john terrett joins us live from washington, d.c. with more. john? >> reporter: tony good evening..c. is on the verge of coming back full-time, according to the mayor, the district government will open on time tomorrow morning. metro is back at 5:00 am with pretty much a full service. all main artillery routes are now accessible, and the schools will return not tomorrow but on wednesday morning. snow-bound washington, d.c., the massive clean up starts small, gets bigger, and bigger still, but there is always room for the little guy making a difference. it's like this all over the nation's capitol, the city's mayor says removing all of the snow could take a week. >> the district has over 4400 miles of roadway and we are making our way through all of it. we have a lot of ground to cover. >> reporter: with the federal government shut down and schools closed monday, parts of the district resembled a christmas card. city officials don't mind snowball fights but they don't want to see many too drivers. >> we're doing everything we can to get the roads passable, to get folks where they ge

john terrett has been following all of it, and joins us with a lot of snow behind him tonight. >> reporter: yeah, that's right, john. good evening from you from bah washington, d.c. the major says the district government will open on time tomorrow. metro is back at 5:00 am with pretty much a full service. according to the department of homeland security, all of t the -- alteryour routes are open. snowbound washington, d.c., the massive cleanup starts small, gets bigger, and bigger still. but there's always room for the little guy shovel in hand, making a difference. it's like this all over the nation's capitol, the city's mayor says removing all of the snow could take a week. >> the district has over 4400 miles of roadway, and we are making our way through all of it. we have a lot of ground to cover. >> reporter: parts of the district resembled a christmas card, moms and dads trying to tire out the kids dodging cabin fever at the same time. city officials don't mind snowball fights but don't want to see too many drivers. >> we're doing everything we can't k to get folks to where they need

let's turn to john terrett who is in washington dc. john, it looks like we can see some of the snow there, but not nearly as bad at this moment. not as bad as what is happening in new york, but tell us more. >> reporter: yeah. speak for yourself. it's all right for you to be in a warm studio. i want to let you know it's bad here, mate. behind me this is the major street in washington dc. normally on a saturday night there will be lots of people out enjoying themselves, plenty of traffic on the street. that's the most remarkable take away about this. there is nobody out. there is a handful of people walking around, but really everybody is inside and it has been snowing now for 30 hours nonstop. you can't see just at the moment, but there are three or four feet of snow just to the left of me here. let's take a look at the white out. you might get a better idea of how hard it has been snowing here. it looks beautiful. let's look at people out and about in the streets because all over washington dc during the day people have been taking a c

let's go to john terrett, live from the crossroads of the world. john, what is it like out there? is a big concern. >> yep, it is. this is the international news half hour from al jazeera. and you understand that among those that want to hurt america, new york is target number one. authorities took it seriously this year. there are 6,000 officers around times square. radiation detactors and sniffer bombs -- dogs are here, there's probationers loose on the people of new york out here hoping an army and 1,000 cameras looking at us. there's 14 entry points. the crowds and the checkpoints in and outs. i had difficulty getting here myself. it's tight, no threat against new york, but no one is taking chances. >> what is the reaction like on the ground there with the people looking to have a good dime. >> the crowd is waving the balance. they have the crowd being entertained by the star. a singer song writer. demi devado. cary underwood appears want. it's a wonderful evening, there's 90 minutes to go. everyone is having a good time. the weather is warm. big crowds. a lot of fun. happy ne

john terrett joins us live from baltimore. >> reporter: tony, good evening to you.altimore judge wants officer william porter to testify as a prosecution witness, but the appeals court says just a moment we'll be the judge of that, and we'll take our time about it, which means the entire freddie gray case is entering uncharted territory. a maryland appeals court ordering a halt to caesar good season. he drove the police wagon. the maryland court of special appeals deciding whether the star witness, officer william porter could be forced to testify against goodson who is charged with second degree murder. barry william in charge of all six police trials compelled officer porter to testify, even though porter is facing his own retrial in the spring. without his testimony, there are questions about whether the prosecution can prove its case; that goodson knew gray needed medal help but ignored it. >> officer porter is the only one that connects the dots, that proves that he was affair that freddie gray needed emergency medical assistance. so without him testifying the

