everyone upon the answers. and there are many unanswered questions. the preliminary report into the crash investigation has been presented and submitted to the countries involved to the countries who have a stake in this whether they have been involved in the investigation or had someone on board. that was submitted on monday. that usually is due a month after the crash takes place or the plane went missing. so that's been submitted. there have been various reports saying there are indications in that investigation. cnn has been unable to independently confirm that. various leagues coming out reuters quoting someone saying it may be the automated controls on board that contributed. one of the factor that may have led to the crash. when the automated controls fail, it's the pilots and first officers who have to step in.

incredibly complicated and delicate situations that they have to deal with. and often they rely on auto pilots in these situations. that may be one factor. there is a press conference tomorrow from the investigation team and transportation ministry. let's see what they have to say then. back to you. >> ten past 2:00 in the afternoon. reporting live with the update from jakarta, indonesia. thank you very much. we're going to take a very short break. now -- we now want to turn to the big snowstorm in the northeastern u.s. blizzard warnings are canceled for new england. but the snow is still falling, and it will be days before hard hit areas return to normal. >> that's right. unanimous tuck island for example, on the massachusetts coastline just caught the brunt of the storm. gale-force winds and a storm surge combined to damage home there and knocked out power to the island. several thousand people now have their power back on.

so the lights are back on in this part of the northeastern u.s. the police chief says the storm was worse than expected. >> two things were unexpected. the flooding of more intense and a lot higher than predicted. and i think it was almost a foot higher than predicted. and then we were looking at a steady progression of forecasts that indicated that last night it would turn to rain heavy rain as a matter of fact. and that never happened. >> while new york may have been safe from the worst part of this, keep in mind some places were hit pretty bad. heavy snow pounded eastern new england and long island through the day tuesday. the hard ever hit areas got up to three feet of snow, roughly 0 centimeters. >> cnn's nick valencia has been traveling around the boston area and joins us from the coastal city southeast of boston.

nick good to see you again. rising floodwaters have been a big problem for the area you're in now. what's the situation with those water levels this hour? also the travel ban has been lifted. it's pretty late so probably doesn't really apply so much. but talk to us about the situation there on the ground. >> reporter: certainly, rosemary. this is one of the hardest hit areas in the massachusetts state, all across the state. these coastal kmuns are the ones that bear the brunt -- communities are the ones that bear the brunt of this. just in this -- [ inaudible ] >> all right. clearly having a lot of problems there. we are -- the problems at that part in massachusetts, scituate suffered terrible problems as far as water breaking through the sea wall there. people having to actually be evacuated there their homes by

the national guard. we know the travel ban has been lifted. people are allowed to get out on the streets there. but they are being asked to only -- only get out in their cars if at all necessary. of course, it's 2:12 in the morning. we have got nick valencia back again. nick problems there, of course. it's still windy, ghost there. talk to us -- gusty there. talk to us about the situation on the ground this hour. >> reporter: yes, wind condition continue to pose a problem here in this community. as you mentioned, there was an evacuation earlier. and we all saw at least two units of the national guard in this area make a handful of rescues. part of the good news in all of this is that massachusetts, the state agencies local agencies really made an effort to warn the residents that this storm of going to be one of the worst storm systems that came through the area in decades. even having said that, there were family that decided to try to stick it out.

and it turned out to not play in their favor. for now, those high waters the flood conditions what we saw earlier in the day, it doesn't seem to be a problem now. the roads are plowed. they are somewhat hard to navigate. we are taking our time to drive through this area. but like you said the travel ban has been lifted by the massachusetts governor as of midnight which is about two hours ago. but the only thing -- essential travel only on the road now. please stay off the road as well if you are in massachusetts. high tide it pose another problem. this area could see another six inches of snow. and coinciding with the high tide it could create more problems for flooding in this area. what we hear from most experts is that the worst has potentially passed. the bad news in this is that there's more snow expected this weekend. you can believe that. rosemary? >> all right. nick valencia joining us there on the phone from scituate in

massachusetts. of course problems there. eventually we got nick back on the phone to bring you an update on what the situation is around there. >> yeah. it shows that part of the u.s. not out of the woods. >> not just yet. >> new york saved, but some other areas suffering. we'll take a short break. still to come apple posts its highest quarterly profits in corporate history. coming up see what's driving the tech giant's success. female vo: i actually have a whole lot of unused vacation days, but where am i gonna go? i just don't have the money to travel right now. i usually just go back home to see my parents so i can't exactly go globe-trotting. if i had friends to go with i'd go but i don't want to travel by myself. someday.

