. >> thank you jacky rowland reporting from roam. >> it's been 37 days since three al jazeera journalists were detained. mohamed fadel fahmy, mohammed badr, and peter greste have been held without charge, an i accused of spreading if as news and with links to the muslim brotherhood, which is classified as a terrorist organization. the government in cairo said their cases were referred to the criminal court. al jazeera network has not been notified of formal charges. the ukrainian president is expected to be back at work in coming hours, having been on sick leave for four days. it's been a critical time for ukraine, where the u.s. and e.u. backed demands for democracy. vitaly klitschko, the opposition leader called for a snap precedential and parliamentary election. we are joined from independence square. the president is coming back to work at a critical time. >> absolutely. well, his absence over the last four days seems to have raised a series of questions amongst protesters and supporters of viktor yanukovych. his absence coming at the worst crisis for the country since independence. m

. >> let's go to jackie rowlands, outside the conference in rome. >> what is the conference hoping to achieve. we had donor conferences before, haven't we. >> this is a technical meeting, it's basically enabling major players, donor nations others involved in the humanitarian areas to exchange information. it was not a political meeting, a meeting where policy or decisions will be taken. opening the meeting the italian foreign minister said that this was the greatest humanitarian tragedy of our time. due to scenario planning by u.n. officials, they are expecting the crisis to get worse, and by the end of the year for there to be more than 4 million refugees, most sheltering in neighbouring countries, particularly in jordan, lebanon and iraq. when we look at the situation inside syria, we had 9 million people, urgently in need of foot, medical assistance, chelter and a serious concern about polio. basically inside syria and for the growing refugees outside syria, an increasing need forrate. yet, as you mentioned at the moment, pledges and money given remains lower than those hired. >>

. >> jacky rowland reporting from outside the conference in syria. >> a devastating drought is taking a toll on california. the state is dealing with its driest year on record. reservoirs are running near empty. snow pack is at record lows. governor jerry brown declared a drought emergency, calling on the residents to cut water use by 20%. >> most of the country is dealing with cold air, we are getting past the worst of it. for more on the forecast. let's bring backmeteorologist nicole mitchell. >> we have had a mild winter, but have had brutal cold snams. we are seeing it in -- snaps. we are seeing it in the mid west. minus 4 in california. winter officially hails in the shortest days of the year, which are in december. the least amount of sunlight and heating. because the ground is a little warm, for that to catch up the coldest days lag back into january. these are some of the cities that we've had cold snaps in. chicago, minneapolis, new york and atlanta. these are the average daily temperatures on the right. we turned the corner the averages are nudging up. doesn't mean we won't