al jazeera's john terrett explains. >> reporter: low prices at the pump are great for road trips butn opec they are concerned the strategy that led to cheap gas has gone too far. the price has gone down so much some nations can't function properly. like nigeria which is pushing to a meet to go cut the production to stem the fro fall. oil is hovering around $30 right now. the break even price for major oil exporters is far higher. saudi arabia, morning $100 per barrel. slightly less per barrel for other key exporters, but still well above where i'll has been trading for weeks. only this week british petroleum, b.p. cut jobs. the blame is being laid at the door of saudi arabia. >> the saudis are saying we are not going to seed market share to other members of owe perk, in particular iran and iraq. so they have opened the spigots. >> reporter: and it's not just their neighbors in the middle east, the saudis are concerned about. they are also irritated with washington, d.c., too. not least for making nice with iran in the wake of the nuclear deal. but also because the u.s. is now a major

john terrett is among the throngs of people. >> evening, and welcome to times squa square. the cross words of the world. however, security is a big issue, what with the attacks in paris, san bernardino and other weeks ago. people taking it seriously. there were 6,000 police officers on the streets. some have guns, radiation. there are 500 members of a core of police officers. they are here, they were formed only two months ago, and 400 rookies. they were on probation, and they are helping out of the there's 1,000 cameras. that's a security issue. we don't want to think about that or the fun that is happening at the biggest apart in the world. and they are dressed in purple hats, balloons, and those that sponsored the event. and they have been entertained from entertainers, demi divado, a country star and the star yet to come is cary underwood. she'll by on the stage shortly, entertaining the crowd and the ball drop, in give or take 15 minutes from now. the news from times square is it's warm, everyone is having a great time. everyone feels safe and are looking forward to th

john terrett is here to explain where all that oil glut is coming from. >> i always want to say other than in the ground. the longer answer is saudi arabia, which played the oil card in the 1970s, when supplies were withheld, now it's a different game. crude is flooding the market as the saudis strive to maintain their own market share by knocking other producers off the board completely. >>reporter: the do you bounced back on thursday. oil talk dominated the trading floor. the black stuff surged above $30 a barrel, the biggest relief in three months, crude has not found the floor. the world is awash with oil is the problem. china, a key consumer is going through a slow down and needs less oil than anticipated. add to that the lack-lustre recovery at home, the u.s. needing less, despite the lower prices at the pumps, and then there's saudi arabia. riyadh is playing a game of double jeopardy. first up, they want high tech oil producers making america the biggest oil producer in the world. second, many analysts believe the saudis want to damage iran's chances of turning a fast buck once

. >> john terrett live for us. thank you. >> clean up is underway in alaska this morning after what scientists are calling the area's strongest earthquake in decades. homes from destroyed sunday when this 7.1 magnitude quake struck central alaska. it knocked out power for thousands of people. no injuries to tell you about. >>> a manhunt for three escaped california inmates has entered a third day. we're now announcing the first images of the escape from the high security jail in orange county. >> pictures from inside the dorm-style cell show how the inmates escape by cutting holes in the steel grate, climbing through the plumbing and breaking through five other security areas. authorities also released this grainy rooftop surveillance video from the southern california jail. the flashes of light believed to be the inmates. >> we will not stop until these individuals are back in our custody. >> the fbi and u.s. marshals join the search for the three. >> two of them are in custody for attempted murder and one for may

john terrett is live in baltimore. what should we expect from this r. from this new trial?> good morning, it's a cold but sunny morning in baltimore. he we expect jury selection to kick off here in the city in what is the second trial associated with the death of freddie gray last april. this trial already before it's even got underway is mired in controversy and unsettled business. officer caesar goodson junior faces the most serious charges in the officers indicted, second degree murder. goodson drove the police van in which freddie gray suffered a lethal spinal cord injury. gray's death sparked anti police demonstrations and riots. >> according to the prosecution, he was aware from officer port their freddie gray asked for medical help and he didn't get it for him and he was in control of the van. >> the six officers involved in gray's arrest were criminally charged. prosecutor's contend good son was told freddie gray asked for medical help opinion instead of calling paramedics, goodson made a stop to pick up another detainee. paramedics were called 25 minutes later at t