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historic runaway blockbuster. those are some of the words being used to describe apple's latest quarterly results. on tuesday, the tech giant announced the biggest quarterly profit ever. a staggering $18 billion in profit. $74.6 billion in sales. $74 opinion -- 74.5 million iphones sold. the iphone is already the single best-selling gadget of all time. this past quarter it outsold some stros including televisions. >> incredible. china is playing a large part in apple's success. the iphone is very popular there. david mckenzie has that part of the story from beijing. >> reporter: china has shown how crucial it is to the u.s. technology giant apple. and analysts say there are two main reasons this apple is doing

so well in china with its iphone. first, they finally managed a deal with china mobile the world's biggest cell phone carrier. also it's the immense popularity of the iphone 6. chinese customers are still willing to pay premium prices for their smartphones. "the performance of the iphone is worth the price," he says. "boy now we are all used to the operating system so we don't switch brands." "my dad bought me the iphone," he says. "i like it. apple is aggressively expanding its storefronts in china offering a new massive store in china this week. too much fanfare. despite its rock star status, apple still faces challenges in china from government regulations and competitors like an upstart company that is selling incredibly well in china. still, with more than 800 million smart iphone user in the

country, the sense is there are plenty of profits to go around. david mckenney, cnn, beijing, china. and apple's smartphone appeal is global. let's take a closer look at the company's success. we turn to melissa chow in singapore, senior researcher manager with idc's worldwide mobile devices. up this for your time today. we want to zoom in to analyze what is making apple so successful at this time. and david mckenney kind of set this up for us. the country itself is lifting millions out of poverty. its economy is expanding. is it the now middle class that we can credit with where of the iphone's record success here. >> well i mean that's definitely part of it. and if you think about how asian consumers look at these smart fountains especially at the -- smartphones especially at the premium side there's definitely a strong as operational sense where they're willing to put more of their spending power

toward these kinds of more luxury goods. >> this dole with china mobile's huge. also the product itself is a snazzy smart iphone, folks familiar with the ios, the apple operating system will want to keep it. what about some of the more serious angles? the allegations of health safety and human rights abuses at some of the iphone suppliers there in china. i'm worn figure customers in china even know about those reports. if the company itself is doing anything to address that. >> well, that's certainly an issue that any international company sourcing from china is going to have to face. i don't think that's going to be unique to apple at all. but i don't really think that that's where the consumers are really focused in on at this stage of the game. i think that what they're really being drawn into is that for a while now we've got really big screen sizes that's been popular

in this country. now that apple's caught up and provided those devices, they're doing well. >> is that what you see this as more of a catchup rather than an innovation that the initial iphones and ipads were promising to be? the company is kind of teasing this apple watch. but you struggle to think that anything else they can come up with will be as useful as what they have out you now. >> if you look at apple's history, even when they came out with the, say, 3g or original iphone, the feature set wasn't as if you had never seen them before in mobile phones especially all over the world. nokia had been quite a big innovator in that sense. it's that apple came together or brought a lot of good feature together in a way that was easy to stomach. so for the iphone 6 and 6-plus not to be cutting edge innovations isn't really a new thing. now, it does make one ask well

what are they going to do next. even with the watch, it hasn't been so far a market that has really been caught on fire. but if anyone can do it it will have to be apple. >> this takes me back to the point if anybody can do it it will be apple. this is a company making record profits. if there's one company that do anything to push china and have it address allegations of the ways its workers are treated, you would have to think it's apple. we shall wait and see. melissa chow senior research manager with idc's worldwide mobile devices. thank you very much for your time to here on cnn. rosemary? yahoo! shares soared 8% after the company said it would spin off its remaining stake in ali babba into a separate company. >> that's right. stock in the new publicly traded company called spinco is expected to be distributed to yahoo! investors by the end of the year. what's key about this deal is

that it's tax free. about the money. that save shareholders $16 billion in tax costs. we're going to take a short break now. just ahead, a somber anniversary in eastern europe. powerful images from poland 70 years after the liberation of the auburn wis death camp. -- the auschwitz death camp. hi, tom. hey, how's the college visit? you remembered. it's good. does it make the short list? you remembered that too. yea, i'm afraid so. knowing our clients personally is what we do. it's okay. this is what we've been planning for. thanks, bye. and with over 13,000 financial advisors we do it a lot. it's why edward jones is the big company that doesn't act that way.