john terrett has more. >> that right. you might say to me i don't care about o.p.e.c. as long as my gas is chief. fair enough. at the same time, like everything else in life. a balance needs to be struck. the more oil you pull out of the ground. the more the price of a gallon of gas, the more saudi arabia is blamed for overproducing, risking the economies to get back at their rivals, like iran and us. the old ally in the united states. >> reporter: low prices at the pump are great for roadtrips. within the oil cartel o.p.e.c. there's concern the strategy leading to cheap gas has gone too far. fuel has gone down so much. the oil-producing nations can't function. like oil-rich nigeria, which is pushing to cut production. oil is hovering around 30 cens a barrel. the braking even price for exporters is higher. saudi arabia more than $100, less for key exporters, above where it's been trading for weeks. this week, british petroleum, b.p. cut 4,000 jobs. the blame for cheap oil is laid at the door of big oil producers. >> the saudis are saying we are not going to creed marke

john terrett live in d.c. >> thank you. >> a manhunt for three escaped california inmates has entered it's third day. we're now announcing the first images th of the escape from the jail in orange county. >> pictures from inside the dorm-style cell show how the inmates escaped by cutting holes in this steel great, climbing through the plumbing and breaking through five other secured areas using a makeshift rope. they used this surveillance video, flashes the light believed to be the inmates. >> we'll not stop until these individuals are back in our custody. >> the fbi and u.s. marshals join the search for the three. >> two of them are in custody for attempted murder, and one more mayhem, kidnapping. i consider them very dangerous individuals. >> the inmates were last seen friday morning at 5:00 a.m. they weren't discovered missing for 16 hours setting off a manhunt late friday night. >> we're depending on the information that is coming in, that's why the sheriff stated that your help and assistance from the public is very important. >> they're searching places where the fugitives have

john terrett is live for us in baltimore. what can you tell us about the court's decision? >> yes, well, del, good afternoon. this is a legal bombshell dropped in baltimore. we were going to court. all the lawyers were coming the other way and it took us awhile to work out what is going on. the trial of caesar goodon, the driver of the police vehicle when yesterdayy gray was injured, that trial is postponed, possibly indefinitely. officer william porter, whose trial was a mistrial, who is due to be retried in june, he was forced to be a witness for the prosecution, a key witness in this trial of caesar goodson. his attorneys said this is not fair. the court has been thinking about this over the weekend. they wrote to the judge saying don't go ahead with your trial down there in baltimore. you've got to wait until we decide what's going on here. and so the situation is that we now are facing all arguments in the court of special appeals, maybe as late as february. and so nobody quite knows where we're at. it's a logistical nightmare. there is no question of that. there are t

john terrett is in baltimore tonight. john?ng, the judge in baltimore wants officer william porter to testify as a key prosecution witness, but the lowest appeals court says just a moment, we'll be the ones to decide that, and by the way, we might take our time at it. it means the case is entering uncharted legal territory. a dramatic development, a maryland appeals court altering the trial of officer goodson in the death of freddie gray just as the jury was being selected. goodson drove the police van when freddie gray suffered a severe spinal injury and died a week later. they are trying to decide if officer porter could be forced to testify in the trial of goodson. barry williams in charge of all six police trials compelled officer porter to testify in the case even though he is facing his own retrial in the spring. without porter's testimony there are questions about whether the prosecution could prove its case. >> officer porter is the only state's witness that connects the dots that proves that officer goodson was aware t

john terrett has more. >> saudi arabia is producing all of this oil, and they played the oil card before in the 70s when the supplies were withheld. and now it's a different game completely. and crude is simply flash flooding the market as they are maintaining their own market share by knocking other producers off the board. [ bell ringing ] the dow bounced back on thursday, closing up 115 points after a wild ride on the market from the day before, since oil talk dominated the trading floor. the black stuff surged above $30 a barrel, and crude has still not found it's flaw. the problem is that the world is awash with oil. china, a key commodity cume comy consumer, needs far less oil, and in the u.s., we need less too, despite the lowest price at the pumps in a decade. and then saudi arabia, playing a game of double jeopardy. first up, they want to damage the chances of the high-tech oil producers, making america the second biggest producer in the world right now, and second, they want to damage iran's chances of turning a fast buck once their oil starts flowing again following the recent