beautiful words at the site of horrific tragedy.

auschwitz survivors came out on tuesday to mark the 70th anniversary of the death camp's liberation. >> while atrocities were front and center at the gathering, current event were not far from the mind. some images in this report may be upsetting to some of you. ♪ >> reporter: the images from 70 years ago haunt us still. ♪ >> reporter: will forever haunt us for as long as they're shown. after 70 years, we're running out of witnesses. only the children of auschwitz survived to give testimony to show us their tattoos. ♪ >> reporter: on this the anniversary of the camp's

liberation they came quietly and solemnly to lay wreaths. only survivors in identifying stripes, hats and scarves. ♪ >> reporter: the film director steven spielberg, came too. he lost relatives in the holocaust. >> memory is life. memory is life. >> reporter: today's events were all about remembering. a large white tent erected over the railway line that brought so many to this terrible place. some 300 survivors sat grouped together. ten years ago at the 60th anniversary, there were five times that number. >> one minute in auschwitz was like an entire day. a day ofwas like a year. a month an eternity. how many eternities can one person have in a single

lifetime? i don't know the answer to that either. >> reporter: always in view the gateway to the gas chambers. 1.1 million people brutally murdered. most of them jews. >> we survivors do not want our best to be our children's -- our test to be our children's future. >> reporter: the american businessman and president of the world jewish congress changed his speech at the last minute. his concern now of the upsurge in anti-semitism. >> once again, young jewish boys are afraid to wear yarmulkes on the streets of paris and budapest budapest london even berlin. once again, jewish businesses are targeted and once again jewish families are starting to flee europe. >> reporter: to the returning survivors, remembering the

holocaust is a duty. they don't want to forget. above all, they don't want the world to forget. our eyes they have a 200-degree range of sight. which is good for me. hey! and bad for the barkley twins. your brain can send information to the rest of your body at 268 mph. three times the speed of a fastball. take care of your most important parts with centrum. multivitamins expertly designed with nutrients people don't get enough of from food alone. centrum. for the most important parts of you. when it comes to your credit, in the know is the place to be. transunion.com makes it easy. we give you 24/7 access. you get instant credit alerts to keep you in sync. you can even lock and unlock your transunion credit report from your phone. and all that information feels

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now with live tv on the go. enjoy over wifi or on verizon wireless 4g lte. plus enjoy special savings when you purchase any new verizon wireless smartphone or tablet from comcast. visit comcast.com/wireless to learn more. welcome back to our viewers around the united states and around the world. i'm errol barnett. >> i'm rosemary church. we top update you on our top stories. japanese prime minister shin oh abe condemns -- shin zoe abe condemn what he calls a despicable act by isis. they're threatening to kill hostage kenji goto and a jordanian pilot in 24 hours unless jordan frees a female prisoner. a japanese special envoy is in jordan to discuss the situation. indonesia's search and

rescue agency will restart the recovery effort for airasia flight 8501 on saturday. that's despite the military's decision to end its role in this mission. indonesian officials say searchers will use boats, aircraft and some 60 divers to locate more bodies. meantime officials are looking into a possible glitch with the plane's automated control systems. blizzard warnings are canceled but snow is still falling in eastern new england. the year's first blizzard in the eastern u.s. dumped up to three feet of snow about 90 centimeters in some areas. gale-force winds knocked out power to thousands of homes on the massachusetts coast. turmoil in the middle east topped u.s. president barack obama's agenda during his quick visit to saudi arabia. he led a high-level delegation to offer condolences on the death of king abdullah and to pay respects to king salmon. >> mr. obama steered clear of

tackling the country's human rights record. we have details of what was on the table instead. >> reporter: president obama's stop in saudi arabia of brief but spoke vegetables about u.s. relations with this key mideast ally. after cutting short his trip to india following the death of saudi king abdullah the president and newly crowned monarch in riyadh were all smiles. mr. obama praised king salmon's palace -- >> beautiful. -- >> reporter: the response was now that you're here it's more beautiful. he refused to criticize the beating of a saudi blogger, scrutinized for speaking out about the police. >> will you speak about the blogger -- >> i think this visit, obviously a lot of this is just paying respects to king abdullah. >> reporter: cnn's fareed zakaria asked the president what he would say to americans appalled by saudi arabia's human rights record. >> what we'd say is that it is

important for us to take into account existing relationships, the existing alignless within a very complicated looet. to recognize we have strategic interests in common with saudi arabia. >> reporter: common interests like isis yemen where the u.s. is fighting al qaeda and iran. a senior official brushed off white house assurance that's iran is not in charge of houthi rebels in yemen saying if the houthis are not controlled by iran then who is giving them guns and money? to us, that is control. ♪ >> reporter: the saudi trip is something of an optics doover. after the white house failed to have a high profile appearance. secretary of state john kerry, senator john mccain, and cia

director john brennan, to former secretaries of state james baker and condoleezza rice. top white house aids complain it's an unfair comparison. >> you have a period of time where different leaders are able to pass through saudi arabia to pay their respects and to meet the new king. so there is a difference. >> jim accosta reporting there. although mr. obama didn't discuss the blogger's case with king salmon activives are hoping they can -- activists are hoping they can get him to reverse the decision. >> some are offering to take 100 lashes each in place for this man. let's hear from one of the volunteers. >> of course we've done this main threely to make a statement. we want to by hopefully embarrassing them into thinking about what it will mean to bring us in and lash us into changing their mienz about this brutal

punishment on this innocent man. however, having said that i did decide when i signed the letter that i was only going to do so if i really believed i will take the lashes if they took us up on the offer. i have commit myself. i mean it when i say it. i think the likelihood isn't great. not because maybe they wouldn't relish the opportunity but because it would bring precisely the negative attention that they don't upon. >> and daniel mark says he hopes enough negative attention and pressure will force the regime to reverse the sentence. >> he also says publicity might prompt secretary of state john kerry to say something to the saudis about the case. another angle to the obamas' visit, social media paid close attention to the first lady's appearance while she was there in saudi arabia. >> michelle obama arrived in riyadh wearing loose clothing but no head scarf or veil. women there are expected to cover their heads. exceptions are made for foreigners. nevertheless twitter users

criticized her with some pointing out she wore a head covering in indonesia. now to another big story we're tracking. mexican officials say 41 college students missing since september have now legally been declared murdered. mexico's attorney general says that 99 suspects have been detained in connection with their deaths. and there are still suspects at large. >> authorities say the students were killed burned, and thrown into the san juan river. a government official says it was a case of mistaken identity. >> translayer-- translator: they were identified as parts of a rival criminal group in the region. this of the reason why they were kidnap and ultimately killed. >> the fate of the students and the way the case has been handled have sparked outrage across mexico including this protest in mexico city earlier this week. just days after the mysterious death of a prosecutor

investigating an alleged cover-up within the government argentina's president made a surprising and quite bold announcement. she plans to disband the country's powerful spy agency. >> with a new election just months away it's a move that has everyone wondering in now. shasta darlington has more on the intelligence shakeup. >> reporter: it was a dirty war waged by a military dictatorship against suspected left wing bones. up to 30,000 -- opponents. up to 30,000 people were killed or disappeared after they'd been hunt down boyy the notorious intelligence agency. when they returned to democracy in 1983 the agency was reformed. it was given a new name the intelligence services. it was taken out of the happen of the military and many top directors replaced. many of the mid-level operatives remained in place. now the president says that she wants to shake up the spy agency

that works here behind these glass doors and just a few steps from the pink presidential palace. in a televised address, she announced she was going disband the old agency because it hadn't served the interests of the country and replace it with the federal intelligence agency. "a change of name doesn't change anything if you don't also modify the practices," she says. "i repeat this is a debt we have with democracy. all of us who have governed since 1983. the "the problem is the timing. the special prosecutor who accused her of covering up iran's alleged role in the 1994 of just about to present his evidence to congress. specifically the tapped phone conversations he obtained from intelligence agents. he's been investigating the spy agency for a year. he suspense out that the announcement also comes just months before the president's