going to washington dc and john terrett. how is it there? >> let me me bold. i want to be bold and tell you that it's over. i think it's over. we all think so here. you can see the moon. the moon is up there right now, so that's a good sign. that's the first time that it hasn't been snowing in about 32 hours. a bit more than that t i know you can see bits of snow coming down, but we think that's falling off the building around us and being blown around by the breeze and things. this is people out and about walking around the city. from these pictures you can get a better idea of what the city has been, what the nation's capital no less, has been living through. it's very, very dangerous conditions, no-one driving and no-one working. most businesses closed. the hotels and bars are open, but that's about it. we have a beautiful time lapse sequence from the white house. of course, the white house is white. it never looks better than when it is surrounded by white like it is today. this is a beautiful sequence of the bad storm going over also head the president's

john terrett explains how dozens of japanese citizens were kidnapped and held. >> reporter: japanese families hold up head shots of family members. these are photographs of people who vanished into thin air in the late '70s, early '80s. some of them literally taken from the beaches, likelily agents working to north korea. the japanese government recognised eight men and nine women were abducted. for decades north korea denies any part. in 2002 with the country on the brink of collapse, kim jong-il admitted to the kidnapping of five. and returned them. what were they up to. they abducted them and made them spy. the scheme failed, and the captives were forced to make lives for themselves in north korea, marrying, having children and posing as north korean civilians. the issue plagued relations, overshadowing talks. ranging to nuclear proliferation. >> we are joined by robert boynton. he is the author of the book invitation only zone, the true story of north korean product. it's a fascinating but disturbing story. how all the people were kidnapped. we should say first it's possible many

john terrett is in washington dc. first we will go to our correspondent in manhattan where a travel ban is in effect and the snow continues to fall. >> reporter: people are out on the streets tonight. cars are not allowed. people would be facing arrest. the city is getting pummelled. as you can see, like other major cities, washington dc, baltimore and fill delicatessen fee aincluded and it doesn't look like it will let up any time soon - philadelphia. >> reporter: the smart thing to do is to get away from any place that you're at. >> reporter: in the new york area the message was clear. go home. >> no-one wants to have to arrest people, but we will take any measures necessary to keep our roads clear in the middle of this emergency. >> reporter: commuter rail rhodes and subways are not running. many people showed up at new york station with nowhere to go >> i foolishly did not check the internet beforehand. i'm standing here figuring out what i'm going to do. >> reporter: hundreds of people lined up to see broadway sh

but among the members of opec, there's the interest in the decline further of oil prices, and john terrett is here. >> i know what you're thinking, i don't care about opec economies, as long as gas is cheap to me at the pump, which it is right now, and that's a fair opinion. but it's a simple equation. the more oil you pull out of the ground, the more the price of oil and gas goes down. it's good for us, but many opec members are blaming saudi arabia, for over producing, and trying to get back at iran and even us here in the united states. low prices at the pump are great for road trips, but in the oil cartel, opec, the strategy that led to cheap gas has gone too far. fuel has gone down so much, that the countries in the oil producing nations can't function properly. they are discussing cutting oil production to step the price free fall. oil is hovering around $30 a barrel right now, but according to the imf, the break even price is far higher. saudi arabia, more than $100 per barrel, and slightly less for other key exporters, but still well above where oil has been trading for weeks. only

john terrett is brazing the elements for us. he is in washington dc which could see nearly two feet of snow. >> reporter: it began snowing here at about 1.15 here and it was been steady since. roughly two inches on the ground at the moment, maybe a bit less. the problem is as you take a look at the white house right now, it looks beautiful. it doesn't give you any hint of the danger to come, but the white house looks terrific. the problem is that this storm is going to sit on top of washington dc until late tomorrow according to the forecasters. that's why even though it's only 22 days old, they're already calling it the storm of 2016. >> reporter: the monster storm is to fors casted to dump at least two feet of snow. the hardiest taking it all in. the president lincoln at the end of the mall doesn't look too pleased. this is an event made worse by high winds >> we see this as a major storm. it has life and death implications in all the residents of the district of colombia should treat it that way. we need the city's full coope