term is up. the president will be out of office in ten months, will appoint the intelligence chief who's going to be in place for the next four years, he says. it's going to be a big debate. the biggest change in the bill being send to congress apart from the name change would be shifting control of who can order phone taps instead of intelligence services. it would be the prosecutor's office. under fernandez, the agency turned into a massive spying operation. "she decides to change everything when for a long time she spy on the opposition o businessmen, on journalists," he says. "she's shielding herself before she leaves." in fact on her facebook page, the president ballistic missiled the elusive former help of counter intelligence of turning nisman against her and accused rogue spies of investment in his death. experts say the president's

proposed reform would defuse power. managers and grandmothers of those who -- mothers and grandmothers of those who disappeared during the dirty war march every thursday to remember their loss. for many the disbanding of a spy agency that's still associated with the dictatorship dictatorship bring relief. the thousands who have come here to demand justice war at the's just another attempt by the president to divert attention from a case that's far from resolved. shasta darlington, cnn. we'll take another quick break. ahead, the blizzard of 2015 wasn't as intense as predicted in some places. >> hear why officials are defending their overabun bunbundance of caution. n't think "i've still got it" when you think aarp then you don't know "aarp." life reimagined gives you tools and support to get the career you'll love. find more real possibilities at aarp.org/possibilities.

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by now we know the so-called blizzard of 2015 wasn't as big as expected in new york. the city's mayor defend all of the warnings on all of the preparations saying look better to be safe than sorry. >> cnn looks back to how different cities have responded to big storms over the years. >> reporter: first, new york city's mayor bills it as one of the worst. >> this literally could be one of the top two or three largest storm in the history of the city. >> reporter: then a dire warning -- >> two to four inches per hour. >> reporter: thousands of flights canceled public transportation stopped, including a closing of the city's massive subway system.

places like times square looking more like a ghost town. by morning -- >> better safe than sorry. two feet of snow would have paralyzed this city. we did what was necessary to keep people safe. >> reporter: praise from some -- >> prevented what could have been more problems. it's better to be on the cautious side, i will say. >> reporter: others not so positive. predictably some tweeted snarky responses calling the blizzard of 2015 a #snowfail. this twit pic poking fun at the storm. >> when you're dealing with five to eight million people you have to move early. think what would happen if they had thousands of people stuck as it had been predicted. >> reporter: no one knows the importance of being prepared better than general russell honore the man who helped lead the relief effort following hurricane katrina. >> katrina, we didn't do enough. we lost 1,-800 people. they've got to deal with the criticisms and that they might

have done too much too early and move on. >> reporter: he suspense to last january when just -- he points to last january when a couple inch of snow and ice paralyzed the atlanta metro area upon hundreds stranded for as much as 24 hours. some children forced to sleep at school after roads turned into ice rinks. state and city leaders took the brunt of the backlash. >> that long delay and a stalling of traffic of hard on everybody. and it is for that that i am most apologizing. >> reporter: saying i'm sorry, not something politicians like to do. in 2010 then-new york mayor bloomberg taking heat for the city's days' long response to a big snowstorm. >> yelling about it and complaining doesn't help. >> reporter: this time, the city is getting become to business as usual after a crippling blow not from mother nature as predicted, but from city hall. cnn, miami. all right. we'll our pedram javaheri is here to talk about this.

it's not only the officials that got ribbing. your colleagues, weather men and women across the united states as well. but it's -- i think it is better safe than sorry. get the cars off the road and make sure people can clear it. there would have been a lot of complaining if they happen moved and done that. >> you're damned if you to and damned if you don't. >> the ranges were accurate. the storm slightly moved east. >> absolutely. what happened person to note only two lives were lost. somebody sledding and an 83-year-old man with dementia who went out into the cold. when you consider a city of 23 million people that is remarkable. the storm system that comes in with hurricane-force winds and a foot of snow. we'll show the maps upon look at the scenes out of boston massachusetts. these were the scenes into the afternoon hours on tuesday. literally deslate on the streets out there.