john terrett sent this update on conditions. >> it's affecting 85 million people from south of the capital, washington d.c., up the nearby seaboard to beyond new york city. now that the storm has gone, the clean-up gets under way in earnest. in the major cities, things should be back to normal quickly. by sunday or monday, ready for the great return to work. there'll be towns and little villages all over the north-east of the country. where things will not get back to normal for many days, where it takes a while to reach the villages, and get the snow ploughs in. most will never forget the start of 2016, and what they call the blizzard from the year >>> here is tom ackerman with the impacts the storm is having on the u.s. east coast. >> reporter: from georgias to massachusettsment the storm kept activities to a minimum. motorists stayed off the road. many that ventured out found conditions more than they bargained for. in kentucky thousands were stranded along a highway that turned into a parking lot. >> the red cross set up a shelter without people with vehicles. >> i can't stress enough,

john terrett is there. he is like, yes, it is cold out here. john. >> reporter: yes. it is cold out here. how very apposite. you can see my breath on the wind here. it is better than yesterday. the wind has actually dropped to be honest with you. we have had a very nice day today and the result of that is people have been poking their noses out like little guinea pigs or hamp sisters. -- ham psters. it's okay to come out. they will be doing the same thing tomorrow as well because nobody here has to go to work because the headline news is that the federal government is going to be closed tomorrow. they said it will not function tomorrow. anybody who can work from home like a telly worker or computer worker should do that. otherwise you get a free day off in washington dc. the mayor has just given a press conference as well to say the same thing is happening with the district local government. she says she wants people to keep off the streets wherever possible so that sanitation workers can do their job tomorrow and get rid of the tons and tons of snow. here is more of

john terrett, thank you. the united states is not ready to lift economic sanctions against iran.ashington says tehran's compliance with the nuclear deal has yet to be verified. white house price secretary josh earnest said while iran is making progress, the atomic energy agency needs to complete its inspection first. >> the leadership has made it quite clear that they are working aggressively to fulfill their end of the bargain and we certainly welcome the deal they are pursuing but we want to make sure they don't cut corners. that's why independent verification has been in some ways the key part of this agreement from the get-go, because there is, based on their history a lot of ddistrust aboue way iran talks about their nuclear program. >> iran is expected to receive $10,000,000,000 of assets in overseas accounts when sanctions are lifted. the situation to tell you about, gunmen have taken hostages at a hotel in the country'stol. security forces are in a battle with attackers in the hotel that's a portion location with foreigners. gunmen stormed the hotel, burned cars into thet

. >> we should have del out there doing the live shots instead of john terrett. >> he is out sledding now. >> cleanup in alaska after what scientists are calling the area's strongest either quake in decades. they warn aftershocks could go on for weeks. at least four homes were destroyed when the 7.1 magnitude struck the central part of the state. it knocked out power for thousands, no injuries were reported. >>> chicago has hired an independent monitor to oversee its embattled police department. charles ramsey will guide the force as it faces a civil rights investigation by the department of justice. there have been a north carolina of high profile deadly police shootings in the city in recent months. ramsey recently retired as commissioner for the philadelphia police department and previously led the department in washington, d.c. >>> a manhunt for three escaped california inmates enters a third day this morning. >> we are now seeing the first images from the high security prison in orange county, california. we have this report. >> picture from inside the dorm style cells show how t

. >> so the war of words goes on with little hope either side will back down anytime soon, john terrettzeera, new york. >>> our guest is an islamic historian joining us this morning from london, professor, thank you for your time. i want to talk about the purported divide between sunni and shia that is the result of this power struggle. take a look at the front page of the new york times this morning, a map showing areas of sunnies and shias in the middle east. in most countries, it's a mix pop how ill will the diplomatic estrangement affect sectarian tensions in the region? >> i think it's very sad that it's being labeled sunni shia tension, the issue is the killing of a cleric which has been looked down upon by people outside of the sunni and shia sects within islam. you've got amnesty international who have locked down on this act. you've got ban ki-moon of the united nations dismayed and cannot believe the arrogance taking place in saudi arabia. you forget the main issue here, that the cleric was killed because he spoke out for freedom of expression and the freedom for a particular