it wasn't a historic snowstorm investment boston, the city had never in recorded history seen this much snow in the month of january. that went into the books. look at the numbers, newark new jersey 6.5 inches of snowfall ten miles east at laguardia. nearly double that up to 11 inches. 50-plus miles. over say, 100 kim orms to the east around islip. two feet of snow came down. that range critical when it comes to the storm system. taking a 55 to 65-mile trip offshore as opposed to closer to land. boston 24.5 inches. worcester, more than 31 inches of snow with one storm. 36 inches across the board in multiple areas of massachusetts. up to three feet of snow. that verified, blizzard conditions verified. the storm historic in that it was in the top six of the biggest snowstorms in boston history. we can still see that with the additional one to three inches possible put it in the top two

to top three storm ever seen in boston. keep in mine we have 80 years of data for the city of boston. hundreds of snowstorms have come and gone. this would be potentially in the top three when it's done with. it tells you how significant it was for millions across the northern new england. there goes the storm system to the northern portion of the gulf of maine. some last bands of snow showers left in place that could a on to the record books around boston. at this point, cancelations for wednesday at 500. about 5,000 tuesday across the united states. more news after this.

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we're now just days away for super bowl xlix in my hometown of phoenix, arizona. the move shifted from controversy to craziness. >> the deflate-gate controversy didn't take all the air out of the things we expect on media day. the fallout has cast a shadow over the nfl's big game. cnn's rachel nichols with more. >> reporter: it's been a controversial stretch for the nfl. and especially for the new england patriots. on tuesday, things escalated from controversial to crazy as media outlets from around the globe were allowed to ask players pretty much anything they wanted. super bowl media day is known for colorful characters. crazy costumes. and even some dancing. this year did not disappoint.

>> how do you explain media day? as a frenzy? it's great. you take the experience you enjoy it. really it's something special. >> reporter: along with the light tone lingered the harder issues that have framed the run-up to the big game. on tuesday, "sports illustrated" released a first-person piece by seahawks corner richard sherman who wrote, "i look at the nfl and as disappointed as ever in the management." this on the heels of robert kraft challenging the nfl over deflate-gate. kraft is usual low so close to goodell, a recent q. g.q." article called kraft "the assistant commissioner." this time kraft was defiant. >> if the wells investigation is not able to definitively determine that our organization tampered with the air pressure in the footballs, i would expect and hope that the league would

apologize to our entire team. and in particular coach belichick and tom brady, for what they have had to endure this past week. >> reporter: patriots' players said seeing the owner challenge the league has had a galvanizing effect on the team. >> means a lot. he's a great owner, and it's great to see him on our side. just shows how much support he has for us players. obviously when you have doubters, you always want to prove your doubters wrong. we want to show everyone what's up. >> we've always you know done a great job overcoming obstacles and being menially tough. -- mentally tough. we've got to do it for one more day. >> reporter: behind the scenes a few of the patriots players said they are trying to turn the deflate-gate controversy to their advantage using it as motivation for sunday. basically people saying if think we cheated, we don't

deserve to be here. russell wilson told me looking to repeat as champions, they've got employment of motivation of their own. >> our thanks to rachel nichols for that report. i'm rosemary church. >> i'm errol barnett. please do stay with us. more of the world's biggest stories after this break. female vo: i actually have a whole lot of unused vacation days, but where am i gonna go? i just don't have the money to travel right now. i usually just go back home to see my parents so i can't exactly go globe-trotting. if i had friends to go with i'd go but i don't want to travel by myself. someday. male vo: there are no more excuses. find the hotel you want, and the flight you want, and we'll find the savings to get you there. how much money do you have in your pocket right now? i have $40 $21. could something that small make an impact on something as big as your retirement? i don't think so. well if you start putting that towards your retirement every week

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lashing out. japan's shinzo abe condemn the latest threat from isis to kill a hostage from his country.

has the murder mystery surrounding the 43 missing college students in mexico been solved? we'll bring you an update. >> make a pass about every 45 minutes. mother nature's winning. >> it was predicted to be much worse in many places, but those who got hit in the big u.s. snowstorm have been pummelled hard. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and, of course around the world. i'm rosemary church. >> i'm errol barnett. thanks for joining us. we want to begin this hour in tokyo where japanese prime minister shinzo abe says his government is working to win the release of isis hostage kenji goto. >> isis released a new picture of goto on tuesday holding a photo of a jordanian pile captured by the terror group last month. the message says isis will kill boeing men in 24 hours unless jordan releases a female prisoner convicted in a series of